Can anyone give me a guess at how much it would cost to take a stray cat (not feral though) with a hurt leg to the vet? I’ve already found out that we have a clinic to “fix” cats for only $5, but I am not allowed to have non-caged pets in my apt, so I don’t even know how much a basic vet visit is. Do you think they would do an x-ray? Anyone know how much those are? The cat is skinny and won’t put weight on one of its back legs, but it doesn’t seem to have any open wounds.
I think your best bet is to ask for an estimate when you get there. Any time we’ve taken the dogs, we’ve always gotten a general idea of what costs were. In no cases were they over a few hundred dollars, but I don’t know about cats, legs or prices in your area.
Something to think about–pet insurance. Too late now for the leg, but it is designed to cover just this very thing.
It varies wildly by area, and by what your cat needs done. At a bare minimum, this cat will need an exam, FeLV/FIV test, fecal check, and vaccines. If he’s non-weightbearing on a leg, he’ll almost certainly need radiographs, and what needs to be done from there will depend on what the films show.
The clinic I used to work for charged $30 for exams for problems (routine exams during vaccine visits were built into the vaccine charges). A combo test for feleuk and FIV was…$48, I think, and fecals were $15. Two-view radiographs with interpretation were $85. Vaccines for cats, including exam, were roughly $65. This was in Kentucky two years ago. Things are a bit pricier at my current clinic, because we’re an emergency/referral hospital, but they’re not that different.
Any reputable vet clinic will give you an estimate after the exam if you ask, and at some you don’t even have to ask. They won’t be able to give you an estimate over the phone, though. They can tell you what routine things cost, but they can’t have any idea what it will cost to diagnose or fix a problem until they get a look at the problem for themselves.
Is there a no-kill shelter you can take the cat to? Some have vets that volunteer services, or provide cheaper services to them. You can even make a donation towards the care of the cat.
The reason I suggest a shelter is, many of them (and of course, this varies from one to the next) have trained staff on hand who can provide good, quality care to animals; possibly a lot more than you would be able to, considering the limitations of your situation.
Just a thought.
And, let me just stress that you want a no-kill shelter.