Suddenly Poor With A Sick Pet?

Factual Questions
1

Not describing me, personally, but it is something I have given a lot of thought, being that I am involved with my local Humane Society which is very tuned in to educating the public as to spaying/neutering and adoption.

Don’t know how it is where you are, but my local shelter euthanizes every Wednesday, and it breaks the hearts of all the people who work there to have to do this.

This is why the Paulding Humane Society got involved: To get those unwanted pets adopted and to get the public educated as to how to avoid unwanted puppies and kittens. PHS works right alongside the Shelter People (as I call them) and it has been a great union.

So that brings me to the question: What happens when a family which adopts a kitten or a puppy suddenly falls “on hard times” and that pet gets seriously sick, and they need their money for other things such as food?

What would you have them do?

I have my own cat named Bert whom I adopted from the shelter (Well actually, I “cat-napped” him: he was meant to go to Massachusetts in a relay and I was his “foster-parent” and he and I just hit it off, so I kept him. Sue me!) , and tonight I started geting quotes for pet insurance on him, but then I thought of the families who cannot afford this, and this is the reason for me posing the question.

Not playing “Devils Advocate” here, y’all, okay?

What?

Give them all the love you can and then let them be euthanized if you can’t afford to have them treated?

Try to give them to someone with money?

Let them die in agony?

Please don’t misunderstand: I think that any time a cat or dog can spend in the company of a loving human is “good time” compared to what they face in a shelter environment (loving as those folks are), but what should people do when that happens?

What would you do?

Thanks

Q

2

I know about the ferret end of things, at least this was the case last I looked into it. In Chicago there is a shelter associated with the Greater Chicago Ferret Association which often takes in sick ferrets that their owners can no longer afford to take care of. These ferrets are typically fostered out to people who can take care of the animals, and their vet care is paid for by the GCFA (via donations from supporters) through their preferred vet clinic. There are other ferret shelters around the US that handle these situations as well. I would suspect there are other animal shelters that may take in ill animals.

I also know that the vet I go to has some sort of mini-loan program (through a third-party company) for pet owners who cannot afford to pay off their bill all at once.

3

It depends on how sick it is, I’d say. I couldn’t let an animal live in agony while I searched for a home which would take in a sick pet. It’s hard enough to find a good home for a healthy animal-- placing a sick one could take weeks.

As hard as it might be on me, I would have to do the responsible and merciful thing-- have them put to sleep.

4

I guess it depends on what resources are available in your area. Here in Chicago I have volunteered for the Anti Cruelty Society and they are a no kill* shelter. While all you will ever find for adoption there are cats and dogs they have a policy to taky ANY animal in. Yes, if you walk in with a cow or an alligator or whatever they will accept it. That said they do not adopt alligators or cows and will promptly find somewhere to place the animal. That place may or may not euthanize the animal but you can rest assured the Anti Cruelty Society here will do its level best to see the animal gets a proper home. They will even provide a surprising amount of medical care for the animal as they are able (and short of heroic efforts they can and do actually do quite a lot medically).

But as Lissa said there is no use in prlonging an animals suffering if you can think of no means to alleviate its pain in short order. Best you can do is call local shelters and see what they will do or they may provide contact info for places that might help. Failing all of that the sad necessity is to put the animal down. Hopefully people without means to support an animal will not try to take care of one but shit happens and people fall on hard times. Heck, I have known people with plenty of means who felt $600 was too much to spend on their pet and put it down.

[sub]*The Anti Cruelty Society of Chicago will euthanize animals for a few specific reasons. Such reasons can be if the animal is just too injured/sick to have a reasonable chance at rehabilitation or dogs involved in dog fighting or otherwise known to be vicious. I should note that I do NOT work for the Anti Cruelty Society or even volunteer for them any longer so do not take my word on their policies as official in any sense. Call them for the straight dope if you like. I will say however that they are a class act when it comes to animal care. [/sub]

5

Well as for my my father died when I was 11 and then when I was 16 my mother died. That was in 1980 when my mother died I had a cat aged 10 and a dog who was 15. And I had to put them to sleep because even the shelters refused them. I was in college (yes I was in university at an early age) and couldn’t take the animals, and so the humane society told me the pets too old to take, and that they’d just put them to sleep if I left there. So unfortunately I had to put them to sleep.

Not much you can do.

6

I’ve been in this position, barely making it from paycheck to paycheck and having a pet need expensive medical treatment. It’s an agonizing decision. For me, there were several other factors to be considered besides just the cost of treatment. I tried to judge the likelihood of the treatment being a sucess, and the pet’s quality of life afterwards. For instance, I ran up my credit card for eye surgery for a ten year-old cat with glaucoma, because he was in pain and a thousand dollars would fix it and give him the rest of his years without pain. But if he had been diagnosed with cancer or progressive kidney failure, or something else that would probably get progressively worse before killing him, the odds are I wouldn’t go so far into debt before having him put to sleep, at home, as kindly as possible.

What I hate is that often vetrinarians are so vague and unwilling to commit that they make it very hard to decide. I guess they don’t want to feel like they are pressuring people into decisions, but it is frustrating sometimes when they lay out a lot of possible options, some very expensive, but can’t give answers about the outcomes.

7

As a veterinarian I experience this from the other end.

Finding a home for a pet with a medical problem is near impossible. Perhaps if it is a breed with a very active breed rescue you might have some success, but not usually. IMHO, that’s not a realistic plan.

Many vet teaching hospitals and large practices have funds to help cover the cost of the vet bill. So an early referral may be cheaper than not.

Lots of my clients can spend so much and not more. At times they will euthanize an animal that could be saved. But here’s why vet.s don’t give black and white answers about this - there aren’t any. Do the best thing possible doesn’t ensure that an animal will live, it only makes it more likely. On the other hand, doing nothing or treating bare bones doesn’t ensure that an animal will die, it just makes it more likely.

I had a goat with advanced Listeria. I told the owner about the typical treatment. The antibiotics used aren’t expensive. I told her that I could give the goat very expensive antibiotics instead, ones that aren’t typically used in goats. Using the expensive antibiotic would increase her bill by about $200. It might improve her goat’s chances of surviving, but that meant it went from a 10% chance to a 20% change. In other words, she would most likely spend more money for the same outcome. For some owners that’s OK - they want any slim advantage. Many owners balance the prognosis vs. the cost.

There are vet.s who have the mindset “if you can’t afford everything possible for your pet you shouldn’t own him” and will present one (expensive) course of therapy as an animal’s only treatment option. In reality, for many conditions you have your Cadillac, your Saturn, and your Yugo method of treatment. I’d imagine if you shop around a bit you can find a vet. who is willing to discuss those options and come up with a plan that is within your budget and not putting your animal through unwarranted pain.

For example, I looked at the dog of a friend who is very, very poor earlier this week. The dog was lame in the rear leg after jumping over a gate. Radiographs showed that one of his metatarsal bones was fractured. There were unfractured metatarsal bones that acted as an internal splint and kept the area fairly stable.

The Cadillac treatment: Run a complete blood panel to make sure he has no medical problems like anemia, kidney disease, liver disease, etc. Put him under general anesthesia and repair the fracture with internal fixation surgically. Take some samples at surgery and send them to the lab. to make sure there was no bone cancer or other reason why the bone broke (the jumping history may be a red herring and this could be a pathologic fracture). Send home in cast and see back once or twice to assess healing via X-ray and cast/bandage removal.

Total Cost - probably in the $1500 - 2500 range.

Saturn treatment: give the dog a short acting sedative. Attempt external relignment and then cast the leg for a few weeks. Send home on prescription pain killers. Se back once or twice to assess healing via X-ray and cast/bandage removal.

Total Cost - probably in the $200 - 600 range. If fracture does not heal, can go to Cadillac option knowing that your bill now is surely going to be at the top end of that range.
Yugo Treatment - Place dog in very small crate for 6 weeks. Only let him out two time a day to urinate and deficate. Give baby aspirin for pain. Fracture may not heal or will heal poorly resulting in deformity of leg and reduced use.

Total Cost - $40 - 90 range.

8

To return to the “Pet Insurance” portion of this thread:

Yeah, I did a GOOGLE search and got a quote for Bert, and on the face of it, it all looked okay: I could pay as little as 7.85 or as much as 18.50 a month depending on basic or “superior” benefits. Basic covered 9K and the superior covered up to 18K a year. Both had a 50.00 deductible.

But then I did one more thing: I went to the Clark Howard message board (Clark is a “consumer advocate” based here in Atlanta) to do some research, and what I discovered was the he doesn’t think much of pet health insurance and advises against it, due to the non-payment of claims and the “fly-by-night” reps some of these companies have.

I then posted a question on the message board and I got only one response and that was negative as well.

Bert is an “inside-cat” and healthy, so my plan is to try to keep him that way by staying on top of his immunizations and watching his diet. Everything else we will trust to fate. I am about 9 years from retirement age and he is 3, so I hope we can grow old together with not too many health problems.

I appreciate all the responses!

Q

9

A year or so ago we put a bit over a grand into a young dog with a persistent infection. We went for the Cadillac treatment. I am glad to say that eventually it cleared up, he’s now healthy and happy. I investigated pet medical insurance, and even signed our dogs up, but when I read the detailed coverage information I decided that I was better off hoping that my credit cards and I would be able to cover it if one of them got sick again. I would still have had to cover more than half of the cost if I had had the insurance. The only way they would pay the 10k per year that they claimed they would cover is if the dog had the most expensive option of every covered treatment. Any animal (or human) with that many serious ailments in a year is not likely to survive no matter what. BTW, both our dogs are rescues.

10

Here in the UK we’re very lucky, in that people in need who are claiming benefits can obtain FREE veterinarian treatment for their pets from the People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals (PDSA) , a charity which has been in operation for 90 years now. :slight_smile:

11

I’ve never been in this situation, but a close friend of mine was. She’s very. very empathic about her animals (two dogs and a cat). She’s gone without to make sure her animals are taken care of - they’re her children (she can’t have kids, so these are her and her husband’s children, so to speak).

I, on the other hand, have not gotten a pet specifically because I know I wouldn’t be able to take care of them if they got sick. Same reason I haven’t had kids.

However, I support euthanasia in the event that there is nothing that can be done. My parents were put into that situation when I was little - and they had to choose between their kids and their pets. They chose the kids.

~Tasha

12

In my house, the humans always come first.

When our Mini-Rex rabbit Peekaboo had a foot infection, I was ready to have her euthanized in the face of $300+ treatments. We simply don’t derive enough joy from a $20 rabbit to put such a strain on our family’s finances - not with two human children who might (and lately have) need expensive medical treatment from the same budget.

Luckily, the vet offered us the “Yugo” treatment when I convinced her that Peekaboo would allow me to feed her antibiotics orally, and she got better.

Eventually, I suspect our big bunny will get sick and/or die. If it comes to that - since the kids will likely be old enough to know what is going on by then - we might take her back to the rabbit farm in Glen Rose and ask the breeder to put her out to pasture.