When you can't afford $12,000 pet surgeries

[Anonymous]

What do people do?

I have a puppy, I'm debating pet insurance. Not sure I want to pay that much. Talked to vet and insurers about common prices/issues/surgeries.

But so what happens if a dog needs even just a 5K surgery, there's no insurance, and the owner can't afford it? Just hypothetically, but do vets refuse to put down in these situations? It just seems the expectation is you have to pay. And like now its perfectly and totally normal to pay 12K for a non guaranteed dog surgery when that never used to be the case.

[Anonymous]

I would probably end up paying. But idk at what point it's too much. And why is it so normal now to sink 10s of thousands into pets.

[Anonymous]

RIP Fido. That’s what you do.

[Anonymous]

I don't know if it's "normal" to spend 10's of thousands into a pet. Some people do, but many won't. I wouldn't criticize someone who isn't prepared to spend that type of money on a pet. I guess it also depends on how wealthy the owner is.

[Anonymous]

Usually you don't get expensive procedures until dogs are 10+ years old. My 15 year old Yorkie needed new hips and a cat scan (or was it an MRI?) because he was having seizures. His quality of life was so poor though that we couldn't do any surgeries as he might not wake up from anesthesia.

The most expensive thing that I've ever had to pay for for my dogs has been dental cleanings and extractions. They're $$$. Make sure to brush your dogs teeth daily or at least weekly from the start!

[Anonymous]

I think it really depends on the reason for the surgery. Most of the time there is another option, including the option to take no action at all. Depending on the age of the dog and the problem, no action might make the most sense.

Over the years, our dogs could've had MRIs and other expensive procedures for various, non-specific ailments. I don't recall all of them now, but we always declined. One of our dogs had a congenital heart condition but lived to be 16 - and they were all good years, too, with the exception of probably the last 9 months. More recently, our "younger" dog who is 12 had an incident where she suddenly couldn't stand and was vomiting, not eating. We took her to the ER and they diagnosed her with vertigo, gave us some meds. But they also wanted to do an MRI and all sorts of crazy things to rule out a brain tumor. We declined. She took the meds and is totally fine now.

We never got pet insurance for either dog. You'd have to read the policy carefully to confirm what exactly it covers because it may not be worth it.

[Anonymous]

Of course most people don’t pay this for their pets.

[Anonymous]

You keep as long as you can if when suffering gets too bad, you put him down.

[Anonymous]

Most dogs don't require insanely expensive surgeries until they are elderly, and at that point most people opt to put them down, understanding that they've lived a good life.

Unless your dog is a purebred from a sketchy breeder who doesn't health test (or a purebred from a rescue, which assumes sketchy breeder), the odds of something like hip dysplasia or an ACL tear in a pet dog is minimal. (This is assuming you are keeping them at a healthy weight and doing a reasonable amount of fitness with them). Most mutts are relatively healthy.

[Anonymous]

I love my dogs like family. They come on vacation with us, sleep on the bed etc. But I am not putting that kind of money into them. My max would prob be 2k. after that I would want them to not be in pain and would euthanize when they got to that point.

[Anonymous]

It really depends on the circumstances. If your dog is only 2 years old and needs a $5,000 surgery, are you really going to consider putting it down?? That's much different than an elderly dog who needs a $5,000 procedure that may or may not improve quality of life.

[Anonymous]

We spent $3500 on a surgery for our cat when he was 3 years old, because without it he would have died. It was a lot but we had the money.

He is now 12 and we are reaching a point where we'd be asking about palliative care, instead. I don't know that we're there today, but if the vet said he needed a 5k server to survive, we would pause in a way we wouldn't have when he was younger.

By the time he hits 15, I think our response to any serious medical concern would be how to make him comfortable and give him a pain free departure. We are not going to spend thousands to keep an elderly cat alive out of a sense of obligation. I don't think it's right for us or for him.

But I do think you should plan on likely having to spend 3-6k on medical stuff for your pet over their lifetime. If that's too much, I think you should ask if you really need a pet, or investigate how pet insurance might help. But yes, it's a caretaking responsibility. It's not the same as a child (as evidence by the fact that I just said that at age 15 I will probably stop spending money on procedures for our cat) but it's still a responsibility and you owe it to your pet to give them as good a life as you can.

[Anonymous]

Pet insurance is basically a payment plan. I think you might as well just put that much away every month in a savings account.

The answer is you euthanize the dog. I’ve been through three >$5k vet events and I would say one I have no regrets about and the other two were probably selfish and I should have just let the dog go then. We got another year from chemo but it’s so hard to judge if/how much it’s affecting them and the end was rough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most dogs don't require insanely expensive surgeries until they are elderly, and at that point most people opt to put them down, understanding that they've lived a good life.

Unless your dog is a purebred from a sketchy breeder who doesn't health test (or a purebred from a rescue, which assumes sketchy breeder), the odds of something like hip dysplasia or an ACL tear in a pet dog is minimal. (This is assuming you are keeping them at a healthy weight and doing a reasonable amount of fitness with them). Most mutts are relatively healthy.

Cancer is a big one and those can be costly surgeries.

[Anonymous]

We have three beloved cats, 2 kids and a HHI of $200k in DC. Where we have landed is:

<$1000, we'll generally always do it as recommended by the vet.
$1000-$10000 - depends on the details
> $10,000 - So sorry kitty. You've lived a good life and we've done the best we could for you, but it's time to talk about putting you to sleep.

The biggest factor for the $1,000-$10,000 range is chances of success, and likelihood it's the tip of the iceberg. So, an acute issue, procedure's likelihood of success is very, very high, and they should be good as new with no lingering issues after? We would go to the higher end of that range. Older cat, procedure only has a 50/50 success rate, and this will likely be a chronic issue that pops up again and again or has downstream impacts? We'd probably only do that on the lower end of that range.

So, yes, at some point, for most people, the conversation becomes a balancing act and in weighing pros and cons, the costs are very relevant. In my experience, vets are understanding of this.