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

[Anonymous]

You put the dog down. People need to do cost benefit analysis.

[Anonymous]

I've never seen a bill that high and I've had dogs my entire life. The most I dropped in 1 day was $3000 for an emergency urinary blockage surgery and maybe in a separate incident $4000 for the dog who stayed at a critical care unit for over a week because of pancreatitis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've never seen a bill that high and I've had dogs my entire life. The most I dropped in 1 day was $3000 for an emergency urinary blockage surgery and maybe in a separate incident $4000 for the dog who stayed at a critical care unit for over a week because of pancreatitis.

My friend's dog just had surgery to remove a liver tumor. The cost of the specialist visits, ultrasound, CT scan and surgery with a 2- night stay came to just over $10,000 at one of the area specialty hospitals. The surgery was curative and the dog is expected to live to his natural lifespan so they didn't hesitate to do it.

[Anonymous]

I have pet insurance. I think this also depends on the age of the pet. If they’re already over 10 yo, the number I’m willing to spend goes down. They’re nearing the end of their life and that surgery isn’t going to have huge benefits. Imagine paying 12k for some surgery and they die a year later. I would probably spend 2500 max and beyond that, it would likely be a can we medicate it situation or euthanasia. Just being realistic and honest.

[Anonymous]

My 12yo cat needed a very expensive emergency surgery ($4k with a $1k follow on surgery) in the last year.

We paid it. The chances of success were close to 100%, and it was because of a freak accident - somehow he broke his jaw - so even though he’s on the way to getting old he’s still in great health and living his best cat life. It was expensive. But I’m so glad we paid it because he’s the sweetest cat I’ve ever owned.

[Anonymous]

I have owned many dogs and the year-to-year is incredibly pricey but I have only once had to have an expensive surgery (emergency) and it was a few thousand. It is not common to need them. This pet insurance business is relatively new.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've never seen a bill that high and I've had dogs my entire life. The most I dropped in 1 day was $3000 for an emergency urinary blockage surgery and maybe in a separate incident $4000 for the dog who stayed at a critical care unit for over a week because of pancreatitis.

I’m one of the PPs whose dog had cancer and it wasn’t one bill/one day, it was the initial ER treatment - he had a mast cell tumor that once they stuck a needle in it wouldn’t stop bleeding - then the surgery and recovery, then chemo plus every follow up has pricy stuff like an ultrasound.

[Anonymous]

The old adage "They must have saw you coming" I think applies here. I can't believe that pet owners in lower income parts of the USA are paying bills like 12k on pet care. Most people I'm sure would just put the animal down if the bill reaches 2k many even less.

I would do more than 2k but it has to be for something 100% curable rather than cancer which would more likely return and even then, the dog can't be too old.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The old adage "They must have saw you coming" I think applies here. I can't believe that pet owners in lower income parts of the USA are paying bills like 12k on pet care. Most people I'm sure would just put the animal down if the bill reaches 2k many even less.

I would do more than 2k but it has to be for something 100% curable rather than cancer which would more likely return and even then, the dog can't be too old.

Some people aren't that smart and are really attached to their pets. My poor relative had to get taken in once and in debt to learn her lesson.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just had a friend who had to put down a puppy, less than a year old, because he needed a $10k surgery. She'd already spend $5k trying to figure out the issue and treat it without surgery. She couldn't do it. It was horrible, but they had to put him down.

Almost happened to me. Instead of doing any kind of surgery, I sent the young puppy back to the breeder.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just had a friend who had to put down a puppy, less than a year old, because he needed a $10k surgery. She'd already spend $5k trying to figure out the issue and treat it without surgery. She couldn't do it. It was horrible, but they had to put him down.

Almost happened to me. Instead of doing any kind of surgery, I sent the young puppy back to the breeder.

The breeder put the puppy down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

You can't say that definitively. Many times the medical treatments are not $10K a pop. It's $500 here, $2K there, etc. over time. THis happened with my young cat recently. He was not in a fatal situation (as was determined by lots of tests), young, and otherwise healthy. Over many mos., we prob. spent $10K when we tallied it up. So far (Fingers crossed) he's fine now.

Other animals, like others have said, we maybe opted not to treat b/c they were at end of life, the treatment was either unlikely or unknown to work, and the treatment may have significantly affected their quality of life. It's a balancing act. But, in some situations, we opted for comfort for as long as we could before putting to sleep.

For those that want to spend the money, there is care credit. Many vets won't do payment plans b/c too many people have not fulfilled their payment obligations, thus ruining this option for other people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You put the dog down. People need to do cost benefit analysis.

And make their own decisions vs. listening to black and white commands from folks on an anonymous board. It's not just about the money to most people.

[Anonymous]

My dog had $13k surgery a few years ago. When the vet called me to tell me this, she passed me off to the “finance group” who quickly asked for either my credit card number or my social security number so I could apply for financing.

[Anonymous]

There are plenty of well off people who could easily pay 12k and not feel it at all.

There are plenty of people who could not pay. In that case, the vet can and will euthanize. Or you choose a less expensive option (for example, amputating a limb instead of surgery to fix a broken bone.)

There are also places like Helping Hands in Richmond that specializes in making surgeries affordable. I recently got an estimate for $3700 for my dog for a cystotomy. Instead, I drove down to Richmond and they did the surgery for $900. (The diagnostics and followups were at her regular vet, so I still ended up spending thousands but I would have had to pay for those visits in either case.)