Dog Owners Only
- Started
- Last post
- 47 Responses
- mantrakid
What's the highest amount of $ you would be willing to spend on your 7-year old pet if you knew it would save their life for another 3-5 years. The highest amount you could justify to yourself knowing that if you didn't spend it, your pet could die literally any day now?
Going through some shit, man. Took care of this beast since we took it away from it's mom as a puppy. Hard to justify doing anything but 'everything we can' to save its life, but looking at that estimate... fuck me...
- mantrakid0
I meant to write 'pet owners only', my bad. Wasnt thinking straight. ;)
- utopian0
120k w/benefits
- JG_LB0
- don't mean to be insensitive but reminded me of this: http://blogs.telegra…JG_LB
- btw i've had two of my dogs die in front of me as a kidJG_LB
- melq0
It would seem that when the costs become extremely high, that's due to the treatment being something pretty intense. The question then becomes, "Do I want to put my dog through that," instead of, "How much am I willing to spend?"
- monkeyshine0
Depends on quality of life for my dog. What type of surgery? Will it make a difference and how long is healing time? Personally, my decision would revolve around that, not money.
- CygnusZero40
7 years old isnt that old. If you have the money its probably worth it. Once animals get up in that 10-15 range, I couldnt see spending thousands on them.
- hereswhatidid0
get a second opinion as well. Vets, specifically cat and dog only vets vary widely in their pricing. Also, most of the time you can negotiate the price down as they will typically include a lot of procedures that aren't truly necessary.
I have a boston terrior that split a femur jumping off the deck. The first place I went to said the only option was a $2,000-$3,000 surgery. Told him no way would I pay that for an 8 year old, he immediately countered with, "Well, we could try a splint. That's around $400." So we did the splint and he's just fine now and we've changed to a more reasonably priced vet clinic.
- Yeah we're coming out of a small town, so options are limited.. gotta take a ferry & 6 hour drive just to get to surgerymantrakid
- Ouch!hereswhatidid
- Maaku0
$2000?? here in Puerto Rico...
Not sure how expensive surgeries on dogs are.
- crillix0
I'm with Ron. For myself, I look at it as I took on the responsibility therefor I should do whatever I can. So if there is away to afford it then I will do it. At the same time there is a cut off point but that really dependent on so many things... Is it a one time fix, or just pro-longing something? Whats the pets quality of life going to be? Whats your quality of life going to be? etc...
Its always a tough call sorry you are going thru that.
- jfletcher0
I said 5K... my wife said 20K :P
Although it depends on how much you can spend. We just dropped 600 our of dog in the emergency vet, 400 last year for a trip, and 800 a few years ago... then there is normal vet trips. Actually, looking back, he's quite expensive.- crazy. i hear you. weve already spent $1,000+ just in tests ruling out things just to be sure it's the heart.mantrakid
- speed_d0
I recently went through a tough situation with my 12 year old golden/aussie mix. I dropped over $4,000 on medical issues only to then have an aggressive cancer take him. I'd gladly do it again though. If the surgery is guaranteed to fix the issue, I say do it. If it's a 50/50 chance...that's a tough call...personally I would still do it. good luck, having been there I don't envy your position.
- Gnash0
A friend of my dropped $14K
- mantrakid0
Thanks y'all.. We're talking pacemaker here, dogs having minor heart attacks basically any time it does anything other than sitting around. Can't even come home from being away for 10 minutes without it getting excited (normal) but then keeling over in pain until it passes out, then heart finally starts kicking in again. Doc says one of these times it's just not gonna kick back in. Weve done tonnes of research and it seems the procedure is not that crazy, not like open heart shit, which I think we wouldnt be up for. They go in through the neck, hook it up and dogs back to normal really fast after some recovery time.
We don't have a dime available for it right now, but I'm willing to sell off my keyboards, music gear, ipad, etc if it means we can chill with her for a few more years. Like someone said, if she was 10+ years old it might be a different story, but we took on the job to give her as full and long of a life as we could...
Looking like it's gonna be like a $4,000 bill. crazy. I donno if i would pay much more than that... maybe $5,000 tops... otherwise i'd see it as putting the rest of the family in too deep... Never thought id have to make decisions like that the first time she jumped up in our laps tho. wow.
- pressplay0
if the trip wouldn’t be so stressful maybe you could get a treatment for your dog abroad where it’s less expensive (Mexico?)... ok, I admit: I don’t have a fucking clue... I don’t even own a pet... good luck to you and your buddy...
- Thanks man. Appreciated. :) I think the trip would kill her at this point. She's been on a plane before and it did not go well.mantrakid
- monkeyshine0
Kudos to you for going through with it. Poor pup. :( Hope she's ok.
- 5timuli0
I just dropped 15k on an elderly dog with a ruptured gallbladder and pancreatitis. Totally worth it to give the wee fucker a few more years.