How much have you spent on your pet that is sick or injured?

VortecJeep

VortecJeep

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Aug 24, 2005
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Concord, NC
Our dog, Caesar, has been sick for a month. It started out with him vomiting occasionally, then multiple times a day. He went from 80 pounds to 69 pounds in 2 weeks, and I’m sure he is probably only about 60 pounds now. Two weeks ago we took him to his regular vet on a Friday, then had to take him to the emergency vet on a Saturday night. Blood tests and x-rays all looked good. They said maybe he has cancer, but that would be a specialist to test and diagnose. We were already at $1000 just in tests, no treatments. We decided we wouldn’t pay for any specialist visit. Last night we were certain we would be putting him down today, so we made sure the kids said their goodbyes. Today he has improved slightly and we wonder if it is a tooth problem, because he doesn’t want to eat and when he does eat, he acts like he can’t chew. So my wife if taking him in tomorrow to see if he has a bad tooth causing all the problems. If they can just pull a bad tooth and see if that makes him better, I can handle that. Anything past that, and we may have to put an end to it.

So it got me thinking, how much have you spent on your dog that was sick or injured?
 
I never owned a dog until last December. I never wanted a dog, but my wife and son did. A stray Shih Tzu walked up to my parents house in early December, and we decided to take him in. The dog is probably only about 2 years old. He was very sick at the time(running a fever, skin infection, eyes filled with goop, missing lots of hair, and not fixed). We have spent a little over $2k in the past 5 months bringing him back to health, but he is finally 100% now.

David with Jack.jpg
 
I'll be honest! I've dropped 1500 on my lab/collie mix Beam when he was sick as a pup and I said then, that's it! I'll prolly be a drunken mess when that dog dies but I won't spend thousands of dollars on a animal... I'm a cold hearted person from what I'm told tho, but my family comes first financially in every aspect even tho my dogs are truly family, not human family.. If I have thousands to spend I'd spend every damn cent to keep my mutts alive tho!!
 
VortecJeep said:
Our dog, Caesar, has been sick for a month. It started out with him vomiting occasionally, then multiple times a day. He went from 80 pounds to 69 pounds in 2 weeks, and I’m sure he is probably only about 60 pounds now. Two weeks ago we took him to his regular vet on a Friday, then had to take him to the emergency vet on a Saturday night. Blood tests and x-rays all looked good. They said maybe he has cancer, but that would be a specialist to test and diagnose. We were already at $1000 just in tests, no treatments. We decided we wouldn’t pay for any specialist visit. Last night we were certain we would be putting him down today, so we made sure the kids said their goodbyes. Today he has improved slightly and we wonder if it is a tooth problem, because he doesn’t want to eat and when he does eat, he acts like he can’t chew. So my wife if taking him in tomorrow to see if he has a bad tooth causing all the problems. If they can just pull a bad tooth and see if that makes him better, I can handle that. Anything past that, and we may have to put an end to it.

So it got me thinking, how much have you spent on your dog that was sick or injured?
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How old is your dog??
 
My cap is replacement value. Meaning, if the vet bill is going to cost more than getting a new pup...it gets put down. I love my dogs, it sucks when they die, but I've always been just as happy with the replacements.
 
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This is Sascha and she was 100% my dog. She had a bad chewing problem and on a cold night, we brought her inside. She destroyed a brand new bed and ingested several chunks of that poly fill. $4K later, with multiple sections of intestine cut out and repaired, this is how she came home.
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Nursed her back to probably 80% before she got a little too active in the yard and something gave way inside. Wife spotted a drop of blood on her lip that morning only to have her collapse and die in her arms less than 5 minutes later. RIP
 
My dog(s) are and always have been family. I would spend what ever it took to keep Sadie as long as there was a good chance for recovery and a happy life. As I write this, Im holding back tears at the thought of losing my pup.

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Have you noticed and bad breath? I dog with a broken or rotting tooth will have some serious breath more so than the normal dog breath. I sure hope for your sake it’s somerhing simple like that. Any other signs like sluggish or lethargic behavior leading up to the weight loss?
 
Holly and I put Maddie down last night (yellow lab in my profile pic)

age 6 mos...mange so bad it was almost a grand
age 1 years...hit by a car...reconstructive surgery and therapy - 4k
age 2 years...swallowed a dime...lodged in stomach...retrieved with endoscopy...1k
age 5 years...allergic reactions to hardware in leg from surgery...remove hardware - 2k
smooth sailing for the next many
age 10...the gansta lumps started appearing...fortunately benine...lots of test and lab work - 1k+
age 12...senior canine vestibular disease...hospital stay and therapy (including acupuncture) 1.5k
age 13...megaesophagus and herniated stomach...end of life care included 2k

if it is within my means, i'll do whatever it takes...
 
92_SquareEye said:
Holly and I put Maddie down last night (yellow lab in my profile pic)

age 6 mos...mange so bad it was almost a grand
age 1 years...hit by a car...reconstructive surgery and therapy - 4k
age 2 years...swallowed a dime...lodged in stomach...retrieved with endoscopy...1k
age 5 years...allergic reactions to hardware in leg from surgery...remove hardware - 2k
smooth sailing for the next many
age 10...the gansta lumps started appearing...fortunately benine...lots of test and lab work - 1k+
age 12...senior canine vestibular disease...hospital stay and therapy (including acupuncture) 1.5k
age 13...megaesophagus and herniated stomach...end of life care included 2k

if it is within my means, i'll do whatever it takes...
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I'm sorry for your loss, Dave.
 
VortecJeep said:
He’s 9, but until a month ago, he was as energetic and active as a young dog. This is him back in January curled up with our younger daughter. He’s a rescue mutt, best we can tell some Lab mixed with some Ridgeback.

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I hope for yalls sake it's a tooth or something simple!! Any changes in location any new areas he's been recently or around an new animals?
 
My dog - not so much (11 y.o. black lab chow)
My wife's dog - (2 year old pit mix) $400 twice for lacerations to paws.. about bled out the first time.
 
Swamper...my "lucky"

I dont want to think about how much $$$$.

Lets just say my vet is a friend. He has a picture of my dog in his personal office. He teased me for years he was going to get a custom tag that read Swamper.
 
<< Blaze, who we lost a few weeks ago to cancer, had a major surgery 4 years ago.

He was about six years old, was acting odd after a walk, so we took him to our vet. Ruptured spleen due to a tumor, and bleeding internally. Sent us ASAP up to vet surgical clinic in Cary. At that time, I had been thru several major losses in my life, two just prior to this, and could not bear another loss without knowing that I had done every thing I possibly could to try and save him. We went into surgery knowing that there was an 80% chance it was malignant, and we'd only be buying a few months more time. Total vet bill was around 7.5k. BUT....I could afford it, and another loss would have probably put me in a very dark place that I might not have come back from. And, if he survived the surgery, recovery would be quick and easy.

Gamble paid off, it was benign, and we had four more good years out of that dog. Worth every penny.

A few weeks ago, when we got the diagnosis of cancer in his front leg/shoulder, we only had two options. Put him down, and end his pain, or do a radical amputation of leg, shoulder blade, most chest muscle, etc....to at best buy 4-6 months of time. The big difference in making that decision was quality of life. Removing that much would have taken longer for an older dog to adapt to, and by then, he'd have other complications, and be gone anyway. If $$ would have bought him a relatively healthy, pain-free four months, I might have done it, but that just wasn't possible. Ended up costing us about 1500....several x rays, ct scan, etc...each visit a few hundred bucks.

All in all, a drop in the bucket. That dog cost us $1000 to fence in the yard (where he never spent time because he moved into the house with us), $30k for a crew cab pickup because two adults and a 90 pound dog didn't work too well in a regular cab, and then the motorhome, because two adults and a 90 pound dog didn't work too well in a commo shelter.
 
I lost osiris 10 years ago. He was with me 11 years. Traveled on the carnival, best friend I have ever known. When I had to put him down due to his pain. Part of me died with him. No more attachment. Tears still come.
 
I won't admit how much money in care I spent on my first dog, Kujo. But it was way more than what both my vehicles are worth . At the end of his life, if the vet had said for $100,000 we can give him a few more good months, i would have been on the phone doing what ever it took to get the money. In the end , money couldn't save him.
Losing him almost killed me.


To the op, I hope you get your pups problems figured out, and it all works out well. I will definitely keep him and you in my thoughts..
 
Stopped counting, but I'd guess $2k-$3k on tests before finally having to put him down a couple of weeks ago. He was a ~2 year old yellow lab/mutt rescued from the pound and was low on weight. Got him healthy/happy & had him for ~3 years and then he got lethargic & started losing weight. Then he stopped eating and dropped weight fast along with muscle mass. Platelet count wasn't high enough to be a surgery candidate & x-rays showed nothing wrong. Consensus is he had cancer, but we kept him as comfortable as we could. Then one Sunday evening he got worse and started struggling to breathe; took him to the vet Monday morning and they agreed it was time. Sucks that he was only ~5 years old...
 
skyhighZJ said:
Have you noticed and bad breath? I dog with a broken or rotting tooth will have some serious breath more so than the normal dog breath. I sure hope for your sake it’s somerhing simple like that. Any other signs like sluggish or lethargic behavior leading up to the weight loss?
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Bad breath, yes. Sluggish and lethargic, yes. He stays inside most of the time, but lately when he does go out, he goes off on his own like he doesn’t want you to know where he is. We have a large fenced-in yard that is wooded, so he can hide. I’ve heard that dogs go off when they are about to die, wonder if that is why he’s doing that.
 
VortecJeep said:
I’ve heard that dogs go off when they are about to die, wonder if that is why he’s doing that.
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I've kept quiet on this thread until I read this....I certainly hope this isn't true. My dog knows me better than anyone. She can just "feel" when I've got crap in my head that I shouldn't be thinking about, and comes to console/comfort me. She's getting older, but I'm not sure how old she is...she's a rescue, and we've had her for 8 years now. The vet seems to think she's 12-13.

To contribute to the OP, we had one surgery early on that was $2200 out the door, another a little over a year ago for ~$1600. I'd still do it again (and again) if she needed.

She's been slowing down as of late, sometimes taking a little longer to get up after she's been resting than she used to. Her hearing is going, and sometimes I scare her if I pet her while she's sleeping. She has been having trouble with her eating in the mornings. We feed her dry food. I've been mixing it in some warm water to soften it up before I give it to her, and that seems to have helped tremendously.

What scares the hell out of me about what I quoted above is that she has been spending time "alone" more and more lately...going and sleeping under the desk, or over by the door away from my wife and I. She used to be attached to me, always under foot, and laying in my lap anywhere I was sitting. All I know is I don't know how I'm going to handle it when that day does arrive.
 
I spent a little over $3000 on cancer treatments for my Wife's pit rescue about 3 years ago now, she's been strong since. I spent about $1000 on my Pit about 2 years ago for an allergic reaction that almost killed him, still unknown what it was, and hasn't re-occured... In both cases, well worth what I spent to me, and I'd spend more if needed.

I'll never question anyone's choice on what to spend on their Pup, It's a very personal choice that has to be based on available funds, and projected quality of life for the dog. Just don't let the dog suffer.
 
I have a black lab mix Charlie that I would lay down $30k for in a heartbeat if it meant saving him , but he's over 10 and hasn't ever cost a dime. The girlfriends two dogs though seem to be at the vet every couple months and keep her pretty broke--they aren't nearly as cool though...
 
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