Vet bills. Ouch, ouch, ouch.

Routine exam for both my dogs today: the little one in preparation for having his teeth cleaned, just a general once-over; the big one in preparation for breeding this spring. The vet was very nice, took lots of time with us, went over each dog carefully, looked in their eyes and ears, listened to heart and lungs, all the good stuff. My girl got a dose of wormer (again in preparation for breeding), and both had their nails trimmed. The final tally: $81. Ouch. And another $300 coming up from the dental work, for the little one. The vet did give me a somewhat askance look when I mentioned I use a home-cooked diet, and gave us some sample bags of Science Diet puppy food, though again she was super-nice about it ... and I'll use up those freebies, no doubt, but when the first two ingredients are corn meal and chicken by-product meal, I cringe a little bit to think how much influence pet food companies have over vet schools....

In any case, that's one step further for us. The happy news is that I (probably) have a mate lined up for my lady sighthound. There's the pitter-patter of puppy feet in the future ... but so much to do first, still.

Hundreds and hundreds of dollars over the years. Money I didn't even really have. :(

Last month, the annual checkups and vaccinations for my 3 dogs and cat ran over $400 and that doesn't include heartworm or flea meds

...vaccinations, and heartworm test/meds coming up. I don't spend that much on myself in a whole season. But, what are you going to do?

routine vaccinations, plus microchips for the two young ones (they're indoor kitties, but Puck has slipped outside twice now). Vets know that we'll do almost anything for our furkids, so the prices just keep going up and up...

I had one good experience a few years ago; a fisherman had hooked a mudhen by accident down by a lake near my home. I was walking past him when he asked if I could help. The hook went through the bottom bill and tongue, and we couldn't get it out, so I ended up taking the mudhen to Banfeild vets at Petsmart. They removed the hook, cleaned the wound, gave the bird antibiotics, and sent her home with me with medication-all for free! Granted, it was a wild animal, but still, they could have milked me for the $$ and they didn't. I had a mudhen in my bathtub for two days, but it was great to see her cheerfully reunited with her mate, who looked like he had been waiting for her the whole time. :-)

On edit: this is what a mudhen, or Gallinule, looks like:


(the feet make them tricky to handle)!

It's great that your hen was able to be re-united with her mate.

lots of beautiful birds to watch! :-)

My repaired mudhen (it was probably a he, but the locals call them all "hens" down here) just flew right out of my hands at sunrise and straight to another waiting hen in the rushes. They made excited beeping sounds and swam around one another in circles for a while before paddling across the lake. I swear, the other hen had been waiting for it's mate for two days straight! It was so sweet.

BTW-it's so true about vet's offices and awful "premium" pet foods. It's gotten almost as bad as doctor's offices pushing certain drugs on their patients because big pharm gives a zillion samples to them (along with a free five star dinner). One vet I went to pushed Eukanuba hard, but the one I'm taking the kitties to now offers only frozen raw diets (several brands) in a huge freezer in the lobby. It's a holistic vet, of course.

sounds awfully high, even for California. The vets don't all exactly do it themselves, and the procedure isn't terribly time consuming, although they have to sedate them.I worked one whole day for a local vet, and they had me doing the procedure under the vet's wife's supervision, with crummy, worn out dirty tools. This vet had been our vet for years and always seemed nice and caring and came well-recommended. That and a couple other practices there had me run for the hills, and never bring my animals back. They didn't understand why I didn't want to work for them. Anyway, I would check around first.

...to check the function of liver, kidneys, etc., because my little guy is 15 years old. When he was younger, we felt confident about skipping that step, and that cut down quite a bit on expenses. Even if I find it for somewhat cheaper elsewhere, this is going to be an expensive month all the way around. My December windfall is rapidly melting away. So it goes....

our $2,000 cat. I know it too well.

This includes examination of the entire oral cavity for growths, ulcerations, broken teeth, abscesses, etc.; probing all 4 sides of each tooth for periodontal pockets; extraction of any teeth whose roots are rotten; scaling all 4 sides of each tooth (both above and below the gum line); polishing each tooth to smooth out any micro-abrasions made by the scaler; fluoride treatment; and application of a dental sealant to protect the enamel surface. In our hospital the oral exam and any extractions are done by the veterinarian and the rest is done by a licensed technician (with the veterinarian supervising anesthesia).

We also require preanesthetic blood tests for any pet undergoing anesthesia - this enables us to tailor the anesthetic protocol for each individual patient based on the state of their organ function. As a matter of fact, just today we had to postpone a dental cleaning because the lab tests uncovered hyperthyroidism in an apparently normal cat - it is severe enough that she would be at a greatly increased risk for anesthesia (we are going to start treatment and re-evaluate in a couple of weeks and hopefully get those teeth cleaned when her thyroid is at a more normal level).

Every pet that has anesthesia in our hospital also gets an intravenous catheter and fluids (to help maintain blood pressure, which tends to drop under anesthesia, and also to help them metabolize the anesthetic better). They are hooked up to a respiratory monitor and a pulse oximeter while asleep (to measure the amount of oxygen they are getting). We also use generous amounts of pain medication, since dental disease can be quite uncomfortable. At discharge, we go over options for home dental care and help the pet's owner choose an appropriate maintenance regimen so that the pet might be able to go for a longer interval between dental cleanings.

All this to say that when you are shopping around, be sure that you are not comparing apples and oranges. I know of hospitals where no preanesthetic testing is done, no monitors are used, a perfunctory scaling is done (no polishing or sealant used) and no pain meds given. Certainly those hospitals charge less than we do for a dental cleaning, but I don't think those pets receive optimal care. $300 can be a ripoff, or it can be a bargain. Depends on what you are getting for your money.

But with a household full of geriatric animals, it's not to be. Two diabetics, one arthritic, one recurrent staph, one chronic ear infection, and the general up keep of a 20 year old cat.

But the dental we had done on the small dog was only $75 and the projected cost for the Bouvs $125. Please shop around.

I have been having my dogs immunized every 3 years after reading that this is now the prevailing school of thought. When my vet said that it was time for the dogs' annual shots, I told him that I was going to have them every 3 years due to recent research. His reply was, "well you won't get any arguement out of me." He certainly wasn't going to offer this info to me if I hadn't said anything! A vet student neighbor of mine told me that they are being taught to innoculate every 2-3 years. I still have annual physicals, heart worm stuff etc.

But they need Heartworm meds every year, no getting around that.

(SC) will not allow the 3 year rabies vaccinations because we are a rabies 'epidemic' state. We can do 3 years or even titers on the others but rabies HAS to be done yearly. Finding the 1 year vaccine is becoming harder and harder and I really hate the thought of (over)vaccinating every year with the 3 year preparation.

If they don't have the yearly shots and bite someone, you don't get a quarantine period, you get a dead dog and the head sent to the state lab for testing.

I thought FVRCP feline had to be done annually because that's what every other vet had told me (we have 3yr. Rabies). This vet took a look at Gracie's vacc. history and said, oh, well she's due for Rabies, but she had FVRCP last year, so you can wait for 2 more years. Wow!, and I had specifically come in for that vaccine! I would have paid for it, no questions asked. She told me about the newest research, and directed me to a website that educated me even more. I'm definitely sticking with her. They charge quite a bit for dentals too (it's a vet school), but it comes with full mouth (or single tooth, depending) dental xrays too (in addition to top notch prophy. and pre-anaesthetic workup and pain meds), and they have a dental surgeon. He does all the dentals and most of the spay/neuters. I absolutely couldn't afford it when Bubba had to get two teeth extracted (they said it couldn't wait), so I had to go to a highly reccomended vet clinic down the street. They did a pretty good job, but didn't do pre-anaesthesia bloodwork or pain meds (and, obviously, no xrays). I'd rather have done it at the vet school, but you have to do what you can afford. (i.e., if you have to go without food in order to afford the best care, well, then you can't afford it)

Good luck!

It was at the point that it was a minimum of at least $100 when I took my dog to the vet for even the most minor of problems.

I just got a letter from my vet saying that because my total last year was over $2200 I would be receiving a 10% discount this year. They expect that I will do another $2200 plus with them this year. I'll take the discount, but hope I don't have another $2200 year again. Of course, with 5 dogs, between heartworm, regular vaccinations and flea and tick drops, they are probably correct . . . sigh.

I spent $375 on Saturday, for my two dogs, and I'm on the Banfield "wellness plan," so my little guy's inoculations were covered, and I got discounts on everything else that was done and for medicines. I have taken my guys elsewhere, but I have found, that if it is going to be done right, this is the one vet I can trust to do it.

I have taken my Sara to my local vet, for a sore on her back. He gave me medicine, but it's still there. This other vet told me that it needs to be removed and I'm going with what he said. My beloved cocker spaniel, Barney, was treated for weeks for a urinary tract infection. My local vet, with the best intentions, kept telling me that he was fine. He was not, because he continued to have wetting accidents, and he was the best dog that I ever had for asking to go out. The vet that I see now did a culture, and, finally, put him on the medicine that cured his problem. It cost me $100, but it probably cost me a total of that, elsewhere, over several weeks, and what was the point, if he didn't get well? I learned my lesson.

My Sara is scheduled to have her growth removed. It might be carcinoma, since I got a call, today, from the result of her biopsy. But he did one, immediately. I'm scared, but I know that I'm getting her the best care possible. It's worth it, to me. And I'm sure that you feel the same way about your dogs.

As for Science Diet, I use it, as well, but have also heard bad things about it. I'm thinking of making a change.

In my early twenties I paid for a $700 operation for my cat Lucifer. I had to put it on a credit card. It took me a year to pay it off at the measley salary I was making back then but it saved his life. It was definitely worth it, he lived 14 more years and he was a great cat.

for the last two weeks at the Animal Medical Center of New York, which is like the Johns Hopkins Hospital of the animal world. I don't know what his ultimate bill will be. He needed to be re-admitted 32 hours after a routine operation and I believe that he was originally discharged before his problem was corrected. As a result, I'm contesting the fees associated with the detour his health took as a result. I'm afraid to tell anyone what this is costing because they might try to have me committed to a psychiatric facility.

(To condense his story if you are interested: he had a late night emergency admission for a urinary blockage, then had a bladder filled with stones which needed to be removed.(The AMC is the night emergency referral for almost every vet in NYC; they never close.) The operation went fine. The only problem was that they sent him home before his bladder was working properly again. He went into congestive heart failure not much more than a day after I had brought him home. I found out the next day that his bladder wasn't functioning right, and once they stabilized him, that he seemed to have no serious pre-existing heart problem which would have independently caused the CHF. I'm pretty sure his kidneys stopped working right because his bladder wasn't emptying, which usually causes the animal's heart to fail. He has been hospitalized since 3/13. His heart is working fine now and his kidney levels after being off the chart, are now normal. After 2 different treatments, he finally peed some on his own yesterday. I'm still holding my breath though, since he has already had some set-backs after he had made progress.)

to hospitalize a pet at AMC. But one thing is for sure, your baby is alive because you took him there.

You are probably working with Dr. Nyssa Reine the senior Endocrinologist. I just mentioned her in another post. She has saved the lives of several of my friends pets and she was wonderful with my Happy Boy.

If this helps I can tell you that it was actually less expensive to treat Happy at AMC than at my local Vets with the added advantage of getting the correct treatment.

There are no Vet Techs, your pet is handled by Vets only and the top specialists in the world are there. But because the school is partially funded the procedures actually cost less than a place like Oradell Animal Hospital where they suck you dry and make mistakes.

As I always say "that's what credit cards are for". You are not only a loving mom you are also a really good one.

LDL

P.S. If you think the amount of the bill is painful wait until you go to pay. The place is incredibly efficient in every other way except Billing.

unfortunately, I think an inexperienced intern missed a major issue & it almost killed my cat. They work in teams there, with 1 to 2 interns, residents & 1-2 supervising attendings. The attending on Yuri's surgical team was out of town when he had his surgery. That surgical team followed him until discharge & missed the fact that normal urination had not been established. I think they were focusing more on the surgery itself, not his overall medical condition. He had a fairly common phenomenom seen after a bladder has been blown up with stones; once the stones are removed, it often stays inflated and flaccid. In those situations, the cat needs to be cathetered for several days to allow the bladder to contract. They flat out missed the bladder issue.All he was doing was dribbling pee while he laid on a pad. He never stood up and postured to pee while he was in the hospital. I couldn't sleep well the night when this happened, and got up to check on him at 5AM. If I had not done that, I probably would have found him dead when I got up from a normal sleep. As soon as he was seen by a medicine resident, they told me his bladder was atonic (the condition described above) and I had to give them authorization to put him under sedation to put a catheter in, since he might have died from the sedation. But they needed to get the urine out, and put him on a diuretic for the heart failure. Thank God, he survived the sedation.

Yuri's case does not involve an endocrinologist. He is being cared for now by a medicine team whom I am happy with. In the end, it turned out that there was nothing organically wrong with his heart, so something had to have happened to him to cause the failure. Because he was sent home w/o actually being able to void his bladder, I am convinced that put him into heart failure as the toxins built up in his blood stream. He almost died and a whole bunch of other things had to be done to address the heart problem & possible kidney damage before they could get back to worrying abt his bladder.None of that should have happened.

I've worked as an administrator in NYC hospitals. Mistakes do happen.
I'm willing to pay for treatment of his urinary tract problem but I'm not intending to pay to fix what they caused.

thank goodness you were knowledgeable and awake.

good luck

ldl