Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Right before we got our first kitty, my wife and I decided $200 would be our limit. Now that we have her, we would probably go as far as $500. I have heard of a person spending as much as $5000 on their dog. Even if I had money to burn, I'm not sure spending that kind of money on an animal would be right for me.
How about some of you? Is there an amount you have in your mind you wouldn't go beyond?
I spent about $1500 on my cat last year when he got a blockage in his bladder. The thought didn't even cross my mind not to. I would have spent more than that if I had to. I can't say what the limit would be, but it'd probably be pretty high. I spend a lot more money to buy quality cat for for him now to avoid it from reoccurring. It's worth it to me.
$500 not a cent more. im a college student. and can't fight natural selection and nature.
So when you get sick or hurt and your parents would have to pay a hospital bill, should they just throw their hands up and say "it's natural selection, sorry?"
My answer, I don't know and I had to face this horrific issue just two weeks ago. My beloved but ancient rescue JRT somewhere around 14ish apparently ate a rock and couldn't pass it, I took him to the vet not knowing and I had called a friend before I made that decision to put him down she agreed to pay for the testing that ran about $200. He needed surgery to get the rock out and another friend stepped up to the plate and paid for the surgery for me.
Why you ask are my friends paying, because I've been unemployed for over 2 years and have run out of benefits, I'm so broke I can't pay my mortgage this month and will soon loose my home. I had already re-homed my beloved Sheltie puppy that I spent years doing research on to buy as a companion and competition obedience dog and recently my rescue Manx cat that I'd had since '96. They both deserved better homes than living in the cab of my truck. But my old JRT could survive with me.
Some might say it's irresponsible to get a pet if you can't afford them and I agree, however, when I aquired my animals I had a good job, no debt but my modest mortgage but now I will be homeless soon.
So choices are never clear cut, would I have done this if I was working? I really don't know because of his age I just don't know, I'd already been mentally preparing myself for his time to go to the bridge as he's been getting quite creaky. I had already lost so much over the last two years and I'm facing homelessness shortly, I will be for ever greatful to my friends for saving my beloved companion.
Having owned pets for a long time I've had to make the decision before but this time it was so much more difficult because of my current financial situation, I had no options.
Everyone has a right to make the choices for their pets that work for them, there is no right or wrong answer to this question. Anyone that is on this forum loves their pets and no matter what decisions they make they are thoughtful and doing what they believe to be the right choice at the time.
So choices are never clear cut, would I have done this if I was working? I really don't know because of his age I just don't know, I'd already been mentally preparing myself for his time to go to the bridge as he's been getting quite creaky. I had already lost so much over the last two years and I'm facing homelessness shortly, I will be for ever greatful to my friends for saving my beloved companion.
Having owned pets for a long time I've had to make the decision before but this time it was so much more difficult because of my current financial situation, I had no options.
Everyone has a right to make the choices for their pets that work for them, there is no right or wrong answer to this question. Anyone that is on this forum loves their pets and no matter what decisions they make they are thoughtful and doing what they believe to be the right choice at the time.
I'm so sorry to hear of your situation. But, for whatever it's worth to you, this was probably one of the best, most heartfelt things that I have read on this forum.
It's so easy for people to say "oh, I would do this", or "I did that and I don't understand why everyone who loves their animals wouldn't do the same". In reality, we don't really know what we would do when in the situation unless we are there ourselves, nor do we have any right to judge what others do when faced with tough choices.
In late August, I had to put my 15 year old cat down. When he was about 13, he was diagnosed with a malignant tumor in his ear. The vet was not able to get the entire tumor out through surgery, and our next step would have been to remove the entire ear canal. I made the choice *not* to go through with that. Partially, it was because of finances (the surgery would have been about $2000). But, honestly, it was more the fact that I didn't feel that it was right to put a 13 year old cat through that, with no assurance that it would even be successful in stopping the cancer. Frankly, I had the luxury of about 2 years to "come to grips" with my decision (which was definitely not easy), so I think that it bothers me less when people judge me for it than it would if I didn't have that time (or other viable options).
I have said, both here and with people in my "non-virtual" life, that this was my particular decision. End of story. I would never think to judge someone else for their decisions in this regard.
I get the impression that a lot of people around these parts like animals a heck of a lot more than they like people, and their comments show that. But, I wonder...if they had friends like yours, if they would feel differently. Bless you and your little JRT, as well as the angels who came through to help you in your time of need.
In this month alone, I spent a little over $5000 in emergency and regular vet care for my 11 year old labrador retriever who couldn't breathe due to laryngeal paralysis. I wanted my little girl to live out her natural life, whether she had a year or two left, as long as she was able to breathe, since laryngeal paralysis is a very fixable condition. I was, however, somewhat pushed to the limit when I saw the estimated amount for $8000, but it didn't mean giving her up. It was more about the high cost of care that was a bit too excessive.
In the end, everything worked out well and she is acting like a puppy, despite her age. Right now, she is snoozing in the corner of my bed. I realize that I may come across as a crazy dog owner for spending thousands of dollars on a dog, but my dog has been with me since I was fresh out of high school. Besides my friends and family, she is the only thing in my life that have stuck with me through my entire 20's decade. The last three weeks have been a blessing for me. We are both living in my new house and she is following me everywhere like she is my shadow. Even if I knew she would pass away in the next few weeks back then, nothing would have made me change my mind approving the estimate prior to the surgery.
I would do whatever it takes to keep my dog healthy and happy. She is not just a pet, she is a companion, a friend and I love her so much. She makes our family very happy and I know she feels the same way about us. She goes everywhere with us.
My husband is deathly allergic to her, but we would never give her away. She has been moved outside, but gets just as much love and attention. She is so much a part of our family I cannot imagine us without her. So if anything were to ever happen that would require any medical care I would do it.
I have a friend that spent a lot of money to remove tumors off her rat. It shouldn't matter the size of our furry friends. We should take care of the animals we chose to bring into our home.
The most we spent is over $8,000.00 on one of our dogs. He had liver failure, and our regular vet didn't know why, so sent us to an expensive specialist animal hospital. There every 12 hours a new vet would take over, and want to do different tests---each day we were hit with more $$ and no results---then the first specialist to see him came back from the weekend and did the ultrasound he'd originally wanted to do, but the next vet hadn't done----he was finally diagnosed with a simple gallstone. They didn't even remove his gallbladder, just the stone. Today he's 15 1/2 and quite healthy. Had we known the final bill we might not have gone so high, but we are still glad we did. That ended up in home equity loan. On our second dog we spent around 3000.00 over time with fractured ACL surgeries. Now with our third dog we wised up and got health insurance.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
But, for whatever it's worth to you, this was probably one of the best, most heartfelt things that I have read on this forum.
They didn't even remove his gallbladder, just the stone. Today he's 15 1/2 and quite healthy. Had we known the final bill we might not have gone so high, but we are still glad we did. That ended up in home equity loan. On our second dog we spent around 3000.00 over time with fractured ACL surgeries. Now with our third dog we wised up and got health insurance. 
