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So, my 10yr old cat and I just had a medical adventure which ended up costing me $2500. He is fine now, but Sunday night came down with a urinary blockage and had to be unblocked and have surgery to prevent it immediately happening again.
I'm attempting to implement all my vet's suggestions to prevent it happening again (although he seems he would rather starve himself then eat the preventative diet) but from what I'm reading online, it is likely that it WILL happen again.
I don't have much in the way of "life savings" just a bit saved up for emergencies in general and if this keeps happening, it could easily clean me out. I've never been in credit card debt before, and really hate the idea of starting now. But I also hate the idea of euthanizing a cat that could be perfectly healthy for years if he was treated.
So before it happens again, I'm looking for any recommendations for affordable after-hours vet emergencies and affordable care (surgery) in general. I just learned that Banfield has Sunday hours which could help prevent an ER visit so any offices with late/ weekend hours would be great too. I'm in Southwest Raleigh, but not too worried about the location as long as it's within an hr drive.
I also heard somewhere that sometimes the Emergency places will treat the pet for free as long as you surrender it to them to place in a new home. This would be last resort, but better than choosing between euthanasia and going broke
TL: DR
My cat may need chronic emergency care. What is most affordable emergency ER and regular vets for surgeries? What options do I have other than going into debt?
Try Bayleaf. They're regular services are less expensive than most. Additionally, one if the four vets is on call for emergencies until 10pm every day. I would GUESS what they woukd charge is less than the ER hospital.
plus, we've gotten truly GREAT care for our elderly dog!
I agree about Bayleaf. They have the best prices around. I know that is so hard to go through for you and your cat. I had that with a cat years ago before I moved to NC. Good Luck.
We've been happy so far with Magnolia, but haven't had extended interactions with them. They don't try and upsell much and are generally understanding.
I have a cat who had the blockage surgery 9 years ago, he's now 17 years old. He never blocked again, but I am very careful with him. He gets the urinary tract prescription diet food and only distilled water to drink. I tried canned food, but my cats aren't fans. If your cat is, it's good to feed them some at least once a day due to the high moisture content.
I can't really suggest any low cost emergency vets in Raleigh. It cost me approximately $1200 when it happened and that's because I didn't have the emergency vet do the surgery, they gave him pain meds to hold him overnight and then I took him to my regular vet for surgery (back when she did surgeries, she's a house call vet).
FWIW, for a brick and mortar vet, I adore Dr. Brink at Falls Village Vet. She's a very caring vet who I would trust completely with any of my pets' lives.
I can't help with suggestions about places but just wanted to mention a payment option if you get in dire straights.
We have a care credit card that we had to apply for when our Golden ate a pillow and we had to have surgery to remove the blockage. We had zero savings at the time. So we applied for Care Credit and we had 18 months to pay it off interest free. That helped tremendously. We had to use it one other time as well and it was again 12 months interest free. Seems they do that a lot if you are spending over a certain amount. I know you said you don't want to get into credit card debt but wanted you to know it's an option out there.
I'll check out Bayleaf, Magnolia and NCSU. Thanks!
goldenlove - One of the worrying things is that he was already on the preventative diet because my other cat was :/ I'm trying to switch him to canned food even though he doesn't like it much and I'll start using distilled water too.
butterflies1375 - credit card debt is a little easier to handle if its 0 interest, at least for a while Glad your dog is ok.
NCSU Vet School and VSH are both excellent options. I echo what was said about the high cost of VSH, although our pet did receive outstanding care in a life-threatening situation. The problem with the Vet School is that the wait for an appointment can be long, sometimes months.
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Glad your dog is ok.
