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My senior dog's yearly geriatric exam, including lab tests/blood pressure reading/and physical exam, cost just under $400 this year. This is a slightly elevated rate for such an exam in a veterinary general practice clinic (I trust this vet so don't mind paying a little more).
You can shop around and find a vet who charges less, but our pets need preventive care, even when we're in retirement. I've had success in letting my vet know that I need to keep charges as low as possible and she has been great about advising me which tests and procedures are absolutely necessary and which are either elective or can be postponed for a while. For example, she advised that we do radiographs of her hips to further assess her arthritis and encouraged acupuncture for arthritis. I just declined these, as I can't afford them. However, my dog's arthritis pain is well managed otherwise with pain medication and massage/moist heat (free spa services offered by me ).
We have paid some pretty exorbitant costs for pet care in our day. $5000 back surgery for our dog one time, but he was only 6 years old and had at least 8 years of expected life. We couldn't bear to put him down for herniated discs that were paralyzing him. The ten happy years he lived after made it all worthwhile. But for a pet in it's ultimate decline, I will pay for comfort meds and what it takes to help them have a decent quality of life, but once that Q of L is gone, I'm for putting them out of their misery. Keeping them alive because we can't bear to lose them, or because we are afraid to do what must be done, is a disservice to a loyal companion. Give them that last bit of dignity, and perform that final act of love.
We had a great vet before we moved here. When our 1 yr old kitty was hit by a car and she had a broken leg and her hips were subluxated, the vet said he could repair her broken leg, and told us we could take her to a specialist for $3000 surgery on her hips, we said we couldn't afford it (we'd just spent every penny to close on our home a week before) and it would mean putting her down. We cried all night about having to make that decision. The next morning we went in expecting to put her down, at that point he told us that these subluxations can often cure themselves if the pet is on total rest. We were annoyed that he hadn't told us that before we had to struggle with the decision to put her down, but he was right. He repaired the break, and within 3 days she was actually trying to pull herself up to her feet! So sometimes you just have to be straight with the vet and ask for cheaper alternatives. Often a cheaper treatment can be found. Happy to say she is still with us at 17 years old. She will be our last pet for a while. We'd like to do some foreign travel before getting a rescue dog.
Get a Cat -- they're basically interchangeable. They just eat, go in the litter box, and lay around all day. You don't have to walk them outside first thing in the morning, or late on a rainy night. When you're going out for a night on the town......does a Cat carry on like the tasmanian devil ?? No, they might nod to you on your way to the door or shift positions to turn their back on you. If you're going away for the weekend, do you need to pay a sitter or bring the cat to the kennel ?? No, just a big bowl of kibbles and the water tower drink dish. Leave the seat up on the toilet if they really get thirsty !!
Of course, by now you realize I'm kidding, right. I've loved all our Cats and Dogs over the years.
My golden retriever turns 5 next month. We enrolled her in a study and she has yearly exams to the tune of about $175. We are reimbursed $75 of that. The study she is in is to discover the high incidence of cancer in goldens and dogs in general. Worth every penny.
Our first golden died at age 10 from bladder cancer. We were looking to having him around for 12 if not 15 years.
I also cannot imagine a life without dogs..... we have a year and a half old corgi who will be hopefully with us for at least another dozen or more years.
They are all worth every penny. Thankfully, we will be able to afford them.
I have two cats that I adopted from the SPCA. I don't have a lot of money. Sometimes I wonder if it would be better if I found new homes for them. Food, litter, toys, vet visits. I try to not think about the cost but it does cross my mind at times, especially when they have been extra naughty.
Then I see one all curled up sleeping, or another one playing with a toy (he likes a stuffed doll I got him), watching him carry it in his mouth cracks me up.
And I say to myself, what would I do without them.
We have a 7 year old Golden Retriever. Great that your girl is enrolled in the study. The cancer rate in GRs is horrible. I don't know if 7 is too old to get her in the study.
She is interestingly enough an oops breeding...brother/sister. So far no problems. Here's praying that neither of our girls have to every worry about the big "C".
My golden retriever turns 5 next month. We enrolled her in a study and she has yearly exams to the tune of about $175. We are reimbursed $75 of that. The study she is in is to discover the high incidence of cancer in goldens and dogs in general. Worth every penny.
Our first golden died at age 10 from bladder cancer. We were looking to having him around for 12 if not 15 years.
I also cannot imagine a life without dogs..... we have a year and a half old corgi who will be hopefully with us for at least another dozen or more years.
They are all worth every penny. Thankfully, we will be able to afford them.
My golden retriever turns 5 next month. We enrolled her in a study and she has yearly exams to the tune of about $175. We are reimbursed $75 of that. The study she is in is to discover the high incidence of cancer in goldens and dogs in general.
Very worthwhile study.
The saddest part of taking one of my cats to the veterinary practice that did chemo was seeing all the dogs in the waiting room. I often had the only cat. I don't know why dogs are so prone to cancer but I hope they find out soon.
If you want to DM me the name of the institution doing the study, I'll send them a donation.
We have a 7 year old Golden Retriever. Great that your girl is enrolled in the study. The cancer rate in GRs is horrible. I don't know if 7 is too old to get her in the study.
She is interestingly enough an oops breeding...brother/sister. So far no problems. Here's praying that neither of our girls have to every worry about the big "C".
The 3000 dogs in the study had to be a couple months old when the study started. They have been seen yearly since that time. The study is closed but you can follow the findings at
I will have to ask my vet about a senior discount. I have a dog that had heartworms when I adopted her and a cat who has had two UTI's and some other issues. I spent $160 last week to bring Rowan (the cat) to the vet for a UTI and all he did was examine her, cut her nails and give her an antibiotic shot. That was with no blood tests, urine tests or anything. If it was something more serious I would have had to euthanize her as hard as that would have been.
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