Are you ready to shoulder such a vet bill?

[BirdbrainJan]

The largest bill I've had to deal with so far was for my bunny. He had calcium building up in his bladder, and when we found out, he needed x-rays, fluids, and medication. The bill was over $400. Some of my friends thought I was crazy to spend that on a rabbit, but it wasn't even a choice for me, you do what you have to do when you have a pet.

My parents' cat has racked up thousands of dollars over the years, just with random events. He swallowed a sewing needle, which he successfully passed, but that landed us with x-ray costs, he got shot by a BB gun, the pellet needed to be removed, and then he developed bladder stones ($1200 surgery...ouch!).

[TheNzJessie]

Does no-one here go for the pet insurance option?

cant insure birds in new zealand, my cat in insured so is my rabbit i would if i could. my rabbit is deaf and has about 30% of her vision *poor old girl* so insurance is great for her pays for 70% of her medication and vet visits

[TheNzJessie]

The largest bill I've had to deal with so far was for my bunny. He had calcium building up in his bladder, and when we found out, he needed x-rays, fluids, and medication. The bill was over $400. Some of my friends thought I was crazy to spend that on a rabbit, but it wasn't even a choice for me, you do what you have to do when you have a pet.

My parents' cat has racked up thousands of dollars over the years, just with random events. He swallowed a sewing needle, which he successfully passed, but that landed us with x-ray costs, he got shot by a BB gun, the pellet needed to be removed, and then he developed bladder stones ($1200 surgery...ouch!).

i can relate to that my cat (who has unfortunatly passed away now) my dad ran her over when she was 5 months cracked 2 vertebrae, internal bleeding, vet bill was $3000 her fur always sat crooked on her back after that. then she got attacked by a dog (pitbull) and needed surgery on her jaw $1100 got an infection in her eye from a cat fight $320 all over the space of 10 years (plus all the vet visits from cat fights ) she was a seal burmese which explains the cat fights

[BirdbrainJan]

i can relate to that my cat (who has unfortunatly passed away now) my dad ran her over when she was 5 months cracked 2 vertebrae, internal bleeding, vet bill was $3000 her fur always sat crooked on her back after that. then she got attacked by a dog (pitbull) and needed surgery on her jaw $1100 got an infection in her eye from a cat fight $320 all over the space of 10 years (plus all the vet visits from cat fights ) she was a seal burmese which explains the cat fights

That is one lucky cat to have survived! Or unlucky, to have found herself in those situations?? Major kudos to your family for supporting her through all of that! They really do become members of the family hey?

[MandyG]

So the question is, are you prepared to shoulder a $500+ vet bill if an emergency were to arise with your parrot?
...
Have you had any serious parrot vet care before? What did it run you? Were you prepared for the bill? Let's have a discussion about the costs of parrot vet care and preparedness for this.

I have a large vet fund set aside. Thankfully I've never had to use it in the case of an emergency but just regular vet care is expensive enough! I have savings just in case but I also keep 2 credit cards with large limits completely clear just in case something happens and I can't cover it up front.

Unfortunately I've had friends that have had to put down animals simply because they couldn't afford minor surgeries. Also I've seen a few people get free dogs because that's all that they could afford and then they got Parvo and ended up costing their owners $1,000's that they really couldn't afford to put towards a dog. Sad experiences, but thankfully having a large vet fund is a lesson that will always stick with me after watching them go through that.

[rebeccaturpeinen]

i dont think you can really put a price on your pets health... my dog started getting allergic to something thats in basicly all dogfoods and she has had some huge vet bills and will continue to have them for the rest of her life. she will also need shots every month and special food and diet. but what is the alternative??? friends and colleagues (the ones that dont have pets) dont get it and say i should put her down but how can you kill something because it has an allergy??

same thing with our Joey. we havent had him that long yet but whatever our little Joey needs our little Joey gets.

[MandyG]

friends and colleagues (the ones that dont have pets) dont get it and say i should put her down but how can you kill something because it has an allergy??

Some people just don't understand. You should ask them how they'd feel if somebody suggested they give away one of their kids because they're being an inconvenience to them.

[lightweight]

I would shoulde it as long as I had the money o could get the cedit. 500 is nothing in vet bills!

I have had one cat need a 2000. surgery (sorry my r doesn't work so I had to switch keyboards) another cat needed a 2500 and 1700 surgery and another cat who had a 500 emergency (he was severely constipated). Yes we have a maxed out credit card for the next few months on the latest round of treatments and fingers crossed no one else falls ill because we can't afford it right now but I would definitely. I think 2500 would be my limit, but I am sure I would still consider it even if it were more...

Too bad about the allergy. I have a cat who is allergic to plastic,. had to replace all of the dishes and thankfully that was enough to solve his plastic allergy!

[entrancedbymyGCC]

I'm just glad I can afford it... it would be hard to say... I know you can make it better, but all I can afford is euthanasia. Some people do have to say that under some circumstances. If a vet said, I can fix it but it will cost $!0,000... I don't know. $100,000 and I'd say I can't. Like famous bit about the woman at the bar, we probably all have our price, we just feel differently about it if it is $10 or $1,000,000.

I don't know how much $$ I put into my kitty Kira. She made her 21st birthday! When she was in her teens she was treated for hyperthyroidism -- common, easy to cure with about $1000 of radioactive iodine treatment. A few years later she became ill, we couldn't work out what was going on, we took her to the specialty clinic on the advice of her regular vet, she was examined endoscopically and diagnosed with IBD (like Crohn's disease), which was manageable for many years on medication. They also removed a ton of fur from her digestive tract.Then she got chronic kidney disease and we managed that for a couple years with subcutaneous fluids. We had a couple of emergency room visits during that period because she was vulnerable to infection... I don't remember any of those bills anymore, I just remember thinking that vet bills do NOT scale with the size of the animal. The cat bills and the horse bills are often comparable for comparable procedures.

[rebeccaturpeinen]

yes i do agree that everyone has their limits and there must be people that just simply cant afford it.... but why then do they have pets? if they can not afford vet bills they probably dont have money for the quality food and normal check-ups which would make the risk of the animal getting sick a lot higher in the first place.

i would also max out all the credit cards and live on soup and bread if my animals needed vet care.

but yes, if the animal is at that age you have to think about the humane part... my other dog (who is pretty big) is 15 years old and starting to get problems... its not that we wouldnt want to spend the money on him, im just not sure how much we would actually be helping him