Vet Bills

[MP_the4pack]

Between December 1999 and July 2000 I spent $15,000. On two dogs ages 5 and 6. One died one survived.

As soon as I could scrape up $350 I got insurance. Have had it ever since.

 

Sometimes the insurance company makes out, sometimes I do. I have had some dogs never need it and others that bled the insurance company dry.

[macoduck]

If you are going to get insurance, get it now before your dog develops a medical problem. There's a waiting period before coverage will start for pre-existing problems.

[HeyRunDog]

If you are going to get insurance, get it now before your dog develops a medical problem. There's a waiting period before coverage will start for pre-existing problems.

 

Good advice.The insurance I took out had a waiting period of 14 days and any problems starting in that period wouldn't automatically be covered. Grace developed an abscess on the 15th day which needed extended treatment and totalled nearly £2500. They paid up.

[charbess]

Mazy was the only dog we had insurance on. We used Healthy Paws and the price gradually kept rising. Adding up vet visit costs vs the monthly premium, it didn't add up for us to continue with the insurance. Instead we set aside money in a dog savings account.

 

And then something went horribly wrong. My vet couldn't diagnose her but recognized that this was headed to a critical zone. She sent us to NC State vet hospital where Mazy spent one week.

Pancreatitis was finally diagnosed via ultrasound even though the lab results didn't corrolate with it.

And then something else happened. Screaming with neck pain or if her head was touched. MRI and spinal tap showed nothing. IV Fentanyl helped somewhat.

She was sent home with 10 pills to take multiple times a day. On day 5 she refused pills hidden in tasty stuff, so when I tilted her head slightly to pop a pill down she screamed.

We decided that was it. On New Year's day morning our vet met us at his office to let her go. He said whatever it was it was systemic. Reading over the NCS reports he could make no sense of it either.

NC State cost us $8000 and about $350 at my vet before that.

Because Mazy was only 7 we felt we had to give her a chance. Luckily we'd had money set aside for vet care, though we never knew things could get this bad.

It would have been easier to bear if she'd recovered, or if we could have learned what "it" was that took her from us.

 

Agreeing with the others - get insurance or regularly set money aside for this kind of emergency.

So sorry for your ordeal. I would have been (and still be) wrecked to not know what was going on.

[macoduck]

So sorry for your ordeal. I would have been (and still be) wrecked to not know what was going on.

If Mazy's body hadn't been through so much, with all the poking and prodding of needles, I might have done an autopsy. I just didn't want her violated any more.