F....Animal Vets

[mredskins]

firstdown I knew you were j/k don't feel bad.

It reminded me of watching a horror flim. People can watch other people getting slaughter all day in the movie but as soon as a animal or pet is killed the "gasps" come out.

I guess it is because animals are so innocent in our eyes.

[Sheriff Gonna Getcha]

Originally Posted by firstdown

If I'm correct some states maybe most or all look at pets as personal property. I'm not sure if it was a case in Virginia or in another state which received national attention but it involved a pet owner suing for a large sum of money due to the death of their pet. Not sure how far it went up in the court system but the final ruling was they are personal property.

As far as I know, all states treat pets as personal property. I'm glad you know the end result of the case. Most people think that if person A sues person B for $1 billion upon some ridiculous claim, then person A gets $1 billion. It's no wonder why people think our legal system is far more out of whack than it really is.

[RobH4413]

I'm with everyone here...

There was an article in the Washington Post recently about exactly what everyone is talking about...


Pets, Vets and Debts - washingtonpost.com

I recently tried to get my little black pug spayed and a simple 65$ fee turned into close to 500$ in about 3 min. The lady was throwing all of these extra options... IV fluids, antibiotics, extra pain medicine...


They tack on fee's like crazy... I would be more inclined to pay some flat rate then be berated with all of these unnecessary options like I was buying a used car or something.

Making me very frustrated...

[BDBohnzie]

I know the pain of Vet visits. We inherited my wife's bichon frise because her stepdad was moving and said you either take it, or she goes to a rescue. The dog has a soft spot in my heart because it's my wife last connection to her Mother, who passed 4 years ago.

Overall the dog is in great health (she's 13), but the dog goes to more specialists than I do. She has skin and eye problems, so she's sees a dermatologist and an ophthalmologist. Eye drops for her right eye, and steroids for her skin problems. But I guess it could be worse.

But these specialists do not nickel and dime us to death like the regular Vet does. Drives me nuts the amount of stuff they want you to do.

[Sheriff Gonna Getcha]

One way to avoid vet costs is to get a mut; purebreds tend to have an awful lot of problems. In-breeding does that sort of thing.

[mredskins]

I am back at the Vet with my other dog this go around. She is a boarder collie and is 8 years old, she has high levels of something in her blood so they have performed $1100 in test on her so far and still can't figure it out, though we are still waiting on the final test. Sounds like it is her liver which could spell doom.

This go around we have trimmed back stuff and only done it at our vet no ER vet crap. Plus we have a new Vet since the last go around. The new one is genuinely nice and realizes budget comes into play and gives us options, where as the last one was like every thing must be done at the highest price!

[firstdown]

The reason they charge so much is because they know they can get away with charging that much. Back in the day people would not spend a fortune on their pets and would have put them down and on the way home stop and pick up a new one. They hit my buddy up for 8 grand and the dog still died.

[GMScud]

Originally Posted by Mattyk

There's a quick and easy solution... don't have pets.

Yes I know I'm being a jerk. But tell me I'm wrong.

Agreed. I do love dogs, though. Other people's dogs. I've seen what puppies do to your home. If I came home and found my leather couch/chair shredding by a freaking dog, well....

My closest friend has two labs, one chocolate, one golden. Great dogs, a lot of fun, but his house is always a mess because of those animals. And last week the chocolate lab was diagnosed with torn ligaments in one of his hind legs. $3200 surgery. EFFFFFFFFF that. I'll be damned if I ever spend that much of my hard earned money on a pet.

I get it that there's this bond between man and dog and they're great companions, ra ra ra. And maybe I'm being a jerk, but the juice ain't worth that kind of squeeze.

My wife and I have an indoor cat (it's hers really, I don't particularly care), but she knows if we ever run into that kind of vet bill, it's sayonara kitty.

[mredskins]

Originally Posted by GMScud

Agreed. I do love dogs, though. Other people's dogs. I've seen what puppies do to your home. If I came home and found my leather couch/chair shredding by a freaking dog, well....

My closest friend has two labs, one chocolate, one golden. Great dogs, a lot of fun, but his house is always a mess because of those animals. And last week the chocolate lab was diagnosed with torn ligaments in one of his hind legs. $3200 surgery. EFFFFFFFFF that. I'll be damned if I ever spend that much of my hard earned money on a pet.

I get it that there's this bond between man and dog and they're great companions, ra ra ra. And maybe I'm being a jerk, but the juice ain't worth that kind of squeeze.

My wife and I have an indoor cat (it's hers really, I don't particularly care), but she knows if we ever run into that kind of vet bill, it's sayonara kitty.

Easy to say but we will see what happens when that day comes because it will come.

My dad said the prices have gone through the roof, growing up we had dogs and it was no where near this. Plus they can do so much more now that they get you with that.

If you truly love your pet and it is ill and someone says I have a magic wand to fix it at this cost, it is hard to say no.

The best way to go about is basically do what you can afford and that way you know you have done everything you can for your pet when and if it dies. As a pet owner you take on this responsibility. What fustrates me about Vets is I don't really know pet medience so if the say do A I really can't dispute it. Where as if my car mechanic says you need a new sunroof with your brake job I can be like "yeah right".

For those saying pets are waste because of these bills or they mess up the house, I am sorry you missed out on one of life's greatest pleasures, IMO.

Pets are a great gateway drug to kids IMO, if you don't picture yourself being able to care for a dog and it's expenses, god help you when the little one comes around, they make dogs look cheap and clean.

[GMScud]

Originally Posted by mredskins

Easy to say but we will see what happens when that day comes because it will come.

My dad said the prices have gone through the roof, growing up we had dogs and it was no where near this. Plus they can do so much more now that they get you with that.

If you truly love your pet and it is ill and someone says I have a magic wand to fix it at this cost, it is hard to say no.

The best way to go about is basically do what you can afford and that way you know you have done everything you can for your pet when and if it dies. As a pet owner you take on this responsibility. What fustrates me about Vets is I don't really know pet medience so if the say do A I really can't dispute it. Where as if my car mechanic says you need a new sunroof with your brake job I can be like "yeah right".

For those saying pets are waste because of these bills or they mess up the house, I am sorry you missed out on one of life's greatest pleasures, IMO.

Pets are a great gateway drug to kids IMO, if you don't picture yourself being able to care for a dog and it's expenses, god help you when the little one comes around, they make dogs look cheap and clean .

Throughout my college years and the first year after I moved back to DC from Florida in '07, I lived with and help care for/raise dogs. No, I didn't pay for or name those particular dogs, and yes, I did find quite a bit of pleasure living with those dogs (pit bull, dalmation, lab to name a few). But I also had plenty of belongings ripped to shit by those dogs, and lost countless hours of sleep.

I've spent plenty of time living with and without dogs. I'll take the latter 7 days a week.

Comparing having dogs to having kids is apples and oranges. Kids are humans and your own flesh and blood. Of course they are going to cost you lots of money, time, and frustration. But they are your CHILDREN. Dealing with the cost/messiness/time that pets bring may be good prep for kids, but not wanting to deal with those pets has nothing to do with your ability to deal with kids IMO.

[mredskins]

Originally Posted by GMScud

Throughout my college years and the first year after I moved back to DC from Florida in '07, I lived with and help care for/raise dogs. No, I didn't pay for or name those particular dogs, and yes, I did find quite a bit of pleasure living with those dogs (pit bull, dalmation, lab to name a few). But I also had plenty of belongings ripped to shit by those dogs, and lost countless hours of sleep.

I've spent plenty of time living with and without dogs. I'll take the latter 7 days a week.

Comparing having dogs to having kids is apples and oranges. Kids are humans and your own flesh and blood. Of course they are going to cost you lots of money, time, and frustration. But they are your CHILDREN. Dealing with the cost/messiness/time that pets bring may be good prep for kids, but not wanting to deal with those pets has nothing to do with your ability to deal with kids IMO.

I got both. I had dogs first and IMO it help prepare me for raising kids. To some, not me, kids and pets are on the same level. I am not saying a petless family will not be able to raise a child I am just saying it may help prepare you for child raising, there are many similarities, especially when comparing a newborn to a dog.

To be clear I was not singling you out, I was just expressing my opinion.

On a totally joking side it was funny how you had to give your dog history, you kind of sound like a homophobic saying "I have gays friends, really I do."

[GMScud]

Originally Posted by mredskins

[/B]I got both. I had dogs first and IMO it help prepare me for raising kids. To some, not me, kids and pets are on the same level. I am not saying a petless family will not be able to raise a child I am just saying it may help prepare you for child raising, there are many similarities, especially when comparing a newborn to a dog.

To be clear I was not singling you out, I was just expressing my opinion.

On a totally joking side it was funny how you had to give your dog history, you kind of sound like a homophobic saying "I have gays friends, really I do."

haha. Well, I wanted to emphasize the fact that I want no part of owning dogs and that's speaking from first-hand experience.

[Schneed10]

Pets aren't for everybody. But for those of us who have them, it's easy to justify paying a couple hundred bucks here and there for ailments or whatever.

The beef I have is that some vets are almost predatory in nature. They'll push diagnostic tests to identify conditions that can't even be practically addressed.

I recently changed vets because my old one pushed hard for that kind of thing. I like the new vet a lot better. It helps when you go in there to be real strong with the doctor up front and tell him that you want the decision tree laid out up front.

- Sir, your dog has a heart murmur and I want to do an echocardiogram.

- Why do the echo, what could be the result of the test?

- Either it's fine and we can put her under for dental work, or it's not fine and we can't do the dental work and send her for heart surgery.

- How much would the surgery cost?

- Oh I don't know, $3000.

- Well I'm not paying for a $3000 surgery, so how about you don't do the echo test and we don't do the dental work. I'll just brush her teeth myself.

Do your damndest to keep emotion out of the equation. It's hard, but approaching it like that works for me, it keeps the doctor in line and lets him know you have limits and not to push you.

[Schneed10]

By the way, the dog I mentioned in the second post in this thread died back in May. I'm glad we never did anything about her heart, because it would have been tortuous pain for her, and it maybe would have only bought her a couple more months. She ended up dying in May suddenly, collapsed right on the spot, probably from a heart attack.

She went quickly and painlessly. There was no last few months of struggling to recover from surgery. I sleep very soundly at night knowing we did the right thing for both our wallets and the well-being of the dog. Sometimes saying no to the vet is in your dog's best interests anyway.

[mredskins]

Originally Posted by Schneed10

By the way, the dog I mentioned in the second post in this thread died back in May. I'm glad we never did anything about her heart, because it would have been tortuous pain for her, and it maybe would have only bought her a couple more months. She ended up dying in May suddenly, collapsed right on the spot, probably from a heart attack.

She went quickly and painlessly. There was no last few months of struggling to recover from surgery. I sleep very soundly at night knowing we did the right thing for both our wallets and the well-being of the dog. Sometimes saying no to the vet is in your dog's best interests anyway.

Sorry to hear your lost but I beleive you did the right thing as well.

You brought up a good point as well even if you can save them is it really in their best interest or you just putting it off to spare yourself the pain of their lost?


Here is what gets me I just paid $375 for an ultra sound of my dog's liver yet tomorrow we are going to have a 3D ultra sound of my wife's stomach to determine the sex of our next baby, $125. How can you justify the dog's ultra sound not 3D more then a human one? This is where Vets are unreal.