Vet Bills

#1

My poor little Abby had to go to the vet yesterday. He chin was swolen badly, and she had injured herself repeatedly by scratching it. I got online to research what it might be, which, by the way, is not a good idea. It scared the sock off me. She’s a calico cat, with and her face is mostly white. I read, online, that cats with white faces, and pink lips are seceptable to skin cancer. Even though, Abby is an indoor cat, it still scared me.
Well, it turned out to simply be a case of feline acne, made worse by her scratching. I had to leave her there for a few hours, so they could shave her chin, do some kind of skin test, and treat her wounds. He also gave her a shot of prednizone for inflamation, and sent me home some ointment, and a special shampoo. It cost me almost $200, which at first cause me to gasp for air, but as I started looking at the itemized list, telling what each thing costs, I added one of my own: “Finding out your cat doesn’t have skin cancer…Priceless.”:heart:

This made it easier for me to deal with the expense.

#2

Poor little girl. Mine would’ve been so traumatized by the shaving. Hope she’s better soon!

#3

She seems to be doing better today. She still has the sores, but the swelling has gone down, and she doesn’t act like it hurts her to be scratched under the chin, like it did before. She hates having cream spread on her twice a day, but she doesn’t seem to notice that her chin is shaved. I told DH that he better not make fun of her, and hurt her feelings.:fingerwag:

#4

Awww poor baby! My daughter’s cat had that acne, too. Fortunately she found out before there were any problems and the acne was cleared up by getting her some different bowls and washing them regularly. (The vet told us to do that)

#5

I would never have guessed that cats get acne! Poor kitty. Glad she’s doing a little better. You got off easy at the vet. Last time my Maggie (Jack Russell Terrier) got sick it cost us $1,600.
:passedout:

#6

So glad your kittie’s all better. My Sadie got bit by a water moccasin a few days ago. Thank goodness my vet is close by. She was really in bad shape there for a while, but all better now.

#7

Oh my! I take it Sadie’s a dog? How big?

#8

I’m glad your cat is doing better and I LOVE the last item on your itemized list:cheering:

Back in 2007 my dog, my late great Cyrus, took a bad reaction to anesthesia. Poor dog wasn’t eating, drinking and it seemed like he wasn’t fully awake for days. The vet thought there might have been an underlying condition causing it.

To the hospital he went to get fluids and tests.

He was just sensitive to the anesthesia, no other problems.

Guess how much it cost? Diagnostics, fluids and boarding.

C’mon guess!

$10,000.

That’s right 10 BIG ones! Thank goodness I have a very high limit on my credit card.

Didn’t bother me in the least. I just paid it off slowly but surely.

He was my BEST friend:)

#9

I guess I should consider myself lucky that the bill wasn’t in the thousands. I think the most we spent at one time was in the eight hundreds. My Merlin had swallowed something that had caused a blockage, and it had to be surgically removed. It turned out to be a pistachio hull. Now my vet calls him pistachio boy. :teehee:

#10

Vet bills…my vet show name one of the hallways in his clinic after me! Care Bear, my diabetic kitty, cost me over $1500 over a 2 year period. I lost him to pancreatic cancer. Then Tequila, my 17 year old kitty, developed a tumor in her lung that spread to her sinuses. Vet bill…$286, and I lost her. Cinnamon, one of my 15 year old crf kitties, cost me over $150 a month for 16 months, and I lost her in July. Freon, my 9 year old cat, now has hyperT. The diagnostics for him was $150, and his meds now cost $48 per month. My dog, Angel, has developed some sort of auto-immune disorder that so far has cost me over $800 in diagnostics, and she’s now taking prilosec once a day, pepcid ac 3 times a day, prednisone once a day, thyrosyn twice a day, proin once a day, and carafate twice a day. I swear she should rattle when she walks…but I’m very thankful she’s still here with us!

Taking a furry family member to a vet is just as expensive as taking a person to a doctor. But, we love them, and we all know they’re definitely worth every penny! :slight_smile:

Debra in NC

#11

My mouth just dropped open; $10,000.00? I love my dogs, but couldn’t do that, glad your CC is that good.

A very good friend of ours has spent over $7,000.00 having his dog treated for non-Hodgkins lymphoma, and then the unappreciative little mutt turned around and killed the neighbors chihuahua. This cost him another $2500.00. My DH and I would have gotten rid of the animal a long time ago. It was bad enough having to pay hundreds of dollars to have my Norwegian Buhunds anal glands removed years ago. :shock:

#12

Personally, unless I can get close to a 100% guarantee of a cure or a good quality of life for a good long time, I would not treat a dog for cancer. And I didn’t. I had to send my boy to the Bridge last May because of rectal cancer. I just have seen too many instances where the poor dog doesn’t gain a thing from treatment and I promised my Cyrus I would never put him through it.

That being said, “the unappreciative little mutt” very well could have attacked that poor little chihuahua because he was in pain.

And I am sorry if I sound snarky but I have a real issue with the phrase “gotten rid of”. They aren’t old furniture.

I personally feel if I make a committment to a pet, I will honor that committment. That’s why I always recommend building up some savings BEFORE adopting.

#13

Praise God, you are right! These little creatures are such a blessing, frankly no expense is too great as far as I’m concerned, they are all priceless!

AND I might add, that with each new thing we deal with I find I become more & more knowledgeable. My vet said I caught a heart arrhythmia on my Peanut by just listening (no stethoscope) which most vets would have missed. Not tooting my own horn here, but trying to show how the more we have to deal with, the more we learn, and the more we can later deal with on our own.

#14

:cry: Well, I don’t know what to think. Miss Abby’s chin is still broke out. The swelling is down, but the bumps and discoloration are still there. She has another appointment for tomorrow. I hope he doesn’t tell me that it’s not acne, but skin cancer after all. I’m hoping and praying that’s not the case.

#15

Prayers and good thoughts for Miss Abby.

#16

She’s fine. He prescribed an oral antibiotic for her. He said that lots of times, feline acne can develope secondary infections, and it just takes longer to treat. So it still doesn’t look like skin cancer.

#17

:cheering: Yay!!!

Give her a scritch for me.

#18

Hooray! :woot:

#19

I have 2 cats. one for 8 years. I NEVER knew cats can get pimples. LOL. who knew?

My most expensive vet bill made me hysterical. I felt like the worst mommy ever. My cat likes to sit by the sliding glass door to look out. I would open it to bring during the summer for the breeze and just keep the screen door shut. I always checked to make sure when I closed it she wasn’t there.

One time I checked I didn’t see her. I swear I checked. I closed the door on her tail!!! OMG the noise she made. I opened the door so fast but it was too late. I already hurt her because she took off the other way when I shut the door.

The vet had to amputate the last inch and half of her tail because when she took off it ripped off the fur and skin exposing the bone. Cost $800. Till this day I still feel guilt over it. Especially when she gets what I call phantom tail twitches.

#20

Oh, my goodness. I know it’s hard, but try not to feel guilty. I’m sure she knows you’d never hurt her on purpose.

Of course that easy to say, but hard to do. I still feel bad about Merlin’s pistachio. I feel like ‘Mommy’ should have vaccuumed under the chairs more thoroughly.