My dog starting on Monday presented with vomitting, diahrrea, lethargic, loss of appetite and in general just looked awful. After he continued these same symptoms yesterday I decided to take him to see our Vet. They did a full check up including blood work and wanted to do an X-Ray. Exam was fine, he was dehydrated. The X-Ray however was inconclusive. All the Vets took a look and other than lots of gas couldnt make a definitive diagnosis other than feeling something was there. They wanted to consult a Radiologist. The Radiologist confirmed there was some sort of an obstruction. Our Vet told us we needed to take him to a MedVet hospital for an ultrasound to determine more about the obstruction. It could have been something smaller that could pass or larger prompting an immediate surgery.
I get a call after the ultrasound and it turns out there isn't an obstruction at all. The diagnosis is gastroenteritis. He has inflamation in his stomach and intestines. He spends the night at the hospital hooked up to an IV and full time care. His total bill has now cost me $3500-4000. I'm waiting on the final bill when I pick him up. The Vet's bill was $660.
I'm kind of pissed off at this Radiologist report. I know medicine isn't perfect, but damn. I don't blame my family vet given the information she had. Just wondering how his treatment plan would have changed given a different diagnosis.
Wife is kinda pissed and I don't know what to say other than I'm glad my dog will live.
My dog starting on Monday presented with vomitting, diahrrea, lethargic, loss of appetite and in general just looked awful. After he continued these same symptoms yesterday I decided to take him to see our Vet. They did a full check up including blood work and wanted to do an X-Ray. Exam was fine, he was dehydrated. The X-Ray however was inconclusive. All the Vets took a look and other than lots of gas couldnt make a definitive diagnosis other than feeling something was there. They wanted to consult a Radiologist. The Radiologist confirmed there was some sort of an obstruction. Our Vet told us we needed to take him to a MedVet hospital for an ultrasound to determine more about the obstruction. It could have been something smaller that could pass or larger prompting an immediate surgery.
I get a call after the ultrasound and it turns out there isn't an obstruction at all. The diagnosis is gastroenteritis. He has inflamation in his stomach and intestines. He spends the night at the hospital hooked up to an IV and full time care. His total bill has now cost me $3500-4000. I'm waiting on the final bill when I pick him up. The Vet's bill was $660.
I'm kind of pissed off at this Radiologist report. I know medicine isn't perfect, but damn. I don't blame my family vet given the information she had. Just wondering how his treatment plan would have changed given a different diagnosis.
Wife is kinda pissed and I don't know what to say other than I'm glad my dog will live.
That is an expensive “stomach flu”. I’m surprised they didn’t do some sub-q fluids as a bandaid and see if your dog was better in 24 hours post-treatment
That is an expensive “stomach flu”. I’m surprised they didn’t do some sub-q fluids as a bandaid and see if your dog was better in 24 hours post-treatment
This is exactly what our vet did with our cat with similar symptoms.
It’s ridiculous how much pets cost to treat nowadays. We’d be better off with vet nurses taught some farm sense or some such thing and many fewer vets.
@spartans9312 So, I didn't mention on Monday before many of his symptoms I took him in for a grooming appointment. He vomitted there and the Vet called me to see if I wanted to give him the anti-nausea injection. I agreed and about an hour later after bringing him home he got sick again and went downhill from there. When I called the next day to see if there was a way I could give him electrolytes they were more concerned since the injection didn't help and sugested I bring him in. That's when the remainder of his work up began.
@bradstevens I know there's pet insurance available. We've never puchased a policy and I'm not sure what it covers or the deductible. Perhaps I should check these policies out.
@spartans9312 So, I didn't mention on Monday before many of his symptoms I took him in for a grooming appointment. He vomitted there and the Vet called me to see if I wanted to give him the anti-nausea injection. I agreed and about an hour later after bringing him home he got sick again and went downhill from there. When I called the next day to see if there was a way I could give him electrolytes they were more concerned since the injection didn't help and sugested I bring him in. That's when the remainder of his work up began.
Is he back to normal after receiving fluids?
@bradstevens my dog turns 8 this weekend and this is a back-of-mind concern of mine. Thousands of dollars for emergency medical bills for my dog would suck with two kids and trying to throw everything I can into retirement.
If it would definitely save his life I’d do it, but man.
@spartans9312 I'm supposed to pick him up at 2:00pm. I talked the on-call vet this morning. She also wanted to test him for Addison's disease. I'm not all that familar with it, but she wanted to rule that out as well as it can be lethal if not caught. The test fell within our quote so I figured why not.
@ohio-guy My previous (Carmel) Golden doodle passed away at an early 8 years old. He had an undetected cancer that caused a rupture in his spleen and he bled out. I felt absolutely horrible for the amount of pain he must have gone through. We put him down as soon as we figured out what was going on.
Sorry, don't mean to be a Debby downer, that number 8 just has a negative conotation for me. He was an amazing dog. You will always have a soft spot for the dog that grows up with your kids. He was their favorite playmate, they dressed him up, learned some responsibilty taking care of him and cried like they lost a sibling.
We had a dog go through two rounds of chemo for lymphoma. He was clear about 9 months between. He died of a brain aneurysm the afternoon after his last round. I keep reminding myself, "at least he didn't suffer". But 3 years later I still am sad about it.
He was the first dog we could really spend for. Well, we could have for his "brother" who died two years earlier. But we kept taking him in saying, "something is not right", but the vet kept saying he was fine. Finally, they sent us to a neurologist in Indy who diagnosed him with advanced anal cancer. The fact the neurologist found it, about as far away as possible, made us switch vets.
@eppy99 it was worthless. I spent a fortune on English bulldogs with problems. $20k on a pom over the course of ten months with heart failure. Insurance did nothing
@mcm666 Besides the shitty insurance policy, do you think you would have done anything different? Do you feel the dog was worth the money? That sounds horrible to say, but I think it's a legit question.
@eppy99 the english bulldogs yes because they lived for many years on meds etc. the pom i actually spent probably $30k. specialty meds. hospital stays on and on. and definitely not. the only reason i did it was because it was my ex stoker's dog she'd had forever and her mom had literally died just before that and she was a mess. even now she recognizes that she was out of her mind during that time and it was dumb to keep the dog going
@mcm666 Besides the shitty insurance policy, do you think you would have done anything different? Do you feel the dog was worth the money? That sounds horrible to say, but I think it's a legit question.
I had a situation with one of the cats. Wife said it was up to me, that we could get her the $2500 ACL surgery or I could "kill the cat." I figured a divorce would cost more than $2500.
I don't think it's that the treatments for pets have gotten all that more expensive. I think it's the types of treatments people are willing to pay for and the lengths at which we go to now to treat our pets. It used to be, not the long ago, that we would treat them with few meds and just wait it out. If they didn't get better in a few days you just let them live with the ailment or put the animal down.
Capitalism. What are you gonna do...
Latest Post: Why are Dems fighting Voter ID laws again? Our newest member: Kieran Dunn Recent Posts Unread Posts
