As a human we pray for good health of newborns, keep fingers crossed during surgeries, worry ourselves sick over possible ailments etc. The same goes for us pet owners, who wouldn't want their pet, the furry member of the family to be healthy esp after you see the vet bill *OUCH*.
My two beagles are my children and spoiled to the bone, and I've always approached pet ownership with the thought that if I can't afford the necessities such as food, basic health care, toys (yes toys are a necessity unless you want them eating your things lol) then I shouldn't have one no matter how cute they are. But then there's the unexpected costs that sneak up on you like the medications, blood work, diagnostic exams like x-rays and surgeries. BAM! your pet is injured what now?!
Growing up I lucked out with pets, never having any unexpected things come up. It was always the norm just the yearly shots and check up. Unfortunately my two beagles today haven't had the best of luck when it comes to good health.
Although we had Doc Holliday for a few years already when we got Katie as a wedding present I could of never of guessed I would of been swarmed by the unexpected costs of pet ownership. Doc started having seizures about a year before we got Katie, I had no idea what it was or what was happening to him and it scared me to death. The vet in a way put me at ease by informing me of what was happening but also sparked sadness at what Doc was going through. Doc's seizures are fortunately controlled by medication but it took my vet bill from a yearly visit with some shots to multiple visits a year which include blood work and prescriptions.
Recently a more serious problem has plagued Doc, he managed to blow the CCLs in both knees. Our vet was in amazement, throughout his entire career he said he's only seen 6 dogs who blew both knees at the same time and none were beagles. He recommended a vet out of our area to perform surgery. I wasn't up for it at first, the 1 1/2 hour one way drive and then there was the ball park figure of $700-$1,000 per knee which made me a little queasy. These secondary thoughts slowly left my mind once we heard of this vets wonderful reputation and his high success rate with few complications from surgery (knee surgery being his specialty). So my husband and I decided and a sudden gust of wind blew by sucking our savings out the window. Ok ok that's a little dramatic but money does seem to disappear that fast. In the end Doc has a very long road a head of him healing from one knee while the other knee is to be operated on in a few months time.
Was my rant above for nothing of course not, was it about money...in a way but more importantly, saving money is nice but when it comes down to leaving it in savings or helping our little buddy have a better quality of life...one look at his face and my heart melts and I know we made the right choice.
No comments:
Post a Comment