Rather than red dot you both for being assholes, I'll just say, I had my lab for 14 years, lasted through two relationships, including one on the knee, ring in hand breakup. Licked my tears away while not even understanding why I was upset, but wanted to make me feel better. My "new" dog loves me the same way. Animals aren't people, but that doesn't mean they're dumb. Some people (like myself and many others on the board) realize that pets have personalities, and can read emotions. They're not the dumb creatures that you think they are. And I despise, and abhor, anyone who thinks a bullet through the head of any housepet who has been domesticated and thinks it's okay. Do I hunt? Yeah. Do I work at a meat locker?! Yeah. Do I realize that some animals are around for pretty much food, yeah. Do I condone a bullet to the head due to expense or inconvenience to you? No. Either don't have a pet, or find someone else who will love it, and treat it like it should be as a domesticated animal should be. With consideration to the fact it IS domesticated, and has been brought up to be so, and in most cases, is a valued member of the family. EDIT: I spent over 1k over 4 months after getting my weim, figuring out what was wrong with her, 2 years ago. I couldn't really afford it, but I did. You are unfeeling bastards.
Let's just drop considerate from that sentence. I've never met a person drunk or otherwise, that would look you in the eye as they defecated all over your carpet. However, dogs are awesome and my girlfriend and I got a puppy two weeks ago. Meet Max. We named him after the dog in How the Grinch Stole Christmas. He's a mix of beagle, corgi, rottweiler and Australian cattle dog with perhaps some red heeler. This is him from the petfinder.com page This is him after we got him home.
Re: Re: The Pet Thread Look I wasn't advocating taking your dog out back and putting one through his dome, but at which point do you draw the line? My cousin makes a blue collar living and his dog got cancer, he put 5k on a credit card for puppy chemo and the dog died anyway, he will be paying that down for years now. I have had to put two of my dogs to sleep because of cancer or just being in extreme pain from old age, your not suggesting that because you can afford it and it makes YOU feel better keeping you pet alive is a good thing? If an animal is in pain I would rather end that pain and suffering, I have friends that have dogs that can't hardly walk but they keep them around because they can't make a hard choice.
I mean I get not blowing thousands at the end of life to keep an ailing dog breathing but your original comment definitely came off as callous as a stand alone statement. Maybe it's just me but a thousand dollars isn't something I'd care about in the face of helping an animal that has enriched my life with companionship. My dog is 8 if her hips went out tomorrow a thousand bucks would be nothing for her to have the remainder of her life spent in less pain (guess maybe another 4 or 5 years). These are domesticated animals we've corralled from the wild not as a food source (hell I don't even mind the cultures who do that with animals we consider house pets), but as companions we've bred to have emotional bonds with. It seems fucking cold when you hear someone say, "Thousand bucks? Fuck it, where's my rifle?" Also, shit the vet I take my dog to will come out to your house to put down your animal with only the cost of the shot.
I understand that there are certain costly procedures in your pet's life. But how often do they occur to make insurance worth it? Archer pays 40/month. That is 480 a year. In just over two years of insurance, there you have your 1k of expenses. Plus, if you have the money as cash, you don't have to figure out if it is covered or not. You just pay for it. If you have an animal you depend on, then yes insure it. But as a pet? We save as much as we can each month, and part of that is padding against things like that. I love the hell out of Buddy but I am not sure I could go through very expensive procedures that would be very painful to him and take a long time to recover from. Simple things like a broken leg are one thing and in my mind, don't really warrant a monthly insurance cost, but things like being completely maimed by a car and needing 15k in procedures? Ehhh. Not thinking so. It would break my heart and take me a long fucking time to get over it, but I think putting him down at that point is the responsible thing to do.
Re: Re: The Pet Thread Yeah it was an asshole statement, I tend to come off as a cold hearted prick most times when it comes to pets. I guess my bigger issue isn't with spending money that would extend the life of your pet, like hip problems in an otherwise healthy animal. It's with people who do nothing about it, like I said it's incredibly fucked to go over to some of these people's homes and see dogs just laying there unable to move. Hell I worked with a guy who had a ridgeback that got fucked up by a wild boar, that dog laid in the yard for 2 days before I went and dropped it off at the spca, To top it off the guy got mad that I helped his dog. I don't know how people work in animal rescue, I know I couldn't do it.
As someone that spent about 5k over a 14 day span to save her Doberman that eventually had to be put down I can honestly say, I never in a million years would have thought I'd spend that kind of money or go to the lengths I and the Dr's went to to save her but ya know what, we did. You have NO IDEA what you will do until you're there, sitting there listening to the Dr's and looking into your pets eyes. They are wide and curious, confused and looking at you for answers. Wondering why they are there and when they can go home. Its heart wrenching. It made me have to excuse myself so I could to puke and cry it out for a few minutes. Yes, in the end, after all the tests, labs, vets, vets seeking out colleagues for help and advice because they had no clue what had taken over her body I lost her anyway. It was vicious. It basically shut down her organs one by one. They never did find out what it was even after I had given my permission for them to basically do an autopsy. I wanted to help other Dobermans and/or dogs hoping they'd find what it was and figure out how to cure it. I don't know if it would have made any of it easier. I don't know that it would have justified the amount of money I spent. I think it may have helped my heart though. What I do know is I did everything I could do as did her Dr's. Anyway, don't be so quick to say you'd put little Fluffy to sleep if any ailment goes over a certain dollar amount because, you just don't know until you're there. You'd think after all of that I'd have it right? I do not have pet insurance for mine nor have I ever seriously considered it. I think if you're "risk adverse" as we say in insurance speak you're far more apt to have it.
In a lot of ways I envy our dogs. We have the choice to allow them to die with dignity, before the agony. Before it all goes to utter shit. I think we owe them that because they see us at our worst. Aside from my girlfriend, my dog is my best friend. We do most everything together outside of work and he is attached to me in ways that defy reason, even amongst animals. He'd jump off a bridge with me in a heartbeat, no question asked. So, I was understandably nervous when the very real threat of prostate cancer arose a few months ago. I was scared to death because I knew that if he had it, we'd be talking about ways to make him comfortable in his last days. He's nine years old. I can't justify the financial burden to buy two years at the most, so the conversation with the vet would not include chemo and physically exhausting treatment regimens. I owe him that much.
In terms of Pet Insurance, we have Pet's Best and they have been great. Our little 7lb Yorkie was bitten by a pygmy rattler. We got him to the Vet in time to save him with no lasting affects from the bite. He had gone into shock and needed a couple units of anti-venom, etc. All told it was about $7k. After the claim was filed with the insurance our cost was about $800. The savings from that one event literally paid the premium for his insurance for the rest of his life. Unfortunately, my Mastiff pup was bitten by a pygmy as well recently, before I had the chance to sign him up for insurance. He was fine in the end as well. But that was a costly mistake I won't ever make again.
I will not even begin to explain to you how much money I spent over the course of my Jakey's life. He was a pure bred beagle from "championship" lines which translated to inbred and thusly, allergies, cherry eye, a fat digestion problem which required special meals, back problems, two bad knees, etc . . . . Let's just say that when my vet redid his clinic it should have said "Courtesy of Jake" on the fancy new sign. But Jake had a great life and lived almost 15 years. He was my baby and I would spend every single penny all over again if I would get another 15 years with him.
The vets here charge a ridiculous sum of money for vaccinations and evals. Most of them won't vaccinate sans eval, so you're stuck paying an office visit plus the vaccines. It's annoying and ridiculous, throw in that to kennel for any reason, you have to have proof of every six months of bordetella, and the city requires rabies vaccinations (that's fine), and I am pretty sure the army does as well now, and for $48/mo, that's fairly reasonable.
I know a number of vets, and things really do add up quickly. For example, your dog eats something weird and ends up with an intestinal blockage. You have the appointment, any x-rays or ultrasounds, blood work, anesthesia, and the cost of surgery itself, plus post-op visits. Well over $1,000 for a relatively simple procedure. Some vets also have a habit of making unrealistically low estimates and then slamming people with an unexpected bill (read: my friend's boss). As with any insurance, the average person will put more money in than they'll get out of it, but it's a whole lot easier to plan for $40/month than to get hit with a giant bill when something does happen. Especially if you know that you're the kind of pet owner willing to shell out for more precious time with your creatures.
My dog during high school swallowed the top of a tylenol bottle. At the time we didn't know it if course. He was puking black vomit, wasn't eating, was on the verge of passing due to malnourishment because he couldn't hold down food. As a last resort the vet did exploratory surgery and found the cap in the junction between his stomach and his small intestine. The reason it got that far was because the top was plastic it didn't show up on xrays. Cosby was ~7 at the time, lived another solid 6 years before passing away from lung cancer. My dad never asked questions. Cosby was part of the family, still is, we still talk about him nearly 4 years after his passing. But I think vet bills are all relative. We we found out Coz had lung cancer (really unusual considering no one on my family smokes, but still about half the people that get lung cancer never smoked) it was a matter of trying to make him comfortable. He was 13 when we found out about it. It wasn't even about cost so much as quality of life. Most chemos are hell, radiation is torture. Why put an innocent animal at the end of their life through that anyway?
I got insurance basically because we shelled out $6k for surgery on our 12yr old Blue Heeler to remove a tumor, only to have it grow back again within 6 months and this time we had to put him down. After that i decided our next dog would be insured from the start. Maverick is a little over 2 years old now. In those two years i have already made 3 claims: - $800 - got his ass kicked at the park by an aggressive dog while he was a puppy. Somehow split the pad on his right front paw in the fight. Medicine and multiple trips to the vet for cleaning and dressing wound. - $600 - Tore one of his eye claws partially off his other foot literally the week after he got the bandages off from the first injury. Again medicine and multiple trips to the vet for cleaning and dressing wound. - $300 - He had a stomach virus (probably from eating some nasty shit he found somewhere). Expensive medicine. I received just over $1200 back from those claims. So as i said its paid for itself and those arent even serious issues we have run into. Vets are so fucking expensive and i will literally do everything within my power (without causing undue suffering) to make sure my best friend is looked after should something happen.
Meet Felicia, the spotted turtle, and Thor, the painted turtle. My daughter named Felicia, and my son named Thor. New arrivals to our house yesterday.