Dogs

[jim]

I do not recommend pet insurance because I'm not one that would ever pay big $ to fix a medical issue with a dog. Normal maintenance - shots, vaccines, fixing an ear infection and other minor problems, of course. If I owned a dog and some medical condition that was seriously impacting the quality of life of the dog and cost thousands of dollars to fix it would be nighty-night for that dog.

I love dogs dearly, and cried my eyes out the day I had to put my last dog down at age 13, but I just think there needs to be some perspective with pets and this stuff. I'm not familiar with the insurance but I doubt it pays for itself if you have that perspective.

[Arthur Dent]

Yeah, my vet wants $1200 to remove a fatty lump under my dog's belly skin that the vet said is probably benign. Also, my dog has an elevated liver enzyme that could be caused by a bunch of things. They want to do a bunch of diagnostic tests, but it's not at all clear that doing these would actually lead to some useful treatment and better health.

Dog acts completely healthy so all this seems like overkill, but it feels bad that maybe there is something feasible I should be doing that could help prevent a more serious condition. Maybe I should try another vet, but that's more time and money that more than likely leads nowhere.

[jim]

You know your dog and what you feel comfortable with, but just reading what you wrote I would follow the "Dog acts completely healthy so all this seems like overkill" train of thought.

[docellis]

You HAVE to get a second opinion. My dog died of cancer after several expensive surgeries. The first one cost almost $1500. I sought out another vet and he said I was ripped off and he charged me $400 for the exact same surgery. And he gave me research regarding my dogs condition and what the most expensive solutions were and what the least were.

[Freed Roger]

I feel like we were ripped off by Veterinary Specialty Services. Our little dog has something majorly wrong with his hindquarters. no control over his back legs, walks like a drunken sailor. the dog isn't getting better, but he is still managing to be feisty, have fun. I don't think his time is up yet. After months of this and trips and meds from our regular vet, we went to the specialist or vet recommended.

I knew it would involve and MRI (anesthesia to do the MRI) just to find out... and after months I figured, [expletive] it - I will feel better if we find out what the [expletive] deal is and the way forward.

We go to this place, and I had a weird vibe. judging from the parking lot cars -Upper end clientele or people obsessed with their dog. I like dogs more than most people, but when you call me my dogs' "Dad", I want to punch you in the face. To each their own, but chemo for dogs?

Anyway, I am tired of watching the little Mr. Fuzzypants struggle, and wanted to figure out if he has a tumor or something or needs a surgery or when/if we can put him down with clean conscience. The MRI didn't find anything. Blood work didn't find anything. Then they thought he may have ALS for dogs, and I was actually hopeful for this, because am told it's debilitating and fatal, but he can live for a year or so without much pain. But turns out it is not ALS for dogs.

Now it's our busy season, and nobody has half a day to spend driving our dog back out to followup with this upscale vets for weirdos.

[docellis]

Freed, take him to Manchester Vet Services. It is a million miles from my house, but SO worth it. Off 109 in Elliville.

http://www.manchesterwestvet.com/

[Famous Mortimer]

I got my dog from the RSPCA (biggest animal shelter chain in the country) and as I was about to walk out of the door with him, they went "oh, by the way, here's a list of his pre-existing conditions". 99% of all pet insurance doesn't cover pre-existing conditions, so I'd be [expletive] out of luck anyway if I wanted to insure him.

[JoeMcKim]

If you have a dog that's in his teens getting an expensive surgery seems like overkill. I don't want to see my buddy go either but he's in his senior years and won't have that much longer left anyways.

[go birds]

The dog is 4 months old and without any pre-existing conditions.

[Swirls]

Read pages 53-56 of this thread about my dog getting hit by a car, and you will understand why I have pet insurance. I took it out almost four years ago, and after his $3.5-$4k worth of medical bills, I was only out maybe $600. If you can get a good policy with a cheap deductible right now while they're young, do it. Your rates shouldn't go up when they're older and start needing it. Mine is like $70/month, but that was because I took it out after he had some pre-existing conditions with his back legs (torn cruciate ligaments).

I pay like $70/month for him, and only about $10/month for me because I have awesome insurance at work. I just consider his premium to be part of mine, and even at $80/month I still consider myself to have excellent insurance rates.