How Far Would You Go To Save A Pet?
I was having a conversation with a friend the other day about sick pets and how far we’d be willing to go to save them. While I don’t currently own a pet, I have in the past and am a huge animal-lover, especially dogs. Unfortunately, pets aren’t any more immune to disease than humans. They can get cancer, parasites, or any number of other fatal diseases. Also unfortunately, health care for pets isn’t any less expensive than it is for people. I suppose there are two main schools of thought on the subject.
Decide On A Case By Case Basis
Some conditions, a kidney problem is an example, are chronic and severe but not necessarily life threatening unless neglected for long periods of time. Personally, I couldn’t bring myself let my pet go untreated for something like this, even if it was going to cost a few hundred dollars per month. But what if my pet came down with something either uncurable or insanely expensive? I’m not sure I would be able to pay for a $20,000 pet operation or give it the attention necessary to nurse it back to health. In this situation, I would likely look for a shelter that would be willing to care for her and perhaps pay for the necessary treatment. I have heard there are charities for just this type of case, but a quick google search didn’t turn anything up. If you know of one, please let me know.
Do Whatever It Takes
There are many people who think of their pet as a part of their family and treat them accordingly. This includes going to whatever lengths necessary to care for a sick pet, including going into massive amounts of debt. I would imagine most pet-owners aren’t in this boat, but those who are should take steps to protect themselves. Just like you purchase health insurance for yourself, so too should you purchase it for your pet. A google search turned up plenty of options and just like human insurance, different policies have different costs and cover different things, so do your homework.
What is comes down to is realizing that pets, while great, are expensive. And if disaster strikes, pet expenses can drive you deep into the hole. At the very least, you should go into the pet-owning thing with your eyes open and financially prepared.
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We never really spent that much on our pets outside of flea meds and start up costs. I guess I have a hard time seeing an animal as “family”. Not that I didn’t love my pets. It was just, there were other things we have to take care of, and it’s just not possible on our income to go in to debt because of pets – hence the reason we no longer have pets.
Often local shelters have low-cost surgeries and vets. My dog hasn’t been injured or sick but a family pet from my childhood needed hip surgery after a car accident, and the local no-kill shelter was able to find us a vet that would work at low cost and take payments.
My dog goes to the dentist more often than I do.
My cat is family. She goes to the “Dr”, but only when she’s sick; she’s fed daily, she has a warm home; essentially she has everything that I do. Even a couple of cancer surgeries at $300 each, because i take care of my family. But she does have a right that I do not: when the time comes where she is too sick or old to be happy, I can end her pain and ease her from this world, so my memories can be filled less of her pain and more of the happy years we spent together.