Vet Bills!!!
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| Sun, 01-22-2006 - 1:17am |
Let me first just say that I've been very lucky with my 3 cats over the last 6 years, and they haven't cost me an arm and a leg at the vet...but that's all changing now!
My white cat, Callie, has always been mildly allergic to things, and has always scratched a bit. Three years ago, I had to have her declawed, because she was scratching bloody holes in her skin. The declawing helped quite a bit, but now this winter has been terrible on her.
She now had no claws at all, and last week scratched herself raw again all down her chin. Nasty, painful mess. So I took her to the emergency vet Saturday, who gave her some benadryl, some steriods, and some amoxicillin, and said to follow up with her regular vet during the week. I walked out of that hospital $150 poorer!!!
So I took her to the regular vet on Tuesday, and now have come to realize that this cat is apparently made of pure gold, as that's the only way she could be so darn expensive!! She has to get an allergy test ($150) to find out what she's allergic to so we can stop it, and will likely have to go on special food ($16 for a 3 lb bag!), and if it's the cleaners/detergents I use around the house, I'll have to start using all the hypo-allergenic stuff (way more $$ than I'd like to spend!).
She also has 2 back teeth that are abcessed and pretty much rotting, so she'll need a cleaning (which I've heard are pretty expensive), and perhaps dental surgery. Then she also has a hernia, which doesn't need fixed immediately, but we'll have to keep an eye on.
And due to her allergies, she'll have to be on a regular medicine, more $$$...
This week alone, I've spent over $200...and have to take her back next week for more allergy stuff...and again in a few weeks for the teeth thing...
She's going to cost me right out of house and home!! No one can tell me that pets are less expensive than kids...

Wow, total bummer on the bill. Your cat is very lucky YOU own her -- we went through similar $$$$ with the vet with our lab's last illness -- but what else can you do????
Hopefully, they will find something not too horribly expensive for the allergy problem.
Good luck to you and the cat with all of this.
Megan
Hi! I have a dog (Min-Pin) with bad allergies. He also has Hemorrhagic Gastroenteritis (unexplained bouts of extreme bloody diarrhea). What has helped us is to find a vet who will care for him, but won't charge us an arm and a leg. This is our third vet, and she caters to families in our area who do not have much money. This doesn't mean she doesn't provide excellent care, though. She's the best vet we have ever taken our dog to. She calls after-hours to check on sick patients, and even drove to our local Animal Hospital at 2am once when the Attending Vet at the hospital called her to let her know our dog was there. She truly cares. Is there a vet like this in your area? Even if you had to drive a little bit? Someone who tells you all the fees up front and keeps fees to the absolute minimum?
Another thing our vet does is this: She tries to find inexpensive ways to fix our dog's problem. Now, I dont know if this would work for a cat since I've never owned one, but you could check around or search the net. What I mean is: Instead of the expensive food for my dog's allergies, my vet suggested a meal I could cook myself in my own kitchen, and she just warned me to brush his teeth a little more often since it was a soft meal and would get stuck to his teeth. For his Hemorrhagic Gastroenteritis, she told me to cook cheap ground beef, drain and rinse it, and mix it with white rice in equal parts. Works like a charm! :-D I wonder if there is something similar to help cat owners.
Sometimes there are breaks to be found on the medications also. If you have a BJ's Wholesale Club near you, they will fill your pet's perscriptions. I'm not sure if Sam's Club or Costco offer this same service, but it would be easy to check. Sometimes that can be a savings also.
Also, I'm not sure if these work with cats, but for my dog, when he's scratching himself raw, we just put one of those plastic pet collars around his neck. It looks like a satellite dish on his neck (:-D), but it really works. He can't turn his head and bite himself anymore. We have even gotten little velcro boots for him (slip onto his feet and velcro around the leg to hold them on) so he can't use his paws to scratch into his skin. Sure, he gets frustrated over that at times, coming up to us and shaking his booted paw at us to get us to take them off, but his hair does grow back faster when we do all these things.
Wishing you luck with your little furbabies!
Pat :-D
Hi CJ - I'm sorry to hear about kitty. Allergies are one of the most frustrating things to deal with.
I'm new the the board but have had experience with allergy cats (my own) and I spent 5 years working at a veterinary clinic.
So here are my unsolicited thoughts . . . . . .
Did your cat respond to the steroids? Dexamethasone or prednisone are the most common ones recommended to stop scratching. Dex has less long term side effects than Pred - but it's slightly more expensive - maybe $20 per month vs $5 per month. It's hard to compare apples to oranges- much will depend on the dose requied to keep symptoms at a minimum and the prices in your area. Both are available from human pharmacies - so it may be less $$ than getting it from the vet. Dexamethasone is also available by injection - it has to be give at your vet. My mom has a cat with IBS who gets one every 6-8 weeks and it's $16.
Have you talked to your vet about finances. There are many people who can pay - but just don't want to. It's a completely different story when finances are a true concern. It could be an uncomfortable conversation but I would hope that if you explain to you vet that it's very embarassing - but spending that type of money would put a financial hardship on your family. Not that you don't want to do everything possible - but it's just not an option. What are the options in order to keep the bill as low as possible? Have this conversation with the vet - not the support staff. Some vets don't listen to their support staff.
Even ask the vet if you can just try a course of steroids for a few weeks (chalk it up to doing your own research on the internet - lots of people do!) to see how it goes and then put the $ you'd have spent on allergy testing towards saving for dental work.
I would think that steroids (either pills you'd give at home - or an injection given at the vets office) would be a starting point.
The allergy tests are not something I'd spend money on.My vet never recommended them -but some pet owners wanted them anyway. After the tests the company that does the testing can formulate a serum for injection - I don't think that I've ever seen an animal who's been relieved of all symptoms as a result of the injections.
If the allergy tests shows that she's allergic to dust - you are back at square one - it's not likely that you are going to remove all carpets from the house to see if that helps. (I know someone who did this for their dog and it didn't make any difference in the scratching). Same with moulds - there may be very low levels of moulds in your home that are just enough for kitty to pick up on. Even by keeping the cleanest house possible there will still be dust.
The food component of the allergy tests are also likely not that useful. It's been my experience that the best (and cheapest) thing to do is to go on a single source protien diet for 4-6 weeks. If the itching stops - then you have the answer. This is easier said than done because most cat foods have several protien sources in them.
Most feline allergies are food related. A home made diet can help in many cases - but with cats you have to feed primarily meat (or poultry). With dogs you can add carbohydraytes and vegetables that keep costs down - but cats don't need carbs.. . . as a result the cost of a home made diet isn't that much less than premium cat food. With cats you also need to add supplements such as taurine and calcium. And finally - not all cats will take to home made food. Seems like they should - but not all will. Having said all that - it will depend on the price of meat/poultry VS cat food in your area.
The teeth are a concern - and that's something to try to save for. In the mean time - as someone else mentioned - check around with other veterinary clinics to see what is availale. We have a clinic in our city that does yearly check-ups, spaying, neutering and teeth cleaning -that's pretty much it. They don't do x-rays, blood work - so their overhead costs are lower and they offer lower prices. Our SPCA has a program to offer treatment at a reduced rate - but I think you have to go through an application process because it's set up to help people who don't have the resources rather than those who just want a deal.
Wishing you all the best - and I hope I haven't been out of line by jumping in with more comments than may be appropriate,
I feel for you!!
I swear we have the worst luck with pets. Right now we have 2 dogs/2 cats. Within a one months time:
black dog---got an abcess on the side of his head/cheek. Got it drained. Didn't work. Had surgery, tons of antibiotics, pain meds.
yellow dog---got fixed (same day as black dogs abcess surgery)---he then fell on a log and hit his "ouchy" area and it blew up like a balloon and turned black. Started draining. Antibiotics.
Calico cat---peed on my white sheet-----solid blood!! Took her in--bladder infection. Antibiotics. One week later--peed on a pillow case----still blood. Different antibiotics. One week later---peed on my entryway wood floor. Back in to vet---bladder tap---still infection--but better. More antibiotics and pain meds. 2 weeks later---found pee on my kids' beanbag chair. Opted for exploratory surgery---found 2 tiny bladder stones. More antibiotics, pain meds. She was finally OK---until about 2-3 weeks later. Hole in stomach---started draining. I guess that was normal. She is finally OK. Everything healed--it took about 2.5 months.
That was an expensive month!!!
Holly
Thanks for all your advice!!
Callie is currently on prednisone, but it doesn't seem to be doing much. She's still scratching a decent amount. The vet gave her a cone collar, but she's a little escape artist and has gotten out of it every time I've left her alone for more than an hour (it's a fabric one with a drawstring tie). Not to mention, the place where it sits on her is right where she's been scratching, so I think it's irritating it.
I agree that maybe allergy testing won't be worth the $$$...but I think I will at least change her food to the allergy kind. Might be difficult, due to the fact that I have 3 cats who I normally free feed, b/c they really don't cooperate very well with specific feeding times, but I'll give it a shot. I'll be moving in about a month, so maybe the change will give me the opportunity to get her away from any irritants I've exposed her to via carpet cleaners, etc. I'll just have to watch more carefully about what I use.
In regards to the special vets, I wonder if the local Cats Only vet clinic would be any cheaper? If they specialize in cats only, there's alot of things they don't have to deal with (for other types of animals) that could be driving their costs up. That's a great idea, I hadn't thought of that!
See, this is why I love you girls...you're always so full of great ideas!!
Thanks for all the ideas and well wishes!!!
Hi CJ,
Pets can be so expensive! I have a cat, and he has never had a problem in the past 5 years with regular cat issues - only one hairball ever and always good with litter, food, etc. However, my cat has gingivitis. The one thing that can cost me quite a bit. My parents thought i was nuts to even say that a cat has gingivitis but he does. I have to get his teeth cleaned so far once a year, they have to do bloodwork on him before each cleaning ($60) and then knock him out for the cleaning ($120). I always make sure they hook up an IV (it's an optional thing at my vet) for fluids and in case anything goes wrong they can inject him right away. The price varies depending on how bad his teeth are, but it's been around $200 total every time.
I hope he doesn't go to a cleaning every six months, I'll be in trouble!
I hope everything goes ok...
Brandy