How much to you spend on your pets health

[Addled Platypus]

health
minor/ major surgery
check ups...etc

[Addled Platypus]

about $3,000 last year
another $3,000 into the new year

same pet -kidney stones

Spent about 5-6K on chemo about 2 years ago


Dam-it, they are not disposable
I never say I own them either, I say I am their human

[Asmodean]

Just one more reason for me never to have pets.

Damn it, if I wanted to live with animals, I would have become a farmer.

I will never ever come to understand what the deal is with people and their pets

Asmodean

[Fake Boris]

Perhaps €15/month, for food and litter. I'm way too poor to even think about the vet.

[Addled Platypus]

After 4 pets in a row with health issues, 2 pets currently have not yet had a reason to see the vet (knock)

we will take a break and maybe spend the money on a cruise

than go back to being happy pet enthusiasts

[DinoDoc]

I was ready to spend quite a bit even up to the end and would have gone into debt to save her if I had thought it would have helped.

[Arrian]

I spend a lot on my dog. Not all of it necessarily falls under "health."

Food... I dunno, I forget how long it takes him to go through a bag... let's say roughly one per month. ~$500/year on food. Plus more for treats. Call it $750.

Vet bills... it varies, but several hundred/year. He's got a delicate stomach and we're cautious. Plus we buy his heartworm pills there. He was also attacked and injured this past year (not too badly) and that cost us some extra. Hmm, maybe $300-$400 for 2006.

Dog walker - we hire a woman to walk him around lunchtime Mon-Friday and also sometimes on weekends if we go away and can't bring him. That adds up to ~$3500/year.

So, all told, we probably spend $4000-$5000/year on him. And he's yet to have a major illness.

-Arrian

[Wezil]

currently 2 cats

about $30 a month in upkeep

under $500 total "routine maintenance" (vet) per year.

[LordShiva]

Dogs

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by Arrian
$4000-$5000/year

[Spiffor]

Zero. I have no pets, and I don't intend to ever have one.

[Asher]

http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/...9079953e57&k=90665

Playful pooch impaled on bouncing branch

A game of fetch with her pooch at an off-leash park turned into a horrific scene for Emilie St. Amand when her dog was impaled after landing on a bouncing stick.

The 45-centimetre long branch punctured the dog's chest, narrowly missing two major arteries -- sparing the life of seven-year-old Samoa. A doctor who performed emergency surgery at Calgary's CARE Centre veterinary hospital is amazed the American Staffordshire terrier's injuries aren't worse.

"It stopped a few centimetres from her heart," said veterinarian Neil Connery, who removed the stick and splinters. "It really is a miracle she didn't have more serious injuries."

While the surgery saved Samoa's life, it was the teamwork of dog owners and two Calgary firefighters who rushed to the scene that made a happy ending possible.

The incident unfolded Thursday afternoon while St. Amand and Samoa were out for their regular walk at Southland's busy off-leash dog park.

While St. Amand, 27, was chatting, someone picked up a stick and began a game of fetch with the pooch.

Suddenly, piercing yelps echoed across the park.

"It sounded like a child crying out in severe pain," St. Amand said. "I ran to her. There was blood everywhere and she just looked up at me and with her eyes she said, 'help me, help me.' She was wagging her tail."

Dog owner James Perry ran to Samoa when he heard her yelps.

"Lying on her left side in a massive pool of blood was this beautiful little dog impaled by a stick about an inch and a half in diameter with about eight inches exposed, inserted directly between her pectoral muscles."

All around St. Amand, dog owners sprang into action. Someone called 911. Someone else called her boyfriend, Mick Moore, who adopted Samoa when the pup was seven weeks old. Someone called a vet.

St. Amand, herself covered in blood, was overwhelmed. "I lost it," she said. "Everything became a blur."

Within five minutes fire fighters arrived, bandaged the dog up around the stick and wrapped her in an emergency blanket. Together they carried Samoa to Perry's SUV and placed her in the back seat with St. Amand.

Perry steered his vehicle toward CARE Centre veterinary hospital.

"We honked when we pulled up and they came flying out with a stretcher," said St. Amand.

Connery braced himself for the worst.

"We weren't sure what we were going to find when we looked at the X-rays," he said, adding this type of impalement injury is rare.

Connery said the stick travelled between an artery in the dog's leg and another in her chest. "They sit so close together it's surprising they weren't severed. No major structures were damaged."

With the dog sedated, the stick was removed, Connery said, adding the owner did the right thing by not removing it herself.

By Sunday night, Samoa was already showing signs of improvement, walking a little and eating, though St. Amand said they still have to carry the dog up and down the stairs.

"She's doing well," she said. "In a few months, she'll be back to running."

The vet said he's only seen a similar injury once in 11 years of practice. "It is a freak accident."

Freak accident, fluke, one in a million, none of that matters to Samoa's owners. The dog won't be chasing sticks anymore.

The event was traumatic and, with a vet bill of about $3,000, expensive.

"I've thrown a million sticks for her and she goes full bore at every one of them," said Moore.

"We were lucky this time. I will never throw another stick for my dog, or anybody else's and I am going to make sure everyone knows the dangers."

Connery, who says Samoa can return to the dog park in about three weeks, supports that idea.

"It's a tough call because playing fetch with sticks is a dog's greatest joy in life, so making them stop would be unfair," he said. "But maybe people should try balls or synthetic sticks."

[gwillybj]

Nary a penny. Rocks are very low-maintenance.

[Ãskallin]

Haha, how stupid to not going to throw sticks for dogs to chase cause they MIGHT impale themselves. Its just as stupid as not letting them eat bones cause they might hurt themselves.

That said my dog is way to dumb/cleaver to chase sticks. It prefers the postman