MONEY MORAL DILEMMA: Pet versus debt?

MrsTinks

I have pets, and roughly 2 and a bit years ago one of my cats was hit by a car. He was rushed to the vet at 4am (emergency call out charge) and underwent 4 operations in total due to broken leg and dislocated hip and a crushed paw. At 4 in the morning when I was in tears at the surgery the vet said that he was in shock and explained the possibilities of him dying (to be honest I knew all of this perfectly well but it is hard to have it pointed out when you try to block it from your mind as you are telling yourself everything will be ok).
I was lucky. I have all my pets insured and I have never been more greatful! At the time I paid about £11 for both my moggies and my vet bill came to over £1750 - I paid £35 excess... Everything else was coughed up by the insurance company without so much as a moan.
Could I have afforded £1750? Not a chance. But I would have paid every penny and borrowed if I needed to try and save my cat.
Had I had children, house and family and already deep in debt then I do however suspect that my decision would have greatly been influenced. If the choice was between my childrens health and safety and the life of an animal that more than likely would not survive then my children would come first and I would choose to end the animals suffering. If that is I could find no alternative way of getting it the treatment.

SO many if's and but's

everythingblogcast

Some of you people sickend me, pets are just like children, you decide to get them the same way you decide to have children, yet you would put the pets down if they are ill and would cost you £900 just becuse it is cheaper getting a new one. And what if a person it ill and it dieing and painfully death you cant put them down because its against the law here in the UK, but its ok killing animals that are dieing and painful death.

Get Real and stop think about yourselfs. Pets give you all the love over tbhe years and you dont care about them when they need you the most. How about this dont get a pet if you would help them.

123xyz

How marvellous to be given the option of paying £900 to prolong the dog's life. I would have given this and plenty more, given up every material possession just to have my girl back for a little while. When you have a "pet" for over 13 years, they are part of the family in just the same way as my children are and I would do anything for any of them. I am just so sorry I did not get the chance to pay out money to help her. There was nothing at all, at any cost, that the vet could do.

They say nothing in this life is free, and the pain I feel now is payment for the pleasure of her company over the years. It is certainly a high payment, I have lost a member of my family.

dunamis

everythingblogcast wrote:

Even if I was in so much debt that I would loss my house, I will still go out and get further into debt to help a family pet.

Would you care to put any limits on that? Willing to lose your house to save a pet hamster?

dunamis

dunamis

copyqueen wrote:

Dog and cat come first in our house. I'd bankrupt myself before letting them suffer...

In an attempt to understand before I offer my own opinion ... do you have any kids or dependants? Are you serious or just trolling?

Feel free to decline to answer...

dunamis

dunamis

everythingblogcast wrote:

Some of you people sickend me, pets are just like children, you decide to get them the same way you decide to have children...

I sincerely hope not...we're probably all familiar with the 'having children' procedure and it's pretty different from buying a pet.
Seriously though, the sentiment that "pets are just like children" clearly portrays the fundamental disagreement in this debate. I respect your opinion but I also completely disagree with it. IMHO pets are completely unlike children and in a completely different category. The law in (I would imagine) every country in the world would indicate that as well.

dunamis

triboy

I am very pleased to see the number of posts agreeing with the principle that as a pet owner you are obliged to provide for and care for your animals - and this includes veterinary fees! If you are unable to do so, there is always help available but this may necessitate rehoming the pet to an animal charity.

As a veterinary surgeon I am faced with similar situations on a weekly basis, and am pleased to say that the majority of pet owner's will always do what's best for the animal. (and I am also in agreement that sometimes 'what's best for the animal' may involve considering euthansia if the prognosis is unfavourable)

I think the main point is that owning a pet is a lifestyle choice - and while some may feel that pets are an unnecessary expense, for others the benefit of having pets far outweighs the financial consequences.

Zebedee69

I remember we had a little Jack Russell. She meant the world to me and she got run over.

Luckily she only suffered a broken leg and some shock. She was back to her normal self after a few months.

It cost a few hundred quid and we couldnt realy afford it. But our little baby was part of the family adn no way id let her die.

Unfortunately we split up and she got the dog! Saddest day of my life as I was the one who walked the dog and feed it etc etc. Iv no doubt the poor thing lives a dogs life now as my ex is a lazy cow (excuse the pun)!

garry1974

from experiance we had a cat called alfie he was a short haired exotic and our dog loved him very dearly as did my other half and two kids. he went missing for 3 days and when he did finally got home he had been run over .his head was a mess and he was limping badly. i thought he was gonna need to be put down but my other half took him to the vets and they said his head wasnt to bad but he had a dislocated hip which would need to be put back in. in total the first lot of treatement and his knackers chopped set us back about 400 pounds not to bad well not as bad as i first thought. 2 weeks later we took him back in to have his hip checked the vets nurse put him on a table and twisted his hip and said it had come out. so another 130 pounds to put it back in. another 2 weeks later and guess what it had come out again another 130 pounds. at this point i called the vets and absolutley lost it with them on the phone especially when the vet told us that they might need to operate to remove his hip joint and this would cost another 200 pounds.something they could have done at the start. what annoyed me was we were not given this option at the start and all there crap about alfies welfare.i explained to them that having alfie in a cage for 2 months with his leg taped up was not as far as im concerned i his best interest. anyway after my rant we took him back to have his hip checked and this time we wanted to see the head vet and was suprised to see him only gently touch alfies hip instead of yanking it around like the vet nurses had done. well it hadnt come out and we got alfie home and he was alright.i still believe it was the nurses who were pulling his hip out each time for more money.
in total the treatment came to over 700 pounds in the end and it all went on my other halfs credit card.
well alfie was not so lucky next time and about 4 months later he got hit by a car and i went an picked him up from the pavement he was still warm but he had died and he is currently burried at the bottom of my garden under a plum tree.
what i would say is that you would do anything for your pets as they are part of your family.
on the other side of the coin we have a 7 year old springer collie cross who has been insured all his life at about 10 pounds a month costing us about 840 pounds and he has only been to the vets once and that cost us 50 pounds excess and his treatment cost 80 pounds in total.so the insurance paid the extra 30 pounds. but our other dog a rhodesian ridgeback is insured also and will be for his whole life.
its a tough one but those with animals will say its not a tough one as i would do whatever it took to keep my animal in good health even if it did mean maxing out my credit cards etc etc

blackcateddie

Two weeks ago I had to take my 4yr old cat to the vets with what looked like bad asthma/panic attack. He had lost the use of both hind legs and was diagnosed after 10hrs at the vets with Cardiomyopathy or heart disease and had had a blood clot travel into his legs. He spent the weekend having heparin and pain killing injections and then came home to convalesce on the Monday.
The initial charge was c £300, and now we have to go each week for a checkup,cost of £15, his tablets are approx £20 per month and no we don't have insurance.
Having summoned up the courage to do a bit of homework, I'm aware that his life expectancy now is short - apparently 50% of cats with this condition die within 3 months, max really of 2yrs because of his age.
I explained to the children last night that if anything happens to him again in the near future then we will choose euthanaisa because he was always a very active cat, his quality of life has been extremely affected and blood clots can be excruitiating for him so it would be unfair to prolong his agony.

The fact is OH actually wasn't happy with paying the initial £300 so close to Xmas, and I choose to go with keeping the cat alive, I felt he was part of the family so in a way that was his xmas present anyway.

I guess I'm really hoping I don't have to make the decision because I would be devastated if money was the reason I had to put my pet down.