How much would you spend on pet medical bills?

[Cowperson]

Originally Posted by REDVAN

Bump.

My doggy is scheduled for a tooth extraction this week due to having a broken big molar.

Cost is 500-800 depending on what they find when they put her under. For one tooth!

Anyone else had a dog that lost some big teeth? Hopefully she can still eat normally afterwards.

Ask your vet for recommendations on food choices . . . . . after all, you're paying for the advice!!!

Cowperson

[Tron_fdc]

I think I'm somewhere in the 5-6k range this year on my dog, maybe more? I stopped counting.

- eye removal from a fight
- ear infection that turned into surgery
- teeth cleaned
- shots, etc etc

It's been a tough year. Whatever though, I don't care. I'll keep spending if he's happy.

[flamesfever]

If I was satisfied my dog's quality of life and life expectancy was reasonable after the expenditure, then I would probably not worry about spending in the order of $10,000. plus.

I think the risk of having to pay a large sum to extend the life of a pet can be reduced by giving him/her:

1. regular exercise and room to roam
2. healthy well balanced meals plus supplements
3. keep weight down to normal (common problem)
4. annual checkup by vet
5. see vet as soon as possible if problems develop
6. for purebreds, purchase animal from a responsible breeder who uses all
efforts to minimize genetic problems.

Regarding 3 above, I was told by a vet that a recent study showed the the average life of a lab is 14 years for those in shape, and only 11 years for those who are overweight.

[flamesfever]

Also:

7. keeping teeth clean can extend life. I give my lab a couple of IAMS biscuits a day and it seems to do the trick

8. basic training eg. sit, stay, come etc.

9. socializing as soon as possible, to avoid conflicts with other dogs

[Fozzie_DeBear]

Also, rural vets can be significantly less expensive

[Zevo]

Originally Posted by REDVAN

Bump.

My doggy is scheduled for a tooth extraction this week due to having a broken big molar.

Cost is 500-800 depending on what they find when they put her under. For one tooth!

Anyone else had a dog that lost some big teeth? Hopefully she can still eat normally afterwards.

My shephed cross lost the largest bottom molar and did fine. He still ate dry food with no problems. It was a bitch to get out as that tooth is basically a long double tooth with huge roots. Cost us 860.00 about 8 years ago. We were shocked it cost so much but I guess they did have a really hard time.

[REDVAN]

Originally Posted by Zevo

My shephed cross lost the largest bottom molar and did fine. He still ate dry food with no problems. It was a bitch to get out as that tooth is basically a long double tooth with huge roots. Cost us 860.00 about 8 years ago. We were shocked it cost so much but I guess they did have a really hard time.

For my dog, it is the upper large molar and I believe there are 3 roots? I have roughly the same quote for cost, depending on what it looks like when they start digging. My dog is a yorkie/shizthu cross and about 13 lbs.

It's the first real thing I've had to do for her other than spaying, but she is 4.5 years old now.

[Zevo]

Originally Posted by REDVAN

For my dog, it is the upper large molar and I believe there are 3 roots? I have roughly the same quote for cost, depending on what it looks like when they start digging. My dog is a yorkie/shizthu cross and about 13 lbs.

It's the first real thing I've had to do for her other than spaying, but she is 4.5 years old now.

I don't think the price is out of line if the top tooth is like the bottom one Z had pulled, and it sounds like it is. That tooth had multiple roots too. They ended up having to break it in half to get it out.

You dog should do fine. I don't remember exactly now, but I think we fed him canned food for a week or so to let it heal before we went back to dry food.

[Cowperson]

Originally Posted by Zevo

My shephed cross lost the largest bottom molar and did fine. He still ate dry food with no problems. It was a bitch to get out as that tooth is basically a long double tooth with huge roots. Cost us 860.00 about 8 years ago. We were shocked it cost so much but I guess they did have a really hard time.

I think the pet health care system is one of the only real-life exposures to the American human health care system that Canadians get.

You're just astonished by what things can cost and, secondly, that there is no pricing consistency from one hospital to the next.

And, advances in veterinary care the last 15 or so years means that there really isn't anything you can't get done similar to an experience in a human hospital.

Cowperson

[Zevo]

Originally Posted by Cowperson

I think the pet health care system is one of the only real-life exposures to the American human health care system that Canadians get.

You're just astonished by what things can cost and, secondly, that there is no pricing consistency from one hospital to the next.

And, advances in veterinary care the last 15 or so years means that there really isn't anything you can't get done similar to an experience in a human hospital.

Cowperson

That, and dentists. Most peoples work plans cover the basics, but if you don't have a plan, or you need a some major work...yikes.

Pet health care does make one appreciate our health care system, warts and all.

[Coach]

Bump!

Hi All,

I wanted to bump this thread as my 2 year-old dog has just had his first "major" incident involving the consumption of two full-sized chocolate bunnies. It got me thinking about pet insurance as, while the ~$250 it costed doesn't break the bank for me, it seems like this would have been covered by most plans ranging between $20-40/mnth in premiums. I was going through this thread and there seems to be some mixed views on pet insurance and just thought I'd see if we could get a more insurance-centered discussion going. Thanks!

[morgin]

Spent a lot of time looking at pet insurance this year for our 5 year old shep cross and weighing costs vs. benefits. We can self insure for a lot of things, but mostly I was looking at having coverage for those big ticket, oh crap I don't want to have to make a judgement call whether its worth it choices. I'd always say yes, even if its not logical, and this takes that decision making mostly out of my hands so that I can always say yes and not be worried about cost implications.

Decided trupanion was too vet-scammy. Got the same feeling dealing with them that I get hearing about vet specific food. Plus, as soon as I got a quote, they started e-mailing my dog at my e-mail address asking her to convince me to sign her up. Just... no.

Looked at Petplan http://www.gopetplan.ca/ - it's the relative newcomer. Works more like a health spending account. You get $8k, $12k, or $20k(depending on your plan) of vet expenses a year, less your deductible. Doesn't typically cover regular exam fees (maybe the highest tier does?) It was comparably more expensive than what I ended up going with (discuss that one in a sec) but I think for a younger pet this might make sense.

Finally, there's petsecure, which is backed by http://www.westernfic.com/products/index.aspx. They actually have a number of product lines, petsecure being the premier brand, and then a variety of other brands that all sort of are similar with some different coverages. Low end is PC which basically covers accident+illness up to your policy max. No muss, no fuss. I ended up going with The Personal, which is much like the PC plan but adds some dental coverage (our dog chipped a canine and it was quite expensive having that taken out, so in the event it happens again, having the coverage is nice). Less coverage than the equivalent product under the petsecure brand, but a lot of that is stuff I'd rather self-insure for. The big ones for me is unlimited number of accidents in a year - you get coverage per accident, not per year. Our policy max is $4000 for accidents, so if in the same year our dog has multiple accidents, each one gets covered 80% up to the max of 4k per accident. This is different from petplan, which gives you a yearly all in max for everything.

I think for our 5 year old dog the difference between the middle tier plans at petplan and the middle tier western financial backed plans was significant enough that I went with the WF "the personal" plan. If they were more similar in price, and depending on breed, the petplan options might make more sense for a younger dog who is less likely to eat up the spending with illness and more likely to have accident type expenses. Conversely, for a very old dog who is less active and less likely to have significant accidents, having the full amount of yearly coverage available for illness and not split between accident + illness is also kind of nice. We're in the middle, so that's why we went with the split type plan - it hedges those risks at a lower cost than petplan can.

[Zevo]

Originally Posted by MattyC

Bump!

Hi All,

I wanted to bump this thread as my 2 year-old dog has just had his first "major" incident involving the consumption of two full-sized chocolate bunnies. It got me thinking about pet insurance as, while the ~$250 it costed doesn't break the bank for me, it seems like this would have been covered by most plans ranging between $20-40/mnth in premiums. I was going through this thread and there seems to be some mixed views on pet insurance and just thought I'd see if we could get a more insurance-centered discussion going. Thanks!

We've been thinking about plans for awhile as well. I think what we might try is to put $40 a month into a savings account. To use you're accident as an example, you would have $480 available just from the last year, so would still wind up with ~$230 left in the bank. With pet insurance, you would have to pay a deductible and would be out the $480(assuming a 40 dollar plan, as we didn't see anything we liked for less). Now if you go another 2 years without any accidents, you would have ~$1200 saved up.

The key is to actually put $40 a month away. We haven't done it yet, our pup is only 5 months old but we're thinking of opening a seperate account and having an automatic monthly deposit set up.

[MoneyGuy]

Originally Posted by MattyC

Bump!

Hi All,

I wanted to bump this thread as my 2 year-old dog has just had his first "major" incident involving the consumption of two full-sized chocolate bunnies. It got me thinking about pet insurance as, while the ~$250 it costed doesn't break the bank for me, it seems like this would have been covered by most plans ranging between $20-40/mnth in premiums. I was going through this thread and there seems to be some mixed views on pet insurance and just thought I'd see if we could get a more insurance-centered discussion going. Thanks!

Pet insurance will cost you about 40+% more than what the insurers anticipate - on average - total claims to be. That's how insurance works. Don't let one small bill influence you. Insure the large costs that would cause financial devastation, and self insure the rest.

[morgin]

Originally Posted by Zevo

We've been thinking about plans for awhile as well. I think what we might try is to put $40 a month into a savings account. To use you're accident as an example, you would have $480 available just from the last year, so would still wind up with ~$230 left in the bank. With pet insurance, you would have to pay a deductible and would be out the $480(assuming a 40 dollar plan, as we didn't see anything we liked for less). Now if you go another 2 years without any accidents, you would have ~$1200 saved up.

The key is to actually put $40 a month away. We haven't done it yet, our pup is only 5 months old but we're thinking of opening a seperate account and having an automatic monthly deposit set up.

If the gov't would only amend the TFSA rules to let me open a TFSA for my dog, that would be great. Nice little tax free savings vehicle for pet expenses.

[Coach]

Thanks guys. It wasn't just this bill influencing me. I have been thinking about this since getting him day 1. I think the self-insurance savings might be the best way to go.

[Jimmy Stang]

I have an automatic monthly transfer going into a interest bearing account for my dogs. We used to have pet insurance "just in case", but there are a number of limitations as to what they'll cover.

I had a large vet bill before insuring/self-insuring, and that hurt. I have had semi-large bills while self-insuring, and having cash set aside really helps ease the blow. Even if you can't cover it fully, covering a large portion greatly reduces how much you're actually out of pocket.

The one time I had to make a claim on pet insurance (during the few years that our second dog was insured), there was some reason why the pet insurance wouldn't cover it because it wasn't specified on the list of things that they'll cover. So not only had I spent money on premiums for a few years, I also had to cover the full cost anyway. Everyone's experience will vary depending on the dog, the insurer, etc. but that was the exact moment that I cancelled and started self-insuring instead.

My advice : set up an automatic transfer and treat it like a bill. Keep it completely separate from your other accounts and forget all about it. I use ING Direct (now Tangerine) as it isolated from my daily banking stuff, both in my mind and in reality.

[Handsome B. Wonderful]

Originally Posted by fotze

The fact that vets sell the insurance also made me second guess. No doubt a scratch my back and I'll scratch yours thing going on there.

More likely vets got tired of people thinking pet health care was like human health care, and assuming everything was free. At least this way they can point people in the right direction.

[Jimmy Stang]

Originally Posted by Handsome B. Wonderful

More likely vets got tired of people thinking pet health care was like human health care, and assuming everything was free. At least this way they can point people in the right direction.

I have never heard of someone assuming that a visit to the vet would be covered by anything other than their own wallet. People may be surprised at how high a vet bill can be, but nobody actually assumes that vets are subsidized by anything, do they?

I'm OK with them giving people options, but vets are certainly getting a commission for selling it as well. Like fotze, I am also a little cynical when the person performing the work is the same one that is promoting (and benefiting from the sale of) the insurance.

[habernac]

got an extra kick to the groin when we got the bill for the vet last week after having our cat put down. $1300 all told as they kept her overnight and did blood work. Expensive stuff.