Vet (Dolla) Bill Bottom Lines?

[satomi325]

For me, it depends on the issue, treatment, cost, and the animal. I also take into consideration quality of life before, during, and after treatment.
Hate to say it, but while my animals are equally cared for, they are not necessarily equally loved. Level of sentiment plays a pretty large role here.


And if it's minor and not life threatening/altering, I'll diagnose and do the treatment myself.


My dogs:
I would spend thousands of dollars for them if needed if they could continue to live a quality life.
So if a dog needed anything from basic care, surgery or emergency care, I would pay for them.

If my dog had cancer, for example, I would not do chemotherapy or radiation treatment. I would do just enough to make the dog comfortable, but I wouldn't pay for a treatment. I used to work in a cancer treatment ward of my University's vet school. It was not a pleasant sight. Many of these animals looked so unhappy and were in constant pain from the side effects of the radiation treatment. There would be no way I would put my own dogs through that. That's just pure human selfishness, in my opinion. While it would allow the animal to live longer, that quality of life would be lousy. I would rather have my dogs be at peace at home and live a shorter life than put them through that treatment and be uncomfortable and in pain.

My ferrets:
I've already spent thousands of dollars on them throughout the years.
I'll pay for a vet visit, basic care (vaccines), certain surgeries, and emergency care. Ferret medicine is pretty tricky to know when to accept or pass a treatment. You have to be knowledgeable and weigh the pros/cons. And not many vets are ferret knowledgeable.

90% of American ferrets get cancer. I just had to put down my 7 year old boy last month, but he lived the last 2 years with adrenal cancer and later insulinoma. If he didn't have insulinoma, he could have lived many more years just fine.
The most I do for cancer is to give them drugs/hormone implants that slow down adrenal tumor growth and cancel out clinical symptoms (hair loss/energy loss/etc etc). There are surgeries to remove tumors, but it's not worth it. The cancer almost always comes back and some ferrets do not survive the surgeries. It's very hard on their bodies. It's better just to not do the surgery and to make sure your ferret is happy, comfortable, and not in pain.


My rats:
I'll do a at home antibiotic infection treatments. But beyond that, I would just euthanize injured or sick rats.


My snakes:
These guys have a higher initial purchase price compared to my dogs and ferrets, but I think I would be less willing to spend as much money on them compared to my dogs and ferrets. Of course I would pay for a vet visit and testing. But paying for treatment will vary depending on the issue. I'll treat for infections and I have paid to treat rescues' RIs. But I also wouldn't pay for unnecessary treatment if the snake wouldn't live a quality life after.
If a female was egg bound, I would get her treated.

But overall, it really depends on the medical issue....