We've had the same cat for 11 years. I was not a cat fan until we got him. He is really friendly and social. Anyway, he recently started throwing up and stopped going poo. We took him to the vet and it looks like he has kidney failure. He spent 2 nights at the vet which cost us about $900. Depending on the treatment we choose, it could get very expensive. Basically it works like this: Better treatment=more money=longer life. I'm not sure what to do. I really like him but in this economy we can't really afford to throw too much money into a pet. What would you spend?


A few pics for the hell of it:

 

Thats is going to get expensive, all i can tell you is spend what you can
afford.

 

Very sad predicament to be in.

 

Not worth it to me. I love animals but they're definitely replaceable. I don't think I've ever spent more than $500 on mine.

 

At that age, the pet is just going to continue to require more and more medical treatment anyway. I say put it down. Even if I was a multi-millionaire, I couldn't see myself spending more than 5-10K on a pet, but since I'm not... I probably wouldn't consider spending more than $500-1000 dollars. Of course, if I had kids that were going to be crushed by the loss of a pet (and it was a relatively young pet), then I might consider spending more.

 

Read this thread:
https://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.php?showt...&#entry11635106

 

 

I've spend well over $3,000 in medical bills for my pit bull that was contaminated with a bacteria that caused huge puss bubbles all over his body... The boy is now in great condition and I couldn't feel and be any happier with him now.

 

I know what you mean. I had a cat that must have been diabetic for several years without my knowing. After he was the insulin and needles weren't that expensive, had to give it to him twice a day. About 6yrs prior to finding about his diabetes, he had a battle with hepatic lipidosis which cost about $1,000 to get rid of.

He also had congestive heart failure, high blood pressure and multiple myloma (a type of cancer). It was emotionally difficult and expensive but he's family and you want to do what you can to get them well again, or as well as they can be.

In the 3 yrs since he was diagnosed with diabetes to the time he finally became too ill, I probably spent close to $10,000. One bill in early 2006 by a veterinary cardiologist was over $2,000.

Was it all worth it? Hard to say. I'd like to think so because for the most part since his diagnosis he was doing fairly well. The hardest part was the last month of his life when is the anemia began to overpower him. I tried acupuncture on 2 occasions and I think that did more harm than good and wasn't worth the $58 per treatment.

Things were going down hill fast and the doctors and I couldn't find a way to make him better. So on November 20, 2007, with no other options and him crying in pain, I had to put him to sleep. I called a vet that does house calls had him come over and do it with Taz in my lap. He gave me 14yrs of happiness.

Pets, they're apart of the family and if you're going to have one, you have to be prepared to do all you can to help them have a life worth living.

Warren

 

there's always plenty of new animals to adopt.