Ouch! That hurts the pocketbook

dss62467

dss62467

Cathlete
I had to take Squeaky (dd's guine pig) to the vet last night because she's been losing hair by her nose since last week. Now, with guinea pigs you have to find a vet that specializes in exotics because your everyday vet might not treat it correctly. So...I found out Squeaky has lice (not transmitable to humans or the other critters in the house, thank goodness). And there was some skin scraping and medication and the actual retail price of this was....$90!!!!! The pig only cost $30! And I have to take the other one in tomorrow because she shares a cage and probably has the lice too.

And, this part really irritates me, the guarantee from Petco expires on vet visits after 15 days (we got them 3 weeks ago) and you have to get prior authorization to take them to the vet before going if you're in the warrantly period. Which, of course, I didn't see because it's written in super tiny letters on the back of the slip.

Being a responsible pet owner sure is expensive! Hopefully this will be it for vet visits, other than the annual check-ups. I gotta see if the other exotic vet is cheaper. I don't think she is...that's why we stopped taking our dog to her practice. Nuts.
 
I didn't want to mention this to you when you first told us about the GP but they can get sick. My daughter's GP's used to get a little tummy thing (diarreah) every now and then. FYI, they sell medicine at pet stores to help with that. I believe their lif expectancy is 3-4 years.
 
Wow, that was an expensive trip.

I didn't know they had to go for annual visits either. Learn something new every day.:)
 
Actually Candi, their life expectancy is more like 8 - 10 years. If you take care of them. It's one reason why I'm not so opposed to taking him to the vet. If it was a short term pet, like a goldfish, I wouldn't bother.

But there was a poster in the vets office of goldfish getting surgery. I can't imagine someone caring that much for a goldfish where they'd pay for it to get surgery. We used to feed them to our Oscars.
 
Donna,

Wow! The pet store told us 3-4 years and none of ours lived past 3.5 years. Well, live and learn I guess.
 
Add a "0" on to your bill, and that's almost what I had to fork out around Christmas time for my diabetic cat Scooter. Pisses me off because part of the cost was because the vet didn't figure out right away what his problem was (rotten teeth that needed pulling), so he got unnecessary xrays, and had to have a feeding tube put in for several days because he refused to eat (but started to when he came home). I let Scooter know he has to hang around for at least 5 more years to pay off his debt!
 
Yeah, I know the pain of vet bills! We got our dog, and 4 months later he ate some rocks, 3 to be exact. It cost us $1100 to get them out of him! needless to say that dog better live a full life! LOL!

Kathy
 
Kathryn - the vet I used to take my dog to was kind of like that. They're supposedly the most up-to-date vet in the area. So I took Duke in because he was scratching all the time. Constantly and it was driving me insane. The vet looked at him and gave me some shampoo for dry skin. And charged me probably about $80. I gave the dog a couple baths with the shampoo and there was no change in his scratching.

So I made an appointment with an old country vet kind of guy. He's been in practice for decades and now his son is joining the practice. He took one look at Duke, pronounced he had fleas and was allergic to flea bites and gave him a cortizone shot. He gave me a couple doses of Advantage for the dog and some to take home for the cats (well, he sold them to me...but didn't make me bring the cats in to see if they had fleas). The dog's scratching stopped that night.

And I think the total cost of that visit, including all the Advantage and the cortizone shot, was probably less than $70.

I should check to see if he has specialized training in exotics.
 
Hey Kathryn,

I have a toothless cat too! It cost $800 to pull his teeth and I'm sure over $1,000 in endless vet visits until he finally decided this was the only way to go. The cat is doing fine now.

Kathy
 
>Hey Kathryn,
>
>I have a toothless cat too! It cost $800 to pull his teeth
>and I'm sure over $1,000 in endless vet visits until he
>finally decided this was the only way to go. The cat is doing
>fine now.
>
>Kathy

Scooter isn't entirely toothless (yet!): he still has his lowers. But his upper two canines had to be removed. He sometimes gets his top lips caught on his bottom teeth now. Poor guy!

I have another cat who may some day be toothless. He has a gum disease that makes all his gums swollen and red around the edges (looks like the edges are turned back). The vet (a different one: the one I probably should have gone to with Scooter!) says that sometimes cats like him have to have all their teeth removed because it's a kind of auto-immune problem, and the teeth are what is actually agravating the gums.
 
Good grief! I can't believe the costs of vets in . . . well, wherever you all are! I recently took my two dogs to the vet, had them both spayed, had a hernia corrected in one and had a wayward dew claw (sp?) removed. The other dog had a tooth pulled in addition to being spayed. The total for all of this was less than $150. Makes me glad I live in Kansas.

Shari
 
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