How much would you pay for a pet's surgery?

[Jstpssng]

This type of post comes up every so often when someone is facing a big vet bill. Some will say (and have told me in the past) that a bullet is cheap. But then you need to start over, and I'm not ready to train another dog.
Last week my 7 1/2 year old lab was crawling over a blowdown when his foot caught just as he jumped. Luckily I was right behind him, as he ended up hanging from one or both rear legs. Even as I was lifting him I thought censored "cruciate ligament surgery, $2000." As can be expected he came up limping, but by Thursday he seemed better. Then yesterday I needed help finding one of my turkeys and he got a little too wild.
I'm just venting right now, a little PO'ed at myself for not going to the vet sooner but mostly for using him when I knew his leg was weak. (The worst part is that he got a little too rough and the turkey died anyways.)
Next week we'll get a diagnosis but I already know what I'm going to do. He's in good shape, not overweight and should have 4-6 good years left. Plus he's an exceptionally well behaved dog.
Thanks for letting me vent.

 

[Steppenwolfe]

We just gave our son 3k to have a quite large, non cancerous growth removed from his dog's abdomen. What can you say when a 6'4", 240lb man is crying ???

 

[newbury]

I HATE QUESTIONS LIKE THAT!!

I'm assuming that with surgery and rest he will be able to walk. If you've got the money he is worth it.

We had to put down our 5 yr old Corgi that was my son's dog after months of attempted saving from meningitis. thread. She had got to the point of constant diarrhea and laid looking at me sadly so I felt we had to let her go. Another 10K of vet bills and meds would have only gotten her a couple of months.

SAVE HIM.

 

[newbury]

We just gave our son 3k to have a quite large, non cancerous growth removed from his dog's abdomen. What can you say when a 6'4", 240lb man is crying ???

You just hug and try to make it better.

 

[RickB]

What I would do is irrelevant. I can tell you what I think I would do, but not actually being faced with the decision, I’d just be speculating.

 

[bunyip]

Our corgi got hit by a car and badly damaged her back leg, we had the option of amputate or some intricate reconstruction.
We went the latter for about $5k, I grumbled a bit but she was one of the family for 17 years.

 

[atsah]

$2000 is a lot of money, I would spend it in a heartbeat if the dog was going to live a healthy life afterwards. I have done so myself on two occasions in the last 15 years and each time I did I was glad I did..

 

[Argonne]

Five years ago in Illinois, we had snow drifted 9 feet deep in our back yard. Our 3 German Shepherds had a ball in it, but our oldest dog Ozzie, who was 11 at the time, tore both ACLs on his hind legs trying to keep up with the younger dogs in the deep snow. The vet said the only thing he could do was surgery at $1800 per side, and that the dog would need to be kept quiet for months following the surgery. He said that even with a perfect outcome and recovery, the chances were about 50-50 that the fix would last. Considering his advanced age for a big dog, and the poor chances of a lasting recovery, we opted to not do the surgery.

Ozzie lived a happy life until 6 months ago when he snuck out the front gate one night when I took the garbage out and got hit by a car. Although he never "ran" with the other dogs again, and would need help getting in the car, there were no indications of him experiencing pain except when the younger dogs would try to roughhouse with him, something that he nipped in the bud pretty quickly. Ozzie went on to be the patriarch of the family to the very ripe old age of 16, and was a picture of health till the end.

We were ultimately happy with our decision to forgo the surgery.

 

[BoylermanCT]

I've been thinking about pet insurance because I know my wife would not allow money to be an issue when it comes to saving the life of one of our dogs. It costs a lot, but it allows you to pay for medical services you might not otherwise be able to afford. I thought the purchase price was a lot, but with our first two dogs, that was just the tip of the iceberg! When we got our second dog, our vet told us they could not do anything for an eye problem, and if we didn't go see an eye specialist, he would lose it. I did not know there were eye specialists for dogs! But I could not bear the thought of our puppy going though life partially blind because I didn't want to spend some money. That was years ago. He's 8 now and sired several litters of pure bred puppies, so he has paid me back!

 

[atsah]

I looked into pet insurance also and I found it to be kind of a joke, I decided to start a savings account for the pup, I also have a care credit card in case I don’t have enough cash in the savings account to cover something major. 12 months if paid in full no interest. I find the combination of the savings account and the card to be better than giving away money to another insurance company, I give enough money to insurance companies.