The same process is underway in Canada. If you own a pet, find a locally owned, independent veterinary clinic before you need it.
The same process is underway in Canada. If you own a pet, find a locally owned, independent veterinary clinic before you need it.
Any suggestions Kate how best to o that?
There is an alternative to vets. We have had numerous dogs all our lives and if an old dog isn’t suffering it lives. If it is suffering I take care of it. We gave a young dog with a heart problem to a sorta friend. Normally it would have been euthanized and when we gave it to her the understanding was that she would have it killed if it got seriously sick. At about 7 years the vets convinced her to have heart surgery on a 7 year old dog. The idiot spent 9,000 friggin dollars on a dog more than half worn out. The vets own people’s emotions. I don’t love euthanizing dogs but I also don’t like spending $500 to $1,000 for tests to find I need a $2,000 procedure.
I have to agree. I had a couple of cats, they were strays and literally abandoned in a dumpster. Took real goog care of them, and they came to live about 16 years with my family. But at one point, one of the cats was having some cough and vomiting issues. Took the cat to the clinic and was asked to perform a $5000 MRI. I flat out said “no way”. If this was some rare breed prized cat which I myself was breeding, perhaps! We managed the issue without the MRI extorsion and the cat lived many, many years after that. The one thing we did extra was a change in nutrition.
Call me cruel and unfeeling … but my cat is never going to need an MRI. Sorry Billie. You have all my care, and I will pet you whenever your aloof temperament allows for it … but cat MRI’s are off the table.
I have already faced the soaring cost of Vet bills when I rescued my Bernese Mtn. Dog that broke free and was hit by a car. I saved her. And bought a small car worth of vet services in the process. I paid less (out of pocket) for my own two hip replacements.
I have had a number of great dogs and spent a fair amount of money on vet bills. After I spent $1,000 for a hip surgery for my best old hunting dog, a nine year old Brittany when I lived in Dallas, I told a good friend of mine who shared how he had taken his nice old lab that needed a procedure up to his home town in Oklahoma and the large animal vet there did a great job for about 20% of the price quoted to him in McKinney, Texas. Several years later when I had a couple more nice Brittanys and I was living in Boerne, Texas – a fairly affluent town – and I needed care for my dogs I went over to Bandera, Texas, thirty miles West and found a nice large animal vet who charged reasonable fees. She, the vet took great care of my dogs until they aged on out including a midnight run to remove porcupine quills from one of my dogs, her bills were reasonable and the care was great.
Things were often interesting with those vet visits including one day when a nice older woman came in with a horse in her trailer for an appointment. The vet asked the nice lady if she needed help backing the trailer up to the gate and the lady replied. “When the day I can no longer back a stock trailer up to the exact place I want to place it, that’s when we will need to talk about putting me on down.” Things can be kind of interesting here in Texas and over time I took two sad trips with my Brittanies for that final ride. I kind of wish that at 81 years old I was not too old to start another dog but I am too old, so there’s that.
Gad Damn, OldTexan,
You wrote a Texas novel in 2 paragraphs.
Well done.
Me and the wife lived on 40 acres for 18 years, about 50 miles east of Edmonton, Alberta.
We had 2 lovely dogs for most of those years, and a good rural vet in the local small town who, with his brother, did it all, from pulling calves at night to dogs with quills…and cats for whatever reason.
My one dog, a black lab rotti cross named Betty, got quilled 3 times.
The vet suggested that I should kill the Porkies (I may have taken the advice).
Anyway, my dogs led rich, full lives.
When it came time that they were not going to hunt anymore, me, my wife, and the vet did the right thing.
The dogs were ready, too.
My only advice is to keep your pets healthy. Don’t give them too many treats and make sure they get lots of exercise. I have more money than brains so we pay those big vet bills. When I had young kids at home I couldn’t afford it. If you’re young and don’t have much money, get a mutt. Put it down if it gets too sick. Then get another and fondly remember the previous one. Remember. There are starving children in Ethiopia. Focus.
When our family dog got sick, my dad took it out behind the barn and put a 22 bullet through her head. No vet bill.
Time to go back to thinking of pets as animals, not children.
I had to put down my cat a couple of years ago, and that cost me $360.
I’ve had a couple of cats who put themselves into hospice care … under a deck, where I couldn’t find them. Cost me deep hole in the backyard.
Cat’s do tend to hide when they’re dying.
Once enough Muslims are brought into Canada, you won’t be able to own a dog. So, the cost of medical treatment for pets is immaterial and temporary.
Your Chinese immigrants will be right their to help, and you don’t want to know what their definition of “doggie bag” includes.
Yeah no.
Pretty sure thats when all the ammo bought in bulk gets used.
My 17 y/o shih-tzu cross was euthanized in April she always hated going to the vet so I had them come to my house. She knew the vet and all went as well as can be expected and they took her away for cremation. When I picked up her ashes the bill was just under $1000. They’ve got you by the short and curlies when it comes to your pets
I have a border collie, who was a working dog – she’s retired now! She will (try to) chase a car, a bike and for reasons unknown, anything with a trailer on hitch. I got insurance (and keep’er on a leash when needed)… My neighbour has a German Sheppard that got hit by a car at age two. The recovery involved metal plates, screws, surgeries, drains… all the works. Tens of thousands. My dog got caught on a wire fence once, the insurance came handy. And, more recently, some dental work after biting who knows what. Root canal. We would be looking at $4500. Again, insurance softened the blow a bit.
About 7 years past my daughters dog, “Kasey” who I referred to as “kazzza” stopped running, seemed to be walking very gingerly on her feet, lost interest in things out of her immediate reach, Macq took Kasey to the vet, and he diagnosed cancerous tumors everywhere he looked, then gave Macq 2-3 days of pain killers for her.
In the next few days (not a few hours) Macq took Kasey to chase birds down by the Bow River, the Elbow River, out of town to chase birds, a short walk around a variety of Kasey’s favorite parks, took her to a couple of fast food restaurants for burgers, had, “a pretty good sending off party” … and had her put down the next day.
One of these gals…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karelian_Bear_Dog
There wasn’t a real choice in the matter, and Mackenzie is not one for putting off painful decisions, I’ve spent much of the past few days with her and holy moly what a blessing it is to have a fighter daughter like this, she’d moved away to Haida Gwaii / Queen Charlotte islands for the previous 8 months and that sucked big time…
We lost our awesome female lab last December at age 9. Way too early, she was happy and healthy and her dam lived to 15. The culprit was hemangiosarcoma, a nasty and aggressive blood cancer. When the diagnosis was confirmed two weeks after our first vet visit, the tumor in her heart had gone from undetectable to 3 cm. The cardiologist correctly surmised that we would “give up a kidney if it would save her”. She offered to refer us to an oncologist, but we had done our due diligence and knew we could only buy 3 to 4 months of poor quality life for her. She had another 3 weeks of happy, painless time with us and when she went south we put her to sleep within hours. I miss her still, as does her big sister. Life can be a bitch.
It’s not just their emotional extortion, ie shakedown fraud,
but todays crop of vet students are extreme DEI, many are afraid of dogs,
due to marx selective hiring & training. They call it, empathy.
Liberals grasp every opportunity to perform fake moral outrage,
show off offended sensibilities, and practice their akimbo umbrage away from the mirror.
It’s the Urban vs Rural mindset;
… urban dogs are “a member of the family” and literally suffix last names onto pets
… whereas the local rancher/farmer, who sees life & death daily, manages cats and dogs differently
It’s the Urban vs Rural mindset;
… urban dogs are “a member of the family” and literally suffix last names onto pets
… whereas the local rancher/farmer, who sees life & death daily, manages cats and dogs differently
Having worked on an Oregon Ranch one summer … I learned the truth of that … up close and personal. It’s so true.