Pet Owners and sudden vet bills.

[AZChins]

A couple nights ago I received a phone call from a man wanting a "male" chinchilla for his female. A female that in his words was purchased because it was being neglected at a petstore. I tried to tell him that breeding a chin wasn't a good idea because it could be expensive, he didn't know if the chin could even give birth to the babies, didn't know the age, etc.

Then it comes out that he's looking for a male because the male he has has a broken leg and is going to be euthanized because the only vet he called is wanting $900 for the surgery. Yet...he was wanting another male. I'm not sure if I have been contacted by this person before, probably have. Most of the time I really won't entertain the thought of a chin leaving here with irresponsible people...well, all the time I won't entertain it.

So, the question is...and let's forget about the whole breeding thing. Do you think that this person is correct in not wanting to spend the money on the vet bill? I referred him to my vet for care in hopes he would actually take the chinchilla in for care and not let it sit around in pain.

I have a lot of chinchillas. I am expected to step up and go to the vet each and every time a chin needs vet care. How is it fair that these people do not have to find a way to pay for vet care and take responsibility for their pet chins?

This is part venting and part wondering what others think. I can understand not having the money, but I can't understand someone being totally unwilling to even try to help their pets. Do you think that the whole goal of having chins for these people was to have babies to sell? (Probably.)

The male they have is from Petsmart. They could have purchased decent breeding animals for probably the same or less cost...

I don't get people.

 

[tcraighenry]

As long as I could get some quality of life for my girls, I'd spend whatever I needed to. But there's a caveat. At the moment my husband and I are both employed with health insurance, we don't have kids and we don't have a mortgage. So that means we're more in a position to accrue debt since we don't already have any.

Something like a broken leg, I'd definitely do all I could. Malo is a little harder. If something happened and I didn't have the money anymore, I'd probably try and adopt the two of them out or see if my vet has a payment plan, at the least.

 

[Daina91880]

I feel that if someone cannot afford emergency vet visits, they should consider not owning pets. I know that's asking too much in this world of people tossing pets aside for all kinds of selfish reasons, but that's where I stand on it. I have two dogs and two chins, and would not think twice about putting their vet bills on a credit card if need be. Some vets are willing to work out payment plans. There's always a way, and as long as they can live with a good quality of life after getting the care they need, I will provide it.

This man should not be treating his chins as disposable things like he is. "Oh, this one has a broken leg, so we'll just have it put down and replace him with a new one." That sounds like an irresponisible pet owner to me.

Things like this tick me off, obviously, lol.

 

[ChinnyMom]

if this chin has gone more than even half a day without vet care for the broken leg, then i personally would be calling the local animal authority in your area and have them reported. that is animal cruelty, to allow a creature to be injured and in pain and not do something IMMEDIATELY for it. you don't 'shop around' for vet prices when a critter is in pain. you go, you fix it, then you worry about the money after.

somebody with the mentality of 'oh, this one is broken, lets get a new one' when it comes to pets just disgusts me. this person should not own any pets at all!

 

[AZChins]

I agree! I would lose my mind if I had one chin with a broken leg for more than four seconds. I have 253 chins here and I would never, ever in a million years let them go for a day in pain.

Unfortunately I don't know the address of this person. They don't stand a chance in heck of getting a chin from me at this point. On Wednesday I would have gone and picked up the chin myself just so I could do something about this.

TCraig, even when I was younger and had nothing I would have stopped at nothing to make sure my chins were cared for properly. I remember spending more money than I had on all sorts of vet bills back 10 or 12 year ago and never batting an eye at it. My vet thinks I am crazy, by the way...

I did tell him that if this person didn't want to pay for the chin's vet bills for taking care of this particular chin that I would be more than happy to take them over and take the chinchilla on myself. Seriously, I have no problems with paying for the vet bills so that this chinchilla can come here and I can take care of him and make sure he has a good live.

I'll let you know what happens!

 

[Kara315]

I did tell him that if this person didn't want to pay for the chin's vet bills for taking care of this particular chin that I would be more than happy to take them over and take the chinchilla on myself. Seriously, I have no problems with paying for the vet bills so that this chinchilla can come here and I can take care of him and make sure he has a good live.

I really hope this happens! Sometimes the better thing for your pet is allowing someone else more capable to take over. Sadly, I don't know if they care as much as most would.

 

[ReneeM]

I'm wondering if there comes a time when it isn't fair to the animal to push them and put them through the recovery process. Or if it would be wasted money to try and treat them?

My dog is 13 years old and something is going on with her liver. We did a round of antibiotics and are now waiting on the results of her second blood test. The vet mentioned it could be various things, including cancer. I would do testing to find out if that was the case, but Im not sure I would put her through chemotherapy. Realistically she is not a young dog, I don't know how her body would handle something like that.

 

[Kara315]

I'm wondering if there comes a time when it isn't fair to the animal to push them and put them through the recovery process. Or if it would be wasted money to try and treat them?

My dog is 13 years old and something is going on with her liver. We did a round of antibiotics and are now waiting on the results of her second blood test. The vet mentioned it could be various things, including cancer. I would do testing to find out if that was the case, but Im not sure I would put her through chemotherapy. Realistically she is not a young dog, I don't know how her body would handle something like that.

Something not quite the same happened with our dog......only there was nothing they could do, I believe, this was 15 years ago, when I was about 7, so I didn't really know much. But he was 13 as well and just had a hard time getting around and seemed to be getting worse and in pain, so my mom/vet discussed it and we put him to sleep. I do think there is a time where it's better, especially for the animal, to just let them go gentley like that instead of putting them through something, especially if they are older and lived a long good life already. It was hard letting Bucky go....but he just seemed to be getting worse, it was tough on my mom, but especially now that I was older, it was the more humane thing to do instead of having him in pain most days.

 

[starrynight0621]

I'm wondering if there comes a time when it isn't fair to the animal to push them and put them through the recovery process. Or if it would be wasted money to try and treat them?

My dog is 13 years old and something is going on with her liver. We did a round of antibiotics and are now waiting on the results of her second blood test. The vet mentioned it could be various things, including cancer. I would do testing to find out if that was the case, but Im not sure I would put her through chemotherapy. Realistically she is not a young dog, I don't know how her body would handle something like that.

My beagle was only 8 when we had to put her down. She had a massive cancerous tumor in her neck. It was buried so deep, we had no idea it was there. The vet told us there was nothing she could do. So we made her last days as comfortable as possible. We put her down when we saw her quality of life drastically decrease. I miss her so much. But yeah, there comes a point when it just isn't fair to the animal. It's a quality-of-life issue.

 

[Chinchilla63]

I've bred/trained/shown dogs and worked in an animal shelter. I'm new to chins but I think responsible pet ownership is the same, regardless of species. There's a HUGE difference between euthanizing a beloved animal that you know (based on appropriate medical care) is suffering and treatment is only going to make it worse or prolong the animal's misery - and euthanizing an animal that you don't care for enough to spend the money to help. I hope that vet can intervene. I would imagine it's got to be a lousy thing for the vet to have to assist in killing that poor animal who deserves a better fate.

 

[kcbee]

I will always pay whatever for my animals. When Boog was sick, and unfortunately passed, we spent close to 2 grand on his vet bills. I bring the animals into my home, and my promise is to care for them.

If quality of life is not good and prognosis is poor, then I won't push it. But they deserve a chance!

 

[Magyk]

Speaking as someone who has had over $4000 in vet bills over the last year for various animals, I feel pretty strongly that no, $900 isn't an excuse, especially when your trying to replace the animal before having it euthanized.

Back in February I had one of my rabbits, Flynn, dislocate her hip. It was a complete fluke, she was playing in her cage and she went to popcorn. She went one way when she should have went another, popper her hip right out of socket. Brought her in for x-ray and since rabbit sockets are so shallow, there was a 30% chance of the femur actually staying in place and it would cost around $700 in total and it would be extremely painful for Flynn. There was another option present, of having an FHO done. The procedure was $1200 and in total, including x-rays and drugs, it ended up costing me over $2000, and to make it an even more stressful time it was a procedure that my vet had never attempted. In face, no one in Calgary or nearby areas had ever done it before since no one ever wanted to invest that much money into a rabbit (Most of the time they are left alone, it does "heal" but it's never right, there's always pain and causes severe arthritis because of the bone rubbing on bone). She had the surgery February 17 and she's been doing fantastic.

In other words, I completely understand that fluke accidents can break the bank, I know it did for me, and it's stressful. We've had a bad run of luck this year from the hip dislocation to abcess's, our dog getting a slipped disc in his back, the numerous trips our horse had, GI Stasis in a rabbit, kidney failure in one of our rescue buns and teeth problems in my holland lop rabbit. Yeah, it's terrible to deal with and expensive and stressful beyond belief, but when you take on an animal then you agree to take care of that animal. There are always circumstances but this case doesn't seem to be one of them.

It isn't even the breeding or the euthanization that really sets off the warning bells, it's the fact that this guy doesn't really seem to care...

 

[ChinnyMom]

It isn't even the breeding or the euthanization that really sets off the warning bells, it's the fact that this guy doesn't really seem to care...

bingo! that is what is most upsetting about this.

 

[erin1818]

900 dollars is rediculous. ive spent EASILY over 3000-4000 on my two chinchillas and if the vet said i had to pay 900 to fix a broken leg? its highly doubtable. i think the wrong part of this situation is looking for another chinchilla to replace it. if i was in the exact same situation i would try to find someone who could afford it. the last thing that would be on my mind though, is getting a new one.

 

[pamszoo]

This man should not be treating his chins as disposable things like he is. "Oh, this one has a broken leg, so we'll just have it put down and replace him with a new one." That sounds like an irresponisible pet owner to me.

Unfortunetly we have become a throw away society. Rather than fix something just get another. :hair:
This person shouldn't even own pets!!! I hope he is man enough to either give the chin to Susan so he can get the care he deserves or at the very least have it humanely euthanized.

Poor chin!

 

[Jenn]

I am so bothered by this. I can understand if the man doesn't have the $900 for the vet bills, but then to turn right around and say he is willing to spend a couple hundred dollars on a new chin, one that isn't broken, is incredible asinine! So what happens to the male he has now? Does he get thrown out in the trash because that is cheaper than having him euthenized? What happens in the future when there is a birthing complication and the vet bills rack up again? Do you throw away the mother and kits at that point? It sounds like this guy only wants to make money from these chins and their kits, but doesn't want to spend the money to do it the right way. He is a very dangerous man!

 

[Buddy]

I don't care about the money when it comes to an ill pet. They can't help themselves and it's the owners job as a responsible owner to help them.
I bent backwards for my chin when vet bills were being paid. I had to get an overdraft and a credit card out just incase. Thankfully, I'm a student so getting a decent amount on an overdraft isn't exactly hard! I'm pretty sure that overdraft is what actually saved her life.
What's the point in having an animal that you don't care to spend the money on? An animal in pain is one of the worst things you could see, especially your own. I couldn't handle seeing my buddy in pain for half a day let alone just one...
It's sickening to think there are people would just leave them in pain. If I couldn't afford it i'd take it to someone who could.

 

[AZChins]

I HAVE THE BEST NEWS!

The owner had the chin seen by the vet and had the necessary surgery. I am so happy to have heard that. The vet convinced them that a new cage would be in order since the ramp in the cage was to blame for the broken bone.

I went to see the vet today for a rescue chin, so he told me all about it and it's okay. Everything is fine, thank goodness!! I just hope that this taught a valuable lesson to the owner about how taking care of responsibilities is paramount to all other concerns.

I think Dr. Samuels had a little talk about everything... He's such a great vet. I hope you all have a vet as brilliant and kind as mine!!

 

[smhluvsmh]

I am so glad to hear this! It was hurting my heart so to think of that baby in pain or PTS supposedly because of money!

 

[AZChins]

Oh, I know! I have been so worried since last week. I'm so happy the chin got what he needed. I didn't hear back from the owner...so I hope everything is going well.