Pets provide us with much-needed companionship, cuddles, and photos to illustrate Consumerist posts with. But they’re not cheap to have around. Food, toys, litter, collars, leashes, routine vet care…those are all of the things you consider and budget for when you start cruising Petfinder to look for a new buddy. Only there are larger expenses that are large, sudden, and impossible to plan for. After one illness, having a pet could cost as much as a decent used car. That’s what happened to Carolyn Kylstra, whose cat Hooligan (great name) has cost her $5,550 over three years. That’s an average of $150/month…money that could go far in an otherwise frugal lifestyle.
She wrote about her experience with Hooligan for The Billfold, making an itemized list of the cat’s medical expenses. Normal cat expenses, like food and scratching posts, came to only about $1,000.
Hooligan’s medical-related expenses: August 2009 – Current
• First-year vet checkup and vaccination rounds: $200
• Ear mites: $50 for meds
• Intestinal worms: $50 for meds
• Vet visit to figure out why his hair was falling out in nasty clumps: $200
• Ringworm: $50 for meds
• Anti-fungal medication for my boyfriend, who got ringworm from the cat: $10
• Neutered: $250
• Emergency vet visit because my roommate thought he had eaten a couple of her Adderall pills (yes, true story, and no, he had not): $200
• Urinary blockage 1: $500 for catheterization
• Urinary blockage 2: $500 for catheterization
• Urinary blockage 3: $1500 for overnight stay and catheterization
• Fancy dancy C/D or S/O prescription-only cat food to prevent future urinary blockages: $40/month x 16 months (and counting!) = $640 (and counting!)
• Vet visit because he was pooping blood: $200 for x-rays and TWO enemas
‚Ä¢ Vet visit because he was pooping blood again:$150 to diagnose the problem as “stress”
‚Ä¢ Pills for “stress”: $50
Now, the title of this post isn’t quite right. It’s obvious that Kylstra is quite fond of her cat, since you don’t drop that kind of money on a pet that you don’t like. But Hooligan’s health woes serve as an important reminder to those who are currently (or might soon be) owned by a domestic animal: Scary emergencies happen, and pet health insurance or dedicated savings account just for medical emergencies can help make them less financially painful, if not less stressful.
Regrets of a Cat Owner [The Billfold]
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“‚Ä¢ Urinary blockage 1: $500 for catheterization
• Urinary blockage 2: $500 for catheterization
• Urinary blockage 3: $1500 for overnight stay and catheterization
‚Ä¢ Fancy dancy C/D or S/O prescription-only cat food to prevent future urinary blockages: $40/month x 16 months (and counting!) = $640 (and counting!)”
Ugh. I had a cat with this problem. After the second catheterization, we had to have his little peepee removed!! Poor “guy”. Of course, after the surgery we were able to feed him normal cat food again.
That’s exactly what I did, after two bouts of blockage, he went in for the “P.U.” surgery, it was well worth the money not having to mess with the prescription food which he didn’t like anyway.
Are “lemon laws” applicable here? I don’t think Hooligan is going to have much trade-in value.
Pet insurance doesn’t exist in the US?
Been there, done that with one of my (now) three cats. Max, at 9 yrs old, had a urinary tract blockage and that was in the 1500.00 range when all said and done. Then my late Akita, Dante, had cancer, that was another 1,000.00 just to diagnose the tumor after it was removed. Then she cost another 500.00 3 years later when she passed on at the age of 14.5yrs.
Then of course, Max, at 11yrs old, decided to develope fatty liver syndrome and we almost lost him. Close to 2,000.00 before he was back to full health again. He’s now just over 13yrs old
Thank gods Aries, also 13yrs old and Morrigan, now just over 3 yrs old, are in near perfect health.
My current Akita, Caena, costs roughly 130.00 every 6months when we do her biannual checkup. That covers heartworm preventative meds, vet visit, parasite exam, etc.
I had male cats with the same problem. Switching to good quality wet food saved them from a long lifetime of science diet yuk. Not sure whether it saved me any money or not, I never tried to calculate. At that point, it was more about giving them something healthy that they liked, rather than saving a few cents a day on food.
My dog cost me $5,000 in 24 hours. She broke her knee in 2 places and needed surgery from a specialist. Worth it, I love her to pieces. I still owe $2,000 on it, but it’s an interest free loan for 2 years. It’s been a year already and I’m hoping to pay it off in huge chunks in 2 months. That’s not even counting the cost of her expensive, high quality food or other necessities.
My neighbor’s cat Garfield (yes, a big yellow tom) just had to be put down yesterday. He got distemper and was so sick. Poor little skinny coughing old man. At least I got to say goodbye. I put some flowers on his little grave. :’(
I called my vet to make sure my OC’s vaccination was up to date, and it is, so they said she should be okay. If she comes down with it, I’ll have to do the same thing. There is no way I can spend that kind of money trying to save her.
One of the number one ways to keep an animal healthy and out of the vet’s office for non accidental things is to feed them a healthy diet. Pick the best kibble you can get your hands on, or go raw if you can. It costs more now, but it saves big $$$ when your animal doesn’t have diabetes or other diseases from eating grained up garbage filler all it’s life.
Apply for a CareCredit card. It’s only accepted at places like the vet or the dentist, so it’s not dangerous. Even when I had all my other plastic paid off and closed, I kept that one. It saved my ass when my dogs needed a couple of trips to the emergency vet and I was a few days away from payday.
There’s lots of cats in my neighborhood. I could probably have one for nothing.
I have two cats…and they have both been relatively healthy..except for the male cat. He’s perfectly okay now..but about 2 year ago, we noticed he kept licking ‘down there’ and then growling when in the litter box. Looked it up online and called the vet – got him to the emergency clinic that night. He had the oh-so-wonderful crystals blockage. That was $885.
2 weeks later – blockage again! (catheters to fix the problem causes scarring which leads to another blockage..). Another $885. Oy!
He’s fine for about another month..and then it starts again. This time we bring him to the vet..and they perform what I call the ‘sex-change’ operation. Completely removed the male bits and made a small hole in his backside so he can pee. So a boy-cat that pees like a girl-cat.
That was $2k. The vet office has this ‘pet emergency fund’ to help people out – they did a solid there – because I didn’t have enough left on my CareCredit card to pay for it all.
But now he’s a perfectly healthy lil..angel (yeah, angel..). Still feed him the low ash food..but since his surgery he’s doing well.
And to all those who say, “It’s just an animal..” – I used to think that. But not anymore. Boy-cat cuddles with me in bed and sits next to me on the couch – he even knows when I’m sick. It’s so much more than him just being an ‘animal’…
I believed everything until she said “my boyfriend”
Perhaps Consumerist should verify these stories first…
Same thing happened to my cat. UTI’s are common in cats and some of them can have chronic UTI’s. He had one, and we did a lot of work for $750. It came back 2 weeks later and the vet wanted to do a major surgery, overnight stay, and special medication for life…with no guarantee that it would work. We put the cat to sleep. It was hard, but I could not see spending $2,000+ for a cat. If you can afford it, go for it. If this $5k cat is hurting Carolyn financially, she needs to move on.
I had a cat that had the urinary condition this one has.. the c/d food kept him alive for 17 years. Although, that food also caused that cat and 2 others that were eating it, to have chronic kidney issues that eventually killed them (at 15 and 16). THAT was a serious expense.
Other than that though- I used pet vaccine clinics, adopted the pets already neutered, and I worked with my vets intensely to understand what tests and procedures are “nice to haves” and which are life critical. Some vets are better at this than others- and don’t give you the “if you love your pet you would do this” line. I also research everything online, and then discuss that with my vet. He is awesome about that kind of interaction, and we make good choices together.
It is possible to manage the costs to some extent, but ultimately, I understand that if I can’t afford the care of these critters, I should not have them. That isn’t just a hard line- I honestly would be mortified if I had to put a pet down because I couldn’t afford their care.
Where the heck did you go to get your cat neutered? The price of $250 is outrageous. It shouldn’t be more than $40 at the outside.
Pet insurance isn’t worth it. (Google “Consumer Reports pet insurance” and you’ll see what I mean). You’re way better off with a vet discount program, like United Pet Care or Pet Assure (personally I have Pet Assure), which will admittedly only pay a small percentage of the bill, but will NOT give you stupid exclusions, deductibles, co-pays, etc. etc. etc. Trust me! Look into it.
The take away? Cat’s are awful.
The fat orange cat pictured above is Murray, and he’s about 13 years old now. He’s also cost us quite a bit over the years, I’m sure around $3000-4000, if not more, although he is surprisingly healthy for an obese, “elderly” cat. The latest dent to the wallet was $700 in dental work, but as others have pointed out, we don’t care what it costs to keep him happy and healthy. I do shop around for vet costs and have changed vets a few times over the years based on cost & quality of service.