Caring For an Adult Pet
Yesterday, I was officially inducted into the “real responsibilities of a pet owner” club, only after 7.5 years of owning a pet. And I have my paw prints to prove it! Allow me to explain…
Around 5am, my BabyGirl ran into my room to wake me up. You hear me? 5am. That’s ONE HOUR before my alarm goes off. Ok, I’m lying. About thirty minutes before my alarm goes off and another thirty minutes of hitting the snooze button six times. Anyway, she woke me up to tell me that our 7.5 year old Maltese - I guess that’s 40 something in dog years - was peeing blood all over the house. “What???!!” was all I could muster as I dragged myself out of bed to see what she was talking about. Unfortunately, she was not exaggerating at all.
THE DISCOVERY
At first, I thought my eyes were deceiving me. I mean, it was still dark o’thirty and my azz was half sleep. But what I saw were little red spots all over the carpet. WTF! I rubbed my eyes and followed the trail. Guess who I found hovered in the corner like she had done something bad. The mere sight of her wagging her tail in a submissive position broke my heart. 
THE CONFIRMATION
I scooped her up and took her outside to potty. Sure enough, she urinated a stream of blood. Gross, I know, but bear with me. I knew I couldn’t panic because it would make my BabyGirl cry so I had calm down and hide my emotions. In 7.5 years, we’d never experienced a real pet emergency so I didn’t know what to do. As a distraction, I told BabyGirl to put her food and water down while I searched for the vet’s number. When BabyGirl said she wouldn’t eat or drink anything, my heart raced. By the time I found the number, I had tears in my eyes.
THE FIRST CALL
My vet’s office didn’t open for another 2 hours. Shyt. Then I called the vet’s emergency hotline. Thankfully, a very friendly voice answered. I told her why I was calling while holding back my tears. We talked for a few minutes. Listening to her calm voice forced my heart to beat normal again. Although she provided limited information, she was very helpful and sincere. She told me it could have been many things - UTI, bladder infection, kidney infection, stones, etc - but it wasn’t an “emergency” emergency. So instead of going to the emergency hospital, I decided to wait for my vet to open.
THE WAIT
My Precious didn’t appear to be in any pain, but she looked really sad. She wasn’t following us around the house as usual but she watched our every move. Somehow, I convinced BabyGirl to go to school. I told her our Precious would be alright but to call me during lunchtime for an update. After BabyGirl left, I locked my Precious in her crate, spot cleaned the carpet, took a shower, ironed three outfits, chose not to wear either, made up my bed, made up BabyGirl’s bed, researched her symptoms online, fixed something to eat, didn’t eat it, swept the kitchen floor, and anything else I could think of to keep from worrying. Every time I would look at my Precious, she was watching me. It was like she was trying to say, “mom help me.” Gawd it was awful!
THE VET VISIT
At 7:20, we loaded up the car and headed to the vet’s office. By the time I arrived, it was 7:35. They had already spoken with the emergency hotline, pulled her file, and was waiting for our arrival. Their fast response and preparation made me relax (a little). I felt like my Precious was going to be in good hands. I explained the symptoms (frequent urination but in tiny amounts, bad smell, traces of blood, no appetite, etc.) and they immediately took her to the back. I couldn’t stand to wait around and count the minutes so I went to work. I left my cell phone, blackberry, and office number and asked them to call me as soon as the doctor had a diagnosis.
THE DIAGNOSIS
Around 9:30am, when I saw the number on my caller ID, my heart stopped. It was the vet. I didn’t feel like saying “hello,” so she was greeted with a fearful “yes” as if there was only bad news on the other end. The vet explained what she had done: examination, xray, urine sample, blood sample, sent culture off to lab, vaccination of antibiotic and pain med, etc. I was told it would take a week for the culture to come back because they had to examine it, place something in it to see if it would grow or change shape, then examine it again to rule out anything life threatening. No obvious problems showed in the xray, but for a dog of her size, this wasn’t uncommon. Her white blood cell count was high - sign of infection - and she passed blood clots 2x while urinating - sign of UTI or bladder problem.
THE TREATMENT
I could barely breath while listening, but she reassured me that the meds would treat any immediate problem. She said she was going to prescribe an antibiotic for the infection and a pain med to make her comfy. But she wanted to keep her until after 5 for observation and try to get her to eat and drink. At this point, being in the vet’s care was better than mine so I had no objection. When I picked her up around 5, the vet had already gone for the day. However, she left 2 pages of notes for me (my Precious ate food and drank water, her urine stream was now more pink than red, she seemed energetic and happy), 2 prescriptions, diet instructions (bland for 3 days - white rice and chicken breasts only - then gradually re-introduce regular food), call if no improvement in 3 days, follow up appointment and another urine sample in 2 weeks.
THE RELIEF
When my Precious was brought from the back, she ran and jumped into BabyGirl’s lap as if seeing her family made her the happiest pup in the world. For the first time all day, I exhaled. Although she’s not 100%, I can tell she feels a little better. She’ll be on meds for a few weeks, confined to non-carpet areas, and eating bland food for a few days, but I’m soooooo relieved. When the culture comes back next week, I will breathe again. Until then, I’ll follow doctor’s orders and throw in an extra dose of TLC.
THE COST
The total cost of this scary ordeal:
Vet visit, tests, xray and meds: $413.89
Follow up appt in 2 weeks: ~$112
Effect on work: 2 hours late + 8 hours of stress and anxiety
My Precious health and happiness: PRICELESS
In 7.5 years, that is the most I’ve EVER spent on a pet expense at one time. Although it didn’t hurt to drop a few hundred dollars to make sure my Precious was ok, I can only imagine what my thoughts would have been if she needed more extensive treatment - or worse, surgery. I’ll be honest, if a single pet expense gets closer to four figures, the love for my dog will be weighed against practicality and reasonableness. I hope I don’t have to face that decision anytime soon, but now that she’s an “adult” dog, it’s a reality I need to consider. The life expectancy of her breed is 15-18 years. Since she’s only 7.5, that means the best years of her life are yet to come.
I never thought I could really love a four legged animal. All this time, she was “BabyGirl’s responsibility” unless it suited me. But after yesterday, I realized that she’s etched in my heart forever. Gawd I love my Precious!
Work to achieve, not to acquire.
And always, BE FABULOUS!
This blog is the story of my financial life as a single mom. Subscribe via (feed reader) or (email) to follow the rest of my fabulous journey.
20 comments:
Write a comment:
Want an image next to your comment? Get your Gravatar here!
Have you read the Fabulous Financials comment policy lately?
Aw, I hope she feels better very quickly and that’s it’s nothing serious at all.
Maybe it’s time to look into whether pet insurance is worth it? When I was looking at policies before, they even covered routine visits.
Who do you use? Any recommendations? [-SM]
Awww Im glad you were able to get this sorted out and find out that it’s a UTI and not something more serious.
I have three cats and we’ve been in cat sick/vet hell for about a year now with two emergencies. I never thought to blog about it but I just might now because as you noted the vet bills are really high. We still have one follow up appointment to go. AJ had pneumonia and they wanted to admit him to the hospital and Maxx had bronchitis along with a deep corneal ulcer. I wanted to stab the vet LOL
But I cried when we returned with Maxx because we saw the vet at the emergency hospital that saved AJ’s life. Same thing happened at our regular vet when Maxx’s eye started to heal, I was soooo grateful. It’s funny you dont ever think about what they mean to you until something happens. This year has taught me that. My FIL will NEVER understand why we care so much about them and why we just didnt give them up but they are a part of our lives just as any other family member.
But the thought did cross my mind LOL
I’m glad little Precious is going to be okay. We, too, have three cats. One is getting to be elderly and the other two are much younger.
They are a part of the family so I understand your feelings.
Fortunately we have not had anything approaching an emergency with them yet. We would probably pay up if they had recoverable conditions and were comfortable.
To spare yourself any large unplanned expenses in the future ( she is getting little older after all) consider buying pet insurance. I saw something like that offered by one of the credit card companies on line, I do not remember if it was Capital One (I think it might have been), it might be worth it.
Awww …. I totally get it. Jasmine is our baby and princess, 6 1/2 and 45 lbs. We love her to death. We’ve had only one incident when she had an allergic reaction to the landscaper’s herbicide and had a reaction on all 4 paws and her bottom. Poor dog was licking herself raw - the vet prescribed steriods and antihistamine, and we had to soak her paws in Epsom salts 4x a day. The look of relief in Jasmine’s eyes while we relieved her discomfort spoke volumes. We know we can expect a life span of about 10 -12 years. It’s hard to think that half her life is over, but she is very healthy, so we’re hoping we have many years with her.
The allergic incident cost about $300. I don’t know what we would do if she was seriously sick - weigh the cost with her quality of life and hopefully make the right decision.
I am so glad your “precious” is doing better! It so hard when our fur-babies are sick because they can’t tell us where ti hurts! UTI’s in little girls are not uncommon. Good for you for being so procative! Check out http://www.petinsurance.com. I am currently looking into pet insurance myself. There are others but so far this is the one I am leaning towards. I still haven’t decided if I’m going to go for it or start a pet savings account.
OK…clearly I should have had a latte or 2 BEFORE I commented! Please over look my typos above!
I’m so glad Precious will be okay. I have two four-legged children of my own and I was holding my breath reading this!
i’m glad precious will be okay. i had to make the decision between cost and my dog and it was a VERY hard decision. i’m very happy that precious is doing well and i’m sure she has many more healthy years ahead of her.
I’m glad precious is going to be alright. A few years ago I came home and was petting my cat when I noticed a large lump, like the size of a large orange, in his stomach. We took him to the vet and they said they couldnt be sure what it was until they went in, it could be cancer or a cyst they could drain. For some reason they didnt think it was cancer. The surgery was $1500 and my brother, mother, and I split it three ways. It ended up being cancer and he didn’t even make it through recovery. I regret putting him through all that trauma not just letting him die peacefully at home. I’m so glad your precious will be fine!
I know just how you feel, only my story was with a tiny dwarf hamster that was only 6 months old instead of a dog. I went away for the weekend and came back to discover she was stuck halfway up the cage wall, with one of her back legs all twisted and broken between the bars. I have no idea how long she was stuck up like that, but I felt entirely responsible for it.
I took her to the vet assuming the leg would have to be amputated (she still ran around fine and acted completely normal except for this twisted limb dragging behind her). I was right, except they said since she was so small, there was only a 50/50 chance she’d even wake up from the anesthetic, and it’d cost me nearly half a months rent for the surgery, which, as a student, I just couldn’t justify no matter what I did. I left in tears, saying I’d have to think about it, and ended up having to get my boyfriend to call back to tell them to euthanize her instead (which was still going to cost money, but not as much).
I went back the next day to pick up the empty cage, only to be told that she was still alive. Seeing how upset I was, the vet had decided to attempt the surgery anyway and only charged me what I would have paid for the other option. Bear lived happily for another year (to a total of about 1.5 times the average life expectancy) and since I couldn’t thank the vet with money, I ended up bringing them over a bunch of baked goods a few days later to say thanks.
This is her after the surgery, with her blue thread stitches. She was so quick and hard to keep still, you’d never have known she was missing a leg.
Thanks for sharing your experience. I’m glad everything worked out with your little one, but I have a personal issue with the pictures you wanted to share so I removed them. [-SM]
I’m so glad your dog seems to be on the mend and hope that everything works out. We had to put our 13 1/2 year old golden retriever to sleep two days ago, so suffering pets are on my mind this week and the loss is weighing heavily on my heart - it’s amazing the bond we form with animals and our capacity to love them. I totally get how it broke your heart to see your dog so helpless and hope you never have to see that again.
I’m glad she seems to be doing better now. I have two dogs, one of which is a diabetic. When he was first diagnosed, he had to spend the night at the emergency vet hospital and his bill came up to almost $2K. I kid you not. But, he’s part of our family and all we wanted to do is save him. His insulin, syringes, special dog food, and monitor supplies runs about $120-$150/month. He’s a pretty expensive dog to maintain but he’s worth every penny of it.
I hope Precious’ recovers fully soon and that her tests come back good.
My family has a Bichon Frise (similar dog type!) and he is 12.5 years old and will also live to around 16 years - he has had hip surgery, other surgery and recently almost lost his hearing. (It went away for for about 2 weeks due to a horrid ear infection but now he can hear about 80% again.) Glad your Precious is alright!! (Just be ready for more incidents in the years to come, sadly…)
Dogs are family. Our Levi is our family, our love… they are certainly expensive!! But so priceless and adorable and the best friends.
Pet Insurance seems to be worth it…I put away $25 monthly for my dog but i’m going to explore pet insurance very soon. I seem to always raid the dog’s fund.
I didn’t end up getting a policy back then, just had the brochures from the vet’s office and browsed through them. I don’t have a pet anymore but think I’d get the insurance next time I do.
It’s good to know that Precious is going to be Okay. I won’t share my pet story, but let it suffice to say that I haven’t had another pet since. It’s hard to watch your friends suffer and I don’t know if I have it in me anymore. I’m so glad she has a mommy who keeps a sizeable saving on hand to take care of her!
Awww what a sweetie! We dropped $4500 for a TPLO surgery for Miss Ruby 4 years ago.
Insane, but we love Miss Ruby and did it.
If this is your biggest pet unplanned bill so far (in 7 1/2 years?)….dang…that is GOOD!
SingleMa… I’m glad your little honey is doing better! Our pets are like family members to us, so there’s pretty much no end to what I’d do for them.
Pet insurance, as others have pointed out, is a great investment. It’s not too expensive, and more often than not, it ends up paying for itself.
Case in point: My cat (now 10) has been with me since she was 1 day old. I invested in the pet insurance… not 3 months later, she became so ill she nearly died. My cost: $1,700. (My tuition money.. my dad still dogs me out about that) My reimbursement: nearly $1,500. Two years later, another one of our cats fell ill. Our cost: $1,200. Reimbursement: nearly $1,100.
My sister, who didn’t invest in it, is still paying on the $1,800 bill for her dog. I recommend the insurance for anyone, especially those with older pets.
Sites: http://www.petinsurance.com is great, but won’t allow you to obtain a policy for a senior pet. However, http://www.petcareinsurance.com does allow you to enroll older pets.
Awww! I know that must have been scary! My guy wants a dog and this is exactly the kind of stuff I’m afraid of (that and I’m afraid that suddenly all of my lovin’ and attention will go to the dog and/or the dog won’t like me or something). But I’d glad the fluffy little snowflake is feeling a bit better already. Fingers crossed there’s nothing else wrong!