Letters to the Editor
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I Used to Think I Wouldn't Pay That Either
And then my 17-year old cat, that I love dearly, got ill very quickly and I took her to an animal emergency room. That costs me $600 for the tests to figure out what was wrong with her. The emergency vet was very specific about how much each test cost, so I knew before hand. It will probably cost me another $800 to $1000 to get a final cure.
Now, I've accepted the fact that she doesn't have much longer (maybe 3 years left) and I've decided that it depends not so much upon the money but upon if what is happening is going to be torture for her to endure in "fixing" what will eventually go wrong. By-the-way she has been and is in great shape.
Maybe it sounds silly but she has been one of my best friends (she is the most loving cat I've ever had), but I'll pay the price to the extent that I can. I feel I owe her that.
On the other hand, I'm wary of vets that push a lot of unnecessary this or that when I go in. I had one before that wanted to clean the cat's teeth just about every time I brought her in and then went to another one, they looked at her teeth and said they didn't see the need.
With this thought, I worked with a marketing company about 10 years ago and the "money" thing then was to push as many expensive different services and pills (this includes denistry, by the way) that could be viably argued for in order for the vet or dentist to come up with a larger bill (how to make your vet/denist business more profitable!). So, research the problem before you make a decision as much as possible. I think MOST vets are honorable but I'm always suspicious after that job.