Letters to the Editor
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I paid $1200 for a dead cat
Two years ago, my seven-year old cat developed acute anemia of unknown origin. After five vet visits, a transfusion, a heavy dose of vitamin K, and lots of testing, poking, and prodding, I had to put him down. The good people at Dove-Lewis Animal Hospital in Portland, OR were good enough to lay out all of the pricing options for me in advance, with multiple recommendations for treatment. I made it clear that I couldn't afford the best treatment possible. The vet replied with the best practical advice I could have received at that time: You might pay $25,000 and still have nothing but a dead cat to show for it.
So instead I paid $1200 for a dead cat. It wasn't the best investment I've ever made, and it certainly didn't come at a time when I could afford it, but at least it eradicated any potential guilt I might have felt about not doing everything possible to save him.
After a few months of going petless, I adopted two awesome kittens from the Humane Society, and they've done an excellent job of charming the pants off of everyone who meets them.
And then, right around his first birthday, one of them suddenly became paralyzed from the waist down. The vet said that it was likely that he had a heart condition that had caused him to throw a clot, which was cutting off the blood supply to his back half. If it remained there, his muscles would have atrophied, and his kidneys would have shut down. All of this would have taken several days, and it would have been extremely painful.
The vet recommended an $850 echocardiogram as the first step in diagnosing what the problem was exactly, with additional office visits and treatments being almost certainly necessary. The vet was also unwilling to begin any sort of treatment without having that EKG done first.
Still dealing with the vet bills from my first dead cat, I wasn't willing or able to rack up more for what could very well have been my second one in a year. I asked what the alternative was. He told me to give the cat half of a baby aspirin and wait three days to see if it helped him throw the clot. If not, I'd probably have to put him down.
Well, 10 months later, the cat is still around, and he's healthier than ever. Aside from that initial vet visit, it's cost me about $4 in baby aspirin to keep his blood slightly thinned, to help prevent clots. And even if he doesn't wind up leading the longest life, I'm pretty sure that it's a happier one than it would have been if the vet's office wound up being his second home.