Emergency Bills - How much did it cost?

[TrishB]

What sort of emergencies have you all had with your dogs? How much did the bill total?

I'm in Canada, so please state where you are so I can calculate the exchange rate.

The reason I ask is I'm curious as to what sort of trouble our dogs get themselves into and how much it costs to get them out of it.

[Deborah Reid]

Actually I have had very few "emergency" bills in the last 14 years with Rottweilers, but all of my dogs are house dogs, and I have one of those obsessive/overprotective type personalities LOL :D
Recently, my girl Cadey, had a little touch of vaginitis. Well I thought it has cleared up, but wouldn't you know, on a Sunday no less, I took her out in the morning and she pee peed blood! Straight to the vet we go!! (Idaho, USA, small town). She had urinary tract infection, and he gave her a combo shot of Gentamicin and Banamine (total for shot was $9.31 plus $7.00 injection fee), the ER office call was $40.00 and he gave her a perscription of Amoxicillin which was $14.50. Total was $70.81.
The only other emergencies that stick out in my mind are three in particular.
In 1993, my litter of puppies was not gaining like they should be. I had been supplementing them some because it was a large litter (11 puppies), but I was still concerned over them not gaining as much as I thought they should be. One of the puppies died, so I rushed the litter and the mommy to the vet, to discover that she was not producing enough milk! So I came home with Esbilac and nutracal and went to work! 10 puppies, every 3 hours, until full, repeat to make sure they got enough. No wonder I caught pnemonia! People would come in the house and get handed a puppy and a bottle LOL.
I don't remember the vet bill for that, but I don't think it was very much, apart from the Esbilac, which was outragiously priced!
My other emergency that had to do with dog I had raised was in 1989. I had two female puppies I kept out of the litter I had that year. They were about 4 months old and both of them came down with parvo. One spent 3 days at the vets and the other one spent 5 days. Back then it cost about $450.00 total.
My first emergency that I remember, and this was when I was in the 7th grade (LOL Long long time ago), was one morning as I was getting ready to go to school, my parents were getting ready to go somewhere and as we were backing out of the driveway, my lab puppy (about 3 months old at the time), ran off the porch and under the car. The next part is graphics, so if you are sensitive you may want to quit reading.
It popped one of her eyes out and my parents rushed her to the vets. The vet put her eye back in and it did fine, though she did eventually go blind in that eye, it never caused her any other troubles and she lived to the ripe old age of 13 :)

[frontierrots]

emergency pyometra (uterine infection) spay of two bitches within 1 week of each other!
#1 was a closed (non draining) $626
#2 was an open (draining) $326

Undetermined infection in my oldest girl. 3 days at the vets, IV fluids, IV antibiotics etc.. $400

Shiba Inu pup broke a leg $675

Litter of 9 sick pups and sick mom $987

All above in U.S. $$

[RottiMomCT]

Hmmm.....

Emergency vet visit on April 1, 2000 for dog jumping 15 ft off our deck: $350 US, including sedation for xrays and medication (ER vets are bit more expensive, I think) - nothing broken, just pulled muscles.

Trip to vet 10/01 for infection near dew claw removal site (which had been done before we adopted him in 2000): $95 US for visit & meds

Visit to regular vet the morning after a nasty dog fight: $400+ due put drains into various wounds and repair a torn gum where canine tooth came out (I still have the tooth-it's HUGE!)

I now have pet insurance for my personal dog $150 a year. It covers everything from routine yearly exams to ER visits....just like people insurance. If I had the coverage in 2000, the deck jumper would have cost me only $40.

But, I'll put myself in debt for my dog... :D

[2rotties2luv]

Surgery to remove an obstruction (undigested chunk of rawhide) from the small intestine of my 2yr old female rottie (Sierra) - $895 USD. This included everything from admission through post op, such as x-rays, surgery, post op IV's, 4 days of hospitalization, staple removal, etc.

[rottnelmo]

My first true vet emergency was on Labor Day of last year(September 3, 2001). My new Rottweiler, Elmo (we had only had him two months) was at my in-laws house playing in the yard. He ran into the garage and something made me get up and follow him. When I turned the corner Elmo had taken a big ole drink from a dog bowl...however, the dog bowl was full of ANTI-FREEZE.

I screamed at Elmo to stop drinking it...Screamed at my husband that he just drank anti-freeze and we had to go to the emergency vet clinic. I threw Elmo into the car, and off to the vets we go.

Poor Elmo suffered greatly from his tasty drink...he had his stomach pumped, a glycol reverse and the antidote (which is new and EXTREMELY expensive ~ $360 per vial and of course Elmo needed two vials!) and several blooddraws and other fluids. The total bill was well over $1,000. I think it was about $1,500 total.

Several years back my Siberan Husky (Windy) got in a scruffing match with a GSD and ended up having to have staples in her hip. She got in the scruff on Friday night, but I waited till Saturday morning, cause my vet had Saturday hours, the bill was only $80.

Thanks!
Beth

[Judy Chrusch]

The only emergency I've had was when my second rottie became very ill, 1 1/2 years ago. It was 300.00 just to walk in the door but that was o.k. with us bc we needed to know what was wrong and saddly enough, days after that visit we had to make a decision to put him down at the age of 7:(. We live in Pa.

Judy

[joquendo]

The only emergency I have had was when I adopted my 3rd rottie at 1.5yrs old - she had some serious behavior problems and one day I came home and noticed she had bitten my "baby" 5 yr old male - right at the edge of the corner of his eye... a fraction to the left and the bite would have been IN his eye... I rushed him to the emergency room. He got stiches and was feeling a little sorry for himself - he got a lot of special treatment for 2 weeks... that was close one...

PS: my adoptee (Amber) has since had her behavior curtailed after many many obedience classes and also I had her spend 3 months every day at doggy day care to become socialized under the close supervision of a wonderful trainer.

[joquendo]

Oh... and it cost $350 - I had pet insurance so I got 80% of it back...

[codglvr]

SAS heart failure, $800 estimate for one night of 24 hour supervision, oxygen chamber and meds, not including the $80 emergency visit charge. We decided not to have anything done as this was expected and got out of there 30 minutes later minus one incredible dog, $385, and completely broken hearts. oh yeah, that's US$.

[CarolineS]

I'm in Ontario, east of Toronto. I can give you an idea of the prices I pay for some procedures. I consider my vet's prices to be very reasonable compared to some others. Professional consultation $42; following consultations on same matter $32; CBC $26;blood profile $64; collecting blood for same $18; fecal exam $25; fine needle biopsy $25; analysis of biopsy $81; xray $75; rexray of same case $45; spay (older female) $200; thyroid test $64; urinalysis $34; vaginal smear $22.

You would think from this my dog is pretty sickly...not really, I'm just paranoid and insist on every test or xray possible to be absolutely sure. When Maggie had a lump, the vet said he was 99% sure it was just a fatty lump and for me to keep an eye on it. I said I won't be able to sleep not knowing, do a fine-needle biopsy on it. You get the picture. :o

I do get a deal in the professional consultation fee if I have to take both dogs in at once. My vet will also credit my account if a medication doesn't work (unused pills or an unopened bottle). He once called me from Florida where he was on vacation to give me the results of Maggie's blood work. He loves animals and it's pretty obvious he's not in this just for the money. He doesn't judge the dogs on their breed, but on their actions. All in all, he's a super vet and I think he's worth his weight in gold.

[rottix2]

Most recent emergency room visits were both for Mikk:

Jumped over a York rake while chasing a squirrel and ripped inside of her hind leg open - 16 stitches required - total cost including suture removal - $119.50

Killed a porcupine which required removal of what looked like a couple hundred quills - $57

[JonandMichelle]

Let's see here, the first one I really can't come up with an exact amount as it happened on Grandma's watch and dime But Raja got into Rat Poision when she as approx. a year old and had to be rushed to the Emergency clinic. I am sure that cost a pretty penny. She did pull through and was fine.


In 1999, our four month old puppy came down with Parvo. He was hospitalized for a week, then we finally had to let him cross the bridge. The total on that was approx. $1,200 for treatment, boarding, and then the final preperations after his death. Luckly, Grandma pulled through again with that bill. Helped us out tremendously.

[JoJo]

What are Grandmas for? :D :D

Raja was just a year old and full of herself! Where she came up with rat poison we will never know. But luckly I was right there and she just got a few licks of it. I grabbed the open bag, her and off we went. Since I caught her in time it only costed $190.00 (Clearwater Florida, USA)

Reba over this past Thanksgiving had a "greenline" fracture as the vet called it in her elbow. With xrays, sedation, pain pills and 2 splints (at different times of coarse) that cost $380.00.

Having dogs can be costly, just like children as accidents can and do happen. If people don't want those extra expenses and not prepaired for them, you better not have dogs. Or at least have a good Grandma to help out as we all know there are times when money does come up short. We've all been there and done that. Part of living.

JoJo

PS.....I wouldn't have it any other way. I love my 4 legged grandchildren!

[Gryphon]

Only had one real emergency with a Gryph. He went to get someone that was trying to get into our house through a window. Punctured the bottom of his front foot right behind the pad.

We were not home at the time but when we got home, there was blood everywhere.

Emergency trip to the vet $365.00. Includes, surgery to close arteries, stiches, overnight stay, all the meds, take home prescription, and 1 change of bandages.

Not included is the $8,000 we are going to spend to replace the permenently blood stained carpet with hardwood. (we would be doing this even if the carpet wasn't ruined) and approx. $30 to replace the window glass.

And this all happened in Naugatuck, Connecticut in November. I just wish I could have seen the wouldbe intruders face when they saw Gryph coming through the window after them.