She is incorrigible I left the bathroom door open and she pulled the roll across the kitchen.
I like the cat with glasses!
Thatās one hep cat!
For years weāve had two dogs: Harry the cairn terrier (14) and Charlie, a mini-labradoodle, who just turned 10. My wife wanted a third, cognizant of the advancing age of our other guys. So yesterday we took home another mini-labradoodle. Meet Logan:
The other two guys are not so sure about this decision:
But at the end of a busy day of introductions, a nap was in order:
Logan is a cutie!! He looks like a cross between your two other dogs though, like ā¦ maybe you genetically engineered him.
I have my eye on you, @tylertoo.
Seriously though, [chandler] could he BE more of a mix of your two dogs??!? [/chandler]
Wow, Logan almost seems to be asking the other two to make him a member of the pack!
Am I anthropomorphizing too much?
Not at all, thatās what he wants. Day two definitely showed signs of the pack expanding; theyāre getting used to him.
Our poor (now six month old) puppy came down with an extreme case of diarehha and vomiting on Sunday (over the course of the evening she completely emptied herself.) I couldnāt even get her to drink any water or chew on ice. :/ Super worried all night. Took her to the vet first thing Monday morning, where she stayed for the day - they gave her an IV and an ultrasound revealed no intestinal blockages. We donāt know what caused this, the vet is treating the symptoms (her white blood cell count was 27,000, almost twice as much as normal.) Conjecture is she ate something that triggered her immune response, and, given her propensity to still want to eat anything she finds thatās likely the culprit even though sheās never left alone. On top of everything else, she also has an ear infection, probably caused by her dunking her head underwater in the pool we got for her. Talk about feeling like a bad puppy parent. :(
Thankfully sheās okay and back to her normal self (although sheās going to need medicine for the next week.) Seriously considering getting her an astronaut helmet until she leaves puppyhood though. :
This brings me to a question: All that above ended up costing us just over $1,000. Weāve procrastinated on getting pet insurance, but the time has come I think. Anyone have any experience with it? Good, bad indifferent?
Thanks.
Sheās had two trips to the vet outside expected visits (shots and such.) Iām fairly confident there will be more.
Petting is never done!
Heavy petting!
Aaawwwww
Love it when the doggies become brothers and sisters!
This is 7-year old Daisy. We got her 7 weeks ago after she was rescued from a neglect situation with mats so thick she couldnāt walk.
Sheās kind of ridiculous. I call her the Doggie of Ridiculousness.
Thatās one adorable floof, Roger.
OMG HI DAISY
Now THATās how you do a pet post! Videos or it didnāt happen from now on.
In this unfortunate case, her gastric issue is now a pre-existing condition, and no pet insurance covers pre-existing conditions. So youāre going to be on the hook financially for solving her current gastric issues even if you got insurance tomorrow.
I had a thread in my personal Facebook fed about this topic. In the end I opted to purchase insurance for her because sheās coming to us from a rescue with no past medical history and we just donāt know.
Some comments from my thread:
Just so youāre aware, $7,500 would cover the average cost of one surgery (not counting spaying/neutering). My pup has had 4 surgeries in one year. The cheapest was $3,600.
I donāt know if that annual cap will be good enough if the pup develops a more serious issue, which is what insurance works best for. Might want a quote for a higher annual max, or try a different company.
Weāve used Embrace for years. Although, I believe they have a lifetime cap, which Iām not looking forward to hitting, and there are some insurance options out there without such a max.
I have a good friend who is an ER vet and very active in our dog club.
She uses Trupanion and also likes Healthy Paws and Embrace.
It cost us $5k to save our rabbit from a intestinal blockage from swallowed litter. We obviously regret not getting insurance.
We do the vet care club thingy at VCA Anderson mill (our vet is Stephanie Swanzy). Itās not pet insurance, but itās basically prorated pet care, and has definitely been helpful and saved us money. You pay a monthly fee, so generally you donāt have to pay anything at the actual vet visit unless itās not included in the plan. I donāt have the dog info, but hereās what the cat stuff covers/costs. Obviously wonāt be an option if your clinic isnāt part of that network, and focused on preventative care, not emergencies, but still has been helpful in reducing costs of lab work and meds if weāve needed to get them (over what it already covers), and regular office hours visits are all covered.
Yupā¦ $3K in emergency vet services when Ace had an anaphylactic reaction to a wasp stingā¦ worth every penny Iād paid in insurance to be able to say āJust fix him.ā And not worry about price.
One of my cats swallowed the tip of a nerf dart and cost me 5 Grand a couple months ago.
TL;DR paying $1060 for $7,500 of insurance will not pay off in the long run.
Some 25 years ago, I had made heroic efforts to save my Cocker Spaniel āBanditā from cancer in his snout. Months of vet visits culminated with a trip to A&M vet hospital for surgery over the holidays. A few months later, he passed away. It was a rough way to go.
When the next dog wandered up within a year, I named her Goldie. I bought pet insurance from Banfield, so there was less of a chance for big expenditures. It was not break even for normal care, so I canceled the insurance after five years. Goldie passed in 2012 from old age.
We soon got Lani, a lab mix.
Just 8 weeks ago, Lani had obvious cancer, and we decided not to intervene. With love and alternative healing, she fought back for a few weeks, and then she relapsed. We put her down just last week. Sometimes you cannot fight the inevitable. See my photo.
Just today, Micha came home with a new kitty that was living in a shed. We will take her to the vet and get her spade and the shots. We now have two cats, one dog, six ferrets, and an Amazon Parrot.
In general, all our pets are healthy, so we do not buy insurance. We live in a semi-rural area, so there is little chance of rabies and such. Insurance is always a bet against something, and in the long run, it would not pay off for us. Of course, you likely do not have ten pets.