How much $$ would you spend on a dog?

[Deleted]

Jul 8, 2013 0:52:53 GMT -5 TrickyBob said:

Jul 8, 2013 0:49:27 GMT -5 nursewife said:

Hoping the lack of response means she is. I once rushed of dog to the vet thinking she had chocked on a bone. She didn't and all was well. I can't imagine not taking my pet in when they are in distress. Not trying to be rude, but that dog needs an advocate, and that person is you. If it was yourself or a loved one you thought had a bowel obstruction, you wouldn't wait till morning.

I rushed my dog an hour or so away to an emergency vet at 3am. 


She had a cold. 

I had them do x-rays just to make sure and $200 later, I'm glad I took her. But I do have a pretty interesting CD that show her doggy insides. 

The MRI of my dogs brain is pretty fucking awesome. We've spent about $8k on him at this point. And most of that was just getting a diagnosis. So glad we did, his disorder is treated by $15 of steroids every month.

I would have gone to the e-vet as soon as you noticed his stomach hurt and he wasn't eating. But hell, I'm willing to take my foster to the vet and pay for it myself if the rescue says no and I think he needs to be seen. If you're taking care of an animal you don't let it go through pain needlessly while it's in your care.

[Deleted]

This is a 45 pound dog who loves to run around in the yard. My other two dogs are each under 20 pounds and they prefer to sleep in the bed all day. They would be at the door barking if we tried to leave them outside, while the big dog (the one who is sick) would start chewing stuff out of boredom if he were inside all day.

[Deleted]

Jul 8, 2013 11:49:51 GMT -5 @scottydeux said:

I will write that dogs are stoic. So if other signs are present, it's a good idea to get in asap.

This is so true. I felt so guilty realizing that my dog had probably been in pain for 2-3 months and I missed the signs he was giving (constantly licking his front paws & lack of energy).  By the time he was showing signs of being in pain he was near death and spent three days in the doggie hospital.

[Deleted]

Jul 8, 2013 10:54:49 GMT -5 elle said:

Jul 8, 2013 6:38:20 GMT -5 SusanBAnthony said:

It is easy for all the "rich" people on GBCN to say there is no limit, or the limit is thousands or ten thousands, or apparently even millions. But if that is the bar for pet ownership, then 99% of animals out there are going to be euthanized.

We put down our 11 year old golden due to a suspected stomach obstruction probably due to eating something moronic, which he did on the regular. It was an easy decision since he had been declining anyway. The argument that "you knew the dog ate things, it is your responsibility to fix it!" makes me laugh. Like I could stop a dog hell bent on eating dumb crap! yah right. If they are determined to eat stupid shit, they will, no matter how careful you try to be. All it takes is one time of being late to work and running out the house without shutting a closet door all the way, and boom, all the socks got eaten. Not that I would know or anything

It's far easier, it seems, to just ignore the concept of insurance. $30/month/dog. The price of a lunch out, to ensure an animal you love doesn't suffer. Obviously there's a balance between dogs being homeless and spending millions of dollars, but this situation doesn't come close to testing that line. The OP is not poor, the dog is not old, and the treatment would have lessened his pain, not prolonged it. We know she has the money because she said she would have spent it on one of the dogs she likes better. And she let her puppy lie in pain overnight to save $500 on a vet bill. This isn't where you throw up your hands and say "oh the riches have it so easy, just try being a working class folk." My god, that poor dog.

The dog is not in horrible pain. He still isn't getting pain meds and he's been at the vet since 8:00 this morning. If he seemed like he was in horrible pain I would have taken him in to the emergency vet, but he wasn't. I'm not against pet insurance, but the one time I looked into it, the coverage wasn't decent enough to justify getting it. I'll happily look into it again if there are policies that actually cover enough that it ensures we will never have to pay a ton of money out of pocket for expensive procedures.

[Deleted]

Jul 8, 2013 11:40:53 GMT -5 Kit said:

Jul 8, 2013 9:35:44 GMT -5 @godawgs said:

We took him into our vet first thing this morning. The vet said it's a good sign that he's regularly drinking water and keeping it down, and because of this it was okay that we waited until morning to bring him in. They did an x-ray and don't see anything. The vet gave us 2 options: keep him on ivs today and see if he perks up, or exploratory surgery. He recommended that we keep him hydrated with ivs and wait, and says it's very possible that he just ate something like a mushroom that didn't agree with him.

He was well hydrated and not in agony, which is why I didn't take him to the emergency vet. The e-vet near us charges a $500 minimum, so it's not a matter of just going and spending $100 or $200 to get an x-ray. If he hadn't been keeping down water and/or were moaning and in agony, I absolutely would have taken him in last night.

But didn't you say that when you touched his stomach, he cried out in pain?  That, to me, means he was in pain! That poor dog was probably in pain all night.

Jesus.

This is ridiculous to me.  If I have an upset stomach and someone presses on it, I'm going to say ouch.  So will my 3 year old.  But I wouldn't run either of us off to the ER in the middle of the night if we were hydrated and not in constant pain.  He was resting comfortably, was interested in his surroundings (looked out the car window on the way home from the dog sitter, got up to wander around the house on occasion, was lethargic but alert), wagged his tail when we scratched his head, etc. 

[SusanBAnthony]

Pet threads on the nest/gbcn always go exactly like this, no one should be surprised here, lol.

elle I don't think pet insurance was as much of a thing as when we got our dog 8 years ago. I don't know. I also think that if you view your dog as "just an animal" and you don't have any intention of spending big money on saving the animal's life, then 360$ a year for insurance is pretty steep. I know it isn't for you, but it is for the majority of pet owners, I would guess. Sure it is one meal out, but if that is your one meal out for the month, maybe you don't want to give that up. I know I wouldn't. And thinking of my sil, who makes minimum wage and has a dog, even if she came up wi the 30$ a month in insurance, she would have to put the 250$ deductible on a CC. She probably shouldn't own a dog. Scratch that, she definitely can't afford to own a dog. But it's either her or the dog being PTS- it was a mutt from a kill shelter.

[Kit]

Jul 8, 2013 12:03:42 GMT -5 @godawgs said:

Jul 8, 2013 11:40:53 GMT -5 Kit said:

But didn't you say that when you touched his stomach, he cried out in pain?  That, to me, means he was in pain! That poor dog was probably in pain all night.

Jesus.

This is ridiculous to me.  If I have an upset stomach and someone presses on it, I'm going to say ouch.  So will my 3 year old.  But I wouldn't run either of us off to the ER in the middle of the night if we were hydrated and not in constant pain.  He was resting comfortably, was interested in his surroundings (looked out the car window on the way home from the dog sitter, got up to wander around the house on occasion, was lethargic but alert), wagged his tail when we scratched his head, etc. 

We can agree to disagree.

I'm glad you finally took him in, at any rate.

[cheeseandcrackers]

Honestly.. I am not sure what I would spend till I am in that situation. I love my animals dearly but spending 10-20K would seem a bit excessive to me.. but once again it just depends, i've never been in this position.

That being said, I was one of the people who said I would save a strangers life over my own dogs life.. so there ya go lol

[Deleted]

Jul 8, 2013 9:23:51 GMT -5 FastHands said:

Jul 7, 2013 23:23:37 GMT -5 @godawgs said:

I agree he's my responsibility. I have actively tried to find him a home and would LOVE to find him a home where he is a part of someone's family. He really is a very sweet dog. He's also been professionally trained (I bartered legal services with a dog trainer who kept him for a week and did intensive training) and would make someone a great pet. I didn't think it would be so hard to find him a good home.

He's sweet and trained and you can't find him a home? Without being snarky, how hard have you tried? Do all of your friends know you are looking for a home? Do you post his adorable mug on facebook? Have you posted him here in case anyone knows someone in the area? Is he on petfinder? Do you ask local petco/petsmarts if you can bring him up on adoption days? Do you put him on craigslist? Check with rescues for any available foster arrangements?

I know that everyone has their financial limit of what they can rationalize spending on a dog, and I don't judge for that. It just strikes me as severely sad that your preface to a question about a dog's medical care was about how he's not really one of the family anyway. You did him a favor by rescuing him, but he deserves to be part of a family, and he deserves your full efforts to make that happen.

I've posted multiple times on Facebook. I've directly contacted a number of friends to see if they are interested, and I've asked people to spread the word. One woman was interested and kept him for a weekend, but decided he wouldn't work for her family because they have a squirrel feeder and the dog chased all of the squirrels out of the yard.  I went to post him on Craigslist, but they don't allow listings for pets. I also went to post on Petfinder, but apparently they no longer allow individual listings and you have to be a part of a rescue or shelter to post. When I adopted him, I thought I could list him online and find a good home and just keep him until that happened, but it turned out to not be the case. I would still love to find a new family for him because three dogs is just a lot for us, but it hasn't turned out to be as easy as I initially thought.

I haven't checked with any rescues, though, and that's a good idea.  We'd obviously be happy to keep him until they found him a good home.

[FastHands]

Jul 8, 2013 12:16:26 GMT -5 @godawgs said:

Jul 8, 2013 9:23:51 GMT -5 FastHands said:

He's sweet and trained and you can't find him a home? Without being snarky, how hard have you tried? Do all of your friends know you are looking for a home? Do you post his adorable mug on facebook? Have you posted him here in case anyone knows someone in the area? Is he on petfinder? Do you ask local petco/petsmarts if you can bring him up on adoption days? Do you put him on craigslist? Check with rescues for any available foster arrangements?

I know that everyone has their financial limit of what they can rationalize spending on a dog, and I don't judge for that. It just strikes me as severely sad that your preface to a question about a dog's medical care was about how he's not really one of the family anyway. You did him a favor by rescuing him, but he deserves to be part of a family, and he deserves your full efforts to make that happen.

I've posted multiple times on Facebook. I've directly contacted a number of friends to see if they are interested, and I've asked people to spread the word. One woman was interested and kept him for a weekend, but decided he wouldn't work for her family because they have a squirrel feeder and the dog chased all of the squirrels out of the yard.  I went to post him on Craigslist, but they don't allow listings for pets. I also went to post on Petfinder, but apparently they no longer allow individual listings and you have to be a part of a rescue or shelter to post. When I adopted him, I thought I could list him online and find a good home and just keep him until that happened, but it turned out to not be the case. I would still love to find a new family for him because three dogs is just a lot for us, but it hasn't turned out to be as easy as I initially thought.

I haven't checked with any rescues, though, and that's a good idea.  We'd obviously be happy to keep him until they found him a good home.

I don't understand how you try to post on the #1 dog-home website, see that they only allow postings if you are affiliated with a rescue, and then don't contact a rescue. That said:

Check with rescues, and mention both options:
1) you will continue to foster while they use their ability to list him on petfinder
2) if they have openings for an immediate foster where the dog might fit in better

Craigslist absolutely does allow listings for pets. You cannot do it in the For Sale section, however. Go under the Community section, subtopic "Pets".

[Deleted]

The vet has decided to keep him overnight and hopefully he'll be acting more spry tomorrow. I'm not sure how long the vet wants to give it before trying exploratory surgery, but they told us surgery would be $1,200. If recommended, we'd do exploratory surgery in the hopes that if there is something in there, they will find it and remove it. We've spent around $500 for the iv and x-ray. Hopefully we won't be faced with having to decide if we'll spend much more than this.

[FastHands]

Jul 8, 2013 12:22:09 GMT -5 @scottydeux said:

Anyway, I am glad the pup is on the mend. The latest thing my dog is into are junebugs. She eats them whole. Which means they are crawling around in her stomach!

What kind of dog do you have? I'm sure her stomach acids kill the bugs pretty much instantly, but the mental image of this is hilarious.

[Kit]

Jul 8, 2013 12:27:13 GMT -5 namasteak said:

I think what upsets me the most is that there is a large gap in how you treat him and feel about him vs the small dogs. Have you considered rehoming him?

She's mentioned in various posts throughout the thread that she has been trying. :-)

[joshlyman]

LOL at rich

Look, everyone had their priorities. For me, they are my animals. I spend a shit load on them - vet care and other stuff. But I know not everyone will have the same priorities, and that is OK. As long as you pets get vet care when needed and are loved and healthy, no judgement hear on who much you would spend in an emergency situation.

I have PetPlan insurance for the kids - love it. VPI gets pushed a lot, but I was much happier with the coverages under PetPlan.

[melindafelinda]

Team Que. Some of you people are insane. And assholes.

[joshlyman]

Jul 8, 2013 12:51:42 GMT -5 @scottydeux said:

Jul 8, 2013 12:33:49 GMT -5 FastHands said:

What kind of dog do you have? I'm sure her stomach acids kill the bugs pretty much instantly, but the mental image of this is hilarious.

I love you. I will no longer assume they are flipping themselves upside-down, spinning wildly about in puddles of hydrochloric acid.

I picture them flying around the body the way the magic school bus did.

[Deleted]

Jul 8, 2013 12:31:39 GMT -5 FastHands said:

Jul 8, 2013 12:16:26 GMT -5 @godawgs said:

Craigslist absolutely does allow listings for pets. You cannot do it in the For Sale section, however. Go under the Community section, subtopic "Pets".

SHIT, I can't believe I didn't see that.  I'll definitely post.

[joshlyman]

Jul 8, 2013 12:52:50 GMT -5 @theycalledherkate said:

Jul 8, 2013 11:40:21 GMT -5 Que? said:

I actually can't believe that you still stand by this garden gnome ridiculousness. You really need to grasp the fact that some dogs prefer to be outside, as not in your lap.

You guys, she saved this dog and kept him. She took him to the bet. Put your pitchforks away.

Okay. We can agree to disagree. Some dogs may prefer being outside---but the dog in question seems to be kept outside on purpose and is not a part of the family in the same way the other dogs are. If a dog lives on a farm somewhere and loves being outside, that's great. I don't believe dogs living outside almost 24/7 is okay for a city dog or a dog who lives with a family in the suburbs.

This is me as well. It is dangerous for the dog - plus outside only dogs tend to have major behavioral issues as well. Dogs are pack animals and do not want to be left alone all the time. This does not apply to true working dogs - many herding dogs for example make their sheep ect their pack, and are happy as can be and get a ton of exercise. That is just simply not the case for a dog left in a backyard in suburbia.

BUT - the dog in the OP was saved and I think that GoDawgs is doing the best she can. At least the pup is being taken care of and will hopefully have a great home soon. No flames from me GoDawgs, just keep doing the best you can and thanks for helping this pup in the first place. Like others have said, contact a bunch of local rescues and ask them to do a courtesy listing for you on petfinder. Getting him up on there with a cute picture and bio will be huge.

[purrbox]

I think everyone has a limit. I'm obviously not going to get a second mortgage on my house to pay for my dog's surgery. However, I would be willing to spend thousands of dollars on her.

That being said, I don't have any children. If I had children, I think my answer would be a bit different. Caring for children requires money and I think it's perfectly reasonable to have a lower limit when children are in the picture.