Stubs thread made me think. If your dog or pet comes up sick, how much money are you able to spend on care.

example: you dog is diagnosed with a bad illness such as cancer. How much money will you spend if prognosis is bad?

My dog is getting older 11 years. Afraid I may be faced with this some day

I just spent $2400 on a horse that went through a barbed wire fence. My hunting dog is worth as much as that horse, so I assume I would do the same.

It really is a quality of life thing.

This may be controversial. People can make their own choices about pets, but I believe many often pay for such medical care based on the owner's desires rather than what is best for the animal.

If there is hope for fixing them, I'll spend a bunch. If there is no hope, and especially if they are suffering, I will have them put to sleep.

We spent about $800 on our last dog while the vet sent off samples to a lab to figure out if it was a manageable cancer and he would get a few years of normal life (acute vs chronic sort of thing). We found out it was not the manageable type the day before he couldn’t function at all, so we took him in to be put down. If it had been the manageable kind, we probably would have put him on medicine. He was already on anti-seizure medicine for a few years at that point and had both ACLs repaired ($6,000+ total).

My dog had 2 ACL fixed… also swallowed small tennis ball, long story short damn good thing he was young and I like him. My family will be lost one day with out him

Blank check

In the early days, not much. In the 70's the dog and I were crossing a creek, and a moccasin got her. Mom packed the dog in kerosene-soaked rags and ice until the swelling went down. Said she had seen her dad do it on the ranch.

No different than people. If reasonable treatment, go for it. If not, quality of life is more important. Dog started limping, some kind of sore on paw. Took her for a walk yesterday and she did well. Vet said it might be cancer - will have to think about that. Son had his dog's leg removed due to cancer, she's doing OK now.

It's not easy to put a price tag on them. We had a cocker that was one of the sweetest dogs we've had. He got lymphoma at 4yo...we took him over to the vet place on Trinity Mills that deals with all this stuff. In the end, we were just going to be buying time...it wasn't in his best interest, but it wasn't a money issue per say...even though it was a lot of money, it was that they couldn't fix him and what quality of life he'd have while going through it.

What I will say is if a dog is lucky enough to become part of our family, in the dog world it's the equivalent of hitting the lotto.

If it was my decision the lab would've been the last one...kills me to go through the end process and it's something I think about from the day we get them until the day we have to deal with it. Yes, I hate it that much.

Good luck Buzz...the dog normally tells us if we'll listen.

My lab was a used dog i got on Craigslist. I took him straight to my vet and he was heart worm positive. A thousand bucks later that ended up being the best money I’ve ever spent.

Thanks all.

Jessie, my lab started having a bloody nose. No gushing, just some dripping. Comes and goes. I took her to her vet last week. They did blood work, blood pressure and check everything. They had to give her mild sedation because she won't hold still (mostly anxiety at the vet). Couldn't find anything but suggested I take her to the place on Trinity Mills that Judd mentioned. Bleeding stopped, so I haven't made an appointment yet.

First lab was a vet's dream. Seems after every hunt, field trial/hunt test, we went to ended up with stiches for something

My second lab chewed up a pin cushion and yes, swallowed a needle. We took her to the place on Trinity Mills. x-rays showed the needle in her stomach. Vet said if it didn't pass or dissolve, surgery would be needed. Thank God it went away on next x-ray. VERY expensive.

Vet said bloody noses are not very common in dogs. UGHHH. So, we will watch and wait. Jessie is 11 and if would be something bad, I guess it would be church for her.

Already $150 a month for medication. He has been the best dog so now that he is old and needs help we give it to him. When I was a kid my dad would have put something really tasty on the ground and when he started eating it, fire a shot into his head and have one us bury him. I told him him when I was older that if he got to expensive to take care of that I was going to take him into the backyard.

Is a very personal decision and a lot of factors need to be considered, how old is the dog, quality of life. And if a hunting dog, how much have you invested in the dog. I paid $1600 for dog as a puppy, and have invested a ton of time and money into her training her, and she had injuries that cost me $1,500 didn’t blink an eye at the time.

So there is not one answer, it can vary depending on the situation.

Depends on the dog. The potlickers that are not good for anything seem to live forever.

We have spent a lot over the years on various dogs and also our cat's and our bird. Even normal vet visits with blood work run multiple hundreds of dollars now. We had one male cat that was spayed and even on special urinary tract food, at least once a year he would get crystals in his urine and his bladder would get blocked. It was a simple procedure to flush everything out, but it was 500-750 a pop. That was almost 20 years ago and I can't even imagine how much that procedure would cost today. For our latest pets, a 1500 to 2K procedure is where we start to have the hard conversations. Unfortunately, that barely gets you in the door for most cancer and old-age procedures.

I think a lot of the discussion is how old the dog is and how much suffering they will have to go through to get where you want them to be.

To each, that choice is going to be personal, but it should not be made in selfishness. The suffering of the animal needs to be considered first, then the love of the dog second.

I remember long time ago I didn’t have much money, my wife paid $300 vet bill to keep my kids pet rat alive. I was so pissed off, I kill rats and she is paying to keep one alive. She called me crying when it died, I was like “thank god!” It was a cool rat tho, it would escape from its cage all the time, but never ran from us. We would come home and it would meet us at the door like a dog and stand on its hind legs.

You're not wrong. I know a broke-arse college student that spent $3600 on a run-of-the-mill cat, and then had the gall to ask for help via GoFundMe. Cat did live but only for another year.

Depends on the age of the dog. I would be willing to do a lot more for a 2 year old dog versus a 10 year old dog.

I have spent a bunnch on the last three, This one has about $6k in emergency surgery and biopsy bills. Last summer I thought he had cancer in the paw if so the amputation would have been $12k. Jess is 5 still and I wont answer the OP directly as my number is outside the norm.

I spent about $2000 on my last bird dog but she didn’t make it. Vet costs are sky high, especially medications.

All the shelters are packed and people are dumping animals everywhere.


Bad situation.

Not much for the one I have now. I dont even like the cost of her food. So far she has been the most expensive free dog I have ever had in terms of vet visits. Every dollar I dump into her is too much but for some reason I keep doing it.

Some dogs I have had in the past were priceless though.

Was his name Ben?