Just paid vets bill for one chemo treatment - £1,171

[LimitIsUp]

So my dog needs chemo to shrink a lesion and has had his first treatment. There were some additional items on there - some cardiac pills because they think he has sub clinical DCM and also testing for taurine levels (again re the DCM)

I have to pay this bill in its entirely since our insurance covers us for £4,000 per annum but that has already been exceeded by CT scans and other diagnostics etc (and next 12 month period isn't until November)

We have at least 3 more similar bills in the pipeline (Chemo every 3 weeks for 4-6 treatments)

Given the cost, do most people not pay for Chemo and opt for pain relief then PTS? I ask because I was stunned by the amount. We do okay for money but the costs are scary. We will pay for the whole course of treatment but Christ on a bike.....

(I am also more than a little fucked off that 20% VAT is added to vet bills)

Loss of a limb in a large breed isn’t great especially when they are getting on. Have you considered amputation and a prosthetic limb…. costs are around £2.5-3k has to be specially made to measure. IF the dog can tolerate it.

Vet bills are atrocious and I fear a lot of animals may be rehomed or pts with rising living costs as a result.

If anyone claims benefit, PDSA offer free treatment, never used it myself but work with client groups who do.

Best wishes for your dog OP.

I'm paying an incredible amount (well over the insurance limit now) for chemo each month for my elderly cat. Her tumour is incurable but her quality of life is still fantastic so whilst that continues her treatment will as well. I would go without anything to just spend some more precious months with her. Every circumstance is different but I couldn't not know that I hadn't done everything I could to extend her life whilst she is still so healthy. She is coping fantastically with the treatment, once she isn't I will have to face the reality I'm putting off. It's heartbreaking

honestly i would PTS
suffering for the animal is only for our benefit. They do not know any different. I am sorry

We paid £1K for tumour removal etc and the dog needed to be PTS anyway.

I didn't have insurance for my cat and sep t £1k in the last few months of her life - in the end I stopped treatment (she was 20) because it just seemed ridiculous - and I couldn't have gone on paying it .

I now have a dog and I have the best insurance cover I can get , but anything expensive not covered by insurance will not be happening, I simply cannot afford it and I've set my boundaries for this so I don't have to make painful decisions at difficult times .

@stillherenow

I didn't have insurance for my cat and sep t £1k in the last few months of her life - in the end I stopped treatment (she was 20) because it just seemed ridiculous - and I couldn't have gone on paying it . I now have a dog and I have the best insurance cover I can get , but anything expensive not covered by insurance will not be happening, I simply cannot afford it and I've set my boundaries for this so I don't have to make painful decisions at difficult times .

I think this is important. Think ahead and discuss what you are and aren't willing to do before you need to.

If you've thought and talked about what you feel is right and ok for your pets then you will remember that when emotions are running high and all you want to do is make them better.
We could have done surgery and all sorts but it wasn't right for our boy.

Sometimes the best thing truly is to keep them comfortable and know when it's time to let them go. Better a day early than a day late IMO.

Our new vets a large practice three vets all with different opinions. Old dog not insured. Vet 1 wanted a n MRI 3k, said no so he had arthritis drugs and dementia ones. When I returned vet 2 wanted him PTS . He seemed no worse so we took him home. Three months later he was going down hill no more walking, accidents in house, confused, not eating so back to vets. Vet 3 wanted blood works, tests, drugs, I had to insist on PTS which was very distressing because he clearly disapproved. Our old boy was nearly 17 years of age. It was unnecessarily traumatic for both of us.

@gogohm

We have £10k a year cover but have run up £7k this year not even chemo just a leg operation but at a referral vet

Was it north west in Runcorn by any chance? It was that much last year for my dogs leg operation. Good luck to your lovely dog - whatever you decide op

@justasking111 it was like that with my cat - the array of intervention offered was bewildering and invasive. I refused an inpatient stay as she would have hated it and at 20 I wanted her last few weeks to be peaceful- and they clearly thought I was being ridiculously soft when i said that (she would have been in a cage in a place she was terrified of and there were lots of dogs howling)

I've changed vets now as I felt I was being pushed to spend so much money and they weren't seeing the animal in front of them - who was doddery and confused and throwing a ton of treatment at her was not in her best interest.

I paid near on 8k for cancer treatment for my dog last year. He didn't have to have the chemo but did have half of his jaw removed as he he had bone cancer. He had a limp previously removed but residual cells led to it growing back and the removal of the jaw bone was the best bet of remission.

He is perfectly fine now and coped amazingly well with the operation. It is not expected that the cancer will come back although obviously you can never guarantee that but I am glad that he had the operation as he was and still is fine.

We did have the option of chemo treatment but the specialists felt that the operation was going to be less disruptive, potentially more successful and even though it sounded awful they felt the impact of the op would be less than other treatments and they were right.

We were in the same situation re the insurance costs, we had to pay a lot of it out of our savings because we massively underestimated the costs of vet bills/cover needed.

I probably wouldn’t do any chemo or crazy surgeries and so have low insurance amounts. That and the fact it’s £100 per month per dog! I would of course pay for something guaranteed to be curative though.

Many years ago I did take a dog too far treatment wise and vowed never to do it again. Dogs live in the moment, they don’t care about tomorrow and so as long as today is happy that’s good enough for me

Our old dog was 13 when they found a growth in his mouth. The vets offered tests and potentially chemo if it was cancerous, which is certainly appeared to be - it was horrible and black, and didn’t look good at all. But at his age, we refused, as he wasn’t in pain and still had quality of life, but was very clearly already approaching the end. We ended up needing to pts a couple of months later when his heart began to fail. He had just turned 14.

For a younger dog it’s harder - I know we couldn’t cover those levels of vets bills, even with insurance (which we do have). Depending on the dog, I’d either choose amputation, and accept that this would shorten his life - I’ve known a large dog with a forelimb amputated, from puppyhood in his case - and he coped pretty well and was happy, but of course he’d known nothing else. Or I’d pts. With our current dog, sadly I think he wouldn’t cope with an amputation and so we’d have to choose the latter - I’d keep him going while he still had quality of life but be aware that this wouldn’t be forever, bless him.

I’m sorry, it’s a terrible position to be in. But the most important thing is that you keep his welfare front and centre, and then you’ll always be making the right choice, even if your financial position limits the choices that you have, IYSWIM.

Many years ago I did take a dog too far treatment wise and vowed never to do it again. Dogs live in the moment, they don’t care about tomorrow and so as long as today is happy that’s good enough for me

I have come to that conclusion but it was in a slightly different way because we were back and forth at the vets never getting to the bottom of things until eventually we specifically asked for invasive diagnostic tests which confirmed the issue and now means we knew how to treat the problem. Unfortunately that has left us with a dog that is fearful of a variety of things and subsequent necessary vet interventions have made it even worse. I would now reject treatments such as chemo or major operations which may or may not help but would definitely involve lots of vet visits.

How do we know dogs don't suffer the same as dogs often hide pain very very well
Why many people don't realise how much pain a dog is in for a while at times
My vet wanted us to treat our 14 year old dog at cost of £5000 and it may give her another 6 months of which two she would have to be crated for , we declined and left that vets practice

@BiteyShark ours sounded similar to yours! Young dog, very sick. I wanted to try everything. Subjected her to lots of painful and invasive tests and treatments over a period of time to find out it was a lifelong condition requiring much of the same. I tried treatment for a year by which point the dog was fear aggressive from all of the handling and didn’t want to step foot out of the front door for a walk for fear or what would happen next. I opted to euthanise after this but much too late IMO, I wish I hadn’t put her to sleep lots sooner.

I would treat a dog if it was say X treatments or a surgery and then the dog would have a good chance of a normal life but I probably wouldn’t go down the long term treatment to prolong life road again. I think often the dogs mental health is overlooked but they are smarter and more sensitive than we think!

With my 13 year old cat who had cancer the vet full on outright said ‘we wouldn’t consider treatment for him’ so that was me told. I agreed to be fair and he went nice and peacefully in my arms. I was not so peaceful about it!

It's so hard, isn't it?

I'm in the fortunate position that I can make healthcare decisions for my pets without really worrying about costs. I'm aware not everyone is in that lucky position!

But the flip side of that is there's the temptation, always, that just because you can you should Which often isn't in the animal's best interests. I think some - not all, but some - vets are culpable in pushing this. For example, my 13 year old dog was diagnosed with lung cancer and the vet offered to crack her chest and remove the lung, inspite of there being clear spread to the other lung and the liver. I turned it down, not because of the cost, but because it would have been an appalling thing to do to her. And ultimately futile.

In contrast, I chose to have £6k of emergency surgery for a young dog (absolutely the right decision - she's snoring beside me as I type this). But I've just declined chemo for my cat with lymphoma because he hates going in his box, hates the vets, hates everythign about it, and it would be cruel for no purpose.

I also don't buy - having seen a friend's dog go through it - that they sail through chemo. He lost half his body weight, all of his fur, and then died anyway. I rather decided then that none of mine would ever be put through that.

I'm rambling a bit. I guess my point is just because I can afford a treatment doesn't mean I choose to do it. I'm lucky to have that choice, though. It must be immensely difficult to have choices taken away from you because of cost.

“I also don't buy - having seen a friend's dog go through it - that they sail through chemo.”

They don’t always, of course... but the aim is to not affect quality of life, if it does then that’s on the owner to go, actually they’re not doing well on this and then you stop that treatment. Just because you’ve started it doesn’t mean you carry on no matter what.

It’s just that ideally you want all the options open to you so you can decide what’s the best option for that pet at that time and yeah, not have to have it dictated by just cost alone.

I made the decision many years ago that I would not engage in any more invasive treatment that only extended an animals life by less than a year or so - i.e. that just put off the inevitable. A young animal with a severe, but treatable, condition, yes - give it a go. An older one who faced endless tests, treatments and vets visits, no.

I've been through end of life decisions with multiple dogs and other pets over the last 35+yrs. The only decisions I've ever regretted have involved letting things go on too long.

Tbh for me it depends on the age of the dog and likely outcome .

If I had a young dog with a good outcome I'd pay whatever it costs . If my dog was 10yrs upwards with poor outcome I'm not sure .

I don't insure mine but I have put a significant sum aside for this type of eventuality.
I hope your poor dog has a good outcome .

I lost my dog very recently to cancer. His prognosis was poor from the outset but chemotherapy gave us an extra five months together and he tolerated the treatment extremely well. His quality of life was great right till the end.
Fortunately I had a whole of life policy (PetPlan) which paid the first £7,000 but I’ve still got another £2,500 sitting on my credit card. The costs are eye-watering and the vet oncologist told me that some dogs can be on the treatment for years.
It’s so important to have cover with a reputable insurance company. Mine have been great so at least that aspect hasn’t been too stressful.
I miss my buddy so much. He was only seven. It’s so hard when they should still have years and years of life.

Update - Following Ddogs first chemo 10 days ago he has had precisely zero side effects; normal appetite, keen for his walks, no fatigue, no gastric problems and his white blood cell count has remained normal. So the only ill effects have been on my bank balance!

So sorry for your loss. Seven is no age - I've been there with my previous dog, a Bernese Mountain Dog who I had to pts at 7. It seems so unfair

Thanks for the update OP.

That's so good to hear. Hope everything progresses well for him, and you.

Great to hear he tolerated the treatment so well - thanks for the update.