(Sorry for sad subject but) doggie end of life costs, anyone?

[WoolyMammoth55]

Our beautiful girl is 10 now and I hope has a few years left still - BUT she's just been diagnosed as blind and our insurers now won't cover her at all.

To be clear, her quality of life is good and she gets around fine 90% of the time, knows the house and sniffs her way around outside - it's just that they said from a risk point of view she is off the charts now for injuries so they can't cover her.

She's never been un-insured before and we are trying (on top of all the other squeezes!) to make sure there's some money put aside in case she needs any treatment.

However, it got me thinking about end of life costs. I've not had a dog before her so no idea what these are. How much do we need to have set aside so that we can do right by her at the end without having cashflow panic on top of dog-grief?

Appreciate any advice - thank you.

Lost my girl in May. She had blood tests, was monitored at vets for about 4 hours, we were told nothing they could do (they said they could monitor overnight with drips which would cost £1200 but it wouldn't change anything) PTS, cremated separately, ashes returned in cardboard scatter tube. Bill was £800. If they'd done a scan to confirm the diagnosis (which was 100% confirmed already) it would be £2500 for the scan.

We lost our boy in July, we made the decision that it was time, and so there wasn't any need for a consultation, and so the appointment was just for the end of life process, and that was £250.

We then opted for an individual cremation and that was £300.

Our boy was a large dog and so that had some bearing on it

I'm sorry you are going through this, and send lots of love ❤️

Sorry just re-read my response and meant to say 'I'm sorry you are having to think of going through this'

When my dear dog was PTS last year, the total cost, including an individual cremation, was about £200. I was pleasantly surprised that it was about the same as my previous dog fifteen years previously. My dear dog had been blind since he was six.

Both were Labradors.

So sorry to hear that you are having to consider this.
There are things that affect the costs, such as the size of the dog, whether it is done at the surgery or your own home and if you have individual cremation or bury the body yourselves.

It might also be worth ringing different practices to see if there is much variation in costs too.
I was in the vets the other day and a lady rang wanting to have her 17 year old dog put down at home. Sadly she couldn't afford it, or the cremation costs. I think there will be a lot of heartbreaking decisions that people are having to make. I'm budgeting between 3 to 5 hundred each for my 40 kg dogs, hopefully not for a while, but both are elderly with issues.

I had my 25Kg dog PTS just over a week ago, individual cremation and ashes returned in a scatter tube and the cost was just over £500 but it did include an emergency weekend consultation fee of £250.

Thanks all! Those ball-park costs are very helpful. Lots of love to all still grieving their loss <3

@Spanielsarepainless can you tell me if you found anyone willing to insure your blind dog for a reasonable cost? Being uninsured is stressful but from what our previous insurers said (we've been with them since she was a pup and they have been great prior to this) there's not much hope of finding anyone who can cover her now...?

I stopped insuring him at nine when it was costing more than the two cars! The genetic blindness wasn't the reason, just age. If anything he was at lower risk of an accident because he was controlled by his lead more often. The excess at eight went up by 25% and we also had to pay 20% of the bill. Workng it all out after we lost him, we broke even on the last seven years.

I think euthanasia at vets £90 and at home likely to be nearer £300, i'd also save for an out of hours fee in case it's emergency rather than pre-planned. Cremation goes by weight and if don't want ashes returned it's much cheaper or can bury body at home. I think my dogs individual cremation was about £200 with a pretty scatter tube ( they will transfer if buy urn/box elsewhere). I went with a local crematorium rather than vets service, you can drop off or they can collect body from vets/home & deliver ashes for extra fee. The vet contracted service was on a weekly or fortnightly pickup & drop off and local crem its often done within 24/48 hrs and was a quiet, nice place to go and could spend time with dog in their chapel/room of rest ( maybe important if weren't able to be with dog when they pass) and less upsetting than going back to busy vets to collect ashes. It's a good idea to research your options early.

If have some notice time to arrange then there are some vet companies now that just specialise in home euthanasia too as many practices are just too busy to be able to offer it. We've also got a mobile vet practice locally.

I'm surprised blindness makes such a difference to insurance, is it lifetime condition cover or just 12 month policy? I'd expect more claims to be illness related and people would be more likely to keep a blind dog on lead which would help reduce the accident risk. My friends blind dog I wouldn't have been able to pick out from the rest of the pack.