In this post, we’ll explore the challenging journey of dealing with Pequi’s illness, its significant financial impact, and the invaluable lessons we learned along the way. With the cost of living crisis, even a healthy dog can still cost much money in food and general care. Our journey through pet illness and high vet bills was a sobering experience, to say the least.
When a beloved dog is ill, the scenario worries most families, not only because of the emotional stress of a pet being sick but also because of the financial burden, as the cost of vet bills is incredibly high. It is a challenging situation, especially now when most households struggle with the cost of living crisis.
The Illness
If you have been following my blog for a while, you will notice there hasn’t been a post for a few months. The reason is that Pequi, our lovely rescue dog is ill. It has been going for a while, 10 months to be specific. She started with a cough at the end of February last year. Our local vet then diagnosed it as kennel cough.
We started with anti-inflammatories and antibiotics, and in a few weeks, she was better, but she had a constant discharge from her nose that never went away. After a few weeks, she was having real difficulties breathing, and one day, it felt like she was going to die. We rushed her to the same vet. They did a Bronchoalveolar lavage and X-rays. The vet said she had never seen so much mucus from a dog’s lungs. They didn’t know what was wrong with Pequi and referred her to a vet hospital for a rhinoscopy.
We took her to a well-known vet hospital in London, and they did several tests alongside a rhinoscopy, including a CT-Scan, x-rays and other tests. The vets found no foreign body in the nasal chambers or lungs. They prescribed a different antibiotic.
This situation went on for many months. Pequi would get a bit better, but the discharge continued. She would then get worse again, and we would take her back to the vet hospital, do more tests, and change the antibiotics.
Then at the beginning of December, she became very ill, and we thought that we would lose her. She stopped eating and didn’t want to stand. We took Pequi to the vet hospital, and she stayed there for a week. She had many procedures, including an endoscope, a bronchoscopy, and another rhinoscopy. She has inflammation everywhere in her little body and still has an infection. She had to be on a drip as she refused food and had to be given oxygen to help her breathe. It was an ordeal, and we had many sleepless nights caring for our fur baby.
Finally, the vets think they have found the cause of her illness, and we have a plan to tackle it. She will likely take medicine forever but should have a good quality of life. We are combating the infection with yet another antibiotic, and she is slowly getting better and more like herself, but the mucus persists!
I hope she is on the mend now and that she will have a good life with us for many years to come.
The Cost of It All
As if the stress and emotional drain of having your pet suffering like that is not enough, the cost of vet bills is enormous. It is quite prohibitive to have a pet if you can’t afford decent insurance, and even with one, we still had to spend a good deal of money on insurance claim excesses, car journeys to and from the vets, medicine, and time off work.
According to industry statistics, the average vet bill in the UK can be around £300, but complex treatments can soar into the thousands, as was our experience.
In a survey from YouGov on behalf of Dogs Trust, 33% of the UK’s dog owners are worried about how the crisis will impact how they can care for their dogs. About half of the respondents said their biggest worry was vet bills.
In September last year, the government launched a review over concerns that pet owners are being overcharged. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said vet fees were rising faster than other goods and services during the cost of living crisis.
Even with insurance, most of the ones we checked for our dogs require the owner to pay the vet bill first and submit it to the insurance company to be paid back. This alone is already a significant concern. For example, when Pequi was in the vet hospital, her last bill was several thousand pounds. So we had to have the amount available to pay the vets and submit it to the insurance company afterwards. It takes another 30 to 60 days to receive the money back, minus the excess. Finding that much money to pay for our dog’s treatment at the end of the year created tremendous financial pressure for us.
What have we learned?
- Have a pet insurance. Get the best you can afford. This is one of those things you buy not to use, but if your dog does have an issue, you will be glad you had it.
- Buy the best food you can for your dog. It’s not about the brand but about quality. Sometimes, the most expensive brand isn’t the best for your dog. Research online about your dog’s breed and see what other people are feeding their dogs with good results.
- Regular vet check-ups are crucial. I learned this the worst way possible, don’t wait too long if you think your dog has an issue. Sometimes, a quick response will save you and your pet much suffering.
- Challenge your vet bills. Sometimes, they may need to correct the bill. We have had such a situation before, so always ask for a detailed invoice and check that all is correct.
- If in doubt, go for a second opinion. If you think the vet is sending your dog for expensive treatment for no reason, or even if you are unsure, there is little harm in going to another vet and getting a second opinion.
- If possible, set aside a contingency fund for unexpected pet health emergencies.
- Prepare for the worst, although not the topic of this post, sometimes your dog will be so poorly that the best decision will be to let them rest. Your vet will advise you on that. When Pequi was doing very badly, and we thought we might lose her, I read the book The Loss of a Pet by Wallace Sife, Ph. D. It was a good help, and I would advise anyone to read it if they find themselves in the same situation we were in.
As I said in the introduction of this post, pet illness and high vet bills are challenging things to deal with, and I hope the information above helps people going through the same issues. If you are struggling with an ill dog and want to share your experiences and opinions, please comment below.
I hope that the CMA review will at least bring to light issues with vet bills in the UK and that the cost of living crisis won’t last too much longer.
I wish good health to your pets.
Many thanks for reading,
Ademar
Leave a Reply