Oh lord, yes -- my cat Sooner's dental bill was iPad sized as well. And that was just extractions. Fortunately they don't do kitty tooth implants.

A sad thing -- my next-door neighbor's lab got out when the gardener left the gate open, ran out to the main street and was hit by a car. My neighbor ran to get her and they walked home together, and she didn't show any outer injuries, but as the hours passed, she got worse and worse. They took her to a local vet who told them to take her to the animal emergency clinic, which charged them over $1000 to keep her overnight and tell them that she needed a more major hospital 30 miles away. That hospital told them that she had a ruptured diaphram and fractured hip, and that the operation would be $13,000.

They didn't have that kind of money, and the doctors told them there would probably be follow-up surgeries as well. So they had to have her put to sleep, and they are really distressed and feeling guilty that they did.

Our vet told us that dogs can take Claridin.

You have to get the dosage right, though.

I think cats can take it too. I solved it for now by closing the windows, vacuuming, dusting and putting a super-filter filter on the furnace. I think it was a specific tree pollen. I hope they're not allergic to me!

Ellie's vet prescribed Benedryl. She gets half of the small ones. Without it, she's itching so far up her butt we're afraid she's going to turn herself inside out.

We also give her a wipe down with a damp cloth after a walkie, esp. her feetzies.

I hate to imagine how you identified that.

NSFW?

At the risk of not being careful what I ask for, I'm seriously worried about verbie and listeme's pup. People here have lost such wonderful, amazing pets over the years the PJ/Fogbow community has been in existence, including my beautiful Rocky. I suffer over all of them.

But I guess I'll go ahead and ask for an update. Please let it be good news.

I was just coming in to give an update, actually!

So there's some good news. He actually wanted to eat the food we offered this morning (a change). He is much more bright-eyed. I won't give you input-output reports, except to say if they were a 1 on the bad scale from 1 to 10, they've gone to a 3. I've gone from "pretty sure we'll lose him" to "worried sick".

My sister gave me all sorts of stories of things her dogs have eaten and survived last night. That was horrifying and cheering at the same time. (We don't know that he actually has a blockage of some kind, but that's still the number one guess for everybody.)

But we are pretty sure whatever it is is NOT a lightbulb (sister's dog Mac) or a pair of boy's boxers (sister's greyhound).

See, he must be better. I'm joking about this stuff

And I've gone from "worried sick" to "damn, boy, don't do that again, I was worried sick."

Glad he's better!

On a happy note, today is the Abyssinians' 3rd Birthday! Happy Birthday, Maisy and Joey!

That's great news. Sounds like he's on the mend.

We had a golden retriever once who horked up a smoke bomb on the living room floor. She and the Irish setter would ravage the neighborhood trash cans, the devils. Hork up tin foil, popsicle sticks, all sorts of stuff. My parents were, umm, ineffective at preventing their escape.

Dogs are pretty tough. Now I'm sure the little guy will pull through.

Not to be alarming....

A co-worker's dog was vomiting last weekend but seemed to get better on Sunday. On Monday she started again and people at work convinced him to take her to the vet. The regular vet didn't see anything on the x-ray but suggested keeping her and giving her barium and following the process of the barium to see if there was a blockage. Apparently they would do x-rays every few hours to see if it passed through the dog's system properly. He got regular updates through the afternoon on Tuesday, that seemed to suggest that the barium was progressing normally. But by late in the day there was bad news - the barium was not progressing and there was a blockage. They had to take the dog to a specialized hospital for the surgery - and fairly deep into her intestines they found a balled up sock (no word yet on who the sock would fit - only that it was dark colored - odds are that it belonged to my co-worker or his son). She was doing well after the surgery and was scheduled to come home Thursday. I haven't heard that there were any problems, but I know the bill was pretty big.

Verbie & Listeme - I hope your dog is doing better and it is not something serious.



For a non-animal person (I'm allergic) I have probably spent $4,500+ in vet bills in the past year or so.

First, when one of my daughter's foster kittens got sick suddenly and she took the kitten to the Penn Vet ER. After some treatment they advised there was nothing to be done and he had to be put down. Luckily they were willing to take mom's credit card number over the phone to pay the bill.

Last September her dog slipped the leash and got hit by a car. Again to Penn Vet ER (she lives 6 blocks away now). He had a dislocated right hip. We went with the cheapest surgical option - a "muscle joint" where they removed the ball at the top of his femur (??) and the hip is just muscle not a bone joint. It was still over $4,000 for the ER, surgery and 4.5 days in the hospital. The other two options - a hip replacement or just pushing the hip back into place would have required to dog to be off the leg totally for a period of time (not practical with an 80 lb dog and a second floor walk-up) and extensive physical therapy and a series of x-ray follow-ups to make sure the joint stayed in place. Once again they were happy to take my credit card to cover the bill.

I'm pleased to report that Happy (he's a rescue dog, that's the name the shelter gave him) has recovered really well and has even lost some weight (a big recommendation from the vet who directed the PT program at the hospital). But he is copper colored and the area they had to shave for the surgery has grown back more blond or white than copper. It gives him a strange patchwork effect.

I look forward to the day when my daughter is finally a vet - so she can treat her own pets and hopefully won't ask for my credit card to cover the bill.

Yep, I believe there's a good chance we end up having to do something surgical this week. I trust the vets and do NOT mind watching and waiting. One, we are pretty good at watching. I trust our instincts Two, I always prefer non-invasive methods first. We'll see.

We have a vet budget and a credit card that is only for vet stuff; stuff like this always goes over those. After he's better (see, optimism!), I am going to look at insurances.

One of my older son's Siamese strongly disliked the "invisible fence" collar that he wore, although it had probably saved his life more than once. Using techniques available only to cats, he removed the collar and then swallowed it. That was a very expensive vet bill. I imagine the cat thought that anything that it ate was gone forever.

Holy crap.

The orange cat that still lives at the ex's house would swallow stuff -- including a sewing needle once. It was (obviously) painful. I said, casually, to the vet after the removal procedure, "well, I guess he won't do that again!" She said, "yes, he will." Apparently if he was the type to swallow a needle, he would ALWAYS be the type to swallow a needle.

His picture is still on the wall at the vet's, too. My famous dumb cat.

Simon had a few more meatballs and was cranky when a neighbor dog walked by outside the window. I consider that a VERY good sign

When did iPads become legal tender? I was JUST getting used to Tide.

And best wishes to all the fur people.

I too had a cat that ate a needle. But he wasn't stupid in other ways. He could open the fridge and help himself to luncheon meat.

We had a black Lab that ate a hole in the side of our house once. Literally ate a hole through the wall from the deck into the kitchen. I didn't notice it from the outside because of the work table pushed up against the wall. I walked in the kitchen for coffee one morning and about lost my shit when I saw his stupid grinning face staring at me from the freaking hole through my house! He was the same dog that played fetch with 3' lengths of 2x4 so I shouldn't have been surprised that he ate a hole through my house! Shingles, tar paper, 1x6 boards, part of a 2x4 stud and then the sheet rock in the kitchen. Large enough for him to stick his head completely through to the inside of the house. He also ate fabric. As much as a yard at the time, but mostly quarter yards, and the occasional spool of thread.

The worst any of the cats do is open the front door by themselves. No luck yet on teaching them to close it behind themselves though.

Your dog needs to meet Cueball. He once ate a bathroom.

Britty's dog Cueball ate through the bathroom door when he locked himself in.

Dogs are awesome.

I don't know how much kitteh and goggie symptoms my coincide, but when Trouble was having her episodes a couple months ago...

Our vet did the same things Listme & Verbie's vet did for their puppy. X-ray, no blockages, anti-nausea drugs, a banana bag to rehydrate... One thing the vet did mention was, if this was something that recurred every couple months, we'd want to get blood work and check for Pancreatitis (sp) which is not uncommon in kittehs and can be controlled with medication. I don't know if this holds true for goggies, but y'know, FWIW. Also, Trouble has had no trouble since. In fact, she spent most of lunch today attacking my Barbara-in-Law's shoelaces.

I has a good feeling for da goggie.

The vet mentioned pancreatitis, as a matter of fact. We're going to get some bloodwork today or tomorrow, to check many things!

However, at the moment he is bright-eyed and obnoxious He ate his boring breakfast and made it clear that we were being cruel not to offer cool things.

It sounds like your doggy is channeling his inner cat. I'm glad he is feeling better.

OUCH...I hope he picks up some more for you.