What was your biggest vet bill? What happened?

[OllieBoy99]

My biggest so far was when we first adopted Oliver as a kitten last year. The day after we adopted him, he was diagnosed with ringworm. In total with meds and pcr panels it was around $250. Which doesn’t include the cleaning supplies and blankets. I just signed up for insurance so hopefully it comes in handy if we ever need it.
What was your largest bill?

 

[cataholic07]

$5480 for my first cat Felicity, she was in the emergency vet for 5 days when she was very ill. She had a surgical biopsy done, feeding tube placed and meds/tests. She had SCL.

Jethro has CKD and would have cost me thousands of dollars in vet bills and supplies. He's only 3 years old.

 

[Furballsmom]

Somewhere around $1000 for dental work for Poppycat.

 

[neely]

Carleton's most recent expensive vet bill was for the I-131 radioactive iodine treatment. It was $1,700 but with the necessary tests to clear him for the procedure it was closer to $2,000.

 

[iPappy]

$1500+/- for a hospitalization/transfusion, and that was almost 15 years ago.

 

[Kieka]

Oh man..... I don't want to even try to do the math.

Nightfury had a week long medical emergency where the vet force fed him for 5 days before he started eating on his own again. Technically, Nightfury is my Moms cat but I contributed $1k to that bill. I think the total was $3k including hospital stay, testing, meds, etc. He looked like crap very quickly something with his intestinal tract.

Rocket had a blown pupil that our best guess is she hit her head enough to throw a blood clot. That was right around $1k in testing and specialists to review to make sure it wasn't a neurological issue all for a bonked head.

Link, oh Link. His most expensive was his broken leg. Two surgeries, multiple casts, a week long hospital stay and several emergency visits between because he's dramatic (twisted the cast by 45 degrees, constipated, etc). If I added it all up roughly $5-6k.... I think. It's been 5 years so I can't remember exactly. But he's easily been over $10k in his 8 years if we exclude basics (neuter, vaccines, annuals and annual blood work). He's had a few abcesses, odd ball injuries, coyote attack, anal glad bursting, dental cleanings, and such. I think he hasn't gone more than 8 months without a vet (usually ER vet since it is odd hours) visit. His vet keeps a picture of him on her phone and calls him her special boy that she'd love to see less of.

That's the current crew. I learned to budget for $1k per year per cat building up a savings account that I use just for them. I don't cap the account so that I have extra for any big things.

 

[iPappy]

If I compiled Tags records over the past year, my jaw would hit the floor. I do myself a favor and try not to think about it. :/

 

[Alldara]

$2,500 for dental and toe biopsy, pre anesthesia blood work and pre and post appointments (all on one bill). This is after the two other batches of $1,500 sets of diagnostics. Thanks goodness for pet insurance because Magnus has been a roller coster.
Magnua cost more in his first year than Nobel did in 15 years, including Nobel's $1,200 dental and multiple emergency visits for FLUTD over his life. And I paid out of picked for Nobel's neuter....Magnus was adopted post first shots and neuter.

In any case Magnus is fine now but had a heart murmur that was causing digestive issues and then developed allergies.

 

[arr]

Fizzbin needed a femoral head ostectomy after he broke his hip. With the emergency vet and then the surgery, it all came to a little over $2000.

 

[Jebel321]

My boy Oxford (I lost him last year - he was the best cat who ever lived) ate a fake Christmas tree and projectile vomited blood on New Year’s Day. Because we had to go to the emergency vet and have surgery, the bill was around $5,000. A few years later he developed cancer in his ear canal and had to have the entire canal removed. That surgery was somewhere between $2-3K. Those were his two most expensive trips. He had more that were less expensive.

 

[furmonster mom]

I’m in the “good lordy, Idonwannathinkaboutit” group.
I think the most expensive at one shot was probably when our angel kitty Pippen broke his leg when he was 4 months old. It happened over Christmas break, while we were out of town (a friend was popping in on them), and it was a week before we could get him in to the vet.

Then, because he was so young and his bones were still growing, she called in a veterinary orthopedic surgeon. I don’t know if things have changed, but at the time there were only a very few veterinary surgeons in the entire country who specialized in that kind of thing. The one we got literally flew across the country for this.

It cost us about 4k to get the leg pinned. And then we had to keep the poor 4 month old kitten confined for another 2 months. Still, he healed marvelously, and there were several times afterwards that we caught him jumping from a sitting position to the top of the fridge.

 

[Antonio65]

My cat Lola, in my picture.
2011 - Endonasal carcinoma: From the first scan to the final radiotherapy treatment two months later, plus the follow-up scans, trips to and from the facility, around €11,000 (at the current rate, it was $10,950)
2016 - Hyperaldosteronism: For the same disease, over a period of six months, with visits, scans, tests, treatments, hospitalization, surgery, pre and post, trips to and from the clinic, I think it was around €9,000 (at the current rate, it was $8,950)
2016-2017 - Oral SCC: Visits, tests, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, surgery, etc, around €4,000 ($3,980)

My cat Pallina.
2017 - Hyperthyroidism: Tests, visits, meds, I-131 treatment, trips to and from the facility, assessment, around €3,500 ($3,480)

I would have bought a large car, but I'm happy of what I did, and woud do just the same.

 

[cejhome]

Oh goodness. I'd have to guesstimate at over $10K over the 6 years we had our Puddin (two kitties ago maybe 16 years ago). We adopted her at 10ish years old from a bad rescue. Didn't realize just how sick she was - we knew she wasn't in great shape. Had to immediately bring her to a vet with weekend hours the next morning - she was pooping liquid diarreha. Ended up being there for 4 days. With all the discounts it was about $950.00 (They felt bad for us, but were very happy we were committed to her already.) She was a little over 5 pounds and was supposed to be about 8 - 8.5 lbs at a healthy weight. She was part Siamese and developed such a fever coat, even her nose lost its color. She kept having pudding poop (although not liquid) for a bit longer, until I figured out she wanted raw. (Her previous owner died - Puddin must have been raw fed, and her first good meal was partially thawed - not hard, but still firm chicken breast.) After that first raw meal, her poop was normal. Then, she was out on our back porch screen porch and came back in limping. Took her to vet, then she had us take Pud to a speciliast. X-rays, etc.. No damage showing. He figured she somehow damaged a ligament or tendon. She was not in pain so he just said to wait it out. It actually slowly healed up over several months (interesting thing was the claws on that paw didn't grow during that time). That was probably about $600. Then... a month or or so later found out she had stomatitis. Had to have all her teeth removed except for fangs by a specialist - that was another $900+. Then over the 6 years we were blessed to have her, she had to have frequent vet visits to monitor her stomatitis, prednisone levels and then atopica prescription, etc... Had to feed her raw rabbit or pork (of course a balanced raw diet recipe). At that time, you could not buy rabbit locally. I had to mail order raw rabbit from a farm in Pennsylvania (whole rabbit with the stomach, etc. removed, but all the guts still there). Fedex 3 day special shipping from Pennsylvania to Georgia - $$$$$$$$. Last couple years of her life she had vet visits probably every two weeks. She didn't mind the vet, so that wasn't an issue at all. She did great - her fur grew back in its normal color and she was a beautiful happy cat. Our vet used her before and after pictures on her website for years with a caption of "see what love can do". We still miss her. Loved our Nilla and our new kitty Buddy, but Puddin was a super special cat. The vet could do anything to her, as long as she could see me.