Vet expenses

[morumotto]

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this, but I needed to vent and get this off my chest.

My piggies have been struck with a terrible run of luck when it comes to their health. No exaggeration, I've been to the vet at minimum once a month for the past 15 months. Everything from cysts / tumors, GI stasis, UTIs, eye injuries, gas, other infections, etc. Just yesterday I had to take one of my piggies to an emergency vet, because the UTI she had a month ago has seemingly come back and she bled while urinating during floor time. It got me thinking about how much I've spent on my piggies since 15 months ago... and it's come out to over $10k.

I've always set aside money each month for vet bills, but this is getting to absurd levels of cost. I never anticipated spending this much so quickly. I've gone years taking care of piggies without having this much bad luck. It's pretty much a running joke now (though not very funny) that if there's something wrong with one of the piggies, things will always get worse. I swear, with how often they get sick you'd think they were living in abysmal conditions, but the vet thinks I'm one of the better piggie caretakers. But this certainly has me questioning!

Anyways, there wasn't really a point to this post other than to vent. At the end of the day, I'm going to do everything in my power to get my piggies well if their quality life can still be good. But... this totally stinks haha

 

[Deleted member 139433]

I totally understand you needing to rant. And I'm really sorry to hear of your run of bad luck. I do understand, my piggy Odin cost me just over £8k within the space of a few months when he was poorly; not to mention the weekly (sometimes twice weekly) 200 mile round trips to the vet.

You are right, we always do whats best by our animals; but you do need to take care of you too. Looking after sick piggies is extremely stressful and at times over whelming. I don't think I left the house for 6 months when Odin was poorly.

You sound like a fantastic owner and I'm sure you're doing everything right. Sometimes these things just happen. I also had a run of bad luck with 5 poorly piggies and lost 3 in the space of a couple of months. It never rains, it pours! It's nothing you are doing. They are such a sensitive little species, and very much under-researched (even in veterinary literature). My piggies have had far higher vet bills than my horses!

Keep going, and please feel like you can rant on here any time you like. This is such a supportive forum and I wouldn't have made it through the darker months without everyone on here.

Thinking of you

 

[Merab]

A good rant is something we all need to do from time to time and I’m glad you felt this is a safe place to sound off.
Vet bills can be horrendous and you have certainly had more than your share of bad luck.
Your piggies are very lucky to have such a lovely owner who is prepared to give them the very best care possible.
Look after yourself.

 

[morumotto]

I totally understand you needing to rant. And I'm really sorry to hear of your run of bad luck. I do understand, my piggy Odin cost me just over £8k within the space of a few months when he was poorly; not to mention the weekly (sometimes twice weekly) 200 mile round trips to the vet.

You are right, we always do whats best by our animals; but you do need to take care of you too. Looking after sick piggies is extremely stressful and at times over whelming. I don't think I left the house for 6 months when Odin was poorly.

You sound like a fantastic owner and I'm sure you're doing everything right. Sometimes these things just happen. I also had a run of bad luck with 5 poorly piggies and lost 3 in the space of a couple of months. It never rains, it pours! It's nothing you are doing. They are such a sensitive little species, and very much under-researched (even in veterinary literature). My piggies have had far higher vet bills than my horses!

Keep going, and please feel like you can rant on here any time you like. This is such a supportive forum and I wouldn't have made it through the darker months without everyone on here.

Thinking of you

Thank you so much for having taken the time to reply to my post. It took me a while to reply back since, unfortunately, things have gotten worse in my home with my girls. It feels so nice to be understood, though this is not something I wish for anyone to go through. I'm the only one in my circle that takes care of guinea pigs, and most of the people in that circle don't "get" them, so it's nice to have this space here of like-minded animal lovers.

I'm so sorry you've had your share of troubles. If I'm understanding correctly it sounds like things are better now with Odin? I'm so glad to see someone out of the woods, I hope to get there myself soon.

Thank you so much again for the kind words. They mean the world to me right now.

 

[morumotto]

A good rant is something we all need to do from time to time and I’m glad you felt this is a safe place to sound off.
Vet bills can be horrendous and you have certainly had more than your share of bad luck.
Your piggies are very lucky to have such a lovely owner who is prepared to give them the very best care possible.
Look after yourself.

Thank you so much for your kindness. When they're doing so poorly it's hard to believe that I've been a good owner to them. It's good to be reminded that trying to do anything at all for them is, unfortunately, better than most piggies get. Thank you again.

 

[Lady Kelly]

Things always happen at the same time, and usually on bank holidays in my experience. I don't have any piggies currently but I generally kept a group of 4 and you could guarantee that if one got ill, another one would have something within a couple of weeks. I've had a couple of piggies that by the time you tot up all the costs it's in the thousands, once I had a bill of £1100 to pay in one go and just had to shove it on the credit card til I could move some money around. It's so painful and a lot of my friends and colleagues thought I was crazy paying that for a guinea pig but I always felt I owed it to them and if the vet thought there was a good chance of success then it was worth the cost

 

[Deleted member 139433]

Thank you so much for having taken the time to reply to my post. It took me a while to reply back since, unfortunately, things have gotten worse in my home with my girls. It feels so nice to be understood, though this is not something I wish for anyone to go through. I'm the only one in my circle that takes care of guinea pigs, and most of the people in that circle don't "get" them, so it's nice to have this space here of like-minded animal lovers.

I'm so sorry you've had your share of troubles. If I'm understanding correctly it sounds like things are better now with Odin? I'm so glad to see someone out of the woods, I hope to get there myself soon.

Thank you so much again for the kind words. They mean the world to me right now.

No problem at all, I do hope things improve for you. Sounds like you really are having a terrible time

Unfortunately Odin passed that same year (he had a huge range of problems), but he did have the happiest, healthy few months with me before it was his time to leave.

We are all here to listen whenever you need us.

 

[morumotto]

Things always happen at the same time, and usually on bank holidays in my experience. I don't have any piggies currently but I generally kept a group of 4 and you could guarantee that if one got ill, another one would have something within a couple of weeks. I've had a couple of piggies that by the time you tot up all the costs it's in the thousands, once I had a bill of £1100 to pay in one go and just had to shove it on the credit card til I could move some money around. It's so painful and a lot of my friends and colleagues thought I was crazy paying that for a guinea pig but I always felt I owed it to them and if the vet thought there was a good chance of success then it was worth the cost

This exactly describes my current situation. Last weekend one of my girls started having blood in her urine, despite being treated and cleared for a UTI less than a month before. And just after she had a culture tested and I was told it was non-bacterial (non-UTI), her cagemate also started having blood in her urine (and this happened two days after this piggie had a vet appointment where she was declared to be in good health). And today my boy piggie is having GI / gas issues again. As you said, these are all things that have a good chance of success of curing and I feel like I owe it to them as well for promising to take care of them. I'm at the stage you're describing with the giant one-time bills and having to move the money around. Their health issues are stressful enough without having to deal with the money stress as well. Thank you so much for sharing your experience.

 

[morumotto]

No problem at all, I do hope things improve for you. Sounds like you really are having a terrible time

Unfortunately Odin passed that same year (he had a huge range of problems), but he did have the happiest, healthy few months with me before it was his time to leave.

We are all here to listen whenever you need us.

Oh no! I didn't realize, I'm so sorry to hear he passed. I'm so glad you were able to provide him with such good care in his final months. That's all I hope to achieve, being able to give these piggies a good quality of life, no matter how long.

Thank you again.