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Cost of Animal Care

Denise Flaim | Animal House

August 7, 2001

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AS STORIES GO, it was a heartstring tugger.

An East Rockaway man brings his geriatric cat to a vet after she collapses. Dehydrated and infected with heartworm, Chamire the calico survives, but racks up an $894 bill. When the owner says he can't pay, the vet hospital clamps down on its collateral - the cat - and charges for medication and boarding for every day Chamire stays on.

Soon the bill tops $3,000, this newspaper writes a story, the vet's lawyer suggests adverse publicity is worse than any outstanding bill, the cat goes home, and the court system is left to sort out the rest.

I got a call recently from a woman in similar straits. Her horse came down with colitis in the middle of the night. She called an equine vet, who mobilized staff and opened his hospital. Before her horse underwent emergency surgery, she wrote a $3,500 deposit check and signed forms indicating she understood her financial obligations.

Denise Flaim Bio | E-mail | Recent columns

Now, a month later, the horse is fine, but her finances aren't. The vet never cashed the check because she said it would bounce. She has no credit, and no one - not friends, not family, not fellow boarders at her barn - will give her a loan. But she wants her horse back.

The vet wants nothing more than for her to have it: He has no use for the horse, which he must now board and feed. But if he releases it, he figures he'll never see the money he's laid out, much less the full amount he's owed. He doesn't disagree with the owner's version of events. All he knows is he dragged himself and a bunch of other people out of bed, saved her horse's life, and he's been paid only a fraction of the $6,500 bill. Stuff like this happens to him more than it should; that's why he makes owners sign those forms in the first place.

Taking care of a companion animal can be a pricey proposition, even when things don't go wrong. Add up the cost of food, vet checks and vaccines, toys, licenses, grooming, obedience classes, boarding and equipment such as collars and leashes, and the total is probably $1,000-plus a year.

Then, to paraphrase the bumper sticker, doo-doo happens. For instance, a month ago my dog picked up a case of kennel cough at an upstate dog show. Despite excellent veterinary care, it progressed to pneumonia. To date, the bill is nearing $1,000 - and that's without hospitalization.

Was I prepared for this? No. Though I of all people should know better, I've been too lazy to get pet insurance. (The applications go out tomorrow.)

Vets aren't blameless in all this, either. Do some overcharge and overtest? Sure. But as the consumer, do you ask for a full explanation of what the vet is doing and why? Do you request an estimate of what treatment will cost? (A good vet will offer this to you in writing.) The more proactive you are, the less likelihood you'll have of being taken advantage of or not realizing how much you'll ultimately spend. Some vets, like some other people, are lousy communicators. So it's your job as the guardian of your animal to demand that back-and-forth. If you don't get it, go elsewhere.

Finally, if you have a relationship of trust with your vet, chances are you can work out a financial agreement. In both of the cases mentioned above, the owner either refused to commit to a payment plan or misrepresented his or her ability to stick to one.

In the end, this column leaves me with more questions than answers: Should only people of means own companion animals? What about the indigent, the mentally impaired? What about low-income families? Don't they have the right to have animals in their lives, even if their paychecks sometimes fall short?

Can you blame someone, no matter how broke, for doing whatever has to be done to get medical attention for an animal? Even if that makes vets ever less flexible with others who wouldn't dream of skipping out on a bill? Even if another's inability to pay indirectly gets passed on to you in fee hikes? Should the level of care an animal gets be commensurate with what the owner can pay? Would you feel the same way if it was your cat or dog or horse that was seizing on the very week your Visa maxed out?

That's the thing about heartstrings - they trump logic most every time.