Doggie doctoring

Date: Wed, 23 Jul 2008 07:24:35 -0400
From: Karen E Tiede
Subject: doggie doctoring

I regularly mull on the costs associated with keeping my pack healthy; feeding six furry heads means there’s a semi-continual opportunity to spend money on something.  Over a number of years now, they have absorbed $400-$450 a head a year, which gives me a good number to use when I think about taking that latest stray home.

It’s pretty amazing that a dog can have a malignant tumor removed for $250.  You can’t even walk into an human-oncologist’s office for that much.  Some meds (tapeworm for cats, for example) are cheaper at the vet’s office than they are OTC.

Last summer, I thought to ask my MD for a tick fever blood test because two of my dogs had tested positive for ehrlichiosis, we find ourselves host to ticks from the same sources, and I wasn’t feeling quite myself. Tick fever was not high on the “possible explanation list” but it seemed like a good idea to rule it out.

I don’t want to know what it costs to treat advanced Rocky Mountain Spotted fever in humans.  I’ll bet it’s way more than what I paid for annual exams for two dogs.

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