Do you budget for vet bills?

lifeonthehill · July 2014

I am all torn up and I am trying to use my MM brain to work through a difficult time. We think our 14 year old cat is going to pass away tonight. Her breath is fast and shallow and she is laying on the bathroom floor. She has also lost a considerable amount of weight in the last three days. I am not home and DH isn't as attentive so he is just know realizing how bad it has gotten. If she makes it through the night we will get her to the vet sometime tomorrow. Our last vet bill was nearly $500 from the e-Fund. I didn't think much of it and just built it up again. Tomorrow will cost us at least $300 and it will be out of the e-fund as well.

Should we need be setting money aside for the vet or should we be using the e-Fund for situations like this.

Xstatic3333 · July 2014

I don't have a pet yet, but just wanted to say I'm so sorry your cat is having a tough time

Many T&P.

When we get a dog I'll probably use the e-fund for unexpected emergencies, but budget for routine visits. I may bump up our base e-fund level a little.

SmrBrd2012 · July 2014

So sorry about your kitty and that you aren't home to deal with it

We budget for normal vet bills which usually don't cost much more than $100/year-ish. I would say anything more than that, especially if a pet is really ill, would be considered e-fund worthy. If the pet has serious but manageable health issues, I would start setting aside money to budget that specifically.

lifeonthehill · July 2014

Thanks. That is what I figured. Money is saved specifically for shots and yearly check ups but not for something like this.

IAmSherlocked · July 2014

I'm so sorry to hear about your kitty! Sending lots of internet hugs your way.

We actually went through something very similar back in March and I really do know how hard this is. Our cat's health had started deteriorating and we ended up having to rush him to an emergency clinic since our vet wasn't equipped to deal with it (Silvester was in cardiac distress and had fluid in his lungs among other things). That initial bill came in at about $2,000 which we pulled from our e-fund and the following weeks we spent at least another $1,000 on medications, follow-up appointments, etc. until we finally had to make the decision to put him down (I think that cost about $300).

All of those came out of our e-fund. We did have a wellness plan through Banfield/Petsmart for our cats, but we've slowly been phasing those out as our plans expire because we realized that we could just pocket the money we were spending each month and it would be more cost effective. So yeah, now we have a separate savings just for our pets--I've been putting money aside to cover both routine things like shots and also just in case stuff (for like when my dog eats something he's not supposed to). Anything that ends up going over budget we'll probably pull from the e-fund.

Wishing you all the best!

Mom987 · July 2014

I'm sorry

We've never set aside money for vet bills. The way you described it, we'd probably also pull from savings (or efund) and build it back up.

ab6704a · July 2014

So sorry to hear about your kitty

We use our e-fund for things like this - we spent $600 on emergency xrays two weeks ago.

lifeonthehill · July 2014

Well she is at the vet with H now and we were able to see a close friend who is very understanding of our no surgery/no testing for a "maybe" fix when it comes to our older cats. As hard as it has been we have put two eldery cats down to avoid doing major surgery.

My mom once had to take her cat to a different vet to be put to sleep because her regular vet wanted to remove her lower jaw and start chemo for a cat who was nearly 19 years old. I am so thankful we have found a vet who knows when enough is enough.

Sorry for the sad updates I just feel like this is my home board and know how supportive everyone here is. I will update this comment with a grand cost total for the day in a few hours.

smbenevides1989 · July 2014

Sorry about your kitty.

I allocate in my budget for routine pet visits/medications etc. but for an emergency like this, I would use my efund.

strickland8052 · July 2014

So sorry about your kitty!

When my dog was a puppy, I budgeted for both emergencies and regular care. She was ALWAYS getting sick and hurt. After the first year, she has had fewer emergencies (knock on wood), so I only budget for routine care like vaccinations. Anything else would come out of e-fund. When she gets older, I'll probably budget for emergencies again. Just like people, animals are much more likely to get sick when they are really young or really old, so I think it is wise to expect more expenses during these times of their life.

lifeonthehill · July 2014

Well Smudge was "full" of cancer in most of her organs and had to be put to sleep. $243 with the friends and family discount we got. I am headed home today to be with H who is pretty torn up. Thanks for all the support here.

FabulousMrs.P · July 2014

So sorry for your loss!

We do budget for regular care as our dog has a ton of medical issues that require regular vet visits. That said, we got hit with a $4000 bill for emergency surgery for our dog in April. She had a bladder stone that blocked her. We had to take that out of our e-fund.

vlagrl29 · July 2014

we only budget the annual visit of checkup and shots. If something like you had came up we would take it out of the E Fund

jessica490 · July 2014

So sorry for your loss

We only plan for re-occuring vet visits with our dog, other than that we just charge the apts and pay the bill in full when it's due

brij2006 · July 2014

I'm so sorry to hear that you ended up having to put her down. :-(

We only budget in routine vet care, and would pull from the E-fund or cash flow emergencies in that months' budget. However, we're similar to you and won't do anything extensive.

smbenevides1989 · July 2014

I'm so sorry for your loss

athlete010688 · July 2014

I'm so sorry to hear about your kitty!

Xstatic3333 · July 2014

So sorry Alyssa!

formerlyGDaisy09 · July 2014

So sorry for your loss, sending lots of hugs!

We do not budget for emergencies (even though we've had 5 animal emergencies in the lase 5-6 months) fortunatly most have not been very expensive. Our Vet takes Care Credit, which helps us budget a bit...once we've charged something we do adjust our budget to pay the charge off in the 6 month promo period. Any emergencies/or routine care over $200 are 0% interest for 6 months.

between the puppy's spay, an emergency tooth extraction on the cat, a poodle bite at the dog park, and an URI before we left for vacation we're paying down all those charges at $120/month and will have all emergency trips paid with no interest.

short+sassy · July 2014

I'm so sorry to hear about your loss! It sounds like she lived a good life and you all provided her with a happy home. We humans love our pets so much, even knowing we will usually out live them. It's really tough.

blondie42107 · July 2014

We have two cats. We budget routine vet bills (shots, etc). If anything emergency wise comes up - unplanned vet visit, medication, etc then it would come out of the emergency fund.

Food, litter, etc is all budgeted monthly.