What's the biggest vet bill you've ever had?

[dogchushu]

The PPE came to over $1,000 once all the Xrays and blood tests were accounted for (and I just love writing out a check for a number with a freaking COMMA in it)

Then, we had one bought of lameness that included a couple bills each with a comma in the number. Thank goodness the treatments crossed over into a couple different billing cycles. Seeing the total all at once would have given me heart palpitations. No. I’m not going to add it up now. Too traumatic. :lol:

After that experience, I added major medical to my horse’s mortality policy. That meant no huge vet bills for a while (and, of course, none occurred during the covered period). Now that the mare is officially “aged,” I can’t cover her anymore.

So I expect many comma laden vet bills to come!

[akrogirl]

[QUOTE=equineartworks;4271195]
$400, but I am not complaining and the year is still young :lol: . That was for an endoscopy of the sinuses and guttural pouch, full rads of Dumplin’s teeny little mini brain, a farrier consult with Mike Wildenstien and coming home wearing a special little shoe. All done at Cornell…I love Cornell…worth every penny![/QUOTE]

Lucky you. The same endoscopy on my rescue broody cost me over $1,000, and that was for a case of strangles that had been misdiagnosed and mistreated as a snake bite! The total bill exceeded $2,000! The OCD surgery on one of my babies was a bargain by comparison.

[lindsay_aggie]

Over $5000 (at cost, worked for the vet) for EPM treatment including initial stay at the clinic, DMSO jugs, diagnostics, and then 60 days of Navigator and various other drugs at home. She was a polo horse and after six months or so came sound enough to become a trail horse. I gave her to a lady who just loves her and uses her to trail ride once or twice a month.

[CanterQueen]

I too am over $5000 for two bouts of EPM. That damn Marquis is SO expensive!! And this is a grade rescue horse, but he’s my hubby’s and hubby loves him.

[Technicolor02]

Psh. I have you all beat easily.

$15,342.50 spent on one horse in the space of one week for a mysterious ailment that caused him to act as though he was a neurological mess. And yes the exact number is burned onto my brain. His purchase price was only $25K and he was not insured. At the time we didn’t insure anything under $50K…now we do :lol:.

Turns out it was an inner ear infection but we literally tried looking for/treating EVERY SINGLE THING we could possibly think of before we found the infection.

He’s a great horse now for his new owner and I don’t regret doing everything we could do before euthing but that one hurt pretty bad.

[Fantastic]

Over 12K for our attempt at embryo transfer, not including two shipments of semen that were both shipped counter to counter. (emphasis on attempt). That was over two cycles, preping multiple recipients, efsh (back when it was available) for super ovulation . . . nevermind, I don’t want to even think about it. (oh where is the “L” loser hand sign to forehead emotocon when I need it?). I happily spent $8,500 last year on very successful colic surgery.

I know of someone with a colic surgery, plus hospitalization and complications that was over 30K when all was said and done. I know they ended up spending more because the horse was still NQR months later, and I don’t believe he is completely normal to this day.

[Sakura]

My stallion’s left eye has a $1,200 price tag.

[Where_sMyWhite]

ShotenStar and Technicolor02 have me beat…

$15K at Littleton Large for 4 weeks and 2 colic surgeries. 9 years later, she’s retired and still kicking up her heels at 20

[Applesauce]

My horse just had colic surgery last week. He had some complications after the surgery but is fine now. When I picked him up from the hospital on Monday my bill was for a little over $9000.

Just before all this happened he tore his collateral ligament so we did a stem cell injection. So, for the past three months we have about $11500 in him and we’re not finished yet.

Thank GOD he’s insured!!!

[vacation1]

Threads like this threaten to scare me out of ever buying a horse! Which is probably for the best. I tend to suppress the memory of both vet visits and bills, as any trauma survivor would sensibly do, but I estimate for the dog, I’ve spent $300 for a tumor removal and thousands for repeatedly treating (and finally managing) skin allergies. I can’t imagine how much more I could conceivably spend on an animal as big as a horse.

[Rhyadawn]

[QUOTE=vacation1;4271392]
Threads like this threaten to scare me out of ever buying a horse! Which is probably for the best. I tend to suppress the memory of both vet visits and bills, as any trauma survivor would sensibly do, but I estimate for the dog, I’ve spent $300 for a tumor removal and thousands for repeatedly treating (and finally managing) skin allergies. I can’t imagine how much more I could conceivably spend on an animal as big as a horse.[/QUOTE]

:yes:

I keep toying with the idea of buying now even though I’m going back to school. My coach has a really cute palomino yearling that I like, and his price is cheap… but then I read threads like this and remember why I keep saying no.

[SC1]

I think I have everyone beat :rolleyes: I had to re-mortgage my house to pay my vet bills. One horse - 2 Large frontonasal bone flap Surgeries (for a broken upper jaw and molars), 5 others to remove dead bone, tissue and to insert drains. MRI’s, X-Rays etc…3 Months in Critical Care at the Vet Hospital (for infection), another 6 months of weekly vet care at home. Once all said and done - close to $50K. Would I do it again - absolutely (as long as the quality of life was excellent) The horse is now a happy, healthy pasture puff. The before and after pictures of him are amazing.

[EventFan]

I try realllllly hard to forget! But our lovable gelding had a corneal scratch with both fungal and bacterial infections. After an 8 day stay at the Vet school, a lavage for several months, and 4k later he is fine. sigh.

[annikak]

It was a bad year 2007 was- injury to my prelim horse (not in MY barn- I was out of town) ended up being close to 26K. Yes, you read that right. (where is the dead icon?) I don’t have him with me now- leased him to a great CoTH’er- and am just finally paying off the bill…or the end is in sight at least!

Didn’t help that I adopted an orphan foal the same year who ended up having MRSA. Um, yeah, another 25K. In one 18 month period, 50K in vet bills. Any wonder why I am working midnights at the hospital??:winkgrin:

[LittleblackMorgan]

In one whack-$857.00. In total? just short of 3k and still climbing…this included wicking a cyst, followed by surgical removal of said cyst 2.5 months later, the worlds largest JUG of SMZs, brucellosis testing (120) cytology, pathology, other ologies…Xrays…bute…3x a week sedation and wound un/repacking…suture removal…gentamicin injections daily…

We had the one and only single case of fistulous withers my vet has EVER seen in 25 active years in practice…sigh…and its STILL on going…Strep/Staph/E Coli, HULLO!!!:eek::no::(:o

[Peggy]

Six days at the vet clinic for impaction colic (no surgery) - $3500

That was the culmination of a year that included a high suspensory injury that segued into a diagnosis of collateral ligament strain and included a fever of unknown origin coupled with neuro symptoms that lasted 24 hours and vanished without a trace. I exceeded the $7500 on my major medical and it hadn’t paid for the IRAP or transporting him to the clinic for scintigraphy/MRI or transporting the vet to the barn. And, of course, this counted as three separate incidents, each with its own $300 deductible (and claims agent). I added it up once but have conveniently forgotten the number. If he’d waited two weeks or so to colic, at least it would have been on the next policy with a new $7500 to work with. Guess I got my not quite $600 worth, at least for that policy year.

Most on a small animal was around $800 for radioactive iodine treatment for a thyroid issue. The alternative was giving the cat pills every day for the rest of her life. Money well spent IMHO.

[Over_the_Hill]

Just over $11,000 for a colic surgery on my Andalusian stallion. (Almost $900 per day for hospital care following) He died on the sixth day following surgery and upon necropsy it was discovered that he had a pin hole in his colon and died of sepsis. This was about 17 years ago.

[lovemyoldguy]

In one session? About $7,000 for my dog a few years ago, when he had to have an emergency spleenectomy and required extensive post-op care.

Rebuff, my dearly beloved late pasture puff, cost me on average more than my mortgage each month, and that was with self-care at my own barn. His last year of life was probably about $9,000 in vet bills - no one major thing, but all the semi-important things (catching colic early, Gastrogard out the wazoo, an abcess that wouldn’t heal, so many vet calls that they’re my second famly, etc.). Rebuff died in January. I have the bill down to about $3k now. He lives on in my checkbook… :winkgrin:

I just told my mom over the weekend, though, that I would do it all over again in a heartbeat. :yes:

[ReSomething]

You guys are scaring me half to death! I’m horseless and might just want to stay that way at this rate! I can recall spending $100 on a dead cat (that is, the cat ultimately had to be euthed) back in HS, and back then you could rent an apartment for that much so I guess it’s worth $600 in today’s dollars, then a cat got hit by a car, breaking her humerus and involving the artery and radial nerve, several $200 bills later she made a wonderful recovery only to vanish when we had to move, then a couple years ago our kitty went through renal failure and didn’t respond well to treatment, more multiple $400 bills for a dead cat:(. He was a really nice cat, too.

The horse on the other hand, was remarkably healthy. Well, sort of. Azoturia and stepped on a nail, no other illnesses or lamenesses.
Does major medical tie in to the horse’s purchase price? I.e. can you insure a “free” horse?

[ljc]

My now retired TB hunter had various issues/problems over the years (laminitis, torn tendons, etc.) but the single most expensive health issue he ever had was when he stepped on a nail. My goodness - the antibotics and daily vet calls came to quite a pretty penny. Thankfully he made a full recovery.