13 Hour Vet Crisis and a Plan for the Future

Last night, I had to take my cat to the vet. It's been a very difficult time, and I've blogged about the details in my personal journal. But there are some financial things that I wanted to discuss that seemed inappropriate to post there.

Last night, I learned that my cat was way more sick that anyone originally thought, and he required an overnight hospital stay. I was prepared to spend a few hundred dollars getting things taken care of, but I got a that what I thought was constipation from a hairball actually being advanced cancer and at "deposit" for the hospital stay of $1,306.

I was not prepared at all for that. Even if I sold my car on the spot, I couldn't scrape up $1,300. But the vet has a credit plan, and she signed me up for it. I was approved for a $1,500 limit. The good things about this is that most importantly, the vet got paid and my cat got some help and the account is interest free for the first 3 months. The downside is that this is $1,500 in the wrong financial direction with more credit cards. But, you have to do what you have to do.

This morning, things got much worse when my cat's health deteriorated rapidly. Sadly, he needed to be put to sleep. And as awful as that was, I know that he's not hurting any more, and he's with his old pal (another cat that passed in 2005) in Kitty Heaven. Dealing with all of this is extraordinarily difficult, but still, you're at the vet and there are money issues to handle. Luckily, because he passed before the more detailed tests that were scheduled for this afternoon, my deposit was an overpayment. So the credited my account $129.74.

I talked with my parents (they were here visiting this weekend and saw him and helped when we thought he was just constipated), and they offered to send me a check for $1,000 to go to my cat's final expenses. This is an incredible gift that will definitely help off-set my costs of last night. She also demanded that I get vet insurance for my other cat.

I looked into vet insurance yesterday (ironically) before taking my cat to the vet. It sounds like a good idea on the surface. However, reading into it and how it works, it doesn't sound like it's going to work for me. Based on what I've read and talking to Dr. Faith, it looks like if your cat is in good health and needs only minor and routine visits to the vet, getting the insurance is actually costing more money than paying the vet directly. Odd. Plus, the insurance doesn't actually pay the bill. They are reimbursement plans. So, not only would I need to pay $30-50 each month in premiums, there'd be a $50 deductible per visit, and I'd have to pay the whole bill myself and then get reimbursed. For me, at this time in my life and situation, it makes more sense to open a new savings account and deposit $30-50 each month. In addition to saving the cost of the preimiums, I'd be earning interest as well. I thought about it more this morning, and that's what I've decided to do. Thirty minutes ago, I opened a second ING Savings account that will be strictly for vet funds.

Here are a couple of links that I was reading, if you're interested: Veterinary Pet Insurance and ConsumerReports: Pets & Vets, is pet insurance worth it?