And then there are the finances.
14 March 2020
Lots of bills. And I know it's a lot. It's over $4000. And yes, how can you justify paying that much for a pet. To be honest, I can't believe myself that we paid over $4000, but it was never presented to us that way in a lump sum. In hindsight it's always easier, and you wonder why pay $4000 for a pet that died.
But it wasn't as straight forward and simple like that. When Chloe first got sick, we thought it was just gut stasis, which is unfortunately common in rabbits. Chloe is a tough girl, and we hoped she'd get through it. The first bill for the day was just under $250 and we took her home that night.
Then she took a downturn and we took her to the emergency centre in Pt Chevalier. We knew she needed medication to get her bowels moving again. We paid a deposit of $300 and were quoted $600 in total. That was a big amount, but yes, I was going to pay it and really hope she'd get through it. They also did preliminary bloods. The next morning I paid the remainder, roughly $450 and was told she was anaemic.
I took her to the Pet Doctors St Lukes, who are more experienced with bunnies. I paid $1000 with Open Pay, which if it came to less, they would refund the remainder. They did a more comprehensive testing, but still didn't find anything. An ultrasound, which cost $300, would show more and hopefully give as the reason for her anaemia and gut stasis. After spending all that money, I thought $300 was reasonable for finally getting some answers.
The ultrasound was the first point where I was preparing myself for making a hard decision. If it had turned out to be cancer or something else terminal or horrible, I'd have let Chloe go. I didn't want to prolong her life if it was going to be miserable. But the ultrasound came back with a different result. Something that could be easily fixed with surgery.
This was the second point at which I was thinking about costs and was it worth it. The problem, as we all thought at that time, was not something major and her prognosis was good, if she survived the surgery. The risk at that time was the surgery itself, or more precisely the anaesthetic. We'd decided to wait until the morning and get her more stable, and I thought to myself I'd see how she is the next morning until I make the final decision. So I paid for another night at the emergency centre ($400).
Then something awesome happened. Chloe pooped and ate hay. She was so much better, better than she'd been all week. Everyone was so optimistic when they saw her. To give her the best chance, we opted to give her a blood transfusion. And I paid $1000 which covered the blood transfusion and towards the surgery, which had been quoted as between $1300 and $2600. She was looking so well, that I was not expecting what came next.
So was it worth it? Did I regret it? Should I have stopped any time sooner? In hindsight, it's always easier, but I don't think I could have decided any different. And I'm glad I did go through with all my decisions. Had I not, I would have doubted my decision the rest of the life and I know I would have regretted it. It's hard when we have to make decisions when it comes to our furbabies' lives.
I just want to say, that it's a lot harder than you expect. Because you will again and again be asking yourself, shall I pay the $300 for another night at the emergency clinic, is it worth $300 for the ultrasound to get the answers, should I do the surgery? Don't judge others for their decisions, because whatever they decided it was not easy.
This is what we paid:
East Coast Bays vets $247.04 (First day)
Animal Emergency Centre $300 (Deposit for first night)
Animal Emergency Centre $437.05 (Remainder for first night)
Pet Doctors St Lukes $1000 (Open Pay for the second day)
VSA Surgical $300 (Ultrasound)
Animal Emergency Centre $393.90 (Second night)
Pet Doctors St Lukes $1000 (Deposit third day)
Pet Doctors St Lukes $684.26 (Remainder)