Spent a thousand dollars Thursday on my stupid dog

I have two Labrador retrievers. On is a female about 3 years old and one is a male 9 months old. The male is very dominate and like most young labs, stupid!

Thursday night my wife brought home a new bag of dog food. As tradition, she cut the bag open and let the young lab (Parker) stick his head inside the bag and feast for a minute or two. Well, about five minutes later, Parker started to cry real loud and bite his side and butt. My wife started to freak out and called the vet. The only thing we could come up with was that I had given Parker a bath and after completion, he tried to jump out of the tub, catching his belly on the shower door runner. I figured I allowed him to injure himself on the tub.

I was feeling real bad about injuring stupid, I mean Parker, and my wife kept saying, "don't worry about it, it was not your fault, he's just a stupid dog". So we took Parker to the vet and found that the idiot ate so much dog food when his head was in the bag that his stomach was overfull. He needed to stay overnight at the vet and get IV fluids at the tune of just under $1000. I guess he could have died from over eating!?!

So, then my wife started to feel real bad for allowing Parker to eat out of the bag. I wanted to place blame, but I told her that it wasn't her fault, it was the stupid dog just being stupid. (WAF building)

I picked up Parker today at 3:00 PM. He was very glad to be home, but I sure miss my $1000 bucks.

Anyone want to buy a good hunting dog for about grand?

CHEERS!   

I spent the worst part of two days at the local vets during the demise of our dog last October. A thoroughly miserable time. I lost count of the number of times I saw anguish and grief turn to rage when unfortunate owners came from the treatment (or euthanisation) room to the cash register. You can't say no tho' can you?
2300 dollars for the diagnosis of inoperable cancer and the administration of the last rites. 

Amen......

 Our Wiemedor just recently picked up some " Dog Park Paploma Virus "  $1k  for the Fix...

  First I said.... " Well, replacement cost is $350..?  "...

  Family did not see the Humor in that 

  Doggie is doing Fine

Don are we talking the same thing here my Aunt's dog got that and the Vet said that it should go away by it's self $35

ARE VIRAL PAPILLOMAS DANGEROUS?

Not really. They should go away on their own as the dog’s immune system matures and generates a response against the papillomavirus.  There have been two cases published where viral papillomas progressed to malignancy but this is extremely rare and by no means the usual course of the infection. Typically, it takes 1-5 months for papillomas to regress with oral growths tending to regress sooner than ocular growths.  Occasionally some papillomas will stay permanently.

Dan,

If it makes you feel any better I have a friend in Maryland who's probably spent $30K on his 14 yr old dog in the last two years (surgery, therapy, etc..).  The poor thing was miserable last time I saw him (deaf, can't walk, wears a diaper, and can't even bark) and I really wish my friend would man up and do the right thing and put the dog down.  Unfortunately, my friend has way too much money and can't bare to let go.

On a personal not, at one point a few years ago I had a pet chameleon (original cost ~$20).  All he did was sit in his cage and eat crickets and I thought of him as basically a goldfish with legs.  I did a ton of reading on keeping chameleon's as pets and found out that not only are chameleons good at camouflage, they are also good at hiding the fact they are sick.  By the time you realize your chameleon is sick it's probably too late.  I forgot however to relay this info to my wife.  I was gone on a work trip for about 5 days and the darn thing starts to look sick (odd coloration, wouldn't eat and sat at the bottom of it's cage).  My wife panicked and took the thing to the emergency vet hospital... tests, x-rays, I.V., anti-biotics, an overnight stay and $350 later she she brought the thing home.  Anyway, the chameleon died later the next day as I would have predicted given what I had learned. 

We now have a dog and I really need to put limits on how much we'd be willing to spend in vet bills.  My current policy is $500 a year with roll over.  The dog is now in it's fourth year and therefore has earned $2000 vet credit minus the $400 chocolate incident last year leaving a balance of $1600.  I'm not planning on being extremely strict on this policy, but it's good to give my wife a general guideline because I'm pretty sure she'd drive us into serious debt to save a pet if she had to. 

Brian 

$30k, that's amazing. 

I've spent quite a bit on my lab (both his and my stupidity)...  Fed it too many treats, got into a HUGE bag of M&Ms, fish hook in the lip, ect...  I feed him dog food & dog treats only these days (with the occasion small piece of steak or chicken; I'm a push over).

My good buddy has a blk lab that swallows the kid socks, finger puppets, and basically anything it can get down.  Unfortunately, as it got older it's had problems passing these items.  2 or 3 surgeries plus a few close calls where the vet was able to induce vomiting.  Probably $20k in vet bills in 2006.  My friend drew the line more than once than crossed saving the pup.  My friend came home from work twice thinking he'd have to put her down.  They were convinced it would die X-mas of 2006, but she some managed to poop it out after a couple of weeks.

I'm happy to say the dog is still alive and doing well.  $0 vet bills in 2007 for her.

First of all, this is not me talking. I have had to think about putting a dog down, and it's very hard. BUT, per my wife (I'm adding WAF pionts) NOTE: (This is my wife talking) "We keep our husbands don't we, why don't we keep our dogs too?" 

Don are we talking the same thing here my Aunt's dog got that and the Vet said that it should go away by it's self $35

ARE VIRAL PAPILLOMAS DANGEROUS?

Not really. They should go away on their own as the dog’s immune system matures and generates a response against the papillomavirus.  There have been two cases published where viral papillomas progressed to malignancy but this is extremely rare and by no means the usual course of the infection. Typically, it takes 1-5 months for papillomas to regress with oral growths tending to regress sooner than ocular growths.  Occasionally some papillomas will stay permanently.

Thanks for the info,

 might have been something different.  This damm thing was on her paw, between her toes and kept getting

 bigger and bigger till we had to do something.  Surgery was the only option, so we were told.

 Then... " Dog from Mars " collar.  That's pathetic in itself... poor thing wacking and bumbing into everything in

the house.

My current policy is $500 a year with roll over.

That's a good idea Brian. I might have to adopt that for my household pets.

Dang! That's one expensive bag of dog food.

I had a friend in college that had a black lab that liked to swallow fabric items like socks, t-shirts, and towels.  Had surgery a couple times to remove items from the stomach.  Finally died after eating a towel.  Goofy.  I think it's a case of purebred-itis. 

We have a mutt named Lucky.  Half Welsh Corgie and half Rat Terrier. We call him a Rat Corgie.  He has had many incidents and has lived up to his name more than once... never had a vet bill in 10 years except the standard shots and stuff.  We'll keep our fingers crossed.  No purebred-itis. 

My girlfriend did something similar about 20 years ago. She left the lid off the plastic garbage can where we kept the dog food. Our 70 pound female German Shepherd ate nearly 25 pounds of dry kibble. All she did for a few days was lie on the floor, drink water, and fart. (The dog, that is).

I am, as I write, looking at my lap/pit mix.  She just yesterday started moping aroung the house, won't wag her tail, and doesn't want to sit.  I'm thinking she wasn't happy about pooping in the rain and tried to hold it for the last couple of days.  She HATES the rain, but will swim all day if you let her. Now she's been outside (not raining) and doesn't seem to want to go.  she just turns around and sets on the deck looking back at the house.  If you lift her tail she wimpers and pulls away.  So, off to the vet's on a Saturday, or see if she is just locked up and it will "pass" later today?

All she did for a few days was lie on the floor, drink water, and fart. (The dog, that is).

Spit...beer...monitor...

Mahi Mahi...I'm sure "stupid dog" loves you even more 

Guess what....... I spent $110.00 today to find out my dog was full of crap.  Everything went great after she took a gigantic dump on the vet's floor.  Once they took her temperature she looked up at me with an "I'm sorry " look on her face and let go.  Oh well, she was in misery and I didn't like seeing her suffer.  I just wish she was about ten minutes faster with her evacuation.