Hit with large vet bill...would this be wise?

[snoodledoo]

The things we do for our furry children,

Our 10 year old corgi was fine on a Friday but wouldn’t or couldn’t move Saturday morning, I rushed her to our vet who is only open from 8 to noon on sat. They took her immediately and said they thought she might have eaten something, would give her some liquids, etc, and would call later. One of the vets on duty called late morning and said I think you should come in. My husband and I both went in. Because she wasn’t responding at all, he did an ultra sound and believed that she had a slow leaking tumor on her heart that had eventually caused so much blood to fill the sac around her heart and that’s why she was barely breathing and unable to walk. We had three choices. Take her home and she would die that weekend. Move her to our local ER clinic which provides 24/7 care that our vet does not, the clinic might be able to drain the blood out and make her more comfortable but did not have a heart specialist on staff. Or drive to a specialty clinic in Chicago that had 24/7 care plus a variety of specialists. Knowing that option would be very expensive, we decided to do it, because we didn’t want to regret not having done all we could.

We put her in the car, while our vet called ahead, and rushed her there, the clinic was waiting for her and immediately took her into ER even though there were probably 20 people ahead of us, long story short, they drained her heart and she was a little better but there was no cardiologist on duty until Monday morning. She spent the weekend in the acute care unit on oxygen. We came in early Monday morning to wait for the cardiologist to make his rounds and look at her tests. We finally saw him late morning and he confirmed the original diagnosis, a tumor on her heart, inoperable. The bleeding had stopped but could start again at any time. We asked him what was best for her and he ultimately said that while she could live a few more weeks, perhaps, her quality of life would not be good. So we made the painful decision to put her to sleep as peacefully as possible. It was a very expensive weekend but one that we don’t regret as we wanted to give her every chance. She was a sweet little girl, who could hear a food wrapper a block away and everyone she met was her new best friend. She will be missed forever

OP here...sadly this did not end the way we had hoped. Our little Buddy's pancreas was too far gone (and getting worse) and we had to make the awful decision to have him put to sleep. It has been a horrible time for all of us - he was one of the family. We did Carecredit to help pay off the bill. I do not regret for one minute spending the money - we had to give him every chance. Thanks all for your advice and for caring.

So sorry to both of you.

 

[Toolulu22]

Thanks for the responses. The Amex is a no fee transfer but we are looking at the Care Credit as well. It is so hard to have to make a decision so quickly - now that I know there are options I feel better.

I have Care Credit, that I use for dental charges and have had no issues at all with them. You have one year to pay off your charges interest free. You can pay online, and have to pay a minimum payment, but can pay more and there is no penalty for early payoff. You just have to pay off the entire balance before the year is up, otherwise you have to pay interest. I’ve used this many times over the years to cover larger orthodontia expenses.

We had a cat who was diagnosed with pancreatitis. We treated her with meds and shots for about a half year, but her quality of life slowly declined. It’s tough on them. Tough on us. So sorry for your loss.

 

[Donaldswife]

OP here...sadly this did not end the way we had hoped. Our little Buddy's pancreas was too far gone (and getting worse) and we had to make the awful decision to have him put to sleep. It has been a horrible time for all of us - he was one of the family. We did Carecredit to help pay off the bill. I do not regret for one minute spending the money - we had to give him every chance. Thanks all for your advice and for caring.

I'm so sorry for your loss.

 

[firefly_ris]

OP here...sadly this did not end the way we had hoped. Our little Buddy's pancreas was too far gone (and getting worse) and we had to make the awful decision to have him put to sleep. It has been a horrible time for all of us - he was one of the family. We did Carecredit to help pay off the bill. I do not regret for one minute spending the money - we had to give him every chance. Thanks all for your advice and for caring.

Oh no, I'm so sorry. You did right by him. Our dog passed away 3 weeks ago, it is definitely so so difficult. Take care.

 

[HeidiV71]

I've never used it so I don't know the finer details but I have family that used CareCredit to finance a situation like this and they love it because they never had to pay any interest on the medical expenses so long as they made the minimum payments.

We have care credit which has been great UNTIL 2 weeks ago our dog ran up a $2500 bill. You have 6 months to pay it at 0% interest If not paid in the 6 months it is a 27.99% interest.

 

[asafko]

My daughter asked me how much it all cost and I just said "as much as our trip to Disney"...and we are staying in a deluxe resort. We are ok with the 6 month payoff but it certainly wasn't in our plans and being that my husband is in education, summer months mean less income. I am so glad there is something like Care Credit that we could turn to so we could just give our little guy the best chance. Only wish it would have worked.