Carrot's vet trip

[DanaC]

Today was Carrot's first trip to the PDSA clinic (Peoples' Dispensary for Sick Animals).

I've been noticing some stiffness in his back end the last few months, and haven't been able to afford a trip to his usual vet. So, with some reluctance, I registered him with the PDSA - they're a charity run organisation who provide almost free vet care for people who can't afford it otherwise - in order to register your pet with them you have to be in receipt of some form of government assistance - in my case housing benefit, which is a monthly payment towards my rent costs. When you register, you do so for 6 months, at the end of those 6 months if you are still in receipt of assistance then you can register for a further 6 months and so on.

They're a fair old drive away (45 mins) but it's a nice enough place. Much nicer than my last experience of a PDSA clinic about 20 years ago, which had kind of coloured my opinion somewhat.

They do preventative treatments like flea meds, worming and vaccination at cost, and they treat your animal for sickness or injury for free - they just ask you to make a donation of whatever you can afford to go towards the cost of treatment.

So - Carrot now has his pain meds. I'm so relieved. I think he's probably been in constant low level pain for a few months now, and sometimes more than low level.

The vet we saw was great. Carrot certainly liked her - even though she was mauling about with his legs which he considered wholly unnecessary. She agrees that he is more than likely in pain a lot of the time, and the stiffness is quite pronounced when he walks (not when he trots, when his movement is quite fluid) and he was very reluctant to bend his legs when she was testing them. She says it seems fairly typical of a dog with mild hip dysplasia, and that it may well be that he's started with arthritis around the hip joints. This fits very much with both his regular vet's prediction that he would likely start with arthritis very young, and also that of the specialist he went to see when he was going through his hydro and physio therapy after initial diagnosis.

The vet thinks it is likely he will now be on pain meds for life, but is hopeful that his condition should be manageable with fairly low level drugs and care around exercise. He needs a couple of weeks of short walks and no running around with other dogs and then we can start letting him have some longer walks and a bit of running around - but we need to be careful not to let him over do it: a bit of a run around is ok, and a long country walk is ok, but not both together and paying close attention to whether he seems to be tiring. It's going to be a case of monitoring how he does and seeing how the different kinds of exercise affect him.

So - we have come back with an 8 week supply of pain meds (the same that he was on when he was first diagnosed back when he was a youngster) and I've to take him back in 8 weeks to see how he's getting on and get a refill.

I donated £10. Had I gone to my normal vet I'd have walked out with bill of between £60 and £80 depending on whether they insisted on doing kidney and liver tests before prescribing, and probably only a two week supply of pain meds.

God bless you PDSA. When I am in a better place financially, and back with my regular vets, I think I'll set up a regular monthly donation. Just a small one, but every bit helps.

[Gravdigr]

How old is the gentleman now?

[DanaC]

ach he's still a youngun. Four and a half. Certainly very young to be suffering arthritis, but we expected this would be the case once his hip dysplasia was diagnosed. Both his regular vet and his hip specialist said to expect probable arthritis in his hips and back legs by the time he got to four or five, possibly even as young as three and a half

It's difficult to tell when he's in pain with it because it's both hips, so he doesn't limp, and he has always had problems so he just kind of gets on with things - but his walk was definitely looking stiffer to me, with more of a swing to his gait, less of a bend to the leg, and I can see his back doing more work than it should for walking. And I've noticed certain behaviours creeping back in that I haven't seen for a while. When Carrot's hurting it manifests as a slightly aggressive edge. Like when he plays with other dogs, he is usuallly very easy going, but recently he's been a bit bolshy. With me too, there's been a slightly aggressive edge to his responses - he isn't biting or anything, but mouthing and nipping my trouser leg, throwing hissy fits when he doesn't get his own way, much more than usual

[orthodoc]

Nice to know there's an affordable vet clinic - wonderful idea. Bless them. But sorry that you (and Carrot, poor thing) had to use it.

[be-bop]

Vets bills can be a joke sometimes, My Border terrier Archie is nearly 12 and in the last month we've had to pay in the region of £700 for pain relief blood tests etc etc.
I have insurance but the excess is £180 and they don't cover lots of things so we'll be lucky to see about £150 to £200 back if that.
Still we can't see the old guy in pain but he's aged so fast in the last year I wonder what's going to be the next ailment.

[xoxoxoBruce]

A friend was bemoaning her four dogs were overdue a trip to the vet, a year overdue. Two down and two to go, we're up to $615.

[DanaC]

Originally Posted by orthodoc

Nice to know there's an affordable vet clinic - wonderful idea. Bless them. But sorry that you (and Carrot, poor thing) had to use it.

Yeah, it is such a relief to be able to get him the pain meds he needs.

It's been building for months. I suspect he has been in discomfort for maybe six months without showing obvious signs, The signs have started to show over the last couple of months. It's an incremental thing though, so some of it I hadn't really noticed. Like - last night he came up onto the sofa and sprawled half on me half on the sofa, whilst i rubbed his belly and he stayed there for quite a while. he hasn't done that in ages. He seems happier - more himself. He seems to be sleeping better too - I don't hear him moving about downstairs so much during the night.

[DanaC]

Originally Posted by be-bop

Vets bills can be a joke sometimes, My Border terrier Archie is nearly 12 and in the last month we've had to pay in the region of £700 for pain relief blood tests etc etc.
I have insurance but the excess is £180 and they don't cover lots of things so we'll be lucky to see about £150 to £200 back if that.
Still we can't see the old guy in pain but he's aged so fast in the last year I wonder what's going to be the next ailment.

It's crazy isn't it? But what can you do? Like you say, you can't see the old guy in pain. I remember during Pilau's later years we spent a small fortune at the vets. He wasn't insured, but most of his treatment wouldn't have been covered anyway because of the excess rules - the excess tends to be per condition and he seemed to have a rolling list of shit that went wrong with him.

Carrot is insured, but his excess is £90 per year per condition - also I daren't use it for anythng hip related now, as there is a 4k lifetime limit per condition, and he's already had about £1200 of that during the first year after diagnosis. What's left needs to stay untouched in case he needs a hip operation in the next few years.

I can't jump him up to the gold level pf insurance with its 7k lifetime limit, because it would count as a new policy and his hips wouldn't be covered at all as they're a pre-existing condition.

For the last 18 months or so, I've been in the crazy position of paying out £40 every month to keep insured for the future whilst not being able to afford basic shit like worming and vaccinations, or visits to the vet when he's in pain.

There have been times I've had to borrow from friends and family to eat but his insurance has been paid. I dread having a hip operation suddenly drop on us and not have any way to pay for it. As it stands I'd probably still have to borrow a chunk, as it is likely to be more than is left on the insurance, but better to be trying to find a couple of grand than five. By that time I should have my credit rating sorted out to a degree and have access to credit cards at least. Plus Jude and Janet would likely help with some of it.

[xoxoxoBruce]

£4000 max hips - £1200 collected hips = £2800 left hips

4.5 years X £40 = £2160 paid in premiums

4? more years X £40 = £1920 paid in premiums

Total est = £4080 paid in premiums

I hope you're getting other benefits from that policy.

[DanaC]

Yeah -that is just his hips stuff.

Insurance isn't for day to day healthcare, it's for the big stuff. If he were to develop kidney trouble as a result of his pain meds for instance, that would result in regular medications that wold be covered. If he were tohave a road accident and require treatment for a broken leg, with rehabilitative programme that would be covered.

A road accident could end up with £2000+ of treatment needed and that's what insurance is for. Or diagnosis of kidney disease or diabetes that require long term expensive treatment

I don't want to have that conversation with the vets where we have to opt for euthanasia because I don't have the money for kidney dialysis or hip replacement op.

The insurance policy he's on is up to £39 per month because we claimed on it. Without that policy he would not have been able to go for 6 months of hydrotherapy, specialist hip analysis and physiotherapy when he was first diagnosed. Had he not been diagnosed with HD, and we not had to claim on the insurance, we'd probably still be paying £28 / 30 per month

Finding £39 per month is hard. Suddenly having to find several thousand pounds because he needs a hip replacement operation would be harder.

[Griff]

Clyde the cat went to the vet today. Long story (mostly unknown) short, we'll have a three legged pirate cat best case scenario.

[Gravdigr]

Well, damn.

[Clodfobble]

We had a three legged cat when I was a kid. Hope Clyde pulls through.

[footfootfoot]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

We had a three legged cat when I was a kid. Hope Clyde pulls through.

a cat that special...

[Griff]

He's home chillin on pain meds. Next we'll be looking for a heroin dealer, which is pretty damn easy here-abouts.