[Discussion] You can afford the treatment but can you afford the diagnostics to get there?Dog Talks

So I am dealing with some unknown medical issues for Gin, she's my senior American Foxhound. For starters had some weird mobility issues pop up, she's on medication for it, rehab, and she had full spinal x-rays but they found nothing of clinical significance. Spinal x-rays somewhere around $700.

Now we noticed several months ago that we were having demand barking at 2am, increased drinking, increased urination, and most recently bladder control issues. UTI negative, blood relatively normal, urine extremely diluted. From 2019 to now my vet has identified a slow but worsening trend of her kidney values/urine dilution.

She has had SEVERAL blood panels, urine samples, and now cultures to try and pinpoint what is happening. Now she just had an ultrasound yesterday and a test done for Cushing's disease, which results should arrive today. Ultrasound was clean and the kidney looks fine physically.

In just the last 7 days I have spent $1,883.74 in diagnostics. This doesn't even include her other health costs, such as a yeast infection in her nose requiring a dermatologist specialist to diagnose, her weekly physical rehab, her inflammation pills, her misdiagnose of allergies for what turned out to be yeast infections, etc.

If the Cushing's test doesn't indicate anything then we are off to an internist to test for diabetes but it requires certain things my primary vet doesn't have access to. So again more $$$ just to find the issue- not even treat the issue yet.

Luckily, I'm a planner and she has been insured since she was 4.5 years old - now she is 9.5 and all these issues come one after another. This year alone I have made 24 claims, where some years I made none. I am now "beating" insurance but I really wish I wasn't.

So remember to keep in mind that while you may have money stashed away for a problem - finding that problem may put a serious dent in those funds so plan accordingly for diagnostics on top of the actual treatment.

Submitted October 28, 2020 at 02:27PM by hopeless93 https://ift.tt/3muYNPP