How Much Would You Pay to Save Your Pet's Life?
Category: News & Politics
Via: john-russell • 2 years ago • 23 commentsBy: Sarah Zhang (The Atlantic)
This is a very long article. I excerpted the first part of it.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
For $15,000, you can get your pet a new kidney.
By Sarah ZhangPhotographs by Caroline Tompkins for The AtlanticSherlock donated a kidney in 2019. (Caroline Tompkins for The Atlantic) November 20, 2022Share
When I first met Strawberry, age 16, she was lying on her back, paws akimbo. Her cat belly was shaved bare, and black stitches ran several inches down her naked pink skin.
A radiologist squirted ultrasound goop on her abdomen while two veterinary students in dark-blue scrubs gently held down her legs—not that this was really necessary. Strawberry was too tired, too drugged, or simply too out of it from her surgery the previous day to protest. In the dim light of the radiology room, her pupils were dilated into deep black pools. She slowly turned her head toward me. She turned away. She looked around at the small crowd of doctors and students surrounding her, as if to wonder what on God's green earth had happened for her to end up like this.
What had happened was that Strawberry had received a kidney transplant. A surgical team at the University of Georgia had shaved off patches of her long ginger fur, inserting catheters in her leg and neck to deliver the cocktail of drugs she would need during her hospital stay: anesthesia, painkillers, antibiotics, blood thinners, and immunosuppressants. Then a surgeon named Chad Schmiedt carefully cut down the midline of her belly—past the two shriveled kidneys that were no longer doing their job and almost to her groin. Next, he stitched into place a healthy new kidney, freshly retrieved from a living donor just hours earlier.
Schmiedt is one of only a few surgeons who perform transplants on cats, and is therefore one of the world's foremost experts at connecting cat kidneys. When he first greeted me with a broad smile and a handshake, I was struck by how his large, callused hand engulfed mine. In the operating room, though, his hands work with microscopic precision, stitching up arteries and veins only millimeters wide. This is the hardest part, he told me, like sewing "wet rice paper." Once the donor kidney was in place, it flushed pink and Schmiedt closed Strawberry back up. (As in human transplants, the old kidneys can stay in place.) It was then a matter of waiting for her to wake up and pee. She had done both by the time of her ultrasound.
Not that Strawberry could understand any of this—or that any cat understands why we humans insist on bringing them to vet offices to be poked and prodded by strangers. But without the transplant, she would die of kidney failure, an affliction akin to being gradually poisoned from within. Other treatments could slow her kidney disease, which is common in older cats, but they could not stop it. This is why Strawberry's owner decided to spend $15,000 on a kidney—a last resort to save her life, or at least extend it.
I didn't meet her owner in the hospital that day. Strawberry would need to be hospitalized for at least a week after the surgery, and cat owners—who come from all over the country and even the world for kidney transplants; Schmiedt's farthest patient traveled to Athens, Georgia, from Moscow—cannot always stay the entire time, because of work or family responsibilities. Strawberry's owner had dropped her off right before the surgery and would pick her up after she recovered.
But also, the owner didn't want her name in a magazine article about $15,000 kidney transplants. (That's the cost of the surgery at UGA; with travel and follow-up care, the total can be two or three times that amount.) She wasn't alone in not wanting to be named. In the course of reporting this story, I spoke with more than a dozen owners, several of whom were wary of going public about their cat's transplant. Others were happy, even eager, to share the experience, but they too sometimes told me of judgment radiating from family or acquaintances. "I wouldn't think of saying to somebody, 'Wow, that's an expensive car,' " one owner told me. "But people seem pretty free to say, 'Wow, you spent a lot of money on a cat.' "
And it is a lot of money. For decades, Americans' collective spending on veterinary care has been rising—it exceeded $34 billion in 2021—a sign of a broader shift in how we think about pets. Our grandparents might have found it indulgent to allow pets on the living-room couch, let alone the bed. But as birth rates have fallen, pets have become more intimate companions. (In my own household, our cat Pete is really quite insistent on taking up the full third of the bed that he believes is rightfully his.) Cats and dogs now have day cares; health insurance; funerals; even trusts, should an owner die an untimely death—a proliferation of services that implies new obligations to pet ownership, turning it into something more like parenthood.
This is, in fact, why $15,000 for a kidney transplant provokes so much judgment, isn't it? The unease with the money is an unease with the status of pets. Our very language is inadequate: They are not simply property, as pet owner implies, nor are they fully equivalent to children, as pet parent implies. They occupy a space in between. What do we owe these animals in our care—these living creatures that have their own wants and wills but cannot always express them? And what does what we think we owe them say about us?
This article appears in the December 2022 print edition with the headline "What Is a Cat's Life Worth?" When you buy a book using a link on this page, we receive a commission. Thank you for supporting The Atlantic.
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As medical care for pets has gotten more advanced, the costs have skyrocketed. If you are not "well off" , you cant pay for high cost surgery on an animal. Thus many kids of parents without much money are told that Bowser is being taken to a place where he will go to sleep, aka euthanized.
People are free to spend their money anyway they wish, but I wish that poor dogs and cats could be saved too.
Makes me wonder how much effort was spent to prevent the untimely death of the presumably much healthier donor (stray?) cat.
Old and sick animals should be put down.
There is a never ending supply of animals awaiting adoption
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There is a never ending supply of children waiting to be adopted also. Should sick children be put down as well?
I thought that there was a lengthy waiting list.
You mean like abortion?
Pay attention....."Old and sick"
They are not exclusive to one another.
Are the fetus's sick? 'Cause that's what Greg is talking about.
So children are safe, but look out grandma and grandpa.
So you would be OK with keeping old and sick animals alive and suffering for your own selfish needs??
No...that's not at all what I said
WOW, this whole conversation went straight over your head, didn't it?
This entire seed is about how much money you'd be willing to spend on your pets, NOT if you should put them down as soon as they get sick.
Pets are as much a part of your family as your children or grand parents. Get it?
I do not believe in prolonging life, whether animal or human, with medical procedures/medications. I spend money to maintain my pet's health but would not spend thousands to prolong life. I keep a pet comfortable at end of life and euthanize when that can no longer be.
Morning...I have had many cats and dogs over the years and all the cats have made it to good ages... around 17 years and all seem to end up with kidney or thyroid problems at that age.
I look at it is the quality of life and not the quantity and you know in a heart beat when it is all starting to go wrong...
So for me, no I wouldn't prolong life when they are starting to suffer...I am there at the start and I am there at the end..as much as it breaks your heart..
I had to get surgery done on my big dog. When she was young her intestines wrapped around her ovaries or something. Cost about 2 grand.
My nephew found her thrown out on the street as a puppy. She now lives a spoiled life instead of being dead or put down.
If people have the resources or the want, who am I to judge.
Interesting thread/seed.
Yeah, my wife and I are "Cat people" - we have 11 cats - 2 Maine Coons, 2 Russian Blues, 1 Tuxedo, 2 Snowshoes, 1 Siamese, 2 Chantilly-Tiffanys (long haired black) and 1 Rag-Doll.
Insurance? Sure, at $880.00 per cat per year except for the two who are older than 5 - and theirs is $1,100.00 a year. Normally, my monthly out-of-pocket expenses are 'bout $250.00 on food, litter, toys, treats and an occasional Vet check-up.
We just had to have one of our Maine Coon's left rear knee cap reattached (genetic issue) for $5,500.00 and he will be immobilized for 8 weeks for the healing process. His sister is showing signs of the same issue with her right front knee cap which, hopefully, she will outgrow. One of our Russian Blues has feline herpes in his left eye and the treatment for him, next month, will be 'bout $500.00. But, his vision will no longer be impaired and the cost of his medicines will go away.
Cats and many dogs, for the most part, will have a lifespan of 'bout 15-18 years - which is interesting 'cause a "human" child lives in your house for 'bout the same number of years at a helluvalot more expense, Finally got ours to "spread her wings" when she hit 19 and graduated from college and I became amazed at the amount of money we weren't having to spend on "shyte-for-teens" and she's finding out that - wow Dad - the world is an expensive place to play and grow-up in - just like you said.
Yes, people can and do become obsessively protective of their pets for many reasons. One of the primary is the company they give - the demands they don't make. Show me a household with cats/dogs where the owners just melt/relax when their pet comes and lies on their lap, sits next to their leg, leans on their shoulders, cuddles them at night and puts forth the magic potion of "PURRING" to release the "owner's" tension - AND THEY DON'T DEMAND THAT YOU CHANGE THE FRIGGIN' CHANNEL EVERY FIVE MINUTES.
Ain't a teenager in the world who could perform that magic.
We've had to put down two of our cats (Calico's) due to cancer - one of the eye and the other in the intestine. We knew that to prolong their lives would make us miserable watching them suffer through their pains and our checking/saving accounts deteriorate rapidly on the cost of their meds. To us and many like us, common sense plays a huge factor in their health care - just as it is for a "human" child.
I mean, hell, we don't look at their teeth and say "Hey, those teeth are coming in a little crooked - let's spend $18,000.00 so they can be popular and no one will laugh at them in school or the litter box." If it doesn't stop them from being able to chew their food - just keep your mouth closed more often. Who knows, people might think the child is more intelligent 'cause they aren't always interrupting the conversations for fear of showing their "crooked teeth".
Vets, unfortunately, are going to become more and more expensive as folks are finding out 'bout the GA Doc. Advancements in medicine, equipment, knowledge and the demand from pet owners/parents all fall within the theory of "Supply and Demand". The demand is there - the supply is becoming available - and the market is taking its cut.
Morning 1st...wow your fur balls are very well looked after...11 cats..crickey I have one ragdoll and it's really pushing it at the moment..
Has started sitting on me at 4am and if that doesn't work bellows it's head off. Has got food etc so I think it needs to go out. Get up, open the door and it just sits and looks at me.
Meanwhile I stand there holding the door open for it. It has a cat flap but I don't want to use it, wants it's slave to hold the door open. Then it decides to meander back to my bed and go back to sleep and I am awake the rest of the morning.
What is a snow shoe cat? Never heard of them...
This is Mishka which maybe on borrowed time if it persists on sitting on me at 4am..or I see vet bills coming up very shortly if it continues!!😃
Snowshoe - Whitey and Hurrem
Thanks for that..very nice purr bags..
My cat Fidget died about 35 years ago at the age of 17, and as much as I loved him, I don't think I would have spent $15,000 to keep him alive longer. I spent whatever was needed to keep him healthy and happy during his lifetime and I don't regret that expense one bit.
We spent $2K for chemo treatments on my dog Sadie many years ago. It prolonged her life another 2 years, but weakened her heart when the cancer came back and we started a new round. She died the day before her 6th birthday in front of me when I came home from work for lunch.
I did not elect to do surgery on my next dog Tucker after he ripped out what would be considered the ACL on a human. He was too old and would not do well after surgery. He would have most likely ripped it again before recovering from the surgery. Instead we built ramps for him in the back yard to the porch and in the front porch to a bed he could lie in and look out the windows. We had some portable steps we carried in the car for when he would go on rides with us.
Well, my beagle, Jasper (my profile picture), had to have surgery to remove a disc in his neck due to IVDD, and a few month's later had to have his anal glands removed. He was 7 years old at the time. The two surgeries cost us around $7,000.00 combined. He had a few IVDD scares after that, but never required another surgery and lived until a week before his 14th birthday. We had to put him to sleep after he had a stroke. We did what was best for him over his lifetime, and I would do it all over again.
Not sure what it is, but there certainly would be a limit on what I would spend