On Dogs, Health and Costs

Anyone who has been following my Facebook page is aware that my youngest dog, Beau, is struggling with a left foreleg limp that we cannot seem to figure out and it reminded me that I’ve been meaning to write about this for a while.

Dogs and Health: There is a lot of talk about what health nightmares pure bred dogs can be. And yes, pure bred dogs can have health issues. But there is an equally strong belief that mixed breed dogs are healthy. And that is not entirely true. Simply mixing together a couple of breeds does not magically give you a healthy dog. Some of the sickest dogs in our rescue have been the mixes.

In my own home, I’ve generally had very healthy pugs. But some of my mixed breeds have not been so lucky. In my case, it’s been usually a two breed mix…shih tzu/poodle…..and many of the ones I’ve fostered and adopted had health issues from both breeds. So I caution folks to be careful about falling for the “All mixes are healthy”. They may be, but they may have many of the genetic disorders of both breeds. Certainly with a pure bred dog, you want to do your research before getting one and you definitely want to do your research about where you get one. But you need to be equally savvy about buying into “Our dogs are healthy cause we mixed pugs with (insert other breed here)”. The reality is, any dog at any time can end up needing extensive vetting and you need to be prepared for that.

Beau with his unicorn hot water bottle.

Beau and the Zombie Leg: So….my youngest dog, Beau, is the muttiest of mutts. He has 9 different breeds in his DNA. And he generally tested clear of genetic health disorders and yet...we now have a mysterious foreleg limp that has been going on since April and we still don’t have a definitive diagnosis. We have done X-rays twice,

biopsies twice, MRIs twice, blood work twice. Nothing conclusive.

Making things even more confusing, just as we were convinced we were looking at a nerve sheath tumour, he suddenly got better. Like…the limp went away, muscle returned and happy happy joy joy. Until it came back 4 weeks later. Pretty much the same presentation and progress. That’s when we did the second batch of x-rays and the MRI. At this point, we simply do not know what the heck is going on with that leg.

And this hasn’t been cheap. We are about $11,000 into diagnostics. And that is what I want to talk about. Preparing for this possibility in life.

No, Vets are not ripping us off and no, what we’ve paid is not out of line: Good health care costs money. In Canada, pet owners are inclined to get stroppy about vet costs because we have almost no idea what things like lab work, X-rays, MRIs cost. So, it’s easy to think it’s outrageous when, in fact, it’s not. Specialists are just that…they’ve devoted years to their specific area of specialty.

Beau recovering from his Zombie Leg biopsy.

Beau has seen neurologists, a surgeon and a radiologist. Not to mention the various important vet medicine staff who managed his anaesthesia for the MRIs and biopsies. The specialty hospital where he was seen has the best MRI in North America. Some human hospitals don’t have an MRI as good as this one. So, yes, it cost money. And yes, we didn’t get a definitive diagnosis. And yes, it’s incredibly frustrating for me, but also for those vets.

They’ve been fabulous to my dog and he’s had great care. But sometimes, medicine just doesn’t have an answer.

The tests he’s had have been worth every penny in that I could not just say “No, I’m not doing that. It’s too expensive”. I could afford it. I had planned for this eventuality. I knew some day some dog was going to run me into some money. And I can’t just let him live with it without trying to figure it out.

Preparing and making a plan: As a rule, if I can insure my dog, I do. I have insured my pug (who has, of course, not cost me much money). Beau is not insured. Most of my dogs have not been insured due to age, pre-existing conditions, etc. So I’ve always had a back up plan for costs besides basic vet care:

*I have had a savings account for years and years that I add to bit by bit. I’ve been lucky that I haven’t had to dip into it often. And Beau has hit it hard. * I have the ability to generate some income by selling off some investments. I’m incredibly lucky I could do that. * I also know that IF we hit a point where I don’t have the funds, I may be able to borrow the money from family or friends with the understanding that it would be repaid. * Last but not least, IF I was unable to provide him the care he needs then I have the option to seek out a responsible rescue who may be able to provide him the care if I cannot. This would, obviously, be a last resort. And I don’t mean the rescue would pay for his vetting for me. I mean, I would have to surrender him to a reputable rescue for his well being. What I won’t do is start a GoFundMe for vet costs for a dog I own. I know folks do it, but I won’t. It is part of my responsibility to care for my dogs and if I must ask folks to donate to pay for my dog’s vet costs, then I need to seriously examine whether I can actually afford a dog.

Zombie Leg close up

And here’s my point: Prepare yourself. Have a plan. Up to and including surrendering your dog to a reputable rescue who CAN provide the care. Vet costs are one of the more common reasons owners surrender their dogs to a rescue. There are organizations that can assist owners with vet costs, but I have never qualified for that help and frankly, I’d have a tough time even asking since I do know the limits on those kinds of organizations and not only do I not qualify, I shouldn’t qualify. I have other options.

We still don’t know what’s happening with his leg. We may end up having to amputate it or it may be an auto immune issue that comes and goes. The reality is it was completely unanticipated, unpredictable and not preventable. What saved him was that I had my little savings account, I could liquidate some things to generate cash. I had a plan.

We need to accept and face the reality of this kind of “out of the blue” medical event. We need to be aware of it as a possibility and not hope that luck or breed mix or what have you will prevent/avoid this. And most of all, we need to NOT blame our vets and their staffs for charging for their expertise and their skills. The issue isn’t that they charge, it’s that you didn’t have a plan and weren’t prepared.

What Our Rescue Can and Cannot Do

Hopefully, this article will answer some questions that come up over and over again about “Why didn’t Pugalug just……….”

Why did Pugalug force these people to give up their dog? This question most often comes up when someone has to surrender their dog due to financial situations. Most commonly, a medical issue that the owner cannot afford. Pugalug does NOT force people to give up their dogs, but we also cannot pay vet costs for other people’s dogs. Why? We are a charity and we aren’t registered to do that. We can’t just give people money or pay the costs for someone else’s dog. We could potentially lose our charitable status and our non-profit status. As badly as we feel for people in this situation, we cannot give away money in this way. We would need to re-register as an entirely different type of organization with an entirely different structure.

Why doesn’t Pugalug buy dogs off of kijiji/auctions/online forums? There are a couple of reasons for this. The first being, the rescue isn’t set up to purchase dogs. Even if we were, it can be hard to suss out if the seller is the owner or just a broker for mill dogs. In some instances, buying dogs simply creates a market and doesn’t address the issue. This is also why buying a dog from a pet store can be an issue - it creates a market for more “inventory” and puts the breeding dogs still being used for that purpose at more risk.

Buying dogs would set a precedent that would come back to haunt us. If we buy dog A, then why would we say no to an owner wanting reimbursement for the money they’ve spent on their dog before surrendering? See where this gets tricky?

Why doesn’t Pugalug import dogs from out of country? There are many reasons why we do not do this. First and foremost are the multiple issues that arise from importing, including the importation of diseases, the need for a strict quarantine process, and the cost of importing these dogs to Canada. And that’s just for starters. A great many imported dogs are complete unknowns and may or may not present a variety of risks to domestic dogs and the family that is fostering them. And generally, we struggle to keep up with local need.

Why doesn’t Pugalug adopt out of province? This is a simple resources issue. We have a process for adopting and one part of that is a home visit which gets very hard to do long distance. Secondly, getting the dog to the adopter is costly and hard to coordinate and getting the dog back is extremely difficult if it doesn’t work out for the adopter and that dog.

We are all volunteers and many rescues DO coordinate with other rescues groups to do home visits in the province of Ontario, however extending that to across Canada is just not do-able.

Why won’t Pugalug take my pug mix who has a bite record? This can be a complex decision. For the most part, a dog that has bitten badly enough and often enough to get a bite record is a dog with some significant behaviour issues that need to be addressed and a rescue may not be the best place to do that.

Secondly, the fastest way for us to lose our liability insurance coverage is to take in dogs that we KNOW have bite record. You cannot waive liability for that. You can try, but if someone takes you to court, you will likely lose. If we know in advance of the intake that the dog has a bite record, then we cannot take in that dog AND keep our insurance.

Having said all of that, we also know that not all bites are equal and we do assess the bite. A child falls on a sleeping dog and gets bitten? We may take that dog depending on how the dog responded. Those bites are most often not going to end up with the dog having a record.

We also have to be realistic about what we can and cannot expect people to adopt. Folks come to a breed specific rescue looking for that breed and aren’t looking for a dog that may well pose a risk to them, their other dogs and their neighbours.

Why does Pugalug charge an adoption fee? Why don’t you give your dogs away? We charge adoption fees for several reasons. Generally, our fees are based on the age and health of the dog. Older dogs tend to have lower adoption fees, younger dogs tend to have higher fees. Healthy dogs will have a higher fee than a dog with a chronic condition. Our fees are not out of range with the normal costs of adopting.

We have once charged a hefty fee of over $500. In that case, we took in a pregnant bitch, saw her through delivery, care of the puppies and all the vetting. We almost never get in puppies, much less a litter. This was an opportunity to find homes for a healthy litter and use their adoption fees to offset some of the costs of our older, less healthy dogs. Yes, folks complained BITTERLY about it, but we also knew that these puppies were worth the cost and it was an unusual event in our rescue.

Giving away dogs is generally a terrible idea. And while people complain about adoption fees, they don’t come close to covering the cost of these dogs in our care.

Why do the foster parents adopt all the good dogs? They shouldn’t be allowed to. I will say upfront, this complaint really gets my goat. Our foster folks have often been doing this work for years. They’ve adopted out many more dogs than they’ve kept.

Often the foster folks have kept dogs with behaviour issues, major or complex medical issues or dogs that had a significantly reduced chance of adoption due to age. If a foster parent has a young, healthy dog in their care and they wish to adopt it, we let them, assuming they aren’t in violation of by-laws or other legal/liability issues. They’ve earned it. They deserve it. It’s the LEAST we can do for their dedication to the dogs they have cared for.