PeeperStorm on 15/11/2009 at 20:34
Tale of Woe time.
A month ago I take my gigantical goddamn cat to the vet. The summary of the conversation:
Cat - *cough* *cough*
Me - "He's been coughing a lot for the last two weeks."
Dr. Idiot - "It's prolly just a hairball. Give him this stuff."
Then yesterday things had gotten bad enough that I lugged him down to the vet emergency room:
Cat - *wheese!* *gasp!*
Me - "He's having trouble breathing, isn't eating, feeling listless"
ER Dr. - "Not good. Let me run some X-rays.
Front desk cash register - *ka-ching!*
One hour later:
ER Dr. - "As you can see from this very expensive X-ray, his left lung is so swollen that it's pushed his heart and right lung off to one side. Prolly cancer, but we'd need to run an ultrasound and draw some fluid to be sure."
Me - "Run it."
Front desk cash register - *ka-ching, ka-ching*
Another hour later:
ER Dr. - Please stop crying. I have good news. It's not cancer, it's just an abcess in his lung, with fluid that's so goddamn thick that it looks like cancer. We can fix it, but we'll have to keep him here for a week for some very expensive treatment..."
Me - *gasp!* *wheese!*
ER Dr. - "...where we drain the pus and then flush his lung repeatedly to get the rest of that crap out."
Front desk cash register - *KA-CHING!*
Another half-hour later:
Front desk lady - "Sorry it took so long to total everything up. Here's your estimated bill! Sir?...Sir?...David, get the smelling salts."
So there you have it: I'm spending the next 5 days and a few thousand dollars having my pussy flushed out.
TBE on 15/11/2009 at 20:43
I took my cat in several years ago when he wouldn't eat or drink. Turned out he had FIV. They kept him for several days, and it was like $800. I would have done anything for that cat, he was a good soul. He lived about 2 more years, then just disappeared one day. :(
These vets do great work, but they realize we'll spend money on the pets we love. Hope your pussy swelling goes down. :thumb:
37637598 on 15/11/2009 at 20:44
meoUCH!
D'Juhn Keep on 15/11/2009 at 20:54
Quote Posted by PeeperStorm
So there you have it: I'm spending the next 5 days and a few thousand dollars having my pussy flushed out.
My girlfriend's a veterinary nurse and gets quite a lot of people without insurance asking if why they can't just do it for free or, and I really like this one, if they can apply for insurance *now* and that she tells the insurance company that the animal has been fine.
It's not quite clear if you have insurance or not but not having insurance for your beloved pet seems... foolish
Aerothorn on 15/11/2009 at 21:08
Well, yes and no, D'Juhn.
Statistically speaking, insurance (in a private insurance market, which is presumably what we're talking about here) loses you money. That's how the insurance companies make a profit. Therefore, you're better off not having insurance....
...unless you get some really expensive to treat disease, in which case it's nice to have it!
Essentially, the point of insurance is to cover "unmanageable risk." So if you're fairly wealthy, you only want "catostrophic" health insurance (high deductible, just for covering said expensive diseases). If you're poor...well, then you're kind of fucked if work doesn't cover you. Go USA!
Anyway, vet treatment - while much more expensive than it once was - is still a LOT cheaper than human treatment, hence pets don't usually enter into "unmanageable risk," hence not sure if pet insurance is a good idea.
Mind you, this is just my layman's understanding of the insurance system, and I imagine I'm simplifying things.
Poor kitty:(
june gloom on 15/11/2009 at 22:34
I read Peeper's entire post expecting a punchline. I was not disappointed.
demagogue on 15/11/2009 at 22:53
Quote Posted by TBE
I took my cat in several years ago when he wouldn't eat or drink. Turned out he had FIV. They kept him for several days, and it was like $800. I would have done anything for that cat, he was a good soul. He lived about 2 more years, then just disappeared one day. :(
I have a story verbatum to this. Poor Sam. :(
Worse was that his mother died the same week by a car (unfortunately in great pain until we found her). :( :(
Suffering sucks.
Scots Taffer on 15/11/2009 at 23:01
Quote Posted by Aerothorn
Statistically speaking, insurance (in a private insurance market, which is presumably what we're talking about here) loses you money. That's how the insurance companies make a profit. Therefore, you're better off not having insurance....
I will probably pay something like $40,000-50,000 over my lifetime in premiums on my home insurance. Sure, the probability of total loss of my home is somewhere in the low fractions (even with Queensland's propensity for flood/storm damage), but if it did happen then I'd be recompensed for around half a million dollars, not to mention if I'm ever broken into (god forbid) which has a far greater probability, probably still single figures for our area, I'd recompense half or all that amount in one claim if anything worthwhile was stolen.
In short, it's fucking retarded to not have insurance if you can afford it because why leave bankruptcy inducing debt from anything that can go wrong to chance... this only gets multiplied by a factor of a million when it comes to your health.
That aside though, fuck getting insurance for pets - I mean, I like cats and dogs and everything, but I ain't ever putting a dog through chemotherapy or pushing it around in a wheelchair with a drip. If I ever get a pet and it gets any kind of illness, I'll be putting it down quick smart before it endures any suffering.
Also, nice job with the thread title and wrap-up gag.
fett on 15/11/2009 at 23:29
Quote Posted by Scots Taffer
Also, nice job with the thread title and wrap-up gag.
No kidding. The punch line was brilliant. :laff::laff:
Mr.Duck on 16/11/2009 at 01:32
It's always someone having trouble with some pussy...
