That certainly is a more than reasonable price for good vet care. I
haven't paid $500 for a C-section since the early 80's. Glad to hear
all ended well for both mama and most of the babies.
My most expensive C-section ever was about 10 years ago and ran
$3,000 at the Emergency vet Clinic. My vet was out of town; so I had
no other choice than to go to to the Specialty/Emergency Clinic. One
of the other (non Speciality) Emergency Clinics in town might have
done the section less expensively. However, I don't really trust my
dogs at those clinics. Long, not very happy story.... The
Specialty/ Emergency Clinic, however, required prepayment before
they'd do any treatment. My regular vet doesn't. So we had to put
things on the Credit Card to worry about later. Yes, such a huge
bill really hurts, but you can't put a price on the dogs we
love. I'm willing to give up other things to make sure my dogs get
the best medical care.
We got one puppy that day, but most importantly, our mama dog was
"safe". That Clinic did give us a "baby quilt" for our
$3,000. LOL. We still joke that sure had to be the most expensive
little quilt around.
Since that time, this same Clinic has greatly raised their prices
making their overall pricing today even more costly. However, I
still do use that Clinic for some Speciality work. That's what this
Emergency Clinic does during normal hours. Meanwhile - if I ever
needed an emergency" C-section - I would now opt to instead go the
newer Speciality/Emergency Clinic in the Metro. They only charge
$2,500, and they have a very good staff. I really like and trust
them. It's almost like a human hospital. I use both clinics when I
need a specific vet Specialist. Even vet medicine is turning to
having more and more Specialists. Luckily, I haven't needed any
C-sections in many, many years.
A lot of pricing for a C-section - or anything else - seems to depend
on where you live and on which vet clinic you use. A regular vet
clinic will always be less expensive than an Emergency Clinic or a Specialist.
If one chooses to breed dogs, they need to always be prepared for an
unexpected C-section and what it might cost. That's a basic
fact. Glad to hear you rushed to the vet at the first sign of
trouble. That undoubtedly saved both the mom and the rest of the litter.
Liz
2 years ago we had to rush my daughters Chi to the Vet for an
emergency C section as her first puppy started to come out and went
back in and we feared trouble. It was closing time and the vet did
the emergency C- Section after hours for $500.00. We felt this was
reasonable as we did not have to use an after hour vet and it was our
vet who saved the whole litter but the original one. This was after
hours and only $500.00.
Karen
