People open their homes and their hearts to a pet and they plan to take care of the pet for his whole life. But when cancer strikes, the treatment fees can be astronomical! It is humiliating and emotionally debilitating for owners who cannot afford life-saving treatment for their beloved pet.
VETERINARY TREATMENT FEES
Veterinary treatment fees are high, especially for cancer treatment. You can call local clinics to compare fees. You can ask your clinic if you qualify for any discounts. Ask your clinic if they work with CareCredit or ScratchPay. Many pet owners can afford veterinary treatment fees for their pets with cancer by using one CareCredit or ScratchPay.
Without assistance, a diagnosis of cancer for people with no financial resources can mean a death sentence for their pet. There are ways to get a dog through cancer treatment with limited funds. There are ways to cut the costs of chemo, surgery or radiation.
4 Ways to Minimize Treatment Costs
Cut Costs of Chemo
- Cut Costs of Surgery
- Cut Costs of Radiation
- Choose Wisely!
- Chemo protocols are developed based on studies. The highest percentage of dogs survived longest when particular drugs were given in a particular order. Or when treatments were given every X number of weeks, at a dosage. But for some dogs in the study, the “most effective” plan was scheduled too often or at too high a dose! If you cannot afford the protocol, you can adjust it to make it more affordable. Chemotherapy is not an exact science.
- If a dog has a bad reaction to a drug, the protocol will be adjusted. It can also be adjusted for financial reasons. Fees will be lower if you schedule treatments less often (i.e., every 10 days or 2 weeks rather than every week), or if you ask the vet to give your dog 75% of the recommended dosages. Since some dogs can’t tolerate the full dose every week – if your dog happens to be in that group, reducing the dosage will actually improve his chances of treatment success and survival.
- For most cancers, there are various chemotherapy protocols that have good success rates. Ask your vet to suggest several of the most effective protocols for your dog’s cancer. (Not just the protocol he/she uses routinely.) You can cut the costs of chemo by choosing the least expensive protocol that still has a good survival rate.
- For dogs with lymphoma: a) The very expensive flow cytometry test is usually not needed. This tells if it is B-cell or T-cell, but 90% are B-cell. If there is nothing indicating that he has T-cell, skip this test! b) If your dog is having a CHOP protocol, ask them to begin with a Vincristine treatment, not an L-Spar (Asparaginase) treatment. L-Spar should be saved and given later if your dog comes out of remission.
See the most commonly used chemo protocols for dogs on the Downloads page.
After your dog’s surgery, it is likely that you will receive the news “Your dog needs a 2nd surgery,” or “Now we have to give him chemotherapy,” or “He must have radiation therapy.” This may be because the vet did not get clean margins, and the biopsy report finds it is an aggressive, malignant cancer. In that case, it is your choice whether to leave it be and hope that the cancer will not progress any time soon, or put him through additional treatment.
Very often, even if the surgery did remove the tumor with clean margins, the biopsy report says “Microscopic disease may remain.” In cancer, there is always a possibility that microscopic cancer cells remain.
The report really should say: “Microscopic disease or may not remain.”
If your dog is having surgery, save costs and trauma to your dog:
- If a diagnosis cannot be made on a mass without surgery, try to avoid having two surgeries done. Instead of a surgical biopsy and then a surgery to remove the tumor, just have the tumor removed with as clean margins as possible.
- Tell your vet that after this surgery, you may not be able to afford chemo, radiation, or another surgery. Ask them to make every effort to remove the cancer with clean margins in this one surgical procedure.
- Ask the vet to take wide margins, even if they aren’t sure whether the tumor is malignant or benign.
Cut Costs for Radiation Therapy
Radiation therapy is often the most expensive type of treatment. Usually there are two options – your vet will tell you that he/she can provide “Curative Radiation Therapy” or “Palliative Radiation Therapy.” Your vet may say that if you want to really fight the cancer and try to save your dog’s life, you must choose the Curative protocol.
It’s important to note that curative vs. palliative is a judgement call! In many cases, a palliative protocol turns out to be curative (the cancer does not return). And a curative protocol turns out not be effective at all.
Curative: Curative radiation may require treatments everyday, Monday through Friday (5 treatments a week). Often, the dog stays at the clinic during the week and can go home on weekends. This is hard on the owners. Often, the dog has severe radiation burns and open wounds for months with danger of infection. Sometimes, the dog dies during the 5-days a week radiation therapy protocol.
Palliative: The palliative plan is easier on the dog, you don’t have to be without him for whole weeks, and of course it is less expensive. There are several protocols for palliative radiation. Some require treatment once a week, and others call for treatment three times a week. Your vet should agree to your choice of curative or palliative.
It is your vet’s job to tell you everything possible that can be done help your dog fight cancer. Everything from the standard treatments to the most aggressive treatments, as well as the least aggressive treatments. Your vet would be remiss if they did not fully inform you of all of the possibilities.
And then it is your job to choose what should be done for your dog. You should not be pressured or feel pressured to agree to a test or a treatment plan. Your dog, your money, your decisions.
To manage costs, avoid any unnecessary diagnostic testing and choose treatments carefully. You will keep the fees to a minimum, and avoid putting your dog through any unnecessary trauma.
Ask for Assistance
A lot of clinics have an in-house foundation or fund, to help their clients. Ask if your clinic has a fund, and how you can request funding.
Ask people you know, who love you or your dog, for help! If they each pitch in a small amount, maybe you can get the treatment done.
There are many nonprofit organizations that help people pay veterinary fees, so that their pets can have treatment. Apply to the organizations here.
Do not apply to all of them. Don't waste your time, the organization's time or your clinic's time. Your clinic will have to fill out forms for each organization.
Ask if your clinic offers delayed payments. You could pay a small amount each month. It's like a loan, you will pay interest fees, just like any loan.
Does your clinic work with ScratchPay or CareCredit? If so, apply. These are like credit cards. If you do not pay on time, you will pay interest fees.