By: jackie.sauter

Our family cat, a Maine Coon who’s a svelte 18 pounds and 15 years old, was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism this week. He’d grown a benign tumor and lost three pounds in just three months by the time we brought him to the vet. We’re hoping his condition can be controlled through medication, but our veterinarian suggested radioactive iodine treatment if it doesn’t – a big procedure that comes with a big price tag ($1,400).

We’re not alone in having an awkward debate about the price of our pet’s life. Neal Templin at the Wall Street Journal wrote about his beagle’s astronomical medical bills earlier this month, and devoted a second column to the subject after getting an overwhelming number of responses to the first.

So how much is a pet’s life worth?

We know from TDR Reporter Anne Riley’s story from Aug. 10 that when the economy’s shaky, pet owners are less likely to give their vet the green light for an expensive procedure.

Anne wrote:

According to Dr. Kim Hammond, owner of Falls Road Animal Hospital …. given the economic conditions, pet owners are thinking harder about whether to give veterinarians the go-ahead for expensive surgeries.

“When your animal is really, really sick, you’re going to make a judgment call about whether to treat, when in the past, you didn’t make a judgment call — you just treated it,” he said. “When we had more expendable dollars, we might take the chance.”

Jess Townsend, who supervises admissions at the Maryland SPCA, said the organization has seen an uptick in euthanasia requests from pet owners who cannot afford the necessary vet care their pets require. “With the larger medical problems, people do bring them in to put them to sleep,” Townsend said.

But while those owners are struggling, others are treating their pets with human-grade care, such as acupuncture.

Where would you draw the line? $500? $1,000? …more?

Does it matter if your animal is a rescue (as one man told WSJ, “I paid $110 for our family cocker spaniel from a rescue organization six years ago, and I will pay no more than $110 to keep her alive”) or a purebred?

Would the state of the economy impact your decision at all?

JACKIE SAUTER, Web Editor