Devoted pet owners the big spenders

Despite budget cuts and belt-tightening for many, spending on life-saving treatments for the beloved family pet appeared to be greater than ever, some of Canberra's leading veterinarians have said.

Sarah Webb has been a vet for 30 years and a registered specialist in Canberra for two decades.

She said there had been a dramatic change in spending in the past 10 years, and it wasn't just city pets that were benefiting.

"Definitely people are prepared to spend more than in the past. [Pets] are considered one of the family," she said. "They say they think twice about [spending], but they don't think twice.

"I'm even talking about farmers these days who are prepared to spend a lot of money.

''They say 'this dog is worth more than an employee to me', or they simply love the dog, too."

Dr Webb is the ACT's only registered small-animal specialist surgeon, and has seen a range of bizarre - and often expensive - animal surgeries.

Working from Gungahlin, Dr Webb said she did a couple of spinal surgeries a month - that's a $4500 to $6000 bill - and has had a cat with a ruptured urethra after being bitten by a dog.

"It had to have surgery to have a new opening. That came to about $4000 [combined] with its multiple other injuries," she said.

But her bill-topping surgery for an individual pet was caused by a single piece of cotton, which was stuck inside a cat for three weeks.

"Probably the most unusual one in the past 12 months was for a cat that had swallowed cotton, and it was losing weight and couldn't eat, and we found a bit of cotton in its bottom," she said.

"We then found there was this one piece of cotton that went from its mouth to its anus, and it had perforated its intestine.

"I think the [bill for the] cat probably came out at close to $9000. It had to be hospitalised and needed a lot of post-operative care, including tube-feeding."

It made a full recovery.

Animal Emergency Centre senior veterinarian Madeleine Richard said making a quick decision on expensive but life-saving surgeries

could be extremely challenging for owners. "Probably the most expensive one for us is surgery for gastric dilatation volvulus - bloat - in large breed dogs, which becomes life-threatening when the stomach twists," she said.

"That can be anywhere from $3500 to $4500. That's for the initial work that we do, then there's the aftercare costs.

"It's always a judgment call. I had a whole year where everybody opted for euthanasia on financial or prognostic grounds, then I might have done five in the following year."

Dr Richard has practiced for 18 years and has spent 5½ years at the after-hours emergency centre. She said vets understood people could not always afford to opt for treatment.

"The important thing is to address the patient's welfare,'' she said. ''This may mean euthanasia or it may mean palliative procedures until another option is found."

Recently at the Canberra Veterinary Hospital in Lyneham, Mick the chihuahua had his second surgery in a month after a leg fracture following an attack from a bigger dog.

Owner Jane Kuffner said the total cost for the eight-year-old's surgeries this year would be about $5000, but it was money well spent.

"He's just a beautiful little dog, and we get so much entertainment out of him," she said. "My daughter loves him to pieces, so this [treatment] was no question."

With another $2500 spent after an "altercation" with a dog five or six years' ago, Mick's medical bills are 30 times greater than his $250 purchase price.

Mrs Kuffner said if Mick was younger she would invest in pet insurance.

"If he was a pup, definitely," she said.

The hospital's head surgeon, Vickie Saye - who performed Mick's operation - said pet insurance was now more common.

"Ten years ago I'd be lucky if I filled in one [insurance form] in six months,'' Dr Saye said. ''Now I do three a week."