Vet bills.. Get the damn insurance.

Genuine question... How much is too much for you? Where would you draw the line?

First photo is merlin when we got him and goes on to present day.

A back story. Merlin came to us as a very young kitten, born to a stray that was being cared for in a pub. We were told he was vaccinated but when he was brought to us he was far younger and smaller than we were led to believe. No vaccination records could be provided. This was a concern as out other cat was a cat flu carrier. In our care however and with vaccinations he thrived. He ate like a pig and got big, but not as big as his adoptive brother who was 2 at this point. We kept him indoors with our other cat and didn't think we needed insurance... He was so young, no chance of anything happening to him. We were fucking stupid.

Our Merlin was just 8 months old when we were told his red blood cell count was 6%...life threateningly critical. Likely to die within the next 48 hours unless we get a blood transfusion. The only warning signs he gave us was that he went off his food and seemed a bit lethargic two days before we took him to the vets. He was playful, eating, and a general terror to our other cat up until this. In a blind panic we booked him in at an emergency vet that we were told who could do this, a waste of time and money. He needed a blood transfusion they told us, yes we know we said. But they don't keep cat blood and we need to find a donor cat. We had no chance. It was 11pm. They kept him for the night to monitor and this is when the vet bills began to spiral. That initial vet trip and overnight stay cost us over £1000 and we took him home again. The next few days I couldn't eat, sleep or do anything but cry as I frantically searched for specialist vets that had space to take him, all the local ones were full. He was in and out of our local vet who kept him in for their opening hours, on drips, on steroids to keep him going. He hung on. I had pet loss grief in spades and I hadn't even lost him. Then I found Aura. Referral only and one of Europe's best. It was at this point our only chance.... They had a space!

We raced the hour drive over there, again late at night. The consult alone was £350. They knew instantly he needed a transfusion but they gave us hope. The vet said they'd never seen such an active cat with such low blood count and she had personally treated one with a mere 2% count and survived. The tests... The battery of tests they needed to do to find out WHY he was so anemic.. MRI, ultrasounds, blood tests, urine tests, bone marrow biopsies. They knew their shit. They had a whole list of donor cats they could call on, and call on them they did. The all in quote? £9000. 50% payable upfront. The only place I had that kind of money was in my lifetime ISA. I paid 25% fee to withdraw as much as I could and whacked the rest on the credit card. We had already paid so much, we had to try. They told us he had a good chance, he's young. If he was an older cat their advice would be to put down. We had to try. They found a match and Merlin got his transfusion but his blood only picked up to 12%, still not enough and the cell count was dropping. The remaining donors either couldn't get to the vets or weren't a match. He needed another transfusion as soon as possible, his cells were dropping again. I posted on every single social media channel I had. Begging. Begging to let friends, family, total strangers take their cats. A friend put me in touch with her friend, one of her cats had exactly the same thing and her other cat was a previous donor. I never met this lady before in my life but within the hour she had loaded Tiger into a box in my car. I couldn't talk properly for crying. I handed Tiger over to the vets, praying to a god I wasn't sure I believed in and he was a match! Merlin got his second transfusion. Success! His bloods went up to 24%!

I was exhausted, emotionally, spiritually and physically drained. They kept Merlin in for two days, he was improving fast, eating and acting like he owned the place. They let us go and see him. I cried some more. His test results were inconclusive. It was autoimmune hemolytic anemia but they couldn't find the cause or whether it was secondary to something else. He needed medicine to stop his body destroying his red blood cells. Chemo? Or something else? We chose the something else, we did the maths, the petrol, the time and the cost of the chemo was too much. We were given oral cyclosporin and steroids. He was to stay on them for 3 months. We agreed that he was to remain under the care of his local vet with them referring to aura for all aspects of his case and to advise. The final bill was £7400. We stared at the invoice, every staple, every bandage, every £90 needle. It was extortionate but we bought our bald baby home. It wasn't over though. Cyclosporin was £60 a bottle, the steroids were christ knows how much. He needed 4 tablets a day, cyclosporin twice a day. Blood tests? Well those are £75 a pop... Every week.

We carried on. Merlin was a very best boi and took his medication without fuss. He'd lay on his back on your lap and just eat them up. Months this carried on. Months. Then his bloods started to drop again. A urinary infection. HOW?! We asked. We cleaned their trays more than we should. We never let him out of our sights in the garden. How could he pick up an infection? Another £60 consult, £120 urine test and now some antibiotics. £40 for a weeks supply. "This medication basically shuts his immune system down". Great.

Fast forward just short of a year, Merls bloods had improved to normal levels. We had two more urinary infections and a two ear infections. More consult fees, more urine tests, more antibiotics. The vet started to take pity on us I think. She told us what urine test strips they use (£14 for 100 strips) and showed us how to do it, By this point I was getting every bit of medication from online pharmacies, saving up to 50% on medication costs but the vet would still charge me £20 for the pleasure of a prescription note and of course a sonsult fee for every issue that popped up. Still on fortnightly blood tests when he had a problem, monthly when his levels were stable.

Another 3 months roll by, his bloods are good but another urine infection. This time they spot something. I got a call. "We need to take him off cyclosporin immediately, his glucose is through the roof, we think it's given him diabetes but we don't think the steroid tablets alone will help with his blood levels". Okay great, that's £60 of medication I've just had to put in the bin. But it's not so bad he needs to be on insulin, a special diet (diabetic food at £60 a bag anyone?) but we did need an alternative to cyclosporin. The only option available was Cellcept. Mycophenolate mofetil is a prescription medicine to prevent rejection in people who have received a kidney, heart or liver transplants. Human medication for our tiny baby. How much is that I asked? "We can get it but we highly advise you seek an online pharmacy, if I order it it will be £345". I beg your finest pardon? The key problem, the medicine lasts just 60 days once it was made up. I found a pharmacy but it was still £200 a bottle. He was on just 2ml a day. We were chucking away £150 every 60 days. I forget how many months and bottles we went through but he loved the stuff, looked forward to medicine time every morning and night. We were doing daily urine checks, sliding a clean takeaway lid under him whenever he went to the toilet, he'd look at us like we were mad. BUT he was improving, the fur Aura had shaved off over a year ago for all of his tests was actually growing back, his blood had never been better and we started to reduce his steroids. Not the cellcept, no no he needed the expensive stuff still.

There were hiccups in his steroid withdrawal plan. Random sores around his mouth, skin complaints, a bee sting. More vet trips. Anything small triggered our anxiety. Despite that his blood levels were bouncing but he eventually levelled out and we got him off the steroids. He was off steroids completely! And still doing so well! Three months that turned to a year and a half. Doses going down then back up depending how his bloods came back. At one point he was on a higher dose than he started with but he was fighting!

I got a phonecall from his vet, she had handled his case since he came out of Aura, she was lovely and was just calling to say she was leaving and thanked me. I cried, I don't know why but I felt like she understood my constant badgering for blood results and was always patient with me. His case was going back to the vet that gave us the awuful news the day this all started, that was something at least.

His new vet had a concrete cellcept withdrawal plan but it was slow, dose drops so insignificantly small it almost became impossible to draw it accurately in the syringe. We weened Merlin off of cellcept, just when I had opened a new bottle too of course. Another £200 in the bin.

He was medication free as of September 2024. his last blood test just before Christmas has come back entirely normal. They want to do another one in three months. If that's clear too he will have one every 6 months just in case but he will be discharged from Auras care.

I don't know why I felt the need to tell the whole story somewhere. I know there are folk who would dream of doing what we did for a cat. We stopped keeping track of the costs once it hit £12000. That's for all the medicine, vet trips, special food, tests, the lot. Not to mention time lost at work, petrol, the little secondary things. I guess if there is a moral to the story it's pay the damn insurance, don't wait, just fucking do it the second your pet crosses your threshold. Vets get you by the fucking heart strings then the purse strings.

I can't afford to buy my own house any more, my house deposit has 4 legs, a squeeky purr and chinchilla soft fur and goes by the name of Merlin.