Hunting dog injuries & treatment cost

TSAMP

WKR
Joined
Jul 16, 2019
Messages
1,700
I wanted to start this thread for people's future references. I think its easy to say you'll pay whatever to get your best friend taken care of, but it's helpful to have an idea of cost to make sure your not taken advantage of.


I am fortunate to have a vet friend ( out of state so does not treat my animals) that I can text when things arise. Hopefully others can add to this so we can all be more educated of going rates.

Below are fees for a normal vet visit.

Blood work. This is called a "titers" panel. It is what ultimately found my dogs joint issues were Rocky Mtn spotted Fever. This was a $235 dollar blood test sent out to a university and is fully comprehensive for tick born illness. The normal tick test my vet did missed this the first time around

Arthritis issues- Spryng intra-articular injection. This has been a massive improvement for my older males carpus
$500

Arthritis- Shockwave therapy
$200

Missing ear chunk - sutures
$150

Surgical consult - lameness
$100-$235

Emergency vet trips - 24 hr clinic

Swallowed Foreign object. Stomach pump
$250

Barb wire fence - 13 staples
$450 with antibiotics
 

WTFJohn

WKR
Joined
May 1, 2018
Messages
473
Location
CO
I wanted to start this thread for people's future references. I think its easy to say you'll pay whatever to get your best friend taken care of, but it's helpful to have an idea of cost to make sure your not taken advantage of.


I am fortunate to have a vet friend ( out of state so does not treat my animals) that I can text when things arise. Hopefully others can add to this so we can all be more educated of going rates.

Below are fees for a normal vet visit.

Blood work. This is called a "titers" panel. It is what ultimately found my dogs joint issues were Rocky Mtn spotted Fever. This was a $235 dollar blood test sent out to a university and is fully comprehensive for tick born illness. The normal tick test my vet did missed this the first time around

Arthritis issues- Spryng intra-articular injection. This has been a massive improvement for my older males carpus
$500

Arthritis- Shockwave therapy
$200

Missing ear chunk - sutures
$150

Surgical consult - lameness
$100-$235

Emergency vet trips - 24 hr clinic

Swallowed Foreign object. Stomach pump
$250

Barb wire fence - 13 staples
$450 with antibiotics

Get horses and all small animal visits will seem like they are at huge discount!

It's definitely good to have reference for prices if you're getting into things for the first time with a vet; I've found once you have a vet you can trust (and that trusts you with a working dog) your prices go down because a lot more stuff can be called in instead of requiring a visit.

Good animals are worth every penny, one of my old hunting dogs had med records over 130 pages long when he passed.
 

sndmn11

"DADDY"
Joined
Mar 28, 2017
Messages
10,569
Location
Morrison, Colorado
I've found once you have a vet you can trust (and that trusts you with a working dog) your prices go down because a lot more stuff can be called in instead of requiring a visit.

I need to find one of those!

Brown dog tries hard both days this weekend and seems to have Limp Tail today.

PXL_20241216_132948490.jpg

I'd be real happy for some call in some anti-inflammatory meds, but I bet they will have me come in.
 

WTFJohn

WKR
Joined
May 1, 2018
Messages
473
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CO
I need to find one of those!

Brown dog tries hard both days this weekend and seems to have Limp Tail today.

View attachment 807183

I'd be real happy for some call in some anti-inflammatory meds, but I bet they will have me come in.

I would be trying to find a ranch/ag/hunting community vet, maybe from Morrison you'd be looking more out towards the Divide area (or out east in Parker)? Once we have good bloodwork, we usually get a 180 ct Rimadyl, some basic antibiotics, and just holdover any extra heavy duty pain meds from surgeries or other incidents. For limp tail, 3-5 days of Rimadyl (w/ rest) has always worked on our labs.

Good luck finding one, they can be rare around the Front Range but it's worth searching them out.

I've used Rocky Top Vet Services in Florrisant for some horse stuff before, they don't work on dogs but it may be worth a phone call to them for a working dog vet reference.
 
Last edited:
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TSAMP

TSAMP

WKR
Joined
Jul 16, 2019
Messages
1,700
Get horses and all small animal visits will seem like they are at huge discount!

It's definitely good to have reference for prices if you're getting into things for the first time with a vet; I've found once you have a vet you can trust (and that trusts you with a working dog) your prices go down because a lot more stuff can be called in instead of requiring a visit.

Good animals are worth every penny, one of my old hunting dogs had med records over 130 pages long when he passed.
Oddly enough, I went through 2 "normal" vets before I found my current one that does equine and large animals as well. They have been great to deal with and understand working dogs far better than your average vet office.
 

Brock A

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Staff member
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Location
Orting, WA
I dont think the Rokslide servers can handle to PDF copies I have from my two GSP's insurance company over the last couple of years...

My 2 year old is well above $10k with an eye surgery and a gnarly open chest wound last year, plus your standard stuff, and my 8 year old has had his share of run ins with fences and those are $350-$450 per visit. Not to mention the recent visit for some reeds up his nose and his Bi-yearly PLE (Protein-losing enteropathy) blood draws.

Little shits are expensive!
 

sndmn11

"DADDY"
Joined
Mar 28, 2017
Messages
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Location
Morrison, Colorado
I dont think the Rokslide servers can handle to PDF copies I have from my two GSP's insurance company over the last couple of years...

My 2 year old is well above $10k with an eye surgery

Little shits are expensive!

Eye surgery injury, or eye surgery genetic non-injury something?
 

Speaks

FNG
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MN
Wife became a vet tech which helped quite a bit both in terms of what we can handle ourselves and the discount.

Even bigger deal is afterhours help when needed.

They have lots of students in vet school do tech work until they graduate so have developed a whole network of vets in our area she has worked with in the past even outside of the clinic she works for. Between both there are like 15 local vets that would take her call late at night on a Saturday.

Down side is with how easy it is to get our dogs in she will take them when they really dont need it which offsets the discount, the access is still super nice though.
 

Brock A

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Eye surgery injury, or eye surgery genetic non-injury something?
She had a tear duct get clogged and turn into a mass and it just about rubbed a hole in her cornea in the week it took us to get into a "dog eye specialist". Emergency surgery was about $4000. All good now though and she is birdy little thing!IMG_9401.jpg
 

WRO

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Nov 6, 2013
Messages
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Location
Idaho
3-400.00 per cheat seed removal, stitches on the regular. 900 to get kids underwear to pass.

I’m about 15-2000 a year in vet bills.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Joined
Dec 23, 2020
Messages
641
Wow. I feel lucky. Was just in Kansas and my Pudelpointer got caught on some wire. Just need 5 stitches and antibiotics. The country vet just did a local and had me hold me her. Out in 10 mins with antibiotics $140
 

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WKR
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Oct 31, 2016
Messages
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Idaho
I've said it before and I'll say it again: "Damned dogs!" Sometimes they are stunningly expensive ($900 for an ultrasound of the heart expensive - that scan took all of eight minutes from the time they took her in until they brought her out). What I will say is this - we are very fortunate to not have to worry about paying that bill. And, gentlemen, I submit that they are worth every penny! Dogs are the best people ever, but they can be spendy.
 
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