Reasons we have a large-ish emergency fund

This month, the annual checkup of our two kitties revealed that one has hyperthyroidism.  They’re both a bit older (~14), but they are indoor only cats, otherwise healthy and expected to live another 5-6 years.  Bloodwork revealed early hyperthyroidism in Bootsie, our black and white cat.  Just the diagnosis for her was $178 (in addition to the “normal” vet visit which we had saved for all year long and was already in the budget).  Then we needed to decide what to do.

Untreated, it is fatal.  It can be “cured” (98% success rate) with a one time injection of I-131 radio isotope (Iodine), or it can be managed with 2 times daily doses of medicine.  Realistically, we know we’re not going to remember to give her pills twice a day, and many times, we leave for long weekends, and we’d have to find someone willing to come by the house to dose her up while we’re gone.  So, that left the one time “radio cat” treatment.  It’s not cheap, but it has some distinct advantages over the medicine – other than not having to dose her twice a day, we would only have to have her thyroid levels tested once per year after the treatment, whereas with the pills, we’d have to have her tested every quarter to make sure the dose was still correct (at $178 a pop!).

We got the estimated costs for the medicine (we don’t have pet insurance), and doing the math, the $1400 radio cat treatment would end up being cheaper if she lives 4 more years – and there’s a really good chance of that if the treatment is successful.  It also means that we have to come up with about $1800 “now”.  The $1400 is for the full treatment, we also had to do a few more diagnostic tests with the vet before hand, and a one month and 3 month followup with the vet to make sure she’s “cured”.

She’ll be at the treatment facility for at least a week, because she’ll literally be a radioactive cat for a bit, and we have to follow special precautions once she does come home for 2-3 weeks, but it’ll be easier than giving her a pill twice a day!

If we only had $1000 in our emergency fund, we’d still have to come up with $800 in the budget quickly, but with the $3000 we had left in the emergency fund after taking some to pay off the student loan, we’re doing OK.  I’m not even going to “refill” the emergency fund until August – after the student loan is paid off.  We live in a high cost of living area, and I always felt that $1000 wasn’t enough for an emergency fund – now I’m glad we had it.

6 thoughts on “Reasons we have a large-ish emergency fund

  1. plantingourpennies

    So does the half life I-131 get multiplied by 9 when injected into a cat? =) just kidding.

    I hope your kitty does well with the treatment; taking care of things like that is precisely why we keep a pretty sizable buffer, too. But luckily Kitty PoP is still young so we have been lucky with his health.

    Reply
    1. Mom Post author

      We have to treat all of her waste as radioactive for 2 weeks after she comes home: no sleeping with us (which she doesn’t do anyway thankfully) and washing hands after petting her (because water washes off radiation….). Supposedly, the levels of radiation we’ll be exposed to once she comes home are equivalent to a cross-country plane flight, so it’s not big issue for me (I get *well* more than that flying for work, and one “extra” flight isn’t going to hurt any of us).

      My previous kitty had nothing wrong with her until the day she had a (probable) heart attack at 17. If I hadn’t agreed to the “senior” blood work at the regular vet visit, we would probably have not known about her hyperthyroidism until it was too late.

      Reply
  2. Marie @ Grad Money Matters

    So sorry to hear about your kitty, I hope it would be fine. And I never heard about “radio cat” treatment”, obviously it’s pretty expensive. We have one dog and it’s a Japanese Spitz, he is very a playful one.

    Reply
    1. Mom Post author

      It’s apparently the “gold standard” for treating hyperthyroidism according to several vets we know (in addition to our vet). It’s pricey, but we realistically know that we can’t dose her with 2 pills/creams/injections per day, and so the radiocat (www.radiocat.com) treatment is the best option for all of us, even considering it’s price. We’re lucky that a treatment facility is so close to us and we can take advantage of it.

      Reply
  3. kemkem

    Aawwhh! So sorry to hear about your cat, but l am happy that you are able to able treat it. A radioactive cat! Sounds like a cartoon in the making..:o))

    Reply
    1. Mom Post author

      The facility is supposed to take pictures of Bootsie and e-mail/text them to us while they’re there, I’m curious if there will be any halo or anything in the first day or two. Thanks for stopping by!

      Reply

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