Do the potential health risks EBD's have make you nervous?

[nycbullymama]

This got me to thinking....have any of you ever considered your own potential health risks?
Bullys have their own set of possible illnesses, even if you don't take count of the puppy mills. But every time you take responsibility of a life, you take a risk that the life may not be all roses. The risk of disease or even sudden death early in life.... Do you know of a person that hasn't had any illnesses? Do you expect your dog to be forever healthy? In the raw feeding world it's quite funny (or sad?) that the same people that are so conserned about their dogs feeding let their children eat fast food and candys??? Just got me to thinking....

This is true. Never really thought of it that way.

One of the concepts that school taught me (geeky, I know!) is that you can always "transfer" the risk to another if you think you are not able to handle the burden. Or in other words, insurance. I've read that there's some really good policies in the U.S. ... a lot cheaper than Canada anyways. It's best to get it when they're still puppies so they won't have any pre-existing conditions. If, perse, you decide to get it after the vet has seen him for a minor ear infection, most likely they'll deny any claims that are ear related, even if it's just a bug bite!

I purchased Trupanion on 4/17/13. They have a 30 day wait period on illness, and do not cover pre-existing conditions.
On 4/28 I had to take Blue to an Opthamologist because one of his eyes looked redder and darker to me. We decided we weren't going to wait until the insurance kicked in because we didn't know if it was serious or not. Lucky for us it was nothing. His pigment is just darker in one eye. The Opthamologist wrote a very detailed letter stating his eyes are healthy and do no require any treatment. Same thing is in his chart.
She told me that if they ever denied a claim because he's been there prior to having insurance, to send in the letter and have them contact the clinic.
Hoping if Blue ever does develop any eye condtions, this will be enough.

 

[dolphin]

The risks go with the territory. What you get in return from this breed makes it well worth the worry.

Exactly as I feel.

 

[Ftse 100]

This got me to thinking....have any of you ever considered your own potential health risks?
Bullys have their own set of possible illnesses, even if you don't take count of the puppy mills. But every time you take responsibility of a life, you take a risk that the life may not be all roses. The risk of disease or even sudden death early in life.... Do you know of a person that hasn't had any illnesses? Do you expect your dog to be forever healthy? In the raw feeding world it's quite funny (or sad?) that the same people that are so conserned about their dogs feeding let their children eat fast food and candys??? Just got me to thinking....

Well said, if this was true there wouldn't be many that have children.

 

[Ftse 100]

I have been very lucky health wise with Ftse apart from a cherry eye op he had at five months and silly me did not have pet insurance when I brought Ftse home I was going to get it and kept putting it off to another day well my stupidly cost me a fair bit, I have it now but his eyes and eats are not covered so do yourself a favour if you gets bullie first thing to do is take out insurance as I could have paid three years premiums for what the cherry eye cost and if you feed them good and take care of them you should not get too many problems except for the ones you can't avoid anyway. Bullies are the most loveable pet you could have so don't let this put you off from getting one 😊


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[2BullyMama]

What you get in return from this breed makes it well worth the worry.

Exactly!

 

[FORDE'SMOM]

yes..makes me nervous.........i have also had a problem with insurance on him so i canceled it.... can't decide if it's worth it or not.

 

[TubbysMom]

Tubby was born with a heart murmur that the breeder never told us about. After plenty of money and tears on my part we discovered it could be something he could live with. Then when he developed cherry eye and we took him to get tested they discovered he has cataracts developing in his right eye. With that being said I love my baby with all of my heart and could not imagine life without him! Sure he's cost us thousands of dollars. Was it worth it? EVERY SINGLE CENT! he is full of personality and brings us so much joy. I say the risks are always worth it with this breed.

 

[Vicaroo1000]

Make me nervous? A little. Just like I'm always worried about my kids having to go to the ER... Both my kids went into surgery at age 4 for 1.) flying off a swing, 2.) busting his head open with a water cannon. So, even after learning everything about holistic principles and going to a holistic pediatrician and making sure they have healthy food and healthy exercise and good rest, I still get kids in the ER.

Same with the dogs. But yes, I prepare for it. I don't have regular health insurance (might have to change with Obamacare). I have a Health Savings Account. My dogs don't have pet insurance, I have a bank account that I put money in monthly for use with vet bills. If the Health Savings Account and Pet bank account is not enough to pay the doctor/vet, I use CareCredit to pay for it (also covers vet bills). I have not had to use CareCredit yet, even after the kids' surgeries.

That's really impressive. How does that work exactly? (Not that I could do this for myself...I"m thinking of my daughter who's a healthy 22 years old.)

I'm 52 have already had breast cancer and I'm supposed to go find private insurance that will take me and my possibility of another boob going haywire. I'm one that's pretty excited about Obamacare.....! LOL

Edited to add: my pups are on Trupanion and have been since 12 weeks old. I pay another five bucks a month for the hip displasia coverage which has a 75% occurrence rate in EBs (so I've read). I've yet to process a claim with them --- and I'm delighted. After what I went through with my first EB, never again. Insurance all the way. Fortunately, I did not have to make decisions about her health based on my ability to pay (BARELY, that is). I never want to face that again.

 

[anatess]

That's really impressive. How does that work exactly? (Not that I could do this for myself...I"m thinking of my daughter who's a healthy 22 years old.)

I'm 52 have already had breast cancer and I'm supposed to go find private insurance that will take me and my possibility of another boob going haywire. I'm one that's pretty excited about Obamacare.....! LOL

Edited to add: my pups are on Trupanion and have been since 12 weeks old. I pay another five bucks a month for the hip displasia coverage which has a 75% occurrence rate in EBs (so I've read). I've yet to process a claim with them --- and I'm delighted. After what I went through with my first EB, never again. Insurance all the way. Fortunately, I did not have to make decisions about her health based on my ability to pay (BARELY, that is). I never want to face that again.

I was in my mid-20's when I got married. My husband and I do not smoke, do not drink alcohol, are not into extreme sports, and live a healthy lifestyle. We both were contractors so we decided to exchange the health insurance coverage offered by the contract agency for a higher hourly rate. Now, I can't remember the exact numbers when we first started because it was super long ago but it kinda goes like this: The insurance coverage provided by the agency would have caused a payroll deduction of $75/week for each of us. That would have been $600/month for both of us. We got $2/hr pay difference for not carrying insurance. So, that's $80/week gross for each of us but with tax, only came out to about $70/week. So, what we did, we purchased this Individual Insurance from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida that only covered Emergency Room, Hospitalization, and Surgery. It doesn't cover anything else even prescription medicine or doctor's visits unless it is part of ER, Surgery, or Hospital Stay. For a family of 4, non-smoker, non-drinker, drug-free (we provided a blood and urine test), and not into extreme sports (we signed something that says injury from extreme sports is not covered), the insurance premiums were only $120/month. So, we took the $560 per month that we made, subtracted $120 from it, and sent the rest to the Health Savings Account. So, we were contributing $440/month into the HSA. In one year, that came up to about $5,000 principal. The HSA gains a return on investment just like a mutual fund does, so it was added on. Then we get pay increases, we added on to our monthly HSA. We were blessed with an awesome holistic pediatrician so we've only needed to see her once or twice a year. We follow holistic principles to stay healthy. And my sister is a nurse, my brother a doctor, so we've been good there too.

The dogs follow the same thing - we just budget a monthly savings to put in their health accounts. We still have a balance from the dobermans that we had who has since passed. They never got to use all their savings. The last dog we had lived to 14 years before he died naturally.

 

[Vicaroo1000]

[MENTION=2874]anatess[/MENTION] - you have the degree of discipline -- clearly -- required for such an undertaking. I don't. I don't think I passed those genes onto my kid either. LOL

 

[anatess]

@anatess - you have the degree of discipline -- clearly -- required for such an undertaking. I don't. I don't think I passed those genes onto my kid either. LOL

It's a Filipino thing. Health insurance is not the norm in my part of the Philippines. In the Philippines, there's no welfare - the family is your welfare. There's no senior care - the family takes care of their elderly. There's no healthcare - the family is your healthcare. There's no unemployment benefits - the family is your umemployment benefit. So, we learn from the way things are to build strong family relationships and provide for the family. In my father's side of the family, I have 8 aunts and uncles (my dad is 1 of 9 children). 4 of them have cancer. My dad is 70-years-old and is in the ICU as I type with advanced stage of lung cancer. We're spending $600 per day for his ventilator and nutrition. That doesn't include the $7,000 per month of meds. The entire family (9 brothers and sisters with all their children and grandchildren) are pulling together our resources to afford their care. It helps that in the family we have several doctors and nurses and physical therapists and even lawyers (to fight bureaucratic red-tape and nonsense) who offer services for free to the family. It's a different world, I have to say.

 

[BrianW]

Here is our story.

Ever since my wife and I were kids, we always wanted an English Bulldog puppy. Because of this we did all of the homework just like you and knew the health problems, the money involved to care for, and how important it was to find a reputable breeder. So after doing this we adopted a boy named Jackson with champion AKC bloodlines that had a health guaranty and completely certified healthy by their vet. The first year was great, no real issues other than the common yeast, bacterial and ear infection problems.

Shortly after he was a year old, he started to have issues with walking, which we thought at first were hip related. After several x-rays and MRIs it was determined that he had a mass that was wrapped in his spine and in between two of his disks cutting off the nerves to his back legs. This in turn led to him rupturing both of his Crutiate ligaments in his rear legs from him not walking correctly his whole life because of the mass.

So we went back to the breeder because of the guaranty and guess what they offered? They offered to take Jackson back (euthanize him) and give us a new puppy in his place. That was their only offer, no "will help out with part of the bill", just will replace him. So after a year of getting completely attached to this dog, we are suppose to throw it all away, I don't think so. So we paid for all of the surgeries and a year of physical therapy to try to give him the life he deserved. Somewhere during all these surgeries something went wrong and because of it he is now in a wheelchair and has limited use of his back legs.

I am in no way saying that this is going to happen to you, and am just trying point out that reputable breeders can have problems too. Are we just a special case? I would love to tell you yes, but through out my year of taking him weekly (sometimes bi-weekly) to the University of Wisconsin Vet school I met others with issues similar to mine.

 

[GusBus]

Dealing with non-life-threatening health issues doesn't really worry me so much as I think I will be a nervous wreck about the general anesthesia thing. Honestly, our family has lost two (elderly) dogs in two years, and my own father passed away early this year, and my six year old daughter has really been through a lot with these losses. She still cries when she talks about her Grandpa, and our black lab Dixie. As a matter of fact, one of the first things she said to me when we were coming home from picking out our puppy was, "Our puppy isn't going to die for a really LONG time, right Mama?" It would absolutely break her heart if something happened to Gus before he reaches a nice, ripe old age. I DO worry about the trauma of that. We did buy pet insurance, too, but no amount of money would be too much to save Gus.. it is those freak occurences that I worry about.

 

[Bizzymammabee]

I was a bit nervous because you just never know. Then my absolute love of the breed won out. I saw my girl and just had to have her. As others have said your best bet is to know your breeder, save up some, get insurance or get a care credit card. I never went for the insurance, I do have the care credit card for emergencies. There are so many variables to everything we do so we just need to prepare as best as we can and say a little prayer :-)

 

[ABEBD]

Hello,

We learned over 25 years ago when we started breeding Arabian horses. In order to breed or have quality, you have to start with quality. The better the dog, the better the bloodlines, the less health issues and medical issues down the line. Like the repair commercials say, you can pay me now or you can pay me later.

Just because a dog has a CH title does not mean it doesn't have health breeding issues? If a CH dog get finished before 18 months and has never been breed before, whats to say what the dog will produce. Look at other litters a stud has produced. Ask to speak to previous owners from a few years past to see if any health issues have arisen.

Yes, there are risks. Living is a risk. Waiting for a bus at a GD bus stop can take your life. Do the best research you can, be willing to pay top dollar for a quality dog even if you do not plan on showing your dog. A "show" dog will be a higher quality dog and will hopefully have less health issues.

Good Day~