That’s not to say that I didn’t cry like a baby when we had to put a cat down. As I remarked to cortex, there are some things worth crying over, but aren’t worth $1k.

The amount I would spend would also depend on the the returns- if the pet is likely to die soon, all I want to do is make it comfortable, not pay for radical 5th leg attaching surgery or something. If it’s something like Iguana’s infection example, I would be willing to pay more.

However, I don’t currently own a pet, so this is all based around an imaginary pet. In real life, emotion would definitely figure into the decision.

I don’t have a pet. I do want to own a cat eventually - perhaps irresponsibly, as my only criteria for the desire is the fact that pictures of cats go a long way in cheering me up on a bad day. But I imagine that I would get very attached, very quickly, and even as a poor student I would do everything in my power to save him or her. But again, I don’t have a pet. Iguana’s post brings up a lot of good points that I shudder to even consider, but I guess loss is part of any relationship.

I spent $1000 on one of my dogs last fall because she had an infection. That was a complete no-brainer. Her life wasn’t on the line (yet; infections spread) and she is young, so there were none of the risks involved in spending a lot of money for the possibility of no reward. It went on my credit card and I’m still paying for it, but I didn’t blink. It had to be done.

And I spent $1000 one day a couple years ago on a battery of tests for one of my cats that was dead by the end of the day. The cat wasn’t even particularly close to me and I can’t see how I could have made any other decisions with regard to spending that money. Even knowing what I know now, I don’t for a second think, “We should have just skipped those tests; she wasn’t going to make it and I should have had her euthanized.” We just didn’t know and I couldn’t have lived with that decision.

My dogs are absolutely the light of my life. I’ve never known such goodness in a living thing. I don’t think I have an upper limit on what I’d spend on them as long as the risks were small. So far none of my pets have had anything big or bad happen to them; I have relatives and friends who have spent upwards of $5000 on their dogs in the past few months and I would have done the same thing. I have little interest in doing expensive, heroic deeds to extend a lousy life, though, so I don’t look forward to having to make those decisions. And I hope not to.

My limits are not cumulative; they’d be more per-incident. It’s the current health issue that interests me. What will THIS illness cost, and how does that weigh against the possible outcomes. If ever there is a pretty “sure thing,” I imagine I’ll pay any amount to achieve it. (While there is a risk of death in any surgery, I think I’d pay anything for relatively safe procedures that are highly likely to extend a good life.) What is “any amount?” Well, there is no procedure that costs $1,000,000. There isn’t even a procedure on the books that costs $100,000. So, you know, I guess I’d pay whatever the going rate is for any currently known veterinary procedure for a pet that isn’t pretty close to death anyway.

My cats are entering their early teens, so I imagine within in a few years I’ll start thinking that I might not spend as much on them (for big bad things). But I’ve had a cat for 10 years who just turned 11, and I’ll still go into debt for her, as we’ve been through a lot together.