Our Lab just had surgery for laryngeal paralysis (was going to suffocate and her airway was 3mm at the time of surgery) which ran us about $2700 total.
We've gotten a lot of snide comments from people about "why bother" but there was nothing else wrong with her. She's 11, but other than some hip arthritis is in fine shape. The choice was put down an otherwise healthy dog, let her suffocate, or do the surgery.
When we got her we made the commitment to fix what we could fix on her, if it broke and if it wasn't fixable then to let her go. This was fixable.
45K is a different story, though - we just don't have that kind of cash. Even what we paid for the dog surgery taxed our finances.
Next time we'll talk about getting pet insurance, though ::lol::, we were shocked at the bill from this episode.
LQ
Since we also felt the bite (bad pun) vet bills can take on a savings account I understand your situation. We had a choice, to let a 5 year old schnauzer go blind or elect for cataract surgery. We also had "well meaning" friends make comments or roll their eyes at the expense since it's "only a dog" ("just get another one" mentality).
But I have to admit, I might check into pet insurance next time too.