There could be a lot of reasons why someone can't get their animal to a vet. Financial is the most obvious, which is why I made the post about Care Credit. But the original post was from January and using myself as an example, I can't drive. If I had a vet emergency when it's way below freezing outside with snow and ice on the ground and no one available to give me a ride I would have to carry my cat in a carrier for a quarter mile just to get to public transportation, which would probably end up with me killing myself on ice or giving the cat pneumonia. A taxi for me would cost about $50 round trip, on top of the base $55 my vet charges for a visit.

And saying "if you can't afford to pay for vet care don't get pets". Plenty of people have jobs and money, then get pets, then get laid off and can't find work. Most shelters in my region have had to change their No Kill policy because the economy has created over crowding conditions.

Twelve years ago, I would never have imagined myself being unable to afford and access health care for myself, let alone for my pets.

I need a great deal of dental work badly, but medicare does not pay for any dental, and dental insurance is out of the question, so we scrimp and save to get done what we can. In the meantime, teeth that might have been saved with early treatment, will end up having to be pulled by the time we can get to them.

The doctor wants me on meds I can't take, because I can't afford them, even with my medicare prescription plan. Drug-cost assistance programs are only for people without any coverage, or for people with lower incomes than we have.

If we lived in a more expensive apartment, we'd be eligible for some programs (because rent/mortgage is factored in, but current medical expenses are not.

An ER cannot refuse a person care in an emergency for inability to pay, but there is no similar guarantee for pets. If you can't make payment, too bad, Fluffy dies, unless you can learn to do some of the medical care yourself.

With my rats over the years, I've discovered that it's often easier and safer to learn basic veterinary care myself than to find a knowledgeable vet. In most communities, vets don't see a lot tiny pets.

I actually considered euthanizing one pet rat myself, because I was having trouble finding a vet who would do it (and this was when money wasn't an issue for me). Every vet I called either wouldn't treat small animals or wouldn't see my rat immediately. The rat was unable to breathe, so was in a lot of distress (cancer). Finally, I found a local vet willing to help (a large animal, farm vet, ironically).

These experiences taught me that I had to self-educate for my own healthcare and that of my animals, but the time to do that is ideally before a crisis, not in the middle of one.

Most of us aren't prepared for crises though, because we're not taught to expect the unexpected. We take things like healthcare and veterinary care for granted until those safety nets are pulled out from under us.