I recently posted about pacemakers in dogs and wanted to give our feline lovers their due by also helping them stay up on some of the latest medical procedures. I was purusing my latest copy of Animal Wellness when I came across an article that gave a list of the ten most common conditions for cats and just how much you can expect to pay for them. The research was done by Veterinary Pet Insurance which looked at claims sent to them in 2007 and figured the average cost of each type of procedure.

1. Foreign body ingestion (small intestine) $1629            
2. Urinary Tract reconstruction   $1,399                            
3. Foreign Body ingestion (stomach) $1,391   
4. Rectal Cancer  $1,011                                                 
5. Bladder Stones $989                                               
6. Intestinal Cancer  $942                                            
7. Hyperthyroidism (radiation)  $920                              
8. Fibrosarcoma (skin cancer)  $780                             
9. Acute Renal Failure   $565                                      
10. Mast cell tumors  $497                                            

There are a couple things that surprise me most about this list. First I'm shocked at all the types of cancer that are occupying slots on the list. I mean if they had simply said "Cancer" instead of going into detail you'd have a much broader base of symptoms. Basically they are saying a cat is almost twice as likely to get some form of  cancer than anything else featured on the list. The second thing that stood out for me is how the most expensive procedures are in fact the ones that have nothing to do with cancerous cells and involve removing something the animal ate by mistake. I mean how many of us have caught our pets eating some random piece of trash and after a few minutes decided that they'd be ok. At $1,629 a pop I'm going to think twice the next time I catch one of my pets chomping on something other than what's in its food bowl.