A pet emergency can cost $8,000. For millions of Americans, that bill is now a ‘life and death’ decision

As emergency vet bills climb into the thousands, more Americans are making care decisions based on their bank balance—and turning to crowdfunding to cover the rest.

Having a sick pet is emotionally a lot to handle. But now with the skyrocketing costs of emergency vet care, it can mean Americans are looking at their bank accounts first before making important decisions about their pet’s care.

It’s because many households haven’t or don’t have the capacity to financially plan for that moment. New 2026 data from Rover’s Cost of Dog Parenthood Report shared with Fortune found 38% of pet parents couldn’t cover an emergency vet visit without taking on debt—even though nearly nine in 10 said they’d felt financially prepared before bringing a pet home. 

“Like most things these days, people may not be particularly shocked to learn that the cost of pet parenthood has gone up alongside inflation,” Rover CEO Brent Turner told Fortune. “However, what our research really spotlights is just how much these relationships mean to us—and the massive return on investment our pets provide.”

Meanwhile, only 10% of pet parents have set aside any savings specifically for emergencies. 

“Younger owners think of their pets like family, but often have to delay vet care or defer their own personal financial responsibilities to service the costs of taking care of their pets,” Dr. Rebecca Greenstein, a veterinary medical advisor for Rover, told Fortune. 

A typical emergency visit, Rover found, starts around $300 and can run to $4,000 once diagnostics and an overnight stay get added in. These stats also don’t even take into account surgeries, which can cost $5,000 to $8,000 or more at some specialty centers, Greenstein said.

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That’s the new reality for pet parents: Veterinary costs are climbing faster, leading to a quiet financial anxiety that leaves millions of people without the cushion to absorb a four-figure emergency.

“It’s absolutely heart-wrenching when financial ability can literally make the difference between life and death,” Greenstein said. 

As of 2025, more than 75 million U.S. households owned a dog or cat, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association.

Pet parents skipping needed veterinary care

Other data backs up what Greenstein is describing. More than half of U.S. pet owners (52%) skipped needed veterinary care in the past year, according to a 2025 PetSmart Charities-Gallup State of Pet Care study of nearly 2,500 dog and cat owners. 

For most of them, money was the reason: 71% of those who declined or skipped care pointed to cost. And the stakes were dire. Among owners who turned down a vet’s recommendation, 14% said their pet’s condition got worse or their pet died, and three in 10 owners said they personally knew someone whose pet had died in the past five years because the family couldn’t afford treatment.

The reason these decisions keep landing on people is simple: Vet care has gotten expensive, and fast. Gallup also found prices have risen more than 60% since 2014. A single emergency can blow past what many families keep in savings. 

And the bills that hurt most are the ones no one budgets for. 

“Pet parents consistently underestimate the cost of emergency care for unexpected illnesses and injuries,” Greenstein said. “You can predict your dog’s food expenses almost to the penny, but no one ever thinks their dog will break a bone or swallow a sock.”

So when the bill lands and the savings aren’t there, a growing number of owners are turning to the same place strangers raise money for funerals and house fires: a crowdfunding page. Scroll through GoFundMe’s animal category and the pattern is hard to miss—campaign after campaign for a dog hit by a car, a cat with a blocked bladder, a puppy that swallowed something it shouldn’t have. Each one is a family trying to close the gap between a five-figure estimate and a checking-account balance that won’t stretch that far.

Take Cayman, a dog who was recently attacked by a bear and had to undergo emergency surgery, as an example. 

“Cayman’s injuries were extensive, and the emergency surgery was just the beginning of his journey,” according to a GoFundMe page. “He will need some more ongoing veterinary care, surgery & medications to regain his strength and to battle some new infections that have happened.” They’re raising $8,000 to cover Cayman’s medical expenses and care.

Greenstein said unexpected medical expenses over the lifetime of a pet are “almost guaranteed,” so it’s best to prepare as much as you can.

“The question then becomes, how can you buffer yourself and prepare financially so that your pet can receive the veterinary care they deserve without putting you in a precarious position,” Greenstein said. 

Other pet care fees are getting more expensive, too

It’s not just emergencies that are stretching pet parents thin.

Rover projects dog-care costs could rise as much as 15% this year, pushed up by higher vet fees and tariff-inflated prices on food and supplies, and it now pegs the lifetime cost of a medium-sized dog between $35,415 and $43,285. 

It’s a trend pet parents have already noticed: 83% of respondents told Rover their pet-related costs have gone up over the past year. And when asked where the pressure was coming from, they pointed first to vet visits, then food, then medications.

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The rise in pet care costs is also hitting at a moment when a lot of Americans already feel financially shaky, even those whose numbers look fine on paper. 

Edward Jones and Gallup data released this month found just 16% of U.S. adults feel financially fulfilled, while 83%—roughly 216 million people—report stress, strain, or uncertainty about money. For someone already carrying that kind of low-grade worry, a surprise $4,000 surgery bill is the type of shock that crushes a stable-looking budget.

To be sure, most pet parents will still do whatever it takes to make their pet happy and healthy. In Rover’s survey, 88% of owners said that of everything they spend money on, their pet brings them the most joy in return, and a majority called pet expenses non-negotiable. More than half said pet food, supplies, and vet care would be the last thing they’d cut.

“Nine out of 10 pet parents said that out of everything they spend money on, pets bring them the most joy in return,” Turner said. “Think about that for a minute. It’s no wonder people consider them an essential, non-negotiable part of their budget. They’re an irreplaceable part of the family.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com