I really love dogs. Honest, ask anyone I love them. We took the 14 month old male Sheperd to the vet for a pre-op physical. We are having him neutered and the pre-op is part of that price. I knew that expense was coming. When I called I explained he needed a rabies shot and agreed to leave a stool sample for analysis (DH job to retrieve since he's the one who wanted this darling) They told me to expect a bill of around 26.50. When we went in for the surgery we would be expected to pay around 80 more since we put a deposit on for the neutering to get the dog in the first place. When we wnet in they offered blood work for only 71.00 more whihc considering we knew nothing about his past we agreed too. We also needed a heartworm test from the same blood for another 26 dollars. I had noticed that he seemed to have a respiratory problem that I was very much afraid was bordatella (kennel cough). After the vet examined him and pronounced him healthy and awesome I explained my concern. After listening to the symptoms she agreed with my diagnosis and said since his lungs were clear we might have caught it quickly enough. The medicine was another 66 dollars of course. Then there is the heartworm medicine we need to give through January. All in all it totals 172 dollars for the first visit, an dhe couldn't have the rabies shot becuase of the infection. If the medicine doesn't clear up the problem in a week or so they need to do a transtracheal test that means putting him under anasthetic and that translates to big bucks plus the new medicine to take care of whatever yucky bug this has morphed into. Then we can look at the neutering and rabies shot and....