Shameless pet owners paying big bucks for plastic surgeries on cats and dogs

September 16 2013

Pet owners are actually paying big bucks for procedures on their cat and dog to make sure they have the right look.  Sometimes, it's purely cosmetic.  Other times, it can be covered by pet health insurance.

From pet "braces", cosmetic eye replacements, and tummy tucks, to this Doberman, Kaiser, who's recovering from "ear implant" surgery for perfectly upright ears,  Some owners are putting their pets under the knife to give them a new look. 

Owner Heather Hughes says, "The cartilage has not stiffened all the way, so his ears did not stand up completely."

These mesh implants for ear "lifts" are one of the many new advancements in pet plastic surgery.

Make no bones about it, purely cosmetic procedures can be expensive, sometimes costing hundreds to thousands of dollars. 

Pet insurance doesn't typically cover it, and many vets won't even do it. 

Dr. Chris Bern says, "I don't think it's worth putting them through the pain and the recovery and the risk for our perception of how they're supposed to look." 

The American Veterinary Medical Association is also against performing surgery for only cosmetic reasons. So is the Humane Society of the United States.

But there are many cosmetic procedures that are done for health reasons, like this once extremely obese dog, Obie.

After he was adopted, he was put on a special diet and lost massive amounts of weight but was left looking like this!  His skin dragging on the ground.

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