Why do people buy animals that can’t afford to keep!

[Poppets14]

Exactly that!

My friend has just spent 2.5k on a french bulldog. She’s just been ranting at me about the cost of vet treatment (I work for a vet)

She’s moaning that the vaccinations flea and worm treatment has come to £100

So she’s happy to give a breeder 2.5k without blinking an eye but to spend £100 on health care is a problem!

Not sure what response I want really. I get so cross about people spending thousands on puppies and then moaning about the cost of vet treatment!

I used to work for a vet a while ago and the amount of outstanding bills from horse owners was ridiculous. So many of then bounced around different vets leaving huge unpaid bills. I remember a woman calling with horse colic, begging us to send someone 40miles away (out of our usual catxhment), we explained the horse wasn't registered with us and to call her vet, round and round we went with her until we found out she owed thousands to more than one vet and had been very sneaky registering under different names. The vet went out in the end because he wouldn't let the animal suffer, he made her pay £50 up front but thats all he saw

@SixteenCakes not all vets deal with small rodents but if you phone around you can find one, my 2 year old hamster had a costly trip a couple of days ago for an eye infection, 2 lots of oral meds and 1 pissed off hamster at having to take it!

Unfortunately you will be in for a shock if you rely on pet insurance.

Most have a clause in them where they don't pay out for repeat requests or if the same issue re- occurs.

It is better to set up a saving account and put in it the amount you would have paid monthly for an insurance policy.

That way you have a pot of £ for any eventuality which does not have clauses or restrictions and you get to keep the ££ if your pet is problem free.

In addition to your own saving plan you will need separate third party insurance which you can get for £25 a year for no matter how many dogs you own.

This small nominal annual fee is the cheapest way of getting third party insurance if your dog causes an accident ( gets out onto the road etc).

By joining the Dogs Trust you get this cover and shelter for your dogs if you pass away.

www.dogstrust.org.uk/get-involved/membership/

Likewise all horse and pony owners should have BHS membership for third party cover, legal helpline
etc and also start their own saving plan www.bhs.org.uk/membership

What you have to remember when you are complaining about the cost of medication is that these are set by the supplier. A big Vet group can buy in bulk and so the drugs are cheaper, a small independent can't buy in large quantities and so it costs more. And that's not before the supply issue that's happening at the moment.

We have to import a lot from Europe as we are also farm vets. Its frustrating for us too and each day we will end up with a ton of abuse as people expect us to be a charity and refuse to pay bills .

I also do insure claims and I have a whole day where I only deal with this. I'm chasing clients for excess payments, payments for anything the insurance company won't cover, chasing up the insurance company payments etc . I can see why some vets charge admin fees as its a job in its own right.

I have a dog and a (currently lame) horse.

The bill for getting horsey’s bad leg diagnosed was well into 4 figures and climbing, for follow up visits and treatments. My horse vet (different vet from the dog vet) charges £75 just to show up at the stables: it’s an expensive business.

I think people look at the NHS as a model and so have absolutely no real idea how much drugs, surgical dressings etc actually cost. Vets charge full price for these things, and for their time on top. Keeping animals is an expensive business and if you’re going to struggle with costs, don’t get one. (Especially not a horse!)

@Allsortsone, I get the flea treatment & wormer from Petsathome: deliverered to you for £4 a month. Vetmeds also do similar service at similar price. ( I'll come back if I got their website name wrong but I'm pretty sure it's right). Both sites have a wide choice of cat & dog flea stuff & worming tablets. I always shop around online for pet stuff , it's way cheaper than the vet.

@Allsortsone .... Argh, it's Animed not Vetmed !!

IMO if you welcome a pet into your home, then you must be prepared to make sure it's fed properly with decent food, it's needs are met, and understand that vet treatments can be very expensive! As soon as we got our dog we arranged for medical insurance and a pet plan.

[quote Tarne]Unfortunately you will be in for a shock if you rely on pet insurance.

Most have a clause in them where they don't pay out for repeat requests or if the same issue re- occurs.

It is better to set up a saving account and put in it the amount you would have paid monthly for an insurance policy.

That way you have a pot of £ for any eventuality which does not have clauses or restrictions and you get to keep the ££ if your pet is problem free.

In addition to your own saving plan you will need separate third party insurance which you can get for £25 a year for no matter how many dogs you own.

This small nominal annual fee is the cheapest way of getting third party insurance if your dog causes an accident ( gets out onto the road etc).

By joining the Dogs Trust you get this cover and shelter for your dogs if you pass away.

www.dogstrust.org.uk/get-involved/membership/[/quote]
I felt like this until recently, now I would say it's a dangerous piece of advice unless you're extremely financially comfortable.

We routinely stopped insuring our dogs at aged 9 or 10, reasoning that there was a limit as to what we would put them through. We'd never been caught out until our last old boy who cheerfully racked up almost £2k of bills in his final 5 days, before dropping dead anyway.

Fortunately we did have savings for our pets and we keep an emergency credit card as well. Even so it was frightening to see just how fast the costs spiralled. We decided at that point that we would continue with the subsequent insurance policies as long as we could humanly afford it

@trumpisagit

I think it's that the NHS in comparison, makes it feel like healthcare is free. It's a bit of a shock to pay £40 for a course of antibiotics for a guinea pig, or £12 a month for flea and wormer. That's what it costs though and YANBU

Agreed. I always point this out to people. My trust itemises the cost of things on the A&E discharge notes. Though indict know if the patient sees it. It's something like £20 for a set of obs. My vet. also gives itemised bills. My cats have run up bills of £22k. I thought a laparotomy and a week of intensive care for my cat , was quite good value for £5k!

My cats insurance premium is £137 a month. For two rescue Persians.

Most people see pets especially those types of dogs as just an accessory and forget that they are in fact living and breathing and need constant time and money and not treated as just something to cast aside. Make me mad. 😠

Quite frankly saying “I didn’t know it would be so expensive” or that you “didn’t know” small animals could need medical treatment or that your snake would grow “so big” isn’t good enough.

If you are going to get a living creature the onus is on you to find out what it’s needs may be throughout its life. And then decide if you can accommodate them before you buy it.

@Toddlerteaplease

My cats insurance premium is £137 a month. For two rescue Persians.

Ouch. I don't have pets myself so I didn't know how expensive pet insurance was. That is A Lot.

Our old girl is costing a lot in vets bills and meds. We also run pur life round her needs such as pushing her out in a bugy for a sniff.
As long as she is happy amd her quality of life remains good ,then it is our responsibikty in her dotage .

vets must earn a shit tonne of money because people have to pay for it. There aren’t many vets around compared to doctors.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry at this. I'm gonna choose laugh, keeps me going. "There aren't many vets around" And yet, new vet colleges are opening and the existing ones take more students than they used to. There is no cap on places. So if it's so lucrative, why aren't there loads of vets around, do you think?

@Brittanyspringer

We’ve recently got a puppy. It’s very expensive. You have to buy beds, collars, training pads, toys, etc and that’s not even the healthcare! Was discussing this with my sibling today at how vets must earn a shit tonne of money because people have to pay for it. There aren’t many vets around compared to doctors.

Luckily we are well off and can afford a dog but it made me wonder how most people can afford one. Most ordinary people have a pet of some sort so I have no idea how they are affording their animals. They need yearly boosters etc. Even with pet insurance, most won’t pay out as it doesn’t cover them. I over heard someone saying their dog got hit by a car and was quoted £30,000 as their insurance wouldn’t cover.

Vets earn £22-40k a year, the most experienced earning £40k maybe a little more if they specialise/have a PhD. GPs earn over £100k a year so do hospital consultants and dentists-dentist earn up to £40k straight out of uni. Medicine, dentistry and veterinary are all 5 year uni courses with huge student loans

I always shop around online for pet stuff , it's way cheaper than the vet.

And this is why vet fees are going up. Unfortunately all vets have traditionally counted on large mark ups on drugs to make a profit whilst under charging for time/procedures, and underpaying staff.
Now with the exodus to online pharmacies they have no choice but to start charging appropriately for everything else.
On top of that we are at critical staffing levels thanks to brexit which is pushing wages up. The corporates aren't going to allow that to affect their profits which in turn will push up vet fees even higher. If you think vets are expensive now you're all in for a shock.

We want a dog but can't because a) they cost so much to buy b) they cost so much to keep alive and c) our housing isn't suitable.

So we got a cat instead. She was £125 from a home close to us. At the moment we buy 40x Felix pouches from Amazon, which varies between £22-27. She's an indoor cat and only eats 2 pouches a day, alongside some anti-furball biscuits. Vet plan is £10 a month for annual jabs, flea treatment and general check-ups. Then insurance is £25/m but we know once she hits 7+ that will go up a lot (she's 5 now). We don't board at catteries but have a sitter if we're away which is about £20/day. She once got a kidney infection and we parted with £150 in treatment and medication. All this is reasonable IMO to make sure she stays happy and healthy. It's not just a pet, it's all the costs involved too.

[quote Allsorts1]@CSIblonde do you mind sharing where you get your flea stuff online? Ours is £50 a month from the vet![/quote]
Just Google Vet pharmacy and compare prices. I usually use Animed
www.animeddirect.co.uk/catalogsearch/result/?q=Advocate

It is better to set up a saving account and put in it the amount you would have paid monthly for an insurance policy.

This advice would work well in some areas, various rural friends pay a fraction of my fees for similar procedures.

In my area, the smallest issue could wipe out my annual insurance premium in no time, let alone a serious injury or illness - and let's not forget that dogs can be as healthy and well bred as you like, doesn't stop accidents/attacks by other dogs/poisoning issues from picking up food or worse, etc.!

Every year, I dither with taking this approach and taking the risk, but I always wimp out. I would rather know that I can make decisions entirely on what's best for the animal, not for how much it will cost.

@ColinTheKoala
My BMW X3 is cheaper to insure than my french bulldog 😂

It is better to set up a saving account and put in it the amount you would have paid monthly for an insurance policy.

Some quick maths tells me that if I'd have done this I would currently be £9500 worse off.

I have insurance not for the smaller things but for the massive bills. In this case an infection in an otherwise healthy young spaniel. I am eternally grateful that I went with top cover right from the off. He's lying here beside me with a clean bill of health and - hopefully - many more years to go.

Whichever you choose is always a gamble. I'm glad I gambled this way round.

Flat nosed breeds give me the rage. You still can't 100% predict the health of a pet if you do everything right... so why start wrong?

Last month dcat, a rescue taken directly from the streets, started behaving oddly. So off to the vet we go. Naturally she doesn't let the vet touch her, so all examinations require sedation. Add in ultrasound, bloods... 1300 bucks and a very upsetting diagnosis of chronic kidney failure at age 4.

It's at an early enough stage there isn't any medication... yet. But that means new food, which doubles monthly costs because renal food is expensive and there aren't many options.

Her violent tendencies mean her blood pressure can never be measured, and she absolutely refuses to pee in the pricy sand so we can check wether she's losing protein in her urine.

Oh, and that 1300 will be repeated every year so we monitor how the kidney failure progresses, until she inevitably dies.

And because this is a shitty third world country, there's no such thing as pet insurance, so everything is out of pocket. Thank fuck we can afford it.