Pet ownership should be for the wealthy

[spottybaghottyhag]

Pre emptying this by saying we are low income, get topped up by UC and my pet is eligible for PDSA treatment

My ddog 13 has been eating less than usual and not keen to go out as much, but otherwise bright and seemingly well. Made an appointment with the above vet. Due to his age they wanted to do x-ray/scan under sedation. Was very shocked to discover he has a tumour in his stomach. Vet basically said (over the phone) that as they are a charity hospital they cannot do anything further, the options are either a referral to a specialist vet to ascertain if it's cancer, or PTS. She said the referral + tests would be circa £1k, which wouldn't obviously include any actual treatment or surgical options.
Personally I don't want to explore other options regardless, he's 13, had a great life and I don't think major surgery or chemo on any elderly animal is fair. We are making sure he's still comfortable and will PTS when we feel he's not.

Onto the AIBU: it really made me feel that you should only get a pet if you can afford expensive vet bills. The PDSA are very limited in what they do (very understandably) and you cannot rely on them as a complete veterinary service. Insurance doesn't always pay out. Someone asked me will I get another dog when ddog goes and my answer was we cannot afford it. She felt I was being very unreasonable. Am I?

I agree with you 100%, and am sorry that it was sad news for your DDog.

We are also low income and high expenses at the moment (no subsidised childcare in Wales until 3)- our DCat cost us £2500 in tests this year that weren't covered by her insurance. Pretty much wiped out our savings. I love her very much but we won't be getting another pet 😔

We need to stop applying human medical advances and human mental ethics to animals unable to consent.

Even suggesting chemotherapy for any dog, let alone a 13yo one, who lives in the moment, has no concept of 'future', can't understand the side effects and will with all the best possible outcome only live another 2 years to a normal dog life expectancy, is totally unethical.

I am at the point of cancelling my dogs health insurance policy, he is 9, he failed his kennel introduction after less than an hour because he was so distressed, can't stand being in a confined space (his near vision isn't quite right and never has been) so crating would be distressing, is very anxious at the vets and looks completely 'betrayed' when in pain (normally pulled muscles as he's still bonkers). Any in patient veterinary care would break him and would be for my benefit not his. But I'm still terrified I'll have to make hard choices in the coming years.

So the prospect of very expensive veterinary care would not exclude pet ownership, but you should be able to cover his preventative medicine (neutering, vaccines, parasite control) and not have a pet if you can't afford this.

You’re being pragmatic, OP.
In times of CoL crises, it is far more sensible to be pragmatic and “cut your cloth” accordingly.
Your friend does not think rationally: if they also have a pet that they cannot afford the insurance for, then they are, at best, letting their heart rule over their head. However, they shouldn’t project their entitlement on to you: their circumstances are almost certainly different from yours.
We also don’t have insurance for our DDog, but that’s because when we adopted him, he was too old to be insured for more than a pittance - so he has his “own” savings account, into which we “pay” the cost of the premium monthly. 10 years on we’ve only had to dip into that once, and he is £7500 in credit…

Some of the costs people are mentioning on here are outrageous! @Cathmawr I can’t even imagine what tests could cost so much.

I think we are all happy to pay fair prices. I don’t begrudge a single penny to my vets. but with what I’m reading and have been hearing on the radio etc about these vet firms fleecing people surely something has to be done.

How can an independent vet charge fairly if corporates can’t? You’d almost expect the opposite, as they can presumably get better prices from suppliers through bulk procurement.

I am sad and angry that this is putting pet ownership out of reach for people or draining their bank accounts or putting them in debt. The lovely life and relationship with a pet shouldn’t be the preserve of the few.

💐 for the op

Give thanks for the NHS. Health care, whatever species you are, is £££. We have a very skewed sense of health care cost in this country, because so much is free.

Look at the States, and how much it costs. How many go bankrupt or go without.

Private health care is selective and rarely covers everything.

Tests are often expensive. The equipment used to run the test might cost 10s or 100s of 1000s. With that cost plus maintenance spread over the tests. Plus the office time, highly qualified staff to run the test and interpret the test etc.

Sometimes you're paying for a scientific discovery, and the company charges that much to cover the 20 years of research required to make that discovery.
Hourly rates can be a lot for highly skilled people.

No. I'm not a vet. But these cost do not surprise me. Tests like this for pets are pretty new, they were not an option a few years ago.

What gives you the idea that people 'wouldn't dare' say this?

Benefits of any kind should be a safety net and should provide a reasonable, basic standard of living imo. If someone on benefits is going on regular holidays and buying luxury items or alcohol regularly then I absolutely would 'dare' to say they were getting too much.

So sorry to hear about your beloved dog OP.
X

You’re right. Keeping a pet is certainly an expensive business.

I have cats atm. One is accident prone and has cost us a fortune - with insurance! Thank goodness for insurance. He’s now 7 and insurance has paid out over £8,000 for him across 4 separate incidents. We’ve paid out around £1,000.

I’d always hoped we’d get a dog when we retired, but looking at our pensions I don’t think we’ll be able to afford one. Maybe we’ll foster.

So yes pet ownership is for the affluent.

In my experience vets will always try to offer what they know is available, but a good one will recognise the options for not investigating and treating that animal in the way that was available prior to such advances. This isn’t unkind for the animal. As well as finance, it considers the animal. I have had dogs who would be fine going through all sorts, equally those for whom any vet procedure or poking about causes them distress so I have chosen not to investigate things more than once, even though the money is in the bank for them.

The fact that some vets (usually smaller ones that have not been taken over by big conglomorates,) can charge often half the price of the bigger ones, makes all you have said there ^ moot, and pointless.

'Oh but what about all the verrrrry expensive equipment they have to buy' doesn't wash. ALL vets have the same kind of equipment, and all vets have the same (or very similar) skills. They are all highly qualified... But some of them choose to not rip off the public.

I watched a TV show where a dog was choosing who would be his owner in his next life. One of the options was someone wealthy where he'd get all the best food, toys, luxury bed etc. But the owner was almost always out working or socialising.

He chose a homeless person. It then showed him being carried in the guys pocket as a pup and being cuddled as they slept on cardboard and just generally always being together, and he was super happy.

A bit cheesy and simplistic maybe. But what pets want is simple. Look at why the PDSA was started in the first place. The founder didnt think the poor shouldn't have animals. I swear some people on here think "the poor" shouldnt even exist. Not allowed children, not allowed pets, just a drain on society! They should all just be shot I suppose.

If I could thank this post a hundred times I would Very well said!

Spot on

Totally agree - have lost count of cases from people I know who've been shocked at the astronomical cost when the animal gets ill, and whatever it is isn't covered by insurance.
There are many reasons I don't want a pet (I've had them most of my life), and cost is one of those - some folk just don't think it through beforehand.

@Periperi2025

Even suggesting chemotherapy for any dog, let alone a 13yo one, who lives in the moment, has no concept of 'future', can't understand the side effects and will with all the best possible outcome only live another 2 years to a normal dog life expectancy, is totally unethical.

Exactly this. ^ Why are they pushing people to have very expensive veterinary treatment for an old dog or old cat (or any old animal?) If the animal is in the late winter years of their life, as you say it is unethical to push treatment on them. All it will do is stress out the animal, make them upset, and cause them distress, and cost the owner often a 5-figure sum that most cannot afford. And the animal will very likely not live for much longer anyway.

I am gobsmacked that some people still continue to defend vets, and will not admit that some of them DO rip people off and ARE ripping them off, every single day of the week! It's literally been on the news a number of times this year, how some vets are charging uneccessarily high prices, and leaving people in debt, or taking their savings that they may need for house repairs, or if they lose their job, or for their pensioner years... It's a fucking scandal and it needs stopping. Vet bills need capping.

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Because, in my experience, most people don't.
Even people on benefits will argue that they "need" a holiday it seems to be a sacred thing that nobody ever comments on.

That's another thing! So much isn't covered by the insurance! Like anything that costs over a couple of hundred pounds! And any long term treatment needed... Like if your pet has diabetes or epilepsy or an underactive thyroid or something, they will only pay for the treatment for the first 6 months - or 12 months if you're very lucky! Never beyond 12 months. So if your pet is only young, be prepared to spend a LOT of money on vet bills!

They will of course say, 'oh but you should have read all the smallprint then!' But that's the thing, the terms and conditions/what's covered, is ALWAYS in tiny, fine, smallprint.

Upshot is, pet insurance should cover EVERYthing (from the moment is starts, to when the pet dies.) But it never does. And as I say, it's always the expensive, and ongoing stuff that isn't covered. (Conveniently.)

Oh, and be prepared for the monthly amount to triple, or even quadruple, when your pet gets to around 8-9 years old!

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Likewise.

I have a house rabbit rather than cats/dogs and beyond the basics, they need an "exotics" vet.

The insurance is not cheap but much less than that of a course of treatment for stomach problems or a tooth surgery.

OK. That's not the point I was making. Am sure some vets do charge more than they could for a given test. Which may or may not require an external lab or something. That's on them. Their business model. Whatever. Whether it's ethical or even legal to charge the way they do is a different matter.

It remains true that health care is expensive, and my comment was more because people are always surprised when it costs more than £10.

I would absolutely agree with posters questioning the ethics of some of these tests on elderly pets. When there is nothing that can be done when the results come.

If you want health insurance that covers everything and anything for as long as you want, for a pet or a human, I doubt it exists. And if it does, I doubt it would come in at a reasonable cost.

Hence my love for the NHS.

It’s the same as everything nowadays, isnt it? Life is for the extremely rich or extremely poor. There were plenty of men looking poor wandering round with pit bull-types as symbols until recently.

My working class parents could afford dogs. Nowadays everyone has to work and with no one in the house all day for long shifts it wouldnt be fair on the dogs.

I get a fixed amount from the DWP. I do not get in a say in that amount. Me spending it on my dog does not mean I get "too much". I am just good at budgeting and living within my means.
Why would you feel it appropriate to tell someone they get too much? What are you hoping to achieve?
When my dog is gone, I will have a lot more spare money which I can blow on booze should I choose to. Should I somehow have to pay it back?

Which was exactly my point. When your dog is the priority, which for us it is, you make other sacrifices.
I feel no guilt about having a big dog because I need it for my mental health and emotional wellbeing. In all other respects, I live a very frugal life. But I do resent being told that I shouldn't have pets because I'm not well off.

I think the main problem is that vetinary practices have all been bought up over recent years by corporations who have engaged in outrageous price fixing.

Visiting a vet used to be affordable- now a routine check up is extortionate. Even with pet insurance (another scam imo), you are still looking at spending £££ on blood tests, scans, and so on.

I think that a lot of these costs are hugely inflated, thus making pet ownership more of a luxury than it ever used to be. I also don't believe that owning a pet should be considered a luxury either. Pets are fantastic for mental health and companionship. Why should only rich people benefit from that??

Better regulations of vets and their prices would be welcome, however.

Further to my post on how it was so much more affordable back in the day...... For cats anyway....I still self support quite a lot.

If Arthur gets bitten I clean it with salty water. If he is limping, we leave it a day or two. He has always recovered. He doesn't go for annual check ups, as he hates the vets. I buy de-flea and wormers online. I cut his nails. The Guineas never went to the vets.

I think people, as with their own health, are not as self assured as they used to be. There is a lot you can do yourself.

Edited to add..... If course you need to go to the vet for serious ailments and injuries. But day to day stuff... Not so much