To feel that soon , dog ownership will just be for the well off? And thats not fair.

[Tunamelt]

We had a family dog and as a child I really benefited from it . As did my own dc when we had our beloved dog.
When the dc had a hard day she cheered them up so much and it was such a good experience for them.
We have just adopted a dog.
She needed the vets in the first week due to upset tummy.
Ist vet appt £75 and then x2 meds.
She now needs a stool sample and a further vet appt to
check her health.
stool sample test alone will be over £100.
We had appt with behaviourist at £90 ph .
Her food is £60 pm.
the vet thinks she may need fluxotine for anxiety and those meds are around £80 pm
So thats come to a good amount and she has only been here a few weeks.
Its made me realise that these sort of costs are just not do able for
many - and a concern to us -and it seems so unfair that the joy of a dog may be beyond reach for many these days .

I've had three dogs, all mixed breed and between the three of them, I've only had to go to the vet once, when one got something stuck in his throat. On top of that, we've had injections, but that's all. Plus I did get some arthritis medication for one, but it didn't really make that much difference.I think part of the problem is the popularity of breeds which were once very rare. Most people previously had mixed breeds. Now pedigrees are in vogue.
I think that's the problem. Plus, vets are much too expensive.

Your dog is cheaper to keep than my horse. It's really unfair how expensive horses are to keep

PlanBfertility..lovely if you are like that,not up selling etc, but you can't speak for all vets,and there are so many people that experience it,and reports about it,and vets that speak out about it. It is a problem. Yes we all realise a business has to make a profit. But you should be able to trust your vet, and most cant

I know your suggestion comes from a good place but please don’t sign up a nervous rescue dog that’s only been in a new home for a month. The dog needs to be settled and bonded with the family before being handed over to any other carers.

It does come from a good place. Just suggestion as so sad to see numbers dogs going to shelters in cost of living crisis. Better to accept support - not saying this is right in this case & maybe not right for family or dog but food for thought. X

I don't think current veterinary practices are helping. So expensive! I've had dogs most of my life, but now I don't feel I can afford to have one. No real difference in income, only costs. We always self-insured, ie made sure we had enough savings to cover fees for unexpected veterinary visits and treatment. The last and probably final dog we had, we bought insurance for, because costs were becoming prohibitive and we wanted to be sure he could access treatment. Now, I'm not sure we can afford either option, so we don't have a pet. We're responsible people, and always took on rescue dogs. We can't be unique in making this decision.

A dog is perhaps not a right but it is becoming a luxury and that is not fair.
The cost of a trip to a vet has gone up astronomically over the past decade as small family owned vets retire and are replaced by vet chains designed to maximise profit often at the expense of the animal as well as the owner.
Corporate greed is driving this.

We forget how much medical care costs because of the NHS being free at the point if contact.
But vets are surgeons, ultimately they are never going to be the price of seeing a pharmacist.
I also agree with poster on first page who said that we over Medicare both people and animals aiming for quantity of life instead of quality.
We recently took our 17 year old dog to the vet as he suddenly couldn't weight bear on his back legs. We knew it was game over as his continence has been steadily declining. He has had an amazing life with approx 6 holidays a year, never been left on his own, we knew it was time. However straight away the vet was jumping in with talk of MRI scans, possible surgeries etc.
Just no. We could afford the costs but really as much as we loved him we couldn't justify that for a 17year old dog.

False equivalence.
A dog is a family pet, a horse is a luxury few people can afford.

Ask your vets for the prescription (£20 ish) then buy online

Yes. Total rip off.

My childhood dog would just puke a bit and then be fine again. She didn't go to the vets, have stool samples, follow-up visits or behaviourists. You are being rinsed.

Firstly, I don’t have a dog. But if I had an upset stomach I would ride it out, same with my kids. I wouldn’t go to the doctors unless it persisted. Surely, 99% of stomach issues in a youngster are from a virus doing the rounds or eating something dodgy. Plain food and plenty of fluids.

You sound like a wonderful dog mum to take him on and not give up when issues arrived. Can you not ask the charity for help? Sorry don't know how it works with an adopted dog. But maybe they would think it would be better to help rather than you not affording to keep him on and having to take on all the costs themselves. Hope you and your fluffy bundle have a better time of it soon

Agree dogs cost a lot, not so much the food if you get a small breed, but the rest. I could have saved a fortune of i went for a short hair dog. But I love my fluffy bundle so wouldn't change him. There are still people on low wages though that seem to manage if in normal health. Think there are charities who help means tested owners too. I see some local dog charity advertise that on Facebook sometimes

My dog suffers from a lot of stomach issues. When he has an upset stomach it’s difficult to resolve without antibiotics, which they hold off on prescribing for weeks, months even. I finally had a vet tell me to get powdered bentonite clay instead. I mix a heaped teaspoon of this with a tiny bit of water to make a thick paste and mash little bits into tiny pieces of chicken in his meals (maybe 6 meals in day 1) throughout the day. He’s about 12kg and I might need to make up more so he has 1 - 1.5 heaped tsp a day for at least 3 days. This stops the diarrhoea really fast.

Food - my dog will eat rice with the chicken to help settle his stomach. He can’t stomach things like egg and fish when his stomach is upset. However with the bentonite clay, I can give him canned food at a push so you could try getting what he can stomach: Royal canin sensitivity control. It’s designed for post surgery and even lighten than gastrointestinal. The cheapest I’ve found is pet drugs online but I do need to order a tray at a time and top up with other items, such as the dry food he eats daily, so as not to pay delivery costs.

He hates the Kaolin. I mix that in his food once I’ve stopped giving the clay as he won’t tolerate both. Preventatively I give him the yumove probiotics.

If he vomits yellow foam after drinking yucky water, for example when the snow thaws, he can pick up things. The vet prescribed panacur a couple of times and followed the giardia protocol with it, prescribing for 5 days worth. I think it’s 50% of what you’d normally give a dog but you can google the info. I now just have stock of these at home.

Why can't people have smaller, quieter pets instead of dogs? Guinea pigs, hamsters and the like?

My lovely boy also has epilepsy. He was prescribed phenobarbital. This increases appetite and at about age 6/7, he started eating everything- plastic, socks etc - I knew if increased appetite but didn’t make the connection. it was a side effect , He ate a piece of a sock and nearly died when part of the sock stayed in the stomach and a piece attached some elastic from the stomach traveled to his colon. This is called cheese wiring and can slice through intestine. Luckily I insisted on surgery relatively quickly. It was real touch and go even at post op 48 hours later. He spent 5 nights at a larger vet and had 2 incisional hernia ops to the tune of 15k. Just to make you aware. The regular vet’s response - yeh it does make them hungry. I could have screamed.

I had to get him to vomit a number of times due to injestion of foreign objects and the vet was telling me off, telling me it’s not good for him, especially with the stomach issues I put in another post. All that time it was the shit they prescribed. It was an awful time.

He’s now on Levetiracetam, which is generally used to prevent further attacks or daily in conjunction with meds like Phenobarbital. I asked the vet to just try it just as one drug permanently, even though unorthodox, and he’s not had one seizure on it. He’s been taking it since the surgery, 3 years plus. He only takes it twice a day and is so effective that if I give a dose really late, he hasn’t had a seizure.

I know several people whose dogs seem to be sick all the time and cost a fortune in vets fees. When I was growing up, I don't remember this happening. I don't think the dogs were neglected. They seemed happy and healthy and they'd see the vet about as often as I'd see the doctor.

I have no desire to interact with rodents. Completely different from canines or felines.

Exactly. Council tax is so high and yet we all know nowadays there’s less funding for street cleaners and dog wardens, so this rise in dog owners comes at a terrible time. There needs to be less not more dogs. They are everywhere.

I stay in a flat and half the time I walk through there’s some annoying dog barking either at me or one of the other residents because we dare to walk past the dog and its owner . It’s actually really unpleasant and depending on size and breed of the dog can be scary. There’s also been dog pee left in the lift a couple of times. Not to mention the issue of unleashed dogs.

In a previous flat I lived I would constantly get emails asking residents to clean up after their dogs in the communal rooftop garden due to complaints about dog faeces. Gross.

We had 2 dogs when I was young - parents never had insurance for them - tbh I don't know if there was such a thing back then. I don't remember either of them being taken to the vet for anything and they both lived to be about 13.

I do think that having a smaller dog really helps. I have a tiny little guy and his stomach is so little his food costs us £50 for a huge bag twice a year, his insurance is about £6 a month and his flea and worming is £9 a month. I appreciate the vets bills are an entirely different issue, and yes, they eat up income. Luckily our little guy has only had one issue which was covered by insurance. He’s 8 now.

I know several people whose dogs cost them hundreds - or thousands - in medications each year, or multiple thousands in surgeries, and do wonder what it is that makes dogs so sickly all the time these days. I don't recall that ever happening in the past, but I also don't remember dogs being put down more for being ill. Maybe it's the designer breeding, these days?

I do know though, that I have a hard limit on what I'd spend on my pets, much as I love them. But I have cats not dogs, and in 10 years of ownership, have only spent about £500 on them aside from worming and defleaing - for a wound being stitched up, and for treating severe constipation after a fall.

Rats are lovely, to be fair, if you can get past the psychological barrier of them being rats (which my husband can't, haha). Very intelligent, affectionate, and with such personality. A lot like dogs, in many ways.

Yes the good old 50's, when there were no qualified veterinary nurses to look after your pet.

When lots of preventable (and often fatal viruses) were rife in animals, because people weren't vaccinating their pets as much.

When the veterinary surgeon was permanently exhausted from working their own OOHs, as well as running their daytime clinic.

When easily treated illnesses now-a-days, meant a premature death sentence for the animal as the treatments didn't exist.

You mean those 50's??

Veterinary care and science has thankfully advanced so much since then (and also in my 25yr years as a RVN so far). Unfortunately it costs!

And vets, nurses and all other veterinary staff are not as well paid as people think! Certainly not as well as human medical staff .