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 .

Going to come back to this thread every time I meet a lovely Golden Retriever.

Ours has his hair-cut more than I do, he’s in the groomers at £50 a pop every 4 weeks! He also goes to doggy-day care for 1 day a week, at £30, just to socialise 😂.

Fortunately he’s not needed the vets very much, he’s only 5, but I’m sure these huge bills will hit us one day!

Eh? Theres more dogs than ever. And more people not cleaning up after them!

Slightly off topic but how dopet owners of rabbits, guinea pigs and hamsters manage the huge vet bills that seem to be the norm now? Dogs were often treated without vet visits. Bob Martins sold products and had a book advising on what could be treated by pet owners. My daughters dog had a thorn in her paw...seventy pounds ( the insurance excess per vet visit) to be told wait and see f it comes out of its own accord. It did.

My job means I deal with the lowest socio-economic group, and believe me, dog ownership among the poor is thriving. Sadly, in most cases.

All vets are owned by big companies, that pressure/ incentivise vets to up sell all the time. Dogs like humans get upset stomachs some times,especially if settling in a new situation, and also tablets for anxiety,n behaviour therapy when probably settling in. You are getting ripped off. Obviously if something was very wrong with an animal seek help,but think they have seen your anxiety about the dog,and have seen they can convince you dog needs x,y and z etc. ..I saw different vet in vet practice, just routine yearly check n wiegh to get worm n flea tablets ,she persistently kept trying to get me to have blood tests £80,even though she could see nothing wrong,said she gets them for her cats every three months!.. she was like a dog with a bone!...

Its not fair to an animal to be with someone who can't afford to take care of them.

My insurance has just renewed at £89 a month! She's only four years old, I have only claimed a couple of times and not in the last year. But that said, I wouldn't be without it. Nearly 20 years ago I had a claim for my now deceased dog for £12k, without it he would have been PTS.

Shorkies, I can’t abide these stupid “designer” names when all they mean is a cross/mutt🙄

Yes. Yes. Yes.
They are animals. Offer them a home, love them, look after them, but when they start having health problems that impact their quality of life, say goodbye and do the right thing.

@Tunamelt this isn’t your situation but when people start to have this mindset vets may stop seeing pet ownership as a cash cow.

Vet fees are horrendous.

Can the place you got the dog help you at all? It sounds like these issues could have been predicted.

But don't put the dog on fluoxetine. See if you can help the dog decompress and reduce its anxiety by the love you give so the dog can trust people again.

A lot of what vets test for is unnecessary. Just get the base treatment and go back if things escalate. This is what we do ourselves, why treat dogs health differently?

Take out insurance when you get chance, it honestly is worth taking the worry away.

But I agree pets are not just about feeding them. If you add up how you spend on first 5 years of a child's life on stuff, clothes, food recreation etc and double it, that's about the cost of a dog over it's life. We have 4 BTW, love them all madly and yes all are insured (it's more than my life insurance costs) but if anything happens it reduces the total cost so imo worth it.

I agree. My childhood dog ate all sorts. A happy dog but died of bowel cancer when he was 8. He was PTS. He was left for 8 hours a day while my parents were at work. Now I’m older and have my own dog, that’s not the life I would choose. It was wrong, despite my mum trying her best and the dog being very much loved.

I didn’t get a dog for the visual effect. She’s very sociable and would hate to me left every day in am empty house. Dogs give so much comfort and happiness and love and they have short lives compared to ours, so I want to make sure she has the best life possible. That includes two long walks every day with a third at tea time. Sufficient insurance to cover most eventualities. Good quality food (ours is about £120 pcm, and home cooked meals twice a week, with plenty of veg to top it up). She’s happy and healthy so far, a couple of vet’s appointments, one our own fault as she inadvertently ate something toxic (£135 for appointment and activated charcoal and a big feeling of relief).

Her insurance is £80 pcm. Before we got her we considered how much exercise and activity she would need, whether we could afford comprehensive insurance, the cost of food and grooming. We also have a savings fund for anything that might crop up not covered by insurance.

Having her is a luxury and if the figures didn’t stack up I would have not got her. She lights up my life though and is worth every penny, and is the centre of my world, and gotten me through some tough times.

Can you speak to the rescue centre? I know people who’ve had rescues and they’ve had subsidised medical care.

Prokolin is available on Amazon - last time I got some it was recommended by my vet (vetsathome- they don’t charge for unnecessary treatment and mine are really good, they never do this upselling, and give really sensible advice).

When it comes down to it, it’s not fair for animals to owned by people full stop.

What even is a shorkie. I get a yorkie but what else.

I think veterinary care in the uk now operates like private medicine in America. If i need health advice i always google the nhs site as it will advise whatto do to alleviate symptoms and when to seek medical help if symptoms persist. A general,google with usa resonses will usually tell you to see your health practitioner. Perhaps someone needs to set up an advice online site to advise when pet owners do and do not need to take their pets to a vet.

Crossed with a shih tzu, had to google it I couldn’t work it out either 🤪

Oh my as if either is yappy and snappy enough 😬 little dog syndrome times two.

Honestly scrolled past many of these comments after all the vet bashing.

As a vet partner in one of these ‘nasty cooperates’ - until you come and work with us for a day, please do not judge what we do. I am trained and adhere to my Veterinary Oath and do not any under any circumstance ‘upsell’. I am a medical professional. Not a sales person. None of us are.

This relentless vet bashing needs to end. Be kind. For people who harp on about money, kindness costs nothing.

And yes. Owning a pet is the biggest privilege ever. Research beforehand, have money. And don’t blame us when you haven’t done above and your dog then needs expensive treatment. We are not the issue. The industry isn’t the issue. Lack of research and preparation for these events is the issue.

I swear to good I have no idea how my dog survived when I was a kid. We had no behaviour training. She ate the occasional sneaked chocolate ( piggy and we did everything to prevent it). She had all her jabs and went to vet when in pain or infected ears, eyes etc.

She lived to 17! She was loved and well cared for. But today so much more is expected. Dsis dog has more expensive extra circular clubs than my kids. Swimming lessons at £60ph. Vet at first round of the runs. I'm pretty sure if my dog had the shits we gave it 24 hours if she still was bright alert and not in pain / wanted walks.

i think the expectation is higher for dog care than for kids today. I wouldn't go to the gp on day one if my kids had the shits. They only go if if in pain or it's not cleared up after a week. Maybe because vets are private so on damand if you have the cash? But I can imagine the nhs getting pissed with me Trying to book in if they had woke up with runs. You'd be slated posting on AIBU for phoning the nhs for child's diarrhea. But you be slated for not going to the vets on day 1. So my point is that something has shifted over the years. There's no watch and wait time for pets anymore. I'm not saying that's wrong either. But if the nhs was run on vets fee models either we wouldn't have kids in the first place or there would be more watch and wait

Well done! The vet is not the problem!

I've noticed vet fees have gone through the roof in the last 5 years since the Covid puppy boom. That coinciding with so many vets selling up their practices to the big corps. This is doing a massive disservice to their fellow vets that are now reported to have significant job dissatisfaction working for these money grabbing, parasitic profit hunters.

YANBU OP. It is a very sad sign of the times that the average family can't afford a pet anymore. The enormous joy and benefit of a dog shouldn't be reserved for the rich. There is NO justification for the absurd vet fee increase. They are just cashing in.

The sensible folk who make the best owners will stop buying dogs, the assholes will still buy dogs and these dogs will suffer because the big vet corps just want massive profits.

Take me back to the 50s when vets could afford to stay independent and offer affordable care.

‘Shorkie’. For fuck’s sake. Today I’ve also seen ‘Springador’ on here. If the breeders sold them as mongrels (correctly) and not wanky portmanteaux, they probably wouldn’t be charging thousands for them.

Pet ownership is Def a luxury these days, at least if you are doing it properly.
Combination of cost of living and shady vet practices (although I think there are investigations into vet pricings ongoing).
I originally had 4 dogs who were a reasonable cost every month. Now I only have 2 elderly dogs left who won't cost me a fortune at the vets as I wouldn't put them through anything excessive at their ages.
Does make me think about the future though. My next dog will be an only dog, I couldn't afford more!

How local are agricultural feed shops? Are they everywhere?

I so hope the mum was the lab.

But yes mongrels getting “fancy” names with stupid price tags is well stupid.