How much do you pay for your dogs flea treatment, wormer, boosters and health checks over a year?

[DooinMeSizers]

Scruff's flea and worming stuff usually costs me around £40 every 3 months or so. He is allergic to fleas so we have to be extra vigilant with de fleaing him or he will bite himself unitl he bleeds

Now I have 2 dogs instead of one I thought £80 every three months would be a bit hard to find. Not to mention paying double for annual boosters. So I joined them both to the healthy pets club, which is like a pay monthly scheme.

It's around £11 per dog, per month. This pays for all their flea and worm stuff, 2 health checks per year and annual boosters. As well as 10% off any medication I need for them (i.e Scruff's dermatitus shampoo, which is only £6 per bottle, but still...) and 20% of Hills Science Plan (i.e the cats food)

We also get the pup micro chipped for half price and 10% off spaying her and 10% off the consultation fee if they become ill. And we can buy their id tags for £9.99, as opposed to £15.

DH is not happy and thinks I have been ripped off and we would have been better off ordering the flea and worm stuff online, like I used to.

Hmmm my vet offers this but I have never taken it up.

Worming 1 x Drontal every three months £1.90 (ish).

Flea stuff I am a natural girl, so we use a flea comb and a herbal (neem) repellant. I understand your situation is different though, but flea stuff is cheaper on-line than from the vets.

I personally wouldn't take my dog for a heath check, I wouldn't even do it for my kids.

Annual boosters are a bit controversial atm, I would ask for advice on the whippet forum, some do, but most don't, I am currently on the fence.

Personally when I went through it I could see it was just going to cost me loads of extra money. You have to do the maths for your own situation though.

Perhaps I'm crap but I only worm and flea treat when necessary. We have only treated them for fleas once (I have two dogs) this year because as short-haired dogs who do not socialise with 'strange' dogs they have never been infected before. They have never had worms. I just had their annual boosters costing me £80 for both but aside from that I don't pay out much else aside from insurance (£30 a month for both) and treatment for occasional minor conditions (eg, littlest dog has recently been diagnosed with gingivitis so have to buy some special chicken flavoured toothpaste to keep it at bay every couple of months at a fiver a pop).

Do you have a link to this healthy pet club thing? Would be interested in having a nosy.

Healthy pets club it would depend whether you have a vets near you that has been taken over by CVS.

WTWTW Scruff is at the vet constantly with his skin so never gets a a health check either, as he sees the vet about once per month anyway. But we seem to finally have that under control.

I will post on the Whippet forum, but we go away and use boarding kenels once per year, who won't take them unless their jabs are up to date. Although my mum has said she will ahve the whippet stay with her, she cannot manage Scruff, he is far too bouncy for her.

Hi Dooin, I can see the attraction. To be honest, I think a lot depends on whether you like to budget monthly - there are many people who prefer to know a small chunk is coming out each month rather than a bigger one a few times a year. In the same way, I self pay as I go with my dental care/hygienist although I could go on to Denplan or similar.

I can also see it might be helpful if you were likely to need regular doses of meds that weren't covered by insurance but again, that's very specific to your circumstances.

Discounts on microchips and discs are nice to have but not essential, since chipping is now quite competitive and many local authorities offer it free or at low cost and even our local Pets at home does it for a tenner.

Discount on neutering - great - but ring round a few of your local vets to compare prices - the 10% discount could still leave it more pricey than some others. Overall, I'd go more personally on a vet that I flet comfortable with - I don't think these alone would be enough to switch but I can see how the package would suit some dog owners, especially if they wanted convenience and a small monthly outgoing.

Well Scruff does/did have to have regular treatment, where the cost of treating him was less than the excess on the insurance, so there was no point claiming.

This was for his skin, we were constantly there getting anti inflam jabs and topical steriod creams and presciptions for Piriton and what not. But like I said his skin has calmed down a lot, since we changed his diet. However the change in diet co-incided with the change in weather, so I don't know if his skin will stay okay when it gets hotter again. And he does still have to have his medicated bath once a week.

Oh poor Scruff in his medicated bath once a week :( It must be difficult having a dog with ongoing skin problems/allergies.

I think I would probably do the £11/month if I were in your position too. Right now there is no need for me to do that in my situation, but it looks as though it will save you a lot of money and give you peace of mind that you won't have to find £80 every 3 months. £80 is a lot of money - this is the first time I've had both of my dogs' boosters done at the same time (late for one of them, sorry littlest dog ) and it does mean things are tight for me this month, whereas £11/month isn't going to affect things massively for you.

Our dogs get their healths checked when they go for boosters. My vet doesn't charge a consultation fee for this either. Isn't this the norm?
My vet is great and I never feel that I'm being ripped off or getting a sales pitch for something,just for the profit.
I've never experienced anything other than small independent practices though.