Dogs are costing me a fortune

[GinFizz3489]

I have two chihuahuas aged 8.5 and 9 and they are costing me a fortune.

We are now paying nearly £200 per month on pet insurance as one dog has a pre existing condition and we've been told today my other pup has a heart murmur albeit moderate and no immediate concern.

Every time we go to the vet we are at least £80-£100.

With the cost of living it's becoming stressful. I would never want to give up my dogs- they are like my children but I feel it's only getting worse. The vet said today he could send my pup for a heart scan at a specialist and all I could think about was the sheer cost of it.

I've only ever made one claim on my pet insurance and it continues to rise each year and I can only imagine what it would cost if I added this heart condition to it.

If anyone else in the same position :(

I’ve got rid of my pet insurance recently but my girl is a bit older. Taking the approach of she’s had a wonderful life and when her time comes, it comes.

@Nosleepforthismum I know I think next year we may have to get rid of it.

They have me totally over a barrel because of the pre existing condition and just up it every year even though I've made one claim.

I love my pups dearly and I'd hate to think they were ever suffering but genuinely I've paid 2 vets bills this week and have no money left! It's shocking.

So many dogs are being dumped, a lot of them are more senior with masses of health issues. Ear infections, lumps, etc. I believe the owners just can’t afford the treatment or indeed even the excess. It’s extortionate and sad.

I know people will say life choices etc, BUT vet bills weren’t like this years ago.

Pets also seem to have more health conditions than ever before? bad breeding maybe.

My previous pets hardly ever saw a vet (didn’t need to), the consultation was about £25-£30 for 5-10 mins. The surgery would be heaving.

Current dog, has had issues his entire life, ear infections, torn knees, IBS, growths, arthritis. He needs pricey food, (previous dogs had Chappie or Chum). He currently costs in the region of £400 a month and that’s provided nothing goes wrong! In summer he had a growth that needed to come off, the vet said literally we will stop it off and see him up- £1800 please. I’m in a fortunate position financially, so although not an issue I still think it takes the piss. The consultation is now £70 and they drag it out to justify the cost- 20 minutes of the vet waffling. They’ve even rung me at home to sell me a drug like a bloody salesman. Never known anything like it.

A friend has a cat. Not her cat, her neighbours moved and left the cat. She took the cat in and it had fleas, the vet wouldn’t give her any treatment unless she made a consultation and paid for a once over/ health test too. So all in all she would have been looking at around £100 perhaps more, for fleas. She managed to get some treatment from a colleague with a cat. So issue sorted and cat is fine.

Another friends dog had cancer, she had it treated, had insurance £10k and bought the dog 6 rather uncomfortable months of life. I wonder sometimes if you we do a bit too much, I don’t know.

• Remember if anyone claims a benefit you may get some free treatment from PDSA or rspca for a donation.

Have you gone into a comparison website to get quotes from other companies? My dog was £76 a month and it’s now gone up to £150 a month cos I claimed £6k this year for surgery he needed. I’ve done a comparison and I can get him really good insurance for les than £50 a month (but obvs depends if you need to cover existing conditions, in which case you’re stuck )

I gave up insurance once it got to £70/month even though I'd never claimed. He had cancer at 13 but one op and he was ok and not even 18 months worth of payments. He's almost 15. I never had it with my other dog, nor with my cats. I'll take the risk.

@Jennyjojo5 yeah we are kind of stuck with the company because one dog has a pre-existing condition which meant if we moved she wouldn't be covered for anything related. It's epilepsy so I didn't want to take the chance in not having it covered but I think we may need to.

@RickyGervaislovesdogs total. My vet used to be a family run company and I trusted them 100% not to rip me off.

It's now been taken over by a larger company and it's £45 minimal for a consultation. Last week they charged me £45 for a consultation and a 'medication check' for my dog which is apparently mandatory for epilepsy medication. She is on 0.1ml !! And I've been told everything they can't decrease obv and don't need to increase. They literally take £45 from me to say how's she doing- fine thanks and then £40 for the actual medication.

I also asked if I could take both dogs together as my other pup was due her annual boosters and was told no I had to make 2 separate appointments so I was another £45 todays plus £65 for boosters.

It's becoming utterly unmanageable

I would be putting £200 every month I could afford to in an account as a fund for vets fees. If I had a pet that had a life limiting illness that required massive interventions I wouldn’t put them through the pain of treatment. That’s what you have to ask yourself. Pets have zero comprehension of why they have to have treatment how fair is it?

Im not even convinced dogs need booster vaccines but when I queried this woth the vet she told me that no upto date vaccines normally voids any pet insurance. Its all an expensive con!

I stopped ours a few years ago. My cat has several medical problems ( he is getting old but none is treated by medication ) i decided that anything that bad I wouldn’t put a 14 year old cat through anyway. But I agree. Vets are really expensive.

I didn’t get my cat he choose us and there was nothing anyone could do to change that. But I wouldn’t voluntarily go and get an animal as just the cost of the food weekly is huge. Everyone seems to think that when he goes I should get a dog. No thanks. I love dogs. But I don’t want to be getting up and down to let it out , taking it for walks or being tied to four hours out of the house. I will not be getting another animal when my boy goes. Regardless of what everyone around me thinks I should be doing.

It's ridiculous.

My tiny dog fell off the couch.

I thought she broke her leg. A scan and some pain meds and all was fine.

But bill was £800?!! Nothing even wrong with her

Have you looked at online pet chemist's? You pay the vet around £10 for a prescription and still saves loads on the pills.
We had a one off flea infestation vet wanted 300 quid. Cost £110 even with prescription online...

Friends Lab didn’t have boosters, went to the vet a handful of times in his life. Passed age 15 - stomach cancer. Mine hasn’t had boosters either, I didn’t bother after a certain age, following my friends advice!

Can you get a six month prescription for the epilepsy drug OP?

That's not true of most insurers, they just won't pay out for an illness that could have been prevented by the vaccine. Double check your individual but I've claimed for my eldest and I've not had her jabbed for years.

I don't insure my cats and I am extremely slow to take them to the vet. I Google a lot.

I frankly don't like the idea of giving any medication to pets when so many humans don't have access to health care.

What I find is other people expect you to 'just get them checked out' for all sorts of transient symptoms. I will wait most things out for a while to see if they improve.

Tbh I also always ask 'and if I don't do anything what then?' So far there has always been a 'do nothing' option and it's been fine.

Ooh so im now off to check the T&Cs .... probably should have done that before!

It has got ridiculous, that said I would shop around for insurance and get a basic one. Is your dog likely to need any further investigations/treatments for her epilepsy? Does it matter if it's not covered?

I worked out it's cheaper to have a pet plan for boosters and flea treatments than pay individually. For my small dog it's £12 a month and that also covers one vet appointment a year.

My cats nearly 10 now and I stopped her insurance as if there's anything seriously wrong with her I would PTS, she has a long term condition as it is so it wouldn't be fair to put her through a load of investigations or treatments. I also will not get another cat!

My dog is fairly young (4yo) and a mixed breed which makes his insurance cheaper plus he seems <touch wood> pretty healthy. I wouldn't get a pedigree because of the heath issues.

Just a heads up that may not be able to switch insurers at those ages - many companies won't allow you to take out a new policy on a senior dog (especially one with pre-existing conditions).

The likelihood of a claim increases as an animal gets older and it doesn't make financial sense for them to take on a new older dog.

Claim for all treatment you can @GinFizz3489 the premiums go up automatically anyway. Is it a lifetime cover policy? If it is the cover rolls over year to year as long as you keep up the payments. Wishing your pups all the best.

I would, seriously, stop paying the insurance now. You aren't claiming regularly on it anyway (or are the current meds covered?), there will be an excess on each condition, and you have two fairly senior dogs. You can't afford £2400 a year for no benefit.

Put the £200 a month into savings, so you can cover emergency pain relief or euthanasia. Then judge each situation as it arises.

My vet has been taken over by Medivet and the costs have literally doubled (and my vet wasn’t cheap to start with, compared to others in the area, but they are excellent).

Cat needed eye antibiotics (which are used on humans) - £55 at the vets but can be bought online for £14 for people. Absolutely outrageous.

I do agree with vet costs, but our vet has their own premises, about 10 staff and can do scans and X-rays there, so it does cost a lot to run. My dog has a stage 2 heart murmur, they want to do a scan costing £950, I told them I thought a stage 2 murmur just needed monitoring, so that’s what we are doing. I have a medium lifetime policy which only covers £4,000 of treatment, but I save money each month and hope I never need it. My dog had a skin infection last year, it cost over £1,600 to do skin testing, bloods, 2 lots of medication and about 4 visits, but they did clean his teeth whilst he was under, so for one medical issue I’ve got back all my 5 years premiums in one go, so it’s no wonder premiums are rising.

I think I would be tempted to put the £200 into savings, it's a risk though.
Vets fees do seem to have rocketed...our cat had an abscess on his head from a scrap, we didn't notice until it burst. Took to vet and they have him an injection and the cure all medication (can't remember what it's called now) we were in there 5 mins max and it was over £100 + medication. They didn't even clean the abscess!

Just been thinking about this this morning! Pet insurance anyway. My 2 cats cost me £55 a month for insurance, I've had oldest nearly 2 years and never claimed anything for them also they're indoor cats so less susceptible to injuries. So if they ever got sick and needed treatment I guess it's worth it otherwise that's a lot of money for nothing. Insurance rises every year but not with claims apparently (Pet Plan).

My vet is an independent and quite reasonably priced but I was reading that the chain vets are snapping up a lot of independent ones and charging much more. So hopefully that doesn't happen with mine.

Place marking as looking to get a pooch this year and insurance cost/vet fees is making me think very, very hard about decision