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 :(

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

I can only get a 3 month prescription for seizure meds and my dog has to be checked every month. It's ridiculous-he has been on these meds for years and is absolutely fine on them. It's just another money making scam. I don't blame the vets personally, this all started when taken over by big companies, ie CVS, Medivet, etc.. they set financial targets and are making owning a dog become a luxury, and for many, unaffordable. It makes my blood boil.

It's not a money making scam FFS. These rules around prescribing are set by the RCVS, the veterinary governing body to ensure responsible prescribing.
Nothing to do with vets or the corporates than own them . Please do complain to the RCVS but don't blame your vet, they can be struck off for prescribing outside these rules.

All costs for our dogs have been going up and up, especially noticeable since COL started.
Dog food, vets fees (big jump there), insurance (it's so high that I'm completely ignoring it for now), boarding fees if we need to go away. Poo bags are still cheap, one small positive!
The price of puppies must be really high now as well? I haven't looked since before the pandemic but I suspect puppies are expensive to buy now.
Having dogs now it's way, way , way more expensive than it was 20 or ever 10 years ago.
I think the pandemic puppies phenomenon and COL have contributed to this.
I'm seriously thinking I might not have dogs in the future, might as well have horses for the same expense.
Just thought about it, surely costs of having horses have gone up as well?!
Then probably getting a Bugatti might be a more sensible option, at least there's a good resale value there.

My next pet will be a goldfish!

People did not value small, independent vets. Customers were terrible about paying fees promptly and had totally unreasonable expectations about costs, because they didn’t appreciate the difference between the heavily subsidised NHS and the true cost of medicine (human or animal). Many vets could not make a profit, so have sold out to big companies, which now have customers over a barrel.

If you still have a local independent vet, use them and pay them on time!

This what we do with our dogs and in 20 years of dog ownership (and having two dogs at a time) I reckons we've saved 10k-15k not having insurance. They're on the practice plan for boosters and check-up, but that's it. We've got enough in the bank to drop 5k on a fracture or similar, and third party is covered by the house insurance.

We treat the basic stuff at home - my last outlay for canine health was a tenner on a lidded box for our stash of wound powder, antiseptic cream, saline, non-adhesive dressings etc.

A lot of people seem to take their dog to the vets for bugger all. There are also a lot of obese dogs out there which will also bump up premiums.

We use pet plan and they've been fantastic. Dog has monthly injections and topical treatments for dermatitis and ear infections. They've never not paid out and we don't pay anything upfront (other than the excess once per year). Our vet also does all the paperwork. Prob won't help if your dog has pre existing but would recommend for others. We pay £65 per month.

I know you’re talking about dogs and not cats, but for my older cat, I just pay £15 a month for a plan with the vet. This covers boosters plus flea treatments +2 consultations a year if needed. She is an old lady now (18) and if anything major came up, I would put her to sleep.

DDog is 14 now diabetic, deaf, blind, has a hart murmer. I cancelled his insurance as it went up to £120 a month and because of his age the co pay went up to 40%. Obviously can't get him reinsured.

My vet charges £30 for a check up and gives me a prescription for 6months worth of insulin which i get online for £30 / month instead of £80 if bought from the vet. Also buy syringes online for £15 for £50 instead of £5 for ten.

He doesn't have boosters anymore, the vet told me he didn't need them.

Yep, my own dog insurance just doubled from £80pm to £160pm with ManyPets. He does have a non life-threatening pre existing condition, so I will pay for insurance for at least one more year but we're then getting into the territory of wondering if it is cheaper to pay direct and cancel insurance.

I actually feel really strongly that insurance companies should be made to publish their average price hikes per year or their average cost by age of pet. My dog is only 7 and so has several more years of hikes left to come (if we stay insured).

Pet insurance is not like other insurance where you can shop around. One you have a pet and have claimed, you are pretty much stuck with the same insurer for life - or you risk not being insured for the things that you need. So when you select an insurer you need to know what future prices might be - i.e. what you are committing to for 10-15+ years.

At the moment they 'get away' with offering a very low price for the first years but it ramping up alarmingly as the pet ages. I think they should be made to be more upfront about what they will do.

I just cant believe there isn't gross profiteering going on. If insurers pay these ludicrously high and inflating bills without question, and vets increase their prices by more than actual cost increases we're stuck in a doom spiral, it seems to me.

The emergency vet I used recently charged a huge whack. Very flashy premises, totally unnecessary, and it turns out half owned by private equity. Private equity does not tend to invest in businesses where profit margins are low to non existent, so something doesn't add up.

My friends hamster had a fight with another hamster. It ripped all the skin of its tail.

£500 to have tail sorted/removed. I mean a hamster is about 10 quid.

It's because big companies have bought out
independent vets and are in it for the money.

These big groups are run as money making machines, whereas in the 'old days' vets ran their own businesses.

My reading of it is that the average vet needs to make a living, but isn't particularly money motivated, or they would have done something more lucrative with their intelligence.

@WelcomeMarch no we have never actually claimed her epilepsy medication to try and keep the insurance down stupidly!

But you're right they just whack the prices up anyway.

My husband was very much just like take the hit this year and we will re-evaluate next year.

Even now they are over 8 we have to pay the excess which is only £60 and 20% of the very bill. It's a joke.

@Sasqwatch it's a lifetime policy the top one with £10,000 premiums and no limit on how many claims we can make.

I have cows and my vet bills for a year don't even add up to what some people have to pay for vets bills on here. I really feel for people that have this issue as the small animal vets really have their customers over a barrel. In saying that, if I was told I had to pay a massive vet bill, I would likely make the choice to have the animal PTS. Not likely to be a popular choice but that's my choice.

We don't have insurance either - both our dogs are 14 now and hitting some issues as you would expect so going to vets more frequently. Dog went for a tooth abscess yesterday a quick in and out and it was £80 for consultation and antibiotics ! Why are vets so expensive ? I realise they train hard and there is a shortage of vets but is there an element of greed in their fees ?

If it's greed (and it may well be) - it's not vet greed.

It's the private businesses that have gone around buying up vets and then getting the profits back out.

https://www.vettimes.co.uk/news/cvs-group-records-leap-in-annual-income/

https://www.vettimes.co.uk/news/pets-at-home-vet-group-revenue-up-13-3-and-its-pre-tax-profit-hits-50-9-million/

@GinFizz3489 Find another vet, an independant one if you can. Also for you, and many others, irrespective of whether your dog is insured or not, when asked the question, answer no.

Not an insurance claim, but dogs do not need vaccinating annually, possibly with the exception of lepto dependant on where you live.

Never accept any kind of veterinary approved food it is a rip off.

Finally, for your chihuahua's medication, as others have said, pay for a private prescription and buy it at places such as vetmedic.

They don't. They absolutely don't. The manufacturers even state the vaccines (DHP the important one) last a minimum of three years.

The veterinary pharmaceutical industry relies upon us to blindly follow the leader on boosters and not question it.

And insurance companies do still provide cover if you don't booster, even if you don't vaccinate at all! Most state that they simply won't cover for the vaccinatable diseases. So you're covered for everything bar that without the need for boosters. Look into it.

We've not boostered in years, decades in fact. I think my 12 dogs cost me less than your two OP! Pets, competition and working dogs. Never had a problem. Funny that 99% of our peers don't booster either but pet owners generally just don't have this conversation with others.

Look into weighing up whether boosters are necessary...

Then I would claim everything you possibly can. That’s what it’s there for.

Same here, one of my cats is elderly and had radioactive iodine lately for her thyroid, the treatment was 4k of which I had to pay £600 because of the excesses, the insurance premium has now gone up to £100 a month.
The other cat is only two so ok at the moment.
What with vaccinations, flea treatments etc having a cat or a dog is becoming a luxury out of most peoples reach.
I am lucky in that I'm an older professional, have paid off my mortgage and don't have any debts or I'd be stuffed.
Long gone are the days when a family dog or cat was affordable.
10 minutes with my vet costs almost £90.

I have full trust in my vets I have been with them for 20 years but they are first and foremost a business which needs to make money like any other.

I change my pet insurance every year using the moneysavingexpert comparison thing, but no pre-existing conditions makes that easy. You can have diff insurance companies for each pet so I think only one of yours has a condition? so maybe the one that hasn't can get cheaper insurance?
I sympathise as yes vets are really expensive now, if you have an independent one use them and also see if they have any monthly membership options, they can include all your vaccinations, worming, flea etc plus a few appointments and nurse care. Sadly animals are going to be expensive to care for now, but I do think they are worth it and unless really really in pain all the time I wold pay everything I could for them.

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow

i would of tried the old switcheroo

You might have difficultly finding a vet that's not been taken over by a big company. Ours was and checking online, they've taken over the nearest 2 vets too.

Saying that, the individual vets ask if we have insurance. When we say we don't (both rescue dogs with no medical history) they then don't suggest expensive scans and tests others seem to have.

Most of the people working in the vets are decent, it's not their fault costs have increased exponentially and owning a pet is now becoming unaffordable.