I regret getting a cat

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It is too expensive. Annual vaccinations, insurance, flea and worming. I wish I hadn’t got her to be honest. How do poor people afford pets?

You are lucky tho and cats can so easily get them. Mine got fleas once, it was an pita to deal with. Honestly. Treat the cat, clean/hoover everything in the house, treat everything.... then do it all over again a week or so later.

I've never heard of tooth-cleaning for a cat. Can't imagine why it would cost hundreds of pounds.

Why didn’t you research it, although it’s already all bloody obvious stuff! Poor cat.

Vaccinations isn't just about your pet though, it's about helping stopping spread diseases to other animals too.

Neighbour bought an absolute gorgeous puppy, didn't vaccinate and it died a horrible death from distemper. Please vaccinate.

They have to have a snooze. Tiddles would be a fluffy ball of razor blades if try clean their teeth while awake!

Plus, a lot of commercial cat food has sugar in it, I presume because a cheap preservative, but no good for cats teeth.

It's about £60-80 for a booster annually. You know it's just a booster, not the full set going forward?

If your vet is like mine, they will add a hefty "administration fee" to the prescription charge if you want to take the prescription elsewhere.

I have CatOfHate enrolled in a "pet health" scheme that gets me his flea treatment, wormer, six-monthly health check, six-monthly urine test (important for older cats because their kidneys can fail), and a discount on Hills (aka specialist and spendy) cat biscuits.

I don't have insurance and pay the cost of his dental cleans (and sometimes tooth extractions) when they happen. I reason that anything so major that I cannot afford it out of my "rainy day £5k" is likely to be clinically severe enough that I wouldn't want to put him through the treatment for it anyway. I've heard of people putting cats through chemo or multiple surgeries, and at that point you are doing those interventions to the animal because you aren't willing to face letting go, not for the animal so that it can have a good life.

Unlike humans, cats don't helpfully open wide and say "ahh" for the vet. They have to have their teeth cleaned under general anaesthetic.

I did not know that about cat food.

fluffy ball of razor blades

That is a brilliant description.

I've got 2 dogs for DH and 2 cats for me. We love them dearly and they are worth every penny we spend on them. It really helps that when we go on holiday my adult DS comes to stay at our house to care for our pets. We look after his cats when he is on holiday. They get fleas every month and wormed every 2-3 months. We have to do this as if one pet got fleas or worms they'd probably infect the others and we don't want an infestation of fleas or worms. They don't have insurance but we've got a separate bank account for them and we put in £30 a month. Over the years we've saved a lot up and we've been lucky as they have not needed vet care except boosters. When my adult DS moved out we spent some of the money buying him a couple of kittens and getting them vaccinated, neutered and chipped. If his cats need a vet we'll spend money from this account on his cats too. Every so often he puts in £20.

When we first had cats my then-partner religiously paid for regular flea and worm treatment from the vet and I assumed you absolutely had to do it. Then I read about how cats' fur has ended up in birds' nests and the flea/worm treatment kills the chicks. So now I try to use it very sparingly, and I just give my cat a brush and see if she's picked up any ticks. It surprised me how rarely she does, and the same with fleas - she came in scratching once or twice and I gave her a pill, but I don't think it needs to be a constant preventative dose and it's much better for the birds if it's not.

We also had a bill for £4k after our seemingly healthy youngish cat had heart failure. He's been fine for 3 years and counting re his heart, but there's also been some nasty accidents/fights he's gotten into too. Extremely glad for that pet insurance!

He's the icing on the cake of life and I love him very much, but when he passes, he won't be replaced. Sadly. Vet bills are getting too expensive now and we will want the flexibility to head off for last minute holidays when our kids fly the nest.

I pay ~£25/month for the pet health scheme and then food on top of that is ~£50/month. I treat the £18/day boarding rate at the cattery as part of the cost of going on holiday.

Insurance for a cat is £10 per month. Injections £45 per month year you don’t need to flea or worm regularly I never have. If you can’t afford £10 per month I’m surprised you thought it was a good idea to get one

My sister has cats and she's been complaining that the vet is trying to upsell absolutely everything at the moment

Even brushes

Obviously, the cats have been vaccinated

And neutered

And that's it

They've never had fleas. I suppose if they got them, we'd have to get treatment and pay for it, but I don't know how much it is

they have flea collars, but they weren't expensive

It’s way more than £10 a month

You can get flea treatment from amazon or ebay

You can buy things that help like plaque off and stuff that they lick off their paws to help keep their teeth clean.

My cats are indoor cats. Never had an issue with any of them not being vaccinated. Some cats also get hugely stressed going the vets

When I got my cats from the shelter they had no more input into what I did with them. I have had my oldest boy since he was 18 months and he's now 20.

My cat is no longer with us but he needed the medication for his last couple of years. I got a prescription for the meds as it’s cheaper than buying them from the vet. They wanted to do bloods every three months to check dosage was ok but once he had stabilised at the right level I said no, bloods every six months is enough if cat seems well. They accepted that.
ETA it’s easy to administer just squirt in the mouth or on food.

I think that the cheapness of cats is one of the many positives of having a cat versus having a dog. From what I hear dogs are very prone to very expensive medical issues. Not many people seem to have mongrels anymore, although they're less prone to these issues. And cats can be left alone for quite long periods without having to pay for moggy care. They're very low maintenance.

I have never vaccinated or insured any of my cats

Most people have mongrels it's just now they're called sheepdoodle or similar. Problem is with fashionable mixed breeds like doodles, people breed problems into a genetic line - more of then are having issues than used to be seen

Order online.

You will need blood tests from the vet and 1 months prescription from them to get the right dose. I then paid £21 for a 6 month prescription. I then ordered online. Thyronorm was about £45 for a 3 months bottle from pet drugs online. If you made sure to order first one as soon as you got prescription you could squeeze a third request out within the 6 months.

so basically about £18 a month. Compared to probably £70 paying his vet.

i didn’t really pay for repeat blood tests - I pushed back a little as as long as she wasn’t showing symptoms again I felt she was fine and at 15/16 we probably would not undertake major surgery anyway. I switched her into biscuits that while not full renal care were a lot mg those lines.