Agreed. So many treatments available to lengten a dog's life for a short period of time that you tend to feel guilty to use common sense when you decide not to do that. I know that I have limited having animals due to the rising vet costs.

 

I'm far more concerned about the lack of professionals in the veterinary field than I am the cost. ER's are closing, local vets can't find new vets to fill demand. Vet techs are overrun with work. That is a far larger issue.

 

What Jax08 said, our, 'New Vet in town', that took over the old Vets practice holds only Bankers Hours. Does not take emergencies, if you call with an emergency out of hours, you are referred to a VCA vet an hour and a half away. Thank goodness there's a Vet in the town next door, and another an hour away east of us. I've taken my animals to both of those Vets, and do not use the Vet that is in our town anymore.

 

Inflation is just one of the reasons I am hesitating to get another dog. At this point, I feel insurance or an emergency fund of at least $10,000 - $15,000 is a must. I had insurance for Nikki but after a few years it became too expensive and no longer worth keeping. There are other concerns I have as things are changing in this country.

 

I'd sell a kidney before I wouldn't have a dog

Having said that, dog food prices have risen 40-50% since Covid and with two large dogs, that's not insignificant. My vet is pretty reasonable but yes, very busy and not taking any new patients. I see a new one has just opened in town so hopefully a good sign.

 

Cost is not going to deter me from getting another dog. My death might.

 

And our dog food used ot go on sale regularly and I'd stock up on 2 or 3 18kg (40 lb) bags. It never goes on sale in the last year....

 

Yes, I no longer want a houseful of dogs due to the costs. It’s more expensive in some areas than others. The price me tie d above is correct. ER surgeries here now run between $10,000-15,000 each although in all my years of dog ownership only one has had an expensive emergency surgery.

 

There has definitely been a shift in opinions on how pet animals need be treated. Before it was normal to euthanize a pet rat yourself when it developed tumors at the age of 2. Nowadays it is encouraged to have it taken to an exotic pet veterinarian to have it treated ($$$!) Guinea pigs and rabbits need to be neutered and spayed, etc. I get reminders for the semi annual health exam for my dogs, regardless of their age. How can the average Joe keep a pet? My own old flexible vet clinic's vets have both retired and the clinic has been eaten up by a chain, is no longer readily accessible and has started the fancy policies. We now have to go to the spendy ER clinic for issues we could otherwise just pop in for. This, combined with the way dogs are referred to as fur babies, sensible dog training classes are hard to find, I find that having and working with dogs in sports is not as easy as it used to be. I encounter mostly leash aggressive dogs on the trails and beaches. Thank you for reading my venting.

 

Before it was normal to euthanize a pet rat yourself when it developed tumors at the age of 2. Nowadays it is encouraged to have it taken to an exotic pet veterinarian to have it treated ($$$!)

Ha ha. My sister had a rat when she was a kid that developed a big lump on its back. The vet said it was just a fatty lump, but could be removed "for cosmetic purposes"

Bear in mind he was a hairless rat so wasnt going to win any beauty contests anyway

 

Agree that there is a shortage of vet's. My vet is in his 70's and wanting to retire, but not getting anyone in to take over his practice. He's the only Repro guy anywhere close. He no longer takes after hours calls. None of the other vet's in town will take you for emergency after hours unless you are a client of their's, and many do not even take after hours calls. I have to drive an hour to get to a vet that does take after hours emergencies, and that's a rural vet practice. We don't have Emergency Vet Practices within several hours (3-4) one way.

Dog food prices have doubled and tripled since Covid. It's also getting harder to find homes for quality puppies. I see more and more breeders with puppies that are looking for homes for them. I've still got one 9 month from my last litter, that hasn't had the right home come along. Yet just this weekend, I saw a BYB set up in the WalMart parking lot with puppies for sale, that said "AKC puppies" on their sign. These were not little 8 week old puppies but more like 3-4 month old puppies, by their size.

Everything has gone up in price, while most people's income hasn't. It's just plain difficult for people to make ends meet. :-(

 

I'm not gonna lie. At some point I will need to get another pup and between the exchange, the shipping or travelling and the actual cost it's going to be a struggle. Good breeders are getting screwed on cost and as Marsha said, pups not finding homes. Shadows care is getting expensive and I don't foresee it getting any cheaper, and I still need to pay at some point for her final visit and cremation. Which has gone up in price as well. My days of multiple dogs are probably over, but I cannot see a way for me to not have a dog and stay healthy.

 

I feel we will, for many reasons, stick to two dogs once (presumably Neb) one of our current three dies - I can't imagine just one - I love all ours but three is a pain sometimes. Ours keep living so darn long (that's not a complaint, but the ol' vet bills go up - in Luc's last 8ish months of life, he had tie back surgery right before he turned 15, had a cardiac ultrasound at a specialist, got sick a bunch and had trouble recovering, which accelerated his GOLPP related weakness and dementia which is why we eventually let him go).

Neb - well, okay, the stomach scoping this summer is just bad luck I like to think (and who knows how long that leather footbed or whatever on earth it was had been in there for - the vets at the OVC thought a rather long time and that's why his stomach had been so sensitive as it moved about - his stomach has been great since and he's a real spring in his step again), that's not age related I suppose. The chaos with his eyes IS age but he's worth it - we've borrowed to help pay for his bills in the since the summer - and Agis, who at 4 has developed allergies and a stupid wonky kidney (he has insurance at least I guess) - my point being that vet bills seem to accelerate as they age, so I shudder to think what Agis is going to turn up bill-wise.

That's the problem. Care for your animals they live long lives and have all sort of highly treatable things go wrong - we're not going to put Neb down for an ulcerated eye, but between our vet and ophthalmology appointments it's been expensive to treat - AND while Toby is out of work (he got a job!!!! Just hasn't started yet).

Food - Neb eats THK kibble, Agis gets Instinct limited ingredient though as we're quite sure now his allergies are environmental we'll probably revert him back to Xerxes's food which is Red Leaf (PetSmart Canada's house brand - they've all eaten it and down well on it and it's under $50 for a good 25, 30lbs...our old food was over $100/bag for a similar amount, with similar amounts needed to eat to the Red Leaf, and with all three of them eating it, it got expensive fast.

This doesn't even get us started on the CATS. At least there's only two of them!

We are poor in wallet but rich in love!

 

I have gone to my Vet for the past 15 years There have been a lot of changes Young vets coming and going The medical director stayed the same I stayed with the practice because of that and he cared for my shepherds through their senior years He became ill and could no longer practice Had to call them to schedule my current dogs annual They are so busy they never got back to me …and never followed up on some others things I feel fortunate that I was able to find another Vet clinic

 

Eowyn's eyeball costed $3400. My friend paid for it, as it happened on her watch, but I have given her a few hundred dollars, and intend to give her more, try to pay half of it. Usually my total vet expenditure for the year is about that, $3400. But that is for approximately 12 dogs.

Maybe we need to change some mindsets. Dogs don't live forever. They don't. It sad. But we do not have to get them a surgery just because a doc is willing to cut on them. I love my dogs, all of them, but even if my vet in town was open and available to do a bloat surgery on Cujo2, I wouldn't have done it. He was already sick, already lost 15 pounds. He was 10.5 years old and putting him through that would have been a different sort of cruelty. When Arwen was 7, and she was my heart-dog, one I still think about nearly every day, my vet thought she had an enlarged spleen and thought it was probably hemangio. He sent us to Akron Veterinary Referral the next day. I thought about it all night. I decided if she had a hematoma on her spleen, I was not going to get the surgery, I would just take her home and love her, until I had to put her down. She did not have hemangio. Not then. A couple of years later, she died in her sleep, and the vet said it was hemangio at that point.

We do not have to do heartworm all 12 months either. There are no mosquitos from November through March or so. Why are we dosing our dogs with wormer and pesticides all year round? I don't give flea and tick prevention. I don't want them to have pesticide in their bloodstream all month. I figure, if I see a flea on any of them I dose the lot of them this month and next month, and then I will stop again. Ticks are a little scarier. My neighbor said one of her dogs was just diagnosed with Lyme's disease. So the ticks are out there, and I am not going to catch them all within the 24 hour window. I am thinking about the Lyme's vaccine, and whether that is a yearly thing or if it is likely to protect them for longer than that. One of my puppy buyer's vets has the pup on flea and tick prevention, has vaccinated the dog for Lyme's Disease and is running a test for Lyme's Disease. Doesn't that sound a bit over-board. If the dog is vaccinated, then why does it need the prevention? If it is on prevention, why does in need to be tested for it?

I think that as things get more expensive, we need to get smarter about questioning the decisions our vets are making. I think sometime we go along with whatever the vet says so we do not appear to be cheap. I think we need to buy the best food we can afford that our dogs do well on; adopt an attitude that less is better when it comes to veterinary care, vaccines, preventives; we can cut training and grooming professional services in half by taking a set of classes, then doing another six weeks of work on our own, and then taking another set of classes and the same with grooming. We do not need to give up dogs because things are getting more expensive.

The hard thing is to say no to surgeries that are ridiculous in price. Getting that eyeball done was a necessity, she is a puppy, and her prognosis was perfectly good. Getting a bloat surgery on a 10.5 year old sick dog -- doesn't make sense at all. Time and time again people with a dog that gets osteosarcoma cut off the leg to try to give the dog more time. Maybe it isn't right to do that. It seems like every time I hear of a dog losing a leg to that, the next thing I hear is the dog is dead from that. They told me that with the surgery, Arwen would live 6 months, without it 3 months. I opted not to do the surgery, before it was confirmed that she had it. Maybe we have to do more of that. Maybe we have to think and decide these things before we have the need of the decision. When Quinnie came down with oral cancer, they cut it out and sent it to be tested. It grew back with a vengence. I should have put her down then. I should not have waited five months. I loved her so much that I would have paid them to cut it out again, but they wouldn't do it.

There are no easy answers to how we pay for things. How we make the decisions. Having a big bill for a vet is a certainty at some point when you have a bunch of dogs. But it is not a certainty that I will have such an expenditure this year. If I tried to buy health insurance for them all, I won't have to worry about having dogs because I will be in the poor house just paying for the premiums. It's pretty steady at about 3200-3400 a year. I suppose if you have 4 dogs, you can decide not to replace one of them when he or she passes, and that will cut your vet bills, food bills, professional services bills by 25% to counter the disgusting cost of inflation.

 

"Usually my total vet expenditure for the year is about that, $3400. But that is for approximately 12 dogs."

WoW...what a bargain Selzer!

Unfortunately, I never knew what it was like to have dogs without issues. Chronic health issues add up really quick, my vet bills for one dog ran about double that in a year (allergies, EPI).

 

Thanks Selzer, love the common sense. We can limit health costs by getting sound genetics to start with. Most of our vet bills are caused by Deja's intense drive in the form of accidents. The only health issue ever was a mammary tumor at the age of six before spaying and a twisted colon. Both of my dogs come from healthy lines. Bo has never been sick or had any issue at 4 years old so far. I have changed health insurance to Pet's Best for accidents only, costing a monthly $10 per dog. Saves me about $400 a month. Also, they are not on flea, heartworm or tick meds. No vaccinations after the puppy shots for Distemper and Parvo. Titers for Rabies instead of routine Rabies vaccinations. Has saved Deja 2 Rabies (3 year)shots so far. All in all I have saved their bodies from a large load of chemicals. Oh, and they are fed mainly raw kept lean, exercised and happy.

 

We had bloat surgery done on Keefer at 12 years old. He was in otherwise good health for his age, came through the surgery great, and lived another year and 8 months. We lost him shortly before his 14th birthday. The surgery close to $7000, we didn't have insurance on him but are fortunate enough to have the money to pay for it. I feel for those who have to make difficult decisions based on finances. It was worth every penny, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat. If he'd had other health issues we may have made a different decision but we felt like he deserved a chance and were in a position to give it to him so we did. If we'd carried insurance on him at best it could have been a wash - the cost of premiums over his life would probably have been more than we spent on vet bills that would have been covered by the insurance, maybe even a lot more. Insurance is expensive but it does give you a predictable monthly outgo and protect you from large, unexpected expenses due to an injury or illness.

Knowing full well that it could cost us more in the long run, I decided to get insurance on Cava. Even though we could afford any potential vet bills and are willing to spend whatever it takes as long as the prognosis is good, knowing she's covered gives us peace of mind.

I agree with Jax that the shortage of veterinarians is a much bigger problem, not so much where we live, but in many other parts of the country. We have a 24 hour emergency vet less than 5 miles away (where we took Keef), one about 10 miles away, and another less than 12 miles away. Our regular vet is open from 6:30 AM to 9 PM on weekdays, and 7:30 AM to 6 PM on weekends. They're also about 10 miles away and takes a couple weeks for routine visits, but they have same day urgent care appointments available and as long as I call first thing in the morning I've been able to get in. We're lucky.

 

We had bloat surgery done on Keefer at 12 years old. He was in otherwise good health for his age, came through the surgery great, and lived another year and 8 months. We lost him shortly before his 14th birthday. The surgery close to $7000, we didn't have insurance on him but are fortunate enough to have the money to pay for it..

OMG, $7,000.00!! Years ago, when my Dobie bloated, our Country Vet did the surgery with my husband assisting, and hubby is NOT a vet tech, middle of the night and the bill was about $950.00, this was about 2004. I was out of town, clueless husband had no idea what was wrong with the dog, called me up and said, "Izzy's a PIG, she's blowing up like a tick" I knew EXACTLY what was wrong and yelled at him through the phone, "CALL KEN, SHE'S BLOATING!" It was never, "Doctor", always Ken, I cried when he had to retire due to medical reasons. Husband called Ken, out of hours, and Ken answered, met my husband at Vet clinic. Izzy's bloat was so bad there was not enough to tack her stomach. Izzy came home the next day, came out of surgery with flying colors.

After that I kept Izzy with me, I was commuting, only going home on weekends. Izzy developed a partial torsion, middle of night I took her to an Emergency Vet, in a populated suburb. They quoted me $5,000.00 AND told me they would have to keep Izzy for 4 days after surgery, ??? I didn't have that kind of money, crying I called my husband, again, middle of night, husband called Ken. Ken said bring her up, I'll do surgery in the morning. I drove straight to where my husband was, a 5 hour drive, thankfully it was only a partial torsion and Izzy was doing fine. Got her in to Ken, he did the surgery and was able to tack her stomach, bill was $650.00 that time, and Izzy came home the same day.

 

Geez. I have serious jealousy at some of your vet bills! So inexpensive! Neb’s annual in July was $750 haha (we did bloodwork which tacked on money).

To be fair, I do live in an expensive city, everything is expensive. Our vets are always like “you could do this but honestly I don’t think we need to worry about it” and are nothing but great. I use to run a cat rescue (one of the folk) and was responsible for all feral and emergency vet bills so I’ve seen my share of vets, ours aren’t predatory but I think they pay staff decently - people stick around there - and also everything in Toronto is expensive. There are vets I’d pay more at if we were clients.

We are not about save life at all costs but weigh how healthy the animal is and impact on quality of life. Luckily the money we borrowed for Neb’s very treatable bills (Toby was off work sick for a couple of months than lost his job so we’re through our savings) was from the Bank of Mom so while we’re focused on paying it back ASAP it is interest free. And Neb is full of spunk yeah he’s about to turn 16 so when he plays it’s not for long but he’ll still run around and play bitey face with us and Agis. He’s a very happy boy.

 

What were prices like pre-covid?

in rural, isolated Northern California, an office visit was 80 U$D, i dont recall vaccinations.

our new vet in Massachusetts has a $70 fee for the annual, $30/shot. I dont recall bloodwork, but it didn’t seem too high. Two younger, local Tufts trained (graduated 2010/2015 respectively) vets bought the practice from a retiring vet a few years back.

when Rosie was fentanyl poisoned, she was kept overnight in an emergency animal hospital in a major city, iv, blood work, ultrasound, $1400.

we are paying $65 or so for a large bag of Fromm (some varieties are more than others)

Unsure the cost of simparica trio, but its a monthly subscription

 

The Simparica went up to $195 at Chewy. I think it was around $182 the last time I bought it.

 

Pre covid, I was Paying £70 per calendar month for dog food, now I'm paying £130.

 

Pre covid I think - hmm - annuals were around $125 plus whatever testing was done. Core vaccines when needed are included. Now they’re $180 and I think that’s with our multi pet discount. Bravecto runs around $90/dog plus tax for three months. We don’t do heartworm and tick disease testing yearly - we do treat for both - my understanding is dogs often have asymptomatic Lyme infections so I am not super concerned frankly - but we test every two years and I think that runs around $600 for all three dogs but we didn’t do it last year so don’t quote me!