Pet Care In These Economic Times

Oh my goodness; this economy is scary! Every day I hear new “worst” records for housing, stock market, employment … everything. And now pet care is also seeing its fair share of distress. More and more are cutting back on healthcare, nutrition and general expenses spent on their pets. I’m hearing that shelters are getting more surrendered pets from owners that simply can’t afford to keep them any longer.

Owning and caring for our four legged family members can be quite expensive. Average annual cost to own a dog is approximately $1400 and a cat is approximately $1000. This is no drop in the bucket and needs to be considered before taking the responsibility.

There are still many options to continue to provide great healthcare at more reasonably costs. At my practice, we run several monthly promotions each year for preventative care. Everything from dental cleanings, senior screenings, to everything you need for spring (heartworm testing and prevention, various vaccinations, other parasite screens). These provide the most common annual preventative healthcare at significantly reduced costs.

Now you may ask why we don’t provide that same cost all year long. Well, by gearing up for those needs (testing consumables, buying preventatives in bulk, staffing for the increased demand) we can pass on those savings to our clients.

Now these don’t help for the emergent issues, i.e. injuries acute illnesses. My best recommendation for this is pet health insurance. For a fairly small monthly premium ($20-$30), you can have the necessary means to care for your dog or cat when tragedy does hit. Most policies also have preventative care benefits if you wish. Below are a few links for several pet insurance companies; there are lots more out there is want to seach Google. Check them out:

May we all have a better year