Pets are expensive!
 

During our 9 day camping trip, our puppy ate something that caused daily diarrhea. I took her to the vet and after some tests and prescriptions, the bill came up to nearly $500. The vet also recommended getting her spayed now as she’s 7 months old. Holy crap, that bill is going to be $700 for everything. I didn’t take into account the cost of pet ownership when I put together my annual retirement budget. Her food alone is about $100/mo because she’s such a picky eater. She’s lucky we love her or she’d be up for adoption pronto. There is a limit to how much we’re willing to spend on her though. Does that make me a bad pet owner?

My younger sister has a dog that doesn't like the vet or the groomer. Everytime she brings it in to either of them, she has to drug it up and the vet usually gives it a knock-out injection.

Between the costs of doing that and the vet work....it gets real expensive.
They offer med insurance...but there lots of conditions for any payment, and the prem is high.

I think our vet bills in the past 10 yrs have added up to over 34Gs if not closer to 40.

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Pets can be VERY expensive.

Pets are expensive for responsible owners. It is a very expensive thing to take care of dogs properly.

If someone came along and offered a million bucks each for our dogs we would tell them no with a reply that I can't type on this board.

Be prepared to part with at least a few hundred bucks if you ever need to have her teeth cleaned. Dental care for pets will really put a dent in your budget.

We adopted a beagle in 2017 that was about 6 years old. Her family had lost the father and they needed to adopt her out due to them moving away.

Bagel the beagle is a mess. Sweetest thing ever though. Her teeth were a wreck and at one point they removed about 15 teeth. Luckily the vet had a finance program and was very good on pricing. IIRC, it was about $,1500. Well worth it because it would likely have killed her otherwise.

My niece works at a pet care place. At the time we needed the teeth fixed we had spoken to her and she said to check around that vets will price match, finance, lower prices if you ask. She was right and it really helped us out.

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Just bought a 30# bag of Science Diet that was $50 last time, up to $76 w/tax now. Crikey!
He need to lose some weight, so smaller portions coming up.

No, it doesn't. Everyone has their own equilibrium when it comes to pets.

We adopted our other dog while living in El Paso. He was half price at the shelter, so a whopping $30. We joke that he is from Juarez, Mexico.

Within the first couple of weeks he got Parvo and nearly died. Took about $600 in vet fees to set him straight.

When I told folks at my office about the Parvo a lot of them had similar experience. Seems it is prevalent in places like El Paso

wow. i lived in El Paso! small planet.

i know that shelter well. most of my family pets are from there. we took pets to the vet straight away.

I loved El Paso. Moved there after Oahu. I thought it would suck but turned out to be one of my best assignments both in location and professionally.

As for that shelter. I asked my daughter one Saturday if she wanted to go. She beat me to the car. Then we went back home to collect mom and brother and picked up the dog. He was within about 72 hours of the blue goo (the vet tech term for the stuff they inject to kill if not adopted)

If you haven't already done so maybe checkout online retailers like Chewy . We rarely buy from the store anymore . For us anyway Chewy is cheaper and it's delivered to you . Very convenient. We have experimented with Purina Pro Plan , Science Diet and now Blue Life Protection formula .

Yeah pets are expensive but hard to put a price on the love they provide and the positive affect they have on mental health . Everyone has a different $$$ tolerance level for pet care . Make the best decisions you can based on the data available . Doesn't hurt to shop around for a vet , prices do vary .

Umm. My SPCA cat with the bung eye, and it turned out, bung knee, cost me over $4,000 in the first year LOL

Dog had an ultrasound last week. a bit over $1,000. And that is just the start. I don't know how much the Cushing's disease/pancreas removal is going to cost.

But they are worth every cent 10X over.

Matthew, I feel your pain. Last October an elderly neighbor went into hospital for a month so we looked after her little dog. The poor thing was overweight and her teeth were a mess. Last month our neighbor admitted to herself she could no longer care for her pet and asked if we would keep her. Of course and the first item on the agenda is$1300 in dental work.
This little one is the tenth canine we have shared our lives with.
It's a sickness. :D

Best
Les

I also cut the Juarez Mexico dog's hair. We used to take him but he hated it more than one could imagine. Was very mad when we picked him up and whined like I have never heard. Add to that that the cut always included a blow out so he looked like crap, and at $100 bucks it wasn't worth the aggravation.

Before

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After

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Aftermath

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That's sounds so familiar. When we first started looking after the dog, she needed nails done and a hair cut. The groomer refused to take her again! My wife just puts the little thing on her lap and does the job. No stress, lots of mess.

Best
Les

I went on YouTube to see how to cut the hair. The woman that made video said she started for much the same reason.

Best part, she said you can't really screw it up too bad and if you do it grows out.

Let's just say I've gotten better and there have been some bald spots in years past.