Can You Afford Your Pet?

Last night, I happened to come across a nice elderly lady at a CVS.  My friends and I had stopped in for some post-pub munchies, and she was paying for her items and left.  She had a miniature poodle sitting on her electric wheelchair, and those little beady black eyes never left me.  She knew I was a veterinary professional of some sort, and didn't want to turn her back on me, I suppose.  Dogs Know.  Anyhow, when my friend and I had paid, we walked outside and the nice lady was putting a pink winter coat on the poodle because it was nippy out.  I cooed at the pup, and that began a short conversation about what I do for a living.  She was very impressed, and I told her that if her dog ever needs any specialist, she should take the pup to NHVS.  They have the best doctors and support staff in Houston.  She said, "Oh, I can't afford someone like that..."

I have a lot of Pet Peeves when it comes to the sweeping generalizations that animal lovers and professionals use to put down other animal lovers.  One of these is "If you can't afford for your pet to be sick, you shouldn't have a pet."

It sound perfectly reasonable, right? So why are there SO MANY people with pets that can't afford proper veterinary care?

the cost of healthy pets from this website

Think about it. I mean REALLY think about it.  A pet's life can be short or long.  A large dog generally lives to be 6-8 years old, a medium size dog tends to live to be 10-12 and a small dog or cat can live upwards of 15 years.  Where will you be, financially, throughout those 6-15+ years?  Hopefully you will improve your condition and get more and more affluent.  I agree that, when you initially acquire a pet, it's a good idea to at least have enough for wellness visits, vaccines, and maybe set a little aside for if the critter has an emergency.  But how much should you set aside?  What constitutes an emergency?  What are the price differences between my regular vet and an emergency vet?  What happens if you get fired?  Downsized?  Go to jail?  Lose a loved one? These are questions nobody wants to answer and nobody thinks will ever happen to them.

Truth be told, you simply cannot say where you will be financially during all the years your pet is alive.  And emergency problems are usually due to an accident, which means it isn't planned.  When an emergency isn't an accident, it is due to the pet not showing signs of illness until it is too late.  This is why I cannot possibly, in good conscience, get as furious with animal owners who cannot afford to amputate a limb as my brethren.  Murphy's law states that if it can go wrong, it will, and at the exact wrong time.


Working for over 10 years in emergency and critical care, I saw so many sad things and so many people without money to afford care for their pet.  Countless puppies with Parvo and Distemper virus, kittens with Feline Leukemia and upper respiratory infections, young male cats with a urinary tract obstruction, female dogs in dystocia (difficult labor, unable to deliver puppies), dogs of all ages in liver failure due to Sago Palm ingestion, and the list goes on.   Some of these diseases are preventable, but not all.

As far as how much you should set aside is a big head scratcher as well. A single trip to an animal emergency room can be as little as $100 and as much as $20,000+.  To be completely forthcoming, an outpatient procedure is likely going to be under $2000, but plenty of pets have an underlying condition that requires hospitalization or surgery, and that can get very pricey.  It's all a question of what is wrong and what it will take to remedy the pet back to a good quality of life.

I try very hard to avoid sweeping generalizations.  If this was a perfect world, I would not have to worry about mutated strains of Parvo or whether a plant my cat just found is toxic.  But in reality, we humans have a tendency to look down on others, judge them, and feel better about ourselves because at least we aren't as bad as THEM.  We are all flawed.  So stop being so damn judgmental, gosh darn it!