One of the biggest expenses when owning a dog is going to be the vet bills. There are plenty of other things you are also going to be paying a lot of money for, but a trip to the vet will overshadow just about all of them. There are going to be checkups that have to be done on the occasion that really add up.
You should also expect the unexpected and there will be many emergency trips to the vet when your pup gets into trouble or comes down with an illness. Expect to pay many thousands of dollars over the lifetime of your dog. Fortunately, there are ways to bring this number down and save money on your vet bills. In this article, we will go over some of the ways that you can do this.
1. Get pet insurance
Paying a premium for pet insurance every month seems like a strange way to save money, but it is money well spent. The best pet insurance is going to cover your occasional visits for checkups and also the big-ticket visits when you have an emergency or surgery.
At just about every stage of your dog’s life there will be some scheduled checkups that happen to make sure that they are growing healthy and happy. Since these are expected you can easily budget for them even without insurance.
However, there are times when an accident happens or your dog needs surgery for something and these always come out of the blue. This type of problem can set you back thousands of dollars. Having pet insurance will pay for itself over the years as these things inevitably happen.
2. Use preventive care
Prevention is the best medicine. It is much better to avoid needing to go to the vet than to find ways to pay for it. With the right type of care you can make sure that your pooch is protected and has fewer illnesses.
For starters, make sure they are getting the right food. You need to change their food at every stage of their life. This is because they have different nutritional needs as they age. If you are using the same feed from when they were puppies then they’re probably not getting the right nutritional balance. This can cause them to get sick more often.
Making sure they exercise enough will reduce the risk of diabetes and other illnesses since they will avoid getting obese.
3. Shop around
Vet prices for their services are not standard. Different areas will have different average rates for care. This means that shopping around until you find an affordable vet is possible. You can save hundreds of dollars per year by simply finding the cheapest vet.
This also applies to prescriptions. You may find that there is a variance between how much one pharmacy charges for the same medicine another charges more for. Don’t just go to the nearest pharmacy to fill a prescription. Call around and find the one with the best price first.
