Vet Costs Over A Year

[Kirislin]

Have you ever added up what your pets cost you over a normal year, that's not through a major injury or illness. I did and I was shocked. I thought they were sending me broke and I was right. My vets bills over the last 12 months have amounted to $3787 (that's over $10 per day). That was 4 dogs (I now have 5) and an old horse, and does include the house call to euthanise my beautiful mare.

All the other costs such as farrier, dentist, horse feed, the backhoe to dig her grave and dog food, registrations with council, multiple dog permit, Dogs Vic rego haven't been included. It's not for the faint hearted

[JulesP]

How has it come to that much if they haven't been sick? Poppy has cost about $300.

[denali]

Thankfully, my vet costs are minimal- as i work in a clinic and get everything at cost price. So probably only $60 this year so far for my cats.

Flea treatments etc i buy at cost and then halve them.

Grooming, also minimal to none- as i am a groomer myself.

if i was not a vet nurse and groomer i would be a lot more broke than i already am :laugh:

But i am currently counting how much i spend on their food!

This is not counting all the other things i spend money on for them- beds, shampoos, toys, leads.. or anything like agility club membership,council registration, dogs old membership etc.

and have spent on the dogs so far since january:

$683.94 on food (however my freezer is full- so won't need to buy any more for a couple of months)

$251.38 on training treats/food and chews

and the cats/ and foster kittens:

$570.60 on both food and litter

The chooks are winning at only $60 this year, and they give me eggs

Though, i may be richer, but i wouldn't be as happy without them :)

Edited May 20, 2016 by denali

[~Lisa~]

If we have nothing unexpected go wrong about $700 for the year for 3 large dogs. That's for standard vet checkups and 6 weekly arthritis injections for 2 of them.

2014 was an extra $7000 in vet bills. This year Kiya needs a dental which I expect will be over $1000.

[tdierikx]

In the past 12 months, I've only had 2 vet visits with my dogs... $253 for Zeddy's final vet visit ever in July, and $75 to give Harper a C5 shot because I had to board her for a couple of days In March.

As part of me fostering and volunteering for a rescue, they also give me feed for my own dogs, so I've probably only had to buy 2 bags of food for them over the past 12 months also.

Even as she was aging, Zeddy was surprisingly healthy up until her final collapse that night in July... the only expenditure was for a bottle of Meloxicam at cost price (my local vet insists on giving me discounts for some reason) to dose her with on colder nights for her arthritis.

My current dogs are 3, 5, and 10 respectively... and in great health so far. I don't vaccinate annually, or even tri-annually, so they only get vaccinated if they have to go into boarding which doesn't happen very often - basically Harper will get boarded if I have an overnight excursion for TAFE, and a friend comes to feed the other two - I have one more of those excursions next semester, but this year's vaccination will cover that boarding spell... yay!

T.

[Kirislin]

How has it come to that much if they haven't been sick? Poppy has cost about $300.

I wondered myself, I have 3 ageing whippets and had an old horse. I was taking the dogs to an osteopath as well which is included.

I'm hoping it wont be so expensive this year.

[kdf]

Nope, I'm not adding it up. With a 13 year old whippet, an almost 13 year old greyhound with both new and ongoing health issues, a 16 year old terrier with heart problems (and the meds to go with it) plus the 2 Aussies and kelpie it adds up fast.

I've spent over $2000 in the last couple of months easily but the actual figure might make me flinch. Best not to know the numbers :laugh:

[JulesP]

Yeah I don't want to add up Amber's vet bill.

[Kirislin]

Nope, I'm not adding it up. With a 13 year old whippet, an almost 13 year old greyhound with both new and ongoing health issues, a 16 year old terrier with heart problems (and the meds to go with it) plus the 2 Aussies and kelpie it adds up fast.

I've spent over $2000 in the last couple of months easily but the actual figure might make me flinch. Best not to know the numbers :laugh:

I agree. My old girl Feather will turn 14 next week and she doesn't know it but I'm ramping up our tradition of roast chicken dinner for dogs birthdays to roast TURKEY!!!!! I did buy the turkey at Christmas and it was only $16 and should feed all of us for a few days so it's not as extravagant as it sounds. :laugh:

[Scottsmum]

Ha.... um...

Guin was always cheap - no idea what any more but nothing more than a vax until the last few years of her life when she cost a bomb (week in hospital and a visit to SASH). Like Denali I also worked for a vet for a long time and got stupid discounts - but she was also a cheap vet - just a good egg.

Best comparison I have was that I was spending close to $50 on Scottie's endep with my inner west vet and then when I moved back out that way and went to her it was costing $15 a pack (of 50( - so half price. Its now costing 16 per 100 - go figure.

Scottie has on the whole - cost A LOT MORE.

recently:

(this week) Bloods, consult, follow up, endep, scrip for vivitonin = $137 (NZD)

+ vivitonin $60

Feb - consult, lepto vax, Kennel cough top up, endep - $106

December - Consult, Anal glands (they charged 17 for that), microchip rego on the NZ register $89

All that is standard run of the mill stuff which I would class as day to day.

So that's $392 - since 15th December 2015 doesn't include worming, flea treatment, food etc. New set of tags, rego with the local council ($40) Plus we had a huge amount of endep which we bought over with us. I suppose, hope, it's reasonable for that to continue aiming at about $1600 per annum (ouch)

My personal "favourite" was a routine dental and lump removal 12 months after I got Mr. Man. I would call it run of the mill.

Lump rx, day in hospital, biopsy, histo, antibiotics, full dental. I didn't think to ask for a quote - being used to a much lower charging vet - we walked out of there $1700 poorer.

[Two Best Dogs!]

Currently around the $300 vet bill mark this year - but that includes the bee sting and all this back and forth thing over the urine issues (a lot of these were free considering many are just urine tests to track where we at. Knock on wood, nothing going on right now and only slightly higher ph and she stops trying to kill the last few bees of Autumn)

2 years old and peak health though. I expect it to go up with age and dog count ;)

Edit. My rabbits are currently $160 which is good considering for the old arthritic one. Foster rabbits are covered by RSPCA.

Edited May 19, 2016 by Thistle the dog

[~Lisa~]

In 2014 our greyhound was attacked by a cat in her backyard and had to have emergency surgery at midnight, over 40 stitches and $2500. Not something I expected to be paying for!

[Diva]

My typical pattern is that vet costs are minimal until the last few months of life. So Arwen cost several thousand earlier this year as she was at the vet every three days to make sure she had no pain right up until the end. But those last five weeks cost more at the vet than the whole previous nine years by far. Around $5k this year compared to one routine visit plus worming plus any chiro which is discretionary for her in a normal year. No fleas here which is a saving. Of course as a big dog everything costs more anyway.

I don't really notice the food bill, I am sure I could halve it if I needed to but it doesn't sting as is so I don't worry about trying.

Edited May 19, 2016 by Diva

[JulesP]

Up to about $1600 for Amber this year.

[Pjrt]

I adopted Gruf in April 2014 from AWL. He was 10months old. He came out of the shelter with a c5 vaccine. He has not seen a vet at all yet since I've had him so in just over 2 yrs total $0. As far as I'm concerned he's vaccd for life and will only see a vet for illness injury or any other routine care that arises. He's been intestinal wormed a few times so that might be $50 max. He does not get heart worm prevention and is not flea treated unless he has fleas, which he has not at this point.

Edited May 19, 2016 by blinkblink

[oakway]

Oh my god you brave people. I never, never ever add up the vets bill. To afraid it may give me a heart attack. :laugh:

[mackiemad]

I've paid $250 for the dog to go under and get his ear flushed with a quick dental check at the same time. He's 9 and a flop eared breed, and as one of his ear canals is smaller and hairier than the other flushing and really plucking it under anaesthetic every few years means we stay on top of any yeast issues (as well as plucking as much as we can when being groomed)

And the 12 year old ginger tabby got a geriatric check up which was $90 inc blood and urine tests.

[Willem]

...so far for one dog (17 month old): AU$ 210 ...that's AU$ 150 on average per year :) ...that includes 1 puppy shot when we got her and the titer test for parvo and distemper.

[raineth]

Del has been pretty good with the vet bills over the years. But she did have a big operation last year, and at the end of last year she began her course of Cartrophen injections (which after the first few need to happen every 3 months, or sometimes more for the rest of her life). So I guess that will increase the vet bills quite a bit. I am guessing they will increase anyway as she is into her senior years now. But don't tell her that, she's still adamant that she's a puppy.

[The Spotted Devil]

Oh my god you brave people. I never, never ever add up the vets bill. To afraid it may give me a heart attack. :laugh:

I can't bear to put a price on them either :) I owe them everything.