If you can't afford to take care of your dog, DON'T GET ONE!

ORIGINAL: cyclefiend2000

$2.30 a week is more like it or about 33 cents a day! Lets be realistic, if someone has trouble affording even $36-40 a month, the likelyhood that they will be able to save a few thousand dollars during the life of the pet is pretty near zero.

none of the pet insurance i found was that cheap. they averaged around $30-40 per month per pet. i cant afford that when i might not use it at all for years. i can afford to put some money in a savings account, and spend it as i need to.

if pet insurance works for you that is great. i was relating information i found during research i did. just last week we got a flyer about pet insurance through the aspca in the mail. i think the cheapest plan was $25 or so per month. it didnt cover all that much.

pet insurance doesnt seem like a viable option for my family right now. it doesnt make a person a bad pet owner if they cant afford or dont want to afford pet insurance.

Check VPI insurance.  I just renewed my for the 2nd year and it was $122 for a 3 year old dog.....

http://www.petinsurance.com/

i just filled out their quote and yearly rates quoted are as follows:

amelia: $313/year (that is after deducting a $10/yr multi pet discount)
sydney: $313/year (that is after deducting a $10/yr multi pet discount)
emma: $284/year (that is after deducting a $10/yr multi pet discount)

edit: those prices were with the optional vaccination coverage. removing it drops each price by $99.

that's true Meilani....I know someone who's Akita was going thru some stuff and I think it was like this....she did have to pay out of pocket then get reimbursed (think this was due to her needing a letter or something about the problem stating it wasn't genetic??? lol),....and she had a lot of phone calls to make before she did...and it wasn't for everything. I will say this...they did reimburse her for her trouble, minus the various like you say 'stuff' they found fit to exclude. And...she put it on her credit card...and she had to make those monthly payments until the other thing went thru. PITB....no thanks.

Well said Callie! When a person has walked on the gritter side of life it is much easier to know compassion.

I will admit I did not read all the replies. I did read DumDogs and I agree.
 
I have had dogs ever since I was a child 8 years old until now and I`m getting old I think. I never had insurance on any dog and never spent lots of dollars for health problems until they were older dogs where you can expect things to go wrong.
 
I owned apiece of property that I sold. Hubby said that I could do what ever I wanted to do with the money so I put it in a account for Molly for what ever she needs. I was lucky that that happened so that I know that Molly will be cared for forever no matter if something ever happens to me and hubby.
 

I have heard many pros and cons on pet insurance.  Some hav r eported theirs refused to pay because the ailment is "common to the breed and not covered." etc.Others have had great luck.  We can barely pay the outragious rates we hav to pay for our own insurnace and coudln't afford  to pay out that much for our dogs, then be told the bill wouldn't be paid.  I have beomce a Doubting Thomas when it comes to any company and what they say.
 
In the 5 weeks before Buck's death I had spent right at $900 on him for his yearly old many physical, meds, dental, tumor removal etc.  Then $145 to have him cremated, and then shortly after than another $350 for KayCee's old girl physical, which includes SMAC 12, CBC, urinalysis, deeper thyroid testing, chest x-rays, meds This doesn't include the interceptor.  It was hard, but what I felt needed to be done.  I drive a small '99 sedan, do not have a cell phone, have cable but no extras like HBO, etc, and have cheap dial up for my compter.
 
I know some people who can afford the best for their dogs, but won't do it, and I know others who can't afford the best for their dogs and really hurt over it.  Some people afford what they want to afford.Next door neighbors couldn't afford to get either of their HW positive dogs t5reated, but could pay out $100-$150 a month on poke mon and other collector cards, $40 for boards for their kids to break in one of those martial arts classes, etc. One dog is dead, the other is slowly dying.
 
I can't judge any situation without knowing the entire story.  There have been times when Hubby was laid off or on strike and we had to go thru sofa, chairs, car seats trying to find enough money for a loaf of bread.  I saw times i walked the kids to school to save gasoline, etc.  But my dogs always got their vax and their daily HW chews (lucily I only ever had one during these times).
 
 
 
 

The absolute key to *any* pet insurance is you have to insure while the animal is YOUNG to get the low rates, and it is all going to exclude pre-existing conditions.  So if you can insure them while babies and keep it in force it can be a darned good deal. 
 
But the other thing people are seeing here but haven't 'named' is that all the companies are going to only pay "reasonable and customary" expenses -- so much depends on what prices are in your area and how your own vet's prices compare with those.  Some companies will be better on that than others.
 
This is very much how health insurance for humans used to be simply because it's cheaper to do it that way.  And I honestly have not a clue how hard you'd have to fight to get something huge, like cancer, or auto-immune covered.
 
But essentially yes -- these are ways of making it more affordable.  But very very often there are other ways of making things affordable. 
 
But a good number of people don't plan as they should before they take on an animal.  It's a lot like pregnancy of humans -- sometimes it's planned, sometimes it's not. 

I know all about having to pay for meds and check-ups, my senior GSD/Luke is almost 14, at this point he is on a steroid plus a stomach protectant........I have no idea how much longer he will make it.......all I know is that I feel good about doing the best for my furry friends..............even the ones that I rescue.......and, at this point the funds are provided by the pet fund I have saved for....

one thing some vets will do is let you make payments on an expensive vet bill. we are currently in the payment process for emma's parvo treatment.

all i had to do was ask.

I looked into pet insurance,and i couldnt afford it.I'm lucky that i have a vet who let's me pay bills off.She even called me up the other day because i was late with the dogs vaccs and offered to let me pay it off if i wanted.

Are these people bad mothers because they had babies before having a hundred thousand dollars in their savings account?

Regarding third world countries and babies.Yes,it has crossed my mind many times on why these people continue bringing children into their poverty stricken world.I know they are uneducated and dont know about birth control,but it does make me so angry when i see pictures of mothers with their 5 sick,diseased and starving children scattered around them [&:]

I consider myself to be quite poor,but my dogs and kids dont miss out on anything.I have 2 sets of clothes,all with holes in them.My OH pays the rent,bills,internet etc. But *I* have to pay for the stuff for myself,the dogs and my kids,and if they need something they get it.The dogs get the best foods,treats and toys and the kids get clothes of good quality when they need them,they HAVE to come first,I was the one who brought them into this world,so they have to be my first priorities,not myself.

While I do realize that sometimes one cannot avoid bad money situations, I have seen the other side of things too...

-When I was a kid, one of my dad's dog's died from heartworms.  He started to get her treatments (only because I sobbed and begged until he gave in), but he never wanted to pay to finish them.  He had a job and lived with his mother.  He found the money to go out drinking every night but couldn't quite scrape together the money to pay for Sugar's treatments....

-A girl I know used to have a boxer that she kept at the barn where my horse lived.  The dogs would sometimes go days (literally) before she bought him food (the rest of us would take pitty and share our lunches with him), but you had better believe she had cigarettes every day.

Hi everyone,
 
Ditto to callie said.  I lost my good job after a week of adopting Romeo, who was sick by the way and went thru my savings faster than I could sneeze.  This forced me to look at my expenses long and hard.  So, I gave up a lot of luxuries, becuase when I adopted him and brought him home, I promised him I would take care of him.
 
I am a med student and I am always broke, and what little money I have left goes to Romeo.  One of my biggest luxury is the cable (for my mom and dad, I don't have time for tv) and the internet, this was a $160.00 a month bill, so I went to work  at nite for the cable company, one of the perks free cable and internet.  So I take this $160.00 add 20.00 per pay check to it and save $200.00 a month for Romeo. 
 
We all do what we can,  I have learned not to judge, but to give the benefit of the doubt.  I always think, tomorrow it could be me, or ask myself what would do if that were me?

Callie,  I am blessed that I've gotten to meet you through this forum.   Beautiful post, thank you.

ORIGINAL: JoAnnDe

Callie,  I am blessed that I've gotten to meet you through this forum.   Beautiful post, thank you.

 
ditto!

I agree that you cannot always predict where live will take you regarding expenses to be paid vs. the money coming in. Heck, DH and I are college students with 2 cats, 2 dogs, and 2 horses - it sure as heck ain't easy! I maxed out my credit card trying to save our 3rd cat back in Oct '06 and money is always tight around here...well, for the humans it is. The animals get what they need, when they need it, no questions asked. It does mean that we go without sometimes, but we are lucky - everyone always has food in the tummies, a roof over their head, and a warm bed to sleep in.

What I does irritate me are the "frequent flyers" we have come into the animal shelter for free food for their animals. Some of these people have been coming in for years, every week, and continue to add pets to their family when they could not take care of the ones that they already had. Or they'll relinquish a few animals to us, disappear for a few months, then come in and say that their new dog just had puppies! [:@] That is what gets to me - if you already know you can't afford to keep an animal, and you have already given up your previous family pets due to lack of finances, why would you go out and get more pets when nothing in your life has changed to make you think that it would work this time? Then again, common sense does not seem common in this town...