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

Callie, You posted a great reply and it certainly gave me another way of thinking about how I reacted to the woman with the cat who I flipped out at because she couldn't afford to take care of it. Perhaps I overreacted and I should have considered her situation differently but after hearing about a poor animal suffering for 3 months because this girl couldn't afford the vet was appalling to me and I felt horrible that some people like to be responsible for pets only when it's in their best interest financially.
 
I guess what I sometimes get frusterated with is that people get pets and even though we know life can change in an instant, people tend to forget how this will affect their pets...their companians. I just wish that people really sat down to consider back-up plans so that it or when they ran into financial hardships (or otherwise) the pet would be safely cared for. For example, before we got our cats and dog, my BF and I spoke with each of our families and made sure that if anything were to happen to either of us that our families would be able to happily take the pets in. They agreed and we felt good knowing we had talked it over with people who had the means to provide for our animals assuming something might happen where we might not be able to.
 
I do not want children, so for me, Patton and Jack and Esco are like my children and upon getting them I made a promise to myself to sacrifice whatever I would need to to care for them-- no matter if I had to eat Romen noodles every day for the rest of my life. I am sorry for those who struggle...my family certainly has, but there wasn't a moment that any of our animals' health was compromised because of it.
 
I do, however, understand your position and I commend your post. It was well thought out and positive. []
 

I just recently made the choice to get pet insurance (going with a company that I spent a long time researching) and I thought I'd pop and and talk about why I did it and the differences in the various pet insurance companies.

I didn't do it for routine care/vaccinations. My policy does not cover that (some do, but I chose to economize), nor do I need it to. A couple hundred dollars a couple times a year is doable for me--if it wasn't, I wouldn't have the number of pets that I do. What has caused us great financial hardship are the unforseen mishaps. My dogs seem to have a lot of them. Or rather, one dog in particular (Marlowe, I am looking in your general direction). In 2006, I spent over $3000 on emergency vet visits. And ever since then, every time one of the dogs has a limp or eats something weird off the street or sneezes, I start having panic attacks.

After Conrad had to go in for stitches (my vet has very limited hours so we're constantly having to go to the e-vet, which is $80 just to walk in the door) a month ago, we decided, this is it, we're getting insurance. I spent several days researching companies. DH could get VPI through work (no discount at all, which I thought was crappy, but it would get deducted from his paycheck automatically) so I looked at that first and then looked at some other companies to compare. I used this website:http://www.petinsurancereview.com/ which gives the websites for all the pet insurance companies in the US and includes some comparison charts and also reviews from customers.

As it turns out, for our needs, VPI did not seem like the best way to go for us. They are the largest company so it's understandable that they'll have a lot of bad reviews, but I also didn't like a lot of their policies. I didn't like the dollar amount they assign to each procedure. Depending on where you live, and who your vet is, that amount could cover a large percentage of the procedure, or nearly none. Given what I know about how much we've been charged for various things in the past, it was looking like VPI would only cover about 50% of the cost. I was also concerned about the exclusion for "genetic and hereditary" problems that VPI (and most other pet insurance companies) have. I suspect that Conrad suffers from hip dysplasia and as he ages it could become a problem, but that is always considered to be a genetic problem and thus would not be covered. It also seemed like a possibly very convenient way for a company to get out of paying a claim, given several forms of cancer in dogs are genetic in nature, and who can really prove what is and is not genetic? I also did not like their policy (which several other companies also have) of considering a condition "pre-existing" after a dog has had it for one year, even if it did not arise until after the policy was taken out. So, say you have your dog covered, and two years later your dog becomes diabetic. For one year, the diabetes treatment is covered. After that year, your dog's diabetes is now considered "pre-existing" and is no longer covered. That seemed really supremely crappy and I was really put off by that.

I did find one comapny that covers both genetic conditions and chronic conditions for the lifetime of the animal, and I was willing to pay a little more for that peace of mind. I decided to go with PetPlan, which is an old company in the UK and Canada (and the Netherlands too I think) but is very new in the US. We're paying about $55/month for both dogs combined and for that we're getting $12,000/year of coverage for each dog ($24K total) and that will cover anything outside of annual check-ups and vax (so far we haven't had to do routine dental care as they do a pretty good job of keeping their teeth clean with bones). Yes, I could just sock away $60/month in savings in a vet care fund, but I would have had to have been doing that for two and a half years to save up the $1700 it cost us when Marlowe ate ibuprofin and had to stay at the hospital for 4 days--we'd only even owned him for 7 months at the time.

I can't speak to their claims process yet as we haven't had to use it yet. I did talk to their customer service reps when I was first looking in to it and they were very helpful, I was never put on hold, they explained the policies well and even gave me a couple tips about getting a better deal and more bang for my buck.

Anyway, I thought that might help if anyone's considering looking in to getting insurance. I am finding that my peace of mind is really worth a lot to me. All insurance is on a reimbursement system, so you still have to cough up initially, but that's why I have credit cards. As long as the claims process is smooth and goes relatively quickly, that isn't really a problem for me. I can pay off the card when I get the claim fulfilled.

Thank you for the info on the insurance.
 
 
 
 

Wow, I totally didn't expect my vent to get this many replies so quickly!

I do feel I should clarify a few things.

1) This person has posted frequently and in a fair amount of detail her financial situation....which is: Neither of them have a job, and it's by choice.

2) Many people did try and help her nicely, and have many times....this isn't the first time she's posted about not being able to afford urgent vet care.  She started getting extremely defensive, saying over and over again that her heartworm infected dog 'isn't suffering at all". 

3) She's posted many times that she gets these pets knowing ahead of time that she will rely on charity to take care of them.  She knows before she gets them that she can't afford them, but she gets them anyway. 

So, my vent isn't about someone who just fell on hard times temporarily. 

Those who brought up vet insurance....thanks for doing so.  I have intended to look into getting that since I've had my dog, but haven't gotten a lot of research done on it, and then kinda forgot about it. 

Well I suck! I have three dog, three parrots and two cats and I'm in the hole to my vet's about $500.00.  Let me go home a shoot a couple of dogs....

LOL.
Paula

if that is the case with that person then she probably just wants to vent and get compassion for her mistakes. if so, then she is better off being ignored.


cell phones = contracts that cost more to terminate than to keep
cars = contracts that cost more to terminate than to keep
apartments = monthly rent is due
house = monthly payments anywhere from $1000 to $6000 .. a month.
new or used car = monthly payments plus gas (which is beyond expensive) every week .. or for some.. every day.

i know a lot of people right now that are in dire need of new cars because the ones they are driving could turn into flaming rockets flying through down town traffic at high speeds because the breaks are shot, or the trani is about to punk out, or the engine is knocking... they also own pets and have kids. cell phones arent always a fun device owned by the rich.... i would get yelled at for leaving the house without a cell phone when i was pregnant. my dad's mom got yelled at recently because she always buggers off by herself and doesnt tell anyone. my dad made her get a cell.
i dont have an excuse for manicures.... fingernail fungus perhaps?
thing is.... you cant look at the surface. it might be someone elses car, it might their dad's phone, and the manicure could have been a birthday gift card.
on the other side of the coin i also know people that dont spend the money because... "Its just a dog/cat/horse/bird ... i'm not spending $500 on it! i only paid $50 for it at the pound, if it dies then i'll just get another one for $50!"  ... yeah that's shallow. that happens a LOT here in the south... "Its just a dumb animal... who cares.. not like it has feelings or a mind or something.." But people like that have the same outlook for almost everything in their life "Its just a car... i dont need to change the oil" ... "its just a house... who cares if the roof leaks.." but .... if you dont know them personally then you cant judge them. you just shouldnt.

when it comes to online folks asking for help... how do you know its not some 14 year old kid?? i was 14 years old and had the internet, i used to lie like a dog all the time about my age and so did my friends! could my family have afforded to save my dogs life if something bad happened? Hell no! we could hardly afford corn flakes and hot dogs for dinner half the time. my family was so poor when i was a kid that we didnt even know the animal was even sick until it died. was it my fault? I dont know... i was a kid.... i didnt have a job and state laws said i was too young to get one. i learned a LOT of first aid and emergency care when i was a kid because we couldnt afford the vet. i learned how to make splints, stop bleeding, and doctor infections and clean wounds. i've had more than my share of beloved pets die in my hands when i was a kid. it marks you for LIFE... So i stand firmly beside Callie in that... trial and error makes compassion and patience.
I thought i was going to have a heart attack and die or miscarry my baby because in one week (seven days):
1. someone shot my cat and shattered his spine = $100 euthanasia fee - the vet was nice and didnt charge $100 extra for X-rays to determine shattered spine.
2. my husband signed over legal parenting rights to his ex wife and her husband  meaning he would never see youngest daughter again - if he didnt then the legal hounds from hell would eat him alive over marital debt that wasnt his.
3. my dog injured her back resulting in paralyzed legs = $300 for ER Vet and Xrays and another $80 for medicines that MIGHT help her.
4. My husband got fired from his job because ... well they were breaking peoples cars to get more money out of them and he threatened to expose them...
5. my station wagon kept dying in the middle of traffic for no apparent reason while i had my kid, my mom, and my grand mother in the car. before we got home it died just before we exited on to the interstate...  then my grandmother locked us all out of the car because she decided to have a fit.... what fun that was!
at the end of that week all i wanted to do was sit in a corner and not move or touch anything because something else might break.
i can honestly say that if someone looked down on me and said "You are an irresponsible pet owner" i would have stabbed them with something...

Not all vets work with you. not all of them have pet insurance, and those little pet credit cards are a joke... from what i read while waiting for my dog to get back from X-rays... the interest rates would kill you, AND you had to have good credit... i have NO credit. no job. husband has crap credit (thanks to marital debt and exwife) and no job..... i had to borrow the money from my cousins and still have about $50 to pay back to her after all was said and done.
People that buy crap they dont need and still complain about the expenses of vets are probably spoiled brats that have had their allowances cut off. they're used to someone else towing the line FOR them. and they wont learn how hard life really is until their pet is dying in their arms on a sunday night when the ER vet is most expensive and they dont have the money to feed that gas hog sitting in their drive way.
I know its sad that the animal had to suffer and die but sometimes thats the rude awakening some people need to wake up and smell the crap that surrounds them. But when they come to a public forum asking for help... its not always because they're too cheap to go to a vet.... a lot of people would rather eat hot coals than tell the world they're broke and have hit rock bottom and started to dig...

a lot of people would rather eat hot coals than tell the world they're broke and have hit rock bottom and started to dig...

Amen!

Paula

Well that's a pretty extreme response. 

My vent was about someone who takes more and more animals in, knowing they will suffer in her care because she can't afford to even give preventative care, much less get emergency vet care. 

If you're in the hole $500 to the vet, obviously you got vet care. 

Well I suck! I have three dog, three parrots and two cats and I'm in the hole to my vet's about $500.00.  Let me go home a shoot a couple of dogs....

LOL.
Paula

On another non-dog related list there is one lady that complains all the time about this or that (mostly her mother, lazy*** husband and "special needs" children.  They have a Jindo (Korean breed).  She has come on 4 times saying the dog barks at strangers, nips at her kids, chases the cat...blah blah blah.  They also leave for weeks/months on end to stay with family while hubby works on projects at that family member#%92s house or they go on vacation or to conventions/shows.  I have told her over and over she needs to rethink her dog ownership and that the problems are mostly breed related and maybe she picked the wrong breed for her lifestyle.  Honestly I don't think she should even have a dog but apparently it would "kill the kids" not to have a dog. UGH!! You just can't tell some people ANYTHING. 
 
BTW as far as not being able to afford medical care for your animal sometimes people fall into situations where they suddenly become unemployed or disabled.  You can't lump all pet owners into the same category. Some people bite off more then they can chew.  One of my instructors in college use to say, "The horse is the cheap part...it is all the care that is expensive."  Why get angry at the person if they can#%92t afford vet care…why not help them?  It is too late to give someone a lecture.  Sometimes animals are all we have...many vets know this and help out with payment plans when they can.  I do think it is irresponsible to adopt an animal if you can't afford the care when you adopt it. 
 
I wish people would stop having children when they are on welfare or other public assistance. *LOL* But that is for another board!!

well i agree about people like that. i see it happen all the time.... i would be guilty of it if my husband would let me.... i see them sitting in tiny cages and kennels covered in crud and all i want to do is take them home to clean them up and feed them..... its easy to take health for granted though. i think a lot of us assume that if its born healthy and looks healthy then the chances for a disease or cancer is reduced.... but i'll tell you.. a herniated disk in my dog blind sided me... she wasnt hit by a car, she didnt fall off anything... she was just fine when i left that morning.. she was fine when my husband left that after noon.. and when my mom checked on the dogs that evening they were fine... but when i got home an hour later..... all was not well. i was in shock that it happened so fast and for an unknown reason.
but yes i do agree with you that if you know you're in the hole then you shouldnt get another pet. yes that's irresponsible and setting yourself up for failure.

ORIGINAL: robinkay6573

On another non-dog related list there is one lady that complains all the time about this or that (mostly her mother, lazy*** husband and "special needs" children.  They have a Jindo (Korean breed).  She has come on 4 times saying the dog barks at strangers, nips at her kids, chases the cat...blah blah blah.  They also leave for weeks/months on end to stay with family while hubby works on projects at that family member's house or they go on vacation or to conventions/shows.  I have told her over and over she needs to rethink her dog ownership and that the problems are mostly breed related and maybe she picked the wrong breed for her lifestyle.  Honestly I don't think she should even have a dog but apparently it would "kill the kids" not to have a dog. UGH!! You just can't tell some people ANYTHING. 

BTW as far as not being able to afford medical care for your animal sometimes people fall into situations where they suddenly become unemployed or disabled.  You can't lump all pet owners into the same category. Some people bite off more then they can chew.  One of my instructors in college use to say, "The horse is the cheap part...it is all the care that is expensive."  Why get angry at the person if they can't afford vet care…why not help them?  It is too late to give someone a lecture.  Sometimes animals are all we have...many vets know this and help out with payment plans when they can.  I do think it is irresponsible to adopt an animal if you can't afford the care when you adopt it. 

I wish people would stop having children when they are on welfare or other public assistance. *LOL* But that is for another board!!

i was lucky, the vet that did the acupuncture for my dog had a payment plan and had a famous reputation for saving animals that were brought in to be down because of this reason or that. the man is truly an angel sent from heaven for these animals and the owners that do their best. he's respectful and understanding. i was four days from my due date when i brought my dog in for her treatment and they knew i was worried about the care so they told me every thing i needed to know and do and encouraged me to not lose hope that she would get better.
of course.... one town i lived in had two vets.. one was a travelling live stock-farm vet (i loved him to death) and the other was a typical pet vet.... my dog escaped out of the house and promptly ran under someones car as they were driving.... we were renting and had no fence and were not allowed a fence... i was lucky my friend was home and willing to drive from her house -20 minutes from me- and then drive us to the vet - another 20 minutes - and then she actually paid for the treatment (fifty bucks for the vet to rub my dog and check for broken bones, and then to give me a little bottle of goo for road rash) this vet didnt do payment plans .. before i showed up i called them and told them what happened, i said i didnt know if anything was broken.. didnt know if there was internal damage - my landlord saw her get hit, i didnt as i was busy looking for her... i asked the vet if they would take payments in the event of there being massive damage.. the answer was a flat no. not ever. no exceptions. nothin doin.... 

when i was a kid i always wanted to become a vet so i could help out the poor people with pets... i'd probably go bankrupt doing it.... but at least the people that fell on hard times could still take care of their beloved pets.

It's like I said above== some people ARE just "mullets" (fish so stupid they nearly don't have a brain).  And when you really run into one -- ignore them.  They aren't worth your breath.
 
But, and this is an internet board and a really GOOD example of this -- people tend to focus on that ONE person posting.  And yeah, maybe they are total idiots.  Maybe they're bored people just being trolls and yanking your chain to see if you'll bite.
 
BUT
 
For every person you're tempted to nail because they are truly being a menace to society (and heck yeah, there are TONS of them out there - not all on messageboards ... dang, I've worked with more than a few!) ... for every one of them there are 10 or 20 people lurking reading what ***you*** say.
 
You folks wouldn't believe the mail I get that says "I read what you posted and ...."
 
People who changed how they were doing things *because* I didn't get ticked off and slam someone but tried to be over-ly patient and kind giving them maybe way too much 'benefit of doubt'. 
 
People who sometimes are on the very edge of not being able to cope and are just "reading" because they aren't brave enough to post (or don't feel literate enough or spell well enough or whatever ...). 
 
If you read what I said again you'll see I never said to just let someone run over you -- cos some folks are just plain too stupid to occupy space on this planet.  And I'm not talking about "ignorance" or someone mentally challenged.  I mean that idiot trying to take advantage of the system and brag about it.  "I won't buy kibble for my dogs -- I'll go to the church or the SPCA and cry poverty and get it for free."
 
I'm a firm believer that "what comes around goes around".  Those folks ARE gonna get theirs. 
 
Corry -- I still have to wonder (and none of us will likely ever know) ... what makes her do that?  What keeps her so on the edge financially and yet causes her to make such incredibly unwise decisions? 
 
She's probably never going to settle down and look at things logically.  Maybe she will ... but I can almost promise you there's something deep somewhere that causes her to make such ridiculous decisions.  She's very likely a person more to be pitied (and ignored) than someone worthy of the effort it takes to be angry with her. 
 
In that case, rather than wasting your breath being 'angry' -- you probably can do more good in damage control (again being patient but simply pointing out the flaws in her logic so the lurkers don't get sucked into her emotionalism).
 
I don't blame you at all for thinking she's an idiot -- just don't let her suck YOU in to being 'angry'.  People like that aren't worth the energy to be angry.  Trying to make sure the rest of the world don't think they're right is just as emotionally exhausting but at least it's productive ... to a degree.
 
robinkaye's comment about the woman with all the special needs kids, mother in law problems etc -- her plate is probably so overful that altho training would resolve a whole lot of her problems she probably can't stay sane enough to approach it.
 
That doesn't make that right -- but it makes me wish someone would take the time to counsel her and help her organize herself better so she makes better choices which would lessen her own load. 
 
but yeah -- your statement "You just can't tell some people ANYTHING." -- it's absolutely right -- sometimes it's just better to click the X and turn it off cos anything you say will be wasted!

Im coming in late in this thread but just wanted to say a few things....
 
Callie your post was great and I could relate to it also.
 
People I am sure would have bashed my mother 10 years ago too. At the time she was married and my dad has a very good paying job so money was never an issue for us.
 
My mom and I volunteered at the SPCA and aquired 2 dogs, added onto the 3 dogs we had already.  But it was fine because we had a large house, huge backyard, and the money to pay for the vets and anything else.
 
Then suddently my mom filed for divorce, my dad was abusive to her and my brother and she finally had the curage to leave.
 
Well lets just say he screwed her over. She had me and my sister who at the time were 9 and 11, no job ( she had always been a stay at home mom, because my dad made plenty of money) 5 dogs, 3 cats and a rabbit.
 
Oh yes and a $1900 morgage to pay. ( And this was 10 years ago)
 
He got a very good laywer and got away with only giving her only $800 a month, for 2 children's child support and her spousal support.
 
So we went from being wealthy one year to broke the nexrt, we didnt have cable, internet, nothing. She knew if the house went into forclosure we would be in a huge mess...How do you rent with 5 dogs, 3 cats? We applied to about 50 houses ( no joke) not one of them wanted more then 2 dogs. Not to mention we had a Pit Bull and a Great Dane at the time...lanlords aren't too happy about that.
 
Therefore we stayed in the house. She got dead end jobs, and her credit got ruined from being late on all the other bills just so she could pay the morgage.
 
Therefore our dogs went to the vets if they needed to but they weren't on HW meds. It was either that or food.
 
Did we know when we got 5 dogs and 3 cats that in one year our household income would go from $150,000 to 30,000?? No but we loved our animals too much to give them up...most were older also.
 
So the dogs went with out alot of stuff, but they had our love and a place to call home.
 

ORIGINAL: Corry

I'm angered to the point of wanting to scream today.

On another forum, (non dog related), someone was 'venting' about how she was upset about not being able to get her dog treated for heartworm.  She has three dogs, none of them are on preventative. 

She's always complaining about her financial situation, and how they barely make enough to get by....yet they keep taking in more dogs that they can't afford to even put on prevenative heartworm medicine. 

WHY do people do this!?

 
I`m curious. I can afford heartworm preventive yet I choose not to introduce a serious chemical into my dogs bodies. Am I a bad dog owner? I had children 30 years ago when by most accountants standards I couldn`t afford them. Was I a bad parent?
I could go into a long diatribe but I won`t.  I`ll chalk it up to "you must be young"

ORIGINAL: Bobsk8

ORIGINAL: Liesje

Wow, Callie.  Thank you for sharing that. *hugs*

I'm on the fence about pet insurance.  I've been looking into it on and off for several years now.  At present, an annual exam costs me $34.  Vaccinations are $19 each (rabies is once ever third year and distemper combo yearl), however if you're getting vacc's the exam fee is only $18, not $34.  So basically it's not even costing me $50 per year per cat for routine medical care...not worth insuring since my cats are all three years and under.  Even a full dental only costs $72 at my vet. When the kitties get older and when these companies mature, I'll revisit the idea.

I don't look at pet insurance to cover routine care and didn't get that type of policy. To me, routine care pales in comparison to what your Vet bill could be if your dog sustained a serious illness or injury. A broken leg could cost over $1,000 by the time you are done. A friend told me this week that the bill to clean his dog's teeth was going to be over $400, and that is a minor problem. Something serious like Cancer, which 50%  of dogs today wind up with, could cost many thousands of dollars. With all the new drugs out and the new procedures available , racking up an expensive vet bill is pretty easy to do.

My hound just cost me $1000 for an upset tummy that happened on a weekend.  Try paying for an emergency vet if something happens.  I'm lucky that I can self insure, but if I couldn't, I'd take advantage of my company's pet insurance benefit.  I'd get a 5% discount on the premium, plus the multi-dog discount.

We aren't trying to be judgmental as so much as we are trying to say that even in a young dog, things can happen (torn ACL perhaps) that could require expensive surgery. 

Sure, things happen that we don't expect - someone can lose a job, etc.  But, aren't we ok in saying that when times are good people should act as responsibly as they can so that their animals don't suffer?  And, that when times are bad, that is not the time to add a pet to the household, except to save its life if we are its only hope.

I can afford heartworm preventive yet I choose not to introduce a serious chemical into my dogs bodies.

I don't know if that makes you a bad owner or not, Rog.  But, I do know that the chemical that is used to eradicate heartworm, should your dog get it, it much worse than the preventive.  I owned a Dobe that came to me with severe heartworm infestation.  She was treated, but she also developed cancer before her 7th birthday and died within a week of us discovering that she was ill - no outward sign except one day her stomach bloated up and she could barely walk.  Not saying it's related, but I have always wondered.