Tips on tightening the leash on pet costs
Even in tight financial times, people will open their wallets for pets. But Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine has a helpful story with solid advice to makre sure caring for the furry ones doesn't break the bank. For instance:
1. Immunize. Immunizing your dog against the parvovirus costs $15. Skip the shot and you could wind up paying up to $5,000 for treatment.
2. Buy a wellness plan. To save money on routine vet visits, vaccinations and preventive meds, consider a wellness package. With the Pet Assure program, for example, an annual fee of $59 per year for a cat or $99 for a dog entitles you to 25 percent off visits to veterinarians in the company’s network.
3. Order medications online. Save $180 a year or more on flea and heartworm meds by ordering supplies in six- and 12-month batches from 1-800-PetMeds. For additional savings, sign up for the company’s e-mails, which offer special sales alerts and coupon codes.
One very interesting tidbit in the story: Next to large dogs, which cost an average of $875 a year to keep, rabbits are the second most expensive pet with cost of $730 a year. Who knew?
Categories: Assorted pet stuff, Cats Cats Cats, Dogs, dogs, dogs
Comments
also, frontline, the really good flea repellent that costs more than $60 in petco, is like $50 at wal-mart!
Posted by: minpinmama | December 4, 2009 11:24 AM
@minpinmama. Thanks for the tip!!
Posted by: Sandy C | December 4, 2009 4:50 PM
You might check with experts first about that parvo shot. If you have an older-than-puppy it might be unnecessary. Read up on the latest info on over-vaccinating and using too many chemicals on or in your pet's body! Read and decide - it may help save money and heartache too.
For de-fleaing use a flea comb daily and 2x day in the summer. With the increasing numbers of reports of topical flea preparation toxicity causing adverse reactions including death of the pet, a flea comb is CHEAPER by far and much, much safer.
Learn to home cook for your dogs. Cats - not so easy and there's some serious complicated ingredients that are hard to find and expensive. If you buy a good cookbook for dogs or go online to myriad home-cooking-for-dogs websites, forums and blogs and then bargain shop smartly, you can save a fortune and the bonus is you will know what exactly your dog is eating - no mystery meat from an uncertain source (remember the petfood recalls???).
I have two dogs, a cat and 7 (!!!) horses and believe me I've had to learn smart money saving on pet expenses!
Posted by: Roxy | December 4, 2009 5:39 PM