In the personal finance blog world, there’s often discussion about the difference between being frugal and being cheap, or about the products and services we’re willing to pay more for, due to quality or other considerations.
In the pet blog world, there’s often discussion about how much we’re willing to pay to take care of our pets, not just food- premium brand or generic –but also for their veterinary care. At what point do you question whether the cost of the treatment is worth the outcome? And how should you go about discussing this with the rest of the family (if there is one), so that you are all on the same page?
I love my dogs. I never want to compromise on the quality of care they get. But that does not have to stop me from being a smart shopper. We have compared ingredient lists on all sorts of dog foods, and also how our dogs react to them. You know what,
Kirkland brands have right ingredients in the right amounts, my dogs like the food, and it doesn’t upset their tummies. We go with
Kirkland.
The same attitude can be taken toward veterinary care. The fanciest packaging does not mean the best care. It mostly just means higher overhead and higher costs.
Now I’ll be honest. Our financial tolerance for what we’ll pay for our dogs’ veterinary care is very high, given a sufficiently good prognosis. We paid over $3,500 for our Aussie’s (Moree) surgery back in 2009. We did this because the surgery was to completely fix the problem. In our case, the surgery went fine, but the next day, the site went septic and we lost Moree anyway. But we never regretted the cost, even though, financially, we probably shouldn’t even have considered it at the time.
When our Lab/Pit mix (Smokey) became ill earlier this year, we were in a much better spot financially. Still, we chose not to treat him. He had cancer. We were looking at extending his life by roughly 6 months. We chose palliative care because that was the best choice for him. I don’t even remember what the cost would have been to go for surgery and chemo, but it was high.
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| Smokey (left) & Moree (right) |
After we lost Smokey, we decided to change vets. The primary motivation was an emotional one- we just didn’t want to go back to that building. But I would be lying if I said money wasn’t part of the consideration.
The vet we had been going to was on the expensive end. Every review I read of them talked about their high cost. They had a lovely building, with nice large appointment rooms, located near prime retail space.
Their location and their hours (24 hour emergency clinic) were a major reason we had chosen them to begin with. But we were paying for their overhead as much as we were paying for service.
As I’ve already said, I have no desire to compromise on the quality of the care my dogs get. But that doesn’t mean I have to pay for the fancy packaging. I talked to a friend who lives not to far from where we do who also does animal rescue and fostering. She had the same requirement we did of our regular vet’s office also being a 24 hour emergency clinic. (Having had an “emergency dog”, as I called Moree, it was an emotional necessity.) At the same time, having to operate on the rescue organization’s budget, I knew cost was a major factor.
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| Junebug (left) & Larry (right) |
When she recommended the clinic we now go to, she mentioned that yes, it was less expensive than our old one, but what had really sold her on the place was the treatment her one-eyed cat got when he needed to have that one-eye removed. Because he was in significant distress, they rearranged the surgery schedule to accommodate him. She was thrilled with everyone who worked there- from the front desk interns to the vets themselves.
We’ve now been to the new clinic 4 times- once when we first got Larry and 3 visits for the Junebug in the last week+. The first time we went there, it was a bit of a shock. They are located in a run down neighborhood, next to a seedy looking bar, in an older building. The waiting room is small, the two exam rooms even smaller.
Their hours are 7am to Midnight, seven days a week. They make appointments but also take walk-ins all the time. That means they don’t charge a walk in fee, and if you’re there before midnight, there’s not an emergency fee, either. I’ll be honest, I don’t know if they charge an emergency fee between Midnight and 7am, because luckily I haven’t had to go there during those hours. But I have shown up there at almost 10pm on a Saturday night.
Our three visits for June, which have included 6 shots, a blood test, aspirating the glands, and 5 prescriptions, have run us somewhere between $350-400.
At the old office, just showing up at 10pm on Saturday night would have run us $200-$250, with the second visit costing $175 and the third $75. That’s without the lab work and the meds. And we would have paid it.
At the new clinic, we are paying roughly 50% of what we would have been paying at the old one.
And as for the quality of care, I actually feel like it’s gone up. The vet’s talk to us; they listen to what we say, and when we pop in in the afternoon saying Dr So&So called us today and said to come in for this, the front desk staff isn’t searching for something in the computer to verify. They walk back and say to the doctor, June is here, and the vet comes out and takes care of us.
There is a difference between being frugal and being cheap. I would never be cheap with the health of our dogs. They add too much to our lives. But I am fine with being frugal. Check your ingredients, check the quality. No where does it say that if you love your pet you have to be willing to pay for fancy packaging- whether it’s the food you buy them or the vet clinic where they get their care.
