Hi all,

Just responded to Empea posts on how much it costs annually to have pets.

I do spend alot on mine in terms of vaccinations, boosters, frontline and drontal but i know alot of people who don't do any of this and there cats are just as healthy and happy...

So it got me thinking....:suspect:

Am i wasting my time spending all this money when it isn't really that necessary? Or are the people not doing it being unfair to their pets??

I believe frontline is essential as my cats have had fleas before when i let the frontline slip so this is something i will always use.


hmmmmmm what do your pets get??

xx

You've got a very good point.

Gadget is insured (I think thats gone up to about £130/yr now) gets annual boosters, and is rushed to the vet if he so much as sneezes!

Toby on the other hand, is my Mum's dog who is now 15yrs old. After his jabs as a puppy, the only time he has ever been back to the vet in 15yrs was to have the snip :o

(actually we insisted Mum took him at Xmas cos he was vomiting a lot - vet charged about £80 for an injection & antibiotics but we came away feeling like he'd basically said he would have eventually got better on his own :rolleyes:)

So, £80 in 15yrs... Just think if he had been insured all that time, how much money that would have come to?!

Well having 6 yes 6 snakes now I have a 24 hour bulb and heat mat power for each to pay for then theres the beardie. I have two dogs to frontline and insurance for both plus food and regular check ups then theres rabbitt food and hamster food for our furries the snakes food cost around £30 every 5 weeks I darent tally that lot up.

I was having this conversation with carpetviper earlier about the horse. :P

I think some things you can afford to get away with but others you can't. I'm constantly thinking of ways to save money. E.g buying food in bulk, shredding paper for horse bedding, getting hay from the horse for the furries, and shavings. Horse is insured but others aren't. If I paid for insurance for all my pets it would cost me a hell of a lot more than I have ever paid out to the vet. I once had a lizard I wished I had had insured though. Cost me nearly a grand in total for various treatments.

My lot are pretty cheap to keep. for 6 piggies, 2 rats and 2 hammies. Rat foor £1.30 a month same for hammies £10 for piggies fresh veg rats share some. £5 a huge bail of shavings a month £2.30 for hay. none are insured

I was having this conversation with carpetviper earlier about the horse. :P

I think some things you can afford to get away with but others you can't. I'm constantly thinking of ways to save money. E.g buying food in bulk, shredding paper for horse bedding, getting hay from the horse for the furries, and shavings. Horse is insured but others aren't. If I paid for insurance for all my pets it would cost me a hell of a lot more than I have ever paid out to the vet. I once had a lizard I wished I had had insured though. Cost me nearly a grand in total for various treatments.


Shredded paper for the horse its one way to get rid of the bills lol

you must have a lot of bills to keep a horse in shredded paper :hihi:

So for those of you with cats.....

Do you frontline regulary? ( i use the combo so it's even more expensive!!)

Drontal every 3 months?

Insurance for each of them?

Booster injections?

Oh, by the way, if you don't already know about it, found a good site the otherday www.vetuk.co.uk frontline and drontal is much cheeper on there as are lots of other 'vet' type things..:thumbsup:

Yep, they are all from her too! :o

We have to shred loads at work so I use that, my mum picks up a bag from college and a mate gets some from work. I still ended up buying a load to keep me going though! :rolleyes: expensive thing she is! still I wouldn't change her for the world. :D

I'm the same though I may have to downsize very soon.

Our office uses a shredder for all our drawings etc. Does anyone want our shreddings for their pets? I don't think the paper is recycled at all :(

I pay the £90 or so a year to keep my kitty insured, and each 10kg bag of food costs me £50 or so (i dont want to know how many i buy a year) As for injections she gets her booster every year and also has a general health check (vet says she has the best coat he has seen, i hope shes not just saying that!), she also gets frontline combo every time i remember to do it! (but hates the stuff)

Our office uses a shredder for all our drawings etc. Does anyone want our shreddings for their pets? I don't think the paper is recycled at all :(

few recycling companies will accept shredded paper as they dont know what quality it contains, its a shame so much goes to waste.

Costs me about £3.50 for a bag of food every two weeks or so, and £1 for a bag of alfalfa mix every two weeks but he only has that because he's a baby. Then theres hay, thats £1.60 a week and he only has a little bit of veg because he's only a baby.

All in all I know that I AM going to get him insured once I've had him injected (Myxi and VHD, £15 each) and then neutered £45 with two £10 appointment fees on top) because vetinary care for buns is just stupidly expensive. Then theres disinfectant on top as well because he sprays as he's not had the snip - £2.99 a bottle once a week.

All in all it costs me 28.36 a month to keep Peanut. Add onto that the costs which I'll incur this month - and this month he's cost me a grand total of £123.36. None of these costs can be avoided, he really needs to be neutered for both health and moral reasons, he needs to be vaccinated against diseases which are really dangerous to him, especially with me having a dog who I walk in the fields, and he obviously needs to eat.

Our office uses a shredder for all our drawings etc. Does anyone want our shreddings for their pets? I don't think the paper is recycled at all :(

If you can guarantee there is no paper clips or staples in it I would love to have it, the more the better :D It is recycling after all :rolleyes:

If you can guarantee there is no paper clips or staples in it I would love to have it, the more the better :D It is recycling after all :rolleyes:
Definitely no staples or paperclips... or they would have broken the machine! ;)
I'll get them to save the bags at work then; and sort out how to get them to you :thumbsup:

Definitely no staples or paperclips... or they would have broken the machine! ;)
I'll get them to save the bags at work then; and sort out how to get them to you :thumbsup:


That sounds great Katie thank you so much :thumbsup:

vaccinations, boosters.. wasting my time spending all this money when it isn't really that necessary?
Some people very much question the validity of annual boosters! Why would the animals immunity go down when it has been jabbed already.. do we humans have annual boosters for anything? :)

Nice cash cow for the drug companies though

.

what about tetanus,Flu jab,malaria, yellow fever ok the last ones are if you are travelling but is it worth risking a loved one for a measly £30 a year.

Some people very much question the validity of annual boosters! Why would the animals immunity go down when it has been jabbed already.. do we humans have annual boosters for anything? :)

Nice cash cow for the drug companies though

.


It's something I question, and yes it is a cash thing in many aspects.

But surely some diseases etc can be wiped out with vacinations, although with things like MYXI in buns, it couldn't ever be wiped out in the wild? could it? I suppose if there was an outbreak that killed a lot would this wipe it out? :confused: don't know much about it but this is the main benefit of vacinating I can see.

Well the Hammy only costs about £4 a month to run (bale of chippings, fluff and food) until he needed the vet...£30 for a 5min check :o

Then there are the treats..but thats only about 50p every few months.

I do love him being so small!

I have two dwarf hamsters and the are about a fith of the normal size they are great.

The chance of Myxi ever being wiped out is very small. It would mean culling and vaccinating hundreds of thousands of wild rabbits and ensuring all domestic rabbits were vaccinated.

There are still hundreads of outbreaks in areas of the country every year and many more domestic rabbits than people realise suffer and die from Myxi, even vaccinated ones.

I have two dwarf hamsters and the are about a fith of the normal size they are great.

:o ooh noo don't feed them to your snakes! :o

:hihi: only kidding! :hihi:

We only have two house rabbits at the moment, both are insured, vaccinated twice a year to help protect them against mixy, once per year to fend off VHD, hay, straw, pellets and fresh fruit and veggies all adds up to a tidy sum, but they are worth every last penny.

Oh and our vet is some 50 miles each way so we need to add travelling costs on to :(

Having had two rabbits which had extended periods of illness no way are we dropping the insurance.

we have 8 large dogs! Need i say more about cost?
being serious, food is bought bulk so works out about £10 a week to feed all 8
all get annual boosters, no arguments there.
worming is every 3 months, we use Mebilex (sp), bought online as far cheaper than vet sell it.
Never used a flea preparation yet as yet to see a flea on a Siberian Husky.
we used to insure, but the premiums were hiked so not a viable option now, we put cash away in a savings account instaid and only one Major vet bill to date.
toys, treats etc...well who knows?, We spoil em rotten, but tend to bulk buy again, so reduces overall cost.

Snakes are cheap in comparison, a bulk order of frozen rodents every couple of months and the odd bag os viv substrate. then of course the cost of electric (wind turbine in the garden looking an attractive prospect)