Dog health care costs on the rise
May 27, 2008 by Daniel Beatty, DVM · 7 Comments
It is no secret that your vet bills are increasing. Dog health care costs are on the rise. Some of the reason is a shift in focus of veterinary medicine.
It used to be, go into your vet once a year for “shots” and heartworm prevention and one time in your pets life a spay or neuter. Now there has been a shift. We have discovered that annual vaccinations are no longer necessary and in fact may be harmful to your dogs health – Is your vet still overvaccinating your dog? Vaccinations were very profitable as they could be purchased for a small amount and sold for a great profit. The profit helped pay for all the other treatments and management of an animal hospital. In fact many times a veterinary clinics gross income consisted of 33% vaccination income. Veterinarians were more on a product based business by selling products and medications vs a service based business like they should have been. Now the shift is going to a service based business which means more services are going to be offered and the prices for those services are no longer going to be given away. The days of the $40 spay are almost over. A veterinarian actually loses money by giving away a $40 spay because it costs more than $40 to actual perform the procedure. Some vets are still providing a cheap cost spay for a couple of reasons one to help control the pet population and two in hopes that that client will return for other business.
So what does going to a service based business mean for your pet? Well actually it is a win-win situation, it means better health care for your dog by providing the most current diagnostic and treatment protocols. As vets are trying to make up for lost income from vaccinations they are actually offering services that can really improve the health of your dog. The objective of better diagnostics is to find disease early on when it actually is not causing symptoms. This makes it easier to treat, prolongs the life of your dog, and avoids really expensive treatments by avoiding having to bring in a really sick dog.
So there are a couple of the reasons why your dog’s health care costs are rising. Another perspective on the rising costs of vet care can be found in this article – Vet care becoming doggone expensive which discusses what can be done about dog health care costs rising by incorporating a pet insurance plan to help defray the higher costs of veterinary care. One thing that I would recommend is checking out pet insurance companies as they are not all the same. At this point in time I am actually leaning away from VPI the largest pet insurance company and looking to promote Embrace Pet Insurance
I’ll give my final decision and reasons in a future post. I will be meeting with a rep from VPI very soon and I will also do some more conversing with Laura Bennett or Alex Krooglik from Embrace so I will have a good handle on pet insurance before I write that post.
dog health, dog health care, Embrace, pet insurance, rising costs Vet Directory
Hi Dr. Beatty,
I also wanted to let you know about Trupanion. We are still in the process of getting licensed in all 50 states. We are fairly new to the US, we started issuing policies in January, but have been doing business up in Canada as Vetinsurace for the past 9 years. I would love to talk to you and let you know about our product.
Thanks!
Dr. Beatty , in fact its out of control , my buddy has an ear infection right now and I cannot afford to take him into a vet , surely it will cost 200 + to get him looked at, so its home remedies for him
Its always intersting to compare cost for human and animal health care costs. In both the spreading becomes more usual: Cheap everyday things versus pretty expensive innovative apporaches. Someone has to pay anyhow, otherwise nothing will remain
Cost of living also applies to man’s best friend. Hope all concerned parties will find the right solution for good health of our dogs and reasonable costs. It is so important also that dogs are provided with comfortable dog beds when they need to rest.
Just like what Dr. had mentioned in this post that “better diagnostics is to find disease early on when it actually is not causing symptoms”, bringing your pets to vets can really help improve your
dog’s health. If you want to give your dogs the best of everything, then there’s nothing wrong to submit yourself to the costly healthcare that some vets are offering provided that you have the means. Otherwise, you can resort to cheap strategies that can also help you maintain a good health for your dog. You may consider home remedies. Just remember that “Prevention is always better than cure”.
This is a hot topic in the UK right now. It is a concern to pet insurance providers like us. Expensive and excessive treatments attract the headlines in the press and this gives the veterinary profession a bad name. Your advice to shop around for a pet insurance policy is sound. Not all policies are alike and prudent consumers should compare the market to make sure they are getting the best policy for them.
I wish the cost of health care for my dog was not rising but it is. As you said – there are a couple of the reasons for the rising cost of care and chief among them are the rising costs of pet insurance plans.