Fully Vetted

Rescue centres have seen twice the number of animals dumped for re-homing. A sure sign that the credit crunch is affecting our ability to look after our pets. I have written before about what a financial commitment a pet is - £500-700/year for a cat and £1000+ per year for a dog.  I’m sure no one wants to part with a beloved pet; planning the costs are critical at this time, here are a few tips that could help:

1. Bulk Buy pet foods, flea treatments and worm treatments.  You can’t cut these things out so get the best price you can!  Look for deals; we’ve recently been offering 3 for 2 bags of food and 33% extra on worming and flea treatments.

2. Don’t cut back on preventative healthcare or insurance. These things are vital if you have financial difficulties. Treating a problem is much more expensive than preventing one. Remember also that it’s not just vet’s bills insurance covers.  Third party insurance for canines is very necessary and covers up to £1 000 000 in most cases. One day, like car insurance, it may become compulsory.

3. Be Creative with pet-sitting needs.  If you need to pay a regular dogsitter/catsitter then try to team up with another pet owner and barter favours. The Cinnamon Trust will help elderly or ill people with petcare needs such as walking and overnight care.

4. Speak up.  Let your vet know if your pet needs urgent treatment and you’re worried about the cost.  Discuss different treatment options. In real cases of financial hardship your vet may agree to a monthly payment plan.

5. Help is available if you are in real financial hardship. The PDSA exists to help those on benefits and low-incomes financial support for care of their animals.  Again the Cinnamon Trust can help elderly or terminally ill with pet care and the RSPCA, SCAS  and Blue Cross are other charities to speak to.

Finally,though unlikely to raise big bucks, how about sending your pet to work?  Pets all sorts of shapes and sizes are required for modelling and TV work. They need to be well trained and you need some spare time to take them to the auditions!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009 at 10:17 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.