[LadyBoo]

In my experience as a vet tech and owner of 6 (now 5) animals at one time, these are all of the solutions I've ever come across that our clients or that we have had to use in the past (like the time my dog was diagnosed with cancer, had to have bladder stone removal surgery, and literally a month later my other dog was diagnosed with congenital heart disease and perianaladenoma).

1. Care Credit
2. Pet Insurance- these can be tricky. Most only reimburse what they want to approve you for. For example, our patient had geriatric vestibular disease. Because vestibular diseases can be caused by ear infections, and because our patient had ear infections 8 months before, they denied the claim and didn't reimburse them.
3. Banfield's Wellness program- Very helpful, especially to new-pet owners.
4. Low-cost spay/neuter clinics- many of these veterinarians are transferred in on a rotation, they work at these clinics part-time and work at regular daytime clinics on their other work days. Appealing to them to perform an expensive procedure at a low-cost at their daytime clinic has happened before! I'll also add here a little-known fact to many owners about Banfield- they have an emergency fund for owners who are established with them. If the client qualifies then their pet's medical bills are PAID FOR (by Petsmart.) The funds are very limited and not every Banfield gets the check so don't be surprised if you're turned away!
5. Your local government run animal services/animal control/care center- if your area is a part of the "save 90" program or is very proactive and promoting pet-retention they will hire their veterinarian or find a veterinarian to do payment plans/low cost/ or free veterinary care for your pet. This includes non-government but national private groups such as the National Humane Society, Local Humane Society, ASPCA, and SPCA.
6. Private rescue groups- the rescue I volunteer with has its own fully functional veterinary clinic. It's run by public donations and a huge auction/dinner is held at the hilton for it annually. This year they brought in over 60k in donations from that event alone. They are now able to provide more vet care for more rescued animals, as well as lower vet care to the public. Many local rescues have a running bill with their vet that their vet might otherwise not permit with regular clients, this is because the rescue's discounts are all tax deductible for the veterinarian. If you ask the rescue to get an estimate, then offer to pay them ahead of time for a procedure, they may be willing to put your pet through on their bill.
7. Payment Plans- this is a 50/50 chance of getting a payment plan with your vet. What happens is you pay upfront a certain determined amount. Our emergency department allows payment plans- you have to pay 50% upfront unless otherwise noted by the attending veterinarian. The remaining balance is paid in installments- weekly.
8. Church- If you go to Church, Synagogue, or other religious group, club, function, gym- ask the people in charge to petition donations for your pets needs. Surprisingly, a group of church members paid for one of our patients 5,000 dollar back surgery to repair a herniated disc. They did it all through donations gathered from garage and bake sales.
9. Fundraising- there are websites to raise funds via PayPal. I don't know their links but they have been plastered on my facebook page time and time again. These websites allow ANYONE to donate that visit those websites. A coworker of mine got her sister's funeral and memorial completely paid for by strangers and friend's donations on one of those websites.
10. Social Networking- A client of ours used facebook's networking pages to find a handicapped pet community that accepts all used or new doggy handicapped supplies and donates them to pets in need FREE OF CHARGE. These supplies include things such as: braces, wheelchairs, slings, booties, diapers, etc.

 

[ladylovecraft]

we need more homeless vet clinics. i know in boston i found one completely free vet clinic which was awesome. homeless kids and people aren't going to stop having pets instead of people giving them shit for having them, people should start helping them. i agree a lot of homeless people dont give there dogs satisfactory care but also many of these dogs would not get any better care from anyone else.

 

[Pet Chance]

Crowdfunding Websites

A really great way to raise funds for unexpected pet medical expenses is to use crowdfunding sites. These are websites that allow you to create a profile with an end monetary goal in mind and have your friends, family and even strangers donate to your cause. Popular examples of these sites include Kickstarter, IndieGoGo and GoFundMe.

 

[jpcrosby]

I had VIP Pet insurance for both my dogs. It was really inexpensive up until last year when my girl turned 12. I had to cancel it, but it was great while I had it. I paid about $20 a month per dog and it included everything.
Now I have to keep an emergency fund for them, but I find I don't need to take them to the vet as often. As long as their shots are up to date and they are not sick, they can go about 18 months between visits. The only problem with that is you have to be extra vigilant in watching for any changes in them and then get them to the vet right away.
My vet is awesome and understands my financial problem and works with me. Sometimes I can call her on the phone and she will let me know if she thinks it warrants an office visit.
Not the best solution but it works for me and thank God my dogs are healthy.
I also agree Care Credit is good as long as you make the payments on time.

 

[TJM]

Has anyone thought of holistic treatments instead of vet care. I mean for the things you are sure of. Skin conditions are pretty easy to treat holistically and for a decent price, vaccines with exception to rabies can be purchased from several good companies. There are great holistic books out there to help people treat there dogs with simple stress free recipes. From treating allergies to arthritis, cancer to diabetes with the exception of injuries and surgeries the rest can be look at for a much lower cost. There are a great number of Holistic vets out there.

 

[fawkese1]

Has anyone thought of holistic treatments instead of vet care. I mean for the things you are sure of. Skin conditions are pretty easy to treat holistically and for a decent price, vaccines with exception to rabies can be purchased from several good companies. There are great holistic books out there to help people treat there dogs with simple stress free recipes. From treating allergies to arthritis, cancer to diabetes with the exception of injuries and surgeries the rest can be look at for a much lower cost. There are a great number of Holistic vets out there.

this is a good suggestion, i personally use quite a few natural/home-remedies on myself and my pets BUT i do so with extreme caution, and lots of research. and i often combine such things with vet care and consult my vet before doing so... so it isn't always a replacement for vet care necessarily, for me...

a caveat to anyone attempting to treat their pets at home, with home-remedies/holistic medicines. first, dogs do not metabolize things the same way that humans do. you cannot assume that something safe for a human is also safe for a dog, for example, ibuprofen, chocolate, grapes etc. all have far different effects on dogs than humans. PLEASE DON'T USE HUMAN "SAFE" TREATMENTS ON YOUR DOGS. second, there is a lot of conflicting advice about the effectiveness of many holistic treatments and not a lot of studies done to back up the advice one way or another. if you choose this route, it would be best/safest to consult a professional. third, please don't assume that just because you read about a treatment option here, it is safe. the dogforum is a great place for information/advice on all sorts of dog issues/needs etc, and we do have many members who are experts in various fields, but this is the interwebz folks, and the forum does not take on the responsibility of verifying everything that everyone posts before YOU decide to use it on your dog, that's YOUR job, YOUR responsibility, basically, PLEASE DO YOUR RESEARCH!

ultimately, the safest choice is to take your pet to a medical professional as a default, rather than trying to treat him/her yourself.

 

[brooklynp2008]

I subscribe to a holistic nutritionist's FREE newsletter and it has a lot of informative and helpful info. It's a great way to see how natural products work for a variety of health conditions dogs may have. Here is a link to her website where you can get the free newsletter.

Cat & Dog Supplements & Holistic Pet Medication Alternatives

 

[keystone20045]

Tess, this is exactly how we treat our dog. We buy the extra large dog doses (89-132 lbs) of the Frontline plus and break them into smaller doses for our 0-22 lbs dogs. We get 6 monthly doses out of each extra large dog dose. You can buy value kits on amazon, ebay or just google "flea and tick value kits". klw

And if you are willing to do a bit of calculating you can save additional money. For example, I buy Frontline plus for the largest sized dog. Then I take a syringe and measure out the appropriate dose of this for each of my dogs indivitually. I find I can get both dogs covered with just the one dose divided accordingly. I like this system for more than just the money savings but also because the smooth nozzle of the syringe (no needle) is nicer to apply the Frontline on my dogs than the sharper plastic of the foil packet.

 

[natenqen]

These are all great ideas, but not everyone lives in an area where vets are accessable 24/7 or a hop and skip away in the next county/town/ect. I live in a rural area where the only way in or out is by boat (to the surrounding villages which has no vet at all.), plane/jet, snowmachines (surrounding villages). And the vet comes out to my area of the woods once a month. (Will do a free spay/neuture but only 1 per month and the new dog rescue group we have always takes that free spay/neutur)

For those of you who are in a rural area, one thing to do is to make your own insurance by using savings account. (It can be a pain, but it's well worth it.) I get paid twice a month and I work over time sometimes. So I put 50 to 100 dollars in my savings account for my dogs. (basically my dog has a bank account. ^_^ Weird I know.) If I can afford to put more then 100 I will. So, that will help for those who live in a rural area cut off by civilization. That's how I do mine. Even though I don't have a dog anymore, I still do it because I know I'm going to get another in a year or two.

 

[Calahrin]

Well, I have to say I thought it was a really good idea to start this thread, so I will offer a couple of ideas.

One thing you can do, is once you have established what you are going to use for regular heartworm prevention medication and flea-tick preventative you can often get these supplies a bit cheaper on-line. Of course you still need to go to your vet at least once a year for a the 4dx snap test to check for heartworm and the tick diseases.

I know this is an old post and I am not sure if it has been mentioned before, but I just wanted to say that if you are going to buy medicine online, do research first.

There have been cases of people buying stuff like Frontline on Amazon or other places and it is the same outer packaging, but the inside is an imported product from Asia which is not regulated by the USA and so therefore..not necessarily safe. Make sure that you always check and if the packaging inside seems different or off...do some research.

 

[Calahrin]

So I'm sure and have seen this talked about before on here, but I'm sort of wondering about heartworm meds. Koda's are really expensive ($300 a year easily) and I since her spay was so much I want to know how far I can cut back on them. I know there are ticks in the area (revolution prevents it which is what she's on) and I want to be on the safe side but our winters get pretty cold and we have snow from late Dec-March at the shortest winter season. How should I go about her meds during the winter?

Heartworms are spread through mosquitoes not ticks. Ticks can cause a large number of nasty diseases and should be kept away from your dog.

A lot of owners think they can take their meds off during the winter but the truth is that heartworms don't develop within a few days so the pet can be exposed previously and not show any symptoms for a while. Heartworm prevention doesn't always kill every stage of the heartworm either, so if you stop using it the heartworm can be given the opportunity to continue their life cycle. It is expensive but always a better option to stay on the medicine.

 

[ScarletTheAfghan]

Little City Dogs on Amazon. Worming pills, flea pills, capstar and heartworm preventative. It's generic, but cheap and safe and it works! I've been using it since they started. No problems at all.

Sent from Petguide.com Free App

 

[fawkese1]

i recently came across this list of resources for pet emergencies:

How to Pay for Emergency Pet Care | Unexpected Pet Medical Expenses | StonehousePhoto - Documentary Photography and Visual Storytelling by Hannah Stonehouse Hudson

thought it might be helpful to someone

 

[mamaofahybrid]

I know when I first got Dakota, my aunt suggested going to Pet supplies and getting his vaccines done for $10/each and then micro-chipped for $10 as well. All together, the visit was $60. VPI were the vets present for the procedure and they were very well mannered and gentle with Dakota. They also offer affordable parasite prevention in various forms but effective nonetheless. I strongly suggest VPI for those who are tight on money but still want to afford good pet health care. So glad my aunt told me about them.

 

[pkelley]

Just heard about Pet Assure which discount 25% of vet bills/meds...sounds good!

 

[reeladyd]

I truly understand wanting to save money by purchasing Rx products online, but I think if you have a good vet., and speak to them about possibly discounting their price maybe they will. Online shopping is always much cheaper, but I am a firm believer of supporting my veterinary hospital, whom I trust and value.
The cost and time of going to veterinary school is about the same as medical school. Veterinarians don't make the money that medical doctors do, and never will. The costs of operating a business, especially of that type is very high. If I like my Vet, I will be loyal to them, If I cannot afford something, I will try and work something out, If I do not like them, I will find another to be loyal to. It's just like all the Home Depots and WalMarts putting your local mom and pop businesses out....
just sayin'...... :0

 

[pkelley]

our vet friend would be the first one to suggest buying the medications online or another pharmacy if it is a trustworthy company...he knows how expensive it is to send children (if you have them) through college, or how hard it is to make ends meet on a fixed income. In fact, he just wrote one of the dog owners' dogs I sit for a prescription for prednisone that is 30.00 for a 90 day supply at Walmart, instead of them paying 90.00 for a 90 day supply at their old vet's office.(After an office visit/eval. of course). I have so much respect for him. Another time - One vet wanted 800.00 to put our dogs to sleep (years ago) and so I had to "shop around" during this awful situation...our other local vet charged me 40.00 each and did counseling with me before and after.

 

[abbygirl]

Vets can call an Rx in to a drug store for you. I shop around for medications like prednisone, antibiotics etc (that people take). The vet is often not the lowest price. Check with drug stores, big box stores and grocery stores. Some of them are $4 or free. You are not required to have a membership to a big box store in the US to get an Rx there. Just tell the person at the door your going to the pharmacy.

 

[XenaBeanAndMrEko]

The vet is often not the lowest price.

Very very true for prescriptions. I had to get cephalexin (something like that) it was 80-something dollars because it was for a big dog. Took the prescription to Walmart and got it for 13 dollars.

 

[abbygirl]

Vets can call an Rx in to a drug store for you. I shop around for medications like prednisone, antibiotics etc (that people take). The vet is often not the lowest price. Check with drug stores, big box stores and grocery stores. Some of them are $4 or free. You are not required to have a membership to a big box store in the US to get an Rx there. Just tell the person at the door your going to the pharmacy.

I forgot to say that there is a wide variation in price from store to store up to $100. They have to make up the difference somewhere. Some drugs don't appear on the $4 list on the internet that are controlled substances like tranquillizers and pain killers. You need to call to ask for them. You need the name of the drug, strength, how many pills, how often they take it and the total quantity needed. Ask for generic drugs. Just call around. Then, have you vet call in the prescription.