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Animal Welfare Adopt a pet and don't have funds for vet!

SheWolfSilver

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Seriously! I see so many post about adopting animals and then when they find out they're sick they don't have the money to take them to the vet! Ummmm then why did you adopt them! We are not rich or anything but when our animals are sick we take them to the vet! Even if we have to do without! This just baffles me! Why did you get the animal if you already can't afford to care for it!
 

Vintage

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Couldn't agree more. I think some people believe that because the initial purchase price for guinea is low, that they will be low to maintain. Soo wrong, my pigs are more expensive than my dog. My two girls were free but they have already cost over $300 in the past month. I just don't mention it to my SO or he'll grow more grey hairs :p

It would be nice if folks would stop playing the "waiting game" and take their pets to the vet at the first sign of illness. Especially the ones that try to hide symptoms. I think a few readers might be a little butt hurt by this topic, but you speak the truth lol
 

lunarminx

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Couldn't agree more. I think some people believe that because the initial purchase price for guinea is low, that they will be low to maintain. Soo wrong, my pigs are more expensive than my dog. My two girls were free but they have already cost over $300 in the past month. I just don't mention it to my SO or he'll grow more grey hairs :p

It would be nice if folks would stop playing the "waiting game" and take their pets to the vet at the first sign of illness. Especially the ones that try to hide symptoms. I think a few readers might be a little butt hurt by this topic, but you speak the truth lol

LOL...I need your vet my dog alone cost about $1500 last year (shots, checkup,teeth cleaning, heartworm and flea prevention), not including food and treats/toys.
 

AussiePiggies

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Butt hurt! LOL dying here!
 

lexi43

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I just spent $3400 on surgery on my dog and I spent $300 on my cat. That's besides my pigs and my birds. I could have bought a car with all the money I spent, but if you have animals you have to be prepared.
 

SheWolfSilver

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There's this savings plan going around the internet right now it shows that if you put back $1 on week 1, $2 on week 2, $3 back on week 3, and so on and so forth by the end of the year you will have over $1,000 saved. So, it's not that hard to have a vet fund. Also you could put back your tax return money if you were lucky enough to get one.
 

puddin18

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People will come up with the money if they really want to. I know a lot of people like this. Some people just don't have their priorities straight. I do wish more vets would be understanding though and allow payment plans. Not everyone can get a credit card. I understand why many don't allow plans though, and I do not blame them. I think clients who have paid up front several times and have shown they truly care about their animals should maybe get a chance at a payment plan,though.
 

CaviesPrincess

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This is what exactly I am thinking now. It made me think if I would be prepared enough to handle piggies vet expenses. Well for my two piggies my funds are enough, but I am planning to have another two. Ahh... I guess I really have to be prepared!lol
 

Mowgs

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People will come up with the money if they really want to. I know a lot of people like this. Some people just don't have their priorities straight. I do wish more vets would be understanding though and allow payment plans. Not everyone can get a credit card. I understand why many don't allow plans though, and I do not blame them. I think clients who have paid up front several times and have shown they truly care about their animals should maybe get a chance at a payment plan,though.

Many vet's don't do payment plans because they have in the done them in the past and don't get the money. I'm a vet student and we're not in the business to make money. We walk out with so much debt and have to attempt to pay it back somehow. I currently have a friend who is making as much as I will (if I"m lucky) when I graduate and he only has a BS. Some vets will make exceptions to long term clients if they have fallen on hard times.
 

clb89

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I do think it's sad situation for the animal when people buy them knowing the will never be able to take them to the vets. Even when I was young my parents wouldn't ever take in a new pet unless they could afford it, despite the begging. One of my sisters couldn't take no for an answer and started sneaking in kittens. Our parents would find them, then give them to shelter. My sister did it twice more before she finally realized our parents were not going to keep them. It seemed a little cruel to us kids at the time, but now that I am older I understand they simply did not want kittens to suffer because could not afford it. These are also the same parents who spent three hours calling local vets to convince one to save my pet rat, and spent $300 on surgery for that same rat.

Now with large unexpected expensive emergencies, I can sympathize with. Lance, our cat, had to have emergency surgery that cost us more then $2000. We were fortunate that vet did payment plan as long as we did down payment first. Without payment plans there is pet insurance and care credit you get before pet is sick. There is also asking friends, family, and taking items to local consignment shops. With unwanted clothes, electronics, and toys it's pretty easy to make a couple hundred with consignment shops.
 

ClemmyOddieIndy

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Many vet's don't do payment plans because they have in the done them in the past and don't get the money. I'm a vet student and we're not in the business to make money. We walk out with so much debt and have to attempt to pay it back somehow. I currently have a friend who is making as much as I will (if I'm lucky) when I graduate and he only has a BS. Some vets will make exceptions to long term clients if they have fallen on hard times.

I think people misinterpret the amount of money that veterinarians make. In the past, they did make quite a lot of $$$, but their average yearly income has been decreasing. Interestingly enough, this is as more women enter the field (many schools have more women than men graduates), and this is true of any field women begin to dominate (it becomes less valued and thus less money). And, now the graduate student of Women's and Gender Studies will step down from her soap box.

I think that people are just ignorant to the idea that their animal will get sick. The same as people who do unhealthy things think "cancer/heart disease/other health problem won't happen to me." It does drive me crazy that people get animals and then refuse to get them vet care. It seems like animal abuse to me. If they had a child that was ill and did not get the child health care we (society) would be outraged and call it child abuse, and likely (unless they were able to argue religious reasons well enough) they would be charged with neglect. A friend of mine was talking with me while I was going through the process of diagnosis, surgery and post-op with my guinea pig about a month ago. She said, "I've had pigs in the past, and I don't know if I'd do all this." I was taken aback by it. I had money saved up (it ended up being $1,100 all together), but if it would've surpassed that amount I had saved, by golly I would've found that money somewhere. I had already started the rounds of asking to borrow from people before I left the vet upon her diagnosis. I didn't need to borrow in the end, but I knew I had resources.
 

scichai

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Seriously! I see so many post about adopting animals and then when they find out they're sick they don't have the money to take them to the vet! Ummmm then why did you adopt them! We are not rich or anything but when our animals are sick we take them to the vet! Even if we have to do without! This just baffles me! Why did you get the animal if you already can't afford to care for it!

OMG I KNOW. I honestly have no idea how the members who have been here a while (mods especially) put up with post after post of someone who has a sick pig and is asking for help but then insists that they aren't able to take it to a vet. I've been a lurker on this site for about a year now, an official member for about 3 months, and it gets to a point sometimes where I just have to stay away from the forum for a little while because some of these posts make me so angry! It seems like there is a script for posts like this:

Poster: My pig is very sick, what can I do that won't involve expensive vet care?
Forum: Nothing. Your pig is sick and could die. Take it to the vet.
Poster: Yeah I dont' have money for that.
Forum: Not providing proper medical care for your animal could be considered cruelty and neglect. If you're not going to get it proper vet care, you should surrender your animal to a rescue who will.
Poster: Noooo I love my pets and you people are being so meeeeean!

I do genuinely feel bad for the kids and teens who rely on their parents for money who have to watch their pigs get sick and even die because their mom and/or dad put their foot down and said no to going to the vet because a guinea pig is "just a rodent." I just really wish people would do their research before adopting (or in many of these cases, buying) an animal.

We actually never had pets growing up, and my sister and I thought our parents were soooo mean for this. But now that I'm an adult and see how much work caring (properly) for animals can be, I COMPLETELY understand. Like most children, I'm not ashamed to admit that we were fickle and probably would've gotten bored with an animal like a guinea pig, and my mom would have been left doing all the work, which wouldn't have been fair for her. That being said, I think another part of the problem is how inexpensive guinea pigs are upfront. Though I can't say firsthand since I didn't get my pigs from a petstore, I imagine nothing is said about how much you'll end up spending for hay and fresh fruits and veggies, and I'm sure nothing is said about the potential for expensive vet bills. In fact, my boyfriend and I were also considering chinchillas, but we read that they can be very high maintenance and get sick and hurt easily, with guinea pigs we had heard the opposite. So we decided on guinea pigs, and now that I've been on this site for a while, it seems like the situation is the opposite. I mean, don't get me wrong, I wouldn't give up my wonderful piggies for a second, and we fortunately do have money for vet bills, but if I had read into it a bit more, we maybe would have thought twice about it.
 

Inle_Rabbit

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Guys, it's not just animals. More than half of all Americans right now have more unsecured debt than they have savings. 60% of Americans have no retirement. 40% have no life insurance and oddly enough 40% of American families say they would have trouble paying bills if someone died! It's insane but you know what? 92% of Americans have a car payment averaging $480 a month. 60% of America families have credit cards with the average credit card debt per family being over $15,000 and the average family having more than 3 cards. And I'm sure there are a lot of people out there that don't miss a day of Starbucks or the newest movie that came out or pizza night.

Priorities, priorities, priorities.
 

puddin18

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@Inle_Rabbit, I completely agree. As I said as well, many people do not have their priorities straight. Many people live outside of their means. Then they wonder why they have no money or complain when they don't have money for necessities. I feel there is nothing wrong with splurging sometimes, and it can be very tempting to spend, spend, spend, but, as we all know, money doesn't grow on trees.

[MENTION=26353]scichai[/MENTION] I know what you mean about thinking twice about it, I sometimes wonder if I should have told my sister I wouldn't take mine, but I did, and I wouldn't trust anyone else with them, so I have to take the responsibility.
 

Mmgh5

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I know money is tight for people too, but it just seems like a mature person would realize that adopting a pet means responsibility, and one of those responsibilities means caring for them through thick and thin. If you can't deal with that responsibility due to expense, then pet ownership isn't right for you. You know?
 

Mowgs

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I know money is tight for people too, but it just seems like a mature person would realize that adopting a pet means responsibility, and one of those responsibilities means caring for them through thick and thin. If you can't deal with that responsibility due to expense, then pet ownership isn't right for you. You know?

A lot of it also comes down to how people view pets and many people still see them as replaceable property, unless they have an actual work function or monetary value attached to them, such as dairy cattle and horses. Those types of animals have more value to them, so someone might be willing to go a little further for them. Guinea pigs, eh, not so much.

Now I don't agree with any of this, just pointing out that a lot of it has to do with perspective.
 

cheesypuffpea

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If you can't afford the vet, you can't afford the pet.

I had a friends who's hamster broke her leg, and they kept making excuses not to bring her to the vet. she kept saying that the hamster was so small they wouldnt be able to fix it. seriously? The vet could at least give her some painkillers or something. All they did was keep her in a small cage so she's not as'active' . Even when i insisted to take her to the vet she wouldn't let me. So sad. Now she keeps pets but always has a low budget. If you really can't afford to own it, why aye you even keeping it then?
 

Mowgs

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If you can't afford the vet, you can't afford the pet.

I had a friends who's hamster broke her leg, and they kept making excuses not to bring her to the vet. she kept saying that the hamster was so small they wouldnt be able to fix it. seriously? The vet could at least give her some painkillers or something. All they did was keep her in a small cage so she's not as'active' . Even when i insisted to take her to the vet she wouldn't let me. So sad. Now she keeps pets but always has a low budget. If you really can't afford to own it, why aye you even keeping it then?

We actually recently had this discussion on our pre-vet forum, and really's hard to make such a generalized statement like that. For example, and elderly person could have had a small dog for like 15 years, but now be on welfare an the dog has a medical issue that she might have been able to afford treating before, but can't for whatever reason now. Are you really going to say she can longer have her dog?? Same goes with people who are going through divorces or have family members with serious medical issues.

I agree, that if you can't afford the annual visits, you really shouldn't be adopting and I think rescues should look more into people's incomes or do more thorough checks before adopting out animals.
 

couchon

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Life circumstances change, but I think it's the owner's reaponsibility to plan for things like retirement and job loss. If nothing else, keep a credit card that has at least $5,000 limit on it and use it for NOTHING else. I generally don't advocate spending money you don't have, but for a sick animal, it's your obligation.

And I don't think it's just the annual visits. I think many animals will have an emergency condition (be it cancer, an accident, or something else) that will require thousands of dollars to be spent. In my view, if you don't have it in savings and are not willing to take on the debt, don't get the animal.

When I was fostering my dog, I knew (even though back then I was kind of blind to financial realities of pet ownership as well) that I would not be able to spend $10,000 or more treating cancer (my parents had to spend that much over a year of treatment) or $20,000 if my dog got seriously injured (this is a real figure given to me by a rescuer - a family was fostering a dog, and the dog fell off the roof - one of those roofs where you can sit out - the family chose to save the dog's life). I simply did not have that much money. However, it is my belief that animals deserve proper medical care, regardless of the cost to the human. So, I got insurance for him. I pay close to $100 a month on that insurance (I could bring it down to about $50 if I cut some coverage). But, it's really good insurance that covers 90% of all costs, doesn't have a payout limit etc. So, if someone really wants a pet (not a guinea pig - there are no insurance companies with decent enough coverage), that's an option too. You probably have to sacrifice having a cell phone or eating out to pay those premiums, but at least your dog (and your finances) are somewhat protected.

For the guinea pigs, I realize only now that I really wasn't financially prepared for them. Even with a good job and some savings, when I got hit with over $3,000 bills (and probably closer to $5,000) in four months, I had to take on debt. But it's my responsibility. Their health shouldn't have to suffer because I didn't think about how much their medical care would cost. I can tell you, however, that I will not be getting any new piggies until I have alot more savings.
 
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Mowgs

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Life circumstances change, but I think it's the owner's reaponsibility to plan for things like retirement and job loss. If nothing else, keep a credit card that has at least $5,000 limit on it and use it for NOTHING else. I generally don't advocate spending money you don't have, but for a sick animal, it's your obligation.

You can plan, but that doesn't mean it's going to work out. If you have bad credit from debt elsewhere, you're not going to get a credit card with a $5,000 limit on it. I'm not saying I disagree, I just think making such general statements in unfair since you can't predict what is going to happen.

ETA: I agree that you have an obligation, but since animals are still viewed by as replaceable property by many, they don't see it that way. Some will just go for the convenience euthanasia and then go out and buy another pet.
 
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