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Articles

Vet Costs: The Top 5 Secrets To Dramatically Lower Them By Dr Andrew Jones, DVM

Learn How to Stop Your Cat From Damaging Your Furniture With Scratching By Banko Stoianov

What Fun We Can Have With Cat Trees! By Julie S. Montgomery

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Vet Costs: The Top 5 Secrets To Dramatically Lower Them

Veterinary Care is expensive. I should know, for I am a Veterinarian who owned a Veterinary Hospital for nearly 15 years. Veterinary Medicine has changed dramatically in the last 30 years; gone are the days of James Herriot when vets treated every type of animal, and regularly made house calls. This article will give you an understanding of why veterinary charges have gone up so much, and the top 5 things you can do to lower your vet costs.

As veterinarians can offer more advance diagnostics and treatment, veterinary fees have risen accordingly. Vet visits and surgery cost dog owners almost $800 and cat owners $500 last year, according to the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association. If your pet becomes seriously ill, you can easily spend thousands. Knee surgery in dogs can easily cost over $5,000; a pet with cancer can have radiation therapy and chemotherapy costing in excess of $7,000.

Veterinarians are charging more to make their practices profitable, and obviously make more money. Veterinary clinics have escalating costs of staff salaries, higher expenses for the diagnostic equipment, yet also seeing decreases in new clients. For a clinic to financially profit, it means charging more per client, and having the clients come into the practice more often. This combination of higher salaries, expenses, but no real new clients means the only way for most practices to make more money is to charge more per client; hence higher vet costs.

My first suggestion is to price shop. Prices at animal hospitals can vary widely. In my small town of Nelson, I charged the least of all the practices, but many clients didn't know that. Make sure you get recommendations from other pet owners first. There is a misconception that the higher priced practices give a better quality of care - but this is often not true. Ask about the common procedures, like vaccines, checkups, neutering and spaying. In addition, do not forget to ask for discounts from your vet. If clients ask, they will often get a discount. Some vets offer multiple pet discounts as well as discounts for seniors.

Be wary of the business practice popularized by McDonald's, 'The Upsell'. Examples of this include your veterinarian suggesting 'preventive' diagnostic tests during a check up, or in many cases advising having a dental cleaning. You should be asking and questioning why? Just how bad are the teeth; is the degree of dental disease really that significant? One of the major veterinary associations is advising that any pet with Grade 1 gingivitis (mild gum inflammation) have a dental scale and polish. This procedure is at least 300 dollars. This has risks for your pet would need to be under general anesthetic. It has high profit margins as the Animal Health Technician or Assistant usually does all the work. However in my opinion, a pet with mild gum disease does not need this done. You can begin preventive care at home. You could begin to brush your pet's teeth. You could feed a diet designed to break off some of the plaque and tartar.This is only one example, although it is the biggest up-sell in Veterinary Medicine today.

Hospitalization fees are another often avoidable expense. Your Vet will make a lot more money if he (or she) can keep your pet in the veterinary hospital. They can charge a fee for the day of hospitalization, plus a fee for re-examining your pet in the morning. Ask to have the Procedure performed while you are there. Let's use X-Rays as an example. Get the practice to schedule this while you are there and waiting - it doesn't take long to perform X-Rays. They will likely comply if you only ask. By being a little bit of a 'pain in the butt', you will get better service at a lower price.

Medication is expensive, and it's marked up a lot at your vet. The markups range from 50% to 125% plus the prescription fee. There are many ways to save money on pet medications. First, ask your vet about a drug's cost and find out if it is available through pharmacies. Your local drug store may offer it at a much cheaper price. Also, ask your vet about lower-priced generic medications that would be appropriate. In addition to your local pharmacy, check veterinary-medication prices at DrsFosterSmith.com, 1800PetMeds.com, and PetCareRx.com. You have the right to ask your veterinarian for prescriptions that you can fill elsewhere, and save yourself unnecessary expenses.

The biggest key to lowering your veterinary fees is by being an involved and empowered pet owner. Take charge of your pet's health care. You know your pet better that anyone else. How well do you think a Veterinarian can get to know your pet with a 15 minute visit once a year? Educate yourself on basic at home veterinary care, and use many of the inexpensive natural remedies. Let's use allergies as an example, for many of you have allergic pets. You can either continue to use expensive prescription medication from your vet, or start with some natural remedies. These include therapeutic doses of essential fatty acids, being 1000mg per 10lbs of body weight daily. Or it can be using a herbal remedy called Licorice to stop the itching. This is only one small example, but do you see how you can take charge of your pet's health care and have a happier healthier pet?

You should now have an understanding of why veterinary costs are rapidly rising, but more important what you can do about it. You can price shop, avoid the common veterinary up-sells, avoid hospitalization fees, get less expensive prescription medication, and take charge of your pet's health care by using inexpensive at home remedies. I encourage you to at least use some of these suggestions to start saving money immediately on your vet costs.

Dr Andrew Jones is the author of a Free Ebook, Dog and Cat Health Secrets, which gives you over 100 safe, natural and effective at home remedies to solve your pet's health problems quickly and easily at home. He reveals what Vaccines to AVOID and what to give, The BEST food to feed, plus HOW to save money on veterinary fees. Your FREE DOG AND CAT HEALTH SECRETS BOOK is at The Online Vet

Learn How to Stop Your Cat From Damaging Your Furniture With Scratching

Everyone who has owned a cat at a certain point is quite familiar with all the damages cats can cause with their claws. Actually, the cat's claws have numerous functions: felines use them for climbing, tractions, quick turning, moving, accelerating, defending themselves and even cleaning themselves after they have used the litter box. If you don't believe this, just watch your cat playing with a toy to see how they use the claws to pull, grip and change directions. All these activities are part of the feline natural behaviour.

Scratching is part of the cat's everyday routine. One of the reasons why cats scratch is because this activity helps the feline keeps their claws sharp. Also, scratching provides good exercise for the cat and it makes the muscles of the front paws stronger. Cats that live outside scratch on trees but indoor felines don't have trees at home, so they use alternatives, such as carpets and furniture.

Provide a Scratching Pole

Indoor cats need to have a surface where they can demonstrate their natural scratching behaviour. That is why you should provide them with a scratching post. This is a construction usually made of wood or compressed cardboard covered with carpet or sisal rope. There are various kinds of scratching posts: basic ones that are cheaper and more sophisticated with numerous condos, boxes and levels that are more expensive. You can also make such a construction by yourself at home.

It is essential to start training your cat using appropriate scratching areas at young age. One way to achieve this is to rub catnip on the scratching area you want the cat to use. This is a good start for the proper development of the habit.

In case you have delayed this training or you have a new cat that is not trained, you will not be surprised to see them scratching on your furniture and causing severe damages. The training will be quite difficult in this situation but it is not impossible. You can get a scratching post and provide treats when the cat uses it.

During the training you can use different tricks to protect your furniture. One way is to cover the furniture with throws or sheets. You can also wrap parts of the furniture with tin foil or stick shelf paper. Another alternative is to use a natural repellent spray that is repulsive for your cat.

Claw Trimming, No Declawing

Another way to limit the damages on your furniture is to trim the claws of your feline. But this procedure should be conducted very carefully because you may cause pain or bleeding if you cut too deeply. Your cat should be very used to you and should be fully relax in order to successfully trim their claws. It is recommended two people to be involved into the procedure. One of them will hold the cat while the other will clip the nails as quickly as possible. If you don't want to do this yourself, you can take your cat to the vet.

It is not recommended to declaw your cat because this procedure is actually very painful surgery that affects the future life of the feline. Your cat will face numerous challenges without claws. The feline may get clumsy and won't be able to defend effectively. Very often the procedure of declawing causes very aggressive behaviour, so may vets refuse to perform it.

According to a popular opinion cats are animals that can't be trained. However, this notion is absolutely wrong. Of course, the training requires time and patience but you can achieve proper feline behaviour, so that you won't have to worry about your furniture.

Our cat furniture store at http://www.o2cats.com/, offers cat product for any spoiled kitty and their owners. Please visit our site - we have the best cat beds products at o2 Cats and more as well as useful information for better living with your pet.

What Fun We Can Have With Cat Trees!

You may pamper your felines with the best food, tummy rubs, or a spot next to you on the bed. But do you give them access to something they really want and need? Do you have cat trees for them?

Animal behavioralists agree that cats have an innate need to scratch, hunt, and seclude themselves from the bustle of everyday life. You may see some of this behavior demonstrated each day in your home. Furthermore, cats are easily bored and need both mental and physical stimulation in order to stay in shape, as well as stay mentally healthy. You want to avoid those bad behaviors, don't you? You know what they are!

Imagine seeing the same scenery day after day after day. Wouldn't you go a little stir crazy after awhile? That's kind of what it's like for many house cats whose owners don't understand that stimulation along with periods of seclusion and rest are very important to cat health.

Cat trees are one way to help your cat find new outlets for his energy. Many are tall and full-featured, while others are less extravagant and smaller. Price ranges from several hundred dollars to about fifty or so. There are just as many choices with respect to color, fabric, design and style. It's best to choose a cat tree that you like which also corresponds with the basic décor of the room you expect to place it in. That way, it will more like it belongs and less like an eyesore.

Your cat may be a bit skeptical at first, curious about what the new large thing is in the living room. But soon he'll be scampering up the sisal posts and batting at the rope toy.

As a long-time pet owner, Julie is passionate about supporting animal health and wellness. As a board member of her local rescue league, she understands the value proper mental and physical stimulation offers indoor cats in particular. Julie's Siamese cats, Sissy and Missy, enjoy the indoor life thanks to cat towers and cat trees from Ace Cat Furniture.

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