If you own and love your pets there may be a time when there is a Pet Care and Budget Collision on your journey to financial independence or once you retire.  We pet owners love our pets like they are part of the family. Our first dog lived with us 17 years. Our second dog lived 15.5 years. This was during the same period that we were raising our children and beyond. They both had long, happy, and healthy lives. It is definitely a shared life so there are strong attachments.

Being financially responsible means including in the budget their pet care. That goes beyond food, vaccinations, and checkups. For us the pet food is included in our grocery budget. Vaccinations and checkups are part of our Misc. budget where our own out-of-pocket medical expense is tracked. However sometimes things happen to pets and it can be very expensive, sudden, and unforeseen. Just like it can medically for us humans. All of which can challenge years of budget tracking and cost projections.

Our Current Household Family Member.

We now have a 10.5 year old Black Labrador mix. We started sharing our life with him two years ago. But he has been in our family his whole life. Starting as a puppy with our youngest daughter’s family. When she moved and couldn’t keep him he went to live with our other daughter’s family. My granddaughter loved him and once she could walk would grab and hug him.

Because of his older age he has some arthritis in his shoulders and he would growl a bit. It was decided for safety reasons that he should come live with us. He is a large dog at 93 pounds and this week he has ended up in emergency care.

We Thought We Were Done With Dogs

We had been a couple of years without a pet before he came to live with us and we had thought we were done having pets so our budget didn’t include pet care. It did take our making budget adjustments for things to be fine until now. But so far this week we have spent $928 and it does collide with my Misc. budget. After all the medical testing it turns out he has advanced heart disease and a bad heart valve so he is basically dying. He may have 2 months or 2 years but we are told to expect something very sudden someday.

Going forward we will have to budget for three new medications to help him live more comfortably and give him the best quality of life he can have. We will find out the medication cost tomorrow when we get his prescriptions filled at Costco.  Fortunately I have enough wiggle room to handle this without too much disruption for however long this goes. We are assured he is not suffering but this will make him feel better and help with his occasional light-headedness.

Pet Care and Budget Collision list of the budgetary considerations when sharing your life with Pets:

Commitment.

Owning any pet is a long-term commitment. Puppies, bunnies, and kittens are cute and cuddly. We should always be sure we are ready to love and care for them both emotionally and financially through their old age.

Food.

This should be a no-brainer but I swear people sometimes pick a large dog without considering how much they eat. It seems people with tightest budgets like owning the biggest dogs. It is not healthy to feed a dog table scraps. I assume the same to be true for Cats. We should always factor in the proper food costs. We always find out after the fact that our pet requires a special diet. Making sure we can adjust our budget for any dietary issues that may come up is important to consider.

Spay and Neuter.

Unless the new family member is a pure-bred heading to breed/stud activity, we should be responsible and include in our budget the one-time cost to have our dog, cat, Llama, etc.  reproductive chances fixed.

Waste.

Not so much a budget issue unless it is necessary to have to pay someone to take care of it. News flash, pets poop and it can build up and take over a yard or patio. Even a fish owner will have to be able to deal with this to keep the tank or pond clean. We must consider whether we are capable of handling pet waste and if not include the cost to have someone else do it in our budget.

Vaccinations and Checkups.

We must always Include in our budget the cost for yearly vaccinations and checkups. This will end up saving money so that anything that needs medical attention can be corrected before it becomes an expensive surgery or worse.

Love, Time and Physical Interaction.

Again, not so much a budget issue unless we have to pay someone to walk or pay physical attention (when appropriate) to our pets. Example, budget for dog walkers.

Boarding.

Hopefully everyone has in their budget some travel or vacation time. We need to budget the cost to board or have house pet sitters take care of our pet when we are away. If our plan is taking our pet with us on every vacation then we must factor any additional travel costs into our budget.

Catastrophic Medical.

Someday our pets will grow old and reach end of life which may bring medical costs as I just went through. Or our pets can become ill, get a tumor, be in an accident, etc. and there can be expensive medical bills to either save their life or make better the remaining life of our pet.  These costs are unknown and unplanned. Just like with us this week, we have to either have enough in our emergency account to cover this or sit down with family and have some hard financial guidelines set about what can and will be paid for our pets which is a delicate subject. I know some who cut off life-saving efforts at $1000 or $2000. Some set their limit less, some more. It obviously depends on our financial capabilities and how we personally view these sad situations.

Controlling Pet medical Costs.

One thing we can decide to do is buy pet medical insurance. When we got our Lab 2 years ago his age and condition would have probably made the cost too high but to tell the truth we never checked. I think if my finances were tight I would consider looking into a pet insurance plan.

An insurance company that people I know highly recommend is VPI (Veterinary Pet Insurance) (I have no affiliation with VPI) and it would be a good place to start if you are looking to investigate a pet insurance policy. You can get various levels of coverage: Emergency, Every Day Care, and Comprehensive. Rates depend on the level of insurance you buy and the age of your pet.

There may also be other considerations that impact your rate.  The recommending pet owner friend of mine pays $40 a month to cover her dog for a comprehensive plan.  Here is their url if you are interested. http://www.petinsurance.com/

You pay for your pet’s medical bills and then submit your covered expenses (depending on the plan you buy) to VPI for reimbursement. As I said this VPI recommendation is by a pet owner whose pet has had a couple of surgeries in his life and swears by them. Do a web search or ask around to find the insurance company you think is best for you.

Conclusion.

Owning a pet doesn’t have to cause a damaging Pet Care and Budget Collision if we plan ahead and go into pet ownership with our eyes wide open. When accepting the responsibility of a pet, we should make sure that we are fully able to give the best care and love for them without crushing the budget. For us, we will be finished owning a pet in the near future but we will still be animal lovers. We plan on getting our pet-fix by loving the pets of our daughter’s and friends. This is a great option if there is no room in the budget to own a pet. We can also volunteer at the Dumb Friends league or other places where stray pets are held to fulfill our love for animals.

Have you had high unexpected pet care costs and how did you offset the budget hit?

Do you just budget for Catastrophic Medical or do you use pet medical insurance?