The Financial Side of Pet Care: Ideas to Ease the Burden

It’s 2012, we’ve been through the economic downturn of 2008-09, and things seem to have somewhat improved a bit in our area. Maybe. It’s a little soon to know for sure. Where we at the Clinic have seen the impact of our economic times in particular is in our examination rooms. Some of our owners have found themselves limited in the treatment options they can provide for their pets because the real cost of treatment isn’t in line with the amount of resources they can spend.

This is a tough thing for veterinarians. Our goal is to provide the best service and the best medicine for our patients so that they can enjoy the best quality-of-life. But there is a cost associated with medical care, especially good medical care. When our owners are unable to provide this care, it’s a difficult situation to observe.

There are three ideas to consider when it comes to keeping up with financial side of your pet’s care:

1. First, keep up with preventive medicine. This includes immunizations at routine intervals to prevent ugly, infectious diseases. It also includes keep up to date on routine parasite control treatments. But most importantly, preventive medicine must include routine, complete physical examinations. If your pet is not being examined thoroughly by a competent veterinarian, your pet is being shortchanged. We’ve detailed the importance of routine physical examinations previously, so I’ll leave it at this: health problems are best contained or cured, and less costly to contain/cure, when they are caught early and when they are caught small.
2. A second tool that is helpful for budgeting and planning purposes is pet insurance. We’ve blogged on pet insurance in the past, and if you haven’t read that post, it’s worth your time to take a look.
3. A third tool to help with the financial side of caring for your pet is CareCredit®. For years we’ve accepted payments in the form of cash, check, Visa and Master Card. Recently we added Discover to that list. And most recently, we’ve added CareCredit® to our payment options.

If you are not familiar with CareCredit®, it is a third-party lender that offers extended payment plans, some of which are interest-free. As long as the minimum monthly payments are made, and the balance is paid off at the end of the term, this is a great, no-hassel way to go. Not accomplishing both of these criteria will make your life miserable. But when the CareCredit® rules are followed, their customers love their service.

Our goal at the Cuyahoga Falls Veterinary Clinic is to provide kind, compassionate and comprehensive health care for your pet so that your pet can enjoy a long, happy and healthy life with you. If at first you feel that your options are limited because of financial constraints, consider the ideas above. One or more of them might just help you do more for your pet than you first thought. Feel free to call us with any questions you may have at 330-929-3223.