Whether or not you choose pet insurance for your pet, you can help control how much cost you spend on your pet. Here are some ways you can keep your vet bills low:
Use low-cost clinics for shots. Your vet may host one or two such clinics each year, or you can call your local Humane Society, animal control department or veterinary hospital for leads.
Take few seconds to consider. You had better consult another vet before committing to expensive treatments or drugs. You also can consult The Merck Veterinary Manual online to confirm your pet's condition and recommended treatments.
Ask for samples. Your vet may have free starter packets of many popular medications.
Shop around for meds. You can call around to other vets, check out pet catalogs or search the Internet. Discountpetmedicines.com has links to sites that offer lower-priced medications.
Don't cheap out on pet food. An investment in better-quality food can pay off in fewer health problems, particularly with cats, which can be more susceptible to urinary tract infections if fed inexpensive cat food. Check with your vet.
Keep their weight down. Just as with people, obesity in animals can trigger more health problems.
Keep your pet indoors or on a leash. Free-running animals have more accidents, contract more illnesses and take a bigger toll on the environment than pets that are kept under control. (In other words, Fluffy will live a longer, healthier life indoors, and the songbirds of the neighborhood will thank you.)
Consider a cat -- or a mutt. Next time you're in the market for a pet, remember that dogs tend to wind up in the vet's office twice as often as cats, and that purebreds tend to have far more hereditary weaknesses than your average pound puppy.
