Costs for just about everything keep going up, it can be hard to makes ends meet at times. I was at the Veterinarian on Sat with 2 of my birds for exams & nail trim for one & it was $208.00. I have a 5 birds & 2 dogs so expenses can add up quickly. I believe in annual Veterinary care for the pets, but also try & save money where I can.
When it comes to care for our dogs, cats & some caged pets like rabbits & guinea pigs there are low cost spay & neuter clinics that can help with spaying & neutering costs. Some of these clinics have expanded the services they offer. The clinic I take my dogs to offers by appointment: vaccinations, heart-worm testing, blood-work, Cherry-eye surgery, micro-chipping dental cleanings & they sell some heart-worm & flea & tick preventatives. They do a quick exam, but not a through exam like your regular Veterinarian does. I go there for my dogs yearly heart-worm tests & this Saturday I will take Hunter in for a full blood panel which I will then send the results to my regular Veterinarian for diagnosis. Hunter has been acting different, not sick, eating well, just sense something isn’t 100% & his dog “brother” Echo seems to sense something as well. Most Vets want to start with a full blood panel, so I’m starting there, the low cost clinic is about 1/3 of the cost of my regular Veterinarian.
Many of these clinics are not-for-profit, the goals are to cut down on pet over population, it puts a burden on shelters & then pets end up loosing their lives because not enough space to house them in shelters. Spaying or Neutering our pets is the responsible thing to do. If someone shows (in the show ring)a breed, & breeds their champion dogs/cats I understand that, (breeding to keep the breed standards high). Breeding for profit or because you think having a litter is good or an animal is not wise. Honestly it is hard on their body & no guarantee all the offspring will get great homes for life.
Some low cost clinics work out of Animal Shelters, Animal Welfare Leagues, Humane Societies, have free standing buildings, work out of some Veterinarian clinics, do vaccination clinics at local Farm & Feed type stores, & there are some who do transports to clinics. I think over my adult life of owning pets, & fostering pets for 20 yrs I have used all the above places for Veterinary care for pets in my care. The local Animal shelter near me had vaccination clinics approximately every few months on a Saturday & they posted signs outside for a few weeks leading up to the clinics. You could take your dog or cat there to be seen for routine care. The clinic I now use is a Animal Welfare League & rents a building that use to be a plumbing business. I have gone to one that rents a unit in a strip mall. I have been to a clinic at the local Farm & Fleet store & I think Gander Mountain hosted a clinic I took a foster to for his microchip. There is a clinic that is about an hour & a half away & they use to pick up pets at the local Animal shelter in the AM & you would meet them there & then you would go back & pick up the pet around 4:00-5:00PM. All these places required appointments & payment that day, some require cash, but now a days many do debit, credit cards, but don’t think most except checks or any type of Care Credit cards.
Most of these clinics are operated by mostly volunteers, many including the Drs volunteer their time & skills or work for a minimal amount of money. If you contact a clinic, be patient & kind to these volunteers they work long hard hours sometimes. I know the couple that run the place I go to & they sometimes are treated poorly by the pet owners. They continue doing it because they love the animals & they have a passion to educate pet owners on the importance of spaying, neutering & routine care.
These clinics are not for sick or injured animals they are strictly preventative care. Some of the clinics have rules that they don’t see pets at vaccination clinics that are not spayed or neutered. Spay & neuter surgeries are done on other days & not at the same time as the vaccination clinics in the area where I live.
The types of animals each clinic sees for spays & neuters varies on the Veterinarian who does the surgeries. I think all see cats & dogs & most pets need to be at least 8 weeks old & at least 2 lbs. Again each clinic will have its own set of rules & requirements, so contact the clinic in your area & ask or search it on their website. The clinic in my area has days where a retired Exotic Veterinarian specialist comes to do surgeries on rabbits, guinea pigs & I think a few ferrets (you will usually only find private bred ferrets to not be altered already).
Please note that before some procedures a pet may be required to fast, such as spay/neuter(alter), or blood-work. I think all clinic will require pets are on leashes or in plastic carriers when brought into a clinic. If spaying or Neutering a pet the clinic will have you drop off early AM & pickup the same day, low cost clinics are not staffed 24 hours. I recommend you do this when you will be home the evening of the surgery to watch over your pet, as they may not be fully themselves till the anesthesia is fully worn off. Please follow any instructions for post op care of your pet when a procedure is done.
Sadly not all places have low cost Veterinarian service, but there are a good number of countries who do. You may find that some have transports if the clinic is more than a certain distance from where you live. I asked Google what countries have low cost spay & neuter clinics & this is a list of the places it gave me: US, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Columbia, Brazil, Peru, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, Spain, Portugal, Malta, Czech Republic, Europe, Belgium, Romania, Ukraine, Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia, India, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Australia, South Africa & Jordan.
International Charities such as Four Paws, World Vets, Global Strays, & United Spay Alliances may be an option to look into if you do not have a clinic near you. With the internet available virtually everywhere these days we can do a search to find where the closest clinic would be & to contact them for information about their services.
I hope this has been helpful to you or maybe you have a friend or family member who is struggling financially & has pets. Some of these clinics give discounts to seniors & some even have food pantries for pet food. If you don’t ask or look into it you won’t know.
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