In the short time of being a pawrent, I have learned first hand there is a huge cost associated with neglecting your dog's health. Otto was very much loved by his prior pawrent but his health was neglected and he did not see a vet regularly. I spent a lot of time and money on caring for illnesses that could have been avoided if they were addressed earlier.
I understand that people, in general, do not always participate in preventative medicine for themselves and it carries on into their pawrenting as well. An adult dog should see a vet at least once a year for a check-up and a senior dog should see a vet 2 times a year. In a previous blog, I wrote about senior dog care so I won't go into detail here, you can click through to read that in detail. Here I want to focus on the financial impacts of not addressing preventative health or small diagnoses. I have heard in the past few weeks about what I call loving neglect cases. There is a family pet that is appreciated and cared for (snuggles, fed well, etc.) but their health is neglected.
To be honest this makes me upset. One of the most important things you can do for your pet is to keep them healthy and free from disease. Unfortunately, if you don't take care of your pet's health, some negative impacts will occur.
An easy example is an overweight dog. If you are like me, you struggle to keep your dog in an appropriate weight range because you give them too many treats throughout the day. If your dog is overweight or obese, this can lead to health problems, including heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, and even cancer. The "simple solution" for me is to have a family meeting to ensure we limit what we give the boys as well as I will adjust their meals to compensate. I know how many calories they should be taking in daily and do breakdowns from there.
I recently had discussions with two different friends about how their lack of action led to larger vet bills (and a suffering dog). As an example, the dog's teeth were falling out of the dog's mouth because there wasn't any oral care routine. The dog was suffering from oral disease and infections. Untreated/poor oral care can also lead to heart disease which will need to be treated with medications that can get expensive besides the fact it can shorten the dog's life. I implored how important it was to get it addressed and what it meant to his dog. He took the dog to the vet and received a lofty bill to fix his neglect. Luckily the dog is doing much better and hopefully, he has learned his lesson.
Dogs are a commitment and they trust us to care for them because we are their world. Please don't brake that trust.