Save on Vet Bills
The following Best Savings Tip comes from reader, Vickie:
Two years ago we took in a stray cat, and weeks later she had kittens. We kept one kitten and found good homes for the other three. Since we didn't want another litter of kittens, I started calling different vet offices to find out how much to spay a cat.
The first quote was $250, and the second was $175. I did not care for either quote, so I continued my search. I found UCAN a spay/neuter clinic. I took both cats and got them spayed and vaccinated for $57 each ($114 total). They also provide other services such as microchip insertion.
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I know people are always looking for ways to take care of their furry friends without going broke so this is a great tip! We don't have any pets. As I was growing up, we had a dog that got sick with parvo. The vet bill was crazy expensive!
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I just want to ask everyone to please make sure you are comparing apples to apples when price shopping something like medical care for your pets. Those “crazy” expensive vets use state of the art monitoring equipment, maintain your pet on the safest inhalant anesthesia, use iv fluids, blood work and more to make sure your pets remain as safe as possible during any anesthetic procedure. I’m sure your pet did fine at the spay neuter clinic and that’s great but if they were to do the same thing a vets office did there is no way they could do it at that cost. Also they do not examine your pet at the vaccine clinics held at pet stores so while it is a cheaper option for vaccines there are countless health problems that could be overlooked by not having a complete physical for your pet. Just my two cents.
I am a veterinary technician. Just a word of caution. Just like any other industry, you get what you pay for. Do you research and ask questions. More expensive spays and neuters tend to include better surgical monitoring (ECG, 02 monitoring, BP monitoring), safer anesthetics, pre surgical bloodwork and pain medications. You must decide if you think these are important for your pet. I’m not putting down spay/neuter clinics because I think they provide a great service, but they are production facilities, often doing 30-50 surgeries a day. You just cant provide the same level of attention and patient care when your moving at that pace as a place that only does 4-6 per day. People tend to get very upset at the cost of veterinary care, which frustrates me. We provide the same medical treatments, medications and services as human hospital, but with out insurance to cover the costs, and at a fraction of what a human hospital would cost.
UCAN is not the only low-cost option available. The Ohio Alleycat Resource Spay/Neuter clinic charges $35 for spay/neuters and $10 for rabies vaccinations (unless proof of rabies vaccinations is shown). Northern Ky. residents can also take advantage of a special program right now in which you can have your cat spayed/neutered AND vaccinated for rabies for just $10 — what a deal! OAR is on Redbank in Madisonville. For more info, go to http://www.theanimalrescue.com/spayneuterclinic.html
There are some people who cannot afford the fees charged by a vet, and UCAN offers a more affordable solution. If more people can afford to spay and neuter their animals, perhaps we will have less strays running around.
Just a thought!