There is a lot that goes into owning a pet and there are different levels of what people are comfortable with their pets and how to manage them. Dr. Lucas Kandefer says there are a lot of positives with getting a pet from a rescue, but a lot of people do get purebred pets from breeders as well and there is nothing wrong with that, but we can see people spending $2, 500 or $3,500 for a pet and then we find that they spend a lot of the money they had planned for their care in just the purchase of that pet. So, if they do get sick when they are younger, we find that they just don’t have the money to take care of the pet the way they want to. Dr. Kandefer says with rescuing a pet, your cost to bring them home from the shelter is much less and you can put that money towards making sure their healthcare is exactly what you want and making sure you can manage any emergencies you may happen.
Dr. Kandefer says pet insurance is a very good idea when we talk about our younger pets. They get in a lot more trouble and it really can help you if they happen to break a bone; your pet, dogs and cats in particular ingest something and needs to have surgery. Those expenses can add up really quickly, and we want to make sure we can take care of it and pet insurance is a great way to help manage that.
Beyond that there are a lot of things that have to consider when we are picking a pet. When we look at cats and dogs, our long-haired pets they typically need grooming, and it can be up to two times a month to get them groomed to minimize their matts and to make sure they are comfortable.
Dr. Kandefer says a really important part of the responsibility is making sure we have a way to mange these pets, so getting them socialized really well so we can make sure we can handle them, making sure we start brushing them very young even if they don’t need it, we can get them used to that and it makes their care a lot easier.
When talking about general health, Dr. Kandefer says bringing your pet to the veterinary clinic once a year really helps you identify those early signs of problems that we find especially when we get to that 7 or 8 year old mark. He says we don’t have to do the vaccines as often as we did in the past so we may not see your pet for a vaccine for up to three years but bringing them in for that visit is really important, to catch those things they just aren’t telling you that we can identify and keep them healthier and happier for longer.
Click here to go to the Niagara Frontier Veterinary Society.
