“Poll: Money is a huge consideration in pet care - jdnews.com” plus 2 more |
- Poll: Money is a huge consideration in pet care - jdnews.com
- Keep your pets safe in bad weather - Examiner
- Pets of the Week: Midnight, Jessie & Coalie - Delaware County Daily Times
| Poll: Money is a huge consideration in pet care - jdnews.com Posted: 15 Jun 2010 09:51 AM PDT LOS ANGELES — When a vet told Nancy Gates that her dog Arabella had heart problems, needed surgery and it would cost $500, she had no choice but to put her pet down. "It was pretty straightforward because I had four young children to feed. The vet said surgery was my only option. I did not want my dog to suffer," she said. Gates, 41, of Cotati, about 50 miles north of San Francisco, made that decision 11 years ago but said nothing has changed. She still couldn't afford high-priced health care for her current pets, an 11-year-old cat, Cocoa, and a 9-year-old golden retriever Sadie. And Gates isn't alone. Money is a consideration for the majority of people when dealing with the cost of health care for animals, according to an Associated Press-Petside.com poll conducted by GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media. While most pet owners, 62 percent, would likely get vet care if the bill was $500, the percentage drops below half when the cost hits $1,000. The number drops to 35 percent if the cost is $2,000 and to 22 percent if it reaches $5,000. Only at the $500 level are dog owners (74 percent) more likely than cat owners (46 percent) to say they would likely seek treatment. In the higher price ranges, the two are about equally likely to seek vet care. "Grief gets complicated when we can't do everything we would have liked to do for our animal," said veterinarian Jane Shaw, director of the Argus Institute in the College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colo. That's especially true in hard economic times, when spending money you don't have on an animal can have a lasting impact on children, the mortgage, grocery bills, heating bills. "Euthanasia is always sad but when finances have to be considered, when you feel there is a possibility you didn't or couldn't do the right thing, you feel guilty," Shaw said. "We are at a point where we are talking about basic life needs or survival needs." Terry Cornwell, 55, of Newport, Ore., has had to put down a couple of pets, but none was harder than a dog that was diagnosed with cancer. "My income decides a lot of my expenses," she said. So far, her current year-old cocker mix, Buddy, and her 8-year-old cat, Boo Kitty, have had few health problems. Cornwell would do everything she could, but if a vet told her surgery was her only option and she had to have the money up front, "I would be done. There would be nothing I could do about it." Cornwell does worry, though. So do one in five pet owners who said they fret a lot about being unable to afford seeing a vet. Dog owners are more likely to worry than cat owners, and women and low-income people are among the biggest worriers. "If they start getting into expensive vet bills, there's nothing I can do. I have no options. If you are talking about something like serious cancer, you're putting the animal through a whole lot of stuff that's iffy anyhow and it's not fair to them," she said. About one in four people, or 27 percent, said pet insurance is a good way to save money on vet bills, though that's five times the number who actually carry insurance on their pets. Diego Negrete, 26, of Austin, Texas, has insurance on his 4-year-old fox terrier, Roxy, and his 2-year-old cat, Charley, but he's in the minority. Ninety-five percent of those polled said they didn't have insurance. "It's a nice cushion to have," he said of the policy that covers all yearly shots and checkups for about half what they would normally cost. It also pays for part of the costs of different problems, he said, although he didn't know all the details. But Negrete doesn't fear vet bills. "I'm not worried at all because the insurance would cover part of it and I am financially capable of covering whatever it costs," he said. However, if you are looking upward of $5,000, "something must be seriously wrong," Negrete said. He would have to look at how much the animal would suffer through the problem, and how the recovery could go. And he would want some assurance the pet would have a good life later. Negrete had a 14-year-old dog who'd had a hernia removed twice. When it grew back a third time, "he was old and about done and he was in pain, so we put him down," he said. Meg Fowler, 63, of Port St. Lucie, Fla., is a retired insurance agent, "so I know the risks." If something catastrophic happened to leave her 10-year-old cockapoo, Jasmine, in a lot of pain, "We would have to put her down," Fowler said. "It would be much more humane. Jasmine is a huge part of our lives and we adore her. But she is a dog. It is hard to remember that, as much as I believe she has a soul." Before Jasmine, there was Max, another cockapoo. When he was 15, he got a brain tumor. Their vet helped them come to grips with a decision that no insurance could have cushioned - euthanasia. For Fowler and her husband of 43 years, "It was the hardest day of our lives. We had no choice in that situation. There was no lifesaving surgery and the dog was way over his life span. It was a difficult decision, but it had to be done and we did it," she said. When quality of life has diminished and there is severe pain and suffering, the time has come to start making decisions, Shaw said. In the final hours, it helps some people to share one last special time with an animal — a trip through a fast food drive-thru for a hamburger, a bath, a dish of homemade ice cream — something familiar to the pet, she said. Some will take a hair clipping or clay pawprint to help build a bridge and foster the grief process. Others will arrange for euthanasia to happen at home so the pet can be surrounded by every member of the family, including other animals, Shaw said. But nothing will completely ease the ache, she said, because guilt is part of the cost of caring deeply. The AP-Petside.com Poll was conducted April 7-12, 2010, and involved landline and cell phone interviews with 1,112 pet owners nationwide. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points. Five Filters featured article: Headshot - Propaganda, State Religion and the Attack On the Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Keep your pets safe in bad weather - Examiner Posted: 16 Jun 2010 05:03 AM PDT Oh, the weather outside is frightful! The first line of that old Christmas song certainly applies to Macon these days. With temperatures dropping below 40 degrees F at night and more than an inch of rain Saturday, the weather is, indeed, frightful, especially for outdoor pets. Although the weatherman predicts some relief from the cold, more rain is forecast for next week. During cold and inclement weather, pets need special attention. If you haven't already checked on your rabbits, horses, dogs, cats and other outdoor pets, go do that now. Make sure you animals have clean, dry bedding to snuggle up in, and that their shelter - hutch, doghouse, stable, cardboard box or whatever - is not leaking. An extra blanket to curl up on or under in inclement might help. Outdoor pets need more food in winter, too, to help their bodies generate heat. Even though we will get intermittent breaks in the rain and some warmer temperatures next week, you should monitor your pets' living quarters closely all winter long. Replace bedding that has become wet. Wash and dry your dog's favorite blanket or the cover to his pet bed. You can cover three sides of the rabbit hutch to keep out frigid breezes and blowing rain and help hold in your bunny's natural heat. And don't forget your pet's food and water supply. Check to make sure rain isn't turning their kibble into a soggy, unappetizing gruel and that their water is clean. Next time the temperature dips down below freezing, make sure your pet's water has not turned into a great, big ice cube. Consider bringing your pets indoors when the weather turns nasty. Even an unheated, closed garage is better shelter from bad weather than an uninsulated dog house. Of course, large pets, like horses and goats, are probably not welcome in the house. For them, weatherproofing the barn as much as possible may provide relief. If you have small mammals, fish or cold-blooded creatures in habitats, make sure their homes are at the proper temperature for their species. It is easy to forget how frightful the weather outside is when we are nestled inside our own warm homes. Take the time to make sure your pets are as comfortable and protected from the weather as you can. Five Filters featured article: Headshot - Propaganda, State Religion and the Attack On the Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Pets of the Week: Midnight, Jessie & Coalie - Delaware County Daily Times Posted: 16 Jun 2010 07:19 AM PDT Pet of the Week
Five Filters featured article: Headshot - Propaganda, State Religion and the Attack On the Gaza Peace Flotilla. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
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