How much has your pet cost you?

[Skeptisk]

Just back from the vet for check up and vaccinations. Wallet lighter by £225. Need the vaccinations to put him in kennels so we can go away for a short break. Another £400 (I think accommodation for us is only going to be around £400 each!)

Got me thinking how much we have spent on him (9 year old Border Collie). I don’t think I want to know exactly but I suspect it could be £20k-£25k. Ouch. We do love him and he has added a lot to our lives. But a chunky sum nonetheless. I won’t be telling my wife as she wasn’t in favour of having a dog and she only gave in as my daughter and I ganged up on her and wore her down (took 5 years!)

Anyone else brave enough to keep track of costs?

[Red9zero]

Spent over £11k on ACL ops on back legs, plus monthly massage treatment at £40 a time. Titre test next week probably £200. Groomers (Inc teeth clean) £70 every 5-6 weeks. Add in food, treats etc. I could run a car for less

[Juan B]

Red9zero said:

Spent over £11k on ACL ops on back legs, plus monthly massage treatment at £40 a time. Titre test next week probably £200. Groomers (Inc teeth clean) £70 every 5-6 weeks. Add in food, treats etc. I could run a car for less

You pay someone £40 to stroke your dog?

[QuartzDad]

Between monthly Librela injections, vet visits, water additives, special foods, dental work etc. for our 14yo Westie we're probably running around £200-£250 a month.

[esuuv]

£30 or so a month for insurance, £30 or so a month for the routine vet things, £420 a month for daycare when I go to the office + food / treats / bits and bobs - puts us at about 7 grand so far - he's 16 months old - I shall stop counting now!!

[BoRED S2upid]

Skeptisk said:

Just back from the vet for check up and vaccinations. Wallet lighter by £225. Need the vaccinations to put him in kennels so we can go away for a short break. Another £400 (I think accommodation for us is only going to be around £400 each!)

Got me thinking how much we have spent on him (9 year old Border Collie). I don’t think I want to know exactly but I suspect it could be £20k-£25k. Ouch. We do love him and he has added a lot to our lives. But a chunky sum nonetheless. I won’t be telling my wife as she wasn’t in favour of having a dog and she only gave in as my daughter and I ganged up on her and wore her down (took 5 years!)

Anyone else brave enough to keep track of costs?

You’ve spent £20,000 on a 9 year old dog? Including food?

[Chris Peacock]

A lot less than my children, so a bargain as the dog is my favourite.

[Skeptisk]

BoRED S2upid said:

You’ve spent £20,000 on a 9 year old dog? Including food?

That includes moving countries a few times.

[brian_H]

My wife used to have 3 horses. October to Dec 23 we spent 11k..(no insurance cover)........this included twice having to pay £400 to get the horse PTS plus another £500 to then get them removed afterwards!..

2 cats now.......paying £75 p/m for an injection as we currently do seems trivial in comparison!

[BoomerPride]

We recently calculated that our two westies cost us £5000 a year. This includes kennels for our three 7-10 nights holidays a year and increasing vets fees.

However, the boy was sadly put to sleep last Sunday. Neither of us has talked about the cost saving as we were devastated. It was one of the worst days of our life.

Enjoy them while you have them.

[KobayashiMaru86]

Now I've found food and treats he likes about £80-£90/mth. I do a plan at the vet for the checkups, jabs and pills but may stop this since he doesn't get on well with the flea meds and it's arguably overkill. Had an ECG a few months ago at over £800 to find he was fine. Am looking at insurance and that will be around £20/mth with a 5k per year limit. Still looking so don't know fully yet. Early days I wasted so much in engagement toys when most of it is nonsense. Won't be doing half of it when I get a 2nd dog. Spent a bit on good leads and harnesses. Buy cheap pay twice often applies here but be wary of dropshippers pedalling crap. Now I know what works I have brands I won't deviate from.

[BoRED S2upid]

Skeptisk said:

BoRED S2upid said:

You’ve spent £20,000 on a 9 year old dog? Including food?

That includes moving countries a few times.

Ah that makes more sense our Jack Russel probably isn’t into 4 figures yet in 3 years. We don’t put him in kennels during holidays so that helps.

[AB]

About £8k insurance in the last 14 years.

Approx £750 in dog sitting per year so let's call that circa £10k

£100 worth of specialist food every 2 months so let's round that to about £8.5k

Replastering of utility room and repairs to damaged skirting board when we found out she didn't like fireworks - £500

Poo bags, replacing a few items she's chewed, replacement leads when she's snapped them and escaped. Annual vet fees, check ups etc etc

I'm going to go with at least £35k and that's being conservative. Paying extra for the knobhead to come on holiday with us occasionally.

Not worth it, she's a little tt.

[Simpo Two]

Like my car, I don't keep a record of costs - because the clear inference would be that neither of them make financial sense!

[SlimJim16v]

QuartzDad said:

Between monthly Librela injections, vet visits, water additives, special foods, dental work etc. for our 14yo Westie we're probably running around £200-£250 a month.

Librela has serious side effects, including death and is being taken to court in America. Please read up on it

https://en-gb.facebook.com/groups/235489239569004/

[scotlandtim]

Ha - no idea. Certainly don't keep track, it would cripple me if I knew:

1 hamster - cheap
3 rabbits - Feed / hay
2 dogs - 12yo Collie. Librella, geriatric feed, 2 yo labradoodle - just kept growing, he's huge!
4 horses - hay, feed, farrier, dont' get me started on horsebox, 4x4 to tow, and all the fencing, stabling costs that go with it
Chickens - Cheap (cheep cheep!)

I reckon about £10k per year all in - including insurance / vets. I dont' count horsebox, 4x4 and large car for dogs in that cost....


But we love it, most of the time!!!!!

[Juan B]

Think we spend about 35-40 quid a month on dog food, thats about it.

Obviously some toys and other stuff too. We've had the same lead for past two dogs over about 20 years now. No insurance, last golden retreiver we were paying it for best part of 13 years and used it about twice, got extortianate in the end.

3rd retreiver now and he's 3 and never needed the insurance, just occasional medicines which overall work out significantly chaper than continued monthly insurance costs.

Suppose its still a few thousand over his life on the bare minimums but looks like we're paying a fraction of what most PH's spend on their dogs!

And he is the happiest goodest boy

[JagYouAre]

I'm sad enough to keep a spreadsheet of my family finances and 'pet expenses' which includes dog food, walking, boarding, insurance, all the nonsense my wife buys for the hound each time she goes near a pet shop, vet bills not claimed on insurance etc. (but not cat food, as that's in with the 'groceries' section, or anything bought for the dog at the supermarket for the same reason) and it came to just under £4k last year, and just over £6k so far this year (my year runs Apr-Mar).

Quite eye opening and just recently I have been looking at cost cutting. Halved our monthly insurance cost (which includes the cat) to £40/m and need to look at dog food as the already expensive Tails food we get have just hiked their prices (any recommendations for a 3 year old pointer? We like a mix of dry and wet and not prepared to faff around with raw stuff, hence the no-fuss Tails). I have considered self insuring but I can almost guarantee she'll do something stupid to herself within days of cancelling.

Apart from food, which runs to about £100/m, boarding and dog walking probably the most expensive parts, as it costs between £25 and £40 per day for boarding when we go away without her depending on whether we use our regular walker to dog sit or a dedicated boarder. We've also had a few quite a few small vet visits recently that I haven't bothered claiming (probably should have) for cuts and bumps and whatnot.

At least we don't have to bother with grooming, I can't bring myself to pay someone to wash my dog and luckily because she has a short coat, she is fairly easy to maintain with a hose down occasionally.

[Red9zero]

BoomerPride said:

We recently calculated that our two westies cost us £5000 a year. This includes kennels for our three 7-10 nights holidays a year and increasing vets fees.

However, the boy was sadly put to sleep last Sunday. Neither of us has talked about the cost saving as we were devastated. It was one of the worst days of our life.

Enjoy them while you have them.

So sorry for your loss. Our Westie is 14 and every day is priceless.

[Red9zero]

Juan B said:

You pay someone £40 to stroke your dog?

She is a qualified stroker though