It is amazing to me the amount of money people will spend on their pets. I am a pet owner. We have two dogs and two cats. The dogs are my husband’s the cats are mine. It costs a great deal of money to keep the four of them healthy, but we consider them part of the family so we take them to the veterinarian annually and feed them high quality food. Through the years we have experienced the death of animals and the heart ache that goes with that experience. Because we get so attached to our animals we want to make sure that we maintain their health.
Cats are quite easy to maintain. As long as they have fresh food and water each day and a clean litter box they are happy. They are vaccinated annually during their routine exam. Going to the vet is quite stressful for them because they do not like being in the vehicle or their carriers. We do not take them any place else because if we are on vacation or business trip we have neighbors that come in to feed them.
Dogs require more attention as well as more medications to insure their health. Dogs have to be given a chance to go out side or get out of their kennels on a regular basis so they do not make messes. They need to be exercised because they are confined to their kennels. The veterinarian bill is much higher for the dogs because they are outside animals and require extra protection from disease and insects. Heartgard for dogs is a chewable medication that is given to the dogs to prevent heartworm. This is a parasite that gets into the muscle of a dogs heart and weakens it until the dog can no longer function. Heartworm is carried by mosquitoes. Our dogs are in a large kennel next to a wooded area. There are many mosquitoes from April through October. We start them on heartgard for dogs at the beginning of April before the first mosquitoes hatch and continue to give it to them until the end of November. We live in Minnesota so the mosquitoes die off during the winter months. We use the heartgard for dogs that is given in monthly doses. There is also an option available for daily doses. When heartgard for dogs came on the market it was only available in the daily dosage, it was not always easy to remember to give them the pills. With the monthly dosage we have them on a schedule that on the first day of the month they get the dose needed to keep them safe. It is an expensive medication, but their health depends on it.