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Do you have a vet fund?

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flintstones

flintstones

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I was wondering how many people think a vet fund is necessary and how many people have one?

The reason for this I decided to add up my vet bills in the last year not including medicines and I have spent in the region of £500. Now I have 7 pigs, but I haven't always.

When Bette was ill, from noticing she was unwell and having her pts I spent roughly £300 on her alone, not too mention getting to the vet.

The new vet I have started using with Bette is quite a while away. To get there I have to get a bus (free zone card), £6 return train ticket and £10 taxi fare. Obviously in an emergency I will need to be prepared to get a taxi to the vets if need be so have decided to start budgeting for that too.

I guess in my eyes, guinea pigs aren't cheap pets and you have to be prepared for expenses. When they become ill their medical costs really do add up.
 
you can insure them but it really doesn't seem worth it, I don't have a fund but i should really i guess tho if it was an emergency i could get it of my OH I would have to pay it back tho as he runs a catalogue and it is always slightly ahead so i would have to cover it
 
Within the first week of owning my boys I spent £90 on vets bills: six vet visit and medication eyes drops Baytril, poor Artie was in a sorry state, thankfully i keep a vet fund for my dog (and now piggies) I aim to put away £2 a week, sometimes I put away more, and it's there for whenever my little un's need it :) I wish there was insurance for piggies!
 
No I don't have a fund but I will in the future when we have money to spare. Mind you I am really glad that the cats are insured after Angus had his accident.
 
yes, they do add up, i've lost count of how much we've spent in the last year, i would say about 300ish too, with Nacho's lump removal etc. Thats just on the guineas, we've also had trips for the rats and hamster. Luckily the last 6 months has been relatively trouble free, but we've got Roo rabbits injections, one is tomorrow and then i am considering having her spayed, also Happy is nearly 10cm long, which means she needs microchipping.

I have Roo insured, but insurance for 9 piggies would be ridiculously high. I generally just pay when i go, although my vets do allow me to pay for a large bill over 2 months.

I think it would probably help to put a few pounds in a jar every week, but i end up spending it anyway :))
 
Romily said:
No I don't have a fund but I will in the future when we have money to spare. Mind you I am really glad that the cats are insured after Angus had his accident.
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Thats the good thing about Cat insurance, I imagine Angus cost a fair penny. I don't even think my vet fund would have covered Angus! xx
 
I do not have a vet fund as such but every month on payday I always transfer £50 into my ISA account. I keep it as emergency money for things such as vet bills or if we need anything for the house. I dread the day the washing machine, fridge or something like that stops working so it's nice just to have some backup money in case we need it.

Although we were naughty with this years savings and booked us onto a Cruise for next summer lol. So now my emergency fund only has £100 in it. x
 
i have a vet fund, i pay 30 a month into an account, when my two boys were ill in the summer they wiped it out, then my dog needed stitches on a wound a few weeks back and that took what i had saved since the pigs died!:{

Now my other half is working, i am going to try and put 60 away each month, but after he has passed his first 3 months i intend to get insurance for the pooches...piggy insurance is very expensive and i have only found one company that do it, so i will just keep saving the pennies for them.


:))
 
It really is a good idea in the long run,
I spent €50 on antibiotics for a ten week old little girl that had ringworm. i only needed like a quarter of the bottle and the next time one of my guinea pigs got a fungal infection i used gorgeous guineas anti fungal shampoo and the melts and it worked great! and for less than €10 a pig
 
Definitely. I have a bank account just for the pigs. A current account, not a savings, so I have a chequebook and debit card for it.

Vets bills for me this year, I will add it up, but it is drastically cheaper for me with access to the CCT.
 
Laura-CCC4 said:
Definitely. I have a bank account just for the pigs. A current account, not a savings, so I have a chequebook and debit card for it.

Vets bills for me this year, I will add it up, but it is drastically cheaper for me with access to the CCT.
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I imagine it will be, but I would rather pay more and go to a good vet, than a not so good vet. Being in Scotland we don't have your option. :).
 
No but I do for my rabbits. I'm 14 and do a paper round. £14 a week. :) I usually put £10 into it and £4 for me but around Christmas it's the other way round because of all the presents I have to buy! :)) I have 4 rabbits and before I got them I promised my parents I would look after them and be responsible. On the other hand, I was 9 when I got Fudge and Rainbow so my parents have always paid for vet bills. :) I really appreciate how much they have done for my piggies over the years. :)
 
Fudge and Rainbow :) said:
No but I do for my rabbits. I'm 14 and do a paper round. £14 a week. :) I usually put £10 into it and £4 for me but around Christmas it's the other way round because of all the presents I have to buy! :)) I have 4 rabbits and before I got them I promised my parents I would look after them and be responsible. On the other hand, I was 9 when I got Fudge and Rainbow so my parents have always paid for vet bills. :) I really appreciate how much they have done for my piggies over the years. :)
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aww bless you, what a star you are x
 
I don't have a vet fund, but it's a very good idea and something I think I'll start in the New Year. We got hit doubly earlier this year with both Boris having an abscess and Pippa a cyst at the same time, and about three weeks before Willow had a poorly eye and a month or two later, my brother's baby pig had an abcsess on his face (which I ended up forking out for too..) :{

Touch wood and finger's crossed for a healthy 2011, although that said I think Murdock the cat will have to have some teeth out early in the New Year, we had a quote in November at a cost of about £300... He isn't insured... Ah well, easy come, easy go!
 
i would still rather be with my babies than without....id starve for a fortnight to get help to make them better, i dont know anyone that wouldnt....
 
flintstones said:
Thats the good thing about Cat insurance, I imagine Angus cost a fair penny. I don't even think my vet fund would have covered Angus! xx
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It will be a considerable sum when it is all done, currently sitting at £600 ish I think with another operation due in a few weeks :...
 
Yep, in terms of larger animals, have to say insurance is well worth considering, the prices of decent vet care can be astronomical. We had a months free pet insurance for the dogs until 10 August.

Louis (puppy, at the time three months old) had a nasty accident on 13 August, resulting in emergency surgery and a lot of post op checks. £250 and a VERY lucky puppy later, we learnt our lesson, got that insurance sorted out PDQ!

For any animal a simple vet fund that is continually added to is the ideal albeit not the most practical, insurance certainly has its uses at times.
 
Deep breath.......my cumulative vets bill this past 12 months has been .....£3500! I can;t afford it..but luckily I have had the cash flow to pay....It has been [*]worth every penny[/*]...because my piggies are worth it! I took responsibility for them in giving them a home....regardless of the cost...I have a responsibility for their welfare and to make sure they get the VERY BEST of treatment.

I can;t get insurance for my pigs...last quote for piggies I got was £900+ per year (with exclusions)...PER PIG.....(and at the time I had >10) ...eeeeeek!

I have been very upset this last couple of days.....because this forum is meant to be for guineas welfare. Unfortunatley we seem to concentrate more on "the owners" welfare. Don;t get me wrong...I hope we have mounted a "double pronged surge"..to give the owner a chance to sort things out..hence why I have backed off. (Those who have seen my posts will know what I mean)

Bottom line is...if you decide to keep guineas...then you must be prepared
to "fork out" for their welfare..and go "above and beyond" to get them to a vet when advised to do so.......and YES.......it CAN be very expensive.

Never again do I want to spend 24 hours of my life watching and listening to a guinea pig dying unecessarily on this forum for want of a visit to a cavy savvy vet. After the last 24 hours......I am seriously thinking about ending my membership.

sorry..but sometimes you have to say it "as it is"

xxxxxx
 
Laura-CCC4 said:
Yep, in terms of larger animals, have to say insurance is well worth considering, the prices of decent vet care can be astronomical. We had a months free pet insurance for the dogs until 10 August.

Louis (puppy, at the time three months old) had a nasty accident on 13 August, resulting in emergency surgery and a lot of post op checks. £250 and a VERY lucky puppy later, we learnt our lesson, got that insurance sorted out PDQ!

For any animal a simple vet fund that is continually added to is the ideal albeit not the most practical, insurance certainly has its uses at times.
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owch!

When i got my Whippet, within 3 months he swallowed a ball, unfortunately he couldnt 'pass' it so he had an op, £850 it cost!! I am still paying for it a year later!! Then a couple of weeks ago he had a tear in his side that cost a bomb, so in a year he has cost us £1000 we defo need oh to keep this job and get some bloomin insurance!

Can i just say, the only reason we havent had it sorted before is because oh hasnt had a stable job, fingers crossed.................
 
I could use it! Last summer alone I spent five hundred dollars in vet bills in the course of a month or so... one piggie had an abscess of the jaw and had two surgeries and antibiotics (all for nothing too... she didn't make it. :(). The second piggie had an abscess on her lower back that required antibiotics and lancing and draining, and then when that didn't resolve it a ga and full removal. And in both cases the vets were kind to me and didn't charge me for some follow up visits and visits due to complications of procedures. I hope not to have a month like that again! I would actually love to add a second pair to my two piggies, but the reality that I can't afford an illness outbreak is one of the things holding me back from adding to the piggie family.
 
Freela said:
I could use it! Last summer alone I spent five hundred dollars in vet bills in the course of a month or so... one piggie had an abscess of the jaw and had two surgeries and antibiotics (all for nothing too... she didn't make it. :(). The second piggie had an abscess on her lower back that required antibiotics and lancing and draining, and then when that didn't resolve it a ga and full removal. And in both cases the vets were kind to me and didn't charge me for some follow up visits and visits due to complications of procedures. I hope not to have a month like that again! I would actually love to add a second pair to my two piggies, but the reality that I can't afford an illness outbreak is one of the things holding me back from adding to the piggie family.
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that is my reason too, otherwise i would have MANY piggies!

And, not really for nothing with the piggy as surely helping them to be painfree is what is important, never for nothing x
 
doglovinpiggylover said:
that is my reason too, otherwise i would have MANY piggies!

And, not really for nothing with the piggy as surely helping them to be painfree is what is important, never for nothing x
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I don't think she was ever completely pain free is the sad part... poor little thing. We all did our best but she just couldn't beat it. We miss her!
 
Freela said:
I don't think she was ever completely pain free is the sad part... poor little thing. We all did our best but she just couldn't beat it. We miss her!
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Aww thats sad, so sorry, but you know what, sometimes we do our best, it just beats us, but at least we try eh?? Thats what makes us different from others x
 
I would have to agree. I do not know how I would have afforded the veterinary fees for my dog over the last couple of years without insurance - in excess of £6,500!

However, in regards to cavies, I will not adopt a cavy without having a good-sized veterinary fund at my disposal.
 
Guinea-pigGaga said:
I would have to agree. I do not know how I would have afforded the veterinary fees for my dog over the last couple of years without insurance - in excess of £6,500!

However, in regards to cavies, I will not adopt a cavy without having a good-sized veterinary fund at my disposal.
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good on you x
 
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