Coffee and Provocation

• From NPR this morning (link to audio file).
  Apparently the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) is saying folks should get a cat or a mutt to avoid high animal care costs. Good advice! Of course the AVMA will not tell folks what else they can do to save money, such as going without all those unnecessary "well dog" checkups to begin with, saying NO to unnecessary teeth cleaning, saying NO to unnecessary "booster shot" vaccine regimes, buying overpriced (and stale) dog food at the vets, or getting your heartworm preventative and antibiotics over-the-counter at a fraction of the cost.
  


• How Far Should We Go to Save Our Pets?
  "This is a country in which 93 percent of we owners describe our pets as members of the family, where 70 percent of us sleep with our dogs and 78 percent with our cats, in which nearly three-quarters of married pet owners report greeting their pet before their spouse when they return home. It is a culture in which, according to one New York study, women report feeling "significantly" more intimacy with the closest pet than the closest person in their lives."
  


• Putting a leash on veterinary costs
  "[O]one of the biggest contributors to higher consumer costs was a comprehensive veterinary market study issued in 1999 by consulting firm KPMG International.It found that the profession was charging too little. And some veterinarians were giving away care." Opportunities abound," the executive summary of the study stated, but vets were held back by "inefficient structures, inappropriate business practices and attitudes."Many professionals in the field, faced with stagnating incomes, took heed." It was a sea change for the veterinary profession," said Jim Flanigan, marketing director of the veterinary association. And soon thereafter came sticker shock for clients...."
  


• Microchips are reuniting more lost pets with their owners
  "German shepherd who ran away from home a year ago will reunite with her owner today, thanks to a microchip ID that was embedded in her body.. . .Microchips, about the size of a grain of rice, are placed between an animal's shoulder blades. The “permanent pet identification” devices have greatly improved police efforts to return animals to their owners before they are brought into the shelter. . . The microchips cost about $50 at most veterinarians. Animal Care and Control occasionally holds low-cost clinics in parks where owners can get a microchip placed in their pet for $8. The department also requires all animals leaving its shelter to have microchips. Police started scanning the microchips in 2003 and, since that time, have returned more than 400 microchipped pets to their owners."
  


• Cookstown man says cat killed his dog
  "Holding up a picture of his dog, which he said died after being attacked by a neighbour’s cat, Greg Cox implored Innisfil council last week to pass a feline control bylaw. Cox’s pet beagle was scratched near the eyes, which created a severe infection. 'His head swole up so bad, he looked like a St. Bernard,' Cox said following the meeting. 'It cost me $300 in vet bills, but we couldn’t keep it under control and I had to have him put down.'”
  
  


• Pet Tips from Consumers Report
  Here are a few cash-saving tips from Consumers Report: 1) You don't have to buy prescription drugs from vets. More than 600 drugs used to treat pets are actually human drugs, and you can find some of the best deals at ordinary drugstores; 2) Pet insurance won't necessarily save you money. In fact, with it, you can end up paying far more for veterinary care than if you didn't have insurance; 3) Demand for purebred dogs has made costly genetic diseases more widespread. Research inherited disorders by breed to avoid high vet costs; 4) The hardiest breed is the common mutt; 5) A second opinion may save you a lot of money; 6) Avoid emergency vet visits; in most cases the vet will do nothing but cage your dog over the weekend even for something like a broken bone. This will be billed to you as "stabilizing" the patient, when in fact it's just crating the dog with a little buffered aspirin.

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