As a conscientious pet parent, you know one of your responsibilities is ensuring your four-legged companion receives the appropriate health care. You likely also know that veterinary care can be unexpected and expensive. So how can you keep yourself out of a situation that requires you to choose between potentially life-saving veterinary care, letting your pet suffer or surrendering your pet to a shelter? In short, what do you do if you can\u2019t afford veterinary care?<\/p>\n
One reality of pet ownership is that emergencies, illnesses and injuries will<\/em><\/strong> happen, even to the best-cared-for dogs and cats. And unforeseen circumstances \u2014 such as a job loss, natural disaster or loved one\u2019s sudden death \u2014 can leave you financially strapped and facing expenses you can\u2019t pay. Here are three ways you can deal with veterinary costs \u2014 if you plan ahead.<\/p>\n Accidents and illnesses happen when you least expect them and treatment costs can quickly exceed your emergency pet care fund. What are your options then? Financial aid is out there, but you may need to search for it.<\/p>\n Another option for raising money for your pet\u2019s care is crowdfunding. Pet parents can create personal fundraising pages on sites like GoFundMe, GiveForward or YouCaring. The page is then shared on social media and the link emailed to friends and family who might be willing to donate or who can help spread the word.<\/p>\n Yes, asking for financial help can be daunting, even embarrassing. The truth is, people donate to various causes all the time because it makes them feel good too. So don\u2019t hesitate to ask.<\/p>\n Regardless of what you may have heard, preventive care is the key to a long, healthy life for your four-legged family member. Good nutrition, vaccinations, parasite control, weight management, diagnostics and dental care are all important to reducing long-term medical expenses because they help prevent many health problems. Regular exams can often help detect health issues in early stages when they may be less costly to treat and treatment is more likely to be successful.<\/p>\n Some veterinary clinics offer wellness plans that enable pet parents to spread out the costs of preventive care. In addition, some pet health insurance policies may cover routine preventive care. Finally, there may be a low-cost clinic in your area that offers basic care for pets of low-income households or those belonging to the homeless. However, these clinics may not be able to provide advanced diagnostics or treatment and may not provide emergency care.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As a conscientious pet parent, you know one of your responsibilities is ensuring your four-legged companion receives the appropriate health care. You likely also know that veterinary care can be unexpected and expensive. So how can you keep yourself out of a situation that requires you to choose between potentially life-saving veterinary care, letting your […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5213,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"What to Do When You Can\u2019t Afford Veterinary Care","_seopress_titles_desc":"Find out what you can do to manage veterinary costs, including pet health insurance, savings strategies and low-cost clinics for responsible pet parenting.","_seopress_robots_index":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28,289],"tags":[100,128,10,11,528,179],"class_list":["post-4168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-vet","tag-cat","tag-diamond-pet","tag-dog","tag-health","tag-vet-care-cost","tag-vets"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
Other resources may be able to help you afford veterinary care<\/h3>\n
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The value of preventive veterinary care<\/h3>\n