This isn’t a typical topic for The Victoria Vegan, but many vegans also support rescues, and try to give rescued animals the best lives they can, so this is likely a topic of interest to many of our readers, and may welcome some new readers as well!
I rescue small animals myself, currently with Luna the guinea pig, PV the dwarf hamster, and Claudia O’Wigglesworth the Syrian hamster, who all came from the SPCA.
As a quick preface, I should emphasize is that as a vegan and animal rights activist I am strongly opposed to the sale of any animals, and that includes cats and dogs, and that’s the position of The Victoria Vegan as well. Any animal breeding is wrong, and of course ‘adopt, don’t shop’ is fully endorsed. This is a much more complex topic, but will leave it at there so it’s clear where I stand, and may colour how some topics below are covered.
Just a Few Years Ago..
Not long ago, even just 3-4 years ago, a basic visit to the vet for me was around $60, but today that same visit is $120-$160. This is just for a simple check-up. It sure seems like a lot for a hamster or guinea pig, especially given that most vets have far less experience with these species, but charge as much as they would for a much more common pet like a cat or dog. (And they won’t be able to offer nearly as many treatment options.)
CBC’s Story on Vet Costs
CBC also recently did a story on this topic, here’s the video, it shares a similar story:
The short segment is worth watching; it’s based in Alberta, but it’s not dissimilar from what we can expect in Victoria.
The veterinarian explains the costs involved, but some of it seems a bit suspect. For example how often do they get new x-ray machines? I swear the ones I see in the vet clinics I visit look like they’ve been there for a few decades. The cost involved certainly can’t justify hundreds of dollars in charges for a couple scans that have a digital output? These machines have been paid back many times over, and the charge seems quite exorbitant.
My Own Recent Experience
My late rescue hamster Demi Smallering can help exemplify some of the costs I’m referring to.
In the fall, on September 19th, I took her in for a check-up. She was exhibiting some ‘clicking’ in her breathing, which is often a sign of an upper respiratory infection. My preferred vet (an hour drive away) also checked her heart, and suspected it might actually be congestive heart failure, but was challenging for her to confirm with the stethoscope as Demi was squirming around a lot. But the vet felt fairly confident this was the case.
We decided to try antibiotics first hopeful it was a more simple condition to treat, but after several days there wasn’t the expected response. The ‘clicking’ would come and go, along with visible lethargy. Normally with an infection symptoms are consistent day to day, but she’d be totally fine one day, then looking fairly rough the next, and then fine again for a few days, then the symptoms would return.
So she was off the antibiotics, and got the heart medication and diuretic (to reduce fluid build-up). It’s hard to really quantify how much these helped, but she had over a month with minimal symptoms, and on November 18th after another ‘big’ episode and few ‘really rough days’, along with really low body weight and advanced age, decided it was best to take her to a clinic one last time for one last heart-breaking visit so she wouldn’t suffer any further.
Breaking down the costs:
- The initial visit was $174.85, with $22.60 being for the antibiotics. (No x-rays, scans, etc.. Maybe 15mins with the vet.)
- The heart medication and diuretic cost $144.81.
- And lastly it was $178 for the very hard final visit. (To a clinic that was much closer.)
That’s $500 in couple months.
As Demi’s dad, of course I’ll do what I have to for her well-being, but I find it hard to believe that really reflects the related costs.
Not to derail my own post, but also relevant: this was with a competent vet. After this experience I realized the Oak Bay-based vet I had been visiting had misdiagnosed two previous hamsters who I now realized also had congestive heart failure, now that I’m familiar with the symptoms. I mentioned earlier that vets typically have a lot less experience and knowledge with small/exotic animals, yet they charge the same rates and can be prone to misdiagnosis. (In my business of web design, if I’m working with a technology I’m unfamiliar with, I don’t charge my client my full rate if I’m not knowledgeable and efficient.)
Pet Insurance?
Not that it’s an option in my case, but pet insurance is highlighted in the CBC video as an option to help with these costs.
I feel it should be emphasized that it shouldn’t come down to this – veterinary costs should be reasonable to begin with. Not propped up (and validated!) by having to rely on insurance as well.
Also, the pet insurance environment is wrought with frustrating limitations, with ‘pre-existing conditions’ and ‘non-covered ailments’ abound. They’re very good at finding ways to exempt what may come up, so not only are you paying the insurance that doesn’t cover you, but you’re also paying the vet bills on top of that.
A suggested alternative is to forego pet insurance, and instead take the amount you’d be paying, and set that aside each month in a separate account, and maintain that as your ‘pet insurance’. Hopefully there are no big surprises, but at least you’ll have a cushion if it does.
The Cost of Living & Housing Crisis Affect on Pets
The increasing costs of living, along with the absurdly expensive housing situation is likely already affecting whether people adopt animals in Victoria, or can even support the ones they have.
Housing costs, whether renting or paying a mortgage, have increased dramatically in the last few years. Food is also much more expensive. Suddenly that buffer of a few hundred dollars you were used to is now gone, and you’re ‘tightening your belt’ buying less groceries, and spending less elsewhere, and still have less at the end of the day than you did a few years ago.
If this trend continues, we’re also going to see a pet crisis, as people lose the ability to afford caring for cats, dogs and other animals who need homes.
Not only will fewer people be adopting, but likely more people will be relinquishing their pets to shelters as well, out of desperation to afford to make it through the month. (On this note, if you find yourself in this situation, please take your animals to a shelter. Do not try to ‘find a home’. The people who are known to abuse animals are the ones acquiring them ‘on the side’, and you have no way of knowing who they are.)
Add on how expensive vet visits are now, and safe to predict they’re only going to rise even more… An illness or condition that a few years ago would have both been less expensive to treat, and would have had more cash on hand, is now challenged with higher costs and lower value for the dollar.
When facing that situation, some may opt to kill their pet rather than pay for medication or procedures. Hopefully they instead take their animal to a shelter, where they have a second chance. (I refuse to use the term ‘euthanize’ in this situation. You cannot euthanize a healthy or treatable being. An expensive vet bill is not an ‘untreatable condition’. The term ‘euthanize’, which is intended as a merciful release from a terminal condition, should not be used in any other way.)
While the shelters around Victoria have very high adoption rates (and praiseworthy high standards for adoption!) the last decade or two, we may see this stressed in the coming months or years, as people find themselves in situations where they can barely scrape by.
Is There a Solution?
Given the not-so-cheery situations described above are becoming endemic in society, and this economic trend isn’t showing signs of abating, it is very worrisome.
In the immediate future, I don’t see housing getting any cheaper. I don’t see wages going up. I don’t expect other day-to-day requirements like food costs reducing.
And I don’t see the costs to veterinary clinics going down either.
My own experience suggests it probably doesn’t help that there’s a bit of a monopoly on clinics, with the VCA running the majority of clinics that will see small/exotic animals, so my personal experience is a bit limited.
Are the independent clinics operating in competition with the VCA, or do they all alter and raise their prices to match?
If the number of people with pets decrease, what impact will that have on vet clinics, and their pricing?
Unfortunately I don’t have an answer. Perhaps there can be some kind of government regulation and standard with pricing,
But the first step in finding an answer is asking questions. Feel free to join in the conversation in the comment section below. Share your own experiences, concerns or ideas for solutions!
Dave Shishkoff
Editor
UPDATE – Jan 23, 2025: Funny timing – browsing Flipboard I came across this Marketplace piece posted today: “How the corporatization of vet clinics is driving up prices across the country“. It also highlights increases in prices, and also how much prices can vary between clinics (a urinalysis costing between $47 and $175), and possibly ‘unnecessary’ treatments included, as well as how many clinics are owned by larger corporations (which may not be obvious at your clinic – you can download a CSV file that breaks it down in piece, or browse their spreadsheet). The article also introduces the unfortunate term ‘economic euthanasia’.
Second update, same day as above: A friend also sent me this: The Corporatization of Animal Care: Why Your Vet Bills are Going Up on the Jas Johal Show featuring animal rights lawyer Rebekah Breder (who’s from BC). A good question is if we’re paying for their ‘upgrading of equipment’ but they still send out tests to 3rd parties, what’s going on there? Here’s a direct link to the interview on Spotify (10mins segment).
