The cost of pet ownerhsip surges

Without doubt owning a pet, be it a cat or a dog, is one of the great joys in life regardless of your age and there are plenty of studies showing that owning a pet as you get older leads to improved mental and physical health.

From reducing heart disease to improving mood and wellbeing, there are plenty of scientifically proven ways a pet can improve your general health. Everything from reducing the number of times you yourself visit a doctor to increasing your connectedness to your local community wellbeing.

However, while the cost-of-living crisis is hitting many older Australians, it is impacting hardness on those with pets. Recent figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show pets and related costs have climbed by a massive 22 per cent during the past two years, while veterinary costs rose 14.5 per cent.

For those on a fixed income, that’s a big increase. So, what can you do?

A good place to start is to make sure that you have worthwhile pet insurance so that if you do need to take your pet to the vet you won’t be hit by the full cost of what can be a very expensive undertaking.

PetSure chief insurance officer Joni Hudson says pets age 5.6 times faster than humans, and many owners do not realise that procedures for treating pets are similar to humans and often just as expensive.

“While humans have Medicare, public hospitals, PBS, and bulk billing which covers 70 per cent of medical costs, pet parents are responsible for 100 per cent of their pets’ medical expenses,” she says.

As with all insurance, you need to shop around and ask questions as to what you may or may not be covered for. As the most likely big expense is extended veterinary expenses, make sure you fully understand just how much you can claim from your insurance should your precious fur baby need an extensive stay in hospital.

Also if you choose to make the insurance payments on a monthly basis to help you budget for this expense, make sure you have a foolproof way for it to be paid each month. You don’t want to pay for insurance for years and years, only to find you have recently forgotten to make the premium payments just when you need to make a claim on it.

It’s also important to think ahead. It’s easy to get caught up with the emotions of the day, but you need to know yourself just how much money you are prepared to spend on treatments and operations focused on extending your pet’s natural life span.

It’s part of their job for vets to offer you every option in terms of keeping your loved one alive as long as possible but is it really in the best interest of your dog or cat, who really can’t understand why they are going through any medical procedures.

Its also important that you plan your pet’s diet and ensure that whatever you are feeding your precious one, that it stays within a budget and that as costs rise, maybe those special meal time treats need to become one a fortnight rather than one a week.

It’s also possible to reduce the cost of feeding you furry partner by buying food in bulk and shopping around various supermarkets to see which is offering the best deal on dog food. You’ll be surprised just how much money you can save.