Think You Can't Afford the Vet?

We all know that cats are quite adept at disguising the symptoms of illness until they're practically dead, right? So why is it that we don't take them to the vet as often as dogs?

CatChannel.com posed that very same question. You can give them your own response here. (Look on the left-hand side of the site for the poll; at this writing it was still this one.) These were the results when I took the poll:

• 70.17% said "Not in my budget"
• 12.88% said "Fear of the cat carrier"
• 10.25% said "Do I need to go? I'm an indoor cat."
• 6.70% said "Utter loathing of vet/vet's office"

The economy's been rough, so it's not hard to understand that people may have a problem affording vet fees. But catching a condition or disease early is often far cheaper than letting it develop into a much-more-expensive-to-treat situation. And vaccines not only prevent future expenses for treating the disease, but can even save your cat's life!

Costopedia, a site that gives average costs for pretty much anything, gave these figures for cat procedures at the vet:

• Spaying: $100-$200
• Neutering: $50-$100
• Urinary tract reconstruction, including bladder, urethra & kidney: $1,399
• Rectal cancer treatment (for malignant tumors within the large intestine): $1,011
• Mast cell tumor removal: $497
• Intestinal cancer treatment: $942
• Hyperthyroidism radiation treatment: $920
• Removal of ingested foreign items from stomach: $1,391
• Fibrosarcoma (skin cancer) treatment: $780
• Bladder stones removal: $989
• Acute renal failure treatment: $565

Catching many of these conditions in a regular well-cat checkup at the vet is far preferable to allowing your cat to develop full-blown symptoms and enduring the full cost of treatment. If money is truly a problem the Humane Society of the United States offers a list of financial aid organizations for pet care. Every state has organizations offering free or reduced-cost spay and neuter surgeries, and usually vaccinations, as well.

Now, if you can just overcome that fear of the cat carrier, you'll be set!