When Times Are Tough

Last week I received an E-mail from a friend of mine who is a dedicated veterinarian in Wisconsin. She wrote for advice regarding treatment of a male kitty with an urethral obstruction (this is when the cat cannot urinate, typically due to crystals in the urine) whose human companion was a young girl with no money. My friend took pity on the kitty and the client late on that Friday afternoon and we E-mailed back and forth about the care plan for a few hours.

When I congratulated my friend for caring for this kitty for minimal money, she wrote back: What was I to do?

What are we to do, indeed? With tough times for many of us, veterinary care has become a luxury for many clients with companion animals. Veterinarians, too, feel the pinch as medical costs soar, undergraduate and veterinary school loans (often in excess of $100,000) need payment, landlords raise rents, taxes skyrocket and staffs want to be paid a fair wage. The truth is that the overwhelming majority of veterinarians enter the profession because they want to improve the lives of animals and be of service to the humans they meet on the way, too. The reality is that in order to provide care, veterinarians need to keep their hospitals open – and that takes money. When the worlds of the client with limited funds and a sick cat meets the world of the veterinarian who must pay bills to keep the doors open (and put food on the table, too), it’s a heart-wrenching situation for all concerned.

Believe me, no veterinarian enjoys declining services .

Some veterinarians–like my friend above–bite the bullet and do what can be done to make the kitty comfortable. In this case, she placed a urinary catheter, gave fluids and pain control and started the kitty on muscle relaxants. My friend is lucky because she is an owner of the practice, so has a bit of leeway in deciding who she will serve and how much she will do.

When I had my own cats-only practice, my rule of thumb was that once the cat and client stepped through the door, I moved heaven and earth to help the patient. Many times, I cajoled a lab test from a friend, wrote off some of the service, etc., but that can’t be done many times before the economic situation of a clinic begins to look bleak. There isn’t a drug company, vaccine manufacturer, etc. who will let a veterinarian “slide” on payment, knowing that costs were cut on behalf of a patient whose family couldn’t afford to pay.

I have thought much this past weekend about how clients with limited funds can help their cats stay reasonably healthy and have come up with the following short list:

Feed canned food–especially if you have male cats. I have talked a lot on this topic for Feline Pine and believe that it is one of the best things that we can do to keep our cats healthy. Avoid beef and fish/seafood and feed your cats a poultry-based diet. Cats are designed to get their water from their food–in health, they are poor water drinkers. Chances are that male cats who eat canned diets exclusively won’t form crystals and be at risk for urethral obstructions (unable to urinate).

Keep your cats inside. Cats who roam are at risk for trauma (animal bites, hit by car, etc.) and visits to the emergency clinic are expensive. 

Be a smart consumer of vaccines for your cats. Kittens, like human babies, should have their full vaccination series and then bolstered for rabies and distemper at one year of age. Afterwards, it is recommended that cats received a distemper/upper respiratory vaccine no more frequently than every three years and a rabies vaccine (ideally a non-adjuvented one, which is less likely to cause tumors in cats) every year.

Clients often mistakenly believe that indoor cats don’t need rabies vaccines, but bats, in particular, can gain access to homes and if the kitty is exposed, hospital quarantine can result. It’s very smart not to discontinue rabies vaccines in cats. Too much is at risk. If you cat bites or scratches a visitor (child or adult), quarantine will most likely be required, if the kitty is not up to date on rabies. Check with your local government and humane society and many of them offer rabies clinics at lower costs.

Don’t medicate your kitty yourself–especially with herbal supplements. Herbal medications aren’t “safer” than non-herbal ones and cats in particular are exquisitely sensitive to many of these products. Clients often erroneously believe that herbal medications are healthier and cost effective. As a veterinary acupuncturist who knows how helpful herbs can be, my opinion is that these supplements should never be given without the supervision of a veterinarian.

Establish a relationship with your veterinarian and be honest about your situation.

Veterinarians are willing to work with clients who don’t have the funds for a “Cadillac” work-up and your veterinarian should never make you feel that you don’t care about the well-being of your cat because you can’t afford a $2,000 bill. There are many ways to approach a patient’s situation and variable levels of expense. Dealing with diseases early on is generally more cost effective than treating a chronic problem later and appropriate diagnostic tests typically improve the chances to identify the problem and establish a sound treatment plan. Empirical therapy (guessing what might be wrong with the patient and then treating as such) is often frustrating for the client (and veterinarian) as often times the patient doesn’t respond.

Remember that emergency care is more expensive than services given at day practices.

Just like their human counterparts, veterinary emergency clinics typically charge higher fees than “day” practices. Never compromise your cat’s care by foregoing a trip to the emergency hospital for a life-threatening situation, but realize that payment will need to be made, either through a credit service (like Care Credit, where a client’s good credit history is mandatory) or credit card, cash or checks when the animal is released or as a deposit if you cat is hospitalized (the bill will need to be paid in fill on the release or death of the kitty). If times are truly tough, have a heart-to-heart with family and friends and see if they will be able to loan you the money necessary for veterinary care.

How are you juggling veterinary care in this economy? Do have tips to share with readers of this blog? Post those here and let’s start a dialogue on this important topic.