Animals in the USA: Treatment and Cost of Veterinary Services
'18.05.2017'
How much are vet services in America? Personal experience on the example of our American cat and the answer is “very expensive”.
According to research by US veterinary organizations, Americans spend on the treatment of domestic animals over $ 40 billions a year. And this figure is rapidly increasing, from which veterinary services is one of the most promising areas of both private business and the entire national economy of the country.
Let's talk about the treatment of the cost of the services of a veterinarian for our cat. As an example.
We love our cat, but our health is not very lucky. We have long struggled with allergies, then it turned out that he had bad teeth, now he had stones in his bladder. If so, then over the past few years more than $ 5 thousand have gone to the vets. So that you understand prices by the standards of the residents of Los Angeles, a very expensive city in America, a studio apartment will cost an average of $ 2 thousands per month. That is, it's almost 2,5 for the month of rental.
With allergies, we mostly spent on injections and on examination at the vet. The average per visit was $ 150. About $ 1 000 came out per year.
He was also removed 2 small front teeth, as it turned out, they were reeling and there was some kind of inflammatory process. They took pictures, took tests, did anesthesia. In general, everything is just like that of people, only a dentist was a veterinarian. Price $ 900.
The last thing we encountered was bladder stones (which is interesting, according to previous analyzes, all indicators were normal). Naturally, the cat had a very sick stomach, at first we did not understand what was the matter. But when he began to complain completely, we quickly got together and went straight to the morning in the morning. animal emergency (ambulance). The stones were washed for him, and there was no operation to remove them. True, we left him in the hospital for 2 days, because he was with an IV and a catheter. As a result, the cost of treatment is $ 1 (including food for him and medications to be taken at home). In addition, we ourselves drove him from our clinic to the hospital that works at night, that is, as a medical overexposure of animals at night, because our clinic works only during the day, and we could not give us a cat home, because the doctors needed monitor his condition. Here my husband and I were already making bets on how much they would charge us for overnight overexposure (desperate excitement during stress). My husband said $ 600, I said $ 500. It was a draw, $ 200. Taking our patient home to rest, we also bought a package of special food for cats with bladder problems (the food is sold by prescription), here is another $ 350 (this is expensive for food). So, in a couple of days we took a short vacation in Hawaii (naturally, we are not angry with the cat, and we do not blame him for anything, everyone is sick, rather the prices for treatment are unpleasantly upset).
And yes, about the animals that ate something wrong. Our bills for a reasonable illness are very divine, because if a dog, for example, squeezes some plastic thing that refuses to go out naturally, it will be completely different accounts, up to the annual rent of the same one-room apartment.
Yes, in America there is insurance on animals, but it lacks its own nuances, i.e. guarantees of covering bills for some kind of illness in a pet, as I understand it, they do not give, and they can refuse to pay the bill. In addition, the insurance starts to work only on 15 the day after it was opened, that is, it became ill, the insurance was open and went to be treated - it did not work. In this we all have to figure out, since this kind of health cannot be relaxed, unfortunately.
In our clinic (we go to a large network of veterinary clinics, as I understand it, in all States - VCA) there is a certain insurance plan, which includes 5 scheduled examinations, standard vaccinations for an animal (also anthelmintic and anti-flea) and there are some discounts on their local services. The price of this pleasure is $ 65 / month. We issued this plan when we received a bill for teeth in $ 900, in general, it turned out not to no, but in some ways we saved a little, at least for a couple of planned free inspections of the cat.
And so you understand, the reception at the vet is always paid. The first inspection in a new clinic usually costs on average $ 60, but there are clinics that do it for free (including ours) - for the first time. I already wrote about this in the article “Expenses for Pets in the USA: Veterinarian, Food, Toilet, Toys”.
And another interesting nuance. When we gave the cat to the clinic and signed all the documents on the treatment bills (which is a plus, it is after the diagnosis of your pet that the clinic immediately gives you an approximate bill, from the minimum to the maximum possible, so that you understand whether you are pulling the price, and in general, they knew what was waiting for your credit card), then we were also given a paper where we had to tick, choosing from three points what we want from the doctors in case of a cat's heart failure. The answer choices are nothing, basic measures (I won’t remember the price exactly, but up to $ 1 000) and manual heart massage (from $ 1 000). At such moments, you understand how much life costs, though not human. I then just hung up and completely ceased to understand what is happening and what the nurse tells us, who designed all these papers, especially in English. I didn’t see much difference in the last two methods, there seem to be a few hundred differences, we just didn’t expect it. We decided to choose the best. Here I must say that this document is standard, so to speak legal, so that veterinarians know how to act, if that. But if you look at it on a large scale, all this is horrible. It seems people are crazy.
Total. Our cat is doing well, he is recovering, although we are very nervous about this week. But at least some benefit from this will be - at least an example for you and possible prices for the treatment of pets in America. And I can only hope that these three examples will be enough for the blog and for our life, and our fur friend will henceforth be always healthy.
Stacy Kireev, author Blog "Russian notes about American life" and Instagram about life in America.
