If you are a on a budget, finding affordable vet care is paramount, and also knowing where to find free vet care is also important. Local animal shelters and vets may also be able to help. Try to get trustworthy pet insurance. If you can’t afford it (or the policy is not for a condition or older animal), here are people who can help for those eligible (usually on benefits). :
- PDSA
- Blue Cross
- RSPCA
- Mayhew & Celia Hammond (London)
- Dog’s Trust & Cats Protection (certain procedures)
- Free vet care for dogs of homeless people
Animal Trust is England’s first non-profit vet. This means that staff still get paid, but prices are more realistic for the average person. Hopefully a sign of things to come?
CarefreeCredit is a company built by vets, to help people with vet bills. You are allowed to pay interest-free loans for cars, so why not for more important animal friends? This way if you have no option buy to pay a big bill, you can spread the cost without interest, so your pet gets the treatment it needs now. It’s kind of the same as the companies that you pay interest-free for a big treatment at the dentist, and is run with the cooperation of surgeries.
So if a treatment costs £1000, you can get the treatment done and then pay around £80 a month for a year, while your pet safely recovers. You can also use this service to pay any remainder that your current pet insurance does not cover (from a minimum £50). If approved, this company pays the vet, then you just pay them ongoing.
Books to Help Keep Dogs Well
Of course, keeping dogs well is the aim in itself, but a good side effect is less trips to the vet. You can then spend the money on treats and snuggly blankets:
- This book to keep your dog safe is packed with fun illustrations, but includes important safety information on everything from toxic foods to avoid and garden safety, along with info on every other topic under the sun, and first aid.
- Where Does My Dog Hurt? (by a vet) offers 23 simple body checkups to help diagnose minor issues (see a vet if concerned). Includes clear anatomical illustrations and how-to photos for each check-up, from nose to tail.
- My Pawsome Dog and Me Journal is a unique keepsake, filled with sage advice and space to document fun stuff (like favourite treats and most-loved scratch spots). But also there are helpful tips on good health for your woofer, and space to record anything you need, from symptoms to watch and medications to take.
Free & Low-Cost Vet Care Outside the UK
As the whole world appears to be broke at present and animals worldwide need help, we did a quick scan to find similar charities abroad, if you’ve landed on this site:
- Blue Cross (Ireland)
- Charity Paws (US)
- The Humane Society (US)
- Go Fund Me (CA)
- PetCard (helps spread the cost)
- The Farley Foundation (CA)
- Community Veterinary Outreach (CA)
- Pet Medical Crisis (AU)
- Vet Care Finance (NZ – affordable emergency loans)
- Project Vets (worldwide) accepts donations of gently used veterinary/medical equipment.
Waggle (US) is a crowdfunding platform where people pool donations from vetted requests, then are informed how animals were helped. Donations are matched by people who have lost companion animals. Read reviews here (there are a couple of not-so-good ones but with responses). You can set up a similar crowdfunding campaign at Fundly, Chuffed and Snowball.
Where to Find Trustworthy Pet Insurance
Trustworthy pet insurance can be very difficult to find. Most vets charge by the minute and if you are on a budget and find yourself with a poorly pup or moggy, it can be terrifying to know what to do. If you are on benefits or low income, you may qualify for free and low-cost vet care so check here first. If you see a street dog with a homeless person, there are charities that offer free vet care to dogs of homeless people.
One way to help keep dogs safe (and reduce vet visits) is this book to keep your dog safe. It’s packed with fun illustrations, but includes important safety information on everything from toxic foods to avoid and garden safety, along with info on every other topic under the sun, and an illustrated first aid guide.
Animal Trust is England’s first non-profit vet. This means that staff still get paid, but prices are more realistic for the average person. Hopefully a sign of things to come?
Some issues with pet insurance include:
- Not offering lifetime cover. All other policies are better than nothing but risky if your pet develops an ongoing condition like diabetes, as it won’t be covered long-term.
- Not covering older pets or pre-existing conditions. But if you have old pets, not-very-well-pets (that still have quality of life) or certain breeds, it may be an idea to just make a rainy day account and put money away, in case of emergencies.
- Some only allow for ‘one dietary indiscretion’. So if your dog eats chocolate once, they will cover it. But often not after that.
- Some don’t offer important policies like covering for you if you have to go into hospital, or even putting animals peacefully to sleep.
- Some will only insure pets who have up-to-date worming and vaccinations etc. This sounds good in theory and it is. But some pets (especially older ones or ones with weak immunity) are sometimes best not having ‘the whole bunch’ as it can do more harm than good for some (this is a debate, usually between vets and holistic vets who often don’t agree with the blanket ‘injections and boosters every year’).
Some shelters pay for vet bills, if you adopt pets with pre-existing conditions. Otherwise, go for lifetime cover if you can afford it. Go for companies that don’t confuse with jargon with lots of charts. This is designed to make you fret and not to help. We are not going to list any particular companies, because even though some have 5-star reviews, all of them have circumstances where the guardians are heartbroken, when things go wrong. Just use your own judgement but don’t rely that any is going to be perfect.
In the US, Healthy Paws Pet Insurance has nearly 100% positive reviews (unheard of for most pet insurance). Founded by two animal-loving entrepreneurs who met at the shelter, it has simple policies that cover all ages, and offers some holistic treatments. Profits help animal adoption drives.
