The Cost of Pet Ownership

Many people don't realize how expensive it can be to own a pet. Even if you're trying to spend as little as possible on food, basic housing, supplies, and veterinary expenses, the costs add up. If you're going to care for your pet by feeding premium or prescription foods, purchase beds, toys, and provide more than minimal veterinary care, expenses can increase significantly.

PetEducation.com has a detailed breakdown of typical dog ownership costs. One category I noticed is missing from the list is licensing. The "tight fisted miser" owning a 50-pound dog in the midwest spent $12,500 for 14 years, or about $900 per year on his dog.

I use Quicken to keep track of my expenses and I categorize pet expenses in 3 categories:

• Medical - any veterinary expenses (exams, tests, xrays, surgery), medications & supplements. This includes flea & heartworm control and vitamins, cosequin, etc. End-of-life costs of euthanasia and cremation are also included in this category.

• Food - dry and canned food, treats

• Miscellaneous - toys, grooming supplies, beds, pet furniture (cat perches), dog house, pet carriers, bowls, licenses, tags, leashes, collars and anything that's not Medical or Food.

For the most part, the amounts in each category are accurate, but I don't spend a lot of time categorizing a receipt that has minor expenses. For example, if I go to the store and get $50 worth of food, $40 of vitamins (medical category) and a $5 toy (miscellaneous category), the $5 toy gets absorbed into the food or medical category. But if the various expenses are significant, I try to put them in the proper category. I'm sure there are several expenses that never got recorded, but they wouldn't change the totals very much.

Costs of owning Bentley

Bentley is a 75 pound Golden Retriever that I had for 8 years (9 yrs old - 17 yrs old).
I spent a total of $12,500 or about $1,550 per year.

• Medical - $ 7,400 - He got regular checkups & vaccinations, standard lab work (blood, fecal, urine) or senior chemistry panel as recommended by the vet. He had one major medical expense of $1,500 when he needed his spleen removed. That included exams, x-rays, ultrasound, lab work, surgery, and medications.  He had two minor medical expenses (a sore hip and an episode of illness/diarrhea) that required medications. He never needed his teeth cleaned. He was on Rimadyl and Cosequin for about 4 years.  His digestive system didn't tolerate generic human-brand glucosamine/chondroitin supplements, so I had to pay more for the top of the line doggy version. 

• Food - $ 4,000 - His allergies required him to eat a prescription food (Eukanuba FP)

• Miscellaneous - $ 940 - all the other stuff. I never had to board him and I did all his grooming, 

Cost of owning the cats

Felix, Smokey, Ed, (Raven, & Sammi)

The "shared" expenses for the cats are a little hard to sort out.  Felix, Smokey, and Ed were the "First Generation" and lived for a different number of years - Felix (14), Smokey (9), and Ed (11).  I adopted Felix and Smokey as kittens and adopted Ed when he was ~ 5 years old. With the "Second Generation" of cats - Raven and Sammi - we've purchased a few new perches and beds, but nothing major. Their medical expenses have been minimal (check-up, deworming, etc).  All the First Generation cats had medical expenses for regular exams, lab work (blood, fecal, urine), vaccinations, and microchipping. But their major medical expenses were very different due to the diseases they had.

• Medical - Felix - $ 7,100 - He had intestinal cancer that caused a bowel obstruction and emergency hospitalization with labs, x-ray & ultrasound. The cancer diagnosis included ultrasound, endoscopic biopsy, and was followed by chemotherapy. He had 1 dental cleaning.

• Medical - Smokey - $ 2,500 - Smokey had lymphatic cancer involving ultrasound/biopsy diagnosis and chemotherapy. She was never hospitalized. She had 1 dental cleaning

• Medical - Ed - $ 5,350 - Ed had hemobartonella (feline infectious anemia) that required 5 days of hospilalization; he was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (cardiology visit and EKG); later in life he had renal failure that required a few high-cost vet visits. He had 3 dental cleanings.

• Food - $ 3,800 - Smokey had a prescription diet for a while, but they mostly ate premium cat foods.

• Miscellaneous - $ 4,300 - all the perches, beds, cat litter, collars, tags, toys, bowls, and other stuff.

I'm going to keep things easy and say that all the cats shared equally in the food and miscellaneous expenses. Smokey lived fewer years, but needed the more expensive prescription food.  Most of the perches and beds were bought when all 3 were living, so I'll consider those "shared" as well. 

So the costs are: 

Felix - $9,800 over 14 years or about $ 700 per year.
Smokey - $ 5,200 over 9 years or about $580 per year.
Ed- $ 8,050 over 11 years or about $ 750 per year.

Making the "average" for owning a cat in my house about $ 675 per year.

I've never had pet insurance. I've read from several sources that it may or may not be cost effective; it just depends on the types of medical issues your pet has. Instead, I budget about $300 per month for pet expenses. Of course most months have minimal expenses of just food and maintenance medications, but the other budgeted money goes into a savings account to be used when one of the pets needs to go to the vet.