How to Keep Your Cat Healthy on a Budget
With tough economic times, it becomes necessary to lower our daily expenses, and we are always on the lookout for another method for cost cutting. Pet health care may quickly become an area of the budget where funds are limited, and cuts must be made. Thankfully, there are several things you can do to help reduce your cats' health care costs, without sacrificing ones cats' overall health and well-being.
Prevention, Prevention, Prevention
Vet bills can be extraordinarily expensive, and no cat user wants to be in the position of not being able to afford the veterinary care necessary to treat or save the life on the beloved cat. While unforeseen illnesses and accidents will always happen, by making prevention the foundation of your cats' health care program, you can greatly reduce your vet bills on routine health care, and avoid most health problems.
A preventive program includes changing to a healthy natural diet and supplementing it with a compliment involving soil-based probiotics, pet lipids, digestive enzymes and super food supplements. This is the same program health conscious persons follow.
Avoid the Temptation- Don't Skip the Annual Exam
The anticipation of bad news scares families away from annual exams. And yet, a veterinary exam is vital to accessing the overall health of your cat/dog. Serious disease, can be greatly minimized, or even completely avoided by early detection.
If you want to make sure you are in for virtually no surprises come time for your cat's annual exam, make a point of learning how to keep your pet nutritious in the first place. Then, when you take your pet in for a checkup, it will get a glowing bill of health.
Precisely how Often Should You Vaccinate?
While cat vaccinations have traditionally been given on an annual basis, new explore has shown that the antibodies created in response to vaccinating often lasts several years. If you have a senior cat, or maybe a cat that is indoor-only, and is never exposed to other cats, talk to your vet about stopping vaccinations altogether; it's healthier for your cat, and easier on your pocketbook.
Fecal Screening and Parasite Control- Cats that set off outdoors should be screened yearly for common internal parasites that can be acquired from drinking standing water together with from hunting and eating wild animals. Parasite infections can cause serious and even life threatening cases of queasiness and diarrhea. By identifying and treating internal parasites before they become a problem, you can avoid costly vet visits.
Treating your cat for external parasites (fleas, ticks, etc) monthly can help to prevent a few parasite infestation, as well as to avoid skin problems related to flea bite allergies, and prevent tick borne illness; just about all problems which require veterinary attention to treat. Be aware that many "cheaper" pet-store and supermarket varieties of flea solutions can cause serious and potentially deadly reactions and sudden illnesses in cats.
Blood work Especially within older cats, routine blood work in the form of the complete blood count (CBC) and chemistry analysis is vital around ensuring that your cat is healthy. Hyperthyroidism, diabetes and kidney failure are three diseases that can be lifetime threatening if left undiagnosed, and cats rarely show outward signs of illness until these illnesses have progressed into very serious problems. Routine blood work can detect these and many other ailments before clinical signs appear, allowing your cat to be treated before serious damage to the body can occur.
Many other Money-Saving Vet Tips
If your cat currently requires medication, you may be able to save money by getting a prescription to obtain your pets meds online. Take care to do your homework, and select a reputable on-line pharmacy though- out of the nation pharmacies have been caught selling medications that are fake, or contain incorrect or impure amounts of medication inside them.
But you can avoid most medications by adopting a proven preventive and restorative program. Most diseases may be reversed!
Home Care
Dental care is a vital part of keeping your cat healthy, and at sometimes, dentistry cleanings under anesthesia will be an unavoidable necessity. However , you can minimize the number of dental cleanings your kitten will need in his or her lifetime by providing excellent dental home-care.
Daily Brushing Brushing your cats' teeth on a daily basis is the single best thing you can do to keep his or her teeth healthy, and avoid frequent professional teeth cleanings. Cat toothbrushes are available at your vet or pet store, or a human toothbrush will do, but be sure to use toothpaste produced specifically for pets. Brush the teeth daily, making sure you get the outsides of the teeth in the very back in that mouth, which often have the most accumulation of gingivitis and tartar. While your cat may be skeptical associated with what you are doing at first, most cats quickly become accustomed to the practice and become cooperative for the process.
Dental Chews or Bones?
There are several brands of chews available that help to reduce gingivitis, and even allow remove tartar from the teeth. While daily brushing is the best way to keep your cats teeth in good health, tender meat diets are a great prevention method. Raw bones are soft, good for your cat, and become a cleaning agent.
Better Health Through Better Food
If times are tight, it may seem tempting to drop a quality diet and switch to manufactured pet foods- canned or dry. Although supermarkets, and substantial box stores like Wal-Mart sell prepackaged cat foods at cheaper prices than making prepared foodstuff made with real meat, fish, fowl, and lamb, be wary. Prepackaged foods are inferior; they are mostly salt and meat by-products (the parts of the animal unfit for human consumption, such as chicken beaks and feathers. In addition to providing poor nutrition, often you will find you have to feed more of the "cheap" food due to its lack of top quality content.
During the pet-food recall of 2007, pre-packaged pet foods found themselves at the center of the issue. Melamine was used to boost the perceived protein content of kibble. While the foods on the shelves today are considered safe, the best way to avoid potential food problems, and to keep your cat healthy (and by that proxy, saving on vet bills) is to make sure your cat's food is made from quality pure meat sources. You furthermore may need to give them proper Kattemalt i tube and soil-based probiotics to optimize their digestive systems.
Pet Insurance
There is absolutely no denying that veterinary care is expensive, and there is no crystal ball for knowing when your cat might experience a health crisis, though most can be prevented.
Pet Health Insurance has been around for almost 20 years, but just lately it has started to receive more mainstream popularity. Depending on your policy, insurance may help pay the bills if your cat is usually seriously ill or injured, or simply cover routine health care.
It is important to point out that unlike human health insurance, the majority Pet Insurance works on a reimbursement system- meaning that if your cat becomes seriously ill and requires surgical treatment or hospitalization, you will still have to pay out of pocket all charges associated with the veterinary treatments, and then archive a claim with the insurance company to be reimbursed.
The best pet insurance is to start your cat on a deterrence program today. When you factor in the cost of insurance and just 2 vet visits per year, the additional cost of a adequate prevention program is negligible.
The Bottom Line
Cat health care on a budget is possible, and best accomplished just by learning what is the best food for your cat, avoiding commercial pre-packaged pet foods, and eliminating annual vaccines.
By doing this and giving your cat supplements that cannot be found in any food, you can prevent most pet cat health problems. Spending more upfront for better food and proper supplements will minimize your vet expense in the long term, while keeping your cat happy and healthy for years to come.
