Do you feel that going to an animal hospital or local veterinarian will lead to you walking out with a light wallet? What most pet owners do not realize is that Animal Hospitals are here to help. Our pets are a big part of our families; the eat with us, they sleep with us, they comfort us and sometimes they drive us up a wall, but we love them. With this said, they also need to be cared for with high quality veterinary services and unfortunately, for local animal hospitals, costs are skyrocketing. In order to continue providing your pet with quality care, your local animal hospital has to pass some of these costs onto you.

It may seem that they are out to charge you for “anything and everything”, but in most cases, they are just barely covering their costs. With this said, we do suggest you remain diligent as a consumer and ask the right questions when you get an estimate from your local animal hospital. So what should you be asking?

1. First and foremost, always make sure that your pet is up to date on their routine care. If they skip a rabies shot, or a vaccination, often this will come back to haunt you when you have to get unexpected care for your pet.
2. Ask the Animal Hospital or veterinarian for a high estimate, a medium estimate and a low estimate. What this will do is help you determine exactly what services are absolutely necessary and what services the animal hospital may be offering as an added service.
3. Call another local animal hospital when you get your estimate and do some price shopping. Its always good to remember that if you are going to price shop, there may some variance based on your specific pet.

The more questions, the better off you are going to be, and you will be able to truly see if the cost of the services or care that this animal hospital is going to provide to you is worth the price.