I know I should blog about BlogHer, but I'm not ready - stuff is still racing around in my head. When it settles down, I'll write.
One of the topics people ask me wistfully if I'll ever write about again is dogs. People still send me email from my website and from my lists asking questions about their dog's health and care, although much less as I've been almost completely absent on my lists for several months now. This weekend I finally understood one of the main reasons why I've mostly stopped responding to these questions.
Almost no one can ever afford to do what I'm recommending.
I am not one who thinks vets charge too much. Of course there are vets out there who over-charge, that's inevitable. But overall, I actually think the veterinary profession is underpaid. Vets make less than human dentists by a considerable margin, for example. They almost never make a three-figure salary, and if they do, it's probably because they work in a high-overhead specialty practice in an expensive metropolitan area.
But that's irrelevant to whether or not people actually have the money to do the things that would result in their dog or cat getting the best possible care.
I'm not talking about the pathetic losers who always have money for a new computer or cell phone or drugs or booze or whatever, but "can't afford" to take their dog to the vet when it gets hit by a car. Those people aren't emailing me for advice and if they did, I wouldn't hesitate to tell them to find their dog a loving home with someone with a brain and a heart and then go out and shoot themselves. No, they aren't the problem.
The problem is all the well-meaning people who love their pets but don't have three grand lying around to run diagnostics and actually find out why their dog has had diarrhea off and on for the last seven months. The ones who write me in desperation, looking for an herbal or dietary cure for a completely undiagnosed digestive tract disease. And the only real answer I have for them is, unless you know what the problem is, how can anyone, conventional or alternative, even begin to help you solve it?
Of course you can try a homemade diet and gentle herbs. And it might fix the problem. But it might not. And this approach is no more scientific than the "let's put them on Flagyl and see what happens" one I rant about so often. There is still no diagnosis, and you never do know if the treatment worked, or it was just tincture of time that did the trick.
The same holds true for so many other problems, from hair loss to obesity to fatigue to itching to respiratory problems. Undiagnosed tick diseases, undiagnosed Cushings, undiagnosed allergies ... the list is endless and the answers, costly. Not always, but usually at least slightly, into four figures.
Often these days I feel overwhelmed with the options that exist for diagnosing and treating diseases and injuries in our dogs and cats. Even at a fraction of the cost of their human equivalents, these procedures are often well beyond the means of any but the wealthiest pet owners. I used to do any and everything possible, damn the cost, until two five-figure vet bills in less than two years burned through all my savings and most of my available credit - and both dogs died.
So now when I start researching "What to do?" I also have to ask "How much does it cost?" and follow that up with "Can I afford that?"
When I get asked for advice, I don't like to assume the person asking has financial limitations, but usually when I suggest something, the first response is, "I can't afford that." I begin to understand why so many vets start economizing on their clients' behalf, and don't bother offering the best option, because it must seem that no one ever takes them up on it. I never thought I'd be one of those people, and yet more and more these days, I am. I'd still bankrupt myself if necessary to save a dog or cat, but I'm more hesitant now. I realize how few miracles there really are, be they conventional or holistic. I realize how expensive most miracles are, too. I know, I've bought a few in my time, and I'm sure I'll buy a few more.
Can good holistic care reduce vet bills? I think it can reduce the smaller day-to-day ones. It does seem to me, after more than 20 years of holistic pet care, that yes, my raw-fed, holistically raised dogs are living much longer than their kibble-fed, conventionally raised relatives. I can't state with any certainty they are living longer because of my rearing practices, though, because this is a very small sample. Still, it's what I believe.
But it's not enough. My first five-figure vet bill was on a third generation naturally reared dog of my own breeding, who died despite all our best efforts and all the money we could throw at the problem. And dogs who live longer also end up costing more, for food bills if nothing else.
Losing Raven cost me a lot more than money, too. It cost me a certain innocence I had somehow held onto for more than two decades. I realized that you can open a vein and bleed yourself dry and still lose your dog. I should have understood that when I lost Bran two years before, but it took this second lesson to get it into my head: There are no guarantees when you start down that path.
This is certainly not a novel observation. Gina has blogged about it, and so has Nancy Campbell RVT over at Vet Techs, where I also blog. I'm kind of slow, sometimes, and it took me a while to put the pieces together.
Knowledge may be power, but sometimes it just costs too damn much to get it. And so, what do you do?
I wish I had a suggestion.
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