In fact, dogs are easier to raise than cats.
My family has two dogs and four cats. The dogs are a Bichon Frise and a native Chinese dog.
Dogs don’t eat much. Whether it’s dog food or homemade dog meals, they’re generally not picky eaters. The cost of food is not high. Usually, it doesn’t even reach 200 yuan a month.
Dogs need to have their fur trimmed. It costs 100 yuan each time. The pet shops near my home charge 120 yuan, but the trimming isn’t very good. So, I drive to a far – away place every time. The parking and gas costs for the round – trip are more than 20 yuan. So, let’s count it as 120 yuan each time. To achieve the ideal look, it’s best to go once a month.
I don’t want the dogs to hold their urine, so I always use pee – pads. Each pad costs 1 yuan, and it’s about 40 yuan a month. At night, they need to go downstairs for about half an hour to get some fresh air.
Vaccinations and deworming cost about 500 yuan a year.
The cost of buying clothes and toys is less than 200 yuan a year. The Bichon Frise’s fur gets easily knotted when wearing clothes, so the clothes I bought are hardly worn.
For the dog shampoo, I bathe the dogs at home once every half – month or once a week. 200 yuan a year is enough.
My dog is eight years old. Although the monthly expense is not much, it accumulates over the years.
In the past, I used to arrange pet transportation every Spring Festival when going home. It cost 400 yuan each time. A few years ago, when I took the dog to Xishuangbanna, the air transportation cost around 700 yuan, I can’t remember exactly. And then flying it back cost about the same.
However, these are all minor expenses. It’s completely possible to save this money from your usual pocket money. Just last month, my dog got sick. It’s a female dog, and we found a breast tumor. I took her to the hospital. The pictures below are quite bloody. Don’t look if you can’t stand it!
We had a complete mastectomy and spayed her at the same time.
Look at this state. Even a stray dog might not look this bad. After the surgery, she was given a pain – killing injection, but she was still shaking from the pain.
I really regretted raising them. It wasn’t about the cost, but I couldn’t bear to see them suffer like this. I cried several times. Watching her in so much pain and bleeding so much was heart – breaking. In the few days before the pathology results came out, I couldn’t sleep well. I was extremely anxious. When the results were about to come out, I was too scared to look. I was especially afraid that the tumor was malignant. Fortunately, it was benign, and we just need to do regular check – ups. Also, I’m grateful to my sister – in – law who works in the hospital. Otherwise, after the surgery, I would have followed the doctor’s advice and given her anti – tumor medicine. That kind of medicine is very strong and can damage the organs.
During her illness, I took her to get an IV drip every morning and evening. She has separation anxiety, so she couldn’t be hospitalized, and I wasn’t comfortable leaving her in the hospital either. When driving to get the injection, someone had to hold her, or else I was afraid she would break the wound. After all, the wound was very large, stretching from between the front legs to the buttocks.
Now, it’s been one and a half months since the surgery. I took her to get a haircut yesterday, and she’s become a cute little thing again.
Finally, as a friendly reminder, female dogs at the age of eight are at a high – risk of breast diseases. Dogs that have given birth have a lower risk of pyometra, but their breasts are more likely to get sick due to hormonal stimulation. If you can feel a grain – sized or larger lump in the dog’s breast, you should pay attention and take it to the hospital for an examination to see if it’s a tumor. There’s a 50% chance that it’s malignant. The same goes for cats, but for cats, there’s a more than 96% chance that it’s malignant.
What if it’s malignant? With radiotherapy and chemotherapy, they can generally live for one to two years. But the dogs will suffer a lot. If it’s severe, they may not even last half a year. At that time, I thought that if it was malignant, I would give up treatment, make a wish list, take good care of her, accompany her through her last days, and finally euthanize her.
It took nearly a month for the dog to recover completely from the illness. When the anti – inflammatory injections stopped, we still had to go to the hospital every other day to drain the fluid. So, we went to the hospital many times. Among the dogs I’ve seen, there are those that had spaying surgeries, those that were bitten by insects and needed blood transfusions due to anemia, those with leukemia, diabetes, pancreatitis, a dog with a hernia operation, a dog with oral cancer, a dog with an eye infection that had its eyeball removed, and a dog that was poisoned by the pesticide seeping out from the flower pot and was hospitalized. There are so many cases. Basically, they can get the same diseases as humans.
Really, believe me, raising a dog isn’t just about the costs of grooming, clothes, vaccines, and leashes.
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