Oh the good ol' Free kitty... Who told ya they would be cheap?

I am "glad" in a way my kitties were not free out of Craig's list or something, due to me being broke looking for a cheap pet.... that would be a rude awakening!
With Bugsy's numerous health problems, and the upcoming renewal of their insurance policy, I decided it was time to upgrade their coverage. I am a true insurance believer, and it works for me - it has been nothing but wonderful saved me numerous times.
Their policy was covering $2,500 per incident - for the vast majority of cats, it would be plenty. For Bugsy, it might not be in the future... If he has to get surgeries, biopsy, ultrasound, whatever else done, it will cost more than that. On the same token, I didn't want to upgrade only him, so I did to them all. Now each one of them cost me around $27 in insurance alone. That right there is about $80.
He is on two prescriptions - one $36, which the insurance doesn't pay as is dental, and the other $30/month, which is covered.
Prescription food is around $130 for them all.
Gracie's prescription another $40
I am thinking about insuring Gracie - that will cost $37..... It will not cover Hyperthyroidism, but it will cover everything else. Since she is older and so many things can go wrong, I do think it might be a good move...
Bugsy has to go to the dentist a couple of times a year, and that costs roughly $250...
Gracie's vet another $250 2x/yr...
Every time I travel $40/day...
My Monthly expenses with insurance, prescription and food alone is $354...
That excludes litter, treats, toys, vet expenses, pet sitting, and anything out of the ordinary.
Yeah... Their expenses are pretty much as high as my own expenses. far far away from being free...... and that is not counting when something happens, like an emergency, ER, vet trip... Insurance pays most of it, but I still need to pay the deductible and 20% of it.
Have you ever put it on paper to see how much your babies are really REALLY costing you?

Yep. I budget by the month and by the year. I have budgeted $5,500 toward cat expense for 2011. This is all inclusive, vet, food, litter, emergencies.

My cats get well check ups every six months, except for Tolly who now goes every three months and gets blood work every three months. He takes three medicines daily.

Mazy gets a urine culture once a year, and blood work once a year. She takes one medicine daily

Jennie and Queen Eva are relatively cheap, so far, haha. Though I still have Queen Eva's spay looming over me.

I don't use insurance, preferring to keep my money. I just reserve a certain amount every month toward cat care.

As I am in a pretty low income bracket (not quite poverty level, but close) I don't spend much on myself.

DH has the cats' care in our budget and increases it every year because they get older and need more care. We have four geriatric cats who now go to the vet 3-4 times a year, depending on how they're doing. It's important for us to know if they're OK and how their toofers are doing. And to us, it's part of taking care of them.

Nobody is eating prescription food (yet), so we're OK there. Nobody is on meds, so that's good, too. We buy Mylicon regularly because I put 2-3 drops in their water every day.....to try to combat gas, which can cause our two pukers to......well, puke. We've found that Mylicon seems to help them.

Mollipop got spayed back in July, so that's done.

But other than the Mylicon (which is cheap), we buy food and treats, including their CatSip, and toys. And their vet visits. So far, we've been lucky. It's all in the budget. (Oh, DH did buy them....or me, rather!....a new pooper scooper last night!)

I'm afraid to put it on paper. With 6 kitties, going to WalMart usually means spending more on them than on ourselves. It scares me sometimes that they range in age from 4-10 years; we're going to have a houseful of geriatric cats at some point and that could become very costly.

Originally Posted by libby74

I'm afraid to put it on paper.

With 6 kitties, going to WalMart usually means spending more on them than on ourselves. It scares me sometimes that they range in age from 4-10 years; we're going to have a houseful of geriatric cats at some point and that could become very costly.

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I too am afraid to put it on paper. I know that between our own cats and the money we spend on the fosters, I would have a LOT more money that I do now...but they're worth it!

For now Pixie is young and she isn't too bad and she is my only cat, but really out of everything I spend money on I get the best returns from her she is my sweet Pixie stix and she is worth it and I know your's are too.

LOL, I am afraid to add it all up. I know that any "free" cat or stray will cost me at least $200 right away for vetting and spay/neuter. I know that the housecats go through 5 large bags of dry food plus 60 large cans and 60 small cans a month. That's around $200 right there. Plus the ferals get Cat Chow.

And litter! Oh dear. If I add it up I think I'll get a headache.

So far the vet fees haven't been too bad. But they're not getting any younger!

Originally Posted by libby74

going to WalMart usually means spending more on them than on ourselves.

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This is a common occurrence in our house and we only have 2.

I put it on paper every few months, just to keep an eye on it. It spiked in the last year of Cotton's life and now feels really low to us, since neither Sybil or Freya are on medication or special diets. *knock on wood*

Right now it costs us around $100 a month, but when we had Cotton, it was up at $350-$400 for medication, food, regular checkups and insulin.

Whenever anyone talks about "free kitties," I laugh. All of mine have been "free" and on average they've run us over $1000 each in the first 3 months between spays, dentals, tail amputations, vaccinations, vaccinations for their kittens etc.

I just did this exercise. It's costing us less now because we moved to all wet and no more dry - though we do get Flowerbelle a small bad of dry hairball food that she gets as frequent treats.

So right now it costs us $1.85 per cat per day. That includes annual vet visits for each of them, annual (Sr. Panel) blood work, the bloodwork/vet visit for Tuxie every six months, a vet visit for Chumley every six months, Spooky's (& now Chumley's) annual dental, their prescription food, and litter. They have SO many toys, we don't need new ones - haven't bought any for ages. We just rotate, and they think they're getting new toys LOL.

This does not include food for the outside cats or TNR, though right at the moment, they're all fixed and we're not aware of new visitors.

We pay money to the vet every time we can, and build up a fund for emergencies. As our kitties are becoming seniors - and now with Chum, we may have extra expenses - we'll focus on building this up more than usual (we try to keep between $400 and $1,000 at each of 2 vet practices).

Lets just say Teddy's nickname is "My little mortgage payment and a half."

I too am afraid to actually tally the expenses of both my cats up. Good thing I have 4 jobs to support them. lol

Originally Posted by Kailie

I too am afraid to put it on paper.

I know that between our own cats and the money we spend on the fosters, I would have a LOT more money that I do now...but they're worth it!

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I tend to be something of a spendthrift when it comes to our cat's health here--we take both Spring and Sweetpea to a vets at least 2X a year--both are well acive--( Spring being 12 this month and Sweetpea being 10 this year)--we are going to up the visits to 3X next year