Lets talk about pet care and being frugal, there are regular and routine things that your pets need and believe it or not, most things they need (thankfully) you can still get and use yourself, they do not point in fact require a trip to the vets to make it happen.
Now once a year or once every three year for the checkup and the rabies shot is important, in our county, you can get the rabies done at the rabies clinic, no exam, very very low cost once a year, worth considering..
Also if you have a your large animal vet coming out for a visit to the farm, ask if they will do the smaller critters at the same time, save you time, save you money and save the gas money and trip stress etc.
The basic’s for care are simple, good food, clean water, warm dry shelter..
Well sort of.. there is a little more then that, if you provide the above you are meeting the needs but you are not really practising frugal pet care..
Frugal pet care is different, if you want to be succesfull at it, you need all the above but you also need to daily little checks, smell breaths, check teeth, check ears, give a whole body massage to feel skin, look at eyes and gums.
You need to learn to read the poo’s, read the animals body lang, if you do this you will see small things that go off and can fix them well before you need a trip to the vets.
If your pet gets ear mites, good old fashioned olive oil or any other kind of oil will with a bit of work on your part clear them up, in a nut shell, the oil smothers the mites, killing them, and allowing you to gently clean out the outer ear as the inner sheds out the gunk.
If your pet gets worms, try and keep to a regular worming schedule, now most folks go to the vet for their worming meds and pay though the nose, and if you want to do that, fine but if not, hit amazon, go to the feed store, pick up your worming meds online, read the rules, ALWAYS! weigh your animal, measure twice and then use the product as it was meant to be and you are going to get as good of coverage as going to the vet.
Got a hot spot, catch it early and treat it, one of the biggest thing about frugal pet care, it will require you to be much much more active, you will need to clean, dry and put medication x times a day, typically if you want a pill once or twice a day and then let it work, the vet is the better call, if you have time, then frugal will work, you can make a bone broth to support the immune system, you can make a nice nettle tea for on the food that will act as a natural anti-inflammatory, trimming, washing, drying and using the correct herbal salve will with the animals natural healing ability’s get the job done.
Tiny knicks and cuts can be treated at home using common sense..
Grooming and bathing at home are going to save you a lot of money compared to sending them out, get good quality shampoo’s, invest in your tools and you will soon find you are able to be a very good groomer.
I know someone that pays 65 dollars every six weeks to have their dogs bathed, and nails done, and then every second time, they pay another 40 to have them clipped.. include the gas to drive them to and fo, and the costs of the extra’s, they need their anal glands expressed and that costs more, they need these drops for their eyes or their ears, they need this mix to sprinkle on the food and the list goes on.. Hundred and Hundreds spent on each dog and give that there are more then one.. it adds up to thousands per year!
You can easily save hundreds of dollars per pet per year if you are willing to do the work yourself.
Just another Day on the Farm 