Pets Care : Economy affects pet care - Paragould Daily Press

Economy affects pet care - Paragould Daily Press

Posted: 28 Feb 2012 10:57 AM PST

Chad Miller
cmiller@paragoulddailypress.com

During tough economic times, pet owners are often financially unable to care for their 4-legged friends as well as they should.

Dr. Emily White Carter of Paragould Animal Clinic said she had noticed a decrease in the number of visits during the last several years.

"We see clients who normally would take excellent care of their pets doing less and less and we know that it's strictly [because of] financial reasons," she said. "They will even tell us kind of what their situations are a lot of times."

Carter said pet owners who received unemployment benefits were finding it difficult to bring their pets to the vet even when their pets were sick or injured. She said even "routine care" could be difficult to maintain for pet owners who were struggling financially. She said pets should see a vet a minimum of once a year.

"Dogs age at least seven times faster than we do," Carter said. "It's important for them to have at least a yearly physical to pick up on problems and treat them early."

Carter said she noticed cat owners tended not to bring their pets in for routine care more often than dog owners. She said this tended to be true even during "a normal economy" because cats seemed to be "pretty low maintenance." Carter said larger breeds of dogs also tended to be more expensive to feed and maintain.

Laura Thacker of Laura's Canine Cuts said her dog-grooming business had also noticed a steady decline during the last several years. She said dogs who required grooming should be groomed about every eight weeks, but several clients were scheduling appointments later.

"It's hard for a lot of [dog owners] to make it in to [see] a groomer," Thacker said. "It's really tight these days."

However, Thacker said she tried to help clients who were financially strapped by holding checks for them. She said she also tried to keep her rates as low as possible to save clients money.

"We're trying our best to do what's best for the animals," Thacker said. "We don't have a debit machine. If we take a credit card or a debit machine, we have to raise our prices to pay to have that set up. We don't want to raise our prices on anybody."

Carter said assistance for financially struggling pet owners was harder to obtain at the Paragould Animal Clinic. She said the clinic was unable to set up payment plans for clients because it worked through another company. She said clients would have to apply for credit through Care Credit.

"You still have to have decent credit to qualify [for a payment plan]," Carter said. "I tried to do financing the first few years I was here and got burned pretty quickly on it. So we don't really do that any more. We do sometimes hold checks for people to help them do what has to be done."

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