One of the things I find heart breaking is when I hear about people unable to care for their pets because of finances and I wanted to share some things that can help the frugal dog owner give their dog a good quality of life/health for relatively little.
Fleas: Nitenpyram is generic Capstar it's taken orally and is a fraction of the price. It tends to only "protect" for 24hrs so you will have to dose multiple times but it's so cheap that shouldn't be a problem. Dawn dish soap will kill fleas too. Fleas excrete a protective layer when water hits them Dawn dissolves the layer, then if possible submerge the dog up to the head in water and let them soak so the fleas drown if the dog is to big to fully submerge take a long time rinsing them trying to keep the coat fully saturated to drown the fleas. Vacuum, don't sweep your floors and furniture you need to suck up every egg and larva.
Microchip: You can do this yourself. Amazon ($10ish), JeffersPet ($13)
Vaccine: You can do this yourself for many of them. JeffersPet ($6-$10 depending on the vaccine), drsfostersmith ($5-$10 depending on the vaccine). One thing of note most states won't allow for shipping of the rabies vaccine across state lines, also many states require you to have the rabies vaccine administered by a veterinarian and also require your dog to be vaccinated for rabies in order to get your do licensed. The US is however very proactive in vaccinating the hell out of everything for rabies and many areas have free vaccine clinics you just have to keep an ear out for when they pop up.
Worming: You can do this yourself; wormers tend to run $5-25. You can do your own fecal tests if you buy a microscope, slides, and media but unless you have serious worm issues it's a bit overkill. Most wormers are a "kill all the intestinal things" type of medicine.
Now obviously know your limits on your medical knowledge and none of what I mention above replaces your dog seeing a vet, I just want people to realize that there are alternatives and frugal ways that you can keep your dogs quality of life/health up.
January 30, 2019 at 08:02PM
