Save Money by Doing Your Own Dog Grooming

This is a tale of how you can save hundreds a year by doing your own dog grooming.  Yes – we learned that hard way that paying for dog grooming can be INCREDIBLY expensive if things don’t go so well.  Read on to learn a little bit more on how you can do your own dog grooming and save yourself a bundle.

Basic Dog Grooming Tasks

If you are thinking about getting a dog, realize that dogs can be quite expensive.  If you already have a dog, then you know all about how much they can cost.  When it comes to dog grooming, there are a couple different things that you’ll need to take care of:

• Regular baths for your dog so they don’t stink!
• Regular brushing for your dogs to keep their coat healthy and reduce shed hair around the house
• Clipping their nails
• Haircuts (depending on the breed)
• Expressing their anal glands (gross, I know!)
• Pulling hair out of ears (depending on the breed)
• Cleaning out “sleepies” from their eyes

The above list may not seem too bad, but it can take a ton of time each month (3-4 hours).  Many folks do not have time for this, so they decide to take their dog to a groomer.

Tools and Materials Needed for Dog Grooming

As if the time commitment wasn’t enough, you’ll also need to buy tools and supplies to keep your dog groomed.  These include:

• Brush
• Dog Shampoo
• Nail clippers
• Dog hair clippers
• Towels

As you can see, all these expenses can add up pretty quick!

Grooming Your Dog Yourself is Still the Way to Go

OK – here’s my story of how I learned the hard way that grooming your do yourself is the best way to save money.

My wife had been considering taking the dogs to a groomer for a while because she couldn’t stand their long hair and their smell.  “Don’t do that,” I said.  “I can give them a bath once a month to keep them smelling fresh.  I can also brush them and clip their nails.”  And I did – a handful of times.  Honestly, I didn’t really take the time to ensure they were adequately groomed.  It takes a ton of time to groom your dog – especially when you have two of them.

Well, after a while my wife had enough of it.  She made her mind up that she was taking the dogs to the groomer and that was that.  Since she had made up her mind, I was smart enough to keep my mouth shut.  It could be worse I thought to myself…  ~$100 to have them both groomed isn’t the end of the world.

Getting both dogs groomed cost a total of $130.  There was an up-charge because their hair was so long.  This included a hair cut, nail trim, anal gland expressing, bath, and brush.  OK – still not the end of the world.  There was just one problem…

The next morning, one of our dogs developed horrible diarrhea so bad that she started to bleed everywhere.  It was bad enough that my wife and I agreed she needed to go to the vet.  We still don’t know exactly what happened, but the vet’s best guess was she ate something funny while at the groomer.  Anyhow, the vet also prescribed some treatment for our other dog as a precautionary step.  After two separate visits with an over-night dog stay, the total vet bill was a whopping $621!!!  Yowzer!

Maybe we have sissy dogs, or maybe they did get into something nasty.  Either way, after taking our dogs to get groomed, our wallets are $751 lighter.  Needless to say, I think I learned my lesson on this one.  I will be much less lazy when it comes to taking care of them and will take grooming our dogs at home much more seriously.  I am just glad that everything turned out OK in the end and both dogs are OK.  Here’s a pic of one after his new haircut:

How to Groom Your Own Dog – Fresh Haircut

Moral of the Story

To me, there are two morals to this epic-fail of a story:

1. Make sure you always have an emergency fund.  You never know when a $100 expense could turn into a $750 (or more)!
2. Don’t be lazy when it comes to saving money.  There are always way to save more money if you roll up your sleeves a bit and take on a project (or dog grooming) if you can handle it.

Do you have any dog grooming or other pet horror stories?

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How to Save Money on Heartworm Medicine for Your Dog

Let’s face it – if you have a dog then you know that heartworm prevention medicine can cost an arm and a leg!  I started on a quest to see if we could learn how to save money on heartworm prevention medicine.  The results will shock you – I found a safe and reliable method to get our dogs heartworm protection for less than 5 cents a month!!  If that peaks your interest, then read on to find out how to save money on heartworm medicine for your dog.

How Much are You Spending on Heartworm Protection?

I became interested in saving money on our dog’s heartworm protection medicine when we had a recent run-in with our vet.  We were on vacation and my wife received a call from our vet saying that our dogs were due for their heartworm “check”.  They told her we could not continue to buy heartworm prevention medicine from them unless we go and get the heartworm “check”.  They said it needed to be done THAT week.  OK – a couple things with this:

1. Why the heck are they calling us the week that the heartworm check needs to be done?  Is this an emergency or something?  We were on vacation hundreds of miles away from home, it’s not like we could drop everything and bring our dogs in for this redundant check.
2. Why are we being forced to get a heartworm “check” if both dogs have been on heartworm prevention medicine for more than a year?!?!?!?

This call from our vet was the proverbial straw that broke the camels back.  The heartworm “check” was completely unnecessary and we were just getting screwed here!  So, I set out on a quest to learn how to save money on heartworm prevention medicine for our dogs.  This expensive heartworm prevention medicine was something that has bothered me ever since I had to start paying for it myself (around 18).  Why was this routine heartworm prevention medicine purchased by millions always so expensive?  It really never made any sense…  I was determined not to give up until I found a lower cost option for heartworm prevention medicine.  In other words, CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!

Is Heartworm Protection Even Needed for Your Dog?

I first started out with Googling to learn more about heartworms in dogs and if heartworm protection is even needed for dogs.  It turns out that for our area (southern Georgia), we are at pretty high risk.  Check out this map of the US with heartworm prevalence mapped out:

Heartworm Prevalence in the US

If you are in one of the yellow/orange/red zones, then you really don’t want to mess around.  If you skip giving your dog heartworm prevention medicine, then your dog really stands a good chance of getting these parasites.

So, it was pretty clear to me that we needed to protect our dogs against heartworm at least some of the time.  But what factors affect the chance your dog could get heartworms?  I found a great website – www.dogs4dogs.com that discussed heartworms in detail in their article entitled: Heartworm Medication Safety.  If you couldn’t already guess, the chance for your dog to get heartworms is GREATLY impacted by the outside temperature.  This is because heartworms are spread by a specific type of mosquito that needs temperatures to be above 57F to transmit the heartworm parasite.

That’s right – if the average daily temperature is consistently below 57F, it is impossible for your dog to get heartworms!  So, you can lay off those heartworm medications as things get cooler in your area.  This was definitely a great tip to learn as we even get below this range pretty consistently in the winter months where we are.  For folks up North, they may only need to administer heartworm prevention medicine 4-5 months out of the year!

Talk about a money saver – for some northern readers I may have just found a way for you to save 50% on your heartworm prevention costs right off the top!

Cheaper Alternatives for Getting Heartworm Prevention Medicine

Now that I knew I would have to give my dogs heartworm prevention medicine because of the specific area in which we live (Southern Georgia), I was on the quest to see if we could find a cheaper heartworm prevention medicine brand.  We were giving our dogs Trifexis which is a heartworm, flea, and intestinal parasite medicine in one monthly pill.  This is basically the Cadillac of heartworm prevention medicine and we were somehow paying for it under the thinking that we were saving money :-(.

On that www.dogs4dogs.com website – they had some advice that really spoke to me.  As I mentioned, we were paying extra for the Trifexis that had the medicine to combat intestinal parasites.  The author of that blog likened this to applying sunscreen at night.  It is completely unnecessary!  We should only be giving our dogs medicine to fight intestinal parasites if they actually have them – not beforehand!  I honestly never thought of it like this, but it makes complete sense.  There is really no need to pay for this premium product month-in-and-month-out!

Another point that the author brought up is that heartworm medicine has been found to be perfectly effective when administered every 45 days vs. every 30 days.  This is contrary to what the heartworm prevention medicine manufactures would have you believe.  I checked into this further, and it appears to be 100% true.  So, following this guidance is another way to save ~3 months worth of cost on your heartworm medicine each year!

Which Heartworm Prevention Medicine is the Cheapest?

Now that we’ve established that you can eliminate giving your dog heartworm prevention medicine during winter months and you can extend out your delivery from 30 days to 45 days, it’s time to look at which heartworm prevention medicine is the cheapest.  Check out this simple table I put together below based on prices from 1-800-PetMeds.com and WorldPetExpress.net.  These prices are likely 10%-25% cheaper than what you could obtain from your vet.  The table is showing the annual cost based on owning 1 dog (heartworm prevention medicine administered monthly), and I also break out the price per dog per 45 days if you only have one pup.

One trick with using 1-800-PetMeds is that you HAVE to obtain a vet’s prescription for the heartworm medicine.  Good luck with that!  I see that WorldPetExpress.net comes highly recommended by many folks.  I have not used them myself, but the idea is that you are ordering heartworm prevention medicine out of Canada which is then shipped to the US.  It is perfectly legal and allowed.  This is very similar to a money saving method used for human medicine where folks order from Canada and have the medicine shipped to the US.

$2.63 per dog per 45 days for the Nuheart is about as good as I could find in a chewable/pill.  Of course, I have adjusted this for the 45 day administration of the heartworm prevention medicine vs. 30 days.  This also assumes that you give the pill year-around.  Factoring for only 9 months out of the year will give you even more savings!  If we switched from Trifexis to Nuheart, we could really save a bundle each and every year for our two dogs.

The Holy Grail of Heartworm Prevention Medicine Savings

So, any normal and sane person would have stopped there.  $2.63 per dog every 45 days is pretty good money savings.  We were paying close to $18 per dog per month for the Trifexis.  But I didn’t stop here – something was telling me to keep researching for a cheaper heartworm prevention medicine.  I wanted to see if I could get the annual cost of heartworm prevention medicine even lower for us!

Throughout my research into how to save money on heartworm medicine for your dog, I kept running across people referring to using “sheep drench” to protect their dogs against heartworms.  You may be wondering “what the heck is sheep drench?”  Well, a little more Googling brought me to the Holy Grail of Heartworm Prevention Medicine Savings!

You see, the active ingredient in many of the heartworm prevention medicines (such as HeartGard, Nuheart, etc.) is ivermectin.  Ivermectin kills all sorts of parasites such as:

• lice
• scabies
• Onchocerciasis
• Strongyloidiasis
• Lymphatic filariasis
• Dirofilaria immitis (heartworm)

Bingo – now if there were just a way that the normal house-hold consumer could get their hands on bulk ivermectin, they could probably save a great deal of money…  I don’t have any sheep, and I did not really have any idea how I could get my hands on sheep drench.  Maybe a farm supply store or something?

This is when I tried just searching for sheep drench on Google.  The first hit that came up was an Amazon ad to buy sheep drench for about $37 for an 8 ounce container.  Don’t mind if I do!  If you check out some of the reviews of this product (or similar ivermectin products) you will see that there are a great number of people administering this to their dogs.  The overall cost if you decide to go this route is less $0.02 per dog per 45 days!  That’s right – less than 5 cents per dose for a small sized dog!!!

One 8oz bottle of ivermectin from Amazon is enough to last you for ~2,365 doses or about 394 years if you have one small 25 Lb dog.  Of course, that is if this heartworm prevention medicine stuff never expired :-)!  I believe it has a 2-3 year shelf-life, so you kinda have to factor that into things.  One suggestion is to find a way to share the product with friends and family so they can give it to their dogs.  Below is the oral dosage information I found that we should use (keep in mind I’m not a vet – so don’t sue me if you screw it up!  Please do a little bit of your own research so you’re convinced the numbers below are accurate.  Note that the volumes below are FRACTIONS of a cubic centimeter <milliliter>):

• up to 14 pounds: 1 drop (0.05 cc)
• 15 to 29 pounds: 0.1 cc
• 30 to 58 pounds: 0.2 cc
• 59 to 88 pounds: 0.3 cc
• 89 to 117 pounds: 0.4 cc
• 118 to 147 pounds: 0.5 cc

Just grab yourself a pack of 1cc syringes without a needle and you can simply administer the proper amount of this heartworm prevention medicine for your dog every 45 days.  The syringes I have linked there are a 10-pack for $2.50.

Is Administering Ivermectin to My Dog Safe?

As you can read from the hundreds of Amazon reviews (noted in the link above), it is perfectly safe to administer ivermectin to your dog using a syringe without a needle.  You just suck up the 0.1cc – 0.5cc depending on your dog’s weight (see chart above) and squirt it into the back of your dog’s mouth.  If your dog is picky with having their mouth messed with, you can always squirt the ivermectin it into a piece of chicken, beef, or a piece of bread/roll.

One thing to note: some breeds of dogs (especially herding dogs) can have adverse reactions to ivermectin.  These dog breeds with increased ivermectin sensitivity are:

• Old English Sheepdog
• English Sheepdog
• Shetland Sheepdog (Sheltie)
• Australian Shepherd
• German Shepherd
• Long-haired Whippet
• Silken Windhound
• Skye Terrier
• Collie

If you have one of the dogs above, hopefully your vet has been smart enough to recommend a different heartworm prevention medicine brand that Heartgard or Nuheart.  If you have one of the above dogs, you may want to consider just sticking with Interceptor heartworm prevention medicine since that has the different active ingredient Milbemycin Oxime.  You won’t save as much, but you’ll keep your dog safe from adverse reactions.

Video Guide on Saving Money on Heartworm Prevention for Your Dog

Here’s a quick guide that shows off the Ivermectin product that you will get if you order through the Amazon link here, what the syringes look like, and how easy it is to administer:

How to Save Money on Heartworm Medicine for Your Dog – Final Thoughts

So, let us recap what we’ve come up with in terms of how to save money on heartworm medicine for your dog.  Here’s the progression of savings that we outlined.

1. $207.88 – annual cost per dog using Trifexis monthly.  This is our starting point.
2. $155.91 – annual cost if we administer Trifexis and do NOT give dog heartworm prevention medicine in winter months (assume 3-months per year of winter).
3. $103.94 – annual cost if we follow above but administer to dog every 45 days.
4. $23.99 – annual cost if we follow all of the above, but switch from Trifexis to Nuheart.
5. $0.10 – annual cost if we buy the 8oz bottle of ivermectin from Amazon, administer every 45 days, and do NOT administer in the winter months.

There you have it – I was successful, yet again, on another of my money saving quests.  This time I set out to determine how to save money on heartworm medicine for your dog.  Once all the research was complete and the dust settled, I found a safe and surefire way that just about anyone can use to save over $200 a year on heartworm prevention medicine for their dog.  Veternarians, heartworm prevention medicine manufacturers, and heartworm medicine distributors wouldn’t want you to know this.  But, those little pills they tell you to administer to your dog monthly for ~$20 are overpriced by about 100,000%!  It really is possible to keep your dogs safe from heartworms for less than 2 cents a month!

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Which Pet Is The Cheapest?

Speaking of pets… Which one is the cheapest?

Do you have a dog? Or a cat, a canary, or a parakeet? Any of the above, or more than one perhaps? If you do, you must know that having a pet is not the cheapest thing in the world! OK, I know, you can’t put a price tag on love, but when it comes to pets, there are clear costs involved. Let’s take a brief look at these costs – and try to decide which pet is the cheapest to own.

Guinea pigs and hamsters

Little rodents can be very cute – although “little” can be a bit of a relative term when it comes to guinea pigs. These furry little critters are a great choice for your first pet.  They are easy to handle, occupy small space, and given their size, don’t eat all that much.

Keeping a guinea pig or a hamster involves a series of costs, but compared to some other obvious choices, these are small. They need a cage to live in, which can be quite small, bedding (if you happen to have a friend or relative who works with wood you can save a buck by asking him for some shavings occasionally), food and toys, and fresh vegetables from time to time (your kitchen waste will do fine). All things considered, a pair of guinea pigs or hamsters (as they are social animals, doing best in pairs) will only cost you a few hundred dollars per year.  Even less if you get creative with some of the ideas outlined above.

Swimmers

A goldfish is a classic choice for a pet – except if you prefer those you can actually play with – as it is an inexpensive one. What you need is a fish tank (a nice, big one, of at least 15 gallons), decorations, a water filter and food. Aside from the initial investment, a goldfish will cost you close to $100 a year.

For an even cheaper alternative you can go for a Betta fish – it has a life span of up to 2 years, it needs less space than a goldfish and it doesn’t even require a water filter. If you take good care of your betta, it will cost you much less – around $20-$30 a year.

Birds

There are so many bird species that can be owned as pets that one has a hard time choosing which type would make the best fit. There are expensive and sensitive ones (and more spectacular, of course), but there are many that are smaller and less sensitive which you can own for a cost of not more than $100 a year (aside from an initial investment for the cage).

For an inexpensive alternative (which may sound a bit surprising for most) you can keep a chicken as a pet. It’s cheap (a baby chick can cost somewhere around $5), it doesn’t have many special needs, and chicken feed is equally cheap.  You’ll also need a bigger yard and some type of house to keep the chicken in.  Definitely do your research before buying!!  For more info – check out this awesome this awesome site: MyPetChicken.  And for one more benefit – the eggs can bring you some cash.  If you live down under, you can later use this to play at your favorite online casino australia.

Dogs

I have already written pretty extensively about the cost of dog ownership.  Check out that article; the cost of a dog will run you about $750+ a year!

Cats

Cats are lovable creatures and are pretty self-sufficient.  Because of this, beyond the initial investment of the cat and some toys, you are looking at a pretty low-cost pet compared to a dog.  You will have to purchase cat food, toys, and kitty litter.  Plan to budget $300 a year for a small cat.

Which Pet is the Cheapest – Final Thoughts

Reviewing the above list, I’d have to say that a goldfish is the cheapest pet you can own.  They are great to look at, but don’t really kick in a huge “love factor” compared to other furry friends.

If your budget can spring it, I’d suggest you go one upgrade further from a goldfish and try a hampster, gerbil, or guinea pig.

If money is no object for you, then you should consider a dog or a cat as they can provide plenty of years of unconditional love!

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How Much Does a Dog Cost Per Month

I found myself asking this question recently: “How much does a dog cost per month?”  We just welcomed a new puppy into our home, and after the “newness” had worn off a bit, my mind began to wander back to the bottom line  What?  I can’t help it!  Read on to find out the normal expenses of owning a dog and what you can figure your monthly cost of owning a furry canine will run.

Up Front Costs of Owning a Dog

There are several up front costs of owning a dog.  Depending on how you handle these, it can make a big difference in your “down payment.”  However, over the long run of 10-15 years it has little practical significance…

The biggest up front costs of owning a dog is actually how much you’ll pay for it.  Prices could range from free (if you get the dog from a friend, neighbor, family member) to thousands of dollars.  Most local pounds or shelters will sell you a nice pup in the range of $25 – $100.  Most advice I’ve heard over the years warns folks to stay away from pet stores when buying a dog – they are overpriced and can typically be mistreated.

In our case, we had our mind set on a very specific type of dog – a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.  After watching probably 20+ hours of dog videos on YouTube, this breed seemed like a good fit for our family.  We reached out to a couple local breeders and were appalled to find that some wanted $2,200 for a puppy!!!!  WTF?!?!?  In the end, through a vet friend of ours, we were able to find a local family that was having puppies that would sell one for $500.  Not very cheap, but still a 77% discount compared to a “breeder.”

Another up front cost if you are in the market for a puppy is vet bills for various vaccinations, de-wormings, spay/neutering, etc.  We haven’t had all of these completed yet, but I think it’s probably a safe bet to figure that you’ll have to shell out $300 in the first six months.

The final up front costs that you should budget for will be food and water bowls, a collar, some toys, dog shampoo, etc.  I would figure $25 – $50 for this type of stuff.  As with anything in life, you can easily go cheaper or much more expensive depending on your wallet.

Now that we’ve discussed the up front costs of owning a dog, let’s move onto the routine costs…

On-Going Costs of Owning a Dog

Owning a dog is not cheap!  There are a number of items that you will want to budget for throughout the year.  The table below lists some of the most likely routine expenses.  Let’s breakdown each expense and discuss them one-by-one:

• Vet Bill – I assume that you will want to take your pup to the vet once per year for a health checkup.  This really is a good habit to get into to ensure your dog will live a happy and healthy life.
• Heartworm and Flea Medicine – This is a must for dog owners in the south eastern part of the US!  Check out this map to see the heartworm incidence rate for your area.  Fleas can also be very bothersome to your dog and your home.  They now have a combined heartworm and flea medicine that can be given to the dog monthly.  I show $20 a month in the table below, but this could be higher if you own a larger dog.
• Food – Feeding your dog a good diet is essential for their health.  This is not a good place to skimp!  For smaller dogs, $20 a month will suffice.  For dogs 75 pounds and up plan for $40 or $50 a month.
• Toys – Here’s where you can get a little creative.  You can buy toys outright from the store or make your own (if you’re careful).  One toy idea that was shared with us recently was putting a used water bottle in an old sock and tieing the end.  Our dog loves the sounds it makes and it costs practically nothing.  If you are going to make your own toys, just make sure they are safe and you monitor them frequently to ensure they stay safe!
• Shampoo – Of course you will need shampoo for those baths every once in a while.  I’m not a big dog bath person, so I figure maybe once a month or every other month for a dog bath.  Most people give their dogs a bath more frequently I think
• Grooming – Here’s an area where you need to be careful!  Our dog does not require grooming (thank God) – but I filled this in with $25 a month just for illustrative purposes.  You can easily drop a fortune in this category if you are not careful.  While you can perform the grooming yourself, it can take several hours a month depending on the breed.  If you haven’t picked out a dog yet and you are trying to save money, be sure to pick out a breed that does not require a lot of grooming.  This will keep your dog looking good and your wallet looking even better!

So, How Much Does a Dog Cost Per Month?

While it is difficult to answer the question because so many factors play into the number, I will give it a shot.  For us, and a small 15 pound Cavalier King Charles Spaniel if I take the up front costs and the routine monthly costs and assume our dog will live 10 years, this gives a cost of $58/month.

On the other hand, let’s assume that you love full sized poodles.  These dogs are 50 Lbs and require lots of grooming.  This will double the heartworm/flea cost ($40/month), double the food cost ($40/month), and incur high grooming costs ($50+/month).  All these factors put together now give an estimated cost of $148/month.

As you can see, that’s quite a big range!

Final Thoughts

If you are reading this post, then I’m going to assume you are pretty cost conscious when it comes to owning a dog.  If this is the case, the best way to keep your costs low is try and get as many of these traits as possible when selecting a dog:

• Small size – this will help save on food, heartworm and flea medicine, toys, shampoo, etc.
• No grooming required – stay away from dogs with real curly hair
• Good health – do a little research – several pure bred dogs can have health problems.  No one wants to decide between a healthy dog and a huge vet bill!  If money is tight, mutts are almost always a good way to go.
• Behavior – lastly, try to pick a type of dog that doesn’t like to chew, chew, chew if you aren’t all that interested in paying to replace your nice stuff.  Many hounds are notorious chewers and can really do a number on your furniture if they get bored.

Whatever type of dog you pick, it is hard to put a price on the many years of joy and love that they will provide you and your family!

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