Larry is no stranger to the inside of a vet clinic. His 11-year-old shepherd pit bull mix, Leo, has had a series of health issues, including allergies and gastrointestinal problems since he was first adopted when he was two months old.
Leo’s inconsistent health requires Larry to feed him a special diet, including a pumpkin supplement and other gastrointestinal-protective, low-fat foods. These dietary needs and Leo’s anti-flea protection add up, leaving Larry to foot a roughly $350 monthly bill.
This is a hefty bill for Larry, who currently lives on a fixed income, since retiring in 2009 after working 29 years in water utilities for the city of Beverly Hills. Shortly after he quit working in California, he relocated to Texas.
Larry has opted to go to the Houston Humane Society’s Animal Wellness Clinic for most veterinary visits to reduce the chances of significantly adding to these costs. However, he said going to this relatively more affordable, lower-cost clinic still adds to the already expensive tab.
Many pet owners find themselves in Larry’s position, facing financial hardship when attempting to find and provide adequate health care to their furry companions. It’s no secret that pet care prices have risen in the past couple of years for both providers and customers, thanks in part to the pandemic.
Local experts say this, coupled with additional monetary responsibilities that these pet owners have unrelated to their animals, has furthered the gap between being able to obtain care for their pets and their ability to afford it.
Increasing prices for veterinary care have been a long-standing issue. Some rescues and shelters are equipped to help mitigate it, but others are limited in the aid that they can provide and are not set up to administer extensive care.
The veterinarians, hospital and clinic administrators themselves face increasing costs. In addition to rising costs for the equipment and medicines used in their practices, veterinarians may still be trying to pay off student loans. And then there’s the people who don’t pay their bills after receiving care for their pets.
The pay is relatively low, the hours are long and some vets are leaving the profession as a result.
“Often, when we talk about rising veterinary costs, we aren’t talking about price increases. We are talking about the accessibility to this care,” said Salise Shuttlesworth, founder and executive director at Friends for Life Animal Shelter. “How do we distribute care more equitably? How do we get access to the people who need this care?
“One of the things that we’ve discerned is that there are resource deserts, just like there are food deserts. There are certain zip codes in Houston where there aren’t vet clinics for miles and miles,” Shuttlesworth added. “There are people that have a median income of $28,000. They can’t afford $150 office visits or $1,500 surgeries.”
BARC, Houston’s animal shelter and adoption center, and the Houston Humane Society spay, neuter and administer basic vaccinations for all animals upon intake. The city’s shelter also provides micro chipping, flea and heart worm prevention through its wellness clinic services.
However, for cases that are more serious in nature, pet owners are advised to find a regular veterinarian or take their animals to a nearby emergency clinic (the most expensive option of all). The city shelter’s wellness clinic is not a full service veterinary clinic.
According to Shuttlesworth, when veterinarians are painted as greedy and rescues are depicted as the long-suffering victims it sets up this adversarial relationship that catches clients in the middle.
Overwhelmed by the costs, some pet owners are turning their dogs and cats into shelters — which only adds to the overpopulation some of these facilities are coping with now.
The Divide
Larry has covered all of Leo’s health expenses out of pocket. Over the years, Leo’s list of health issues expanded as he was diagnosed with thyroid problems — and more recently, when Larry was told Leo was going blind.
Larry visited other veterinary clinics but said he returns to the Houston Humane Society because of its proximity to his house and the quality of care and service.
Clinic Operations Manager Julisa Mendoza said some pet owners drive more than 30 miles to the clinic for vet visits or exam appointments for specific health-related reasons, including masses, upper respiratory issues and more serious cases such as amputations or eye repairs.
The clinic serves residents from Harris, Fort Bend and other surrounding counties. A lengthy commute for, as Larry said, a total that usually ranges between $10 to $20 cheaper than a visit to one of the other veterinary clinics he goes to in the area.
Go to an emergency room in the Houston area, most of which are open around the clock, and you’re looking at a bill that starts at $150 to $185 just for walking in the door.
As of 2023, the national average cost for a veterinary visit ranged between $25 to $186, according to CareCredit, a financial services company and card issuer. In Texas, the statewide average price for pet owners to take their animals to the veterinarian for a routine checkup was $66.81.
The baseline price for a veterinary visit at the Houston Humane Society’s wellness clinic is $26 Monday through Thursday and $36 Friday through Sunday. An exam costs $50 Monday through Thursday and $60 Friday through Sunday.
Although each is a more affordable option, neither factor in add-ons such as medications — Leo took Carprofen for his gastrointestinal issues — or other aspects of a suggested treatment plan, which Larry said could quickly increase the total. He added that the clinic does not offer discounts on Carprofen or anti-flea protection, and he does not have insurance for Leo’s expenses.
“The society wants us to adopt, but after that, we’re [pet owners] kind of left on our own because it can become very expensive even with the health insurance,” Larry said.
“We’re [pet owners] kind of left on our own because it can become very expensive even with health insurance.”
Shuttlesworth, her staff and volunteers managed the animal population at the George R. Brown Convention Center when it functioned as a makeshift shelter for the city during Hurricane Harvey in 2017. Residents relocating to the facility due to flooding and weather-related damage were encouraged to bring their pets.
Shuttlesworth said through caring for these furry companions, most belonging to lower-income families, her team found that roughly 90 percent of the more than 2,000 animals there had never seen a veterinarian before.
They successfully maintained the shelter at zero parvo and distemper cases by vaccinating and distributing additional medical attention to the pets at the center.
“What we learned when we elevated the status of veterinary care was how deep the need is just for basic veterinary care,” Shuttlesworth said.
According to Shuttlesworth, this need expanded during the peak years of the pandemic. The nonprofit shelter was operating its no-cost food bank when it started receiving calls from community members — particularly those in the service industry — who could not afford the medications or treatments their animals needed.
Alongside Dr. Robert Treviño, an emergency medicine veterinarian with VERGI 24/7 and volunteer veterinarian and board member at Friends For Life, the shelter opened 36 free clinics and treated over 7,000 animals.
Dr. Lori Teller, a team veterinarian with the Meyerland Animal Clinic and clinical professor at Texas A&M University said when animals receive basic care, such as routine checkups and protective immunizations that prevent animals from contracting potentially severe diseases, it will reduce overall veterinary costs.
“If it really is an ounce of prevention, it is worth a pound of care,” Teller said.
When animals don’t go to veterinarians regularly, they are more at risk to get sicker. If pets are involved in an accident, their conditions could also worsen rapidly, requiring more intensive and expensive care. This could include extensive treatments, major surgeries or overnight hospitalizations.
“If your dog was hit by a car or if your puppy has parvo, you are shit out of luck if you don’t have some money or can’t qualify for CareCredit,” Shuttlesworth said. “That’s not the veterinarian’s fault, and it’s not the fault of the people who don’t have the resources.”
Treviño, who has practiced emergency veterinary medicine for most of his career, said there are emerging payment options such as CareCredit and ScratchPay that offer credit cards or plans to pay off the cost of care incrementally and insurances like Trupanion and Healthy Paws.
He added that there are more options than initially offered in 2009 when he first started practicing. At that time, he said, insurance to cover the cost of veterinary care was not available. Still, many of these insurance plans are reimbursement-based, meaning they don’t provide immediate coverage, and the choices for plans and other payment options are still relatively limited.
Treviño said because of this he tries to find ways to curb the costs in cases where animals are not expected to make it without intensive care, but their owners can’t afford those more costly interventions. This could mean stabilizing the pet and asking if the animal’s primary veterinarian would be willing to take the pet the following morning.
According to Treviño, transporting the animal minimizes the number of days of hospitalization, which reduces the cost for their owner.
“It’s sad when you have to look at an animal and say, this is how much you need upfront,” Treviño said. “It’s hard to do that all at one time, and not everybody can, and certain programs can help, but in the end, it’s still a hard thing.”
“It’s not that we’re taking their (pet owners) money. We’re also making the decision to put some of the care of other incoming animals on hold because we have to do this,” he added. “You can only be stretched so far.”
Keeping The Lights On
Robert Fisher, hospital director at Garden Oaks Veterinary Clinic, said animal care providers also find themselves in tough spots as they navigate how to continue distributing quality treatment and operate a business amid rising costs and a tight labor market.
“Everybody wants the very best care until the invoice comes. They (pet owners) look at it as you should be more altruistic because of the field you’re in,” Fisher added. “Everybody has to make a profit because you’re in business. If you don’t make a profit, there is a point that you have to lock your doors and leave.”
“Everybody wants the very best care until the invoice comes.”
He has heard the stories of older veterinarians who practice for 25 or 35 years but are forced to close because of the debt accrued by allowing people to avoid paying their bills.
Fisher said veterinary clinics and animal hospitals are like any other business. They have to pay utility bills, rents and salaries for veterinarians and other staff members who, he added, should not need to work for less so these facilities can make ends meet.
He has one veterinarian at his clinic who has been practicing for 12 years, is married to an attorney and still owes about $150,000 in student loans.
Treviño said debt from his time in veterinary school factored into his decision to work nonstop from 2009, when he’d first graduated, to 2015 without a vacation in between.
“I have a really bad problem when people say, ‘Hey, I need some help here,’ saying OK,” Treviño said. “Student loans were also weighing on my back, so I tried to work as much as I could.”
According to Fisher, pet owners may come into clinics not wanting to pay $40 to have their animal’s anal glands expressed because it is not an overly complex procedure. But they don’t understand that they are paying for the extensive skill set veterinarians have for the more intensive work required.
Teller said, although it can vary per provider, veterinarians are often doing pro bono work for community members. Others like Treviño may also volunteer or do low-cost work at outside organizations.
The most Treviño receives for his work at Friends For Life are Twizzlers and the occasional beer, but he said he cares about what he gets back from his volunteer work as it allows him to take a mental health break from the harder aspects of his emergency work.
Treviño said this doesn’t mean working at the shelter is always easy. During one of his recent days off, he went in to euthanize a dog who was battling cancer. However, it does offer the ability to step away from the constant severity of cases and the attitude that can sometimes accompany it.
“I just wish people knew everything that goes into veterinary medicine. I think that would make them a little bit more patient with things,” Treviño said. “You can talk to any veterinarian, and they’ll tell you about unruly clients. It’s everywhere, with any business, even human hospitals, that’s being noticed.
“I try to give the benefit of the doubt. There has to be some degree of stress that they’re (pet owners) displaying because it’s a scary situation,” he added. “I can understand when people are like that, but to a point.”
Treviño said most pet owners are sad or in shock because they don’t know what is wrong with their animals or they can’t afford the cost of care, but tend to remain relatively calm. Those who get agitated are in the minority. He described it as an “airline type thing” similar to other industries post-COVID; more people are taking to Google to blast businesses or get confrontational.
Treviño works as an emergency veterinarian full-time, which he said some veterinarians don’t want to do. He said some can’t handle constantly seeing animals die, owners who are unhappy with the treatment’s sticker price and not being able to help those who can’t cover the cost of care.
An ongoing veterinary and veterinary technician shortage continues to be a growing problem for the animal care industry. Fisher said the more staff veterinarians leave, the more facilities depend on “relief” or stand-in veterinarians. They help fill the gap in service, but some set their rates at premium costs because they are in high demand.
“We know when veterinary technicians can go work at a retail store or a restaurant and get paid more than they are getting paid to work in a veterinary practice,” Teller said. “To retain our highly qualified technicians, we need to be able to pay them a competitive wage.”
Clinics and hospitals are also being affected by increasing inflation rates regarding the costs of the supplies needed to operate.
According to Fisher, in 2022, every supplier was hit with logistical demands. He said there wasn’t a vendor his clinic worked with who did a price increase of less than 10 percent. The cost for shipping increased, and supplies Fisher paid $10 for were $13.
“Look at veterinary medicine and the number of veterinarians, just like my friend did, that commit suicide. Part of that stress on them is they’ve got people expecting them always to be giving, never to be taking,” Fisher said. “Then they’ve got the pressure of trying to keep the doors open on the business. It’s a staggering stressor on the person that owns a veterinary clinic.”
“This is a really, truly caring profession. I never cease to be amazed at what people are willing to do in this profession to help somebody get out of a tight spot,” he added. “I have seen doctors and other employees [pay] out of pocket to help somebody take care of their animal. We just can’t do it forever.”
Bridging the Gap
Shuttlesworth said the first step toward addressing the inaccessibility of veterinary care is not building more brick-and-mortar veterinary clinics but instead rethinking how facilities provide this care and addressing the needs of pet owners for help with related services.
At Friends For Life, they offer a program called “Thinking Outside The Shelter” that blends aspects of animal work with social work. It allows people to receive basic veterinary care on a sliding scale or at no cost if they cannot afford it. Other services that may make the difference between a pet owner having the ability to access care are offered, too.
“Sometimes, people just need someone to talk them through what’s happening with their animal,” Shuttlesworth said. “Sometimes, people need a fence built or a ride to the vet.”
One woman whose two cats received treatment through the program is paying Shuttlesworth back by making jewelry from beads Shuttlesworth collected while on a trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Shuttlesworth said that, like any nonprofit, they always need more money to provide these services. However, she makes it clear to her staff and volunteers to put what is best for the animal first — that the budget is her problem.
By addressing these additional aspects of assistance needed outside of medical attention, shelters and other animal care facilities can work on bridging the gap created not only by cost but also by other obstacles that lead to the inaccessibility of care.
She added that this meant going into the lower-income communities where these services are lacking and finding out what resources are available and which are not. Friends For Life is collecting more information about the areas where veterinary and related care is most needed and how to help expand access to it using a data-driven approach.
“If we (shelters) were to just stay in that (old model), that’s job security for me for the rest of my life. We can just continue to raise money because it will never change,” Shuttlesworth said. “This model will put us out of a job. The math of it has to work. We’re here to do the right thing. That’s how I do it. That’s how I don’t freak out.”
Larry continues to take Leo for routine check ups. Although Larry does not know how much longer he has with his friend, Leo has evaded death once. Last year, veterinarians recommended Leo be put down, but his temperature stabilized and the dog bounced back.
“I’m yet to know how the rest of this journey is going to turn out,” Larry said. “So, the only thing I can do as his handler is make him as comfortable as possible. And keep continuing to give him love in the form that he loves so much.”
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2024.
