Another way I've saved at the vet lately is to request any meds in tablet or capsule form rather than the liquid.  The pills are often scored and I cut up what is needed, crush in a small bowl and pour a little Ensure on top of it.  The capsules I open and mix with the necessary amount of water (or some other flavored liquid), then suck the required amount up in a syringe and dispense.

The shelf life is much longer on the dry meds, plus my vet gives me extra to keep on hand for any sympathizing cagemates or for illnesses that might come up suddenly and a vet can't be reached...Liz.

 ouch!  you guys spend big money on pets!  i have one low-maintenence kitty- he gets an annual rabies shot at the town-run $10 shot clinics.  iams dry food (on sale, with a coupon).  the end.  good thing he stays out of trouble!

Dear All, My favorite way of saving money on pet-care I can't do.  It's to buy stuffed aniimals for dogs & cats at thrift stores.  The stuffed animals get destroyed quicklly, so thrift-store prices are GREAT.  (The reason I can't do it is that, post bedbug-infestion, I cannot bring ANYTHING used into my apt.)  Yours in Hiiim, Deb

Gosh vetrinaryinsider-that is brilliant.I never thought of that, keeping them home with me instead of spending the night there.I am a RN, and the one time we had Abigail (my son's dog) had surgery and had to spend the niight, I worried all night  about what if she needed something and there was no one there.I will certainly do this in the future-Thanks for the great tip!!

Due to my drug allergies, the only way I can save on petcare is to be Aurora's food and litter on sale.

I take her in once a month to get her claws trimmed and I guess that would catch things early if she got sick.

 I've noticed many clients try to save money on heartworm medication by requesting a larger size (larger dose per pill) be dispensed and then splitting the pill between two smaller dogs. Just keep in mind that unless a tablet or pill is scored (and most heartworm medication is not), there is no guarantee that the concentration of medication will be evenly distributed throughout the pill. In other words, if you split it, one dog may get too much of the drug and the other may get none at all.

Nope, not heartworm meds, wrong kind of tail :-)  I have rescue rats and I'm always dosing out Baytril tabs - which are, thankfully, deeply scored, so that even my old eyes can see what I'm doing.

We don't have a dog right now, but for future reference, could heartworm meds be put into some kind of liquid or food product that could then be measured out more evenly?  Don't know if my question is clear or not...Liz.

 Do you mean preventative for heartworm? If so, Revolution protects against that, along wth fleas and ticks. One of my cats had heartworm,. so I dose them all with the Revolution. That is a topical medication.

Revolution is a great product, especially for cats. It gets just about everything, including ear mites.

 With heartworm prevention, its probably best not to take chances. Stick with commercial products. Generics are available for the ivermectin products; for small dogs it shouldn't cost more than than $3 or $4 a month to protect against this devastating disease. For large dogs, it's still only about $6 to $7 per month if using the generic products. Keep in mind that these ivermectin products also protect against roundworms, intestinal parasites that have been known to infect humans and can cause serious disease, especially in children (visceral larval migrans). This is a great reason to keep all dogs, regardless of where they live, on year-round heartworm prevention.