That sounds like a lot of money for a yearly well check and medications.
A yearly well check is a good idea. And in most states the rabies shot has to be administered by a vet. A dog that hasn't been on heartworm medication needs a blood test before it can be safely started on heartworm medication.
Having said that. A booster shot, either a 5 way or 7 way costs about $7.00 at a feed store or Tractor Suppy. If your dog has been kept current on his vaccinations, he only needs the one yearly booster shot. The shot itself is either 5 or 7 different vaccinations in one dose. If a dog hasn't been vaccinated then he needs one shot followed by another 2 weeks later. After that it is just a yearly booster. And even the need for a yearly booster is being questioned now. You can find more information about that online.
Many people that have several dogs use Ivermectin 1% injectable as a heart worm preventitive. It is a cattle wormer that contains the same ingredients as canine heartworm medication. For cattle it is injected. For dogs, it's given orally. It also works for mange. What is important here, is that the dog be tested for heartworm before using the ivermectin. Depending on the time of year puppies are born, and up to a certain age, pups don't need to be tested.
The important thing is that people that vaccinate their own animals educate themselves and stay dilligent in administrating the medications to keep their animals healthy.
Drs Foster and Smith ...a catalog pet supply online has good information about vaccinations and how to give them. They sell them too, but buying them locally is less expensive.
A good vet will work with their clients. Mine taught me how to give shots and told me which ones to use.
You can also worm your own dog. During your dog's yearly well check have the vet run a stool sample to see if the dog has worms, then treat accordingly.
I have to agree with your Granddad on a $500 vet bill every year for a healthy dog. That's just crazy. It is possible to keep a dog or dogs healthy and not spend a lot of money. So, don't give up on your dream.

Sounds a bit high, but the Vet has to pay their bills too. You go in and expect them to be able to care for almost any need your pet should have. This means having a lot of inventory on hand at all times. They have to pay quarterly taxes on inventory, take the loss if it expires before using it up. They have to keep your records, have hired help that is knowledgable in care of sick or damaged animals, buildings, equipment for X-rays, cages, "stuff" that needs to be on hand.

Vet has to keep his education up on the newest procedures, cost of education is not cheap. Heck, those new digital x-rays are over $100,000.00 for the horse vets, only last a couple years in such rough service. YIKES! So while I don't like the cost, I can see where it is going.

For the dog, backlanelady has pretty well covered the topic. I would be VERY careful with the Ivermectin dosing. Collies of ANY kind or size, mixed breeds, seem to be extremely reactive to it. Very easy to kill them with Ivermectin. I know folks who have lost dogs that licked up horse wormer the horse spit out. Tiny amounts, yet still killed them. I would rather buy the heartworm meds from the Vet for my dog.

I think you need to do the 5 or 7 way shot for the dogs. Parvo is easily transmitted, hard to catch and treat. VERY expensive to treat. My dogs travel with us, are exposed to other dogs who may be carrying some stuff that doesn't even show. I want them protected if possible. So I use the vaccines yearly. We get Rabies from the Vet so it is recorded for liscensing. Required in our state by law to get every dog Rabies vaccinated and liscensed.

If you are not squeamish, giving shots is fairly easy. The store vaccines have pictues of locations to give shots. Tiny dogs may scream, they have thin skin, are more sensitive to needles than larger dogs seem to be. Get your cat shots at the store as well, protect them too for the cheap price.

I must agree with backlanelady that $500 per year for a healthy dog is too healthy a sum to be spending! What is included in that figure?

Using the Ivermectin for heartworm prevention will reduce that expense considerably. I get a bottle for about $50 and it lasts me well over a year (usually I throw some away when it hits the expiration date) dosing my own 3 large dogs as well as all the fosters and visitors who come and go around here. (It is also the ONLY humane and sensible treatment for demodectic mange, IMHO.)

Most rabies vacs are effective for at least 2 years, and some local governments are starting to relax the yearly vac law. But unless you live in an area where it's legal, you really still have to do it every year on the off-chance your buddy bites someone -who probably deserved it- and you have to answer to the law. (That annoys me to give unneccesary shots, but I've seen how quickly the situation escalates if your pup isn't "current" on his rabies vac when animal control comes asking.)

I've found that a good, country vet with a combo large/small animal practice will usually give you honest info about which vacs are really needed in your area. Giving some of them yourself can be a little cheaper (especially if you have LOTS of dogs!), but the benefits of maintaining regular contact between your vet and your pet should also be considered.

As far as worming, that's one area where you can find good info about natural products to use. Of course, prevention is the best way.

Oh, the adventures you'll have in the country with lots of dogs, phantom! And your Grandad's right. Just like my Grandma when she always told me, "I guess nobody ever told our farm dogs that dogs weren't supposed to have chicken bones. They lived." No point in arguing with Grandma that they didn't live AS LONG. ;-) Gotta love those Grans!

Actually, it costs around 300 dollars a year. I have my dog on a plan so I get a discount, normally it would cost MUCH more. I'd say most of the cost goes into keeping the place running. The vet office is owned (I think) by a rather well known pet supply store. The supplies sold there are pricey, so I suppose the vet bills would be too. I still think its too much though. The plan does cover a lot of stuff, like a yearly teeth cleaning (which my dog NEEDS because he won't chew on anything hard and crunchy), Bordetella vac, Rabies, boosters, and a slew of tests. My vet doesn't really want to work with me on anything. He likes to push people into getting all kinds of tests that cost extra (and probably aren't really needed). The only reason I go to him is because the facilities are nice.
I'll look into getting vacs at the feed stores around here. I've never known them to carry those, but then again I've never asked. :) I'm glad there's knowledgeable people like ya'll around to answer questions from people like me. :)

Abby

Hi again, Abby

You might want to try brushing your dog's teeth. Once a week is recommended, but I'm lucky if I get around to it once a month, I admit. All sorts of expensive products are sold in pet supply stores, but I just use an old toothbruch of my own and baking soda. It really helps reduce the tartar! Then I just have the dogs' teeth cleaned if the vet needs to knock them out for some other reason - that's the biggest cost of the toothcleaning.

Your dog may not be too keen on it the first few times, but they'll get used to it if you just keep on trying.

My vet seems pretty impressed by the good condition even my 12-year-old dog's teeth are in.

We are dogless at the moment but we usually kept around 10- 15 hounds for rabbit, coon, fox & bear hunting. The only shots we gave them were for Rabies . They developed a natural immunity against most diseases, and to some degree against parasites too. We did worm using Ivomec ( I forget the other wormer we used) beginning @ 2 weeks. The beagles were kept off the ground on wire, the big hounds were kenneled on earth. I cant remeber having a dog ail from anything other than wounds from hunting and/or fighting the game they persued. I would think certain areas of the country might offer more chances for diseases than other sections.? I also suppose management has much to do with it all. Even my vet, a friend, says all of the immunizations are debatable in need. People tend to over do a lot of things with their animals and their well being.

I try to keep his teeth brushed, but he has some breed specific problems (he's a Bichon Frise) that make it hard to keep his teeth clean. He's already had 7 teeth pulled because of that. I do try to stay on top of it though. :) He also throws up a lot (acid reflux I guess...) which probably contributes to his dental woes.

Abby

Phantom, A couple options to consider, If you have a local petsmart or petco,they have dicount clinics available. You have to wait in a line for awhile,but it saves you hundreds!!! They will also do heartworm testing for you. You could also look into pet insurance,they offer plans wich include annual vaccines ect.... My plan costs me about 23.00 per month. Less than you are paying for annual vaccines and it does cover illness and injury.

I know many vets are signing waivers for sick dogs not to be vaccinated. It seems to me so much cancer in dogs these days. Rabies and heartworm make sense but I think all the rest may not offer much benefit in certain situations and may even damage an immune system-just my opinion.

Good luck with all the critters in the future,sounds great!!!!! :)

t-bred,
Hee hee... I currently have Pee Wee (my dog) enrolled in Banfield at PetSmart. They're the ones that are so expensive. I'm seriously thinking about not renewing my plan next year and vaccinating him myself. It just seems easier that way. PeeWee gets car sick, and since I live about 20 minutes from Banfield its kinda taxing on the dog and my gas money. Lol. He's very forgiving, so I think he'd be okay with me poking him with sharp objects.

Abby

I wanted to mention that my dog Rabies is a 3yr vaccine, not a yearly expense. This is legal in our state, so only a puppy would need a vaccination again at one year old. Some reason that is age related, is why the puppy Rabies is not lasting as good and needs a booster again at one year. Then dog gets next Rabies at age 4yrs. Horses need yearly Rabies vaccine, per the vaccine maker. Maybe bodies don't stay immune the same way. Can't remember on the cats.

If my dog is on heartworm, I see no need for getting tested yearly. I asked the Vet if meds were not effective? If they are effective, then there should be no need for annual testing. We are stretching the time they get meds now to almost 9 months, though Vet would like you giving them year round. Kind of silly, when we have no bugs in most Dec, Jan, Feb, March months. So for me, I skip the meds those 4 months, and don't heartworm test yearly. Two blood tests is $100 from my Vet, money I should not need to spend if meds are effective. He makes me sign a form saying I didn't want the blood test, only the meds, understand the risk danger of giving meds anyway.

I would shop around for another Vet. Maybe you are paying for convenience of location, walk-in services, nice building set-up. I need appointments for my pets, have to travel a bit to the clinic. Emergency hours or weekend service is poor, only one Dr. Not located in downtown. Mine pushes for tests but you can say no. Especially if dog is not exposed to places he could get those diseases.

Again, I vaccinate, worm if needed after fecal check, because modern meds do the best job for my dog. I have seen dogs who were home dosed, with odd things to fix worms, prevent "summer sicknesses" and it was ineffective. The illness came fast and killed them, worms ruined their digestive systems causing later problems. These same problems were common in horses, and they died equally easily when I was a kid. Everyone cried about it, but there was no good preventions back then, animals died young.

Modern worm medicines, vaccines, are easily the cheapest, most effective forms of preventing problems in your livestock and pets. I have to go with science and chemistry, until I get much better evidence that home or natural remedies work equally well.

After our dog (who passed away at 16 yrs. old) got to be about three years old, we only took her in to the vet every three years for the mandatory Rabies vaccine. We gave her Diatomaceous Earth regularly in her food as we do our chickens and cats and she was very healthy until the last 8 months of her long life. She was a 50# mutt and 16 yrs is a ripe old age for a dog that size.

Wow carmen_grower, that's a ripe age for any dog. PeeWee's 8 right now I think. The average age for his breed is around 14 years. Hopefully I can keep him healthy for that long. :) With all the info I've gotten from this forum I'm sure I will.

Abby

An alternative for all vaccinations, except rabies, is to do antibody titer testing. It's not cheap, but it eliminates my concern about vaccination site tumors.