Caring for pets is an increasingly costly affair

Susan Davis has three cats, two dogs, guinea pigs and a bearded dragon. She estimates that in the past five years, she has spent US$10,000 (Bt327,000) on visits to the veterinarian and on medications, reports The Washington Post. If you throw in vitamins, organic pet food and other items intended to promote a healthy lifestyle for the animals, she has probably spent twice that.

"I try not to look at my credit-card bills very often," said the Maryland resident. "My strategy is denial. There are vacations I might have taken, but I thought: 'Wow, there's not so much money these days. I wonder where it's going'."

Here is where some of it went: it cost more than $1,000 to have one dog's stomach pumped after it devoured, almost 1 kilogram of raisins, which are toxic to dogs. It costs $400 each time her arthritic Labrador retriever sees a specialist. And it cost more than $1,500 to treat her son's bearded dragon for a mysterious ailment that required a hospital stay.

Healthcare costs are rising not only for humans, but also for their pets. The 2007-08 National Pet Owners Survey showed 63 per cent of US households - 71.1 million homes - kept an animal. Many of the pet-owners are baby boomers no longer burdened with the cost of raising children and are willing to use whatever disposable income they have to improve the quality of life of their furry - or scaly - companions.

"As we become a more pet-friendly environment, people want to take more care of these animals," said Jerrold Boone, a vet at Adams Morgan Animal Hospital in Washington.

Vets said anyone thinking of buying or adopting a pet should consider the potential costs beforehand, especially if they wanted pure-bred dogs, which tend to have more health problems than do mixed breeds. The American Pet Products Manufacturers Associa-tion said pet-owners spent $10.1 billion on veterinary care and $9.8 billion on supplies and over-the-counter medicines last year.