Paying vet bills in austerity Britain

Increased charges for veterinary treatment are very likely to be one knock-on effect of the drive to reduce public spending. Training to be a vet requires a six year course—potentially meaning a newly qualified vet could have a debt of £54,000 if he or she trained at a university that charged the maximum £9,000 p.a. 

The increased cost of becoming a vet is inevitably going to end up being passed on to animal owners, because vets have to survive and pay their mortgages like anyone else.

If you have a reasonable income and only a few pets, it makes sense to take out pet insurance. Read the small print and discuss it with your vet as some policies may be more suited to your particular circumstances than others. Be aware that pre-existing conditions will not be covered, and it may be difficult to get cover for older animals at all. Look for a policy that will give continued cover as your pet ages, and check the size of the "excess" which you will have to pay yourself for each illness. If this figure is more than you would be able to find the policy will not be much use! Check whether the company will pay your vet direct or if you will be expected to pay the whole cost then claim it back.

Some vets offer "in-house" insurance which may be a good buy as such policies often give discounts on the cost of routine treatments, such as annual vaccinations, and they usually mean you do not have to pay the full cost of treatment and claim it back.

If you have a large number of animals it may be more cost-effective to pay a set amount of money into a savings account each month and use that to cover the cost of vet bills. If you decide to do this you need to have the will-power not to dip into this emergency fund for any other expenses.

If you know you couldn't afford pet insurance and you couldn't pay for treatment at a private vet if your pet was ill you need to make plans to decide what you would do to safeguard their welfare. 

The RSPCA, PDSA and the Blue Cross all have schemes to help low income pet owners, but there is no guarantee that this will be available in your local area—although the RSPCA does its best to ensure at least minimal help is available throughout England and Wales.

Don't assume that there will always be a free or low-cost animal clinic available in your locality; it may well be the case that the only help available will be a voucher for part-payment at a private vet. More help may be available if you have registered your animal with the charity before an emergency arises, because this will make it possible for them to check your proofs of low income.

Branch Volunteers Meeting

Put a note in your diaries.

The next informal RSPCA Cambridge volunteers meeting will be on 18th November at our charity shop, 61 Burleigh Street, Cambridge. 7.30pm start.

All welcome, coffee and biscuits provided. We will be continuing to plan our fundraising diary for the run-up to Christmas and the following year.

Next year will be the 75th anniversary of an RSPCA clinic in Cambridge and we need to fundraise hard to ensure it continues to provide a service over the next 75 years!

As the cost of veterinary treatment continues to rise, the clinic becomes more and more important for very low income pet owners in this area. At the same time the costs involved in running the clinic are also increasing and there are times when we feel we are on a treadmill with no way off.

In the current economic climate it's unlikely that we can increase donations of cash, so it's ever more important that we develop fundraising activities like events and shops which also benefit those who spend money in terms of entertainment or good value bargains.

More on the "feed-in" to the branch from RSPCA frontline activities

If you're following RSPCA_Frontline you'll have seen that the staff responded to 1,442 complaints and collections on 2nd November. One of these was in our branch area and was a concern over a pet that had been noticed limping. An inspector visited the owner and advised them that the animal needed to be seen by a vet. 

As it turned out that finance was an issue, the owner was given details of the veterinary services provided by our branch and told to contact us for help. They did this and the animal was seen and treated.

This is why it's so important for us to continue providing a service to local owners who may not be very organised or competent. It's far better to Prevent cruelty than prosecute afterwards.

Beautiful walnut wardrobe donated to our shop

The photo doesn't do it justice, but this is a really attractive antique wardrobe, kindly donated to us together with a large amount of other furniture, including a lockable bureau and various tables.

All now available at our charity shop at 61 Burleigh Street, Cambridge.

Many thanks to the kind donor.

Christmas mug designs sent off

Just approved the designs for this year's limited edition, must-have, Christmas animal mugs, featuring photos of some of the animals we've rehomed during 2010.

Cats design

Dog design

They should be available at our bookshop at 188 Mill Road from mid-November at £4.75 each. Our supporters' Christmas presents sorted, I hope.

Incidentally I'd be grateful for any feedback on how people feel about using pics of actual rescue animals. I do try not to feature any that might be upsetting for fosterers or adopters—for example if an adopted cat was run over and died. I do wonder how someone might feel if they suddenly came across a photo of much loved animal years down the line after they'd grown old and died? 

Mystery Cat

In case you've missed it, the National RSPCA has a new twitter feed: RSPCA_Frontline, illustrating a selection of real incidents being responded to by RSPCA Inspectors and Animal Welfare Officers.

It's well worth looking at to get some idea of the sheer number of incidents staff are called to investigate, and also the inconclusive nature of many of them - for example call-outs to injured, but mobile, wild animals which are impossible to find.

For many of the incidents which actually do have an outcome of some kind, the local branch forms the next step in dealing with a problem. As a nice example, the final tweet for 1st November was:

"On 01/11/10 our officers were allocated 2093 incidents to attend. Good night."

Each of the 2093 incidents is given a log number so that it can be retrieved from the computer system at a later date, and lo, and behold, a cat is now sitting in the emergency vet in Milton with number 17** - fairly close to the tail end of the day. She's a feral cat who's been trapped and taken there by a member of the public, using a trap loaned by one of the inspectors. 

This was initially a complete mystery to us because the first we knew about her was a call from the vet asking what we wanted to do with her. There followed a daft conversation reminiscent of James Herriot and the dog who was "pretty lively" because we'd got no idea why someone thought she needed to go to a vet, and none of the vets fancied putting his hand inside the cage to do an examination. Best guess was that someone wanted her spayed, but it might have been need for a dental or something entirely different as the person who borrowed the trap seems to have assumed the vet would know. 

The only information the surgery had was her log number and the system does work, because I was able to phone in to the control centre and discover that she was being fed by an elderly lady who had to go into hospital and the person who took over the feeding was concerned her fur was very matted. No-one seems to know for sure whether or not she's been spayed (or has been having kittens) and the plan is to de-matt her under sedation and look for a spay scar at the same time. If she's not got a scar they'll do the spay operation.


Callers who are very concerned about individual animals sometimes think we're over-bureaucratic and causing delay when we insist on administrative details such as log numbers and post codes. The sheer numbers of animals handled by the RSPCA each day mean it's impossible to rely on memory and we have to record information in a systematic way. This cat was a perfect example—without her log number it would have been impossible to track back and verify that the people feeding her are happy to have her back on site. That's hugely important for her future welfare as she's completely unsuited to long-term confinement in a cattery and will have a much better quality of life in the familiar surroundings from which she came.

Cats! Help urgently needed

We have just been notified of the existence of a large colony of cats who may need to be moved because the site where they are living is due to be re-developed.

We'll have more details when we've had a change to speak in depth to the person who contacted us, but it's likely that we will need:

• Suitable sites (e.g. stables, barn, large garden) for pairs of neutered adult cats who have been used to living outside.
• Foster homes for kittens needing socialisation.
• Volunteers willing to help with trapping cats and transporting them to the vets for neutering.
• Help with funds to cover the costs.

If anyone had doubts that there are problems with some pedigree dogs

Take a look at this news article about a Shar Pei who needed surgery to cut back the folds of skin which meant she couldn't see. This dog appears to be a very extreme case as the more common problem is that puppies have eyelids which "don't fit properly" and cause the lashes to turn in and rub against the cornea of the eye. The writer seems a little confused about the distinction between problems like this, where the fault lies in the breed requirement for excessively folded skin, and those caused directly by the process of inbreeding between dogs who are too closely related.

There's more information about the procedure known as "tacking": stitching the eyelid so that it rolls away from the eye, and, as always, sensible comment from vet Pete Wedderburn.

What is the sense of paying £500 for a puppy who is going to need nearly £1,000 of surgery in less than a year to correct the genetic defects for which you paid your £500 in the first place?

Branch animal welfare statistics for September

During September our clinic treated 272 dogs, 125 cats, 9 rabbits and 3 miscellaneous "small furries." We rehomed 2 dogs, 7 cats and 2 rabbits. Neutering figures were down—only 11 dogs and one cat—which may be a danger sign that people are trying to economise by waiting longer to get kittens neutered.

In the year to date we've provided a total of  3,258 low-cost veterinary treatments and rehomed 88 animals.

Next Volunteers' meeting

Thursday 21st October, 7.30-9.30pm at our Charity Shop, 61 Burleigh Street.

Anyone interested in the work of the RSPCA is very welcome to come. There will be a discussion on planning our fundraising timetable for the coming year, so please be prepared to put forward any suggestions for events and activities you would like to see.

Homeless animals and homeless people

One of the major reasons for animals becoming homeless is human housing problems. Families may be forced to give up their pets if they are unable to find rented accommodation which will allow animals, or sometimes pets (generally dogs) may end up living on the streets together with their owners. The Dogs Trust maintain a list of shelters for the homeless with facilities for people with dogs. 

In many ways "street life" is not a dreadful hardship for dogs, unless they are either very young or very old,  because contact with their human partners is the most important thing in a dog's life. Disaster may strike if the dog is injured, perhaps through fighting with other dogs in a hostel, becomes pregnant, or is too young to be protected by vaccination. If a dog does need veterinary help it may be difficult or impossible for a homeless owner to organise transport from a hostel in Cambridge City Centre to our clinic's location in the housing estates in the North of Cambridge. This is another urgent reason why we need to raise enough funds to re-start our help at private vets for owners who genuinely cannot manage to get to the clinic.

Sore eyes

Star waiting to alight from the catmobile

One of the regular visitors to our clinic is a lovely lady with a little dog, who also feeds all her local stray cats. As she has mobility problems and no transport she gets very upset if any of them are poorly because she really doesn't have any easy way to get them in a basket and take them to the vet herself. She's also a bit of a worrier, so my heart rather sank when I had a phone call around 10pm on Friday.

In the past she's had me out on searches for at-risk feral chickens, possibly injured muntjac deer and various cat and dog problems and the weather was absolutely chucking it down outside, so I was relieved that this time she seemed to think the morning would be good enough.

Got there just before ten and kitty was obligingly waiting to show off his eyes, which were indeed looking sore, so I popped him in a basket and off to the clinic. He really is an extremely laid-back cat and let the students take a blood sample with no problems at all. He's thin, although he's been eating ravenously, so he may be hyperthyroid; we'll have to wait for the blood results to come back and in the meantime he's in my spare cat pen with a prescription for eye ointment.

He is neutered, so someone obviously was looking after him at one point, and it is possible that he does have a home and was only looking for extra food because he has a medical problem.

Sickening Story

The Daily Mail has a really upsetting report on a woman who drowned eight cats and tried to excuse herself by saying she didn't have enough credit on her mobile phone to call an animal charity to try to get the cats rehomed.

In this case,  she doesn't even seem to have tried to ask for help, but whenever we do turn people away there is always a nagging worry that they will simply leave the animal to suffer or deliberately do it harm.   

There are the owners who insist they won't contact any of the vets local to them because none are any good—my cynical alter ego says they've run up debts with all of them and know they won't be seen.

One of our inspectors gave me some very wise advice: "Always remember it is ultimately the owner who is responsible for an animal. We did not create the situation."

We have an obligation to give what help we can, but we can't let ourselves be manipulated into feeling we are responsible for everything and we must never say no. 

If we go down that route we will either go under because we run out of money or wind up taking in every animal and putting most of them down because we think no-one but us can be trusted.

It comes back once again to prioritising urgency and getting it right. There are owners who just need a small amount of help, or a reminder of their responsibilities, and there are those who simply are not capable of making reasonable decisions and whose animals need to come in to our care. Identifying which is which is what RSPCA Animal Welfare Officers are trained for.

Shops' Progress

Daily profit of our Burleigh Street shop

To get a feel for how we're doing I worked out the average daily profit for the Burleigh Street Shop over the past three months. August was pretty depressing, but this is probably only to be expected because it's the last month of real summer. Most people have got all the summer clothes they want until next year, but it's too early for them to feel like buying for the colder months.

Profit for the a month is now hovering round the £1,000 mark — enough to cover half of our usual bill for boarding animals until they can be rehomed or half the monthly cost of running our clinic. If we can get it up to £2,000 we can feel secure that the clinic is on a safe financial footing and hope that the future Newmarket shop will fund our animal boarding. Ultimately that should free the money raised by the bookshop to be used to pay for emergency help at private vets. 

Matt Brash video available via VetPulse

Wildlife crime: badgers (warning, some upsetting photos).

The Lost Dogs

This is the story of the 48 dogs rescued as the result of a raid on a dog-fighting breeding establishment in Virginia. The case was something of a cause célèbre due to the fact that one of the owners of the kennels was a highly-successful American Football star and, as part of his plea-bargaining arrangements a considerable amount of money was made available as "restitution" to be used for the rehabilitation of the dogs.

Without this financial resource it's unlikely that the more timid or dog-aggressive animals could have been saved—and in fact from a British viewpoint it's rather shocking that all of them might have been put down with no attempt at evaluation and before the case had even come to trial simply because the police had no funding to keep dogs long-term.

The cash windfall made possible what was effectively a trial project into the rehabilitation of dogs seized from fighting cases. The results are fascinating and in some ways it's a pity this write-up is so firmly aimed at a popular animal-loving audience. I hope some more in-depth studies will appear later.

Within its limitations this is a book with lessons for anyone interested in the "status dog" phenomenon and in rehabilitation of abused dogs. (A very clear lesson is that it can only be solved by dealing with the problem of young male human status aggression, not by regulating particular breeds of dogs). 

One  very surprising finding was that fearfulness was enormously more of a problem for the majority of the dogs on their journey towards normal life than aggression towards other dogs.

Volunteers' Meeting this Thursday

Next informal volunteers' meeting is this Thursday, 7.30-9.30pm at our charity shop, 61 Burleigh St. All welcome.

There's free parking after 7pm at the Adam and Eve St. car park just behind Burleigh St.

So... why isn't the whole of England and Wales a no-kill community?

The ten "No-Kill Equation" recommendations     MAWS

1. Feral Cat TNR Program 

2. High Volume/Low-Cost Spay/Neuter                3. Welfare Neutering

3. Rescue Groups 

4. Foster Care 

5. Comprehensive Adoption Program                    2. Rehoming

6. Pet Retention                                                 4.  Assistance with Veterinary Treatment 

7. Medical and Behavioral Rehabilitation              1. Animals accepted into branch care

8. Public Relations/Community Involvement 

9. Volunteers

Compare these with the Minimum Animal Welfare Standards and you'll recognise that their core principles are identical. (MAWS doesn't specifically mention neutering feral cats, but this is RSPCA policy). Items 3, 4, and 9 are already inherent in the voluntary nature of RSPCA branches.

To an extent the answer is that England and Wales do manage to save a higher proportion of stray and unwanted animals than some other similar countries. In the 1990s we were enthusiastic that this proportion could be increased quite fast, but over the two decades since then we have been barely holding on to the gains made then.

Why?

Item 8 is perhaps the key. 

We've not succeeded in attracting the amount of sustained community support needed to maintain ongoing services at the necessary high level of activity. So long as people and companion animals live together there will always be situations where animals need to be rehomed—just as there will never be a situation where we all have such perfect health that the NHS isn't needed. It's probably inevitable that this work is less immediately attractive than crusades aimed at abuses that can apparently be ended once and for all and we have to solve the problem of "selling ourselves" to gain more support from a wider active community. 

I wonder whether there's not also a degree of difficulty caused by the fact that this is a campaign that doesn't really have any "enemy" most of the time. Some of the animals we rehome have been intentionally abused, but the majority have come to grief because of accidents, poverty or inadequacy, not deliberate cruelty.

The Minimum Animal Welfare Standards

Because of their relative autonomy from the parent society, RSPCA branches have always done their own thing to a certain extent, which is one of the reasons why services available vary so much between different parts of the country. In the very early days, all that was asked was that they should raise the funds to pay the salary of their local inspector. Gradually other facilities evolved, often because of individuals with a special interest in particular aspects of animal welfare (for example oiled seabirds). 

Periodically there are attempts to agree a certain amount of standardisation, usually via consultations at the Branch Officers' Conference or the Branch Animal Welfare Conference. I was one of the Cambridge branch delegates at the Branch Officers' Conference where the MAWS statement was  originally agreed (in the 1990s) and can vouch for it being a somewhat non-ideal meeting of tired individuals who had traveled long distances on Saturday morning after a full working week in their day jobs.

MAWS falls under four headings:

1. Animals accepted into branch care

• Branches should be able to provide advice or assistance to animals of all species, even if only by referral to specialist organisations.
• Animals taken in by the inspectorate, and in need of accommodation, should be seen as having first call on the branch's animal welfare resources. The branch with this responsibility for the animal is the one in whose area the animal is found.
• Branches should aim to accept all companion animals offered to them for adoption, although this may not be achievable in the short term.

2. Rehoming

• All dogs and cats should be micro chipped before rehoming in line with current Society policy.
• Where an animal is offered for adoption and a pre-home visit is required in accordance with the rules, the potential adopter should initially be contacted within 48 hours and the visit itself should be conducted within a week. 
• All animals for rehoming should be neutered, in line with current Society policy, (except where there are over-riding veterinary reasons for not doing so). In the case of animals that are too young to be neutered at the time of adoption, a neutering voucher should be issued and the branch should attempt to ensure that it is used.

3. Welfare Neutering 

• All branches should establish a welfare neutering policy and budget. 
• Support with welfare neutering of their animals should be offered at least to people on the following benefits: income support, working tax credit, housing benefit. 
• Owners who fit the eligibility criteria should be offered a minimum contribution toward the cost of neutering their animals (suggested to be at least £10 or 10% of their bill)

4.  Assistance with Veterinary Treatment 

• All branches should establish an appropriate veterinary assistance policy and budget. 
• As with welfare neutering, help should be offered at least to people on income support, family credit or housing benefit. 
• All people asking the RSPCA for assistance and meeting the eligibility criteria should be offered at least a contribution sufficient to ensure that their animal is seen by a veterinary surgeon (i.e. at least the cost of the consultation fee).