Whether times are good or bad, budgeting for your cat is prudent. A good budget includes vet visits as well as food costs. This article will show you how to minimize vet visits and increase your cats' overall health. Buying pre-packaged cat food is the worst thing you can do for your cats overall health, and your budget.Prevention Minimizes the Overall ExpensePrevention is the key to a long, and happy relationship with your cat. It is ONLY through prevention that you will be able to greatly reduce the potential of life threatening illnesses. Most chronic disease takes a long time to develop to a point where your cat begins to show signs of illness. When it does, vet bills can overwhelm the family budget. Sadly, and solely through lack of knowledge, many cat owners put their companion down because they could not afford the vet bills associated with a disease.Can You Afford to Skip the Annual Exam?The annual vet exam is not as revealing as one would hope. Even expensive tests can miss the early stages of a chronic illness, which tend to develop out of view, deep within your cat's gastrointestinal and immune systems. Staying vigilant for changes in energy, or behavior on a daily basis is far more effective. However, be aware that cats are experts at hiding pain and illness as a defense mechanism.While a routine check up with your vet averages $50-100, the hidden costs can easily double that figure. The average time door-to-door is 4 hours, about a half days pay. Most employers cannot afford to be that generous. And then there's the cost of gasoline, wear and tear. The true out-of-pocket cost of routine visit is more like $200.Better Health through NutritionThe old adage you are what you eat is five times more applicable to your cat. Why? Because cats age five times faster than we do! Chronic illness and disease seem to come on suddenly, when in fact they develop slowly, below the surface.Thanks to the pet-food recall of 2007, pre-packaged pet foods became front page news. While hundreds of pets died and countless thousands suffered long-term, this was actually a good thing. While prepackaged cat foods today are considered safe, they are the equivalent of eating fast foods for every meal.The connection between food and health can be ignored, but it cannot be denied! The documentary Super Size Me is a film about discovery: What effect, if any, does eating nothing but McDonalds food for 30 straight days have on a persons health? Prior to starting, he had a battery of tests. Thankfully, he had the foresight to be monitored throughout. A mere two-weeks into the experiment his doctors urged him to stop immediately as his overall health was deteriorating rapidly, and yet, this is exactly what the overwhelming majority of owners feed their cats daily, weekly, monthly and yearly.The best way to safely stretch the time between annual exams is to improve your cat's diet! Doing so also minimizes the risk of your cat getting a serious disease.The most effective way to restore or maintain your cat's health is with a diet that includes human grade meats, fowl and fish, combined with daily supplements like; soil-based probiotic supplements, and high performance oils, or vital pet lipids, which are essential to maintain every aspect of your cats health- joint, skin, digestive system, immune system and all internal organs.The most effective way to change your cat's diet, with mnimal GI upset, is to mix the old cat food with the new diet 50/50 for a week, then make the full switch to lightly cooked meats; then, after one month, transition the same way to a raw meat diet, again with daily supplements.The Bottom LineCat health care on a budget is possible once you realize that you cannot do it by cutting corners on food or supplements! Lets do the math: The actual cost of 3 vet visits a year (including annual check up) is hundreds-of-times more expensive than the difference in cost between pre-packaged cat food (which should only be fed in times of emergency) and better food combined with a high performance supplement program.Upping the amount of money you spend for better cat food and proper supplements, will not just minimize your vet bills; doing so will reward you with a happy and healthy cat that will live 5-7 years longer than if you dont!
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