Preventative care is so expensive. Can't I just deal with problems when they come up?

That's certainly an option, but from my perspective, it's not the best option. I think it's less expensive to prevent problems than deal with them as they come up for a couple of reasons. One reason is there can be long-term effects of things that we can prevent. These illnesses are sometimes not fixable, which can mean chronic care and chronic medications, which obviously can add up and be more expensive.

For example, if we can start that Lyme vaccine at eight weeks and keep it up to date year to year, it will keep your dog protected. The vast majority of dogs are very well protected by that vaccine. The company also guarantees the vaccine. So if God forbid, your dog gets Lyme disease even though they're vaccinated, their care is going to be covered by that company.

If we didn't do the Lyme vaccine and your dog contracts Lyme, we recommend regular monitoring of protein levels in the urine, Lyme C6 titers. Often they need several rounds of medications because Lyme can become a lifelong disease. In a tiny percentage of dogs, it can lead to kidney failure.

So when you think about the small things that you can do each year or each month, like a flea and tick preventative to keep these problems from occurring, it ends up being a lot cheaper than dealing with a problem as it comes up.