How to Afford Your Pet Expenses if You're Unemployed

Being unemployed is devastating on so many levels, and with your pets laying around you. It may important to starting to think about how you’re going to take care of them. To save yourself from having to make hard choices, here are some tricks you can do to handle pet expenses and avoid abandoning your furry friend.

Get a Job as a Dog Walker!

If you’re a dog owner, you should think about walking other dogs to earn some money, so you’ll be taking care of your dog and providing a good amount of money to feed him at the same time.

Dog walkers in Canada earn about 22$ per hour.

Work Out a Payment Plan with Your Vet

You can take advantage of being a loyal customer to your vet. Explain your situation and ask about the possibility of having a weekly or monthly plan. This plan should consider sudden surgeries, spay/neuter, vaccination, grooming, and cleaning supplies. Your vet might reduce your bills, and/or offer cash discounts until your financial situation becomes better.

Pet Food Pantry

Pet food pantry helps low-income families that own pets. They usually offer support for only 6 months by giving them food donations. However, this doesn’t cover the entire month’s worth of food, but it’ll sure be a good push now that every penny counts.

Buy From Smaller Towns

Vets usually charge higher in big cities, so you should consider buying pet food, or visiting vets that are in smaller towns to save some money. This way, the pet expenses you typically have can be cut, and you get a chance to support smaller businesses.

The Farley Foundation

If you’re located in Ontario, CA, you can get help from this foundation if you are eligible based on their criteria. As they mention on their website, “The Farley Foundation helps low-income pet owners in Ontario by subsidizing the cost of non-elective veterinary care for their sick or injured pets.” 

You can also check these sources for more help:

CVMA – Warehouse Club – Blue Cross

Or read this blog for more recourse: