Do you have to be "rich" to own a bulldog?

[megdav]

The more I research, the more I realize how many health issues and/or expensive food bullies need. We don't have a ton of money. We're not poor but not well off either. Will pet insurance help a lot? Should I even be considering a bully?

 

[2BullyMama]

Fantastic question..... it is awesome that you are doing all the research and information finding. Just this reason is why so many end up in rescue/shelters... people jump at buying the cute wrinkled baby and never know what really is all involved.

You do not have to be rich, but willing to spend the money to keep them healthy. The better the food and daily maintenance care... the less likely you will be at the vet. Once you find the right food (could be months of trial and error) you do prevent a lot of the issues with skin, ears, paws... so, even thought a bag of food may be $70... it is high quality so you feed less and the bag will last 5-6 weeks, so you are kind of only paying around $10 a week for food , which if it keeps away vet visits (outside of the normal wellness) it is worth the spend. That said, there are things due to bad/poor breeding or just roll of the dice that you may have to deal with (cherry eye, tail amputation, palate reduction, nares widen, enthropian).

Pet insurance is great if you get the plan as soon as you get a puppy and there is no medical history.... most companies do not cover any pre-existing conditions and some consider a conversation with your vet for information as pre-existing. Based on that, what we have done for the past 12 yrs, is have a credit card just for the pups and it is used only for emergency vet bills (surgery, ER trips, etc.).

one big piece to keep in mind... these babies give so much love they are more than worth their weight in gold
hope that helps

 

[megdav]

Fantastic question..... it is awesome that you are doing all the research and information finding. Just this reason is why so many end up in rescue/shelters... people jump at buying the cute wrinkled baby and never know what realize the work involved.

You do not have to be rich, but willing to spend the money to keep them healthy. The better the food and daily maintenance care... the less likely you will be at the vet. Once you find the right food (could be months of trial and error) you do prevent a lot of the issues with skin, ears, paws... so, even thought a bag of food may be $70... it is high quality so you feed less and the bag will last 5-6 weeks, so you are kind of only paying around $10 a week for food , which if it keeps away vet visits (outside of the normal wellness) it is worth the spend. That said, there are things due to bad/poor breeding or just roll of the dice that you may have to deal with (cherry eye, tail amputation, palate reduction, nares widen, enthropian).

Pet insurance is great if you get the plan as soon as you get a puppy and there is no medical history.... most companies do not cover any pre-existing conditions and some consider a conversation with your vet for information as pre-existing. Based on that, what we have done for the past 12 yrs, is have a credit card just for the pups and it is used only for emergency vet bills (surgery, ER trips, etc.).

one big piece to keep in mind... these babies give so much love they are more than worth their weight in gold
hope that helps

Oh Christine, that does help a lot, thank you. I like what you said about the food. $10 a week isn't so much now is it? We have a Care Credit card we could use for him/her. We would probably adopt an older bulldog since my son (special needs) gets nervous around dogs with a lot of energy like puppies. So that makes the insurance a little (little?) higher. We need to keep that in mind also...

 

[bullmama]

Great advice Christine!

If you adopt, many times you will already know from the rescue what kind of health issues the bulldog has, so that is a plus with adoption.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[1Chumly]

If you get an older dog, you may find insurance is too expensive. We didn't get insurance with Chumly because of his pre-existing conditions. What would be covered just wasn't worth it and would probably have been a battle every time we made a claim. We used to have insurance on Barney, our Doxie. As he came from a rescue, he already had a vet history before us which the insurance checked on. He had mange when he was found so anything at all concerning his skin was declined immediately. It was $100 deductible for every issue and we just had 80% coverage to make it affordable. The price went up quite a bit every year so we cancelled after 4 years and one claim for which we got back the grand sum of about $80! That monthly payment was better off going in the bank. With Monty we didn't even consider insurance as he was 4 when we got him. We now have a dedicated savings account especially for our pets which is added to monthly.

 

[megdav]

If you get an older dog, you may find insurance is too expensive. We didn't get insurance with Chumly because of his pre-existing conditions. What would be covered just wasn't worth it and would probably have been a battle every time we made a claim. We used to have insurance on Barney, our Doxie. As he came from a rescue, he already had a vet history before us which the insurance checked on. He had mange when he was found so anything at all concerning his skin was declined immediately. It was $100 deductible for every issue and we just had 80% coverage to make it affordable. The price went up quite a bit every year so we cancelled after 4 years and one claim for which we got back the grand sum of about $80! That monthly payment was better off going in the bank. With Monty we didn't even consider insurance as he was 4 when we got him. We now have a dedicated savings account especially for our pets which is added to monthly.

That's a good idea too, adding to a savings account each month. Yes, I have priced some insurances for an older dog. one was $190 (what??). But others are around $100. Blah. I'll have to give that some thought. I guess you just never know. It would be awful to suddenly have a $7000 vet bill for surgery or something and not have enough in the account. Hmm...

 

[Chunky White]

Some great advice above. Talk too the breeders and you can hopefully get a good feeling about them and the pups they are selling . I talked to 5 different breeders because I didn't want a puppy mill dog and wanted one with better bloodlines. once I seen chunky's picture on the web i knew he would be mine though and the breeder made me feel confident in him. Some breeders will give and warranty with the pups also.

My first bulldog was pretty healthy but and chunky hasn't had any problems other than not doing well with certain foods. The first one could eat anything and thats good because I bother when i was 17 and had never heard of the foods, vitamins and all the other products you can learn about in this web forum.

I was sold at this pic!! LOL

 

[madie4589]

I don't think you have to be rich, just able to prioritize! and able to swallow the fact that you could unexpectedly be hit with a $2000 vet bill. I was looking over my expenses from last year for taxes, and Frank's bills definitely went into the thousands last year (to bad we can't claim them as dependents...) BUT I do have insurance on him, and that's been a huge financial help. (but like others have said, it only really makes sense for a younger dog - i rescued frank at 14 weeks)

I'm only 26, bf is 29, we both do well but are by no means rich. we don't have kids, frank is our child... he eats better than we do, and I spend more time on his daily maintenance than I do my own :D catching a hot spot before it gets bad is so much easier than dealing with one that's already progressed into the yuck stage.

Just based on the fact that you're doing research before-hand, tells me you would be a responsible pet parent. So many people buy a cute puppy on impulse and get in waaaaay over their heads with complicated/expensive EB health issues.

 

[megdav]

Some great advice above. Talk too the breeders and you can hopefully get a good feeling about them and the pups they are selling . I talked to 5 different breeders because I didn't want a puppy mill dog and wanted one with better bloodlines. once I seen chunky's picture on the web i knew he would be mine though and the breeder made me feel confident in him. Some breeders will give and warranty with the pups also.

My first bulldog was pretty healthy but and chunky hasn't had any problems other than not doing well with certain foods. The first one could eat anything and thats good because I bother when i was 17 and had never heard of the foods, vitamins and all the other products you can learn about in this web forum.

I was sold at this pic!! LOL

View attachment 95409

Thank you for the advice Wes. omgosh!!! he is soooo cuuuuuuute!

 

[megdav]

I don't think you have to be rich, just able to prioritize! and able to swallow the fact that you could unexpectedly be hit with a $2000 vet bill. I was looking over my expenses from last year for taxes, and Frank's bills definitely went into the thousands last year (to bad we can't claim them as dependents...) BUT I do have insurance on him, and that's been a huge financial help. (but like others have said, it only really makes sense for a younger dog - i rescued frank at 14 weeks)

I'm only 26, bf is 29, we both do well but are by no means rich. we don't have kids, frank is our child... he eats better than we do, and I spend more time on his daily maintenance than I do my own :D catching a hot spot before it gets bad is so much easier than dealing with one that's already progressed into the yuck stage.

Just based on the fact that you're doing research before-hand, tells me you would be a responsible pet parent. So many people buy a cute puppy on impulse and get in waaaaay over their heads with complicated/expensive EB health issues.

Thanks so much Madie

I don't mind spending as much as necessary to care for our bulldog. I don't like to buy a lot of stuff or go a lot of places really, so I don't mind him/her being my top priority I just don't want to get in over my head. But it does seem there are ways to avoid that. Being proactive is probably key. Save up...have a credit card...insurance if appropriate...things like that.

 

[Chunky White]

Oh Christine, that does help a lot, thank you. I like what you said about the food. $10 a week isn't so much now is it? We have a Care Credit card we could use for him/her. We would probably adopt an older bulldog since my son (special needs) gets nervous around dogs with a lot of energy like puppies. So that makes the insurance a little (little?) higher. We need to keep that in mind also...

90% of bulldog puppies will not have a lot of energy. They are usually worn out with 10-15 minutes of play once or twice per day. They sleep a lot also and are great with kids, grownups and other animals.

 

[sheshistory]

This is a good question that I struggle with mightily. Especially now that we have two children to think about.

Out of three bulldogs, two have needed surgery that ended up costing in the neighborhood of $5K a piece. All of them were at the vet quite often the first few years as we tried to figure out the best foods for them and, at one time, I had two on Cyclosporine, which is $40 a month, for allergies. Plus food. They aren't cheap! And SO many people give them up because they just have no clue until the vet bills start to roll in.

The other thing I struggle with is their life span. I haven't had a bulldog live past 7 yet. Truman is going to be 6 in May...it's on my mind. Especially with my son, who just loves his doggy. It's tough to lose them so fast.

I think that's the good thing about getting an older bulldog - everything that is going to come up, outside of old age, is already known. So there is less chance for an unexpected surgery or mites or whatever.

But I agree with the others. You don't have to be rich but the dog has to be a priority.

Also, with Banfield there, you can get on their Wellness Plan (we did that instead of pet insurance) and ALL visits are free and you get a discount on services plus free vaccines. We loved it there and if there were a Banfield around us now, we'd definitely go there!

 

[1Chumly]

That's a good idea too, adding to a savings account each month. Yes, I have priced some insurances for an older dog. one was $190 (what??). But others are around $100. Blah. I'll have to give that some thought. I guess you just never know. It would be awful to suddenly have a $7000 vet bill for surgery or something and not have enough in the account. Hmm...

You are right, you never know. Chumly became very ill about 8 months before he died. He ended up having to have a splenectomy (it was not cancer, thank God) and that episode, all together, cost us over $6000. Ouch! We didn't have the dedicated account then so it came out of ours! I would have spent double without a thought for my special boy though.

 

[megdav]

90% of bulldog puppies will not have a lot of energy. They are usually worn out with 10-15 minutes of play once or twice per day. They sleep a lot also and are great with kids, grownups and other animals.

my son also gets nervous that he is going to get bit and you know how puppies are little nibblers
I love that bulldogs are pretty chill though

 

[Chunky White]

my son also gets nervous that he is going to get bit and you know how puppies are little nibblers
I love that bulldogs are pretty chill though

Bulldog are definitely nibblers you just have to redirect them to a chew toy. They also like to lick a lot.