Cats and dogs are the soul mates of countless people.

How much do people nowadays love their furry children? Not only do you have to keep an eye on him at work and walk after get off work, but sometimes you can even grit your teeth and carry it when you have a cold or fever. But once your furry child wilts, you have to rush to the hospital to see what's going on.

However, when you walk out of the hospital holding your pet with peace of mind, look at your hands again Do you also have questions like, "Why is pet medical treatment so expensive?"

Cats and dogs go to the hospital and can't get out without spending a thousand dollars. Taking your pet to see a doctor is really not what you want. One person thinks it is expensive.

Data from the "China Pet Industry White Paper 2021" shows that in 2021, the cost of pet medical treatment will be 55% higher than the cost of taking pets out and the quality of pet products, which has become the focus of every poop official. The biggest pain point.

Anyone who has ever raised a pet will know how helpless and unwilling it is to give all your hard-earned money to a pet hospital.

In 2018, someone’s kitten just had a cold, but the doctor prescribed medicine worth nearly 1,000 yuan. Taking a closer look at the bill, I saw 150 yuan for cold and anti-inflammatory medicine, 150 yuan for 2.5g of antiviral and anti-inflammatory cream, and 200 yuan for eye cleaning lotion. . You know, to treat people, cold and anti-inflammatory drugs only cost a few dozen yuan. But for pets, if you spend the 1,000 yuan and you are not convinced, there is nothing you can do if you don’t spend it.

Not only that, someone’s cat had blood in its stool. The owner ran back and forth to the hospital for blood and stool tests. He spent hundreds of dollars and took the test sheet to the doctor. What he got was the answer: "It may be due to food." too much".

In fact, for most Chinese pet-raising families, it has become normal to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars at a pet hospital. About 80.8% of pet hospitals in China have average unit prices concentrated in the two ranges of 200 to 500 yuan and 500 to 1,000 yuan. Two-thirds of pet owners spend more than 1,000 yuan on pet medical and health care.

This is the case for ordinary medical treatment, but it is even worse if the pet at home needs surgery.

A reporter visited five well-known pet hospitals in Beijing and found that the price gap for female cat sterilization surgery ranged from 398 yuan to 1,688 yuan, with the largest price difference reaching 1,290 yuan.

Even if you purchase a luxury package of spaying and neutering for your own kittens, when you actually walk out of the pet hospital, you will find that this discount has long been offset by other additional items. Some people purchased a 685.5 yuan sterilization package for their cats, but with the additional additional blood routine, blood coagulation test, cat heart disease test and even a 27 yuan headgear, the actual amount soared to 2011.5 yuan.

More and more people are keeping pets, and taking their pets to see a doctor has also brought a double burden of money and spirit to many people. So, why is pet medical care so expensive? Where does all the money you spend go?

Why is it so expensive to take your pet to the doctor?

In fact, most people’s first perception of the expense of pet treatment comes from the long bill.

At first glance, the high drug prices, imported brands, and lack of reimbursement...all this made the shit-sweepers begin to doubt life: Could it be that kittens and puppies are more powerful than humans? Is gold expensive?

In fact, to a certain extent, pets are really more valuable than you think. In particular, pet medication has made many people call it outrageous.

Take the nerve-soothing drug gabapentin as an example. Human drugs on the platform range from 20 to 50 yuan, while cat gabapentin is concentrated in 50 to 100 yuan or even higher. Of course, human medicine and pet medicine should not be confused. They are both gabapentin, and the xylitol contained in human medicine may cause kittens and puppies to become more unwell.

However, it is not unreasonable for pet medicine to be expensive. After all, "things are rare and valuable". Data show that in 2016, the domestic pet drug market accounted for only 8% of the entire animal drug market. Even in 2021, the market size of pet drugs will only be 7 billion, accounting for only 12.7% of the pet medical industry.

Not only that, for most pharmaceutical companies, developing pet drugs is also a high priority. A dedicated, long-term process. Industry studies show that it can take 5-15 years to bring an animal health drug from initial concept to market, and the cost of investment may even exceed $100 million. For pharmaceutical companies, it will take at least 17 years from the time of patent issuance to recover costs.

Therefore, for many pharmaceutical companies, investing in pet medicine itself is a difficult thing to gain quickly. In particular, domestic medical companies started late, so you will find that most of the drugs used in pet hospitals are imported drugs, which is another reason why pet drugs are expensive.

Take vaccines as an example. In 2019, domestic pet vaccine imports accounted for 94%. Taobao's sales data in April 2021 shows that only three of the top 10 brands in online sales are domestically produced, and the sales of foreign brands have even reached tens of millions of yuan.

So, when we take our cats to see a doctor, our choice of drugs is actually very small, and most of the drugs are imported, so the prices have naturally soared.

Of course, aside from the fact that pet medication is expensive, the lack of insurance reimbursement will make it even worse for you who are not already wealthy.

In fact, the reason why it is not too expensive for ordinary people to see a doctor is that they can be reimbursed by medical insurance. Taking urban workers in Beijing as an example, reimbursement for outpatient services can reach up to 90%. However, pets that are not insured have no chance of reimbursement.

According to Swiss Re’s survey data, Sweden is the earliest and most developed country in the pet insurance industry, with a pet insurance participation rate of more than 50%, the UK’s pet insurance participation rate is about 25%, and China’s pet insurance industry Insurance coverage is less than 1%. This means that the vast majority of Chinese people are paying full price for medical treatment for their pets.

The key to the low pet insurance rate is that the domestic pet insurance mechanism, like the pet medical industry, is still in its infancy. If you are not careful, you will step into a trap.

In 2021, someone bought a pet insurance for their poodle. But this insurance was a real waste. It cost me 400 yuan to take my dog ​​to the doctor, but only 30 yuan was reimbursed. The explanation given by the insurance company is that the two diarrhea drugs in the bill are not covered by the claim. Some drugs are not considered "drugs" as defined by insurance, and some drugs are "nutritional products", and these are not covered by the claim. within the range.

The immature pet insurance system will make many owners feel lonely. Not only do they have to pay for insurance every month, but they also can’t pay much money if they really get sick. It’s better to endure the pain all at once and just cover it all. Forget about seeing a doctor.

Pet medical treatment is expensive, and you can’t just blame the hospital

However, just when you look at the running bills and think the pet hospital is making a lot of money, you may not expect that, It is difficult for pet hospitals to break even now, and many pet hospitals are even losing money.

Data from the "2021 Pet Medical Industry White Paper" show that only nearly 16% of hospitals have a profit margin of more than 30%, and one-tenth of pet hospitals are at a loss. Although most people spend thousands to go to a pet hospital, for pet hospitals, they may only receive one or two cases a day, which means they cannot make ends meet.

So since pet hospitals don’t make money, and we spend a lot of money every time we go to the hospital, why is pet treatment expensive?

In fact, the expensive medical treatment for pets is inseparable from people's increasingly sophisticated care for their pets. If pets in the past were "good friends" who looked after homes and homes, now, pets are more often regarded as "family members" whose blood is thicker than water. You will find that the previous behavior of being careless and indifferent to pets' illness has long since disappeared.

Especially in the past decade, veterinary medicine has seen many changes in diagnosis, treatment and care. Tests such as MRI, ultrasound and laparoscopy that were once reserved for humans are now being used to treat pets as well.

Data from the American Veterinary Medical Association shows that in 2016, the health check-up costs for a dog and a cat were US$168 and US$141 respectively, while in 2022, the prices will increase to US$192 and US$169 respectively. Dollar.

Of course, it’s not just medical treatment, the caretakers’ exquisite care for furry children is reflected in all aspects. The "2020 Pet Medical Consumption Insights" report shows that more and more pet owners have even begun to stock up on health products for gastrointestinal conditioning, calcium supplementation, bone strengthening, and hair care for their pets.

It is due to the efforts of every poop scraper that the living environment of pets has become better and their life span has been longer. Over the past 40 years, dog life expectancy has doubled, and domestic cats live twice as long as feral cats.

However, it sounds like a good thing for pets to live longer, but at the same time it breaks the lifespan law determined by natural evolution. Under the normal life span evolution of species, species evolution will have a balance between tumor suppression mechanisms and aging mechanisms. The sudden increase in life span will prevent pets from quickly resetting their cancer barriers, thereby increasing the risk of disease.

The American Veterinary Medical Association reports that approximately one in four dogs will develop tumors at some point in their lives. And almost half of dogs over the age of 10 will develop cancer. If dogs are unfortunate enough to suffer from cancer, they will have to pay even more.

According to data from Cornell University, the cost of treatment for pets suffering from cancer may cost more than several hundred dollars for the initial examination and evaluation, and may cost more than $500 for subsequent major surgery, while the cost of chemotherapy also starts from Anywhere from hundreds to thousands of dollars.

The sudden increase in lifespan will break the law of natural evolution, thereby increasing the risk of pet disease/Tu Chong Creative

As a result, as the age of pets continues to increase, the risk of disease also increases. The high cost of treatment makes every poop doctor want to protect their furry children in the preventive stage.

All you can do at this time is to take preventive measures in the early stage and take your pet for check-ups frequently. And spending money has undoubtedly become the best way to seek peace of mind.

But in the end, no matter how much money we spend at the pet hospital, from the moment we raise a pet, we know that this is the path we must take. For every dog ​​owner, they certainly hope that their furry child will be healthy and stay with them for a long time.

Although the bill is expensive and will drain your wallet. But you know that no amount of money can buy the happiness and companionship your own furry baby brings you.