As a veterinarian, I figured I'd chime in on a few things here....
I think we've spent around $3000 so far, mostly vet and specialists for these 'conditions' they have. They look and act completely healthy.
What are these 'conditions?' If you're going to specialists, I'd imagine that one or both of these dogs has some pretty serious medical issues... and those can definitely be expensive to thoroughly diagnose and treat. There's always the option of NOT providing that level of care, as long as you're comfortable with the fact that your outcomes may be different.
Several people mentioned diet..... so I'll just toss out my 2 cents on dog food because this is kind of a pet peeve / soapbox of mine. Unless you have a dog who is allergic to grain (VERY UNCOMMON - the overwhelming majority of food-allergic dogs are allergic to beef, chicken, or pork), there is absolutely no benefit to feeding a grain-free food. It's become a huge marketing trend (just like the gluten-free fad in people), but it doesn't have any benefits. Some people think that the grain-free foods are low-carb, but the carbs that they use to replace the grains (potatoes, tapioca, etc) typically have a higher glycemic index and lower protein levels than the grains. So, while I wouldn't go so far as to say that grain-free is necessarily a BAD thing, it certainly is not an indicator of a quality food.
Foods I typically recommend? Eukanuba, Purina ProPlan, Science Diet, Royal Canin. If those are out of your price range, Iams or Purina One are better low-cost options. Heck, even Purina Dog Chow has gone through feeding trials (which many of the "grain free" trendy foods have not.) For some more great info on sorting out science vs hype, check out:
http://www.wsava.org/sites/default/files/Recommendations%20on%20Selecting%20Pet%20Foods.pdfhttp://www.wsava.org/sites/default/files/Nutrition%20on%20the%20Internet%20dogs.pdfBasically, the gist of those handouts is that you need food from a reputable manufacturer that has been put through AAFCO feeding trials. Many of the trendy new 'boutique' brands don't meet that criteria, so that's something to be aware of. It amazes me how many of my clients brag to me about feeding Blue or some other food that they think is fabulous quality, then get this look of shock on their face when I tell them that there are cheaper foods that would be higher quality than Blue. Pet foods are big money and they are an area where you definitely DON'T always get what you pay for. Many of the trendy companies have a FAR larger marketing budget than research & development budget.... and reading the labels doesn't really tell you anything about the quality of the food. And also, while I'm on my soapbox, 'byproducts' in food are NOT a bad thing - they're the organ meat from the animals, which is often more nutritious than muscle meat. The funny thing is that some companies will specifically advertise neato-sounding things like 'chicken liver,' 'chicken heart,' while bashing byproducts, never mentioning that their neato-sounding things ARE byproducts.
(For the record, my dogs - a 10 year old German Shepherd and a 13 year old Pit Bull mix - eat Purina ProPlan because it's a high-quality food that they both like and do well on. When I first graduated from vet school and was trying to repay debt on $45k/yr, they ate Purina One.... which is still a higher quality food than Blue or many of the boutique brands.)
I have a 160 lbs English Mastiff with hypothyroidism. Between meds and a %50 raw diet, she costs about $1100 per year. I thought the meds were a waste at one point so we stopped. Next thing you know all of her hair fell out and she had no energy. Once she was back on her meds, things returned to normal. So an extra $30/month for the rest of her life is now the norm.
However, we don't do heart worm meds at all and we only do flea meds a month before and after we travel...both against our vet's advice.
I'd save your money on the diet. Raw has been demonstrated to give a shinier coat, but that's just a cosmetic benefit - and now that her hypothyroidism is being treated you may not need to do that. Changing dog foods would save you money on your monthly budget AND decrease the risk of a lot of expensive health issues (Salmonella, Listeria and campylobacter - all of which could also be transmitted to the humans in your home, as well as nutrient deficiencies). The only documented benefits of raw food diets are increased coat quality and decreased fecal output, and I just can't see that those benefits are good enough to justify the risks.
When it comes to heartworm prevention, it's a lot cheaper to prevent than to treat. I've diagnosed/treated enough heartworm positive dogs (at least 2-3/wk for the last 9 years) that I start to get nervous if I think my dogs may be just a couple of days overdue on prevention, but I'm the south and heartworms are VERY common here. I don't really care whether my clients use flea/tick prevention (fleas are more of a grossness thing than a medical issue unless the dog has flea allergies, and we don't see many ticks in my area), but heartworm prevention is a BIG priority for me because I've seen a number of dogs euthanized due to complications of heartworm disease. In my mind, heartworm prevention is THE most important piece of veterinary care for dogs (well, aside from rabies, but only because of all the legal ramifications of not being up to date on rabies) and I'd consider it far more important than diet, vaccines, or anything else for that matter.
It's difficult to know since you have not mentioned what their conditions are and if their treatment is necessary or available from other vets in your area for less. We have pets and they are expensive, however we work with our vet on a reasonable plan if they are ill. We don't automatically get expensive tests without asking how the treatment would be different without the tests. For example our cat either has a fairly treatable bowel condition or she has cancer. In either case cheap prednisone and special food is the treatment plan. So we saved tons of money on a biopsy, etc. and our vet doesn't make us feel guilty for being reasonable.
All vets are not the same and some do try and pressure you into things you don't need.
This is an excellent example of what I was saying above, about how there are always options in disease management. We see a LOT of older cats with GI issues, and the two most likely causes are lymphoma or inflammatory bowel disease. The way to determine which we're dealing with? Biopsies of the intestinal tract. But, as I tell my owners, knowing whether it's lymphoma ONLY matters if you're the type of person who'd want to pursue chemo for your cat. If chemo is off the table, then palliative care for lymphoma and treatment of inflammatory bowel disease are both done with prednisone at similar doses so there's no need to go through the stress and expense of biopsies (unless you're the type of person who just NEEDS answers, and I get that some are like that)!
Last comment, on flea/heartworm preventions:
- Products purchased through online pharmacies are often coming from overseas or are counterfeit, and are not backed by the manufacturer guarantee. For the most part, they still seem to be relatively effective. BUT, any preventive problem does have a small risk of failure. (Think about birth control pills!) If you're purchasing heartworm prevention from your veterinarian, and their records indicate that you have been coming in every 6 months to buy a 6 pack, the drug company will pay the cost of heartworm treatment (approx $1000, depending on your area/COL) if your dog were to come up positive. I've only had to have a company do that once, but it sure did make things easier on the client. If you're purchasing online, that guarantee does not apply and you'd be paying for treatment (or choosing not to treat a potentially life-threatening condition).
- Large animal ivermectin is fine to use, but please be VERY careful. Ivermectin toxicity is a real issue and we see significant problems when people who are bad at math try to give ivermectin at home.
Also, please don't use feed store vaccines. Nearly half of the parvovirus cases that I've treated in my career have been vaccinated with feed store vaccines (the rest were unvaccinated). I don't think it's the product that's the problem - I think feed stores just aren't equipped to handle those products in the same way that a veterinary clinic is and therefore I don't think they're always kept properly refrigerated. When we get our daily fridge shipment from UPS, everything is unpacked and in the fridge within an hour. I've heard stories from people who have worked at Tractor Supply, etc that those boxes sometimes sit in their storeroom for MUCH longer than they should. As long as your dog doesn't go to boarding, grooming or dog parks, the only vaccine that's needed in addition to rabies is the DAPP (distemper, adenovirus, parvovirus, parainfluenza) and that's also an every-3-years vaccine, so why not just let your vet do it? It might even be cheaper than doing the feed store vaccines yearly (especially since the ones around me tend to recommend a TON of unnecessary vaccines).
