Rising cost of vet medicine in Singapore: How much do you need to have a pet?

Dr Kenneth Tong (left), founder and head vet of Animal and Avian Veterinary Clinic, attending to a client. - COURTESY OF KENNETH TONG

SINGAPORE: With more people treating their cats or dogs as family members and often willing to pay for the animals’ medical treatments like they would for their own, veterinary services have changed from offering mainly primary care to something resembling human healthcare today.

This means expensive diagnostic scans, surgery and cancer treatments are routinely offered, leading to one of the sector’s biggest problems: escalating costs.