This has been a trend we’ve been watching since we started investing – the shifting perception of the family pet and the increased willingness to spend that goes along with it. For decades, vet bills around the world have been rising – Americans spent $34 billion at the vet in 2021, up from $12 billion in 2011. Looking at total spending on pets, including vet care, it is a similar story – $50 billion in 2011, up to $126 billion in 2021.
This article looks at some of the new cutting edge animal surgeries being developed. It starts by introducing Strawberry, a 16 year old cat that has just had a kidney transplant. The cost? $15,000 USD. And pet organ donations remains controversial, because the pet does not have the ability to consent. So, to date, the only organ transplant available is a kidney transplant (because animals, like humans, can continue living with just one working kidney).
But pet owners don’t stop at organ donation. Vets now offer a number of treatments that were traditionally only available for humans – biopsies, X-rays, ultrasounds, chemotherapy, radiation, immunotherapy, hip replacements and laparoscopic surgery. As this trend keeps developing and veterinary medicine continues to look more like human medicine, more and more pet owners are being forced to ask themselves the question – how much would you pay to save your cat’s life?
This is an excerpt from our Thought Starters email. Once a week we send you 5 interesting articles that have caught our attention, to get you thinking. No spam, we guarantee.