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Birmingham Dogs Home
Centre manager Hayley Gee said Birmingham Dogs Home paid about £400,000 a year in vets bills
An animal charity is having to pay out about £400,000 on vet bills each year as call-outs to help stricken dogs increase "massively", staff say.
Hayley Gee, from the Birmingham Dogs Home, said the organisation's vet bills had "definitely increased" and they have seen more dogs being handed in that need treatment that their owners cannot afford.
"We have cases where dogs should have had treatment a long time ago or they should have seen a vet immediately and they haven't," she said.
Owners should talk to their vet if they were worried about costs as "we'll always do our best to support animals and their owners", the British Veterinary Association (BVA) president, Rob Williams, said.
It comes as the Competition and Markets Authority watchdog found vet prices had risen at nearly twice the rate of inflation.
Earlier this year, vets and animal charities told the BBC that pet owners were increasingly having their sick animals put down or were delaying taking them for treatment to avoid spiralling vet bills.
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Birmingham Dogs Home
Gee said the centre recently found a dog in urgent need of treatment, tied up outside
"We have cases where dogs should have had treatment a long time ago or they should have seen a vet immediately and they haven't," Gee added.
"We had a case this weekend, actually, where we found a dog tied up to a post outside our gate. It turned out she had recently had a litter of puppies very, very recently.
"We took her in and she gave birth to one puppy the day after, which had started to decompose inside her, so most likely she has had a litter and got into some trouble or the litter has passed away.
"Instead of rushing her to the vets they've handed her into us. She's a very lucky girl to still be with us."
The 36-year-old said an emergency caesarean birth could be anything but would usually range from £1,000-£2,000, depending on how much treatment was needed.
Discussing the impact on the charity, which also has a centre in Wolverhampton as well as its base in Solihull, Gee said: "Our vet bills have definitely increased.
"If the survival rate is good and we think if we can put everything at this dog and they will come through the other end, then absolutely, we will always give it a go.
"We have a vet practice on site but specialist surgeries can cost the charity thousands - we spend about £400,000 a year on vet treatments alone."
Birmingham Dogs Home
Gee said Birmingham Dogs Home had received an average of 150 call-outs to help stricken dogs every month
She also said her centre was facing about 150 calls per month for dogs needing placements which was becoming more and more difficult, with rehoming taking longer.
"In the last 12 months we have seen a decrease in the amount of rehomes that we do," she said.
"They've halved in that time and because we take in stray dogs we don't have a say on what comes in and we have a lot of larger breeds, for example.
"They are more expensive to feed, more expensive to insure so people are more reserved when rehoming a dog now.
"It definitely more difficult to rehome a dog now and we are constantly struggling for capacity to help another dog.
"A kennel doesn't stay empty for very long, unfortunately."
There were a range of reasons for vet fees increasing in recent years, including more advanced treatments to help animals, Williams, from the BVA, said.
"Vets can do so much more today to help animals than even a decade ago and, increasingly, pet owners expect human quality healthcare for their pets, and this does come at a cost," he added.
