It may seem like a very unlikely occurance but incredibly a poll of vets has revealed that 56% of them have had to put pets down because their owners could not afford the vets bills to save them, a new survery has found.

Furthermore, a staggering 88 per cent of vets claim that they have experienced situations where owners have rejected a recommended course of treatment or operation because they could not afford to pay for it.

Speaking about the findings, commissioned by Sainsbury pet Insurance their manager Joanne Mallon said: “It should be an essential item on a prospective owner’s list when weighing up whether to purchase an animal or not. Doing without insurance is simply false economy and worse still could result in some heart breaking family decisions being made later down the line.

“Advances in veterinary science mean that our pets can get the best treatment possible these days, but these improvements including everything from more sophisticated scans to cancer treatments come at higher costs and the financial burden is being felt by pet owners. Despite this, the vast majority of our pets are not insured so their owners have no protection against large veterinary bills.

“Vet fees are increasing by around 12% a year, and as a result of this we may see more animals needlessly being put down because their owners cannot afford it.”

The research from Sainsbury’s Finance revealed that 63 per cent of vets believe that the cost of treating a skin tumour on a cat or dog has increased over the past year alone.  Vets were found to report increases in the cost of treatment for a number of other conditions also. These include dental trauma, for which 53 per cent of vets report an increase in the cost of treatment, gastroenteritis (65%), lameness (61%) and diabetes (57%).

As well as taking out pet insurance to ensure there is help to pay for any surprise veterinary bills, the findings reveal that some owners could also be doing more to improve the overall health of their pets.  The vets surveyed said that nearly one in ten (9 per cent) of the cats they see are obese and an additional 29 per cent are slightly overweight.  The corresponding figures for dogs are 12 per cent and 33 per cent.