What does a dog or cat actually cost, year by year?
Built only from routine preventive-care items we have real regional pricing data for — wellness exams, vaccines, dental cleanings, and heartworm tests — plus clearly-labeled assumptions about how often each is needed.
Source: FairVet Lifetime Cost Estimator, July 7, 2026. https://fairvet.app/lifetime-costs
Year one — includes one-time and initial-series items
- Wellness exam$68.00Based on 7 data points
Assumption: 1 visit/year.
- DHPP vaccine × 3$114.00Based on 7 data points
Assumption: 1 booster/year as an adult, but 3 doses in year one for the initial puppy series.
- Rabies vaccine$32.00Based on 7 data points
Assumption: 1×/year, though many clinics actually booster rabies every 3 years — that would lower this figure.
- Bordetella vaccine$24.00Based on 154 data points
Assumption: 1 booster/year.
- Heartworm test$54.00Based on 7 data points
Assumption: 1 test/year.
- Spay or neuter$319.62Based on 208 data points
One-time, year one only. Averaged across spay and neuter pricing since sex isn't assumed.
Year two onward — steady-state annual maintenance
- Wellness exam$68.00Based on 7 data points
Assumption: 1 visit/year.
- DHPP vaccine$38.00Based on 7 data points
Assumption: 1 booster/year as an adult, but 3 doses in year one for the initial puppy series.
- Rabies vaccine$32.00Based on 7 data points
Assumption: 1×/year, though many clinics actually booster rabies every 3 years — that would lower this figure.
- Bordetella vaccine$24.00Based on 154 data points
Assumption: 1 booster/year.
- Heartworm test$54.00Based on 7 data points
Assumption: 1 test/year.
- Dental cleaning × 0.5/year$232.50Based on 7 data points
Assumption: every 2 years on average, and not typically needed in year one.
Multi-year projection
First year + (years − 1) × steady-state annual total.
1 year
$611.62
5 years
$2,405.62
10 years
$4,648.12
What's not included
This is deliberately narrow. It does not attempt to estimate food, treats, grooming, boarding or pet-sitting, monthly flea/tick or heartworm prevention medication, emergency or illness care of any kind, insurance premiums, or supplies — we either don't track pricing data for these at all, or the real-world variation is too wide for a single figure to mean anything. Adding a made-up number for any of these would be worse than leaving it out.
Methodology
Per-item prices are FairVet's regional benchmark medians, the same de-identified, aggregate-only data behind /pricing-index and /vet-prices — never an individual user's estimate.
Frequencies (how many times per year an item is assumed to recur) are stated inline next to each line item — they are our assumptions about typical care schedules, not something we measured. Change the assumption and the total changes; we show the math so you can.
First-year and steady-state annual totals are shown separately, not blended. Year one includes one-time costs (spay/neuter) and initial vaccine series that don't recur — repeating a flat annual figure for every year, including year one, would overstate later years and understate year one.
A line item below our minimum sample size is labeled "Not enough data yet" and excluded from the totals entirely, rather than shown as an unreliable average — so a total made of fewer items is a floor, not a complete picture.
This is an educational projection, not a guarantee, and not medical or financial advice.
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