Insurance?
Seriously, we pay about £20/month for fully-comp pet insurance and they've been absolutely brilliant on more than one occasion (dedicated insurance company for pets - good reputation for paying out when needed).

Especially when the cost of treatment was a fraction of the amount that we had paid into the policy.

We had a problem with out Boxer's weight - he looked like he was starving all the time: hip-bones/ribs showing but eating like a horse, so we took him to the vet school who carried out about £1k worth of tests - blood tests, tox screens, liver/kidney scans, x-rays, etc.

He was fine so far as they could tell, but the insurance company paid the lot!

And we've had a few bumps and scrapes that they have also covered. All we need to pay for ourselves is check-ups, flea treatments, and boosters once a year. (Oh - and his castration, but that was a preventative surgery which is usually not covered. If he had developed testicular cancer, I was told that they would have paid for the surgery then.)
(god_is_a_ghoti Carpe Deum., Tue 18 May 2010, 11:11, Reply)