I recently took care of a dog that was both blind and needed insulin shots twice a day. It required more attention than an average stay. Should I have charged more for these services?
Most sitters won't charge extra for administering meds to their clients, sure it takes time but the dog is already staying with you for the 24 hour boarding period.
It took me awhile, but I found it. This has come up before and some people responded with what they or even other companies charge for administering medication. I am not qualified to give injections but I have taken care of many dogs on oral medications (pills, syringes, etc.) and don't charge anything for that service.
However, injections are a special skill. You do advertise your qualifications very prominently for special-needs dogs, senior dogs and administering all forms of medication.
Here is the other question and the answers you may find helpful:
We have had drop in clients who needed insulin and did not charge extra for the service. The pup was very used to it, obviously, and I considered it part of normal care of the client. If at the meet and greet it had been a big production or seemed like it would be beyond my comfort of a general client I would have kindly refused the job.
My two cents: I am a veterinary assistant and used to work at a hospital that did boarding. We charged extra for any "nursing". Nursing meant everything that involved technical skills. IOW, anything beyond administering medications. Even just administering insulin incorrectly could have horrible results. Not using a correctly-calibrated syringe could cause dangerous swings in their glucose levels. Inserting the needle too close to the spinal cord could paralyze an animal.
I wouldn’t. That’s something that seems like it should be included to me. I treat my boarding/house sitting dogs like I would treat my own pets and giving medicine if needed is just something I consider to be normal pet care. I can’t really think of anything that a dog would need that I would charge more for except for maybe if they like had a grooming appointment or something that I needed to drive them to.
I would not and include it as part of your service. It will assure you get more recommendations and it is the right thing to do. After all you should not care for a dog you are not comfortable caring for in your own home. If you did decide to charge I would talk about this upfront and it should be minimal charge and expect the owners to maybe ask why or to not use you.