Veterinary Rant

[island911]

Originally Posted by Chocaholic

I suspect you've missed my point. There is no (worthwhile) insurance to offset the cost as there is for human medicine. The high costs are simply unaffordable to many pet owners. Any human being who is uninsured and shows up at a hospital will be treated...it's the law. No such thing for animals. As such, your comparison is flawed.

A school teacher earning $48k will not be able to afford basic care for their pet. The veterinary industry seems to ignore that reality in favor of hitting sales and margin targets. As such, routine and acute healthcare will simply be skipped. Tough rocks for Fido.

Yeah, I got that point.

It does however carry false premise - that there exists massive uniformity of veterinarian service pricing.

If you want better pricing you can find better pricing (typically expensive places to live have higher prices on everything.
My former neighbor always took his pets off island, to the hood.
He found a dump of a place where he felt that he must be getting the best price by not have to pay for a nice lobby in a safe part of town.

I will note that you are right on with your point of parent corporations really taking over many hospitals.
That is a trend. And that does add costs.
Maybe find an independently owned animal hospital.

Oh, and on insurance... there is no insurance that isn't an added cost (an inefficiency) They are not in business to lose money.

[wdfifteen]

Wow Choc, depending on what the lab work cost, that sounds like robbery.

I love my vet's practice. They have a couple of very nice vets and you can request which one you want. It's locally owned, which is the only way to go.

[Chocaholic]

We’re moving to Fairhope, AL in a few weeks. Hoping to find a small town vet near there that isn’t under intense quota pressure like most all around here. Can’t let this little girl feel bad for any reason!

[stevej37]

^^^ Springer Spaniel?
My last two dogs were Springers....best dogs ever.

[Steve Carlton]

My vet's fees are reasonable- always have been. I got two dogs from the same litter and one needed surgery for a luxated patella. My vet recommended a place somewhat nearby and it was around $1,700. A few years later the litter mate needed the same thing and I got quoted $5,000. Pass. I was told the place had been bought by a corp.

I've cross shopped my vet a few times along the way, and they always came out the lowest. I needed some Nexgard for 3 dogs and it was like $90 per dog for 3 doses. I checked 1800PetMeds and they were half, so I did that. Since there was a prescription to verify, you tell them the clinic and they call them. I'm sure my vet wasn't thrilled to get that call, but that's tough tittie.

https://www.1800petmeds.com/

[rfuerst911sc]

Originally Posted by stevej37

^^^ Springer Spaniel?
My last two dogs were Springers....best dogs ever.

Did you ever look at your dogs ? 😋 . That's a St. Bernard

[rfuerst911sc]

Chock that's a good looking pup . Good luck with the move .

[stevej37]

The facial markings are the same..and the ears. (the ones I had anyways)

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by Chocaholic

We’re moving to Fairhope, AL in a few weeks. Hoping to find a small town vet near there that isn’t under intense quota pressure like most all around here. Can’t let this little girl feel bad for any reason!

I've lived in AL. Things can be reasonable and you might find some out-of-state arrivals setting up. I looked at the map and there seems to be quite a bit of agriculture arounf Fairhope. That's a far cry from a Beverly Hills vet.

I saw an animal shelter on the map too. They will know.

[rfuerst911sc]

Originally Posted by stevej37

The facial markings are the same..and the ears. (the ones I had anyways)

Was just busting your chops . I had a liver/white springer also . Great dog .

[stevej37]

^^^ yes, they are great dogs.
Very possessive...once they choose an owner, they don't give up trying to please.

[jrj3rd]

Have to weigh in on this. I too don't like high costs, but can do the math and understand why things cost what they do. Med prices for animals is not that diffenret than people. Lots of the scrips are the same meds. The only reason most of you are not moaning about the cost of you own care is the costs are so far buried and insurance picks up a lot of that. And remember most of us have been paying for years for our insurance. Read an itemized bill from your hospital and compare it to the one from your Vet. Vets are a small percentage of what your human doc charges. There are days I think I would be better off going to my vet rather than my Doc. At leeast the Vet will spend a few minutes talking with you.

As mentioned above it costs the same to train a Vet as it does a human Doc. And Vets have more than one body and type of system to learn.

Bottom line is a visit to the Vet is going to set you back minimum of a few hundred. Guess what, everything costs more than it used to...no nickle loafs of bread anymore either.

[stevej37]

Not mine...but a great pic of a SS. They love to lay like this.

[rfuerst911sc]

Originally Posted by stevej37

Not mine...but a great pic of a SS. They love to lay like this.

Yep our springer Casey would lay with her hind legs like that . And she was the craziest water dog I have ever owned . We had a cottage on Cayuga Lake in NY . She would spend HOURS diving in the water and grabbing rocks from the bottom . She would bring them to shore , drop in a pile and go right back in . Crazy girl she was .

[Chocaholic]

Yep…she’s definitely a St. Bernard…all 120lbs of her.

Guessing you won’t confuse this one with a Springer:

[KFC911]

Do yer ears hang low,
Do they wobble to and fro'?
Can you tie them in a knot,
Can ya tie them in a bow?



Good luck finding a new vet when ya move!

[Bugsinrugs]

My son is an Ophthalmology Vet. There is no shortage of patients paying big bucks on their cats and dogs. When he did a residency at University of Wisconsin emergency department he was seeing lizard, Cockatoos and ducks. $200 just to walk in the door. Then the price of care. People that could not afford it still came up with the money. His loan debt is only $180,000.

[island911]

The price of Everything involving services seems to have hyper-inflated.

From day-laborers to doctors, it's crazy. There is a skilled labor shortage in this country.

Veterinary practices are having an especially tough time finding technicians, even with signing bonuses and really good pay.

[Arizona_928]

Originally Posted by island911

The price of Everything involving services seems to have hyper-inflated.

From day-laborers to doctors, it's crazy. There is a skilled labor shortage in this country.

Veterinary practices are having an especially tough time finding technicians, even with signing bonuses and really good pay.

The amount of training a certified tech does is not proportional to how much they get paid...

No crocodile tears on that business model.

[deanp]

I'll pop this in here just to add to the Saint Bernard content. Daisy is our fourth Saint, she's going to be 8 this year. We love our current vet and find her costs pretty reasonable. Daisy did have a four-day stay at an emergency vet hospital last winter that was good for a $5k bill - saved her life though and diagnosed Atypical Addison's which had been causing fits in diagnosis for a few months. She's on a low-dose prednisone script from our vet, and I think she charges us less than what we'd pay for a human script - a 60-day supply directly from our vet sets us back a whopping $13. She had dropped to 125lbs but is now back at her prime weight of 145lbs.