Bless you for caring for our pets. I'm really sorry to hear the rest of it. We have 3 Vet's in town, we ended up at the pricey vet it town and I'm totally satisfied with their care and grateful for their knowledge and treatments.
Picked up a German short hair years ago and couldn’t get him to eat more than a cup of pedigree or Iams each day. I realize they are a skinny breed, but he wasn’t putting on any weight at all. A friend of mine brought his dogs on a weekend trip and suggested I try his Purina. Dog ate 5 cups of food each day for the next 6 months until I backed him down to 3 cups per day. Switched everything over to Purina and both dogs were happy
My dogs get a lot of deer, rabbits, squirrels, an occasional turkey & pheasant. My beagle really likes groundhogs , it’s a pia to skin them for him though. They also get an occasional t-bone, cheeseburger, slice or 2 of pizza& pringles, they prefer the originals. All the leftovers that sit in the fridge & don’t get ate. They really like Burger King since they get it “their way”. Neither one eats onions but the lab will eat pickles & tomato’s. The beagle won’t touch a tomato. They really like sweet potatoes as well. Bread crust soaked in bacon grease. They are pretty damm particular about dry dog food. Diamond high energy is their favorite. River Run used to make some good high fat/high protein food but I can’t find it anymore. They really enjoy soft serve ice cream cones in a cup as well. Neither one will eat a goose or duck but they will eat pigeons.
It has been almost one year to the date that a vet diagnosed my lab as being infected with heartworm. We began the recommended treatment/prescriptions immediately. Originally, the dog was brought in for having a limp. While being examined, we mentioned that his ears always seemed warm to the touch which brought on temperature check and testing. The dog had none of the "classic" signs of heartworm; cough, laziness/inactivity, appetite/weight loss, shallow-rapid breathing, distended chest, collapsing. Not even close to any of them. Just a healthy/active young male lab. We were surprised but reassured that the meds would have at least a 95%-98% chance of complete success and full recovery. The dog began to show signs of lethargy, loss of appetite, more than usual thirst, and a general "zombie like" blank stare after the meds began. This eventually worsened to include very labored and short breath breathing, complete loss of appetite and inability to rest or stay still. We told the vet two days later when we met for the chest x-ray recommended. (It was 2 days later due to their scheduling). Again, we were assured that the success rate would be 80%-85%. The vet did call once more to ask about the dog. I said I think it's the meds affecting him as he had no symptoms until the meds began and now is almost totally incapacitated. No, keep him on the meds is what we were told. Should I bring him in to be put down? No, the meds have to work. He breathed his last while in my arms 3:18 a.m. Labor Day 2024. Spent close to $1300 all told on a dog that was healthy/active. Vet did call once more and we had a very "candid and blunt" conversation after vet learned of death. I was told that the meds had nothing to do with the death but was offered no explanation on how the dog's health deteriorated once the meds began. There was an awful lot of silence on the other end of the phone when I asked direct questions and waited for responses. DNH , You may be an exceptional vet that runs a great practice, but do not for one moment tell me that "vet-bashing is wrong". There are way too many "unsatisfied with their vets" pet owners out there.
I agree 100%. Not saying there aren't some good ones. My experiences include them obviously running up the bill with guilt trips included. The urgency of procedures also seems to correlate with how full their schedule is. Full schedule means it can wait. Holes in schedule means they need to make some money so its urgent.
I think a vet is a specialized service provider; all specialized service providers deal with clients that are people should be able to be criticized and defend explain their systems. In my state the lowest paid Drs are; Physical Therapist need a Doctorate and are paid piece meal like a mechanic with the deduction for facilities billing etc.. my other comment I could bring my dog to be euthanized and not suffer BUT not my father with cancer and dementia
yooperdave I am very sorry to hear about the loss of your lab. Heartworm disease is a terrible infection, I tell people every day I would much rather prevent it than treat it. A lifetimes supply of prevention is cheaper than treatment! Prevention is about $10-15/month. Home Vet bashing is wrong, saying I don’t like XYZ vet because this happened to me/my pet is fine. Because we are bound by confidentiality laws we cannot dispute most of the outright lies posted about us on the internet! I think you would agree with me the following is wrong: internet trolls who organized smear campaigns, death threats on you answering machine, spray painted on your home and business, protesters picketing your practice, staff member killed by a dog in the hospital, staff raped and murdered in the hospital, suicide by staff and veterinarians due to above events. These are all events that have happened to veterinarians I know, my classmates or my staff! I am not asking for sympathy I just want you to know Vet bashing can turn ugly and even deadly quickly! Most veterinarians love animals more than people! We know vet care is expensive, when we try to save people money to many times it come back to hurt us!!! I’m dealing with a client who can’t afford treatment yet is blaming me for not running more tests that she can’t pay for! Separate case but somehow I am the money grubbing vet who won’t give them thousands to tens of thousands of dollars to fix their dog after they let it get hit by a car. No I’m not going to allow you to take a dog home with a broken leg that the bone is sticking out through the skin. Your options are referral, transfer to another vet, amputate or euthanasia. Going home to suffer is unacceptable I WILL and did send the sheriff and animal control to press charges for animal cruelty! So to all still reading this, veterinarians know your pain far better than you think we do! We share your pain plus that of thousands of our other patients! We do it because we love it. Don’t be the client that ruins it for everyone else!
Except turd herders...everyone loves to see the suck truck when the muck is backed up! For those not familiar, this is from the Red Green show...and while looking for the above pic, I found out that Chud is a fan of the show apparently...
DNH We had good experiences with the vet we had when we had pets. When our cat had kittens, we would take them all in for a single appointment and he would give us a family discount.
DNH I understand your point we have our 3rd fantastic Vet; our first two retired; IMO vets should be interviewed we did I paid vet visit for interview’s happily
DNH... how does it 'work' when a corporate entity buys a vet practice? Just curious, cuz a vet I have used sold his clinic to one. Made a comment to a friend that he is now able to go home at 5pm or whatever and is off the hook, and includes weekends... has much more freedom. I guess they paid him a lump sum to 'sell?' And then he is like a vet/manager? He is near typical retirement age. I have no idea how these clinics are run under the new ownership. Yet, I know that profit is their motive, so, that could certainly change things. This vet is a friend and always treated me great and was wonderful for my dogs, including a serious accident (attacked by a human) on a wonderful Golden and two surgeries on her. BTW, my vet prior to this man was another fantastic vet. He retired probably ten years ago and now there are, like, three or more vets in that clinic, it has greatly expanded for some reason. But is in a small, non-growing town, so, I don't know why. This vet was also used by my brother and my dad, for his livestock, he was a farmer/rancher. My brother's dog was attacked by a pack of roaming pit bulls one time and this vet pieced him back over a couple of months as I recall, and charged my brother not much at all based on the time there. Sadly, we got the dog home and the same pack of dogs had not been picked up by the town (we complained prior to the second attack) and they killed that sweet Lab. We were heartbroken. BTW, I have noticed that vet bills at both of these clinics are now much higher than they used to be. Pet ownership is def much more expensive than it used to be. Seems to be more than inflation but don't know if I am off base on that. But as for those two vets, they are stellar men.
I knew man with a civil engineering business, he was bought out and stayed on for a few years as a manager too. My husband gets calls about his construction company, same system, but he's not selling.
As soon as "pet insurance" became popular, vet prices doubled, tripled, and more. Prior to that most of the vets around here were affordable...but not anymore! Our guy sold out to another clinic, but still works there too...prices jumped up after that for sure!
Depends on who buys you out but typically the veterinarian who sells is required to stay for 3-5 years. Then they start implementing new policies, less freedom to practice good medicine and more pressure to follow their protocols. Not that protocols are bad but the emphasis frequently changes from doing what is best for the pet and client to what is best for the clinics bottom line! They have bean counters who evaluate the elastic and inelastic laws of supply and demand to determine x % increase will result in y% decrease of clients but our profit margin will be better. When a doctor owns the practice he/she receives incentives to work late, see another patient but once corporate takes over all the incentives are gone. It’s 5 pm, sorry we are closed!
