My vet did not count the vaccines given to my pup by the breeder. Sure was grateful when she contracted canine influenza and the vaccine manufacturer comped the majority of her multiple ICU stays.
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Just to clarify, it was the breederās vet who did the early vaccines on the puppies.
($85 was JUST the exam; the vaccines were extra. The last ālookoverā took the vet a minute?, he said āshe looks good, what a funny puppy!ā She does have a lot of personality 
I would love to pay $49 for a checkup!)
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Unfortunately not all vets are so diligent. I had one in Colorado who really did do a full exam, including eyes, ears, mouth, flexed all the joints, had his hands all over. Really examined the animal. Loved that, had no problem paying for that.
Iāve moved across the country twice since being his client, so plenty of opportunity to meet new vets, and not a single one performs such a thorough exam. Several donāt examine the animal AL ALL. No temp, no looking at the eyes, ears or mouth. Often the best I get is a weight. They still all certainly CHARGE an exam fee.
Iād love to find a vet as thorough as the guy in CO. I loved that, and really felt like heād catch anything amiss that I missed as an owner. Now I feel like thereās no safety net at all.
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I think 12 months of heart worm meds runs about $150, at least, depending on brand (Trifexis). So, $350 for all that isnāt so bad, actually.
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It was $500 totalā¦
Oh, I meant if you subtract the heart worm. I donāt like the extra vaccines, though. And it should be a decent exam for $85.
You mentioned Fairfax? I used to live in Northern Virginia. The cost of living is crazy up there! I wonder how much of the increased cost is related to high mortgage/rent for the vet clinic? It is much cheaper down here, but rents are cheaper, too.
BTW, no puppy pictures? 
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My dad had a whippet when I was a kid. Awesome dog. Hardly ever heard him bark. He loved to run after deer that showed up in the open space behind the house. There was no calling him back. My dad thought it was funny. It used to make me anxious, but I knew Skippy would come right back after a quick sprint. He never injured a deer, thank goodness. One doe with a fawn decided not to run. She lowered her head and pawed. Skippy spun around in mid stride and came running back! She chased him for a few hundred feet. He drove under the car until she left with her baby. My dad also took him to the back roads and drove his motorcycle while Skippy ran alongside. That dog loved those sprints! That was much safer than chasing deer.
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UC Davis vaccine protocol; https://healthtopics.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/health-topics/feline/vaccination-guidelines-dogs-and-cats
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They do tend to subtly guilt you in to large bills.
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I got lucky for routine stuff. We have a mobile vet that does a vaccine clinic at the feed store where I work once a month. Theyāre very reasonable for vaccines, microchips, heartworm tests etc. They donāt charge an exam fee, so you only pay for the actual services, but they do do a brief general exam when you go for vaccines. The vet and all the techs are super niceāmore personable than some in my local vetās office. Several feed stores in our area host similar clinics and theyāre a huge hit. I have a regular vet for non-routine stuff and can easily share records for the mobile vet via internet, so itās super easy to keep everything up to date.
For routine stuff, if you have similar clinic close by, itās a great option and saves a ton of money. I do a lot of my own vaccines (advantage of working in the feed store; Iām the one handling them, so I know they go immediately from cold packaging to the fridge!) but I recently had rabies vaccine & heart worm test / prevention for the dog and dewormer for both cats for under $100. At my regular vet, Itās at least $50 just to walk in the door.
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As far as rabies, does your local Shelter/Humane Society do community rabies vax clinics? Havenāt looked into them in my area lately, but theyāre generally very inexpensive (or sometimes free).
I wonder if itās more of a CYA move on the part of the vets who follow the ākitchen sink protocolā.
Thereāve been threads here on COTH linking stories of bad reviews driving vets to quit the profession and not infrequently suicide. Say Fluffy gets a more conservative or moderate course of treatment and dies/loses an eye or limb or a litter of pups - most owners want answers and theyāre going to Dr. Google. Rightly or wrongly the owner gets it in their head that the vet SHOULD have administered thisthisandthat high priced medications all together right from the start and Fluffy would be just fine. They excoriate the vet on social media and in extreme cases harrass them in person or on the phone.
Itās a fine line and a conundrum. Of course Iām not discounting that some vets are going for the max out of the gate in order to keep the mortgage or rent on the facility up to date, plus the finance charges on the state-of-the-art anesthesia equipment. Never mind those student loans theyāre stuck with for decades. I personally donāt think thereās a thing wrong with that but YMMV.
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Yes, Heartworm meds (the ones sheās on, Heartguard) are about $100 from Chewy; Iām sure the vet charged more (would have to go back and look at the itemized bill), and I asked for a script for HW from the vet for Teāa - submitted it to Chewy and itās $50 (but will have to do it again in 6 months because they only wrote it for 6 monthsā worth, anticipating growth/weight change.)
Yeah, it was a ācursoryā exam - at best! I got a call from them asking screening questions (I confirmed that she was still completely healthy and that nothing had changed from 3 weeks prior), and the vet called me back about 3 minutes later saying that she was āfineā - they had given her the shots and had done an āexamā on her.
Iām fine with a quick lookover, but $85?? I think this is SOP for them, even when you donāt request it - and they sure do charge a LOT for a minute or two of looking a dog over!
NOVA is insane with the cost of, well, EVERYTHING. 
Itās really depressing - and has gotten a LOT worse in the past 15 years or so, the area is almost completely saturated. My husband and I arenāt High Rollers and we have a very modest lifestyle; biggest expense is the horse. We never go anywhere, do anything, I donāt shop (for other than horse stuff), we are pretty DIY. I havenāt bought any clothes (he hasnāt either) in about 18 months - though I did treat myself to a new pair of breeches for my last birthday! We have older cars, a 29 year old Suburban as our tow vehicle, and we try not to spend on things other than the animals and food (and other necessities), but this makes us pretty unusual for this area. (I often feel like a fish out of water, but I was raised here; we moved from N.E. when I was 8 - my father was a physics professor at Brown but got offered a govt. job in the Defense Dept. that he couldnāt resist - they needed his skills. My parents were of modest means too - NO excessive spending, it was not their thing. They were from Milwaukee and had the Mid-west way of being, so between the bloated self-aggrandizing gasbags and the transience of the area, they never completely fit in.)
Got WAY off topic, LOL!
Thanks, @Equibrit - yes, that sounds perfectly reasonable and I can certainly cite it.
Hmmm, finding a less expensive place for the Rabies shot might be an option. Itās not that I mind paying for the shot, but they may insist on doing another DHPP and of course will charge me $85 again. As long as records are kept, I can always go back to Pender if I need them.
@Mara, thatās very interesting, and makes sense. UGH. I HATE people like this!, vets work very hard and care about the health of the animals, but they are not miracle workers and they donāt have crystal balls. Since I have talked to a lot of dog owners, I know (for a fact) that Pender is one of the highest-priced practices in the area - but there arenāt many that are NOT high priced! I started using them 18 years ago, largely because they had good reviews and were so close. Luckily for me I have had pretty healthy animals, but in an emergency - itās good to know that they are MINUTES away; sometimes minutes count.
The reason I started this thread was to pick brains about vaccine protocols since theirs seemed excessive (check! 
), and find out whether othersā vets charged such a pricey exam fee for every dog, every time they were brought in for routine stuff.
I will have to post from my phone in order to attach pics; I just got back from teaching my Saturday classes (so am fried) and need to go exercise, do P/T, stretch, and go out the barn to ride and clean things and prepare my horse for a CT tomorrow - her first ājumpingā competition in 6 months. I tore three tendons attaching my hamstring to my pelvis back in November (I didnāt fall, I heard a āpopā when in the air over a x-country cabin), and have been rehabbing and doing therapy and gradually strengthening it ever since with the eventual goal of getting back to jumping (have been back in the saddle since the beginning of March, but primarily doing dressage.)
Thanks to everyone for the input! 
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I know exactly what youāre talking about when you refer to the gasbags, lol! When I lived there, youād hear somebody brag about their position in government. I even had one drunk dude hit on me at a dance club by saying he worked for the government. I laughed so hard. EVERYONE works for the government, lol! The quietest people are usually the spooky ones that do the really interesting stuff they canāt tell you about. 
I have family that grew up in Arlington (my stepmotherās family, but weāre all really close). It was a different town when she grew up there. I love hearing her stories.
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Itās a perfectly reasonable option to get vaccines at your farm store/feed store or rabies from local āeventsā organized by your extension service. Our local TSC uses Pet Vet; https://petvet.vippetcare.com/services-pricing/ (Pet wellness Centre in Manassas Store)
Not only do you save a lot but you also get to follow your chosen protocol.
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I definitely understand your dilemma. It sounds like youāre conflicted between a high-cost practice thatās close by, and therefore is there for an emergency (and will know your dog well, and have all the dogās records on hand), versus going to a lower-cost clinic farther away.
When my favorite vet left my local practice for one 45 minutes away, I considered following him. I stayed because my dog was elderly and I didnāt want her to have a long car ride, but I did feel as if I was being pressured to do more expensive interventions by the new vet, and as a layperson, itās hard to feel comfortable challenging advice.
Of course, with vaccines, like others have said, you can mix and match with lower cost clinics and reference other literature. But itās important to have a vet you feel is putting the health of your dog first, versus recommending expensive interventions that might not be the best idea. And itās annoying to have to Google everything a vet says, to see if what they are saying is truly best practices. My dog has since passed away, but I sometimes regretted not driving the extra distance to the other practice.
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Thank you! Yes - exactly
You have some very good points, definitely something to ponder! Thanks again for succinctly summing up the issue. (and sorry about the loss of your old friend 
)
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Yes, I do miss her, she was a wonderful little dog! And vets are a tough choice, regardless of the dogās age! Really good vets are worth their weight in goldāI think most of us (within reason) can stomach paying a fair vet bill when itās necessary, itās when that doubt about trusting the vet is niggling at the mind that itās hard.
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I use cheap vaccine clinics and go to a vet when I need them. I have all dogs vaccine histories on my phone.
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I really appreciate all the input, thank you again so much! I scheduled TĆ©a for a rabies shot on May 28, they are doing a shot clinic at the local CVS.
Iām trying to figure out how to post pictures, I did it before so surely I can do it again? Not sure what button to hit to access the photos on my phone - everything little icon I touch sends me different places, but not to my photos. 
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