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Small animal vet rant

Around The Farm
#1

I hate ranting but I’m just so frustrated! I’ve never been able to find a good small animal vet for my dog and 2 house cats. I always feel like they are pressuring me to do unnecessary tests and treatments and charge SO much for normal care ($30 for a rabies vaccine???).

I had an appt for my dog and 1 cat to get their rabies boosters that somehow esclated to $400!!! I was charged $50 each for an exam (I didn’t even see the vet tech take out a stethoscope! ) and I was specifically told they were only getting shots, no exam (they are both in good health). They wouldn’t give me a refill on my heartgaurd with out a test and they also did fecal tests.

I got a voicemail today from the vet saying they had the tests back and she’d like to go over them with me, but the office is closed so I can call back this weekend. :confused: :mad: :confused:

So now of course I’m worried sick my dog somehow got heartworms! Why wouldn’t she just tell me on the voicemail or call when they were open.

I’ve never had these sort of problems with equine vets. I’m SO annoyed

#2

Well, how long has it been since the dog and cat were seen by a vet? For example, if it’s been 3 years… that’s $66/yr per pet.

I’d imagine they got a complete physical by a vet, right? If not, there certainly wasn’t a warrant for an exam fee… But If you’re upset with the prices vets have to charge, let the vet schools know that the 1/4 million dollars most of the schools put vet students into debt isn’t reasonable. Otherwise, vets will have to charge for their time and services.

Here’s to hoping your pets don’t have parasites or heartworms. I think it’s only professional that the vet extends his/her time, over the phone, to personally explain the results.

#3

Ugh… I feel your pain. I had a WONDERFUL vet back east. Reasonable office calls, very practical approach, always had the best interests of the animal in mind. Fees always seemed reasonable to me; not the cheapest around, but worth it.

Here I’ve found them going two ways:

  1. over the top. $$$$$ for every thing. Don’t understand why I would balk at spending $1k PER CAT for annual teeth cleaning. Thought there was something up with my one guy’s pulse, and asked my permission to take it. Um, ok. Old vet did that routinely. Apparently here they roll out some ultrasonic machine, shave paws, and charge $60 for the pleasure. I get that as step 2, but can no one listen to a cat’s pulse any more? His was normal BTW. Pet owners are essentially treated like criminals for not putting their happy, healthy house cats on Trendy Regime X.

OR

  1. Just plain scary. Don’t feel confident about their skills at all. Nasty, dirty clinics.

I wish my horse’s vet would do cats as well! I’ve heard of a good vet in the area (who conincidentally does farm calls as well), but good luck getting an appointment…

#4

Check with your horse vet. A lot of times they will do vaccinations and exams when they are on a farm call for your horse. Another option is to look for a vet clinic that does small and large animals. They tend to be more farm animal friendly and understand that you don’t want to spend exorbitant amounts on your farm dogs and cats, but want them healthy. Another option is to look for an older vet. :wink: The younger ones have student loans to pay and equipment to pay for if they opened their own practice recently. Prices have all gone up since the older vets were in school and started their practice.

But I feel your pain. It is hard to find a small vet practice that is good, clean, caring and not too expensive. When I first moved here I used the one I thought was closest. They seemed ok. Then I got an emergency on a Saturday around noon. I come home to find my dog’s ruff covered in blood, blood coming out of her nose and she is coughing up blood. She seems a little distressed at the blood, but otherwise ok. I call the clinic describing the situation and they tell me they are booked for the afternoon and have no appointments available. I try to explain that this is an EMERGENCY and they don’t care. So I call a few other places who all say the same thing, that they have no appointments available, I can come on Monday. Finally, I get a woman on the phone who says, Oh My God, bring her in, we’ll find someone to see her. THIS is my current vet clinic. They are always helpful and understanding on the phone. I found out later the tech/secretary that I spoke with is a horse person. My dog was fine, thankfully. We think she got kicked in the head by a horse. She had a slight concussion, and a crack in her skull in the upper jaw that caused the blood. But I thought she was dying and couldn’t believe noone would take her. The emergency clinic only opens after hours. These clinics were open, they just couldn’t be bothered to try and fit her in.

So, to amend my suggestions above, you DO need a relationship with a small animal vet clinic for emergencies. The problem with the large/small clinic is that often the vet is out on farm calls. I have recently found another vet that just moved to my town that does horses and small animals. He will do a farm call for small animals, and in fact, came to my farm to euthanize the above dog when it was her time. I was so grateful to be able to do that on the farm.

Good luck. I have pretty good luck with small animal vets here. Now if I could just have the same luck with equine vets! My main equine vet has just decided to go back to a small animal clinic. grr…

#5

Keep an eye out for low cost rabies clinics- no, you don’t get the benefit of the exam, but you get your rabies for a low price.

I think it is hard to find “middle of the road” care. Like I love my cats- but now way am I getting 3 teeth cleanings a year for $1800. (1 per cat). I am not getting surgery for a pelvic fracture from an orthopedist.

I think what has happened is that people now have one dog or cat that they will do anything for - if poopsie gets hurt, they’ll pay $1000 for an MRI and will pay for the best care…so places cater to them, getting high end machines etc. etc. and have to charge more, which pushes out the person with a collection of well cared for pets that is looking to provide basics.

Like I have a cat with a cataract- one vet in the practice is - oh, cataract. He can see and it doesn’t hurt him. The other is “you need to see the opthamologist at such and such clinic and he will need to have a surgery…”

#6

I love our small animal vet practice - kind, clean, caring. However, we have spent probably double there for two dogs than I have spent with our equine vet for three horses!

#7

The 4dx heartworm test also tests for lyme, ehrlichia, and anaplasmosis. So, if your dog goes outside (even if its on heartworm preventative) it is a very important test to run annually. I don’t know if ticks are prevalent in your area but where I am we run lyme titers on the ponies twice a year, so seems only fair that I test my dog at least once!

Also, I’m sure your vet would be more than happy to explain what is included in the exam fee to you if you called. Often times when it looks like the vet is just petting your dog it is feeling for enlarged lymph nodes or other irregularities. The animals are going to feel calmer if they don’t think that their “exam” is out of the ordinary.

But $50 is pretty standard. The fees are high because you aren’t just paying for the services you are paying to have a doctor do them.

#8

Just a different perspective…but to me, a vet who would dispense HW preventative w/o doing the test, a vet who would not recommend the other tests/vaccines, a vet who would give a vaccination w/o doing an exam? That to me is NOT a good vet. Those are things that compromise the health of the animal.

Just because you get told about options doesn’t mean that someone is shoving it down your throat. I personally WANT to know what my options are.

I love my small animal vet. I know I could go somewhere cheaper or even give vaccines and do the tests myself (worked in a clinic for quite awhile). But I do the annual exam and vaccinations and tests with her because I value her expertise and the relationship.

Having that relationship is important to me in times–like last spring–when I need someone to above and beyond for my pet.

#9

I know what the OP means. Some vets do seem to be more worried about running optional tests that really don’t have a reason. For instance, when my dog had a minor abnormality in his liver and bladder they wanted to run lots of tests-I let them do them on his bladder until they said they wanted to do a biopsy on that and the liver. Liver disease can have bleeding disorders as a side effect, and they said the bladder thing wasn’t a big problem–the vet said he just wanted to rule out things, and that was when I said no more. I can’t see putting an animal through invasive tests or surgery because the vet wants to find out the specific diagnosis, and it’s something I won’t do anything about–chemo for a 13 year old dog is pointless to me when it’s for something they can’t cure anyway and will only make him sick until I finally make the decision to put him down. I wouldn’t do chemo for liver cancer for me, let alone a dog that couldn’t understand why he has to go to the vet all of the time and get treatments that make him feel so rotten. I do object to the guilt trip that owners are subjected to because some vets want to do everything to extend a life that’s not a good quality, and the welfare of the animal gets lost in the shuffle.

#10

[QUOTE=Ibex;4192377]
Ugh… I feel your pain. I had a WONDERFUL vet back east. Reasonable office calls, very practical approach, always had the best interests of the animal in mind. Fees always seemed reasonable to me; not the cheapest around, but worth it.

Here I’ve found them going two ways:

  1. over the top. $$$$$ for every thing. Don’t understand why I would balk at spending $1k PER CAT for annual teeth cleaning. Thought there was something up with my one guy’s pulse, and asked my permission to take it. Um, ok. Old vet did that routinely. Apparently here they roll out some ultrasonic machine, shave paws, and charge $60 for the pleasure. I get that as step 2, but can no one listen to a cat’s pulse any more? His was normal BTW. Pet owners are essentially treated like criminals for not putting their happy, healthy house cats on Trendy Regime X.

OR

  1. Just plain scary. Don’t feel confident about their skills at all. Nasty, dirty clinics.

I wish my horse’s vet would do cats as well! I’ve heard of a good vet in the area (who conincidentally does farm calls as well), but good luck getting an appointment…[/QUOTE]

What you described in situation #1 is doppler reading for heart rate and blood pressure monitoring. It’s quite common, and almost essential, for cats under anesthesia. A LOT can go wrong if those parameters are not monitored. It’s not just heart rate/pulse – cats can become hypotensive and die from cardiovascular collapse under anesthesia, or they can become hypertensive and suffer strokes, retinal hemorrhages, etc… Personally I’d spend the extra $$$ to make sure my baby was taken care of every step of the way. If your cat had an arrhythmia or something that led the vet to believe there was something up with the heart, and knew about it, and DIDN’T do the proper monitoring and then something happened to your cat, you’d be even more upset, right? So really, though it seemed like something minor to you, it was the vet being thorough and keeping your cat’s best interest in mind to make sure nothing was missed. I’m sorry they didn’t take the time to explain that to you.

I really hate hearing these complaints about vets since I will be one in less than a year, but at least I know now what areas are the biggest problems for clients. I feel like good communication is the key which a lot of vets may lose as they become more routine in each examination/client.

#11

Sorry to those of you that are small animal vets but I think many are a total rip off. I have only once complained about an equine bill (and their office did make a mistake) but the amount I’m billed for the small animals is insane. Why can my equine vet drive to my farm, haul in his equipment, risk himself u/s a 1200 lb horse and bill me about $90 when I drive a 12 lb dog to the small animal clinic, get her u/s and my bill is $140? Nothing else, just the u/s. Too much of a difference IMO.

Not to say there aren’t good, reasonable vets out there. Find one and stick to them like glue! I have one local one that’s ok, that I take cats in for shots and minor issues so that I have someone local for an emergency. My sticking to like glue sml animal vet that I drive just over an hour each way to deal with breeding issues, puppies and anything serious that’s not an emergency.

I used to have the equine vet needle the cats, but Ontario small animal vets made it so that they’re not allowed to any more. :rolleyes: They get fined if they’re caught and will actually risk their license if they are repeat offenders. The small animal vets felt that they were losing money. Now you have a bunch of farmers that just can’t be bothered to take the barn cats in anywhere so they get NO care. If they get sick and die, there are lots more. Good solution huh? :sigh: That’s kind of another reason I’m not thrilled with the small animal guys.

As far as being pressured into tests? Educate yourself and if you need to go home and research and think about it - do. I have agreed to some tests and weighed the situation and refused others. Overall I still think I’m doing well for my animals.

#12

[QUOTE=SpecialEffects;4192791]
Sorry to those of you that are small animal vets but I think many are a total rip off. I have only once complained about an equine bill (and their office did make a mistake) but the amount I’m billed for the small animals is insane. Why can my equine vet drive to my farm, haul in his equipment, risk himself u/s a 1200 lb horse and bill me about $90 when I drive a 12 lb dog to the small animal clinic, get her u/s and my bill is $140? Nothing else, just the u/s. Too much of a difference IMO.

Not to say there aren’t good, reasonable vets out there. Find one and stick to them like glue! I have one local one that’s ok, that I take cats in for shots and minor issues so that I have someone local for an emergency. My sticking to like glue sml animal vet that I drive just over an hour each way to deal with breeding issues, puppies and anything serious that’s not an emergency.

I used to have the equine vet needle the cats, but Ontario small animal vets made it so that they’re not allowed to any more. :rolleyes: They get fined if they’re caught and will actually risk their license if they are repeat offenders. The small animal vets felt that they were losing money. Now you have a bunch of farmers that just can’t be bothered to take the barn cats in anywhere so they get NO care. If they get sick and die, there are lots more. Good solution huh? :sigh: That’s kind of another reason I’m not thrilled with the small animal guys.

As far as being pressured into tests? Educate yourself and if you need to go home and research and think about it - do. I have agreed to some tests and weighed the situation and refused others. Overall I still think I’m doing well for my animals.[/QUOTE]

Large animal vets have much less overhead than small animal vets. They typically don’t have a fully staffed facility stocked with expensive equipment. It’s not just arbitrary marking up of prices for the sake of it. Yes, small animal vets are typically more expensive, but there is a reason for it. Those that are cheaper probably have less overhead, maybe got used machines/equipment vs. new ones and thus have less to pay back, maybe have inherited the facility from a previous owner and don’t have to pay rent or pay back construction costs…there are a lot of factors.
FWIW, $140 for an ultrasound is really not a bad price.

#13

We don’t have any small pets, but I have become familiar with a small-animal practice. I was astounded to learn how they handle vaccinations: chart each one, marking where it was administered, with type and manufacturer of each vaccine. Everything is noted. A way more expensive process than what my equine vet does. More akin to what my MD does.

#14

The clinic I work at tries out hardest to provide the best care we can to each animal, while staying within the owners budget. In all reality it sound so much easier than it is!

One thing that will help is to make sure that your vet knows you have financial concerns, and ask specifically about other options. There usually are options, but we’re always going to tell you which one is the best for your pet first, and then we can go from there.

Another rule we’ve changed lately, you DO NOT need a yearly heartworm test to get the preventative anymore. We’ll let you do them every other year, or send it to the lab(it’s usually cheaper but doesn’t cover the tick borne diseases that way) We would rather you spend what you can afford on the preventative than do the test and not be able to afford the preventative! However we are more selective about what kind you can get and we do have to have seen your pet for some sort of exam within a year.

We’ve had a lot of our clients have to tighten their belts dur to the economy and job losses, and we don’t want their animals to suffer. Rabies shots are ALWAYS available without an exam, and are $21. If I was in a position where I really had to cut my expenses I would do rabies, heartworm prev, and flea/tick prev. With my group of healthy adult animals it’s the more important basics to keep them that way.

Katherine
Vet Tech

#15

I have never really been able to find a good small animal vet that I’ve really liked.

The vet practice I’ve used for awhile is very pushy and is always trying to foist off unnecessary things. I don’t mind suggestions every once and awhile, but the constant-ness of it is driving me to try out another vet.

#1- My indoor only, healthy, tick-and-flea-free cats do not need Revolution (or other brand) flea and tick prevention. They do not have fleas. They have never had fleas. When they do, I’ll come get some spot on treatment. Until then, I don’t need every single freaking person coming into the exam room telling me I need to buy some Revolution. TYVM. Really. No, REALLY.

#2- Worming and kitten shots. I bought a Siamese kitten from a very reputable breeder. He has never been outside in his entire life. His parents were never outside in their entire lives (probably, their parents weren’t either). The breeder gave him is first set of kitten shots. I took him to my vet for the second set of kitten shots. Well, they do not recognize the shot the breeder gave him because she wasn’t a vet. Okay, fine, I can kind of see that one. And he needs to be wormed. Okay, he’s never been wormed. They give him the shots (officially set #1 to them) and wormer. On my way out, they hand me a vial for a fecal sample.

Wait, didn’t they just worm him?..Oh, it’s necessary to do a fecal also. I looked at the bill after I’d paid and was already in the car. $20 for the fecal sample and test (prepaid) after they wormed him. Unbelievable.

We go back for kitten shot set #2 (to them, in reality #3). I was told that he would be getting his rabies vaccine in this set. When we get in the room, they say he is too young for the rabies shot (I think he was 15 weeks) and to bring him back when he’s older (I really don’t think this is true- is it? I thought anytime after 12 weeks was good for rabies).

We get the other shot and…wait…he needs to be wormed yet again. (Surprisingly :lol:, I never did get asked for the fecal sample they gave me after the first worming).

So we go back for shot set #3 (or 4). Finally we get a rabies vaccine. And…drum roll please…ANOTHER worming. I should have said no. But, they insisted that kittens need to be wormed at least 3x. So, he got wormed again. (I’ve never looked into this, but I sort of doubt it. Do kittens really need Drontal 3x? I know another (adult) cat I had only got it 1x and she actually HAD worms).

#3- Food. My cats eat very good food. (Wellness). I don’t plan on switching them to crappy Science Diet. TYVM. Really. Yet again.

Caitlin

#16

My favorite small animal vet was an equine vet that had changed his practice after he got older and had a couple of heart attacks. He was the best. His replacement-not so much.

#17

There is a reason for that. Fibrosarcomas in cats have been linked to vaccinations. There was a task force put together several years ago, and one of the recommendations is that each vaccine is injected in a unique spot, so they can trace the type/maker if there is a reaction from the cat.

So, leukemia is LR, rabies is RR, and so on.

#18

My equine vet is my small animal vet as well. He owns a 4 doctor practice, they all do equine, one guy does small animal appts and one does small animal surgeries. Their horse rates are very, very expensive (I’m lucky in that I get to pay the family rate so I get most things at cost) but their small animal stuff is usually cheaper then most places or at least the same. Even if it wasn’t the vets are so good I would still take my guys there. I think rates are about to go up as they just broke ground on what will be a brand new 2.5Million dollar clinic but oh well.

#19

One of my dogs just had his shots, and the vet (whom I love to pieces) told me the same thing about the locations of the shots - he explained that if an animal has any sort of localized reaction, then they will know which shot caused it. Makes sense to me! (With dogs, it’s Lepto/Left).

#20

One of my horse vets started out as a small animal vet. He told me he switched because he couldn’t live with what they were making him do to run up bills. That’s obviously just one person’s experience but I thought it was very interesting.

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