Thinking about the haul in model for equine veterinary practice pros and cons. It may be more efficient and profitable for the vet by getting rid of vet travel time.
My vet did this a few years back, and the down side for me was loading, hauling for close to an hour, arriving and then waiting with my horse standing in the trailer for another hour or sometimes more to be seen. I moved to another vet who still does farm calls.
Interesting concept.
What do owners do that do not own a trailer? Pay for hauling for routine vet care?
What did they do if the care required sedation? You just hung around until the horse woke up enough to take it home?
She would keep the horse in her barn and you’d pick it up the next day, or keep it longer if required. That would mean added on charges.
On a similar note, my farrier tried this haul in model too, but dropped it pretty quickly after seeing the row of trailers driving up and waiting in line, as some folks arrived early and others were running late.
But can you blame them? Not only are they running a business where they need to pay staff and keep the lights on, but they get called greedy because Joe and Susie are bad with money and the end result is that Fluffy is the one that suffers.
If pets aren’t getting seen because someone can’t afford insurance then I would bet they aren’t being seen regardless.
Like I said, I don’t have insurance for my current dog. And I’ve come out ahead over the 10 years I’ve had her. We removed a lump and did a biopsy that was $2000, and sedation and x-rays to rule out a CCL rupture. Other than that it’s just been routine stuff.
But that easily could have gone the other way. A friend recently spent close to $10,000 (most of it reimbursed by her insurance) after her 7yo lab dug up a potato from her garden and ate it whole without her knowing. He spent several days in the local vet’s office with pancreatitis and an obstruction and then was sent to the vet school for surgery.
BIL and SIL euthanized their otherwise healthy dog in January when he ruptured both CCLs. I assumed it was because of cost and rehab. BIL confided in SO though that it was the biggest fight he’s ever had with SIL. He was ready to take the dog to surgery, the money was there in the account, and she said it was a waste, couldn’t justify it, etc. But had he had insurance he would have just done it.
OH my gosh, that is just a nuisance on all fronts.
I am all for leaving my horse at the vets when it needs that extra care, but I can’t imagine having to do that for a float with sedation or getting some stitches or such.
Ehhhhh. Heartworm and shots for the dog here is about $300/year. Which is half what insurance would cost, and can be spread out. I have a lot of sympathy for vets and clinics but I don’t think insisting on insurance is the way to win hearts and dollars.
I suppose it just ruffles my feathers the way insurance is offered and the cost. If there was a plan that I felt like was truly worth the cost and it was more like $20/month I’d invest in it. But if I sunk thousands into insurance that I never used and then the animal either died or needed something the insurance wouldn’t cover I’d be really, really unhappy.
I’m also one that wouldn’t do just any sort of surgery on a dog or cat even if it’s free, especially the dog I have now I’d never be able to rehab him over the long term if he had to be quiet and still.
I posted about it on the vent thread, but the insurance on my dog Zipper got dropped this year because they jacked up the annual premium beyond what was even marginally worth it.
Even just insuring her in Illinois versus Indiana was a ~$400 price hike. Why, who knows. I’ve paid WAY more for vets in Indiana.
It’s not the routine care, it’s the what ifs. Just seems that as veterinary care gets more expensive it will be harder and harder to afford to diagnose and treat to the gold standard.
Every week I see a post bashing greedy vets, or a Go Fund Me for someone trying to save their dog/cat/horse/you name it. And it all boils down to people not being prepared. And if that grinds on me, who has no skin in the game, I can’t imagine how it wouldn’t keep veterinarians and their staff up at night.
I don’t disagree. I just don’t see it changing anytime soon, especially as the average American starts losing more and more in this economy.
I have my horses insurance through ASPCA and it’s $24/month. It covers accidents and colic. For that price, I don’t mind if I never have to use it, and HOPE that I don’t!
I didn’t opt for mortality which brings the cost down…if/when it’s his time, it’s his time. I don’t know that I will own another horse after him.
My PT’s wife graduated vet school about 15 years ago. Her student loan debt was nearly $300K when she graduated. I’m not sure what the cost is now, and her parents paid for her undergraduate degree. In my neck of the woods, most small animal, privately owned vet clinics are being bought out by the big corporations. The large animal clinics seem to be holding on.
I can understand the appeal from a vet perspective, but what about the farm with 40 horses on site?
Haul-in really only makes sense for farms who can get the whole farm covered in a low number of trips.
But I can’t imagine having to haul-in multiple foals for their first shot series, for example.
Or if you have a big barn of working horses and dozens of them have minor things to be addressed; you might be able to knock them all out in an hour farm call, but it would take multiple trips with even a large horse van to get them all to the vet.
In racing and even other disciplines, really big barns often hire their own vet. But there is a middle market of farms that are too small for their own vet but would be extremely burdened relying on haul-in clinics only.
I have always put a dollar limit on my animals vet care. My credit card was on file at the vet clinic so payment was secured.
As far as a veterinarian not accepting a current or new animal if the owner doesn’t have insurance on them… why would they do that? All the vets I know require payment BEFORE services are rendered. You give them your credit or debit card and all is well.
Some of the off shore Caribbean private vet schools are not only expensive for tuition, and everything that goes with vet school, but living expenses for the same time are massive because it’s an island and resort destination.
That those island vet schools exist and fill their classes with students willing to go into significant debt shows that there is a real demand for vet degrees. Not every aspiring vet student can get into a top tier vet school like UC Davis or Cornell.
Not just that, they have to pay more than the typical vet student in travel expenses during their 3rd and 4th years, as they have to travel around the world on their clinical rotations to gain the experience needed for graduation.
Most continental vet schools can provide all or the vast majority of the clinical experience needed for graduation within their own system, so students can stay put for all 4 years unless there is a desire to do an outside rotation. But not so at the island schools.
This, set aside a bit a month for an animal emergency fund and more than likely (unless g-you are very unlucky) you will have enough money to cover those emergencies.
The only dog we ever insured was my last show dog. She injured a growth plate in her leg playing rough with her friends, and a few other minor things. We had her insured for a couple of years and payed in less than we got back.
I wish the we had insured the two we have now. Only TPLO was $7000 for one dog, and the other dog had both knees done ($5000 per). The first dog has torn her other knee, but slowly over time so it is stable. They both have a lot of arthritis in those joints now and are on borrowed time. When they are gone, we are done, at least for a while.
I must say that I LOVE my small animal vet. She was a mobile vet, but recently opened a brick and mortar and hired another vet who I like too. Everyone there is great, and they take good care of us.
What kind of dogs? I have been very lucky in never having needed to do any sort of knee/joint surgeries so far.
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