Vets and pets

[bfogg]

I am seeing things happening that disturb me.I am not sure how to word this as don't want to offend anyone. So here goes...

To me vets are gods and angels all rolled into one.

They see things every day that would put me under. yet they get up the next day and start again.

They must feel so gratified one day and feel really bad the next day depending on the success of their patients.

I know just a tiny bit of the costs they have and I would never dare to committ to what they have to in order to open a practice. One of his machines my vet told me many years ago was $25,000.00 i can't imagine what their expenses are now.

They have to charge accordingly in order to stay in business.

they are able to save so many more animals today.

Now i work in a middle school and talk with kids all day and of course do animals of all kinds. And what i am hearing makes me sad.

Today a little boy was telling me about his cat who had an open running sore on his face about the size of a walnut.I asked what the vet said and he said it would cost $40.00 to see the vet so they couldn't take it.

Now you can say if you can't afford care you shouldn't have animals. TRUE but realistically people do get animals.

One of the girls at the pizza place found a litter of kittens in the dumpster someone had put there. we found homes for them. She took one and it cost her over $500.00 to have it spayed I was shocked. Another hundred for shots.

I have been lucky until Cash and his cancer, I have had very few vet bills so i was shocked when people told me what even just regular things costs now.

Now please again this is not against the vets they need to make a living. And I just want to find out if this is a national disaster about to quietly happen.

But this explains why rescues are overwhelmed now . and why people are abandoning animals.

It scares me to think of this winter with hay out of sight and so many many people out of work or in my district working 2 jobs but at minimum wages and no health insurance or benefits.

So many dogs and cats just turned loose now. I don't see an answer. Of course spaying and neutering but some people will always do that. The ones who don't never will so hence a problem that i fear will worsen.

In other parts of the country are you seeing this or is it just here?

Again this is not about complaining about vet costs, I send a lot of work to vets in my work it's about what you see where you are.

Thanks

Bonnie

 

[MSRminis]

I have been thinking about that also-For example the extreme fluctuation in prices throughout the country. Example here in Ohio I sepnt 450.00 taking my dog to the vet-we thought she had a puppy stuck and would need a c-section. She actually gave birth to it while there, no surgery needed but to have her in the office, they shaved her, gave her some fluids and a shot and it was 450.00. My aunt works for a vet in Kansas and said an ACTUAL c section would have cost only 100.00 for the surgery. BIG difference. The price of gelding comes up quite a bit and the prices are all over the board...

 

[heart k ranch]

Over here it cost 50 dollars to get into a room. I'm sorry but I have horses that don't go in room and I still have to pay for the room I didn't use.

The barn use is 50 dollars so if you have a horse here it cost 100 dollars. To walk in.

One coggins is 45 dollars.

Shots done at the vets is $60. People arre bringing shots to me and asking me to give them to their horses(they buy the shots at the vets all but rabies). so then its down to 20 dollars to buy shots

cost of gelding is 220 dollars.

In the next town over its cheaper. But heck are the vets really hurting for money to be charging that much! I love my vets thats why I go to them but still....

I understand what your saying it's getting to the point were it's too much to walk in.

 

[Warpony]

My previous vet built a new office, hired some new vets (who I did not like, they clearly found my dogs distasteful) and doubled their prices. I kept going because I trusted the head vet and I don't just trust anyone with my critters so I was willing to pay even though I wasn't really happy about it... but they almost let my dog die because they wouldn't LISTEN to me and I never even saw the GOOD vet anymore just the ones that looked at my dogs like they would rather touch snot then touch my dog. So when I moved I found a new vet.

She only does minor surgeries and common operations like spays/neuters. Anything more than that she refers out to a surgeon. She shares an xray machine with three other local vets. She does this intentionally because not having to have a full surgical suite suitable for more extensive large and small animal surgeries (like hip replacements and such) allows her to keep her prices down.

And she loves my dogs, she thinks they are neat and she wants pictures of them to put up in her office. :aktion033:

In general I have seen the prices increasing a lot where I live. My vet did recently raise her farm call cost, she charges by the mile and with the increase in gas prices she really had no choice.

 

[Buckskin gal]

In our area vet charges are very high...most vets are charging about like a regular doctor visit for a human and I suppose they justify that with paying for thier education etc. We are very lucky to have a vet that is more interested in taking care of the animals than how much she can make. Very often we hear that she doesn't even send out bills to people. She does live frugally and her work is her life. I love this gal for she is probably one in a million who will do her work and not worry about getting paid first. It truly is sad that there are people who cannot afford the costs of keeping animals....they are a luxury. I do understand that work of another should be paid. Even the costs for readings and natural healings are not affordable for many people. There will always be vets and drs. etc. who will demand payment before doing anything....and many will say they have to because they can't do it for free! Mary

 

[h2t99]

My biggest pet peeve is when they have these low cost spay and neuter clinics and it still costs $60 to neuter a cat!!! Now I do love my vets and both know that I do my own vetting unless it is serious. So I can go in and pick up most medicines and they will tell me how much to give. When I do call and need them to see an animal they know it is serious.

I did end up changing my vet a couple years ago because our horse vet got outrageous with his prices, I had a filly pop open her lower leg, you could see the tendons, veins everything. Vet came out, he could not stitch her, so he cleaned it, shaved it and wrapped it, left me medicine for 10 days and it cost $325. This was a week day. a month ago we had a mare run into a tree and cut her eyeball on a sunday, we called vet and took her in they examined her put die in it gave her 3 shots and gave me medicine for 2 weeks all for $120!!! :new_shocked: We figured it would be at least $250 because it was a Sunday!! So the prices are terrible the way they are all over!!!

Our heeer just had a canine tooth pulled (he was kicked and broke it) our vet could not do it, we called MSU and it would be $500-600, they gave us a couple numbers and both were $400-500. I called my old vet from when I lived in another town and they did it for $152!! Big difference!!!

They need to have more low cost care for animals, I know that vets need to make a living also, but something needs to happen before it gets out of control!!!!

 

[New_Image]

Yes, I've noticed this. I agree, vets do wonderful things and do need to make a living. They've spent years in college and hours devoted to what they do but.......

I'm always hesitant to take a animal to the vet or call a vet out for the horses. I've been giving everything I own shots myself for years. Its not even the cost of the shots being given by a vet, its the room or barn call, time paid, the whole looking over the animal whether or not you want it or it needs it, its the unnecessary shots given and tests they want to run... You come home with a $200 visit to give a dog its yearly shots.

Another favorite is the price they charge to put an animal down, who wants to pay a half a million dollars and their life savings to have a beloved life long buddy put to sleep?

 

[babygoose]

Agree the costs on stuff seems extreme. I would love to hear honest answers from some vets or others involved as to their profit margins. I don't expect vets to work for free. I even expect them to make a profit, it is a business afterall.

The odd thing I noticed about my last few vet bills, was the routine shots etc. for the dog were more expensive than the overnight stay by my draft cross mare for some unknown swelling that she had on her head. They took x-rays, did blood work, gave her some sort of intrvenous drip things several times. All came out quite a bit less than the dogs annual shots! I can't complain because I have more horses than dogs, but it just seemed weird.

Also, there is a significant difference in cost of vet care just in my local area. I adopted a rescue mini that turned out to be double cryptorchid. The vet the rescue used quoted $1,500 for the surgery. My vet quoted $800. I didn't feel that the quality of care would have been any different so we went with my vet. The total was almost $800. But then they did charge me extra to remove the stint and later another charge to remove the stitches. Still came in way under $1,500, but I would think the stitch removal would have been considered part of the original charge.

 

[runamuk]

I agree prices are all over the map. A couple other things I have discovered.

In many areas getting a horse vet to come to the farm for emergencies or even routine care is getting harder to find.

Finding after hours vet care for small animals is almost impossible in many areas and IF you happen to have an emergency clinic they usually charge 3-4 times regular vet fee's.

The other one is how few vets deal with breeders (dog and cat) the few that do are nearly impossible to get into as their client load is so high, and most vet clinics push spay/neuter to the point of not even dealing with people who keep intact animals. Makes it tough to have show prospects and to even consider breeding if you cannot find a vet within an hour or two drive

: I actually feel this contributes to irresponsible breeding.

I was rather disgusted with the low cost spay neuter clinics I found as they considered $60 and up low cost.......so for now the feral cats are on their own (I was going to TNR the colony but can't afford it).

I do find that the equine vets are more on par with what I expect to pay it is the small animal vets whose prices seem to have quadrupled.

The other thing for me is I will happily pay for good vet care but there seems to be a lack of truly good vets out there.

 

[MeadowRidge Farm]

I think the world of my vets, but I do think that there prices are becoming just plain crazy. My main vet just built a new clinic and has 3 techs and numerous others working for her. SInce she has built this clinic I have noticed that all her prices have gone up alot. little things she use to do as routine ..now have a price on them. I always clip my dogs nails and check her anal glands, but I have my vet double check when ever, this she use to do as routine, now its $15.00 for each item. I have also noticed that with some vets up my way, they will come out to do the farm call, tell you there is noting THEY can do, but you should go see this vet or that vet. I'm not talking a specialist but a regular vet..when I started to hear this all I could think of is "what the haeck, if you cant do anything why do you think the next vet could?" (considering here, that neither is a specialist..just friends of each other). My vet is about 15 minutes frm our farm, her farm call charge is $35.00, coggins $28.00, health cert (which she use to do for nothing when she coggins) is now $75.00. 2 months ago, when I lost Shado, we had him cremated, the cost for his cremation was $165.00 he weighed 99.4lbs, (over 100#s you pay accordingly)I found out from another friend who also had lost her dog in spring and his weight was 110# she took her dog to the clinic where my vet use to be, her cost for cremation, (both were picked up and had private cremations at the same place) was $100.00, that was $65.00 less then mine for the same service. I do think that the small animals rates that is becoming crazy. Our farm rates are decent. Corinne

 

[PaintedPromiseRanch]

here in AZ too. for example: 3 years ago i got a BIG male dog, already almost a year old and not neutered so that was the first thing we did... he was over 80 pounds and it was under $100. my daughter just had her Heeler pup fixed, i made the calls for her because she was in school and was shocked that they wanted WELL OVER $300 for a dog that was UNDER 40 pounds! i finally found a spay and neuter clinic where she got the surgery and his rabies shot for under $100. poor kid, there was no way she could afford over $300 but yet the dog had to be done... i am so thankful for the clinic!

what else hurts is the cost to have an animal humanely euthanized... and then they ADD MORE for disposal. :no:

 

[jdomep]

I just switched equine vets - not due to costs - but they just got too big for their britches! Being rude to my bestest bud (who spent thousands when her donkey was ill - and BTW you guys helped diagnose her as the vet team had NO clue about hyperlipidemia - same vets told us our donkey was not pg and 4 weeks later we had a baby

: )

New vet came out last week he has donkeys smiley #1

Told me what they needed and did not need smiley #2

Got the bill in 3 days and it was only $165 for 2 donkey vaccinations with a $45 farm call included smiley #3

and They are going to let me give the boosters without having to do yet another farm call BIG smiley #4 :bgrin

So far so good - there are 2 equine vets in the group

My doggy vets are a husband and wife team and I have used them for 10+ years and they are awesome!

 

[Jill]

I've actually always been surprised at how "cheap" the vet fees have been compared to the professional time they put into the thing they're doing for my animal.

My only "big" bills were about $5,000 for colic surgeries (1 one day, 1 the next) on a filly who was insured, $3,000 or so trying to heal my elderly riding horse, and about $3,500 on the first bladder stone surgery for Winston (the second one was only about $1,000).

Appart from those "big" events, it's just been minor stuff. I've had to have vets out once or twice in the early morning hours, and I swear, it would take WAY more than they charge to get me out in the middle of the night (they obviously are not in it just for the money).

Thank GOD for good vets. My animals are blessed to have some wonderful ones. But, it really seems like a hard way to earn a living to me (so many hours not to mention the stress).

 

[tigeresss]

I think the world of my vets and they're the one and only reason I am scared about moving away! haha.

We have an avian vet, and then we also have our vet for our dogs (and our bunnies when we had them), and finally our equine vet. All of our vets are priced fairly. They all will call up and check in on the animals multiple times if they have had something done, or wrong with them.

I'll focus now on the equine vets...There are vets around here where you can take horses into the clinic but all of the equine vets(including those with clinics) here normally come to your farm. The farm call is normally $40.00, which is fair given the amount of driving needed. My vet is always happy, fun and we're more like friends than anything else. Our bill is mailed to us and we normally receive it a week after the appointment. We always pay right away but if we needed to we're able to break it down into installments with no worry or bother. Our vets understand what life is like!

We don't pay to get into a room, all we pay for is the actual things done. For example if one of my horses has his exam, and vaccines then we pay for the exam, a farm call, and the vaccine, plus a very small amount for the vet to give the vaccine. Something I'm capable of doing but am not yet comfortable doing. If one of my dogs has say his rabies vaccine and an exam but only an exam of his teeth. We then only pay for his vaccine and a DENTAL exam. That's it.

I can't imagine having any other vets.

 

[Relic]

We had our housedog fixed in Aug l had to bring her in the night before and took her home before the vets closed the next day...total was 426. Also had a ulcer on a fillies eye a few weeks back and saw the vet twice we hauled her in to save the 127 farm fee both times but the bill still came out to 916 after all was said and done ...way to high for small and large animal vets in my book.

: My husband refuses to pay to have any of the dumped of cats fixed anymore at todays cost...

 

[targetsmom]

I'm with Jill on this one. Have you compared vet costs with physician or hospital fees? I also have had experience with two colic surgeries (2 1/2 years apart). At the time Target was having his first surgery, my Mom was also in the hospital in another state (yeah, that was a really fun week). His bill was around $4,000 and he got the absolute best of care, round the clock. I could get reports on his condition any time I phoned. My Mom's bill was $17,000, NO surgery, she had to beg for things like a sponge bath, and I had a really hard time getting progress reports. Insurance paid for her, but Target's fees came out of my pocket (and I am so glad it wasn't the other way around!).

I don't know about you, but my vet keeps track of all the shots my horses need and sends me reminders. Does your physician do that for the services you should be getting? My vet will also answer my questions over the phone or via e-mail, at no charge. These are also reasons why I don't do my own shots, although I am perfectly capable of it. He needs to earn a living too.

 

[rabbitsfizz]

All I can say is I wish I had studied Sciences instead of Art.

I have NEVER met a poor Vet.

Vets take longer to qualify than a Doctor (human) sure, but how does that justify a fee to GO to the Vets.

As I go through my Vets door it costs me $100.00 (because the excess on most Insurance policies is $100.00!!)

I pay for an examination whether or not anything is done- and if something is done and I claim I still do not get the $100.00 back (excess, remember??)

I just get really tired of it all the time, especially as there is NO liability whatsoever if things go wrong- never known a Vet make a misdiagnosis or be poor.

Once upon a time Vets did their jobs because they loved animals and wanted a reasonably well paid job- no harm in that.

Now it seems all they want is the money.

I am glad for those of you who think that your Vets are worth the money, or are reasonable, they may well be both, but when you cannot afford the fees they charge it is hard to hear this sort of thing.

I am just glad I can do most of my midwifery myself as I surely could not, as a colleague of mine does, afford to have the Vet foal out my mares!!!

 

[Shari]

The Vet I really liked up North, his prices were fair and he did very good work.

Lets just say moving down here was a real eye opener.

Finally found a good equine Vet,, knows what he is doing, as per having him come out yesterday. His prices so far, are fair.

The other Vet that just about killed Theia... her prices were crazy. She also did not know what she was doing.

For my son's cat Heidi...now that she is getting older.... noticed the pet practice prices are going wayyy up.

Even with the Vets that have been out of school for a very longgg time.

Think part of the problem, and I have seen this... many pet owners will even take a 2nd out on their house to try to save their pet. Neighbor at the old Farm did this for her dog... nasty temperamented dog to boot... took a 2nd out because the dog had cancer and even after paying the Vet very large amounts of money the dog died and a few months.

Think many of the small animal practices are banking on this kind of thinking...

I love my animals very much and will do as much as I can for them. But I will not take out a 2nd to pay to keep one alive just a few more months.

Looks like we may be finally getting two female "barn" cats in a few weeks...who will be fixed when it is time. So far the most cheap place I can find is charging $160.00 for each spay....and this is a very poor area. Scary.....knowing how out of control the cat population is in many areas.

 

[tigeresss]

Seems like a lot of you are getting ripped off. I can think of at least three equine vets in my area who are by no means well off. They are like every other family around here.

It really does surprise me how people expect a professional (someone who took eight PLUS years to get where they are for schooling) to do a service for them and then not have to pay for it at an appropriate rate. Amusing thing is that all of you put up with it and don't appear (from what you've written) to have done anything about your thoughts on the matter. Rather than moan about it why not try to change it?

 

[Marylou]

Our cat had his yearly shots for $60. This is in South Florida