Vets and pets

[HGFarm]

This has been bothering me for a LONG time now. I agree it is a disaster. And dont take your dog to the vet if you dont have ready cash either. If you cant pay on the spot, no one here will see your animals, so matter HOW sick or injured they are!!!! It all seems to roll right down to the money.

Our old vet many years ago always allowed us to make payments, which we were steady on if we didnt have the money right up front. When an animal needs help, it needs it NOW.

I see the same thing though, happening with people, on a daily basis. If you dont have insurance, or even if you do and cant afford the deductable or whatever.... you dont get health care. A friend at work died because she had cancer. She worked tons of overtime to get enough money to pay her bills (she was single) so kept putting off going to the dr as that was money going out, not in. By the time she went, it was too late.

I realize that vets and doctors can't work for free, but the price of health care for ANYTHING has gotten to the most ridiculous 'business' and if you dont have lots of money, you dont get it.

Our equine vet is great about working with folks and will never turn away helping a horse that needs help - or I have never known her to.

The cheapest neuter on a cat here is close to $100.00 and it was about $200 and up to twice that for a spay. There are spay/neuter clinics, but the care is in and out and I have heard of a few stories that didnt come out well, though I have used one myself a couple of times.

We recently got word that we were getting a small raise this year- that was pretty exciting. Then last week they gave us the bad news. They are dropping all our insurance policies but one, have a huge deductable and the rates are going way up as well. All I can say is I better not get sick!!

 

[Shelley]

I sure can't complain here - for the most part.

I feel our small animal vet is very reasonable for what he does. We do give our

own yearly shots and go yearly to a rabies shot clinic one hour away where we pay $7.00

per dog. Wouldn't be worth it for one dog, but we always have several that need to go.

The only thing I am going to complain about is the high cost of spaying/neutering...I would

love to have the barn cats spayed/neutered...but they remain intact due to the cost.

As far as equine vets, we are very fortunate to have a wonderful equine clinic

here in our little town. I think the world of the two vets who practice there. Having

equine specialists 10 minutes away and not having to rely on a general large animal vet

who sees mostly cows is worth having to pay a little more. A farm call is $40.00. Often they

will say just load the horse up and bring it over to save the farm call.

One thing to keep in mind is that we expect our animal professionals to be available

when we need them, and to be able to handle just about anything we throw at them.

They don't get the big insurance payments like our human physicians do. When we make

a $40.00 co-pay at our doctor's office they are also getting a big chunk from the insurance

company. The $30.00 office call fee we pay our vet is just what he gets. I think they

have eight years of college to pay for? And he every often knocks off $$ as "discounts" for us.

Shelley

 

[bfogg]

I did not want this to appear to be knocking vets. I still say they are awesome wonderful caring people.

Most of them do it because they do love animals.

What prompted me to start this thread was the worry about what is going to happen to the animals of the people who cannot pay even minimal vet care.

All of these poor animals what will happen to them. Especially with the disappearing jobs and the price of grain and hay going thru the roof. Shavings have become the new gold standard!

:

It cost me over $200.00 to put little Cash down on our own property. What would it be for a full size animal that people can't bury on their own property?

What I worry about is animals being abandoned. I live just down the road from a National Forest and dogs and puppies and kittens are dumped down there by the river some are found others starve to death or killed by animals. And this is not even winter yet.

I am just concerned.

Bonnie

 

[Whitestar]

Well, I run a non profit Veterinary Clinic & Shelter. It is owned by a private registered non profit Animal Welfare Society & is not owned by the vets, they are employees. ( took me a long time to get use to bossing a Vet around..ha ha)We provide low cost non emergency pet care, ( vaccinations, lab work, health checks etc) to the public, but our main focus is spay & neuter. We provide this at low cost, however we provide it to area rescues below our cost. We work hard on writing grants to get free spay neuter programs to our area because we are overrun with people that dont really care their pet becomes pregnant a couple times a year, they dump the puppies or kittens at the pound to be euthanized, on the street, or give them away with no thought to the fact that those puppies & kittens end up with the same fate as their parents, producing multiple litters. We struggle to pay our bills. We get a bit put out to hear people complain around here that they have to pay for the rabies vaccination required by law while we are providing them with a free spay or neuter on their 80# dog. We really rely on donations to keep our programs going, & frankly people are not as willing to donate to a low cost clinic as they are to a shelter ( we have a shelter too & the donations come in marked clearly for the shelter). Why? because people do not think they should have to offset other peoples Vet bills when they chose to own a pet. It is hard to convince Mr Smith to give $50 towards spaying & neutering someone elses dog. They think that pet owners need to have some type of responsiblity to own a pet. Even the grants we get to provide the free services dont cover our full cost of the spay neuters that we provide, we end up making up the difference. We do it by offering boarding, baths, selling items, having rummage sales, fundraisers etc.

Now that said, I too am shocked at the cost of some Vet Clinics, even around here, but in some parts of the country it is extreme. We have made a lot of enemies in our own town within the Vet community because we offer the same services for about 1/3rd their fees. The people that can afford it still go to the normal Vets & we encourage it. Our clinic costs about $250 a hour to be open between paying our Vet, tech, 2 receptionists, 2 kennel folks, & my salary ( which works out to about $3.00 ahour with the 70+ hr work week) & out buildings, utilities, equip, supplies ads, etc. It seems like something is always breaking down & needs to be fixed.. $250 a hour is probably is no big deal to a expensive Vet clinic, but it is to us. Both my tech & I ( who is my best friend) have worked at other clinics & didnt like that many pet owners were stuck with huge bills without prior knowledge ( just drop off your pet & we will work them in...or services done without checking with the owner etc) so that we have made the changes we wanted in this clinic. We even dip in our pockets on some hard luck cases if we can see that the people are trying to be good pet owners.

As far as how to make changes in your area? I dont know, I do know that when pets stopped become just animals & became more parts of our families, that the Vet charges seemed to go up. Now days there are cancer centers, allergy centers, eye surgery centers, all sort of specialized med centers just for pets. We dont offer payment plans, but the services that we offer are straight forward & non emergency so people know in advance what it will cost. The last Vet I worked for had tens of thousands of dollars each year that were on payment plans that people either didnt pay or paid $5. a month which didnt even make a dent in some of the supplies used in the treatment. Guess there are two sides to every story on the payment plan, many dont offer it anymore due to that reason, they figure people can use their master card or visa & pay them off instead of the Vet.

There are many avenues for pet care, you can buy vaccines & flea & heartworm prevention on line for very reasonable costs. ( heartworm requires a prescription). As far as Vets not being accountable, if you have a complaint, each state has a licensing board & if you file a complaint, they must investigate it. It will be in your Vets record.

All I can say, is try to start a small savings account for those unexpected emergencies. Look into pet insurance. Try not to get more pets then you can really afford to take care of properly. ( fully vaccinated, it is cheaper to vaccinate then to try to treat parvo when your pet gets it). Support any programs in your area, whether spay neuter services or shelter services. Spay & neuter your pet. Call around for pricing & know in advance what it will cost you for services & find out if they have a payment plan if needed. Although sometimes it is worth it to pay a bit more to stay with someone you trust with your pet.

Debbie

www.freemanfritts.com

 

[chandab]

The only thing I am going to complain about is the high cost of spaying/neutering...I would

love to have the barn cats spayed/neutered...but they remain intact due to the cost.

Shelley

Me, too! I did spay the house cat, then she disappearred this summer; we now have to kitten boys and they'll be neutered, but I just can't afford to fix the barn cats.

 

[anoki]

The only thing I am going to complain about is the high cost of spaying/neutering...I would

love to have the barn cats spayed/neutered...but they remain intact due to the cost.

Shelley

Me, too! I did spay the house cat, then she disappearred this summer; we now have to kitten boys and they'll be neutered, but I just can't afford to fix the barn cats.

This is exactly what I was going to post about too!!!! We had 3 young cats appear here a couple of months ago (I posted them on here when they stuck around)....I called up the vet to see how much it would cost to have them neutered.....close to $1,000 when all was said and done!!!! :new_shocked: :new_shocked: I DO UNDERSTAND the expenses and all....and when you break it down per cat, it is not *too* bad, though still expensive!! And I know if they start doing it for someone, everyone will expect it....BUT we did not 'bring' these animals into our lives voluntarily, if that makes sense....and now that they are here, and have stuck around, we'd like to do what we can to keep them around AND keep them healthy....which in our opinion is having them neutered....I've tried approaching the humane society about it, as I was told sometimes they do low cost spay/neuter...but I don't want to LOSE these 3 by doing this...and that is how things have seemed with the contact that I have made with them.

Anyways, I'm pretty happy over all with my vets that I use

:

And the 2 horse vets we use are really great!!! Wish I could find a small animal vet that was as conscientious as the 2 horse vets (though the one horse vet does Moxie's chiro for me....just too far away for day to day and emergency things...)

~kathryn

 

[Buckskin gal]

Yes, we do worry about all the animals that people acquire/breed and then cannot afford their vet care. It isn't going to get any better and about all we can do is educate people about the responsibilities that go along with animal ownership. We have always made it a policy not to have more pets/animals than we can afford to take care of. I get really upset with people who will take their pets and drop them off for someone else to take care of. Right now we have a cat that someone abandoned and we are buying food for him so he doesn't starve to death. Why people own cats and dogs and either breed them, or allow them to breed, knowing they can't afford them is crazy. I think we know what will happen to animals that others can't afford the care of....they will go neglected or someone else will end up paying the costs of them. Many pets/animals will be put to death because of irresponsible breeders and owners....not a pretty picture but I do believe it is a fact. Education is what saves so many things. Mary

I did not want this to appear to be knocking vets. I still say they are awesome wonderful caring people.

Most of them do it because they do love animals.

What prompted me to start this thread was the worry about what is going to happen to the animals of the people who cannot pay even minimal vet care.

All of these poor animals what will happen to them. Especially with the disappearing jobs and the price of grain and hay going thru the roof. Shavings have become the new gold standard!

:

It cost me over $200.00 to put little Cash down on our own property. What would it be for a full size animal that people can't bury on their own property?

What I worry about is animals being abandoned. I live just down the road from a National Forest and dogs and puppies and kittens are dumped down there by the river some are found others starve to death or killed by animals. And this is not even winter yet.

I am just concerned.

Bonnie

 

[minimule]

I hear you Bonnie. You know where I live and the people here can't even really afford their kids yet they have pets. There are lots of "packs" running the mesas around us. Most folks here just don't worry about how they should really be caring for their pets. It's sad.

My vet is great. He doesn't nickle and dime you to death. He knows that we can do most of the stuff so he will give us pointers and get us started and then let's us do the work. He is very upfront and honest about what treatments will do or not do. When Savannah had colic surgery, it was $2500 total, for everything. When he came out to put Beebop down it cost me $90. He has even helped me help a couple of ferrets cross over for just the cost of the drug. The ferret vets wanted $45 for an exam (yeah, they live with me and I don't know when they are ready to cross

: :no: ) + they wanted $50 to put them down. Matt charged me $5. I'm sure going to miss him when we leave.

:

 

[Sandee]

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?

Just how would you suggest we "change it"? I'm sure too old to go to school and I don't know of anyway to get the rates charged lowered by just telling them they're outrageous (doesn't work with people doctors either).

I have 2 vets in my area. Neither one knows "jack" about miniatures. They have "learned" on my dime and now I get to pay them for it! They still don't know about doing teeth and how do I know this? Because I watched Carl Mitz work at the Natls and realized that he did more (probably better) work in 20 minutes without any sedation than my vets do in 45 min. to an hour. I have to pay for sedation then for someone to support the horse (or have it's head tied "up") and often there's another vet helper handing them tools. In other words I pay about 3 times what Carl charged and the work I get in exchange is inferior (or my guy wouldn't have needed so much done at a SHOW)!

I'm not happy but I really don't see any way to change the situation.

 

[Jill]

I still feel that my vets are so reasonable. They are not living the high life, but I wouldn't wish them not to, either.

But, someone may have already pointed out tips but in case not, here are some to help keep costs low:

• do your own shots, for your horses and your pets (I do... it's like $5 for dog shots, I order those when I order horse shots! With 6 dogs, the convenience of doing it w/o a trip to the vet is a huge factor)
• feed good quality feed to your horses and pets
• keep the horses dewormed and the dogs on heart worm meds
• shop at online pet med places for the medicines

 

[Warpony]

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.

This is another thing my vet started to do after they built the new clinic... not only did they charge for nails and anal glands (which I have NEVER had the vet touch unless there was a problem) but they would do it as a standard part of their exam without asking, then charge you for it. It went from a $25 office call plus what ever drugs/tests/ etc you needed to $35 office call, $7 for nail trim, $12 for anal glands, and $20 for a "wellness exam" EVERY VISIT. And that is before you even got to talk about what might be wrong! They also tacked on a $5 per injection "needle and syringe restocking and disposal fee". When I asked for her to please NOT trim my dogs nails and check his anal glands she didn't do it but still billed me for it because it was now "part of our standard office visit and was billed even if the patient opted out". I never expected her to do nails and anal glands for free (I sure wouldn't, both of those are jobs I'd expect to get paid for if I was doing them for someone else's dogs) but basically making them mandatory just yanked my chain.

Oh, and after care check up had always been included in the original price, so if my dog had surgery or something and he had to come back a week later to get stitches out that was covered in the price of the operation, but not any more!!! Now you have to pay the full $35 office call, $7 for nail trim, $12 for anal glands, and $20 for a "wellness exam", but you get the "post treatment recheck" for no extra charge above that.

yes, vets need their money, no problem with that at all, I'll even "over pay" for quality care. But almost $75 just to walk through the door before any CARE actually begins?? That just seems excessive to me. And being forced to pay for services I do not want or need whether I use them or not really bugged me.

 

[stormy]

Just another point of view here, remember a people doctor only has to deal with one "species" and often only with one part of that one "species". A veterinarian works with dozens of species all with differant metabolisms and requiring differant treatments for the same type of problems, to expect your vet to be a specialist in dental work is like expecting you doctor to fill your teeth! I am fortunate that my veterinarians have taken the time to learn about the special needs of minis but here are also quite a few minis in the area. I am sure some just plan have other areas they must focus on.

Another thing to remember that impacts ALL medical expenses including veterinary costs, liabilty and litigation. We have become a sue happy society and depending on the laws of your state regarding animal rights this could be part of why that bill is so high!

 

[Ashley]

I have been looking around at other vets to try and find cheaper. Can seem to.

To have a coggins and health paper pulled here it runs close to $70

Last horse I had gelding(spring of 07) was $400

Last dog was $250(female in March 07)

Last set of shots I had done on the horses 4 horses ran just over $500 they gave strangles to them, then I bought the Rhino and gave myself.

They typically have a base rate for what they are doing, then its I think* $2.50 a min they are here(its been awhile since I had them out but around there) and a $40 farm call.

 

[Katiean]

My yorkie got breast cancer. One day she didn't have it and the next day it was the size of 1 1/2 golf balls (and she is a little dog). Her surgery and testing cost me $650. Which compaired to a human case of breast cancer isn't bad. Eight months later she had a tumor in the next breast up. Because we had already had the biopsy done we didn't have one this time. She cost another $350. My angle is 15 years old. So, My vet, being as wonderful as he is removed 2 breasts this time for the price of 1. He is concerned that at her age she can not take too many surgeries but she also can't stay under long enough to take them all. We just hope and pray she doesn't get another one. So as for dogs our vets are very reasonable. well, except for spay and neutering. It costs $250 to neuter and $450 to spay unless you get a certificate from the SPCA. Then it costs $10. Horses are another subject. I knew a woman who's Big horse had a swollen sheath. The vet came out. Looked at it. Said "yep, it sure is swollen it must be a bee sting" Charged her $450 and left. As for helping the horse population. I don't know what a big horse costs but, it costs $350 for a simple geld on a mini. I think if the vet costs came down a bit more people would have the vet do shots and such instead of doing them themselves.

 

[runamuk]

Well here is where I have the biggest issue. castration costs. I knew moving back to WA costs would be higher. However I had no idea it was so high in this area, other parts of WA I can get it done for 1/3 the going rate down here.

To give an idea 1 year ago

When we were moving back my regular Idaho vet (not the cheapest around just the best IMO).

I had 2 coggins and 2 health certs on the horses

1 health cert and inspection on a potpig

2 dogs euthanized and disposal (over 50#)

1 dog sedated (over 50#) ears flushed, nails trimmed, 2 weeks of clavamox, earwash, and ear drops

6 pack of frontline for dogs, 6 pack of frontline for cats

Total bill $650

Here my idiot neighbors mostly feral cats, that he only claims as his when drunk and yelling at me saying my dogs killed them, who insist on living and reproducing in my shop

3 females and 1 male....

cheapest place $600 for the 4 and that didn't include getting them rabies vaccines.

I used to gladly round up and castrate feral, semi feral, dumped cats Not anymore. :no: :no:

 

[Kendra]

I'm busy saving my pennies at the moment for the over $2000 it's going to cost to have my little dog's two lower canine teeth cut off because they're poking into the roof of his mouth due to his poor bite. Surgery is scheduled for January, I'm worrying about it already, poor little guy! Gotta be done, all there is to it, but he's seriously going to be worth his weight in gold, all 3 pounds of him!

I work for an equine clinic, not a cheap one either (but a good one!), but still no where near as expensive as small animal medicine!