Vet cost rant

[Funky Feathers]

Alrighty now, let's not kill our pets by giving the wrong meds. I was a Registered Vet Tech for 10 years. Here's the scoop (know what you are treating):

Strongid-T (Pyrantel Pamoate, Nemex-2) liquid or paste only kills roundworms, hookworms, pinworms & strongyles (horses). ONLY.

Safeguard (Febendazole, Panacur) kills hooks & Whipworms ONLY.

Droncit (Praziquantel) kills ONLY Tapeworms.

Ivermectin heartworm medicine prevents heartworms and most intestinal worms, I use it every month year round (we have moquitoes in winter, no deep freeze here).

Pets get Tapeworms from ingesting FLEAS, so use Frontline to prevent needing the Droncit.

Heed my Warning: HARTZ products either Kill, don't work, or both! Don't buy Hartz, ever!! That alone will save you hundreds.

You can buy most common antibiotics online (Amazon.com), usually as a fish version, but the same drug/dose, such as: Penicillin (Fish-cillin), Cephalexin (Fish-flex), Metronidozole for diarrhea (Fish-zole), Tetracycline (Fish-cycline), etc.... but Know what you are treating BEFORE you buy the meds people!

Just a retired Vet Tech trying to help. Don't be afraid to ask the experts for advice before you self-treat your animals. I can hook you up with the right people.

 

[redhen]

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[PineappleMama]

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Fattie You Rock! I love it when I see a health professional that would rather give sound (life saving) advice for free than see someone totally go without because they can't afford it... that is beyond awesome!!

 

[HaikuHeritageFarm]

Yeah, the sad thing about vet medicine, like people medicine, is that often people get into it because they LOVE animals and are very caring individuals.

But it is so expensive to even BECOME a vet, and then to outfit a practice, that if you go soft and start giving away services or cutting people deals you will go out of business. I've worked at a bunch of vets and SOMETIMES the practice owner will be doing ok to pretty good, but they really have to rule with an iron fist. The ones that don't end up working for other people's practices and really don't do all that great, considering the exorbitant student loans they are paying off for AGES.

The real bad guy in these scenarios are the drug companies and the people that make the vet equipment. Any and every piece of equipment costs an arm and a leg and takes a LOT of years use before it's paid off. Lab services are expensive. Heck, even the basic everyday supplies such as vaccinations and syringes and sterile needles and such add up.

And even though I know it's not really the vet's fault, I still probably couldn't afford to own a dog if I lived down south again and had to not only be paying what I pay for the dog food I want to feed, but for flea/tick/heartworm preventative too. Much less more than one dog! But geez, you think heartworm preventative is expensive? Try TREATING a dog for HW. That's a bank account drainer for sure.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

What I would like to know is why the Hartz and Sergeant's products receive such a bad rap when they have EXACTLY THE SAME active ingredients, in the SAME CONCENTRATIONS as more expensive brands? Different ingredients or different concentrations I would understand, but they are not.

 

[the lemon tree]

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It could also be the difference in inactive ingredients. Kinda like how some people respond better to name brand medication vs. generic (or vice versa). I know the cheap flea treatments sometimes have organophosphate insecticides (OPs), or at least used to,which my poor dog had an adverse reaction to.

Never again will I use Hartz.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Well, pyrethrins are pyrethrins and permethrin is permethrin whether it is in Hartz or Sergreants or Adams or ...

 

[SundownWaterfowl]

Actually pets can get tapeworms from ingesting and animal that is infested with them, such as a mouse for example. My cats get wormed on a tri-monthly basis for tapeworms with a drocit type wormer (cant remember the name). And monthly for roundworm prevention.

The dogs are inside dogs so they get womed once or twice a year. Ive never had problems with the dogs getting worms.

For flea & tick prevention, i've decided not to use chemicals. So ive been using natural products on the dogs and the cats and so far no fleas or ticks have been spotted.

I also do monthy heartworm prevention. The min pin gets tri-heart and the goldie gets heart-guard.

 

[ScaredOfShadows]

I am lucky to have a vet who has been a vet for nearly 40 years, and he had retired, and couldn't cope with not dealing with animals and hearing about the outrageous prices people had to pay and the animals suffering for it...So he went back and re-opened his practice (he had been leasing it to another vet - so when the next lease came up he took it back from what I understand) and now does a very low cost practice. He does spays and neuters for 1/6 of the price of anywhere else in a 60 mile radius and he does surgeries like my DD's dog's leg reconstruction for less than 600$ for surgery and check ups when I was quoted over 2500$ somewhere else. He does it for the cost of the supplies he uses and thats it, it is essentially his hobby if you will now, its his passion even if he is not a people person he is a darn good animal person and I <3 him to death. If it wasn't for him I would have had to put DD's dog down when she shattered her leg because no one would do reasonable payment plans on top of outrageous total cost that I could not afford to be in debt of.

ETA: I understand some vets HAVE to charge out the wahzoo to make money back and pay back loans, but there are some that just charge out the butt because they can. There is a vet here who has been in practice since before I was born and he is HORRIBLE, bad manners, stupid practices, and just ignorant in general but people bring him animals because he's the oldest practicioner here - and he charges out the tail end for simple things. 250$ for a spay and shots and a flea dip for a cat. My vet? I got 3 males neutered and a female spayed all at same time, their shots and pain meds for under 170$ for all wow. big difference huh?

 

[AKsmama]

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They receive "such a bad rap" because they deserve to. I've worked in 3 different vets' offices over the years, and every single one has had cats and dogs that have had horrible reactions to Hartz crap. Obviously they don't have the same ingredients in the same concentrations, because their stuff kills. I don't care how they label it. I have seen dogs and cats in horrible seizures because of their flea crap. I've seen animals so sick they couldn't be saved, and not because the owners couldn't afford treatment, either. If you've used Hartz flea treatments and haven't had a problem, then you're just lucky. I won't even buy a cat toy made by Hartz, that's how much I hate that company. They should go out of business, permanently.