Vet Vent!

[NancyDz]

Quote:
A word of caution...be careful about dosing dogs with horse ivermectin (b/c of the high concentration) & if your dogs haven't been on HW preventative I would get them tested first. If they're positive and you give them ivermectin it can kill them...either through a clot of worms in their vessels or by anaphylactic reaction to the dying worms.

Thank you Vet for stepping in on this... I tried to warn against using a livestock med on a dog earlier in this thread .. it's just not worth the risk to save a couple bucks.


Congrats on your graduation! DId you see the book I mentioned earlier in this thread? I think it would be wonderful for vets to read too.


Nancy

 

[cyanne]

A word of advice to those who mentioned that they are going into business as vets and have a lot of loans to pay back:

If you want to have a long, successful career with clients who stick with you for the long haul, you don't have to 'give away' your services for free or go broke. The important thing is to treat your clients with respect, be honest with them about what their pets REALLY need, listen to them, and don't try to gouge them. It's a lot better to have a solid group of repeat customers who stick with your services for years than it is to have a revolving door of ticked-off people who will tell all of their friends not to use your practice.

My own personal experience with this comes both from working at a vet clinic and from several bad experiences with vets as a customer.

While working at one clinic, the vet regularly held meetings where we were 'coached' on how to push products on clients (up-selling). Some of the techniques were downright unsavory. For example, the vet bought an expensive viewing monitor and scope which would allow him to show a magnified view on-screen of the inside of pets' ears. Not because it worked better to find problems, but because it would show in HUGE, gross detail every bit of wax and every ear mite. This would, of course, freak out the owner and they would rush to buy a bunch of expensive ear flushing products, sign their dog up for grooming svcs, and buy ear mite meds. What made it cruddy is that most animals probably have a few mites living in their ears, but it isn't usually a big problem unless they overpopulate. Under extreme magnification, though, a single ear mite looks horrifying! The vet was very pleased with himself as he talked about how much money this device was going to bring in and he made sure all of the vet techs were required to use it for every exam.

My worst experience as a customer was when I scheduled my dogs for their yearly heartworm tests and rabies vaccines one year. I made the appt in advance over the phone and the receptionist immediately tried to push me to pay for a bunch of other vaccines. I explained that I vaccinate my own dogs and had JUST given them their yearly boosters. She took down all of the info and the plan was for my husband to drop them off on the way to work and pick them up after the appt.

When he got there to pick them up, the bill was HUNDREDS of dollars because they had vaccinated them for EVERYTHING including lyme disease and who knows what else. Supposedly the appt info was lost, so they just did all of the vaccines. And since the vaccines were already done, they said I HAD to pay for them even though I had not requested them. They refused to bring my dogs out and release them to me until I paid the bill.

It was not only upsetting because of the money, but because my dogs had been given a double dose of vaccines. The vet shrugged it off like it was no big deal, but I knew from my time working at the other clinic that vaccines DO have many risks and possible side effects including tumors at the vaccine sites and autoimmune disorders. The risk is acceptable to vaccinate once a year to prevent disease, but I was pretty upset that all of my pets had gotten a second, completely unnecessary dose less than a week after the first one.

Needless to say, I NEVER went back to that vet again and I have shared that story with HUNDREDS of people in my local area. I also filed a complaint with the state veterinary medicine board, but the vet lied and said that the shots were requested, so she did not get into any trouble.

 

[Carolina Chicken Man]

What's the issue? Take your dog to another vet. Fuquay is what 15 miles from Raleigh? You probably have 50 vets in a 30 mile radius.

 

[Bantamlover23]

My uncle who is a vet in florida just was fired because he was not pushing items that the animals did not need. I completely understand your frustration about your becasue I dislike my vet mainly she can be very crude at time with how she talks. And she misdiagnosed a skin infection in corgi and it was caused by an allergy to a shampoo they prescribed I went in the following week to get her spayed and when I picked my corgi the other vet in the practice told me it was a skin infection and it should clear up with antibiotics and it did.

 

[Henrietta23]

I hope you are able to find a vet who will listen to you and work with you. I've been very lucky I guess. I worked for our former vets' clinic for three years and got to see how they worked from the inside. I absolutely trusted them with my animals. I only left when my son came along because the drive was just a little too far. The vet we see now used to work there with me and he left when he bought a clinic that is closer to us. Maybe it is because I worked with them, but they have all answered my questions, worked with me to save money when possible, etc. I have friends who take their pets to the same place and they have the same experience without having worked with the vet.
Also, I recently spent three hours in the Emergency Room with severe abdominal pain. Luckily it wasn't anything serious and after a few medications I was sent home. No x-rays, just some lab tests. The bill came the other day. $1770 for the ER fees. For three hours. The next day the ER doctor's bill came. $430 more. I am SO glad I have insurance!! No vet visit ever cost me that much, including a serious operation one of my dogs needed that required an out of town specialist to be brought in. That involved 5 days of hospital care.

 

[tygab]

Very interesting posts... and there really is a wide range of views out there.

For my part, I worked in a small town vet clinic throughout HS (ok, that's a while ago but still relevant). The practice always found a way to take care of animals in urgent need, even when the owners were struggling financially. Likewise, with a major vet med school down the road, I got to see owners who were able to spend money on specialty services comparable to human medicine. All the vets I worked for were making just enough to get by. In fact, I decided not to go into vet medicine because I found the human interactions were a lot more complicated then I expected, at least at that age, and I just hadn't anticipated that. I still think about it a fair amount, and those going into vet medicine today.

Two other notes - I now work w/ small animal vets, and large animal vets. My favorite vets are the ones who don't assume I want or need every vet service possible, and respect my care choices after reasonable explanations and some time for me to become informed. It's funny, my current farm vet is at one end of the practicality scale (she's not too long out of school too, so probably has a big debt), whereas I feel some of the small animal vets at the practice I go suggest more tests/svcs for my elderly indoor only cats than I think are really needed. But at the end of the day I feel reasonably well equipped to get the treatment level I want, because I have worked in a clinic. My sister who lives in the city was pressured or maybe guilted to more aggressively treat an 18 yr old cat, and paraphrasing her words it makes her not want to care for another cat if that is the prevailing attitude (a few months later, the cat was euthanized under similar circumstances). That is a shame - as she loved and was responsible to that cat.

This is off from the PetMeds/shipping fee issue, but I think it's a long way of saying that the range of vets reflects the range of attitude in pet/animal owners. There are people who scarcely take their animals to the vet, just as there are people who expect the vet to exhaust/cover all options in treatment. There are vets who will push harder for care (and income), even if it means some customers don't stay with them; there are just as many vets who take the money out of their own pocket and barely make enough to keep a practice afloat. And every position in between on both sides.

You have to find vets that have the knowledge and outlook that match you best. Unfortunately, that isn't always easy.

 

[mekasmom]

I don't know if anyone has mentioned this in the postings, but in many states it is illegal for a vet to prescribe but refuse to offer a written script to use elsewhere.

I wouldn't mess with this vet myself. I would just go somewhere else.