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Veterinarian Care and Costs Way Up?

I'm glad my wife and I have had a nearly 40-year association with our vet. My mother-in-law drives 35 miles to see him with her standard poodle. She's been bringing her dogs to him since 1979; she lived just four blocks from his office back then. I wonder what will happen when he finally retires? The young vet he has working there now, will likely take over the practice when he does retire. She's very competent and nice; and she gives my wife the same discounts as he does.

Pet insurance is doing to vet care what human health insurance did to medical costs - makes them skyrocket! Back in the '60s and '70s, a person generally paid cash for medical care, even pregnancy/delivery of a baby, or an appendectomy, or a broken arm. Now? Providers are supposed to provide the cost to patients. Supposed to, anyway.

With a vet, a person can shop around for routine care of a pet, still. Never use pet insurance unless it's simply too unaffordable, otherwise. My opinion, but it's one based on simple observations and talking to pet owners over the past couple of years.
 
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Just like I said back in post #10!

That's only part of it. I believe the other part is that the level of care has gone way up to match new technology and pet owner expectations. Vets are profiting off this too. 20+ years ago there were no CT or MRI scans for pets, no radioactive implants (Done that @ $1,000), no joint replacements, no electronic record files & fancy reports, etc. etc. Our pets just got by with basic care...... and if not, the pet muddled along or if serious enough was put down.

On the original issue that got me started on this, I don't ever recall it being necessary or recommended that a cat get his teeth cleaned even just 10 years ago. Now they tug at your heart strings or I'll be guilted into thinking I'm an animal abuser if you say "no". For $700 the cat's teeth were x-rayed (which I did not see) and a fancy color photo report saying the cat had "light tartar build up and no other problems".

It's out of balance.
 
When young and broke, I went to country vets as they were about 1/2 price compared to city vets. I assumed it was farm people would treat their dogs like cattle. Put them down and get another if the cost was too high. I'm generalizing, but I know many people today, who are like that. I live in ranch country and life is tough, for most all of us.

I quit country vets because the first city vet I used figured out my dog's recurring health issue and fixed him. I decided it was well worth the higher prices if it actually fixed my animal.
 
Because my daughter is a veterinarian nurse at a Denver hospital I can try to get questions answered for free. She specializes in allergies and surgery but I can find out other things.
 
I quit country vets because the first city vet I used figured out my dog's recurring health issue and fixed him. I decided it was well worth the higher prices if it actually fixed my animal.

No, I just think that your city Vet paid more attention in Vet school than the country bumkin did!
 
Late last year we had cat teeth extracted and a legion taken care of.

Nowhere close to $700.

I want to say somewhere around $250.

That cat recently died. RIP Vincey.

Our vet has complementary euthanasia for regular customers.

Low cost cremation ($60 IIRC), but we took him home and put him in the pineapple patch.
 
The upselling at my local vet is ridiculous. Funny story, our 11 year old Lab developed bone cancer and she had some serious pain in her shoulder. One day while I was at work, my son decided to give her an advil for her pain. The pain was significant enough that we got an appt the next day to have her checked out. We casually mentioned that we had given her an advil and the vet immediately went to DEFCON 5. She explained how bad advil is for dogs and recommended immediate transfer to the pet hospital to have her kidneys flushed. She estimated a 3-day stay and several thousand dollars. I had my young daughter there, who’s eyes welled up and got really huge when I told the vet “yeah, we’re not going to do that”. After multiple “are you sure” from the vet, we went home. Our dog had some minor diarrhea that night but was fine and lived a couple more years.

Even funnier story (at least now it’s funny). Fast forward a couple years and we have a new puppy. The puppy gets into my daughters purse and chews open a bottle of…. You guessed it, Advil. This time, WE went to DEFCON 5 and spent an stressful day at the emergency vet (during the height of Covid). We never could figure out if she actually ingested any meds but had her stomach pumped, charcoal treatments, etc. She never showed any signs of kidney damage and is a healthy 2-year old now.

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Whoops, I served 20 years BTW. Brain fart!
Then I guess you never had to deal with Defcons like I did? SAC was always in Defcon 4 BTW.
 
Teeth cleaning for cats. Never heard of the need. I use to go to vets with my first 2 cats and followed all the vets recommended shots, ect. They both died under 3 yrs old, both to unknown problems. My present cat (which I got after the first 2) has only been once to the vet when she was getting neutered. She's healthy and turning 17 in a few weeks.

Btw, about a year ago they had a local vet on the news saying how busy they are and can't find any veterinarians to hire. They said they advertised $135k to start and didn't have one applicant. My niece is in school right now to become a vet. She says its a 6 year course.
 
My first pet, a black and white (cool) cat named Jack, came up sort of lame at about 11PM one night when I got home from work.
Off we went to the emergency vet and I was told $1,500.00 for whatever battery of tests he wanted to perform. I declined, figuring i would go see my Brothers vet the next day. With that the doc said "you're here, why not do a blood test?". $150 was his response when I asked how much. He returned shortly with the news that it was complete kidney failure. I took Jack home, got him as comfortable as I thought I could and we fell asleep next to each other. He checked out at about 5AM.
My problem was not really with the $1,500.00, it WAS an emergency visit, but why lead off with that and not the less expensive blood work?
 
Some vets just seem to take advantage of the situation. Stay away from the ones who try to upsell services when you in for your main quest. In our experience, the hard way, pet insurance is a waste of money.
 
I live in Mexico too, and to complement what Dibbons just say I a friend of mine who is also a vet, for every straye dog i rescue he only charge me the cost (his cost) of medicine, most of the vets here have a human touch and commitment to help animals, not only for the money, of course with a few despicable exceptions, once a puppy was run over outside my business, and the people just stare at the poor baby, I immediately took her to the vet, a stray dog of course, this doctor use to take care of my little dog, I know him for years, but for being a stray dog he charge me first for the x ray before he check on her, their organs were crushed and I had to put her down, I cry because she doe deserve that, she was a creature of God, I swear I never take any dog to this doctor again.
 
It pays to shop around. We just found we need to remove an infected uterus from our 13 year old poodle. We found the "upscale" vet here charges twice what the single vet down the street charges.

The single vet had posted on a price list inside the office of what pet teeth cleaning would cost: $1,400.00 Mexican Pesos (about $70.00 USD). I tried cleaning the teeth of my two little dogs with a brush and paste some years ago, I real pain in the *** (especially with one dog who fought it all the way). I am not going to spend any time or money with pet dental care, just not worth it in my case (especially being on social security).
 
Try cleaning a cat's teeth.
 
Try cleaning a cat's teeth.
How many eon's and generations of cat's as well as dogs have survived without such nonsense medical care?
Cleaning a cat's teeth would be about as much fun as playing this game!!!
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My cat, named Russia, is 14 years old and has always been an outside cat. Having had inside cats in the past, I break out like mad and sneeze like crazy around cats these days. She is well-fed with both bagged dry cat food and nature's cat food - rodents, snakes, and birds. She's quite healthy! She gets her annual shots, and that is the extent of her need for health care. Russia hangs out in her dog igloo, or relaxes on her cloth bucket seat out of my old Dakota. A great little cat!

She has very healthy teeth, too. I can't think of why I'd have to take her somewhere to have her teeth cleaned! She does a great job of doing that herself.
 
I have pet insurance on Thor. I wish I would have had for Titan, his Chushings disease was very expensive. My Bengal cat ate a plastic flower, that surgery was 3800. I don't want to but I would pay it again .
 
I have pet insurance on Thor. I wish I would have had for Titan, his Chushings disease was very expensive. My Bengal cat ate a plastic flower, that surgery was 3800. I don't want to but I would pay it again .
I have pet insurance on Thor. I wish I would have had for Titan, his Chushings disease was very expensive. My Bengal cat ate a plastic flower, that surgery was 3800. I don't want to but I would pay it again .
2011 we were near Tucson and our old Springe Tyson was old and in too much pain. We decided to have him put to sleep. Went to a veterinarian who agreed. We were there when he was injected. Actually we shouldn’t have taken him on the trip, we were too selfish.
About a month later the clinic sent us his ashes in an urn along with a sympathy card signed by the staff. Still haven’t opened the box. Cost of this was 150.00.
 
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