Insane Veterinarian bills

IndyIan said:
Well if they can charge $1100-1500 to remove a small lump in the lower 48, why would they leave? I think their needs to be a "remote region" placements in some medical field schools, for people from there, that want to commit to going back for 5 years. Have a seperate pool of applicants for those places, especially for something like a vet.
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True, and that is most of it.

Good idea!

Comment - "off my lawn alert!" I know back in the day many vets and folks in vet schools wanted to live in AK, MT, etc....that was basically the ideal vet life (hard work, but less annoying people, etc). Vets didn't want to be city slickers.........but yeah the $$$$$.
 
2dogs said:
$3000 for dental work and almost $250 for heart worm preventative. I will be looking for another vet but not hopeful that any on Long Island are less expensive.
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Know anyone with some ruminants? $150 in goat/sheep dewormer (ivermectin) buys a jug big enough to treat our 120lb dogs something like 3-4000 times... The dosage for a 120lb goat is dozens of times more than needed for our dog, so they get something like 20ml and the dog gets 0.5ml.
In the US it seems you can still buy lots of real medications at the farm supply stores, my wife got me to pickup a list of things last time I went to NY state. She figures out all the dosages, gets me to double check, and we haven't made any of the pets sick or dead yet, and healed up quite a few.
 
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Wheel said:
Lots of reasons vet bills have gone up. It's harder to find and keep good staff, school is more $, WAY more demand for visits as pet ownership went thru the roof since the pandemic and also preventative care has made pets live longer. (the vets my family uses are there way more hours than they were 5 years ago) Owners lifestyles also play in, as more dogs are having human caused issues (like obesity, diabetes, etc.) Of course the chain vet/greed issue can come into play, but so do owners who ask for treatment for ailments that would have historically been a cause for euthanasia.
There are no simple answers.
As a pet owners, we are responsible. Sometimes doing the right thing causes a pain in your wallet. Sometime the right thing causes a pain in your heart.
It's part of the agreement when you bring them home.
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Yep, people think medical school is cheap or free. My ex worked at a vet ER, she said most veterinarians and vet techs end up moving to the human side because the amount of schooling needed is similar but the human side pays way more.

I thought "can't afford them, don't have them" was a thing.

EDIT: although there will always be the good vets worth their money and bad vets not worth their money.
 
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We always found it easy to compare prices for Vet care. I suppose small towns that may not be possible. Yet we were exactly in a metropolis.
Our dog was been seen by three Vet practices when his eyes were being overcome with glaucoma 3 years ago.

Unable to stop the rapid spread to both eyes. Even an animal eye specialist (ophthalmologist)practice was one of them.
Both eyes had to be removed. The specialist told us their price would be much higher at $2,500 per eye and that we might want to check with another local practice (that he was also going too) as they would be much less. She assured us they were good and capable of doing exactly what she would be doing. Both eyes removed was under $3000.
What I am saying is, I was impressed that the different VETS all complimented each other and nothing negative to say, encouraging us that he would be in good hands no matter the price.

Benson (another thread) went on to live an AMAZING incredible life being 100% blind. Less then 1 month after the operation he was chasing a ball in the back yard based on scent and the sound of the bells inside the ball when we threw it across the yard. Play time in the back yard, I would open the back door and he would walk onto the deck, down the stairs across the patio and wait on the lawn for me to throw the ball. Less than 2 months he freely walked around the house, knew every room based on texture of flooring etc. I taught him how to go up and down the large staircase on his own in less than a week, walk around the community effortless on a leash. Even run besides me through the community, no eyes. How is that for trust? Wife and I had an incredible bond with him and actually feel privileged to have gone through this with him. (sorry rambling on, many threads on this in here)

He lived an addition 3 wonderful years to our amazement and ANYONE including his doctors who met him. Truly story book material on overcoming a disability. Which leads me to his cost to put him forever to sleep almost two weeks ago. 13 months ago he was diagnosed with failing heart valves, a wonderful drug kept his quality of life so we could enjoy another year with him. Soon it was becoming obvious it was getting to that time so he didnt needlessly suffer he was near stage 6 which is the max for heart failure.

Dr drove about an hour to come to our house so it could be done at home, also she made arrangements for the cremation people to be on site about 30 minutes once he was forever put to sleep while we held him.

Dr's fee was $422 and she was worth every penny.
Private cremation with amazing quality urn, plaster paw print and delivery by them to our front door was $280 Actually I was surprised at the reasonable price, these people were amazing

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Honestly, when I see what people are paying for auto repair at "big shops" or "real shops" I think the same thing.

I imagine on some Reddit thread soccer moms and suburban dads are saying the same thing about their last brake job.

It's rarely dishonesty or greed. Service providers charge what they must to stay afloat in our sick economy.

People get to make some choices in a couple weeks.......
 
buster said:
A vet one time told me she spent $25k on her cat. Yep.
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It's difficult.

When our Maine Coon was euthanized due to urinary blockage and kidney failure the Vet hospital was going to charge $6k for 2-days of observation. I seriously would've considered paying but the only reason we didn't pay is because at the time his kidneys were too far gone.
 
pbm said:
Another pet item that has gone way up in price in the last 4 years is pet food. The 30 lb. bag of dog food that I paid $30 for in 2020 is now $48. I've seen some brands that are $80 for 30 pounds. The can food that I add to this dry food was $1 a can and now it's $2. Sadly, I'm sure many dogs were abandoned because of this.
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And all the commercials on TV that try to guilt you into buying the most expensive food for your pet or else you don't really love them.
 
I have to take my 8 year old cat to the vet once a year so they can write a prescription for his asthma medication. I went last month and I was in the exam room for less than 5 minutes. They weighed him and listened to his lungs. They didn’t check his temp, teeth, or ears. This was an annual check up according to them. They did suggest he needs an annual blood test since he’s over 7 years old. That was only $542. 🙄
 
100% greed. We are lucky to live near Mexico where vets are much more reasonable. People even have transportation services to take your animal from the US to Tijuana for treatment. I got flea medicine from Petco in Mexico for $40 without a prescription. They wanted $90 in the US plus a vet visit for a prescription. Exact same medicine.
 
Mainia said:
Time to find a "far out in the country" away from cities and suburbs Vet, so you are not paying for a Mercedes, cabin payment. In an 8 hour period at an "emergency vet hospital" we paid $5,000 to find out our dog had stomach stones and she was 13 so we put her out of her misery the next day. A couple of X-rays and lab work and a nights stay was $5,000. THEN, 5 years later this vet built a 4 story LONG office building that is all theirs and kept their newish/old huge vet building accross the street. Needless to say, I told the wife we need to find a small pet hospital outside of the Minneapolis suburbs where the price gouging is less.
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This X2.
We had been with a consortium of vets for years. It was great until it wasn't.
Our favorite Vet left, then the second, and the one that did large animals, totally dedicated himself to LA's and cut his time on the office.
They were replaced with vets that their lone skill seemed to be running up a tab.
Then, on top of that, they jacked their prices beyond reason
On top of that, getting an appointment even for simple things that a vet tech could do took weeks.
Last straw was on one of the cats was visibly ill and they directed us to the Emergency vet 35 miles away, or an appointment 3 weeks out.
I did some quick homework, and found a small rural practice about 20 minutes from the house with three vets, 2 of which were a husband/wife team.
I called them that day. They worked us in even though we were a first time customer.
Best move I ever made. We get better care at a fraction of the price.
They are open six days/week. If they are truly ill, they get seen that day.
Best part is that they are very attuned to their pricing. Even though I have never said a word about budget or prices, they always address pricing. If something is high for them, they generally attempt to offer other lower cost remedies.
However what they view as "Costly," is still lower priced than the last place we were at.
We've been very happy with the change, and will tend to look at similar scenarios in the future if needed.
 
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