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Old 05-15-2015, 07:59 PM
 
24,488 posts, read 41,008,220 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by thatguydownsouth View Post
Vets are too expensive, and it’s putting pets at risk - The Washington Post

This is an article written about the rising costs of Vet care, and 500 or so good comments from users. Whats interesting is it turns into a battle of Vets being underpaid/overpaid. The interesting point ignored is the insane tuition charged for Vet education. I think the issue isnt that Vets are charging too much these days, its that were seeing the massive inflation in education costs pouring over into our pets bills now.
Tuition for vets isn't different than tuition of other comparable college programs. Hardly insane.
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Old 05-15-2015, 08:00 PM
 
24,488 posts, read 41,008,220 times
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Medical Insurance companies should offer vet insurance. The premiums would be similar to a child/dependent premium.
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Old 05-15-2015, 11:30 PM
 
Location: Omaha, Nebraska
10,305 posts, read 7,895,930 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NJBest View Post
Tuition for vets isn't different than tuition of other comparable college programs.
That's incorrect. Vet school costs as much as medical school; it's not uncommon for a newly graduated veterinarian to have well over $200,000 in student loan debt. But a newly-minted veterinarian's average salary is only around $50,000 a year. From a strictly financial perspective, attending vet school is a losing proposition.
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Old 08-12-2015, 09:28 PM
 
Location: Scottsdale, AZ
213 posts, read 375,622 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Aredhel View Post
That's incorrect. Vet school costs as much as medical school; it's not uncommon for a newly graduated veterinarian to have well over $200,000 in student loan debt. But a newly-minted veterinarian's average salary is only around $50,000 a year. From a strictly financial perspective, attending vet school is a losing proposition.

My daughter just graduated from Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine. She owes approx $250,000 in loans, not including her undergrad loans that we paid for.

Please don't tell me that Vets are overpaid. She is working an an intern and her salary is $30,000 in New Jersey. Believe me, she's never going to be rich. She just wants what is best for your furry friend. If you compare pet procedures to human health care, you would be getting a bargain.

Please drop the attitudes. These doctors have gone to school for 8 years and many are going on for four more years to become specialists. Be thankful they are there for you.
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Old 08-13-2015, 08:52 AM
 
Location: Waterville
332 posts, read 502,963 times
Reputation: 780
Tough topic.

Vet school is long, tough, and expensive. Unlike medical doctors, vet students need to learn to treat multiple species. The coursework is brutal.

An anecdote: I used to take my pets to a vet practice that was co-owned by a doc who was educated at Cornell and who started his career as a large animal vet treating all manner of farm animals. It was a demanding life driving his ancient pickup (with bald tires) to attend various medical emergencies. The hours were long and the pay was sporadic.

Eventually, he joined up with a colleague to start an animal hospital that treated pets. One of the last times I visited the practice, I was disheartened to hear that he was retiring soon. He was still a very vital man, with forearms of steel. His reasons were both personal and professional. He had married at midlife and was raising a family, but he worked so much that he had little time to see his children. And he worked so much because he said that contemporary vet graduates had a very different attitude towards the work life than he expected. He said the practice was having a difficult time filling vacancies from the roster of Cornell graduates. It seems they all wanted flexible schedules with no weekend hours. None were willing to work more than a standard 40-hr week and many wanted to work fewer hours. He was clearly disgusted with the candidates that he was seeing and it was forcing him and the other partners to work longer and harder than the newcomers to the practice.

I am going back at least 20 years with that story, but I would wager that it might still be pertinent. Different generation, different attitude. Greed and sloth.

Our idea of what constitutes appropriate care for pets has changed dramatically. I am not sure how to feel about that, but I know that it makes owning animals much more problematic. My hat is off to anyone who can get their cat or dog to tolerate getting their teeth brushed. I have an indoor cat who gets her rabies shot and that is the extent of her care. Luckily, she is the healthiest pet I have ever owned and seemingly ageless even though she is 15. About seven years ago I decided that all those other immunizations were not necessary for an indoor cat. Even her teeth are in good shape. After losing a much-loved dog (seven years ago) during surgery, I have re-thought my stance on what care is appropriate for my animals. Losing that dog was devastating and the veterinary events that led up to that surgery, I must admit, made me distrustful and wary towards the larger vet practices. The surgeon was terrific, but the procession of various vets that handled the case before surgery was unsatisfactory. I realize that my 'new' attitude is in large part emotional, but so be it.

I think it is absolutely outrageous that having a pet would be confined to those with large amounts of disposable income. The elderly on fixed incomes NEED pets in their lives. People like myself who have no children NEED pets in their lives. My dogs have sustained me in more ways than I can enumerate. The
cats not so much. LOL But they have all been important to me. I can afford to keep a couple of pets, and if I couldn't my life would be unbearably diminished. I see a lot of elitist attitudes in some of the responses to this topic. I don't know what the answer is, but I don't think people should be vilified for not being able to pour endless cash into pet care.
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Old 08-13-2015, 11:23 AM
 
Location: Omaha, Nebraska
10,305 posts, read 7,895,930 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by foglover View Post
I don't know what the answer is, but I don't think people should be vilified for not being able to pour endless cash into pet care.
I think part of the answer is to see animals as animals, and not "furkids" or surrogate people. That opens up the door to guilting people who aren't willing to spend endless amounts of money to keep their pets alive (the way we expect people to do for a human family member).
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Old 03-25-2019, 05:59 PM
 
5 posts, read 3,161 times
Reputation: 38
Our vet is reasonable, and he is awesome. He and his wife work together and also live on-site. He does have limited hours because he wants a lot of family time with his kids. He takes only as many patients as he can manage.
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Old 03-26-2019, 05:31 PM
 
Location: West coast
5,281 posts, read 3,010,467 times
Reputation: 12259
^ this !
Vets are well priced.
Half of my career was being a plumbing/piping contractor.
If you don’t like their prices you darn sure wouldn’t like mine if you needed hot water or drainage.
Vets deserve all their money
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Old 03-27-2019, 09:42 AM
 
8,196 posts, read 2,814,588 times
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I actually found an animal hospital near me which I've had to take my, still a puppy, dog to in an emergency, swallowed a bug spayed dead hornet(outside in the yard) in a split second before I could stop him. He vomited it back up but I was afraid it would kill him. I jumped in my car with dog and flew to pet hospital. It was on a weekend. They reduced the price of emergency visit. Very reasonable.

It was very obvious that they cared about animals.

I went back with a family member with her pet who another vet had told her needed thousands of dollars worth of treatment. They checked dog out, told her an alternative that would work and was a couple of hundred dollars. She had that done and dog lived to ripe old age just fine and dandy.

I referred another family member, young gal, not much money, took her cat there. They treated the cat and let her make payments on the bill.

Finding vets like that are a treasure. There are many good vets, but it is a business and I understand that, but it's nice to know a vet that it is about the welfare of the pet first.
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Old 03-27-2019, 02:10 PM
 
1,765 posts, read 4,332,524 times
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I see this is an older thread that has been revived.


Methinks there is no simple answer here, and many reasons have already been brought up -- it depends where you live, for starters. In a major city metro costs are likely higher, even though you would think the competition of several practices in a small area would keep prices down. Then again, there are often reduced-services practices that do only the basics -- spay/neuter, vaccines -- at a reduced price for THAT area.



I doubt that anyone entering vet school today thinks they are going to become rich, so I have to assume they go into it because they love animals, at least at the start. I have also read in just the past year or so that vets have one of the highest rates of suicide among professions... and again the reasons are many. They often feel overworked, underappreciated (by their two-legged clients), underpaid, and of course they see a great deal of sadness and evidence of human cruelty. This is likely more true of a solo vet than one that belongs to a large practice -- but the latter often belong to one of the huge corporations, and I saw one independent practice change significantly when that happened. (many years ago.)



I also think trying to make ends meet is one reason vets stock all the "veterinary specialty" food that often is not really good or appropriate for pets, or worth the $$$. I just bought Royal Canin's Fiber Response dry food for a cat (he gets mostly canned food too) and the price has jumped for the 8.8 pound bag (no smaller size offered) has just jumped to $53!!!! Now if you want a "too expensive" rant about vets, let's start with those pricey foods.There is an entire long wall, ceiling to floor, of them at my vet's. And that's where my boykitty is right now, so this thread jumped out at me. He appears to be impacted -- twice before he has needed enemas at the vet to clear out. They will do Xrays and maybe a light sedation and it all will add up, of course. Two weeks ago I spent $400 on my other cat....Xrays, full blood work, thryoid, sedation, stool check, rabies vacc, etc.



I'm about to be on a fixed income and it scares me that some of these future decisions on how much and what kind of treatment to do will be heavily weighted by the cost.



Oh...that $400 cat was prescribed gabapentin to help with her arthritis, and the vet charged $10.70 for 10 100mg capsules. Another cat-owning friend told me about GoodRX... and I just got 90 capsules of the drug using a GoodRX discount coupon for....$9.59!!! I went to Kroger; apparently your mileage may differ on other pharms and in differing regions. But that is one example about costs -- over $90 vs. less than $10?? I did make a comment to the office gal when I asked for a written scrip to take somewhere else about the price differential and she said "we have to pay our vets."



I love the young vet I see there and she truly is so kind and loving to my pets, so that's why I go to that practice.



It's all complicated.
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