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This is my second year at our newest vet, Bayleaf, off Six Forks. As a former employee of another vet a short distance away, I absolutely love it at Bayleaf. The vets are great, the prices are very affordable and even the clients in the lobby will tell you how pleased they are. They give you a free exam with the price of the core vaccine (rabies, distemper or parvo). I usually get my rabies for $5 through the rabies clinics, but I have my other vaccines done at the vet. I recently paid $100 and change for wellness bloodwork, distemper w exam, lepto and hw test. Plus they gave me a free nail trim. I really hope you don't choose one of the chain vets, because they are in it for the money and will try to get you to buy anything just to make a dollar.
I beg to differ. Bayleaf IS the vet I've been posting about. I like them a lot, don't get me wrong. They take good care of my little buddy. But contrary to your experience that a free exam comes with the price of core vaccines, I was charged for an exam AND the shot on Friday. I questioned the practice, but got nowhere.
I do NOT find them affordable, in fact, I find them on the expensive side. Having been a pet owner most of my life in the Raleigh area, I've had to swallow hard at some of their charges.
I appreciate that vets have high overheads and might not make the $$ we all assume. But I still think they are mighty expensive in most cases.
AAHA-accredited veterinary clinics follow a 3-year protocol for most core vaccines (for dogs, these are Rabies and the Distemper Combo). Someone mentioned that there are studies that show vaccines last longer than 1 year, and that's why this has changed. So you should only be paying that $23 every three years, and ideally as part of the annual exam.
Be aware that all vaccines are not created equal. The more expensive vaccines have far lower incidences of adverse vaccine reactions. I'm not criticizing county animal services and other low-cost options; they must choose cheaper products. I'm glad they're there, for people who need them.
Finally, vaccines are not necessarily benign. The reason most veterinary clinics have started requiring exams with vaccines has more to do with good medicine and malpractice, rather than to make more money. Vaccinations can have adverse effects, as we know from human medicine.
I have been in the veterinary field for a long time, and it bothers me that there is still this perception that we are money-grubbing greedheads out to make a few extra bucks on your beloved pet. The pay in this field is so low, no one goes into it for the money (well, almost no one—there are some crummy vets out there). Pay attention to the guy who says he does vet tax returns. This is true. Unlike human medicine, we can't charge anything outrageous, because there's no insurance buffer there, and the market wouldn't bear it. So we have pretty small markup. We do have to pay our staff, the light bill, supplies, insurance...
All of those safety and preventative measures (including annual lab work) are recommended, but optional! Nothing is (or at least, nothing should be) "added on" without your approval. So if you believe your pet is healthy, and don't want to run lab work, say so! Also, would it only be "worth it" to run lab work that indicated your pet was ill? My doctors run labs on me all the time, and I'm thrilled when they come back WNL.
If you all could see the dogs we've had to treat for heartworm disease over the years—the injections are painful, even with pain meds, not to mention that Immiticide is super expensive for us to buy, if we can even find it—you'd think twice about not having your dog on heartworm preventative. Heartworms are carried by mosquitos, so everyone is aware. If you live in the arctic, or the desert, yeah, you may not have much risk. But here, you do. By all means, buy the meds cheaper at Costco. (Although the poster who talked about getting Ivomec from feed stores is right that it's the active ingredient in most meds, I can't recommend dosing your pets yourself. You probably will underdose, and not have protection, but if you overdose, you can cause blindness.)
I think it's funny that no one seems to 'get' that we small clinics don't have the buying power Costco, etc., have, and can't even BUY meds for what they sell it for. We'll write you a script! Just ask!
I wish people knew more about the real economics of veterinary medicine. And it is my belief that pet ownership is not a right, it's a luxury. There isn't a welfare program that will pay for medical care for the pets you have that you can't support.
I'm glad someone posted on behalf of the practitioners; they do get the stuffing beaten out of them and I too don't think it's fair.
Don't get me wrong, I think they can very quickly run the price of a visit up but not because they're looking to make money but rather because they want to be thorough. And that's my problem with the process; love my pets as I do I'm not willing to go insane when it comes to paying for their care. But in the moment, when they're suggesting certain tests or treatments it's very hard to make fiscally responsible decisions without feeling like a monster. Is getting a full blood panel a good idea for our thirteen year old cat? Sure. Is it worth the extra $175? Only if it finds something that can be treated within reasonable limits.
But I have never thought that the Vet's office was looking to pad a bill and don't know that I could ever use someone where I thought that was true.
My Raleigh vet, Magnolia Animal Hospital, is reasonable.
We go there as well. Reasonable fees, great knowledgeable staff. We were previously at Bowman, WOW, only for rich folks. A procedure we were considering was 50% less than Bowman at Magnolia.
As far as heart worm meds go, we buy ours from Australia. IIRC it's around $50/yr. Does not treat fleas.
Well, one way to look at it is, it's only worth it if you find a problem. Another way to look at it is, it's worth it to know there is no problem at this time. Then you have a baseline. Our recommendations are 'perfect world' based; we understand that you might not have the financial ability or desire to perform annual preventative screenings. But it's best medicine, and we're going to keep on recommending it.
Did you know that it could be considered malpractice for us NOT to recommend these tests? We are required to give you all your options, and not to judge YOU. We should never assume we know someone's answer to whether or not to run 'wellness' labs, which is why we offer it to you no matter what you look like you can afford.
Most of the labs we recommend are just that, recommended. The only time we 'push' to do full lab work, IME, is when your pet is displaying emerging symptoms, like unexplained weight loss, appetite, activity, or behavioral changes.
Maybe it will help you to know that we *aren't* judging you for not running full labs on your apparently healthy pet. We're offering it because it's best medicine, and we offer it to everyone. But unless you have an emaciated 17-year-old cat that's chronically vomiting and who you claim to love more than life itself but refuse to let us find out what's wrong because you "can't put her through" the blood draw, no one is judging you for your decision.
If I could offer one piece of advice for anyone with a puppy or kitten, it's to consider pet insurance. Right now it's prohibitive for older animals, and kind of all over the place in terms of coverage, so you really have to research to find the right plan. But it can help with the bigger-bill items and reduce some of the stress of annual exam bills. Most plans cover 80% of preventative care, IIRC.
One reason I say this is that because pharmacy is disappearing as a source of revenue for us (not that it's much of one now, considering what we small clinics pay for the drugs in the first place), other prices have to increase so we can keep the lights on. There are predictions that within 5 years, veterinary clinics will not stock drugs other than the ones we use in daily practice.
The big chains, like Walmart, Target, etc. are all starting to carry veterinary meds and products, and there's no way private veterinary practices can compete. For a while, my clinic was "price matching," but that meant selling products for less than we could buy them for. It wasn't financially sustainable.
Just a thought. We have had many clients happy with VPI and ASPCA insurances.
If y'all's vets charge a lot, know that not all do. If you want someone who works cheaper you can find 'em. We really like our vet. He is really good with our dogs and doesn't charge us for tests we don't want, but offers them and suggests different approaches we can take to various problems that could crop up. He also doesn't put the dogs under w/ general anesthesia for teeth cleaning, but does that w/o drugs.
We went to another vet w/ all the new shiny toys in the office for a few years, but they put a muzzle on my dog when giving him shots/drawing blood because he growled at them. Left them and came back to our old school vet and he's never needed to do anything like that.
I guess different people are just comfortable with different things. I just personally don't have a problem with someone muzzling my dog if he is in a situation where he might bite. I would never hold this against a vet or other animal care giver. And while I certainly don't need shiny new toys in the vet office, I do understand that some such things do allow better care for my pet. For example, non-anesthesia dentals for animals are generally a bad idea. At the minimum it is stressful and uncomfortable for the animal because they don't understand what is going on and it IS scary. At the worst, having such a "dental" could provide false assurance that the animal's teeth and gums are healthy, when in fact a comprehensive exam and cleaning is impossible without sedation. My own recent experience, my dog's teeth "looked fine" on initial exam when I scheduled his dental. Once he was sedated and dental x-rays were done (first time, this was new to me but recommend by a vet student friend) it revealed he had severe dental disease, including huge infections below his gum line that were certainly causing him pain. He needed 17 teeth extracted!! If he had not been sedated for this exam, the extent of his disease would never have been established. The personality change in my dog since his rotten teeth were removed and the infection cleaned up, is remarkable.
We went to another vet w/ all the new shiny toys in the office for a few years, but they put a muzzle on my dog when giving him shots/drawing blood because he growled at them. .
I would think my vet had a screw loose if he didn't muzzle my growling dog...
There is a risk of death with general anesthesia, too. My vet is very skilled at working with my dogs with many, many years of experience. He was able to advise us when my dog had teeth issues. He can show me the back teeth there in the office and the dogs are fine with it. I am much more comfortable with that than GA for teeth. If they needed surgery, of course, but for teeth, no I don't think it's necessary and no I don't think the muzzle was necessary at all. I certainly have never needed to muzzle my dog, nor does my current vet. He will refer out if we need an ultrasound or other high tech procedure. We had to go to VSH in Cary once for one. My elderly dog is 15 years old so I think he's gotten pretty good care to get this far.
I'm not sure my dog (the one who growled at the other vet) has ever growled at my current vet. Maybe my current vet is just better with the cantankerous guys. Just because a vet's office has all the shiny new toys doesn't mean they have the best bedside manner, y'know? Make no mistake, no matter how good my current vet is my grumpy dog definitely does NOT like to go to the vet, unlike my younger dog who loves all the people there and loves it when the receptionists pet on her and give her treats.
FTR, my older dog has always had a large personal space bubble. He hates being brushed (long fur, too) while my younger dog begs me to brush her and she's got no hair to brush (super short, no undercoat). He will often grrrr to let me know he doesn't want me to do some care (brushing, bathing, trimming), but he's not a biter and he will acquiesce. He's just resentful about it.
There is a risk of death with general anesthesia, too. My vet is very skilled at working with my dogs with many, many years of experience. He was able to advise us when my dog had teeth issues. He can show me the back teeth there in the office and the dogs are fine with it. I am much more comfortable with that than GA for teeth. If they needed surgery, of course, but for teeth, no I don't think it's necessary
Just in case you (or anyone else) want to read more information on anesthesia free dentals. At one time I thought they sounded good too. With the experience and education I have now, I would never do it.
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