Are there any good veterinarians anymore?

[orezok]

At least here, licensed Vets have to be MD's (GP's) first. Just so happens that the guy I rent hay ground from is a vet and owns his own practice so we get excellent care for the animals at a reduce cost. In fact, he makes house calls.

Are you sure about the GP requirement. I checked both MSU veterinary school and Michigan licensing and neither have that requirement

 

[MossRoad]

Here's some interesting tidbits...

There are currently 154 medical schools in the US, plus 30 osteopathic schools in the US.

There are 32 veterinary schools in the US.

There are about 985,000 physicians for 330 million people in the US.

There are about 124,000 veterinarians for 145 million dogs, cats, birds, horses as pets.

So there's about 1 doctor for every 300 people in the US, while there's about 1 veterinarian for every 1150 cats, dogs, birds and pet horses. That doesn't include ag animals like cattle, pigs, chickens, etc... commercial operations all need vet work.

There is currently a shortage of Veterinarians.

 

[MossRoad]

At least here, licensed Vets have to be MD's (GP's) first. Just so happens that the guy I rent hay ground from is a vet and owns his own practice so we get excellent care for the animals at a reduce cost. In fact, he makes house calls.

I think something might have been misunderstood there....

https://www.michigan.gov/-/media/Project/Websites/lara/bpl/Veterinary/Licensing-Info-and-Forms/Veterinarian-Licensing-Guide.pdf?rev=228da15afe294d45bf50e2da79569e61

 

[Hay Dude]

And the money Veterinarians make is staggering.
After reading the first few pages, we all seem to have a similar story. Each small town had a very well trained, sensible vet that is probably now retired. We had one that was well known in MY area. He had a typical office, out by the main road, pretty much took care of anything. I remember taking a cat there with a broken leg in the 90’s and it was like $150 to set the leg. That would probably be $2,000 now.
He lived at the end of a long winding private lane. He passed away and his house became available for sale. I went to look at it, and no kiddin fellas, his house was like a 150 year old stone castle on like 25 acres. I asked his son some questions and he told me it was mainly a cash business and he amassed 10’s of millions over his 50+ year career.
I can see why/how they made a lot of money. I don’t know how lucrative it is today with everyone using credit cards and now the popularity of pet insurance.

We also have U-Penn New Bolton Center nearby and they do a ton of work in the area on large animals

 

[WM75Guy]

Sorry for your loss, the loss of a pet is tough. Texas has one of the best vet schools in Texas A&M, they do lots of research work. Most of the vets in our area come out of A&M. The problem is they only want to see dogs & cats. The large animal vets are retiring and the ones that are left don't want to make house calls. Our horse vet that makes house calls is the last in the area and he is in his 70s.

 

[dougtrr2]

Somewhere I heard or read that: The difference between a doctor and a vet is, a vet's patient can't describe the symptoms or pain.

Doug in SW IA

 

[MossRoad]

Somewhere I heard or read that: The difference between a doctor and a vet is, a vet's patient can't describe the symptoms or pain.

Doug in SW IA

A medical doctor only has to treat 1 species.

 

[MossRoad]

https://money.usnews.com/careers/best-jobs/veterinarian/salary

 

[tallyho8]

I saw this on here and I want to tell you it is absolutely true.

 

[Jstpssng]

I met a good vet about 23 years ago... Someplace in Vermont but I don't even know what town I was in. I was working in New York and had to run to New Hampshire to pick up a check so that I could keep working. I put in a few hours in the AM, took a shower and headed out but my pup had developed an eye problem which had me worried. I got off the ferry in Grand Isle and when I stopped in the store for a bite to eat, I asked the clerk if she knew of a good vet. She gave me a name and since it was just off the interstate I decided to stop. It was just about lunchtime but they got me in quickly, even though I hadn't called ahead. She got her eye checked out and they gave her a brief checkup overall... I paid the bill and less than an hour after jumping off the interstate I was hammering back up onto it again. It's been decades yet I have never forgotten the care they gave my dog that day.

The next day I left her in the motel with a note on the door; "Caution, Friendly dog in the room." When I got back that night the staff told me what a great dog she was... They'd had a blast playing with her.

 

[tomplum]

We have a good vet. He's the guy that will say, well we could run the scan / test /ETC to see if it's this or that - but the treatment is the same. Something he doesn't have, he'll call it in to Chewy or something and we order it rather than dance around going back and forth.
He also told us that there is a lot of pressure for these vet offices to turn X amount a year if they are interested to get bought out, give the vet a big pay out - keep them on for a couple years and their retirement is done. MM / Mars was a player in this.

 

[masseyrider]

Growing up pets, mostly dogs and cats, were part of the household. They were taken care of but usually had a function, mousing, guarding...
Now they are "Fur Family."
People have taken pets to an extreme. At my age I'm seeing people take better care of their pets than they did of their kids in the day.
Going for rides with doggy on their laps, being insulted by restaurants that don't allow pets ...
The new vets are just taking advantage of this new reality.
Forget old common sense.

 

[BoylermanCT]

Old school vets are retiring, and the field has become, for better or worse, tech savvy. A high tech vet used to have an X-ray machine. Now they have MRI's, CT Scanners etc, and these machines cost big bucks. Most vets around me won't do major surgery. Last year one of our dogs swallowed a rock and our vet sent us to Piper Memorial, CT's premier emergency vet. Beautiful facility with around 50 vets on staff. The choice was $8000 to remove the rock from his intestine or put him down. I'm now looking at insurance which is about $30 a month for my 4 year old dog. I know I can't afford another surgery!

 

[MossRoad]

Old school vets are retiring, and the field has become, for better or worse, tech savvy. A high tech vet used to have an X-ray machine. Now they have MRI's, CT Scanners etc, and these machines cost big bucks. Most vets around me won't do major surgery. Last year one of our dogs swallowed a rock and our vet sent us to Piper Memorial, CT's premier emergency vet. Beautiful facility with around 50 vets on staff. The choice was $8000 to remove the rock from his intestine or put him down. I'm now looking at insurance which is about $30 a month for my 4 year old dog. I know I can't afford another surgery!

Funny you mention that.... we have a $7.5K cat.

She ate the rubber end off of a handle on a swishy toy, and it got lodged in her small intestine. $4K in diagnostics, surgery, and 2-3 days recovery care. A year later she did it again, only it was the rubber handle from a cat hair brush. I told them to skip the diagnostic that didn't find it last time, and start with the one that did find it. Saved about $500 on that one.

At this point, I'd like to see them just install a zipper on the cat.

We are fortunate to be able to afford this kind of surgery for a pet. A lot of folks can't.

For regular vet care, and minor medical, we take our pets to a local vet where one of our kids worked for about 5 years in high school and college. Good folks. However, for emergency surgery, they refer us to a 24/7 emergency pet hospital over in Westville, IN, about 40 minutes away. Good folks there, too.

 

[camshawn]

Our old vet (full of common sense) retired about 3 yrs ago and one of the young fellows bought it. He had worked in the practice since he was 16 yrs old). The old staff have also all retired and the few younger lady vets only stay for a few yrs before moving on To start there own families. The practice is winding down and will close at the end of the month. Not sure what we will do then. Our old boy is 14 and I am surprised he made it through the winter. Cam

 

[Jstpssng]

One good thing about my new vet... he loves labs. He also seems to understand that people don't have unlimited funds. One thing he told me; at least some of what people have attributed to bad hips in labs actually is degenerative nerve damage.

I'm still waiting for somebody to develop a cure for "selective hearing" though... How can an animal not hear you when he is right next to you; yet wake up from a dead sleep when you take a package of cheese of the refrigerator 2 rooms away?

 

[Dftodd]

Our local vets office is great. Very compassionate and realistic as far as treatments go. Minus the guilt trip.They inadvertently reduced my wife and I to tears when we had our first pooch put down there.

About a week after we had our pooch put down we recieved a package from the vets office. Inside the package was a set of paw prints from our pooch in a frame with a really sweet poem.

Local 24hr emergency clinic is all about the money. They are horrible. Pretty free with the guilt trips and expensive procedures.

Won't even look at the animal without payment info

 

[ddbackhoe]

Won't even look at the animal without payment info

That may be my fault. I walked out on one of those a few years ago. My local vet referred me to the clinic for an ultrasound test. Got there, they took me and my dog into the back and someone shows up to look at my dog. Then says I have to wait for the vet. Vet comes in to examine my dog saying the referral wasn’t good enough, they have to start from scratch. I looked at the dog and said time to go and he jumped off the table. As we are leaving, shes screaming at me about paying my bill. My reply, you didn’t do anything to earn payment. I’ll sue she says, I said “ good luck with that , your crack staff never got my information.”

Local 24hr emergency clinic is all about the money. They are horrible. Pretty free with the guilt trips and expensive procedures.

Yes, never again

 

[MossRoad]

Our local vets office is great. Very compassionate and realistic as far as treatments go. Minus the guilt trip.They inadvertently reduced my wife and I to tears when we had our first pooch put down there.

About a week after we had our pooch put down we recieved a package from the vets office. Inside the package was a set of paw prints from our pooch in a frame with a really sweet poem.

Local 24hr emergency clinic is all about the money. They are horrible. Pretty free with the guilt trips and expensive procedures.

Won't even look at the animal without payment info

The emergency vet we use is very up front about costs. They are also very compassionate.

However, the reality is, emergency treatment is going to be expensive. They have to let us know that reality and make sure we understand that before we agree to it.

How to combine the pet's situation, the mental place where the owner is, and the reality of finances compassionately has got to be extremely difficult.

 

[BoylermanCT]

Funny you mention that.... we have a $7.5K cat.

She ate the rubber end off of a handle on a swishy toy, and it got lodged in her small intestine. $4K in diagnostics, surgery, and 2-3 days recovery care. A year later she did it again, only it was the rubber handle from a cat hair brush. I told them to skip the diagnostic that didn't find it last time, and start with the one that did find it. Saved about $500 on that one.

At this point, I'd like to see them just install a zipper on the cat.

I've wondered about the zipper too!

I'm still trying to figure out how they can spay or neuter a dog for a few hundred bucks, but getting something out of their digestive tract is $8000.