Are there any good veterinarians anymore?

[2manyrocks]

Vet bills are a good reason not to have pets.

 

[Rockbadchild]

Vet bills are a good reason not to have pets.

I would rather not bring them to the vet

 

[Oaktree]

Good Vets are a dying breed. Our good vet around here sold out to a female vet with pink and purple hair and semi-retired. He still helps out when he is needed.

Vets, period. We've had several close up shop around here over the last 10 years or so. Then again, if someone was a good vet, it wouldn't matter one bit to me what color her hair was or how many tattoos she had.

One thing I've noticed is a tendency to make you feel guilty for not obsessing over a pet's health. Maybe 15 years ago, I had a cat whose ear was kind of nasty looking, like it had an infection or something. Now I'm not one who considers pets "family members", but this vet managed to convince me to have surgery done on the cat. When I got it back, that ear, and part of the other had been removed, and the cat looked truly miserable. A few months later, I decided it was better to have it put down, and, again they tried to make me feel guilty for wanting to do that.
To this day I kick myself for putting the cat thru that, and have never again set foot in that practice.

Now maybe they do this because their customers increasingly demand that kind of treatment...those who consider their pets to be their "kids", but to me it's just wrong.

 

[masseyrider]

A friend of mine had an older beagle.
Found out it had cancer.
Paid over 20K to treat it and it died anyways.
I would never do that to my critters and it's not just the money.
If a person finds out they have cancer they can look at their options and decide what to do.
The poor animal has no idea. Can you imagine being taken into an operating room by aliens who are doing all sorts of things you have no idea about. Injecting you with stuff that makes you even sicker. You're in a totally foreign place with shiny lights...
After this horror show you die anyways.
I'm old school.
Should the worst scenario happen I would take them out, talk to them, reassure them and put them down in a manner they have no idea it happened.
This would be considered cruel and I'd have charges brought against me.

 

[Jstpssng]

The vet I went to since getting my first dog sold his business a few years ago and worked long enough for the new guy to get established, then retired. So far his replacement seems like he will be good. Another, who I liked equally as well just posted a notice stating he has been unable to find somebody to take over the business and was asking people to come pick up ant records they might need.

I am sorry to hear about your pup. It's hard enough to know when we can't help them ourselves, but to not be able to find out what is going on has to be worse.

 

[Rockbadchild]

This is tough situation and I understand you grief, to give the benefit of the doubt to the vet, like human medicine practice things are not always obvious. Doctors like Vets they are caring people and want to save you or your pets, human error happens in both cases, as example both of my grand parents die of human errors (miss diagnosed for my grandma and chain of unfortunate event cause by multiple human error causing a collapse of his immune system causing a pneumonia causing his death ). When you get a dieses that's not common it can be hard to diagnose, my dog had lungworm and it took a years to diagnose, my dog was the only case in our region so it wasn't common. She was fine but as soon as she would exercise she would puke phlegm. Usually vet know how expensive things are so they don't want to run unnecessary test so they usually start with the most likely and go down the line form there and they deal with customer on both side of the spectrum ether they want to spend the minimum amount of money and if its too expensive (but curable) they simply say put him down or they want him/her saved at all cost and run all possible test... Like doctors sometime you should get a second opinion...

My cousin have a old Crocker spaniel it was given to him while he was already pretty old... he had a lump on his side so he went to the vet, the vet told him its cancer he need to get operated... he said no he is too old its not worth it, the vet told him he is going to die within a year... he answer ho well lets be it then... he walked away and that's been over 5 years and the dog is still kicking...

My sister cat eat a something and was plug up and stop eating. Brought her to the vet got operated but the cat didn't survived, the vet only charge her for anesthesia and some administrative fee... not for the operation itself saving her over one thousand dollars... and I know a few examples like that from this vet

From all the stories above none of them was from the same vet.

 

[Rockbadchild]

Ever heard how Chris Distefano dog died ... I am also wondering about the other dog

 

[Egon]

Just remember that veterinarians require many years of eduction before they can set up a practice which in itself is an expensive operation.

If they work with large animals they can be injured and do get to work in some pretty ugly situations.

 

[joemd11]

OP, sorry for the loss of your dog. It’s always a miserable punch to the heart.
We’ve always had several pets so we’re no strangers at the vets office. It does seem that vets today are more reliant on tests ($$$) than going on a gut feeling or intuition. For example, two years ago we took our 13 year old Sheltie in because she seemed to be drinking more water than usual. Vet did a “wellness check” that included an exam, blood, urine, and fecal checks. All came back normal and they said she was in great shape. The very next month she was back at the vet and the diagnosis was that she had cancer which had spread to her heart and the recommendation was to put her down that day. We were shocked but followed their advice. My question was how could all that testing not show a cancer that had been growing for quite some time.
I have a few more examples but don’t want to be long-winded. I do think vets have one of the toughest jobs out there. The patient cant verbally tell you how or what they are experiencing. I guess what I’m trying to say is that expensive tests and procedures, that vets seem to be pushing, don’t always result in a good outcome.

 

[5030]

Just remember that veterinarians require many years of eduction before they can set up a practice which in itself is an expensive operation.

If they work with large animals they can be injured and do get to work in some pretty ugly situations.

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.