I am very fortunate to have used the same vet practice for over 20 years now. They absolutely make recommendations but the least expensive, least invasive procedure is always the first step. When our much loved Lab developed lymphoma seemingly overnight, they certainly mentioned an oncology practice but very kindly told me comfort care was what they would offer their own animals. It was aggressive and advanced. Our vet cried when she euthanized him.
I’m sure prices are higher and procedures more advanced in bigger cities, but you always have the option of finding a new vet if you’re uncomfortable with someone. Establishing a relationship with a vet through regular checkups and visits might establish a more trusting relationship with your vet - you wont automatically assume they’re just recommending a test or procedure to make a buck.
Our vet has generally been very low-key in terms of pushing even diagnostic tests. I think he’s a realist. Not every symptom needs to be diagnosed, and not every illness needs to be treated.
And they are running a small business, and that takes a lot of money. I agree with UrbanMum, above, that there are a lot of expenses.
This has been my year of the dying dogs. The Aussie was diagnosed with an oral fibrosarcoma last September. I chose not to have her treated, but the diagnosis, a few vet visits, and medications to keep her comfortable added up, as did the at-home euthanasia and cremation in January. (A “natural” death would likely have been very painful, for both of us.) I then adopted a senior dog in March (pictured). I found out two days after I adopted him that he has cancer, osteosarcoma in his right front leg. Fortunately, the rescue organization paid for the amputation of his leg, which we all considered to be a necessary procedure for him not to be suffering. I’ve chosen to not have him treated more for the cancer, but now he’s having problems walking, probably because of the greater strain on his other legs and general old-dog-ness, so a few vet visits and medication for this are adding up, too. And then there will be his euthanasia and cremation.
I know someone who was a small-animal vet for many years, and despite being independently wealthy (her husband was a surgeon at the time), she siad it became too expensive to maintain her business. She said a lot of clients didn’t pay the bills for their pets’ care and seemed to expect her to eat the costs.
Thanks to all who shared kind words and support. Our young canine patient did very well overnight, and DH brought her home this morning.
Turns out when DH went to pay, he asked if there was a senior discount, they said yes, and then they applied it to all of yesterday’s bills as well. Coincidentally, it was a 10% discount, and the overnight care expense came to $169, so it’s basically a wash - though I am not out any more than I thought yesterday.
DH asked the vet if she had ever removed bobby pins from an animal’s stomach, and she said she had not but one of her partners had. Some dogs are dumb and will eat anything. She told him that last week they removed a hair clip / barrette that a dog had swallowed after it fell off a little girl while they were playing on the ground together. Hair brushes are commonly chewed up to oblivion. She said at this rate, she’s expecting maybe a scrunchy or a comb next.
The tough question for me - how do you balance the cost vs. the alternative? My 13 year old shepherd has a degenerative spinal condition which is slowly paralyzing her back legs and causing her to be incontinent. If she did physical therapy and had additional tests, its possible that her condition could be slowed. She is not in any pain. How do I decide when its time to let her go?
@HMom16, I empathize. It was agonizing making the decision for my Aussie and I’m sure the same will be true for my collie. It’s a good news, bad news situation: the cancer hasn’t spread but the collie is having problems walking. (This morning, he fell down three times and sat down five times during what should have been a four-minute return to the house.)
@HMom16 - for us, since she’s only 10 months old it was an easy decision - she’s got a long life ahead of her. If she were 15 like our last dog was, there’s no way I would have done an operation.
Since shepherds and other large bread dogs rarely live for many more years, your decision is best made when you approach it as you’re making the decision for her best interests, and not for your own. It is always tough to go through but you will find peace knowing you do what you can to help her remaining time be pain-free and still happy.
You understand her best, and will make the best decision for her.
Just a few of the things I (a non animal loving person who grew up in a NYC apartment building where pets were not allowed) have learned:
Competition for admission to veterinary school is significantly more intense than for “people” medical school, because there are so many fewer vet schools and places in them.
Medical school and vet school are both four years, and both very expensive, with most graduates having heavy student loans.
The income post professional school is much less for veterinarians than for people doctors.
My son’s wife is primarily a large animal vet. She has had to do C-sections on cows in barns (including on Christmas day). She is required to live near the practice so that she can get to the large animals quickly in emergency situations when she is on call.
She takes an equipped truck with tools and medications that she is responsible for.
She often has to do surgery totally on her own, on animals larger and heavier than she is. (Sometimes she may have the luxury of an assistant.)
When she works with farm animals who belong to Amish farmers, she needs to bring in her own battery-operated lighting for her surgeries, as those barns are typically without electricity.
When she was with a “mixed” practice she treated animals from peacocks and parrots through snakes through horses, as well as conventional companion animals such as cats and dogs. The smaller animals are generally brought into the clinic.
She needed to know the anatomy of many species, not just one.
The animals can’t, of course, talk about their symptoms so the vet plus owner need to figure it out without those clues.
DIL must work many weekends and holidays.
Physicians who work with the people population may be able to go out for dinner after a day at work. My DIL can’t, as she often ends her day “smelling like a barn” and needs to go home and get out of her work clothes and shower.
She loves her work and is very good at it and highly dedicated. But as with numerous other careers, you “gotta love it to do it.”
Just adding, I think there is a range of approaches among vets for pets – when we adopted a cat from refuge, he had scar tissue on one eye. The “upscale” vet practice recommended surgery to remove the scar tissue and allow it to re-heal. There would still be scar tissue affecting his vision, just less “odd” looking. We had no desire for $1000 elective surgery to improve the appearance of our cat. We asked friends for alternative suggestions for vets, and found another who is less interventionist. We’ve been with him for 15+ years – he chuckled at the idea of elective surgery on the cat’s eye, and was reasonable when our 13 year old golden was suffering from cancer, with an emphasis on quality of life and knowing when it was time so that she didn’t suffer.
That was the reason my sister got out of the large animal practice. One more thing - people docs usually specialize in a certain area of medicine. Animal docs have to be universalists, unless we are talking neurosurgery or some very highly sophisticated area. Delivering baby Sphinx kittens on a Christmas evening - check. Trying to figure out the correct antibiotic dosage for a tiny mouse - check. Dealing with a rabid cat that the owner brought to the clinic in a box and accidentally let it loose - check (then making sure the owner went to a people ER to get shots). Patients bite, hiss, scratch, poop and pee on you, and the owners complain and occasionally threaten to sue.
We once took a pet hamster to the vet’s office, where he was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. He had blown up so that he looked like a balloon. He was successfully treated for the particular instance but died not long after, presumably of the underlying disease.
Pet owners differ greatly in what they want for their animals and vets often have to guess how much intervention you want. You have to have those conversations and try hard to feel you are not being judged. I might do more for a cat that lived in my house than a stray who lived in my barn, yet the vet may not know that and might suggest the same treatment for both.
End of life decisions are the hardest. I would not want to end the life of an animal prematurely yet I would not want it to suffer because I could not say goodbye. (Animals that fall and hurt themselves are in a special subset of the latter.)
I have found that asking a vet “If this were your pet, what would you do?” is a great place to start that conversation. Often, treatment options that have been offered are not ones they would choose, but they don’t want to presume that I will choose how they will.
@3puppies , glad your pup is recovering. @HMom16 , tough call. At some point, I suspect you will know when you should no longer try to stay the hand of God.
Wouldn’t that be similar to dentists, physicians, etc. for the same reason (debt pressure from all of the loans from professional school and the costs of running a practice)?
My youngest wants to be a Vet and I have all but begged her not to do it. They graduate with a ton of debt, and don’t make a lot of money. Even our family vet told her not to do it.
What gives you the impression that people aren’t having those conversations or that vets aren’t judging? We once had a vet who recommended we do ~$2,000 worth of tests (all at once) for our daughter’s dog. When I said I’d start with the simplest, least invasive test then consider others depending on the results she said (in front of my 13-year-old), “Don’t you want to do everything you can to find out what’s wrong with ‘Lassie’?” When I calmly explained that I grew up on a farm and our philosophy was not to offer extraordinary measures to prolong livestocks’ lives – and I specified what I considered extraordinary – she complained that people shouldn’t have pets if they aren’t willing to do “whatever it takes” to help them. The dog had a UTI.
We had another pet who the vet suspected had some form of cancer. She wanted to run expensive tests to confirm it. We asked if running the tests would give us other treatment options. She said no. We asked if the pet’s life could be prolonged by anything we learned from the test. She said no. It seems the only thing the test could tell us is the exact name of the illness that would eventually kill her. Why would I pay $600 for that? She didn’t like that answer either. Our philosophies clearly weren’t a good fit, so I found another vet.
Because I am weird, I lurk on various forums including a vet forum. There is a fair amount of discussion over tests and treatments and a gap in those who are fine with their clients pets going to the low cost alternatives for shots/ships and those who say that behavior is why the other stuff costs so much. Those who understand clients who don’t have unlimited budgets and those who think people who can’t afford treatments shouldn’t be allowed pets. Etc.
My vet is super nice. They will recommend stuff such as the senior blood work which I did not get. I told them if something is wrong with the regular bloodwork then we would discuss. Our vet agreed. No pressure but always suggestions. Everyone is different on how far to pay/go for their animals.
We had our last dog 14 years before we had to put him down due to CA. We paid over $5,000 to save him but in the end he was miserable. I was saving him for me. I was heartbroken. I don’t think I would do that again to another pet as I don’t want them to suffer but I would certainly pay and try simple procedures if nothing major.