10 Things Veterinarians Won't Tell You

longdrivefarm

rex holt.. if this article puts a black eye on the veterinary profession .. it has brought it upon itself. At last consumers are getting wised up to veterinary business practices developed ONLY to put cash in your pocket, not provide an animal with good care.. Veterinary medicine has been a comsumer nightmare.. you take all the benefit with MINIMAL accountability.

longdrivefarm

Kelly Barron.. you are SPOT ON! I do find the outrage from the veterinary profession amusing.. they protest WAY to much. Take a good look at yourselves.. FINALLY, the public is getting wise up. Your best advantage has always been your patients can't talk. After 30 years of owning dogs, cats and horses I have seen it all. I also worked for small and large animal vets. The worst thing about owning animals is having to use veterinary services. Fortunately for my animals I use a vet now whom I worked for and KNOW his behavior is the same when facing the public and in the back room. Some memorable moments? As an 17 year old employee I saw a vet beat a young doberman so badly he could not walk.. why? The frightened dog, who had been hit by a car, was thrown up on an exray table and had the audacity to urinate in fear on the vets white coat! 30 years later that scene still haunts me. The vet told the owners the Dobs inability to walk was just trauma from the accident. AHA? Is a HA HA! AHA...(Read more of this comment) is a vet club that you pay to join.. there are some standards but the most important criteria is that the check clears. It has NOTHING to do with ability. They provide you with a little sign you can post in the waiting room that makes clients think you are special. An AHA accredited vet injected my 32 year old horse with ROMPUN (to float teeth?)..and in error right into the animals main artery ... right to his brain..(a drug for intramuscular use ONLY) the horse went straight up, fell over backwards and convulsed violently all the while screaming. The vet eventually injected a reversal drug.. walked out leaving the horse laying on a concrete floor panting heavily, gasping for air.. I was left alone with a downed 1200 pound horse horse alone.. his parting words? "Guess it was just his time!" ..he sent me a bill for $200.00. The horse suffered severe nuerologocal damage and had to be euthanized (by another vet).. the horse did not deserve to go that way. .. Probably the best way to select a vet is to talk to someone who has several animals and is NOT swayed by front office schmooze. Ask what the vet has actually done for them, the success of the treatment, how they handled the dog and followup and cost. Remember anyone can vaccinate or euthanize an animal. The big "McClinic's" have big overhead.. your bill will reflect. Some vets are big on antibiotic and steroid treatments.. if the dog does not get better.. they don't have a clue. Does the vet have 24 hour emergency care? If not you will be faced with an automatic referral to an obscenely overpriced emergency vet clinic who assesses your appearance for affluence and charges accordingly. A friend paid $1,200.00 to treat a dog attack injury.. which should have cost..TOPS.. $250.00 at their regular vet. There are STILL some vets that use common sense and offer 2 or 3 treatment options. If your vet WON'T discuss .. you have the wrong vet. Good luck.. you will need it. (Show less of this comment)

rexholt

After reading the Kelly Barron story, I was quite frankly appalled and personally offended. The subtitle indicates the article will help tell you how to make sure you find appropriate care for your pet. Because of the format (and it is a Smart Money article), the reader gets the sense that there may be some cost savings or financial benefits as well. The article delivers neither. In fact it appears to be poorly researched and poorly understood and the conclusions drawn and recommendations given range from not very helpful to potentially very dangerous to the health of the pets. Almost all the so-called '10 points' made by this author are very biased and seem designed to pointedly blacken the eyes of the veterinary profession as a whole.
For instance, this article would lead you to think that reactions to routine pet vaccinations far outweigh the potential benefits to pet and owner. Let me be perfectly clear here, reaction rates to all commercial vaccines are extremely low. ...(Read more of this comment) Most of those are acute and easily treated, with no long term side effects. In fact, several times the number of pets seen in a veterinary practice will die each year due to diseases that could have been prevented by vaccination of the animal than will suffer ill effects and many more end up severely impacted either short or long-term by these preventable diseases. When the disease occurs, the cost of even an unsuccessful intervention far outweighs the cost of annual vaccination and a potential minor side effect. Added to that, the owner's guilt over not having the animal vaccinated makes the situation very emotionally traumatic and they are devastated. The author fails to even mention the public health role of the vaccines? If you had ever seen the sheer terror in the eyes of a parent when their unvaccinated animal exposes the whole family to rabies and they all have to undergo not only the shots, but the uncertainty of whether the disease was contracted and if so how far it has progressed. Yes, each year the pet comes in, the veterinarian routinely assess the need for the vaccines, but that recommendation should be heeded.
I was a farm boy who in the fourth grade lost a pet pony due to the lack of a veterinarian in my rural area and decided to become one myself so someone would be there to help. I have worked in all aspects of the profession since I was in high school. I started out working in a private rural practice that served a huge territory for both household pets and large animals. I cleaned cages and restrained animals. I progresses to a combination, animal health technician and receptionist by the time I finished my college degree and when I graduated from veterinary school, I went back to my home town where I practiced. I worked on pets from house cats to mountain lions. Literally, if I would not work on it, there was no one else. I was the humane society until the community could organize and build one and then served on the Board of Directors the whole time I was in practice. I provided all the veterinary services needed by the local law enforcement, department of natural resources, and public health departments at no charge.
Later, I worked for a veterinary biological and pharmaceutical company. Now, I am a public health professional and spend all my time trying to help people. I have worked for state and federal government agencies. I have instituted public health programs that have maintained high standards for the public health while saving taxpayers millions of dollars. I mentor Boy Scouts, and high school, university and veterinary students with an interest in veterinary medicine. I have lectured at universities, medical schools and veterinary schools. I recently served as a health expert for an Presidential Interagency Task Force.
I believe I am better qualified to discuss these issues than the author. I am sure you will hear from the AVMA and other professional association representing veterinarians. I am sure you will also lose a number of subscribers or readers. I personally would ask you to consider printing an apology to the veterinary profession as a whole for the apparent misrepresentation of this article.

Thank you.

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m_sametDVM

Cruella De Ville! Kelly Barron, you should be ashamed of yourself for your posture and inflammatory comments. You obviously haven't come across a good, compassionate veterinarian. My friends/colleagues and I are required to get as much as 32 credits of Continuing Education per year and know EVERYTHING about animal diseases in MULTIPLE species as well as the impact of these diseases on humans. Our clients call us sometimes several times a day with "another question that came up" and we actually pick up the phone and talk to them....please let me know the last time your MD got on the phone with you when you called! To boot we are a lot like pediatricians because our patients cannot communicate with us. However, Ms. Barron, you would have never taken on the Pediatricians for fear of the fallout. Every veterinarian I know went into this for love of animals and the profession. However, as a practice owner I can tell you that we have numerous bills to pay and we are allowed to make a living ...(Read more of this comment)and dare I say it, a profit. The tone of your article implies that we should do it out of love and be embarrassed to make a profit....
Well, Ms. Barron, perhaps you should work a month or so and write articles and not expect a paycheck from the WSJ for your love of sharing knowledge...? Although, this article clearly proves you did not share knowledge...just cynicism and malicious comments against one of the noblest professions.
A caring NJ veterinarian(Show less of this comment)