Has anyone found a vet that isn't a money making machine?

[Anonymous]

No.

[Anonymous]

have had several dogs. I notice every vet has said they have a "heart murmur." Diagnostic tests needed, pills etc.

No different than going to your auto mechanic for inspection test and finding your tail light need replacement.

I wouldn't trust any of them

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son is a vet. He says patients' owners frequently try to wheedle him into doing services for reduced fees (or free). He has owners who throw mini tantrums when they are told the price of a treatment, and sometimes demand to know whether he really cares about animals at all or is only in it "for the money."

He is so stressed and works so hard. The clinic is expensive to run and while he would love to give services for reduced fees, he can't. Besides, he worked hard to complete rigorous medical training and is a professional offering a real specialized service: most people would never dream of trying to talk a medical specialist for humans down to lower fees, or question their intentions in offering a treatment.

Why are doctors for humans somehow considered more ethical and trustworthy than vets? You don't become a vet for the money, because there just isn't that kind of money in it. If someone capable of completing medical training wishes to go for $$$, he/she is more likely to treat humans because that is where you make the kind of high income people seem to think vets achieve.

Anyway, my kid is only in his first year of work and I am shocked at how much role the owners' behavior has on his job satisfaction, and also at how rude and insulting people can be to him when he truly just wants to help the animals. Please be nice to your vet, people. There are no ulterior motives and they aren't making fortunes.

there are a lot of pet owners who simply can't afford the treatments vets recommend. Some vets do make it about the money- go to an emergency vet and they will swipe your credit card before even glancing at your dying dog

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Anyway, my kid is only in his first year of work and I am shocked at how much role the owners' behavior has on his job satisfaction, and also at how rude and insulting people can be to him when he truly just wants to help the animals. Please be nice to your vet, people. There are no ulterior motives and they aren't making fortunes.

Please thank your son for going into veterinary medicine. I am so grateful that there are people who can help the world's best dog live a healthy, happy life, and do the same for all those other perfectly nice pets who aren't quite as good as mine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son is a vet. He says patients' owners frequently try to wheedle him into doing services for reduced fees (or free). He has owners who throw mini tantrums when they are told the price of a treatment, and sometimes demand to know whether he really cares about animals at all or is only in it "for the money."

He is so stressed and works so hard. The clinic is expensive to run and while he would love to give services for reduced fees, he can't. Besides, he worked hard to complete rigorous medical training and is a professional offering a real specialized service: most people would never dream of trying to talk a medical specialist for humans down to lower fees, or question their intentions in offering a treatment.

Why are doctors for humans somehow considered more ethical and trustworthy than vets? You don't become a vet for the money, because there just isn't that kind of money in it. If someone capable of completing medical training wishes to go for $$$, he/she is more likely to treat humans because that is where you make the kind of high income people seem to think vets achieve.

Anyway, my kid is only in his first year of work and I am shocked at how much role the owners' behavior has on his job satisfaction, and also at how rude and insulting people can be to him when he truly just wants to help the animals. Please be nice to your vet, people. There are no ulterior motives and they aren't making fortunes.

there are a lot of pet owners who simply can't afford the treatments vets recommend. Some vets do make it about the money- go to an emergency vet and they will swipe your credit card before even glancing at your dying dog

If you can't afford the care- just say I'm sorry I can't afford it. No problem. The issue is when people can't afford it they turn it around on the vet and try to make it the vet's fault and their problem to fix. The emotional blackmail, temper tantrums, whining, begging, guilt, anger-- these are not ok.

Get good pet insurance or be quiet. Noone forced you to buy a mini bernadoodle for 4k. Take some responsibility.

I'm a vet that is no longer practicing b.c of the client/money problems. And I never pushed anything I thought wasn't medically necessary and I always offered Plans A, B and C.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son is a vet. He says patients' owners frequently try to wheedle him into doing services for reduced fees (or free). He has owners who throw mini tantrums when they are told the price of a treatment, and sometimes demand to know whether he really cares about animals at all or is only in it "for the money."

He is so stressed and works so hard. The clinic is expensive to run and while he would love to give services for reduced fees, he can't. Besides, he worked hard to complete rigorous medical training and is a professional offering a real specialized service: most people would never dream of trying to talk a medical specialist for humans down to lower fees, or question their intentions in offering a treatment.

Why are doctors for humans somehow considered more ethical and trustworthy than vets? You don't become a vet for the money, because there just isn't that kind of money in it. If someone capable of completing medical training wishes to go for $$$, he/she is more likely to treat humans because that is where you make the kind of high income people seem to think vets achieve.

Anyway, my kid is only in his first year of work and I am shocked at how much role the owners' behavior has on his job satisfaction, and also at how rude and insulting people can be to him when he truly just wants to help the animals. Please be nice to your vet, people. There are no ulterior motives and they aren't making fortunes.

there are a lot of pet owners who simply can't afford the treatments vets recommend. Some vets do make it about the money- go to an emergency vet and they will swipe your credit card before even glancing at your dying dog

If you can't afford the care- just say I'm sorry I can't afford it. No problem. The issue is when people can't afford it they turn it around on the vet and try to make it the vet's fault and their problem to fix. The emotional blackmail, temper tantrums, whining, begging, guilt, anger-- these are not ok.

Get good pet insurance or be quiet. Noone forced you to buy a mini bernadoodle for 4k. Take some responsibility.

I'm a vet that is no longer practicing b.c of the client/money problems. And I never pushed anything I thought wasn't medically necessary and I always offered Plans A, B and C.

pet insurance excludes just about anything expensive. If you want to talk about emotional black mail, tell a vet that you can't afford surgery on your dog and see how that goes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As others have stated in recent threads about veterinary care, please be mindful that those working in the veterinary profession are under tremendous stress, especially right now. What you view as evidence that a practice is a "money making machine" might simply reflect higher standards to at least offer every possible diagnostic test and treatment for your pet. More people have pets, their pets are living longer, and people are willing to do more and spend more on their pets' health and to prolong their lives. For every person who gets angry and leaves a practice for promoting "unnecessary" or expensive tests, there are others who will complain that a veterinary didn't do more to recommend and advocate for more extensive diagnostics and treatment. Client financial realities interfere with veterinarians' ability to provide the best possible care, yet clients blame veterinarians for not doing more to save their pets. Burnout and compassion fatigue are common.

By all means, find a practice with prices and business practices that work for you. That's your right as a consumer. However, exercise some compassion before judging the profession, including both veterinarians, technicians, and other staff, because they are under incredible stress.

Nope. It’s a very low-stress profession. No one sues you like Ob/gyn’s and no one know if you do a terrible job drawing blood or performing surgery. I used to do dog and cat surgeries in high school - the vet said the animals would never be able to tell their owner who did the surgery but you can be sure the owners paid full price!

I went into medicine, have a real job with real standards and real stress. Being a vet is a joke career.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've visited a ton of practices over the years and the only ones I felt were really rip-offs were Old Dominion Animal Hospital and Region Veterinary Referral Service (Springfield). Everywhere else I've taken my dogs has been very transparent about costs, priorities, and likely outcomes. When people like OP complain, I tend to think they've either ignored a problem for too long and now it's a major issue, or their expectations for what's involved in pet ownership in general are way, way lower than mine.

I have no experience with the 2 vets listed here, but I have also had great experiences with the veterinarian that I use - McLean Animal Hospital - most recently we had an emergency with my cat and they were wonderful. Not cheap, but they know him, they were very compassionate (the cat is on the mend), understanding, and allowed me to call the next day to make my payment because I ended up needing to transfer the cat to a different vet for overnight care/surgery that they helped me schedule for the next day. They aren't cheap, but they also don't demand unnecessary treatment, have excellent hours/availability, and every vet we've seen has been wonderful. I don't find their prices to be unreasonable or overly expensive.

I also had a good experience with McLean Animal Hospital. I assumed it would be extremely expensive being in McLean, but it's not much more than some other local places. They were usually very responsive when I had emergencies with my senior pet, and didn't push for expensive treatments.
I also think Value Vet is okay if you don't need a lot of specialty treatments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As others have stated in recent threads about veterinary care, please be mindful that those working in the veterinary profession are under tremendous stress, especially right now. What you view as evidence that a practice is a "money making machine" might simply reflect higher standards to at least offer every possible diagnostic test and treatment for your pet. More people have pets, their pets are living longer, and people are willing to do more and spend more on their pets' health and to prolong their lives. For every person who gets angry and leaves a practice for promoting "unnecessary" or expensive tests, there are others who will complain that a veterinary didn't do more to recommend and advocate for more extensive diagnostics and treatment. Client financial realities interfere with veterinarians' ability to provide the best possible care, yet clients blame veterinarians for not doing more to save their pets. Burnout and compassion fatigue are common.

By all means, find a practice with prices and business practices that work for you. That's your right as a consumer. However, exercise some compassion before judging the profession, including both veterinarians, technicians, and other staff, because they are under incredible stress.

Nope. It’s a very low-stress profession. No one sues you like Ob/gyn’s and no one know if you do a terrible job drawing blood or performing surgery. I used to do dog and cat surgeries in high school - the vet said the animals would never be able to tell their owner who did the surgery but you can be sure the owners paid full price!

I went into medicine, have a real job with real standards and real stress. Being a vet is a joke career.

Oh gosh I can’t imagine what your bedside manner is like

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As others have stated in recent threads about veterinary care, please be mindful that those working in the veterinary profession are under tremendous stress, especially right now. What you view as evidence that a practice is a "money making machine" might simply reflect higher standards to at least offer every possible diagnostic test and treatment for your pet. More people have pets, their pets are living longer, and people are willing to do more and spend more on their pets' health and to prolong their lives. For every person who gets angry and leaves a practice for promoting "unnecessary" or expensive tests, there are others who will complain that a veterinary didn't do more to recommend and advocate for more extensive diagnostics and treatment. Client financial realities interfere with veterinarians' ability to provide the best possible care, yet clients blame veterinarians for not doing more to save their pets. Burnout and compassion fatigue are common.

By all means, find a practice with prices and business practices that work for you. That's your right as a consumer. However, exercise some compassion before judging the profession, including both veterinarians, technicians, and other staff, because they are under incredible stress.

Nope. It’s a very low-stress profession. No one sues you like Ob/gyn’s and no one know if you do a terrible job drawing blood or performing surgery. I used to do dog and cat surgeries in high school - the vet said the animals would never be able to tell their owner who did the surgery but you can be sure the owners paid full price!

I went into medicine, have a real job with real standards and real stress. Being a vet is a joke career.

I don't know how long ago your high school experience with the veterinary practice was, but people not only file professional complaints against veterinarians all the time, but they also trash veterinary professionals regularly on social media. That's where much of the stress comes from. In addition, human medical professionals are never called upon by their patients to perform surgeries or provide other services for free. They fight with insurance companies, but don't try to pressure doctors into working for free.

Veterinarians have the additional challenge that their patients can't speak for themselves. They have to balance client relationships while acting in the best interest of their animal patients.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As others have stated in recent threads about veterinary care, please be mindful that those working in the veterinary profession are under tremendous stress, especially right now. What you view as evidence that a practice is a "money making machine" might simply reflect higher standards to at least offer every possible diagnostic test and treatment for your pet. More people have pets, their pets are living longer, and people are willing to do more and spend more on their pets' health and to prolong their lives. For every person who gets angry and leaves a practice for promoting "unnecessary" or expensive tests, there are others who will complain that a veterinary didn't do more to recommend and advocate for more extensive diagnostics and treatment. Client financial realities interfere with veterinarians' ability to provide the best possible care, yet clients blame veterinarians for not doing more to save their pets. Burnout and compassion fatigue are common.

By all means, find a practice with prices and business practices that work for you. That's your right as a consumer. However, exercise some compassion before judging the profession, including both veterinarians, technicians, and other staff, because they are under incredible stress.

Nope. It’s a very low-stress profession. No one sues you like Ob/gyn’s and no one know if you do a terrible job drawing blood or performing surgery. I used to do dog and cat surgeries in high school - the vet said the animals would never be able to tell their owner who did the surgery but you can be sure the owners paid full price!

I went into medicine, have a real job with real standards and real stress. Being a vet is a joke career.

That is factually wrong.

- doctor who knows vets.

[Anonymous]

I’ve only had great vets it seems. I think people have unrealistic expectations for the cost. Why get pissed at the vet for what bloodwork costs? It goes to a medical lab just like yours and they have no control over that. That is part of the expense of owning an animal. I don’t understand the anger.

Some vets are top of the line and some owners will spend anything. I’ve never had any guilt for saying we didn’t want to do a test that wasn’t 100% necessary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son is a vet. He says patients' owners frequently try to wheedle him into doing services for reduced fees (or free). He has owners who throw mini tantrums when they are told the price of a treatment, and sometimes demand to know whether he really cares about animals at all or is only in it "for the money."

He is so stressed and works so hard. The clinic is expensive to run and while he would love to give services for reduced fees, he can't. Besides, he worked hard to complete rigorous medical training and is a professional offering a real specialized service: most people would never dream of trying to talk a medical specialist for humans down to lower fees, or question their intentions in offering a treatment.

Why are doctors for humans somehow considered more ethical and trustworthy than vets? You don't become a vet for the money, because there just isn't that kind of money in it. If someone capable of completing medical training wishes to go for $$$, he/she is more likely to treat humans because that is where you make the kind of high income people seem to think vets achieve.

Anyway, my kid is only in his first year of work and I am shocked at how much role the owners' behavior has on his job satisfaction, and also at how rude and insulting people can be to him when he truly just wants to help the animals. Please be nice to your vet, people. There are no ulterior motives and they aren't making fortunes.

I have a friend who is a vet and speaks similarly.
She loves her job except for the owners.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son is a vet. He says patients' owners frequently try to wheedle him into doing services for reduced fees (or free). He has owners who throw mini tantrums when they are told the price of a treatment, and sometimes demand to know whether he really cares about animals at all or is only in it "for the money."

He is so stressed and works so hard. The clinic is expensive to run and while he would love to give services for reduced fees, he can't. Besides, he worked hard to complete rigorous medical training and is a professional offering a real specialized service: most people would never dream of trying to talk a medical specialist for humans down to lower fees, or question their intentions in offering a treatment.

Why are doctors for humans somehow considered more ethical and trustworthy than vets? You don't become a vet for the money, because there just isn't that kind of money in it. If someone capable of completing medical training wishes to go for $$$, he/she is more likely to treat humans because that is where you make the kind of high income people seem to think vets achieve.

Anyway, my kid is only in his first year of work and I am shocked at how much role the owners' behavior has on his job satisfaction, and also at how rude and insulting people can be to him when he truly just wants to help the animals. Please be nice to your vet, people. There are no ulterior motives and they aren't making fortunes.

there are a lot of pet owners who simply can't afford the treatments vets recommend. Some vets do make it about the money- go to an emergency vet and they will swipe your credit card before even glancing at your dying dog

If you can't afford the care- just say I'm sorry I can't afford it. No problem. The issue is when people can't afford it they turn it around on the vet and try to make it the vet's fault and their problem to fix. The emotional blackmail, temper tantrums, whining, begging, guilt, anger-- these are not ok.

Get good pet insurance or be quiet. Noone forced you to buy a mini bernadoodle for 4k. Take some responsibility.

I'm a vet that is no longer practicing b.c of the client/money problems. And I never pushed anything I thought wasn't medically necessary and I always offered Plans A, B and C.

pet insurance excludes just about anything expensive. If you want to talk about emotional black mail, tell a vet that you can't afford surgery on your dog and see how that goes

It depends on what you consider emotional blackmail. If an animal is suffering and an owner cannot afford treatment to alleviate that suffering, difficult choices need to be made.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son is a vet. He says patients' owners frequently try to wheedle him into doing services for reduced fees (or free). He has owners who throw mini tantrums when they are told the price of a treatment, and sometimes demand to know whether he really cares about animals at all or is only in it "for the money."

He is so stressed and works so hard. The clinic is expensive to run and while he would love to give services for reduced fees, he can't. Besides, he worked hard to complete rigorous medical training and is a professional offering a real specialized service: most people would never dream of trying to talk a medical specialist for humans down to lower fees, or question their intentions in offering a treatment.

Why are doctors for humans somehow considered more ethical and trustworthy than vets? You don't become a vet for the money, because there just isn't that kind of money in it. If someone capable of completing medical training wishes to go for $$$, he/she is more likely to treat humans because that is where you make the kind of high income people seem to think vets achieve.

Anyway, my kid is only in his first year of work and I am shocked at how much role the owners' behavior has on his job satisfaction, and also at how rude and insulting people can be to him when he truly just wants to help the animals. Please be nice to your vet, people. There are no ulterior motives and they aren't making fortunes.

there are a lot of pet owners who simply can't afford the treatments vets recommend. Some vets do make it about the money- go to an emergency vet and they will swipe your credit card before even glancing at your dying dog

If you can't afford the care- just say I'm sorry I can't afford it. No problem. The issue is when people can't afford it they turn it around on the vet and try to make it the vet's fault and their problem to fix. The emotional blackmail, temper tantrums, whining, begging, guilt, anger-- these are not ok.

Get good pet insurance or be quiet. Noone forced you to buy a mini bernadoodle for 4k. Take some responsibility.

I'm a vet that is no longer practicing b.c of the client/money problems. And I never pushed anything I thought wasn't medically necessary and I always offered Plans A, B and C.

pet insurance excludes just about anything expensive. If you want to talk about emotional black mail, tell a vet that you can't afford surgery on your dog and see how that goes

There are insurance plans that cover expensive surgeries. Guess you went for the cheap plan.