Anonymous
Post 04/29/2025 10:21     Subject: Are vets scammers??
This thread makes me grateful to live in an exurb and pay $150 per annual visit for my senior cat. Cost of living in DC metro area sucks.
Anonymous
Post 04/29/2025 10:19     Subject: Are vets scammers??
Anonymous wrote:Banfield is the absolute worst with this. I got my dog when I was right out of college and on a budget, so the wellness plan made sense. FWIW, I have spent thousands of dollars on my dog including a pricey surgery, but I am so tired of them pushing crap on me every time I’m there. One of the locations, I won’t say what it is, is particularly bad: the vet seems to find SOMETHING at every visit and calls up in an obnoxious chipper voice guilt tripping me into spending money. I finally told her I was tired of her coming around with a hand out every time I took my dog in and we started going elsewhere. Still gets me fired up.


Friendship Hospital is bad too--they were bought by a private equity firm. I took my traditionally young and healthy pet there since I was new to the area and they were the closest, and after some super-pricy diagnostics, they recommended a pricy surgery that is the price of a used car and said my pet would die without that intervention and that she was too sick for us to retrieve from the hospital to get a second opinion, but that with the intervention our pet would live a full and healthy life.

After we paid it, it became clear (not from Friendship, but from the vet we took the pet to later) that even with that pricy intervention, that my pet would never live a full life and would die in a year or two anyway. They are recommending gold plated treatment, when they need to just be honest and tell the pet owners to let the pet go.
Anonymous
Post 04/29/2025 09:29     Subject: Are vets scammers??
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Op to update. My conclusion - scammers.

First vet visit = kitty had stinky ear and some excess ear wax but didn’t seem too bothered by it. But we figured we’d take her in. My dh took her bc I had to work. He’s clearly an easy mark.

Close to $400 for that visit plus tests and we walked out with ear drops. I just looked up what the medicine is for and it’s primarily for ear mites. A quick google search had already told me that my cat obviously did not have ear mites. She wasn’t bothered, her ears weren’t bloody etc. When I googled, the two potential culprits for her wax buildup seemed to be ear mites (no) or a yeast infection. Ok.

Weeks go by with little improvement in kitty’s stinky ear (but she’s not bothered) so we call and they tell us we need to come back in. Ok. I thought it might be a yeast build up but I’m not a vet and figured they’d know. Maybe it’s more serious. Ok so we bring her in.

Second vet visit. $700 for more tests, a culture, blah blah. We walk out with another med - ear drops. This med works almost immediately, thankfully and kitty’s ear looks great. Ironically we still haven’t heard the results of the important tests they ran. I just looked up the med they gave us. It is for a yeast infection!!!! The same drops were less than $30 on chewy!! I could have skipped the appt, saved my cat the drama of a car ride and saved $700.

WTF. And for anyone who says that I should have known what the medicines were for, been more of an advocate, blah blah, NO. You shouldn’t need to be armed to walk into your vets office. You should be able to trust them.

Anyway, I’m changing vets. Lots of people I’ve asked already complain about the same issues, but hopefully there are some good vets still out there.



This sounds more like a vet who didn't know what they were doing than a vet trying to scam. When my dog was scratching at her ear, the first thing my vet did was sniff it. That tells her if it's yeasty or not.


Op here. Well, why was I charged for it then? I don’t even know if a vet saw her. Sounds like it was a tech or assistant, not sure. So it was a yeast infection which I had assumed it was but instead they did other nonsense tests and gave her meds for ear mites. (She’s an indoor cat, not saying it’s not possible but less likely, no?)

It Should not have taken multiple visits and 900+ dollars to deal with it. Come on.
Anonymous
Post 04/29/2025 09:27     Subject: Are vets scammers??
YES. It sucks. I hope there are places with sliding scale of low income options in future. Many pets receive no medical or prevent care because of the vet scams.
I know tractor supply offers general care at low prices, any others?
Anonymous
Post 04/29/2025 09:25     Subject: Are vets scammers??
Anonymous wrote:I had to go to VCA at 8pm and I was told just to walk in for an emergency was $200. My dog had paraphimosis (dont google it if you are squeamish). The vet took pity on my little peke and I and only charged me half as the issue was fixed with ky jelly and manual manipulation in 5 minutes. I was honestly thankful so no, not everyone is a scammer.



Sorry, but what? No one is talking about 200 dollars for an emergency visit. More like 500 a visit and then being encouraged to come back for more tests that are another 500 dollars for a relatively routine issue.
Anonymous
Post 04/29/2025 06:51     Subject: Are vets scammers??
Question for PP - why is there an issue about a $200 emergency exam fee? Sounds on par with standards in this area. You are not paying for their time. You are paying for their expertise in the case of an emergency. And it is after hours.
Anonymous
Post 04/29/2025 02:45     Subject: Are vets scammers??
I had to go to VCA at 8pm and I was told just to walk in for an emergency was $200. My dog had paraphimosis (dont google it if you are squeamish). The vet took pity on my little peke and I and only charged me half as the issue was fixed with ky jelly and manual manipulation in 5 minutes. I was honestly thankful so no, not everyone is a scammer.
Anonymous
Post 04/28/2025 23:23     Subject: Are vets scammers??
Banfield is the absolute worst with this. I got my dog when I was right out of college and on a budget, so the wellness plan made sense. FWIW, I have spent thousands of dollars on my dog including a pricey surgery, but I am so tired of them pushing crap on me every time I’m there. One of the locations, I won’t say what it is, is particularly bad: the vet seems to find SOMETHING at every visit and calls up in an obnoxious chipper voice guilt tripping me into spending money. I finally told her I was tired of her coming around with a hand out every time I took my dog in and we started going elsewhere. Still gets me fired up.
Anonymous
Post 04/23/2025 18:03     Subject: Are vets scammers??
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:We don’t go to the vet anymore for our two dogs. Stopped vaccines, flea chemicals, and feed raw meat, organs, sardines, salmon etc to our dogs now.

We will go in case of injury or acute issue but most of the issues we are seeing with pets are the same that we are seeing in humans. We are correcting the root cause of illness with good food, exercise, outdoor play etc. My two dogs, ages 13 and 11 are thriving!


Wow. This is profoundly ignorant.


NP. This sounds sensical to me.


I guess if you're ok with a flea infested home and your kids dying from rabies. Not vaccinating or using preventative is nuts.
Anonymous
Post 04/23/2025 16:29     Subject: Are vets scammers??
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:We don’t go to the vet anymore for our two dogs. Stopped vaccines, flea chemicals, and feed raw meat, organs, sardines, salmon etc to our dogs now.

We will go in case of injury or acute issue but most of the issues we are seeing with pets are the same that we are seeing in humans. We are correcting the root cause of illness with good food, exercise, outdoor play etc. My two dogs, ages 13 and 11 are thriving!


Wow. This is profoundly ignorant.


NP. This sounds sensical to me.
Anonymous
Post 04/23/2025 00:16     Subject: Are vets scammers??
Anonymous wrote:Yes. They’re being bought up by private equity and pushing expensive services.


Private Equity is the worst.
Anonymous
Post 04/19/2025 21:46     Subject: Are vets scammers??
Anonymous wrote:Ime yes many are. They take advantage and alarm you into thinking your pet will die if you don’t do x, y and z. Learned the hard way with my cat: $1200 in various fees and she was just constipated. I did ask questions about every exam and one tech actually told me I was asking too much.


I had a vet try to upsell me on dog food and guilt me for feeding a basic brand. There are some that suck, but that's because they suck at business.

Fire any vet who makes you feel like you're asking too much or being "difficult" for pushing back. If they're right, the next vet will say the same thing and you can decide which practice to stay with.
Anonymous
Post 04/19/2025 19:19     Subject: Are vets scammers??
Good luck leaving the vet without a $400-600 bill.
Anonymous
Post 04/19/2025 14:11     Subject: Are vets scammers??
Anonymous wrote:We don’t go to the vet anymore for our two dogs. Stopped vaccines, flea chemicals, and feed raw meat, organs, sardines, salmon etc to our dogs now.

We will go in case of injury or acute issue but most of the issues we are seeing with pets are the same that we are seeing in humans. We are correcting the root cause of illness with good food, exercise, outdoor play etc. My two dogs, ages 13 and 11 are thriving!


Wow. This is profoundly ignorant.
Anonymous
Post 04/19/2025 14:11     Subject: Are vets scammers??
Anonymous wrote:Op to update. My conclusion - scammers.

First vet visit = kitty had stinky ear and some excess ear wax but didn’t seem too bothered by it. But we figured we’d take her in. My dh took her bc I had to work. He’s clearly an easy mark.

Close to $400 for that visit plus tests and we walked out with ear drops. I just looked up what the medicine is for and it’s primarily for ear mites. A quick google search had already told me that my cat obviously did not have ear mites. She wasn’t bothered, her ears weren’t bloody etc. When I googled, the two potential culprits for her wax buildup seemed to be ear mites (no) or a yeast infection. Ok.

Weeks go by with little improvement in kitty’s stinky ear (but she’s not bothered) so we call and they tell us we need to come back in. Ok. I thought it might be a yeast build up but I’m not a vet and figured they’d know. Maybe it’s more serious. Ok so we bring her in.

Second vet visit. $700 for more tests, a culture, blah blah. We walk out with another med - ear drops. This med works almost immediately, thankfully and kitty’s ear looks great. Ironically we still haven’t heard the results of the important tests they ran. I just looked up the med they gave us. It is for a yeast infection!!!! The same drops were less than $30 on chewy!! I could have skipped the appt, saved my cat the drama of a car ride and saved $700.

WTF. And for anyone who says that I should have known what the medicines were for, been more of an advocate, blah blah, NO. You shouldn’t need to be armed to walk into your vets office. You should be able to trust them.

Anyway, I’m changing vets. Lots of people I’ve asked already complain about the same issues, but hopefully there are some good vets still out there.



This sounds more like a vet who didn't know what they were doing than a vet trying to scam. When my dog was scratching at her ear, the first thing my vet did was sniff it. That tells her if it's yeasty or not.