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Original poster

...to not want to take my dog to the vet?

84 replies

BroccoliSpears · 29/02/2008 15:40

I have a lab who hasn't eaten her breakfast .

She's been throwing up bile yesterday and today.

I suspect that she ate something she shouldn't have on her walk with the dog walker on Wednesday. She has a very sensitive tummy.

Now, my immediate reaction is to phone the vet and firstly describe symptoms and see if they think I should bring her in, and then carry on following vet's instructions until she's better.

Here's why I don't want to:

They ALWAYS say to bring her in. Of course they do. They are a business and they don't get my £30 consultation fee if I don't bring her in. It's frustrating though to initially be told "Oh yes, definitely bring her in" and then later that day be standing in the consulting room while the vet says vaguely "Can't immediately see anything wrong with her. Bring her back tomorrow if there's no change. That'll be £30 please".

They ALWAYS want me to bring her back in 24 hours. "Oh look, she's better. That'll be another £30 please".

They ALWAYS start talking immediately about scans and blood tests and other expensive things.

They never actually do anything to fix the dog. She always gets better by herself. They often manage to adsvise me to give her rehydration salts or a jab of something "just in case, and that'll be another £60 please".

I always leave feeling I've been fleeced.

So instead I'm sitting here feeling guilty that I'm not taking my dog to the vet because of money.

Are all vets like this? It's frustrating having so little knowledge about dog health, so I can't be in charge but have to do as they suggest.

OP posts:
lucyellensmum · 01/03/2008 14:24

joolyjooly, i know what you mean about the "emergencies". I have had people rining me insisting that their dogs Flea bite allergy is a life or death emergency. I have also on more than one occasion, took a call at 5 to six from owners wanting to make a weekend appointment for their dog, told me the symptoms and i have said, hmmmm, i think we should see him now - I managed to book in two gastric torsions in a single week once based on these type of phone calls, you get a sort of sixth sense for those ones. After that if the phone rang at five to six my bosses used to make someone else answer as they said i was a jink

lucyellensmum · 01/03/2008 14:25

or even a jinx!

Joolyjoolyjoo · 01/03/2008 14:46

yup, I've seen fleas at midnight at the owner's insistence. I also saw a dog with "skin-tags" that turned out to be nipples. The guy didn't believe me, as it was a male dog, even when I pointed out that HE had nipples!!!

Original poster
BroccoliSpears · 01/03/2008 17:39

Oh dear, I'm laughing at the skin-tag nipples but I'm sure you weren't laughing at the time.

I've not taken doggy to the vet. She's not quite herself, but isn't really ill enough to warrent a visit. I hope no one thinks I'm a neglectful owner.

She's pooing and weeing. She hasn't been sick today. She ate scrambled egg for breakfast and poached chicken and rice for lunch. Will give her more chx and rice later. She's got a bit of a loose bowel, but she's fine in herself. Cheerful and bouncy. I think she had / has a tummy upset. Am still keeping a close eye.

Funnily enough, I offered her Bakers for breakfast and she didn't want it. May I remind you this is a labrador we're talking about! Just left it in her bowl . Perhaps it's the Bakers that is causing the problems? It's been fine for months. Will try one of the dry foods recommended earlier on this thread once we're off chicken and rice.

Thank you for hoping she's better

OP posts:
Lucky13 · 01/03/2008 18:36

My dog has just has a similar thing. My DH didn't want to take her to the vet for same reasons as you, but then she started with a funny breathing noise so off she went (not by herself of course).

It was just a tummy bug, but she got some antibiotics and rehydration mixture and a nice big bill!

Anyway the point i wanted to make was that after she got over it i.e. stopped being sick etc she still refused to eat properly. It seemed like she associated food from her bowl with making her ill. We ended up having to hand feed her for a few days until she realised it was ok.

Just thought i'd mention it in case she's the same.

Lucky13 · 01/03/2008 18:36

Sorry - meant to say hope she's better soon!

PaulaYatesBiggestFan · 01/03/2008 18:37

ooh stillforgotton to ask dp.......

oh rats he is out on an emergency again 6.30 on a saturday evening

life of Riley these vets

beautifulgirls · 01/03/2008 22:03

Don't feel bad if you have to take the dog to the vets tomorrow and pay a premium for it being a sunday given you have left her for 3 days now and could have been seen in normal hours.

Sorry, speaking as someone who is dedicated to my job (as you will see by my responses to people on the pets board) I can assure you I am not money grabbing, I have my patients best interests as my highest priority, and I get really riled by people who think we do "nothing" for £30+

Look at the costs of doing an equivalent in real terms via the NHS and you will see you get MUCH better value out of the vet. Waiting times for investigations and procedures are also a tonne better than you would get with the NHS. Somehow the HUGE expense of equipping and running a surgery has to be funded - 24hr care option, vets, nurses, receptionist, admin staff, insurance, RCVS fees, continuing education courses for staff, buildings costs etc etc etc. Vets earn waaaaay less than a GP would. The bill you get also will have drugs costs involved and I think most clients do not appreciate the true costs of human drugs when you pay a nominal £6something.

If you don't believe your pet is that sick then do not go to the vets. If you are worried call and accept the advice you are asking for. Do not expect a magic wand for free, it doesn't work like that

Sorry for the rant but this sort of attitude makes my blood boil, much as it has others here.

PaulaYatesBiggestFan · 01/03/2008 23:20

AMEN Beautifulgirls!

lucyellensmum · 01/03/2008 23:40

I need to step out of this thread, because my observations seem to be causing offense and i am simply stating that i have seen both sides of the coin here, having worked for a vet who is very money orientated (he was technically a brilliant vet, but didnt actually like animals very much ) and did, imo, go OTT on tests etc when i am pretty sure another vet would adopt a watch and wait attitude. Either that, or he totally was oblivious to the money side of things. All of my other bosses and vets i have worked with have never taken that attitude, so the point I was trying to make is that, like any profession there are going to be people souly motivated by money and those, thankfully in the majority who are motivated by the vocation.

BG does sum it up very well by describing the overheads etc and one of the things that we would get was people moaning about the price of surgery, that might not be very "complicated". The anaesthetics we used were state of the art, the safest anaesthetics available etc, they are EXPENSIVE. I used to find that the mark up on drugs and consumables not particularly high actually compared with the vets time, but clearly at the end of the day, it equals out.

It does perplex me a little why someone would be irritated about having to do out of hours work, many vets dont do this now as they have dedicated out of hours vets that cover local areas etc (this does cost the practice a certain amount of money to buy into i think) - that works great because you are not getting a knackered vet who may well have been working all day as well as being called out. But if the out of hours work is part of the job then its part of the job and put up and shut up i think. It is a well paid job after all.

My DP when he first started in the building trade worked for a local authority once, he would have to be on an on call rota, he often got called out in the middle of the night to board up windows, let pissed fuckwits into thier houses because they had lost their keys etc - That DID irritate us, considering he got the princely sum of £14 per call out, plus his normal hourly rate. So, you know what he did, he got another job! I would say that if you dont like the out of hours, you could always get another job. Of course no one wants to be on call, i used to do out of hours with the vets, i worked through midnight on new years eve once, i also got called out when i was supposed to be going to the panto, not quite sure how i managed but we managed to sort the dog (needed surgery) get it recovered and still get there before curtain up . The point is, i didnt moan about it, i did it, it was my job, i might have prefered to be at home, but there you are. I daresay i was earning alot less than the vet for giving up my time.

See, i should shut up, because im trying to be neutral but it seems i am berating the vets when i am definately not, i am just saying, i can see both sides to this.

PaulaYatesBiggestFan · 01/03/2008 23:43

lucyelllen

as a one man practice the ooh is 24 hours a day 365 days a year

attitudes towards call outs 'perplex' us as increasingly people expect to be seen at their leisure - often for non emergency stuff and then moan buckets at the price

PaulaYatesBiggestFan · 01/03/2008 23:44

plus we never call our nurse she does not do ooh

oops · 01/03/2008 23:45

Message withdrawn

PaulaYatesBiggestFan · 01/03/2008 23:47

have one on me oops! cheers!

oops · 01/03/2008 23:48

Message withdrawn

oops · 01/03/2008 23:50

Message withdrawn

PaulaYatesBiggestFan · 01/03/2008 23:50

practice is not big enough - plus my mortgage is ever so - and 5 and a half kids to boot!

says she doing out of hours out of choice!

lucyellensmum · 01/03/2008 23:52

Then i appreciate how that will be knackering and a lot of pressure, i would assume you dont have the option into buying into an out of hours service? I bet your clients would bust a bloody gut to be seen within hours if you did, our local out of hours service is extortionate to say the least (so much so that i think my old bosses are thinking of pulling out because we dont think its fair on the clients).

Your DH sounds very dedicated and like he has alot of pressure so please dont think i am slating that. But i have been in the situation where i have had to tell people bareface lies, with the vet standing in front of me making throat cutting gestures because he doesnt want to be late for golf! So i think we would agree then that my bosses are certainly quite different to your DH.

I have said on my other posts that i certainly appreciate that there are clients out there who expect everthing to be dropped because they want things done at thier convenience. I honestly have had, "no i cannot possibly come in the morning, i have a hair appointment" So i do know how galling some clients attitudes can be.

PaulaYatesBiggestFan · 01/03/2008 23:53

i know lucyellen plus i love our nurse so much she is worth her weight in gold!

oops · 01/03/2008 23:58

Message withdrawn

lucyellensmum · 02/03/2008 00:01

finally! lol we are singing from the same hymn sheet at last - the more i tried to dig my way out, the deeper the hole. I do have to admit to hiding behind doors and down stairs though when certain clients come in, would not come out for diamonds!

oops · 02/03/2008 00:08

Message withdrawn

oops · 02/03/2008 00:09

Message withdrawn

beautifulgirls · 02/03/2008 10:14

Hi Oops, PaulaYatesBF and LEmum - Thanks for the responses. LE I do understand what you are trying to say and I have no problem

Too many people expect something for nothing these days. Other professionals charge for their time way more than vets to. People come in and expect high tech modern care - as they should - but don't want to pay for it. It is a choice to have a pet, and part of the responsibility of taking one on is to look after their health. Yes it costs money. Think before you get a pet and make sure you get pet insurance - then there would be far less of this sort of attitude about seeing the vet and the cost.

Joolyjoolyjoo · 02/03/2008 14:41

Amen, girls!! Nice to know there are more people out there who get fed up hearing how crap we vets are and how we charge too much!

Broccoli- glad you're dog is feeling a bit better! If she's not back to normal appetite in a day or two, though, I would get her checked out- as you say, unusual for a lab, but probably quite sensible of her,if she has eaten something that has upset her Jx