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

[BroccoliSpears]

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.

Genuinely sorry to have started a thread that was interpreted as vet bashing. Not my intention.

I think I've been misinterpreted once or twice, but I can see it's a pretty emotive subject so best to let it lie. You've made me think a bit about the overheads etc involved too.

I am sure that most if not all vets work hard and care about the animals they see. However, I stand by my original suspicion that my vets - the specific vets that I take my dog to see - seem to me to always be on the lookout to charge me twice where once would have been enough.

It's the difference between "bring her back if you're still worried or there's no change" and "we will definitely need to see her again in X days".

Now, the FAR more important matter of my beautiful pup's tummy...

She's doing fine. Still on the chicken and rice. Still a bit loose. No more vomiting though, and definitely not a sick dog. She was racing round the fields this afternoon looking the picture of health. Currently asleep on my feet, belly in the air, snoring.

broccolispears - i know where you are coming from. i usually leave it for 3 days and if no change or worse then i would go to vets. i take my dogs to vets once a year for their annual booster, this year whilst in the waiting room one of my dogs dropped dead (last week) in the waiitng room which was a total shock.
and i think that it is a known fact that labs are greedy and will eat anything.

Glad to hear she is doing well

Thread closed...well from me anyway

How much do they charge for the lab test and the cat scan?

Boom Tish!

Sorry.

pmsl, i think its about £50 a throw isn't it?? I think it depends on the breed of cat

pmsl, i think its about £50 a throw isn't it?? I think it depends on the breed of cat

Bit late to add my three peny worth but my dog was bringing up bile and not well on a bank holiday weekend. I didn't hesitate in taking him to the vet and a bloody good job too, he had a blockage had to be operated on immediately else he would have died. Would you want that on your hands for the sake of a few quid yes it cost £400 but that why you pay insurance.

A year late! I thought Broccoli had come back.

You totally miss the point, I was searching about children and dogs and came across this post, yes a year later, but what I read was apporling advice that if I had listened too when my dog was sick it would have been dead. So posted in case someone else came across it like I did.

Get it now????