I wonder if it’s possible to get sick dogs and cats signed up for a “clinical trial” type thing if it’s in your area- for example experimentation involving stem cells that aren’t quite ready for use on humans. Will research.
Does anybody use 1800PetMeds? Does it save you significantly?
I know that the government appropriated and private citizens and agencies raised millions for Katrina pets. I wonder if that money was all used and if not where the remainder went.
Yes, depends on the disease. If it is a school hospital, for example, they may have notices everywhere in the clinics reminding staff that if an animal meets xyz criteria, they’re eligible for project ABC.
In the case of smaller private practices, they may team up with the school hospitals so that they can get a bigger pool of patients for their field projects. Similar thing may happen between private practices and private industries.
I don’t know how much of it was used, but I know it was used. That money covered recovery, boarding, and/or treatment for numerous companion animals (dogs, cats, and horses). They were housed in facilities provided by LSU, and attended mostly by Baton Rouge area veterinarians, including faculty from LSU, as well as many veterinary students (not just from LSU, but from other schools), and other volunteers.
The best veteriinary pharmacy I know of is smartpakcanine.
They don’t carry as many products as 1-800-petmed.com, but for the products they do carry the prices are superior. Example:
Baytril (an antibiotic) taste tabs, 136mg
1800petmeds – $4.49 per pill = $224 for 50
smartpakcanine – $185 for bottle of 50
**however petmeds sells three other dosages, which smartpak doesn’t.
I used this company all the time when I had a horse (the original line of business was equine nutraceuticals, then they added equine pharmacy, then canine/feline) and they are stellar to work with.
Disclaimer: I’m a horsetech, not a cat tech. That said, I’ve spent some time shadowing a vet friend who does GP and emergency practice for dogs and cats and spent many hours talking shop with friends who have been dog/cat techs for years.
Yes, cats tend to be more freaked out and difficult to handle than dogs, on average, and most small animal techs do sport battle scars from cat claws. However, I have never heard of declawing as a method of dealing with a difficult patient. There are techniques – scruff n’ towel, cat bags, special ninjas with calming powers (just kidding, although some people are better than others at soothing wild beasts), and drugs to sedate cats for procedures like bandage changes.
FWIW, fixing and rehoming an animal that needs something complex or expensive is vanishing rare. I’ve only ever seen it happen once, with my shepherd. She was a stray someone brought in to get checked out before they took her home and she turned out to have both heartworms and pyometra. Doc did the pyo surgery out of her own pocket, and I used my employee discount on the hw treatment.
Usually the pets I’ve seen rehomed have needed fairly minor things done–a few weeks ago I spent the better part of a day looking for placement for a cat that just needed some pain meds and a few weeks of cage confinement. And even with minor stuff, it’s pretty rare for us to try to fix and rehome an animal rather than putting it down. It’s rather hard to justify trying to adopt out one with health problems when a dozen perfectly healthy ones are dying at the shelter that very day, you know? But every once in a while there’s one that just…has a certain something about them and you just can’t bear to do it.
Mind you, I’ve never worked at a place that didn’t ask the owner for permission to rehome the pet and offer to refund the cost of the euthanasia. I’ve also never heard of an owner saying no; they’re generally delighted the critter’s getting a second chance even if it’s with someone else. Hell, a lot of them tell you to put the cost of the euthanasia toward the new owner’s part of the treatment.
Like Ninjas would stand a chance against a scared and pissed off cat.
I was directly involved with gh adoption for about a year (placement, the wife was on the board and did placements and we fostered at home).
Even out here in the NW, the GHWP and OSU vet program were well known. One of the local adoption programs has just started a partnership with Oregon State University’s vet program. I fully support this, especially as a Beaver fan!
What HorseTech said.
The declawing thing must have been mis-heard. It had to have been a reference to declawed cats being less “lethal” to handle, but not that it’s a method used as a first line of defense used by vets or their staff. That’s really not right.
And I am one of those techs that others seek out for my special feline Ninja skills. I have been called The Cat Whisperer. If the cat’s crazy and can’t be gotten out of the carrier, it looks like the only option is to IM sedate it through the carrier door or dump it in an anesthesia chamber -go get SeaDragon first! (Not that I’m bragging or anything)
My vet’s costs on meds are less than I could get on-line. When Grace (the doberman) was on vetmedin for congestive heart failure, she needed 1 1/2 pills twice a day. About 100 a month. 1-800-pet-meds charges $80 for 50. My vet charged me $52.
As for the dog he saved, perhaps he talked the guy into giving him the dog. I know the guy left, went out to the parking lot, and came back in. And all he paid for her care was $50 ( I was sitting talking to the receptionist as all this was going on), which wouldn’t be much for euthanasia and cremation. All I know is the receptionist was crying because they were euthanizing both my old, sick dog and this young healthy one that evening. Later the vet told her they weren’t going to have to euthanize the young dog, that he’d be doing the surgery and rehoming her.
My vets are a couple who retired to Tennessee from Oregon and started this practice to have a little side income. They’ve had to add a third vet to the practice and are thinking of expanding the office because they’re so busy. The husband complains a little, because his hobby is restoring old tractors and he never has time to do it.
StG
I’ve used it, when my cat Seth was on a vet insulin, but it wasn’t much cheaper than getting it directly from our vet, so we didn’t bother. The needles were cheaper than through the vet, but when he switched to a human insulin, it was cheaper to get everything at Walgreen’s. I think the savings just depend on what you’re getting and what other sources you have available to get it.
We had insurance for him, he was diabetic when we got him so it made sense, and when he got sick (brain tumor) it was a lifesaver, since all our vet visits were covered. Our vet will also work out a payment plan if you need it, too. Fortunately, we didn’t, but if he wasn’t insured, we would have.
ETA: We also got some free testing, because our vet suspected he had Cushing’s, which is incredibly rare in cats - he was thinking of writing up a paper on Seth if that was the case.
How is your boy doing, Sampiro? I have fond thoughts of him wiggling in your lap in your YouTube debut.
He’s “good as can be expected”, thanks for asking. He has a little (actually a big) Frankenstein belly with all the stitches. My main worry is that his ‘brother’ (no relation actually) will be so thrilled to see him he’ll hurt him, so I’ve set up a crate for him.
Ollie, the jackmut (half Jack Russell, half itinerant day laborer who came to dinner) is usually the most hyper dog on Earth when he’s not being a total beanbag, but ever since Mardi’s been away he’s been pitiful; he’s not eating like he usually does, he’s constantly looking for something (Mardi I’m pretty sure), clingier than usual, and not nearly as playful. They’ve lived together for about 3 1/2 years and constantly squabble (few actual fights) but have rarely spent more than a night apart and while I might be anthropomorphizing a bit much I think ultimately they care about each other and Mardi missing is responsible for Ollie’s weirdness. (They definitely both had a sort of mourning for my mother.) I’ve been wishing I could do the Vulcan mind meld on him to assure him “Mardi’s okay”. (Ollie’s the one in this video, Mardi [who had surgery] is the fat boy fromthis one.)
My Shepherd has a $3000 artificial elbow paid for by the staff of the emergency hospital. He was such a sweetheart even half-starved in such enormous amounts of pain, with a shattered leg and extensive bruising… that they all chipped in a few hundred dollars to save his leg. One of the techs was going to keep him, but her girlfriend vetoed it, and I knew the girlfriend, so they gave him to me. 
Aw. That’s so sweet, I bet they will be so happy to see each other again. My dogs are very attached and will get upset if they get shut in different rooms.
My dog was attacked the night before Thanksgiving as well. Amazingly, the other dog was a female 11 year old Golden mix, offleash. He had on a chest harness, not quite 4 and a bullboxer. By the end, he had three scratches, and she was bleeding profusely. It was incredibly bizarre; her owners claimed she’d never been in a fight, but tons of dogs aren’t properly socialized, via walking or simply playing with a variety of other dogs, so I assume this was the problem.
As for vet prices fluctuating Sampiro, in my parent’s small town of 30 thousand people, it does vary. The local vet in a nicer neighborhood quoted my mom a price of $200 for a few shots and a test that were done for $60 at an office a bit off the beaten path. My mom was hesitant to try a new place that wasn’t as “nice”, but it turned out very well. Price fluctuation is a result of a variety of factors, but certainly not ability. Apparently the vet off the beaten path also had many more large breed dogs (good for us), and was even more liked by our bullboxer.
In the future, if you have the option, try calling around for pricing on various procedures. You’d be surprised (as we certainly were) with what you’ll find out.
(emphasis added)
Lindsaybluth, the underlined sentence may be true to a certain extent and for certain things (e.g., vaccines), but there are causes of variability in pricing that DO affect the experience and possibly outcome for the animal, even if it’s not apparent up-front. Unfortunately, most pet owners are not aware of the differences in practices or what is considered by the profession at large to be modern standards of care – they have to trust the vet. -I promise you, the cheap $75 spay is almost certainly NOT getting the same level of care and pain control as the $200 spay.
Some examples of things that are affected by price and can vary dramatically between practices:
These things are often not apparent up front; you’d have to know what to look for and ask specifically.
To give you a situation from my own experience, my friend’s equine vet (for whom I worked for several years) charges more than most horse vets in the area. Almost everyone else at her barn uses Dr. X, who charges less and has been in the area for a long time. He has some completely off-the-wall diagnostic and prescribing habits, but people love him because they don’t know better, so when he says “Your horse need drug X,” or, “No, he doesn’t need an ultrasound or x-rays to diagnose his lameness, just give him some Bute (horse aspirin) and keep riding him” they believe him. Why wouldn’t they? They didn’t go to vet school. And yet, I’ve seen him give horses drugs that were completely inappropriate for even the imaginary diagnosis (imaginary as in none of the other, board-certified horse vets I talked to had heard of diagnosing a horse with such), as I confirmed by consulting veterinary textbooks and conversations with multiple other vets.
I guess my situation is not directly relevant to the idea of looking around for a better price on a specific procedure, but it shows you how animal owners are not in a position to accurately judge the quality of their pet’s care, just as people are not very good at judging the quality (by which I mean general adherence to high standards of practice) of their health care.
I’m not denying that there are good vets who are cheaper than others and bad vets who are expensive, but high quality care is more expensive to provide (drugs, technical support) than minimal care. If you are on a tight budget, sure, minimal care is vastly better than no care, but don’t pride yourself too much on getting a deal on vet care.
1800PetMeds is often one of the more expensive online sites, maybe because of how much they advertise. There are many cheaper ones. Google what you need and compare prices; they fluctuate often. I usually use Omaha Vaccine, but there are plenty of others. I found tremendous savings with them compared to the vet when I needed to get Atopica. Also, they carry a cheaper version of Advantage called Biospot which is less than 1/3 the price.
Thanks for pointing that out, I definitely should clarify. First of all, I was talking only strictly about cats and dogs; I know zero about horses and other exotic animals. I was referencing the OP, so specifically for dogs. Still though, for large procedures, I certainly would shop around and compare prices, obviously asking for what the procedure does and doesn’t include. If one doctor has more training and a higher overhead (health care, building location, etc) than another, you’re paying his or her educational costs and their increased overhead in every procedure, like shots and the like.
I guess I assumed people on the SDMB are a touch smarter (now sans joining fee, it’s obviously up for debate) than the general populace - I was assuming they could better judge their pets care just as they would their own. I certainly know how rare this is, as my father is a physician with excellent results and pretty awful bedside manner; people often think his attitude is a reflection of their care. Heh, speaking of bedside manner, my mom was never told our dog was getting chubby by the first vet; the second one came right out and said in the first 5 minutes that he couldn’t gain more weight, and told her point blank to stop giving him people food. Our more expensive vet wouldn’t have dared to tell an owner so directly.
Incidentally, when my dog was neutered (he was abandoned, we adopted, etc) we went with the expensive procedure because it included anesthetic and they watched him for hours, both of which he wouldn’t have received though a deeply discounted procedure available for bully breed pups.
Just as you’ll get rogue doctors, you’ll get rogue vets, but the vast majority aren’t going to be like Dr. X.
Someone’s neutering dogs without anaesthesia?? :eek:
I’m glad to read this about mixed amount of attention.
There’s a spay/neuter place here in town where that’s all they do- no other services, just spaying and neutering- and they’re a lot cheaper than vets (<$100 compared to >$200 at other places) and I’ve considered taking my Jack Russell mix there, particularly now that the other is neutered (and Ollie is wild so if there’s even a chance it might make him a bit less agressive with other dogs it’s worth it). Now I want to learn what they give by way of follow up.