I love dogs and love my dogs. when they pass away I will never own another pet again. and vet costs are the main reason why.

a little stomach virus and diarrhea for my dog cost me $275 last week.

pet ownership is too damn expensive.

Our lab had surgery to remove an obstruction Friday before last. It was late Friday afternoon when his condition began declining rapidly. It was pricey to say the least and I would have rather spent less, but I'm really mostly very grateful that we had an option to complete the surgery before his condition worsened. Watching the process unfold, I can see how the costs are what they are.

I agree with the country vet thing, I use McBride in Burnet.
I think the difference is that country vets or large animal vets know going in that they not getting rich.

The average small animal vet knows that they are not getting rich also. As mentioned earlier, the influx of private equity has a large impact on the overall prices that are being charged.

While I would enjoy having a pet, veterinary cost is one of the reasons I don't have a dog or cat. It would be my luck to get a pet that needs surgery/procedures.

I'll stick to aquariums and fish. Upfront and upkeep costs may be a little high. but if I loss a few dollar fish, by bank account won't be hurting. Would love to get back into a saltwater reef tank, but losing a $30+ fish or some expensive coral doesn't overcome the enjoyment of the view of a reef anymore.

Vets are trained to bleed you dry, Went to one last night dog had a cyst that burst with some diarrhea. MAN 2k later. They also would not give me a direction on treatment or opinions on what they thought. IT is systematic, nothing on the 600 Xrays so we need a 1k ultarsound to rule out cancer.

And don't think a country vet is much different, they are trained the same way. You have to build that relationship and spend years to get to the other side of that brick wall.

I asked a vet to his face on how would he treat this disease, which route? (i deal alot with livestock) dude looked at me and said, ill explain what i do but I won't answer that question, which is going to make you mad. They are terrified of a lawsuit.

Sounds like you need a new vet. I've not had these experiences in this thread with any vet I've used in 40 years and that includes my current one that handles ALL of our animals at the ranch AND he makes a ranch call to do it.

That price is almost a third of my annual vet bill….with the ranch call….for 10 horses, 6 dogs, 5 cats, and any meds that he drops on the picnic table at the house.

vets for work, vets for my pets and vets for my livestock are ALL different, plus the vets I take seminars from. So i deal with alot of variety. Working on consolidating all of them into one place. I do have vets like yours I work with but more times than not they won't have that open communication with you. 10-15 years ago, the vet association was trying to make palpating cows illegal for farmers, can only be done by a vet. It's wild. Therapeutic treatments, like laser therapy, it is illegal to operate those without a veterinarian license. No medication, no withdrawal but can't let someone thats not a vet make a buck.

I would agree with you 100%. I've had basically the same with our vets.

sam callahan said:

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What costs me $450 at my local suburban vet costs me $125 at the small town vet an hour away.

Of course the waiting room is a wooden bench and an old cowboy cartoon on the wall. Not a boutique decor and fancy cushy chairs with candles burning.

I'll take the wooden bench.

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same thing with me, use the big city vet and prices are stupid, use the small town guy where I grew up and everything is reasonable. dont support those big city vets charging big city prices.