Keeping Pets?? $$$$

[exoticsdr]

Ok who is for a mass exodus to texas? hos is the job market there? and the taxes?

Lots of jobs, depending on what you do....no state income tax, property taxes high by our standards (but not by yours) and housing probably much cheaper than what you are used to. I watch alot of HGTV and those home renovation shows and am amazed that houses with no land go for $500-800K and folks act like it's a bargain.

 

[wellington]

I have pet insurance for my bull terrier. She was 4 in July and I have already spent over $15,000.00 to get an ACL fixed and two surgeries to have a foreign object removed. Her insurance is through the ASPCA and is not that expensive, 200.00 plus but they will only pay upto $1500.00 per incident and only 80% of covered costs. It's not much but every little bit helps when your spending a lot. Our office visits are $59.00 to walk in the door and if you have to go to the emergency vet, like we had to, twice, it's $99.00 to walk in the door. I used to work for a vet when I lived in Michigan, what a shock when I moved to Chicago and had to pay their prices. I used to do stool samples for worms, etc. myself and we charged $15.00, in Chicago it's $38.00, ouch, really hurts when I used to do it myself. Our love for our animals are not cheap, but I wouldn't have it any other way, and my husband was warned about what I would spend, anything it takes to save my pets.

WOW, your costs really stink!

Don't get me going on fecal test.. $59 bucks to have Tonys stool sample Checked ..

 

[CtTortoiseMom]

Our wallets and our animals would all do better in Texas!!! To Texas!

 

[wellington]

Texas? I don't like the kind of "Bushes" you have in Texas, they aren't in the area you live are they? I could sure use a vacation, and my bully is due for her shots. Make me an appointment, when's the caravan heading out?

 

[exoticsdr]

Our wallets and our animals would all do better in Texas!!! To Texas!

Erin, as always, I appreciate the sentiment...you, Robert and family (humand and furry/shelled) are always welcome here.

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As far as I can tell, it would be cheaper for all of you to drive to Texas and let me do your surgeries. You can stay at the house, play with roos and after a day or two drive home and still be a couple hundred richer than you are now.

Thinking that some of us will be making a road trip someday. But do we have to play with the roos, I think they kick and box or is that only in the cartoons.

I bottle raised my roos and the male does tend to get a little froggy with me, but is very gentle with strangers. The female is very sweet with everyone.

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Texas? I don't like the kind of "Bushes" you have in Texas, they aren't in the area you live are they? I could sure use a vacation, and my bully is due for her shots. Make me an appointment, when's the caravan heading out?

AAWWWWW, now why did you have to bring politics into it?...Now I'm going to have to charge you a "political differences premium".
But, you're still welcome to come....smile.

 

[Floof]

Oh man, I hate going to the vet. Back in my home town, the vet charges $45 just for the office visit... Much less anything else. It was $800 or so to get a tumor removed from the boxer's neck. It was $2000 for my mom's dog's broken leg and spay surgery. Some ungodly expense that broke the bank and had us in debt to the vet clinic (payment plan) for years to get the boxer's torn ACL fixed (was too young to know how much it was)... And those were just the big expenses... I don't think we ever once walked out of there for under $100. Seriously, ouch!

Then we moved down here to Utah, and found a vet that actually charges reasonable prices. Our first visit, we wanted to get a skin tag removed from the boxer's chest, and it was a whopping $25 office visit charge, and no charge for the procedure. Cheapest vet visit I have ever experienced. Today, we took the little dog in... Time for his boosters, plus a dose of dewormer (he managed to get a tapeworm, ew!), and the office visit included a quick nail trim and cursory facial hair trim. We even took the boxer in to get a dose of dewormer. After all was said and done, the visit was $52. That same visit to our last vet would have cost $200 minimum ($10 for the nail trim, an extra office visit charge for looking at the second dog, and otherwise inflated prices).

I'm really, really hoping my old vet was just a "boonies" phenomenon, only one other vet in a 30-40 mile radius, and that his costs aren't representative of the region, because I'm thinking about moving back to the PNW in the next year and I really can't go back to paying an arm and a leg for basic care...

Then there's the cost of vet care for exotics.. Every reptile vet I've gone to charges $40-50 office visit, plus overall higher cost... But I can understand having to pay more for the specialized service...

 

[wellington]

Our wallets and our animals would all do better in Texas!!! To Texas!

Erin, as always, I appreciate the sentiment...you, Robert and family (humand and furry/shelled) are always welcome here.

---

As far as I can tell, it would be cheaper for all of you to drive to Texas and let me do your surgeries. You can stay at the house, play with roos and after a day or two drive home and still be a couple hundred richer than you are now.

Thinking that some of us will be making a road trip someday. But do we have to play with the roos, I think they kick and box or is that only in the cartoons.

I bottle raised my roos and the male does tend to get a little froggy with me, but is very gentle with strangers. The female is very sweet with everyone.

---

Texas? I don't like the kind of "Bushes" you have in Texas, they aren't in the area you live are they? I could sure use a vacation, and my bully is due for her shots. Make me an appointment, when's the caravan heading out?

AAWWWWW, now why did you have to bring politics into it?...Now I'm going to have to charge you a "political differences premium".
But, you're still welcome to come....smile.

---

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Political? Me, a Chicago girl political! I just don't like certain Bushes Thanks for letting me still come.

 

[Floof]

Oh, and I love the mass exodus to Texas idea! Nice climate AND affordable vet care, can't get better than that!

 

[lynnedit]

My sister is a vet in Moscow, Idaho, in a small converted house with 1-2 other vets. Really reasonable and some of her stories are amazing. A new big fancy Vet clinic went in last year. They lure you in with a less expensive 'spay', then they get you.
Too bad.
I would drive to Texas, but too many states in between, darn it!

 

[CtTortoiseMom]

My sister is a vet in Moscow, Idaho, in a small converted house with 1-2 other vets. Really reasonable and some of her stories are amazing. A new big fancy Vet clinic went in last year. They lure you in with a less expensive 'spay', then they get you.
Too bad.
I would drive to Texas, but too many states in between, darn it!

That is sad, I would choose the converted house over the fancy place any day!

 

[lynnedit]

yeah, remind me to tell ya'll sometime about the time she sewed up the chicken's butt... the prized chicken got a little too cocky with the neighbor dogs...

 

[Morty the Torty]

I've been taking my 4 yr old puggle to Banfield since she was a baby and I love it there. At $25 a month I feel it's affordable for all her vet visits

 

[ALDABRAMAN]

PLEASE!!!!!!! Move to Southeast Texas!!!!! I could use some clients like you and will be much easier on your pocketbook. The eastern seaboard (as well as the western, I would imagine) are pretty hard on pet owners financially...my brother said that he brought his bird ( a cockatiel) in to get its wings clipped and they wanted $75.....I do it daily for $14....would rather do it for $75...but I do it for $14.

 

[Yvonne G]

Ok who is for a mass exodus to texas? hos is the job market there? and the taxes?

We can stop and pick up members on the way - car pool!!


I get a break on labor at the vet because I usually bring in rescues, but for my regular pet/animals he charges $35 ofc visit then $25 on top of that for exotic exam. Then plus whatever procedure or medication is required.

 

[Torty Mom]

Having my Blue and gold groomed $25.00. Beak, nails, and wings.

 

[exoticsdr]

Hey don't get me wrong, I feel that most vets charge totally incorrectly for thier services...i.e. too much markup on meds and not enough value placed on the medical know how. There is a huge disperity between human medicine prices and veterinary care prices and perhaps that is because of the value placed on human life as compared to the lives of our pets, but that is a conversation for another day. The problem is the education is just as if not more expensive, the building, diagnostic equipment, treatment equipment, surgical equipment and monitoring equipment are all exactly then same in function and cost....so while a doctor's office charges your insurance a couple hundred dollars for your visit and you pay a $20 co-pay (the doctor may order several hundred dollars of diagnostics also, none of which you are consulted on or have a choice in), the vet makes $30-50 (and has to ask permission and justify our diagnostic choices) Out of that about 50% is going to pay staff salaries, ~20% to Uncle Sam, 20% to maintenance, utilities, property taxes etc and the rest is gravy. My school loans totalled to right at $250k...average starting salary when I graduated was $45-55k. MD's average start when I graduated was $200K+.

Should an ACL surgery cost $15000....I don't think that is quite fair, should an uncomplicated spay cost $800...no, I don't think so.....I do feel that $1500 is not unfair for an ACL repair...it's a technically difficult, time consuming surgery for the doctor and the technical staff, we charge spay prices by the dog's weight and there is an added charge if the dog is in heat or pregnant...a spay on a 150# Mastiff who is in heat may cost as much as $300 (premeds, injectable anesthesia, gas maintenance anesthesia, ECG monitoring, Pulse oximetery, blood pressure, surgery, and having a technician physically monitor the patient from first injection until they are awake and able to stand).....is that really too much, I don't think so. I could give example after example. BTW, I generally end up doing several thousand dollars a month work of work at no charge.

 

[wellington]

I just wanted to correct a misunderstanding, the ACL surgery wasn't $15,000.00, it was $6000.00 and the other two surgeries to remove objects she had swallowed equaled a little more than $9000.00 for the two. You can get a cheaper ACL surgery, however she was only two and would only have upto 70% movement, at such a young age and being an active Bull Terrier, we opted for the more expensive surgery. I think the biggest cost in vet care is location. The rent/property where I live is one of the highest in the city. If you lived/survived on the West side of the city I'm sure you would pay a lot less. I also have to have a veterinarian that understands how important my animals are to me and that they are not just a piece of property and that yes, I will be involved in making the decisions. I feel a lot of vets, like human doctors, here anyway, want to order several test at once instead of waiting for results before going on to the next thing. Yes I will pay what it takes, but don't do more than what is needed. I also feel though that a human doctor could never be a vet, it takes an animal lover to be a vet and to be able to help a patient that can't tell you a thing that they are feeling, but a vet could be a human doctor, but they probably would hate it. Who wants to put up with a bunch of whining patients!. The cost is sometimes a killer, but as long as there is a chance, I will pay. My hats off to all Veterinarians, l am glad you are there to do what you do. It may not feel like it sometimes, but you are always appreciated, by me anyway.

 

[CtTortoiseMom]

Everyone has terrible vet stories. You live, you learn. I go to one practice for my dog and another for the tortoises. My vet's are wonderful people and genuine animal lovers. A little research goes a long way. Do I have to pay in full, of course! Why shouldn't I, Vet's have to make a living too! As an animal owner/lover I feel that having a decent Vet is a necessary expenditure and a worse case scenario fund should be established before the animal is taken in.

I am not saying that it did not sting a little when Sid got an abscess and needed surgery or when I dropped $350 a couple weeks ago on my basset hound because she ate paper towels and got a bellyache. But, in those instances the peace of mind that my beloved pets were in good hands was worth it.

 

[AnthonyC]

I love my vet! Is he cheap... heck no, but I don't care. I bring my dogs to him for their annuals, and I take them there when they are sick & as long as he identifies & rectifies the problem I'm happy. Do I like shelling out big bucks for the visit, treatment, and meds... NO.. BUT I sure like it a lot better than having a sick, sad, unhealthy dog.

HAPPY DOG; HAPPY OWER!

 

[Tom]

Boy have I got some vet stories... both good and bad. I worked retail pets for around 8 years until I left for college and I was usually the guy who took the pet store animals to the vet. Once I graduated from I college I went to work as an animal trainer for the entertainment industry. For the last 15 years I have worked at a compound with over 100 animals of all shapes and sizes, plus I work for several other companies that have there own 100+ animals. Also, my wife is a veterinary sales consultant and she knows and works with nearly every vet in a 100 mile radius of here. There are good ones and there are bad ones, just like any other profession. We had one vet who was a good vet and charged us a reasonable amount while also giving us a "professional discount", due to the large number of "pets" we brought in. Having me as a client is like having 150 regular pet owners. At one point he brought in a "consulting firm" to evaluate his business and try to make it more "profitable". When the consulting firm was done, the rates on everything went up, we started getting nickel and dimed for everything, and the discount went away for certain things. We started getting charged more for a spay or neuter, and then the would be an additional $25 charge for bandaging, $35 for injectable meds, $35 for this and $15 for that..., all on top of the originally agreed upon price. So a "$50" cat neuter would end up costing us $128 after all the "hidden" charges. I tried to discuss this with the vet several times, but to no avail. I tried to explain that his business would not be more "profitable" if his customer felt ripped-off and left to go to one of the other 15 vets in the area. I guess since he wasn't paying me stupid amounts of money, he was immune to MY "consultation". I explained to him that he had essentially paid these "consultants thousands of dollars to tell him how to ruin his business and drive away his best customers. We left and so did many others clients. He nearly went bankrupt before finally reverting back to his old ways, but by then we had found a more reasonable vet closer to us. Sad... we really liked him.

Dr. Westin is right about things depending on the area. I did a job in rural Louisiana and needed some emergency vet care for possible poison ingestion. The bill for all sorts of amazingly good vet care was around $90. I could not understand how they could stay in business in such a nice vet hospital for so little money. That would have been a $500 dollar vet bill on the East or West coast. The Louisiana vet explained that in those parts people would rather just get a new dog than pay a $50 vet bill for something easily treatable. Very sad. The service was excellent. The care was top notch. And this vet knew his stuff. I tipped him $50 and asked him if he'd like to move to CA. He said the money would be better, but the overhead would be even bigger. I sympathize with vets. The schooling is astronomically expensive, but its very difficult to earn the money back from an average pet owner.

When I was a little boy I had a $3 pet rat. After two years it developed a brain tumor (very common). Our vet said he could do brain surgery for $300 dollars. (This was in the 80's.) $300 for BRAIN SURGERY! It cost that vet around the same amount of money to learn brain surgery as it did a human brain surgeon. Can you imagine finding out it would cost $300 for brain surgery on yourself. I'd go find a doctor that was charging at least 1000% more. In the end we decided that since he was already so old and that the surgery might not save him anyway, that we'd just euthanize him and give him a proper backyard, teary-eyed, burial.

Its tough to make it as a vet. Especially when a relatively minor procedure costs more than the purchase price (or replacement cost) of the animal. That's why I find it silly that someone wants to save $20 on the purchase price of a tortoise, but ends up with a $500 dollar vet bill because the cheaper tortoise simply wasn't cared for as well to begin with. Sure a russian from Petco is cheaper than one from a breeder. But guess what...

Finding a vet like Dr. Westin is like finding gold. If you are lucky enough to find one like that treat them well, be appreciative and send more business their way. You do NOT want a vet like that to leave the area or go out of business. To anyone getting charge $59 for a fecal with no office visit, my sympathies are with you... I've been there too.