Share your veterinary nightmares---or why I hate vets! - Page 3

OMG gsdlvr!  What part of the country do you live??? 5k for one week of care and $2600 for a spay! I guess I am just over sensitive when people say "vets only care about money"  My vet charges a very resonable $96 for a large dog spay-of course extras like bloodwork/cath & fluids, etc are additional-but you would not believe how many people have coronaries when they hear that price, they think it should be $25 or so Hearing stories like yours make me understand that comment better now!

OK, here's another repro nightmare. It didn't happen to me. I learned from a friend who used to take her dogs to this vet.

A woman took her female to the vet because of some enlargement of her abdomen. Afer going back  to the clinic several times, she wondered aloud if her bitch could be pregnant. With no xrays, the vet said "no"--not possible. Over the weeks, the bitch continued to grow in girth. Finally, the vet said the bitch had an inoperable tumor and that euthanasia would be a kindness to the poor dog.

Lo and behold, after euthanizing the bitch, he performed an necropsy to determine the extent of metastasis and found 7 almost full term puppies!  He offered the woman a cash settlement and swore her and his staff to secrecy on this matter.

Well, hell, you know how "good news" travels. My friend who related this scenario to me, yanked her dogs and their records from this clinic, and sought future veterinary care elsewhere. When she asked for the records, the staff said nothing but looked very uncomfortable.

My first gsd was suffering from severe nose bleeds.  My vet forwarded me to a specialist who performed an endoscopy.  When I went back later in the day for the consultation, I was told she had a malignant sinus tumor and gave her 3 to 6 mos to live without radiation and possibly 6 to 10  months with radiation. He asked if I wanted it biopsied (which I could not understand why they did not take it while she was under sedation during the scope) and told me she would have to stay over night for that.  Since he said he was 97% certain on the type of tumor, I declined.  I just wanted to take her home.  He made me feel like a horrible person because I told him I would not put her through radiation just to extend her life a few months.  He wrote a note to my vet (which he gave me a copy of) pretty much saying I declined treatment so the dog would be dead within a few months.  Long story short - she was diagnosed at age 8 and she lived until she was just shy of 14.  Nose bleeds decreased over time, and the tumor never spread.  My vet said he could not explain it!

Years ago a different dog had her first litter.  The day before she delivered, she just did not seem right, so I took her in for an emergency visit and I told them she was not feeling well.  My vet was not in, so I ended up with another vet that I never had before.  He looked at the dog - told me she was pregnent  (duh) and that was why she was not feeling well.  Never took her temp, just listened to her heart.  She delivered the next day and within 1 week - started lifting her nose in the air when she was nursing - stretching her neck.   I called the vet and they told me she was probably a nervous first time mother and to make sure she was in a quiet place.  Then I noticed she would not lay down and started falling over.  I put her in the car and rushed her to the vet.  They took a chest xray which showed some type of lung infiltration, but they were uncertain what is was.  She also had a high fevor.  They put her on antibiotics and sent her home.  Two hours later I rushed her back - she had collasped.  She ended up in intensive care for 7 days in an oxygen tent with iv antibiotics.  Luckily she pulled through,

C

     I THANK "GOD", I have "GOOD HEALTHY DOGS"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I agree with some who say they are all about the money, I have been charged for tests and screening that was never done.

I have been to new young vets with no experience and they really scare me the most.   My favorite vet , that any of you would have loved sadly passed away.  He served many animals very well for many years. There arent many like him anymore.

As in every profession there are those who just dont care to do anything with much effort. The sliders I call them.

I have a vet now who is new and young, I watch him closely and never take anything for granted with him.  He seems to care but he's still inexperienced and always trying to sell me something I dont want or dont need.  It still goes back to the money.

There are good vets out there though. When Bandit was sick I brought her with when we got our cat his first kitten shots and while we were in the exam room, our beloved Dr. Becky did a quick exam of her. When I asked if I would be charged, her answer was, "No, accounting doesn't know".  A long time ago my ex had a puppy that came down with parvo. That was how I first met Dr. Becky. I immediately let her know I didn't have alot of money. She said she would play with the bill a little bit, which ended up being about $500 about 8 years ago for a week of hospitilization. I am so horrified reading how truly incompetent some vets can be. I am so thankful ours isn't.

I LOVE my Vet,  I have all his numbers to reach him,  day or night.  He always calls me back and 99% of the time will meet me at the office no matter what.  One time I called and he was in San Fran at the Airport picking up his kids that go to school in New Zealand, and his reply was.. I will meet you at the office in 2 hrs, just give me a 20 mins to get packed up and I will be on my way.

Quite a few of you knew I had a bad Dog Trailer accident back in Oct.  I had 4 dogs with me when my dog trailer came unhooked and flipped over on Hwy 20 right outside of Yuba City.  By the time the Highway patrol came, and I got everything all loaded up into my truck and headed into Yuba City to find a Vet to treat 2 of my dogs that had been hit by a Semi, it was after hours and so I called the phone number on the door of the office, and they wouldnt call anyone in for me because I wasnt a client.  I know if the office would have called someone in,  she would have still probably died,  but I still think about crying and begging the guy to please please please call someone in for me.. and telling him I will pay whatever they want.  Please.  and him saying I am sorry.. but your not a client.  It just makes me sick to think they can treat people that way.  I was so upset by that time, that I couldnt even think about going to the Emergency clinic they were trying to refer me to, which was almost an hour the opposite direction I needed to go, that I called my Vet on his cell phone and he told me he would keep his phone with him and to phone him right before i got into town and he would be at the office in 2 min.  He was of course, but my female died about 1/2 hr before I got there. 

I live 1hr and 10 min from my Vet,  and it is so worth it to use him.  A lot of the time he will talk me thru stuff, so I can decide if I really need to make the drive. 

If you find a good one, stick with them..  They are hard to come by.

KIM

The greed and incompetence displayed by some.

Thankfully, I rarely have vet visits.  My dogs have always been very healthy and for the most part I was fortunate enough to have good veterinarians.  Mine is limited to mostly routine baseline bloodwork and an annual well check after vaccinations are complete.

My last vet was another story.  His greeting to me upon entering the room was, "Oh, it's the woman who is trying to kill her dog again" (I feed raw)  - each and every year that I had Cartier in for his baseline bloodwork as he became a senior - and I chose not to vaccinate after he turned 6 years old.   I know he had that noted in my chart.  My last visit to them was just before Cartier died at more than twice that age...and that bloodwork came back good, too, after he'd died of age.   

The bloodwork was sent to an independant lab so I wasn't overly concerned.  Never had an issue.

What this joker couldn't get past was that he didn't make any money off me/my dogs.  They were healthy and I wasn't buying his "Science Diet" crap.  He also couldn't argue with the results produced from my feeding a raw diet. 

My new vet  www.animalcarevet.vetsuite.com/Templates/puppylove.aspx is a dream.  Exceptional care, ridiculously reasonable prices to boot and they do their own emergency care.  They are 10 minutes away if I'm driving the speed limit and get stopped at all the lights.  I can't say enough about them.

There are still a few good ones out there.  It's just a matter of finding them.

My recent vet, I must say I really like.  However, there are three vets in this practice and one of the three I really think is just there for the paycheck.  He is so detached from anything he does.  It's like a factory assembly line to him.  The other two vets are co-owners and both are good but, the older, original vet is still by far the best.  You can call him at any time about anything and he really does try to answer all of your questions and goes into depth on everything.  He loves German Shepherds too so, that's a plus.

I switched to him after my previous (hi-tech) vet became so wrapped up in money that everytime I'd take my beagles in, there would be all these "new" tests they had to run.  I came out of there one day when I took the two beagles in for yearly boosters and the bill was near $500.  One had been diagnosed with Lyme Disease and had to be kept for treatment (just a few hours) and the other had an allergic reaction to one of the vaccines (they believe it was the Rabies).  I understand those procedures costing more but, everything with them was something else each time we went in to add that bill up.

Now, it seems that my current vet has a policy where they are trying to urge their customers to purchase all of their meds from them vs places such as 1-800 pedmeds (which is where I've been getting mine for the past couple of years).  Anyway, perhaps it may save me more money but, I am one who likes to make up my own mind where I will purchase things, pleas do not force me to try to get it from you.  Well, when they try do their sales pitch on me, it sort of ruffles my feathers and until I make that decision myself, don't force it on me.  Well, now, they've initiated a "prescription fee" of $6.50 since I've decided to continue with pedmeds.  It just pissed me off to no end and irregardless of the extra money, makes me stick by my guns that much more to keep purchasing from pedmeds!  Now, they're forcing you to have a heartworm test done yearly also or they will not allow you to reorder the heartworm.  Always a way to suck it out of our pockets.

I'm so glad I've not had any of the issues you all above have had.