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by TessJ10 on 16 March 2009 - 18:03
Perhaps they should take a cut in pay, to make sure the rent gets payed?"
(LOL) Maybe you should take a pay cut, too, so your customers don't have to pay you or your company so much. Really, why don't you take a cut?
How else are there going to BE doctors for our animals if they don't go to school?
And it costs anywhere from $14,000 - $50,000 PER YEAR for 4 years to go. There are only 28 vet schools in the entire USA - each state (with the exception of PA) takes it's own state's students and very, very few (like 1-8) from out of state. PA takes half of its students from out of state. So say, if you live in Colorado and get accepted to your in-state school, you may pay as "little" as $60,000. If you only are accepted at an out-of-state school, or you're in-state for PA, you'll pay around $200,000 to become a vet. That's BEFORE interest. The interest is ticking all the time you're in school, so when you come out it's far, far more than $200,000 you have to pay back. Add all the other costs and they can only lower their costs so much. You have to go where you're accepted. It's not like medical school where there are 100s. There's only 28.
"In a free market system, if people refuse to pay such astronomical amounts, the vets charging them will go out of business, or lower their price."
Yep.
This is already happening. And it has already happened for large animal vets - they just don't make many of them any more. The cost to become one is up to $200,000 and they work brutally long hours for little pay and being out in bad weather and customers kvetching that they still need to take a pay cut. So there is now a terrible shortage of large animal and public health (protecting our food supply) veterinarians. So vets will go out of business and then where will we be when something goes wrong?
Yes, I hate writing those big checks for "little" problems to my vet. But when I sit in that waiting room and look around and start thinking of how much all the stuff I'm looking at costs, and think that she's had to pay it herself, and that she's working 6 days a week, every week, plus showing up for emergencies......ugh, I have to wonder why anyone would do it. Gee, maybe they really do LOVE helping animals.
by Alyssa Myracle on 16 March 2009 - 19:03
Regardless, I wasn't saying I AGREE with the idea that Veterinarians should take a pay cut to make their services more cost efficient or cheaper.
Just pointing out that in reality, it's the only option they have to keep their costs down.
So, when contemplating the cost of our animal's healthcare, we do have to consider whether or not we believe it to be a reasonable alternative to expensive vet bills.
If you believe that your vet should take a self-imposed pay cut, and pass the savings along to you, great.
If you believe that the vet should NOT have to take self-imposed pay cut, well... keep payin' the bill.
by DebiSue on 16 March 2009 - 20:03
Our vet is pretty good about helping us with the cost of some things. He doesn't insist on giving injections himself if several are required. He sold us the the syringes at a little over cost and showed me how to administer the shot when our old girl was hurting. He also writes prescriptions for flea meds so we can order them straight from the company at quite a savings.
I'm sure there are vets who charge less and I know there are vets who charge more. We changed vets when the first one failed to do a complete spay on our old girl. When she came into heat after the 1st spay we thought she had a UTI until I spotted her swollen vulva. By then we had paid a different vet to treat her for the alledged UTI and a carpet cleaning company for the spots on the carpet. Since she had been spayed it was the last thing we and the vets suspected so until the swelling showed we were all scratching our heads. When I realized what was going on we called the vet and raised hell. He was very apologetic, agreed to pay the other vet bill, reimburse us for the meds and carpet cleaning and to re-spay her. Great huh? Except when our girl came home shaved from ribcage to vulva and her skin black as night from the bruising. She was doped to the gills but still in so much pain she wouldn't even try to lie down. She spread her legs out and put her nose on the floor to keep her balance and moaned. We had to force her to lie down and then she rolled over onto her back and placed her feet on the couch next to her and slept for hours. The vet explained he had to open her up like that because if you leave a piece behind, no matter how small, the bitch will continue to come in heat and he wanted to make sure he didn't miss any this time. That may be true and he did make good on reimbursement etc. but we never went back.
We like the one we have now, the only thing that irks me about him is he tries to be political. If my husband and I disagree on something and ask his opinion he dances around the subject in an effort to not take sides. It's funny really, we don't care about WHOM is right we just want to know the correct answer. For example my husband wanted to spay our current girl at 6mo because that is when the vet suggested it. I read on this site to wait until 18mo - 2yrs. So we asked him about it and he disagrees of course but he did admit he knew what I was talking about. So my husband checked out the site and now agrees with you & I. The vet still disagrees but hey, she's our girl so what's he going to do. I think he is used to uneducated people and isn't used to being questioned or worse yet argued with. He really is a good vet, well known and respected in this area. He just rolls his eyes when I say "I've been on the internet" because he knows I've come ready to discuss our options.
Deb
by voneche on 16 March 2009 - 20:03
by Watcher on 17 March 2009 - 01:03
by Liebe on 17 March 2009 - 07:03
Voneche - tell the one who charges £190 that it can be done for £110 and see what he says then!
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