Over the many years breeding we have had a good many experiences with a large number of Vets, so sharing our experiences as well as others will give you a good insight to the huge difference in advice, prices and treatments of the practicing Vets most of us trust and rely on.
Being as we study our dogs here at Chihuahua World, it is only right that we log everything which includes diagnosis's, advice and treatments of the various conditions that our Chihuahuas have encountered over time from colds to caesarians and from vaccinations to vomiting. Also on the outside of this is the general dog owning public who we feel maybe getting the raw end of this saga primarily due to lack of experience with their dog to know any better.
Finding a pattern is never usually a good thing but like it or not the majority of our vets businesses are purely financially driven leaving a huge trail of misdiagnoses, over prescribing and worst of all unnecessarily worried dog owners and breeders.
Listening to our customers and friends as well as having first hand experiences with many vets treating our pets the cycle of huge vet bills was something we had to find out the answer to so we could understand if it was just inflation or something more untoward.
- Misdiagnoses
This can be forgiven in a lot of cases especially with young and inexperienced vets but given the fact that you and i 9 out of 10 times have to bare the cost of this through medication it doesn't become a matter that most of us like to shrug off because of the cost of the drugs involved. We were surprised to see how many times this occurs especially with our breed, this maybe down to the large Chihuahua population currently in our homes brought on by an explosion in popularity over the last decade.
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Medication
Perhaps the biggest issue surrounding the huge vets bills most dog owners face at some stage is the unnecessary prescribing of medication, Drug companies offer huge incentives to Vets to use their drugs, this is evident by the huge margins they have when selling to the public which most people can find out for themselves when finding Pet Medication online, the price differences between them and Vets can be huge so this alone shows the incentive the Vet has to prescribe unnecessarily.
Using many different Vets over the years what we have found also is that there is no consistency in medication prices like there are online, Vets obviously set their own prices for selling them where as online stores compete to offer the lowest price which always fair well with the general public given the hard times we are experiencing. Again given the fact that Vets know we want the best for our dogs, buying a recommended medicine from them usually happens there and then due to the fact we are in a situation where we wouldn't want the Vet to think we were hesitating when it comes to the welfare of our Pet. We have known this to be more of a situation with young Vet Practice owners who maybe more reliant on medication sales for income, the older more established Vets always seem to be the more reasonable, probably due to the fact of the more experienced Vet who realizes that medication is not always needed.
- Treatment
Treatments sometimes are the best way forward whether it be a simple pain killer or even a human way to end the pain permanently. Unfortunately there are a lot of treatments in between that are carried out unnecessarily in theory but are advised on the Vets say so because they know how much we love our animals so will pay as much as we can afford to help or prolong their life. This is something hopefully we all feel, being pet owners, but this is also something the Vet knows so the door is open to make extra money on the back of our compassion and love for our furry friends.This can be a touchy subject as Treatments are never usually judged until we know the outcome of them so our advice here is to put your heart to one side and think not only is this in the best interest of your pet but also with yourself, sometimes a second opinion can throw up surprising results so if you are unsure then there are always other Vets in the area that can offer you this.
A Personal Experience Story
Involves one of our German Shepherds which we all know suffer from hind leg and hip problems so when our 8 year old, called Sheba, was not walking to great us one morning we knew something must be wrong immediately went over to her to try and get her to stand up, although she expressed no pain she immediately fell back to the ground every time we tried this. This raised our concerns for Sheba so after calling the Vet out and lots of prodding and poking, the diagnoses was that it may be a spinal issue due to the fact she had no feeling from her chest down. This as you can imagine followed by the advice of "it would be better to Euthanize her as there was nothing they could do". Although our Chihuahuas don't usually have such issues it was not a decision we were used to making so when thinking she displayed no pain what so ever and being of sound mind we felt she still had plenty to offer, the answer was NO!
Over the next 3 months Sheba enjoyed daily walks in a Doggy Wheelchair that we purchased online which gave her the freedom of a normal dog and let her feel like she had no problem at all. What came next some say may be a miracle but we believe was down to Sheba's determination and the natural healing properties of the body because over these 3 months she tried everyday to stand to come and great us in the morning because she new she was coming for a walk in her wheelchair so with a little more work from us and the determined mind set of Sheba we are now 2 years down the road with her living a normal life of a German Shepherd apart from a slight limp. Ok she will never be able to jump a fence or chase a rabbit but she is here with us enjoying the rest of her life.
Summary
Many of you probably will have had these experiences with some Vets in the past but don't think about it because you are afraid of putting a price on your pets life, always remember you have a choice and rarely is their a magic pill to cure or fix anything so before you take any Vet's diagnoses or advice as gospel take a moment to think about and understand what could be potentially costly situation.
Although most Vets as a whole care for animals as much as we do as owners, finding the right Vet is a key part of your pet ownership so hopefully what we have highlighted here you won't experience but atleast you will have read what is and will continue to happen.
Please take a little more time to read an interesting article published in the Daily Mail from a ex Vet which does confirm some of the topics in our article by clicking the link below.