Why does everyone answer by saying "Vet"?!?

Question

Of course we all like to keep our animals healthy and take them to the vet regularly, it's what you do when you love something or someone, you take care of it/them! Though everytime someone asks a question on here and also includes that the animal is healthy and has already been to a vet, people still reply that they should take the animal to a vet! We're not asking the general public for an answer that we already know or have already done, and I highly doubt everyone on here is rich enough to make a daily vet visit.

This is not intended to affend, I'm just curious why it's so common. Just a little perplexed!

Answer 1

A lot of the problems that people write to this forum about appear to be serious or life threatening problems. I don't think any of us expect people to run to the vet every time their pet is sick, but when someone writes and says that their animal has not eaten in 3 days or has bloody diarrhea or is listless and breathing hard, those are things that the pet should be taken to the vet for. If you have taken your pet to the vet and are following the vets orders and giving the medication that the vet has given you, why would you write to this forum asking questions? That's why you went to the vet in the first place. I would think any body of any intelligence who had taken their pet to the vet and the cure did not seem to be working, would have enough sense to make a call to the vet and say, It's not working.

Answer 2

Many of the questions being asked could be signs of something more serious that cannot be diagnosed by a non-trained person. It also seems to me that a lot of these people take their animals to the vet, get some diagnosis they don't fully understand, then come to this place to get clarification but because we weren't there, we really cannot give specific advice and certainly would not want to give erroneous or merely hopeful advice that might give the asker the idea that they can simply ignore the problem and it'll go away when often if a vet caught the problem early enough, the animal might have been saved (or it would not have been so hugely involved and expensive). A whole lot of people never question a doctor, never grill the doctor until they feel sure they know what they need to know--but that's what the doc is for. When you get a question like, "just took my pet to the vet and he said my pet was ill and might die soon--why is this so?" how are we supposed to know what the vet meant? Many of the questions being asked on this site seem to be from people not real familiar with their pets--neither the individual pet itself nor its species--which doesn't encourage me to give the kind of advice I'd give myself (because I know my pets extremely well, researched them before getting them, did the work and have references I can go to when I need an answer). That's why. Also, many of these people don't mention that they recently took their pet to the vet for that ailment. If I had taken my pet for an annual checkup but 2 weeks later she starts limping around for more than a day (or some other not ordinary thing), I take her back to the vet because she might have broken a bone or she might have something I can't see stuck in her foot or a lot of other things could have happened that only the vet can determine. I care about my pet and part of my deal with them when we agreed to cohabitate is that I will pay for their medical bills and upkeep and I take that quite seriously. A health pet won't need "a daily vet visit" but sometimes a pet will show something that demands a visit to the vet.

Answer 3

Like someone else said, sometimes the person answering has not thoroughly read the question.
I'd like to add that I work for a vet. Many people call in the office wanting us to tell them what to do over the phone. Many times this just isn't possible. We don't have crystal balls and can't magically "see" what's going on with your pets over the phone or computer. For instance, what I would consider to be a small amount of blood, another person might see as a huge amount. That's why the best thing to do is bring the animal in. What the owner is describing and what we're hearing could be two different things. So, we need to see the animal before we can ACCURATELY determine what's going on.

Answer 4

In my opinion when someone says they've already been to the vet it means that they forgot to ask the vet something and thought they would get some opinions here just to see if anyone is familiar with their situation. (Or, they just didn't listen well enough when the vet was talking...)

I have learned over the years what questions to ask when I have sick or injured animals and keep a list with the emergency info for all my pets on the refrigerater. |(This makes it easier for when someone is dog sitting for me too.) If I think of something else, I write it down or just call the vet and ask.

As far as being rich, I'm $400 in the hole with my vet right now...

Answer 5

I spent $50 taking my cat to the vet for what turned out to be a scratch on her paw. She wouldn't let me look at it so I assumed the way she was limping, she was possibly in a more serious condition. I learned from experience to check my cat out first. There are problems though that you can't just look at and know and in those cases a vet would be in order. Plus, I don't want to feel responsible if I tell a person whose animal is sick that they will be alright and then something happen to it. We all have some degree of common sense. I also think alot of people answer that to avoid the dreaded thumbs down!

Answer 6

I don't!

I'm not one of those people who runs off to the doctor everytime there is a sniffle, nor am I one of those who runs off to a vet every time my cat sneezes. Usually there is an underlying reason behind changes in behavious which you can run off to the vet and pay $80 to discover or you could use your head and observe the cat to see what has changed.

A lot of times that will tell you more (since you share environment with your pets) than any Vet who see them for five minutes can tell you.

I used to have a cat that lived for 22 years (called Freaky for obvious reasons) and she NEVER went to a vet, not once. The night she passed away she climbed up on the bed, spent ten minutes licking my hand and then just laid down and died. She had the odd UTI here and there, even had kittens once, and never went to a vet.

Answer 7

Because vets are more qualified than most people on here, we can give what we think is the right answer, but, the Vet has the right answer.I do agree that most of us don't have tons of money to take our pets to the vet all the time. Most of the people who tell you to take them to the vet are just trying to be helpful.

Answer 8

i totally agree with you, obviously people cannot afford to go to the vet everyday , so maybe they want a quick answer or someone else has been thru the same situation and know what they are talking about. In most cases it is the simplest thing and everyone says - go to the vet ?????? But i am glad people do think that way about their pets.

Answer 9

Usually, if someone says "Take them to the vet", and the poster has said they already did, it's usually over-looked. Maybe the answerer didn't see that. Or they have no better answer.

Answer 10

I would say people just mean get a second opinion. I ended up having to get a second opinion for my dog who had cancer. The first vet said he was fine. When he didn't get better I took him to another vet, who told me to take him to a specialist, b/c he thought he had cancer. It turns out that the second vet was right.

Not all vets are created equal.