Vets virtually print their own money !?

Question

If I took my car to garage with a problem and the mechanics fixed the car, but after 2 days or so the same problem arose, they would fix it for free.
If your pet receives treatment that doesn't work, you pay again and again and again.
Any fool can make a wrong diagnosis over and over,
If that happened in my job I'd be fired, Vets just keep on getting paid for it !
What's that all about then ?

Since pet insurance became popular I've never seen a poor vet.

Answer 1

animals aren't machines that have simple operating systems.

Just as in human health, the symptoms for one thing can mimick another. Animals make it even more difficult by not being able to tell the Vet what's wrong.

Health care is expensive. Human or otherwise.

Answer 2

You can't just hook a pet to a diagnostic machine and run a test.
The repairs you make are not guaranteed. The way your pet reacts is not guaranteed.
It's very different from fixing a car. With a car, you run a diagnostic, if a part is bad you replace it with a new part. If the new part is bad it's covered by a warranty..
How well your pet recovers and how well your vet diagnoses will depend a lot on you, the pet owner. Your vet relies on you to know what your dog is usually like and to notice subtle differences. What is normal in some dogs, is not normal in others and the range for normal behavior in dogs and other animals is rather wide.. My dog hurt her back recently. I could tell my vet what movements made her wince, and what she seemed to be particularly avoiding. Because I knew that, he narrowed it down to a small area and found the problem in the first attempt.
If you don't have a good relationship with your vet, you need to find a new vet. It's crucial that you be able to communicate clearly with your vet so that you understand how well a medication is expected to work and what the prognosis is.
If my vet sent me home a medicine he thought would work, and it didn't seem to help, I would call him back and let him know. Some conditions don't respond very well no matter what is prescribed and your vet can't control how your dog heals.
I don't think you have much respect for veterinarians. That's probably hurting your relationship with yours. A veterinarian goes to school for as long as a human doctor does. They pay over $40,000 a year for 8 years to go through that schooling. Then, they graduate to make less then a 1/3 of what a regular old family doctor would make. They do complex surgeries and lab work in addition to office work on several different species and make less then a doctor that just sticks a stethoscope to your back a couple times and sends you on to a specialist.
Get a new vet and try to build a better relationship with this one from the get go. Don't assume you know it all.. Ask more questions when you're in there.. Ask how likely it is that a medication is going to work. Find out more about what your pet actually has so you understand what's going on..
Some things, like UTI's, allergies, and feline URI's are a pain in the rear to treat just for an example.. They don't all respond the same way to treatment and a lot depends on your pets immune system which your vet cannot control..

Answer 3

Here a scenario for you. When we got bella she was 10 week old. For the first 24 hours, she didn't eat, drink, poop nothing.. She became lethargic... I became worried and phoned the vets to ask advice (god I wish I'd phoned the RSPCA now) The vet said bring her down now, at that age they go down hill really quick! So I rushed her into the car, thinking I was gonna lose her if I didn't. When we got there he made us wait for 30 mins. Its was out of hours so I knew it would be a bit more expensive that usual. A lady left with her dog and we went in... she was fine but had flees so I asked about treatment, he brought out two products.. one for her and one my persian (either I could of bought from a shop) So the time came to pay... he said he didn't know how to work the till so we agreed to pop in a few days later. Work meant getting in was hard but on the day we were due to go in a bill arrived. £90 he wanted. Well I started writting. I said lots of things and eventually got the price down to £40 which to me seemed fair. However My step mother took her cat to another vets practice which is part of the same company. We're under the same address so my bill came up. The receptionist said you have an outstanding bill of £120 (this is what had incured in the time we were negotiating) she paid it. So I demanded she cancelled the cheque, that they updated their system and settled the dept. It was four months after the visit when it finally got sorted. That vets interest was with his pocket not my little bella. We don't question them. A handfull make the rest look bad. I always give the vet the third degree now. I want to know EVERYTHING before I step in. It was a lesson learnt.

Answer 4

Some may misdiagnose, but remember the patients are living things and can hide or shift the symptoms. Even human doctors can't get everything right the first time.

Also, many symptoms are similar in a variety of illnesses. That also affects treatment. When a broad spectrum antibiotic doesn't work they need to look at one more specifically tailored to whatever organ or area is the issue, as well as vice versa--too narrow a spectrum may not have the desired affect and a broad band antibiotic may need to be tried.

It's not black and white--patients that are living and organic are always works in flux.

Answer 5

It is in my opinion that it is a rip off a lot of the time. Some Vets play on owners emotions. But if you definitely had to have treatment and it didn't work, you can always get a second opinion from another vet.

Answer 6

one word - insurance!

And watch out for loop holes, dont get a policy which ties you down to a certain amount per condition or year, get a policy with unlimitted, it may cost you a little more in monthly payments but will work out best in the long term, espoecially if you have a dog, remember its teh dog owners fault if the dog runs out in the road and causes an accident, thats when the insurance is really worth its money, car repairs and vet bills to pay for!

Answer 7

One of the more lucrative businesses... Always remember my father in law, now deceased, saying if you do come back in another life...I am coming back as a vet... He had dogs and was always paying bills.

Answer 8

Sounds like you need a new vet that knows what's going on. I have three animals who have been sick and that hasn't happened to me.

Answer 9

i dont think thats true because they have to pay for all the tools and its much harder then fixing a car

Answer 10

stand your ground with them, if they mis-diagnose they should put it right for free too! At least give you the costs of the diagnosis.