Red Pear Felipe said:

---

Gunny456 said:

---

I take it you live in Austin? Drive to Fredericksburg or Llano and have a country vet look at it. Better yet call AgVet13 on this board and see if she can help you. She is in Dripping Springs.
Be aware she will try to sell you a lab puppy in the process.

---

Where is her practice? I'm in Dripping Springs.

---

Dr. Kim Warren. Will pull up associated business when you search online.

There ya go!

Carib_DVM said:

---

Well I do agree somewhat with you the pricing has gotten outrageous, but it has for everything right? The cost of maintaining a brick and morter clinic nowadays is astronomical.
But heres the deal we have to pay to play the game essentially. The days of a good ole cheap country vet that will do adequate medicine and surgery to save clients money are over. Society in general hates us country vets, the state board thinks we should all be at the same level of technology, staffing, facilities and blah blah as the Ivory Tower in College Station. So there we gotta pay for more equipment, better trained staff, and even more lawyers and insurance for when that 9yo Dobie unexplainably passes during surgery and the client blasts social media, message boards, file state board complaints or evens file a bs lawsuit.
So I as a "country" vet get it but at the same time I am living and practicing at a time where our hands are tied and the powers to be are forcing a more corporate mindset of care.

---

Not all of us hate country vets. Some of us prefer them, but can't see one close by. We used to see a "country vet" who worked part time at the vet clinic nearby. He was only there maybe 1 day per week (pushing 80 years old and close to retirement), but we'd purposely schedule appts so we could see him even if it meant several week delay. But now the vet office he works out of that 1 day per week has just gotten way too expensive. They're double the price of the new clinic we just started going to. Wish I could see the country vet, because he was more about "hands on" diagnosis than reading out what his computer told him, but it's just not feasible.

robbio said:

---

Veterinary Medicine has changed a lot over the years. For instance we never used to offer pain medications for routine spays and neuters. In fact we would say not to use pain medications because that helps restrict activity. In todays world we offer pre-op lab work, IV catheters, coagulation profiles, Elizabethan collars and post-op sedation for routine spays and neuters.

Expectations have changed and the nature of pets have changed also. Todays pets are almost like little humans to some. We have to offer the best medicine and let the owner decline what they don't want. Plus we live in a litigious society and we have to protect ourselves.

In addition, new graduates graduate with massive debt loads.

Plus we have to manage the expectations of our clientele. I may think a pet, for instance, will get better on its own but I rarely recommend that. My level of paranoia has to at least match my clients level of paranoia or else I get bad google reviews. I have been called a "god" and a "monster" on google reviews... neither are true. We live in a complicated world.

I will say a lot of free Veterinary advice has been given on this forum.

---

I'll speak for my daughter. We took care of undergrad and the first year of vet school with the savings we had, she took care of the rest. She started in a privately owned clinic making really good money and was able to pay off her loans because she concentrated on that. Then the owner sold out and she got the taste of corporate ownership. It lasted about 18 more months and she moved on to another smaller corporate, but better than the previous. Things changed pretty quickly with costs and requirements.

As mentioned, so many clinics are now corporate and that comes with elevated costs. Also, Vets tend to want to deal with animals and the owners are secondary. I'm sure plenty of you have hundreds of stories about the crazies that come in or want to argue with you or don't want to follow post surgery recommendations, etc. Hell, my daughter had a woman come in and swore her dog swallowed a needle but wouldn't let her do anything to try to verify that. She seemed to be angling for pain meds.

The bolded above is so accurate, some people love you and others will go out of their way to torch you alive because they didn't want to listen and accept your experience. It's maddening, so between dealing with that and the constant euthanasias, she goes to counseling so she doesn't wind up in a bad place, which is too common in the field.

Any recs of Austin area "country" vets while this thread is up and running? I was poking around in Liberty Hill or Bertram to take our lab to have her smoothed out a bit (and quit tracking blood around the house from licking) as she is nearing end of life. Our local vet, once Aggie owned, is now corporate owned and suffers from the same pricing as OP experienced.

ETA - just saw the Dripping rec, I'll look her up.

Curious, what is the procedure if you don't mind sharing?

From a pet owner who had to put a dog down last year this is my take.

The regular vet who owns the practice offered some options when his blood work came back jacked up. It looked like he may have had "leukemia".

I chose not to send him to a specialist and put him through the tests and biopsy, but it was offered.

The rotating Vet saw him a couple times and I told her I didn't want to put him through invasive testing and knew it was a matter of time. She told me she agreed with my plan and didn't try to push it.

I could have very well spent a buttload of money running tests on him and doing more than steroids and antibiotics to try to prolong his life. My choice was to not put him through it and ended up taking him in to be put down.

Vets offer the high dollar options because some people are willing to spend it. My vet wouldn't have made any $$ off of me if I took him to a specialist but let me know the options.

I don't begrudge them for offering options just like I don't begrudge ATT Fiber for offering a 1 GB speed along with the 300MB one. We all have choices.

Property taxes have gone up and utilities have gone up as well as everything else that it takes to operate an office. Like others have stated, the corporate owned places have set prices higher than somebody on their own.

tldr.. yes it sucks but Vet's have to stay in business and make a profit. Find a non corporate owned clinic and give them a try.

Well said. It's that way in many businesses. Folks spend a lifetime in a business and gaining hard earned valuable experience and knowledge but yet have folks argue and think they know better than a person who has worked in their profession all their lives. I think anyone who has a profession that deals with the general public has experienced that.

A few months back my pup (Vizsla) got attacked by a mama deer with a fawn, and broke his rear leg. Hairline fracture above the joint on the tibia. He was only about 3 months old at the time.

That day we got it splinted and X-rays to the tune of $1500 bucks. Next day rec came in from orthopedic vet to perform surgeryfor $5-6k, plates/screws the whole nine yards blah blah blah.

I said f it and rolled with the splint. Every 2-3 days the splint would slip and wifey would take him back up to the vet to reset the splint for about $180. After three weeks of that I said screw it, bought the supplies myself and started doing it myself for about $10 bucks in materials. The whole thing was an ordeal to say the least but happy to say he is now running around like a proper 7 month old Vizsla.

man......vets are wild. I get the cost of things is and can be astronomical but the regulations they try and put on everyone else is infuriating. Even with country vets they are trying to limit ranchers from treating their own herd, then charging 127 dollars for one dose of draxxin.

Is it the vet's that are trying to stop that or the people who regulate drugs?

Ihatefallscounty said:

---

man......vets are wild. I get the cost of things is and can be astronomical but the regulations they try and put on everyone else is infuriating. Even with country vets they are trying to limit ranchers from treating their own herd, then charging 127 dollars for one dose of draxxin.

---

We don't have anything to do with regulations formulated by the government, but we do have to abide by them or risk losing a license. If all livestock producers were responsible with antibiotic use it might not have come to this. Just in the last week I have had one person request antibiotics to treat a hernia, and another one that had been giving banamine for a week for what turned out to be an abcess, at the direction of an ag teacher. Irresponsible use that facilitates antibiotic resistance is what led to the regulation changes. The $127 dose of Draxxin? Must have been one large bovine.

Goodness gracious. Guess we have been totally blessed. Have had dogs,cats, horses, donkeys, cows and exotic hoofstock for 5 decades. In all those times I could not have asked for better vets. Small animal or large. All Aggies. They might have been expensive in my eyes but they were all tremendous folks….and I never felt like they were taking advantage.

Gunny456 said:

---

I trust my vet more than my doctors. I think he knows more than them too.
A vet never has the ability to have the animal tell them where it hurts or if they feel bad like a regular MD.

---

Vet has probably never been lied to either. Most of their cases are prob not drug seeking. Or searching for secondary gain.

Edit to add vet. Not bet

FallsonbrazosAg91 said:

---

Gunny456 said:

---

I trust my vet more than my doctors. I think he knows more than them too.
A vet never has the ability to have the animal tell them where it hurts or if they feel bad like a regular MD.

---

Vet has probably never been lied to either. Most of their cases are prob not drug seeking. Or searching for secondary gain.

Edit to add vet. Not bet

---

You would be surprised at the first two.

I'll PM you as it would make it easy to figure out who I am. Unfortunately some people don't like that some veterinarians hunt.

Many have commented about corporate owned clinics and increased prices. While this is true, we as veterinarians are generally terrible business people. I've rarely seen a clinic that had any kind of regular price increase other than on the lab/medication costs. And often times that isn't done or is missed. On multiple occasions we have found items where we were charging less than what the item cost us.
I went from an associate, to owner, then practice sold to corporate. For the first 6 years after selling, most of our clients had no idea it had occurred (not until a new sign with the corporate brand was put up). We have caught times were the cost goes up some crazy number (say $100 to $800). My manager or I will reach out to get the pricing more reasonable. I think a lot of veterinarians are afraid to question the pricing and don't say anything.

bmfvet said:

---

I'll PM you as it would make it easy to figure out who I am. Unfortunately some people don't like that some veterinarians hunt.

---

I bet I know the procedure!

having gotten to know several vets from this board decently, that's always been an interesting dynamic to me. How many people go to vet school thinking they will (or want to) run a small business?

Do vet schools generally have business classes or any type of small business focused classes to help in that regard?

Talking to DVM97, he shared a lot of new graduates don't have that drive or entrepreneurial spirit, and its hard to find those that have an interest in ownership of business, even when offered the opportunity, but purely look at it as a being a vet, not a business owner.

A&M does not offer a business class. There are classes that have business lectures but it's all pretty surface level. A&M at one time and I think to this day offers a DVM/MBA 5 year program but I don't know anyone who has done it.

For me personally, I don't have much desire to own a company and, as such, have tailored my goals towards a field that is highly paid but very much corporate. I have the utmost respect for the rural mixed animal vets working terrible hours for not a lot of pay, but that's not the life I want.

It's been a while since dental school for me. I can't speak directly for vet school but the business training we got in dental school was laughable. One (maybe 2) semesters of a "business" class that was taught by faculty dentists. That DVM/MBA option is such a great idea.

Corporate dentistry is doing the same to our profession. Many of you that have been seeing the same dentist for 10-20 yrs plus are now seeing the same dentist in the same office with the same staff but now under corporate ownership and you don't even know it.

agrams said:

---

having gotten to know several vets from this board decently, that's always been an interesting dynamic to me. How many people go to vet school thinking they will (or want to) run a small business?

Do vet schools generally have business classes or any type of small business focused classes to help in that regard?

Talking to DVM97, he shared a lot of new graduates don't have that drive or entrepreneurial spirit, and its hard to find those that have an interest in ownership of business, even when offered the opportunity, but purely look at it as a being a vet, not a business owner.

---

When I went to school a long time ago, almost all of us intended to own practices. There was very little business education in the curriculum, and I don't think that has changed a great deal. I was fortunate to find a new graduate this year who did want to own, but it took several years and relationship building to get that done.

chickencoupe16 said:

---

A&M does not offer a business class. There are classes that have business lectures but it's all pretty surface level. A&M at one time and I think to this day offers a DVM/MBA 5 year program but I don't know anyone who has done it.

For me personally, I don't have much desire to own a company and, as such, have tailored my goals towards a field that is highly paid but very much corporate. I have the utmost respect for the rural mixed animal vets working terrible hours for not a lot of pay, but that's not the life I want.

---

I know this board will not like this take, but working terrible hours for not a lot of pay is a choice. They should be charging more for those off hours calls that take them away from family, rest time, etc. Long hours and bad pay for someone with a DVM are the reason you don't have many people pursuing those positions and why you can't find someone to work on your livestock when you need them.

This whole "country" vets charge less is in some ways laughable. Are these veterinarians less competent therefore can charge less for their services than their peers in the city? Are their overhead costs less? Are they uneducated in a business sense? Do they have "bigger" hearts? Are they subsidized by a "non-profit"?

Scotty88 said:

---

This whole "country" vets charge less is in some ways laughable. Are these veterinarians less competent therefore can charge less for their services than their peers in the city? Are their overhead costs less? Are they uneducated in a business sense? Do they have "bigger" hearts? Are they subsidized by a "non-profit"?

---

Mine doesn't have a fancy clinic. They don't use the expensive machines to confirm/replace diagnosis. So my guess is not carrying eleventy billion in debt allows them to charge reasonable rates.

One of the problems with current veterinary care and its expenses are the laws and regulations they must follow and to my knowledge fully support as it drives business to their practices.

For instance, the need for prescriptions for antibiotics and the good combo medicines for flea, tick and heartworm: like Trifexis.

Your cow or bull has an infection or abscess that needs to be lanced and drained? Now you have to pay your vet to come out and do it. $80 to $200 for the visit plus $20 for the shot plus other possible charges. You want the all in one pill that takes care of fleas, ticks and heartworm and works great, that requires a $200/year checkup just to be able to purchase the meds from the vet.

We want to take care of our animals but are pigeon holed into expensive options and treatments. I understand the need for most of these laws and regulations but it's been taken to extreme. Make those prescriptions good for 2 or 3 years instead of one so I don't have to take my healthy dog to the vet every year to get the good meds. If farmers and ranchers want to administer antibiotics to their herd, make them take a class and get a permit to buy the antibiotics kind of like an applicators license for purchasing farm chemicals.

Vet care is being monotonized so much that people are either going to start having less pets or they are going to choose to take them to the vet less because they just can't afford it. Most of us college grads probably don't have that problem as we have the money to pay for these services. A lot of the rest of America doesn't and their pets are going to suffer because of it or they won't have pets at all and what kind of life is that?

Ag97 said:

---

One of the problems with current veterinary care and its expenses are the laws and regulations they must follow and to my knowledge fully support as it drives business to their practices.

For instance, the need for prescriptions for antibiotics and the good combo medicines for flea, tick and heartworm: like Trifexis.

Your cow or bull has an infection or abscess that needs to be lanced and drained? Now you have to pay your vet to come out and do it. $80 to $200 for the visit plus $20 for the shot plus other possible charges. You want the all in one pill that takes care of fleas, ticks and heartworm and works great, that requires a $200/year checkup just to be able to purchase the meds from the vet.

We want to take care of our animals but are pigeon holed into expensive options and treatments. I understand the need for most of these laws and regulations but it's been taken to extreme. Make those prescriptions good for 2 or 3 years instead of one so I don't have to take my healthy dog to the vet every year to get the good meds. If farmers and ranchers want to administer antibiotics to their herd, make them take a class and get a permit to buy the antibiotics kind of like an applicators license for purchasing farm chemicals.

Vet care is being monotonized so much that people are either going to start having less pets or they are going to choose to take them to the vet less because they just can't afford it. Most of us college grads probably don't have that problem as we have the money to pay for these services. A lot of the rest of America doesn't and their pets are going to suffer because of it or they won't have pets at all and what kind of life is that?

---

Or you could establish a regular relationship with your vet so that he or she knows your operation, knows what you do and don't know about medications, and trusts you to use them responsibly. Then you can lance your own abcesses and treat them with the medication that your vet sells or prescribes. The only vets making big money selling antibiotics are dealing with very large volumes because the markup on them is crap when you consider carrying cost, expiring drugs, etc. And that abcess? It might be one of several different causes that need different medication to treat successfully. It's not hard to tell the difference but most lay people don't know that. And it might not be an abcess at all. When you lance that hernia you have a mess on your hands. Finally, expecting me to drive to your place to treat an individual animal with a non emergent condition is gonna be expensive because while I'm driving there and back I could have seen 5 others or done 2 surgeries.

Maroonedinaustin said:

---

Scotty88 said:

---

This whole "country" vets charge less is in some ways laughable. Are these veterinarians less competent therefore can charge less for their services than their peers in the city? Are their overhead costs less? Are they uneducated in a business sense? Do they have "bigger" hearts? Are they subsidized by a "non-profit"?

---

Mine doesn't have a fancy clinic. They don't use the expensive machines to confirm/replace diagnosis. So my guess is not carrying eleventy billion in debt allows them to charge reasonable rates.

---

Expensive machines are required to accurately diagnose disease. I can't imagine why a veterinarian would NOT want to "confirm" a diagnosis? Why would someone settle for less than the best care a doctor can offer? You'd expect me to "guess" at what's wrong vs be more certain? Would you trust a dentist that doesn't take an X-ray of a tooth? Or a physician to not recommend an MRI or CT scan? Why should a veterinarian not do his or her absolute best to care for your pet? Do you half ass your job? What you are suggesting is that I do my job worrying about costs vs doing it well. I charge what I need to in order to pay my bills, provide 401k and a portion of Health Insurance for my team, pay them a fair wage for their skill set, and still make a profit and ROI for my work and education. I can assure you, I give more free advice via texts or PM's than any attorney or physician. Being a veterinarian isn't what I do, it's who I am. I offer alternatives to those who can't afford advanced diagnostics, but am sure to educate on the limitations of that style of practice. I love being my own boss, making a difference daily in the lives of pets and owners, but it can be very exhausting.

I wish I could give more blue stars!

FishrCoAg said:

---

chickencoupe16 said:

---

A&M does not offer a business class. There are classes that have business lectures but it's all pretty surface level. A&M at one time and I think to this day offers a DVM/MBA 5 year program but I don't know anyone who has done it.

For me personally, I don't have much desire to own a company and, as such, have tailored my goals towards a field that is highly paid but very much corporate. I have the utmost respect for the rural mixed animal vets working terrible hours for not a lot of pay, but that's not the life I want.

---

I know this board will not like this take, but working terrible hours for not a lot of pay is a choice. They should be charging more for those off hours calls that take them away from family, rest time, etc. Long hours and bad pay for someone with a DVM are the reason you don't have many people pursuing those positions and why you can't find someone to work on your livestock when you need them.

---

You're absolutely right and it's not a choice that I'm willing to make. And neither are most new grads but that's the expectation of many clients including many on this board.

Hey you money grubbing SOB!
You'd do that closed pyometra surgery for free if you really loved animals!!

I can vouch for this. I'm certain when he stepped out of the deer stand to take a ****, he probably was answering texts to help people out while pinching a loaf.

Thank you to all you veterinarians for what you do. I've paid lots of money over the years to you guys for taking care of my animals. I would gladly do it all again. I have seen you all cry tears right beside me when an animal passed. I have had your hands on my shoulders when given bad news. Did I sometimes cringe at a bill? Yes. I've done the same when getting a set of new tires too.
Have I joked about adding a new wing on the clinic with my name on it? Yes, in jest of course.
I wasn't smart enough to become a vet and I so respect the all nighters to pass the quizzes and lab practicals and all the sacrifices.
May God have a special place for all of you for healing and caring for all his creatures.

This thread reminds me that I really need to increase my pricing. Good grief….

Dogdoc said:

---

This thread reminds me that I really need to increase my pricing. Good grief….

---

Amen to that!