Does anybody have any info about them? Would you recommend them for cats or dogs? TIA

good, but expensive

I use them for my dog, have always had good experiences there. If you are a student or TAMU staff you get a pretty significant discount. In most instances the discount is enough to make up for the vet school costing a little bit more than other vets. IMHO the extra cost is well worth the quality of care.

I use the large animal hospital for my horses as well.

I personally prefer to use the local vet clinics over the Vet School. I like the more peronsal feel with my pets' doctor.

We've taken several animals there - been happy with the treatment they've received. When, unfortunately, one of our cats was beyond any further help they were helpful and sympathetic.

The only issue is one of continuity - the person who treats your animal this trip probably won't be the person who does it next trip due to their various rotations - but that hasn't caused any problems in the care of our animals.

They have the nicest pharmacy techs.

Expensive.

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Does anybody have any info about them?

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They are one of the top veterinary medicine schools in the world...

The Small Animal Clinic at the Vet School did a wonderful job with my dog, and his unusual condition. They did a series of high-tech tests and developed a long term follow up plan for him.

Our bill was pretty high, but they were very upfront with the costs/benefits of each test, and what, if any, lower cost alternatives were available.

Thanks to their care, my dog is happy and healthy today!

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Expensive.

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TAMU Veterinary Teaching Hospital is a tertiary care facility that offers diagnostic and treatment options not available in a general practice. Of course it is going to cost more for those services. However, if you just want a rabies vaccine and heartworm testing, it's going to be similar to a general practice.

Just because we said it was expensive doesn't mean we don't know why it's expensive.

Just for preventative maintenance , I would use a local vet with a practice. A lot of them (Bonds, namely) work with the TAMU SAC for the more difficult cases. We had a 2-year-old Dach blow a disc that he referred to the vet clinic.

I'm not saying they aren't good MiMi, I'm just saying they are expensive. And that, in my opinion, is enough for me to stay away unless their emergency facilities are needed.

I've never used the vet school for routine care, but one of my dogs was referred to Internal Medicine there in February. I probably wouldn't go there for just routine care as it is more expensive on average, but I would highly recommend a referral to the vet school anytime your pet has a more serious issue. They have specialists of all kinds there and up-to-date technology and are extremely professional so you and your pet will receive the best care.

If you have a serious problem that a local vet can't handle then by all means use them.

If you have an afterhours emergency then use them.

I can't understand why they charge so much. I know they say it's because they don't want to compete against local businesses but if they really want to teach wouldn't they want more patients to practice on?

I once had to take one of my dogs to the clinic at 3 am because she was taking to long to have a pup. They informed that it would cost me around $1200 to have them do a C-Section verses $600 for a local vet. They recommended that I wait till my vet could come in early and that she would be ok till then.

I followed their advice and all turned out well.

I would have rather let them do the C-Section but the cost was twice of what my vet would have cost even with an emergecy call charge.

I will say having the Vet School available for emergencys is a plus.

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I can't understand why they charge so much. I know they say it's because they don't want to compete against local businesses but if they really want to teach wouldn't they want more patients to practice on?

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Rest assured, they have no shortage of animals to treat.

definitely not a shortage of animals to treat... animals from all over texas and even out of state are referred to A&M as well as them providing primary care to local animals. They are busy 24/7 there. Prices are higher due to the extensive education and training the board certified specialists there have had and due to the high technology available.

[This message has been edited by M13Lucky (edited 5/6/2009 10:37p).]

For animals with complicated histories, it's sometimes better to take an animal in to them for normal preventative care because the staff is more used to seeing and dealing with the warning signs for the weird stuff that your normal private practice vet might miss.

That being said, I still take my 'kids' to a private practice for everything because I trust the doctors and they're comfortable with my dogs' histories, inside and out.