Choose a quality pet healthcare provider
Choosing a new veterinarian for your pet can be daunting. In most urban and suburban areas, there are many clinics and veterinarians to choose from. How do you decide where to go?
While going with the cheapest option may make your pocketbook happy, it may not mean the best care for your pet. Many “low-cost” clinics are very nice and do a good job with the financial constraints that they’ve placed on themselves. But how do they keep those prices so low? It may mean they aren’t providing all the services and care a moderately or high priced hospital routinely provides.
You may be able to have your pet spayed or neutered for $99 at a low-cost clinic but there are several questions to ask about their protocols. Do they perform full pre-surgical blood-work (a chemistry panel and a complete blood count) to ensure your pet is healthy enough to undergo anesthesia? Sometimes blood-work is the only way to tell if the liver and kidneys are functioning sufficiently to metabolize the anesthetic drugs properly. Do they place an IV catheter and endotracheal (breathing) tube in every patient to ensure instant venous access in case of an emergency? While anesthesia on a young, healthy animal is generally safe, if your pet was to have a problem such as low heart rate or blood pressure, it would be important to be able to correct it rapidly and effectively; an IV catheter ensures that. Likewise, is there a dedicated, trained technician or doctor monitoring anesthesia? The doctor performing the operation does not count, they’re busy performing surgery and cannot be effective at both tasks. Although monitors are wonderful but they aren’t always 100% accurate. It takes the eyes, ears and experience of a trained anesthetist to double check the monitors to make sure anesthesia is safe.
Surgery isn’t the only place that people may choose a low-cost clinic. When your pet is due for vaccinations, it may seem silly to spend more money at a moderately priced hospital when any doctor is qualified to give shots, right? Most hospitals have a recommended protocol for vaccinations, but will they take the time to talk to you to see what your pet really needs? Some older pets can skip vaccines or decrease the frequency. Other need more than what the general protocol calls for. But it’s not even just about vaccinations. Does the doctor perform a physical exam on all patients coming in for vaccines? We can give any animal shots but will they be safe and effective? Without a physical exam, the doctor has no way of knowing. For this reason, we never recommend vaccinating without a physical exam.
Furthermore, when your pet is ill, would you prefer a clinic with in-house blood-work and x-ray capabilities or one that has to send it out and wait for results? In cases of extremely ill patients, the time it takes to send out blood and receive results could truly be the difference between life and death. Less expensive clinics may not have in-house blood-work or x-rays because they cannot afford to keep them around with as low as the hospital’s prices are.
Coupons, discounts and low prices are nice but at what cost? It’s one thing to use a coupon for a box of cereal at the store because you know it’s the same thing whether you use a coupon or not, but are you sure it’s the same treatment when you are getting discounted care at the vet?
