4
Things Your Veterinarian Won't Tell You
By
Kelly Barron
1.
"Good thing you love Schatzi like a son. His care could
cost as much."
After
a New York City taxi struck Jessica Malionek's dog, Mojo,
flinging him 30 feet in the air, she spent $4,000 for
veterinarians to perform emergency treatment and then
life-saving surgeries on her beloved dog. "It was like
they were treating a person," Malionek says. These days
veterinary medicine can be every bit as sophisticated as
human health care — and the costs reflect it. Animal
lovers spent $19 billion on veterinary care in 2001, the
most recent figure available, up from $7.2 billion a decade
earlier, according to the American Veterinary Medical
Association. And per-visit costs are skyrocketing: Between
1991 and 2001, the average cost of a veterinary visit for a
dog nearly doubled, from $50 to $99. For cats, costs rose
even more precipitously, jumping by 107%.
Why
the steep price hikes? Chris Green, an attorney and member
of the American Veterinary Medical Law Association, says
vets are happily obliging owners who want to keep their pets
alive at all costs. That means paying up for the latest
high-tech procedures, such as feline kidney transplants and
CAT scans. There are also more aged pets today, which
require more care.
2.
"Vaccinating your pet may do more harm than good."
For years the primary reason for seeing a vet was to get
your pet vaccinated against a host of diseases ranging from
distemper to rabies — either with individual vaccinations
or "combo wombo" shots that could cover seven
separate conditions.
Indeed,
annual vaccinations have been an economic bulwark for many
vet practices, but some veterinarians say they're not only
unnecessary, but they can actually be harmful in some cases.
Marty Goldstein, a veterinarian in South Salem, N.Y., says
he sees a range of vaccination-related reactions in animals,
everything from cancerous sarcomas to epilepsy. Another
reason to think twice about certain vaccines: The immunity
provided by some of them can last well beyond a year, even
as long as the pet's lifetime, Goldstein says, negating the
need for some annual shots.
Both
the AVMA and the American Animal Hospital Association now
say vaccinations should be assessed yearly and tailored to
an animal's age, health and lifestyle. For example, an
indoor cat with limited exposure to some diseases may not
ever need certain common vaccinations, says W. Jean Dodds,
an immunologist and veterinarian with Hemopet in Garden
Grove, Calif.
3.
"I have more complaints filed against me than a
used-car lot — not that you'll ever know about it."
When she picked up her kitten, Pumpkin, from the
veterinarian after a routine spaying, Mount Pleasant, S.C.,
resident Marcia Rosenberg was stunned to find the cat nearly
comatose. Soon Pumpkin's body was wracked with seizures, and
her stomach swelled. Rosenberg rushed Pumpkin to another
vet, who saved the cat, but the distraught owner called her
state's veterinary board to complain. Told that the board
had no procedure for alerting consumers about disciplinary
actions taken against incompetent vets, Rosenberg mounted a
successful campaign to have such actions posted on the South
Carolina veterinary board's web site.
Tracking
complaints against vets often requires a bit of detective
work. Some state veterinary boards list disciplinary actions
against vets, while others do not. And complaints typically
aren't disclosed until a board investigation and judicial
ruling have determined a case of wrongdoing. On her own,
Rosenberg says she was able to find that the vet had
previously had his license suspended in Ohio and since then
had more than a dozen complaints against him in South
Carolina.
4.
"Surgery's a cinch. It's the overnight stay you should
be worried about."
If you think your pet will be tenderly nurtured through the
night after surgery at a veterinary office or hospital,
think again. Many vets don't staff their offices overnight,
so it's important to ask about what happens in the wee
hours.
Laura
Ireland Moore, an animal law attorney in Portland, Ore.,
says she represented a client who took her dog to the vet
after stitches from a routine spaying came undone. The
veterinarian repaired the stitches with metal sutures but
neglected to put a cone over the dog's head to protect the
wound during an overnight stay. The office was unattended
through the night, and by morning the animal had chewed
through the sutures — as well as 15 feet of its own
intestines. The agonized dog had to be put down. The moral
of this unpleasant story: "You should definitely check
if anyone will be on the premises overnight," Moore
says.
If
the facility doesn't have a night attendant, or if you don't
trust his or her credentials — a late-shift babysitter may
or may not be a vet or even a vet technician — you should
ideally find a facility where a licensed vet stays over,
Moore advises.
