question about vets and making money

Hi there!

I am a new cat owner, well fosterer and the two vets I've visited recently seemed to want to scam me for extraneous shots. They had decent reviews, and were nice enough, but they all seemed to push for extra stuff. (I know human doctors do this, so....)

Has anyone else had this experience, or is this typical? I brought in several kittens and the vet insisted they needed extra dewormers, and more vaccinations than necessary. I wouldn't have known, but the shelter I work for was baffled by the vet's requests. I do admit the shelter is a bit hippie and holistic, but one of the kitties had 4 distemper shots already and the vet scheduled for another one, stuff like that. Can you guys shed any light? Thanks so much! I want to find a reliable vet.

The extra dewormers for kittens are pretty normal.  Pretty much all kittens have worms and if they are in a communal type environment re-infection is pretty common.  One of my kittens had an extra distemper shot.  The shots were started earlier than normal because of being in a communal environment so she had an extra one at the end.  The way the vet explained it to me she was given a shot earlier than normal out of necessity because of the communal environment but she was too young for her immune system to respond correctly and begin building the normal  immunity.

Awesome, thanks for the reply! Really makes me feel better

http://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/episodes/2013-2014/barking-mad

Not sure where you live.  But in Canada a show called MarketPlace did an investigative report in Toronto, Ontario about the cost of vets and unnecessary expenses.    The link above is to the news broadcast for that piece.  Hopefully you can see it.

Thanks for that! I live in the US but I'm glad there are ppl talking about it!

I'm wondering if anyone here has has experienced a similar situation with their vet?

What they are talking about in that piece are the boosters and yes many vets do over vaccinate.  With both kitten and puppy shots there is a series of shots needed to build up initial immunity.  I know for kittens it is a series of three distemper vaccinations.  There is then a one year booster.  After that there is controversy about additional boosters.  The current guidelines for an indoor cat is every three years but many people believe there is no need for additional vaccines.  Some people have titers ran and only vaccinate if the immunity has dropped below a safe level.

My experience as both a client and employee has been that individual vets with a single practice seem to take a more personal approach to each client. The practices with several vets together often seem more concerned with how many people they can move through the doors and how many expensive dental exams they can sell :-/
Of course, all vets are different and I'm sure there are decent and caring multi-vet practices out there... that has just been my personal experience.
Oh, and don't be afraid to ask lots and lots of questions, especially if something doesn't seem right to you. A good vet will take the time to fully answer everything to your satisfaction.

Thank you for your helpful response, happybird

I'm one of those people that is too timid to ask about charges, but you are right, it's best to be safe before getting charged out the wazoo..

Also, seeing as how you work at an animal shelter, you could possibly bring home quite a few contagions. I was a vet tech for MANY MANY years and my co-workers and I all gave our personal fur-babies an extra round of vaccinations, especially the old kitties and the young ones, because we were exposed to so much at the clinic.

Thanks. The place I foster for is not a shelter but a refuge, and they are huge hippies. They told me vaccines are poison, and that the initial 2 distempers are definitely enough for indoors. I dunno, in my experience as a human, hippies are generally more savvy about health than American doctors. I guess my distrust of vets stems from my overall lack of confidence in human doctors. Plus these vets do not specialize in cats, which makes me worried that they don't necessarily know what's best... 

There is a huge controversy about vaccines.  I have even heard of breeders who are really into holistic medicines getting one kitten vaccinated the idea being that the immunity will pass on to the others.  I do believe that conventional vets have at least in the past given boosters entirely too often.  The guidelines are changing and many vets my own included follow the guideline of once every 3 years.  She also doesn't vaccinate my kitty that had fatty liver disease because, even though his liver enzymes are good, he probably has some liver damage.

I personally believe that the entire series of kitten shots and the one year boosters are necessary to build up that initial immunity.  As you have found out there are others who don't believe the way I do.

I have been through the vets that I don't trust.  I now have one that I do trust.  I may not question what she does enough because I do trust her.  I google things mainly just to satisfy my own curiosity.

Thanks Denice!

I wish there were better local resources for finding reliable vets! Most vets get rave reviews on Yelp and Google, because I think people only post if they had some life-saving emergency and their vet helped saved their pet...

I've also noticed that every vet office has merchandise for sale to make profit. Which makes me think that veterinary services are not lucrative, so they try in every little way to make money. That is just how I see it. I know human doctors try to sneak extras past you, so it's not surprising. The problem with vet care is they are all private clinics, so there's no transparency, no central hospital to go to. I think it's very easy for them to scam you if you have very little knowledge about animals.

It would be cool if there was a trusted network of vets...

When I moved to a different state, I found my vet by asking people I saw with dogs their opinion of the local vet scene. Of course, I picked the folks with the most pampered looking dogs at the park, the ones who had multiple toys and treats and were talking to their dogs like people, lol! Most people were very friendly and happy to talk about their pets and vet experiences. And they were very quick to mention which vets to avoid. I bet this would also work at a local pet store. I'm very lucky to have moved back to Virginia, because my sister in law lives here and she is my vet now

Oh awesome  

Yeah I actually asked a coworker for her recommendation, and then later I realized the woman is actually not very bright, and wouldn't know if she were being ripped off, so. haha. I wish there was a cat park I could go to.