With Beaner-the rescued pitbull- again the cadillac of choices. He has so malnourished he needed every chance we could give him.

With Chief-the unplanned rescue- I only have a limited amount of funds. I couldn’t NOT take him in. But I had to be realistic. He got plan B- the neuter and the pain meds and the IV. I had to pass up the bloodwork- I just didn’t have the funds. Chief is a huge dog. I just went and bought 105 lbs of dog food. Quality food-Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover’s Soul. And he’s started his innoculations.
I’ve gone over $600 invested in this wonderful dog- all of a sudden with no planning.
I don’t love Chief any less than Agadore or Beaner. But faced with an unexpected addition to our pack, I did the best I could do.

I APPRECIATE that my vet is up front about the cost and offers several layers of care….instead of leaving it up to the owner to broach the subject.

In a perfect worl, we’d ALL choose the high end care. But sometimes, we have to spread what we have among more pups. I don’t think if Chief had died I would have regretted it. I would have done the best I could for him, and I know my vet would have, too.

Sadly, it is the owners of many pets who have made us veterinarians HAVE to offer those choices. We can’t force a higher level of care on someone who doesn’t want it. If we don’t offer the varying levels of care, one of two things often happens:
1. We’re accused of padding the bill by requiring “unnecessary” pain medication and bloodwork. (Let me be clear: it is NOT unnecessary….but many clients think it is, no matter how much we try to educate them.)
2. The owner will refuse to have the procedure done altogether, because it becomes more money than they want to spend. They’ll leave and then the animal gets *nothing* at all.

That leaves us in a moral dilemma. We, as the doctors of your pets, OF COURSE want them to have the best outcome possible. No, money isn’t our greatest concern, but we do have to pay our staffs and pay the bills for the equipment and supplies we have to use in order to provide that level of care (not to mention our incredibly expensive education in the first place.) But is it better to at least get the animal spayed or neutered without benefit of bloodwork or postoperative pain medication….or have them walk out the door only to produce uncounted, unwanted offspring and suffer the future health consequences of being unaltered?

My mom is so worried about everything when it comes to my care. She agrees with Kayla. Yes, give the full program and she will pay, my health and well being is important to her.

I love my vet though, I never feel as though he is trying to sell me additional services and also has my best interest at heart.

That seems irresponsible to make the owner decide the best course of action based on price.