Exciting day at the (new) vet’s office

We’ve been going to the same vet since 2001.  In fact, I think we were probably one of our vet’s first clients when she opened up her brand new animal hospital out here in what used to be “the boonies”.  Now it’s just another busy, fully-populated part of Las Vegas, but six years ago there weren’t many folks living out here.  I guess our vet was a visionary in that sense, because she built her office in the perfect location to grab new growth, and I don’t think she’s ever had a shortage of clients.

Our vet has always been very good and fair to us, and I know we get special treatment because we’re long-time customers who’ve brought other customers in.  She was the person who gave me injectable antibiotics for my goldfish so I could treat him myself, and she never discouraged me or turned me away when I asked for advice.  In exchange, we send gifts on holidays, we donate things like microwave ovens and new computer monitors, and we try to let the doctors and staff know how much we appreciate them.  We feel that many of the staff members can be counted as “friends” and not just “associates”.  Unfortunately, over the past two years our regular vet has severely cut back her hours to pursue other interests, and to start a family.  She works just two days per week, and she’s about to have her first baby, and I don’t know how much time she’ll take off for maternity leave.  There are other vets on staff, but the turnover is sort of frequent (people just don’t like living in Las Vegas for more than a few years), so once we adapt to a different vet, that vet invariably leaves.  Having a good one-on-one relationship with specific doctors is important, because they’re the folks who can “forget” to charge for a service, or who can volunteer to do a spay for free, etc.  With so many pets of our own, and with our numerous foster animals, we rely on that sort of special treatment to keep veterinary care affordable.  We now have a special account set up for the nonprofit animals, but it had to be approved by the office manager, and we’re on a fixed 10% discount.  That’s nice, but it doesn’t really save as much as we used to save just by having a good working relationship with the head of the clinic.  And then there’s the elephant in the room: I can’t seem to get a job working at the clinic, no matter what sort of job I apply for.  On a personal level, it doesn’t really bother me, and maybe the clinic has had problems in the past when they try to turn clients into employees.  On the other hand, employees of the clinic get all their veterinary care practically free, so refusing to hire me to even answer phones pretty much tells me that if I want to take advantage of employee discounts, I’m going to need to look elsewhere.

Today, we looked elsewhere for the first time.  I really wanted to get the new stray kitten in for a deworming/vaccinations, because I don’t have room to quarantine her properly.  However, our regular clinic had no available appointments.  Only one vet was working and she was completely booked, and they wouldn’t even let me do a “drop off”, where I just leave the kitten, they tend to her when they’ve got a free moment, and then we pick her up without talking to a doctor.  They used to commonly do that sort of thing for us in an emergency, but they stopped it under the new office manager, and I can honestly say that today was the first time we were flat-out turned away in a situation which I felt was sort of urgent.

Enter the “new” vet clinic down the road from us: they’ve been open for two years, and are just two miles away.  They’re walk-in only, so we walked in this afternoon, and I took a copy of my state nonprofit registration with me.  They immediately agreed to set up an account for Wee Paws, and said we’d get anywhere from a 10% to 20% discount on services.  Other than the fact there was a bit of miscommunication and things were a bit disorganized, our visit went well, the vet was friendly and helpful, and our stray kitten had a wellness exam, a fecal test, a deworming, and her first set of vaccinations.  I was nervous the whole time because we’re still in a money crunch, and I had $119 in credit available at the regular vet.  By going to a different vet, I no longer had that credit and would need to pay cash, so I was concerned we’d be hit with a bill that would hurt to pay.

Insert happy dance here.

The prices at this new vet clinic are so insanely reasonably I don’t understand how they stay in business.  We’ve always known that our regular vet was very expensive, but we attributed that to Las Vegas pricing, and not to the clinic itself.  The only other vet we see on a regular basis is the veterinary ophthalmologist, and he also charges and arm and a leg (but not an eye), so I just assumed that veterinary costs in Las Vegas were very high.  Here are the hard numbers:  when Bunny had her first set of vax at our usual vet clinic, the cost was $41.  If she’d had a fecal test, it would have been an additional $49, and if she’d had Nemex dewormer, it would have cost $9.  That’s a total of $99 (and we weren’t given any sort of discount on the vaccines, despite the fact Bunny came to us as a bottle-baby via that clinic).  At the new animal hospital today, our stray kitten had all of those exact procedures, vax, and medications, and the bill was $35.50.  They then deducted 10%, and we owned them $30.80.  That means I can finish Bunny and Carlo’s vaccinations as well, as do it all for less than $100.  We never get out of a vet clinic for under $100 (we have the same problem when we shop at Target), so our fortuitious visit to the new vet clinic today will save us a lot of money in the future.  Another cost comparison is spay/neuter.  I can get Bunny and Carlo into the local free spay and neuter program, but they’ll have the most basic treatment, no post-op pain meds, etc., and I hate to put them through that if I don’t have to.  On the other hand, I don’t relish the idea of paying $200 for a neuter, and $250 for a spay.  Through the new clinic, I’ll pay at most $100 for the neuter and $120 for the spay, perhaps less depending on how the discount is configured.  I really couldn’t be happier.

We’ll still go to our usual vet clinic for many things.  If the head vet comes back after maternity leave and is seeing clients, she’s the best doctor to treat Phoenix’s allergies.  The other staff vets just don’t have her in-depth knowledge of Phoenix’s history.  If I have to have a pet put to sleep, I’d be most comfortable with her because we’ve known her for so long.  I also think she’s great when it comes to anything unusual or surgical, and I really enjoy talking to her.  On the other hand, when we need to take Dante in for new ear meds (he’s got chronic ear infections), he can just go to the new clinic.  I don’t need to pay premium prices just to get a new bottle of Mometamax.  When our usual vet clinic was smaller, and the head vet was there all the time, we could just call in things like that and she’d know that Dante was prone to ear infections, and she’d know that we’d bring him in if his infection was unusual or didn’t respond to treatment, so she’d just approve the medication over the phone based on her prior exams and his medical history.  Now, none of the vets will do that for us, so every little recurring problem requires an office visit just to get the same old prescription.  As an office policy it’s understandable, and it keeps all the i’s dotted and the t’s crossed, but we really benefited when the clinic was about personalized service and common sense treatments.

That was a very long story, but I feel a great sense of relief today.  I’ve got choices, I’ve got options, and suddenly, veterinary care seems affordable.  With what the new clinic charges, even veterinary health insurance makes sense, whereas in the past, it would never come close to paying any of our pet care costs.  I’ll have to see if I can get broad-spectrum pet insurance coverage for our fosters.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 08/07 at 02:03 AM

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  1. I boggle at $200 for a neuter. Around here I think it’s around half that, or maybe even less. I’m so glad you have other options now!

    Posted by Helena  on  08/07  at  05:57 AM

  2. Those who work with strays/rescues/are breeders in this area all visit more than one vet to help defray costs. Thing is, there isn’t a wide choice of vets in the area, so they must know individuals are seeing all the vets.

    Posted by Nio  on  08/08  at  03:35 AM

  3. Wow - we pay $35 just for the ‘exam’ (read: walk in the door) fee, whether a thorough exam is needed or not.  What a great find!  Your points, though, about the relationship is dead on.  We’ve been able to phone in for prescriptions on known issues without bringing an animal in, and the ultimate commentary on the value of a good relationship with a vet was when we had to have our Jenny put to sleep.  She was suddenly unable to walk, and the vet came to our house on his lunch break. 

    But it sounds like a perfect blend for you in the two clinics, and that’s great news.

    Posted by Print  on  08/11  at  12:43 PM

  4. I could get a spay/neuter for about $25 from a large local rescue with a weekly clinic.  However, I hate to put my tame cats through that sort of thing—no IV fluids, no post-op pain meds, being sent home immediately—if I don’t absolutely have to.  I think it’s a great service for ferals and for low-income families with no options, but it’s not the best type of surgery, it’s just the fastest and cheapest.  I’d rather pay more to know that my cats will be comfortable, but on the other hand, I’d still rather not pay $200+.

    Posted by Leigh-Ann  on  09/03  at  04:10 AM
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