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Pet parrot peeve

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Pet parrot peeve

Postby Pajarita » Wed Jan 27, 2016 11:38 am

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Re: Pet parrot peeve

Postby marie83 » Wed Jan 27, 2016 1:27 pm

The thing is where do you draw a line?

They can't give free/reduced treatment & supplies to everyone who rescues a parrot or other animal from a bad situation.
I know a few of the vets round here will give reduced rates to charities who use them frequently.

Let's face it for the work they do most vets don't actually earn a lot. They need to continue professional career development by continuing to study. They need to buy and replace diagnostic technology and improve on those as it advances.

The costs would then be passed on to your average pet owner who then may not be able to afford treatments leading to more pets who need rescuing or rehoming.

On the other hand I do think there are vets who do try to grab every penny. There are two bigger chains in this country that I know of who's charges are easily 3 x the amount of the independent vets for the exact same treatment, same dosage for the same animal! That isn't representative of all of them as I haven't used every practice in those chains but certainly true of the ones I have been to.
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Re: Pet parrot peeve

Postby JessiMuse » Wed Jan 27, 2016 2:14 pm

Funny, the person I bought Alex from told me a story of her experience at an avian vet.

She had a cockatiel that was egg bound, and she took it to the vet. The vet suggested this medicine, and said that it would cost several hundred dollars (can't remember if it were 300 or 1300). She refused it and told them she can't pay for it. So after she gets home, they report her to... Some kind of animal police, I don't remember what they're called. They told them that she was being inhumane and cruel to the animal, because she didn't buy the medicine.

But seriously, if she were being inhumane, why would she be going to the freaking vet for her bird? It really made me wonder if they didn't do that just to pressure her into buying the medicine.

Craziest part is that you can apparently buy avian medicine over the counter at a feed store for a cheaper price, or so I've been told. The only problem would be knowing what exactly you need, without a vet's diagnosis and treatment recommendation.
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Re: Pet parrot peeve

Postby liz » Wed Jan 27, 2016 6:41 pm

I am sure that the vets go to school with good intentions. But they overcharge and don't give group rates. My family has 7 dogs. We have increased to 5 cats. those added to my 2 Amazons and 14 cockatiels make quite a few but I never get a discount and I do ask.
There have been times I was turned away because it was more than I have on hand. (I fixed that by holding a separate credit card just for my critters). That doesn't mean I should have to run it to the limit. If you have all your animals going to one vet it is absolutely outrageous that they don't allow a line of credit. He has been treating them since they were babies.
One little dog had a skin condition. The vet prescribed 5 mg prednisone and wanted to charge me $20 dollars for a prescription. I told him "shame on you" my druggist just charged me $3 for 100 of them. After that I had him write prescriptions and had them filled at the drug store.
I really believe that the shelters would have to care for less critters if it did not cost so much to care for them.
Two kittens went to the vet with colds and runny noses and eyes. He charged $100 each. He charged 2 office visits even though they were seen at the same time for the same thing. An old cat has skin problems and has been under vet care. All info has been faxed from the NC vet but when he was done it was $90 and all she needed was a prednisone shot. If I was still taking the stuff I could have shared much cheaper.
Okay I'm on a roll.
It cost me $30 each for toe nail trims for my Amazons. If I take them to a vet here he will charge me an outrageous amount for being new patients. I have not had their records faxed because I can't find an avian vet worth having. I called a few shelters to find a decent vet but found out even the shelters pay full price.
My fingers are tired.
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Re: Pet parrot peeve

Postby JessiMuse » Wed Jan 27, 2016 7:55 pm

Hehehe. It really makes me wonder why they overcharge. heck, I saw a sign near the prescription counter at my local grocery store, saying they take pet prescriptions now. I wonder if that makes it any cheaper.

Not sure about you guys, but here, taking pets to the doctor costs more than taking yourself to the doctor.

Though there is one place here, called "Pet Doctor", and it's selling phrase is "Tucson's affordable walk-in Veterinary clinic". Affordable is right! Shots for the dog are 12 dollars each, and the teeth cleaning is 200. The vet I've been seeing beforehand charges 500 for teeth cleaning, and 100 each for shots. Only problem is that they only do dogs and cats. No small and exotic animals.
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Re: Pet parrot peeve

Postby marie83 » Thu Jan 28, 2016 5:56 am

Vets can't generally hold the level of stock that pharmacies etc do so they can't order in bulk and get stuff cheaper. Therefore they will always be more expensive in the same way that a corner shop will be more expensive than a supermarket.

The 2 big chains i was talking about above do fantastic deals on vaccinations and sometimes flea & wormer treatments to draw people in.
Except really they are not really such good deals because they ramp the price on everything else to compensate. Bargain- so long as your pet doesn't get sick with something else.
In my years working with animals I've noticed a huge rise in the number of people shopping around for vet care now, I understand because of the cost but I know for myself I would much rather have one or 2 regular vets who knows me and my animals. I would rather have vets I know and trust rather than send my pets to wherever is cheapest.
Even within one surgery I've noticed with the bigger chains they seem to have a high staff turnover, your pretty much guaranteed to never see the same vet twice. Again though that isn't representative of the whole country, just the 3 I've been to.
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Re: Pet parrot peeve

Postby shiraartain » Thu Jan 28, 2016 7:27 am

I only have three birds, but because they're birds...$$$. Fajr's been to the vet about six times now in the past year, but I still need to take the other two in for annual exams...waiting for my funds to stock up a bit before I take them. I'll probably take them together to reduce their stress but schedule separate appointments because my wallet can't handle paying for add-on exams for the both of them.
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Re: Pet parrot peeve

Postby liz » Thu Jan 28, 2016 7:29 am

I wrote a long post and it disapeard. Long story short your druggist will charge you less and be more compassionate that your vet.
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Re: Pet parrot peeve

Postby Pajarita » Thu Jan 28, 2016 12:00 pm

I think that her peeve is that you can find vets that would donate their services, give out samples of meds and charge the same they are paying for them (meaning, not make any money on them), give prices for package deals, etc for dog and cat rescues but, when it comes to avian rescues, you can't find a single one that would do the same. And I can attest to this been God's truth! At least, here in the States. Because I did not only run my own bird rescue, I was also VP of a dog and cat rescue and in charge of the shelter and medical issues (along with the president, of course) and we ALWAYS got good deals not only from the regular vets but also from the specialists - and not only in terms of reduced and free services, cheap meds, etc but also in that we had open accounts with them so if we had an emergency and did not have the funds available (which we never did!), we could still take them to the vet and get everything necessary done for them and pay later. But never with the birds (although Dr. Jodie was wonderful about helping out as much as she could but, as she did not have her own practice, her help was limited). And I don't know of any avian rescue that gets the same deal as any dog or cat rescue does. Not a single one.
Plus, rates are higher with birds than with dogs or cats. For example, I can get a dog or cat exam for $20 and reduced rates for multiples when I do vaccines or spay/neuter at the clinic but I have to pay $60 for a bird's exam - and it doesn't take any longer than a dog or cat exam. Same thing with blood work, it's always more expensive to get the same exact thing for a bird than it is for a dog - why? The test is the same and it takes the same amount of time.
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Re: Pet parrot peeve

Postby Wolf » Thu Jan 28, 2016 12:33 pm

Finally something that I can actually reply to without it being only my opinion. Not that I don't have one or am afraid to set keyboard to it.

Many of the birds that we have are so very small that it does take more dexterity as one small slip could be fatal or cause a level of harm that is not found with the same procedure with a larger creature. Every surgery becomes a microsurgery. And equipment is another factor as many of the tools must be modified to work for such a small patient, or be custom made. Then there is the fact that most of the work must be done with magnification which increases the difficulty a lot as it can easily play trick on your eyes.

I work with miniature tools and large amounts of magnification in both my jewelry work and in my woodworking, so I know how hard it can be when trying to work under magnification. I am also aware of how much more expensive the required tools are and then I often have to make the tools that I need and often still have to modify the miniature tools that I can find. Many times for the tools that I can find that I can work with without modifying them are still up to three times more expensive than the same tool that is full size.

Still there is no reason that the vet must charge as much as they do, It seems like many of them are trying to recoup the cost of a tool that they will use many times and for many years all from just one patient. Or that they are trying to pay their student loans off through a small percentage of their clients. When was the last vet that you saw that did not drive a nice car or truck or that did not live in a large very nice home that most of us will never come close to living in one like it. All of the pharmecutical companies provide free samples to their customers to encourage them to use and buy their product, I can't imagine tat they don't do the same for the vet that they do with the human doctors.

OK that's enough from me on this.
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