Way off topic- veterinary practice fraud.

My wife has a flock of dogs and we go to one of those gold plated veterinary practices to get health care for the guys.
So my wife's favorite bitch comes up with what looks like a tumor on the chest and we haul her in all worried that the dog is about to croak- nice younger vet there who also breeds say "oh- looks like a hormonal problem- just wait a month and see if its still there just spay as she is a older gal and that's it.

Month later we haul her back in- same vet and she says "lump still there- bring her back on friday and spay"

We get a call from one of the senior partners who intervenes and says there is no way we can proceed- we need to run tests and ultrasounds on the dog.
$$$
We do so- panic on blood numbers the vet says
the liver is failing and looks like crap on ultrasound.

She says to bring in a specialist for a more advanced ultrasound and more blood work.
$$$
The new guy comes in with better portable gear and says the liver looks great and maybe there are some common lumps in dog- spay is recommended.
$$$
Our vet says well spay but we probably should do laproscopic surgery & she wants to do more testing before we proceed- so more blood work, ultrasounds on a crappy machine that they couldn't even see is the liver was the right size on- I was there without wife and vet is muttering about walls too thick on gall bladder...
$$$
She calls may wife and tells her in a panic that the dog is now in crisis about the gall bladder and needs to be rushed into surgery
$$$
We have blown through 2k on messing around. Wife's breeder friends all say that blood numbers go crazy around a dogs estrous or if they eat something funny and not to panic.

The vet is acting all grave and I feel like my wife is being rope a doped.
We are on a road where we could be dropping who knows how many thousands into this dog.


It brings out the caveman in me- I think she is being cheated & I want to smack someone- of course we are fighting about it.

The damn vet has a big bio on the wall about how the new vet facility being built & the piece mentions how the cost overran by 100%
One of the senior partners sold my wife some snake oil over the phone data monitoring system that measured the heart beats of pups in a pregnant dog- $500 dollars to sign up and a fee every time you phone up to have dog remotely checked through modem- wife is checking all the time and the damn machine spits out 10 healthy pups on report when there was one pup in litter..
Crap fee generating machine for the vet..

So here we sit- dog is waging its tail and healthy as a well.. a dog, and we are burning through cash with a vet chasing mystery problems..

And another thing..
There is some financial guy the school board let in who goes around signing up savings accounts for teachers (my wife is one).
The guy is a fast talker with lots of nice graphs for returns on investment programs and signs up my wife- he takes 6 god damn % as a personal fee upfront of every thing she invests!
I look at my wife and tell her to haul ass out of there- no one takes a cut out of principle like this.
She stays in the program and I want to kill the guy every time I see him.

So now there are two things we can't talk about-the vet and that damn scam artist at school taking her money.
Boy I could smack someone.

Pretty common for vet's to be that way,I had a local clinic here (government funded university one mind you) demand $2k upfront for an emergency hystorectomy on my dog barely even cared about the dog,ended up just taking her to another clinic $800 and they actually cared more about the dog,I think learning how to charge must be a big part of their training.

Trboatworks said:

...................... to one of those gold plated veterinary practices .......................


....................... about how the new vet facility being built & the piece mentions how the cost overran by 100%. .............


.................. and we are burning through cash with a vet chasing mystery problems..

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And you are still using this vet why?

Steve

Well they got a fine example set for them by people doctors,didnt they?
Gw

SteveF said:

And you are still using this vet why?

Steve

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Does it sound like I am calling the shots here?

Sounds like you need to eliminate the source of your problems, the dogs, vets and savings scam artist all sound like symptoms of the problem!

The high end vets seem to treat the owners more so than the animals.....

Find a vet who like animals..... not one who sees them as a cash cow.

the retirement planner sounds very bad if he is charging that much. Normally the plan has to be approved by the district not sure if state provides approved list for district to choose from. I would ask the county or state ed department what the average cut, if any, is for such planners.
Bil lD.

here is a link that I found says 1% fee is max you should be charged.
Maybe go to any investment office and talk to someone else.
Teacher retirement is easy to plan, steady income, no big machine costs to plan for, economy tanks keep your job

http://www.edweek.org/chat/2006/06/14/chat_transcript_06_14_2006.html

forgot to add does your state allow teachers to buy extra years of service credit towards retirement? Up until New Years 2012 California allowed teachers to buy up to five extra years of credit. Cost around one years salary to buy in for five years extra. Not a great investment but it is a sure thing no chance of loss like the stock market so many teachers used the method.
Bill D.

All I can figure is to set up the finances between you two so that any money your wife wastes is 100 percent money from her earnings and not shared with yours. Course you may be set up that way already and are just irritated at all of her money she is wasting...but you do say "we have blown thru..." and it should be "she has blown thru..."

Trboatworks said:

Does it sound like I am calling the shots here?

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LOL. I can relate - we have horses. I won't say how much we spend but when the vet hospital has its annual party, we get invited.

Steve

That's why they call it practicing medicine, not doing medicine.

But really, this is another example of why our country is rapidly sliding downhill. Back when we had legs under us, no one spent more than $20 on any animal beyond food and water. Can you believe there is a dog bakery near my house?

When any animal gets sick beyond the $20 shot, it dies on its own or you help it get there. The mere thought of spending thousands on an animal is an illness.
The dog will be dead soon enough anyway because dog years really don't exist.

"All I can figure is to set up the finances between you two so that any money your wife wastes is 100 percent money from her earnings and not shared with yours. Course you may be set up that way already and are just irritated at all of her money she is wasting...but you do say "we have blown thru..." and it should be "she has blown thru..."


When I was single, I had lunch one day with an older guy who told me he and his wife had completely separate finances. When they were first married, she was burning through money like nobody's business. She one day presented him with over $50K in credit card bills he had no idea even existed. After the usual fighting, he had himself legally emancipated from her. They remained married but in the eyes of the law they had no financial obligations of a normal married couple.

He said his wife raised hell over it but she had no choice. Eventually she came to realize it was a good thing
as it taught her to be more responsible with money.

So, we're sitting there at lunch and he tells me quite plainly, "If I pull in the driveway today and there's a new Rolls Royce sitting there, I won't care one bit."

That always stuck with me. When I got married....well, to this day my wife and I have totally separate finances. If I drag home a lathe she doesn't even ask. If she shows up in some shoes with a suspiciously Italian sounding name, I don't ask. That much, we did right!

GregSY said:

That's why they call it practicing medicine, not doing medicine.

But really, this is another example of why our country is rapidly sliding downhill. Back when we had legs under us, no one spent more than $20 on any animal beyond food and water. Can you believe there is a dog bakery near my house?

When any animal gets sick beyond the $20 shot, it dies on its own or you help it get there. The mere thought of spending thousands on an animal is an illness.
The dog will be dead soon enough anyway because dog years really don't exist.

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For some folks, the "animal" is family, and you don't abandon family for money, especially when you can afford / scrape together the finances.

I think the vet's have been watching human doctors and are only copying what they are doing.

Jake

Yeah- separate finances but if she needs money I give it to her.
Maybe it isn't even about the money- she has my support 100% for her interests but these two cases make me feel like 'we' are being cheated and that sticks in my craw..

And yeah-

SteveF said:

LOL. I can relate - we have horses. I won't say how much we spend but when the vet hospital has its annual party, we get invited.

Steve

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between the rescue dogs and our own we haul into this vet we should have a teak and brass plaque on the wall as 'supporting members' of the practice.

Many, many unscrupulous vets prey on the love that the pet owners have for their pets and will take you to the cleaners without thinking twice. The more you can afford to spend the bigger of a "cash cow" you are!
They are in business to make money, short, sweet, and simple. We used to have a really good one, he retired and sold the practice to a money-grabber. (He was pushing pet insurance that didn't cover ANYTHING after you read the fine print!)

We have a 20lb Fart-hound (Boston Terrier) that is a big part of the family. But...........before I spent $2or3K for vet bills, I'll make a pot of soup out of him. (I keep threatening to and it really pisses my wife off )

Luckily, we found another good and honest one that we are happy with and their pricing is reasonable, but it took a while.

They WILL take advantage of yu if you let them, this is not the first horror story like this I have heard!

Frank

I am not going to get into this too far, especially since I just lost my best friend of 12 years Sat night. I went through 2 or 3 vets before I found the one that we have now. I am very happy with them, they actually care about my dogs. When we were going through the hell of Sat, she (the vet) was very good about letting me know the options and also knew me well enough to know our situation financially. Due to what happened there wasn't anything to do as far as MRI's and all that stuff, he was just not going to make it.

Sorry to bring it up, but what I was getting at was find a vet that cares and it will be the best thing for you and the dogs. I have done similar with the Docs I go to, if I go that is.

Good luck

Spud said:

For some folks, the "animal" is family, and you don't abandon family for money, especially when you can afford / scrape together the finances.

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That is what many crooked vets are hoping for...................

if the cost exceeds the value of the dog, just don't do it. if the dog is suffering, pay for the green stick and get it over with.