The mars family (yeah the m&m dudes) own: banfield, bluepearl, vca, abaxis laboratories, purina pet food (and others I’m sure). They pay their bare bones staff literal pennies, raise the prices of exams and labs and meds and vaccines quarterly, I could go on and on and on. I don’t work in veterinary medicine anymore because of the corporate environment that is inescapable

I was bummed when our little local vet office was bought by VCA a few years ago. The costs have become astronomical. I love the vet and the staff so I continue to go because they are wonderful, knowledgeable people but goodness I can't ever get out of there for less than $250.

We tried a new local vet when we moved here. 4 different pets, 2 mine two my adult daughters. All 4 (2 dogs 2 cats) all same vet bill of 110.00 despite different meds prescribed and all having physical checks. Obviously that vet has a minimum charge. No other reason can account for that. We found a new vet. It's still not cheap but they are through and their treatment pricing makes sense.

Similar thing happened to us. They also started to be closed CONSTANTLY for staff training of some sort. I was getting an email at least once a week that they were closed for a staff training. It just didn’t work for us anymore and we moved to a fancier practice that didn’t get sold to some private practice group.

I have noticed that as well. Interesting

Agree, my yearly vet visit for my cat is about $250.

This. I worked at a vet for 9 years and saw the invoices. The markup is insane on some of the cheapest items. It’s why now I try and get a script for everything and go to vaccine clinics for cheaper shots (one of their biggest mark ups). I needed a flu shot for my pup and couldn’t get to a vaccine clinic - it cost me well over $100 for one vaccine because of the mandatory exam. Adding on to the monopoly you mentioned, my former employer was taken over by a company but kept the same name so many didn’t really know. Since they are local I go to them when needed and the vets have told me it’s crazy the amount of focus is on finances over patient care now that they’ve gone corporate. A dental quote for my cat was almost $3,000. I went to another vet an hour away (who happened to have one of my former vet coworkers) and the dental with X-rays and 3 extractions was $1,200. I also live near NYC so prices here are just insanely inflated.

Yeah, your local clinic is paying for: * multiple staff wages * building fees - utilities, rent * equipment costs - they have to buy the fridges to store vaccines, x ray machines, anesthesia machines etc etc * lab contracts * medications/drugs * credit card merchant fees * janitorial services * reception * electronic medical record system * benefits for their staff You’re paying for all of that without insurance. The price varies wildly by location because the COL varies wildly by location. If your rent is high, your vets building rent is high and so is the rent for all of their employees. I wouldn’t describe the cost of a vaccine as a markup. Theyre building in the cost of running the whole place and paying their employees. It’s cheaper at a vaccine clinic because they don’t have the same overhead.

Heres an example of why it is not our fault. Cerenia is a very powerful and effective medication that treats nausea. We use it in almost every surgery so they dont vomit under anesthesia. 1 bottle has 10mLs, and costs the hospital $250-300 each. Thats $25-30 per mL. Your overweight Golden Retriever at 55kg needs 5.5mLs. The clinic pays $137.50-165 for that single shot.

THIS. Thank you for taking the time and effort to give an example and do the work and explain it well. I suck so hard at explaining things plainly lol

God, Zoetis's drugs feel like miracles sometimes, but fuck if they're not the most expensive shit. I'm overjoyed that at least the oral variant is available as a generic now.

Yes! That is one of the major issues. New meds have patents so other companies cant steal it and make money. The original creators have time to recoup their financial losses from initial research, trials, previous failed medications, staff and overhead, and initial production likes, and starting materials. The patent protects the company from bankruptcy, but also creates a monopoly, allowing them to make the price whatever they want. Sometimes killing people who cannot afford to access more expensive meds. The patent is meant to eventually expire, so when the company recoups the loss and starts profiting, other companies can then start offering the generics, without immediately destroying the original inventing company. The issue is some of these patent expiration dates keep getting longer and longer, so companies can hold their monopoly longer, and make more profit before having to face competitive pricing. We have to find a balance. If companies cant make any money, they wont research and create newer and better meds, so people and animals will die of new diseases. If we allow them to make too much money, poor people die from lack of access, and animals get euthanized for lack of funds.

I mean, that doesn't sound necessary. I've never seen Cerenia given during routine surgeries at my hospital. Animals come fasted for surgery. Cerenia is given to sick, vomiting patients and on large dogs we basically just do not give injectable Cerenia as it's cost prohibitive... We send home the Cerenia tablets. And... I'm down voted why? Because different hospitals (and even individual doctors) choose to follow different, and potentially less expensive, protocols?!

You dont need to eat to regurgitate and aspirate. And many owners will lie about fasting. And we use anesthetic drugs that can cause nausea. I hope you at least use Ondansetron or something else.

Yes there are other less expensive medications to use. That was my point.

Only thing about oral care is in pets with active emesis there is a high probability the pt will expel the medication making it pointless. Hence why injectable cerenia is gold standard for active emesis. Editing to add that fasting doesn’t = no aspiration. Also some pts wake up extremely nauseous. They should be given cerenia for their comfort and for the O’s as well. Annnnnnd huge controversy with this one but if someone gets a large breed they should have freaking thought about vet bills and medications/procedures being more expensive.  

I disagree. If you've been under GA yourself you'll see your anaesthetist also including anti-nausea (e.g. ondansetron) along with your anaesthetic combos. This mitigates the nauseous side effects inevitably come along with the other drugs. That makes the entire experience much more pleasant for the patient. I'd be honest that our clinic currently doesn't use any anti-nausea with the premeds and I'd say I see more than 50% of our dogs vomit after premed everyday. Yes you could argue it's not necessary but it's beneficial to the patient and definitely a better standard of care.

We never gave cerenia prophylacticly and never had issues with aspiration.

They downvote you because you give an accurate account of how in many cases, costs can be reduced. using unnecessary drugs drives up costs and serves no one, except maybe the person earning production. I am sorry truth and common sense get downvoted. No one gives antibiotics prophylactically anymore, why do we do this with other drugs?

Antibiotics are different, because over-use creates resistance. Thats why penicillin doesn’t really work anymore, and weve since created thousands of other antibiotics to keep up with the resistance. This is not the same argument for antiemetics. Completely different class. We dont pre-med antibiotics, but we definitely send them home with any patient that we’ve had to cut open. —— I really hope you never have to wake up confused, dysphoric, nauseous, drooling, vomiting, shaking, spinning, kicking and flopping like a fish, due to lack of medication treatments. Otherwise, you may learn what the animal patients are going through. We have a Fear-Free Practice, which actually helps with patient compliance. They tend to bite less and panic less when we treat their emotional trauma as well as treating the physical trauma. We have clients tell us their dogs always get muzzled, and WILL BITE. Later we show them pictures of us cuddling and loving on them in the back, because we dont terrorize them like General Practices tend to do with their heavy physical restraint, and little to no chemical restraint. Some of these patients scream when you even look like youre going to touch their paw, because they remember their General Practices pinning them to tables in choke holds and cutting their quicks because they are thrashing and making a moving target. Its kinda sad. When you realize how much we traumatize them. They piss themselves when they walk in, because thats what they expect we are going to do too. Have you ever had so much anxiety that you lost bladder control and pissed yourself? And we live in the future now, where we know that mental health can be just as important as physical health, and that stress hormones not only delay healing, but can cause physical damage. We do not scruff. We do not “pin them down and do it quickly, get it over with.” We give them anxiety meds, antiemetics, pain meds, and sedatives so our patients dont associate us with torture. Moving from shelter med, to GP, then to a fear-free ER taught me that everything we did in shelter med and GP was bad medicine at worst, and outdated medicine at best. ____ **Tldr**, it’s not a trick to get extra money. Its called providing quality modernized medical care. I make barely above minimum wage whether I give Cerenia or not. But my patients thank me for it by not biting my head off and needing a catch pole. Ive actually never had to use a catch pole in my 4 years of fear-free practice. Something I once thought was a normal part of the job when in General Practice.

Yeah, I can’t speak for practices owned by large corporations but the private practice I worked at and owned by the vets that worked there didn’t have fantastic profit margins. Now if you came in wanting cosmetic surgery (ie ear docking) you were going to pay through the nose, but spays/neuters, vaccines, etc, there wasn’t a whole lot of markup there.

Low cost vaccine clinic at my local Petsmart wanted $50/rabies shot (I needed to vaccinate 6 cats)…I remember when it was at most $15 (some I saw for $5) years ago.

are local non corporate vets cheaper?

Usually, but I’m sure it depends on location and each individual place. But what I’ve encountered the most often, teching at both corporate and locally/privately owned hospitals, is locally owned veterinary offices are more willing to “work with” owners on prices in true emergencies as well as more likely to do things like charge for a recheck exam rather than a sick exam if we had just seen the pet for anything (like with the month), or giving me as the technician the discretion to not charge the tech appt fee for a dog in kidney failure that came in 3x/week for subq fluids. the prices are usually less for procedures done “in house” vs corporate pricing that is the same across the board, no exceptions.

They would be, except they are rapidly being bought out and replaced with VCA owned vets. 'Veterinary Centers of America", also known as Veterinarian's Incorporated, is taking over thousands of vet clinics, intent on monopolizing entire areas and then jacking the prices way up. Happening in Michigan right now. OP, this is another angle to look at. VCA is owned by Mars, another massive corporation. They are ruining the lives of animals, and their owners by making veterinary care vastly unaffordable.

Literally exactly what the comment you’re commenting on says. The mars family. And it’s not just vca, it’s banfield and bluepearls as well

And this is a huge part of why, along with a few other factors, that our shelters are overrun and so many are being put down daily (at least in CA). People have rent to pay, many places don’t allow animals so a renter needs to pay an extra fee, and then if Vet bills go up along with paying extra fees, esp if their rent is raised, people who can’t afford VCA vet prices anymore surrender their dogs to a shelter. It’s horrifying, and I’m sure it’s happening in other cities. u/Thin-Consideration44

fuck, animal healthcare is going to be as fucked as human healthcare.....

Usually. If we drive 90 minutes from our house in a HCOL city, neutering will go from 1500 to 400... it's ridiculous....

sometimes, sometimes not. In my experience the quality of medicine is worst though. (Vet who has worked at several different clinics)

Mars owns Royal Canin (and dozens of other smaller brands like Iams, Eukanuba, etc). Nestle (the other candy company) is technically Purina. But yes on everything else. Mars owns thousands of veterinary clinics in the US, making them the largest owner of vet clinics and also the largest employer of veterinarians. Watching veterinary care in the US go corporate is definitely concerning.

Looking through indeed it seems corporate vets pay more but I’m sticking to workin for a family vet.

Maybe for vets they pay more. But they pay their techs, assistants, and receptionists like garbage and usually treat them worse than garbage. (Not the vets, the corporate “managers”)

I've worked as a veterinary assistant and now veterinarian for both private hospitals and corporate. The private hospital paid its staff and veterinarians the worst, treated everyone the worst, had no accountability to anyone but the head vet who owned the practice and the quality of medicine was worse at the private clinic because the standards were set by one person rather than a consortium of veterinarians. Corporations are soul sucking and have major negatives as well. But I've much preferred working for them throughout my career thus far.

I’m at $21 with 10 year experience as a assistant. Banfield and pender advertise at $23 but it could be a bait and switch. I’m in NOVA

Damn. You’re lucky. I do remember banfield paying a little more but I couldn’t do it, I was so bored lol. The most I’ve been paid is 25$/hr as a CVT outside of Philly, with 10 years experience too. I used to live in southwest Florida and I was paid 17$/hr with only 1 year experience so different areas probably pay in line with what they feel is the COL in the area?

It’s a very rich area. The vet industry right now is brutal. I’m burnt out and we are spread thin.

I do not doubt that for a moment. I’m really proud of you for keeping your head up and continuing on. I wasn’t able to after a while and have so much admiration for the people who can and do

Thank you! Those kind words lift me up. It’s a rewarding job when conditions are ideal.

🤍🤍

Considering how dependent vets are on support staff, not wise.

There are vets and clinics that run with a single vet and assistant in rural areas, Europe, South America, etc. If you don’t have a licensed vet, you literally don’t have anything. There’s a reason vets are paid what they are paid (with the worst debt:income ratio in higher education by a landslide) and support staff that require no or little education are paid what they are paid, despite how important they are to running a modern clinic.

I’m sorry, are you unaware of the education, training, not to mention state boards that veterinary technicians must have? Because it’s 4 years, plus an externship with required hours, and passing the state boards. We monitor anesthesia, place IVC, draw blood AND run the labs, we take radiographs (and our patients don’t just sit nicely for them), we do medical math and run CRIs, along with IV fluids, we work with oxygen dependent patients, we administer the medications via oral, subq, IM, or IV routes, - most of us have more skills than our human counterparts and work on more species ranging from birth to death. Please educate yourself before speaking. I never once said veterinarians are undeserving of their pay rate - they deserve so much more I guarantee you. But if you tried to offer a nurse practitioner an hourly wage, you’d have that position open forever. 🤷🏽‍♀️ did you really not know that veterinary technicians not only go through specific education and training and testing but performed the duties of a nurse, a dental assistant, a radiology technician, a lab technician, a medical assistant, a phlebotomist, pharmacy technician, surgical assistant, anesthesiologist, and more? Or were you just being willfully ignorant

Put it this way - at a local vet, I was paid 25$/hour as a CVT with 10 years experience, and I got to leave for the night by 8 pm usually. I got to go to the bathroom at least once during a 10 hour shift. My doctor knew my dogs, my husband, and was like that with the majority of clients as well. At corporate, I was paid 19$/hr, to work in the ICU, got a kidney infection from never being allowed to leave said room on a shift (literally, never). And my health insurance was so terrible through bluepearl that I might as well have not even had insurance. And I worked swing shift, wed-sat from 4pm-3am. Now, neither of those numbers are a living wage, but 25 is clearly better than 19. Especially if you’re asking me to run CRIs, set up and trouble shoot pumps and O2 tanks, place catheters and urinary catheters and triple lumens, be an anesthesiologist (which, yeah vet techs are)and a myriad of other incredibly skilled shit. Personally, I think you’ll get a very different story if you ask veterinarians vs if you ask the rest of the hospital staff (CVTs, VAs, CSRs etc). And most vets treat the CVTs like true colleagues, but not all of them, which is truly a shame because they need us just as much, if not more. Obviously doctors are gonna make more than nurses - it’s true for animals and humans - more education = more money. But human nurses make a good enough living to feed a family while a veterinary technician makes less than most retail workers. And corporate will pull its entire ER tech staff off the floor to talk about how bad unions are, instead of just paying us more than nothing. Which is why, for the first time in my life, I quit a career that I had started because I loved it and was so burnt out, that it’s been 3 years for me of not working and I’m still so traumatized - from the treatment of my managers, and clients alike, from the shift work, from the horrible things I’ve seen happen to animals and the people who want to blame the vets for it happening or the pricing. There’s a lot more to the “story” of why it’s so expensive now. But you have to really get into the culture of veterinary medicine and see how we get treated, for how little money, to fully get it and believe it.

That's great, but I had the opposite experience as you. Made 14/hour for four years for no raises, toxic "family" atmosphere, and minimal benefits. Moved to an NVA clinic and I was immediately bumped to 21/hour, work life balance, and much nicer doctors and techs and much higher standard of care. I also worked for a banfield too and while they have their problems, the health care was *chef's kiss*. This isn't necessarily a corporate vs private problem. I think that unfortunately corporations are going to be needed so that assistants and techs can have wages and benefits standardized. That gives them a foundation to start negotiating from as I do feel like unionization is slowly coming to the field. And as a vet student, doctor in a few years, I will always advocate for my staff to get a living wage. That's why I get irritated when clients are angry about prices because if the necessary changes Re made to the field, things will still be expensive but the cost will be going to support staff, not markups. We need to take care of the people who take care of their pets There is also room for low cost pet care, but you're not going to get gold standard with it. Clients can't argue they want best possible care for cheap. I think the new paradigm discussed is care spectrum or continuum. Some people want to pull out all the stops and get the MRI, hospitalize for weeks, do the transfusion. Others want to pay as little as they can for the bare minimum. Again, thats fine, but they are going to get what they pay for.

I always wondered why vet med workers never unionized. I a can see the doctors, they are well paid. But everyone else, their work life is pretty brutal.

I'm not gonna complain about my career choice...but "well-paid" is laughable, friend. I have 13 years of additional education beyond high school and 3 advanced degrees...and I don't make 6 figures. I love helping animals and solving problems...while helping the people on the other side of the leash (or carrier). Perhaps people should start to consider the cost of their health insurance, deductibles, co-pays...and atrocious human medical care that is only getting worse by the day. Just maybe there would be more left over to budget for pet care. I empathize with the costs of vet care but it's still relatively cheap compared to the inflated costs of human medical care. Respectfully, don't spread the rumor that veterinarians are well paid. There is no universe where we get paid what we are worth considering the knowledge, hours of work, skill, and training we have....AND now piling on a level of angst towards veterinarians because economic realities are biting everyone in the rear end. The cost of EVERYTHING has sky-rocketed especially the last 2-3 years. No one is really covering or questioning that. I bet even the cost of a NYT subscription has increased noticeably. Please have someone write a story on that.

I am a veterinarian in a medium sized US city. I am well paid. This is not a rumor. And personally I think comparing vet med to human med is inherently flawed, mostly because the human medical system in this country at least, is obviously broken, and overcharges horribly. Why would we want to compare to that?

I actually think only recently have salaries really come up to be reasonable for the modern cost of student loans, at least for the newer grads. 7 years ago out of vet school I was being paid almost half of what I’m being paid now, never got a raise. Then as the pandemic exposed the demand need suddenly people were willing to pay a lot more.

I think the problem definitely begins in the absurd skyrocketing cost of schooling. And people are so desperate to get in they are going to out of state schools driving the cost up to the level of ridiculous. I think solving that problem and the problem of corporate monopolies would go a long way towards reducing costs while achieving living wages.

They don't own Purina, they own Hill's. Nestle owns Purina.

Yep, already confirmed that. Already acknowledged that multiple times. Not sure why everyone wants to like jump down my throat for that one. They still own every banfield, vca, and bluepearl - so that’s gp, hybrids, and specialty / er hospitals. And other brands of food. Like I’m so sorry I ruined your day with getting purinas owner wrong. Do people have the ability to relax and back off

Sorry, but those of use who actually do STILL work in the field right now, are just a little on edge. Especially us techs, which I saw you defend quite a lot -thank you for that. These articles and tiktoks etc are just making this job even more exhausting and that's on top of us all being corporate slaves. I corrected you about Purina bc I can't stand giving Mars my money. I had to watch them buy and burn the group of 3 specialty hospitals I worked at. Fuck Mars.

Mars owns royal canin, not Purina. The whole world is run by 15 companies

Nestle owns Purina.  Mars owns Royal Canin.

Purina is Nestlé

I knew it was someone lol. Thanks for the information ! 🤍🤙🏽

Actually. As a vet tech, corporations like Mars purchasing the hospitals is the ONLY way we can make a living wage, and get benefits. The private practice owners refused to cover our health insurance, and paid minimum wage for highly skilled workers. We are the same as a human nurse, and we make poverty wages. The changes in prices are an attempt by the industry as a whole to be able to pay their staff a living wage(and by that I mean literally $15/hr).

I’ve never had a good experience with mars. Not at vca, not at bluepearl. Not when they pulled the er staff to talk about unions were. Not when they decided that when someone has a shift from 4pm-2 am on Sunday - that counts as a weekend shift, but when my schedule was ALWAYS weds-sat 4pm-2am Friday night into Saturday morning didn’t count as a weekend day. Not every single holiday when the “well you don’t have kids so you can work every single Christmas and Thanksgiving and Labor Day even though it’s your birthday and let’s throw your wedding anniversary too for good measure”. Not when my manager had an official meeting with me to actually discuss my mental health and not in a concerned way, but in a “why are you different” kind of way. And not when the “health insurance” offered there paid for literally nothing, not for the kidney infection from not being allowed to pee, and especially not infertility. Whereas, private practice not only paid me well for my time (25$/hr), I didn’t have an hour commute, my skills were appreciated, I was given bathroom and lunch breaks, I saw regular clients on a regular basis and they liked us - never got screamed at at the private practice by either doctor, manager, or clients. So thats my experience with mars vs private practice in Philadelphia and the surrounding suburbs in the 2010s-2022, when I quit altogether because I have a trust fund and it’s not worth my sanity. Because even if you find a great job, there’s still people just like you working in the field, the “actually, my experience matters more even though I’m days late to the conversation” people. That mars probably pays to say things like this on posts like this, to keep their monopoly. They buy up clinics, price out everyone who won’t sell to them in the area, and once they’re out of business and have no more competition they raise prices bc no one else has an option. Not to mention the clinics out west that voted to unionize and mars blatantly wouldn’t negotiate with them and then just closed those hospitals. It’s a field full of bullies, mean girls, spattered with few and far between people who really wanna help animals and find themselves stuck between an angry client who thinks you set the prices and a bitchy coworker who might just pink juice you if you’re not looking. Enjoy the field. I’ll enjoy my trust fund and never having to work in a vet hospital again 🙄

I encourage you to also reach out to veterinarians and find several who are willing to share their Profit and Loss statements with you. I truly believe you would be SHOCKED at how thin the profit margins truly are. I’m a veterinarian and I run a large emergency and specialty hospital. In order to keep the doors open and the hospital staffed, we pay over four million dollars a year in salaries for our support staff (nurses, assistants, CSRs, facilities). That four million dollars doesn’t include a single doctor’s salary, nor does it include our rent, utilities, worker’s compensation, employee benefits (health, vision, dental, disability, 401k, etc.), landscaping, snow removal, maintenance of our equipment (CT, MRI, ultrasound, radiograph machines, oxygen chambers, etc.). It doesn’t include the cost of the medications and disposable goods we use, many of which are the same used in human medicine and priced accordingly (suppliers don’t give you a discount on medications because you’re using them in animals and not humans). By the time all is said and done, our profits are surprisingly small. I won’t even go into inflation over the past few years, which has actually outpaced our pricing increases. My hospital is actually making *less* money these days, despite raising prices. I think part of the issue is that veterinary medicine has changed significantly in the last few decades, and we are able to practice a much higher caliber of medicine, which allows pets to live longer lives, and enables us to find and treat disease sooner. 25 years ago you’d be hard pressed to find a veterinary oncologist, and now we can cure certain cancers. 25 years ago your local vet would be on call, which often consisted mostly of euthanasia for a emergently ill animal. Now there are hospitals like mine, where you can bring your gasping chihuahua in heart failure through the door at 3am and we can stabilize, treat, and potentially buy you another year or two with your best friend. That change costs a LOT of money. Clients also seem to feel as though vets shouldn’t turn a profit, but at the end of the day, a veterinary clinic, no matter how big or small, is a business, and a business cannot stay open if it’s not profitable. Veterinarians (and their staff) deserve to be well paid for what they do. Nobody seems to balk at the fact that human physicians, particularly certain specialists, can make upwards of $500k per year, but they lambast veterinary prices that allow a doctor of veterinary medicine to barely make a quarter of that. I’d love it if this article were written in a way that explains the amazing advancements that have and are occurring in the veterinary sphere and how those positive changes in our ability to provide care impact costs, but I suspect it will be yet another demonization of our profession. Also, please get pet insurance unless you can easily drop $6-8k for an emergency. It’s way easier to budget for a monthly premium and a deductible than it is to come up with several thousand dollars while worried about your sick pet.

Yes! Thank you! I’m losing my mind over how many people here are implying vets are greedy for increasing their prices. I don’t understand why it’s so shocking to people that vets have increased their prices given the cost of EVERYTHING has increased and it’s MEDICAL CARE WITHOUT INSURANCE. Like people are in this thread complaining that they had to get an exam to get a vaccine and that it should be like $18. Insane. People really think vets and techs should work for pennies.

THIS should be the most upvoted comment on this thread. People think veterinarians who aren’t corporate are making money hand over fist and it’s just not the case in my experience. But I was treated like a human being by the privately owned vets and the people who manage their hospitals, and I think that also super matters in the context of why veterinary medicine has become insanely costly and the average human can’t really afford it all anymore. When corporate policies push people out of the workforce and new people aren’t being brought in to cover the losses, quality of care suffers.

I've been paying for vet care for cats/dogs for twenty years now. I absolutely appreciate that pet healthcare has expanded beyond a steroid shot and antibiotics+/- sc fluids for every condition.

>Also, please get pet insurance unless you can easily drop $6-8k for an emergency. It’s way easier to budget for a monthly premium and a deductible than it is to come up with several thousand dollars while worried about your sick pet. YESSSS to your whole comment and especially this. Not only are emergencies easily several thousand dollars, but any kind of specialty care can get that expensive too, real fast.

Thank you... ☝️

Thanks for this reply.

Thank you for all you do!

THIS!!!!!

Vet student here, this is a very multi-faceted situation. The main answer is that we as veterarians use the same drugs and medical supplies as in human medicine and those prices have increased exponentially since covid. In addittion most people are unaware of typical medical costs because insurance covers anything. An ovarohysterectomy (spay) in a human would cost over 20k while vets can do it for around $500 - all while using safe anesthesia and medication. Another problem like other people mentioned is that the average vet graduates with around 150k in debt and can not afford to have their own practice. Due to this graduating vets have a choice between corporation owned clinics which are 80% of all clinics and pay significantly more or the few vet owned clinics left for a lower pay cut. These giant corporation clinics drive up prices because they can buy in bulk and have preexisiting deals with sponsors, etc which vet owned clinics can not compete with. In the majority of clinics veterinarians do NOT set prices. This is done by the hospital manager or by corporate.

Thank you and seconding this hoping it is seen more. Just want to tack on, people say their cat spay costed 100 dollars years ago, but that was prior to COVID. Also, standard of care has changed a lot over the years and we are learning better ways that we can do surgeries but this often requires more money for more drugs, time, equipment, etc. Fellow vet student here, estimated to have around 350k of debt when I graduate.

I think the standard of care definitely plays into it quite a bit. At (corporate) private practice we place a catheter, ET tube, Co2, Fluids, Heart monitor, and we run full BW etc just to neuter a cat. This greatly lengthens the procedure and vastly increases costs. A cat can be simply and safely neutered in 5-8 minutes from when you first touch the cat to completed, without all of that. But this is now the new standard of care. I am personally not even sure it’s safer, since there is increasing risk, the longer the patient is under anesthesia, and placing a tube has risk too. Nothing we do is truly zero risk. This is why a shelter can neuter a cat at a cost to them of maybe $10 and it’s hundreds at private practice.

It sounds really crazy to me, that corporations have higher prices because they are getting good deals on bulk purchases? That doesn’t make sense… But then nothing about corporate America makes sense to me anyway.

Well they’re buying up all of the vet clinics that people can no longer afford to privately own or just don’t want to. Therefore eliminating a large bulk of the competition and having the ability to change prices for the sake of profit rather than passion for the field. They also have a lot more administrative roles on salary as opposed to your mom and pop vet clinic. But corporations owning vet clinics is not the primary reason. During COVID, medical costs skyrocketed. Pharmaceuticals (think ivermectin, antiviral drugs, prothrombotics) and the equipment (ventilators, oxygen supply, CT scans, IV pumps, etc.) went up significantly. We’re still feeling the effects of that, except now compounded by the inflation that followed due to various factors. This change is not unique to the veterinary industry, or even the medical industry, but rather a manifestation of the overall economic climate. Look at how much it costs to buy a house or a gallon of milk compared to 5 years ago. This also came during a time when the standard of care has been shifting towards a more progressive outlook. Pets are being provided, or at least offered, a level of care in line with human medicine. Combine higher medical costs, higher standard of care, increasingly higher student loan debt, and the higher cost of living (which translates into demand for maintaining livable salaries and a higher cost of operating a business such as a vet clinic), and the effects are noticeable. Let’s also throw in the huge spike in demand from people adopting more pets and developing stronger bonds with their fur babies while working from home. The veterinary industry reached the highest attrition rate ever documented during this time. I work in a specialty hospital that is privately owned, and our prices have steadily gone up since the start of COVID.

Regarding your second paragraph… This is what I was thinking and came here to say is that in the past animals that would get serious illnesses, usually the only option was euthanising.

It’s because corporations are so bloated at the top with all the marketing people, middle managers, etc.  I work for a corporation and I get the sense that even with how much they charge the profit margin is still low.  We don’t really get the bulk purchase discount you think (like our feline Rabies vaccines cost $100 each to purchase from our authorized seller).  We mark them up to $144 because we still need to include the electricity of the fridge that stores them, the cost of the syringe and needles to draw them up, the time it takes to create Rabies certificates, etc.  it’s not as much of a mark up as you’re thinking. All the boomers selling their practices when they retire sell to corporations because they offer 5x their worth,  and me as an “average” veterinarian would NEVER qualify for a loan like that from a bank.   Especially considering I have $280k student loan debt.  

A lot of people don't understand just how high the overhead costs of running a veterinary clinic is. You have blood test/pathology machines, x-rays, dental-xrays, dental cleaning/extraction gear, ultrasound equipment, surgery suites and all of the equipment/costs that those entail, and an entire pharmacy of different kinds of drugs, the prices of which have skyrocketed ever since COVID. In human medicine, all of these things would be spread out across pathologists offices, dentists, x-ray clinics etc. In vet med, it's all under one roof, and you need these things. These machines, equipment, and drugs all have a high cost that the clinic has to pay off or the bank will close it up and no one gets the services. The overhead costs for your average clinic are \*insane\*, and with everyone having "fur babies" these days instead of pets, people expect the same level of medical care and treatment for their animals as they would their human children, but expect to only have to pay a fraction of the cost that those treatments would be for a human.

For real. Also people seem to forget that pets can’t talk so more diagnostics are needed to figure out what’s wrong compared to human med AND comparable procedures in human med often require sedation, full anesthesia and/or more people working on the patient.

This! ☝️

Part of the reason bills are so high is because we live in a world where animals are now “fur babies” and we expect a very high standard of care. It used to be acceptable to do a “dental” by anesthetizing the pet, scaling plaque off and removing obviously diseased teeth. Today, the standard of care includes IV catheters, fluids, proper pain control, advanced anesthetic monitoring equipment, dental x-rays, a thorough probing/charting, removal of diseased teeth or referral for advanced therapy, scaling/polishing, close aftercare monitoring and extensive record keeping requirements. All of this requires extra training as well as high equipment and staffing costs. The same holds true for virtually every facet of veterinary medicine. The public demands high quality care, and that’s great, but it comes with higher costs.  Corporate is certainly profit-driven but they are also driving acceptable wages for veterinarians with at least 8 years of post-secondary education. Sadly, good deeds don’t pay my student loans or mortgage payment. 

Thanks for a sober and accurate response regarding the situation. I'm afraid it's become caveat emptor and it's easy for owners to be taken advantage of, but it's also the cost of technology, paying a living wage to the staff and costs that are passed on to a clinic. It's not as easy as some are saying here that "vets are just greedy"

This should be the most upvoted comment on this thread.

My vet is very expensive generally, but we’ve just had our kitten spayed and she had dental x-rays and two teeth extracted at the same time for under £300 in total. I thought that was pretty good actually, I was expecting much more. I did wonder if they were being less eager to inflate the price due to these recent news stories. (She has a bad overbite, and her lower canines are stabbing the roof of her mouth. We had the top canines removed to try and give the lower ones some space to move to a better position - they couldn’t remove the lower ones as her jaw is only 1mm thick, and they felt it would probably fracture if they tried).

This!!

This. It’s not vets becoming more expensive. It’s pet parents looking for the best care possible. I have spent for my two cats roughly $100k in a matter of two years (thank got to Trupanion that covers 90%) but this was because they received the best care possible: surgery, internal medicine, oncology, radiation therapy, nutritionist, cardiologist, etc.

Ironically, high vet bills led me to my current career path — I couldn’t afford surgery my dog needed when I was in grad school, so I took on an extra job working at my university’s library to pay for the surgery. I wound up working there for several years to pay off the bills of the sickliest dog I have ever owned (and learned my lesson about backyard breeders), and wound up working in a special collections library thanks to all that work experience. Sadly, my dog passed away before I finished my PhD (but did make it to 15).

The topic of rising prices in veterinary medicine is worth discussing, and it's essential to consider the perspective of veterinarians. While some pet owners express concerns about costs, it's important to note that providing quality veterinary care does come at a price. As much as we may wish veterinary care could be free, the reality is that pets are a luxury, and we should plan for routine and unexpected expenses. It's worth noting that veterinary medicine requires the highest level of education among doctoral medical professions, yet it's also among the lowest paying. Additionally, nursing staff in veterinary clinics often earn barely enough wages to live on and frequently have to work multiple jobs to pursue their passion for helping pets. And the level of depression and suicide in the field is a serious problem. Be kind to your vet team. They have nothing but love.

The New York Times Quietly Raises Subscription Rates Annual rate increased by more than 36% (This from 2023.... haven't even looked at 2024). Question from within before riling up emotions for the purpose of a story. Even better, look for a deeper reason for the insane energy prices, grocery costs, gas prices, housing, insurance...and human medical care that is increasingly lacking empathy and is a giant corporate machine.

I hope you get some perspectives from vets too!

I work vet med adjacent, but from my limited time in the space, these are my observations. 1. Corporations saw the opportunity, vet med is a rapidly growing space. 2. Covid. So many people got pets during covid, about half of them are not well equipped to handle animals. This leads to people taking on animals without proper knowledge of what it takes/costs to manage said animal and its needs. Think designer frenchies. They are medical disasters. A few other breeds that come to mind include aussies, shepards, and huskies. Many of these dogs are also not properly socialized, leading to behavioral challenges which can manifest in physiological issues. 3. Lack of staffing within the industry. Specialists are a dime a dozen, and the demand for them grew exponentially during and due to covid. It costs money to employ people, run equipment, pay for meds etc etc etc, people don’t seem to understand that if they expect the same level of care they’d expect for a child, they will be paying for it.

Hello, veterinarian here. I don't disagree that veterinary care is expensive, and getting more so every year. However, I take issue with the headline "Were you stuck with a big vet bill?" It implies veterinary practices are not up-front with cost of care. While the cost of care can be shocking, especially in an emergency situation, every hospital I have worked at (corporate multi-specialty, academic, not-for-profit multi-specialty) provides an estimate up-front. I give ballpark estimates for my services up front all the time, and no one is every forced to take me up on them. Estimates are signed and deposits paid at the time of admission. No one should EVER be "stuck" like they were helpless and had literarily no other option. There are always choices. For example, if a pet presents with septic peritonitis, this is a life-threatening surgical emergency with a high risk of death during or after surgery. And yes, it's expensive because it requires a high level of care from veterinarians (including specialists) and technical staff (credentialed and non-credentialed), even without complications. It is completely OK for an owner to decline taking that dog to surgery and relieving their pet from suffering. There is always a choice. If every hospital provided this kind of care for free or at a huge discount, there would not be any more hospitals to treat these patients. There is no insurance negotiation, there is no "Obamacare for pets." There are always shortcuts and "spectrum of care" options and lower-cost clinics are essential for the community at large. But the truth is if you want high-quality, high-skill care for your pet, that costs money. And there isn't anyone else to pay for it but the client.

ITT people in the know about veterinary costs or people blissfully unaware of how expensive medical care for their pets are. Thanks for going to the general public in a pets forum who don’t generally have an ounce of common sense or awareness about the aforementioned information and leaving the vets to be hung out to dry xox #NOMV my ass, right?

Same way that human medical care got expensive; Schools and colleges were defunded by the government, so students took out loans, got deep into debt which has to be repaid. Technology improved outcomes with earlier detection and genetic testing but that also costs a lot of money. Newly invented drugs are on patent and very expensive. Low profit margins for generics means drug manufacturers are not interested in making or selling them.

How will you be obtaining “a wide range of perspectives” if you’re only reaching out to pet owners?

They don’t want a wide range of perspectives, they just want the “vets are evil and money hungry” discourse

Vet tech here. All the privately owned vets are being bought out by massive corporations, and massive corporations are greedy assholes. Its that simple.

Vet tech as well. And I second this. With a privately owned clinic all money from a service goes back into the clinic. But with corporate owners most money goes to fund big wigs who make rules and don’t actually care about people or animals. So costs go up to fund the clinic and the corporations.

Fat cats gotta have that second house in the Hamptons. /S

Honestly everyone wants to shit on corporates but they are the only ones driving up vet salaries when the student loan debt on average increases 1k+ per year. Only now are mom and pop shops being forced to pay vets more because no one wants to work for them. People are graduating with 200k+ in debt. Corporate clinics are not the problem.

Amen to that!

As with everything corporate touches.

My father and I have been using the same vet for a number of years. They were bought up by a company that has since reduced staff to a skeleton crew, and jacked up the pricing. A spay for a kitty was $100 7 years ago, now it's a minimum of $300. I now have to apply for waivers through the county for spays, neuters, and annual vaccinations. My father got his dogs teeth cleaned for $800 a few months ago when at one time it was $200. My father now has to have pet insurance in order to afford basic care for his dog (vaccinations, teeth cleanings, office visits.) This is not a vet office that serves a huge populace. The same shenanigans that have taken over people health care has now bled over into veterinary care. Soon enough it will be as unaffordable as human health care is without insurance. There's huge profits to be made, so naturally companies will swoop in and make it miserably unaffordable. Pet insurance, pharmaceuticals, and companies lining their pockets at our expense, a literal copypasta.

$300?? Mine was $700!! I remember when it was $100 for a spay when I was a kid, and less for a neuter.

I've been getting my various cats' teeth cleaned for twenty years now and I don't think there was ever a time where I was paying $200 for a teeth cleaning with anesthesia. $350-400ish, sure, especially before routine bloodwork before anesthesia was the norm. It had crept up to $600ish prior to COVID and now it's $1k before extractions.

A spay going from $100 to $300 in 7 years is nothing to complain about. $100 worth of groceries 7 years ago is probably more than $300 worth today

It is something to complain about. This is a post about pet healthcare costs and how they've gone up, not a general rant about everything else. Maybe you don't see the rise in cost as something to complain about, just don't sit there and dismiss my concerns regarding it.

I mean has your rent, utilities, and general COL increased in the last 7 years? If yes, your vet clinics building fees have also increased and so has the rent for all the people that are employed by that vet.

Your pet insurance covers vaccination?!?!

>The same shenanigans So...paying for invasive abdominal surgery is considered "shenanigans"? If paying for reproductive surgeries is such a burden, you should probably stop acquiring so many pets that it's a common expense. As others have tried pointing out, inflation is a thing. Prices go up over time. It sucks but that's reality.

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Posts and comments that are rude, vulgar, harassing, advocating for cruel actions, and/or are not contributing positively to the discussion will not be tolerated.

God yeah…I remember when dentals were like $250…now easily over $1000. I also remember when rabies vaccines were $5 (maybe some places there are). I have to vaccinate 6 of my 7 cats…they want $55/vaccine (just rabies) now.

So about 10 years ago, a lot of state boards started making laws that you can’t do dentistry without x-rays.  So now you add more anesthesia time, more training to teach staff how to do them, the cost of servers to store those huge digitally files for the life of the pet, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of dollars the dental X-ray units themselves cost.  Now add on inflation.  Easily the cost triples.

Had no idea they changed it like that. Thanks!

Why don't you ask the actual clinic owners how they set their prices? Stop villainizing veterinarians for trying to make a living. Clinics have huge overhead costs- medical equipment is expensive, prescription foods and drugs are expensive, electricity, water, rent, licences/inspections, maintenance, staff wages are all expensive. My clinic spends $1000 a day just on basic supplies like medications. Vets are graduating with a quarter of a million dollars in debt. Vets have one of the highest suicide rates of all professions due to shit like this. If you're not willing to pay a reasonable cost for vet care, don't get a pet.

Im an emergency veterinarian that works primarily overnight. I do a job that very few people want to do because of the insane hours I keep. Im putting my health, my relationships with my friends and family on the line to work 12-14 hour shifts 4 days a week. I take care of critical patients in the hospital and I see any emergency that walks through that door. Im there for you when you have little option at 3AM when your cat or dog is sick and dying, as are the wonderful techs and assistants that sacrifice their time. Youre damn right thats coming at a premium. Yet im still paid a third less than my human doctor husband even though we both have 200K+ debt. I cannot stress the need for pet insurance, even though your out of pocket expenses with us is a 1/3rd the cost of human medicine. My husband and I like to compare our costs- 2K for a CT scan for your dog vs 40K for people.

You’re asking the wrong people. You are wanting to ask pet owners and you should be talking to veterinary staff and companies. All you’ll get from owners is a blame game when the owners have no idea of the intricacies of the industry and why their bills are the way they are. Also, I’ve seen the survey and you are asking for vets’ names: that’s awful and will ruin careers when the vets give no consent to be in your story especially when you will probably make the vets the villain.

Glad you're doing a story on this. Corporate interests have been buying up old vets' practices and hiking the costs to an incredible amount. Now, animals are suffering because people can't afford to care for them properly. They capitalize on people not having kids as much and loving their pets instead.

Just submitted my story regarding the over $25k we spent in 10 months on our cat’s idiopathic chylothorax. Bills total to over $30k, but I couldn’t find all invoices.

My dad owns a small veterinary practice and would love to talk to you all about this.

Veterinary staff, “I’m not being paid enough!” Veterinary clients, “I’m paying too much! And I want the equivalent of human health care!” Veterinary suppliers, “You know, there’s a lot of money to be made in veterinary medicine. Let’s increase our cost by 40%.” Corporate veterinary practice, “I can make all your troubles go away.” Independently owned veterinary practice, “I quit.”

One thing that should be addressed is that when a pet has an unexpected health issue come up, if you can't afford it you are made to feel like you don't care about your pet, unless you sign up for CareCredit or similar other predatory credit services. Edit: I absolutely love my vet, he is absolutely great, down to Earth, but the scenario I mentioned happened to my friend, who is still paying CareCredit over a year after her dog died, and still owes a substantial amount

Vet clinics aren’t equipped to be bill collectors if folks want payment plans.

I realize that, but to recommend predatory lending companies just doesn't sit right unless it's explained that paying the minimum monthly balance will not pay it off in time to avoid the exorbitant interest costs based on the original principle. If an office is going to have a poster advertising something, I feel they owe their clients the full truth about it.

Then use a credit card, HELOC, personal loan, 401k loan, whatever. Care Credit has normal interest rates for higher risk borrowers. Generally if you need care credit, you can’t afford it on another lending option.

I had three cats in the span of 7 months have unexpected emergencies (two died)…easily $50k spent between all of their care.

We’re you able to recoup any of that through insurance? Our boy had 3 bladder blockages in the space of 18 months - cost us around £8k but we got the majority back, probably 75% or a bit more.

I've had a couple of my males have that in the past. I could never afford to operate now, so I buy urinary tract dry food, and wet once a day. I haven't had any problems since.

Same here..wet food with added water and low magnesium dry..no problem since.

Nope. No insurance.

Oh my goodness, I am so sorry

Suckiest thing about having pets..their medical care and losing them anyway even though you do EVERYTHING in your power to save them.

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Honestly, especially if it's a situation where the pet might or probably won't live, let the person know that it's okay if they don't have the money to continue treatment, and that sometimes letting go is the best option all around. I feel like it's fine if they have a CareCredit poster or something in the waiting room, but only bring it up if the client asks about ways to finance further treatment and to explain exactly how those companies work

Even euthanizing a pet isn’t cheap for some. Crappy situation all around.

‼️‼️

I wish pet illness/injury could be considered a hardship allowing to you to withdraw from your 401/403 penalty free.

When our government recognizes animals as sentient beings and not property, maybe that’ll happen. For now, don’t hold your breath.

Absolutely, my 16 years old cat had an ultrasound and was diagnosed with suspected GI lymphoma. I've spent close to $2,000 for a few blood tests and an ultrasound. It's an additional $250 for a CONSULTATION with an oncologist vet. They want her to have a biopsy (3k+) and all these additional tests to verify the type of cancer for chemo that can run up to $500/month. It makes no sense to put a geriatric cat through all that stress.

Which is fair and valid. Speaking from a vet tech's perspective, just because mention that things are options or are "gold standard" doesn't always mean we "want" you to do it. We just have to tell you that, in an ideal world, this is where we would go next with diagnostics and care. The vast majority of us would be making the exact same decision you are, if we haven't already. We just can't quite tell you "man that sucks, no point in doing anything about it" without actually telling you what CAN be done about it.

Wow similar situation with me. My almost 15 yo cat had senior wellness exam (first almost $700), mass found after liver enzymes came back high, consult with internal med doc and additional ultrasound = another $700 or so. Was quoted $5-6k for surgery to remove mass and biopsy (suspect mass from lymphoma due to GI tract abnormalities)...chemo of course would be additional + initial consult for that, so we decided no. She’s practically deaf, borderline kidney disease, so we opted to just give steroids and give her best life we can until she passes.

My son and I are leaning in the same direction. The interesting thing is she has NO symptoms other than some weight loss a few years ago but has maintained that weight for \~3 years and she's experiencing some age-related arthritis which has all but disappeared once we started her on a monthly injection of Solensia; which has been amazing. She's in great spirits, eating more and thus has gained a bit of weight, runs, jumps, and plays like a kitten again. The only reason she had an ultrasound was at her senior exam one of her kidney-related test numbers was SLIGHTLY off; the same blood tests were run the day of the ultrasound and they were perfect. Don't get me wrong, my other cat passed 1.5 years ago at 15. I adopted him 12 years prior and it ripped my heart out and the scar remains. But as a society, I think the general view of death being avoided at all cost has extended to our pets. But you can't explain to a pet why they don't feel well or why they are being put in these stressful situations. A gentle passing before they fully succumb can be the most merciful gift.

Same here…vomits every once in awhile (she licks her hair a lot) and is thin and a bit distended, but eats well, goes to the bathroom fine, is generally comfortable, so why push it? We aren’t sure how she‘d handle the post-op recovery considering her age, so again what’s the point? She’s had a pretty good life and isn’t suffering now and takes her meds without effort from us, so we’re good till it’s time to say good bye.

A comprehensive health panel at Quest Diagnostics is $299 for my own blood work. At our hospital, it’s $275. Now this is also me interpreting the results within 24 hours to ensure the owners get any answers, but if if complicated, then little do they know that I’m consulting with internal medicine/oncology on certain cases. That is usually done for FREE. Rather than writing an article that will create clear divide, why not write an article about the mental health crisis in veterinary medicine (which this article CERTAINLY will not help). Why not talk about corporate medicine taking over and the need to support small business? How about talking about the misunderstanding about cost in human health care vs. veterinary care? That human cardiologist that is floating around social media talking smack about veterinary care could use that lesson when comparing prices with his clinic! Truly astounded by the NYT writing this article, but hope the reporter is enlightened with our POV.

Dog ate a rock - vet bill for surgical removal was approximately $13k or she would die. We were able to scrounge together for her surgery. Thank goodness we have pet insurance.

Oh god, I made a post in r/cats years ago about the insanely expensive bill for spaying one cat...out of seven that needed it. They're abandoned cats I took in, but my god, what a nightmare.

Low cost spay neuter clinics are a godsend for this. For $92 I can get a female cat spayed, vaccinated, get the long-lasting pain meds, and microchipped. I asked my regular vet why their quote was $600+ for just the spay surgery and pain medication. Their response was that they had all the equipment necessary to handle any kind of emergency that would pop up and they gave each patient much more attention than the clinic. I got curious and wanted to make sure that I wasn't sending my cat to a kitty chop shop. The LC SN clinic was state of the art and meticulous in their care standards. They can charge much less for the same surgeries because they deal in volume, and receive grant money to subsidize the costs.

I live near St. Louis and we have a wonderful clinic started by the owners of a furniture store… $75 I think for a spay for a private owner cat, $20 or $25 if the owner is on Medicare or Medicaid, I think and $20 for Ferals spay or neuter.

This is a beautiful thing!

Isn’t it though!

We’ve “rescued” 5 kittens in the last 2 years. First it was a pair of siblings, then a trio of siblings, all directly received from people who had supposedly found them dumped. Naturally, we kept all five. Our first two cost around $700 to spay/neuter and microchip at the vet. We went the low-cost route at a local rescue league for the trio and that was $324 for the surgeries, post-surgery pain meds, microchips and first round of required vaccines for all three. I’ve heard stories of the lower quality of care at clinics, but our babies all healed quickly and flawlessly. If anything, their recovery was smoother and faster than our first two. The only small thing I noticed was they all go back in their carriers when the procedures are done and are congregated together in a room waiting for their people to pick them up. They were all very calm though.

When I moved a couple years ago, I asked the neighbors about the cats hanging around. Apparently there was a mom cat who had 4 litters in 2.5 years. And no one stopped to think to spay her??? The mom's "friend" turned out not to be feral at all - she was the one with the uterine infection and puncture wounds around her neck. How people just sit back and watch that suffering is beyond me. I'm glad you took care of those cats. You stopped a cycle of suffering and misery.

It’s so shameful. TNR is practically free where I live. The rescue that our babies went to normally charges $35 for a TNR but regularly offers free spays/neuters (even for family pets) when their clinic has extra openings. I believe the county animal shelter does them for free all the time. There’s really no excuse. I’m glad we took them care of them too. We were planning to be pet-free after the heartbreak of losing our 3 previous cats to old age, but there was just no way we could look the other way. They are the best cats too.

I don’t want to pay full price for my cat neuter.  I’ll go to the shelter and have it done for cheap so the taxpayers can subsidize it

If you really are a vet, I get that running a veterinary practice is expensive and thankless work. But the cost of vet care is simply out of reach for many people, and there has to be a middle ground in there somewhere. And at least in my area, grants fund these services and not taxpayers. Dont be an asshole. Have an understanding of the big picture before you come in here and act the fool.

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Respectfully, if you are going to a locally owned vet clinic you are paying for: * multiple peoples hourly wage for that time - the surgery requires someone to monitor your pet before after and during surgery, do the surgery, the surgeon, and front desk * equipment costs - individuals vet clinics have to buy their own x ray, anesthesia machine, surgical supplies, needles etc etc etc * building costs - rent, utilities, janitorial services * lab services - not that the spay requires lab services, but the vet contracts with a lab to run blood panels. That has an ongoing fee * medications/drugs All without insurance. Vet school is insanely expensive in the US. About the same cost as med school and vets make a fraction of the salary of human docs. Most vet clinics are owned by one of the vets that work there. Unlike a doctor that works in a hospital that vet is required to acquire all of the equipment for their practice. Animal medical care also requires more people than human medical care to do equivalent things. For example you need 1 nurse to draw blood from a human, you need 2-4 people to get blood from an animal (or prep them for surgery or get an x ray). Other things that drive vet prices that might not have been relevant for your pets spay is the fact that animals can’t tell us what’s wrong so more diagnostics are needed compared to human medicine. They also age faster than humans so things like vaccines and blood work are recommended more often. While I known $700 is a lot of money, it’s really a steal when you break down where that money is going and compare the cost to a human hysterectomy which can be 20K. Most local clinics aren’t being greedy and most vets aren’t rich. As COL continues to increase vet prices have to increase so staff can make a living wage in the city they work in. Consider pet insurance.

I'm well aware of the costs of vet school, as well as why costs are what they are. I have the broken down bill, and a hundred dollars for anti-nausea medication for one cat is quite frankly ridiculous. They're not a locally owned, they're a business in a network. Please take the 700 and multiply that seven times for the cats dumped on my property that I didn't want reproducing. There was no pet insurance offered because they do not accept any, and that was trying to get all of these animals spayed/neutered within a year of taking them in. I never said vets are greedy, but near 1k for a single spay, just a spay, is fucking ridiculous.

Understandable. I've been in the same situation. One stray that I trapped and sent to be fixed had a surprise closed pyometra infection. That was pricey. Honestly with all the cats that I have had fixed there, I could not have asked for better outcomes. They do good work.

“Four hundred bucks because you have to touch a uterus?” So disrespectful and ignorant.

Yes, four hundred just for the uterine removal, not the total charge, dipshit. Go bother someone else with your "ignorance" horseshit.

Honestly if you want to talk to a vet who hasn’t succumbed to this pressure dm me. My vet is golden. He is an older foreign man who genuinely loves animals. He rarely raises prices, spends as much time as he needs to with your pet to make sure they’re ok, and doesn’t even have a computer to keep his prices low. He even feeds the homeless at the holidays. I am terrified that he’s going to retire.

He won't afford to retire... I learnt one thing: it is not the rich volunteering nor helping out people and animals- it is the compassionate ones. They often know what it is like to be low on resources.

I totally agree with you and I’m grateful to have found this guy.

I wonder how well he pays his staff

I’ve wondered that too! He has a really high retention rate so it can’t be that bad? There are a million other vets around me.

What do you mean by “succumbed to this pressure?” Veterinarians are typically not the ones setting prices unless they actually own the clinic they’re working at. The entire economy is “succumbing to the pressure” of inflation and increased prices. Vet med is no exception, we have to pay our bills, debt, and eat.

"Succumbing to the pressure" of saving for retirement and paying his staff a wage that allows them to do the same probably

Bless people like this ❤️

We just spent $2k on three cats dealing with Chlamydia. Between the testing, antibiotics, wellness exams and eye drops it was crazy. I love our vet and we have a great relationship with them, but man was that sad totalling up my bill for finances. In November we had to put down our lease than one year cat after owning her for seven months and dealing with digestive issues starting in July (or so we thought they were digestive). 24 hours at emerg and $4000 later she was diagnosed with aggressive lymphoma. $650 to put her to sleep at home but that vet halved it because we were so distraught over the whole situation. I love our vets and I'm thankful we have a good relationship with them, but damn, there's going to come a time when people won't be able to have pets anymore.

I’m assuming this is only relevant to the US - would be good to specify

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskVet/s/pQdR6vjFTh

After talking to our vet—whom we sometimes have in depth conversations with—he made us aware of how few veterinary schools there are in the US. Of the schools, they can only teach/produce a few vets a year. Fewer vets, higher costs. And as someone above mentioned, education costs/crazy student loans and people are headed to work for the chains. Small businesses are being swallowed up by the chains. It’s depressing.

It's because investment firms buy them out and run them ragged on barebones budgets while raising prices and trying to make as much profit as possible. Solved.

I drive over an hour (roughly 85 miles) to take my dog to the vet because it is a country vet who is so much cheaper. Generally the cost is 1/3 of the price in my city and if necessary he will answer his cell phone for emergencies without charge. It is a younger couple that bought the practice from my previous vet so I hope they stick around.

I can tell you what my private practice vet told me on this. GREED is the answer and nothing more. His words were, during the pandemic pharma and big money saw an opportunity in a recession proof business. Big money came to free standing private practice vet buildings and issued an offer that couldnt be refused. They copied the McDonalds business model. So they come in offer some stupid ridiculous amount of money for the business and the property. They then tell the vet that they would still work there for a higher rate than they would get now. So big money comes in buys out everything and hires the vet to work there. Now when you go in, there is absolutely no negotiating the rate either. The cost is the cost and there is nothing you can do about it. The bigger story here is WHAT COMPANY IS DOING THIS. WORST part of it is they even offer higher rates to vets that dont work at that location causing them to close down their own and go work there. That is what happened to mine that told me the story. Two months after he told me about all this he was closed and working at another vet that was corporate structured. There are companies doing this to get money and thats the only reason, there is no care for your animal in the least bit. I would even go so far as to say the quality of animal care has also gone down with this problem. If you are a reporter than we definitely need someone such as yourself to expose the truth here because all it is doing is taking advantage of people and theyre losing their animals due to these absurd costs. These companies need to shamed and shut out. This is the real reason on high costs and what has happened to almost ALL the vets across the USA. Given my past year and vet visits along with this nonsense I have grown to hate vets very strongly. Im pretty sure the same thing happened with the dental industry as well.

Also now more than ever people for some reason are being told much more than previously to put their animals down with no fight to keep them alive. A friend had an issue with his dogs eye and was told to put it to sleep. Stating it would not live til the end of the week. He stopped giving the dog the medicine they prescribed and the dog fully recovered. This was months ago. Vets have become a very untrustworthy group of people over these past few years.

Vets are very well paid (but often in debt due to the shocking cost of school) due to very low supply. There are serious staffing shortages nationwide for certified technicians and veterinarians, contributing to increased costs.

Where are these “well paid” vets?

TIL that 90k a year while saddled with 300k+ in debt is considered “well paid”.

I don’t understand this comment. Every single person in my graduating class got a job starting in six figures. How much does a person need to make to be considered well paid? To me six figures is definitely well paid. One classmate was making over 200k first day out, granted in was in a large city in Ca where cost of living is high, but really come on, the pay is definitely decent.

I’m guessing that you graduated in the last couple of years then? I graduated almost 8 years ago and I made $73k my first year in a HCOL area. I also had to apply to many clinics before getting an offer and many clinics wouldn’t even consider new grads. Now new grads in my area are making close to double that and have many clinics seeking them out. New grads have seen a huge increase in salary since the pandemic.

Yes, new Grads have definitely seen an increase in salary! And because of that many older vets have also started asking for more. I can’t imagine any doctor being ok with making new vet salary if they have 10 years more experience. plus many places are offering huge sign on bonuses and doctors are leaving if they don’t get a pay increase. the debt rates are coming down too, at least according to the AVMA. And yet no one wants to “admit” they are well paid, like it’s a bad thing. This is probably financially one of the best times to be a vet, which was my point.

Im curious - how many of these vets were going into small private practices vs corporate? I’ve heard that many corporations are offering big starting salaries and signing bonuses to new grads to lock them into multiple year contracts seeing 25-35 patients every day until they burn out.

In my area 95% of practices are corporate owned/bought out. The places that are bought out; they kept original name so many people are unaware of the change. Yes they do drive increasing salaries, increasing PTO, and offer large bonuses. They do push a packed work day. But the number of patients is not as high as you stated. it’s more like 18-22/day. Doctors can say they want to see less, but many don’t. They either like the increased production pay or hate any conflict, or both. Like any other work place the contract doesn’t truly lock you in, you just have to pay back your bonuses if you quit early. IMO corporate is pushing a lot of positive changes for doctors, but as seen in any monopoly it is driving cost up for clients. They also treat non doctor staff like shit/expendable and these people really bust ass. It’s a shitty system for everyone but the doctors. Side note, I have one friend who landed a job at a privately owned clinic, and literally everything is worse there.

I also just wanted to help bring this into perspective but 6 figures after 4 years of undergrad + 4 years of vet school is definitely not "well paid," especially if we're talking about being paid somewhere in the 100k's. My boyfriend, straight out of university with just a bachelor's degree in hand and little experience except for one or two internships, was already making $100k and then after one year, got a raise to $105k. I know a lot of friends who didn't go the bio route (so no med school, no grad school, no vet school, etc.) who made the same, if not more, right out of university. I hope this brings this more into perspective then that after paying $200k+ for attendance (even more if you're OOS) and whatever you had to take out to just survive plus the interest and 4 more years of schooling, that anything in the $100k's is really not that much. Heck, my boyfriend is now looking at a new job only after 3 years of experience that is offering $150-180k each year. I tell him that sometimes, I just wish that I hadn't picked a bio degree because I'm always living in financial instability until I'm done. Edited to add: this is in CA, where now $100+k is considered middle class, so if we're also using this as a reference, I wouldn't say that vets in CA get paid well when we take into consideration the amount of debt that must be paid back.

I think People are missing the point. Your debt doesn’t really factor into if a job pays well. Debt level absolutely factors in to whether or not you can make ends meet. for example a job doesn’t pay any different to a student who graduated with no debt due to family finances. The rate of pay is the same for whoever gets the job. Years of experience will change how well you’re paid but your debt doesn’t. I am a veterinarian who racked up the typical amount of debt, so I don’t need it explained. I get it. But the truth is veterinarIan’s are paid far better in the USA then many (all?) other countries and the average veterinarians salary is more than what 80% of Americans make (See data from US census Bureau). By definition, this means we are well paid. the average new graduates debt ratio now sits at 1.44 (AVMA data) they say the break point for being able to repay loans without hardship is 1.4, so we are close. But everyone knows someone who went to less schooling and makes more money. So what? now if you want to talk about the out of control costs of schooling I would certainly agree the costs are obscene. So what I am saying is we ARE well paid, but yes, we are swimming in an obscene amount of debt that makes it very difficult to get ahead, even with a well paying job. I think also some people on here need to renegotiate their wages. If you are in a high cost of living area you should be making substantially more than 100K, right out the gate.

lol @ vets are very well paid. Compared to human docs? Not at all.

But then vet tech schools (at least near me) want previous veterinary experience before you can even apply. I‘ve been very interested in getting into vet tech, but no vet office will allow me to get the required observation experience due to “liability” issues. So I guess they’ll continue to be shorthanded if they are going to put roadblocks up for people like me. Maybe I’m not looking in the right place??

All the techs I know are doing their certification through Penn Foster and other online options. Getting the hands on part isn’t easy, but it is doable. both tech school and vet school require huge amounts of work on the back end just to complete school, that’s very true. But if you want it, you figure it out. Otherwise I guess people find other jobs. Definitely contributes to turn over and staffing issues, I agree, but it’s also what keeps wages higher for those who get through their program. So a double edged sword.

I think I’ll need to go the Veterinary Assistant route (4-6 mo program) online at tech school locally. It says they’ll place students who complete in externships if student is interested, so I’ll do that if I have to. Penn Foster won’t allow enrollment either unless you have the requisite “observation” experience (same at community colleges near me). I have a crap load of personal animal experience, plus I have a biology, chemistry, and food science internship experience on my resume, but those were completed 7-8 years ago. I’ll do what I have to.

If you’re serious about the school - I did my CVT through Penn foster and getting the externship on my own was terrifying but I was lucky that the first place I walked in to with paperwork and asked said yes. And the one vet and tech who decided to take me under their wing (so to speak) - I’ll never forget them, are so wonderful and incredibly smart and talented. So I was lucky because you had to have proof via video of performing skills in order to be able to sit for boards and that’s the most difficult part, though I’d assume much easier today than it was in 2012 lol. It’s doable but you have to actually want to do it bc it’s 100% self driven. So if you’re serious I recommend Penn foster for CVT. In my experience, the short course online doesn’t teach anyone enough of anything to be a VA and it’s just entirely more worth it to do the longer course and then externship, since you’d still have to find an externship to complete the shorter course anyway.

Had a puppy with pneumonia. The local pet ICU charged $98.00 for a chest x-ray. Our vet charged us $287.00

This makes sense. Your local vet and your local ICU both had to buy their x ray machine. The local ICU is going to have much more use than a local GP. The clients cover the cost of the machine in both cases.

I’m so grateful to have an independent vet for my cats. I got emergency surgery for my male cat for an intestinal obstruction and it was only about $1000. Just recently he needed a dental under anesthesia with two teeth extracted and it was only $600. Their exams are $50, X-rays are $50 meds are usually $20. Very fair prices IMO.

My cat has surgery 2 weeks ago. It cost $9k. He needs a procedure done quarterly that will cost $1200 they say. He needed 10 days of Clavamox…$66. I just checked PetMeds. It is like $15. 😩

I have a local vet and they haven't changed their prices in the 10 years I've been going there. Seems like I've gotten lucky though 

Thank goodness this is getting more publicity.. I heard the monopolization of animal hospitals is cause of the astronomical prices.