All is not what it seems.

Last week I was shopping for the ingredients of a new recipe, Tomato Succotash. (really awesome by the way, I can get you the recipe).  It called for Edamame, which is a fancy name for soybeans.  The recipe required that the beans be shelled, but when I was looking I noticed that the unshelled Edamame was $0.20 cheaper for a bigger bag, so I opted to shell them myself. I thought to myself that I could shell them myself and save $0.20. Waste not, want not, right?

The next day, I went home during my lunch hour to start the prep for the recipe to be served for dinner. I work late so planning ahead is very helpful.  I started by shelling the beans.  It took me about 20 minutes to shell those beans.  So if one assumes that my time was worth at least a minimum wage of $7.75/hour, then I just wasted about $2.55 of my time shelling beans to save $0.20. Does not seem like the smartest use of my time, does it? Plus when I compared price per ounce of product, I realized that I really had not made a good choice. That whole bag barely had enough useable beans to complete the recipe! I had paid for the weight of hulls AND I had to waste my lunch hour shelling them.

 It made me think. Veterinary medicine is like that. Both beans seemed to be the same product.  The hulled ones seemed to be a luxury that I could manage myself.  But when I go to the bottom of it I realized, you do get what you pay for and usually there is a sacrifice for a lower cost. 

Veterinary products are not all the same.  Veterinarians are not all the same.  The real catch is that I can learn from my mistakes and I can tell you that one product was not what I wanted and your pet cannot.  I could test my theory that the unshelled beans would be more cost effective than the shelled ones and I can learn from my mistake.  But if you choose an off brand medication, for example, how can your pet tell you that it isn't the same?  He can't say that one hurts his stomach. She cannot tell you that she doesn't fell as good with this one as another.

Our veterinary products are labeled for animal patients and tested for safety and efficacy.  When you purchase a product from your veterinary office, you get more than just the product.  You get product support and a staff who knows what other medications and supplements your pet takes and can offer guidance about mixing and interactions.

I am human too and I know the allure of working the system to get a good deal.  I am not saying that there are not good deals to be had. I am saying that when it comes to your pet, let medical professionals that you trust guide you.  If you think that your vet is cheating you, find a new vet, but don't look for ways to cheat the system.

It is better to spend more money and actually get what you paid for, than to spend a little and find it wasted.