Dr. Primm's Warm and Fuzzies

I read a quote today from an agent for an online pharmacy.  According to an article published by WTVM9, he said that it is "only for competitive reasons veterinarians indicate that they have concerns about our products, or say that the products purchased through their office have a better guarantee". But I beg to differ.  Our products are not only money back guaranteed, but come with efficacy guarantees.  For example, if you purchase Heartgard from me (and have purchased regularly without missed doses) and your dog tests positive for heartworms, his/her treatment is at no charge to you.  Is an online pharmacy going to support their products like this? Of course not! They will offer to give your purchase price back, but how is that going to treat your dog? No matter what they say, they cannot know and love you and your pets like we do.

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All day every day, we tell people that preventive medicine is the way of the future. But today, Julie and I delved into the numbers so we could FEEL our impact.  Here is what we uncovered:

1. 68% of our patients live to be over 12 years of age (All patients were included, even accidental deaths). Our oldest patient ever was 21 when she died. We lost two this week who were 14 years old.
2. We have not lost a regular patient to a preventable disease, like parvovirus or heartworms in our 13 year history. (The ones that do not see us regularly have not been so lucky).
3. We helped to return a lost patient (that we had microchipped) after 9 months!

We ARE "How to Keep Your Pet Healthy"!

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Why a pet vomits can range from dietary indiscretion (garbage enteritis) to more life threatening causes like bloat or foreign body obstruction. The most important thing is knowing when calling your vet is not optional anymore.  When we have someone call our hospital about a vomiting pet, we use the frequency of the vomiting and the ability (or inability) to hold down even liquids to help us decide.  If your pet has vomited more than 8 times and cannot even keep water down, especially if he/she is acting lethargic or non-responsive, it is time to seek emergency medical help.  Only a veterainarian,with the help of experience and diagnostic testing, can truly decide what needs to be done. Fast medical assistance may be the difference between life and death in some cases.

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Last week I was shopping for the ingredients of a new recipe, Tomato Succotash. (really awesome btw, 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.

The next day, I went home for lunch 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.  That whole bag barely had enough useable beans to do 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 really got to the bottom of it I realized, you do get what you pay for and usually there is a sacrifice for a lower cost.  Some vet clinics are cheaper than mine.  They advertise cheap prices and promote discounted services.  Sometimes the minimum will do just fine.  But sometimes, you get home and realize that in the end you paid a little less to get a LOT less.

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Interesting. Human "healthcare blue book" says that a hysterectomy should run around $9130. That is ~30x what mine is and we do ovaries AND uterus with the same supplies/equipment, similar training and quality of care. Either vets are too cheap or human medicine is too expensive....or both. Hmmmmmm.

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