We just had a bunch of lumps removed from Viola. All were benign cists, and I seriously suspected that - but they definitely made it seem like we'd better do something about it.
They were both due for dental cleaning, so we had the lumps taken off when she was already out cold for the cleaning. We did pay to ensure they weren't cancerous, but I did feel like I'd been worked for the extra testing. I'd bet dollars to donuts that they could have eyeballed them and identified them as 99% normal.
The doc wanted to biopsy the lumps then she threw in "We'll clean his teeth while he's out". They did a bunch of blood test which showed nothing. The bill kept getting bigger and bigger. I told them I'd think about the surgery, and they called to schedule it! I felt like they were adding things up to the bill.
My infamous sister lives in a very rural area and has a vet who works on farms, etc. He looked at my dog and said if it doesnt bother him, if it isn't growing, wait and see.
Appalled, that is outrageous. I've had the same twisted arm feeling with my last vet. I switched to a Banfield animal hospital. It's a longer drive but a much more comfortable atmosphere.
Anyway, that sucks. Sounds like they've betrayed your trust. I don't know why some vets feel they can use our love for our dogs as a weapon. But that's exactly what it feels like. Stick 'em up. woof woof.
The whole pet doctor thing drives me nuts because I've seen first-hand how the whole thing can get very out of control. Yes, pets should be taken to vets sometimes, but no, I don't think pets should be referred to specialists by those vets at the owners' large expense just because the vet knows how much the pets mean to the owners in question. A good friend and co-worker of mine has several cats. He and his wife - for whatever reason - have decided not to have kids but instead to have cats. I listen to his cat problems and feel for him, but it makes me crazy when I hear that his cats not only have a primary care physician (vet), but also a dentist (different vet), an orthodontist (different again), and that some of his cats even have cardiologists and some others have oncologists. Again all different vets and all extra people billing him and his wife for their services. From what he's told me he pays a fortune in cat health insurance in addition to what he pays for the things that insurance doesn't cover. I've tried talking to him about it but he doesn't want to hear it. He honestly feels that he needs to pay all the money he's paying, while I keep feeling that he's being taken advantage of.
There's a guy at work who has a bunch of cats and he and his wife name them all with people names. I used to always joke around with him about that and tell him that he shouldn't do that because the other neighborhood cats are going to kick their asses one day because of that. One day he showed up late to work because one of his cats had gotten out of the house during the night and by the time he found him the next morning the cat had been all roughed up. I just about died laughing. My co-worker was not at all amused at my laughing. He looked at me all pissed off and said, "Ok, he got beat up by Fluffy and Mittens, are you happy now?"
