How did you pick your vet?

[kildeskennel]

   How did everyone pick a vet for their kids?  In Northern Minnesota there are NO Kuv's yet, except the one's I have.  Scary prospect considering they have a few different health considerations .  I met my WONDERFUL vet Andy Pillar when iwas dissatisfied with a vet I took Beauty to.  Long story short 130.00 in 10 minutes, I was in my truck a bit shell shocked with no answers to a simple question.  (previous post on ears) When I was introduced to Andy, he answered my questions on the ears, then I had a question for him.  Are you famililar with the Kuvasz breed?  He answered "no"  My next question ( I really liked him, and so did Beauty which was TOTALLY out of character for her) was are you willing to learn?  He answered "yes"  I had brought a breed book on Kuvasz and asked him to read it.  2 months later he returned it and it was at that time he became my "kids" doctor.  He is wonderful, knowledgeable, and KNOWS the ins and outs of the breed I  LOVE!  

[jabear]

We picked our vet because the office is across the street from our home. He deals with a lot of big dogs- Saints, Great Pyrs, Danes & Newfs. He has been very good to us, except when we were told Bear had severe elbow dysplasia. Long story and it makes me angry to think about still...but if you want to read about it, check out the dysplasia topic. Anyways, its a cool office because they have a dog enterance and a cat/exotic pet enterance. Although he is good, I would someday like to find a vet who specializes in big dogs.

[kildeskennel]

That is teh greatest thing about Andy, I am ALWAYS with my dogs.  When Beauty had her hips xrayed for OFFA iti s standard to sedate, which Iprefer not to have, I am with my dogs on all procedures.  Granted (thank god) no surgeries yet, hopefully never unless spay or neuter.  I look at the vet visit as a peditrician visit with my children.  DO NOT assume, DO NOT perform a procedure no matter how minimal unless I am informed of what and why.

[kildeskennel]

I will say this however, we have in our small town what I term a "back yard" vet.  He is good in his own right for generl procedures, shots etc.. 5 years ago before I knew better, my husbands dogs, Kena a husky, lab cross was shot by a hunter in our yard, I think it was intentional, we had trouble with them for 2 years wanting to hunt our land and we don't let anyone hunt here except family and then it is VERY organized, Anyway I was just a new LPN (I am an RN now) and Steve called me at work, tellingm e she was shot and needed to go to teh vet, she was 7.  His BABY.  I looked her over and found a small hole through the Brisket area below the lungs.  Called the vet we used at that time for shots etc...and he told me to roll her over, which I did and a hole the size of a grapefruit was on the other side, exit wound....What a brave girl...rushed her in, her gums were WHITE, in case no one knows means severe bloodl oss and shock, which leads to death usually.  He operated on her, and did not do transfusions or such as he was "backyard"  I did not have hteh money to pay 3,000 down for the larger hospital to transfuse her, so he told me if I helped him operate we would "work" it out.  It was teh single most HORRIBLE experience I have ever been through.  She was to shocky to put out totally and the vet repaired what he could gave massive doses of Vitamin K to stem teh blood loss an replaced what he could.  For 3 months I gave her shots of Gentamycin in the muscle 5 days on 2 off to protect her kidneys from shutting down from the antibiotic.  ( its VERY strong and toxic in continual dosings) in addition she had oral antibiotics 3 times daily for 3 months, dressing changes, he did not close the wound and it had to heal by second intention which means from teh inside out.  They are left wide open and packed 2-3 times daily depending on drainage with sterile gauze soaked in normal saline.  After 3 months the wound was so small I could not fit my pinkie in it, before my whole hand fiti n when I packed it.  She finished her antibiotics, and one day we went for a walk on our road, she went into the woods, I assumed to check something out, and never came back....  We looked and looked for her.  Nothing.  I assume she went off to die.  Why after all that I will never know...Hard lesson learned and many tears later, we are VERY well learned on our animals....I have to go to bed, its been a long week.  Talk to everyone tomorrow!

[Rufiesmom]

We have a pyr and a rottie and 2 vets.  We listen to what the dogs have to say about the subject and we agree together.  Rufus didn't like the rottie's vet but loves his.  The rottie loves her vet and is cool toward others.  It took us a while to settle on these two.  Both have had surgeries and good outcomes. I think most vets are wonderful but it helps when the dogs have input to!

[amajac]

We go to a 24 hour emergancy facility called Falls Road Animal Hospital.  The negative side is I do not usually get to pick which vet sees my animal, it is whomever is on duty.  The plus side is there is always someone on duty.  We go there even though it is farther for us because mine seem to always get sick or need attention during the night or on weekends.  And if anyone has to stay someone is there all the time.  I get to call at all kind of ungodly hours to check up on them. 

They also have a pet store, kennel and a Doggie Day Care.  Saint Austin goes to Doggie Day Care there one day a week, he LOVES it, and has no issues with going to the vet because they are also in the same place.  If I ever need to leave him to go out of town he can stay in the kennel at night and go to Day Care during the day, avoiding the endless hours in a cage.

I do not think they are any more expensive than anyone else, I have tried other local doctors. There is a small surcharge, something like $12.00 if the visit is on an emergency basis and not scheduled.   In general I find that vets, not just there but everywhere are addicted to running tests.  Maybe this is because the patient can not communicate well so they test for everything.

Cheryl and her furkids, Smokey The Cat, Mr. Spock, Warlock, Mouse and Saint Austin the Adorable.

[poofynewfy]

Hmmm...Amajac, good point. They do have communication skills that are not as perfected as ours in terms of having the ability to tell the doctor exactly what the problem is. And I totally agree that vets are test & medicine happy!

[vonissk]

In my little 2 stoplight town we have one vet.  I would probably never take a problem to him that needed a lot of work or thought--that's terrible--he always seems so preoccupied but he is fine for vacs, health certificates, etc.  There is another one about 35 miles--on a dirt road-away-she specializes in horses and you never know when she may be off pulling a foal or something and with the price of gas I prefer not to drive that far and then find she's not there.  There are a couple of vets in the next town over about 10 miles but they only do large animals.  Minta

[mamadog]

My husband had his cat M for a couple of years before we met and used a vet that his girlfriend at the time used for her cats. So when we needed to take our dogs in, we took them to him. It's a vet hospital and we like that if there was an emergency we would still take them to the same place, with the same familier people.
They are all wonderful there. They always take time with us to answer questions, explain things and when we got Finn and had a bunch of questions they answered them all and told us to trust ourselves with him. We will learn to communicate with him, and he with us, and together we will figure it all out. I thought that was a wonderful answer!
They were wonderful with Finn when he got neutered and all fussed over him.
They're not quick to push meds or procedures, instead they discuss the options with us. When we got the girls from the shelter they both had kennel cough. The vet said that we could bring them in to have it treated, but that honestly it will go away on it's own in about the same time (which it did).
We love them, the animals love them, and they seem to love the animals too.

Vicki

[b_clark]

We live in a serious pet community and there are tons of vets to choose from. We got suggestions for vets from the people who run a no-kill animal shelter in the area. So now we have a hollistic vet who does housecalls and we go to the Humane Society if we have to do office visits. It has been a great balance for all our pets.