RVBS - Recurring Vet Bill Syndrome

It seems like the doctors and big drug companies can "discover" new ailments and slap a name on them with a drug or ten to go with it. So, here's a new one for ya, RVBS - Recurring Vet Bill Syndrome.

If you've been to the vet lately, you may have walked out wanting a distemper shot for yourself. Since 1997, veterinarians have been hiking prices at more than twice the rate of overall inflation. At the same time, great leaps in veterinary medicine are making expensive treatment options a reality. Dogs with potentially fatal cardiac problems routinely get a $3,000 pacemaker. Cats suffering renal failure can have an $8,000 kidney transplant. Veterinary drugs treat everything from separation anxiety and arthritis pain to epilepsy and cancer for $0.66 to $16 a day--often for the life of the pet. Even if your pet is perfectly healthy, vets are now ready with a battery of tests, shots, and even X-rays for the annual wellness checkup, costing up to $140 for kittens and puppies and as much as $340 for geriatric cats and dogs. Together, those trends--increasing prices and advances in treatment--pose new dilemmas for owners of the nation's 143 million cats and canines (not to mention 43 million birds, reptiles, and other pets): How do you afford the high cost of 21st-century veterinary care? And when do you say no to heroic treatments? Spending on veterinary services jumped to $18.2 billion in 2001, nearly triple the 1991 level. Plenty of consumers are happy to open their pocketbooks. "I'll do whatever it takes to save my pet; especially today, with terrorism and war, pets are more important than ever," says Blake Brossman, chief operating officer of PetCareRx, an online pet drugstore. Brossman spent $1,400 for two grueling regimens of chemotherapy after his rottweiler, Lou, was diagnosed with cancer in 2001. Lou died four months later, after Brossman carried him five New York City blocks in a last race to the vet. But many other pet owners resent the sticker shock. "I told my vet I thought I was being taken advantage of," says Darlene Klein, a dog breeder from Ithaca, N.Y., who in December 2002 spent $1,674 to repair the broken leg of her 3-month-old greyhound, Patty. In February 2003, Jean Coy, a homemaker from Renton, Wash., spent $614 on her orange tabby, Tiger, after he was hit by a car. That included X-rays, stitches, anesthesia, monitoring, drugs, a shunt, and a fruitless attempt to reset Tiger's dislocated leg. "I was robbed," says Coy, who finally got another vet to surgically repair Tiger's leg properly. But what can you do these days? A lot actually...


What Can You Do?
In my unending efforts to understand why the white coat is so empowering, I can tell you in few cases there isn't much you can do besides shop around for a quality vet. The best way to find a good vet is by word of mouth. Shockingly only 10% of pet owners have chosen their vet due to a referal, while the remaining 90% either found him to be convieniently around the corner or in possession of a flashy ad in the yellow pages.I cannot stress enough the importance of simply being educated on what is going on in that ever so small office.- Ask your vet to give specific reasons regarding his diagnoses and recomendation a.k.a. a prescription.- Before having surgery performed, make sure it is necessary. Go to another vet and ask if surgery is necessary.- Don't be a fool. If the doctor is recommending something you wouldn't go to your doctor for, find a specialist.- Vet's are not dentists, optomotrists, nutritionalists, behavioral counselors any more than they are breeders, groomers, or trainers.The walking vet bill is the name I give to those innocent four legged friends. There is pet insurance these days but little do they tell you, your deductible is still sky high and your coverage tops out at a couple grand. Pet insurance may not be a bad idea if you live in a big city and don't know how to keep your dog in the back yard and chemicals away from his snout but really now, if you know how to take care of your loved one, there is no need to get pet insurance.I always recommend preventing issues and vet bills before they become a burden to begin with. While for some reason this concept of prevent instead of fix when broken is so hard to understand, I am going to try to explain how you can keep your dog out of the vet office other than your routine shots ofcoarse...Put your pet on the path to perfect health today with NuVet Labswww.nuvet.com/54232