It is a term that gets searched for quite a lot on google, low cost veterinarians near me and often by people who are trying to come up with the funds to help make their pets or animals better again. With some knowledge of treating animals over the years I will give you my take on this even though some vets may not thank me for it.

There are a lot of very good vets out their my own would be included in that. I am lucky enough to know several and they are all hardworking honest straight talking vets

Then their are some who are very good at their job but might be more inclined to take directions from their clients’ than they should. The clients’ or pet owners don’t always think rationally and just want the vet to do something, Finally their are the drug companies who just want to make as much profit as possible

the vet

Vets are just normal people although usually highly intelligent who want to provide the best standard of living they can for themselves and their families. Most vet students in collage tend to lean more towards the small animal practice. This is for many reasons not least because small animals are physically easier to work with than a horse or a cow.

There can also be more money to be made from small animals not only do they require less volumes of medication due to their smaller size but their owners are also willing to hand over larger amounts of cash. You see farmers while they do care for their animals they are also business people running an operation of very tight margins.

Most farmers learn how to treat and inject medicate or dose animals at a young enough age and will only call the vet when they need more expertise. When they do bring the vet they are also costing the price he has charged against the value of the animal. I would consider a good vet to say if he considers it unviable to treat the animal in the first place and tell you to put the animal down or if healthy enough to send to a factory and cut your losses.

Some pet owners on the other hand can be more irrational and come into the vets surgery with an old dying cat or dog and say save my baby. I don’t care how much it costs just do something. They don’t care about the value of the animal or how much a replacement puppy or kitten costs. They just want to save their pet. It doesn’t matter is the animal is ten years old and will only live another year or two anyway.

I can totally get that. I love animals myself and know how attached you can get to them and how hard it can be to let go. doing the right thing is not always the easy thing. People now consider animals to be part of the family but they are not humans and don’t live as long.

This in my view is where a vet has to make a moral decision to explain that they may be only prolong the animals pain and suffering or to take the clients’ money and see how it works out. This is where bills can quickly mount up surgery and drugs are not cheap and the vet or drug companies are not working for free. The cost therefore is down to the animal owner and in my view their emotions can sometimes cloud their judgment

Just a few generations ago and even to this day many people around the world would take the dog to a quite location say their goodbyes and shoot it dead. That may seem barbaric to many but I see it as an ultimate act of kindness. The dog owner that can do that probably loves their animals as much as anyone else but often has a greater understanding of what needs to be done.

You can by all means take out pet insurance and spend thousands on vet fees and surgery and drugs but that still doesn’t mean that you are doing the kind thing for your animal. You need to consider what pain and suffering it will have to go through and what its chances of recovery are as well as what quality of life it will have afterwards.

Some vets will make replacement body parts in a 3d printer if you pay them enough money and the costs are getting higher every year. Even the insurance companies have gotten in on it charging premiums of over 200 euros a year in case you might need to go to the vet.

The Medical costs

The drug companies are bringing out more products or should I say the same products in a different package and a huge mark up in price. What I mean by this I can remember a time when I could get a bottle of penicillin for around a fiver and on the label their was a picture of a horse, a cow, a pig, a dog and a cat.

Now they don’t have any picture but will offer you a fraction of the dosage in another form like a tablet or tiny bottle at a huge markup on price. Its not just penicillin either 500 ml of lice treatment for cattle can be gotten for around 30 euros but they can put 1ml in a little plastic container for small dogs or cats and charge 10 euros. That amount would cost around 6 cents from a different bottle.

The problem is you would never get to use a large bottle on a dog or a cat and they know this so the less you need the more the charge you. Then their are drugs and generic drugs which are the same thing manufactured in the same place often put in the same bottle just called a different brand name with a huge price difference.

That happens in lots of different areas other than drugs like sprays for chemicals same thing but different name and prices. Even milk and other food in the supermarket often comes from the same source and plant and the only thing that’s different is the color and name on the package and of course the price.

I just want to make people aware of things like this because at the end of the day the choice is in your hands. As an animal owner it is you that has a duty of care for it. It is also up to you to consider the right thing to do when you do need to take it to the vet. Not just what is right for you but what’s right for the animal.

I can’t blame the vet if someone is willing to pay thousands for him just to try something to keep the animal alive for a few more years. Nor can I blame the drug companies for charging more and increasing their profits while people are willing to pay it or even the insurance companies for getting in or the ever increasing costs of taking care of pet vet costs.

When I was a child a long time ago if an animal was badly injured or suffering it got taken to the vet and put down if it was lucky and you got another puppy for 20 quid if you were lucky. Nowadays a whole industry has grown up around the pets and their care.

Most of this is legal although maybe not always moral but their are also more puppy farms and pets being stolen and sold on the black market. The price of dogs and cats have sky-rocketed here in recent years and this is leading to even more criminal activity.

What is driving all of this is people placing too much monetary value on animals and at the end of the day I don’t think it will end well for the animals. For every boom their is a bust and either people will realize that they can’t afford to keep them or the market will become saturated with more people breeding them to make a quick profit.

Buy all means look after and care for your animals while they are alive and healthy but if you are looking for low cost veterinarians you need to start with yourself and decide how much you are willing to spend. With proper care and attention while your pets are alive you may never need to visit the vet until the time comes that you might need to put your pet to sleep.

It is also up to you how much you are willing to pay to buy an animal because if the demand is not their as in any market the price will fall. You can’t control the cost of drugs but you can shop around and become more aware of what’s out their. Two good Irish companies that I know of for your pet care are Aosom for pet supplies and tails for food and nutrition products.