Vets refusing to work on hunting dogs

[Amos Keeto]

My youngest was on detail and living in Virginia. She has three dogs and all their vaccinations came due.
East coast s.o.b. charged almost $2000 for standard vaccinations and overall general health check! Kid almost died!
On the way back to duty station, stopped at the house (SW Oklahoma) for a day or two. Wanted to get dogs shots updated. It had been nearly a year. Our lady vet went over all three dogs with a fine toothed comb and administered vaccinations!
Bill came to less than $300!

Our vet is stretching to reach 5'1". Put a brick in her back pocket and she probably still wouldn't break 90 lbs!
Our Rotweiller tips the scale at 110! Doc takes him on just like he is a chihuahua!

 

[rkcdvm]

It’s unfortunate but yes they can do that. I’ve been a vet for 16 years now and I have only turned people away if I wasn’t equipped to properly handle a situation.
From a legal stand point they can turn away anything for any reason without recourse . My advice would be to not tell them it’s a hunting dog. It’s not medically relevant information if a dog gets injured by another animal anyway. Just say what the other animal was and when it happened .
We see a lot of injuries from hogs where I am at. I’ve never once care if it was a hunting dog , nor have I ever asked. That doesn’t help me in deciding what I need to do to treat the animal.

 

[rideold]

I haven't had it happen but every new vet I've used I ask right up front before I make an appointment if they have any issues with a working bird dog. My current vet is great. Their answer was "every dog needs a job".

 

[jimh406]

I haven't had that issue, but I had a vet flip out because my Aussie tails were docked. Of course, I didn't dock them, so I feel she was just being rude and uninformed. I wouldn't be surprised if she refused to work on any hunting dog. But, no longer my vet.

Based on the protests going on the college campuses, I wouldn't be surprised of anything a fairly recent grad might do or think.

 

[dr.mooseknuckles]

I've been practicing 10 years. Never told someone no, but not terribly common in this area/ our clientele for larger game animals such as bears or pigs. No lions here.

I think as rkcdvm stated, you don't necessarily have to say much in terms of the activity being done.
If you're Joe Blow from off the street and never stepped foot inside the practice, then yeah, depending on the amount of care needed, many may turn you away depending on their current workload.

If I could go back in the past, I probably would have not chosen this career path for multiple reasons, one of those being the number of wacko's and libs, another reason being the number of quacks and half-assers.

 

[Calcoyote]

I have had no problem with my vet. My problem is with my dentist. Every time I go there he wants to get me in the chair and then start interrogating me for info on good hunting spots. Has even shined that bright light in my face a couple of times. Kind of dread going for my annual.

 

[rkcdvm]

I've been practicing 10 years. Never told someone no, but not terribly common in this area/ our clientele for larger game animals such as bears or pigs. No lions here.

I think as rkcdvm stated, you don't necessarily have to say much in terms of the activity being done.
If you're Joe Blow from off the street and never stepped foot inside the practice, then yeah, depending on the amount of care needed, many may turn you away depending on their current workload.

If I could go back in the past, I probably would have not chosen this career path for multiple reasons, one of those being the number of wacko's and libs, another reason being the number of quacks and half-assers.

We should have been physicians . Money is better at least

 

[Divide93]

This does not surprise me at all. I live next to family's farm, the vets are woke as all get out! I have to cull sick feral cats every 5 years or so and am surprised I have not been arrested! My niece is a vet tech and she has to mind herself around some of them!

 

[dr.mooseknuckles]

We should have been physicians . Money is better at least

Charge a $60 co pay to talk and have my lungs barely ausculted. This all prior to getting an upper GI scope in a few weeks.

 

[bullnose]

It’s unfortunate but yes they can do that. I’ve been a vet for 16 years now and I have only turned people away if I wasn’t equipped to properly handle a situation.
From a legal stand point they can turn away anything for any reason without recourse . My advice would be to not tell them it’s a hunting dog. It’s not medically relevant information if a dog gets injured by another animal anyway. Just say what the other animal was and when it happened .
We see a lot of injuries from hogs where I am at. I’ve never once care if it was a hunting dog , nor have I ever asked. That doesn’t help me in deciding what I need to do to treat the animal.

My wife is a small animal vet, and I'm "grounds and maintenance" at the clinic. She's set up for routine stuff (spay, neuter, vaccines, dental, etc.) and isn't equipped for any major trauma and ends up referring those patients to other clinics equipped to handle emergency situations.

My experience (albeit as a spouse and sounding board) is that people fail to realize that most vet clinics are like your family doctor office and are not ready to handle serious trauma, run extensive tests, or perform surgery outside of routine outpatient stuff. Just like human doctors, certain things need experts or specialists to treat things correctly.

 

[MThuntr]

Not an issue from our local vets however they generally aren't taking new clients so unless you're in already good luck getting in for even basic care.

 

[Customweld]

My Slovak is on a punch card with his vet, he should be up for free stitches on the next visit! There is one vet office in my area that won't work on hunting dogs. They refer them out to the vet that takes care of my pup.

 

[displacedtexan]

My wife is a small animal vet, and I'm "grounds and maintenance" at the clinic. She's set up for routine stuff (spay, neuter, vaccines, dental, etc.) and isn't equipped for any major trauma and ends up referring those patients to other clinics equipped to handle emergency situations.

My experience (albeit as a spouse and sounding board) is that people fail to realize that most vet clinics are like your family doctor office and are not ready to handle serious trauma, run extensive tests, or perform surgery outside of routine outpatient stuff. Just like human doctors, certain things need experts or specialists to treat things correctly.

Bingo.

 

[OMF]

@dr.mooseknuckles and rkcdvm, you may think that but have fun dealing with insurance companies and billing, regulations and more regulations, greedy hospital systems, public aid billing/payment etc.

All the really smart people go into engineering, accounting, IT, psychology and gender studies. Just kidding about the last 2.

 

[rkcdvm]

@dr.mooseknuckles and rkcdvm, you may think that but have fun dealing with insurance companies and billing, regulations and more regulations, greedy hospital systems, public aid billing/payment etc.

All the really smart people go into engineering, accounting, IT, psychology and gender studies. Just kidding about the last 2.

One of my clients is in infectious disease and has shown me a lot of the BS they go through too. It pretty interesting how the profession share a lot of the same red tape and stresses .

I do work with a newer grad that is fairly "Woke". She is a cool person but we do see things differently. I still have to remind myself she just came from a teaching hospital where everyone that shows up already has $5-10k ready to spend and she is quickly learning that's not that average vet client. Most of my clients are already struggling just to pay rent/mortgage and put food on the table. They do what they can with what they have. I know if my dog needed that kind of care I would be in trouble too. I don't judge people because I don't know what their home life is or what their struggles are. Heck, I can afford to live in a 1 bedroom apartment and thats about it. I do side gigs to pay for my hunts and hobbies. But this is where God wants me right now and im totally cool with it.

Ironically, with what you said, my son grew up watching me work (single dad). He decided to go to become an engineer instead lol. He enjoys it though

 

[dr.mooseknuckles]

OMF, we deal with it too. Not quite as bad.

Money is the driver. Gotta pay those administrative types their salaries. The practice I work at has 9 DVM. 10 years ago, I told the former owner, who was in year one of his 5 year buy in period, that I was interested in buying in, that I had no loans, and would be able to make a buy in process happen in so many subtle terms.

Brought up multiple times. In 2019, 9 months in to him having full ownership, he handed us all new contracts and told us he’d sold majority interest to a major corporate group. Couldn’t look us in the eyes. I would have left right then, but was at the tail end of major home renovation with an infant at home.

They forced him to sell the remainder a year later cuz he sucks at personnel management.

Now we’re basically treated like indentured servants and have to serve the corporate man. I make a good living, but could be doing much better on my own, or if they’d give me a better schedule to make them and me more money.

Thankfully the FTC just banned non-competes. I’ve already got one foot out the door. I think the general public will find more GP clinics opening up in the next couple years because of this


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