CHAT The vaginal takeover of the veterinary industry

Seeker22

Has No Life - Lives on TB
About that suicide rate in Vets these days- There was an uptick in Cancer rates after Chernobyl, and the doors blew off after Fukushima. My Vet told me in 2012 there is a 94% increase in Cancers across the board. Of my ten dogs, eight had some form of it.

The agony of the entire process, both on the dogs and on the Vet staff, is terrible. I am surprised the suicide rate is as low as it is. It actually should be higher. I controlled most of my emotion as each one said goodbye, because I knew my Vet and the techs didn't need that. I didn't come unstuck like some of the women did. I don't know how they can do years of that? They trained to be Vets, not grief counselors, but they get the melt downs from the owners as well as the animals that refuse to die quiet and scream or get up and run. Vet said all of mine were the exception, definitely not the rule. I believe her.

Throw in the emotional owners and the Karens (of both and varying sexes), the plandemic and all of that drama, the economy, chasing money for the bill, woke and the workplace, and on and on. Being a Vet is tough. Suicide is a permanent answer to a temporary problem, but I can see why some do.
 

wintery_storm

Veteran Member
Warthhog: that is true they have to pay back their school loans. I do not know what Vets make now a days. I live in the country so we have many female vets , the closer I get to the City I see the male vets. But I have not seen any real young male vets of as yet. I think they stay in major cities where they get more money.

I have to take a pet to the University of Pennsylvania in Philla to their Vet hospital it it has a large amount of male Vets. It is a school but they have a Vet clinic. I have a puppy that we just got and it's back legs are turning outwards.
So my Premium Vet Hospital is sending me to the City for this dog. I am either going to get my money back from the breeder ( the dog will need surgery and is only 5 months) or give her back and get a new dog.. Hard to do as we are attached to her. But the surgery I have been warned will cost over 10 grand. I am 7 short. And they want 50 % before doing the surgery.

It am not the type of person to ask strangers online for help.

So I will see what happens when I get to Philly next week.
 

dioptase

Veteran Member
I don't have a problem with female vets; all of the vets at our "regular" clinic (except for a male who rotated through as part of his training - he was good) are females.

What I have a problem with is younger vets who are so over-eager to treat a recently discovered condition, that they end up doing harm. Some years back our dog was diagnosed with Cushing's Disease, in his case almost certainly caused by a small pituitary tumor. The young vet jumped on it with aggressive treatment, which in this country is use of a nasty dangerous and expensive drug which requires frequent blood test monitoring (more expense), because if you overdosed, you could push the animal too far the other way and do permanent adrenal gland damage, if not potentially kill them.

In our case, our dog started going downhill after the treatment started. (This was not just our opinion; folks who knew our dog also commented on it.) After some months of this we decided that the drug was killing him before our eyes, and flat out told the vet that we were stopping treatment. She referred us to an internal specialist (another woman, in another practice) who is older, more experienced, and who has been wonderful. This specialist agreed with us to not treat the Cushing's (her attitude towards that disease is that it is safer to do nothing until/unless certain symptoms arose). She is handling our dog's TWO kidney diseases (edited to add and also his hypothyroidism, almost forgot that, but that's not what's going to kill him). She handled the emergency gall bladder removal (I called her in panic when I found our dog shivering on the floor, refusing even a treat, thinking that it was the kidney thing, and she got him in right away, figured out the situation, and had their surgeon bump HIS surgeries to take care of it NOW - all during the height of the pandemic).

So... the bottom line here is, for us, gender of the vet does not matter a damn. Training and experience DOES. (And you see this in the human medical world as well. Not going into details, but I had a rant from an older, very experienced orthopedic surgeon (a third opinion on my knees) about young doctors wanting to operate at the drop of a hat, whether or not it made sense to do that operation.)

Experience counts. Nothing much else does (with the possible exception of personality, because some human docs don't listen to their female patients, and some human docs are just arrogant know-it-alls, and who wants to deal with that?).
 
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wintery_storm

Veteran Member
Experience counts. Nothing much else does (with the possible exception of personality, because some human docs don't listen to their female patients, and some human docs are just arrogant know-it-alls, and who wants to deal with that?).

I agree with you take. I have seen it in the younger Doctors of the Vet Hospital. They want all the expensive blood work. I see dollar signs and think why? I go with the older Vets who are more cautious.
 

KFhunter

Veteran Member
Dennis is 100% correct, I used to run livestock and own dogs and see veterinarians pretty regularly.

The three clinics nearest me have zero male employees.

Zero.

I haven't seen a male in this industry for 10-15 years now.
 

Dux

Veteran Member
Oh, gee, one male vet comes to mind with this thread. My dogs were itchy. He recommended flea control. Except no fleas. Turns out Omega vitamins did the trick. One a day. Maroon.
 

Seeker22

Has No Life - Lives on TB
I honestly hate the word Karens why do people use it? It is like an insult. Please inform, I am female, I have emotions and I love my pets as any animal owner would if they have a heart.

I hate the word Karens, too. I also hate that they hijacked the word dumb to mean stupid or slow and the word gay to mean anything but happy. I used Karens, instead of (nosey) bitches, as Dennis doesn't like that word on the forum. Apologies to all named Karen.
 

spinner

Veteran Member
We had a female vet for our cat. He had urinary tract cysts and couldn't urinate. This vet was a nightmare. She was a good surgeon, but she had no compassion and disliked my cat. She hurt him and he came home traumatized and with the feline version of P.T.S.D. after an extended stay - 10 days if I remember. He is now transgender, but healthy. The vet was a mature woman.

That was many years ago. The vet we have now is a woman who is younger. She is so kind and a very good vet. My cat comes home as relaxed as possible after being at the vets. He is old now and taking thyroid medication. When we took him in he was failing and very thin. It happened very quickly. Our vet knew immediately what the problem was. My cat is now much healthier and has gained weight.

My point is that it has nothing to do with gender, it is the individual.
 

NoDandy

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Warthhog: that is true they have to pay back their school loans. I do not know what Vets make now a days. I live in the country so we have many female vets , the closer I get to the City I see the male vets. But I have not seen any real young male vets of as yet. I think they stay in major cities where they get more money.

I have to take a pet to the University of Pennsylvania in Philla to their Vet hospital it it has a large amount of male Vets. It is a school but they have a Vet clinic. I have a puppy that we just got and it's back legs are turning outwards.
So my Premium Vet Hospital is sending me to the City for this dog. I am either going to get my money back from the breeder ( the dog will need surgery and is only 5 months) or give her back and get a new dog.. Hard to do as we are attached to her. But the surgery I have been warned will cost over 10 grand. I am 7 short. And they want 50 % before doing the surgery.

It am not the type of person to ask strangers online for help.

So I will see what happens when I get to Philly next week.
I will be praying for you & your pup !
 

psychgirl

Has No Life - Lives on TB
About that suicide rate in Vets these days- There was an uptick in Cancer rates after Chernobyl, and the doors blew off after Fukushima. My Vet told me in 2012 there is a 94% increase in Cancers across the board. Of my ten dogs, eight had some form of it.

The agony of the entire process, both on the dogs and on the Vet staff, is terrible. I am surprised the suicide rate is as low as it is. It actually should be higher. I controlled most of my emotion as each one said goodbye, because I knew my Vet and the techs didn't need that. I didn't come unstuck like some of the women did. I don't know how they can do years of that? They trained to be Vets, not grief counselors, but they get the melt downs from the owners as well as the animals that refuse to die quiet and scream or get up and run. Vet said all of mine were the exception, definitely not the rule. I believe her.

Throw in the emotional owners and the Karens (of both and varying sexes), the plandemic and all of that drama, the economy, chasing money for the bill, woke and the workplace, and on and on. Being a Vet is tough. Suicide is a permanent answer to a temporary problem, but I can see why some do.
Thank you for speaking up.
Yes, it’s very hard.
 

packyderms_wife

Neither here nor there.
My daughter is a farrier. She very good at it. She is also working on a Vet Tech Bachelors Degree. One goes well with the other. She takes her learning very seriously and finds that she loves it. She does prefer large animals but her externship lab time has to be with a small animal vet. She works on a ranch right now of 600 head of cattle.

When she was going to Farriers school she was stepped on by a draft horse, right on her knee after the horse knocked her down. She called me to let me know they were taking her to the ER. No broken bones but some pretty good bruising and swelling.

If she's still in school tell her to specialize in donkeys! Donks don't respond to certain equine meds well and as such they're very easy to kill accidentally. They often do not wake up from anesthesia. I know someone who has a donk rescue, a big one, and she's getting a LOT of mini donks because they're cute and people don't realize what a royal PITA they can be once they are full grown, because well... their donks! :lol: Anyway, she has a young gal whose just out of vet school working for her rescue that's also a farrier and she's traveling all over to treat donks in the tri state area. She's making pretty good money taking care of peoples donk health issues.

Iowa State University Vet School held a week long workshop a couple of summers ago on Donkeys and they had hundreds of people from all over the world sign up for it, to the point they had to create a wait list and created a few more workshops. Apparently most vet students get one days learning about donkeys, but weeks sometimes months for horses.
 
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Meemur

Voice on the Prairie / FJB!
Yes, I know it's hard and expensive, but there are also a lot of the wrong people becoming vets, as well as doctors.

I also think this next generation, raised on the Internet, will have a ton of problems in professional positions. Many have stunted emotional growth, being almost 30 but still seeing life at a 15 or 16 year-old viewpoint in many respects.
 
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packyderms_wife

Neither here nor there.
I had gone to two vet offices over the years run by a man. Both men were not very kind and gave little time to care for my animal. I found the lack of compassion disgusting.

So at present I have 3 vet offices I use as I have many animals.

2 offices are run by women. Not bad but not the greatest in service, they are kind but run me through their office like a meat factory. Today it's about getting as many bookings and giving just 10- 15 minutes of time and that is it. It's the cost of school and the cost of starting up the business.

I also go to are a larger vet hospital that has an older man. He is my age 60ish. He is rather rough around the edges so I prefer the female Doctors. But this Vet Hospital which is more expensive gives me unlimited time for my animal. I pay premium.

Overall I like the Premium Hospital best it is just that I have to drive a distance.
I prefer women they are far more compassionate.

You as a man probably can relate more with a male doctor. Though my husband has no issues though he agrees the Premium Hospital is better and he enjoys talking about the medical research with the doctors since he was in medical research.

So I think it depends on your comfort level.


Our local vet office is run by women and there's one male vet. Thor has seen all of them! They take their time, they are kind, gentle with my pets, even Jr., who hates going to the vet, and we pay a premium price for the quality and care we get. OC thinks it's too good sometimes... ie end up paying through the nose, but here we are several years later and Thor is STILL alive! He's going to be 17 in August. The kittens are still alive, they will be 1 in July, and Jr., is doing really well after a four month stint of the holey moses you got loose stools that no one could figure out why... This was last year right after OC had his knee replacement surgery. Yes, I have a dog with a nervous condition, otherwise he's as sweet as can be.
 

packyderms_wife

Neither here nor there.
Yes, I know it's hard and expensive, but there are also a lot of the wrong people becoming vets, as well as doctors.

I also think this next generation, raised on the Internet, will have a ton of problems in professional positions. Many have stunted emotional growth, being almost 30 but still seeing life at a 15 or 16 year-old in many respects.

The coming world war and purges will cure them of that type of myopic point of view.
 

Tweakette

Irrelevant
I've had both good and bad vets of both genders. We started seeing our current female vet with our first dog and stuck with her because despite her being just out of vet school at the time she was clearly in the upper tier of brains, common sense, and empathy.

Most importantly, she knows what she doesn't know (sign of a smart person) and isn't afraid to ask someone else, research, or just say "I don't know" .
She's so good I asked her to become my primary care physician once and when she stopped laughing she said "I'm flattered but I'm not licensed for humans" lol.

We're now on our third dog with her, the baby she had that I gave her a gift for is now out of college, and we still consider ourselves very lucky to have found her.
 

Meemur

Voice on the Prairie / FJB!
You're also within spitting distance of the vet school, Packy, and have the "A" students. Out in the hinterlands, a lot of the new small animal vets are questionable, at best. A lot of them end up working for the corporations, like Banfield.
 

hunybee

Veteran Member
We had a female vet for our cat. He had urinary tract cysts and couldn't urinate. This vet was a nightmare. She was a good surgeon, but she had no compassion and disliked my cat. She hurt him and he came home traumatized and with the feline version of P.T.S.D. after an extended stay - 10 days if I remember. He is now transgender, but healthy. The vet was a mature woman.

That was many years ago. The vet we have now is a woman who is younger. She is so kind and a very good vet. My cat comes home as relaxed as possible after being at the vets. He is old now and taking thyroid medication. When we took him in he was failing and very thin. It happened very quickly. Our vet knew immediately what the problem was. My cat is now much healthier and has gained weight.

My point is that it has nothing to do with gender, it is the individual.


wait.....your cat is now transgender?!

what?
 

bethshaya

God has a plan, Trust it!
I could care less if my doctor or vet is male or female. I care if they know their stuff AND listen to me about my own concerns without being condescending. To dismiss anyone in any profession simply because of their sex is dumb. There are tons of worthless male and female doctors and tons of amazing male and female doctors out there. It has to do with their personality, not whether they have a dick or tits.
 

AlfaMan

Has No Life - Lives on TB
We take TBear (and Astor before him) to a fairly large vet in the area. They work on all kinds of animals, large, small, birds turtles; exotic animals and they are a 24 hour "trauma center" vet as well. (they take care of a lot of K9, drug and explosive sniffer dogs for many federal agencies and dogs from the surrounding jurisdictions)

The last male vet we met in the place? Astor was 16 at the time. I wanted to stomp him into a greasy spot on the floor.........rude, pushy and wanted to give Astor all kinds of tests that were unnecessary. Then had the cheek to say we didn't care for our dog much. I invited him outside, he didn't accept. All I can say is he's no longer there; one can only wonder why.

When we got TBear, we got a very pretty and freshly minted vet. She's a great vet. No, she's a fantastic vet. Her care of TBear is exemplary-she takes the time to explain what she's doing; each procedure is done in front of us; no taking him out of the room then bringing him back in when she's done. And she's sharp-she must have been a top graduate because it's clear she knows her business inside and out. If you have a vet related question on any subject she either answers right then or there-or calls us back with the answer. And she genuinely loves animals. If she's not examining him he's in her arms. And ShiTzus don't naturally gravitate to people on the first visit unless they have a kind heart. She must cuddle 50 animals a day!

Our TBear is our "child"; we couldn't have kids. So we're understandably very picky about his care as we were with Astor. Cost is not a part of the equation; excellent care is. (Although our vet is pretty reasonable compared to others in the DC area).

Gender in our instance does not bother us. Excellent care is all that matters; be it man or woman doing the doctoring.
 

tiredude

Veteran Member
man this thread is making me laugh and cry (not)........Nothing wrong with female vets......I am surprised you all haven't brought up race yet. The female vets I know (white) are very sensitive and react well to the animals. The men are all business but mean well. By the way whoever on this thread says vets don't make any money are WRONG. Most make more with doggy day care and overnight services than they do with their practice......$50 bucks a night....... really? I am not gonna cry for their 'lack' of income.
 

Melodi

Disaster Cat
There is a special place for vets (or doctors) who are willing to admit what they do not know, in our case, it was the old man who was the original vet at our local practice.

After decades (probably since the late 1950s) of dealing with large animals and the occasional farm dog, he suddenly found himself dealing with cats and smaller dogs (and even other animals) that in the past people either couldn't afford to have treated or didn't think about it (the cats especially).

Still, he showed up one night when I was all alone and our breeding queen was having problems giving birth and then the first kitten died. He said, he had no idea what dosages to treat them with (they all were born with an infection) or what to feed them but he brought his books with him. Together we looked up the dosages and discovered they could have puppy replacement former if Momma couldn't nurse she could but I needed the formula to get the tiny amounts of antibiotics into the babies - all the rest of them lived. I kept one, my Norwegian Forest Cat named Thor and he lived to be about 10 before having a stroke, like his father (who we had retired from breeding when we realized there was a fatal weakness in his line).

But I probably wouldn't have had him at all if a very old vet hadn't been willing to come out in the middle of the night, clutching a veterinary school book he had for years and looking up "how to treat newborn kittens and queens in a difficult labor."

It isn't gender that matter, it isn't age, it is compassion, knowledge, and knowing where to look if you don't have it.

Edited to add: I don't think he had ever seen kittens born with one sack and two umbilical cords wrapped around each other like Thor and his tragic twin, but he had seen it in cows, horses, and sheep - so he knew why I was in such a panic about the surviving "red" kitten.
 

ktrapper

Veteran Member
About that suicide rate in Vets these days- There was an uptick in Cancer rates after Chernobyl, and the doors blew off after Fukushima. My Vet told me in 2012 there is a 94% increase in Cancers across the board. Of my ten dogs, eight had some form of it.

The agony of the entire process, both on the dogs and on the Vet staff, is terrible. I am surprised the suicide rate is as low as it is. It actually should be higher. I controlled most of my emotion as each one said goodbye, because I knew my Vet and the techs didn't need that. I didn't come unstuck like some of the women did. I don't know how they can do years of that? They trained to be Vets, not grief counselors, but they get the melt downs from the owners as well as the animals that refuse to die quiet and scream or get up and run. Vet said all of mine were the exception, definitely not the rule. I believe her.

Throw in the emotional owners and the Karens (of both and varying sexes), the plandemic and all of that drama, the economy, chasing money for the bill, woke and the workplace, and on and on. Being a Vet is tough. Suicide is a permanent answer to a temporary problem, but I can see why some do.
That is part of the reason my daughter prefers large animals. She is very empathic when people are in emotional pain especially to the loss of their fur family members.

They lost a cow at the ranch yesterday. The cow had gotten down and the back legs weren’t working right and she was really close to calving. The cow didn’t make it. Now my daughter really really wants the skills to do a c section at last breath to save any calves in the future. My daughter felt very much for the cows suffering. Had it been ours she would have put it down sooner to end it’s suffering. This morning she was still feeling the effects of the loss. Out of the 600 head she cares diligently for each one.

She put down a one year colt of ours when she was 11. The horses got spooked by coyotes and Apache ran through a brush pile and stuck a 2 inch spruce pole into his chest.
Within minutes she loaded her 30-30 and put round behind his ear. He was my horse that I was raising to take the place of his Damn as she got older. That one messed her up for few days. But she done exactly what she needed to do without hesitation. I held that little girl for long time while she let out the tears.
 

packyderms_wife

Neither here nor there.
and speaking of mental imagery, the title of this thread evoked one hell of a mental image as well.


i have a very active imagination.

as with my very inquisitive nature, it is a blessing and curse.....

Yeah all sorts of unpleasant thoughts come to mind when I see this threads title.
 

Magdalen

Veteran Member
Every year it gets tougher to find large animal vets.
Our most recent vet, a woman, was incredible. She shared an office with some small animal vets, but she hated to be there and spent most of her time traveling around tending to flocks of sheep and cattle and goats like ours. A woman of few words and no frills, just gentle, plain, common sense. She just retired and we can find no one to replace her - no one is taking new clients. Our livestock are incredibly healthy (knock wood!) and we deworm, vaccinate, and deliver all our own kids and castrate the wethers ourselves, but I am NOT looking forward to the day when something goes awry, and we're not up to the task. Oh, wait , there is one fellow who might come out, but at $200 just for the farm visit, well, nobody better get sick is all I can say.
 

wintery_storm

Veteran Member
I hate the word Karens, too. I also hate that they hijacked the word dumb to mean stupid or slow and the word gay to mean anything but happy. I used Karens, instead of (nosey) bitches, as Dennis doesn't like that word on the forum. Apologies to all named Karen.
Seeker22, no offense to you. I just hate the word. I somehow figured it was derogatory. I have been seeing it all over the web and could not figure it out. I am 63 so I do not keep up with the new slang language.
 

Millwright

Knuckle Dragger
_______________
The vet I prefer to use is an older guy, could probably retire, but hangs around to see WTH is next.

Very pragmatic and educational.

There is a gal in the office, I like her too.
 

psychgirl

Has No Life - Lives on TB
You're also within spitting distance of the vet school, Packy, and have the "A" students. Out in the hinterlands, a lot of the new small animal vets are questionable, at best. A lot of them end up working for the corporations, like Banfield.
Ew.
Banfield. That’s a dirty word in our practice, lol. At least among us techs, it is. I’d not take a pet rock to a Banfield.
 

Dennis Olson

Chief Curmudgeon
_______________
I find the female vets to be the better ones actually.
I generally find OLDER vets to be the better ones.
As everyone else has said Vets don't make the big bucks anymore and for a variety of reasons. That said it could be worse Dennis, it could be male to female converts that are taking care of your dogs. :groucho:
Female converts would still be men. Now mind you, I don’t mind female vets per se, but I DO mind young, self-important know-it-all vets. The women tend to wear those traits on their sleeve more than men do.

The first time I brought Hairy in to the “next gen PMS” vets, the alleged doctor came zooming into the room at the speed of sound. Hairy didn’t know this person at all. He was about 18 months old or so. She came right at his face, and barely stopped and backed off before losing a chunk of her head. Naturally she was all offended, talking about vicious dogs. I told her that if she’d taken some time and moved slowly (like my dogs’ old MALE doc did), that incident wouldn’t have happened. She got all huffy and said that from then on, I could just pay for hour-long appointments so she could “take her time.” That’s the last time any of the vets there have treated my dogs.

I don’t pay hundreds of dollars per visit to be treated like that as a customer, and my dogs certainly don’t need that kind of “zoom zoom” medicine. Those women are all bitches, and I’m not going to give them my dollars.
 
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Broken Arrow

Heathen Pagan Witch
I generally find OLDER vets to be the better ones.
And that is your choice. My female vets have all been in their early 30's and have been fabulous! I would not trade them. It's the person and attitude, not the gender or their age. I've run into "older" vets that just freaking suck.
 

Dennis Olson

Chief Curmudgeon
_______________
When my dog or cat is hurt or in distress i don't much care if the Vet is male or female, as long as there is the word Doctor in front of their name.
Mike
Quacks and butchers all have the word “doctor” in front of their name. Evidently your standards are pretty low.
I honestly hate the word Karens why do people use it? It is like an insult. Please inform, I am female, I have emotions and I love my pets as any animal owner would if they have a heart.
Karen was co-opted as a term to describe bitching, miserable, demanding women. I think it fits perfectly.
I also think this next generation, raised on the Internet, will have a ton of problems in professional positions. Many have stunted emotional growth, being almost 30 but still seeing life at a 15 or 16 year-old in many respects
THIS!
 

Dennis Olson

Chief Curmudgeon
_______________
And that is your choice. My female vets have all been in their early 30's and have been fabulous! I would not trade them. It's the person and attitude, not the gender or their age. I've run into "older" vets that just freaking suck.
And you’ve been DAMN LUCKY. Try it with vets in their mid 20’s. Come back with a full report.
 

Meemur

Voice on the Prairie / FJB!
Ew.
Banfield. That’s a dirty word in our practice, lol. At least among us techs, it is. I’d not take a pet rock to a Banfield.

Banfield offers low-cost rabies shot clinics periodically. At $15 - $20 vs. almost $120, guess which I'm going to pick? But as far as taking a sick kitty there, NO.
 

bluelady

Veteran Member
A couple years ago when my great dane suddenly could no longer get up the local lady vet's office gave me a card for a mobile vet who was a guy to come put Spottie down. He arrived with his wife and a fancy mid sized truck with a really great setup, all stainless steel. His normal practice was goats, he said. My bill that day was $450, and no disposal of the corpse.
The local lady vet has a booming business that she owns and there is always quite a wait to see her. Sadly she does have some kind of nervous condition that causes her to miss work often. Seems like she just loves animals so much that it messes with her head when she sees them getting old and dying.
Spottie just loved that woman!
Wow! A couple of years ago it was $90 to have my mom's sweet Joy put down here at home by our local vet; they do it on their "farm call" rounds. They would have disposed of her, but we still had our other property out of town and dh took her to our "pet cemetery" there.
 
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