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Post by whoswho on Mar 17, 2009 13:34:55 GMT -6
Are totally ridiculous nowadays. I spend more on my cats than I do for my own health care.
I'm beginning to think it's all a crock.
A dose of flea meds used to last my cat all summer. Now you have to buy them monthly, and it's $16 for a tiny dose of chemical. Got more than one pet? It gets frighteningly costly.
Used to be, once a cat had his kitten shots, he was pretty well fixed for life. Now, they not only expect you to REPEAT those immunities YEARLY, they send you nagging guilt trip letters if you don't do it. This even includes rabies shots, which should be a once-in-a-lifetime thing, or at least it used to be.
I think veterinary medicine has become a blackmail setup. They KNOW we love our animals and wouldn't deny them care.
Since I haven't gotten blackmailed into the new setup, my vet has gotten very bitchy with me. Now they don't want to even give me worm pills unless I bring my cat in, or a stool sample. It's ridiculous. I've had cats for 30+ years, I know tapeworms when I see them.
So I switched vets-- to an old fashioned vet, God bless him. Got my worm pills, no questions asked. He's going to be getting a lot more business, I have four cats, LOL
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Post by graybeard on Mar 17, 2009 22:37:42 GMT -6
Agreed. Vets today are all about greed.
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Post by xtra on Mar 18, 2009 0:02:31 GMT -6
Yes the times have changed for the worse, when NANNY government puts you in Jail for putting your pet out. I remember when I had a friend with an old old dog that had many different problems, the vet wanted over 4k even though she was over 15 years old and couldnt even eat. My friend declined my offer to help put her out, he paid the 4 grand and his dog lived another 6 months. It was sad all the way around. Home of the Free and the Brave, where we put women in Jail for putting her pet out of misery, and illegals do whatever they wish. not only are the vets greedy and messed up, but the criminal justice system is twisted and warped adding this woman to the growing group of "criminals" My grandpa and greatgrandpa on the farm would have something to say about this. ohhh and im a huge pet lover www.denverpost.com/carman/ci_10668511
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Post by whoswho on Mar 18, 2009 8:08:27 GMT -6
I tried to play it cool with them, and stay calm and levelheaded. I figure if they want to come and get my cats, let them. They don't really want the expense of feeding, housing, defleaing, worming, etc. And they know that in the present economic climate, they'd play hell finding my cats a home. So they keep trying to bluff me. They send me emails, phone messages, color brochures trying to force appointments. Very high pressure salesmen. And really, a cat doesn't normally require that much medical attention.
I have to say, they walk a very fine line between coercing me to do what they want, and out-and-out pissing me off enough to drop them. I am never going to be honest with them and tell them I've taken the cats elsewhere. I may need them for something, and basically they ARE competent vets.
Even after explaining to them that my mother is now in a rest home and I'm having to pay all her utilities, taxes, etc., it just flew over the tops of their heads. They don't give a damn. They just want you to turn your bank account over to them.
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Post by whoswho on Mar 18, 2009 8:13:26 GMT -6
Tell me, does this look like an abused animal?? ;D
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Post by xtra on Mar 18, 2009 12:18:37 GMT -6
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Post by whoswho on Mar 18, 2009 12:58:25 GMT -6
Canine Health Concern was formed in 1994 by Catherine O'Driscoll, after two of her beautiful young Golden Retrievers - Oliver and Prudence - tragically died. She asked, 'why?', and the answers that came back were sufficiently disturbing to make her feel that independent research was necessary - free from commercial bias. Catherine was sent scientific papers which told her that commercial pet food was nutritionally inadequate, and that many deficiency diseases are the direct result of poor feeding. She also learnt that the annual shots we give to our pets each year, in the belief that we are protecting them from disease, are actually the largest cause of ill health in our pets today. My cats won't eat a lot of commercial pet foods. They do like Iams dry food, so that's kind of a staple at our house. Chicken legs are cheap, so I put a big package in the crock pot and cook that for them. Aldi's has a cheap frozen salmon that I microwave with a little water and oil. I don't think it's that much more expensive than buying Nine Lives. Most of 9 lives offerings (except for the tuna) they totally refuse to eat. Thanks xtra, for the info on the vaccines! Sometimes I think it is a blessing from God that I am too poor to do what's popular. It forces me to stick to the basics.
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Post by xtra on Mar 18, 2009 13:13:11 GMT -6
when I had a job, I would buy the cheapest dog food around, its about 10 bucks for 50lbs. however I would also buy the meats in the day-old section in the butcher section. My boys who work at restaurants get all the scraps and bones too.....so, all in all, my dogs eat pretty well. But me and my friend would always argue about my dogs food vs. his.
My friend would only buy Iams or some other expensive brand, he pays about 55 bucks for 35 pounds. But he found out that that brand and a whole bunch of other name brands were the ones from China that killed thousands of pets because of anti-freeze and other chemicals in the pet foods....
When he went into the specialty pet store he goes to get his food at, about 90% of the shelves were empty because of the recall... only the cheap stuff was there. lol
I dont know if my dog food is crappy for them or not. But I think that high dollar dog food is a scam, because people have had pets for thousands of years and they didnt have Iams or vaccines back then.
But I do know that just as the economy goes south, you will get more "blackmail" letters from your old vet, because hes losing his ass too.
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Post by xtra on Mar 18, 2009 15:02:58 GMT -6
FYI This is pretty crappy insurance. Pet Insurance from www.kingsoopers.com/financefor 55.75 a month 669 a year on 2 pets or 64.00 a month 768 a year for 3 but with either plan you pay 10% co-pay and 50 bucks per deductible, and you get this accident or illness up to 7,500 but only 2,500 per incident preventative, shots check ups etc max 220 a year advertising if lost 250, most papers do this for free or craigslist bording fee if you are sick up to 500 loss by theft or straying 250 hey....why dont vets push their own kind of insurance??? I bet they could offer better bargins than a food chain.
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Post by Kat on Mar 20, 2009 11:28:16 GMT -6
Check out BARF as a means of feeding your pets. I switched my ferrets to raw/whole prey, and their coats are better, teeth are cleaner, poop stinks less, they smell less, they drink less due to the water content in the meat and they are more energetic.
Commercial pet foods put in more stuff than the animals need. Take my ferrets, for example, obligate carnivores. When they eat whole prey, they ignore the gut, yet commercial foods put in vegetation because in the wild they'd eat it from prey animal's gut? My ferrets say NO to that! Pet food has that filler because it's cheaper.
Always check the bag's ingredients, if you're uncomfortable with raw and prefer dry commercial. The first four listed should be meat (and not 'meat product' or 'meat byproduct' which is really defeating the purpose).
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Post by unlawflcombatnt on Mar 22, 2009 10:06:11 GMT -6
Tell me, does this look like an abused animal?? ;D LOL. That's a great picture. --------------- I think I know the answer to this question, but I'll ask it anyway. Does anyone know if ferrets are still illegal in California?
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Post by Kat on Mar 25, 2009 12:28:25 GMT -6
Sadly, ferrets are still illegal in both CA and NY, though there's been plenty of effort by ferret advocates (haha) to change that.
Both states feel that ferrets would be a negative influence on the local wildlife, despite the fact that our tame ferrets today would get lost and probably die within a few days if they were left to their own devices. Due to their short digestive tract, they need to be eating once every two to four hours -- ferrets actually eat more than cats do.
Ferrets have no clue how to hunt in the wild, and even those used to flush rabbits in England would likely not find warrens on their own. So, they'd prolly starve to death.
Regardless, the fight continues.
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Post by whoswho on Mar 26, 2009 8:57:50 GMT -6
Check out BARF as a means of feeding your pets. I switched my ferrets to raw/whole prey, and their coats are better, teeth are cleaner, poop stinks less, they smell less, they drink less due to the water content in the meat and they are more energetic. Commercial pet foods put in more stuff than the animals need. Take my ferrets, for example, obligate carnivores. When they eat whole prey, they ignore the gut, yet commercial foods put in vegetation because in the wild they'd eat it from prey animal's gut? My ferrets say NO to that! Pet food has that filler because it's cheaper. Always check the bag's ingredients, if you're uncomfortable with raw and prefer dry commercial. The first four listed should be meat (and not 'meat product' or 'meat byproduct' which is really defeating the purpose). Only one of my cats will eat raw meat, my oldest cat, a sixteen pound male. I've offered it to all of them, but they haven't developed a taste for it. The only raw meat they eat is their own catches, that is mice, groundmoles and birds. I just do as I'm told, LOL What do *I* know??
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Post by Kat on Mar 27, 2009 13:08:54 GMT -6
Only one of my cats will eat raw meat, my oldest cat, a sixteen pound male. I've offered it to all of them, but they haven't developed a taste for it. The only raw meat they eat is their own catches, that is mice, groundmoles and birds. I just do as I'm told, LOL What do *I* know?? Hehe, switching animals who have already imprinted on dry food is *hard*. Luckily, I found a mentor site to help with switching ferrets, and after one-two frustrating weeks with the ferrets REFUSING to eat anything having to do with meat (I thought I was starving them at one point because we had to stop free feeding them so they'd be hungry by the end of the day and capitulate >< ) we finally made a break through. But for the older animals . . . yeah, good luck with that. LOL
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