Believe me I paid thousand$ over the years. Money was not the problem. I never questioned what the vets charged, until the very end of the dog's life when I was tired of being screwed by incompetents! The problem was that I was never able to find a real professional vet. I tried 5 vets in 2 states, including one promoting herself as a "dermatological specialist". All were mediocre at best. Either I must be very unlucky or as I said before, the veterinary field sucks!
Sorry you've hit the bad vets. I've had very good experiences. Years ago, my 4-yr-old cat Herb stayed home with a petsitter while I was away for 2 weeks, when I returned, sitter said, too bad, Herb ran away ten days ago. (You can only imagine my fury!)
I found him a few days later on roof of our condo, raced him to vet who said, "We're looking at death." Cat reeked. His ears were bloody stubs, his tongue was swollen and green, he'd apparently gotten into some caustic cleaning compound and was not only dehydrated but poisoned. I brought food to vet every day, ground up liver, wheat germ, vitamin E, and Herb lapped it up while lying in virtually a coma, vet did his magic, ears grew back, tongue recovered (though it was smooth rather than raspy for the rest of his life) and Herb went on to live 19 years. Oh yes, he also recovered from being hit by a car, much surgery, pin in shoulder, etc. Same vet. Great cat, great vet.