Vets are a cash machine. My vet sells me special prescription food for my elderly doggie at 3 times the price of brand name quality off the shelf food.
As for lyme disease, I always thought that was a racket. 80% of dogs don't need it. The remaining 20% who are outside alot probably do.
Big-time! Vets are about as bad as dentists in prescribing unnecessary "care". I never thought that all the shots were a scam, but I have always suspected the heartworm pills to be nothing but a profit engine.
Bump!
When I used to do income taxes I was asked often if the dog/cat could be claimed as a dependent. The main reason was the big $$$ owners spent at the vet on their pets.
I do wonder about all the shots though, however, my vet uses the 3 year shot for rabies. My vet is very conservative in treatment which I am thankful for. I am going to bring him a copy of this article though.
I listened to a radio pet call-in program yesterday, and they spent the entire hour on heartworm and how awful it is!! They said that if a dog (or cat?) has these worms, that the treatment may be the death of them or worse than the actual infestation because of the dead worms ... no, I'm not going to go there.
I live in AZ, and the program was local. Callers said, "This is AZ, we shouldn't have a mosquito problem here, should we??" You guessed it! The answer is "Oh, yes! Swimming pools, fountains, irrigation and our modern way of life are bringing them here."
They really made me depressed, since we don't do the HeartGuard thing. After reading this thread, I am certainly going to reconsider annual shots, and just do them and the rabies every three years!!
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