From: Dr Andrew Jones Author: Veterinary Secrets Revealed Website: www.veterinarysecretsrevealed.com
How to AVOID Getting OVERCHARGED by your Vet
Veterinary Care is expensive. I should know, for I am Veterinarian who owns a Veterinary Hospital. In fact, Veterinary Medicine has changed dramatically in the last 30 years… gone are the days of James Harriot when Veterinarians treated every type of animal, and regularly made house calls. This is the 21st Century, where a dog may be man's best friend, but that pet has a price tag. Vet visits and surgery cost dog owners almost $800 and cat owners $500 last year, according to the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association. If your pet becomes seriously ill, you can easily spend thousands. For example, each year about 400 pets, mostly dogs, undergo pacemaker surgery costing $3,000. Cats with renal failure, a common ailment, can now get an $8,000 to $10,000 kidney transplant, followed by $600-a-year regimens of immunosuppressive drugs. We can do wonderful advanced life saving procedures…but folks, it ain't cheap.
Costly Practices The costs of operating a veterinary practice are huge. Veterinary Salaries have risen, and newer Veterinarians are demanding higher starting salaries before they even walk in the door. A new graduate will start at 60,000 dollars a year. Higher end corporate practices will pay even more. Those practice owners earn in excess of 100,000 dollars a year. Veterinary Clinics have extremely high overhead costs. You need a lot of specialized equipment to perform exams, X-rays, Ultrasound and surgery… monitoring equipment, anesthetic equipment, kennels and cages, ventilation…the list is big. You need a high number of staff to give quality patient care. Veterinary support staff members are now demanding higher salaries… gone are the days when you could pay a receptionist 8 dollars an hour.
No New Pets Most of you reading this live in or near a city. In fact, that is where most Veterinary practices are located. The problem with that is that most cities have MORE veterinarians than they NEED. The Pet Population is increasing, but it's not keeping pace with the number of Veterinary practices. This means that for a Veterinary practice to grow, it cannot rely on just increasing the number of patients, because there are not enough patients to go around for all the existing practices. SO what's a Practice owner to do

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