Small practice vs. veterinary hospital

Small practice - same lead vet for the last 20+ years. There was a bit of wobbliness around establishing the second vet when the original partner moved to another practice, but that was offset by the same receptionist, and lead tech.

I like knowing that the vet knows the dogs - she really knows them.

when you say small or large, I think of pets versus cows and sheep. We have a small practice vet who does our small and large animals. He is super and he breaks in new vet associates with care. He only has 2 other vets and they run the large and small animal show. Usually the juniorest vets get to do cows n sheep and other farm animals. They dont do horses cause in this area the horse vets have 2 last names and dont speak to the farm animal vets.
A piece of advice if your looking for a great career and financial reward--- equine surgery.

Dont give me your answer now, just think about it.

Our vet's non-pet specialty is wildlife and exotic rescue. Lions and tigers and bears, oh my, indeed!

Small. I took a cat to a hospital with three full time vets. I would not let one of them work on a pet leech, but there is only a choice when the doc you want happens to be available.

Duly noted (large animal v. small animal). I tripped over myself because the line between "practice" and "animal hospital" is kinda fuzzy.

Since the folks here prefer small -- and all of you are vastly more experienced in this than am I -- lemme tell you where I'm coming from.

Back in Seattle, we took our mutts to an "animal hospital." For basic care, there was a particular vet who rotated in there who we preferred, and we were usually able to schedule an appointment with him when we wanted him. Our animals are young and fit and healthy, so ongoing health concerns aren't a problem.

We did go there for a few indiscriminate eating issues when they were puppies, though -- and it was great having a team of veterinarians making decisions than just one. In one particular instance we were able to avoid a potentially dangerous and costly surgery because there were a number of heads and an ultrasound machine available.

Conversely, here in Madison we go to a very small practice, and I don't trust the vet there much further than I could throw her, and I will not take my pups there for anything beyond routine examinations and vaccinations (which are very cheap). I recognize she's particularly bad, and one of these visits we'll switch to someone else, but I generally feel better when there are a lot of folks around with a broad range of expertise, especially when I'm dealing with a young vet.





Definitely something I'm aware of. Surgery of any kind is a pretty exclusive specialty, and I'm wondering whether I want to be in a customer service field at all. Might be thinking zoo in the unlikely event I turn out to be hot stuff...

Almost all of the vets in Tranna seem to still have a hook up to the Ontario Veterinary College at the University of Guelph - so leading edge research input is available to the vet and the pet guardian quite readily.

link

Having the OVC so close and so accessible may be a piece of why I feel pretty good about the most basically competent vet here.

I suspect you've got pretty good instincts about when people are and aren't capable. I just think about it from my point of view in a few years, and I don't know that I'll want to be under the mentorship of just one or two doctors, even if they are very good.

But, like I said, I've never had to have an ongoing relationship with a vet before.




Tangential question for the Canajun: how personal is the primary care you receive in your health care system?

PeppermintPDog - the options here are similar to those available for animals - single practice, group practice, clinic. For most of my adult life I've chosen to be taken care of in a small group practice, with one primary care physician. When my doc moved to England, I moved to a very small clinic for care - with one assigned primary care physician. It's the closest practice/clinic to my home that has good lab and testing facilities - long walk/short drive distance - I chose it for location - and good docs with good hospital priviliges.

I preferred the small group practice, but location's important right now. I do occasionally go to the walk-in (amazing sports clinic) in the banking towers where I work. Location location location.

I think I take better care of the dogs and the car than I do of myself.

OVC's an amazing place, PPDog - you'd go crazy with some of the grad research they do there.

I definitely do. Haven't seen a doctor in years, myself. (Gotta go soon, though. Not young and invincible any more...)

I went to a small practice vet for years and years until she nearly killed my dog with a misdiagnosis.

We ended up at the referral clinic where the vet diagnosed my dog in 5 minutes while sitting with her in the back seat of my car. Okay, it was a pretty rare disease but still....

The mega-mega dollar referral clinic vet is also part of a regular, large vet office (about 8 doctors with a full lab) for regular vet dollars.

He couldn't take my dog as a regular patient though because you cannot transfer vets after being sent to the referral clinic.

Luckily my vet decided not to be a vet anymore so I was able to transfer ALL of my pets to the new vet's hospital. We have used several of the doctors at this clinic and they are all extraordinary - most of them are ACVIM acreditied.

I will never ever ever ever ever go back to another vet.

I have been to a variety of vet practices. I used to take my pets to the UGA teaching hospital in Athens, which I really liked. I liked the whole double analysis (student plus dvm).

When I wasa kid we brought our pets toa family practice. It was one (maybe 2 at one point) vet and a couple techs. That seems less functional, especially these days. Maybe it seems so because I have been going to bigger practices as an adult.

Now I go to a medium sized practice with maybe 6 vets and a slew of techs. They board upstairs as well. I like it. There is always a second opinion (granted the check goes to the same practice) and there is always a vet there who can help even if mine is off. Perhaps it's less personal for your average customer, but with my animals, almost everyone there knows me unless they're new employees.

That's odd, boomerang. You can't choose in Oregon?

Roger, if your vet sends you to the referral clinic - which is a group of specialized vets that handle the hopless cases - you can't chose a vet from that clinic, in their private practice as your new vet.

They are afraid that no vet would send an animal there if the vets who work their steal all of their patients.

We could have left our vet and found a different vet - but not the amazing and wonderful Dr. Franklin. Because our vet quit being a vet we were able to transfer Bakker (the misdiagnosed, then right diagnosed dog) to Dr. Franklin permenantly.

Does that make more sense?

I have always used a small practice...if for no other reason than I've always lived in relatively small towns. I've been in this town for six years and have been extremely pleased with the personal (animalal?) attention in this very small practice (two vets--one mostly handles small animals, the other, large animals).

Then one of my cats developed hepatic lipidosis (a very serious liver ailment). My vet diagnosed the probable condition immediately and referred me to the Veterinary School Hospital at a nearby university. Everyone was wonderful there--especially the one senior vet student who oversaw the case under the guidance of the director (who had been my vet's mentor when she was in school there--connections are nice!). During the lengthy surgeries and tests when my cat had to stay there for a week or more at a time, they unhesitatingly broke the visitation rules and let me visit my cat for hours every day, including weekends.

They also kept my local vet closely informed about everything going on, and my vet called me frequently when I had the cat at home (doing every-four-hour stomach-tube feedings) just to see how things were going.

So...I love the long-term relationship with a small-practice vet, yet I also value the level of skills and equipment at specialized institutions and am glad I have access to both.

Small every time - IF I know the vet knows where the limits of their competence are - and IF the vet actually really cares for animals. I HATE cold vets. I mean, I don't want them crying or anything, but I want to know they are there because they love animals, and I want my animals to feel relaxed and good with them.

I had a wonderful vet for a long time - excellent diagnostic skills - really loved the animals - straight up with bad news - (once I had been spending a fortune treating a no longer treatable infection - and no vet had told me it was not going to go, and that the cat was beginning to suffer - grrrrrrrr - she was euthanased that day). Sadly, he is semi-retired, and I have not found another good one.

I also want not to be talked down to - but vets usually only do that once. I have a perfectly good understanding of basic biology.

I notice the big hospitals here seem to be in the business of pushing extremely expensive extraordinary measures of keeping animals alive on people - not to mention stuff like cleaning teeth under anaesthetic - when bones and such would be fine. I have had several friends who were victims of this - and whose animals' last weeks have been made a misery because of it - not to mention their finances for a long time after. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr.....

Vets & Specialist
Greetings all. Once upon a time, say 20 years ago, I was a Veterinary Assistant to one of the best vets I have ever met. I was only with Dr. Roger Finkenbine (cat specialist) for 3 years. I quit because I couldn't stand the pain of not be able to help some cats that were terminal, although Roger tried very hard.
I moved back to California, where I was born, taking my 'fur-son', Pong. One afternoon (I was usually able to come home for lunch), as I was returning to work, I noticed Pong's respiration was abnormal, shallow & fast. Very concerned, I returned to work and called a friend of mine who had cats and asked her for the name of her vet. She said that all that she had done was spay/neuter & vaccinations, but gave me the name and number. I called and was able to make an appointment for the next day, though I would have to do a 'drop off - pick up' thing. When I went to pick Pong up, the vet talked to me telling me of his dianosis. He showed me an X-ray of Pong lungs, telling me that Pong had edema in the lungs caused by Lung Cancer (pointing to several white splotchs). He said Pongs' time was very short, and I really should put him to sleep that very night. When I refused, he gave me two perscriptions, one a diuretic to help dry up the edema, and an antihistamine, to help keep the fluild in his lungs from building up. While he was giving me the perscriptions, I told him that Pongs' stomach was delicate, if irratated he would vomit. I was told to give him the pills when I got home, which I did. The next twelve hours were a nightmare I will never forget. Within two hours Pong (normally a rather quiet cat) was howling his distress. Once time I picked him up to comfort him, and a flood of urine drenched my nightgown. After midnight he huddled over his water bowl, needing water, but unable to drink because of his nausea. I stayed with him at his water bowl watching the urine uncontrollably leave his body. He was in great pain from being so dehydrated. I watched the clock, crying, waiting, for 7:00am, when I knew Roger would be at his clinic. All the while hearing Roger's voice telling me from a long ago lesson: "you can't diagnose (in cats) lung cancer from an X-ray...". Finally, I could call him in Arizona. I told him what had happened. He asked me the dosage on the perscriptions. He said that they were to high for cats, -dogs or people yeah, -but not cats. I told him I would get in the car and drive to him (500 miles), or get an emergency plane ticket to bring Pong to him. His reply - "He won't live that long." He told me to find a cat specialist there in Orange County, and if they needed his help, just to call. I was fortunate. The yellow pages listed a referal service for vets. I called, and took the number for the closest one, Stanton Animal Clinic. I then called Stanton and told them I had an emergency, they said bring him right in. They asked, if possible, I could bring the X-rays from the other vet. I knew that legally the X-rays belonged to me, but getting them might be a problem. On my way to Stanton, (fortunately Pong Loved to ride in the car) I stopped by the other vets office, and asked for the X-rays, they hesistated, so I told them I was on my way to Arizona to see the vet I used to work for, and they quickly handed them over. Stanton was about 15 minutes away, when I walked in they imediatly got me a room and one of the vets was in with us within 5 minutes. I told him about the other vet, and he said "you can't diagnose lung cancer from an X-ray" Because of Pongs condition, they put him in an oxygen cage to ease his breathing & IV saline solution to stabilize him. The did a lung biopsy and discovered a rare disease! Pong was in the clinic for 2 months. I got to see him every day because they were open on Sundays and encouraged visitors. I thank my mother for paying for his treatment.
So, my opinion, it all depends on the vet. Roger is now retired, but I have his home phone to ask him any questions I might have. I Know that he is the Best feline diagnostion in all Arizona. He also knew when things would be better handled by a larger clinic.

Thanks, folks. Am pressed for time, but I will be back sometime this week to reply to y'all...

Welcome Rumple. Can I suggest you break up your posts with more paragraphs? I found it interesting but hard on the eyes. I'm an aging hound.