On Friday a family who has a 11 month puppy from me sent this (names changed for privacy):

"Good morning ***, hope all is well with you and the family. I wanted to drop you a quick note about Lana's progress and a little health problem. She is without a doubt a great loving dog, friendly to everyone and just a good dog all around. She loves playing in the snow and absolutely loves playing with freez-bees. As far as the health problem, her bottom eye lids are not developing and are tight to her eyes. She has had irritation to both corneas over the last 3 to 4 months from her bottom eyelashes and our vet wants to do some corrective surgery to put some sag into her bottom eye lids. Denise and I wanted to know if any of the other pups in her litter are having the same problem? The vet we are seeing specializes in this problem and noticed it right away and suggested we have the surgery as soon as possible. Let me know if you ever encountered this before, thanks "

So of course my first question was is this vet a ACVO. The family sent me a link to the doctor's website, and no where does it say he is an opthamologist. By the description, I am thinking entropion... but I did ask the family to please get a second opinion from a board certified opthamologist. Luckily they were agreeable, and went to our local opthamologist today. Well, I just came home to this note:

"Good morning ***, I took Lana to Doctor *** this morning and he gave her a clean bill of health. He did not see any evidence of entropin or anything else. The only issue is Lana has some dry eye. Needless to say, Lana is not getting any surgery to correct something that is not there."




Really!!?? Did this first vet REALLY try to get these people to do surgery on a 11 month old puppy for a condition she DOES NOT HAVE!!! And then, to tell this family he "specializes" in this surgery Needless to say, I am working with this family in finding a new vet.

I wanted to share this story though to remind us how important it is to develop relationships with our puppy families. I could not thank them enough for contacting me, as we saved this puppy from a needless surgery. Also it reminds us how important it is to request (not demand or get nasty, you can get more bees with honey then vinegar) that our families get a second opinion from a board certified specialist in the area of concern (ie a cardiologist for heart issues, an ortho for joint issues, an opthamologist for eye issues).

Boy the things I want to say to this first vet

I am hearing of similar stories a lot lately.
seems to be in the bigger cities.
glad you talked them into a second opinion and all was well. scary for sure!

few years back I sent a pup home with great family. along with vet signed records and health certificate of treatments and vaccines given 2 days earlier.
Family went into new vet and although they handed the reception the papers, they gave the pup another entire sent of vaccines to the tune of $300. then when they had to rush the pup back in for a reaction they were charged another $150 plus the vet told them it was genetic!

after I called the office and chewed the vet out and promised to sue for unnecessary practices. He gave the family a refund and said he did the vaccines because he did not trust that my vet actually gave any, that many vets scam clients and we have to be careful.........wow.

I always take the vaccine label off the vial and attach it to my vet's vaccine certificate, which then goes to the new vet. This is what she does in her records normally and she would prefer the new vet has it so as not to re-inoculate.

I am going through the same thing with an inverted vulva. I explained the issue, in depth, to them and it states in my guarantee that surgery for IV would void the guarantee. She is 5 months old and has no problems with UTIs. The vet wants to operate.

I replied back and said NO operation, and why. I haven't heard back.

These situations make me so angry. Don't some of these vets think we know anything as a breeder. or is it a $$$$$ thing. GRRRRR

I had a recent litter in which the baby canines didn't fall out on their own for some puppies. My vet pulled the baby teeth on two puppies for me. I had an older dog vaccinated at the same time, and the bill for all three dogs was under $400. One of the puppy buyers had the same problem and was directed to the local dental specialist (whom I no longer patronize because he over-charged me once). Unfortunately the puppy's owner followed through before he talked to me, and the bill was $1800! One baby tooth was infected, but surely that didn't up the bill by $1500!

I have seen lots of retained baby canines. Every single one of them came out after a couple of flip chips. It is like magic.

I've really lost respect for vet's. I had a 6 month old pet puppy dx with hip and elbow dysplasia by a board certified orthopedic surgeon. The family emailed me to inform me and I recommended a second opinion with my vet.
My vet read the report and found they never even took hip xrays and nothing was spotted on the elbow xrays, they were planning an exploratory surgery on both elbows when only one was bothering him. We retook all xrays and submitted to OFA. The puppy came back OFA Excellent and both elbows normal. My vet dx pano, the dog is 3 years old now and is fine. My vet said, it was his opinion that this surgeon was sitting on a expensive scope that was not making him any money!
It's buyer beware with veterinary medicine and I tell all my puppy buyers this. If something comes up that cost a lot of money call us and we will try too help.

Both sides to every coin and there are many outstanding vets out there but admit it. S*it happens and even with greedy vets.

Few and far between, it's hard finding a good one.

I went through 3 vets before I came to the clinic that I use now. And now, I wouldn't trade the world for another set of vets. They are incredible, honest and include me on every decision for everything. They don't push any perspective, but they do provide their thoughts and allow you to make the decision. And if they don't know, they refer you to a specialist. I even got to sit in the neutering for one of my boys (it was kind of neat, because she explained what she was doing the whole time and I was fascinated). And with all of the rescues that I do, they are simply amazing and go above and beyond for them as well.

You do have to informed...and let's face it, most pet people aren't. But it's the same with regular doctors as well. If we always take everything at face value, we wouldn't have medical break throughs, would we? Some of the advances in medicine have come from people saying "no, i don't believe that is the problem...look harder."

So, instead of being upset with vets, perhaps we just need to let others know to be educated and make INFORMED decisions...and part of that is by being in contact with their breeders if something's not right with their dog. I know of a few breeders who mean well, but when people have contacted them about a potential problem, get nervous that the family is blaming them for the problem, when they are only really looking for answers to help their pet. So, don't be on the defense either.

Also note, the majority of breeders that many vets interact with are of the BYB type...who don't care, don't vaccinate, etc.

Anyways, JMHO.

Thanks Dani, for a nice common sense post.

I was recently telling my vet (who I love!) about a procedure that was done on a puppy we recently sold. He agreed that the procedure was unnecessary and shook his head and said "I just hate it when vets take advantage of pet owners!"

I love my vet as well. This is not another 'vet bashing thread'. Vets who do needless, unwarranted surgeries are ruining it for the few good ones that are left.

I had a family and every time they took the pup to their vet, it was the "worst" case they ever saw of whatever the problem was. The last one was allergies, and was informed by the family "that it was genetic, and he was supposed to talk to me about it".

"Yup, it can be, I replied, but since Mom, Dad, siblings, half siblings, no one has allergies, I highly doubt it IS allergies. How about taking your pup off the crappy food your vet put them on, stop bathing the dog so much, and brush it out after you hike in the woods, and then call me in a few weeks..."

They did and magically all the problems were gone. I stressed that next time the dog has an illness, call me first and I'll tell them what to ask and do...and funny...no more wierd cases of the "worst" illnesses every.

We go through it ourselves, the time it takes to find the right vet...I go to the same vet that one of my friends does and she has one of my dogs. She's constantly told her dog needs to lose weight (IMHO, it needs to gain) and I try to explain to her over and over that she needs to stop acting like the helpless pet owner that doesn't know any better.

I have had the same experience just recently of one of my puppy owners. No x-rays...this vet claimed he could tell by manipulating the hips that something is wrong...wants to do an expensive surgery-pup 6 months old. I told them x-rays had to be taken by my vet who is local for them and sent to OFA for an evaluation or my guarantee is void(my contract states this). I did expain to them that it could possibly be pano. I am so glad they spoke to me before going through with a surgery.

Last week, we got a call from a family to whom we had sold a puppy. The puppy was 10 months old and the last time we spoke to the owners, he was doing great. They had him euthanized. He had a "deformed hip which surgery would not be able to correct" and an "unknown intestinal problem".

We requested the x-rays in the mail. We received them Saturday and they will be given to our vet for review. We have seen a million x-rays over the years and this might be mild dysplasia, but probably not any worse. The hips are hard to evaluate actually since the positioning is so poor. Whoever took them did not have a clue.

There were intestinal x-rays as well and clearly pockets of gas but we don't know enough to evaluate these ourselves.

Anyway, maybe a month after they left, another puppy in the litter had giardia which he might have contracted at out home since we had an adult with it. We had contacted the entire litter because giardia can be tough to diagnose in that the dog can test negative but still have it. We warned everyone and asked them to call us if they experienced any problems.

So, after speaking with the people the pup had been lame for a few weeks but not before. It had been lethargic and not gaining weight for a while. Again, we will have our vet evaluate the x-rays but we do not think the hip would be causing the lameness. We think the pup maybe just had pano and giardia.

In this case, the vet did not do this for profit. It seems just like he was simply incompetent.

The people are asking for a replacement pup. The question of a refund is still open and they will likely be given their money back but they will never get another puppy from us. Can you imagine euthanizing a 10 month old pup in a non-emergency situation without contacting the breeder???

We are sick. With some Panacur and time, this puppy may have lead a long and happy life. And if it was mild dysplasia, the family would have had a refund or their next puppy free.