I believe in patronizing local businesses, and we have a top quality, bright, veterinarian. The Ozdachs pack loves her, and she seems genuinely happy to see the pack.
But, she is aggressive in her pricing. As in “ouch”! I can rationalize paying for her excellent personal service, but she charges very high rates for medicine and for routine lab work which don’t involve her at all. Since a couple of the Ozdachs have chronic low thyroid and take a pill every day, I went to PetCareRx to shop. (I am not an affiliate or related to them, btw.) There I found the same pills at a much lower price. The only catch: they require a vet to sign a prescription before shipping.
The company called the vet for an Rx, and the vet called us. Turns out, she charges a corkage fee for the prescription of $15, but since we found a lower price online, she will match it this time. The Ozdachs are not amused. The vet’s price for 200 pills is $50; the online store price, including shipping is $19.99. That’s a 250% difference on a pure service-less transaction. I don’t mind a reasonable profit, especially when there’s value added. But, 150% profit without service? Come on, doctor! I don’t want to have to price shop every time the dogs need a pill. Grrrr!
We’re playing tug-of-war with the vet over this. But, PetCareRx looks good in general.
Separately, we found a nice source for the pack’s current favorite treat, Greenies. PetVetDirect sells a five pack of 24 petite-size Greenies for $57.25, including shipping. That’s still .48-cents a snack, but it beats the .90-cents we had been paying.
If you had a herd of tortoises, or a mangle of mongooses (mongeese?), or some other highly exotic animal, I’d shrug and say, it’s not worth it to shop around. But even with a specialized breed such as the Ozdachs pack … there must be well over a hundred excellent canine vets in the Bay Area, who won’t charge a “corkage” fee for prescriptions.
I highly recommend Elaine Salinger DVM, at White-Ivie Animal Hospital in San Bruno, on El Camino Real just north of 380. Easy in/out from 280 or 101, and the staff is wonderful. I used to take my tortoises there until I was forced by a highly specific problem with my desert tortoise to seek out a more specialized (and more expensive) vet who ONLY handles reptiles. Elaine is a sweetie, and she handles dogs, cats, birds and reptiles.
Thanks for the tip. But, I think I am out voted by the canine and other human member of our pack. The dogs love her and so does Geoff. I like her a lot, too, but am frequently stunned by her pricing.
And, of course, whatever we save on the pills will probably wind up as an undetectable/unarguable increase in some future charge. You know the story about the umbrella disallowed from a travel expense report. The report was resubmitted without the umbrella listed but for the same amount. The comment sent to the travel police was “Now find the damn umbrella!”
That kind of behavior would cause enough resentment that I’d find another vet. She’s way the hell overcharging and then she fights you on it? Waste of oxygen. Too bad Geoff likes her — it sucks to be stuck with her!
Oh, Venal Vet!
Gertie, daughter of the pack, says Vector should bite her and Audit should pee all over her. So there!