What stethoscope do you use?

Veterinary Science Graduate Certificate from UofI
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MommaFox

MommaFox

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Alot of the girls at work use the Littman Classic ii, or Littman cardiology (which I love, but OMG $).

I also found the brand "MDF", which is much cheaper. Has anyone had any experience with those?

My budget is <= $150, but I really want one that is good quality and will last awhile.

The germaphobe in me is reluctant to Ebay it, but the cheapskate in me is telling me yes.

What do you use?
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MommaFox said:
Alot of the girls at work use the Littman Classic ii, or Littman cardiology (which I love, but OMG $).

I also found the brand "MDF", which is much cheaper. Has anyone had any experience with those?

My budget is >= $150, but I really want one that is good quality and will last awhile.

The germaphobe in me is reluctant to Ebay it, but the cheapskate in me is telling me yes.

What do you use?
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I use a cardio III and like it substantially more than my other two scopes (gifts... a master classic and some low-end white elephant gift with a hospital logo on it).

As far as cleanliness... just take the tips off and soak them in whatever cleaner will make you happy. Or buy new tips. If you can get a good used scope cheap, the tips aren't expensive.
 
The Littman II. In rainbow colors. Because I'm an adult. :smuggrin:

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Littman Classic in hunter green as well. It has served me well in vet school switching species all the time (5 yrs use), but I think I will switch to a more large animal friendly one upon graduating.
 
Got the Littman Cardio III blacked out version. :love:
I have an MDF that my fiancé's mom bought me and I'm not impressed. Remember this is the stethoscope you might have for 20 years, the few extra dollars may be worth it. eBay sounds like a good place to find a nicer one, cheaper.
 
twelvetigers said:
The Littman II. In rainbow colors. Because I'm an adult. :smuggrin:

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Hahahaha. Was totally gonna get either a black with rainbow bell or pink with rainbow bell. Because im a grown up too...lol.
 
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I have the Littmann Cardio III in plum (with my name engraved, obviously). I love it. :love: It's what all the vets at my clinic use and I like it a lot so far. I got mine as a gift and I know my mom googled around for a good deal/coupons.
 
MommaFox said:
How much did you pay for it? If you dont mind me asking...:oops:
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After engraving and shipping it was $172 I think. But that's bc the black out (or rainbow version you want) is $20 or $30 more. I asked for it for my birthday bc I didn't want to pay that lol. But I think the engraving was $10 of that?
 
Frozenshades said:
Amazon has them for around $150, slight price variances depending on color.

Except for the all black, which is $180 :lame:
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Yeah but it's bad arse. :cool: And I figured for the extra $30, I'd rather have the one I want forever :shrug:
 
Also, if you don't need one immediately, I would wait. Sometimes schools will have an order through Littman and get a group discount.
 
Did ya'll get first and last name engraved?
 
I have a classic II that I really like. I'm not really sure how much/what I need to be hearing at this point, though. A lot of my friends have a cardio III so I may end up getting that one if the fam wants to give me a clinics or graduation present.
 
felinelvr44 said:
I have the Littmann Cardio III in plum (with my name engraved, obviously). I love it. :love: It's what all the vets at my clinic use and I like it a lot so far. I got mine as a gift and I know my mom googled around for a good deal/coupons.
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This! I got mine from stethoscope.ca which did free laser engraving. :D I'm unsure offhand whether they ship to the states, though, but I do know my stethoscope was cheaper than if I had ordered it through the distribution company my clinic uses which gives us fairly cheap stuff. Might also be a place worth check out.
 
I also have a Cardio III, but in teal.
 
:laugh:

I have my dad's over 20 year old 3M Littmann stethoscope...... I treat it like my baby... I have yet to get a new one yet... can't afford a new fangled one and this one works well so
 
I have Littman classic II in the breast cancer awareness pink - it's a little darker than what they picture but not as subdued as the raspberry ;)

My "buddy mentor" up here at school is a BFD in the world of cardiology and he basically said get what you want. I believe he recommended a Welch Allen to one of the SA vets at our school, but unless you're going to be a cardiologist, I think most of the stuff out there will suit you (and other vet students) just fine.
 
I decided on a cardiology iii.

I can't wait until it gets here!

I was grunting and groaning over the cost and my bf just laughed at me. Apparently what I paid is the price of his tool bill every month. Lol.
 
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Cardio >> Classic
I have both and with few exceptions, I much prefer the cardio. The classic does have a smaller bell (depth wise) which makes it easier to shove up under triceps muscles sometimes. The classic also has a thinner tube - none of the cool stethoscope accessories fit on the cardio (like the timers and all that stuff). The more I use them though, the more I realize that "Oh hey, the cardio really does have better sound" even though they used to all sound the same to me
 
MommaFox said:
I decided on a cardiology iii.

I can't wait until it gets here!

I was grunting and groaning over the cost and my bf just laughed at me. Apparently what I paid is the price of his tool bill every month. Lol.
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What color??? :)
 
thenuttyclub said:
This! I got mine from stethoscope.ca which did free laser engraving. :D I'm unsure offhand whether they ship to the states, though, but I do know my stethoscope was cheaper than if I had ordered it through the distribution company my clinic uses which gives us fairly cheap stuff. Might also be a place worth check out.
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Cardiology III in all black...$215.99....grrrrrr Canada. :thumbdown:
 
<3 my cardio III (hunter). i have a classmate with one of the really fancy electronic ones and i'm just like :confused::confused::confused:because a) everything i've read for vet med with them is love or hate, and b) who gets a $600 stethoscope as a student?? even as a gift???
 
jmo1012 said:
<3 my cardio III (hunter). i have a classmate with one of the really fancy electronic ones and i'm just like :confused::confused::confused:because a) everything i've read for vet med with them is love or hate, and b) who gets a $600 stethoscope as a student?? even as a gift???
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Electronic? Huh? Never even seen one.
 
jmo1012 said:
<3 my cardio III (hunter). i have a classmate with one of the really fancy electronic ones and i'm just like :confused::confused::confused:because a) everything i've read for vet med with them is love or hate, and b) who gets a $600 stethoscope as a student?? even as a gift???
Click to expand...
One of the Doctors I work with has one... He doesn't like it and it seems like a big hassle to use.
 
cs5910 said:
One of the Doctors I work with has one... He doesn't like it and it seems like a big hassle to use.
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One of the doctors I worked with has one and loves it, loves using it to record heart murmurs for both teaching purposes and rechecking of murmurs (because he can listen to what it was like before, etc).
 
The electronic ones have amazing sound, but the price is laughable. Plus it feels like cheating :rolleyes:
 
Thanks to this thread I started looking up stethoscope colors and what I want is a teal one with a rainbow bell, but the rainbow bell only comes on black ones. Decisions, decisions.
 
Now you guys have got me back to thinking about buying a stethoscope. I keep telling myself to just wait, but I want! Definitely want a cardio iii. I actually really like the light grey color, but also the raspberry is awesome. Decisions decisions!
 
sunshinevet said:
One of the doctors I worked with has one and loves it, loves using it to record heart murmurs for both teaching purposes and rechecking of murmurs (because he can listen to what it was like before, etc).
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Cool. I wasn't aware they could record. The DR I work with ordered it because she feels like she's having trouble hearing and you can adjust the volume... plus she's super huge on having all the new-fangled technological stuff, even if it's excessive.
 
wildcatj said:
Now you guys have got me back to thinking about buying a stethoscope. I keep telling myself to just wait, but I want! Definitely want a cardio iii. I actually really like the light grey color, but also the raspberry is awesome. Decisions decisions!
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I had been deciding between Caribbean and raspberry. The raspberry is very nice. Let me know if you want a picture of mine so you can get an idea of what it truly looks like since sometimes pictures are deceiving. Found out that was the case with the Caribbean color.
 
Did you guys find that you used yours a lot first semester? I'm trying to decide if I should buy one now or wait for Christmas
 
Daydreamer03710 said:
Did you guys find that you used yours a lot first semester? I'm trying to decide if I should buy one now or wait for Christmas
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Not even one time. And I only used it second semester for foal watch which is obviously not a requirement and they had several there for us to use. Depends on the school possibly, but I doubt many first years use one.
 
We didn't use them at all first semester (I bought mine over Christmas break), but we did use them quite a bit second semester... listened to cows (heart and GI sounds), horses (heart and GI sounds) and dogs (heart sounds)... so a decent amount of use.
 
Daydreamer03710 said:
Did you guys find that you used yours a lot first semester? I'm trying to decide if I should buy one now or wait for Christmas
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I've used mine a good bit first year. You can bring it with you shadowing in the various departments. Also, when I volunteer at the one shelter on Saturdays, we need them since we do all the PEs and monitoring of HRs during surgery. We had some labs for a class first semester where we needed one. If you didn't have one, you just borrowed a classmate's.
 
washbucket said:
How and where do I get a stethoscope engraved?
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You can get it horizontal on the tubing where the two sides come together, and you can get it on the bell. You can also get one of those plastic pieces and have it "engraved" on a little metal piece. It's like $3.50 to have that engraved and you can cut that piece off if you need to.
I'm hoping there is a place to engrave it after you've bought it but I'm not sure. Littman can do it when you order one, or they can do your bell at a later date. I've yet to find someone that will do the tubing after you've purchased it, but it'd be great to hear if someone else knows.

My stethoscope is currently leading a double lie because it has "Dr. Emiloo 'Fiancé's last name' " on it :smuggrin:
But it's on the bell so no one really sees it :D. I got the plastic name piece and had it engraved with my current first and last name for now and will just cut it off when I graduate.

I really wanted it on the tubing but didn't want it to be lost, and no one know who
Dr. Emiloo "future last name" is. Nor did I want Dr. on it prematurely lol. So it's on the bell forever instead :).
 
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Emiloo4 said:
You can get it horizontal on the tubing where the two sides come together, and you can get it on the bell. You can also get one of those plastic pieces and have it "engraved" on a little metal piece. It's like $3.50 to have that engraved and you can cut that piece off if you need to.
I'm hoping there is a place to engrave it after you've bought it but I'm not sure. Littman can do it when you order one, or they can do your bell at a later date. I've yet to find someone that will do the tubing after you've purchased it, but it'd be great to hear if someone else knows.

My stethoscope is currently leading a double lie because it has "Dr. Emiloo 'Fiancé's last name' " on it :smuggrin:
But it's on the bell so no one really sees it :D. I got the plastic name piece and had it engraved with my current first and last name for now and will just cut it off when I graduate.

I really wanted it on the tubing but didn't want it to be lost, and no one know who
Dr. Emiloo "future last name" is. Nor did I want Dr. on it prematurely lol. So it's on the bell forever instead :).
Click to expand...

I've heard it's not a great idea to get the tubing engraved and that it would void the warranty? I got mine engraved on the bell (just first and last name, no Dr.) and had it done when I ordered it. I don't remember where my mom bought it from but here's an example of engraving you can get when you purchase it: http://www.allheart.com/3m-littmann-stethoscope/p/31273134/
 
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