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So proud of my little blood donor hero youngest pup.
All About Our Pets(Pics, Advice, Etc)
- Thread starter wolfspeaker
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Hey yo, your address is in that pic…might want to crop it. Cute dog though. 🙂
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Pro at doxxing myself. Thanks!
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Wondering if it is common for pet-owning veterinarians to provide professional services - like annual veterinary exams, vaccines, diagnostic lab work, medical care and treatment to their own pets?
I would imagine pet-owning veterinarians in certain rural areas might not have reasonable access to other practicing veterinarians ... or they might have to travel a long distance to find another veterinarian to examine their pet, especially if their own pet needed specialty medical services. Maybe there are NO other veterinarians nearby in the first place.
I would imagine pet-owning veterinarians in certain rural areas might not have reasonable access to other practicing veterinarians ... or they might have to travel a long distance to find another veterinarian to examine their pet, especially if their own pet needed specialty medical services. Maybe there are NO other veterinarians nearby in the first place.
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Not a doctor yet, still a vet student, but worked in clinics for almost 5 years now (dang that's weird to say).
Most vets I know do vaccines on their own animals. Will run bloodwork, order tests (x-rays, sometimes even CT), and do "GP stuff" for their own pets, regardless of their area of practice. They'll still go see other vets for specialty stuff though. Some won't perform surgery on their pets (though some will), some can't or won't do ER stuff in emergencies (unless they're emergency docs). Most times I see vets go to other vets is for specialty service, but even that we sometimes treat like an informal consult depending on the level of treatment needed.
That's been my experience. I even vaccinate my own pets for the most part as a vet student/vet assistant (minus rabies which legally requires a DVM in most if not all states).
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I do my dogs' annual blood work and vaccines through my hospital cause it's way cheaper that way.
However, I will not be their doc under any other circumstances. Golden was hospitalized in January and April with other doctors, and another doctor euthanized her during her stay in April (though that was still at my hospital). She had a splenectomy in 2021. Couldn't even be in the hospital. Pittie has had both knees done and two mast cell tumors removed. None of that shenanigans was done with me. Boarded surgeon did the tplos and her GP did her mast cell tumors and her recent dental with extractions.
Just depends on who you are and your capabilities. I totally could have removed the mast cell tumors. I absolutely cannot do tplos. Lol
I do a POCUS for her once a month to scan for shady shenanigans though.
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I don’t work in a clinic, so my experience is different than most. I do a lot of my pets and my parents pet’s care, but some things I just can’t do myself. I have accounts with veterinary wholesalers so I can order things like flea/tick/heartworm preventatives at cost and I have a pretty extensive at home pharmacy. I will absolutely treat minor things like ear infections, allergies, minor diarrhea myself. And if I’m not confident I text friends for advice. Since I am not in a clinic, I can’t easily run my own lab work or do procedures requiring deep sedation or anesthesia. When my dogs have needed procedures like a dental cleaning or xrays, I usually get to go back with my friends and help throughout the procedures and usually I get a discount if at a private clinic owned by friends. It’s usually not financially worth it for me to give my own vaccines since you have to buy a whole tray of 25 doses from the wholesalers. It’s cheaper to just call up my friend who is also a vet and have her vaccinate my dogs. Sometimes clinics will sell a fellow a veterinarian one or two doses of vaccines and I have administered those myself on occasion. Vaccinating my own pets would be much easier if I was employed in a clinic. If the pet is insured, sometimes the insurance companies want someone other than the policyholders to be the vet, but a few will still cover expenses even if the owner/vet is the treating vet. Trupanion lets me be my own vet and my submit wholesale supply bills and they cover what I’ve prescribed as long as I have a medical record, but they might not allow that on newer policies.
Tl;dr I’ll treat minor medical stuff and order my own meds, but I have friends or other colleagues do procedures and some things like vaccines.
Tl;dr I’ll treat minor medical stuff and order my own meds, but I have friends or other colleagues do procedures and some things like vaccines.
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i am my own pets' GP veterinarian for the vast majority of stuff. i don't like to do surgery on my own pets if it's going to be a longer procedure, or if it's one of my ancient kitties who's a higher anesthetic risk. i can forgive another doctor if my cat dies under anesthesia despite their best efforts, but i don't think i could forgive myself in the same situation. fortunately i work for a clinic with multiple doctors. if i didn't, i'd probably suck it up and do it myself.
i think the only place it gets a little ethically gray is if you have to prescribe controlled substances for your pet. i used to have an epileptic dog, so i'd get one of the other doctors to write his phenobarbital prescriptions.
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This week is six months with the bees. This weekend my dad and I got the hive all prepared for winter…now fingers crossed all the little ladies and their honey stores make it through the cold months and survive until spring. They’re still out foraging a little now, but it won’t be long until temps drop enough they stay put in the hive until spring. I’m excited to hopefully get some honey in 2026.
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For those who buy wholesale which website do you buy from? Im not currently working so not sure if that matters. I tried one site and they wanted practice information and how much you expect to buy from them, so I stopped filling it out. Id like to get flea/tick/hw meds at cost for my dog and cat, but more importantly my horse's cushings meds which are a lot!
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Midwest Vet Supply is who I use. You do have an active license though…you said you weren’t working so wasn’t sure if that meant you were still licensed or not. It was a simple form to get signed up. Several years ago Midwest used to let vets buy preventatives by the box, but they no longer let you do that unless you spend $30/month (or probably more by now lol) to have their online pharmacy storefront, which doesn’t make much financial sense if you’re just trying to buy a few things for your own pets. So it’s no longer the deal that it used to be and you now have to buy a case of preventative meds at a time. I make it work because I have multiple similarly sized dogs that can share a case of 10 boxes of Sentinel and I can buy a case of 10 monthly Bravecto (a case of 10 3 month doses I’d never use before it expired but the monthly works out). It’s easy to buy other meds by the bottle on there, it’s just the preventatives that kinda stink how they’re packaged. They have started charging shipping on orders under $150 now too, which is also a negative change compared to previously. I try to place large orders less frequently when I can. But my Trupanion pet insurance does accept the invoices from Midwest for reimbursement, so that’s nice.
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MWI also allows you to have an account as a vet if you’re not in a clinic
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I'm set up with Midwest (my favorite), MWI, and FirstVet (terrible website lol). As long as you have a license and apply as a personal account and have them tax you, you're fine. I've never needed nor tried to buy controlled substances fwiw, but you'd have to mind your p's and q's if that applies to you at any point. Shipping is usually really fast for all three, like on your doorstep within 48 hours typically.
Like Jayna said, the downside is that they usually only sell in bulk/cartons. FirstVet is the only one I've found thus far that still sells individual boxes of Heartgard, otherwise I'm buying full sleeves of Bravecto chews for my dog through Midwest. It's still significantly more cost effective, Bravecto in particular is usually shortdated though...not that I care a ton when it's my personal pet and it's not insanely expired.
I have enough cats that I might actually just buy a carton of vaccines next time they are due and do it at home. Some vaccines would be wasted (could donate them I suppose) but it's still cheaper than taking 5 cats/1 dog in even after a courtesy discount from my pDVM.
Edit: also, when in a pinch, I have used Chewy as much as we are supposed to be anti-Chewy. Write my own script and send it in and they've had no issue. Instances include wanting a single bottle of Tresaderm instead of a box of 10, or just a few fluid bags to have on hand for my rabbit instead of a box of 25.
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Also worth mentioning that First Vet's shipping min is $100 so that helps, but I just find that they don't stock as much variety-wise. Like they don't carry Bravecto at all for example.
It can be worth having multiple accounts at times. it was more of an issue a few years ago when everything was backordered all the time, I run into that less often now. But having an account is free and there is no need to make purchases to keep your account active.
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FWIW I have bought a single bag of fluids to keep in the closet and many single boxes of ear and eye meds from Midwest. Even recently. Not tresaderm specifically, but mometamax or similar and neoploybac/neopolydex for sure.
Also, sometimes manufacturers will also make you have an account for them? I tried to get something…credelio quattro maybe…and even thought it was on their website Midwest said they couldn’t sell it to me if I didn’t also have a BI account. But other things like Bravecto I can get so I just went with those rather than setting up a new account somewhere else. I have a Zoetis account too from when I needed Cytopoint.
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Likely nexgard plus. Credelio is elanco. I feel like BI and Zoetis are the only ones that make you have an account with them too
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Very possible. I just remember it was a combo product. I spent quite a while searching them all on Midwest and figuring out which was cheapest monthly in the sizes I needed and all that was for nothing when they said I needed more accounts.
I tried to take some of his gift wrap and put it away. He put his little paw out and tried to reel it back in. Of course, I gave him back the wrapping paper. Now, he is taking a nap with it.🙂
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