Unless you’re in San Francisco, it’s not going to be $6000 to remove a hairball surgically unless the pet was super sick and had major complications. Maybe $1500-3000 in many metropolitan areas depending on where you have it done and whether or not hospitalization is opted. But in general practice, I might personally do a foreign body surgery like this at the low end of the costs listed once every 2-3 months (and I do more than most people). I know gps who have never done them, or maybe once a year to two. It’s not like I have these big ticket item surgeries on my books every day.
And yes, a couple hundred for skin treatments, when you consider these animals come in itchy, with a skin infection, and typically an ear infection and also not on adequate preventatives. They may need a $60-70 exam fee, a $30-50 ear/skin cytology, $15-25 medicated ear cleaner, $20-80 antibiotics depending on the hospital/drug, $20-40 ear medication, and $40-100 in anti-itch medication depending on size of animal, and on top of that, flea/tick prevention which is typically $10-25 per month regardless of where you buy it. Yeah it’s expensive, but that’s just how it is. These prices reflect best medicine and assumes the owner cares enough to and have the ability to pay.
But do I get to pocket all of that? Oh hell no. The veterinarian typically gets paid about 20% of what they produce. So to produce a $100k salary, you have to generate $500k revenue a year, or $10,000 per week, or $250 per hour for a 40 hr work week. That’s totally doable if you work in a well to do community at a busy practice. But to earn $300k, you would need to generate $750 per hour every hour for 40hrs every week. In an 8 hr surgery day, I’m not doing enough to earn $6000 revenue. And not every appt on an appt day earns you $350-400. Yes a sick pet appt may generate $300-1000. But when you consider that you also have multiple 20-30 min cat wellness appts and puppy/kitten appts that brings in $100-150 per appt; as well as 20-30 min rechecks that bring in $50-70; as well as “just exam” with little to no diagnostics/treatments needed that bring in $60-100..., and the “nope just the rabies ma’am” type appts, you can see how that just doesn’t happen. Also remember that not every appt slot for every doctor is filled every day. Add to that all the economically depressed communities across the country where owners can barely make ends meet and feed/clothe themselves and their kids. Not all pet owners can or will spend money on their pets.
Boutique clinics and home vets that provide concierge service can charge more and net more of what the charge, but they don’t see as many appts in a day. The clinic owner will net a higher percentage of what is produced in the hospital, both from their own services and a portion of their Associates’ services, but the owner has to also invest a lot of initial cash and pay back a ton of loans on their clinics prior to seeing a profit. A lucrative specialist service like surgery can provide a higher salary, as many of their consults also require sedated radiographs and many of their procedures cost $2500-5000 each. However, those people need to train 4-6 years additional compared to GPs (and not earning much at all during those years while their student loans explode). It’s really not as easy as you think.
