VetCompanion Web Subscription

[Tulojow]

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Members do not see this ad.

In my preparations for starting vet school this fall, my school (WSU) recommended joining VetCompanion with a free student membership. Of course, the website hopes to get paying subscribers so they offered a discounted rate for full formulary access.

Does anyone use this resource and, if so, do you find it valuable? Without access to both versions, it's hard to tell if the full formulary version is worth the cost!

 

[that redhead]

All of the vets and vet students I know use VIN. I highly recommend VIN and would not pay for this VetCompanion subscription.

 

[LetItSnow]

Why don't you just wait until you're a student, then sign up for both (since they are free to students)? Then you can decide what value they offer.

After seeing your post, I glanced at VetCompanion (had not heard of it prior to that).

Can't say I'm impressed after a cursory glance at their website ... but I also haven't used their service. Two things jumped out at me on their info page:

"

• Unlike online veterinary message boards, which are prone to bias and personal opinion, or quick reference textbooks, which are quickly out of date, VetCompanion allows instant access to information that is concise, current, well written, and easily accessible on a smartphone, tablet, or computer."
  • 
    

Seems like a pretty clear shot at VIN ... which is fine, because VIN has a lot of negatives and as much as I use it I can't say I love it. I personally use VIN for looking up recommended therapy for cases similar to whatever I'm struggling with. I also use its sister site veterinarypartner.com for printing out client education sheets for certain problems that I routinely see.

I HATE the way VIN looks, and its forum software is just ... awful. It's like retro 80s but worse. VIN insists that you'll grow to love it, but no matter how many times I try - it's awful, plain and simple. The other thing I don't like about VIN is the attitudes - there are a lot of people who seem to spend their time on VIN purely for the purpose of jumping down their colleague's throats with some haughty know-it-all attitude.

But if you sift through that, you can find expert (boarded, anyway) recommendations on just about anything. If you want, you can post a case and get an expert opinion - you just have to weed out the crappy responses.

And I'm not impressed by the "prone to bias and personal opinion" comment. EVERYTHING in medicine is prone to bias and personal opinion - if only by what pieces you choose to include vs exclude. I feel like that website is trying awfully hard to insist on how unbiased they are - which just makes me dubious.

"

• Includes full formulary access: Saunders Handbook of Veterinary Drugs: Small and Large Animal, 4th ed., by clinical pharmacologist and veterinarian Mark Papich, DVM, MS, DACVCP (Copyright 2015 Elsevier Inc. All Rights Reserved)."

Meh. So what. Personally, I've never even used that formulary. VIN offers at least a half a dozen formularies, including Plumbs, BSAVA, and others. Not impressed by pushing Saunders.

 

[battie]

formulary

Sidenote: Everytime someone says formulary for vet med, it feels like we're performing magic to me.

 

[LyraGardenia]

I'd never heard of this site before either, but from glancing at it I'm not sure how it would be that useful to you as a first-year student, other than maybe reading about cases for fun. If the only additional benefit with the paid membership is full access to the formulary, you could just buy a copy of the book (or Plumb's, which I think is more widely used) for much cheaper if you really wanted to. But again, not sure why you'd need a formulary at all at this point. Definitely stick with the free membership for now.

 

[Tulojow]

Thank you for all the feedback! I had signed up for the free version of both, on the recommendation of the school library, but had no way of knowing whether the expanded, paid version was worth it. The academic equivalent of trying to decide whether to trade what's in the box for what's behind curtain #2.

Sounds like I'll be saving my $25 and using it elsewhere (like, you know, beans.)

 

[LyraGardenia]

Thank you for all the feedback! I had signed up for the free version of both, on the recommendation of the school library, but had no way of knowing whether the expanded, paid version was worth it. The academic equivalent of trying to decide whether to trade what's in the box for what's behind curtain #2.

Sounds like I'll be saving my $25 and using it elsewhere (like, you know, beans.)

Ohh, it's only $25 for the full access? I assumed it was much more than that when I saw a regular membership was $400. That makes more sense, but I still don't think the full formulary access is necessary at this point.

 

[battie]

That $25 can be used for four ice cream trips!