MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. From being an animal control officer I saw some real weird stuff vets do.
A dog was HBC and had severe head injuries. I told the town vet around 10am if the owners didn’t show up before noon please euthanize the dog, the town would pay for it unless owner was found. Well the owner contacted the vet about quarter to 12 and the vet hurriedly attached wires and oxygen and all sorts of things to impress the owners that he was taking care of his OWN CLIENT’S dog he didn’t even recognize cost? 2k. So he dragged the trauma out for 2 days until the owners finally said put him to sleep. I would never go to that vet again. I drove emergency dogs to the next town and the story below about MY dog was the vet we started to use as ACOs.
I took my smartest female shepherd to this vet for a UTI and he wanted to do an xray! What was that about? He has machines to pay for. She had a UTI and I told him she had a UTI. He took her temp (fever of course) she had an infection; UTI!

He had to xray her. Like WHAT? He wanted to see the UTI on an xray? He took a swab from her urinary area and she had UTI!!! I paid $200 for a UTI why can’t a vet just give the antibiotic after the swab and xray useless? When she came back into the room she crawled on her belly under my chair. This 75lb dog herded a bull, without herding training. She located a missing dog in the woods, without search training. She was put under undue stress by the vet for no good reason and vomited at home. I never saw this dog shy away from anything EVER in her life, she used to climb from the back of my car so she could jump out my window to “help” me on calls. Once a loose sheltie no one could catch ran right to her and I caught the dog easily. This vet never spoke to my dog, never petted her, never acknowledged her existence because the dog wasn’t able to carry a checkbook.
Vets go to college about 8 years for their degree yet some totally rely on machines for answers because they want the money to pay for the machine.

A lot of vets have a lot of machines to pay off. They also have overhead. If a vet prescribes Science Diet they are being paid to do so. You can get the same result from pumpkin, Tylan, hamburg/rice diet or chicken/rice to stop diarrhea. Hills is not magic. If you think it’s necessary do it for a week and slowly switch back to your normal dog food (handful a day).
So I suggest you ask your vet a lot of questions, do not agree to unnecessary machines until you agree with the need for it. I have rules: Dog is never out of my sight. We talk about the problem and how it may be fixed BEFORE any machine. I only allow one machine per visit so I tell the vet, you get ONE machine pick wisely. After I’ve found a good vet; the ones that used their education and their vet experience to sort things out. Most of my great vets rarely used machines for anything unless I requested it or it was suggested with good reason.

On vaccinations. Your dog had vax as a puppy until age 1 or so in most cases they are then protected FOR LIFE but some vets give DHLPP shots annually and your dog’s immune system is compromised. The only shots given to dogs over 1 ½ are rabies as required by law. Rabies 3yr and 1yr are ordinarily the same mixture, different cost. Giving any shots annually I do not do. Don’t believe me read about Jeanne Dodds DVM. [kerryblues.info]. She is a vet ,at I believe Johns Hopkins, and is very knowledgeable. We don’t give children the same shots annually for their entire life so why do animals that live about 10-16 yrs need shots annually? Truth is they don’t.
There I’m done with the group, if you have any questions message me yourself.
I noticed my last post on a topic also disappeared.