The cost of veterinary medicine is steep—we all understand this truism from personal experience…vets included. But the cost of veterinary care can be diagrammed on a price/quality axis so that owners can access a spectrum of these choices based on their needs, their goals and their ability to pay.

But don't be confused...this post isn’t about the many ways to get better quality care for your...

It’s like VHS over Betamax, the US standard microchips vs. the world’s ISO, the PC’s dominance over the Macs’ operating system, the Kwerty keyboard over other more intuitive models…

Though you may disagree with me on some of the above examples, the history of technological standards is littered with ways in which arguably far better models lost out over their lesser rivals. And it usually...

Like many veterinarians with a bugaboo about access-to-care issues for pets of all stripes, I really like the idea of pet health insurance. Though the veterinary industry at large is still suspicious of what insurance for veterinary expenses might mean for the future of veterinary medicine (reference veterinary incomes), I’m optimistically gunning for the pet health insurance market to take...

“A rabies shot costs $30? I bet you buy that vaccine from the manufacturer for $3. So you want to charge me a 1000% markup. Seriously?”

This outburst was brought to you by one smart-cookie client from last week. She’d worked for a veterinarian in the past so she’d always received her vaccines at cost. She new what a lot of you don’t know:

Vaccines themselves are cheap!

But vaccines never...

Last week our hospital received a terse letter from a client complaining about her $600 dentistry bill. “Outrageous,” she wrote. The owner had left in a rush without picking up her estimate, waving it off with an “I’m sure anything you need to be done will be fine with me. I trust you.”

So much for trust. Our fault, of course, for allowing her the privilege of running away without an...

I may never get some of you to agree with me on this but there you have it. I don’t now and won’t ever offer discounts to my clients for either owning many pets or bringing in more than one pet at a time.

I know that many of you rely on your veterinarians’ multiple pet discounts by way of saving significant amounts on your pet bills. I would never begrudge you your right to seek such...

A vet can learn a lot from her clients. All she has to do is ask the right questions. In this case it’s about saving money—this time on your pharmacy bill. In this post my clients pony up on how they save big $ on their Rx’s. So if you spend any money on pet prescriptions you’ll definitely want to read this.

Most of what I have to say won’t make most vet hospitals happy (so you know, the...

Would you prefer a vet who gets paid as a percentage of what she charges you?...or one that works on a salary?

Some of you might assume the one on a straight-up salary might be easiest on your wallet: After all, she’d have no incentive to run up your bill. And you might be right. A vet on salary who holds no stake in the practice’s profits tends to offer less (on average) than a practice owner...

In case you hadn’t noticed, the price on that bag of pet food Fluffy eats is much higher than it was ten years ago. In fact, the consumer price index of pet foods is up by 23% over a decade ago.

And 10% of that? It’s hit us over the past year.

Rising fuel costs, grain costs, inflation and the weak dollar are all to blame for this recent surge in pet food prices—not to mention the incalculable...

I’ve heard tell that the only items that are recession-proof are lipstick and porn. While I wouldn’t know about the latter, the first is one I’ll fess up to. I can always dig up $7 for a new lip gloss when I need a “can’t-afford-nuthin’-else” pick-me-up.

The same, however, can’t be said for veterinary medicine.

The last month has been interesting, to say the least. Never have I witnessed such...