Originally Posted by dyna mo

in that thread yesterday, i commented that most vets over-prescribe over-procedure their patient animals. that comment was based on my experience.

a brief history of every one of the vets i have sent my current animal to:

1. my 3 month old puppy's leg was severely broken and required orthopedic surgery to repair. that procedure involved putting a screw in his leg, the vet didn't have the proper size screw on hand so substituted a screw that was too long, thus sticking out past the bone, eventually wearing through his skin causing a massive bone infection. result- the bone did not regenerate properly leaving a mass of bone and false hinge.

cost: $5000 and a dog that will ultimately have a very bad leg when he gets into old age

2. since that vet screwed up i took the dog to a new vet, who required i get all shots redone by him even though the dog had recently received all shots and i provided the paperwork for that

3. since that vet ruined her chances i took my little guy to a new vet who told me that dogs require a special shampoo and conditioner since their skin ph is unique. she then pitched me on her special $25 shampoo and $25 conditioner, neglecting to even check out my dog

4. 2 years after the dog broke his leg, he started limping around and favoring that leg, i took him to another vet, that vet took x-rays and required 2 visits to tell me that she was referring my dog to an orthopedic surgeon- the best one in southern california.

5. i took him to that ortho who required his own xrays- of each and every leg. upon the follow-up visit he said the bad leg is a mangled mess and the answer was to operate on all 3 other legs, and that surgery needed to be performed ASAP.

needless to say, i opted out of that and began feeding my dog glucosamine/chondrotin on a daily basis and the limping/favoring went away.

so what does it take to find a good vet????/