Why has veterinary medicine become so expensive? It’s actually quite simple to explain.
We keep hearing that veterinary medicine has become so expensive that nobody can afford it any more.
Why the scale of fees is so high.
Let me give you an explanation.
Of course, taxes, ancillary wage costs, all the state regulations such as pharmacy inspections, professional associations, insurance companies, veterinary associations, etc. play a role, because they want to make money from what I earn as a vet.
On the other hand, it has to be said that it is also the pet owners’ sense of entitlement that drives prices up so high.
Let’s take the vet from 30 years ago. He came to the farm with his car, an apron, a stethoscope and a clinical thermometer.
In the car he might have had some medication, a nasogastric tube, a few hand raspers, hoof trimming material and whatever else was urgently needed.
Then he took a good look at the horse and fixed it up. And that was that.
This is how treatment used to be carried out and it was rarely wrong
Lameness examinations consisted of flexion tests, and if it was tricky, of lead anesthesia and hoof tongs. Get a picture, make a decision: is it coming from the hoof, from below or above the leg, from the joint, from the vision or an abscess. Done.
Insemination: get in behind, palpate the ovary, inseminate or not until tomorrow. Done.
Colic: listen, insert probe, decide on constipation, gassing or intestinal displacement and then either treat on site or send to the clinic. Done.
Vets used to have eyes and experience. They made decisions and bore responsibility.
Today, vets have equipment and regulations. And they avoid every decision until a thousand devices confirm their opinion or no one knows what’s really going on. That’s why veterinary medicine has become so expensive.
The exaggerated diagnostics that cure nothing but cost a lot of money
I often see horses that have supposedly been cured and can never be ridden again come to me after spending €5,000 to €10,000 in the clinic.
I get some of them to walk again and under the rider, and a few not.
With my hands. And almost no equipment. And for a few hundred euros.
New thinking is needed, different approaches
And let’s think about what an X-ray, an ultrasound, a scintigraphy etc. can tell us.
They give me an indication of where the damage is.
What they don’t do is tell me how the damage has occurred and how I need to treat it. Unfortunately, classical veterinary medicine is miles behind in this respect.
I don’t just have to treat a horse with pastern inflammation on the pastern. I can, it brings money and the damage is sure to come back. Then brings money again.
The truth is, I have to correct the horse’s body so that it no longer overloads its fetlock beam.
And to be honest, you can recognize a damaged fetlock without an ultrasound. I need the ultrasound for PRP therapy in the practice, but not outside in the stable. And I also use equipment, but why an expensive shock wave, which requires me to sedate the horse and causes it pain, when a medical ultrasound, which is completely painless, can do just as well?
And why expensive medication that has to be packaged, shipped, certified, tested, etc., all of which is not particularly environmentally friendly, when in most cases a herb or extract made locally from local plants will do just as well?
That’s why veterinary medicine has become so expensive.
Who really earns teh money?
And if I have a small animal practice, then they judge how comfortable the waiting room is, whether there is a coffee machine, whether doggies and kittens have their own waiting room, how posh the registration desk is and whether I can afford to put someone there or whether I have to do it myself. Whether my prescription is computer-printed or handwritten. Whether the practice equipment is top of the range or not. Whether or not I drive a big car into the riding stable parking lot.
And not whether the animal is healthy again afterwards.
I always think to myself when someone shows up at my place with a big car, oh, he’s got too much money, he’s definitely too expensive. Why is it the other way around with pet owners? Of course it’s you and your pet who have to pay for every penny I spend in my practice. Who else?
If I have €150,000 worth of practice equipment, have to finance €450,000 worth of practice buildings and have to pay staff for €30,000 a month. And then I have medication worth €20,000 a month, then you’re the one paying for it. That’s clear, isn’t it? And then you don’t even pay the money to me, but to the bank that finances me and the pharmaceutical company from which I have to buy overpriced medication. And they both want me to earn as much as possible, not to cure as many animals as possible. That’s clear, isn’t it?
And that’s why veterinary medicine has become so expensive.
And that’s why I try not to get involved. So that veterinary medicine heals and everyone can afford a vet for their pet. Sensible, evidence-based. Thoroughly.
But not so expensive.