after you get your Cocker Spaniel
Choosing Your Veterinarian As your pet’s guardian you are responsible for your pet’s medical care — morally, as well as legally. Therefore, when choosing a veterinarian to take care of your pet, choose one that reflects your values and approach to medical care. The vet you choose will be someone that has to meet your needs as well as your pet’s needs. They should be someone you feel comfortable working with and feel free to disagree with and to question.
Choose your vet before you bring your puppy home. The worst time to choose a vet is when you’re in a rush or there is an emergency.
You should also begin searching on-line to identify vets that are specialized in fields your pet might require because of a medical condition such as ophthalmology, surgery, or cardiology, which means they studied an additional two to four years in that specialty, and/or vets that practice Holistic (or Integrative or Complementary) Veterinary Medicine. Holistic (or Integrative or Complementary) Veterinary Medicine is the examination and diagnosis of an animal, considering all aspects of the animal's life and employing all of the practitioner's senses, as well as the combination of conventional and alternative (or complementary) modalities of treatment.
Since, at this time, there is no AVMA-recognized training in holistic medicine, legally, a veterinarian with no formal training in alternative therapies can still call himself 'holistic.' It is up you to discern the credibility of any vet that identifies themselves as holistic. You might ask a veterinarian you trust for a recommendation for a holistic veterinarian they know of or work with, and you can ask other dog owners for vets they’ve used and have helped them. When interviewing a licensed, holistic veterinarian, be sure to find out their credentials and formal training.
If you're looking for a specialist, Terri, a member, recommends: "If you have a teaching veterinary hospital close by, you can often save on rates for surgery and find available specialists. LSU in Baton Rouge is a 2 hour drive from where I live, for example, but they have some of the top specialized vets in the south there; I have worked w/several of them over the years w/everything from my horses to my cats and dogs, and, as a teaching veterinary center, their reputations are on the line to do the best they can. The student vets may assist them but they never are actually the ones holding the knife or writing the prescriptions."
There are several organizations you should be familiar with that provide directories of veterinarians by state. They are:
The American Holistic Veterinary Medical Association has a directory of holistic veterinarians and lists the modalities that they specialize in.
The Academy of Veterinary Homeopathy has a directory of veterinarians who have been certified as homeopaths by AVH.
The American Veterinary Chiropractic Association has a directory of veterinarians certified in animal chiropractic.
The American Academy of Veterinary Acupuncture has a directory of licensed veterinarians who practice acupuncture and/or traditional Chinese medicine.
You can also identifying veterinarians through your local Yellow Pages under Veterinarians and Animal Hospitals. Good resources for recommendations are friends, neighbors, breeders, local rescue groups, animal shelters, groomers and boarding kennels.
After you’ve identified what will most likely be a list of several vets you’re interested in, you should make an appointment to meet them and visit their facility. Here are things to keep in mind when you visit:
What is your immediate impression when you walk in? How does the office smell? Do all sick animals wait in the same waiting room? How is the staff handling waiting patience, human and fur? Do they do surgery at their hospital? Can you see the examining rooms and the surgical rooms? How clean they are matters. Some, not all, veterinary hospitals are members of the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA). AAHA membership signifies that a veterinary hospital has voluntarily pursued and met AAHA's standards in the areas of facility, equipment, and quality care.
How many veterinarians work at this animal hospital? What medical institutions did they graduate from? Do they have any specialties? How long have they been practicing vets? Are the doctors members of a professional veterinary association such as the American Veterinary Medical Association or a state or local veterinary association? Where did they intern? How old are they? How long have they been at this facility, in this community? Does the practice have evening hours? Weekend hours? If you leave your dog there overnight, is a staff member present all night or would your dog be alone? What would you do with your pet in the event of an emergency after hours or weekends? Is there an emergency facility in your area should you need it? What emergency facility do they recommend if their office is closed?
Pet Insurance What would you do if you were faced with an unexpected $3,000 medical bill? This could easily happen from a broken leg, a twisted knee, an eye injury, a car accident, an illness, bloat, swallowing a rock, a poisoning or whatever else a dog can get into. Would you be able to pay for this or if you couldn’t you would might have to surrender your dog to a rescue group that could, or have to put your dog down.
Being a responsible guardian means that we have to provide medical care for our dog. With the price of veterinarian services and tests rivaling our human costs, I consider it an absolute necessity to purchase pet insurance so that we can afford to do this. Since medical policies have a waiting period before they become effective, a month for example, as soon as you bring your dog home, get on the computer and order your policy. Do your research now so you’re ready.
The only company that I am familiar with is VPI Pet Insurance, which I have for my four dogs. Their policy “provides reimbursement coverage for your pet’s eligible medical treatments, surgeries, lab fees, x-rays, prescriptions and more, so that you can make optimal healthcare decisions for your pet based on your veterinarian’s recommendations, rather than on the cost of treatment.” Read their 10 questions to Ask Before Buying Pet Insurance.
Before you make your final decision, you should check with the vet you’ll be working with and other dog people to see what pet insurance company they’ve dealt with and how they rate them. Be sure to read their policies to learn how they handle genetic disorders, and what they consider genetic disorders, because the experience of our forum members is that genetic disorders are not covered. Preexisting conditions may be covered under certain circumstances.
Many of our members keep a credit card only for vet emergencies. You have to do what is best for your situation.