Choosing a Vet

1)      Insurance- you need a primary care physician that takes your insurance.

2)      Proximity- either to work or home, but you don’t want to have to drive across town to see your doctor

3)      Personal recommendations- You ask your friends and family in the area who their doctor is. Do they like him/her? Is the office staff nice?

4)      Do they have same day appts or take walk-ins?

1)      You leave feeling like you’ve been heard

2)      The MD takes into consideration your lifestyle/wants/needs when creating a treatment plan

3)      You actually get better after being put on a treatment plan

4)      The office staff is organized, professional, and polite

1)      Insurance- Not many people have pet insurance, but it is becoming more and more popular. If you already have it, make sure you find a vet that accepts your plan.

2)      Proximity- Most likely to your home. You don’t want to be driving across town with an unhappy and sick animal in your car.

3)      Office Hours- How late are they open? Do they have Saturday hours

4)      Personal recommendations- Ask your friends and neighbors what vet they see. Do they like him/her? Is the office staff nice?

5)      Cost- Because fewer people have insurance for their pet, cost tends to be a bigger factor in choosing a vet than it does a personal physician. Narrow your choices down (if you have that option), call the offices and find out what the charges are for a standard office visit, bordatella vaccination, or perhaps spay or neuter.

6)      Do they have emergency services? Do they take walk-ins

1)      You leave feeling like you’ve been heard

2)      The vet takes into consideration your pet’s lifestyle/age/energy level and your wants/needs when creating a treatment plan

3)      Your pet actually gets better after being put on a treatment plan

4)      Does your pet like the vet and vet staff?

5)      The office staff is organized, professional, and polite

The first vet we had for Moree was chosen mostly on the fact that it was solely a walk-in clinic. It also happened to be located very near us, and I’d gone to school with the vet’s niece.

Prices were reasonable, and the no appointments and extended hours worked for us.

When we moved to Seattle, we didn’t take Moree to a vet until he developed bordatella. That vet was chosen based on nearness to our house and the ability to get Moree in that day. (We honestly thought he was going to cough up a lung.) But Moree reacted very badly to the vet there, so we never went back.

We then moved south of Seattle to Puyallup. We got Smokey just a couple weeks before the move. We tried asking neighbors, but we were in a brand new community. Just about everybody was new to the area and had no idea. We chose our vet based on which one was close and had Saturday hours.

We then moved back to Seattle. In the middle of the process- while we were living with a friend so that our house down south could stay neat and clean for showing. Moree got caught in the loose wire from a chain link fence and almost took his leg off. There was a vet’s office nearby, but they weren’t open. However, their answering machine left the phone number for a place that did emergency care.

That night, we drove 20 miles with Moree in the back of the car and navigated an unknown area of town, searching for a mostly dark building.

The care Moree got was excellent, but that “adventure” made me realize- Never Again.

We now had a new piece of criteria for our next vet’s office- they had to offer 24 hour emergency care. When my dogs were sick or injured, I was way too stressed to be trying to find a place I’d never been to before.

So, when we got settled in our current house, we looked for a new vet. We found one near us that was also a 24 hour emergency animal hospital, and had good reviews online. I honestly didn’t think we’d ever need to find a new vet again.

This vet was expensive, but the staff was nice. The dogs liked the vets. We liked the vets. We were willing to pay for a place we were comfortable.

Then, we lost Moree and Smokey in 16 months. The room we last saw Moree moving around in was the room where Smokey was put down. Other rooms were the rooms where we had learned Moree needed surgery or that Smokey had cancer.

The care was never the problem. The cost was never the problem (despite the fact that we were barely hanging one when we lost Moree and still spent a year paying his vet bill). If we had lost them further apart, we would probably still be there.

But two dogs in 16 months. We couldn’t walk back in that vet’s office with the attitude we needed. It was too filled with the memories of losing our boys.

Now, we needed to find a new vet.

This time, I asked someone who did cat rescue. She worked with me and lived just a couple neighborhoods away. She also used to go the vet we were leaving, but she left due to cost considerations (when you’re fostering kittens and sick cats, cost of vet care becomes a bigger issue). She told me about the place she was now going to. It was still near us; it still offered 24 hour emergency care, she loved the staff and the vets, AND it was less expensive.

We’ve been there twice. The cost is definitely less than our previous vet, but their overhead is also obviously less. They are in a smaller building with a lot less space devoted to the waiting room and the exam rooms. It’s cramped. The neighborhood is a little sketchy.

Still, both the dogs have loved the staff. We like the vet we’ve seen. They take walk-ins all the time. Their regular hours are 7am-midnight, 7 days a week. That means when at 9:30pm on a Saturday night we freak out about Junebug’s swollen glands, we get to just pack her up in the car and head over.

Honestly, I’d pay more for that. Instead, I pay less, because there’s no emergency fee, no walk-in fee, no after-hours fee. I don’t only feel better because my dog is being treated, but I don’t have to think about how I’m going to pay the bill. Win-Win.