Nico and the Vet

This post is actually less about Nico and more about Nico's vet. Vets get a bad name. They are often accused of trying to make the most money out of a pet owner as possible and giving an animal every test under the sun in order to do that. There are many vets that are like that but not all of them. My vet is not like that. I don't have pet insurance for Nico because of the vast number of things it wouldn't cover anyway. Instead I have money saved for him. My vet knows this and as a result always tries to do things the cheapest way that she can while still doing the best thing for Nico's overall health.

Nico has allergies and he bites at his feet as a result. It looked like a skin scrape would be required to work out what he was allergic to and that was booked in. But here is the fabulous thing; his vet changed her mind. She decided it wasn't worth it. She knew it was expensive but more importantly she didn't want to cause either myself or Nico undue stress and in his case, pain. The treatment requires scraping at the dog's skin almost until they are bleeding to get a suitable skin sample. Nico would either have to be awake for this or go through a sedation which is worrying for me and certainly not fun for him. The vet changed her mind, gave up the money that procedure would have gained the surgery which was a nice sum, and decided to try him on shampoo instead. The shampoo is expensive as far as shampoos go but way cheaper than the scrape and certainly less emotionally draining on me or my boy. If it doesn't work other steps will need to be taken but I think bringing this to light is important.

Nico's vet seems to put the animal first and I can go into the surgery feeling that Nico will achieve the best care in the best way. I can go into the room feeling the vet cares and not like they are plotting to take me for everything I have. From talking to friends that seems to be a rare thing.