[MyFairLacy]

The vet that I worked for all throughout highschool would let people "pay later". You wouldn't believe how many people never paid their bills. Every month the receptionist would print out all the bills to send out...seriously, there were probably close to a hundred or more every month (and this is a town with a population under 5000!). The receptionist would always pull certain ones out every month because they never got paid. As I worked there, the stack of unpaid bills got higher and higher. I couldn't believe so many people NEVER paid their bills. And this vet has VERY reasonable prices.

Vets have to make money too. When people have to go to the hospital, most of the time their insurance pays or if the person can't pay then the government will...and of course there are those that end up having large hospital bills because they don't have insurance but they didn't qualify for gov. assistance either. If those hospital bills aren't paid, then bill collectors call. A lot of vets use bill collectors too but they don't always get paid. Unfortunately there isn't really government assistance for veterinary care and most people don't have pet insurance. That's why it's important to make sure you have money saved up in case anything happens to your pet.

If vets constantly did things for free or let people "pay later" they wouldn't make any money, and we all know you have to make money to live on. And vets deserve every penny they make. It is harder to get into vet school than medical school as there are much less vet schools in this country. Vet school is just as hard, or harder than medical school, since vet students have to learn about multiple species - not just humans. Vet school is just as expensive at medical school. Vets spend many years of their lives in school, including 4 years of college, 4 years of vet school, and sometimes 1-4 years of internships and residencies. It's expensive and time consuming.

And all the money a vet charges doesn't just become profit for the vet. They have employees to pay, bills to pay, equipment to pay for, wholesale costs of products they use, etc. So while vet bills may seem expensive sometimes, that vet isn't just putting that money into their pocket. In reality, they only get to keep a small fraction of that for profit. So if vets start doing stuff for free, they also can't pay their employees, and may eventually not be able to pay their bills and keep their facility up to date.

It is sad that people take animals into their home and cannot afford to care for them. That always angers me so much. Really, it's not the vet's fault the dog would not have been treated - it was the owner's for not being in town and not being able to pay for it. I do know that some vets will occassionally do things for free but once you do it a couple times, people will keep expecting it. And some vets will have a family sign over their pet, then give it the care it needs, and then adopt it out to a new family.

That's really one of the hardest parts of being a vet I guess. You have people come into your office that can't pay. All you can do is offer them different options.