That was interesting. I do find that a lot of vets are the opposite -- and don't recommend dentals enough! However, I definitely think it's more of a small dog problem than a big dog problem. The 2 dogs featured on the special didn't look like they needed them, based upon simply viewing them from my eye.
The vaccine thing is definitely scary. Some vets just don't want to give up the money they make from annual vaccinations.
I love our vet. They are maybe a bit too pricey, but it's worth my peace of mind. They've never really pushed anything on me, and always been realistic, and ASKED me rather than just.... telling me.
I feel, looking back in hindsight, I was ripped off by a different vet... when Jax had his stomach issue, and he had been up all night throwing up, and later turned into a bit of blood, of course it was a Sunday... I decided to try a vet that was open on Sundays, not the ER, to "Avoid the Emergency fees"... At this point, I was just scared... my dog was throwing up blood, he was clearly not feeling well, I was upset (vet could see this), and young, I know looking back he took advantage of me. He spent the night overnight, and now looking back, I don't think it was necessary to put him through it. He came home so scared and traumitized, his butt was disgustingly smelly from anal glands expressing out of fright. I think he would've been fine being sent home with meds and subq fluids. They kept doing blood tests over and over again through the week in house, all kept supposedly coming back with high lipase levels so they thought pancreatitis by that. But they never did the CPL test until 3 days later after 3 blood tests in house, which ended up coming back negative. They were giving him subq fluids every day for like a week. They kept recommending he stay another night, and get more, etc, and finally I was like no.. sorry, don't have the money, he's acting perfectly fine at home, he's eating, drinking, pooping normally, etc. I know my dog well and I know when he's feeling bad. He was almost 100% back to normal the night he got home. Yet I was stupid and kept following their recommendations and bringing him day after day. The doc was just very 'cold' IMO and also looked at me like I was an idiot when I said no I don't want any vaccines, he had them 2 years ago, and he had this shocked look on his face, he was trying to push annual (first of all, like I'm gonna give me sick dog vaccines right now
) I still feel terrible over it, as I know now I could've done things differently, live and learn. It was a $1500 mistake. When I later went to my regular vet and explained everything and showed her paperwork, etc, she kind of just shook her head and said he probably just had a GI upset and definitely shouldn't have needed to stay overnight.
This place was def a vet I would say was unethical from what I experienced, and I've heard lots of real life complaints about them too, and read things online.
But I would say more vets than not are ethical... and they play such a vital role in our pets well-being, and go to a lot of school to get to that point, so their opinion should be respected. But yes I think always questioning and always doing your own research, etc, is important .