Excellent post, Dr. Lee! Thank you!
And if I may put in my
-worth here, let me relate our recent discussion with our vet about vaccinations and the money factor. We recently adopted a new dog, supposedly vaccinated for leptospirosis (a necessity in our area), parvo, and distemper. However, the less-than-conscientious former owner of this dog did not supply the rescuer any paperwork backing this up.
Since we lack trust in the guy who had Brier, we asked the vet about running titers to see if Brier had sufficient (or any) immunity for these diseases. The vet at first suggested just revaccination. Why?
Because it would save us money! He thought that with 7 dogs, our bills might be looking mighty "impressive" lately, and the vaccinations cost less than the titers. We still went with the titers (although our bills have, indeed, been looking mighty "impressive"
he he), but it was nice to know that they were concerned about
our cost rather than the clinic's bottom line.
In the end, I do believe that the client should be offered the information they need to make a choice. And once it's made, I believe the client should also then take the responsibility for having made that choice. I'm still shaking my head about that law suit...
