> From: [log in to unmask]
> Date:   Mon, 7 Feb 1994 07:45:12 -0500
> Subject: ... and vaccinating your own
 
NOTE: I have not only trimmed stuff from the quoted article,
      I have done some reformatting, as we were dancing Dangerously
      close to the right edge of the earth.
      lenny.
 
In a reply to a posting regarding the high co$t of vet care, Dr. W  said:
> People wouldn't vaccinate their own children, would
> they?
Well, I don't see why not.  Lay people learn how to give injections
all the time.  Diabetic children do it.  Allergy sufferers do it.
Even junkys can do it.  Empirical evidence suggests that one
does not need an advanced medical degree to perform injections.
 
>  Also, who issues the rabies and distemper vaccination certificates?
This is a much meatier question.  I love my vet dearly, but the
distemper vaccination certificates she used to give out, were
dog certificates with dog crossed out (with a pen) and ferret
written in.   Now the certificates are laser printed along with
the receipts for the visit, and I'm usure (because I haven't
verified it) that they are kosher.  I trust my vet, but if she
can just dash one off on her HPLJ4, why can't I?
 
> Who examines the ferret for other health problems ?
My vet, no question there.  But I object to paying fifteen
bucks a stick when the raw materials cost closer to four.
Whats my threshold? I dunno, ten bucks... Seven maybe, if
I bring in four at a time.
 
> Animals should be occasionally seen by a vet to be checked over.
> The best time for this is during the annual
> (or semiannual, for older animals) trips to the vet.
Yes!  But I'd rather pay the vet for the diagnostic skills
that they learned  in Vet School, than for the shots which
I can get easily and a lot more cheaply.  Two injections
should not cost as much or more than the examination.
 
[ deletia - lenny.  ]
 
> I'm sure I'll hear from a lot of people on this subject ...[deletia]
You think so?
 
> I am as outraged at the price of veterinary
> care in this country as the rest of you are.
If I couldn't afford them, I'd find them homes that could.
I just think that shots are overpriced.
 
If Nancy's vet can come to a ferret fest and do
sticks for five buck a peice, other vets can bring
their vaccination fees down to single digits.
 
> But good health care far outweighs
> the cost-effectiveness of catalog-shopping for vaccines and needles.
But is the latter that much of a threat to the former.
I infer that you think it is. I'm not so sure.
 
> Bruce Williams, DVM
 
Well. That was fun to write. Thanks.
lenny.
--
    Leonard A. Jaffe - [log in to unmask] - My heart is a flower
          All at once there's a fat guy in a clown suit...
 
[Posted in FML issue 0723]