Who could object to a wellness exam? Don’t you care about the well-being of your pet? Yes, of course. That is why you’re trying to get the flea meds, so the poor beast isn’t covered with pestilential biting insects. But the vet won’t give you what you need to spare your pet the torture of being bled half-to-death by a swarm of pestilential, biting insects unless you haul the pet in for that wellness exam first. It is both extractive and insufferable in that it’s a pretext to (effectively) force you to pay for an exam that is assumed to be necessary, regardless of any good reason to believe it is.
I got hit with the wellness exam line when I stopped by the vet who’d seen our dog the previous year. He was two years old at the time and so a young dog and in need of a wellness exam to the same degree that a 12-year-old boy needs a prostate exam. It is extractive and for that reason, despicable. The unstated implication is the pet’s owner is either too dumb or too indifferent their pet’s health to notice something’s off. It used to be considered the owner’s responsibility to keep track of the health – the well-being – of their pet. Now (superficially) the presumption is that the owner is either a fool or he is a mean SOB who doesn’t care about the well-being of his pet and would surely let the animal suffer rather than take him in for a checkup. If so, then why is the owner there to buy flea meds? Why would he care about that but not anything else?
The vets know they have you – the pet’s owner – over a barrel. You are there because you do care about the well-being of your pet. It is not unlike the way doctors for humans have people over a barrel. You need to see the doctor – or the dentist? You have to wear a “mask.” They stopped doing that, most of them. But do you doubt they will one day do it again? Human medicine is extractive to the nth degree. Every last shekel is wring from the “patient” – used in the sense C.S. Lewis used it in his Screwtape letters. Fifteen dollars for an aspirin given in the hospital. Ten grand for that ambulance ride. No wonder there is sympathy for Luigi.
In both the human and the pet medicine world, we are faced with a binary choice: To take care of ourselves (and our pet) by ourselves. Or be taken care of by the extractive system that wants to suck every last drop of blood out of us – all in the name of “wellness.”
. . .
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I stopped relying on vets during the coof.
We decided that we would take charge of our animals health when we made the switch for ourselves. Neither my lovely bride or i has a real doctor, For me, I just decided when it’s time, I’ll go without the fanfare and expense of being milked by doctors and hospitals. You can still get certain treatments cheaper in many other countries. If I was going to try some modern medicine I think I’d do it overseas….
There is a mobile vet that comes out to your house. Gives meds, Antibiotics, has mobil X-ray machine. One of the services she used to offer was euthanizing your family member in the comfort of his/her home/yard. Not sure about that anymore. All the boarding places around here want up to date shot records, or, you’re out of luck. Surprisingly, you can cross the over the border and back into Mexico without shot records. Don’t know how long that will last as Mexico is planning to go full digital retard supposedly the first of next year.
I refuse to poison my dog and cat anymore than they already have been. Cat is beginning to have problems. Almost 12, his 9 lives are almost all used up. He is indoor/outdoor and still loves to go outside and kill things. We stopped letting him out after dark about 6 months ago as he was always getting his ass kicked. The dog has improved in her old age as we give her only a small amount of kibble now, she mostly eats what we eat. Started giving her frozen cranberries (7, or 8 a day) six months ago and she has a new love back for life. You can tell, she’s still near the end, but she’s happy and doesn’t lay around all day now. It ought not be like this. The fact that it is tells you they know their system sucks, and very few would willingly choose it without all the coercive bullshit.
I don’t have pets anymore and from what I hear, I am glad. Everyone I know has stories of being pushed expensive medicines and when it comes time for their pet’s end, they are sometimes made to feel bad for not taking out a loan to pay for surgery on a 10 year old dog.
On the up side, many vets can get you financing right there.
“Fifteen dollars for an aspirin given in the hospital. Ten grand for that ambulance ride”
Who exactly is making all that money? Maybe one of your neighbors or one of your relatives. All that shiny stuff out there costs money. Serious money. There are some people out there making that serious money. Back in school my teachers forgot to tell me that money runs the world.
Well, certainly not all those hospitals. After all, they are “non-profit”.
AI tells me top execs make around $1 million to $3.5 million. Now sure they have a lot of responsibility.
Around me, they are building mini hospitals every 5 feet. Hospitals are always under some kind of construction $15-25 billion annually.
That’s a lot of band aids to pay for.
Certainly the health industry is growing. Insurance, health, realestate, pills, that’s where the moneys at.
It seems that so many so-called “service” people, like doctors, dentists, eye doctors, veterinarians, auto mechanics, HVAC technicians, lawyers, accountants, etc. have become extractive and focused on three things: billing, billing, billing.
I know of a married couple who were basically strong-armed by a lawyer into getting a divorce over “we’re not happy anymore.” (Thankfully they didn’t go that route and got marriage counseling instead.) But the lawyer only cared about the money—not the best interests of the clients.
I attribute it to the fact that especially in medical and legal fields, doctors and lawyers need to pay exorbitant student loans and malpractice fees, along with other bills. I also attribute it to the fact that doctors, lawyers, dentists, eye doctors, veterinarians, etc. are no longer independent professionals who can exercise their own professional judgment and focus on what’s best for the people they serve, but are employees of larger organizations that pressure them to bill, bill again, and bill some more, whether or not what they do really does serve you.
Out of your entire list, the only ones that are shit humans by and large, across the board, are lawyers. Have dealt with 5 different versions of this shit human model in the last 6-7 years. Only one even made a slight effort to GAF.
No wonder the west is so screwed. Judges, lawyers, and politicians are our greatest misfortune, Wherever you find mass corruption, problems, and dysfunction, you will also find these three types of grifters right in the mix..
Shakespeare had something to say about lawyers.
https://shakespeare-online.com/quotes/shakespearelawyers.html
Good reference. They, like the civilizational squatters they agitate for must all go back. (to the dust from whence they came)
>so-called “service” people, like doctors
Oh, they “service” people, all right.
You can buy frontline over the counter without a prescription
You’re welcome
Did that vet push rabies vaccines or other vaccines for your dog? It seems these days, if someone goes to a doctor or takes their pet to a vet for a “Wellness visit”, the doctor or vet they’re seeing pushes drugs and/ or vaccines.
https://pestakeholder.org/media_coverage/private-equity-is-coming-for-your-pets-what-it-means-for-you/
Eventually every vet clinic, every restaurant, every bakeshop, every barber will be owned by one of a handful of companies, much like the news media, the movie industry, the agriculture industry, the meat-packing industry, the arms business, the political system…
You will own nothing, but you probably won’t be happy.
Where are Teddy Roosevelt and the Trust Busters when you need them?
Ah yes another government savior is what we need. /s
Crazy how that keeps happening. Hopefully more will begin to notice.