Trusting the Experts?
This experience is more proof to me that you can’t put blind trust into a system or industry to provide a competent expert. It’s also proof we don’t need them to. Human knowledge is broad but it is not so deep that a person cannot get a handle on a complex issue with guided help from an AI or even from older systems like pub med and google. My experience doesn’t suggest that vets are all unqualified just that finding one by randomly showing up at your vet’s office is not a sure way to find a competent one.
Long story short my best Bud (he’s a dog), was having some tummy troubles. No pain, no fever, and he was still eating and playing, he was just throwing up a lot. He’s 3 years old, doesn’t have any serious health issues.
The vet we go to has been around a long time and was highly recommended to us by a friend who has been going there for 10 years. The person we got was newer to the practice, she literally spent 5 minutes with me. The office hounded me about booster shots for longer than they spent on his exam. The exam the vet did was basically squeezing his stomach and since there was no pain or swelling they told me that I either have to start with $700 in labs or sign a waiver taking blame if he dies. I’m not kidding. The vet said he could have pancreatitis or kidney disease. I decided to go home and do some work on it myself.
The AI covered common causes of vomiting and after we worked through the symptoms and behavior the AI told me since he wasn’t in pain, had lots of energy, and still had an appetite, that it was probably just a tummy ache (gastritis). It explained that a telltale sign of pancreatitis is odd posturing to relieve pressure on the abdomen and lethargy.
It offered suggestions on what to feed him and that if he had trouble keeping it down to let him rest, then try again with a smaller amount — until we found how much he could eat. We’re still watching his portions and feeding him puréed chicken and carrots, broth and kefir. He’s not exhibiting any new or worsening symptoms and hasn’t thrown up in 3 days. We’ve also added probiotics to his diet.
$700 in labs was just the blood work. To confirm pancreatitis or other serious issues the bill would have including more tests and imaging. Not to mention stress and probably sedation medicine for my Buddy. I don’t know how much it saved me to check with an AI, but at least $800 in tests and follow up visits and probably more – if bloodwork is $700 I am guessing imaging is probably pretty steep.
I think this vet was terrible, she gave him the same exam I gave him at home. I expected a higher level of skill, such as knowing which questions to ask and understanding the symptoms and signs of the diseases she suggested he might have. While I wouldn’t rule out vet visits in the future, this office is not one I’ll go back to and I’ll always double check his symptoms and their recommendations with AI before blindly opening my wallet to some so called “expert”.