Open Question: Anyone experienced Veterinarian Vaccination hard sell tactics ?
My 10 year old cat came down with an acute asthma attack last year and was successfully treated. Again, this spring that cough came back, so I immediately went to the vet and got the meds she needed.
While at the vet’s waiting room, I read about heart worms and how there is no treatment for cats who get heart worm. During my cat’s examination, I was told that perhaps asthma was not the cause of her cough (even though her history indicated she has and was successfully treated for asthma) and they wanted to do x-rays, draw blood, and such to see if she had heart worms. I felt as if I was given a scare tactic in order to agree to expensive diagnostics. After I mentioned that I just read in their waiting room that there is no treatment for heart worms in cats, these x-rays and blood work would be worthless to me. And besides, the pollen count was very high this week and it is affecting asthma suffers. The vet agreed and then backed off. He asked the usual questions about her eating habits and such. I explained that she was an indoor cat and had no contact with other animals.
After the examination, he wanted to give her a rhino…and something or other shot, over a hundred dollars of flea and tick meds, feline leukemia shots and two other shoots. I asked about the rhino…shot and was told that IF a mosquito got into the house and IF it was an infected mosquito and IF it bit her, she COULD get…..I said those are a lot of “ifs” and I was shocked when he said she has probably built up immunity to those things anyway!! “Oh, really, then why did you suggest it”, I asked. His eyes darted to the floor. But, he continued…Then he said she should get the leukemia shot. I questioned him and he said leukemia is spread in litters and through saliva. Whelp, my cat is 10 and has no contact with other cats, so not that shot, thank you. He then said she probably does not need it anyway because if she had leukemia from birth, we would know it by now and there is no cure anyway. So then we move onto the flea and tick treatment. My cat has not had a flea or tick treatment, ever. I have NEVER seen a flea in my house or flea dirt on her white belly. The vet told me humans can possibly bring fleas into the house and infect my cat to no end. I told him she has been lucky for ten years, so I will continue taking my chances.
So, through all of this, I am knocking the vet’s “suggestions” down and he knows he is getting no where with me on all of these extras. So, I ask–exactly which vaccinations are required by law. He sheepishly said, well, only one by law, Rabies. I was unaware of that as it was never brought up before. So, I ask how is rabies spread, through mice and rats? He says, no, through larger animals like skunks, raccoons and bats. So, I laugh and say, whelp, I have none of those in my house, so is the shot needed?? Oh yes, he says, you never know when a bat will come into your house! Whelp, I have lived here for 30 years and yes, a bat came down the chimney once. So she got her rabies shot.
I have had cats all of my life and never until now have I received such a hard sell on vaccinations that are not even required by law and worse yet, my cat is at the lowest risk there is to catch any of these diseases. I have only one cat at a time and they are neutered or spayed immediately. With this cat I now have, I have only had reason to go to the vet due to her asthma because she is otherwise a picture of health.
I am shocked at the scare tactics this vet used to try and get me to spend hundreds of dollars on unnecessary shots and treatments for my cat, who’s lifestyle is a very low risk of contacting these diseases. I am not saying that no pets need these shots as that is not the issue here. This is about hard sell for unnecessary shots
So, my question is, are other pet owners experiencing pressure to buy vaccinations that do not fit their pet’s lifestyles? And, Do you think veterinarian medicine is moving more toward business and further away from personal pet care?

Sat, 24 Apr 2010 20:50:25 GMT
Open Question: What do you think of these two poems?
The Ways of Aging
?Tis not that I rue man?s galling nature,
Nor do I applaud nature?s restive squalls,
But that subservience has worn ardor
Into my still, slumberous breast and galls
My heart aroused!?but yet, do I still sleep?
Evangelically brooding I declare
My mind of a questionable state, cheap
In the throes of modernism?s despair,
Swept with the tides of softened, gloamy seas,
And wrapt in the swaddles of Heaven?s ghosts.
Dour-faced and weeping I rescind my pleas
Before the wilted Grecian?s lustrous hosts,
And upon its solemn altar aching,
I espy the furtive ways of aging.
___________________________________
In Youth’s Stumbling Way
As a boy I was rapt with gilt poesy,
Beholden to its rapturous fathers
Whose visages rang with indifference,
And ne?er beheld my trembling pen?s warm writ.
So it was, that in my youth?s erring way,
I took a lover that sat coldly still
In lovemaking?s gentle reprisals, wrapt
With the golden twine of hair that gently
Caressed, yet paled at my longing gazes,
And whispering, broken, declared intent
To call down the angels about our forms,
That were so spread upon the yawning sheets.
She croaked with an ag

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