Latest / Ask The Experts / The Cost of Care with Checkout Vet

Transcript

The Cost of Care with Checkout Vet · Ask The Experts

0:01
Thirteen ten WIBA and ask the experts hanging out this morning with doctor Marty Greer
0:07
of Checkout Veterinary online checkout vet dot com. That's all one word, checkout
0:12
vet dot com Clinic Write on Prairie Lakes Drive in sun Prairie Open Monday through
0:17
Wednesday, nine am to five pm Friday through Sunday, also nine until five
0:22
open weekends. If you didn't catch that part, how cool is that?
0:25
Doctor? How you doing this week? I'm doing great? Thank you.
0:27
Mooy's very excited to see you, and we've got a lot of great conversation
0:31
ahead. Real quick before we get rolling on this week's conversation, real quick.
0:35
For folks who may have missed last week's program or may maybe new to
0:39
the area Checkout Veterinary, let's talk about the concept where this idea came to
0:46
you. And for folks that don't know, let's talk about how the drive
0:49
through works for you. Sure, So, about ten years ago I decided
0:53
that we were going to build this business model. My husband rolled his eyes
0:57
a bit and then eventually gave in, so we went ahead and built it.
1:02
We have three stall garage at our clinic in Lamira, and that inspired
1:07
us to go ahead and pull this off and developed just a full scale drive
1:11
in veterinary clinic. Now, we do have exam rooms with tables for people
1:15
with small dogs and cats that want to use those, but we have the
1:18
garage bays for the larger dogs. You can have them just wandering around in
1:23
the garage bay. We just pop them up on a little platform when we
1:25
need to do their vaccines or their exam or do their blood work. The
1:30
rest of the time, they can be in your car. You can be
1:32
in your car, you can be in the car with kids, with Grandma
1:34
whoever. But you basically pull into a garage bay and that's your space.
1:38
Nobody else is in there with their pets. It's actually really quite relaxing and
1:44
really pleasant for everybody involved. One of the things doctor I think about is
1:48
pets are they give so much, but they rely on us for everything,
1:53
and it's important to make sure that they're getting the proper care. And unfortunately,
2:00
I feel like sometimes folks may avoid doing and getting some of that care
2:04
because it becomes such a hassle and such a burden. And removing that burden
2:08
of the of the stress, the anxiety, the animal being very stressed out
2:14
or you know, or miserable about that experience. I've got a guess,
2:17
and I don't know if there's any research other than observational. It probably has
2:23
better more frequent visits for folks, and because they know that they don't have
2:29
that stress and that burden to get their pet into the bed, right,
2:31
it's easier on them. It's easier on you. If it's raining, you
2:35
pull in, if it's snowing, you're not skiing across the parking lot behind
2:38
your dog. Now we don't have to worry about that this time of year,
2:39
but when you think about some of the weather that we have in Wisconsin,
2:44
it just makes everything easier. You pop the pet into the car in
2:46
your garage, you come into my garage, you're never exposed to the elements,
2:51
you never worry about the cat running away, you never worry about the
2:53
dog pulling you over. It's really very pleasant and really convenient for everybody involved.
2:58
Talking this morning with doctor Marty Career of Checkout Veterinary Online checkout vet dot
3:02
com. That's checkout vet dot com. They're telephone number six oh eight three
3:06
one eight sixty seven hundred. That's three one eight sixty seven hundred can learn
3:10
more online at checkout vet dot com. I was just thinking about my little,
3:15
uh, my little Chihuahua, a little Homer and uh, you know,
3:17
he loves riding in the car, but you know, things make him
3:21
anxious, and I think all pets are that way. What about you your
3:23
pets? You do you have pets? Oh? Yeah, I have.
3:29
I have upwards of a dozen dogs. Oh so, yes, yes,
3:31
I have pets. Yes, we are big into the dog world. We
3:37
show our dogs and are competitive with our dogs, so we do a lot
3:42
with them. At one time, when I had kids in junior high in
3:45
high school, we had a hobby farm and our neighbor who provided us the
3:49
hey for the farm during the winter, said it was like opening the Little
3:53
Price the little Fisher Price dairy farm that you would open up the doors.
3:58
And we had two horses and three lamas and about sixty sheep and rabbits and
4:02
chickens and cows. We had both Jersey cows and Holstein cows because our kids
4:06
raised those. Our kids showed in four h so it was like it was
4:11
it was. It was great. Now we don't have those anymore because the
4:15
kids aren't home and it didn't really seem important to continue that. But one
4:18
of these days I'd like to have sheep again. Oh really, Yeah,
4:21
they're not bad, No, they're not, And it would be fun to
4:25
be able to do some hurting with the dogs that we have and the sheep.
4:28
I bet you mentioned Westminster. You are for folks that don't know not
4:33
to, but you are a You've been recognized by Westminster Avenue doctor. I
4:39
was last year. In twenty twenty three, I was Westminster Veterinarian of the
4:43
Year, which is kind of a big deal. Oh yes, like kind
4:46
of a big deal. I lived down in Edgerton and we have We had
4:50
a Westminster winner a couple of years ago, and I think this year a
4:54
runner up if I think it may have come from the same kennel. Is
4:58
that, by the way, it's not like a for people that show dogs,
5:00
especially on you know, on such a high level. It's got to
5:03
be a pretty pretty tight knit community. Oh yes, it's a very small
5:08
community. We all know each other really pretty well. So Westminster and the
5:13
Thanksgiving Dog Show in Philadelphia and then the World Dog Show are the three big
5:15
shows in the world. And yes, the German Shepherd a couple of years
5:20
ago that was rumor, and this year it was Mercedes who came in as
5:25
runner up Reserve Best in Show. Beautiful dogs, absolutely beautiful, and that's
5:30
the kind of showing that we do, is that kind of competition. I
5:32
have Corgi's Pembroke Welsh Corgis and Danish Swedish farm dogs. So for those of
5:38
you who don't know what a Danish Swedish farm dog is, google it.
5:41
It's a really cool little breed. And yeah, I have a passel of
5:46
dogs. It's very very cool. Talking this morning with doctor Martin Greer of
5:50
Checkout Veterinary, the website checkout vet dot com. That's checkout vet dot com.
5:56
Great website to learn more about checkout Veterinary. It's an amazing concept right
6:00
here in Dane County. Their office right in sun Prairie open Monday through Wednesday
6:04
and Friday through Sunday nine to five. Yes, open weekends, closed on
6:09
Thursdays, but every other day of the week they are open and it's a
6:12
really really great thing to learn more online. Checkout vet dot com. That's
6:15
checkout vet dot com. So talking about caring for our pets, we kind
6:18
of started this conversation last week about kind of some of those kind of those
6:21
basics of pet care, and I'd asked you a little bit about pet diet,
6:27
and for a lot of us, it's such a hard thing because I
6:30
don't know cats. Although there's probably gonna be a cat owner that says,
6:32
my cat does these things, because cats do what cats want to do.
6:36
Dog owners, especially though they give you those looks like when they see you
6:41
eating people food and they stare up there, they know they just know how
6:44
to manipulate you. What should I am that cat owner? There? We
6:46
got new we have one not too far when we have when we have with
6:53
our dogs, for example, kind of putting together or cats for that ideal
6:57
diet. What are things people should be looking for certain think people should be
7:00
avoiding. Well, yes, okay, I'm a big fan of using one
7:05
of the pet food companies, either Purina, Royal, Canaan, or Hills,
7:11
because those are the three companies that have research behind their diets. They
7:15
do clinical feeding trials, they've developed all the prescription diets that we have,
7:17
and we can manipulate an amazing number of diseases that we see in dogs and
7:23
cats, bladder disease, heart disease, intestinal disease, lymphatic disease, all
7:29
kinds of things we can manipulate through diet. And you know, of course,
7:31
if we were as good at manipulating diets for ourselves as we are for
7:34
our pets, we'd probably all be in a little healthier place. But nevertheless,
7:40
we can do some pretty significant adjustments in the pet's health and weight with
7:46
those diets. I know there are people who are not fans of those companies,
7:49
but those are the companies that are in the business of making pet food
7:54
better and better and better every year. Now there are other diets on the
7:58
market that are advertised fairly heavily that don't have that kind of research behind it.
8:03
So if you have a question about your dog's diet or your cat's diet,
8:05
you've got an eight hundred number on the bag you can call, and
8:09
on the World Small Animal Veterinary Association's website WSAVA you can google that, so
8:16
it's World Small Animal Veterinary Association. They have a list of questions that you
8:20
can call a pet food manufacturer and ask. So I think it's a way
8:22
that you can become really well informed in what you're feeding your pet. What's
8:26
appropriate for them based on their age, their lifestyle, their health conditions,
8:31
so that you've got all that information and you can make really good decisions.
8:35
I'm not a big fan of homemade diets because they tend to be come imbalanced,
8:39
even if you start off with a recipe. There's something called recipe drift.
8:43
Well, so you start off with a list of things that you want
8:46
to put in it, and then you couldn't get one of things one week,
8:48
and then the next week you couldn't get something else it was too expensive
8:50
or you ran out, and so then you start altering the diet, and
8:54
then we have a diet that's no longer a balanced diet. There is a
8:58
website called balance Yet that does help people if they do want to do a
9:01
homemade diet, But in general, I don't recommend the raw meat diets and
9:05
the homemade diets because of the nutritional imbalances that we see with those. It's
9:09
really interesting you mentioned too, kind of the the we start out with maybe
9:13
that perfect recipe and change. I feel like sometimes, like with fast food,
9:16
as humans, we do that, like we'll pull into the drive there
9:18
saying I'm going to get a salad or I'm just going to get like I'm
9:20
going to get the grilled chicken, and then when you start smelling those French
9:26
fries, you're like, okay, and just throw one of those in the
9:28
bag. Yeah. Yeah, they do smell the best. Yes, they
9:31
do. They know how to do that. This is just like at the
9:35
airport when you walk down there and there's the cinnabon, it's always the best.
9:39
So yes, there are definitely things that we do that aren't appropriate with
9:41
that. With pet food too, obviously marketing towards us not the pets.
9:46
Does it make a difference with wet or dry kibble versus versus wet food?
9:50
Is one better than the other or or what's what's the kind of the guidance
9:54
there, And it again depends on your pet's health condition. If they have
9:56
kidney or bladder problems, the canned food or the moist foods might be a
10:01
more appropriate diet For most dogs, they're better off on the dry kibble as
10:05
well as cats, and they do put things like sodium methyl hexel phosphate into
10:09
the food that helps keep their teeth clean. So there are things that they're
10:11
doing with the diet set you may not even be aware of because as a
10:16
consumer, you're not reading that kind of fine print. And thank goodness,
10:20
you know you said earlier, our pets are really highly dependent on us.
10:22
Thank goodness they don't have fingers and a credit card, because you can only
10:26
imagine the pizza that would be delivered to your front door by your dog if
10:30
they were using door dash on a regular basis. Hopefully they're not listening this
10:33
morning gaining idea. Yeah, time this morning with doctor Marty Greer of Checkout
10:37
Veterinari the website checkout vet dot com. That's checkout vet dot com. Learn
10:41
more online of course. The clinic right and Sun Prairie on Prairie Lakes Drive.
10:45
They're telephon number six O eight three one eight sixty seven hundred. That's
10:48
three one eight sixty seven hundred you mentioned in dental health, and I want
10:52
to ask you about a little bit about the importance of just like for people
10:58
with your pets, oral hygiene, good good, good teeth, and ask
11:01
you a little bit about that. We'll do that next as ask the experts
11:03
would check Out Veterinary continues here on thirteen ten WUIB eight eight fifty four thirteen
11:11
ten WIBA. Talking this morning with doctor Marty Greer. Doctor Grear comes to
11:16
us from Checkout Veterinary the website checkout vet dot com. That's checkout vet dot
11:22
com telphone number six O eight three one eight sixty seven hundred. That's three
11:26
one eight sixty seven hundred, And we're talking during the break doctor about the
11:30
website checkout vet dot com. One of the things that's important to you is
11:33
transparency of pricing, and we were talking about overcoming some of the barriers to
11:39
proper PetCare and healthcare. Sometimes that question mark of what's this visit going to
11:43
cost can be a barrier. Having those numbers out there is very helpful,
11:46
isn't it right? Because I think a lot of people are concerned about is
11:50
this going to cost me one hundred and twenty dollars? Is this going to
11:52
cost me four hundred and twenty dollars? What am I getting myself into financially?
11:56
And we're very willing to work with people to space out how much medication
12:01
they take home with them, what vaccinations they get at any visit. But
12:03
it's not a black box mystery. You can go to our website, take
12:07
a look at our pricing, and then you'll know what your approximate cost is
12:11
going to be when you come in now. Of course we throw it in
12:13
ear infection. With that, then it's going to change it a little bit.
12:16
But at least it gives you a basic foundation for what you're getting into.
12:20
That is really helpful. Again, you can check it out online.
12:22
It's easy to say, check out vet dot com. Check them out online.
12:24
Checkout vet dot com. Speak up pricing too. Do you recommend I
12:30
see and I hear about health insurance or pet insurance? Do you recommend that
12:33
are there? And if I may ask, are they all created equally or
12:39
is that something you want to discuss with your vet. Oh? Yeah,
12:41
there's definitely differences, and we do recommend pet insurance. It keeps you from
12:43
having to say, how much is this going to be? If there's something
12:46
catastrophic that happens, you don't really need pet insurance for the routine care of
12:50
the vaccinations, the heart room, the flee and tick, those are things
12:52
that you can plan for a budget for and accordingly spread those out. But
12:58
if you have something catastrophic the dog made a dog this week that got tripped
13:01
on by the owner and broke a leg. We leave dogs that fall downstairs
13:05
cats that eat things that they shouldn't, all kinds of things, bladder infections,
13:09
all kinds of things that can happen. And if you don't have pet
13:11
insurance, then you've got to always ask how much is this going to be?
13:16
How far can I go? What do I do if it gets over
13:18
if I get in over my head, if your dog gets cancer, if
13:20
your dog gets something serious. And it's to the point now at the emergency
13:24
and referral centers that you can be in six or seven thousand dollars the first
13:28
day. So it's pretty startling how much the cost of veterinary care has increased.
13:35
And it's no it's you know, it's no different than human medicine.
13:37
My husband was in the hospital a couple of weeks ago and it was thirty
13:41
five thousand dollars. So by comparison, you know, we're still pretty affordable
13:45
as far as medical care goes. But having that pet insurance is something you
13:48
can just rely on. Some people prefer to put money aside on a monthly
13:52
basis instead of paying an insurance premium and putting it into an account so that
13:56
they know they have that money there, but most of us aren't that discipline.
14:00
Most of us are better off with paying a premium and knowing what you've
14:03
got. Now, there's many ways that you can pick out your pet insurance.
14:07
Some include congenital diseases and things that are inherited like hip display. Just
14:11
some don't. So you want to do some research based on the breed of
14:13
dog you have and the health conditions that you're concerned about. But you can
14:18
give them a call. You can go to a website that compares pet insurance.
14:22
The ones that we recommend are going to be Rainwalk and Trumpanion and nationwide.
14:26
Those are the ones that have sort of that track record. There's new
14:30
ones that come to market, and those worry me a little bit because you
14:31
don't know five years from now when you really need that policy if they're still
14:35
going to be there for you. So I'm pretty careful with making sure that
14:39
I'm using an insurance company that I feel like I can rely on to be
14:43
there long term. AKC. There's some good ones out there, the ones
14:46
I've never heard of before. Those make me a little nervous. Really important
14:50
information there and really great stuff to know. As we talk this morning with
14:54
doctor Marty Greer of Checkout veterinary the website checkout vet dot com. That's checkout
14:58
vet dot com. We were talking last week and it kind of came up
15:03
a little bit this week as well about oral health and moral hygiene for pets.
15:07
I know, like when I think most of us get to go to
15:11
take your pet into the vet one of the first and lift up the ghosts
15:15
take a look. Having good clean teeth important just as important for people as
15:20
pets. Absolutely, it affects their hearts, that affects their kidneys. There's
15:24
a lot of diseases that are associated with dental health problems that aren't just in
15:28
the mouth. They are really a universal thing. So the better health we
15:33
have for our pets in their mouth, the better health they have overall.
15:35
We have a special cool little light that we can use when you come in
15:39
that we can show you where the tartar is on your pets teeth so you
15:41
can focus on where to brush. We can talk about dental cleanings, which
15:45
are an anesthetic procedure in most cases because the pets don't sit back in the
15:48
chair and look at the TV on the ceiling and say ah, while you're
15:52
getting a cleaning, So we do have to put them under an athesure for
15:56
it. But it's a safe procedure and people are worried. They're alwayscerned about
16:00
my older pet. Well, all the dental cleanings we do are on older
16:03
pets. So that's pretty much what veterinarians are familiar with, is anesthetizing a
16:08
pet that's older for that kind of health. They may need to have extractions,
16:11
they may need to have X rays, and all those things can be
16:15
done at your veterinary clinic with the appropriate anesthesia and the appropriate equipment and doctor.
16:19
Do some of those products you buy? I know that there's there's one
16:22
I think of that's molded like a toothbrush for them to do those. Do
16:26
those make a difference or what are is some of it just genetics some more?
16:30
Yeah, what's kind of the as a as a pet owner? What
16:34
do you need to know there? The genetics of the small dogs, we
16:37
do see a lot more dental disease and the small dogs, for one thing,
16:40
they live longer. For another, they have the same sized teeth that
16:41
big dogs do, but they're all crowded together in their little mouths because when
16:45
we downsized dogs, they didn't downsize their teeth, so they do have good
16:49
sized teeth. The best thing is always going to be brushing their teeth.
16:55
You know, when you go to the dentist, they ask you if you're
16:56
brushing your flash and you don't say, well, no, but I chew
16:59
gum and I eat cheese. I'm good. No. They expect you to
17:03
do dental health for yourself as well. So the same thing applies to our
17:06
pets is brushing is always best. I've actually got one client that she can
17:10
floss her cat's teeth. I was stunned. I saw her do it in
17:14
the exam room. I'm like, oh wow, that is incredible. One
17:18
person in eight kajillion is not representative of what normal people can do, but
17:22
it still gives you a little bit of a benchmark. But brushing is really
17:26
important. If you can brush it a couple times a week that week,
17:29
that's better than not brushing at all. Scraping the teeth that has some risks
17:33
associated with it that you're going to actually scratch the enamel on the teeth and
17:36
make the tartar accumulate more quickly. So those home dental kind of scraping devices
17:40
are not recommended, but there's a lot of good products on the market.
17:44
For dental health. Now there's a probiotic called teeth to eef. There are
17:48
lots of dental choes. You do have to be careful with some of the
17:51
chews. If they're too hard, they can break a tooth, So just
17:53
be careful that you're paying attention. And of course we don't want our pets
17:56
to swallow big hunks of raw hide and greenies and those things, so do
18:00
be cautious when you're using those at your home for that can you just use
18:03
because a little secret for our dog. I put a little the stuff right
18:07
on my finger and he's at Chihuaha, so I was goind of get in
18:10
there and say, is that just as effective as I know that they make,
18:12
you know, devices specifically for a brushing your dog's eath, just as
18:15
effective, just as it's not quite as good, but it's better than not
18:18
doing anything. So they do make finger brushes, They do make a lot
18:22
of different devices. They make little tiny toothbrushes, so they're pretty cute.
18:26
They're little round head, little two inch long, little bristle thing. And
18:30
they do make pet toothpastes. And the good thing about the pet toothpaste is
18:33
number one, they have an enzyme in them. That helps to break down
18:34
the tartar and the calculus so that it does a better job than just brushing
18:40
with nothing on the brush. The other is pets swallow their toothpaste just like
18:44
little kids do, so they don't like mint flavor. They don't like foam.
18:47
That foam goes down if they swallow it and it causes us stomach upset.
18:51
So they're better off using a pet toothpaste. And if you've ever tried
18:53
one, they do say things like chicken, seafood. I've tasted them.
18:57
I don't get chicken and seafood, I get sweet. But there's still an
19:02
enzide based toothpaste that's very effective for our pets. Doctor Marty Greer of Checkout
19:06
Veterinary the website checkout vet dot com. That's checkout vet dot com. Doctor,
19:10
thank you so much for your time. We'll do it all again in
19:11
seven days. Sounds great. News is next year thirteen ten wiv A