Good points and thoughts for consideration! Thanks for chiming in. I love forums for exactly this long form type of discussion!
First of all is the alarming takeover of veterinary medicine by large investment firms.
Combined with the tremendous amount of school loans post vet school, and the high starting salaries at these places. It's a difficult situation to navigate for new graduates.
Second is the resistance of U.S. veterinary medicine to take heed of the ever growing number of scientific studies that suggest disturbing the balance of the endocrine system is a very bad idea wrought with lots of negative consequences
Europe has always been ahead of us in scientific advancement and veterinary medicine. It's hard to change something that is culturally ingrained and has been traditionally black and white into a grey area. Put yourself in the shoes of a US vet for a bit -- incredibly overworked and exhausted, when will you have the time to even read the science and data about all but a smattering of the many different medical issues you deal with from day to day -- unless you have a personal interest in the sterilization debate and a client base who are supportive of that. Ultimately, we are a service industry, and I can't do things that the owner doesn't agree to. I can provide advice and counseling, but at the end of the day, the decision to spay or neuter isn't ours.
But the thing that concerns me the most is that its not at all hard to draw lines connecting to flow of money to certain things, such as "drug marketing detailing" of the vets and the colleges alike.
Human medical schools don't allow pharmaceutical companies to put on events and provide free food and information about using their products to students, though they once did! Veterinary schools still do. The hope is that students continue to exercise rational decision making and thinking when making veterinary recommendations in the future -- sometimes though, there is only a single medication or product on the US market for treating a certain condition, and there aren't other options even if we wished for European medications that do the job better.
Follow the money. It didn't start out like this, but now that this is the "norm" the folks with the control dont want it to change. They like the fact that your dog will have more ailments and live a shorter life because it makes them more money.
I disagree. From a purely cynical financial perspective, a dog living
longer not shorter, will make more money as they rack up stuff for the management of all of the diseases that come with a less robust immune system and time.
Distressingly I am beginning to conclude that dogs are now seen as furry dollar signs to the investor controlled market.
Veterinary medicine is very much a business model and for profit, even historically when it was all small businesses owned by individual vets. Like it or not, dogs have to be
afforded before you have enough demand to begin developing medications for conditions and treatments. Every veterinarian has to decide ethically where they fall on the scale of needing to make a salary to afford to feed and house themselves, and taking care of animals. That's why it's important to be empowered that YOU are responsible for managing your dog's health and well being, and your vet is part of the team devoted to that with a lot of other folks, rather than an authority delivering statements from on high like the 70s. I think this dynamic change has led to better accountability for vets as well as lifting the curtain on our profession for the general public and allowing them to participate in their dog's care.
Not all vets are falling into this mess. But sadly, it is getting worse at an alarming rate. MARS now owns about one quarter of all vets globally in the markets I've studied.
Vets can still be devoted to what's best for your animal and you while also working for somewhere big. It's a lot more nuanced and difficult to navigate than simply following the ownership. But when the choice is to take a corporate buy out or fire your entire staff of 20 years, many of whom are like family and have children who have gone to school together because you can't find an associate veterinarian to take over a practice because they are all working in the big attractice hospitals in larger cities -- what's the best move then? Do you go down with the ship and put everyone out of a job? The problem is huge and has a lot of nuances, but I feel your frustration.
Thank DOG for the likes of Germany, Sweden, Finland, Norway and the others who demonstrate and educate on the right way to live with dogs.
I had a situation recently where I had need for Alizin treatment, something I could easily get in most other countries, but was very difficult to get here in the states. But one I found a clinic with clearance from the American FDA to have it, it saved the life of my dog without surgery.
Or the case of human insulin, that so many people depend on for life saving treatment -- patented by its creator at $1 because he strongly believed that nobody should not be able to afford to treat such a pervasive condition as diabetes. Price of a vial in the US currently? Over $200. We can't even straighten out human medications in our nightmare of a health care system -- not to even mention veterinary stuff.
FYI the 16th letter of the alfabet doesn't work on this old junker< amongst other keys as well>. I had to get creative in my grammar.
And ya did an excellent job with it XD
