After Slow Start, Lending Should Pick Up In ’10January 4, 2010 Lending anxiety can take a back seat in 2010, financial advisers say, as banks are making money available for qualified veterinary applicants. However, anyone seeking 100 percent financing may have to get creative. Credit Lines to the Rescue These are trying times for clients. Beloved pets need health care, and the money has to come from somewhere. One option is a credit line for people with looming veterinary bills. These lines work similarly to credit cards in that customers need to qualify and are expected to make monthly payments. At CareCredit of Tustin, Calif., “We look at a number of different factors, including credit and payment history,” says Doug Hammond, senior vice president of sales. “Because the CareCredit card can be used in a closed network versus at the grocery store or retail chain, more people typically qualify for credit.” Because these credit lines are for a specific purpose (medical), companies typically try to work with the clients on payment options. Extended payment plans and low-interest or no-interest terms are possibilities. This is especially attractive to clients whose credit card interest rates are high. “The agreement requires the client to make …
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Pharmacist Helps Fill Bovine Insulin VoidJanuary 4, 2010 Jennifer Gimon’s love of animals led her to adopt many felines through the years. Though the cats have escaped the diagnosis of diabetes, she has seen the effects of the disease and heard many stories of struggle. Thanks to her skills as a compounding pharmacist, she can offer more than just sympathy. “I’ve dedicated my life to (compounding) this insulin for cats,” said Gimon, a registered pharmacist who is founder and president of BCP Veterinary Pharmacy in Houston. The story of how Gimon came to re-create a formula that she and others say is the closest match to feline insulin available says a lot about the ways pharmaceutical industry dynamics can affect the delivery of veterinary care these days. It’s a story with a happy ending, her clients say, because BCP bovine-derived PZI (protamine zinc insulin) gives them an important option in the treatment of feline diabetes. The bovine insulin Gimon compounds is a replication of Eli Lilly’s Iletin pure-beef PZI product discontinued in the 1990s as the company transitioned to synthetic human insulin. Animal-source insulin has been deemed impractical to produce by pharmaceutical companies in part because of the difficulty in getting the pancreatic …
Factors To ExtinctionDecember 30, 2009 If seeing the great animals of Africa is on your wish list, go as soon as you can! I recently led a Seminars in the Sun group to South Africa with wildlife expert Dr. Peter Brothers. His guidance and lectures gave us insight into the complexity and multilevel challenges that Africa faces to preserve its amazing biodiversity and heritage as the birthplace of man. Malayan sun bears may become extinct sooner than expected, two ecologists say. The most disturbing concept for me to absorb is the heartless process of extinction. It happened to the dinosaurs after a huge meteor hit the planet. It happens as life proceeds. It is happening now despite desperate conservation measures. Many factors come into play, such as weather, habitat loss, environmental toxins, disease, shrinking population dynamics. These factors can be analyzed to predict extinction risks and rates for endangered species. But some species may become extinct much faster than predicted because scientists have not updated the standard extinction prediction model. Alan Hastings at the University of California, Davis, and Brett Melbourne at the University of Colorado in Boulder are ecologists who believe that conservation organizations are using …
Balancing Motherhood And Veterinary PracticeDecember 30, 2009 When building Coast Pet Clinic/Animal Cancer Center (Coast) in 1977 I was only 29 years old. We designed the upstairs with a big conference room and a full kitchen and bathroom that opened to a spacious room that could serve as a day care facility for babies and small children. But the children did not come to our practice, not until this century. A Chance to Help African Orphans As I write this, I’m getting ready to lead a group to South Africa to see Dr. Peter Brothers, a wildlife veterinarian who leads Brothers Safari. So I am making a special plea to readers to help feed orphaned African children who have lost parents to the AIDS epidemic. These children have nothing. In Malawi alone, 2 million of its 12 million people are orphans. Please join me in sending donations to Nourish the Children at NourishTheChildren.com. Nourish the Children had nutritionists from my alma mater, the University of California, Davis, create a special fortified food called Vita Meal to nourish starving children. In addition, …
Practice Owners Still Cautious About Incurring More DebtDecember 30, 2009 Editor’s note: Dr. Mark Crootof recently finished an 18-city lecture tour sponsored by Abaxis Inc. of Union City, Calif., on recession-proofing the practice. This article is based on his talks to hundreds of hospital owners and associates about the state of their businesses. Are lenders lending? Do veterinarians want loans? What has changed? These are some of the questions I am asked every day as a veterinary practice consultant. Seeking input from a variety of people in the banking industry is the best way to get a good perspective. So, I took this question to some lenders and from their responses, I’ve concluded that the money is there and they’re willing to lend it. Take a look at what they said. Are Lenders Lending? Brian Faulk of Live Oak Bank, Wilmington, Del.: “We continue to be aggressive, lending to all subsegments of the [veterinary] industry … with the exception of startup leasehold facilities and boarding facilities. Our loan funding on a month-to-month basis has remained relatively constant from year to year.” Melissa Edwards of Bank of America Practice Solutions: “Veterinarian lending continues to deliver solid growth …
Getting A Boost From SupplementsDecember 30, 2009 When the sign is a general absence of vitality, Ava Frick, DVM, recommends supplements she trusts. For the patient, yes, but also for the practice. “There are times in a veterinarian’s career when you’re just going along and you start asking yourself, ‘Am I having as much fun?’ and ‘What is my purpose?’ ” says Dr. Frick, who owns and operates the Animal Fitness Center in Union, Mo. “This is an opportunity to see that turn around.” Veterinarians who research the effects of supplements and make them available to clients say the benefits go beyond aiding patients. Supplements can help improve the financial health of practices and sometimes even the outlook of practitioners. “If you like nutrition and you’re interested in how the body works from a nutritional perspective, integrating supplements into your practice can be very rewarding,” says Frick, who has three decades of experience in veterinary practice and who recommends and promotes Standard Process supplements. “For me, seeing the results is both enjoyable and rejuvenating.” Interest in supplements appears to be at an all-time high these days. Many clients use them to safeguard their own health and are eager to …
Cellular MetabolismNovember 18, 2009 The study of veterinary nutrition has traditionally concentrated on macro-nutrients (proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals) and the determination of the minimum requirements of these individual nutrients to prevent overt disease. New areas of study looking at the broad-reaching effects of foods, such as nutrigenomics, metabolomics, nutrigenetics, etc., have shown that overall health can be positively influenced by “optimizing nutrient levels to the life stage, lifestyle and breed of the individual animal.”1 A wide range of food-based nutritional supplements has appeared in the veterinary market in response to this trend. Every cell in the body performs one or more functions. Some cells secrete hormones, some clear antigens from the circulation and others produce enzymes for use in metabolic reactions. These cellular activities are for the most part continuous, taking place around the clock, and vary in response to the body’s metabolic needs. Each function a cell performs involves a number of steps. These can include: • Taking in nutrients through the cell membrane. • Transporting these nutrients to different sites within the cell. • Using nutrients to produce a product (hormone, enzyme, protein, etc.). • Delivering products to sites within or outside of the cell.
Practitioners Who Use Therapeutic Lasers Discover That Versatility Seals The DealNovember 18, 2009As Steven Gloates, DVM, searched for a tool to relieve his patients’ chronic pain, he worried he might outstrip his own comfort level. After all, it had been just five months since he bought his small-animal practice. Was this really a good time to invest in a Class IV laser? CS Wound - Before CS Wound - After Now, six months later, he wonders what all the trepidation was about. “It’s a technology that comes with a lot of skepticism,” says Dr. Gloates, owner and operator of Vetcetera Pet Healthcare Centre in Schuylkill Haven, Pa. “But once you get your hands on it and see how it works and what it can do, that skepticism gets erased.” Every month, it seems, he dials up a new use for his LiteCure Companion Therapy Laser. “It’s not exactly discovering, because the uses are well documented,” says Gloates, who makes presentations for LiteCure. “It’s more a case of making sure not to miss the opportunities to use the laser.” From burns to hot spots, lesions to lick granulomas, clinical uses are many for therapeutic laser technology, practi- tioners say. Often, veterinarians seek out the laser to ease the …
Opinion: Let’s Reform Health Care For A Better TomorrowOctober 26, 2009 Health-care reform would be especially good for our profession, as practice owners and employers wouldn’t have the financial burden and social obligation of carrying health insurance for their employees. Many veterinary hospitals, like other small businesses, don't always have the money or the will to offer health coverage as a benefit. One of my former receptionists, Martha, had health-care insurance during the six years she was on my staff. Then she went to work at another hospital that did not provide health insurance. When Martha developed symptoms of a urinary tract infection, she delayed going to see the doctor because she and her husband were saving for a house and she was uninsured. Six weeks later, she did go to the doctor and was told she had advanced cervical cancer. Martha died in three days. She was only 32 and had been married for 10 years. Everyone who knew Martha was upset that she put off seeing the doctor because she didn’t have health insurance. This is a sad but true story. Many people believe that not having insurance isn't a good excuse for not getting yourself checked out if a problem comes …
