Veterinarians need to change with today's pet owners

Steps need to be taken to establish relationships to remind them who the true pet health experts are

I was at dinner recently with a couple of dear friends who among us combined have 140 years of experience as practicing veterinarians. We reminisced how what once entered the front doors of our veterinary hospitals has changed from the late 1970s and 80s when we first started practicing.

In the 1970s, we routinely saw canine distemper, feline panleukopenia, flea allergy dermatitis (and anemia), pot-bellied puppies from roundworms, anemic dogs from hookworms, pets hit by cars, pyometra, and mammary cancer.

Preventive care, including routine vaccinations, parasite control, and routine spay/neuter, have reduced the incidence of these diseases or conditions to the point that many younger veterinarians have never seen a case of canine distemper. 
If you practice in areas similar in climate to Northern Idaho where I live, you might never see a case of severe anemia from a massive flea infestation. I don't think anyone is complaining about these positive changes, but they highlight how we had to embrace things that we overlooked or were lower priority years ago—dental disease, pain detection and treatment, and behavioral and nutritional counseling.

But there's a seismic change shaking pet care that may have happened so slowly that you didn't notice, or you've failed to see how we need to adapt to secure our futures in the animal health care space.

The way it was

I remember getting my first pet, Luke, a black Labrador retriever, in the late 1950s. Prospective pet owners like my family scanned the Sunday classifieds, which featured dozens of listings for every make and model of purebred puppy you could imagine.

We didn't go to the local pet store (there wasn't one) or shelter (there wasn't one for 30 miles). We used our rotary telephone to dial the number in the ad, get the address, and arrange for a time to meet. The whole family rode in the car to the house and found the litter of pups romping around the haystack, in the barn, on a porch, or, rarely, inside the house. You picked out a pup, mom or dad paid by cash or check, and that was it. Your first stop after buying Puppy Chow was the vet's office for puppy shots.

The doc examined the dog, wormed her, gave her first shots, and sent home more wormer and a card to return for boosters. Of course, there rarely was discussion about early spay neuter, dental care, nutritional counseling, or heartworm. The next time doc expected to see this patient was for yearly booster vaccinations, if she were sick or injured, or to put her to sleep.

This model served veterinary medicine very well for a long time, thanks to low overhead, minimal competition, and nonexistent pricing resistance.

The new reality

How many purebred puppies do you see in practice now versus 50 or 40 years ago, or even early in the millennia? What you see now are mostly adult shelter dogs. Today's would-be owners don't look for a purebred puppy in classifieds, online, or in a store; they follow the beaten path to the local shelter or Petfinder.com to adopt adult mixed-breed dogs.

Some estimates put the number of homeless/shelter pets euthanized from about 20 million annually in the early 1980s to fewer than one million now. While this is thanks to prayers and many proactive steps on the part of the veterinary profession and other animal health care professionals, it poses a potential serious problem for us and for the health, happiness, and longevity of pets.

I practice in Sandpoint, Idaho. I also serve on the board of four amazing Northern Idaho shelters. I still get the occasional thrill of puppy breath, but I'm much more likely to see new pet owners with an adult dog or cat or kitten for the complimentary first exam that is part of the adoption fee. But the statistics of how many are adopted from shelters and how many actually visit a veterinarian for follow-up visits shows a disturbing trend. New pet owners view the defacto pet health expert as Dr. Google or someone at a local pet store—not a veterinarian.

Most shelter pets already have been spayed/neutered, wormed, and vaccinated. Millennials and others think the first stop is the local pet store or other retailer, where they shop in person as part of the experience economy. Their first thought post-shelter is to buy food, bowls, a collar, a bed, toys, etc., at the pet store/big-box retailer. While they're there, a trained employee upsells superpremium diets and parasite control. When they leave the pet store, smiling, with their pet, toting heavy purchases that left their bank account much lighter, are they thinking they have a compelling reason to visit a veterinarian in the near future—or at all—unless the pet is sick or injured?

The answer—increasingly "no"—affects not only our financial health, but also our relevance to what's most important: pet health and well-being. John Payne, CEO of Compassion First Pet Hospitals, warned that the veterinary profession is in danger of losing relevance to pet stores and online "experts"; once that relevance is lost, it's near impossible to regain.

The way forward

We can't help pets we don't see, and that's what makes these current trends alarming. So what can we do to reverse this trend, get upstream of pet stores, and develop relationships with new pet owners? Remind them that no professionals other than veterinarians have the education, training, and experience to prevent, detect, and treat disease or mitigate behavioral problems.

Puppy classes. In some parts of the world, like Australia, about three quarters of veterinary practices hold puppy kindergarten classes at their clinics. New pet owners know that's where they go to get recommendations on products, services, and basic behavior and socialization for pets. A recent study (not yet published) by boarded behaviorist Theresa DePorter, DVM, ECAWBM, DACVB, found that veterinary hospital-based puppy classes create a strong bond between the owners and the practice, and that 94.4 percent of the puppies who went through the class were still in their homes two years later, compared to 34 percent of the pups who hadn't taken the class.

Give shelter. Give your time, money, and expertise to local shelters. Become a best friend to pets and the people who work there; work hard to make shelter employees your clients.

Embrace Fear Free and Fear Free Happy Homes. By looking at both the physical and emotional well-being of pets, we are providing a valuable service to both pets and pet owners—something that is unavailable elsewhere, making a veterinary visit part of the experience economy, and creating a national consumer brand to drive pet owners to the true pet health expert: the local veterinarian.

Dr. Marty Becker writes every other month for Veterinary Practice News. He is a Sandpoint, Idaho, practitioner and founder of the Fear Free initiative. For more information about Fear Free or to register for certification, go to fearfreepets.com.

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9 thoughts on “Veterinarians need to change with today's pet owners

  1. Prices. Here in Los Angeles- no one can afford vet visits- you can't leave without hundreds of dollars or if it's surgery it's in the thousands. People go broke here on pet bills. It's insane. Charge less and more people will come. Charge like this and only the rich can afford it. I understand vet school prices are crazy. Something should be done about that! Have vets specialize in a few animals and not try to know every species. School would cost less per student and they wouldn't have to charge as much – and yes they'd have more work as more people go to vet but they'd love their work so much more.

    1. I assume you consider your pet as part of your family; or in some cases the pet is the only family. So you would want the person treating your pet and attempting to prevent serious health issues to be somewhat 'bargain educated?' Many times I hear people complaining about vet charges being excessive and they are comparing these charges to their own health costs. Until pet insurance/health coverage becomes routine as human health, the charges will always 'seem' excessive; when in fact to treat or prevent health issues for your member of the family, these charges are truly a bargain. Probably less than dinner out in L.A.!!!

      1. Agreed! I was recently quoted between $450 and $900 just to have a tooth broken pulled. Yikes! I thought of grabbing the pliers and getting my boy a few shots – of vodka. Just can't afford it. And sadly, this makes me realize I probably had no business getting a dog (rescue) at all.
        The other huge turn off for me has been what I refer to as "scaredy vet". They're more worried about LIABILITY than the well being of the pet. They refuse to stick their necks out and just try for the neck of it – even if you're willing to sign a release. We lost a beautiful soul to kidney failure. Our husky wasn't quite 7 years old and it came out of nowhere. They tried everything but gave us the news he wasn't going to make it. I begged them to try prednisone, but they said his kidneys couldn't take it. I begged them to try low dose naltrexone (not used in animals to my knowledge). I mean, what did we have to lose? They would not even consider deviating from PROTOCOL. They'd rather let your pet die than try. Sorry…that's not worth paying for. I'd rather a rural vet from the good old days. I do most of my own pet care now – except for vaccines and surgeries.

  2. Yes vet prices are just so expensive. I recently have paid out $5.500 for surgery and hospital stay for my doberman. Luckily I am in a pet fund so I will get 80% back I hope. You certainly need to belong to a fund. It's worth it.

  3. The Veterinary Hospital Managers Association (VHMA) recently reported that in the last year, veterinary revenue growth went up 5.1%, patient visits went down slightly, and new client growth declined by 13%! Rising veterinary costs destroy any client loyalty created by fear free environments, shelter relationships, and puppy classes. Yet, veterinarians are conflicted because of the need to generate sufficient revenue. The real problem is the small animal veterinarian is almost 100% reliant on a client's discretionary cash to pay for a pet's medical expenses. Until veterinarians somehow "find time" to discuss pet health insurance with clients and offer monthly payment plans through a professional A/R management service (NOT a 3rd-party financing company), the affordability disparity will only get worse.

    1. Throwing MORE money at the problem is not the answer. Pet health insurance is just as bad as our health insurance. Its all a huge scam. You get nothing for all the money you pour in. I thought veterinarians were supposed to love animals? Yet time & time again ive been sent on my way with my sick animal because they wouldnt treat them without a slew of expensive tests. Screw these preachy vets trying to desperately explain why we should pay more & they wont charge less

      1. Yes! They do this all the time! They'll recommend an xray for $250. AFTER the xray, they'll tell you "we could try an ultrasound. That might have a better chance at picking it up".
        Eyeroll…
        I had a dying cat. It seemed he had severe systemic inflammation but they didn't know why. And if we couldn't figure THAT out, he would die. I asked them to prescribe immune suppressants but they wouldn't without a diagnosis.
        They did a few scans and then tell me there was an issue with his heart, asking me if I want to proceed with heart surgery. $700+
        Um…so let me get this straight. You want me to spend $700 on surgery, but are also telling me you're not going to do anything to treat the inflammation?
        Basically they wanted me to spend $700 and let him die.

  4. As a pet owner for over 30 years, the absolute most important thing to keep me going back to a particular vet is excellent communication: address all of my questions and concerns, give as much information as possible so I don't feel like I need to visit Dr. Google afterwards. Second would be: don't talk down to me and don't get defensive when I talk about my experiences, my knowledge about something animal related, and/or something outside the realm of conventional veterinary medicine that has helped my pets. Yes, it's easy to find all sorts of information about animal medicine online these days, much of it written by medical professionals. It's easy for pet owners to share their experiences with each other in Facebook groups. I've actually learned more about how to keep my pets well in Facebook groups than from rushed, stressed, and burned out vets. Excellent vets who are good communicators, open minded, and who actually like dealing with pet owners are worth their weight in gold. People will return to a vet like that. People are your clients first, animals are your patients second, that's the reality of it. Animals don't bring themselves to your clinic, people bring them. Treat the people right and the animals will benefit.

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