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PE Rollups is a plague that has been spreading for decades. Dental Offices, Urgent Care Clinics, Nursing Homes, Animal Hospitals, Utilities... Personally, I b

PE Rollups is a plague that has been spreading for decades. Dental Offices, Urgent Care Clinics, Nursing Homes, Animal Hospitals, Utilities... Personally, I believe that the Mars group aggressive acquisition of veterinary clinics is partly to blame for the spike in suicide for Veterinarians. [0] But I also don't see this behaviour of the market to ever stop on its own. It's too profitable. [0] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10421543/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10421543/

busterarm 2y ago
I work with a former veterinarian and have discussed this topic at length. Pet owners and rising costs of doing business are the reason for the spike in suicides. The human customers are awful to deal with, you spend a lot of your time killing animals that you loved enough to devote your career to and the economics of the business mean that if you aren't already an established vet business you will never make good money.
- snapetom 2y ago
  Married to a current vet and you’re right. The clients are the worst. People are shit. Suicide is a huge problem in the field. My wife’s class of slightly over 100 has had two suicides.
  - whartung 2y ago
    That's just a shame. We love our vet. Utmost respect for him and his folks. He's been with us through some of the worst times. We've had him for 20 years. We're 50 miles away, and still take the cats to him (unless it's particularly urgent). VCA (or whoeever) has been nipping on his heels. He may take the offer and move out closer to us and open a new shop. I know he's considering it. After he bought his practice from the original vet, that vet went out and opened another practice also years ago.
  - prirun 2y ago
    To put that into perspective: "The age-adjusted suicide rate in 2022 was 14.21 per 100,000 individuals." So 1.4 suicides per 100 is 100x the national average.
- PaulHoule 2y ago
  I see vet service prices have skyrocketed. My wife caught a stray cat in the other house who we've been trying to gentle for most of a month. We've got a spare room we can use for this purpose for a while and we seem to be making progress at about the rate we'd expect but we don't know if we can get him to live in our house with the other cats or if he can share the barn with another cat or if we will release him or he will escape or ... He's a Tom and we have to neuter him regardless and the issue got more urgency because he sprayed on a cable mess. Calling up private practice vets I found that they want to see a cat for two visits (first to get bloodwork for anesthesia) and that each visit will cost about $400. I can't afford $800 for an animal whose fate is unknown and since he's not used to being handled I don't want to pack him into a box twice. (One time I can glove up and surprise him, the next time won't be so easy) Turns out the Uni I work at has a clinic every month or so where I can get the neuter done free as a staff member but it involves waiting for an announcement on a Facebook page and signing up on a form which typically fills up in an hour. If it all works out I can get him done in about two weeks, a few days later than the private clinic could do the work. I used to take my cats to get regular checkups 20 years ago but I've long fallen out of the habit because it's gotten too expensive : our other three cats are due on their rabies shots and we're taking them to a clinic open periodically at a store that offers low cost services.

busterarm 2y ago

I work with a former veterinarian and have discussed this topic at length. Pet owners and rising costs of doing business are the reason for the spike in suicides. The human customers are awful to deal with, you spend a lot of your time killing animals that you loved enough to devote your career to and the economics of the business mean that if you aren't already an established vet business you will never make good money.

snapetom 2y ago
Married to a current vet and you’re right. The clients are the worst. People are shit. Suicide is a huge problem in the field. My wife’s class of slightly over 100 has had two suicides.
- whartung 2y ago
  That's just a shame. We love our vet. Utmost respect for him and his folks. He's been with us through some of the worst times. We've had him for 20 years. We're 50 miles away, and still take the cats to him (unless it's particularly urgent). VCA (or whoeever) has been nipping on his heels. He may take the offer and move out closer to us and open a new shop. I know he's considering it. After he bought his practice from the original vet, that vet went out and opened another practice also years ago.
- prirun 2y ago
  To put that into perspective: "The age-adjusted suicide rate in 2022 was 14.21 per 100,000 individuals." So 1.4 suicides per 100 is 100x the national average.
PaulHoule 2y ago
I see vet service prices have skyrocketed. My wife caught a stray cat in the other house who we've been trying to gentle for most of a month. We've got a spare room we can use for this purpose for a while and we seem to be making progress at about the rate we'd expect but we don't know if we can get him to live in our house with the other cats or if he can share the barn with another cat or if we will release him or he will escape or ... He's a Tom and we have to neuter him regardless and the issue got more urgency because he sprayed on a cable mess. Calling up private practice vets I found that they want to see a cat for two visits (first to get bloodwork for anesthesia) and that each visit will cost about $400. I can't afford $800 for an animal whose fate is unknown and since he's not used to being handled I don't want to pack him into a box twice. (One time I can glove up and surprise him, the next time won't be so easy) Turns out the Uni I work at has a clinic every month or so where I can get the neuter done free as a staff member but it involves waiting for an announcement on a Facebook page and signing up on a form which typically fills up in an hour. If it all works out I can get him done in about two weeks, a few days later than the private clinic could do the work. I used to take my cats to get regular checkups 20 years ago but I've long fallen out of the habit because it's gotten too expensive : our other three cats are due on their rabies shots and we're taking them to a clinic open periodically at a store that offers low cost services.