More threads by David Baxter PhD

Daniel E.

daniel@psychlinks.ca
Administrator

....Helplessness can cause vets a great deal of stress. The vet might try to avoid that feeling, without realizing it. He might go numb and make an insensitive comment. He might be unaware of the latest options for cancer treatments, and give up too soon. He might tell you “There’s no point in doing anything now, it’s too late. Take your dog home and prepare for the end.”
 

Daniel E.

daniel@psychlinks.ca
Administrator

Palladia: All Dogs are Good Candidates


Palladia is one of the most exciting drugs to treat animal cancer patients in decades. “It has a very high overall response rate, better than single agent chemotherapy and similar to multi-agent chemotherapies,” Dr. Bergman explained. “We now know that for dogs with metastic osteosarcoma, these dogs can actually have six months, nine months, 12 months with metastatic tumors that respond to Palladia!” he told us.

But like anything, Palladia has side effects. For starters, “It’s not a trivial expense drug,” he said. “It’s also a drug you can get into trouble with if you use the wrong dose,” warned Dr. Bergman. He went on to explain the importance of a veterinarian taking time to warn pet parents about all possible side effects. For example, if a dog stops eating while taking Palladia, things can rapidly escalate into a life-threatening situation. “I’ve been using the drug 15 or 16 years and I still learn from it. It’s such a bizarre drug in some of the types of side effects,” he said.

We asked Dr. Bergman, “Which dogs are good candidates for Palladia?” He explained that all dogs are good candidates for Palladia, with the exception of dogs who have a history of gastrointestinal issues. For all the rest, it doesn’t matter how big the mets are, “We’ve seen dogs go a year out on it,” he told us.
 

Daniel E.

daniel@psychlinks.ca
Administrator

Our dog kali was diagnosed with kidney cancer 3.5 years ago. The kidney was removed and the cancer returned and was diagnosed in April, 2010. Our Vet. an instructor at Washington State University Vet. School and on the Phfizer advisory board for Palladia recoomended Palladia. He was quite straight forward and did not promise anything, stating that not all dogs can accept the treatment i.e. they get pretty sick. We have been very fortunate.

Kali has lived a normal life for the past 18 months. We give her 80mg of Palladia on M, W, and Friday. My wife is an avid walker and Kali has joined her 3-4 times a week for a walk of 4-8 miles. Other than her coat turning lighter, one would not know she had cancer.

The doctors were straight forward and said we might get another year if her system could accept Palladia, which it did. We got 18 months. Unfortunately the cancer has finally overtaken the Palladia and she is now coughing up blood. X-rays show the cancer has advanced in her lungs. This has all happened in about two weeks with each day a liitle worse. We will be putting her down soon. Needless to say we are devastated, but are fortunate that she was able to tolerate the Palladia and give us another 18 months of joy.
 

Daniel E.

daniel@psychlinks.ca
Administrator
Palladia (at $20-$30 dollars per week for smaller pets, when taken three times a week) is practically free compared to its most similar human-drug counterpart, sunitinib.


[The researchers] Regan and Dow selected one of the drugs in this class (losartan) to evaluate the effect in mouse tumor studies. These studies showed strong activity using losartan alone in helping control the growth of metastatic tumors. When combined with a second drug, sunitinib, a targeted cancer drug that also has immune-modulatory properties, studies in mice showed even greater activity.

-------

Related research using an antihypertensive for renal cell carcinoma and other cancers:





 
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Daniel E.

daniel@psychlinks.ca
Administrator

I ended up racking up over $7,000 dollars in debt and still lost one of my best friends. This experience has opened my eyes to the lack of government oversight and regulations of veterinarian clinics.
 
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David Baxter PhD

Late Founder

I ended up racking up over $7,000 dollars in debt and still lost one of my best friends. This experience has opened my eyes to the lack of government oversight and regulations of veterinarian clinics.

This sounds very much like what happened with my son's dog several years ago, the one with half a frisbie stuck in his stomach. They ran up a bill of $5000 with all of their fancy tests and machines and somehow missed half a frisbie until they finally did exploratory surgery. A**holes.
 

Daniel E.

daniel@psychlinks.ca
Administrator

Daniel E.

daniel@psychlinks.ca
Administrator

By not giving a sufficient dose of the drug, parasites that are somewhat resistant are able to live and reproduce, passing on the trait of resistance to new generations.

For that reason, Peregrine agrees with Leslie that OTC availability of heartworm medications is worrisome. “If we’re going to seriously address resistance, my own opinion is that you should ban OTC sales,” he says.
 

Daniel E.

daniel@psychlinks.ca
Administrator

“It's hard knowing you're going to lose your dog, but you don't know when. I'd rather have that, and cherish the time that we have with her, than one day lose her and not know that she had cancer.”
 
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Daniel E.

daniel@psychlinks.ca
Administrator

To be a pet owner these days means inevitably exposing one’s self to varying helpings of guilt at every stage. Breeder or shelter? Crate, dogwalker or doggie day care? Treat the disease or let him die?

But I don’t want to feel guilty. We will have enough emotions to contend with. We’re going to brace ourselves and then we will grieve. It’s going to be a crappy time. But we believe this is the right choice. You may not. That’s fine. We won’t judge you, so don’t judge us.
 
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Daniel E.

daniel@psychlinks.ca
Administrator
My favorite online pet pharmacy in the US for consistently cheap drug prices, including for uncommon and/or compounded medications:

 

Daniel E.

daniel@psychlinks.ca
Administrator

...I know there were almost certainly dozens of pets in my earliest years of practice that might have been cured or successfully treated if I had done one or more of the following:
  • Rounds. What if I had a pet where I wasn’t sure of the diagnosis or that the treatment plan wasn’t working and the pet was failing and I didn’t ask a colleague for a second opinion?
  • Referrals. We were hesitant to refer patients to other veterinary hospitals or to the veterinary school because we wanted to keep the patient and profits in-house.
This is not just a mea culpa later in life. I learned a valuable lesson, and after that incident there have been plenty of times I screwed up, but told the truth (missed something on the radiographs, misinterpreted the lab work, misdiagnosed, chose the wrong medication to start out with, tried to spay a tom cat).

I can almost split my career into thirds. The first third was about me, my skills and my business. The middle third started my focus on “we,” as in our skills, our commitment and our passion for helping the pet be optimally healthy. It included robust second teamwork on cases, routine referrals and a commitment to always be honest about mistakes.

The last third, and going forward, is about looking after both the pet and the pet owner's physical and emotional well-being...
 

Daniel E.

daniel@psychlinks.ca
Administrator
The VCA (corporate) clinic I went to did not work out either. They put me through hell this week because my regular vet was on vacation. The substitute vet said "maybe your dog doesn't have cancer after all." What a nightmare that was, including another vet who said "sugar feeds cancer." I became so angry, that they are happy not to have me back. So now I am looking to the big city for vets, though I won't be seeing any anytime soon.

A couple of the countless negative reviews about VCA that caught my eye:

No one ever takes responsibility or apologizes-they just get defensive. I have spent over $8000 at THIS office!!! Had to go to the emergency 2 times to get them diagnosed because they didn't do it.

My parents are both retired and live on a limited income... They were heartbroken back in December when they had to put their dog down. The vet charged $200 extra to change the bandage on their dog's leg without their consent. Of course when it comes to the health of your pet money should be no object but when youre retired and living on social security it can make the ordeal even more traumatic and devastating.

Even other vets who are bloggers agree that many/most vets are just phoning it in. But the bloggers are overly sympathetic for their fellow veterinarians, saying the problem is largely "compassion fatigue." But unlike many Americans, many vets can afford therapy, vacations, housekeeping, or other privileges of upper-middle class society.

I think the bigger issue is both consumers and vetrinarians "going with the flow" in an industry with more demand than supply, oversight, or research. As it should be, human doctors are held to a much higher standard, but vets are rarely held responsible at all -- even in small claims courts.

Vets can always specialize or find other ways to practice if they need more money or less stress. They don't have to worry about the economy hurting their business or that their profession will die out. If they are tired of dealing with human owners, they can work in agriculture or other areas of the industry like nutrition or ultrasound imaging.
 
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Daniel E.

daniel@psychlinks.ca
Administrator

Student loans?
Cry me a river already. We all have student loan debt and make 1/4 of what you [vets] make before your bonuses. It’s not our job to pay off your student loan debt through price gouging.

Cost of the Practice?
Again it’s not my responsibly pay off your million dollar MRI machine by paying for expensive unnecessary procedures. If you couldn’t afford one, it would have been a better idea to work with the other local vets in the area to purchase one together; splitting the cost and in turn lower the cost of the practice. Most Vet visits don’t require an expensive MRI and there’s no need for every vet in a four block radius to have one. Have one for the area and use it as a out patience procedure.

Vet do Care?
Yeah they care, about money, not the animals. Evidence is in the following:

-The Vet board lobbied against non-profit vets, attempting to prohibit them from treating pets at a discount rates, stating it “threaten the business.” Thankfully this measure failed and was seen for the heartless and greedy measure that it was.

-The Vet Board lobby against allowing pet medicine to be sold online without a prescription. This restriction is so over reaching that at least in Ohio, I can’t even purchase Revolution online without a Rx from a Vet. Revolution!! This is nothing more than a monthly flea medication. I can walk into ANY Vet office right now and purchase this without them so much as asking me if I have cat, but it will be 3 times as expensive.

– The Vet board lobby against (successfully I believe) requiring vets to provide prescriptions to customers, although most will if ask for fear of backlash. Although you will have to INSIST on it as they will not offer and will try to sell you the medicine right then and they at 3 to 4 times the costs because that is their bread and butter.

If Vets really cared about animals, the board would not have taken these actions and many like it to suppress affordable access to pet care...The only Vets not offended by thy post, are likely decent people who work for non-profit Vet offices. Do yourself a favor and find yourself your local non profit Vet.
 
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Daniel E.

daniel@psychlinks.ca
Administrator
So far, the best value I have found for the future is a university-based animal clinic. They only want $90 to see a specialist in internal medicine compared to the going rate of $200. If you ever need an ultrasound, they charge half of what most places charge now.

In stark contrast, one specialty clinic in Phoenix would not disclose non-exam fees over the phone, even for basic bloodwork. But you have to pay the $205 exam fee in advance. Unbelievable. As one person said, dealing with some vets can feel like dealing with drug dealers.
 
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Daniel E.

daniel@psychlinks.ca
Administrator

"Today, according to PhDs, the dog has the highest rate of cancer of any mammal on the planet."
 

Daniel E.

daniel@psychlinks.ca
Administrator

Occupational licensing as a means of protecting favored insiders isn’t limited to small food producers and vendors. Such laws are everywhere in America today. I wrote about this a couple years back for the Foundation for Economic Education in a piece called The Right to Earn a Living Under Attack...

Mercedes Clemens was threatened with thousands of dollars in fines and criminal prosecution unless she stopped . . . massaging horses. The vet cartel was pissed that she was cutting into what they figured was a potentially lucrative market, so they decided to hamstring her with legislation instead of competing fairly.
 

Daniel E.

daniel@psychlinks.ca
Administrator
This is awesome. I bought my first bag today:

Screen Shot 2022-05-20 at 12.06.57 AM.jpg

Screen Shot 2022-05-20 at 12.00.40 AM.jpg

"Offer valid while supplies last. Must be 18 or older & a U.S. resident. Limit one (1) dog and one (1) cat reward per household. Reward is refund of qualifying routine and/or preventative well-check veterinary visit costs (US $200 maximum)."

The cost of vaccines may also be included, but I am not sure.

In Canada, the offer starts May 31:
 
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