vet reported woman for animal cruelty because she couldnt afford 10k surgery for dog

[WCLinolVir]

80. You have an attitude. Eff to you too.

People are tired of being ripped off by vets who are happy to tell you you need a test but don't bother to tell you what the success rate of that test is. Often you can treat empirically. And will anyway, and save the animal a potentially unnecessary invasive procedure. I do not make a move without researching my options. I would never trust a vet to give me the full picture. I am sure they don't think I have the background to understand.
Just recently it was recommended to me that I have my cat taken to a specialist for an ultrasound after having had her blood work done. What no one would tell me is that it may not answer any questions given her lab values and her exam. Yet it would have been hundreds of dollars. Same with a needle biopsy. May not help at all in determining the course of treatment. Was someone going to tell me this?? No. Now I have a degree in nursing and understand a few things about the process and what to research. I also have the time to do so. So when a vet recommends a test, or any procedure I say let me think about it. I also research ahead of my visit so I know if my cat has a urinary tract infection, we may not find anything in his urinalysis. So what is the treatment for a UTI? People do not understand that they have options to all of those diagnostic tests that sometimes aren't necessary for something such as a UTI. And the vets are not telling people that there is a significant chance that the urinalysis will be inconclusive. I understand about the standard of care, but I think we need to be truthful about the efficacy of diagnostic tests and their rates of success and cost benefit.
People are not able to rely upon the vet for that level of honesty for the most part, yet are asked to shell out hundreds/thousands of dollars without feeling comfortable with the process. That is taking advantage of people.
Would a doctor tell you "I want to cut you open and hopefully find the source of your long term infection but I have statistically only a 50% chance of getting lucky", and it will cost hundreds of dollars and the anesthesia will risk messing up your endocrine system, not to mention site infection. Hey how about it?
We would not call that good medicine. And the kicker is he could have just given you an antibiotic, and see how you progress and switch it if it doesn't seem to be effective.