What do most yall do for your vaccines and medication for your pups?

I feel like my vets prices have gone through the roof, just like everything else.

Anywhere you can just buy them online and give them yourself?

One of the most expensive things is the simperico trio (flea, tick and heart worm medication). That pill is like $35 pill and it's administered monthly.....

I love my dogs but am getting cheap, what are some options out there?

You can pay your vet now or you can pay him later when the low cost clinic screws up - or something gets missed because you're not getting a routine exam with your vaccines.

There ARE different vaccine suppliers and there IS a difference in quality. Not all vaccines are created equal.

We pay $68 for annuals - which includes an exam (rabies, Distemper/Parvo, Lepto, Bordetella) - at a low cost clinic you're going to get rabies, D/P, and bordetella, NO EXAM and it's still going to cost you $40-45.

$35/month for simparica trio is the same price it's going to be anywhere for a large dog - which isn't bad for flea, tick and heartworms. You can do just about any combo of drugs and it works out to about the same.

Vets exist to run a business. They are not subsidized by the government/taxpayers/insurance like human medicine. Compare procedures in human medicine to the same procedure in animals - it's a bargain.

I don't agree with Cochise for my personal experience. I recently had my lab put down. She was 1 month shy of 13 years old. She ate a very healthy diet along with daily glucosamine. She only started needing vet visits late in life once I knew she had cancer and I never gave her flea, tick and heart worm medication because she was primarily an indoor dog that had little interaction with any other animals.

Keep yearly vaccinations up to date, particularly rabies.( my versatiles seem to like the feel of fur in their mouth as much as feathers) Ivermectin monthly for heart worm. Complete checkup when they get vaccinated. The local vet is good. I pay the bill without complaining about it. It is part of the annual cost of owning bird dogs.

My Jack dog visited the vet once a year for a full check up shots and meds and had to be put down due to cancer at 8 years old, my GSP gets the same treatment and he's 15. I guess what I'm saying it doesn't matter what you do, chit happens.

You do you - you’re wrong though. You are the 1 in a million exception to the odds.

FYI for anyone who doesn’t know - heart worms are a year round concern - especially in Texas.

1 in a million....right...

The number of medical experts on this site is remarkable.

My wife spent 10 years working at one of the busiest vet clinics in this state - you have experience with ONE dog - she has experience with THOUSANDS. She has a college degree in animal science - as do I. We are not retards who don't know what we're talking about.

You can weigh the opinion of your ONE own personal experience and arrogantly claim I don't know what I'm talking about - or you could realize you may just be wrong about this.

First off, I’m done to replying to you. I never said you don't know what you're talking about and to call me arrogant when all I said was “I don't agree with Cochise for my personal experience” (more than 1 dog BTW) when you’re the one bragging about you and you wife’s “expertise”. And I recall plenty of your previous posts questioning the knowledge of doctors and medical experts, so you're obviously selective when it' comes to medical opinions. But, I guess I'm just supposed to bow down and comply with some random braggadocios internet forum poster.

I guess you're selectively reading what you and I wrote - skipping over the entire first reply of me saying "You do you - you're wrong though" - that you NOT giving heart worm meds and your dog not getting heart worms is the rare exception - not the norm. You obviously understand or know nothing about the heartworm life cycle based upon your next response.

As I said originally - you do you.

Also there is a very BIG difference in questioning COVID (which we were all correct to question) and your vet recommending heartworm meds (and other basic things).

With that said - I fully encourage you to educate yourself enough so that you CAN question your vet - there are A LOT of horrible ones out there that shouldn't be practicing medicine - just like human docs.

Cochise is right on the money(no pun intended). We own a vet clinic. We see the people that try to do it on the cheap and 99% of the time it will cost you more in the long run, or shorten your pets life. Please don't buy the TSC vaccines. There is no QC on them and we see more problems with them being given "at home" than anything else it seems. Most people buy them, throw them in the car and give them whenever they get home or remember to do so. They have to be kept refrigerated at all times. As for preventatives, yes they are getting more expensive. Don't blame your vet, blame the pharma companies as they have been increasing their prices way more than normal and more often. Vet clinic have to do the same. There are alot of generics out now that you can either get from your vet or with a script you can get online that are just as good and much, much cheaper than Simparica Trio and even Heartgard.

Mine get Ivermectin every month and rabies vaccination once a year. Other than that I won’t take a dog to the vet unless it’s life or death.

Same and I have been doing that for over 30 years. Mine also get TSC vaccines once a year. All my dogs have been treated in this manner for over 30 years. The only ones that say not to usually are vets. My vet is the one that told me how to use Ivermectin years ago. But then he was a bird dog man.

I agree, owning dogs is getting more expensive. Just like everything else in life.
My longtime country vet is retiring, after 46 years. Him
and his vet tech have been like part of the family, and I’m sure I won’t find another office like his.
Each person is different, on what they are willingly to spend on a dog. Or what they can afford to spend on one. I don’t fault someone for going to a low cost clinic, but I also will not listen to someone giving me crap because me and my dogs see the same chiropractor.

FYI
Sentinel covers heartworm prevention, and fleas for a lot less than a lot of other preventives.
I use wondercide spray, if I’m going to be in a area with ticks.

Me too but I order the vaccines from Foster & Smith.
and I use Pet armour Plus if I need it. (I've never had a flea or tick problem at the house, but our lease in Oklahoma had a lot of ticks, so I would usually give it to them Nov. - feb) Haven't needed it in years.