Searching for a Veterinarian

This past Monday I went searching for a Vet for puppy. For years my family has gone to the same vet for a variety of animals. 4 cats and 3 dogs have been patients at that clinic. Unfortunately we do not live in that area and due to the bankers hours that most vets have we were tasked with looking at new clinics. I was very weary of this because although we want the best for our dog, we don't want to be over charged and I have watched one too many Marketplace episodes not to do some background research. It doesn't help that we technically live in the city where everything costs a little more.

To do the research I started off with google maps and did a "search nearby" for vets. From there I looked at about 10 websites of the vets nearby and narrowed it down to 5 places to call. I also took a look at a vet rating website: http://www.vetratingz.com/ but I find those difficult to gain information from as many reviews contradict each other. I piled a list of a few questions together (mostly relating to costs) and started with my inquiries.

Westway Animal Clinic:

This was the first clinic I called and they left me with a great impression. They were very friendly and seemed genuinely interested in our venture of getting a new dog. I didn't feel for a second that I was getting "sold to". There location is also close to home and they are open 7 days a week, reduced weekend hours, but that's ok. They have a full range of services for the dog and even offer a pediatric appointment for people in our situation. The price of shots were pretty average and tests not hugely expensive. Spaying and microchip for our size dog ran at about $480.

Rathburn Animal Clinic:

I was not as impressed with this clinic. First off, I was hung up on... not intentionally...I hope. I called back and was hoping for a bit of a shpeel on there services, but this receptionist was not very peppy. She didn't even inquire about the dog breed once or congratulate us. The vaccines were a bit more than Westway,but the spaying was less at about $430. She didn't mention anything about pre-surgery blood work up or anything like the last place and she said we would have to pay for the cone... $10, but still. I didn't get the same feeling from this place as I did the first.

Islington Village Animal Clinic:

Islington was a mix between the first two in terms of friendliness. As with the others they are a full service animal hospital. Vaccines were moderately priced at about $75 dollars for 12wk and 16wk boosters. The spaying and chipping was $520 PLUS pain meds to go home with the dog. I was not overly impressed with that price. It did get a high rating on vetratingz (4.7/5) but there are a lot of suckers out there that do not do full research so again I took that with a grain of salt. This clinic stood at #2 so far.

Kingsway Animal Hospital

I could tell by their website that this place was going to be expensive. Not that their website was so great, but they had a picture of a rustic looking house in the kingsway village. This was the only place I called that did try to sell me on it. The receptionist was peppy, but she did not have a lot of knowledge readily available. This got her into the small talk of trying to sell me on this clinic. Then the prices came in. Spay and Chip $533, average checkup is about $137 (includes annual vaccines) and 12 and 16wk vaccines were $150 each. This would be #3 based on the cost.

Meadowvale Animal Clinic:

Just for fun, I gave a call to our family trusted clinic to see if places outside of Toronto really did offer cheaper appointments. Another friendly receptionist that was enthusiastic to help. This clinic is a bit different as it is a satellite facility of a full service hospital. What that means is they only do vaccines and checkups and dispense drugs for the most part. The only surgery we are planning for is the spaying so we don't necessarily need a full service clinic anyways. The spaying and chipping is about $388. Much cheaper than everyone else we spoke to. The rest of their prices were mid range. The average checkup was reasonably priced at 126.40 including rabies booster which is also the price of 12 and 16 week shots.

We still have about a month to decide where we want to bring our pooch as the pups just received their 8wk shots this week. In all likelihood we will go with the Westway Animal Clinic. I just have a gut feeling that it is a great vet. I think my #2 choice would be Meadowvale, but it is out of our city. Our family has a good track record with surgical procedures at the Meadowvale Animal clinic so we will probably have her spayed through there in a few months time. So far this process has been very enlightening!