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UNDERSTANDING THE VETERINARY WORLD

Literature Review

Mary Rose Denina

ENG 3010 SEC 010

Wayne State University

Through extensive research both literary and personal experiences I have conducted my

research throughout this semester. This review will give an insight on the veterinary discourse

community, as well as inform the readers on what pet insurance is and the beneficial advantages

and disadvantages on having pet insurance. It will also explain the ethical and non-ethical

practices that is taught and performed in this field. This piece will also explain the influence(s)

corporations have in the veterinary field and animal health overall. [could include more in the

abstract]
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Introduction

The veterinary field is a discourse community in itself, the community consists of

professional and non-professional members such as veterinarians (professional) and pet owners

(non-professional) etc. Members in this community strive to deliver the best possible animal care

while ensuring that the owners and client are comfortable. (Fairview Animal Hospital, 2017).

Their main focus is to find and come up with new ideas and treatments to better help animals

recover faster. Members in this community upon discovering new methods for better treatments

and medication, communicate with each other through the use of medical records, news outlets,

social medias and by word of mouth. I volunteer my spare time at the Humane Society here in

Detroit and I’ve experience this myself firsthand by helping out and speaking with the

technicians, veterinarians and even from the other volunteers. There are a lot of medical and

anatomical terms that they use that most people without the proper schooling would not

understand. I believe it is important for members of the veterinarian dc to communicate with

each other of their findings because not only can it help many animals, but it can also help

human beings as well. For example, there are current successful chemotherapy trials of an

injectable chemotherapy drug that have been successful on dogs that may be studied in human

clinical trials in the near future. Researchers at the University of Kanas have created this

injectable drug and their data shows significant improvement to even complete elimination to

natural occurring canine cancers. They hope to have human clinical trials within the next several

years (avma.org).
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Pet Insurance

From the article “Consumer Preferences for Pet Health Insurance” they stated that "Pet insurance

can be considered as a variation of human health insurance, where pet insurance companies

reimburse the owner after the pet has received care and the owner submits a claim to the

insurance company" (Williams et al, 3). Just like human health care insurance, pet insurance is

the same thing. People will pay a certain amount of money every month and they will have

certain procedures like wellness checkups covered for with a certain amount of a copayment.

Suzanne Jarvis stated in her article “Is pet insurance sustainable” that "Over the past 25 years the

average cost of cover has tripled for cats and has increased six-fold for dogs. As a result, more

owners are considering ‘self-insurance’ - putting money aside each month - to cover their

veterinary fees" (Jarvis 210). You never know if your vet will discover an unknown lying health

concern that your animal may have or if your animal will need a certain surgery. Matthew Limbs

said in his article “Pet insurance claims reach an all-time high” that the "average cost of surgery

was around £1500 (about 2,077USD) and high payouts made last year included £30,000(about

42,000UDS) to treat a dog suffering from seizures" (Limb 684). The cost for certain procedures

on animals can be costly and its most likely the case that pet owners don’t really understand the

severity of their pets’ condition but would do anything to keep their pets healthy and live for a

long time. While working as a Kennel attendant I also assists the technicians and doctors at

Animal Hospital Maple Orchard where I mainly attend to boarding animals but when things are

slow with boarding, I help restrain animals while they are being looked at as well as take

payments from clients. The amount of times I have had to explain to clients why certain

medications and items on their invoices cost the way they do is astonishing. This once recent

interaction I can recall was with this client who was surprised at their invoice when they brought
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their animal in for a wellness checkup, but the client also wanted a yearlong dosage for a

preventative that helps animals with heart worm, fleas and ticks. Not only did the client get the

yearlong dosage for the medication she was also provided with the chewable form of the

medication which made it easier for her to administer the meds to the animal at home. Once the

doctor explained to her the reasoning for the cost she gladly agreed to the price of her bill.

Many animals are not being properly being taken care of and taken to a vet when really needed

to because of the cost of the service. An article called “Consumer Preferences for Pet Health

Insurance” said “introduction of a companion animal also brings additional spending and risk

into a consumer’s personal budget in the form of pet food, toys, grooming, and animal health

care” Taking care of an animal is costly on its own from being able to feed and entertain it to the

being able to maintain its health. Many people consider their pets are part of their family and are

willing to do anything for their pets. From the article “The Impact of Pet Health Insurance on

Dog Owners’ Spending for Veterinary Services” states “In the United States there are an

estimated 63.4 million households that own at least one dog, and 42.7 million households that

own at least one cat”. With the increase of animals being adopted the need for veterinary services

have also increased. This article also stated that in a 2019 study done by the veterinary services

association that “48% of pet owners are not fully satisfied with the veterinary clinic they go to

because of cost/price issues” but “95% of cat and dog owners were satisfied with the quality of

medical care (excluding cost factors) they received for their pets”. Which is understandable from

a pet owner prospective as myself but how else do you expect for obtaining good medical care

and not be expensive it’s as the saying goes quality over quantity. There are many different

factors that go into veterinary fees, there is medication if your animal needs them. Medication

administered during the visits as well as medication need to be taken home if needed. The type of
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examination whether it being a wellness visit or a recheck up from a previous visit. These are all

inconsideration when invoicing clients. In the journal “Is pet insurance sustainable” She

mentions the main reason for why vet bills were costly were because of “…‘defensive medicine’

– a practice often associated with new graduates, but something that ‘all vets are guilty of’,

according to one participant. ‘We are seeing massive bills on relatively healthy animals” (Jarvis

210). She indicates that newer veterinarians are prescribing more preventative medication for

animal early on in their vet visits. Vaccinations are important to all animals and even to humans.

Getting your pet vaccinated early on in their lives can help them become less sick in the sense

that like human vaccinations some animal vaccines need booster shots for the vaccine to take full

effect if your animals are vaccinated early, they can be done with the sequence for that vaccine.

Meaning they will be more immune to certain diseases because they will develop the appropriate

antibodies to fight off these diseases and bacteria.

Ethical vs Non-ethical practices

Ethics can be defined in many different ways depending on the person and situation.

Philosopher Dr. Bernard Rollin claimed in his book An Introduction to Veterinary Medical

Ethics states that "Ethics is the set of principles that governs people's views of right and wrong,

good and bad, fair and unfair, just and unjust..." (Rollin 41). He also stated that "Veterinarians

have moral duties to their clients” as an example they have “obligations to keep contracts, to tell

the truth, to explain options, not to cheat, to maintain confidentiality” whereas some

veterinarians believe that they are not “morally obliged to keep a contract to euthanize a healthy

animal if the client has refused to consider other options. Others believe that it is not necessary

to tell the truth if the truth is very painful…" (Rollin 48). I believe there is a very fine line

between ethical practices and non-ethical practices. It’s all dependent on the situation at hand. I
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had a recent encounter at my job with this, an overweight cat (19.7 lbs) came into the hospital for

a sick visit the reasoning the cat started to lose weight quickly, stopped eating and kept throwing

up. Upon examination the doctor diagnosed that the felines kidneys began to fail and that there

were no further options for this cat but euthanasia. We could have done all we could have to give

the cat a more comfortable life of what it had left which that would include multiple medications

and surgeries which would have costed the owner well over a grand or put the cat down. It’s a

tough decision on both parties.

Corporation Influences in the Veterinary Field

[Need to do more research and narrow down my questions for this section]

Conclusion

[Need to work on once the corporation section is better delevoped]

Work Cited

"Chemotherapy used successfully in dogs to be studied in human trails." American Veterinary

Fairview Animal Hospital. (2017). Fairview Animal Hospital. Retrieved January 25, 2017, from
Vision & Mission Statements: http://fairviewanimalhosp.com/vision-statement/

"Is Pet Insurance Sustainable?" The Veterinary record 184.7 (2019): 210. ProQuest. Web. 7

"Pet Insurance Claims Reach an all-Time High." The Veterinary record 182.23 (2018):

Phillips, C. (2007), An Introduction to Veterinary Medical Ethics. 2nd edition ‐ by Rollin BE.
Australian Veterinary Journal, 85: 211-211.  https://doi-
org.proxy.lib.wayne.edu/10.1111/j.1751-0813.2007.00163.x

Williams, Angelica & Coble, Keith H. & Williams, Brian & Dicks, Michael & Knippenberg,
Ross, 2016. "Consumer Preferences for Pet Health Insurance," 2016 Annual Meeting,
February 6-9, 2016, San Antonio, Texas 230144, Southern Agricultural Economics
Association.

Williams, Angelica et al. “The Impact of Pet Health Insurance on Dog Owners’ Spending for
Veterinary Services.” Animals 10.7 (2020): 1162. Crossref. Web.