What do you think Ben the Vet extracted from Frank’s ear? Well, it is something that is fairly common. And the same object can get into a cat’s ear and their eyes. It is a sharp grass seed. It looks like wheat. The barbs attached to the seed means that it can make its way towards the eardrum. In fact, Ben says that it had just started to penetrate the ear drum.
It must have been very uncomfortable. Pets don’t have specific voices. We have to half guess what is going on. Frank was shaking his head and looked as if he was in discomfort. Those symptoms can point to an ear problem but other health problems too.
It is pleasing that the caregiver did not hesitate to take their dog to Ben.
One commentor said: ‘My spaniel got one of these last week. Nice £750 emergency vet fees along with it’.
Another said: ‘Same happened twice to our dog in both ears. £2k for operations’.
That’s the big issues: the cost. The perceived high cost is not because vets are ripping off customers. Well, some might but in general vets unfairly get a bad reputation, I feel.
There two main reasons: most vets in the UK are now owned by hedge fund managers and they do rip people off. They are parasitic predators whose objective is to milk an asset whatever it is.
But the vet is not paid particularly well. It is the owners who get the money. Vets used to be owned by partnerships constituted by the vets themselves. They sold out to big business and now they are owned by accountants and greedy hedge fund managers. A bad development.
Another issue in the UK with vet costs is that the British are used to ‘free’ health care via the NHS (it’s gone very bad). Vets provide privately funded health care so it seems to be very expensive when it is not bearing in mind the overheads in running a veterinary clinic.
Dogs are going to run around in long grass. It must be fairly common in the UK and eyes; ears and toes are common places for grass seeds to reside. Sometimes they end up under the skin. They can even migrate into the body where they can cause serious problems.
Those that know best say that if your dog has been running in long grass it is sensible to check them. Some dogs will pick up a large number which will take a while to remove.
Note: the fee quote (£750) appears to apply to UK vets generally. I am not saying that Ben charged this fee. I don’t know his fees. They may be lower than from vets owned by businesses and independent vets are generally less commercially-minded.
