Vet in a box? Pro or con?

November 9, 2022 8:27 AM

I’m in NYC and have been going to the same veterinary practice for over 25 years. Our dogs have always gotten great care there and the people are lovely. But their prices have always been high, and ever since Covid, it’s gone even higher. And with the huge influx of pandemic puppies in our neighborhood it’s become harder to get appointments as well. Recently, a couple of national / chain vets have opened branches nearby, particularly Bond Vet. Is it worth making the switch?

I’m always a bit wary of going from a small local business to a national chain. But I also see the benefits (and I shop at Petco and Target; I’m not going to pretend I live my life like all big companies are bad, and money is a concern for us). Does anyone have experience with them? Are they a real vet service, but less expensive because of economies of scale? Are they more like a doc-in-a-box where you’re more likely to see a nurse / tech than a DVM for wellness visits? How are they for emergency care?

If anyone has personal experience with the chain, or other chains in NYC, I’d love to know more.

posted by Mchelly to Pets & Animals (6 answers total)

I don't know about this chain, but I posted a similar question about Banfield a good while back, and I learned a lot. As much as I liked the vet I saw and trusted her as a person, I couldn't feel that I trusted the office, so I switched to an independent vet. But it was a real tradeoff -- that one was more expensive, and if it weren't that my dog had a lot of medical issues in her time, it would not have been worth it.

Bond seems much smaller than Banfield and perhaps less prone to its issues for that reason, but I could not say.
posted by Countess Elena at 8:36 AM on November 9, 2022

We have a large pet store chain here in the UK that operates its own veterinary practices. What I've heard about them has only been good. My usual (independent) vet actually referred me to one of these once as they had more expertise in small animals. Here at least, they are proper vets, and seem to provide a high standard of care.
posted by pipeski at 8:55 AM on November 9, 2022

We've been going to Bond Vet in Brooklyn since the summer. It feels a lot like the One Medical of the pet world. Since we're still new to kitten life, I don't have enough data points to compare them to, but they've been friendly, competent and organized. We've seen the same vet for every visit, but that's supposedly a coincidence (she told us we could request her, but that otherwise we'd be seeing someone at random). Emergency care hasn't come up yet. Also I get the sense we're paying ridiculous gentrified brownstone Brooklyn prices for a place with very fancy branding, which has left me mildly irked, though I haven't done a ton of comparison shopping.
posted by thejoshu at 9:12 AM on November 9, 2022

We ended up at Bond Vet after our prior vet wouldn’t return calls about our dog’s treatment and we needed a new vet on short notice. Up until that point, I was much happier with that local vet vs. Bond.

I found the rotating vets (and lots of vets shadowing in training because they’re growing quickly) to be frustrating when dealing with what ultimately ended up being end of life care for a medically complicated pet. Transferring records in from other vets lost a ton of context and probably contributed to a bunch of miscommunications. They were very easy to book and good at explaining costs, but I’m not sure they were cheaper than our prior vet. In general it seemed they biased towards making the customer “happy” vs actually explaining what was going on in an admittedly sad situation.

I will probably go with a different vet in the future if I need one.
posted by A Blue Moon at 1:15 PM on November 9, 2022

My general feelings after some recent vet foofaraw: if you have a young healthy animal rotating vets are fine. If you have an elderly or special needs animal, try to stick with the vet that knows you.

I say this because vets where I live are so understaffed that seeing our regular vet is a two week wait. That means for anything acute we need to see the emergency vet. They are generally pretty good, but they don't *know* our 15 year old dog. She saw three different vets in a 24 hour period, and it's not clear that they communicate much except via chart. It's not their fault, but it's really not great.
posted by oneirodynia at 2:48 PM on November 9, 2022 [1 favorite]

You might want to read this about Bond Vet and then take a gander over here about Banfield, VCA and Blue Pearl.

Unfortunately, the two-week wait seems to have become the standard no matter where you live for vets. If you are an established customer, sometimes you can get away with leaving a message and having a vet call you back with an answer, rather than having to wait for an appointment. My vet will also communicate via text, so you can send pictures.

I agree that if you have a mutt or regular cat that will likely need very little vet care, these places should be fine. But for any breed-specific knowledge for anesthesia, orthopedics, or maybe cardiac reasons, I'd stay far, far away. You can Google Blue Pearl and Banfield and see the lawsuits that have happened in the not-too-distant past from pets that have needlessly died.
posted by dancinglamb at 10:34 PM on November 10, 2022