besides price, some people don’t know what’s normal or can wait vs an emergency. when in doubt, obviously vet, but sometimes there’s also no need to panic
Because if they’re overreacting about the situation they don’t want to waste their time and money going to the vet when they could ask on Reddit and have a couple kind strangers give their input.
Idk, people are saying money. But I don’t have a bunch of money either, and still – my reaction is NEVER to go to reddit. If you’re a professional in your industry, and you read your industries subreddit, you learn VERY QUICKLY that people will confidently spew bullshit all over this place. I would never trust reddit for anything serious.
Reddit is good for “how to download x mod for x game” or “how to stream x for free”
Not:
“My pet can’t breathe”
Not to mention the situation of having to sit there and constantly refreshing reddit – hoping for a useful reply to come in, while your pet is laying next to you with a medical emergency? I could never.
I’d go to google and look for a website that looks reputable before I would go make a post on reddit.
Many of posters I’ve seen in this situation are teens/kids who are in families or places where it isn’t common to take pets to the vet. Or their parents don’t have money, and vets cost money. They might be looking for home remedies because a vet visit isn’t in their control, but they desperately want to help their beloved pet
Some people have no experience with animal injury/illness and genuinely don’t know what’s out of the ordinary or extremely worrying. There’s been lots of people finding nipples or dew claws and asking if they’re growths/tumors
But mostly it’s people wanting some basic triage from those with more experience. They’re asking “does this need a vet visit, or just monitor at home? If it needs a vet visit, can it wait until my vet has an appointment or do I need to drive 2hrs to the emergency vet? Can it wait until morning, or do I need to get in the car right this minute?”
Tbh I find the posts that just say “vet.” or “why are you asking here? Go to a vet.” to be very frustrating. Add some context, say why it can’t wait, explain in some way
Not everyone lives close to vets, let alone close to a 24/7 emergency vet clinic. I have lived 5 hours away from a true emergency vet clinic and our 2 local vets would be booked months. I absolutely would Google symptoms for my pets to gauge how serious something might be and if it warrants a 5 hour drive, missing work, and paying emergency fees.
A lot of them genuinely can’t tell what’s bad and whats not. There is a whole sub reddit dedicated to people mistaking nipples on male cats for ticks or tumors.
Walking into the vet is at least $200. If you don’t need to, why spend the money, something that is a finite resource for most people.
Plus vets, like dentists, can add upcharges. One of my cats was sick. He was a nervous orange tabby and needed his dick cut off — pretty regular stuff. I have the vet a budget and she decided that some exploratory surgery was necessary to diagnose which happened to cost my budget. I argued against it because there would be nothing left over to treat whatever was diagnosed. The vet insisted. It ended up being what we all knew it was so I told the vet that she had just killed my cat because she insisted on spending my entire budget on exploratory surgery.
Comments
They can’t afford a vet
one costs money, the other is free
agreed, if situation is worrying, getthefuck off reddit and hightail it to the vet!
besides price, some people don’t know what’s normal or can wait vs an emergency. when in doubt, obviously vet, but sometimes there’s also no need to panic
Because the US doesn’t have universal healthcare
Because if they’re overreacting about the situation they don’t want to waste their time and money going to the vet when they could ask on Reddit and have a couple kind strangers give their input.
[deleted]
Because it takes time to get into a vet. Even the online vet services will just tell you to go in to your actual vet most of the time.
A visit to my vet is well over $100 just to be seen as well.
Idk, people are saying money. But I don’t have a bunch of money either, and still – my reaction is NEVER to go to reddit. If you’re a professional in your industry, and you read your industries subreddit, you learn VERY QUICKLY that people will confidently spew bullshit all over this place. I would never trust reddit for anything serious.
Reddit is good for “how to download x mod for x game” or “how to stream x for free”
Not:
“My pet can’t breathe”
Not to mention the situation of having to sit there and constantly refreshing reddit – hoping for a useful reply to come in, while your pet is laying next to you with a medical emergency? I could never.
I’d go to google and look for a website that looks reputable before I would go make a post on reddit.
In my area vets rarely have same day appointments so maybe they are trying to gauge if it’s worthy of a 1k plus emergency vet visit.
Most of the time they are kids whose parents don’t want to spend money on the pets.
It costs money to go to the vet
Posting to Reddit is free
Free is cheaper than not free
Hope this helps
Many of posters I’ve seen in this situation are teens/kids who are in families or places where it isn’t common to take pets to the vet. Or their parents don’t have money, and vets cost money. They might be looking for home remedies because a vet visit isn’t in their control, but they desperately want to help their beloved pet
Some people have no experience with animal injury/illness and genuinely don’t know what’s out of the ordinary or extremely worrying. There’s been lots of people finding nipples or dew claws and asking if they’re growths/tumors
But mostly it’s people wanting some basic triage from those with more experience. They’re asking “does this need a vet visit, or just monitor at home? If it needs a vet visit, can it wait until my vet has an appointment or do I need to drive 2hrs to the emergency vet? Can it wait until morning, or do I need to get in the car right this minute?”
Tbh I find the posts that just say “vet.” or “why are you asking here? Go to a vet.” to be very frustrating. Add some context, say why it can’t wait, explain in some way
Not everyone lives close to vets, let alone close to a 24/7 emergency vet clinic. I have lived 5 hours away from a true emergency vet clinic and our 2 local vets would be booked months. I absolutely would Google symptoms for my pets to gauge how serious something might be and if it warrants a 5 hour drive, missing work, and paying emergency fees.
A lot of them genuinely can’t tell what’s bad and whats not. There is a whole sub reddit dedicated to people mistaking nipples on male cats for ticks or tumors.
Same reason I turn to ChatGPT for therapy
Walking into the vet is at least $200. If you don’t need to, why spend the money, something that is a finite resource for most people.
Plus vets, like dentists, can add upcharges. One of my cats was sick. He was a nervous orange tabby and needed his dick cut off — pretty regular stuff. I have the vet a budget and she decided that some exploratory surgery was necessary to diagnose which happened to cost my budget. I argued against it because there would be nothing left over to treat whatever was diagnosed. The vet insisted. It ended up being what we all knew it was so I told the vet that she had just killed my cat because she insisted on spending my entire budget on exploratory surgery.
Because vets are expensive?
You have to pay for vets 🤔