I had a vet meet, and greet today. They told me I shouldn't be feeding my boy Bil Jacs because its not good, and recommended Science Diet (of course.) Also I told them he was on heart guard, and the recommended trifexis, but I've read a lot of bad things.

My main question is that to get him neutered here it will cost about $350-$450, and they do the laser surgery, do blood work, put him on a IV, and monitor him with a ECG. Now the humane society does a thing where they give you a voucher depending on his weight, and my voucher would cost $50, and you take it to a vet clinic and they do it for the voucher. The other vet I was thinking of taking him to accepts the voucher, so it would cost $50, and then I could pay a extra $40 do to blood work, and $50 dollars for a IV. All together that would be $130, but they do it the traditional way, no laser.

What would you guys do?

Also I forgot to add that even though the first vet cost more, they have good reviews everywhere I look online, and I want the best for Kie!

When I was a new dog owner, I got Nara spayed at one of those voucher vets. It was the vet that fixes all of the rescue animals for free, and pets for very cheap. I trusted them because they do this surgery all day long, every day, for all of the local rescues. I trusted their experience. Nara turned out fine. No issues. So I made the right call. We were also going to a normal, recommended, and postively-reviewed regular vet. I wanted a holistic vet, but there were none around where we lived.

Once we moved to Portland, OR, we found a bunch of nice holistic vets. I did my research to figure out the best one in town and we've been using them since 2009. When Paw Paw turned 2, I was going to neuter him, knowing that it was going to cost $350+ at my holistic vet (they also did a bunch of the extra stuff). Like you, I wanted the best for my dog, and had come a long way in my dog ownership and knowledge, so I was willing to pay the money.

I felt I did right with Nara at the time, and don't regret it now, and I know I did right with Paw Paw at that time. So you have to go with your heart. If you have the money, I'd say go with the nicer all-around experience for you and your pup. If you want to save money, go with the cheaper vet.

This kind of stuff is never an easy decision. Good luck!

I would take my dog to the vet that I think is better. Cost matters but so does the vet so I would rather take my dog to the vet that I feel more comfortable with and that I think will do the best job. In the end, that is more important to me than the cost of a neuter. Keep in mind also that a laser neuter will result in a faster recovery time versus a traditional neuter. I have always opted for the traditional spay/neuter for all my dogs to save on cost so I can't personally comment on experience with laser procedures.

Trifexis is a good product, I've never heard anything negative about it. Trifexis is a monthly combination flea and heartworm treatment. It's basically like a combination of Comfortis and Interceptor, both of which are good products that even I would recommend. But you are looking to go with less chemicals, which I am assuming based on your comments elsewhere about starting to use essential oils for natural flea prevention, then you may not want a combo product and might be better off sticking to Heartgard. I use oils on my dogs and I give them Heartgard Plus. My vet is always pushing Trifexis over Heartgard and it is only because I use oils and prefer natural flea prevention that I decline using the combo product, Trifexis. Otherwise I wouldn't hesitate to use Trifexis.

Honestly I got Embry done traditionally at our vet, not laser but it cost me $250. Ares got done at a low cost clinic for $60, also without laser. The only difference was the low cost clinic didn't give me any pain medication, but I just called out my vet and they gave me 5 days worth for $15.

They both had the same recover time, less than 3 days and they were already at it again. No complications with either.

By faster recovery time I meant when they SHOULD return to normal activity, not when the dog itself is back to it's normal self. Traditional neuters are usually 2 weeks, but laser is much sooner I hear. Heck, my boy had a traditional neuter and he was back to normal activity the same day despite my efforts to keep him from overdoing things.

It's a hard decision, because they both have really good reviews, but they said since he's 4 years old that the laser would probably be better for him. Don't know how true it is?

It's really your decision. I have never done laser procedures and all of my dogs were done as adults, 2 yrs old for my sibes neuter, 4 yrs old for Faith's spay, and 3 yrs old for Glory's spay. And none of my dogs had any trouble with recovery or any problems.

Hmm ok thanks that makes me feel better if I went that way!

We ended up deciding to switch our dog off of Trifexsis and just give him the regular Heartguard. The flea medicine portion of the oral pill would upset his stomach every month so you had to make sure his food and the pill stayed down for the hour minimum, so we wouldn't have to worry about if the heartworm medicine got into his system or not. This is the only down fall I've actually had with the drug itself though, it's definitely kills fleas very well. My dog just has a sensitive stomach. So go with what you decide what you want to do, don't let the vet push it on you if you don't want that.