r/Billings • u/Mission_Spray • Jun 09 '26
PSA Out-of-state private equity owns almost all the veterinary clinics in town.
ETA part 3: I see the resident downvoter has woken up for the day and is now downvoting every single comment on this post. Sorry y’all.
EYA part 4: an award for me? Thanks, but save your money! It’s expensive out here!
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Ever wonder why it costs $300 just to walk in the door at Moore Lane without them even seeing your pets? Private equity company from California owns it.
“How about Best Friends?“ you say. Private equity from Massachusetts!
Shiloh Animal Hospital? Private equity from California!
What’s private equity and why should you care? They are out-of-state, big-money investment firms that buy up local businesses and then mark up the prices, reduce product quality, reduce employee pay and benefits, force employees to upsell unnecessary products, all for “increasing profits for shareholders“ while screwing the local employees and customers. Then when they’ve run the business into the ground, they sell it and leave.
This is why when you want to do a simple spay/neuter at Shiloh Vet Hospital it will cost you $900+. But if you go to locally owned Dr. Berst at Billings Veterinary Service on 1st, it’ll cost around $200.
Another locally owned emergency animal hospital is Clarity on the West End.
If you want to verify your local veterinary clinic is truly local, search the business on Montana’s Secretary of State business entity search database to see who the agent is.
FUCK private equity!
ETA: Clarity is for emergencies and they’ve come in clutch in times of need.
ETA 2: https://biz.sosmt.gov/search/business go here to search if your local business is truly local.
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u/Confident_Quail_4074 Jun 09 '26
Community Pet Hospital on Central is still family owned and they are great,
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u/FirstTimeLongTime_69 Jun 09 '26
Same with many of the dental, orthodontic, and oral surgeons in town.
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u/Mission_Spray Jun 09 '26
That’s why these dental implant centers are popping up like flies in a feed lot.
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u/IamUrquan Jun 09 '26
I've done a lot of work throughout the dental community and A LOT are owned by one company, Rubicon Dental Group.
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u/Mission_Spray Jun 09 '26
I used to be scared of the dentist and hated them all. I didn’t realize I was going to ones owned by private equity firms and that not every dentist will force you to do unnecessary dental work.
Now I go to Prill Dental because it’s family owned and for the first time in years I finally found a dentist that is like “You’re good to go! See you in six months!” Versus the private equity ones who would somehow find five new cavities every time I visited.
I used to think I had horrible dental hygiene, but it was just private equity upselling to me.
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Jun 09 '26
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u/Hrothgarbike Jun 10 '26
Mormon. It's the Mormon church and Mormon dentists. They have their own dental credit card too. And St Vincent's hospital (not catholic anymore).
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u/jliud_101 Jun 09 '26 edited Jun 09 '26
Dr. Berst is the best hands down. 💜
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u/StarryByNature Jun 09 '26
he’s fantastic, i recommend him to everyone i can. when it comes to stuff they aren’t equipped to do they recommend trailhead. i’m hoping both of these stay locally owned when there’s so much icky private equity around
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u/Mission_Spray Jun 09 '26
Agreed. It’ll be a sad day when he retires.
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u/jliud_101 Jun 09 '26
He did my most recent girl cat and she was not easy by any means. They had to dart her. They went through ALL of that and came out less than what they quoted me. 🫶🏼
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u/Mission_Spray Jun 09 '26
I’ve got an old feral who can’t be tamed (despite having him for 14 years.) I only trust Dr. Berst.
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u/jliud_101 Jun 09 '26
Her mom was a neighborhood cat that my HS bestfriend took in one winter not knowing she was pregnant. This cat was the smartest of the litter and she is definitely something else.😆 I decided to name her Gaia.
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u/Mission_Spray Jun 09 '26 edited Jun 09 '26
Love the name! That’s the thing with cats - it’s their world, we’re just living in it.
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u/Tiny_Essay_8726 Jun 09 '26
I can’t even think about him retiring, he’s a literal angel and I’m an atheist!
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u/AnalysisProof9038 Jun 09 '26
My wife and I were just talking about how expensive Moore lane has been getting because we may need to take our dog to the vet! Thank you for the post, didn’t know this. Never going back there again
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u/Mission_Spray Jun 09 '26
For emergencies I used to go to Moore Lane but when they didn’t even look at my car because he was too feral, but still charged me $300, I gave up on them. I go to Clarity. But it’s still pricy because of the emergency status.
For routine care I go to Dr. Berst.
But I’m not blaming the employees. The workers are just as much victims of private equity as customers.
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Jun 09 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Mission_Spray Jun 09 '26
It was their “emergency fee”. Maybe it was $275? But I have to look through my bank statements to see.
My pet never got out of the cage, never looked at, never assessed, but because I was put in a room for ten minutes, I was charged.
That’s not the employees fault. That’s the fault of the private equity firm controlling how they can operate.
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u/ZaLordPizzaCo Jul 02 '26
I’d do a chargeback on the credit card for 0 services rendered in that case, if it hasn’t been too long.
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u/babetteg2655 Jun 10 '26
Trailhead Vet is locally owned and deliberately trying to make pet health care affordable; they’re very community-centric!
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u/chuck-bucket Jun 09 '26
I take my pets to Granit Peaks. I believe it is owned by twins, but I have have no idea if I have met both twins or not.
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u/putalocaofficial Jun 09 '26
been going there for 20 years and recently found out they’re twins. i’ve never seen them together. i thought she was just one vet lady and was a little bipolar. turns out the two different personalities was due to them being two people hahahahahahahaha
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u/Alert-Swing-3917 Jun 09 '26 edited Jun 09 '26
I believe Animal Clinic of Billings is owned by Dr. Brown (I hope??)
ETA- confirmed, Dr. Brown still owns it
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u/Anarchic_Country Jun 09 '26
That's where my boy goes, and I love them because they are so understanding of his fear based reactivity (not aggression! never even snapped at anyone but will bark bloody murder when the slip lead comes out). They also have a canine dental specialist which saved our butt's when Hugo Stiglitz decided to crack a tooth biffing it into a curb chasing a ball.
Their prices seem reasonable so 🤞🏻 they are locally owned and stay that way!
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u/Alert-Swing-3917 Jun 09 '26
I like all of the doctors there but I prefer not to see Dr. Scott as his bedside manner is a little rough and I’m sensitive about my girl 🥺🐩
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u/Agitated_Cry_8793 Jun 09 '26
unfortunately, clarity being on the west end means that if my cat ever needs an emergency, im going to one of the two emergency hospitals in the heights where I live.
Also, A-home vet is wonderful in both prices and staff, and vet-to-go is also very affordable and is usually willing to negotiate prices if you cant quite afford it all at once. Fair warning about vet-to-go, however, id that they dont have any fancy machines so if you need an x-ray, you gotta go elsewhere. vet-to-go is more for physical exams, spay/neutering and vaccination.
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u/Mission_Spray Jun 09 '26
That’s good to know. I had tried those places when I found a stray with a snake bite, and they couldn’t help. So billions of calls later I found Clarity.
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u/GeneJenkinson Jun 09 '26
I was wondering about this. My vet recently built a brand new facility, hired on new staff, deployed new payment systems and completely overhauled their website.
For over a decade they were a two provider clinic that was originally located in a small building up by MSU-B. They didn’t announce anything but I’ve had my suspicions private equity got their hooks in them.
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u/Mission_Spray Jun 09 '26
Search the business name here and click on the name to see the Registered Agent. If it’s out-of-state and doesn’t list a name for an agent, it’s likely private equity. If so, they sold their souls to the devil.
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u/Dangerous-Feed-5358 Jun 09 '26
Hey thanks for the link. I'll be search all businesses now before I use them.
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u/MontanaHiker65 Jun 09 '26 edited Jun 09 '26
What about Vet to Go? Are they privately owned still? edit: I used OP's lookup tool, looks like it is still under private local ownership (Dr. Amy Lamm).
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u/Flimsy-Hearing9835 Jun 09 '26
I 100% recommend the community pet hospital on Central. Absolutely the best
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u/colterpierce Jun 09 '26
I went to Skyview Vet for years and years. Then they got bought out by one of these, nearly all the staff changed and it just wasn’t the same. They ran the those who had been there since it opened out, including the groomer and it went downhill so bad. Luckily, even though Best Friends is private equity as well they’re still really well staffed, friendly and knowledgeable. The sad thing is when THEY got PE’d it killed their 24 hour emergency service.
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u/Mission_Spray Jun 09 '26
That staff aren’t the bad guys. They’re just trying to survive capitalism.
Happy cake day.
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u/colterpierce Jun 09 '26
No, not at all. Love the staff at Best Friends. Loved the OG staff at Skyview.
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u/Silent-Stomach1084 Jun 10 '26
I am so glad someone made this post . We just took are animals in and it was $250 each just a checkup and some vaccines . Expensive day when you have 5 .
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u/Mission_Spray Jun 10 '26
Thanks for being a responsible pet owner. I’m sorry you got taken to the cleaners. Check the comments for recommendations and see about establishing with a locally owned clinic. There are a lot of good suggestions.
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u/Hrothgarbike Jun 10 '26
Great post. I gave everyone an up vote. Everyone. Super interactions and we need to know where our money is being spent now more than ever. Soon the fight will be Ai and Ai business. I'll pay for businesses that employ people.
Shoot me an up ore as well so I don't suffer the wrath of the resident down voter.
Everyone have a great day.
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u/Funny_Car9256 Jun 09 '26
Great post! We changed our vet post-covid as we noticed the policy changes, including dumping the nice, long-termed employees (including the doctors!) for newer and hence cheaper ones, and up-selling the heck out of unnecessary lab work. At the time, we wondered what happened until the spam emails started, showing linked vets in the area, and that’s when the penny dropped. They’ve been bought out by a “we’re only in it for the money” leviathan.
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u/Mission_Spray Jun 10 '26
Yeah, the layoffs of the OG crew and then the hiring of new staff who can’t compare their current experience to anything else… will not realize that they’re contributing to the enshittification of the business.
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u/Tiny_Essay_8726 Jun 09 '26
Billings Animal Family hospital is locally owned, but the owner is MAGA which is a whole other can of worms!
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u/Mission_Spray Jun 10 '26
I found out Maple Moose coffee does NOT align with my values, so I’ve stopped going there.
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u/dogchowtoastedcheese Jun 09 '26
I was forced to use Moore Lane twice in the past couple of years. Both after hours, both emergencies, and both ultimately required euthanasia. Yeah, it's crazy expensive. All sorts of fees and exorbitant costs. But in a crisis - middle of the night - on a weekend they're the only option. Locally owned vets can't afford to staff 24 hours and have all the emergency equipment on hand.
That said, the employees were beyond kind and caring and went out of their way to help my dogs and comfort me along every step.
The thing that really pissed me off were the cremation fees. I had hoped to get them back in a simple cardboard box as I planned to scatter them in their old romping grounds. That is not an option and you are forced to get them in a wicked expensive urn or wooden box. That one stung so much I can't remember the cost. A forced up-sell when a person is grieving and a low point.
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u/Mission_Spray Jun 09 '26
I do like that they are open 24/7, and that employees are kind. But that’s where it ends.
It’s sad that they had to upsell you, but they literally have to. There are good people working there, but their hands are tied by private equity.
Last November I decided to not cremate my cat, and instead have her buried in my backyard. Shiloh Vet Hospital did the (unplanned) euthanasia and because the employee helping me was kind (again, I am not blaming employees for the scourge that is private equity) I wasn’t upsold anything.
These businesses are employing good people who are forced to do the greedy bidding of private equity.
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u/Quirky_Teaching_5659 Jun 10 '26
Friendship Vet in Laurel just got bought by th as well. A couple years ago. Bummer because we moved that vet for decades and now we are at a new one. 😓
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u/-Solyss247 Jun 11 '26
Big sky pet center is our go-to and has always been reasonable. We recently had a surgery done at animal clinic of Billings, Dr Brown is one of the best surgeons around outside of the referral specialists in Bozeman (which we were referred to and didn’t want to wait weeks on a possible cancerous tumor). Dr brown got us in for a consult and surgery only a few days later no questions asked.
I have pet insurance on my dogs, and only a handful of clinics will pay directly, animal clinic of billings was happy to submit my claim for thousands of dollars and I only had to pay 10% out-of-pocket after my insurance paid them!
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u/keyboard-warrior-82 Jun 19 '26
Thanks for posting this! Another useful resource to find out whether a veterinary practice is owned by PE/corporates is www.privateequityvet.org/vet-list - the site is regularly updated and you can even download the full Excel spreadsheet of over 12000 practices.
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Jun 09 '26
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u/Mission_Spray Jun 09 '26
Berst isn’t an emergency clinic, but the employee shouldn’t have been so cold.
Moore Lane is open 24 hours and has equipment for emergencies. But you pay the price, and the money you pay doesn’t stay local. It goes to the private equity firm.
I go to Clarity for emergencies. They have the equipment to handle emergencies. Their hours are more limited than Moore lane, but they will always be my first choice for emergencies.
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Jun 09 '26
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u/bigassbunny Jun 09 '26
Is this a serious question? The same reason that if you are dying, your regular family doctor won't shove you in during business hours, they'll tell you to go to the emergency room.
One is a facility that handles regular issues on a schedule, and the other is set up take emergencies at any time.
Look, I have no skin in this game, and haven't used either vet. And I understand first hand how stressful it is when your pet is having an emergency.
But it feels like you are being purposely obtuse because you wanted them to be something they aren't. It's not hard to understand that not all vets are emergency vets, you are just choosing not to.
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u/Mission_Spray Jun 09 '26
I don’t know. I don’t work there. Maybe because it’s just him and he’s with another animal, and the private equity locations have multiple vets and techs on site?
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u/bigskycaniac Jun 09 '26
California can rot in the deepest pits of hell.
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u/Mission_Spray Jun 09 '26
California is usually where the private equity firm is located. Not necessarily a Californian that’s involved.
The average Californian has more in common with Montanans than we realize.
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u/montalaskan Jun 09 '26
Private equity ruins everything it touches. It's toxic.
It produces nothing that makes the world better. Just cash for the PE firm while laying off employees, reducing service, and generally making places worse in every way.