Two Words

[biker girl]

I rang our vet today for our daily update on our pointerX who had major surgery.

The vet nurse put me on hold so the vet could speak to me directly & her first two words were...........

"I'm sorry..........

Vet A is having the day off, however I will update you"

Jeez, for that splint second I thought the worst!!

[Gretel]

That was scary!

[persephone]

Phew!!

[Pointees]

Omg, that would have been scary!

[Erny]

I empathise.

When I have dogs in for Boarding & Training but if I need to ring the owner for whatever reason (about a training query or some minor thing), the first thing I quickly follow with after I have announced myself is : "your dog is fine ..... ". I am familiar with that heart skip that happens when something triggers you to think something is major wrong.

[Ons]

that is scary!

I remember when Tilly was being desexed and this still sends chills up my spine. I got a message to ring the vets urgently - but I didn't get it until about 3 hours later as I was out of the office. I ring urgently panicking to get told the lady is out to lunch and they will ring me back. all i'm doing is please say my little girl is alright - the answer "I don't know, the lady will ring you back". Well the lady did ring me back and all it was was whether I minded Tilly having some pain killers as they were doing some research

If I hadn't been trying to hold it together they would have got a piece of my mind!

[Tilly]

When my older boys was in the ICU ward I get a phone message asking me to come to the hospital immediately ... turns out my little darling was extremely cranky and broken out of his cage ... so he was locked inside the ICU ward (running loose) and none of the staff could get in to check on the other dogs in the ward ... but I was fearing the worse as I made the dash to the hospital.

[rastus_froggy]

I'm glad you dog is ok, it is a terrible gut wrenching feeling when something like that is said. Just shows you how precious they are to us.

[Staff'n'Toller]

that is scary!

I remember when Tilly was being desexed and this still sends chills up my spine. I got a message to ring the vets urgently - but I didn't get it until about 3 hours later as I was out of the office. I ring urgently panicking to get told the lady is out to lunch and they will ring me back. all i'm doing is please say my little girl is alright - the answer "I don't know, the lady will ring you back". Well the lady did ring me back and all it was was whether I minded Tilly having some pain killers as they were doing some research

If I hadn't been trying to hold it together they would have got a piece of my mind!

This is a huge issue for us. People give us numbers and we ask "are you contactable on this number ALL day" *owner nods* then we're in the middle of surgery and need to ask something trivial i.e. "we noticed a dead tooth, can we have your permission to remove it?" and all we get are message banks.

It's the most infuriating thing for Veterinary staff. For all I know onsntillnflash you gave a mobile and your clinic didn't bother to try it, so not having a go at you, just trying to highlight what a pain it is!!!

[Skruffy n Flea]

ooohhhh, i'd hate to hear that from my vet...

a month or so ago, i'd taken my lil foster kitty in for desexing and about 3 hours later, i'm at the chemist, my phone rings and it's coming from the vet [they're in my phone book]!!! of course, my mind is racing --- it's like 3 hours or so since i dropped bob off and i'm not expecting to hear from them AT ALL unless there's an issue *holy crap*

so i answer: hello!??!

vet: oh hi, it's *name* from the *vet*

me: hi, is something wrong *near panic, heart reaching my throat*

vet: well, no

me: *gulp*

vet: it's okay but we're about to start bob's surgery and well, um, bob's a girl!

me: *dead air*

vet: you there?

...

anyhoo, i understand...

[Ons]

that is scary!

I remember when Tilly was being desexed and this still sends chills up my spine. I got a message to ring the vets urgently - but I didn't get it until about 3 hours later as I was out of the office. I ring urgently panicking to get told the lady is out to lunch and they will ring me back. all i'm doing is please say my little girl is alright - the answer "I don't know, the lady will ring you back". Well the lady did ring me back and all it was was whether I minded Tilly having some pain killers as they were doing some research

If I hadn't been trying to hold it together they would have got a piece of my mind!

This is a huge issue for us. People give us numbers and we ask "are you contactable on this number ALL day" *owner nods* then we're in the middle of surgery and need to ask something trivial i.e. "we noticed a dead tooth, can we have your permission to remove it?" and all we get are message banks.

It's the most infuriating thing for Veterinary staff. For all I know onsntillnflash you gave a mobile and your clinic didn't bother to try it, so not having a go at you, just trying to highlight what a pain it is!!!

they left a message with my secretary at my office. My secretary didn't think to ring me on my mobile I can't remember if the vet had my mobile or not.

I'd imagine that it would be very frustrating not to get hold of an owner quickly.

[HeavyPaws]

I had that once when Moon went in for desexing. She went in at 18 months after I'd examined all the evidence, but one thing stuck in my mind...a story I read about a lady who got her deerhound done at 18 months but he died in surgery from complications, and I practically sat on the phone all day.

At least you did one better than me. Mine was like

Me: "Hello?" *shaky voice upon noticing vet's number*

Vet Nurse: "This is *** from ***, with your dog Moon, unfortunately..."

Me: *wails* "SHE'S DEEAAADDDDDD!!!!"

Utter silence from the other end.

Turns out they regretted to tell me they had an emercency c section come in and needed to bump her desexing to 4:00 instead of 2:00.

The nurse gave me the biggest grin when I went in to collect her.

The vet had no such thoughts, he outright laughed and admitted he wished he had it on tape so he could set it as the answering machine message at home.

[Staff'n'Toller]

It cracks me up how many owners think we are calling to tell them something bad has happened. We just don't lose dogs under anaesthetic these days...has to be something catastrophic for that to happen. With all the pre-anaesthetic testing these days it is considered very safe. We take it very seriously and we expect every dog to have a good anesthetic and recover well.

We have a patient monitor that is made by the same company that do human patient monitoring, I can literally hook myself up to the ECG and print it out to take to my GP - it's that good.

I still maintain those little SWF's with beginnings of liver failure and stage II/III heart murmurs have smoother anaesthetics than the young, fit ones!! :D

[JulesP]

I had to leave Amber for xrays this week and walked out crying! So sooky. I would have had hysterics if I had heard "I'm sorry" when I called.

[W Sibs]

I had that once when Moon went in for desexing. She went in at 18 months after I'd examined all the evidence, but one thing stuck in my mind...a story I read about a lady who got her deerhound done at 18 months but he died in surgery from complications, and I practically sat on the phone all day.

At least you did one better than me. Mine was like

Me: "Hello?" *shaky voice upon noticing vet's number*

Vet Nurse: "This is *** from ***, with your dog Moon, unfortunately..."

Me: *wails* "SHE'S DEEAAADDDDDD!!!!"

Utter silence from the other end.

Turns out they regretted to tell me they had an emercency c section come in and needed to bump her desexing to 4:00 instead of 2:00.

The nurse gave me the biggest grin when I went in to collect her. :D

The vet had no such thoughts, he outright laughed and admitted he wished he had it on tape so he could set it as the answering machine message at home.

[Cody]

I had that once when Moon went in for desexing. She went in at 18 months after I'd examined all the evidence, but one thing stuck in my mind...a story I read about a lady who got her deerhound done at 18 months but he died in surgery from complications, and I practically sat on the phone all day.

At least you did one better than me. Mine was like

Me: "Hello?" *shaky voice upon noticing vet's number*

Vet Nurse: "This is *** from ***, with your dog Moon, unfortunately..."

Me: *wails* "SHE'S DEEAAADDDDDD!!!!"

Utter silence from the other end.

Turns out they regretted to tell me they had an emercency c section come in and needed to bump her desexing to 4:00 instead of 2:00.

The nurse gave me the biggest grin when I went in to collect her. ;)

The vet had no such thoughts, he outright laughed and admitted he wished he had it on tape so he could set it as the answering machine message at home.

x2 :D :D I'm sorry to laugh, but not sorry!

[Staranais]

It cracks me up how many owners think we are calling to tell them something bad has happened. We just don't lose dogs under anaesthetic these days...has to be something catastrophic for that to happen. With all the pre-anaesthetic testing these days it is considered very safe. We take it very seriously and we expect every dog to have a good anesthetic and recover well.

Depends on the clinic, I think. Your clinic & nurses sound wonderful. But I have seen practice at clinics where they lose healthy dogs reasonably commonly - one of the vet nurses where I was seeing practice last month told me "oh yes, dentals are where we seem to lose them".

Not trying to scare anyone. Just saying, pick your vet with care. They tell us in school that "there are no safe anaesthetic drugs, only safe anaesthetists". Apparent the rate of losing healthy cats & dogs under routine GA is thought to be about 1/1000 on average, but I'm sure some clinics do far better, and some do far worse, than that.

[whiskedaway]

I was really worried about Akira going under anaesthetic on Monday for her desexing, and I rang OH about five times asking him to ring the vet and check she was okay. Lucky for me, he was a little less worried than me and didn't ring them until 4pm when they told him to, and of course she was fine. It's lucky I was at work because if I'd been the one who was home, I would have been in hysterics if they'd had to ring.

[tez]

I had that once when Moon went in for desexing. She went in at 18 months after I'd examined all the evidence, but one thing stuck in my mind...a story I read about a lady who got her deerhound done at 18 months but he died in surgery from complications, and I practically sat on the phone all day.

At least you did one better than me. Mine was like

Me: "Hello?" *shaky voice upon noticing vet's number*

Vet Nurse: "This is *** from ***, with your dog Moon, unfortunately..."

Me: *wails* "SHE'S DEEAAADDDDDD!!!!"

Utter silence from the other end.

Turns out they regretted to tell me they had an emercency c section come in and needed to bump her desexing to 4:00 instead of 2:00.

The nurse gave me the biggest grin when I went in to collect her.

The vet had no such thoughts, he outright laughed and admitted he wished he had it on tape so he could set it as the answering machine message at home.

OMG That is hilarious!!! I nearly bumped the computer off my tummy from laughing so much!

Bet the story still gets told in the vets staff room when new staff come on board