Vets want to help your pet – and you – but death threats aren’t good for anyone’s health

[Boronia]

worth reading:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jan/30/vets-want-to-help-your-pet-and-you-but-death-threats-arent-good-for-anyones-health

[Loving my Oldies]

It is disgusting how some people treat others.  He is long retired now, but my brother was a vet with his own hospital and anyone who wishes they had a vet in the family let me assure you it is a double edged sword.  Some of the stories he told me still give me the horrors and always will.  They had to call the police from time to time.  

[Luvapoo]

My female vet has told me some awful stories too. She is a sole proprietor because she cannot recruit another vet to our small town, and she is a wife and mother.

 

The 3 am calls and then people refusing to pay because they say "well if you loved animals you would do it for free." Morons.

 

She said there is quite a lot of attrition in the veterinary industry as there are more female vets now and they are often leaving when they have families.

 

 

[tdierikx]

Some years before I met you @Loving my Oldies, I had the honour of your brother treating my pets. He was my beloved heart dog Woosie's first doctor, and he was so lovely that she never lost her love of going to the vet for anything she needed... she knew he was good people, and loved him very much. Your brother treated my first 4 dogs, and a few of my pet rats to boot. Your brother happily gave me advice when one of my dogs decided to have a difficult whelping on Christmas Day... when he was the poor sod on call that day... and he was ready to drop everything and come help if needed.

 

Good vets are very special people...

 

T.

[persephone]

 Human Clients are definitely the more difficult ! Thankfully the abusive and ungrateful ones are outweighed by those who are sensible and appreciative .The vets I worked for would protect us like fierce mother hens if anyone was being the slightest bit 'off' - and vice-versa! Luckily the male vet was tall and had a very deep voice. When he had a point to make - you KNEW!! It is not an easy profession..

[Loving my Oldies]

@tdierikx, for many years, my brother lived in a small house next to his hospital and was on call 24/7 for all that time.  Even when the growing family moved to a larger house 10 minutes away, he continued this practice.  I am glad your experiences were so positive.  
 

@Luvapoo, my brother regularly got the “you are supposed to love animals” reason for querying accounts and expecting a free service.  Bad debts were par for the course    .  
 

Another problem was clients who knew better and those who refused to follow rules for helping their animals heal.  One such memory. I remember being at his hospital and wandering around looking at the animals.  One of the patients was a beautiful Dalmatian whose owner had to be supervised and handbag taken away before she visited because she could not be trusted not to feed the dog and consequently making him violently ill.  She was feeding him handfuls of peanuts.  
 

The stories, both heart warming and horrific, are endless.  

[tdierikx]

@Loving my Oldies... even when one of my dogs almost died during her spey surgery - not through any fault of the vet doing the procedure may I add - and then the naughty beast chewed her stitches out 4 days post surgery... there was never any thought from me that anyone at your brother's clinic had done anything wrong. Their standard of care was excellent at all times.

 

Your brother was also most understanding when I had one of my pet rats in for a consult, and the receptionist insisted the cage be set on the floor while we waited... then the clinic cat decided to check out my rat, and the rat savaged the cat, who then proceeded to tear up the hall and out the back area bleeding all over the place from the nasty bite on it's nose. He made the receptionist clean up the mess because she had refused to let me put the rat cage up off the floor... apparently she was a bit funny about seeing rats... errr!

 

When I was doing my student placement for Vet Nursing, I actually found that the hardest clients to have to deal with were the ones in the grip of grief at the passing of their furry companions. In many cases, the clinic staff had gotten to know the old and ailing pets, and we had feelings for them too... but one isn't supposed to show that to clients... we are supposed to console them while our own hearts may be breaking as well. It's soul destroying to have a giant bear of a man hanging onto you sobbing his heart out at the loss of his old mate... and that can happen more than once in any given day.

 

Cranky clients are just the tip of the iceberg...

 

T.

[persephone]

13 hours ago, tdierikx said:

It's soul destroying to have a giant bear of a man hanging onto you sobbing his heart out at the loss of his old mate.

And some of the worst for this were members of a well known bikie gang who were clients ! Big, bald, tattooe'd, leather....the works ..bull terriers and other macho-type dogs - but these guys absolutely adored their dogs and could faint/weep with the best of them   Bit scary at first for a new nurse...! 

Edited February 1, 2022 by persephone

[tdierikx]

4 hours ago, persephone said:

And some of the worst for this were members of a well known bikie gang who were clients ! Big, bald, tattooe'd, leather....the works ..bull terriers and other macho-type dogs - but these guys absolutely adored their dogs and could faint/weep with the best of them   Bit scary at first for a new nurse...! 

 

Exactly! I seemed to be the one they all wanted to hug and cry on... maybe I just gave off the vibe that I understand exactly how they are feeling, and that gives them some comfort?

 

Dealing with emergencies, surgeries, cranky or rude clients, etc... definitely easier to deal with emotionally than the losses. It's because in all the other scenarios, you can actually DO something to try to make things better... but death is so final and so upsetting for all involved.

 

T.

[persephone]

26 minutes ago, tdierikx said:

death is so final and so upsetting for all involved.

..and when it is unexpected..., just the shock is hard to cope with.

[tdierikx]

I must say that I was surprised and very disapointed to find that virtually no local vet clinic wanted to see my neighbour's bunny the other week when it broke it's leg and needed to be given it's wings. My own treating vet refused to see it, even thopugh he knows that my diagnoses of such things are pretty darned spot on... and the clinic I did my vet nursing work placement (where this same bunny had been desexed a year ago no less) was the same... refused to even look at the bunny. Seriously, I had to drive clear across Sydney to the only vet I knew for sure would see the bunny... a 35km and hour's drive away. How freaking difficult is it to gas down a bunny and do the right thing to stop it's suffering? Last time I looked, the jugular is in pretty much the same place in a bunny as in a dog or cat if one needs to find a good sized vein in a hurry... even I can find that one... you don't need to be experienced in pocket pets to euthanaise one.

 

T.

[Selkie]

On 02/02/2022 at 3:00 PM, tdierikx said:

I must say that I was surprised and very disapointed to find that virtually no local vet clinic wanted to see my neighbour's bunny the other week when it broke it's leg and needed to be given it's wings. My own treating vet refused to see it, even thopugh he knows that my diagnoses of such things are pretty darned spot on... and the clinic I did my vet nursing work placement (where this same bunny had been desexed a year ago no less) was the same... refused to even look at the bunny. Seriously, I had to drive clear across Sydney to the only vet I knew for sure would see the bunny... a 35km and hour's drive away. How freaking difficult is it to gas down a bunny and do the right thing to stop it's suffering? Last time I looked, the jugular is in pretty much the same place in a bunny as in a dog or cat if one needs to find a good sized vein in a hurry... even I can find that one... you don't need to be experienced in pocket pets to euthanaise one.

 

T.

 

It's awful that the bunny's suffering was prolonged - but as someone who works in human health, I understand not doing things that are outside your scope of practice. Working outside of your scope of practice is really not on, as simple as it may have seemed from the outside.

[tdierikx]

12 hours ago, Selkie said:

 

It's awful that the bunny's suffering was prolonged - but as someone who works in human health, I understand not doing things that are outside your scope of practice. Working outside of your scope of practice is really not on, as simple as it may have seemed from the outside.

 

I am a fully trained zookeeper and vet nurse - something that both local vets I called about the bunny knew - not that it took any of that training to know that bunny's front leg was badly broken, and that it was not a treatable problem. It was made perfectly clear that this was going to be a euthanaisia case, as bunny was suffering. As a vet nurse, I am trained to be able to gas down an animal and/or find a vein (and insert a catheter) for a vet if needed... which is not outside any scope of practice here. Basically, I could have done the procedure myself had I the access to the drug required for the job.

 

When I was doing my vet nursing work placement, I saw the numbers of people with pocket pets (rabbits and guinea pigs) rise even over the 2 years I was in training. It seems ridiculous that some vets are choosing to stick to the "safe" bread and butter fare of dogs and cats only - desexing and dentals make up at least 90% of what happens in a suburban vet clinic nowadays... *sigh*... I even came across one locum vet we had that refused to do speys, as she wasn't "comfortable" doing them... WTF??

 

All that said... I still stick to my previous statement that a good vet is worth their weight in platinum. Their job is not an easy one, yet they still turn up day after day trying to do their very best for each and every animal (and owner) that comes through their doors.

 

T.

[persephone]

1 hour ago, tdierikx said:

I even came across one locum vet we had that refused to do speys, as she wasn't "comfortable" doing them... WTF??

At least she didn't attempt and bungle them....

[tdierikx]

2 hours ago, persephone said:

At least she didn't attempt and bungle them....

 

It just seemed pretty strange that a practising vet couldn't stomach doing what amounts to a good 45-50% of their standard job function. Anything more complicated than a male neuter was off the table when she was on... and quite frankly, a vet nurse can actually perform a basic neuter if it comes down to it. Vet nurses already do all of the basic scale and polish dental jobs... the vet only steps in if a tooth needs removing. It's actually interesting to know exactly how much "vet" work the nurses perform on any given day...

 

T.

[BDJ]

I have never understood being abusive to a vet.   

 

The most I have ever done was become 'firm' when my female cats desexing incision opened up the day after the surgery.  When I took her back they started with the 'you must not have kept her cone on and she has licked/chewed it' - nope, didn't happen and I have seen enough wounds to know that was not the reason.  After they realised that I would not accept that explanation, they started saying 'don't worry, once her hair grows back you won't notice it'.  I wasn't worried about that, I wanted to know what happened.   Eventually they admitted they left one of their trainie vet nurses to close and she didn't do it correctly   But I was not rude, just persistent.  (and yes - I found another wonderful place).  I was seriously peeved that (a) they didn't supervise/check the work of a trainie and then (b) went straight in to excuse mode

 

I didn't realise how unrealistic/unacceptable people were until last year when I took my other cat in for a dental.   Post op issue where infection got in to the eye - no ones fault, one of those extremely rare risks - but it did result in me now having a one eyed cat (he is fine in every way).    The vet was fantastic - zero complaints from me.    What surprised me was the way that everyone in the practice thanked me for being understanding.   Apparently when things go wrong most people crack it.   Seriously, stuff happens - as long as people aren't negligent, have the best interests of my pet at heart and are caring and skilled - what reasonable person would lose it ???????

[tdierikx]

When I took Pickles to the emergency vet clinic nearest to my place in the first week of the last Sydney lockdown I had a less than great experience. She had eaten something that had ruptured something inside, and was vomiting up blood. I had already gently palpated her abdomen and could feel the obstruction that was causing the issue. She was a very sick girl, and I've seen enough of these things to know that even with surgery, her outcome was going to be poor. I was there to end her suffering pure and simple.

 

What transpired was that Pickles was taken inside, and I was left outside in the carpark. The vet eventually called my mobile, and started trying to push for doing a myriad of tests, suggestions of surgery with a very low chance of success, etc. I was forced to basically plead with the vet to just cut to the chase and end Pickles' suffering... all while other people were milling about, listening to my end of the conversation, and giving me side-eye. An already traumatic situation was compounded by the complete lack of privacy, and the vet's insistence for wanting to try all sorts of things that weren't actually going to fix the problem at hand. I was firm but calm, and eventually was led to an isolated room to be with Pickles as she became an angel.

 

Based on that one visit to that emergency vet clinic, I wouldn't recommend them to anyone... but at the time, I just handled the situation as calmly as possible, paid the bill, and left. I can see how people would become agitated and/or upset and angry in a situation like that... it was all I could do to stay calm myself... and I've been in that sort of situation more often than I care to count... working with animals does have it's downside...

 

Oh... and the next day, I recieved a text message from the emergency clinic ostensibly "following up" on Pickles' "progress"... ummm... not very professional IMHO.

 

As a complete contrast, I once had to take a young goat to the vet clinic near my work. The goat had a distended stomach (not bloat) and was in quite a bit of pain and distress. The vet did an ultrasound, took a sample of the fluid in the abdomen, did a thorough check all over the goat, and unfortunately it had to be euthanaised due to a ruptured bladder. Not only was the vet kind and caring with the goat, his bedside manner with it's human (me) was second to none. AND then he only charged a consultation fee for the visit. That clinic ended up getting all of our business, including weekly visits to my work to maintain all the animals' health and wellbeing... and we had over 200 animals at any given time.

 

3 guesses which vet clinic I ended up taking bunny to the other day...

 

T.

 

ETA: My neighbour came over yesterday to tell me they had received a lovely condolence card from the vet for the passing of their bunny...

Edited February 8, 2022 by tdierikx

[persephone]

Awww, T , I am sorry, Pickle's passing was such a drama   neither of you needed that  Vets are only human, and some are not as compassionate as others. 

[YOLO]

There are good and bad everywhere, both in the Public and in Vets (or perhaps more to the point people running Vet Clinics)

 

There is a particular "clinic" not far from us that employs only (cheap) foreign vets, who barely speak English, and all they want to do is upsell you useless products, such as "special shampoo" to treat a foot wound. 

And whilst I appreciate that everyone needs to be paid, businesses need to make a profit, and supplies are expensive, outright gouging does not win them many friends.  Charging $4 per dose, where the retail price is less than $1, is IMHO completely unacceptable. 

[_PL_]

Yolo if you're talking about comparing to buying online as retail price, those vet med places have warehouses full of stock. Vets don't have that kind of buying power. 

I can tell you even if we bought flea/tick/etc treatments as wholesale (I've looked into it) we still can't order the amounts to do better than buying retail online.