Category — Only a vet

People often complain that vets cost a fortune, especially when there is an emergency and the animal needs treatment. We’re accused of taking advantage of the situation, of being all about the money or just not caring about animals.

In most situations this is frankly untrue.  These people need to understand a few things about how a vet clinic works, and why a vet will give you a particular quote to see your animal.

First of all, a vet is a human being. They have a life, a home, friends, families, partners, their own pets and so on. Most do not work 9 to 5 ( I certainly don’t) and the long, irregular working hours means that finding the time to cook a healthy meal or have social interactions can be very difficult. Now in a situation where there isn’t a specialist emergency clinic, such as out in the country or in fringe areas, a vet who has been at work all day (frequently 10 hour days) must then be the vet seeing any emergencies that night.

As such, the vet has to have some motivation other than pure love to see these animals that need emergency care. This is where the money comes in, because even the nicest vet doing it out of the goodness of their heart is going to get worn out and jaded very quickly. Another point to mention here is that in many places, if you don’t pay the emergency consult fee, the vet seeing you wont get paid for doing so. Many vets get paid half of your emergency consult fee, minus tax.

Which is part of the reason why I am allowed to set my own price for seeing an animal emergency after hours. I have guidelines of course, but I can fudge them if need be. For example, it costs just under $90 to see me just after closing time, and we’re open quite late, but it costs over $300 to see me at 2am. And it costs more to get me to travel to you, about double in most cases, plus travel costs.

So understand why when I’m lying in bed, snug and warm after a long, hard day, when it’s absolutely freezing outside, and I answer the phone slightly groggily, there is a price for me to come and see your animal. [Read more →]

There’s a certain type of person that upsets, frustrates and depresses vets. They are the people that say things like this:

“I’ve got this animal that was a stray that I rescued months ago that had this problem that I  didn’t get treatment for but now (On Easter Saturday) it’s an emergency and you need to see it right away, even though I’ve never been to the clinic before and don’t have any money, and all the other clinics in the area have turned me away too! No I won’t take advice over the phone, no I won’t get it put down if it’s dying, I just want you to fix it for free! If you won’t see it shut up, thanks for caring, because you obviously don’t!” *hangs up *

This is usually at the busiest time of the day, and you speak to them after they’ve already abused the nurses, and they make out like you’re the evil one and you obviously don’t care. This is despite the fact that:

• the animal has had the problem for months but they couldn’t be bothered doing anything about it
• probably because the animal was free, and therefore not worth spending money on in their point of view
• abusing the nurses on the phone does not make any member of staff keen to see you
• I probably can’t give you the miracle you want, no matter how much you hiss and scream
• If I spend time on your non-paying case, it means I have to neglect the other paying cases, which are just as critical and important to their owners. Also, those owners are less abusive.
• You make it sound like I’m the one who doesn’t care

Let’s get this straight: A long-term disease should be seen before it becomes an emergency. I don’t get to skip on my rent if I tell the real estate agent “sorry, I worked for free this week”. ‘Rescued’ animals deserve medical care too. Weekends and after hours are busy due to real emergencies, so I rarely get to have my lunch before 4pm, and often do a twelve hour day on the weekend. I secretly discount things for people who have been nice, understanding, or convenient with their animals. We run all the time on low blood sugar because we want to make people (and animals) happy. Let’s face it- you go to the doctors, wait half an hour and feel happy to be seen. You go to the vets, wait five minutes for your consult and moan about the service. Vets are abused for supposedly not caring about the animals, when you can bet your bottom dollar that if the human had been bleeding for 3 days it wouldn’t wait until late Saturday to get help.

What do you think it will accomplish- abusing the vet on the phone for not caring enough about their animal to see it for free at a very inconvenient time? Do you think the vet will suddenly change their minds, take back all they’re said, see your animal and send you flowers? Or do you think they’ll call you an idiot for not caring sooner.

Thanks for caring.

Ever the glutton for punishment, earlier this week I had volunteered my time to learn the ropes as a vet for the local greyhound track. This is partly because I love the greyhound’s gentle nature and convenient anatomy, partly because I think it’s the best way to learn about lameness in dogs (some days 20% of the dogs that ‘walk’ through the door are lame) and partly because there is a small, sadistic part of my brain that constantly craves variety and isn’t happy to just trot along on the vaccination treadmill.

I’d already worked a ten hour day, and managed to leave right on time (a true rarity in the clinic) to get to the race meeting slightly late. I arrived at the ticket booth in my car full of veterinary paraphernalia: stethoscope, drug bottles, bandaging material, bags of fluids etc, in the dorkiest scrub top on the planet. The man at the gate took one look at me, and my car, and decided “You must be the second vet, you know where to go.”

I learned a valuable lesson that day. If you wear a silly shirt (such as a bright pink and pastel green number with giraffes on it), and walk with confidence, everyone will assume you know where you’re going and not even glance at you as you stride past “restricted access” and “staff only” signs. [Read more →]