Category — Pets

There are not many worse ways to start the morning than being abruptly pulled out of a consultation with a nice couple and their old dog to by an anxious nurse,

“That revisit patient coming to see you. He died in the car.”

“Is the owner here?”

“Yes. There’s a kid too.”

I was expecting the patient to put him to sleep that morning, and as sad as it always is to lose a pet it is much worse for most people to either find them dead or watch them die in their arms. It can be downright traumatic to see a pet die, especially with no vet guiding you as to what to expect or if you think the pet is suffering. [Read more →]

There is one particular patient that causes a knot to tie in my stomach every time he comes into the clinic. He’s not big. He’s not vicious. He’s not scary either, just terrible to deal with. Even after everything else we go through on a daily basis, he’s just gross. He tends to stay in hospital for a long time, he has a problem with his large intestine, and because he has spent so much time in hospital he has developed a rather unique defense mechanism against  vets.

Drool. Saliva. Goop.

I won’t tell you his name for privacy reasons, but it sounds like an affectionate term that we may use to describe any cat. For the sake of this post I will call him “Sweetie Kitty”.

Saliva is easily the grossest bodily fluid we have to deal with. Everything else I am desensitized to but saliva is downright unpleasant. Sweetie Kitty, during his long stays in hospital, requires two tablets twice a day, and every single time you get him out of the cage to give him these tablets, saliva begins to pour and pool on the table. He locks his jaw, and you must grab his slippery little head, with help from your cringing nurse, to open his jaw. This causes Sweetie Kitty to go into a barrel roll and you have half a second to get the tablet to the back of his throat, so he will swallow. This usually takes two or three tries, twice a day. Meanwhile the tablets get soggier and their colour runs onto your fingers.

He doesn’t scratch, but whenever he shakes his head, goops of saliva go flying. He can’t actually withdraw his claws anymore, and he’s much fatter than he should be, so he’s not nice to carry either. All of these disgusting habits of his come in addition to the reason he is in hospital in the first place.

Enemas. [Read more →]

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 →]