On Cats and Vets and Odds and Ends
I’ll warn you that this is likely a little long. But I have been at my vet far too often lately for a variety of reasons and as I was waiting for my vet at my latest appointment, the tech came in and apologized for the delay. I asked for water and went to get it and came out to see my doctor holding back tears as she walked into the back room.
Clearly, the prior appointment didn’t go well.
While she apologized for me waiting, I can’t imagine why she had to apologize. Things happen. It’s a veterinary clinic.
I worked as a receptionist in a veterinary clinic on and off back in the late 80s and early 90s, which means my veterinary medical knowledge is outdated but I know one thing. One can never predict what goes on in a pet’s body. Sometimes that takes extra time.
My cat and I can wait. Stay with the owner who is probably more upset than the doctor. Let them talk. Let them spend the time they need with their beloved pet. This seemed to have been an unexpected turn. It’s hard enough when there’s a level of expectation.
Veterinarians have the world’s hardest job sometimes. Their patients can’t talk and the owners are sometimes too upset to make any sense. The best vets can pull things together. I remember once making an offhand comment about a cat I had. "
“He looks kind of like an old cat in kidney failure,” I said. Dr. Deb, a wonderful veterinarian I worked with nodded and suggested their in house blood work. Whether she saw the signs I was seeing or if she just listened to me and went with it, I don’t know. The cat I was talking about was only around five years old.
The initial blood work and the more detailed bloodwork at the lab showed the cat was in kidney failure. He was a stray that looked like an Abyssinian who are known to have genetic issues with kidneys not being fully formed. He never went outside. I had other cats who were as likely to get into something and none of them had. We can only think it was genetic.
He didn’t die that day, but it certainly wasn’t the kind of news one expects with a young cat.
I can’t speak highly enough of the veterinarians I have worked with. Even those I have left because we didn’t quite seem well-matched work hard. Moving to Kentucky, I didn’t have a choice of naturopathic veterinarians like my beloved Mercy Vet on Mercer Island Washington. I loved both Dr. Lisa and Dr. Jackie. I don’t think I’ve ever met a vet who spoke cat better than Dr. Jackie.
I tried several veterinarians. The office that let a client leave after a euthanasia without paying touched my heart. My clinic never would have done that thirty plus years ago. But today? That’s a risk. Particularly when she was with someone willing to make the payment right then.
Unfortunately, they didn’t have a baby scale to get an exact weight on my cat so it was an estimate. They also didn’t offer bloodwork on my 16 year old girl. I could have asked but it seems a pretty standard thing to do for an elderly cat.
Another vet didn’t charge me when I brought in my young cat for an eye issue that turned out to have a hair in his eye. Cats. I appreciated that and speak highly of him.
I ended up at another vet for a variety of reasons and I really appreciate the woman who worked so closely with my elderly female and then with my not so elderly male cat. She was the vet looking near tears as she left a room. I don’t doubt these doctors care.
I don’t doubt the entire office cares. I don’t know of anyone I worked with that didn’t have days when you just wanted to go home and cry or perhaps take a hot shower and scream at the walls as loudly as you could.
My vet tells me that being a veterinary receptionist is harder than her job. We do a certain amount of triage over the phone—does they come in, does they come in immediately, can it wait, does the client need to talk to a tech, a doctor? We also have to talk about money in what is often an emotional time.
I try my best to be bright and cheerful and not blame them when the bills are high. Veterinary clinics are small businesses who often have to purchase the same types of medical supplies human clinics need. But they don’t get any discounts. I will always laugh and say I wish it were less but at least it wasn’t as much as I feared. And sometimes I ask if the new wing is named after me that week… They don’t have a new wing, but they get the idea.
But this long long post is to remind everyone how hard the veterinarians and their staff work. The owner of the clinic where I go works closely with our local shelter and does spays and neuters for them to adopt out. That’s time and an expense for them but it’s giving back to the community.
If you have pets and go in, remember to appreciate how hard everyone in that clinic works, from the person who cleans the kennels, to the person at the front desk, to the technicians and doctors that do the hands on healing work. We all get attached to your pets.
Someone once told me that people who work in veterinary clinics know what they’re getting in to. The doctors do. They went to school and interned. Beyond that nothing prepares you for the days when every pet is sick, or so it seems. Nothing prepares you for the owners who will do anything for their pets and want you to do it. Nothing prepares you for how you start to love and care for all the people who walk through that door with their animals.
Certainly there are some odd people, those who seem to not care, but more often than not the clients are loving people who only want the best for the pet they bring in.
If you come in adoring your dog or cat or parakeet, even if they don’t see you often, there’s a bond that forms. The concern is real. The adoration they give to the pets that they hold and giggle about is real. Appreciate the staff and the doctors who give so much to so many pets.
One of my books is my way of giving back to the rescue and veterinary community. It’s called Moving with Cats. Get yours here. Take $.99 off with the coupon code eckert.