Angry!! Just left the Vet's office...

[tiffanyh]

I am actually a certified vet tech, although I have worked in the field for over 10 year, I actually teach chem full time at a local university. But I moonlight at my hospital still over the summers.

silkiechicken, your right. People act as if they are doctors/vets, I actually teach vet assistant courses and one of the things I lecture on is the role of the doctor, tech and assistants. Boundaries are often crossed and assistants think they are qualified to be tech and techs think they know more that doctors!

To th OP, as a tech, the one you are refering to in specifc, she has to be careful not to offend. Chocolate CAN kill your dog, chicken bones CAN tear the intestinal lining, but most people feed these to their pets with little or no side affects. She handled herself quite unprofessionally and should have talked with you about what could happen instead of lecturing you on what you should do. Hopefully your talk with her will make her think twice on how she approaches clients in the future.

In my experiences, before I judge a client on how they care for their pet, I remind myself that for whatever reason, they are here at the hospital today paying what is probably a small fortune for their animal, so obviously the love their pet and want to do what it best for them.

I hope your dog heals well!. Im sure he'll be fine!

PS,

I doubt this vet tech spent any time in college. Some take a course to be certified as a vet tech, others are just kids that love animals and get a job cleaning kennels and work their way up.

Just on a side note, most states now required vet techs to be certified, meaning they went through a certified vet tech program certified by the AVMA ( at least an Associates) and took a national test to be certified. Just like nurses do. The field is up and coming, hope it will make for more qualified vet techs all in all!

 

[serendipity22]

I just got off the phone with a friend of mine. Her friend had a similar situation with the same place and now takes her dogs to another emergency clinic near Myrtle Beach.

I haven't had an emergency in probably over 5 years so hopefully I won't have to go back any time soon.

My dog is doing well today. He's so goofy that he doesn't even know he's hurt. That plus all the pain medication he's on, life is good...

I'm sure he'll get tired of being crated as much as he's gonna have to be in order to heal properly.

 

[tiffanyh]

I would send a letter to the doctor about your experience, just a short reason why you are leaving his/her hospital. They need to know if the staff is unpleased or offensive to clients. Glad pup is well!

 

[Betsy]

Even if your case WAS neglect-it's obvious it was not-there was no excuse for the vet tech to act that way. Lecturing someone in a rude, haughty way is the best way to get someone to want do the opposite of what you want them to do!
Writing a letter to the veterinarian's office is a great idea. They to need to know about the rude staff member because if she continues to be rude to clients, they might think twice about taking their pets there and the pet's health might suffer.

 

[Southern28Chick]

I took one of my cats to the vet when he was a lil baby because he looked like he was choking. They took him to the back and came back out with this little round piece of plastic. The vet tech slapped it into my hand and said "What are you giving your cats? You need to invest a little money in decent toys not the cheap crap that has plastic parts."

I just looked at her like WTH lady! I looked at the plastic piece for a minute and then realized it was a plastic cover that you put over the screw hole when you're assembling furniture. The kitten pulled it off my desk and then swollowed it.

 

[serendipity22]

Wow, they were just oozing with tact, weren't they?

 

[ratlummountain]

glad your pooch is on the mend!

my evil vet story:

3 years ago we got our dog from a lab rescue. she arrived very underweight with ribs & hip bones poking out, she had kennel cough, a raging ear infection in both ears, and 2 kinds of worms, including heartworm. also the paperwork we got from the rescue group was obviously for the wrong dog.

so off to the vet we go. i explained the situation and the reason why poochie was in such a sorry state.
they still looked down their noses at me and attempted the lecture a few times. i cut them off every time and reminded them that she just got off the box truck from LA (arriving in CT)

there was also a later incident where poochie broke her dew-claw. she did it the night before i left for a 3 day business trip. at the time i thought to myself "it's a broken toe, no big deal" when i got home i walked in the door that night and could instantly smell the infection. how DH couldn't smell it is beyond me - it was rank. but i was waiting on the vet's doorstep when they opened the next day. they flipped out on me.
i fully realize it looked bad, and to this day i'm embarrassed about it. but at that point i had been using them for over a year (and spend well over $1500) and they simply turned a deaf ear to me.
i was livid.

they were a new vet to me, the reason why i was changing vet practices was because this one provided doggie chiropractic and i wanted that for our new noble pooch (who is licking her hoo-nanny-nanny as i type this)

they treated me like such crap.
there are a lot of details omitted, but i've since gone back to my old vet and begged them to start doing doggie chiro.

i also use many different vets. one for the horse, one for the cat & dog, chiro/accupuncture vet for the horse ...
i've gotten along well with all of them until this one.

but anyway, again, glad to hear your dog is doing well!

 

[DuckLady]

The vets that treat you that way are missing the whole point. They should be taking care of the animal and finding out the story and THEN handing out lectures as may be necessary.
In duck rescue we have to bite our tongues frequently, but we are there for the ducks. And that is countered by the many wonderful pet owners we run across, too.
always find out what's going on before opening your mouth we always say.
Education is one thing, like "Oh wow, Mrs Whosit, this is what your cat got into! If you have more around, you might put them out of kitty's reach." That way you are informed in a non confrontational way and you fix it at home. All happy and good feelings. Not the way you were treated.

 

[Haviris]

Just to comment on the comment about a relationship with a vet before an emergency, I have a great relationship with all my vets. In my case it was my dog and cat vet and I had been using them a long time and they are great! But they use an emergency clinic that is shared by several different vets and they take turns being on call (atleast that is how I think it works) I don't even think they would have seen me if I didn't use one of their vets, so the vet I saw (and the one I talked to the next day) were vets I'd never met before. If my cat had lived I would have needed to be there bright and earlyMonday morning to take him to my regular vet. Everyone else at the clinic was very nice, it was just this one vet.

I have used several vets also because most won't treat all my animals, but I started using one last year after two of my goats had broken their legs, I called around all day trying to find one that treated goats (I was using the one here locally, but she doesn't do broken legs), and finally found my current vet that has been wonderful! And seem to treat everything!

 

[BlueDevilGirl67]

I can't say I know how you feel since I have been dealing with the same vet since I was in my very younger years. When my DH and I got married we used his vet once and I blew my top and told him about mine in Chapel Hill,NC and the rest is history. His mother even uses my vet. We have only had to use our local ED vet 1 time and thankfully everything turned out ok for my now late Yogi. Glad everything worked out.