Would you go back to this vet?

[On Our own]

I am thinking of finding a new vet too. Last spring my dog broke one of her toes. (Just running in the woods I suspect she just came home limping.) So we took her in, the toe was clearly broken. So, we had never met this particular vet in the practice before. I figured we would at least speak a moment first. She came in and I told her the dog's toe was broken and she reached out and grabbed the dog's foot! Moron! Of course the dog snapped at her!

I would have too if you grabbed my broken foot without so much as a greeting. She didn't talk to her, didn't touch her, didn't offer her a hand to sniff, nothing but grabbed right for the injury.

She yelled at me that I should have warned her the dog was snappish. I was so stunned I just stared at her and said I was figuring on talking to you about the dog first before you grabbed the injury.

I need a new vet too. Sounds like you do too.

 

[sylvie]

Find another Vet. I changed vets about 12 years ago because I was not happy with the services.
Where in Ohio are you? I am in the Northeast and I highly recommend my Vet. They have 2 offices and around 8 Vets and the techs are all great and mind there business.

I am not near you- I had inquired about the chainlink fence earlier and determined that we were quite a distance away. However if I am not successful in my general area I will PM you for your vet's address. Thank you!

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

run from them. fast.

honestly i'm not sure why there is any hesitation. vets are people too and if they dont click with you its ok to find someone else. and if their office staff is bad.... phooey on them. i know there is a sense of obligation b/c you are their patient.. but vets are just the same as other businesses. just go somewhere else if you dont get the right results.

my requirements for vets are VERY high...at the very least they have to listen to me. and if i think they are wrong they have to stand there and defend their (sometimes) wrong opinion. most of the time i've been right and not only do they learn to respect me - they learn even more to pay attention the next time. most of the time i just need to call our cat vet and she gives me an Rx that we need - no office visit.

the hard thing is that YOU know your pet more than they do. i could stand here and list of more than a handful of times when a vet has been wrong, so i switched vets, and my cat/dog was fixed in a day with one office visit.

the worst was my now almost 20 year old cat - the original vet said she had cancer and was going to die. that was 17 yrs ago. i switched vets and he said to change her food. voila. and she still looks pretty good all these years later.

and dont forget the fiasco with my neighbor's dog....

run run run

 

[tortoise]

There is value in getting to KNOW your vet(s). There is value in going to multiple vets for different purposes.

My SO is a vet, so it's interesting to see the other side. The average client knows nothing about their pets health, AND (even worse) they think they do. I don't know a whole lot, but it shocks me what people do - and don't do.

What comes off as a vet trying to screw you for every $, is often more about protecting their own license to practice. One of the vets I have used supports raw diet - but isn't allowed to say so. The last time I was in there, I heard her selling Science Diet. Made me a little sad.

My SO feeds his dog Science Diet, I call it "poison." lol He tried feeding grain-free food after meeting me, but he couldn't tell any difference in his dog so he went back to Science Diet.

I was feeding raw diet then (and he never tried to disuade me), but my Service Dogs that work in public cannot eat raw because an asymptomatic dog can shed salmonella. I can't risk that.

I've worked for another vet and stayed a client for since. I don't get any crap about spaying or neutering there. Several years ago I remember teling one of the vets there that "Spaying is for people that can't keep their dog on a leash."

Done with my 0.02. You might miss out on a great vet because of a bad day or a bad tech. Why not talk to them? Get to know them? If they know how awesome your dog is, they might even support you.

Bonus: A young vet just out of school hasn't forgotten everything yet. j/k

 

[freemotion]

The staff is important, too. Don't kid yourself. They often spend more time with your animals than the doc does, and they are the ones who often relay your information to the doc.

I have left practices over the incompetence of the staff, and stayed at other practices because of the staff. I am currently vet-free....I returned to a practice that I'd left years ago due to the staff's incompetence putting my horse at risk twice. My dog needed emergency surgery recently, they could take him first. They fed him a grain-based food the following morning, in spite of my instructions and pleadings. This dog doesn't even eat in the morning. They didn't even need to feed him at all. Then you wouldn't believe the ludicrous conversation on this subject I had with the nurse. Unbelievable.

I still take animals there to be put down, because the vets are very kind and can't do much harm by then. I do have to argue with the staff about staying with the animal until and during the procedure. I won't drop a critically ill or in pain animal off to sit in a cage in the back room until someone gets around to killing it. No way. The animal is held, sung to, cuddled, and comforted right to the end, then brought home for burial.

Trust your instincts.

 

[ksalvagno]

You have to argue with the staff if you can stay for euthanasia? You have to be kidding me! My vets/staff ask right away if you want to be there or not. They even have a private room with chairs and a couch and you can stay with your pet as long as you like. There is even an outside exit door so you don't have to go through the lobby when you leave.

Sometimes I do get frustrated that my vet is so expensive but I guess I shouldn't complain because they really are great vets and the staff including the office staff are wonderful as well.

 

[SKR8PN]

Switch and never look back.

We just switched Vets last fall because of ongoing, repeated urinary tract infections in our oldest Chocolate Lab. Every 6 months to a year, she was back for antibiotics and whatnot. Long story short, after 4 years of this nonsense, we took her to another Vet who discovered that she has an inverted vulva. THAT was the problem all along! We were shown how to keep her clean and she has been infection free ever since. She had been seeing the first Vet since she was a puppy and he or his daughter who is also in the practice, NEVER ever found that little detail, so we were NEVER informed. I really start boiling when I think of how much my poor dog had to go through AND how much money we threw away.

OMG, poor girl! 4 years of suffering with UTI is very painful and bad news for the rest of the system. And I do know how much you care about your dogs. Boy, we sure are at the vet's mercy until we learn more, I think. Thank goodness you found a better vet.
Can I ask how you found a good one?

I am an auto tech with my own shop here at the house. Our NEW Vet's family have been customers for a long time. Dave had graduated Vet school about 2 or 3 years ago, and just began practicing at a clinic in Ashland Ohio. Ashland is only about 20 minutes from our house.
ANYWAY......after what my OLD vet said to me during her the LAST UTI episode(that is another story in itself!) I had had enough and gave Dave a call. He graciously told me to get her there ASAP so he could check her out. He gave her the best physical that I have EVER seen and that is how he found out what was going on. I was so impressed that we switched Vets that week. Transferred the shot records and everything. He is a little more expensive, but well worth the extra money and travel time. A big plus is he LOVES doing large animal farm work, so if we ever get to where we are raising beef or swine, we are covered!

 

[lupinfarm]

Would this happen to be a city vet?

It is a rural area that is quickly becoming suburbia. It has an average income of $151,000 (not me). I suspect this clinic is a city wannabe, catering to those with $$$ moving to the country.

Ugh, sounds like the vet office we dealt with in the GTA. Our town wasn't big when we moved in and started using it (Pat knows where I grew up, its similar in size to her town but back when I moved there it was still quite small) an this vet charges big city prices, and has the big city attitude.

I only liked the woman there, she understood that my cat was crazy and would take your hand off if you annoyed him enough, it was to do with him being feral but the man vet there told me I had to discipline him and kept smacking him everytime Accio got annoyed. I was horrified! And Accio wasn't even older, he was just a kitten and the guy was smacking my poor kitty! I can't see how a cat is going to understand your smacking it at all.


Our current vets are very rural despite being located in villages. Though I find it very odd that my equine vet has no equines of his own lol.

That vet in the GTA is the one who told me to start Accio on a raw diet, this year Accio developed urinary crystals and our new vet ruled out everything until the diet. Once Accio was switched to Royal Canin, he was normal. He does sometimes still get scraps but not very often, I can't bare to lose my baby!

 

[lupinfarm]

What really matters to me is the vets bedside manner. My routine shots/checks equine vet is GREAT. He was so patient with Luna even when she was a butthead and he's never rude.

I also deal with a french vet from the Peterborough area who I've been using as an emerge vet (lol not very much because I try to keep away from emergencies for the most part) that I used for Mylie's sedative when she last had her feet done. His bedside manner, to say the least, is seriously lacking. He's rude, arrogant, and so up on himself its ridiculous. When he asked where I was having Mylie trimmed and I said the field he replied, WITHOUT being asked his opinion by either the farrier or myself "humph, if I was your blacksmith I would drop you as a client if I had to trim in THERE"

I was astounded at his attitude, but it got even BETTER. Mylie bolted out of nowhere because he gave the farrier (wonderful man!! I would use him more often but he's never available!) the go ahead way too early. There were no warning signs that she was going to bolt so I wasn't holding onto the rope like she was going to and I let go. He YELLED at me for about TEN MINUTES over how stupid I was. He went and got her, I was so PO'd by this point I didn't even notice him stomp off after my horse. I HATE him with a fiery passion, but he's a good vet and I know my horse would be in good hands if she was in an emergency. I think though that he kind of looks down on my mutt horse, most of his clients appear to be high level jumpers and eventers lol. No biggie, my other vet is an emerge vet as well so if its serious enough for him I'll call him. I really hated this vet but he knew Mylie because he was her vet before I got her and my other vet wouldn't administer a sedative without a full examination, which at the time, I couldn't afford (he's much more spendy than the mobile vet with the bad attitude).

I totally understand where you're coming from, and if you're not happy or comfortable then leave. I don't believe in giving the vet usually second chances. If the ordeal was as bad as I am imagining, then leave and never look back.

Ohiofarmgirl, lol about your cat... a couple years ago on the telly there was a show about ER vets and this same sex couple brought their cat in, their vet had said she was going to die because she had feline AIDS and she hadn't died yet! The ER vets were baffled, because the cat was infact negative for any diseases and these two poor guys had been living like it was their beloved cats last day! Turns out the original vet had said what he said because he didn't agree with their relationship! How insane is that?

 

[bibliophile birds]

our large animal vet does all our routine shots for the cats and dogs here at the house. we only do rabies yearly and everything else on sliding scales advised by my godfather who is a vet (i wish he didn't live 8 hours away because i'd never use anyone other than him if i could). anyway, Patrick just pulls into the driveway, we start the pet parade out to the tailgate of the truck, and we're done. the animals are calm because they are home and the job is done lickety split.

he will also do simple stuff for us. last year my cat Fig got into a fight with a stray and had a nasty bite on the base of his tail which got infected. i had him scheduled for a trip into the holistic vet, but Patrick was working horses that day so i went down to see him. he just happened to have a good antibacterial/antifungal salve which was all natural (a lot of his clients ask for homeopathic/natural remedies) and it did the trick. no office visit charge. no waiting to see someone. just the cost of treatment and a good chat with my buddy Patrick.

of course, you probably can't get this kind of service if you don't have large animals as well, but if you do, it's always worth asking.