Interaction With The Veterinarian

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

There are a lot of reasons for pruritus, come to the appointment, we will figure it out

- And I have no time, and your reception is very expensive. - Sorry, but I'm not Kashpirovsky and I can't make a diagnosis over the phone! - So you are not an expert!

- How do you work?

- Every day, around the clock.

- And from what time?

- There are a lot of reasons for pruritus, come to the appointment, we will figure it out.

- And I have no time, and your reception is very expensive.

- Sorry, but I'm not Kashpirovsky and I can't make a diagnosis over the phone!

- So you are not an expert!

- I did everything according to your instructions, but the dog is getting worse and worse !!! I'll sue you!

- Excuse me, who are you? When did you visit me?

- I have not been with you. You prescribed treatment to my neighbor's dog a year ago, and my dog has the same thing now.

(Telephone conversations in the clinic)

I'd like to put in a few words for practicing doctors, whether they are doctors in a clinic, a call service or consultants (most of us somehow combine these hypostases). The overwhelming majority of doctors (and I don't want to call the rest doctors) always try to treat the owners of sick animals with patience and understanding. In response, it happens in different ways.

So let's start with the doctors who work in clinics.

First, the doctor has a specific working day. Each of us works inside and out, and then goes home. In clinics, before closing, the reception stops working, in shops ten minutes before the end of the working day, the security stops letting in customers, in the metro they close the entrance, not wondering how you will get home. In the veterinary clinic every night pleas are heard: "Well, we are the last, accept, this is a few minutes!" And no assurances that the doctor on duty has been receiving in the next office for half an hour, that it is impossible to make a detailed examination and give competent advice in a few minutes, that the husband and children at home, the store is about to close, and the working day ended forty minutes ago, do not help …

Secondly, the doctor himself decides how much time to spend on the appointment and whom to take first. In some cases, a cursory examination is enough to make a diagnosis, and sometimes, in difficult cases, the doctor spends at least 10-15 minutes just asking the owner of the animal! Plus treatment (and this can be a slow dropper) and the appointment of a course of treatment (sometimes you have to write up a double sheet listing medications and procedures). Often in the queue there are dissatisfied, muttering that the doctor is a bad specialist, since he fiddles for so long, and in general they are driving teas there, and we are sitting here, etc., etc., etc. And what scandals sometimes flare up if the doctor decides to take a seriously ill animal out of turn. The count can go on for minutes, and from the queue you hear: "Not at the bar, we are sitting, and let them sit!" Be patient pleasebecause each of us can get into such a situation!

Thirdly, the doctor is not the Lord God: it is not always possible to make a correct diagnosis, not all patients can be cured. Very few diseases can be diagnosed only by examination. In most cases, more research is needed, and it is often not cheap. This is not a way to "pump out" money, but an urgent need. And our pets are not immortal. Even the most experienced doctors die of patients … Alas.

Fourthly, you must trust your doctor or say goodbye right away if after the first visit you feel that you do not like this person. Some owners manage to change seven doctors in a week, each of them complain about the previous one and ask to appoint another, certainly correct, course of treatment. As a result, the animal is brought to a critical state, and its owner convinces everyone on the counter that all doctors are charlatans, they would only rip off money. Understand that there are several treatments for the same disease, each doctor has his or her favorite. In one day, there will be no effect, and jumps from course to course only lead to a worsening of the situation.

Fifth, do not self-medicate !!! Only a doctor after examination and examinations can prescribe a course of treatment that is suitable specifically for your dog (cat) in this particular condition. The fact that your cat a year ago wrote in the same way in blood as it does now, and the neighbor's dog coughed in the same way as yours now does not mean anything !!! Last year, the cat could have had cystitis against the background of a cold, and now - urolithiasis. The neighbor's dog could suffer from chronic bronchitis, and yours - heart failure, in which there is also a cough. Treatment for different diagnoses is different, and then claims will be to the doctor when the neglected animal finally falls into his hands.

Sixth, there are a lot of claims against doctors because of the cost of services. Understand, please, that the doctor does not come up with the prices himself, but does not put the money in his pocket, but pushes it at the checkout or hands it over to the accountant. To avoid getting into an awkward situation, check the rates in advance. Any clinic has a price list. Keep in mind that the prices for services are plus (the cost of an injection, for example, is the sum of the cost of the procedure itself, the syringe and the medicine) There is one more subtlety. In one clinic, the price for an appointment can be quite high, but it is indicated in brackets: appointment (examination, consultation, diagnosis, prescription of a course of treatment). In another clinic, a separate small fee is charged for each of these items. In total, the cost is the same! In any case, the price list is not drawn up by a doctor,and if you have questions or complaints, please refer to the manual, do not interfere with the doctor's appointment.

- Come in, I'll introduce you to Katya.

She works as a call girl.

(From the monologue of a familiar grandmother, whose cat I have been observing for 10 years)

Now for the calling service. In general, the problems of interaction between the doctor and the owner of the animal are the same (trust, pricing policy, self-medication), but there are a number of nuances.

Coming to the clinic, you feel what the attitude towards you and your pet is, you see how the premises are equipped, how the staff is dressed, and so on, and you can form your opinion (if it is unfavorable, you can always leave this clinic). Calling a doctor (especially if the call goes through a dispatcher), you still do not know who you will see on the doorstep. Therefore, it is better to call a doctor recommended to you by friends, acquaintances, breeder and so on.

A house call is always more expensive than the same work in the clinic (the work costs the same plus the cost of the call), and keep in mind that you pay not for how much the doctor went (drove) to you, but for the fact that you did not push the yelling cat in the basket, did not shake with him on the tram and did not sit in line. The worst thing is for a kind-hearted doctor to go to calls to his own and neighboring houses, especially when the owners know and use it. One of my friends constantly came home from work almost at night, on weekends she rarely went out to visit or for a picnic - all her free time was devoured by calls, but at the same time she was sitting with practically no money, because on calls she was told: "Well, we live in the next house … You will hardly waste your time by coming to us … "- and after such a phrase she was ashamed to name the real price. By the way, I would also like to remind you of one well-known phrase: "Doctors don't drink candy and don't eat flowers!"

Doctors are people too. If your animal has something non-urgent, before calling the doctor (especially on the home phone), please look at the time and the calendar. The apogee in my practice was a call at seven in the morning ("The cat hasn't pooped for five days, maybe give him an enema?") And a call at 10 am on January 1 to a cat with chronic cystitis (and you can't even take a double price for a call, mistress ў retired grandmother, who, as it seemed to me after examining the cat, simply had no one to drink tea with on New Year's morning).

It is not always possible to make a diagnosis only after examination. At the clinic, you will be sent to the next room and asked to wait for the test results and return to your appointment. The doctor who came to your home will ask you to go for tests (X-ray, ultrasound, etc.) and … call him again. Please understand that this is not a way to scam you money, but a desire to make an accurate diagnosis in order to prescribe the best treatment for the case. If the animal needs an operation or other procedures that cannot be performed at home, the doctor will send you to the clinic, but he did his job (diagnosis and primary prescriptions). And it must be paid, despite the fact that some owners - alas - think differently.

On the question of operations at home. Of course, ideally, the operation should be carried out in a clinic where there are special lamps, tables and machines, a team is working, an x-ray can be taken, and so on. Doctors from large clinics now look dismissively at home practitioners. But let's go back only 15-20 years ago, when they scornfully looked at doctors trying to do with small animals anything more difficult than castrating cats (at least at home, at least in a clinic): "Here's more messing around, it's easier to put to sleep!" And even now - drive off a couple of hundred kilometers from St. Petersburg … A year ago I was on vacation in the Kuban (I went with tools and medicines) - I was neutered at home two cats - I was almost carried in my arms. Well, they don’t do it there, and it’s not enough happiness to breed or regularly drown kittens. Therefore - this is my personal opinion - a doctor is better,who will qualitatively perform the operation in the "field" conditions (especially if the patient is far from the nearest clinic equipped with the latest science and technology) than a doctor who cannot make a diagnosis without a couple of computers. I remember very well what it was like to work at the institute in the late 80s - early 90s: there is no hot water, there is a problem with disinfectants, anesthesia - only rometar, and that is in short supply, no less deficit - suture material, drugs, antibiotics - penicillin and bicillin … But they operated on (I was then in the SSS, studied, assisted): on the intestines, and on the uterus, and on the bones!who cannot even make a diagnosis without a couple of computers. I remember very well what it was like to work at the institute in the late 80s - early 90s: there is no hot water, there is a problem with disinfectants, anesthesia - only rometar, and that is in short supply, no less deficit - suture material, drugs, antibiotics - penicillin and bicillin … But they operated on (I was then in the SSS, studied, assisted): on the intestines, and on the uterus, and on the bones!who cannot even make a diagnosis without a couple of computers. I remember very well what it was like to work at the institute in the late 80s - early 90s: there is no hot water, there is a problem with disinfectants, anesthesia - only rometar, and that is in short supply, no less deficit - suture material, drugs, antibiotics - penicillin and bicillin … But they operated on (I was then in the SSS, studied, assisted): on the intestines, and on the uterus, and on the bones!

Call at the veterinarian's apartment at two in the morning:

- Doctor, give me some advice: my windows go straight to the roof of the next house, there the cat has sex with the cat and yells so much that it prevents us from sleeping.

- Call the cat to the phone.

- So what? Will he stop having sex ???

- Well, I stopped!

(Sad anecdote)

And finally, about correspondence consultations. Oh, and our people love this business …

First, I repeat - you can hardly ever give full advice in absentia. Do not be offended when a doctor refuses to give you a detailed answer in a pharmacy, by phone or on the Internet. It's one thing when people ask how to get rid of fleas or worms, how to vaccinate, feed, drink, prepare for a trip, and it's quite another thing when, for example, you read on the forum: "My dog poops with blood all day. What to do? " And a lot of advice from good friends-members of the forum, who, of course, are also animal lovers, but have the same attitude to veterinary medicine as I do to ballet … And the doctor-moderator tries to remove all this nonsense and gives the only true advice: run to the clinic, this is can be anything: from "olympics" to a foreign body, from inflammation of the anal glands to poisoning with rat poison !!! But no, the forum users are unhappy,we have a bad doctor, he does not want to treat … The same story and veterinary pharmacies: "You have written - consultation of a veterinarian! Why are you sending me to the clinic ?!"

Secondly, if you have the phone number of the clinic where your animal is treated, then, in principle, you should be given advice at any time during its opening hours. If the doctor gave you his cell or home number, please do not abuse !!! Doctors are the same people! They have weekends, holidays, they have families, friends, they go to visit, cinema and theaters, they eat, sleep, get sick just like you, and even (I'll reveal a terrible secret) go to the toilet. Moreover, your pet is not the only patient. Recently, I was presented with a complaint why I did not answer the phone (a lady called, who pestered me for a month with calls 5-6 times a day). The explanation that I was assisting during the operation (intra-articular fracture of the hip) did not satisfy her. No less indignation was caused by the fact that after a week of communication with her, I began to turn off the phone at night. So what to do? I am also a living person …

Well, and, finally, I would like to wish all of us mutual trust, patience and health ў both animals and people!

Figure: Vera Glotova