08/14/2025
Time flies by!
We are approaching 6 months of being open, which is very hard to believe at times.
Thank you SO MUCH to all my clients, family, employees, and the community for helping make my dream happen.
Because of you, I’m able to provide additional veterinary services closer to home, allowing me to spend more quality time with my family.
Friendly reminder that I am only one person though, and my practice is literally JUST ME doctor-wise.
That means that I’m putting in 70 plus hours of work a week. When you call to schedule, my front staff will ALWAYS try their best to accomodate you when we can. We always try to find that “yes”.
However, sometimes I’m balancing several emergencies at one time or am in surgery and have to refer your case to another vet, especially if it’s urgent/time-pressing.
It would be very, very unethical of me as a practitioner to try to take on too many cases at once, especially if some are critical. It’d also be impossible to do best medicine.
One thing I promise you, is that when you become my client, you are not another number. I try to get to know every single client and pet. I will always have honesty and compassion. Your care will also be individualized, because like in human medicine, my pet patients are not “cookie cutter”. Some treatment plans work better for some versus others.
I am also considerate of people’s budgets. I grew up in a family of 10 children, so money was very limited at times. Many of us nowadays, especially with inflation, are just trying to stay above water financially, so we can feed ourselves and kids.
With every case, I provide an estimate. I legally have to offer standard of care, but I’ll never judge you or pressure you if you can’t do everything. For many cases, there is always an opportunity for a recheck with a plan B if the first plan (e.g. one foregoing diagnostics due to limited budget) does not work.
Recently, a lady tried to soil my name on social media by saying that I didn’t care about seeing a pet. Firstly, I always care, and she left out important details that I was in the middle of triaging two very sick, critical dogs and had no childcare after hours that particular day. My significant other wasn’t in town so I needed to be with my kids.
This lady (and her friend) were also very disrespectful and rude to my receptionist, which I will never tolerate or enable. I would not be able to do what I do without my support staff, so I will never take them for granted.
Another hospital was able to see her that evening (which I am very very thankful for) because they have multiple doctors and are able to provide after hours care, due to being a multi-doctor staff.
One fact many may not realize is that we are currently facing a veterinarian shortage in rural America.
A lot of veterinarians are leaving practice due to burn-out and rude clients. I have lost several colleagues to su***de due to rude individuals and being pushed into a corner for fear of having their reputation ruined.
Here in Wilson county, we are very fortunate to have several talented, compassionate vets. I will always fully support the other hospitals and peoples’ decisions to go there, if desired. I will never soil another doctor’s or practice’s name.
My mom and dad raised me with respect, and I’m a firm believer that if you treat people the way you want to be treated, people will support you back.
Again, words can not express how thankful I am for all of you. Thank you for being very understanding of my schedule too.
I promise to always provide quality care and to continue following the veterinary oath I took the day of my veterinary graduation.
-Dr Sczepanik
