04/15/2025
Urgent and emergent situations involving a pet are traumatic causing stress, anxiety, and fear even before arriving to the urgent care or emergency pet clinic. The fact that you can’t get your dog or cat in to see your vet is frustrating and now you have to take your pet to a stranger or drive farther. Long wait times and high cost of the visit makes everything worse. If this is resonating with you, you are not alone.
Our country and world are experiencing changes that are adding an unexpected level of stress to our lives. This is another reason why everything feels unmanageable when your pet is sick. Life events at the time of a pet illness also exacerbate everything! Maybe your car died, you lost your job, a family member is ill or recently passed away, among a variety of other life changes and events that happen to people every day.
At the urgent care or emergency pet clinics, veterinary professionals are there for you and your pet during the most difficult times. Veterinarians spend time not only helping your pet, but also trying to help you and your family through difficult situations. Veterinarians deal with grief, illness, and economic hardship, every day. They don't enjoy seeing fellow humans struggle.
Despite your veterinarians efforts to help you and your pet they are often faced with the following verbiage from pet owners: “They are in it for the money. They don’t care about me or my pet. They should know what's wrong with my pet without diagnostic tests. They killed my pet. I spent x amount of money and they don't even know what's wrong" And unfortunately the list goes on.
This harmful verbiage impacts your veterinary team's mental health including depression, anxiety, and burn-out. Here is some information that pet owners need to know to combat some of the harmful verbiage affecting veterinary teams:
1. A veterinarian goes to school for approximately 8 years and longer depending on their speciality.
2. A veterinarian pays greater than a quarter of a million dollars for an education to be able to help pets and livestock. (It’s very expensive to have the privilege to be a vet!)
3. A veterinarian makes less money annually than the average human doctor, lawyer, pharmacist, CEO executive, and often struggles to pay back their educational debt. (Although they have higher salaries than some positions, contrary to popular belief they are not a part of the 1%)
4. A veterinarian was often once a child that decided to devote their lives to animals in some capacity. (although this is a stereotype, sit in a room with a bunch of vets and you're bound to hear multiple variations on the theme).
5. A veterinarian doesn't money gouge, disrespect people and their pets, or offer unnecessary diagnostic testing and treatments to sick pets. (They do what they were trained to do, listen to the pet owner, perform a physical exam, recommended what is necessary and most helpful for you and your pet!)
6. A veterinarian is a smart person, and if they wanted to make money and take advantage of people they wouldn't be a veterinarian. (Think about it!)
7. Veterinarians do not have crystal balls. (Although they wish they did to make it easier for everyone!)
8. Veterinarians make a lot of personal sacrifices for you and your pet. (staying late, squeezing in an extra appointment with a full schedule to name a few)
9. Veterinarians are your "therapists" (whether you realize it or not) during hard times.
10. Veterinarians are not in it for the money, they do care about you and your pet, and in most situations they cannot know what is wrong with your pet without diagnostic testing. (Bottom line, they care and have big hearts)
Here are some helpful tips for pet owners to try to reduce the harmful verbiage affecting veterinary teams:
1. Establish a local veterinarian and bring your pet once yearly for routine check-ups, vaccines, and prevention
2. Get pet insurance or start a pet savings account
3. If you need to bring your pet to the urgent or emergency clinic you may experience the following:
a. stress, anxiety, and fear because your pet is sick
b. sometimes long wait times
c. expensive estimates for diagnostics/treatment options
d. hospitalization, surgery, depending how sick your pet is
When you have to bring your pet to the urgent care or emergency clinic, veterinary teams are there to help you and your pet. Remember to breathe when you walk through the door and hopefully some of the helpful tips above will make your experience less stressful. It won’t be easy as is to be expected of all of life’s emergent events. Please take care when talking about veterinary teams and remember to take responsibility for the stress, anxiety, and fear that will inevitably be present before the visit even starts.
