21/04/2025
How to become your veterinarian's favorite client in a few easy steps:
1. Provide preventive care for your pet. Establish a relationship with your local veterinarian. So many of the diseases we treat are 100% avoidable with proper wellness care throughout a pet's life.
Example:
4 vaccines from your vet - roughly $72
Treatment for diseases above vaccines are given to prevent - $500-$1000+
This also applies to parasite prevention. Heartworms and tickborne disease are not a conspiracy and coconut oil is not going to protect your pet from ehrlichia. Your vet will know what your pet is most likely exposed to based on location and lifestyle factors.
2. Bring your pet in before they are in a complete state of disrepair. Treatment is generally less expensive and more effective when we have less of a resurrection type situation. We sometimes feel like the order of seeking medical care/advice for your sick pet goes something like this...ask google, ask stangers on facebook, ask the 16 year old pet store employee, call your vet, but only to ask if they can do anything over the phone without seeing your pet, then...gasp...an actual trip to the veterinary clinic. Generally this is after spending money on over the counter products that didn't work. Make your veterinarian the first resource for pet health. After all, we sort of do this for a living...
3. When the veterinarian gives you a medication to treat your pet's condition, give it. If there is a problem with the medication, or undesirable side effects, call us. Don't tell us at a later appointment that you have leftover antibiotics. This is not a thing people. For 2 reasons. Zombie. Apocalypse. No, but really, antibiotic resistance, which might very well lead to the zombie apocalypse. Don't stop giving meds/not finish meds, decline your recheck appointment, then come back bitching about how what we did last time didn't work.
4. If your pet is an as***le, please tell us at the beginning of your appointment. Waiting until Precious goes for the jugular to chuckle and say, "yeah, she does that" is a good way to make it to the very tip top of a veterinary staff's s**t list. Most of us pride ourselves on reading animal behavior, as well as being able to safely handle an aggressive or fearful pet, but sometimes, we didn't get the body language memo, so a heads up would be fanf**kingtastic...
5. Be patient with us. I promise no one is just standing around twiddling their thumbs, intentionally making you wait. Emergencies happen. Veterinarians have to triage just like any other hospital. Let's face it, you will likely still have a shorter wait time than you would at your own doctor's office or hospital.
6. Pay your bill. Seems simple, but this, unfortunately, isn't common sense amongst some pet owners. Tight budget? We can work through that. Need financing options or a payment plan? We can hook you up. Communicate this to us on the front end. We, more than likely, can help you. Coming in expecting not to pay us and never saying anything regarding finances prior to refusal to pay at check out? NOT OKAY. You can't go to a store and take home your groceries by making a promise to come back later and pay?? Most clinics offer 3rd party financing options, or wellness plans to help with emergency or preventive care. But don't get an attitude or try to make us feel guilty for having a reasonable expectation to receive payment for services. We have families to take care of and bills to pay just like everyone else.
7. Friends don't take advantage of each other. Being friends with a veterinarian or their staff definitely has perks. Most are brilliant bad asses and will probably be extremely helpful in survivor type situations (like the zombie apocalypse mentioned above). However, we know when we are being used. It is not acceptable to ask for advice after hours, but never actually make it into our clinic, or pay for our time or services. Respect our very few moments away from the office. We love veterinary medicine, but we have to turn it off and spend time with family and friends. Don't let the only time you speak to your vet med "friend" be to ask for free medical advice after hours.
8. Don't ask us to treat your personal medical condition, especially if it involves you bringing any samples of said bodily issue from home. True story. We didn't choose veterinary medicine as a back up. We will promptly refer you to our human counterpart. People are gross. Just, no.
9. Do not insult our intelligence by comparing our professional medical opinion or treatments with those of google, the pet store, or your breeder. Medical care should invlove an open discussion and mutual agreement about a plan of action between pet parents and their provider. If you heard something, or read something, ask us. We generally know and are aware of the latest facebook remedy or homeopathic treatments floating about on the internet. We can generally tell when someone is willing to have a discussion about their pet's care with an open mind. However, you will not degrade our education or bash our profession based on advice from a 3rd party without DVM behind their name. Buh bye.
10. Lastly, just be a decent human being. If you think there isn't an "as***le" fee tucked into your invoice somewhere, you are sadly mistaken. Also, you are much less likely to have anyone go out of their way to help you if you have been, or are presently being, a giant t**t waffle.
It also never hurts to bring food or anything with caffeine....
