Today I did something that I have put off for over eight months- I finally forged ahead with a dentistry procedure on my oldest dachshund, Anya. I have always been very proactive taking care of Anya, especially with her teeth because I know first hand that untreated dental disease can shorten their lives, usually by damaging the kidneys.
I cleaned her teeth (yes with anesthesia) every year until she was around seven years, then every six months. I made sure I took dental xrays yearly and took every precaution to protect her from periodontal disease. In 2010, when she was fifteen, her dental xrays still looked like those of a young dog, her bone support around her teeth still healthy. As a result of all my good work, her labwork, her kidney values are still perfect normal. So why was I such a procrastinator?
Like many people, life got in the way. We have a baby, Anya had a bout of gall bladder disease, and of course work, work , work. But I still did her labwork regulary- every 3-6 months. I still brought her to work everyday. I am a veterinarian, I own my practice, and dentistry is one of my special interests, but still I delayed her anesthesia and dentistry. Why- fear of the unknown.
Like many clients, I began to convince myself that a sixteen/seventeen year old dog was so elderly that, as my husband put it, every day is a gift. It didn't matter that she was healthy, it didn't matter that I anesthetize elderly dogs and cats every day with a high success rate. It didn't matter that I knew that by not treating her teeth, I risked her kidneys. Her teeth were dirty, but looked normal on the outside. She was my baby and professional sense and yes, common sense went out the door.
It wasn't until she started loosing weight that I noticed that she was hungry but not picking up her food well. She was painful with her mouth, and I , a veterinarian, was too blinded by my own fear to pick up on it. I then snapped out of my denial, and made a treatment plan for her as I would any patient. Her dental xrays today showed that Anya had an abscessed tooth. It looked perfectly normal on the outside, but the abscess was clearly visible on the xray film. I tell clients every day that we cannot treat what we cannot see. I extractd her tooth today and she is doing wonderful. This little seventeen year old girl came through her anesthesia with flying colors and continues to have a bright future.
Fear of anesthesia prevents many pet owners from getting their babies needed care. This fear leads people into postponing dentistries and other procedures until it is too late for me to help their pets. Anesthesia is what I do for a living. I am trained, experienced, and our team does things the right way. Very few pets die under anethesia, and when they do, it is usually an unknown heart problem or other disease. Yes, every anesthesia procedure has some risk, but proper work ups to detect preexisting problems before anesthesia help us decrease that risk.
There is much more risk in doing nothing, more certainty that doing nothing will result in your pet being in pain or dying from a treatable problem. I understand the fear, but I overcame it when I saw that my fear was hurting my precious doxie. I know now that I gave my old girl a gift of not one day, but maybe a few more years if I can keep her healthy. I saw a twenty one year old poodle this week, so anything is possible.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Attack of the Crazies
Being a veterinarian is the most wonderful and the most awful job in the world. No where else can you experience true joy and saving a life of animal and later read about yourself in an online review about how much someone hates you.
Years ago, the only real way to find out about a business or professional was word of mouth. You would ask someone or hear a story and it would help you form an opinion about them, their services, and whether or not to use them. At the same time, you could see the person, converse with them, read their body language etc. This was always helpful to filter out the crazies
We all know who they are- the crazies who always complain. They complain about their steak and get it for free- never mind the poor waitress who gets to pay for it later. They always argue about their bill and keep the line at the store held up forever. Everyone has ripped them off and they never make mistakes. In person, they can be seen for who they are, but online they are invisible.
We vets hate online reviews because the sane people never write them. Good clients for whom we have treated their pets for years do not go online and write reviews- unless people love you because you are cheap. But, the crazies, they love reviews. No where else can they omit part of the story, forget that they declined recommended services, ignore that they called my technician a bad word, not mention that they bounced a check and best of all, just make stuff up. Trying to answer one of these just draws more attention to it, so it makes you feel so frustrated and wondering why be a vet at all.
My latest experience involved a dog with a perforated intestine from eating sticks. My team and I saved his life against all efforts of his owners who did not follow instructions, walked him a mile after being discharged from the hospital, and no showed his rechecks. Much to our surprise when three weeks later, he ate stuff again, we were told how terrible we were that we refused to use test results from the first surgery to diagnose the problem today. Yes, people, we cannot use x-rays from three weeks ago to figure out what your dog ate today. Not surprisingly the clients got mad and sure enough, wrote a scathing online review.
There is a saying that you can't fix stupid. This is what I try to tell myself when we encounter these situations, but I can't say it isn't extremely hard. I just hope that most reasonable people can read through the hate, pick out the bad grammar, run on sentences and recognize the crazie hidden in cyberspace. I devote my life to helping animals and if I say so myself, do a bang up job with a bang up crew. It would just be nice to have some recourse without making myself look like a crazie. Maybe I need to enroll some of our favorite patients and their baby boomer owners in some online classes; better yet, just go home and enjoy a nice evening with the doxies- they make all bad things go away.
Years ago, the only real way to find out about a business or professional was word of mouth. You would ask someone or hear a story and it would help you form an opinion about them, their services, and whether or not to use them. At the same time, you could see the person, converse with them, read their body language etc. This was always helpful to filter out the crazies
We all know who they are- the crazies who always complain. They complain about their steak and get it for free- never mind the poor waitress who gets to pay for it later. They always argue about their bill and keep the line at the store held up forever. Everyone has ripped them off and they never make mistakes. In person, they can be seen for who they are, but online they are invisible.
We vets hate online reviews because the sane people never write them. Good clients for whom we have treated their pets for years do not go online and write reviews- unless people love you because you are cheap. But, the crazies, they love reviews. No where else can they omit part of the story, forget that they declined recommended services, ignore that they called my technician a bad word, not mention that they bounced a check and best of all, just make stuff up. Trying to answer one of these just draws more attention to it, so it makes you feel so frustrated and wondering why be a vet at all.
My latest experience involved a dog with a perforated intestine from eating sticks. My team and I saved his life against all efforts of his owners who did not follow instructions, walked him a mile after being discharged from the hospital, and no showed his rechecks. Much to our surprise when three weeks later, he ate stuff again, we were told how terrible we were that we refused to use test results from the first surgery to diagnose the problem today. Yes, people, we cannot use x-rays from three weeks ago to figure out what your dog ate today. Not surprisingly the clients got mad and sure enough, wrote a scathing online review.
There is a saying that you can't fix stupid. This is what I try to tell myself when we encounter these situations, but I can't say it isn't extremely hard. I just hope that most reasonable people can read through the hate, pick out the bad grammar, run on sentences and recognize the crazie hidden in cyberspace. I devote my life to helping animals and if I say so myself, do a bang up job with a bang up crew. It would just be nice to have some recourse without making myself look like a crazie. Maybe I need to enroll some of our favorite patients and their baby boomer owners in some online classes; better yet, just go home and enjoy a nice evening with the doxies- they make all bad things go away.
Monday, January 16, 2012
Doxies versus Babies- Who knew?
In case you haven't noticed, I have taken quite a leave of absence from the blogging universe. My husband and I welcomed a new baby boy into our family in June and to be honest, time has literally flown away. While being a new mother brings with it a wealth of new experiences and joy, watching my baby boy forge a bond with my dogs has been a wonderful experience.
With two elderly dachshunds in the household, certainly we were concerned about acceptance, jealousy, and safety of our son, Jack. Especially when one of my girls has little dog napoleon complex and rules the house with an iron fist. Daisy, our happy go lucky mix, was expected to get along. Anya, on the other hand, was sixteen years old and yes, a bit nippy. Let the games begin.
Like most things, what we expected to happen turned in to the exact opposite. Daisy immediately pouted, changed couches, and was thoroughly disgusted that we brought a baby home. Anya was curious, but initially- thank goodness- uninterested. Soon though, we found that Anya liked to lay next to the baby, she liked his blankets, she was curious about the bottles. Over the next few months as Daisy continued to ignore him, Anya loved him, snuggled him, and lately has tolerated grabbing and kicking with the patience of a saint. Jack has always been enthralled with Anya; he smiles when he sees her and likes to touch her soft coat. He seems to already like dogs and is fascinated with the cats at the hospital when he spends his days at work with me.
Anya, now seventeen, continues to welcome Jack into our family and even Daisy has come around a little bit. People ask how we did it, how we "trained" the dogs. I think it was because we were able to genuinely show love for the doxi girls and Jack at the same time- combined with a little bit of luck. As responsible parents, we always supervise all dachshund/baby interactions but by allowing the relationship between baby and dog to blossom, we have facilitated a friendship that can last forever. I think as we teach Jack how to love animals, treat them kindly, and view them as part of our family, we gave Anya an opportunity to welcome a new member of the pack and show her true colors as the best dachshund in the world!
With two elderly dachshunds in the household, certainly we were concerned about acceptance, jealousy, and safety of our son, Jack. Especially when one of my girls has little dog napoleon complex and rules the house with an iron fist. Daisy, our happy go lucky mix, was expected to get along. Anya, on the other hand, was sixteen years old and yes, a bit nippy. Let the games begin.
Like most things, what we expected to happen turned in to the exact opposite. Daisy immediately pouted, changed couches, and was thoroughly disgusted that we brought a baby home. Anya was curious, but initially- thank goodness- uninterested. Soon though, we found that Anya liked to lay next to the baby, she liked his blankets, she was curious about the bottles. Over the next few months as Daisy continued to ignore him, Anya loved him, snuggled him, and lately has tolerated grabbing and kicking with the patience of a saint. Jack has always been enthralled with Anya; he smiles when he sees her and likes to touch her soft coat. He seems to already like dogs and is fascinated with the cats at the hospital when he spends his days at work with me.
Anya, now seventeen, continues to welcome Jack into our family and even Daisy has come around a little bit. People ask how we did it, how we "trained" the dogs. I think it was because we were able to genuinely show love for the doxi girls and Jack at the same time- combined with a little bit of luck. As responsible parents, we always supervise all dachshund/baby interactions but by allowing the relationship between baby and dog to blossom, we have facilitated a friendship that can last forever. I think as we teach Jack how to love animals, treat them kindly, and view them as part of our family, we gave Anya an opportunity to welcome a new member of the pack and show her true colors as the best dachshund in the world!
Monday, January 2, 2012
Why Vets Hate the Holidays
Once again I ask myself what is it about the holidays that make people want to put their pets to sleep? Every year, veterinarians around the country experience an influx of last minute euthanasia appointments in the 4 weeks in between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I have seen it happen at every place I have worked and see it now in my own practice.
The stories vary. Some have old pets that have not seen a vet in years, that suddenly fall ill and require a trip to the rainbow bridge preferably before the Christmas guests arrive. Others have grumpy cats that hide and like to bite Grandma, so a trip to the vet to let her go peacefully and not suffer. The saddest are the families that acquire a new puppy or have a new baby and decide that the old dog has just gotta go. Some are honest and need to get rid of their family pet because they can not handle the "smell" when family arrives to visit. Others are going to travel at Christmas and feel that death is preferable to boarding for their cat; living in a kennel for a week would upset her so much you know. These folks usually have a regular vet, but feel guilty and try and find someone new to do the deed. No one wants to do a medical work up and try and help their pet or make a decision based on facts- they just know it is time to let them go.
Most good vets can smell these a mile away, but far too many just do what the client wants and perform euthanasia upon request. I worked for many a vet that just did what the clients wanted, no questions asked. When I finally acquired my own practice, I swore to myself that I would never perform what we call a convenience euthanasia. We require at least an examination and often a work up to determine what, if anything is wrong with a new patient presented for euthanasia. If the problem is complicated with a poor prognosis then certainly euthanasia is a valid option. If the problem is treatable (within reason) then we absolutely do not do it- Period!
It is so different when we have a relationship with the client and pet, are working with their problems and we come to a decision together that is time. Those euthanasias I can perform with compassion regardless of the time of year. Men who show up at our office shouting at the girls and demanding we put his perfectly healthy 12 year old cat to sleep because he is sick of dealing with "it"- I say too bad, because my staff and I still have to be able to sleep at night knowing that we did the right thing by our patients. I have to be an advocate for them as they cannot speak for themselves- but I am pretty sure they would choose life if given a chance.
The stories vary. Some have old pets that have not seen a vet in years, that suddenly fall ill and require a trip to the rainbow bridge preferably before the Christmas guests arrive. Others have grumpy cats that hide and like to bite Grandma, so a trip to the vet to let her go peacefully and not suffer. The saddest are the families that acquire a new puppy or have a new baby and decide that the old dog has just gotta go. Some are honest and need to get rid of their family pet because they can not handle the "smell" when family arrives to visit. Others are going to travel at Christmas and feel that death is preferable to boarding for their cat; living in a kennel for a week would upset her so much you know. These folks usually have a regular vet, but feel guilty and try and find someone new to do the deed. No one wants to do a medical work up and try and help their pet or make a decision based on facts- they just know it is time to let them go.
Most good vets can smell these a mile away, but far too many just do what the client wants and perform euthanasia upon request. I worked for many a vet that just did what the clients wanted, no questions asked. When I finally acquired my own practice, I swore to myself that I would never perform what we call a convenience euthanasia. We require at least an examination and often a work up to determine what, if anything is wrong with a new patient presented for euthanasia. If the problem is complicated with a poor prognosis then certainly euthanasia is a valid option. If the problem is treatable (within reason) then we absolutely do not do it- Period!
It is so different when we have a relationship with the client and pet, are working with their problems and we come to a decision together that is time. Those euthanasias I can perform with compassion regardless of the time of year. Men who show up at our office shouting at the girls and demanding we put his perfectly healthy 12 year old cat to sleep because he is sick of dealing with "it"- I say too bad, because my staff and I still have to be able to sleep at night knowing that we did the right thing by our patients. I have to be an advocate for them as they cannot speak for themselves- but I am pretty sure they would choose life if given a chance.
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