Watch us take a boulder out of a Chihuahua!
***Surgery shown*** blood and stuff.
So, you want to be a vet?
I was driving to work yesterday morning, feeling COMPLETELY miserable. Flu-like symptoms, my body ached like it had been beaten and rolled down a hill. I was freezing, then two seconds later, sweating. My head was pounding and I had a very painful baseball sized lymph node under my right armpit. Don’t worry, though, I wasn’t going to spread a horrible sickness among co-workers (this time), but instead, I had gotten vaccinated two days prior – my third COVID-19 vaccine (a booster) and it hit me like a truck. I kept thinking to myself “Ugh! I just want to go home. This is going to be a long day. I can’t call in sick though because I already have a completely full schedule and can’t just leave my co-workers to take all of my cases.” Such is the life of a vet. Don’t worry, there’s awesome parts too (just not in this blog).
Training to be a vet is sort of like boot camp for a marine (but not at all the same). Once you enter vet school, they start the mental and physical conditioning. Not only is there no rest for the weary, but if you’re weary, there’s extra work. They start with a grueling schedule of 8 hours of advanced science/medicine classes per day – 8am-5pm, then expect you to go home and review the material (they approximate an hour per hour of class). Then, the testing starts. This means studying night after late night into the early morning, internally debating whether more review or sleep will be better for you (psst! Get the sleep). One professor described the onslaught of information vs retention as throwing a giant pile of horse crap at a wall and hoping some of it sticks.
After three and a half years of dragging your brain across a cactus field, the clinical rotations start. Vet school clinicians (drill sergeants) are notoriously miserable themselves, and therefore, feel the need to make sure everyone else is also miserable. I can’t blame them, necessarily, they are dealing with the hardest cases (most animals don’t come to the vet school unless there’s a super complicated issue that a general practitioner can’t deal with), they are doing it on very little income, and they are having to “babysit” over eager students who, despite having studied for 3.5 years, don’t know squat. **side note: some of the senior clinician are absolute SAINTS – made to teach AND a master of their field. And some are literally trying to drag you down to hell with their miserable selves – none shall be pictured.**
While a student, you are expected not to complain about not sleeping because someone always has to comment how they’ve been up for 32 hours straight (to which I guess you are supposed to bow down to that person?). You are expected not to complain about being hungry – you may, I don’t know, end up eating some horse or dog food because you are so hungry and it doesn’t look too bad when you’re holding a horse for the 90th hour and haven’t been allowed to move. You are not to use the bathroom while people are around – thou shalt not flaunt your excessive time allotment by urinating when others cannot.
You are expected to show up NO MATTER WHAT is going on. Snow storm? In Georgia, where snow plows are a thing of fairy tales? Better start hiking or you won’t hear the end of it when you finally manage to drag yourself (and wreckage of a car) into the hospital. Have the flu? Might as well resign vet school before calling in. I mean, technically, they’ll have to allow you to stay home, but you may be excommunicated for showing an ounce of self care. Also, you’d be so much cooler if you just took some ibuprofen and pushed on. Vomiting? Just bring a bucket and you can empty it during your bathroom breaks which don’t exist. Pregnant? Just get out. (There were actually a few classmates who were brave enough to have kids during vet school and they are all amazing women and vets to this day).
You made it to graduation, yay!! You somehow also survived the SIX HOUR test you have to take to apply for a license. Some will go on to start their career, while some will choose to get internships with the idea that this will ease them better into the work field (because when you graduate, despite the physical and mental torture and water boarding of information, you still know nothing, but are happy to be alive). Some internships are AMAZING (I’ve been told), but some are just a way to get you to do the crap work, while getting crapped on (pun intended), further breaking you down (because now it’s about breaking your soul) all with the exciting wage of $25,000/year – with the ($100K+ with 6-12% interest) student loans lapping at your heels.
You can then, enter a residency if you choose to be specialized in a certain discipline (surgery, medicine, oncology, ophthalmology, etc) – typically you will need to be at the top of your class (I was NOT) and even more into self torture than most. This option is three years of more intensity than anything previously experienced, with, again, little pay – but from what I’ve heard, you won’t need the money anyway – sleep at the hospital, never eat, etc.
Finally, it’s time to start your career. Due to the mental, physical, and spiritual beating you have endured, you’re perfectly happy and, in fact, eternally grateful for your first job offer. $42,000/yr? YES!! That’s almost twice as much as you were making as an intern, living on literal beans and rice!! You’re going to be rich!! (you might even be able to add some CHEESE to your beans and rice). From here, it may be a good 2-3 years before you don’t think you’ve made a huge mistake and that you’re a failure and imposter, and then 7-10 years before you realize your worth – as a vet, but mostly as a person.
So, now, you’re finally comfortable in your own skin, you work hard, contribute your all, but also expect respect from your boss, co-workers, and, especially, clients. Finally, it’s time to start realizing what there is to love about veterinary medicine. *See next blog*
It pays to spay and neutered is tutored.. or whatever
I would say that for the most part, owners these days are much more aware of the benefits of altering their pet’s reproductive abilities, but we still run into the not-so-rare emergencies that come from not having a spayed or neutered pet. There continues to be more research as to when is the best time to have the procedures done, but overwhelmingly, the consensus is that it is safer, healthier, and dare I say, less expensive to go ahead and have that surgery done.
For the bitches: An obvious reason that it is recommended to spay a female and remove those hormones and organs from her body is the prevention of accidental litters of puppies. Despite the fact that nowadays, you can slap a cute breed remix name on a mixed breed puppy and get some attention, overwhelmingly, there are too many homeless pets in the shelters being euthanized every day to take the risk of finding forever homes for new lives. You won’t know until it’s too late whether you’ll have to find homes for just one puppy (which can be hard on the mother as that one puppy tends to be much larger than individual puppies in multiple puppy litters) or 17 puppies. And let’s say you secure homes for all these puppies, don’t pat yourself on the back yet, now these families will need to keep these puppies forever without dropping them off at the shelter when they start chewing up the couch or drywall before you can count yourself responsible. Obviously, I’m not talking about responsible breeders. There are absolutely some wonderfully thoughtful and detail oriented breeders out there trying to improve whatever breed they have chosen through intensive genetic testing and screenings and I salute them.
Other reasons it is healthier to spay your female: You will prevent an emergency, very expensive, very dangerous condition called pyometra – this is a condition where weeks to a few months after her heat cycle, her uterus, having been open to the world when she was in heat with an open cervix and the amount of mucus dogs tend to produce during heat cycles create an optimum environment for bacteria to enter and take over. So, a month or so after they’re in heat, they become lethargic, can become septicemic (systemic infection spread through the blood), sometimes vomit, and can die. They basically have a giant sac of pus sitting in their abdomen that can spread to the blood supply or the uterus can rupture and then fill the entire abdomen with disgusting infectious pus. This happens with enough occurrence that if vets see a female dog coming in for lethargy, vomiting, ADR (ain’t doin’ right) and she’s not spayed, it’s considered a pyometra until proven otherwise. This is a condition that is best dealt with by doing immediate surgery to remove said sack of pus. This surgery, especially in the middle of the night or during the weekend (when bad things tend to happen) may cost anywhere from $600 at your most rural practice to $2500-5000 depending on the severity of her condition when she presents at an emergency clinic. So, not only are you going to easily spend 6-10x what you would have to have a spay done, but now her life is in danger on top of anesthesia risk. There are non-surgical ways to treat (I know some were asking) but those are not at all guaranteed and can prolong your dog’s suffering and possible eventual death.
Lastly, medical complications like mammary cancer is greatly increased with the more heat cycles your dog has been through. Generally speaking, you’re bitch is safest if spayed before her first heat (prevalence of mammary cancer: 0.5%), then safer after her first heat (prevalence: 8%), and least safe after her second heat (prevalence of cancer: 25%)
Other excuses for not spaying:
- “She’s in a fence, she never leaves my yard” – great! As long as that fence cannot be penetrated by a male dog’s organ – because they can and they will.
- “She’s a German Shepard and my male is a Chihuahua, there’s no way they even could” – Sweetie, where there’s a will, there’s a way. They can and they will.
- “I’ve heard it calms her down to have just one litter” – Nopity nope. Not true. It will have a very different and unpredictable effect on every individual – some bitches get more aggressive with puppies. Also, if you start with a crazy/semi-aggressive/insecure mother, you’re more likely to have the puppies inherit/learn that behavior as well.
- “She won’t hunt if we spay her” – Ummm, well, she won’t be hunting for males!! *knee slap*
- “They are brother and sister or mother and son – they wouldn’t do that” – Yes. Yes, they will. They don’t care about human social structure or taboo when their hormones hit.
- “I want my children to witness the miracle of life” – Let me suggest a DVD: PBS Nova’s Life’s Greatest Miracle. You can buy it on Amazon.com for $16.59 – Pop it in the DVD player, I think you can even watch it online. It will save you the risk of an emergency c-section (go ahead and put aside $800-$5000 just in case), the possible loss of life of your dog and her puppies, or the possibility of having orphaned puppies that you have to feed, and stimulate to pee and poop every 2 hours. And then, don’t forget the vaccinations, de-worming, and health examinations ($45-$100 per puppy depending on your area) you will need to get all those puppies before giving them to their new home.
- “She’ll just get fat” – To be fair, obesity is a problem in all of our animals, surgically altered or not. We just like to feed them and forget how little they actually need. You are in complete control of their nutrition, they don’t have to worry about getting depressed and polishing off a bucket of cheese balls and a bottle of wine. You keep your dog at the right weight, not them. I’ve had surgically altered dogs my whole life and none of them have been overweight.
Now for the boy’s side. To be fair, I don’t have nearly as many medically scary side effects of having testicles, but in short, being neutered will prevent unwanted puppies (yes, owner’s of males are also responsible for shelter euthanasias. I’ve heard too many times “well, I don’t have to worry about that because I have a boy”- just because you don’t see the litter born doesn’t mean it wasn’t your fault). Other medical reasons would be benign prostate issues when they’re older, testicular cancer, and preventing other emergencies such as being hit by a car when your dog runs down the road because he smells a female in estrus, dog fight wounds, etc.
Cancer: if you have the organ, it’s open to get cancer. Intact male dogs are more likely to not only have testicular cancer, but also prostate cancer, benign prostate hyperplasia (testosterone causes large prostate that presses on and blocks colon) and perianal (right next to the anus) cancer.
Other “excuses”:
- “He’s my BOY! I wouldn’t do that to him, just like I wouldn’t do it to my best friend” (usually of the male persuasion) – A couple of things bother me about this one. For one, why are you emotionally attached to your dog’s testicles? Your dog isn’t. Your dog has no idea what those things are for and doesn’t care a wink when they’re removed. Second, would you keep your best friend, your “boy” isolated in the house while you go to work? Would you walk them on a leash? Would you let them poop in your backyard? Now, imagine your best friend was also your roommate and had typical male desires that comes with full testosterone load from having testicles. Now, imagine telling your “boy” that he won’t be allowed to be with females ever (because you’re responsible). Again, your dog doesn’t care about his testicles, but if he has them, he will want to do things with them. If he doesn’t have them, he’ll just live in an ignorantly blissful world where he never even knows he’s missing anything.
- “He’ll get fat” – see previous reasoning in the girl section
- “It’s not my responsibility if he gets out and gets a female pregnant” – This is just infuriating for obvious reasons
- “I might stud him out” – good luck with that. He’s no Kentucky Derby winner and the very rare chance someone is actually going to ask to pay you for his services, you’re not likely to get much for it when you weigh all the risks of keeping him intact.
- “I love it when they get those large, disgusting testosterone pumped butt holes” – Said no one ever.
How to Lose Your Large Animal Vet in 3, 2…..
I hear the statement all the time: “Nobody wants to be a large animal vet anymore! They all just want to work 9-5 and sit in an office.” Having been a large animal vet myself and having access to thousands of vet moms online, I have heard all the reasons for leaving and they’re all about the same. Are we lazy and just don’t like getting dirty? No! We love throwing on muck boots and being armpit deep in a cow (as odd as that sounds). Is it because we don’t like the odd hours of on call? Sometimes, but with enough vets to share the call and with responsible owners, it’s really not that bad – and, no, we don’t mind getting up at 3am for an emergency… as long as the emergency was first noticed at 3am (that same day). Is it that young folks these days don’t know an honest day’s work? Stop it, silly, we love working, we love helping people, we love getting dirty, but we also respect ourselves and know how to keep our job from becoming our entire life.
***Warning: all examples provided, as crazy as they sound, have actually been experienced by me or another vet***
*****Warning #2: some gruesome pictures at the very end. All animals pictured are alive and completely healed from the picture thanks to fast acting clients*****
1. Complain about the bill. I’ve already written a piece on how little money vets make so I won’t be long winded, but large animal vets already make less money than small animal vets as a general rule, but when you add in the number of extra hours, the drive time between calls (loss of production time), it can be even harder on their pockets and lives. Unfortunately for the vet and for the farmer, many times a 2am call 30 miles down the road costs the vet more to perform than the farmer is willing to pay. So, when the farmer gets the $400 bill for his cow, he may get upset at the cost – it’s just a cow and she only got 2 injections! Large animal vets know it’s a fine balance, but when you’re out for 3 hours in the middle of the night and have to show back up to work at 8 am and work another full day, it can also detract from your production for days to come. Not to mention the fact that most large animal clients are billed and when we sometimes don’t receive payments in a timely manner, we have to withhold paying our bills or even employees. – This is also the reason most vets won’t do payment plans even in small animal. I believe in my Disney movie loving heart that people ABSOLUTELY intend on paying every cent of that bill, but things come up, electric bills, hospital bills, and dare I say, some people never intend to pay. I would estimate we never see 80% of the payment plan money – thousands of dollars a month vets don’t get for believing in people has slowly soured us.
2. Only call us when you’ve tried everything else including what your neighbor’s cousin’s beet farmer friend suggested. You’ve been walking this colicky horse since 10Am, have given it 3 injections of banamine (in the muscle *cringe – see picture below*, have tried your neighbor’s recommendations of sticking an onion up the horse’s rectum, coating the tongue in a bottle of cayenne pepper, and now you and the horse are soaked in mineral oil you tried to get the horse to swallow and has perhaps aspirated. It’s now 11Pm and you call the vet – the one that you haven’t called since 4 years ago on Christmas morning when you had a foundering horse that you’d already bled 3 gallons of blood from because your friend said it would work – but it didn’t cause that’s not how any of this works. Or, you saw that your cow that was due to calve had her tail up and some membranes hanging out three days ago and now she’s down in the mud (likely rotting from the inside), or you and all your friends have already been inside the cow and despite only having a head and one leg for presentation, you went ahead and tied her head to a tree and chained the calf’s one leg and head to a tractor and had the cow suspended in the air before you gave up and called me (because now she’s down – likely a broken pelvis). As the entire veterinary community, we want you to know something – We would MUCH rather you call when you think there might be a problem and we can ask you questions and decide if it’s an emergency (and go see your colic at noon when there’s light out and the horse isn’t 90% dehydrated now from walking) than wait until the animal is practically unsalvageable. Also, your bill will be much more reasonable the earlier we see the problem. As much as you think we cost to use, we stay alive with regular visits, the “bread and butter” as one boss called it – vaccines, coggins, heard health, etc and we are much more likely to jump out of bed to help you if we have a good working relationship with you and your farm.
3. Try to save costs by compromising good husbandry and only calling us when you have an epidemic. We don’t like getting called out to clean up a disaster situation that could have been prevented with a little more money, forethought, and elbow grease. Why are all of your calves getting sick and dying?
3a. Are they kept in clean, dry bedding out of the wind, rain, snow, heat, sun? Access to clean water, non moldy/spoiled food? Pens cleaned and sanitized between animals? Animals kept far enough apart to not lick or touch each other (so they can’t spread diseases)? You would not believe how much of an impact good husbandry can have on the health and production of your animals.
3b. Are you vaccinating? No? Do it – vaccines are amazing tools we have that can be given as early as birth to EASILY prevent deadly diseases that *gasp* can’t be fixed with an antibiotic injection. Also, talk to your vet about a smart deworming protocol for your herd – deworming every 6 weeks is often not recommended anymore due to resistant worms (especially in goats/sheep).
3c. Are your animals being fed a diet that works best for their species? Spoiler: even though grain makes them gain weight faster, they need roughage (ie. hay) to keep their bellies happy (yes, even pigs). In fact most ruminants (cows, goats, sheep, etc) would have better health with little to no grain (think bloat, rumen acidosis leading to founder, liver abscesses, urinary blockages in male goats, etc) Good quality hay too, NOT straw or that hay that’s been sitting in the pasture for 5 years, is mostly black, and will likely cause respiratory issues for you and the animals when you break it open.
3d. Water, water everywhere! Clean water, water that doesn’t have 2 inches of ice on top of it – buy a deicer – water in multiple places if you have numerous animals and the bullies are guarding it, water that doesn’t have an electric current going through it (check that 10 year-old deicer)
4. Don’t have your animals caught when the vet arrives. I cannot tell you the number of times, after I ask them to get a halter on the cow and at least tie her to a truck or tractor before I get there and the farmer will absolutely INSIST the cow is down and “she ain’t going anywhere”. Then, as soon as my vet truck pulls up to the farm, that pet cow that was bottle raised and loves you and is so sick now she cannot even lift her head will reach down deep into her soul, grab what’s left of her water buffalo ancestry, jump up and scramble away. She will then lead an hour long chase across pastures, through woods, and briars before finally falling into a creek, losing her will to live and attempting to drown. Don’t expect us to rope or dart her. Unfortunately, they have dropped Rodeo Clown 101 and Rhino darting from the veterinary curriculum, at least since I went to school. Basically, if you have large animals, have the equipment needed to handle them – gates, corrals, chutes or head catches would be amazing, trailers that work. Make sure your horse will load in a trailer if needed. Have halters, ropes, etc. Don’t expect us to halter break your 2 yo stud colt when it has a laceration and you haven’t touched it since it was born. It’s stressful and inefficient if we get there and you’re chasing animals around when we already have 3 more emergencies waiting on us and you may get charged for the time.
5. Get annoyed when we can’t be to your place immediately. There is often only one vet working after hours calls and if we’re at someone’s farm, soaked in birthing fluids and wallowing around in the straw trying to pull a calf when you call and we don’t call you back for another 30-45 minutes and THEN won’t be to your place for another hour because you’re on the opposite pole of our practice range, please be understanding – we’re trying.
And, here are other requests from a group of 12,000 vet moms:
1) Just give me your address – GPS works great in most areas – no, I don’t know where the old Hamilton place used to be or that oak tree that was cut down a few weeks ago – also have easily visible, large reflective numbers or name on both sides of your mailbox.
2) Don’t leave the bull in the herd up until pregnancy checks. It’s much easier to estimate a breeding date when the cows are 30-90 days bred and there’s not a bull currently trying to breed the cow behind you in the chute.
3) Don’t call your vet after hours for non-emergency questions that can wait until regular business hours; scheduling appointments, etc. We have families and a life outside of vet medicine, please allow us to live as much of it as possible.
4) Please don’t call us after hours for advice on how to treat something you have no intention of having us come out for because we’re expensive. Also don’t ask us to teach you how to do something you see us doing like passing a nasogastric tube on a horse (please, for the love of God, don’t try to tube your own horse or stick a hose down their throat to “wash out the choke”) just to save money next time – bringing me to my next point
5) Animals are expensive. Please carefully consider this and basic husbandry for the animal you are about to buy or rescue. Rescue animals are often even more expensive because of all the health issues they come with. If you can’t provide it the care it needs, you haven’t rescued it, you’ve just relocated it – there, I said it.
6) Don’t call us out for an emergency that could wait until normal business hours just because it’s more convenient to you. A 5-day duration lameness in a horse at 11pm because you have to work tomorrow and don’t have time? Me too! No thanks.
7) Colicky horses (can sometimes looks like straining to urinate as well) – A) call as soon as you suspect – 5% dehydrated animal much easier to correct than 50% and with colic, hydration is 90% of the problem. B) Don’t walk the horse more than 30-60 minutes before calling – walking/trotting/even a short trailer ride can help immensely, but not to excess; the more they walk, the more tired and dehydrated they get. C) Let a laying horse lay. If they start rolling (and not getting up with a big ole’ shake off) then get concerned. Even a colicky horse can be allowed to lay quietly – think of how you would feel if you went to the doctor with a stomach ache and they put you on a treadmill for 4 hours.
8) Don’t comment on my size as a woman. You, sir, also cannot body slam a 1500lb steer, so lets let the drugs I brought do the talking.
9) Please admit to any and all treatments already given before I arrived. This goes for small animals as well – think he got into weed? just say it *big, tired sigh here*, we’re not calling the cops, but knowing that can save you $500 in bloodwork/diagnostics/referral to a neurologist.
10) Don’t ask us to look at your other horse who has had a weird, flakey skin condition for the past 2 years and also needs a coggins while we’re out treating a laceration on another animal at 2am.
Bonus: Please don’t pull a nail out of an animal’s hoof before we get the chance to shoot x-rays to see how deep it penetrated and whether it got the bone or joint.
We love our jobs and we want to help. Call as soon as you think you have an emergency. Please, the easier you make it on us and the more we can help you, the better our doctor/client relationship will be and the longer we will stay with the large animal work. Be nice to your vet. Please.
Vets are just in it for the money!
This particular blog is set out to let you see us and hopefully answer some common misconceptions about us. Vets are people pleasers; they are hard workers who like to fix things. We will go out of our way to make sure you are getting the care your animal deserves. We hate to not know what is wrong with your animal and we hate more not being able to make it better. Sure, there will be bad eggs out there, vets that just want to shuffle you along in the line of patients they have, some that want to make the most money off of you that they can, but, for the vast majority of us, we just want to help. We all worked REALLY hard in vet school and are still working just as hard to better our techniques, better our medicine, learn what is working better. We have entire social networks dedicated to sharing information and sharing what works for us and asking for help with cases. Tens of thousands of veterinarians constantly reaching out for help from vets all over the country and even the world, with tens of thousands open to helping and giving advice. Even board certified surgeons, internists, etc are answering some of our questions on some of these hard cases. I’m no 100% certain, but have asked human doctors and, to my knowledge, they don’t have this.
“Vets are just in it for the money, if they cared about animals, they would do it for free/less.” – Other than world famous veterinarians, the vast majority of us make much less than you would think. Modern veterinary school tuition is anywhere from $20,000/year to $60,000/year (tuition and fees ONLY – not rent/living expenses/food) for 4 years. So, at best, we are paying approximately $150,000 for the degree alone, including undergrad (4 years). Then, you have to factor in at least 4 years of lost financial gain where you couldn’t work enough to pay for rent/food – we had class from 8am to 5pm then ate something non-nutritional, started our IV drip of cowboy coffee and studied from 6pm to 12am/6am depending on if there was an exam (or 3) the next day- so add another $50,000 (depending on the state you lived). So, graduate with $200,000 in the hole. Unless you or your parents are independently wealthy (and they don’t hate you), you will have to take out a loan for this. In our country, interest rates can vary between 5% and 8+%, meaning that some of us pay upwards of $1200/month just to cover interest. One vet I know has paid $50,000 over 5 years toward her loan, but owes $80,000 more than when she graduated. One tells me she earns an extra $41/day in interest. Per. Day.
So, fresh out of school, with a $200,000 hole in your bank account. You get your first job, like I did, making $42,000/yr. , then, after 3 years, upgrade to $65,000. Now, you have a family, a mortgage, and other expenses to pay such as daycare so you and your spouse can actually go to work. So, you make $4000/month after taxes. You have costs of ~ $4200/month to live (these are figures from a time in my own life including only mortgage in a really low cost area, car payment, electric, daycare, gas, health insurance for the family – mine was covered by the company – and food – does not cover medical bills, car repair, other random bills) plus your $1200 interest-only payment. Your monthly costs are now at a minimum of $5400 meaning you make -$1400/month (that’s negative $1400) for being a DOCTOR. For having studied for 8 years, for continuing to upgrade and improve your knowledge as fast as you can, for bending over backwards, staying extra hours to work on a case, personally taking animals home to make sure they get the right care, crying in frustration or tragedy if the animal is not improving or dies. For storing every single one of those losses in our memory, but never seeming to remember the successes.
Some older vets may throw their younger colleagues under the bus and say that vets charge too much these days. Vet school tuition in the 60s was approximately $350 PER. YEAR, in the 80s; $1600/yr and calculated with inflation that translates to 60s: $2800/yr and 80s: $3900/yr compared to $50,000/yr now (that’s almost an 1,800% increase). I’ve had people argue with me and say “well, if you can’t afford vet school, you shouldn’t attend it.” My question is “would you rather have the best and the brightest working on you or your animal, or do you just want the rare rich folks who actually want to be a vet doing it?” – just like a larger country or state is more likely to get good athletes, a larger field of people to pull from will get better vets.
So, we don’t make a ton. Let’s talk costs of veterinary medicine. Every piece of equipment we use in a vet hospital – blood analyzers, ultrasound, x-ray, surgical instruments, gloves, syringes – all of it – is the same equipment used in human medicine and they all cost a pretty penny. Granted, they probably cost a human hospital as much as they do us, but a human hospital can charge you 10-100x what we charge for the same procedure because of insurance (*cough* “SCAM” *cough*). These are the same procedures we do with the same amount of training that goes into performing and interpreting them, but often with less wait time.
Another difference between human medicine and veterinary medicine is the way we look at our patients. In a human hospital (I imagine for the most part), patients are priceless family members and the best treatment is often not a question. In veterinary medicine, there are two very different views of the patients and a full spectrum in between. On one side, we have the pets that are considered family members, that go everywhere and do everything with their owners. Some are the only children our clients will ever have. Some are the last remaining piece the owner has of a deceased child or spouse to whom the pet belonged. Even mentioning cost of care could be insulting to them, because, obviously, this is their child and money is not a concern (though, sometimes “money is not a problem” means they don’t have any money =) and OF COURSE they will do whatever is the absolute best.
On the other side of the spectrum (which is not wrong) is people who view animals as animals. As possessions with monetary value. Some may be farm animals or hunting dogs, or barn cats and the idea of spending any amount of money above the animal’s perceived economic value is completely absurd. So, you had better discuss costs with these people before doing anything because if they walk out with a $200 bill for a barn cat, they will have a conniption.
Without a client making it perfectly clear to us where on the spectrum they stand, we offer all the options from the most ideal to the most conservative. This can make people mad. If the client is on the “my dog is my child” side they may get offended that you would even offer something that’s not the absolute best and, therefore, question your credibility as a doctor. If they are on the “it’s just a dog” side they may feel that you are pushing them to feel guilty to spend more money because you are just money hungry. Even if a client agrees to the most economic route, even if you explain all the potential risks of not doing the ideal option (again, not necessarily to push guilt, but to cover our butts) and the client signs a waiver, this still does not guarantee they will not or cannot come back at you later and sue or go for your license.
So, yes, vets are in it for the money… but mostly the love of animals, science, and fixing things. We love animals, but we must make money to live, to support our children. I’ve never heard of someone telling a car mechanic they shouldn’t charge money and just fix the car because they love it. (but perhaps they have heard that) We want to help you and your animal. That’s all we want. Please consider all of this next time you are upset with a vet bill. Consider the area that you live. The same procedure in Boulder, CO is going to be much more expensive than in Clare, MI – the same size house is about 7x the cost.
Can’t wait to see you and your animal next time!!
Pictures of my pets: 3 out of 4 of them are hazards of the job that I love!
Growing as a veterinarian
I started my young veterinary career in school, knowing, absolutely knowing that I was going to specialize in Equine Theriogenology – or breeding horses. I had taken a course in undergrad where we were assigned a group of mares and then were responsible for monitoring their estrus cycle via ultrasound and palpation and then deciding when and how to breed. We even had to collect the semen from the stallions, process it, and inseminate. I. LOVED. IT. I begged my teacher to be the teacher’s assistant the next year, I got to do it all over again. I love making babies! I spent every opportunity I could travelling to the best equine reproduction facilities in the US learning more, soaking up and loving every drop, every nuance, every manure covered rectal sleeve. Then, I applied for an equine theriogenology residency after my (terrible) internship and got rejected.
I spent that summer after my internship applying for jobs. I had only known large animals to this point and there were no large animal only jobs available that I could find. I knew nothing about small animal medicine other than vague lessons learned in vet school. It was two months later that a student of mine when I was an intern contacted me about the job in South Carolina – a mixed animal practice. It was the first time I would be treating dogs and cats. I had a ton to learn. Luckily, it was a very small practice and very slow with appointments so I was able to go to the back and research for almost every case to start. My boss was also mostly out on the road seeing dairies, so I was often left to my own decisions. Luckily, I had a wonderful tech who had been in the business a long time and was able to teach me most of my methods and help me along. I think it was a fantastic opportunity to really get to learn it down deep without the chaos of a busy practice.
Then, I got the job with Dr. Pol, moved up to Michigan in the middle of February 2014 in one of the harshest winters they’d recently had – we had stopped in Ohio to adjust something on top of the car and the wind was howling with 6 degree weather and Tony claims he was 2 seconds away from leaving me and driving back south. I was lucky enough to have already been in practice for 2.5 years before starting to work with Dr. Pol as it was constant chaos at his clinic. We were often quadruple booked every 15 minutes with only 2-3 doctors working. People waiting an hour to be seen was not uncommon. I had to learn to work fast.
When I first arrived and followed Dr. Pol around, I was absolutely impressed with the shear speed in which he saw patients. He would walk in a room and basically have a diagnosis before examining the animal. I figured that this was just from his years and years of experience and I had mountains to climb to catch up to his efficiency.
It was fun for awhile working as fast as I could, challenging myself to see the most cases every day. Then, slowly, my conscience caught up to me. Was I rushing through cases just to get them done and out? Was I really giving each client their due time and consideration? Was I offering everything I could to the client? I learned along the way that you have NO IDEA what a client is willing to do until it is offered. Dr. Pol’s clinic was in a very low income part of Michigan and you could probably count on 90% of the clients being strapped for money and wanting to try something easy first, but you could never tell which was that 10%. I saw one emergency, a dog that had gone acutely blind that day. I researched and read about it, told him (almost in passing) that the dog would need emergency surgery to save the vision. The man took his dog that day to see the specialist in Michigan, who then referred him to an even bigger specialist in Chicago, and the dog ended up having a $10,000 surgery and saved vision in one eye.
I had also gotten quite sloppy in my record keeping and if I planned on keeping my license for long, I knew I was going to have to be more deliberate with that. So, while at first I was swirled up in the fast pace craziness, I was cheapening my medicine, doing a sloppy job, and also, burning myself out. Working on numerous cases every 30 minutes, juggling multiple cases at once, sometimes even forgetting clients were in the room. It also seemed like the faster I saw cases, the more cases were booked for us to see, so it just kept piling and piling. Finally, after Tony had been working there awhile and saw how the practice was run, he’s the one that instructed me to put on the brakes. Dig my heels in and slow down.
I also joined a DVMoms group on facebook where I was able to air my grievances and get fantastic and supportive feedback. I slowed down, gave my clients more time, wrote complete records and started to restore my sanity. I felt like I could offer clients and their pets much better, quality, care in this way. I would make sure that EVERY client got offered EVERY option with treatment instead of guessing based on the client. I would be sure, though, to not make the client feel bad at all for not being able to afford the most ideal option.
One of the things I liked about working at Dr. Pol’s clinic was that we were able to offer therapies, treatments, and surgeries for much less cost than other vets around – this would eventually bring up the fact that we also didn’t pay staff well. I was able to perform C-sections on dogs and save their lives when the only other option was euthanasia because the surgery was too expensive somewhere else. Our practices were not necessarily the safest or the best, but we were able to give the owner an option other than putting their animal down. Other vets that charge more are able to offer more safety, quality, and options in their care and are able to provide their employees with better compensation. Selfishly, at the time, though, I enjoyed helping the people in need.
Eventually, the stress of working there with three small children, being on-call all the time, new vets coming and leaving just as fast, leaving the on-call duties spread between mostly 2-3 of us. Being on call for me was not a matter of if I got called in, it was how many times – with no extra compensation. I would spend my entire weekend I was on-call at the clinic – my phone rang the other day here in Virginia and Tony said he got that sinking feeling like I was about to have to leave. Six months later, he’s still suffering from “PTSD” – not seeing my children, getting home to have them all squeal with delight that I was home, then getting called back in 10 minutes later and watching them cry or even scream at the door as I left.
I was having more health problems, physically and mentally than I’ve ever had. Suicidal thoughts, even, despite medication. Finally, my therapist and the fine women on the DVMoms group pushed me to reach out and find a better job. I would take a huge hit with the salary, having Nat Geo paying me twice as much as my vet salary, but I had to escape the darkness. So, I found this job that I have now, small animal only. No on-call. Scheduled appointments for each doctor that are 30 minutes long. I feel like I get to have so much better of a relationship with the clients and hear their grievances and really talk to them and educate them about their pet’s health whereas before I would just be rushing them through their main complaint.
God pushed me to leave Dr. Pol. I prayed and prayed and prayed. I finally got my answer in a very odd, non-job-related way, but that story is for another day. I started my vet career with the intention to make lots and lots of baby horses, then I went to mixed animal, and I have currently reached a small animal only – the section of veterinary medicine I knew the least about when I started. I’m even working some shifts at a small animal emergency practice and I. AM. LOVING. IT.
I’m Going to Let it Shine!
Hello, and thank you for coming to read my random thoughts! I have decided to start a blog page about myself, my life, and random observations about the world in an attempt to give hope, inspire, but mostly make you laugh. I enjoy making people laugh, some for attention (otherwise why would I have the nerve to start a blog), but mostly to bring some positive light to the world when all chaos seems to be going on in our everyday lives. I plan to bring some lighthearted humor to everyday annoying situations so that you, too, can laugh at my downfalls and tribulations.
For my first Blog, I think I want to tell you about my brown stethoscope.
When I was in vet school, I got a purple stethoscope – my favorite color! Unfortunately, my dog ate it. So, then, when it was time to buy a new one, I had reached the point in my schooling where my soul and will to live had been adequately crushed (also known as clinical rotations) to allow for “remolding” – or, eventually, being happy with minimal pay for hard, stressful, skilled labor. At that point in my career, I did not exist as an individual and only was out to please my mentors and clients. Knowing that I would be going into large animal medicine, and therefore, be around barns, farmyards, horses, cows, pigs, etc, I wanted to have the best chance I could to be respected. I was convinced, as a girl, I wouldn’t be respected on the farm with “good ole boys” if I had a purple or pink stethoscope, so I purchased a brown one with copper finish. It looked very professional to me, like an elite equine practitioner and I was ready to go out and try my best to fit in with my clients and make them happy and would never allow them to think that my being a girl was a weakness.
My first real job (after a joke of an internship) was with a boss that was one of those good ole boys on the farm and despite his large stature and thick barrier of testosterone he carried around with him at all times, he employed only small women in his clinic – perhaps it was the need to feel in control, but perhaps it was just that in the veterinary world, women were becoming the majority for options. While working there, and only 3 months into my employment at my first job – granted I was already 28 – I became pregnant with my first child. I was absolutely terrified. I just knew that I was going to get fired for this and even contacted my uncle who is a lawyer to ask his opinion on my chances of getting fired. He told me that, unfortunately, because the business was such a small practice, I could, in fact, be fired legally.
I finally got up the courage to tell him and he was visibly disturbed, but, to my astonishment, did not fire me on the spot or make life harder for me to get me to quit. He did, however, warn me that the farmers around there (rural South Carolina) would not like a pregnant lady working on their cattle – that I’d make them uncomfortable and not to be discouraged if I was asked not to come back. I just knew that this would be the end of my large animal career. I worked very hard in the coming months to hide my belly with large clothes and coveralls, but at some point, you just get to the point where you can’t hide that belly anymore. The farmers did notice. They were shocked, surprised, but not one of them told me not to come back or act like they were unwilling to allow me to work on their animals. They were, maybe, a little more careful with restraining their large animals (but, really, shouldn’t they, anyway).
I went on to have the baby, remain on call, while breastfeeding and have to cart my infant along with me on some farm calls. I would park with the truck running and go pull a calf while my baby screamed in the truck the entire time. I did the same when I went out and castrated some horses, with the baby sleeping in the vehicle. Not one farmer said one thing to me – except I would get the occasional comment on how impressed they were that “a little girl like you can do what you do”.
I eventually established myself as a strong person, and no longer had to hide that I was a woman, that I was a pregnant woman, a nursing woman, a mothering woman, or a womanly woman. I eventually got to the point where I would wear earrings or *gasp* make-up or a sparkly headband that was my daughter’s out to the farms and never got a lick of push back. I still have the brown stethoscope because, well, they’re expensive and this one has not disintegrated yet, and once I cleaned all the cow manure out of the ear pieces, my ears don’t itch so much anymore. But I really love when people ask me about why I have an ugly, brown stethoscope because I get to tell them about how I used to be scared to be me, but once I was me and figured out people were okay with that, I get to be me and love it!