5 tips for a successful veterinary experience

Since becoming a veterinarian over a decade ago, I have experienced a wide spectrum of client interactions. Many vet appointments unveil pure joys with the whiff of puppy breath, sneaky ear licks, or the honour of receiving a slow cat blink. Others can go south quickly with a fearfully aggressive patient or from the flusters of poor communication and a palpably untrusting client.

Veterinary teams strive for excellent communication of their medical expertise to build a trusting relationship with pets and their owners. Sometimes this communication breaks down, resulting in a poor client/pet experience.

Working in a veterinary hospital setting can be emotionally and physically exhausting. We are expected to shift tacks from emotionally draining euthanasias to bouncy new puppy/kitten exams within a span of minutes. We troubleshoot with uncooperative patients and work around time constraints of continuous appointments, hospitalized patients, emergency drop-ins, phone calls and prescription requests. We do our best, but in the end we are only human.

I have compiled a list of tips for owners to help us help owners and their pets have a satisfactory veterinary experience:

1. Come prepared.

Write down a list of questions, concerns and information about the pet (eg. the name brand and amount of food fed daily, including treats). This is especially helpful if owners need to send a close relative or friend to the vet’s office in their stead. If medications need refilling, it’s very helpful to order this in advance of the appointment so that we can have it ready.

Nothing wrong

with a little nap-in-the-dish

2. Young children are better left at home.

While it may seem that bringing young children to the vet would be an enriching learning experience for them, young children can be distracting and can interfere with communication between the veterinarian and the owner. Of course I understand that emergencies or circumstances may require children to be present, but if there is an option to leave them at home with a guardian, I find that is best. Believe me, I have my own young children - I know first hand the energy (and noises) that they bring!

3. Managing a pet’s fear and anxiety.

If a pet has moderate to severe anxiety and/or fearful behaviour at the vet’s office, please ask in advance how we can help make the visit less stressful. This might require a pet to be premedicated with an anti-anxiety medication and/or sedative.

The combination of curbside care and the puppy/kitten covid-boom has resulted in many under-socialized pets that require extra patience and fear-free strategies at the vet hospital. Thankfully, veterinary medicine has evolved over the past decade such that fear-free practices are becoming standard of care. If a pet is too anxious or scared to tolerate a safe physical exam, we may abort the examination and discuss additional fear-free strategies to facilitate future examinations or medical procedures. This can be a dynamic process, requiring several attempts and drug cocktail trials. Often a pet’s anxiety and fears will escalate with each vet visit, unless these behaviours are managed appropriately.

Although many pets do best with their owners present, we encourage veterinary staff to hold pets during physical exams and procedures. Veterinary technicians and assistants are trained to read animal behaviours that can seem very subtle to the average person. This reduces the risk of bite/scratch injuries to all involved.

If we advise premedication or even a muzzle, we do not mean any offense! Our goal is to help your pet while creating a safe work space. Pets that require a muzzle for examinations or procedures are not “bad”. They are often really scared and have the potential to fight back, causing great injury to veterinary staff and/or their owners. Training a reactive or fearful dog to be comfortable wearing a basket muzzle is a very important responsibility as an owner. https://muzzleupproject.com/ is a great resource for this!

4. Be open to veterinary recommendations.

Sometimes veterinarians and owners may disagree. Veterinarians value the information that owners provide because owners observe and interact daily with their animals. Listening to and trusting veterinary assessments/advice is imperative to a positive veterinary-owner relationship.

Unfortunately, the Information Age has provided the average person with an ocean of online “facts” to filter. Not knowing where or how to identify credible information can lead to ill-informed preconceptions. Veterinarians dedicate at least six (in my case ten) years of postsecondary education prior to becoming newly minted graduates. To retain a licence to practice vet medicine, we must complete many hours of continuing education every year. Additionally, we learn through daily practice, exposure to regular peer-reviewed research, and from vet-to-vet collaboration how to best serve the needs of our patients. There are no hidden agendas or kickbacks that drive our medical recommendations. We are here to help…and of course to cuddle some pretty cute critters.

5. Be kind.

There are many scenarios that can lead to heightened emotional states as a pet owner. I know how it feels to worry about a pet’s illness that isn’t responding to treatment, to be overwhelmed managing a sick pet while also working full time or caring for young children, to face the anger and grief of euthanizing a beloved pet, to not be able to afford the gold standard care that a pet needs to survive.

This guy lived for 5 weeks in a “cone of shame” while I administered constant eye drops to help heal a stubborn corneal ulcer…all while being heavily pregnant in my third trimester of pregnancy with my second child and working full time. Not fun!

Veterinarians and our staff are pet owners too. We often absorb raw emotions that our clients express and take them home, sometimes buried deep inside, waiting to be released. We accept this as do all healthcare professionals. If these emotions are not released with careful intent to cultivate resilience, this daily exposure to grief and anger leads to compassion fatigue and other mental health challenges. Kindness and grace truly can fuel the endurance of a veterinary team.