Ben Westhoff
Back in April, Anna wrote about her trying experience meeting Pippi's first vet. Not only did this woman lack a decent bedside manner (implying Pippi had behavioral issues. As if!), but she pushed to prescribe Pippi a bunch of pointless medicines and treatments, including an unnecessary antibiotic and a preventative lyme-disease treatment (despite the fact that she already had a recent negative lyme-disease test). The experience left Anna exasperated, and many of you readers commiserated with us.
After that semi-traumatizing incident, we found a new vet from a friend's referral. Though this one was a bit further away -- getting there, it felt like we bypassed every outlet mall in northern New Jersey -- she was well worth it. For one thing, she didn't make us feel like Pippi was a freak just because she was a bit nervous and squirmed when her ears were being cleaned. The "puppy wrangler" had to be called in -- a short brunette with arms thicker than mine -- to contain and calm Pippi while the medication was being squirted into her floppy ears, but the team helped put us and our dog at ease. They smiled, joked, and truly seemed to enjoy being around her. They also were quick to praise what we were doing right, rather than only criticizing.
Our new vet didn't prescribe anything that Pippi didn't really need. She didn't even try to pressure us into getting the tick-and-flea preventative medicine that every veterinary office seems to love pushing on patients.
The vet did, however, suggest we change Pippi's food. Pippi has been having some digestive trouble. As I described earlier this year in more detail than everyone probably would have liked, Pippi has a habit of leaving us messy surprises in the kitchen when she's not feeling well, but we could never figure out why. Even after we cut out table scraps from her diet, and eventually dog treats too, she still would have episodes. Since we made the dietary change the vet suggested, Pippi's stomach hasn't seemed as volatile, though I'd like to give the experiment more time before declaring it a success. (If it is a success, we'll share more details in a future column.)
It was immediately clear that this vet was more professional, more compassionate, and not so concerned with upselling us. She told us she had 19 pets of her own, from dogs to cats to horses. I guess you'd have to be a saint to take on that level of responsibility.
How about you, readers? Have you ever had to "break up" with your vet? Was finding the right fit as difficult for you as it was for us?
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Congratulations on finding the right vet for you. I do the same thing and drive 40 miles to the next city to find a vet I felt comfortable with.
Before we move on to the subject of finding the right vet, I would like to know if Anna learned ANYTHING from last week's discussion of whether or not it's okay to allow your dog to poop on another's property if you clean it up.
I'm STILL irritated that she would even consider such a thing!
Our black standard poodle had intestinal issues for the first 18 months of his life despite our trying various diets and different pet foods per our vet's suggestions. Finally I gave up and simply started feeding him whatever we eat. His issues stopped immediately, and he is now a happy and healthy 6 yr old dog. He eats a doggie-balanced meal twice a day (with the addition of doggie vitamins sprinkled on his food); his teeth and coat are beautiful, he has no stomach problems, and he hasn't had an ear infection in 4 years. Added benefit - no begging at the table! Perhaps a normal diet of real meat and veggies and rice is what Pippi needs - along with a vet who will support this choice.
So glad you found a good vet! Believe me, we know exactly how hard that can be! We to finally found a great one, but the time it took was at the cost of Jasmine's health.
We also had a terrible time finding a good vet. But we found him!!! The best vet in the world. We have to drive an hour,but well worth every minute. So if you are not satisfied with your current vet, look around, good ones ARE out there.
We were truly traumatized when we moved from NY to PA because we had a wonderful vet in NY who worked with us and supported us in caring for all of our animals, which they loved as much as we did. We were forced to use the first vet we found right after we moved because of a sudden death in the family. What a nightmare! Besides being horribly expensive, the man had NO bedside manner at all. While he treated our Brittany's skin infection well and the medication worked like a charm, he always managed to add other charges that pushed the bill for a routine exam over $100. He also talked over the dog and seemingly had no relationship with her. He never touched the dog once while I was in the room with her. I don't think he cracked a smile once in the two or so years we went to him. Finally after charging us $400 for a four-day board for bathing and special food which we had not asked for, I had enough and searched around for someone else. We finally chose a full-service animal hospital about 20 miles away. While they can be a bit expensive and the service is a bit impersonal (they have several vets there and are a teaching hospital) they have been very good to us and have treated several of our pets, most notably our big dog George, who had a torn ACL that had to be operated on. They were up front about the cost (which turned out to be LESS than they told us) and let us pay by the month. And when it was time for him to cross the Bridge, they let me stay with him for more than an hour, even though they had closed.
We were admittedly spoiled by our previous vet but the other guy was awful. Any time I'm asked about local vets, I tell folks never to go to him. The funny thing is, I met his wife through my job and she is a delightfull woman!