It's a full moon apparently

[Sunsetsky]

Sometimes I wonder if a full moon has an effect on people. Alot of my headdesking seems to be the result of phonecalls lately.

Call #1 (everyone seems to be doing this lately):
SC: Can I schedule an appointment on <date> for sometime in the morning?
Me: Alright. Can you come in at 8am?
SC: Oh...that's too early.
Me: Can you do 9am?
SC: Don't you have anything later?
Me: My next time is at 2pm.
SC: That's perfect!

I thought 2pm was in the afternoon. But I guess it's morning for those late risers. I don't know.

Call #2 (another common one):
SC: I can come in at anytime this week!
Me: Can you do Friday at 3?
SC: Oh. I'm picking up my kids from school then. Got anything earlier or later?
Me: Uh...noon?
SC: I can't do that either. Actually...That entire day is bad for me.

So you can't do anytime this week?

Call #3 (one from yesterday):
Alright. We had three doctors in yesterday. We close at six and all of their last appointments are at 4:30. Doctor #1 has kids to pick up, Doctor #2 opened that day, and Doctor #3 has a pregnant wife who is due anyday now and doesn't want him at work late.

SC: My dog has been barely able to move. We have to bring food upstairs to him because he's hurting too badly to come downstairs. We were supposed to come in on Sunday but we didn't show due to a horrific accident.

Note: We're closed on Sundays. She probably meant last week or Saturday.

Me: Alright. I can get you in this afternoon at 3:20.
SC: It has to be after 5.
Me: I'm afraid I don't have anything after that time *explains situation*
SC: Oh. I guess we'll just take care of the dog ourselves. *hangsup before I can say anymore*

I decided to look up the clients number and leave a note for a doctor to give her a call back. I figured maybe there was something they could do or suggest. She didn't answer when she was called of course. While I understand that people work late and situations come up, we were open the day before and she could've called us then. I don't know what to think with this one. It was kind of her attitude that annoyed me.

Call #4 (another yesterday occurance):
SC decides to give us a call in the middle of the day after we filled in all of our emergency slots.

SC: My dog has vomitted a couple of times since Sunday.
Me: I did have a cancellation for tomorrow. Unfortunately we filled in all of our emergency slots this morning.

Note: We have emergency slots we make each morning for emergencies. If we ran out and it was a big emergency we would still find a way to get them in. However, since the dog only vomitted a couple of times and seemed to be fine otherwise I figured it was something that could be seen the next day.

SC: You can't get me in today?
Me: I don't have anything. I did have that cancellation tomorrow though.
SC: Do you have a sister clinic?
Me: Sure. *gives number and we hangup*

Guy calls back and speaks to another receptionist. He can't remember if the cancellation was on that same day or for tomorrow. She tells him it was tomorrow. They hangup and he calls back. Lucky me gets the call.

SC: Your sister clinic is booked solid. They told me to check with you to see if there is a way you can squeeze me in.
Me: I'll have a doctor call you back.

It doesn't stop there folks. Doctor decides to squeeze him in since a surgery of hers cancelled. And instead of coming in himself he sends in his kids...with no money. At the checkout...

Kid: So...do we have to pay today?
Me: We don't bill. We will need money today.

We make the kids call daddy to get a credit card number and they're on their way.

Call #5 (today):
Clients spoke to a doctor (who is off on Wednesdays) last night long after we were closed. He told them to bring the pet in asap this morning. The pet was experiencing blockage and had been unable to use the bathroom for about 3 days. Blockage in pets can be quite fatal in pets if left without treatment. So...client doesn't show.

9:30: Client calls and basically tells us everyone went to work and she found the cat just lying there later that morning. We ask her if she can make it in by 10am. She says no and asks if she can come just a little bit later. We tell her that's fine.

Pet is in a bad enough state where we can't do anything for him anymore and we end up having to euthanize. They also happen to be friends with a technician at the clinic who sometimes ends up paying for their hospital bills because the owners never have money. Tech happens to be off today.

After arrival:

SC: Where is <tech>?
C (coworker): She is off today.
SC: She told us she was going to be here today.
C: She is off on Wednesdays. She isn't here.
SC: Well SHE TOLD us she was going to be.
Manager: *calling from her desk in the room behind us* That was last Wednesday!
Me: That was last Wednesday.

I think they were hoping they could talk her into paying for today. Clinic isn't very happy with these people. They knew how serious the situation was with the cat and still held off on bringing him in and we had to end up euthanizing them. Everytime they come in they claim to have no cash. Yet they have no issues in taking in more pets.

[Magpie]

I thought 2pm was in the afternoon. But I guess it's morning for those late risers. I don't know.

My dad's master's supervisor use to schedule early appointments - for the crack of noon. (My dad is a morning person with insomnia, so he may have put in almost a full day by that point).

And I am very much not impressed with that last family.

[phantasy]

You would think that people would have the decency to bring their pets in on time, especially with that last family. Would you wait until your child had such a blockage that it would turn fatal? I think not. Then why is it any different for animals.

People seem to think, "Oh, that vet bill's kinda high. Oh well, I can just get another cat from <insert no-kill shelter here>". Thats like saying "Oh, that doctor bill is high. I can just make another kid though..."

Sorry guys. I'll take it to fratching now...

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Why yes, it is a full moon.

You should've seen it by me this morning driving in to work. Damn, was that thing low and bright!

[Kristev]

Well, people who need afternoon appointments may, in fact, work the night shift. That's not sucky.

But primates who don't bother to take care of their cats, and primates who send kids without money to the vet's office . . . that's just horrible.

[Sapphire Silk]

<snip>
Call #5 (today):
Clients spoke to a doctor (who is off on Wednesdays) last night long after we were closed. He told them to bring the pet in asap this morning. The pet was experiencing blockage and had been unable to use the bathroom for about 3 days. Blockage in pets can be quite fatal in pets if left without treatment. So...client doesn't show.

9:30: Client calls and basically tells us everyone went to work and she found the cat just lying there later that morning. We ask her if she can make it in by 10am. She says no and asks if she can come just a little bit later. We tell her that's fine.

Pet is in a bad enough state where we can't do anything for him anymore and we end up having to euthanize. They also happen to be friends with a technician at the clinic who sometimes ends up paying for their hospital bills because the owners never have money. Tech happens to be off today.
<snip>
I think they were hoping they could talk her into paying for today. Clinic isn't very happy with these people. They knew how serious the situation was with the cat and still held off on bringing him in and we had to end up euthanizing them. Everytime they come in they claim to have no cash. Yet they have no issues in taking in more pets.

What the hell is wrong with people!

People like that deserve to suffer a whopping case of megacolon and see how they like it!

It sucks that it is so hard to keep people like this from "adopting" these poor, helpless, innocent animals. They didn't ask to be treated like furniture.

[EvilEmpryss]

They knew how serious the situation was with the cat and still held off on bringing him in and we had to end up euthanizing them. Everytime they come in they claim to have no cash. Yet they have no issues in taking in more pets.

I know the vets here in my town have a thing with the local shelters that if they know a family is abusive they call the shelter and the shelter won't allow them to adopt any more pets. Do you have anything like that where you are?

I know it doesn't stop them from picking up strays, but it's a start, at least.

Although I'm a skeptic by nature, it's cases like these negligent douchebags that make me want to believe in reincarnation. I hope they come back as some other douchebag family's neglected pet.

[Sunsetsky]

You should've seen it by me this morning driving in to work. Damn, was that thing low and bright!

It was pretty bright here too. I couldn't see it very well but damn...the light behind the clouds looked pretty awesome. I would've taken a picture with my cellphone if I had not been driving at the time.

Well, people who need afternoon appointments may, in fact, work the night shift. That's not sucky.

Oh I understand that. The thing that annoys me is when they specifically ask for a morning appointment and I list a bunch of times that are in the AM and they take like a 5pm appointment. I understand that at the last moment people may realize that only afternoons work for them but it still makes me want to headdesk a bit.

I know the vets here in my town have a thing with the local shelters that if they know a family is abusive they call the shelter and the shelter won't allow them to adopt any more pets. Do you have anything like that where you are?

I don't think we do. At least not that I've heard anyways. I might ask about it when I'm at work Friday. However, there have been times where we asked owners to sign their pets over to us if they wanted to euthanize over something that could be taken care of easily. Then we would take care of the health issue and find a new home for the pet. We don't have to do it often but it does happen sometimes.

A couple of years ago a girl walked in with a cat who was peeing all over the house and she wanted to euthanize because her family was getting tired of the cat peeing all over the house and they figured that was a sign of the pet dying or something. Doctor tried to explain how a UTI worked and she still insisted on euthanasia. We convinced her to sign the cat over and our intern at the time took the cat. She still has her today.

[Crime Scene Scarf]

Urgh, some people should just not be allowed animals. Poor little things don't need idiots like that ruining their lives.

This makes me want to hug my cat.

[bainsidhe]

I think I'm gonna go hug my kitty now. That last story made me

[FuneralSec]

That last family made me sick to my stomach... We had a kitten given to us for my daughters birthday last year that we ended up having to euthanize 3 days later We named the kitten Tinkerbell and what had happened was when we got it there didn't seem to be anything wrong at all, but over the next couple days we noticed Tink wasn't going to the bathroom at all. By that time it was a Sunday and the vet wasn't open so we had to wait till Monday, after school since that was the only opening the vet had for that day. So I picked my kids up from school and daycare to take Tink to the vet, and while we were there we found out Tink could very well have been a Tom because the kitten was so inbred the vet couldn't even tell The only humane thing to do was to have the kitty put down because its life would have been nothing but constant infections and more than likely wouldn't have lived very long at all We brought Tink home and burried her under our pink rose bush.
For anyone to deliberately wait like that has no buisness having animals let alone children IMHO.

[chainedbarista]

SC: Oh. I guess we'll just take care of the dog ourselves. *hangsup before I can say anymore*

as for the last 'client,' i will say this (since most of my thoughts are fratching territory), just because you want a pet (or children, for that matter), doesn't mean you have them. if you can't afford the care, you can't afford to have the animal.

the secretary at the last clinic i worked at told me one of her clients thought that giving animals vaccinations was spoiling them. *facepalm*

[Andara Bledin]

If you notice that your kitty isn't "going" at all, take them straight to the vet right away. Blockages can lead to complications quickly, and what could start with a minor procedure to clear a blockage could transform into a required surgery, lab tests, and a lifetime of prescription foods, regular visits and lab tests and that's if you're not too late.

When I was researching information on the subject after what ended up as a total bill of $1200 (we had been on vacation for a few days at the time it happened), I saw so many questions from people who weren't doing anything for their pets.

^-.-^