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So obviously I'm a vet tech. There are three important things to understand about where I work.
1. The Vet NEVER discusses prices with clients. It is 100% of the time the job of the techs to go over the estimate and explain all costs associated and answer questions.
2. I work for scrooge who is possibly the most anti-social vet in existence PLUS a workaholic. Scrooge works 6 out of 7 days a week and still comes in for a few hours on that 7th day. Every tech is warned about this before being hired. I've worked at this particular office for 2 and a half years and I am by far the longest staying employee.
3. The practice is owned by a corporation.
The psychic
A woman comes in with a young dog to get it's shots. The dog has a lump on it that looks like it could be suspicious. The vet recommends having a biopsy done so I go into the room to discuss this with the client and go over pricing.
I got the best line EVER to enter into medical notes. I was able to write "Client declines biopsy because her psychic told her it wasn't cancer." Thankfully the dog is young enough that it probably isn't BUT we had also just had a 5 month dog where we biopsied a lump that actually did turn out to be malignant, so we wanted to go with rather safe than sorry.
She's not evil, just misunderstood
If there is one thing I'm good at it's reading animal body language. It's basically a requirement if you want to survive being a tech. It also helps that I train dogs on the side and have 3 dogs and 3 cats of my own. I *know* when a dog is nervous, frightened, aggressive, happy, etc. The problem is some people don't understand how to train a dog that is aggressive or fearful and they remove the early warning systems.
Important note here, never, ever, ever, correct a dog who is growling. Growling is GOOD. It's the dogs way of letting someone know that it is not happy. If you consistently yell at a dog who is growling they eventually stop growling and just decide to bite without any warning. That is when a tech gets bitten.
In this case I go to get a little miniature poodle out of a kennel. No warning and the dog bites and grabs onto my finger. Much cursing ensues on my part and I notice the bite is bad enough that you can see bone. Ouch!
We let a lot of minor bites and scratches go at work but if we see bone we go to the urgent care or ER. At the ER the bite gets cleaned, I get antibiotic shot and antibiotics and I head back to work. The doc at the ER is also required to report the bite to the town.
The owner comes to pickup the dog and I show my now wrapped thumb and explain what happened. The SC LAUGHS and says something along the lines of not being surprised. So SC already has one strike against them for laughing at the fact that their dog bit me.
This is then followed by the SC calling the next day and cursing me out with every name in the book. The SC flat out told me I was incompetent, they can't believe I'm allowed to work with animals, and *the big threat* I'm never allowed to touch their dogs again. Happily, SC, happily.
Why would the SC go from laughing to cursing me out? Cause they never registered their dogs with the town and so when the bite got reported they got a fine. It wasn't a fine for the dog biting me. It was a fine for not getting their dogs their licenses!
The one time I truly lost my temper
SC comes in with a dog with a huge abscess on the side of it's muzzle. Vet looks and makes up an estimate for the cost to fix it. The total comes to something like $500 (it's been awhile, so no exact prices). The SC is adamant that they cannot afford that and is there anything we can do instead. We offer CareCredit (no interest credit card to pay medical bills, including the vet), not interested. They only want to spend $200.
Well, fine, we'll do what we can. I do make sure to let them know that what we do will NOT be what would be best for the pet.
They leave the dog with us as I stress that since it is a Saturday we close an hour earlier than normal. They acknowledge that and say they'll be back in plenty of time. They just have to run a couple of errands.
We treat the dog and it is so painful that we end up having to sedate the poor pup. We do not charge the SC for this since they have said they can only afford $200. We make the dog as comfortable as we can, wake him up, and get his meds ready to go. No SC in sight.
It's about an hour to close and we call SC to remind them and they assure us they are on the way. Now it's 15 minutes to close and still no SC. We call again and they say they might be a little late. We end up waiting almost an hour for them past closing.
SC finally shows up and another tech goes out to bring them the meds and go over care with them. That tech comes walking back and tells me there is something I really need to see up front.
I go up front to see the SC and what do they have? A cute new puppy that they paid $1000 for!!!! So rather than treat the old faithful companion they have properly they went out and bought a cute new puppy. ARGHHHHHH! SC also informs us that it's because of the puppy that they are late. They got stuck in traffic on the way back from getting it.
I have never in my life been so angry. I literally couldn't say a word to them. I just turned around and walked into the back shaking. I let loose a tirade of epic proportions and I truly hope they heard every word. Luckily at that point in time I was the head tech (I have since resigned as it was beyond stressful) so no one was around that could yell at me and the SC never complained.
Thanks for letting me vent! I feel much better now!
1. The Vet NEVER discusses prices with clients. It is 100% of the time the job of the techs to go over the estimate and explain all costs associated and answer questions.
2. I work for scrooge who is possibly the most anti-social vet in existence PLUS a workaholic. Scrooge works 6 out of 7 days a week and still comes in for a few hours on that 7th day. Every tech is warned about this before being hired. I've worked at this particular office for 2 and a half years and I am by far the longest staying employee.
3. The practice is owned by a corporation.
The psychic
A woman comes in with a young dog to get it's shots. The dog has a lump on it that looks like it could be suspicious. The vet recommends having a biopsy done so I go into the room to discuss this with the client and go over pricing.
I got the best line EVER to enter into medical notes. I was able to write "Client declines biopsy because her psychic told her it wasn't cancer." Thankfully the dog is young enough that it probably isn't BUT we had also just had a 5 month dog where we biopsied a lump that actually did turn out to be malignant, so we wanted to go with rather safe than sorry.
She's not evil, just misunderstood
If there is one thing I'm good at it's reading animal body language. It's basically a requirement if you want to survive being a tech. It also helps that I train dogs on the side and have 3 dogs and 3 cats of my own. I *know* when a dog is nervous, frightened, aggressive, happy, etc. The problem is some people don't understand how to train a dog that is aggressive or fearful and they remove the early warning systems.
Important note here, never, ever, ever, correct a dog who is growling. Growling is GOOD. It's the dogs way of letting someone know that it is not happy. If you consistently yell at a dog who is growling they eventually stop growling and just decide to bite without any warning. That is when a tech gets bitten.
In this case I go to get a little miniature poodle out of a kennel. No warning and the dog bites and grabs onto my finger. Much cursing ensues on my part and I notice the bite is bad enough that you can see bone. Ouch!
We let a lot of minor bites and scratches go at work but if we see bone we go to the urgent care or ER. At the ER the bite gets cleaned, I get antibiotic shot and antibiotics and I head back to work. The doc at the ER is also required to report the bite to the town.
The owner comes to pickup the dog and I show my now wrapped thumb and explain what happened. The SC LAUGHS and says something along the lines of not being surprised. So SC already has one strike against them for laughing at the fact that their dog bit me.
This is then followed by the SC calling the next day and cursing me out with every name in the book. The SC flat out told me I was incompetent, they can't believe I'm allowed to work with animals, and *the big threat* I'm never allowed to touch their dogs again. Happily, SC, happily.
Why would the SC go from laughing to cursing me out? Cause they never registered their dogs with the town and so when the bite got reported they got a fine. It wasn't a fine for the dog biting me. It was a fine for not getting their dogs their licenses!
The one time I truly lost my temper
SC comes in with a dog with a huge abscess on the side of it's muzzle. Vet looks and makes up an estimate for the cost to fix it. The total comes to something like $500 (it's been awhile, so no exact prices). The SC is adamant that they cannot afford that and is there anything we can do instead. We offer CareCredit (no interest credit card to pay medical bills, including the vet), not interested. They only want to spend $200.
Well, fine, we'll do what we can. I do make sure to let them know that what we do will NOT be what would be best for the pet.
They leave the dog with us as I stress that since it is a Saturday we close an hour earlier than normal. They acknowledge that and say they'll be back in plenty of time. They just have to run a couple of errands.
We treat the dog and it is so painful that we end up having to sedate the poor pup. We do not charge the SC for this since they have said they can only afford $200. We make the dog as comfortable as we can, wake him up, and get his meds ready to go. No SC in sight.
It's about an hour to close and we call SC to remind them and they assure us they are on the way. Now it's 15 minutes to close and still no SC. We call again and they say they might be a little late. We end up waiting almost an hour for them past closing.
SC finally shows up and another tech goes out to bring them the meds and go over care with them. That tech comes walking back and tells me there is something I really need to see up front.
I go up front to see the SC and what do they have? A cute new puppy that they paid $1000 for!!!! So rather than treat the old faithful companion they have properly they went out and bought a cute new puppy. ARGHHHHHH! SC also informs us that it's because of the puppy that they are late. They got stuck in traffic on the way back from getting it.
I have never in my life been so angry. I literally couldn't say a word to them. I just turned around and walked into the back shaking. I let loose a tirade of epic proportions and I truly hope they heard every word. Luckily at that point in time I was the head tech (I have since resigned as it was beyond stressful) so no one was around that could yell at me and the SC never complained.
Thanks for letting me vent! I feel much better now!
I have the same reaction as Mongo, but its easiest to express it in this manner - 
He is my Black Dragon (and yes, a good one) strong, protective, the guardian. I am his Silver Dragon, always by his side, shining for him, cherishing him.
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