My first blog post of the year is going to concern a recent experience of visiting the vets with my 9 year old Border Collie Cypher. Cypher has been sneezing a bit more than usual lately and although not  outwardly distressed at all by it I figured why not go and get a full and through examination consult at the Vets as we are leaving for New Zealand on Saturday and he hasn’t had a full check up and exam for a long time. Whilst I’m there I would ask for a full blood chem analysis too just to make sure everything is working as it should be. I am looking to get him sterilized this year and have a teeth clean so before he has a full anesthetic I’d like to get him checked out thoroughly.

I booked an appointment at a fairly new Vet clinic that had been recommended to me. I’ve been there before and was pretty happy with the vibe I felt off the Owner/Managing Vet. I quickly realized that I perhaps should have asked which Vet was on first. As is the way with most medical and animal practices there are those doctors and vets you feel assured with and in safe hands but there are also those you don’t. I’m not sure if this was a people reading problem or a lack of experience or what but I have to say I felt disappointed in our appointment today.

I have a registered breeder’s prefix now and of course have several dogs and went to this clinic on the recommendation of several very dog-savvy friends who have been around the dog world longer than I have – which is still pretty long! I’ve worked as a Vet Nurse and worked at Kennels and I’m probably classified as not a “pet-person” but a “dog-person”. Working as a Vet Nurse I remember seeing mostly the former as clients and occasionally the latter. And being able to see the distinct difference straight away – the terminology being used, the questions asked and the usually much more observant nature of dog people compared to pet people is quite obvious. Maybe I wasn’t obvious enough. I don’t know. Maybe this Vet this morning doesn’t read people as well. I’m aware of how much owners like to give extraneous and often not totally relevant info so I make an effort to stick to the details. Including the fact that Cypher is completely and utterly people friendly but that he is vocal so don’t worry if he growls he’s just a talker. He has never ever shown an aggressive bone in his body to people. In fact one year when he had a moth stuck down his ear for two days, with me holding him and the Vet trusting me, she was able to use some very long forceps to remove said moth in pieces from his ear canal as we sat on the floor of the clinic together without any sedation whatsoever. He was vocal but he didn’t move and let her do her job. The Vet was pretty impressed by his stoic nature.

So I told this Vet today that he is a vocal growler but that it is just the way he talks, he’s 9 years old it’s something he’s done since we got him off the plane from Sydney at 8 weeks old. She asked a few questions about the sneezing, all the usual ones I expected. I had stated that I wanted him to have a full check out as well. As in a full consult. The first thing she asked was could she muzzle him. I said I’d rather she didn’t as he didn’t need it and it would likely just stress him out further. He’s not a fan of the Vet Clinics to start with. From that point on she basically didn’t touch him. She didn’t try to be friendly with him, didn’t take a moment to crouch down and say hello or anything. I picked him up (and he duly growled at me like he does anytime you bodily move him, rub his chest, massage his back, grab his leg, play with him) to put him on the table and all she did was ask me to hold him while she listened to his heart. His heart sounded fine. And that was the extent of his exam. She didn’t even look in his mouth, I showed her his teeth, explaining he’d had bad breath recently too. But his teeth aren’t that bad and I’m pretty sure the cause is something else. She didn’t check his eyes or his ears, didn’t look up his nose (she told me that would be a waste of time), didn’t feel his abdomen or anything else. But she did check his testicles. Making sure I had him by the head first of course.

She gave me two options – Conservative – give antibiotics for 2 weeks. Less Conservative – put him under and do an endoscopy of his nasal passages to check for any foreign bodies and get his teeth cleaned at the same time. It was disappointing. I realize that these would probably be the two options regardless of whether or not he had been given a full and proper exam consult anyway but by this point I was completely lacking in any kind of assurance in this Vet. Antibiotics or surgery. I took the antibiotics and left. I will not be seeing that Vet ever again nor will I have any of my dogs in her care. I understand why people get disconcerted by his growling but there are several reasons that it shouldn’t concern anyone who is treating Cypher

1) I am there as a dog person who has been a vet nurse and owned the breed for nearly 22 years
2) They have my personal assurance he does not mean a thing by it and surely I don’t come across as a novice dog owner
3) If they were any good at reading dogs they would know that his growl has absolutely NO menace behind it.

I think it’s the last one that gets me. As a Vet surely you should be able to “read” a dogs signals. It’s a good clinic run by a Vet who on my first encounter was nothing but assuring and giving off good, competent and confident vibes. I will keep seeing her. As I drove home I reflected on the disappointing visit and tried to be pragmatic about it – I don’t think I have ever come across a single vet or medical practice where I’ve been completely happy to see ANY and ALL of the Vets or Doctors there. There are always some that you ask specifically to be seen by and those are the ones that instill the confidence in you to trust their judgment and their animal handling skills. Those ones are usually not so common so when you find them you tend to stick to them even if it means having to wait to get in to see them. As far as I’m concerned I need to feel as comfortable with my dogs’ doctor as I do with my own GP.