Choosing a veterinarian for a new pet? It’s one of the most important decisions we make for our animal companions, regardless of their age. It’s a choice that affects the pet’s life from beginning to end, and a choice that affects your life and the lives of all the animal’s human family members.
Last week, I asked animal professionals and animal lovers online this question:
“What are important considerations when you’re choosing a new veterinarian, for whatever reason, for a pet of your own? What would you encourage a novice pet guardian (any sort of pet) to look into and to think about when they’re deciding where to take a new pet for veterinary care?” I asked veterinarians for their thoughts, too.
Today, we share some of their suggestions on specific subjects about veterinarians and veterinary clinics: appointment availability, accompanying your pet (for care), and corporate clinics.
Appointment Availability
Steven Cogswell (Colorado) This isn’t a great first qualification, but these days I would want to know how far in advance they are booking appointments and/or if they have a policy for seeing an animal in crisis. It might not be this way everywhere, but in Denver right now, you have to book almost a month out. That’s fine for routine maintenance, but not for a pet owner (especially a new one) who notices something might be off and wants to have a vet check it out. Even our emergency vets can have 10- to 12-hour waits.
Then I would ask if they have people they work with in complementary modalities such as acupuncture, massage, physical therapy, nutrition, vet behaviorists, etc. I want a vet who will oversee and coordinate my animals’ wellness, but who is not afraid to refer out to other specialists. I think a multi-modal approach is the gold standard rather than expecting a single vet to be able to handle it all themselves.
Laurel Rabschutz (Connecticut) Exactly, availability.
Summer Storm Kingery DVM (North Carolina) One thing that the veterinary shortage (driven primarily by burn-out, compassion fatigue, and folks tired of poor behavior pushing vets out of clinical practice) is allowing? Veterinary hospitals being able to select their clients. Many of us are much quicker to say, “Maybe you are better served elsewhere.” Some of us say this pretty directly; others simply won’t schedule a client for three to four months. We are still getting in our best clients, though. And when we talk about ‘best clients,’ it isn’t all about money—it’s often about how clients treat the team, treat their patients, and how well they fit with our practice philosophy. Some hospitals have even started application processes for pets and their owners prior to accepting them as patients and clients.
Jenny Beard Biehunko DVM (Alabama) Summer, AMEN. Thank you!! I would also say: [look for] a vet who can say, “I don’t know” . . . when they don’t. And [who] refers readily to, and has access to, specialists.
Summer Storm Kingery DVM Referral is so hard these days. Surgery referral locally is April 2022. Most of our referrals are months away now.
Photo by Lori Leah Monet
Accompanying Your Pet
Donna Wilson Wolff (Illinois) Pre-COVID, I was happy to get my new vet to agree to see my dog and me in an exam room instead of taking her “to the back” for vaccines. I explained I had studied Deb Jones Cooperative Care and thought what we learned would keep my dog calm. We made a good impression, and since COVID, my dog has behaved well without me present.
Christine Hale Vertucci (Illinois) I want to be with my pets during exams and procedures. I won’t go to any clinic that insists on taking my pets “to the back.” When I visited a new clinic years ago, I mentioned that concern. I was given a tour of the entire facility and told I could accompany my pets as long as it was safe to do so. I ended up starting a puppy-training program for that clinic.
Sandee Strobel Szabo (Virginia) Christine, I totally agree and do the same thing—except now with COVID restrictions, it is hard to do it for most. We are pretty lucky with our primary vet that at least one of us can go in.
Christine Hale Vertucci It was so hard when we weren’t allowed in. My current clinic now requires proof of COVID vaccines, masks, and a limit of two humans per visit.
Sandee Strobel Szabo Our primary does the same, except for only one of us goes in . . . unless it is end-of-life.
Colleen McCarvill CPDT-KA (Alberta) Fear-free certified clinic or comparable. Absolutely necessary that I am able to be with my animal during “awake” procedures and while my animal is being sedated or woken up from sedation.
Wendy Grier (British Columbia) I just had to put my last pet down and, before getting another, I will be looking for a vet who doesn’t insist my dog be removed to the back room for procedures. I’m sick of it. I have assisted in spay/neuter clinics, held not only my own but been asked to hold other people’s pets (at my old clinic), and in remote locations I’ve sutured wounds when there were no accessible vets in the area. This isn’t the only consideration, of course, but it’s up there.
Jess Williams (Maine) Someone who has no issue with my being in the room or potentially going into the back of the [clinic] if need be.
Julie Ellingson (California) My favorite vets are just plain geeks about their profession. They have great depth of knowledge and are very willing to communicate with you. I appreciate vets who understand that while I may not be a veterinarian myself, I do know my pets very well and have above-average husbandry abilities—so I do want to feel a part of the care my pet receives, and more than just the person with the credit card.
What I miss is controlling my pet at visits. I absolutely understand the reasoning—the vet needs to be kept safe and the pet needs to be under control, and many owners are not skilled enough to handle a stressed pet well. As a lifelong groomer and also as a person who has trained horses from halter-breaking on, I absolutely am confident in my own abilities to properly control a stressed animal to keep both parties safe.
Lastly: I sincerely appreciate the fact that I am renting an advanced degree and amazing technology when I visit the vet. A bargain, no matter how you slice it.
Summer Storm Kingery DVM Julie, thank you for this! We hire our contractors based on their geek-dom.
I miss interfacing with clients in the room, but as a one-doctor practice, if I go down with COVID, even if only for five days, that’s over 100 patients who don’t get care easily, so I greatly appreciate the understanding. I will be honest, there are truly some animals that no one, not the best handler on earth, can safely control. Thank goodness for anti-anxiety meds and safer sedatives.
Julie Ellingson Better living through chemistry truly is a blessing. There will always be animals best handled with chemical restraints. My own pets—at least if not traumatically injured (but probably even if they are)—are easily in my skill set. Forty-plus years of managing dogs so they don’t hurt my coworkers trimming nails, etc., and teaching hot colts to allow foot handling and saddling make me pretty darn good at what I do. Never had anyone hurt if I was in charge of safety. (Okay, I’ll admit that my right foot hurts during rainstorms where a hot mare did a Riverdance on it 15 years ago, but it was storming that day and I was bringing her in from pasture . . . )
Summer Storm Kingery DVM I once had a woman end up with an eyelid laceration because she was adamant that she could keep her cat comfortable by snuggling it and singing show tunes. I think it is the legal consequences of things like that which stop many of us these days.
Julie Ellingson Cuddling and singing are . . . questionable handling techniques. Exploding cats are scary. I totally get it. I won’t let owners hold their dogs for me while I cut nails because, inevitably, someone is going to stick their face in the dog’s face and find out how very bad an idea that is. So, yeah. I get it. And I don’t have my credentials taped on my forehead, so fair’s fair. But it doesn’t stop me from wincing a little about it.
Jenny Beard Biehunko DVM Julie, thanks for that amazing way of phrasing this.
Photo by Erin Saywell
Corporate Clinics
Colette Kase (Mexico) How much choice you have would be the first [consideration]. Unfortunately, not everyone has a choice. There may be only one option locally. If you are fortunate enough to have a choice, I’d always recommend avoiding chain or corporate clinics if possible. While the staff are always wonderful, the animals in their care are not the priority of the business; that’s demoralizing for the vets and technicians who studied to help animals, and often results in less than optimum care. This is not the fault of the animal professionals, but of the system they are forced to work within that puts profits first. Try to find a practice with a small number of vets and little staff turnover so that you can build relationships and work with people who know you and your pets.
Summer Storm Kingery DVM Colette, out of curiosity, with the majority of corporate practices going unbranded these days, have you found a way to determine if a practice is corporate?
Colette Kase (Mexico) Summer, I don’t live in places where they exist, but they were starting to rear their ugly little heads even when I lived in the U.K. many years ago. I guess I’d start by asking outright. Talk to other local pet guardians. I have recommended that clients make an appointment with the vet for a general check-up and use that time to ask questions about the practice and find out if they feel comfortable there.
Summer Storm Kingery DVM Colette, at least where I am in the U.S., most clients have no idea that a non-branded corporate isn’t locally owned. I’ve declined to work with a few corporates that were clear that they expected staff members to lie to clients who asked about their corporate status. It took me six years to buy a practice. I attempted to buy nine different practices and inspected over 20 others. Every one of those went corporate except the one I bought.
Colette Kase (Mexico) You’re a rare treasure in the U.S. for sure! Here in Yucatán, Mexico, there are one or two branches of practices from the bigger cities in other states that have specialities, and larger hospitals with a lot of staff and turnover too, but the corporate mentality isn’t attracted by the low cost of veterinary services here. I have no doubt that will change in the not too distant future. I’m glad I’m in a situation where I know my dog’s vet personally and we have a good relationship built over time. Where I lived previously, in Belize, we often had no vet, and we had to take what we got when there was one available. So my perspective is somewhat skewed.
Inna Krasnovsky (New York) I have two amazing vets that I have used for over 20 years (one is a five-minute walk from home and the other is a 45-minute drive away). No corporate vets. They are popping up everywhere here, and I refuse to support them. I look for vets who are experienced, listen to what their clients are saying, and, if I ask for something specific (for example, to consult with a different vet or to handle my animals in a certain way), they take it into consideration). Vets who care about what is best for my animals vs. profit margins. I love my vets and am so glad that I have them.
Leanne Barker (Alberta) If it’s a privately owned owner-operated clinic, or part of an “assembly line type” corporate design that doesn’t book the same vet each visit; instead, they book the vet who’s on shift that day . . .
Photo by Mark Cuilla
Is appointment availability important to you?
How about accompanying your pet for care?
Do you want to see the same vet, if possible, at every visit?
Learn more about the veterinarians and clinics that might meet your wants and needs by talking with other pet owners who have recommendations. Visit clinics and veterinarians online first, before you call or walk in—many of your questions will be answered. Make an appointment for a wellness visit to “audition” the veterinarian and the clinic. Have you and your pet found a good fit? Time will tell.
Next week, more animal professionals talk about their personal considerations in choosing veterinarians for their own pets, and a veterinarian discusses the importance of finding a “good fit” in the veterinarian/patient/client relationship.
