What to look for when looking for a vet
The title pretty much sums it. There are about 10 different veterinary locations in my area, most with 2 or 3 named vets on the door or sign. There are 5 of that are within a 10 to 15 minute drive.
I am wondering what everyone looks for in a vet.
I am wondering what everyone looks for in a vet.
Comments
There is a national chain called VCA Johnson Animal Hospital, if your pet travels a lot (ex. show, competition, family visits), it's an option you should look into b/c the records are accessible at other branch locations. As far as I know, each branch operates independently and the national part mostly take care of marketing overhead.
Some people like to go w/ a 24/7 vet practice that offers emergency care so in case something happens (ex, bloat in the middle of the night), it doesn't matter who sees the pet, the practice has the pet's record on file. You can also check yelp.com or Angie's list for reviews.
Some vet practices have small scale doggie daycare or training on site, and can recommend behaviorist they work with first hand.
Others like myself literally shop for a "vet physician" like I would for a family practitioner, and request the vet practice to schedule annual check up appointments with a specific doctor I'm comfortable with. The consistency helps me build a relationship with the individual physician and I don't have to give him the fur kid's life history every time we go in for an annual check up. Plus, my vet happens to have several shiba clients, so he is familiar with the breed. We are his only JA client though.
In addition, usually owners bring their pets into the exam room but sometimes the nurses/techs bring the dogs to the back to have procedures done (ex. draw blood). I like it that sometimes they would make exceptions for us and have the procedure done in the exam room so I can observe. Flexibility scores big w/ me.
I don't put a lot of value in whether the practice has a fancy website. If I ask for literature my vet is usually happy to provide printouts for follow up reading. Bedside manners with my fur kids are more important.
I hope this helps.
How the vets and techs act around the dog is huge to me. Conker has stranger problems, especially inside buildings, so if they are obnoxious, loud, in-your-face types, they might get bit. Conker is even worse when muzzled, and an absolute horror when removed from me, so I really try to find vets who will take the time to let my dogs get comfortable with them first, and will not take my dogs into another room to do anything.
Pushy vets don't get my business. If I request only one type of vaccine and they attempt to shove others on me, I'll walk out. Same goes for diet. If they berate me for feeding my dog a certain way, I'm finding someone else.
I took ChoCho to a vet in Miami to check up on her because she was shedding WAY too much and the vet had ChoCho muzzled, and a vet tech hold her down! For what actually? I have no idea! Well she ended up squeezing ChoCho's anal gland... I thought I was going to scream out of frustration and anger! I was so upset. Now ChoCho is terrified of vet offices, where as before she was fine with it.
Took her in 2 weeks ago to get her latest vaccinations and the vet never met with us... I had to be the one to hold ChoCho. It was such a mess...
Why is it so hard to find good vets in a big city?!
I second talking to serious dog people in your area. Breeders in particular, but good trainers or people involved in canine sports. I know in my area it is hard to find a good vet--my agility trainer said finding someone who understands breeders, who respects minimal vaccination schedules and raw diets is virtually impossible. She travels to Santa Fe for her vet (50 miles away), and even finding one there is not that easy (she said she'd go to my vet in a minute, but they haven't been taking new patients for about 10 years!) My vet is very old school--nothing is computerized. They are a couple, and they are probably some of the most dedicated people I've ever met. Each exam takes an hour or more, and they spend a lot of time educating you on canine health (which is how I have learned so much about it, and why I have become their "honorary vet tech" and have even been taught to do some procedures myself! I know I'll likely never find another vet like them.
I loathe the chains, which includes VCA (actually that one is highest on my list of do not use), and will not go to them. I had one promising back up vet who sold his business to VCA and I stopped seeing them. They are pushy (demanding extensive tests), and I don't let people take my dogs to the back without me being there. I want to SEE what is happening to them. Also, I've had a vet friend work for a VCA branch and was horrified by how tied they are to pushing things that up the bill.
Best advice? Ask a lot of serious dog people, then start visiting a few different vets. It may take awhile to find the one that will really work for you. Make a list of what is most important to you, too.
And yeah, don't discount the small, local vets who may not even have a website or anything like that. Sometimes the old school vets can be very very good. (And sometimes not, of course!
Check out some rescues that are into positive training. They may have really good suggestions. The manner in which they handled this rescue dog was indicative of their practices and how much they really loved dogs. Because care of the animals was their primary driver they discussed every situation with us, never tried to push vaccinations, medications, or unneccesary procedures, and had a vested interest in behavioral as well as health issues.
My vet supports Caesar Milan, against raw feeding, only support kibble like Science Diet and the vet assistant told me that Toki is an alpha dog looking to take over my life.
I kindly disagreed with my vet and the technician and they let me do my thing. At least they are tolerant. Thats all I really ask for. A least they're pretty good when it comes to the health issues. Just not training and food.
Vet wise we don't have any directly connected with big box stores (Pets Unlimited and PetSmart) and we don't have any national chains to my knowledge. For the most part I assume they have little knowledge of NKs, I know of a few AAs who supposedly constantly fight at one of the dog parks, and a few Shibas here and there.
We have a few specialty shops in the area. I'll have to look up the local trainers to chat with and go to the local canine sports places. I didn't even realize till yesterday we had any here, I have found flyball and agility so far. As for breeders we have a few around. Theres a Lab breeder, a GSD, a Sheltie and a Labradoodle/Poodle breeder.
So to break it down:
-Talk to people, breeders, trainers etc.
-Look for competence (I would hope so lol) (Also what is competence in this case?)
-A vet, who if they do not agree with me, can tolerate my views, or at least give me proof as to when my decision is bad (But then I would likely come on here and ask more questions)
-Visit, look around and ask alot of questions
-Figure out is a list of what is most important to me
Quick question though, is 15ish different vet locations normal for >100,000 people?
To be completely honest I think this is the first time anyone in my family have actually looked for a vet, other then my uncle with his farm or when there was a serious injury to any of our dog when I was younger. The mentality was kinda in between "Its just a dog" to "Part of the family, kinda". Cats were not so lucky. So basically I am saying I have no clue what I am looking for lol...
competence depends on what you look for--perhaps read up on the most recent medical journals, the ability to schedule patients so they dont have a lot of animals build up in the fitting room? I take competence at them being comfortable to be willing to listen to me about my dog and talking options. In my opinion especially with NK they should not want to take the dog from you to do basic procedures. Finally I think a competent vet when hearing what breed they have coming in will go What is that? and Read up on it, so they have a basic understanding of what works (hopefully their techs will too!).
Also, the hours of operation would be important, if you walk in and there area tonnes of people waiting and or the animals all seem stressed, they Ares probably too busy.
I think a lot of it is personal gut feeling. I have been to a vet who did an "initial check" on my dog and I really want comfortable with it -- then I don't go back.
I guess for me it is about a relationship that develops over time, too. I would hate to go to a practice where I didn't get to see the same vet, and build that relationship. Which means they have to talk to me. There's another, more fancy vet near me that I used to go to, that I did take Leo to when he was bit by a rattler. I never talked to the vet! Spent $1400 and never talked to the vet. It was always the techs that talked to me and relayed what the vet had said. And they had vet techs and assistants (my vet only has vet techs), and the assistants were sweet, so very young, and so very clueless. I had to point out that they didn't have the IV in correctly, and that the bandage was much too tight, and when I said that, a tech came over, looked at it, and acknowledged that I was right, and fixed it (while I watched). But that was a good reason not to go back, except in an emergency.
My clinic is very small, only two vets, two front desk people and maybe three techs. They are opened 7 days a week with a 8-7p hours. My vet works 50+ hours a week and will come in specially if needed. Everytime I am scheduled with the same vet and same tech (though the other vet helped with one nail clipping and sachi likes her as a person more). My vet's first thoughts over which tests are most advanced and do x,y and z, is how can we make this the least stressful visit for my girl. During a routine vaccination update (3+ a blood draw) she was the one who wanted to end the visit as it had been a all positive occasion so far (Sachi hadn't gone batshit at all-she hates being trapped and has to be held/restrained by the tech and just took it quietly) I was the one who judged she could handle a quick chipping then we called it quits. The office encourages for funsies visits so Sachi gets visits where nothing happens but treats! and pets and the association to the vet isn't a bad one.
Whatever you do I would recommend against going with the bigbox vets especially Banfield (petsmart). I had a truly terrible experience there that I won't go into detail about but you would be better off ANYWHERE else.