What to do when your beloved vet is overextended

[MissAriel]

I love my vet. Competent, interested in horse’s well-being, holistic view, respectful of my budget (gives a “menu” of options along with recommendations, pros/cons). In the past has been very good with scheduling and communication.

But things change, and I know there have been some pretty big changes in vet’s life both good and bad in the last year and I have been struggling to schedule a follow up appt to dx a minor unsoundness and give me a rehab plan. For the time being I am assuming suspensory and going with the basic stall rest, minimal hand walking protocol along with TheraPlate and icing. Also did some PEMF. It has been six weeks since he has been regularly ridden, about three weeks of absolutely no riding and 4 weeks since our last appt which got us off the suspensory I called about and chasing a red herring that went no where.

So anyway, been waiting to even get a follow up appt scheduled for 3 weeks and who knows when it will be. At what point to I schedule another vet?

[OverandOnward]

When you post this question on COTH it is time to schedule another vet.

Your vet will see it as a relief. One less worry that they aren’t meeting a client’s needs. They will be fine.

You don’t necessarily even have to tell them, if they are so over-scheduled and over-burdened that they may not notice. Again, they will be fine with it.

If they ever call and ask about a follow-up appointment, you can explain then that you recognized how busy they were. But I’d make book that they never call to find out whatever happened to you & Dobbin.

[Critter]

I think the best thing to do is to be open with your vet about doing a follow up with someone else. My vet is the same as you describe yours - very overwhelmed and overworked, yet she is the most wonderful and insightful vet. She is a fantastic clinician, but sometimes she gets stuck managing the emergency situations so much. When I sense that is going on, I will usually say to her, hey do you want me to go up to the university clinic to get xyz looked at because you are swamped? That way she knows I am doing it to take pressure off her rather than because I don’t think she is capable. Sometimes she will say no and make time for what I need…other times she will say thank you because while she could do the care, she just doesn’t have the capacity in the schedule. But then she was involved in the process of going to someone else, and she can also stay involved in the follow ups after that.
So, if you really do like that vet and respect them, I would just give them the “hey, I know you are swamped and I need to get xyz done during this time period, so I was thinking of going to abc clinic/vet.”

[OverandOnward]

@Critter

but sometimes she gets stuck managing the emergency situations so much

I think medical practioners generally have come to the realization that emergency medicine and regular medicine don’t mix well at all, because of scheduling havoc.

I’ve got vets as well as doctors who just don’t do emergencies, instead they send you to the emergency clinic. And emergency clinics that do only that, they don’t do appointments. For people and for animals.

If you end up in the ER (human, horse or other animal) your regular doctor will check in with you during a future scheduled appointment. But you belong to the ER facility until you are over the emergent part, whatever it is.

A local human ER has a little hospital attached. Never had to use the facility so I don’t know when they shift you over to the regular hospital, but guessing that if you aren’t able to walk out at some point, that’s what happens.

Some larger vet clinics have the ER function in a separate area, close to the rest of the facility but not interfering with it when ER things are going on in the middle of the night.

[MissAriel]

@OverandOnward

@Critter

but sometimes she gets stuck managing the emergency situations so much

I think medical practioners generally have come to the realization that emergency medicine and regular medicine don’t mix well at all, because of scheduling havoc.

I’ve got vets as well as doctors who just don’t do emergencies, instead they send you to the emergency clinic. And emergency clinics that do only that, they don’t do appointments. For people and for animals.

If you end up in the ER (human, horse or other animal) your regular doctor will check in with you during a future scheduled appointment. But you belong to the ER facility until you are over the emergent part, whatever it is.

A local human ER has a little hospital attached. Never had to use the facility so I don’t know when they shift you over to the regular hospital, but guessing that if you aren’t able to walk out at some point, that’s what happens.

Some larger vet clinics have the ER function in a separate area, close to the rest of the facility but not interfering with it when ER things are going on in the middle of the night.

Around here vets often won’t come out for an emergency unless you are a regular client.

[Critter]

Totally agree with you - especially as I worked 10+ years in a hospital setting. But my farm vet has always done emergency and regular calls from her practice…though now she is more strict that she will only do the emergency if you are a routine client. I am sure balancing all of that is why she is so overstretched…but it is a 2.5 - 3 hour haul to the closest fully staffed emergency/large clinic and most of the locals would not or do not have trailer access to do that. And when you have a real emergency, 3 hours is a long drive. So splitting out the emergency calls to another clinic is a luxury she doesn’t really have.

[OverandOnward]

@Critter

but it is a 2.5 - 3 hour haul to the closest fully staffed emergency/large clinic

I get that. And this is a problem in human medicine as well. A lot of small rural towns do not have the medical facilities they need to handle true emergencies at awkward hours – maybe not at any time of day.

The sheriff in the tiny town where a close relative lives will call the nearest city hospital to send a life-flight helicopter for any serious emergencies. But that takes time and it is not like being 10-15 minutes by ambulance from the nearest fully-equipped ER (by some expedient means of transportation), as one would hopefully be in a city. Honestly, someone with precarious medical conditions probably should not live in those towns.

In the small rural town where I lived for several years the nearest emergency vet was 2 hours away. There was no after-hours vet care in town, unless you had the privilege of having your vet’s cell phone number – and even then you were likely to be sent 2 hours away to the ER clinic. The ER vet clinic was smoking expensive, too, it was hard to get out of there for less than $500 minimum and it could be much more.

While living in that tiny town, when at 4:30 pm we discovered that the goober labrador snorked down several pieces of fried chicken, I immediately called the in-town vet since we might not know for sure if the dang dog was going to be in serious condition before the vet closed at 5 pm. He asked a number of questions about the dog’s condition - Is he bleeding from the mouth? Mouth foam? Trying to cough up or vomit? Some behavioral questions. Answer: No, he’s grinning like it’s the best day of his life so far. Vet says he should be ok, he probably never chewed at all. Just swallowed the pieces whole (labs have an impressive gullet) and his gut would dissolve the unbroken bones. “You will never see those bones again.” No trip to the vet ER for that one, thank goodness. DOH dog

[Texarkana]

We’re unfortunately going to be seeing this problem a lot in the future. There just aren’t enough large animal vets and the remaining ones are being spread too thin.

[lenapesadie]

Out of curiosity OP how much follow up have you done trying to get this appointment? One call to vet? 5 calls to vet?

The vet practice I use can get very busy; they accept emergencies 24/7/365 and have a surgical suite for horses. While it can be very inconvenient for me to wait for a non emergent appointment, I try to remember that when I do need an emergent appointment that someone else’s non emergent appointment may be inconvenienced. At any rate, I’m not ashamed to place a polite follow up call to the tune of “Normie pooh isn’t getting any better. When can vet see him?” Sometimes the clinic is so busy that my follow up calls help getting that appointment scheduled.

[MissAriel]

@lenapesadie

Out of curiosity OP how much follow up have you done trying to get this appointment? One call to vet? 5 calls to vet?

Weekly reminder calls.

[lenapesadie]

Well that’s definitely you following up!

[Scribbler]

@MissAriel

@lenapesadie

Out of curiosity OP how much follow up have you done trying to get this appointment? One call to vet? 5 calls to vet?

Weekly reminder calls.

I would ask if your vet can recommend a colleague who could do the work. That might give your vet a wakeup call or give them an out to refer you to someone they feel they can cooperate with.

[clanter]

we changed large animal vets because of the office staff, they Rarely Ever Got Anything correct, from billing errors to ordering incorrect meds to just plain incompetence

heath papers were never correct, call explain the errors, get another set that would be more screwed up then the last set… it would take about four or more tries to get a correct set…even working from photos of the horse the descriptions could be completely screwed up or they would change the gender of the horse … we do a lot of interstate shipping and need the papers to be correct.

The vet is a very nice guy but over the years I guess he wanted to move on, which is fine as we have access to many, many large animal vets (current one has complete surgical capabilities plus we have access to the local TB/QH race track vets as a back up)

[OverandOnward]

@MissAriel

Weekly reminder calls.

3 times weekly is better … scheduling the appointment will be easier than continuing to answer your calls. Once weekly is the same as none as a busy office may not remember that.

Being really sweet and understanding on every call. Never sounding frustrated and impatient. That may guilt them into finding you a time slot.