Experience with veterinarian (long). Your opinion please.

[Double R 2]

Changed vets after several years a few weeks ago. How this guy stays in business is beyond me. Seemed to have found a new one - young guy from my hometown, State graduate, duck hunter, easy to get along with. First time met him was to put our 17 year-old datchund down. Which bring me back to the previous vet.

So back in April call this previous vet, tell him the old dog was sick and what could be done on weekend. Hadn't eaten, drank, done his business, hardly moved in a couple of days. He says no problem, call his pager, he'll swing by and put dog he's seen for years down if needed. SOB hasn't called back yet. So we go to a stranger, shell out too much money, hand the dog to stranger that administers the shot, and we bury the 14 year-old member of our family in the back yard. I felt ashamed for having waited too long and for having had a stranger have to do it.

Fast forward to October. Go by and tell the vet's clerk - can we reserve a date and time for this ancient little datchund y'all have seen for years, two weeks from today? Sure. We can count on you, the doc will be here - because it really disappointed me last time to the point only reason I'm here is because of my wife. No problem she reiterates, guaranteed. Just too personal for strangers I told her. She said she understood. So I schedule a tooth cleaning for Delta while I'm there for morning of "the day".

It's tough. Every morning I'm cognizant of the dog's impending day. The wife can't talk about it without tears the whole time. Still, really. She even went by vet to double check, no problem he assured her, he'd even come by the house after work to take care of it. He came into our lives the first year we dated, nearly 2 decades ago. Never picked up a duck in his life, but he’s like family. So there’s this situation, an impending death sentence, an awkwardness in the whole week. Wife swings him by Sonic everyday for French fries. And the day arrives. At noon wife calls in tears: Dammned clerk had called and left voicemail within a couple hours of the event. Says doc left “sick” can't do it, says maybe it can wait till next week, hangs up.

Went by to get Delta as well as the sick lizard one of the kids had taken up there (I know, but you’ll understand when you have kids). Doc is gone, a technician says that SHE hasn’t (put Delta under) and cleaned her teeth, that I’ll need to come back. Me thinking WTF I thought vets had to be on hand when your dog got put under anesthesia, say Nope, ain’t happening. Not here, not now, not ever. Give me my dog, give me the lizard, I told you where we stood last time I was in here and don’t appreciate the way it was handled; neither my family nor anyone we ever speak to will be back in here. Tell the doc to call if he wants to know how I really feel. I was seething, but didn’t drop f bombs. Pretty sure anyway. Turns out the lizard had died and they had disposed of it. Try explaining THAT one to a kid. SOB vet hasn't called for that opinion yet.

Call new vet to explain. Set appointment that same afternoon. Nice people. The family says good bye. Sad, sad. I take our old buddy up there. New staff seemed to understand the whole personal nature and gravity of it. It was just like watching an old friend fall asleep in my arms. New vet refuses to charge me, said it's against their policy. Buried next to the old dog we buried in April.

New vet cleans Delta’s teeth, and before putting her under requests medical records. Calls with questions: did you know she hasn’t had this or that? That she’s not been tested for this or that? Impossible, the ex vet’s office has written TWO health certificates for Canada duck hunts in just the last 2 month. True, she says. Has she been on heart worm preventives? Absolutely. You bought them from that vet? Yep. Did you know they’re not supposed to sell heart worm preventatives without regularly testing the dog? I thought she’d been tested. New vet says it’s ok to wait until February, because she’s on the low side. But that she definitely has heartworms.

Your opinions please: SHOULD I HAVE DROPPED THE F BOMB OR WHAT?

[bigbeeducker]

I can't say that you should. BUT, I would have I can promise you. I've been tryin to be a bit more patient with people lately, and have been doin a pretty good job. However, I'da had a few hail mary's to say after all that.
Todd

[MudHog]

I would say you shouldn't have and it's part of being professional and there are ways you can get to people without cursing them out like a sailor. That being said, I know it's hard and it's a shame that things progressed as they did and he was being very unprofessional. Do you have a local Better Busines Bureau? If so, document everything and bring it to them. It sounds as though they were generating false documents too. Also, document the fact that your dog has heartworms and they were never testing, but prescribing medication. You may need that in the event something happens to your dog from heartworms in the near future.

i can relate to the down home vet. My new vet who is seeing my lab and two bostons is a great guy. He loves my male boston and will peek around the corner to see him even if I'm stopping just to get heartworm or flea medicine.

[Blackduck]

That's terrible.

I'da bombed them like Bagdad.

[duckkiller]

Ramsey your a better man than I am for the way you handled it, and that says allot obout you and your character. Dropping "F" bombs isnt going to solve anything, if anything it will make matters worse. I can tell you I wouldnt dark in the door of the place from now on and niether would any of my friends.

[gator]

perfect opportunity to tell someone to fluck off and feel justified and GOOD about it..................and, you blew it.

i feel like i dont' even know you anymore.

gator

[RockBottom]

You did what i would have done....fire the vet and hire a new one. you did the worst thing you could do to him, took your money and buisness else where.

[goosebruce]

Ranting and cussing only makes their treatment of you 'justified'. You found a new vet, the old vet lost a good customer. If you've been buying hartworm meds from your old vet, you're likely to need his help in getting your treatment covered from the hartworm med compaines... breakthrus are common place and in no way reflect the care your animals recived. As for the tests, Id imagine they'res more likely confusion about the records than anything... never seen a dog get an annual they didnt get a hartworm test and thats been that way before hartworm epidmic.

Words can only mean so much. Id give it some time to get over the pissed off, then take a few minutes and write the man a letter while Im still angry over how I was treated. Dont make it personal, make it clear about your customer/ professional relationship, and how you where forced to take your business elsewhere because of his actions. Maybe it'll mean something to him, maybe it wont, but had you only expressed yourself by cussing at his tech, well, they'd simply thought good riddence and never gave it another thought. travis

[gator]

yeah, well...............that's a good thought too.

i still like the cussin' option though

gator

[goosebruce]

i deal with the rant and rave and f bomb type everyday.... as they leave we joke about if they are gonna squeel their tires when they leave... once you showed your booty, nobody really cares, even if you are right. Im not saying dont have a say, but a calm rational speach, or even better a letter after the fact, carries a lot more weight. travis

[crackhead]

i deal with the rant and rave and f bomb type everyday.... as they leave we joke about if they are gonna squeel their tires when they leave... once you showed your booty, nobody really cares, even if you are right. Im not saying dont have a say, but a calm rational speach, or even better a letter after the fact, carries a lot more weight. travis

So true. A letter will haunt you way longer than acting like a negro.

[Double R 2]

i deal with the rant and rave and f bomb type everyday.... as they leave we joke about if they are gonna squeel their tires when they leave... once you showed your booty, nobody really cares, even if you are right. Im not saying dont have a say, but a calm rational speach, or even better a letter after the fact, carries a lot more weight. travis

Y'all are right. I've taken my business elsewhere and just giving aheads up about a terrible business in Brandon more than anything else. I try to save the F Bombing like Bagdad for Gator

[gator]

my truck don't squeal tires..........i'm proud it cranks (plus i need some new tires anyhow).....................but, if it did, i'd squeal them suckers really loud just to show ya'll.

gator

[goosebruce]

mines in the shop again.... so im driving (again) a buddys $1200 chevy he bought for a hunting truck. Id drop the f bomb on the guy who talked me into a diesel, but I dont wanna be that hard on myself! travis

[dukhntn]

You did the right thing. Once you say the words, you cant get them back. Doc may have had a perfectly good excuse for going home "sick" (may not have too, but since he hasn't called back we don't know.) It was an emotional time for you and sounds like you held it together pretty good. Just as Travis said, when someone comes in ranting and raving without calmly explaining why the feel the way they do (like an adult) it just makes me care less (probably shouldn't, but thats the way it is.)
Not that you would want to go back, but the great philosophers Confederate Railroad said it best: "When you leave that way you can never go back."