Getting Experience 2

One of the unexpected lessons I'm learning as I continue to shadow in the vet clinic is that there are few black and white situations; providing health care to companion animals contains lots of grey areas.

Perhaps I am being a bit naive, since after all I did leave graduate school lo these 20 years ago (or more) with the anticipation that I was going to go into the world and "discover the truth." That idealism was beat out of me in a couple of years away from academia, and it is no more true for geology than it is for veterinary science.

Today at the clinic I was able to observe more than once how vets and their technicians maneuver in those gray areas. Here are some things I learned.

Listen without comment. Sometimes the owner provides information that is simply crazy talk, or that describes a behavior that is obviously creating a problem for their companion animal (such as admitting to continuing to feed puppy food to an obviously overweight 2-year-old animal).

But you have to prioritize. The animal may have terminal cancer but if the owner is wound up about a torn toenail, you have to focus on the toenail. Sure, you can bring up "additional concerns" but the owner may reject your expertise and your suggestions for treatment if you try to cure the cancer, and even succeed in doing so, but neglect the torn toenail.

You can't overwhelm with TMI. Keep the focus narrow for the short term (today it's the toenail) but have a long term plan ready (owner returns in a month because dog is dying of the cancer).

Most of the time the patient will improve, or die, despite your efforts. Accept that frequently your role is to ease pain and reduce symptoms. Above all, even though you are there to help strengthen the human-companion animal bond in any way that you can, this doesn't mean that you can impose your biases, will, or inflated sense of self on the owner or their pet.

Don't become a vet if you don't like dealing with people and their innumerable tics, ignorances, missteps, and thin wallets. They are in your clinic with their pet right now. How can you effectively and efficiently help that person and their pet in a way that maximizes the benefit to both?

It would certainly be possible to take any of these gray situations and turn them into moral or ethical crises. But the point is that they aren't crises--they are the everyday reality of providing health care to companion animals. There is no absolute solution to every problem that walks in the clinic door. A good vet is one who is comfortable navigating these grey areas.