Why do people do this????

Re: Why do people do this????

SmegSlayer — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 23:33:50 GMT

i remember one sunday day ooh when a vet and i were literally about to start an op to remove half a tail on labrador (lawnmower accident) when someone rang to ask how she could stop her 10 week old chihuahua puppy from peeing on her laminate floor and scratching her leather sofa?!?!?!

Was on the phone with her for nearly 10 minutes coz she couldn't grasp the fact that that is what 10 week old puppies do. Eventually I had to get very matter of fact and say very plainly that this was an emergency service, she didn't have an emergency, her puppy sounded fine and healthy and maybe she should have thought about what a young animal might do to her furniture before getting the puppy and then said that I had to go into theatre to help the vet with a real emergency because this labrador had had its tail run over by a lawnmower and may loose all its tail!

Re: Why do people do this????

Gemma Burden RVN — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 19:25:44 GMT

A few years ago I was working on a Sunday. Morning surgery had finished so the phones had gone over to our emergancy line, and myself and the vet were dealing with an animal we had admitted when the vets pager went off. She went to deal with the call thinking it would be an actual emergancy only to find out that one of the mad cat ladies had been reading the leaflet in the bottle of Canaural we had dispensed a few days earlier, and was concerned that her cat might not have an intact tympanic membrane, despite not having an idea what the tympanic membrane was.

Re: Why do people do this????

Kekks — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 17:12:39 GMT

[quote user="Gemma Burden RVN"]

[quote user="Julie-Anne Harrison"]

[quote user="Gemma Burden RVN"]

[quote user="Mark Walsh"]

When you ask them which practice they last went to and they can't remember the name or even where it was.

[/quote]

Or they can remember, but say that their vet is closed so they want to come to you this time as they don't want to pay for the emergancy service. We offer free first consults to new clients and they even expect us to do this for them when they have no intention of coming to us ever again!!!

[/quote]

We get this every Sunday without fail. "I don't normally come to you but my normal Vet is closed and I don't want to go to the emergency service. It's too far." They're actually difficult to handle if it's an actual emergency.

[/quote]

If they are actual emergancies then we will see them, but if they are the usual eye infection that has been going on for weeks, nail clip etc then we usually tell them that they need to see their own vet or use the emergancy service provided by their vet, and if they are not happy with the service their vet provices then they need to discuss this with their vet and if needs be change to another vet.

[/quote]

This happens to us all the time. We are the only practice in our area that are open for emergency consults on a Sunday & most Sundays we get more phone calls from clients from other practices than our own clients because they do not want to travel to the emergency services provided by their own vets. Mind you, they can not beat the Sunday when I had a call from a lady who had insect bites on her arm & was wondering if she could come down to the practice & get the vet to have a look at whatever it was coming out of the bites. Even after explaining that she should go to her own doctors, she asked if it would be better if she came down the next day when it was not an emergency service.

Re: Why do people do this????

Anonymous — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 13:36:25 GMT

we had one today. "my dog had a fit at 1.30 this morning i rang the ooh's vet they said keep an eye on her for any more as she had stopped fitting and seemed settled.the vet said to ring you and get her seen today" They rang at 1.30pm to see if they could get at appt for today to see the vet. one little problem the vet is only here till 11 but the nurses stay till 3pm [for people to get food,meds, advice]. she wasnt to happy bout it just had to tell her think they meant you to ring first thing this morning not 12 hours later. ARRRGH they make to so angery.

Re: Why do people do this????

Lauren Innes Bsc(hons) , RVN — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 11:27:34 GMT

[quote user="sazzle RVN"]

ah pigeon brigade, just love it when people feel the need to bring in pigeons just because they look 'tired'.

[/quote]

up my way, its the seagull parade! they scrape the fairly mangled remains off the road and expect us to put them back together, and then release the birds to a fan fair of sorts, with rainbows and cake! and if any unsuspected item of wildlife is minding its own business too close to these do-gooders we get all manner of perfectly healthy, if some what bemused, beasties hedgehogs, baby deer, wild bird chicks that have fallen out of nests.

Re: Why do people do this????

Julie-Anne Wilson — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 10:48:19 GMT

[quote user="Gemma Burden RVN"]

[quote user="Julie-Anne Harrison"]

[quote user="Gemma Burden RVN"]

[quote user="Mark Walsh"]

When you ask them which practice they last went to and they can't remember the name or even where it was.

[/quote]

That's what I normally do but then you will inevitably get the client that will be bitchy with you for not seeing them instead of their own Vet.

Last weekend we had a client that was in out town visiting so wasn't registered anywhere, wanted their dog PTS so we told them to come straight down, this was at 12. Arrived when we were locking up at half one and the Vet was already gone, next day we get a fax from another practice she'd went to and told them she was our client and when she'd arrived we'd told her to go there instead. I thought that was incredibly cheeky.

Re: Why do people do this????

Gemma Burden RVN — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 20:15:00 GMT

My most annoying one was a regular client who phoned up 2 minutes before the phones were about to go over at 11am on a Sunday morning. The vet was literally just driving out of the car park, and this client phoned up to see if she could bring her horrible aggressive little pug in as he was lame. He was constantly going lame, not help by him weighing far more than he should, so this was nothing new, and she informed me that she had been watching him all morning. I informed her that the vet had left, to which she said "well you are open until 11!!!". She couldnt see that that meant that we would be closing then and that she wouldn't be there, seen and gone in the two minutes until closing time. I gave her the number for the emergancy service and made her an appointment for the following day, which suprisingly enough she didnt need as he was better again.

Re: Why do people do this????

A Little TLC — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 20:04:13 GMT

3am -

Hello, blahdeblahdeblah? (i'm not very good when woken up by the phone.... i have been known to write down the greeting on a notepad precisely for this purpose as i wake up very bewildered)

anyway...

Hello, I saw this blackbird in my garden this morning............

urgh.... its 3am , that would be yesterday morning...... what on earth....a) have you been doing since then, b) why phone at knob o clock, and c) are you fecking mad?! what is wrong with people?!

Another one brought another blackbird in, again at 3am, 'ooh, can I have a look round the shop while I'm here?'

Errrmmm, how about no.

Re: Why do people do this????

Gemma Burden RVN — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 19:51:27 GMT

[quote user="Julie-Anne Harrison"]

[quote user="Gemma Burden RVN"]

[quote user="Mark Walsh"]

When you ask them which practice they last went to and they can't remember the name or even where it was.

[/quote]

Re: Why do people do this????

Nicola Russell — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 17:07:04 GMT

client phoned at 7.30am as her rabbit had been attacked by a fox overnight and didn't know if it was alive, was concerned about catching rabies and when told her to bring it in too us told me she would later, she was going to get her hair done first!

Re: Why do people do this????

SmegSlayer — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 17:03:23 GMT

the people who phoned up at 5pm on a Friday night to say their dog had been fitting constantly since 2:30pm but couldn't bring it down straight away as they had to go out...

Re: Why do people do this????

Lyndsay Kennedy — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 14:47:11 GMT

One of my personal favourites is the client who phoned me up out of hours to say her dog had worms or maybe full anal sacs and could the vet see her as soon as possible. I quoted the out of hours charges, informed the vet she'd called, but funnily enough we never heard from her again until the Monday morning during normal opening hours.

Re: Why do people do this????

Julie-Anne Wilson — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 10:43:32 GMT

[quote user="sazzle RVN"]

ah pigeon brigade, just love it when people feel the need to bring in pigeons just because they look 'tired'.

[/quote]

Don't pigeons always look like that?!?

No matter how many charities go on every year about leaving baby birds alone, you always get someone bringing them in 'cos the waited for the mum to comeback but she never did. Yeah, probably 'cos you were standing there!

Re: Why do people do this????

Julie-Anne Wilson — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 10:42:12 GMT

[quote user="Gemma Burden RVN"]

[quote user="Mark Walsh"]

When you ask them which practice they last went to and they can't remember the name or even where it was.

[/quote]

Re: Why do people do this????

bongo — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 10:24:53 GMT

ah pigeon brigade, just love it when people feel the need to bring in pigeons just because they look 'tired'.

Re: Why do people do this????

Gemma Burden RVN — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 21:55:39 GMT

[quote user="Mark Walsh"]

When you ask them which practice they last went to and they can't remember the name or even where it was.

[/quote]

Re: Why do people do this????

Mark Walsh — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 21:52:28 GMT

When you ask them which practice they last went to and they can't remember the name or even where it was.

Re: Why do people do this????

Sal the 1st — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 21:43:26 GMT

yep have come across the pigeon brigade - can remember one screaming down the phone at me when I gave her the option of bringing a bird in or leaving it where it was - response was 'I am not touching it, it could have anything wrong with it I could catch something horrible like bird flu'

Re: Why do people do this????

Gemma Burden RVN — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 21:37:08 GMT

Or the ones that are hammering down the door when you have all the lights out and are just about to walk out the door who have had a baby bird all day and expect you to be able to sort somewhere for it to go. Or like one person I had phone me who told me she had a baby pigeon in her garden, and expected us to come out to collect is as she was going out later and didn't want to drop it in on her way past.

Re: Why do people do this????

Sal the 1st — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 21:31:36 GMT

but you really cant beat the ones who drag a dog in with so much mud on it it looks like it has been ploughing - across the waiting room floor that you are in the middle of mopping and say ' I know you arent open but.......his ear swelled up a couple of weeks ago'

Re: Why do people do this????

Ilovehorses — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 21:20:26 GMT

I know, the my dogs had diahh for six weeks but now at 6.40pm on a Friday night it's a dire emergency and it's got to be seen straight away!! Arghhhh......

Re: Why do people do this????

Gemma Burden RVN — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 21:11:13 GMT

It drives me insane too. As do the people that have left their animal with something like a eye infection for a week, then phone up 5 minutes before you are about to close and expect you to see them straight away and quote the time that you are open too when you offer them an appointment the following day.