Your Veterinarian Is Not the Boss of You

"It's up to you."

"My recommendation would be..."

"One thing we can do is..."

Do you ever hear these words from your veterinarian? You should. These phrases are your veterinarian's way of telling you that you are the boss, and you make the final decisions in his or her office.

Your veterinarian works for you. You hired him to help you with your pet's care. He gives you his expert insight and advice, but you call the shots. If you don't feel his style is a good fit for you and your pets, you can fire your veterinarian (hopefully in a nice manner, by going to a different vet clinic from now on).

Different veterinarians have different opinions.

I'm a big proponent of diet changes to help heal common pet ailments like diarrhea and allergies. I have seen first-hand how finding the diet that works for my dog or cat can make these symptoms vanish literally overnight. However, not all pet owners or veterinarians agree with my choice to feed my pets mainly raw food.

Many times, I have made the raw food recommendation to a fellow pet owner and am told that their veterinarian doesn't agree with the theories of raw feeding. But guess what? Different veterinarians don't always agree with each other! So why treat your veterinarian's word as final?

When my kitten got sick at just three months old, my veterinarian at was sure it was the raw food I was feeding her. He sent us home with antibiotics. I reluctantly tried them, but as I suspected, they only helped for a couple days.

I kept feeding her the diet I felt most comfortable with and took her back to the vet. This time, rather than only listening to his recommendations, I instructed him on what I wanted him to do for me: complete x-rays and blood testing. This gave us our answer: she had pneumonia.The vet was then able to prescribe another antibiotic and after an overnight stay, she was cured!

Veterinarians don't know everything all the time.

Do you remember everything about a book when you've finished reading it? Do you remember everything you learned in school, even from your major? Do you ever have to ask a co-worker for help on something you're pretty sure you should know?  The truth is, veterinarians aren't walking encyclopedias. When we present them with our pets and a list of symptoms, sometimes they might know right away what the problem seems to be. Other times, they may have to refer to a colleague or medical journal for second opinions and clues.

One of the reasons my cat probably got pneumonia was because she had Herpes of the eye. The virus can make matters worse when the immune system is run down and vice versa. He prescribed her an eye drop, but in doing research online, I learned about how Lysine, available over the counter, helps keep the Herpes virus at bay. On a return visit, he asked if I had looked into Lysine, and I told him that I'd been giving her chewable Lysine treats that she loved. My vet then admitted that he didn't even know Lysine treats were available, he only knew of pills and liquids.

Internet research can help your vet clinic visits be more productive.

The internet can be a helpful place as well as a scary place. I can understand why some vets might fear a pet parent coming in with articles printed off the net from who-knows-where (for all he knows, you found them on tell-your-veterinarian-how-to-do-his-job.com). However, arming yourself with more information can help see that more avenues are explored. It can help you feel more confident with asking questions. You can make sure that your pet is tested for everything you think he should be tested for, and you might even find alternative therapies that you feel more comfortable with.

Not all veterinarians embrace or are knowledgeable on all treatment methods.

When my older cat, Charlie, was diagnosed with asthma, I immediately started researching the condition online as I had no knowledge of even human asthma. I stumbled upon a treatment that is well-documented online but not embraced by all veterinarians: administering human asthma inhalers to cats with the Aerokat, a spacer and mask device developed specifically for cats with asthma.

Charlie's vet at Wyoga Veterinary Hospital had prescribed a steroid pill, but read that that can be dangerous long-term--especially for larger cats--as it can cause diabetes to develop. Charlie, at 15 pounds, is definitely a size L cat. So I learned all I could about this treatment, sure that Charlie would not look kindly to being held with a mask over his face but hellbent on trying.

When I asked my veterinarian for a prescription for an inhaler, she attempted to talk me out of it! She said my cat will hate it and I will give up. I told her that she was probably right, but that I wanted to try anyway. She gave me the prescription.

I trained my cat on this treatment slowly, and it was successful. Charlie now gets his inhaler treatment twice a day and has been virtually cough-free for over a year. Now every time I go to Wyoga Vet Hospital, a staff member says "aren't you the one who gives your cat asthma inhalers?" 

So you see, they learned something from me!