Welcome back to the real world?  Maybe I just don't know how things are
done here, and I sure hope you tell me that this is not the norm and it
was an un-fortunate experience.
 
I recently adopted two new ferrets and purposely waited a week to take Mika
& Mischief for their rabies shots, so that they would be more at ease with
me and have confidence that all was ok even though they were being put in
a smaller cage and going to be handled by a strange person.  Also, so that
after they had their shot, I could cuddle them and the pain would all go
away.
 
Now I am a totally new client, with 2 ferrets who had not been seen at
their clinic since 1998.  We are put in this room and a young girl enters
and says,"Hi, I'm Carla.I'm going to be giving the ferrets their shots."
Now I have never heard of a vet introducing themselves by their first name,
so I questioned if she was a vet.  She said no, that she was a vet tech.
Now maybe I have been in Puerto Rico too long, but in my experience vet
techs did things like, O&P's, or nail clippings of ear cleanings, or cage
cleaning, but not injections without a vet right there.  So I mentioned
that I always had had a vet give my animals shots.
 
She leaves the room and comes back in a second saying that the vet would
give the shots, picked up the kennel and left the room with them.  I guess
I was in sort of a state of shock, because I couldn't move, I just couldn't
believe their way of working.  Two minutes later she returned with my
babies and said they were done.  Now I seriously doubt if a vet did it,
or did she just do it behind closed doors.
 
When I voiced my complaint I was politely told that if I had wanted a vet
to see the animal I would have had to request an examination and then
there would have been an extra charge.  I told them that they should have
explained their procedures especially as I was a new client because I felt
at least some sort of check, visual or otherwise, should have been done
before giving a rabies shot.  They said I was in the minority as most
people just wanted the shot (which is mandatory in this county) and nothing
else.
 
That is the first and last time that I will go there.  And this place has
listed 6 vets on the door.  Am I under the wrong impression?  Is this how
it is done here?  Even my vet in Puerto Rico would check out the animal,
temp, poop, eyes, ears, teeth and lungs before giving any injection.  Maybe
I could understand it if I were a regular customer and my animals had been
seen on a regular basis.  Am I expecting too much?
 
You can e-mail me at [log in to unmask]
Thank you
 
Home Page updated  Aug. 1, 2000
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[Posted in FML issue 3142]