How to Avoid a “Bad Veterinarian”: Listen to your Inner Voice

Those of us whose cats are under the care of top notch veterinary practitioners are indeed extremely fortunate. It can be very difficult to find a veterinary practice that is both feline savvy and which employs staff who know how to relate to and to appropriately handle kitties. In fact, following our move from New York to Florida it took me ages to find a practice where cats basically were not treated like “little dogs”.

Bad veterinarian?
Photo Credit: Flickr User: lobstar28

Today, throughout most urban environments, there is an abundance of small animal veterinary hospitals from which to choose. However this may give kitty guardians a false sense of security, since there are few veterinary practices that are truly feline-friendly, sufficiently knowledgeable about kitties, or which have the experience to truly provide the special services required by the feline species.

Then there are those “know-it-all” practitioners who don’t take the time to fully listen to a guardian, and who even resent the suggestions a guardian may offer. After all aren’t we the ones who absolutely know our cats better and who can quickly recognize when something is amiss? Isn’t the information we give the veterinarian; the one who is examining our beloved cat extremely important? Sometimes vets take umbrage at clients who are knowledgeable. This may affect the quality of their service.

I don’t know how you would react but when I am relating information to a veterinarian who is “pooh-poohing” what I am giving him/her and who is basically accusing me as a “hypochondriac-by proxy”, I want to scream! Who needs an arrogant, self-proclaimed “know-it-all” practitioner? There is no room for trust-building or mutual respect in a one-sided relationship. Instead, shouldn’t we be seeking the care of a compassionate veterinarian who takes our concerns seriously and trusts us enough that when we contact them that something really is “off” with our kitty?

While some folks may think that arrogance may portend expertise, as far as I am concerned it is quite the opposite. To me, arrogance probably is due to the practitioner compensating for their conscious or unconscious insecurity.

In my opinion veterinarians who are open to suggestions and don’t take personally our questioning them about diagnostic or treatment issues are secure practitioners. It has always been my experience that the veterinarians who remain open to learning from their clients and who welcome new information are more than competent and genuinely confident about their skills.

Years ago, I almost lost Yo-Yo, an amazing Siamese kitty to Vaccine Associated Sarcoma. I was stroking her and felt little tiny bumps on her side that felt like little pieces of sand under her skin. My regular veterinarian, Dr. Martin Goldstein was out of town for a few days. I took her to a neighborhood veterinarian right away since I was concerned.

He examined the bumps and told me it was “nothing to be concerned about.” I snapped back, “After you biopsy them and it is nothing, then you can tell me not to be worried.” He begrudgingly agreed to perform the surgery and I picked her up later that day. Two days later he called and said, “Your cat has Fibrosarcoma. We can do surgery and chemotherapy, but the prognosis for a cure is slim-to-none.”

I contacted Dr. Goldstein and made an appointment for the next day. He was and continues to be a highly respective integrative practitioner. He started Yo-Yo on Immuno-Augmentive Therapy (IAT), a program which unfortunately is not presently available. With our teamwork and the highly competent, compassionate care Yo-Yo received, we gave her a high quality of life for almost 18 months – without chemo – only a daily series of tiny injections of specially designed blood products without side effects, and surgery when necessary to excise her rapidly growing tumors when they interfered with her range of motion.

My suggestion to avoid a “bad” veterinarian is always listening to your gut. If you feel uncomfortable with a practitioner, you know your kitty will too. If you have nagging doubts about any proposed care; so will your kitty.

In the same way that we are tuned in to our cats; for a positive outcome we must also be ‘tuned in” with our veterinarian. What is your opinion? Tell us in a comment.

9 thoughts on “How to Avoid a “Bad Veterinarian”: Listen to your Inner Voice”

  1. The author of the best comment will receive an Amazon gift of their choice at Christmas! Please comment as they can add to the article and pass on your valuable experience.
  2. I was surprised to find that the vets and techs. at my local “low cost” animal center are the cream of the crop in terms of compassion, understanding and listening to those who know the animal the best. I always thought the highest price place would certainly be the best but learned otherwise in my own search for a personal doctor! I thought about it and came to the conclusion that these people who choose to work there are just as qualified as any other vet but the difference is that they are making a bit less money and may not have the latest version of each piece of equipment but they have made up with it in experience as they have a very high volume of patients (not too high to give us each our proper attention or to love on the kitties :)). They are not a full service vet but they do have a partnership with an amazing full service place that gives us a discount as well. We do not really need the discount services as we are diligent about making certain we have cat emergency funds but so long as the service is great and they really care about my fur babies and do what is needed to keep them healthy and happy, I will continue to take my boys there.

  3. Arrogance in a vet with a deaf ear can and does cause great long term suffering to the feline species. They]cats[are unique. I am still looking for that magic vet. advocate for my full grown babies*
    Eva_

  4. Nice article, Jo.
    I spent weeks finding a clinic that I thought would be best for cats when my old vet retired.

    All was well until I came across a serious problem with my Cora 4 months ago. She was having severe mouth pain, eating little, and starting to lose weight. I was pretty sure it was a tooth problem. I took her into the clinic THREE times only to be told that they couldn’t find anything wrong. By that time, she had dropped from 7# to 5#. One vet even had the nerve to ask me if I thought that she could be “faking” in order to get attention. How in the h-ll do you respond to that?

    On my last visit, I noticed the I was the only one with a cat and recalled previous visits when I saw nothing but dogs in the waiting area. Obviously, they were canine oriented, and I was in the wrong place indeed.

    At that point, I found a feline only vet. As it turned out, poor Cora had to have nearly all of her teeth extracted. Today, she’s free from pain, eating well, and putting weight back on.

    Again, Jo, a nice article.

  5. I couldn’t have said it better Charles. I’ve taken my cats to a number of vets in my area (12) over the years, two of whom actually participated in ending two cats’ lives (by malpractice). I found irreconcilable differences with the first 11. One of them is but two blocks away, and is the among the worst, so I drive about 14 miles (passing others along the way) to reach the hospital I’ve been going to. Even there, they aren’t what I would call especially feline-friendly. This has been a 20 year ordeal, and the best advice I would give cat owners is to be as knowledgable as you can and keep your cats as healthy as you can so you can, so you end making as few trips as necessary to avoid dog-handling assistant and vets who, as you concur, look down their nose at your questions and suggestions, let alone make costly mistakes.

  6. Hi, Jo! Wonderful article!

    I admit I had my doubts about Samirah’s vet. Some of the things he said, like not handling her ever and never clipping her claws didn’t sit well with me. I have to admit that he probably said that because he saw her at her worst, but I saw her softer side.

    She’s stretched out on my bed as I type this. Samirah says “Hi!”

    Anyway, the vet did redeem himself though by providing information to me about her background that I feel the shelter ‘neglected’ to tell me. And his treatment of her has been wonderful. I think he was amazed by how far she’s come along and he wrongly assumed she would never change. If he had kept that negative attitude I would have found another vet. You’re absolutely right: as pet parents we have to follow our gut. If something’s wrong, leave.

  7. I can relate to what you say in your article, Jo. I have had some bust-ups with the vets who collaborate with the rescue center from which I adopted Gabriel. I had to use this veterinary clinic and they wanted to dictate what should be done, ignoring the fact that I was the cat’s caretaker and the bottom line was that the decision making on Gabriel’s welfare was my call.

    I now use my original vet and they are better. All vets should listen to the cat’s caretaker. Sometimes the information won’t be good but often it’ll be useful and sometimes critical.

    I have always felt that a good cat guardian should be knowledgeable and be able to provide informed information to their vet to assist him/her. The timid wilting flower of an owner is at the mercy of the vet. If the vet is not good the cat’s care is in bad hands.

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