#veterina

[zephwister]

Výplod mozků mě a mého spolužáka po tom, co si už po sté opakujeme porod skotu:

Zmrdůvstání = porod

Zmrdůvzdání = potrat, udání k adopci, případně vydědění (jak by ty poslední dvě ta kráva udělala, kdo ví)

[drferox]

Measuring Pet Intelligence

Anonymous said to @ask-drferox: Is there a reliable way to measure a pets intelligence? I’ve seen a lot of tests online to see how smart your cat or dog is, but they seem kinda sketchy. How can I tell if my cat is a genius or a dummy?

In veterinary medicine ‘dummy’ often refers to a very specific syndrome where a neonate had too little oxygen around the time of birth, and are neurologically/cognitively impaired to the point where they cannot suckle from their mother. A newborn mammal really only has one job - drink the milk - and if it can’t do that it’s termed a ‘dummy’. If you can get them through the first week or so, and they’re not having seizures, they often end up fairly typical adults.

Measuring intelligence in general is a controversial topic, and it’s complex enough in humans, let alone non-human species.

As a general rule, you would want to know whether they can problem solve within their environment, how trainable they are, and whether they have a good memory. (Note: trainability is not dependent on intelligence alone. It also requires a willingness to please). You can look at things like word recall and counting, but they’re very human ways of viewing intelligence.

The main problem with many of the online Pet IQ tests is that they don’t apply well for dogs that are very chill, or just not food motivated. If you’ve taught your dog to only eat from the bowl after you’ve said ‘Okay’ then it’s not going to know what you want it to do when you hide a treat under a towel.

Cats are often less trainable than dogs, as many are less willing to please or we just don’t express our wishes to them well enough. But they learn the rules in a different way.

So rather than the towel and bucket tests that I see go around, consider instead:

Has your pet learned your routine?

Has your pet learned The Rules?

Has your pet learned which people will break the rules, or in which circumstances the rules cal  be broken?

Does your pet try to cheat or negotiate the rules?

For example, Wonka learned the following rules:

Open hand signal means a treat is offered.

Open hand signal means person wants him to approach them.

Open hand signal is used to call him back inside from the secure courtyard.

When this happens, he gets a treat.

Wonka can ask to be let out.

Wonka can ask to be let back in.

Wonka expects a treat for being let back inside.

He learned rules, and then extrapolated them to see if he could get what he wanted.

(He also learned that humans control the water in the shower, so now he also expects us to turn off the rain when he wants, so not all of his conclusions are correct)

These behaviors demonstrate:

Perception of the environment (can’t problem solve it if you’re not aware of it)

Imagination of a different scenario

Piecing together separate rules to problem solve

Implementing the experiment.

Wonka might not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he is a scientist.

[zephwister]

Střední veterina je svůj vlastní svět, protože co sakra myslíš tím, že jedinou reálnou pochvalu za tohle pololetí jsem dostal od 205 let starýho učitele za to, že jsem správně uříznul kanečkům kule?

[drferox]

Learning to manage veterinary clients

I had my new grad vet (who is not really a new grad any more, she is a big, tough, grown up vet but still likes to pretend there are training wheels on the bike) listen to me talking on the phone the other day. I had a particularly irate client, who in our view was irrational, who I had to handle on the phone. And while it ended reasonably, there are tricks and phrases I’ve picked up from watching other clinicians, and I urge vetlings to watch other vets and learn their techniques for dealing with irate clients.

Identify the Problem

The first thing to do when dealing with any upset or angry client is to identify the problem, and keep in mind people don’t always tell you up front what their issue actually is. Money, or anxiety over money, is a common concern. Others might be more worried about giving tablets, or where the pet can stay while they’re away, or any number of things. If you can identify the problem, and offer possible solutions, that might soothe the client’s worries and let you do your job.

Most people lashing out are not fundamental buttburgers. Mostly they are afraid of something. If you can soothe the fear, you’re doing well.

Another common fear is that you will ‘just put the old pet down because it’s old’ and assuring the owners that they have more options than that (treatments for arthritis, ways to improve quality of life, etc) goes a long way.

Give a little, and ask a little in return

Once you’re identified the main problem or their fears, you can try to do something about it.

For example, if their primary concern is money, you can go through different treatment options and their costs, and how you can space those costs out over time. Not everybody has a lot of cash at hand, but if you give people a budget and a time frame many can save up a couple of hundred dollars to do what needs doing. Just taking away the unknown factor can go a long way to settling a client.

You can also try to find reasonable ways to lower the costs, particularly for long term medications. Maybe it’s cheaper to sent a pre-anaesthetic blood screen to an external lab a day or two before the procedure, instead of doing it on the day. Maybe a 100mg tablet is less than double the cost of a 50mg tablet, so they can break it in half and save a little money every day, which adds up over the month.

You are helping them out, but you are asking for their cooperation to do so. They have to come in on two different days to save money on the blood screen, they have to actually cut the tablets themselves or phone a few days in advance for you to order their meds in. These are really tiny concessions you are asking of this client, but it makes them feel like they are saying yes, like you are now working as a team to address their concerns, and that’s important to actually help the pet.

Even the language you use can help here. “Just let me grab a calculator... just let me look that up.” By asking the clients for something, something they can easily say yes to, it fosters a feeling of teamwork.

Write complaints down

There is nothing quite like writing the complaint down to make people feel like they are being listened to, and it’s super helpful for addressing a complicated complaint to have it in some kind of list format. People who are upset will often get things out of order, and it helps to get things straight. If this is a fact-to-face conversation, try to take notes while facing the client, not turning your back on them to type on the computer.

Take advantage of free consultations

It is hugely useful to be able to offer somebody a free consultation with their pet. And lets be honest, if they’ve being particularly belligerent then they’re going to take up more than 20 minutes of your time on the phone or just talking anyway, you might as well spend ten minutes looking at the animal, it will actuallys ave you time and stress.

Many clinics will offer free post-surgical consults, or discounted revisits anyway, so knowing what you can offer within the clinic policy is a good way to placate some concerns, and let the client think they are getting something for free.

It’s also good in general to follow up your procedures and treatments to make sure they are actually getting better, so you have a record. Then clients can’t claim the pet ‘never got better’ months later if you have a record of them being better, or you can poignantly point out that they failed to come to their recheck, so this limits what you can interpret.

Take care though not to give too much for free. You might make the consult free, but that generally shouldn’t include medication or further treatment as required, unless you’re quite confident whatever is going on is iatrogenic, eg antihistamines for a vaccine allergy.

If you can’t get people in, let them take a photo of the issue and email it to the clinic (do not let them text your personal phone!). It’s better to get them in most of the time, as most people are more reasonable face to face, but some things can be resolved with just a picture. For example, a pet that had hair on their neck shaved for a blood draw and not a suddenly appearing rash with hairloss after starting the medication.

And if all else fails

There are some lovely catch phrases you can use if the client continues to be very unreasonable and you just don’t seem to be getting anywhere.

I am not the vet who treated your pet, I am just trying to get to the bottom of this. - Useful if it’s not you being complained about. Reminds the client that they can be angry, but please don’t be angry at you.

I cannot do anything else about how the prices are set, would you like me to get the practice owner to call you? - This is the equivalent of getting a manager, but it’s why they get paid more than you do. Refer it up, but give them good notes.

Behavior like this towards staff will not be tolerated. - A reminder to not yell or threaten.

If you feel that our services were not up to your standard, you are welcome to seek veterinary treatment elsewhere. - This is a very polite reminder to those clients that they are, in fact, most welcome to leave. You are not going to bend over any further to keep them as a client.

Of course it’s best for your sanity to focus on the good clients, not the bad ones, but you still have to deal with those bad clients from time to time. Listen to how other people do it, and copy the techniques you like.

[drferox]

Anonymous said: Following up on the Renal diet thing - what alternatives are there for picky eaters? I know some clients will ask what to do because their cat refuses to eat the food - preferring it’s old food instead . Do you just basically out wait the cat? (Also this is just out of curiosity for dealing with difficult patients not asking for advice )

Do not out-wait a cat with renal disease trying to make it eat the ‘perfect’ food. Reduced appetite and weight loss are some of the symptoms of kidney failure, we need to try to prevent that weight loss as much as possible.

Some things to try:

Switching brands and flavors, even if switching back every other day. The variety seems to help keep the food interesting.

Warming up to body temperature, +/- addition of warm water. Some of the dry foods are intended to be soaked in warm water for this purpose, but can be fed dry if the cat is a creature of habit and insists on having the cronch.

Increasing the fat content. Fat is tasty, and isn’t going to aggravate those kidneys (used with caution if the cat has a history of pancreatitis or diabetes)

Increasing fat and carbohydrate content. Both of these things will not aggravate the kidneys. How do you increase fat and carbs in a meal? It’s basically gravy.

A cat that will not eat, especially one with chronic kidney failure, isn’t long for this world, and sometimes you can’t switch its diet without worsening its situation. It’s better to feed the imperfect food than let the poor (possibly nauseous) creature starve.

[drferox]

Later kitten desexing

Anonymous said to @ask-drferox:   Is there any benefit to desexing at kitten at 5-7 months of age rather than early? I know it might be a bit of a contested topic, but is there actually much evidence for either side? (What's prompted me to ask this is that my 5mo kitten, while he's booked in for castration next month, is showing sexual aggression towards my in-law's desexed female that we're babysitting. We're managing, but I can't help but think this week would be easier if he didn't have nuts 😅)

There isn’t currently any strong evidence to suggest cats benefit from a later desexing age. There is a claim that male kittens castrated too early will be more at risk of urethral blockage (a blocked penis) but retrospective studies through the RSPCA, where they routinely desex them at 8 weeks of age, didn’t suggest this, so I suspect it’s more of an old wives tale. Certainly a sedentary lifestyle predisposes them though.

Certainly if he’s showing these unwanted male behaviors, I see no reason why you couldn’t castrate him a bit early, and I usually tell my clients as such.

[drferox]

@bettsplendens said to ask-drferox: On the subject of whole animals as cat food- what if the animal was put through something like a sausage grinder, so the cat had to eat all of it? I mean, I know that's something you'd have to be really careful with to avoid disease, so it might be good to cook it, but it would sure be hard for a cat to pick out only specific bits. And if someone were to feed a diet including birds, most of the feathers would be removed, right? I can't imagine cats naturally eat every feather on a bird.

They usually pluck feathers, but the sausage grinder idea is viable. That’s the principle in making pellet food for parrots or commercial feed. It’s all mixed in, they can’t pick it out.

This is perfectly fine for plant foods, but you’re right in that there would be some gut contamination in doing this with a whole prey item, so you might choose to use an eviscerated prey item and add back in some of the offal.

This is basically what commercial pet mince claims to be.

[bainry]

Prezentačná webová stránka pre veterinárnu kliniku @scarvet.tt v Trnave. ✔️ Programovanie backendu a kódovanie frontendu. Vlastná administrácia s jednoduchou správou obsahu. 💻 scarvet.sk #bainry #vyvijameinak #veterina #trnava #pes #mačka #zvierata