The "holistic dog" movement

That's what I was thinking. If we have a patient dropped off, we have a signed form saying what the owner okay'd. And then it's rewritten or typed a billion times onto all of the other medical notes so it isn't looked over. And if we had clients specifically request to never receive a vaccine (like bordetella or lepto), we'd delete the reminder from the computer so they wouldn't get reminder calls/emails and make sure to have an alert pop up when their file was accessed so people weren't confused why there where no reminders for that vaccine. We may still ask them if they would like to do it today, but that was about all of the pushing we'd do unless we were really concerned about the dogs wellbeing due to exposure.

(Rabies and DHPP being the exceptions. Those were always strongly encouraged and discussed at length if they refused.)

what do you do when you call and say spay only, they ask about vaccines and you tell them none and you specifically tell them that none are to be done, this is just a surgical visit and any vaccines will be done once the animal is recovered. That's just on the phone call.

Then when you get there and and get the business, then sign waivers and liability forms and meet with a vet tech again and at every stage you're telling them no and signing paperwork to attest to the fact, and they just do it anyway? Beyond me saying I am to be with my cat in the surgery and every second after, what else could an owner have done?

Then they still had the nerve to ****ing charge me for them That was the one and only time we went there. Thankfully I have never had something like that happen with one of my dogs. I have fully trusted my last vet and current vet. We don't always agree , but I trust them and they respect my decisions. It's a much better relationship that way.

I have no idea what you would do, other than be mad? I mean, they already did what you told them not to do, that sucks.

I'm saying that I can't believe the hospitals that are doing this.

Exactly. If someone drops off we give them a list of things that we are cleared to do, they sign it. Both parties get a copy. If we aren't doing distemper or rabies on a client, a big red popup goes in their file that says "O declines rabies, okay per [Dr Initials] [date]" so that nobody screws it up.

I'm surprised they do that as well. I work at a daycare under a vet clinic. I get there earlier then the vets/techs, so I had to put Chesh in a cage and stick a neon sticky note to it confirming that she was there for annual and rabies only, no other vax period. I still had two techs come downstairs to confirm that I only wanted rabies. Yes, that hasn't changed in the 3 hours since I wrote the note.

To board, our animals have to be current on shots (unless the vet approves different) and on a heartworm/flea prevention, so we don't get too many truly holistic dogs. We did have the saddest chow ever, though, who had the most miserable skin I've ever seen on a dog. I reached out to pet him and literally recoiled when I felt how scabby and crusty he was. He had been treated under a holistic vet for several months, and wasn't getting any better. Our vet put him on some antibiotics, and when he went home 3 weeks later he so much happier and his skin was almost clear. Sad that he suffered for so long when it was an easy fix.

This is my favorite story... not! We brought our female barn cat in to be spayed by our old vet. They did a spay and declaw on her. I was quite young at the time, but I still remember how angry my mom was, for so many reasons. This was a cat who hadn't lived a day of her life indoors. We tried to make her an indoor cat after this happened and she absolutely refused to use a litterbox (she held it). MANY years later (she was somehow still alive living outside despite having no front claws) she finally consented to living inside and using a litterbox. So she lived the last of her 6-7 years inside.

But, yeah. Declawing a cat without owner consent? Not okay.

Nice vet :yikes:

On that same token, I have a friend who's dog was chronically on antibiotics/steroids for 5+ years because his skin/ear infections would come back as soon as he was taken off. Then he had MRSA like a year or so ago. After working with a holistic vet, his skin is under control and he hasn't been on antibiotics for quite a while (relatively speaking, for him).

Is that a state requirement, having to sign off? I've never had to do that and I generally refuse at least one vax. I just hauled all three dogs to the low cost clinic for rabies shots and no one even blinked when I declined the lepto/parvo/distemper/bordatella shots.

I don't know if some states require it or not, but the clinic I go to doesn't have you sign anything. I declined rabies for Sassy since she had such a horrible reaction to her last vaccine, and she was not a healthy kitty at the time her rabies was due. The vet did go over the legal considerations of having an animal that is not UTD on rabies with me, but I didn't need to sign anything.

They recommend rabies and distemper every three years, and only recommend other things (bordetella, lyme, etc) if the dog is "at risk". They weren't really "pushy" about the rabies, but they want to make sure that clients understand what may happen to their non-UTD pet if it bites someone.

He gave the mixed shot first and I assumed it was rabies. Then he came back with another as I was getting ready to leave and told me the second was rabies so I had to get it.

This was the same vet that looked at Rigby and said "I've never heard of an Australian Kelpie, but that dog is DEFINITELY mostly Jack Russel"
And then after doing a lengthy stare at the charts, proceeded to ask if Cobain (noted as a purebred Border Collie on his charts, and quite a few years older than her) and Rigby were littermates.

The office staff laughed at me when I told them to change the owner name on my dogs files (they were both under my mother since the address was the same as her dogs), and basically said they "knew" I wasn't the one paying the dogs vet bills, which I was. I was 20 at the time and planning to move - I really wasn't sure how much I could trust my parents to not pull a "They're OUR dogs you can't take them" move.