Dear Veterinary Teams, Let's Not Judge Too Quickly

Dre. Celine Leheurteux

I would like to share this evocative example that I love to tell to those who are entering our fascinating profession.

Judging is a natural reflex. Our primitive brain wants to quickly get an idea of ​​the danger. As young professionals, we want to save, prevent, and help. When you leave school, you have the truth because you just had it stuffed down your throat for 5 years. Academic knowledge is valued, even sanctified. Young graduates, we are on a mission.

I am telling you a story to illustrate this necessary benevolence in our environment, all the more so in these uncertain times.

I am in the clinic. My beloved technician gets the bulk of the case history from a client we know well in the exam room. She brings me the most relevant pieces so that I can start my investigation. It saves me time and I can be of service to more people.

The briefing

We meet in our cell, that is to say, the treatment room behind the examination rooms. We are among ourselves, between the cages and the stainless steel tables, but it's still a warm place. Here we do everything; casts, drain abscesses, extract teeth, give birth to puppies. I LOVE this, I am living my childhood dream. I am helpful to animals and their families. The hardest part is having to navigate the icebergs of people's emotions. Their experience and their reality tint their decisions and affect their attitude. Animals are easy to guess for us veterinarians. I like humans too, but they're more complex, let's face it.

In short, after spending a little 10 minutes with the client and her dog, asking her questions, taking a rectal temperature, heart and respiratory rates among others and doing a basic brushing of the tail in search of fleas, the technician comes back to me and brings the bulk of her conversation.

"Okay, the lady is here for a test and for a vaccine," classic.

Some find this monotonous, I love it. I have more time to learn about humans and especially to give advice on the health of the dog rather than picking up the pieces of a health problem that has lasted too long, for example. That is long and more complicated.

With an air of desperation tinged with exasperation, her eyes raised to the ceiling, my technician said to me: “and the lady thinks that this year she doesn't need any medication for the prevention of parasites… you know…"

Yes, yes, those who think that by putting real lavender oil behind the ears, diatomaceous earth between the toes and a lemon eucalyptus spray, the ticks will fly back to Virginia. I can see very well. I am very open to complementary and holistic medicines, I practice chiropractic manipulations, I prescribe medicinal mushrooms and tea tree oil in macerated calendula oil. But for ticks, please drop these unnecessary remedies giving a false sense of security.

Ticks are not just mosquitoes!

We live in an area infested with ticks. Ticks transmit serious diseases like Lyme disease. We lose Lyme disease patients every year and we treat hundreds of them. We have clients who have facial hemiparesis from Lyme disease, others who are disabled… We were once the clinic with the most positive Lyme disease cases in the east – from Canada!

I then said to my technician in an assumed tone " let me do it, I'll fix it ", with conviction and the 3 hard-earned letters after my last name.

I enter the examination room with a mission in my white lab coat pocket. At this precise moment you say to yourself: but why are vets so obsessed with selling preventive drugs? Know this: we hear a lot, and wrongly, that the vets are in it for the money. Myself, nor technicians, have any financial incentive to sell parasite prevention to clients. Nothing, except maybe a pencil with the logo of the pharmaceutical company that makes the products and sometimes a free treatment for one of my animals, per season. No commission, no Balkan cruise, no ski-suit with the image of the product either. What do we get from these preventive interventions then? The feeling of having done our job as an animal health professional and of having prevented what could be prevented, namely Lyme disease and anaplasmosis. For your dogs, but also for you.

Lyme disease and anaplasmosis

At the hands of these diseases, I have lost several patients, I lived several melodramas of families lying on the floor in the examination room, in tears, distraught at losing their companion of barely 2 years old because we could do nothing more. Sometimes I was completely helpless after weeks of treatment. I often spent weekends at the clinic and time seeing referrals and specialists. I have often had to announce difficult diagnoses and seen sad stories end in dramatic euthanasia. It is difficult: for you, for us, for our teams and especially for our patients. 

My recalcitrant client ...

On the strength of everything you have just read and having confidence in my means, I tell myself that I will explain this to the lady as best as possible to protect her, her family and her dog – and she will understand. I am successful most of the time because I am sincere and it shows. I am proud to be a veterinarian. Yes, we are real people who rub shoulders with pain, life and death, we are genuine and dedicated. Hard rind, tender heart, professional spirit. No half measures for our animal friends. Because we are passionate, and not just on the surface like in a pub, but right down to the marrow. Believe me, we are here to make sure your animals are well. It doesn't matter what decisions you made for them. We're here to give them the best and nothing less.

-Hello Mrs. Gendron… glad to see you again. So this year, you do not think you need protection against parasites for Chopin? Could you tell me more about what guides your choice?

I play it cool and open-minded, but actually I'm on a mission to make her understand that her dog is better off to be protected.

-Well no, I don't need it, because I no longer walk outside with my dog.

Oh… I'm confused.

- Are you in pain somewhere?

- No. My son rode through ice on a snowmobile and has been missing for 2 months. So, I don't walk anymore. I stay at home. I'm waiting for them to find him. He's going to have a baby in a month. I doesn’t make me want to walk with my dog. That's all. When we find him, we'll see... The police found his helmet today. They should find him soon.

At that moment, my heart and my head are in a vice. I can hardly breathe. My client's life has been on hiatus for 2 months, a tragedy. And I, who did not know, I was only thinking of my mission to protect the animal and the family when in this situation he is no longer at risk.

- I'm sorry. I… I… I didn't know. I totally understand. Fortunately for your dog. I am with you in thought. I wish you courage to face this tragedy. We'll be there when you need us. Hoping you can start walking along the canal again soon as you loved to do. I am going to examine Chopin and I will not hold you any longer. Thanks for sharing your story with me.

I return to the treatment room where it is good to ventilate, my head in my shoulders, my jaw hanging down...

That same evening, my beloved technician wrote to me that she saw in the media that the body of a young man of 26 had been found in the canal...

The client came to see me again 2 months later to look for her preventive medication.

I learned from this sad story. I remained marked by it. Watch out for judgment. We don't know what people are going through, so let's be nice and caring.