Operating on your own pets

RE: Operating on your own pets

Julie Innes — Fri, 16 Aug 2019 08:30:21 GMT

[quote user="janine redman"]I will be ok once she is asleep and often get a colleague to induce the anaesthesia .[/quote]

Same! I am fine once they are asleep and draped up!

RE: Operating on your own pets

janine redman — Thu, 15 Aug 2019 21:32:44 GMT

I have always operated on my own dogs , again because I don’t want to stress the other vets out . The nursing staff have enough to worry about . I do have to spay my 9 year old bitch now she has had her last litter . She was due to be done when there was an anaesthetic shortage early this year so now waiting for the next window. I will be ok once she is asleep and often get a colleague to induce the anaesthesia .

RE: Operating on your own pets

jane alexander — Thu, 15 Aug 2019 17:37:35 GMT

Tend to do my own, for the same reason...but recently I did allow a SENIOR colleague to spay my siamese!

RE: Operating on your own pets

Julie Innes — Mon, 12 Aug 2019 09:01:41 GMT

Well, he survived! I knew he was going to be a drama llama, and he deserved an Oscar for his performance as a tortured soul! Family kept asking me if he was ok, was this normal...husband even expressed doubt that he would make it through the night!!!! Fortunately I am made of sterner stuff, knew that he was just being dramatic, and by Sunday he had stopped his sulking, forgotten he was meant to be dying and had to be stopped from tearing about with our other dog.

Dread to think what he will be like if he ever needs something more serious done!

And yes, I can understand why people wouldn't want to operate on their own animals!

RE: Operating on your own pets

Lucy Fleming — Sat, 10 Aug 2019 21:58:23 GMT

The second ever bitch spay I did was my own, fairly newly acquired, rescue. I don't like to put the pressure on colleagues, but I probably should, as I'm not the most rational decision maker when it comes to my own pets (I pity the poor nurses who have to do the anaesthetic for me)

RE: Operating on your own pets

Julian Earl — Sat, 10 Aug 2019 17:16:49 GMT

I've usually done this when the procedures were routine ones for me: neutering, dentals,removal of a bursting sebaceous adenoma on my Labrador's face. I think that leaving it up to a colleague is a lot of pressure for them as well. I confess to being a total softie with my own pets so like to bethere as they come around. But, for example, when that Labrador had a femoral head resection he was done at Liverpool's small animal hospital. Not least because I was still in my fourth year still so had no option. His vet at home thought that at 40kg he was too big a patient but he did very well. Notably it was six weeks before he was walking on that first leg again , but then he had his second hip done as well and I'll never forget that he trotted up the corridor to greet us that time a few days post-operatively this time around. Two weeks later he tried jumping a stream about one metre metre wide, fell in and then started hobbling again on this second leg. Another few weeks and he was using it okay at last. Aged Now 6.5 years he lived until he was 13.5 years and was vastly better after having both hips done. Meaning he was more active again until his elbows crippled him in the nd! Labrador genetics! Generalised and severe arthritis! Who'd have thought it? Poor old caspar, Gone but never ever forgotten!

RE: Operating on your own pets

Dagmar Steele — Sat, 10 Aug 2019 11:00:30 GMT

[quote user="Nicola M"]

[quote user="gdbvet"]

As in life.Do your own dirty work.That this discussion is even occurring makes me wonder what a fragile profession we have become.

[/quote]

As above, I think this is a bit harsh.

There are many reasons why someone would choose not to, or find it hard to.

Personally I’m happy to operate on my own animals and would always choose to do so unless it’s something outside of my area of competence.

[/quote]

Not only is it a bit harsh, I don't think it's true that our profession has become fragile. Vets have always had a higher suicide and depression rate than average and this kind of interaction between colleagues certainly doesn't help. The difference is that talking about feelings has become more socially acceptable, so more people do it - unless they get shot down too often.
Putting it like Michael without any judgment of others would've done.

RE: Operating on your own pets

Bob Russell — Sat, 10 Aug 2019 10:57:39 GMT

I operate on my own animals, I don't like it but such is life.

I agree the comment is more than harsh. They are more than patients, they are pets and family members. Not the same as human family but still more pressure.

I would operate on human family if I had better skills than anyone else to do the job but I would need someone assisting that could be more objective..

I find it oddly comforting that people (even the most confident ones) feel a little extra pressure and stress about operating on their own pets.

RE: Operating on your own pets

Nicola Cole — Sat, 10 Aug 2019 09:08:15 GMT

[quote user="gdbvet"]

As in life.Do your own dirty work.That this discussion is even occurring makes me wonder what a fragile profession we have become.

[/quote]

As above, I think this is a bit harsh.

There are many reasons why someone would choose not to, or find it hard to.

Personally I’m happy to operate on my own animals and would always choose to do so unless it’s something outside of my area of competence.

RE: Operating on your own pets

bob lehner — Sat, 10 Aug 2019 08:07:58 GMT

I've no problems operating on my own animals.

Had one memorable occasion when I wanted to take a lump off my terrier. Decided Sunday afternoon would be a nice quiet time to do it and took my soon-to-be (and distinctly non-veterinary) wife to help, thinking there was no need to disturb the on-call nurse for a rather minor procedure on a healthy animal. Anyway - just stitching up at the end, when there was an almighty crash and my betrothed (who had been looking a bit green) collapsed on the floor in an ungainly heap.

Dilemma - do I attend first to the dog, or my beloved? Tricky choice.

RE: Operating on your own pets

Nicola Cole — Sat, 10 Aug 2019 07:48:05 GMT

[quote user="Robert FalconerTaylor"]

hmmm, that's a little harsh - it would be interesting to know how many human surgeons would operate on their own kids?

[/quote]

It is actively discouraged for doctors to treat family/close friends unless in an emergency or rural community (where it can be hard to avoid it).

RE: Operating on your own pets

Robert FalconerTaylor — Sat, 10 Aug 2019 06:45:35 GMT

[quote user="gdbvet"]

As in life.Do your own dirty work.That this discussion is even occurring makes me wonder what a fragile profession we have become.

[/quote]

hmmm, that's a little harsh - it would be interesting to know how many human surgeons would operate on their own kids? It's not a question of fragility, but of emotional attachment which crosses species lines. There's also the added burden of being answerable to your own kids/family waiting back home...

RE: Operating on your own pets

gdbvet — Sat, 10 Aug 2019 02:41:20 GMT

As in life.Do your own dirty work.That this discussion is even occurring makes me wonder what a fragile profession we have become.

RE: Operating on your own pets

Michael Woodhouse — Fri, 09 Aug 2019 23:48:41 GMT

[quote user="Dinu Catilina"]

I wouldn't let anyone else touch my dogs!

[/quote]

Agree 100%. I've spayed all my own bitches. Put my old terrier to sleep.

RE: Operating on your own pets

Dagmar Steele — Fri, 09 Aug 2019 21:15:18 GMT

I usually do my own animals myself, but I have to admit my brain goes awol once they're ill. I chickened out of spaying my youngest dog myself (it was a difficult time in my life) and recently I had the surgeon at the referral centre revise a malignant tumour removal on my older dog bc it wasn't exactly clear I got clean margins the first time. Turned out unnecessary, I got it all the first time, but I wanted to be rather safe than sorry. But it is very stressful for me to operate on my own animals, easy stuff like wound repair not so much, but more complex things very much. When I spayed the older one I thought I'd go the extra mile regarding pain control and added tramadol to the mix - she has never been that sick before, throwing up for hours. Ohh, she was poorly.... and I felt like the worst vet ever!

RE: Operating on your own pets

Joyce Whitehead — Fri, 09 Aug 2019 19:49:21 GMT

I’m also one to do my own, I don’t want others to have the responsibility. The exception was a referral ophthalmologist doing a corneal graft. What a long day that was as she was in the referral practice. I think they don’t worry about me being the person who induces them as they are used to me messing them about! Hope he is still milking the sympathy vote...

RE: Operating on your own pets

Dinu Catilina — Fri, 09 Aug 2019 17:28:54 GMT

I wouldn't let anyone else touch my dogs!

RE: Operating on your own pets

Julie Innes — Fri, 09 Aug 2019 14:48:02 GMT

Oh God, now whole family have been in to visit him, and of course he is acting like a dying swan!! The other dog I neutered today is standing wagging his tail, while Baz lies looking sad and sorrowful, lying on his back and gingerly lifting his leg to make sure everyone sees the bruising. He is giving me the absolute stink eye, and that is before I have shown him the cute dinosaur babygro I have bought him...What a drama llama he is!

RE: Operating on your own pets

Julie Innes — Fri, 09 Aug 2019 11:51:51 GMT

Balls are off and all went fine!

I don't let anyone else operate on mine, because I don't want to put the staff under that pressure! And if anything went wrong, I would always secretly wonder if it might have been different if I did it myself!

I am now feeling guilted into a bedside vigil! (And telling myself it's to make sure he doesn't lick...)

RE: Operating on your own pets

Chris Geddes — Fri, 09 Aug 2019 11:21:00 GMT

Not in practice any more, but when I was I got other people to operate on mine because I couldn't handle it. Didn't even want to be in the same building in case something went wrong. I can't even be rational when my own pets are ill, which I think is normal. Veterinary neurologist told me he couldn't diagnose meningitis in his own dog, had to get someone else to. I did a stitch up of a small clean wound on my own dog once because it was me on call...I was shaking like a leaf and the dog got NSAIDs and antibiotics afterwards because I was so extra cautious (and feeling guilty as it was me who trod on him...)

Sure it will go fine :)