Can you help with our out-of-hours advice to pet owners?

Re: Can you help with our out-of-hours advice to pet owners?

Hannah Wynne Richards — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 10:05:56 GMT

And I like the old-fashioned copy-still Lizzie-you can't please all the people all of the time

Wynne

Re: Can you help with our out-of-hours advice to pet owners?

Catherine Williams — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 15:39:55 GMT

I've only worked 1 Christmas Day in the 13yrs I've been qualified. Everyone told me in advance, don't worry, Xmas is usually quiet.

Started off with an elderly Irish Setter that had bloat the night before, vet on duty had tried to stabilise but when I took over was bloating again so after some management & discussion elected to PTS. I think that was then quickly followed by 2 collapsed dogs, 1 splenic bleed and 1 ruptured bladder (50% survival rate). Just about made it to my boss's home where I'd been invited to Xmas lunch, just finished main course when I got called out to 45-50kg Bull Mastiff with a GDV - ended up stabilising then gastropexy (he lived much to my relief I was getting a bit depressed at breaking bad news at Xmas.) I think there were a few minor emergencies in between, ended up spending 17hrs in the surgery that day and never had so many abdominal catastrophies in one day.

Not done an Xmas Day since, not really keen to after that experience.

Re: Can you help with our out-of-hours advice to pet owners?

Simon Neuhoff — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 14:44:25 GMT

[quote user="Vikki Halliday"]

[quote user="Simon Neuhoff"]

[quote user="Lizzie Lockett"]

Just to let you know that this is the last year the Directory will be produced in hard copy.

The RCVS made the decision to discontinue it on the basis of reducing environmental impact and saving money. The hard copy also goes out of date very quickly.

The environmental impact of printing 3,400 copies of a 970-page Directory is highly significant. It amounts to some 3.3 million pages of text, weighing approximately 8.7 tonnes, being printed and delivered across the UK.

The online Find a Vet service (www.findavet.org.uk) contains the same information – apart from for those practices that opt out of electronic publication. We will contact those practices to check if the change means they would prefer to ‘opt in’.

The fact that this is the last year the hard copy will be produced was mentioned in the letter from the Registrar that accompanied the recent mailing.

Lizzie

[/quote]

Three cheers for that! A sensible move and moving with the times.

[/quote]

I'm quite sad actually! The first year I get my own practice in it, and the last, and they managed to cock it up!

[/quote]

It will still be in it - just in an online format.

Re: Can you help with our out-of-hours advice to pet owners?

Rebecca MacMillan — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 13:39:30 GMT

I had a little chihuahua puppy that was trod on by the over excited kids that were playing on Boxing day, that was the only Christmassy related incident I had last year (and only a tenuous one at that!).

My other calls from what I remember included, a dog that had pulled a couple of claws off whilst out walking and the owners waited 6 hours until midnight on Christmas eve because it was in sooooo much pain now. Then a vomiting dog on Christmas day that I got in on a drip and an uncontrollably painful dog that I had also seen on Christmas eve and ended up referring (discospondylitis I think? Ended up on lots of different drugs including a CRI of pain relief and then was pts a few days later). Then on Boxing day I had a sick pyo that I operated on, a slightly out of sorts diabetic cat, a dog with urinary problems, as well as the chihuahua pup with the bad leg.

I'd geared up for all the Xmas related emergencies, like chocolate toxicity and foreign bodies, but had none of that!

Re: Can you help with our out-of-hours advice to pet owners?

Michael Woodhouse — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 23:06:40 GMT

[quote user="Lizzie Lockett"]Just to let you know that this is the last year the Directory will be produced in hard copy. [/quote]

Now the old fogies will have to use the internet! The Screwfix catalogue much better online

[quote user="Lizzie Lockett"]The RCVS made the decision to discontinue it on the basis of reducing environmental impact and saving money.[/quote]

I was once told that each Argos Catalogue costs £3 [few years ago now] to print. Bearing in mind that the directory has many more pages, better quality paper and is posted to each practice how much is our RCVS subscription going to be reduced per member?

Re: Can you help with our out-of-hours advice to pet owners?

Vikki Halliday LLB — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 21:29:11 GMT

[quote user="Simon Neuhoff"]

[quote user="Lizzie Lockett"]

Just to let you know that this is the last year the Directory will be produced in hard copy.

The RCVS made the decision to discontinue it on the basis of reducing environmental impact and saving money. The hard copy also goes out of date very quickly.

The fact that this is the last year the hard copy will be produced was mentioned in the letter from the Registrar that accompanied the recent mailing.

Lizzie

[/quote]

Three cheers for that! A sensible move and moving with the times.

[/quote]

I'm quite sad actually! The first year I get my own practice in it, and the last, and they managed to cock it up!

Re: Can you help with our out-of-hours advice to pet owners?

Simon Neuhoff — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 17:57:15 GMT

[quote user="Lizzie Lockett"]

Just to let you know that this is the last year the Directory will be produced in hard copy.

The RCVS made the decision to discontinue it on the basis of reducing environmental impact and saving money. The hard copy also goes out of date very quickly.

The fact that this is the last year the hard copy will be produced was mentioned in the letter from the Registrar that accompanied the recent mailing.

Lizzie

[/quote]

Three cheers for that! A sensible move and moving with the times.

Re: Can you help with our out-of-hours advice to pet owners?

Lizzie Lockett — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 17:27:25 GMT

Just to let you know that this is the last year the Directory will be produced in hard copy.

The RCVS made the decision to discontinue it on the basis of reducing environmental impact and saving money. The hard copy also goes out of date very quickly.

The fact that this is the last year the hard copy will be produced was mentioned in the letter from the Registrar that accompanied the recent mailing.

Lizzie

Re: Can you help with our out-of-hours advice to pet owners?

Simon Neuhoff — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 16:28:43 GMT

[quote user="Simon Neuhoff"]

[quote user="robloxley"]

[quote user="Malcolm Ness"]please describe how this activity is properly part of the remit of RCVS[/quote]

Well they have to fritter our hard-earned subs somehow?
On that note, any good ideas on what do do with the weighty tome that is the Directory of Veterinary Practices that thudded through the letterbox: it might burn nicely for a good while and the information is all online, but I'm sure most people would rather just reduce the retention fee and get rid of it?

[/quote]

This. I am glad I am not the only one that finds it absurd in this day and age that we still have those damn things posted to us. Can we opt out of them? What a waste of money and paper.

[/quote]

I did actually find a use for one once. I wedged it under the front wheel of my indoor trainer and it is just the right thickness for this. However last year's one is still in great condition and I am unlikely to ever need another!

How about those who want a paper copy paying extra for it? Or a discount on those who request NOT to have one?

Re: Can you help with our out-of-hours advice to pet owners?

Simon Neuhoff — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 16:25:04 GMT

[quote user="robloxley"]

[quote user="Malcolm Ness"]please describe how this activity is properly part of the remit of RCVS[/quote]

[/quote]

This. I am glad I am not the only one that finds it absurd in this day and age that we still have those damn things posted to us. Can we opt out of them? What a waste of money and paper.

Re: Can you help with our out-of-hours advice to pet owners?

Bob Russell — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 13:53:40 GMT

[quote user="Vikki Halliday"]

[quote user="Malcolm Ness"]the directory is very useful and amazingly accurate given the vast amount of changing data there is to collate.[/quote]

Except this year even after I pointed it out to them, they managed to invent a new Scottish, Stirlingshire town called Wantage, and place my new surgery there. They also have me employing someone I do not, and not employing people that I actually do...........

[/quote]

Did you tell them you had not moved and did they move you there because you told them you were still in the same place?

Re: Can you help with our out-of-hours advice to pet owners?

Vikki Halliday LLB — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 13:44:05 GMT

[quote user="Malcolm Ness"]the directory is very useful and amazingly accurate given the vast amount of changing data there is to collate.[/quote]

Re: Can you help with our out-of-hours advice to pet owners?

Evelyn Barbour-Hill — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 00:55:12 GMT

[quote user="Michael Woodhouse"]I never use the phone book or yellow pages either. Maybe a generation thing?[/quote]

I also use the phone book and Yellow Pages and the NOAH Compendium and Vet Index and the Viking catalogue and the Kent Express catalogue and the Screwfix catalogue and the Vet Instrumentation catalogue constantly. It is quicker and easier to find the desired information this way.

Re: Can you help with our out-of-hours advice to pet owners?

Rosie_Skinner — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 23:01:10 GMT

I have a funny Christmas story...

Last Christmas Eve I was the only vet left at work, and my Kiwi nurse flatmate came up to our flat above the practice where I was having lunch to inform me that she had good news and bad news. The good news was that she was allowed to go and start her Christmas, the bad news was that reception were looking for me as there was a bleached cat coming down.

I mustered the nurses and we prepared to wash and treat an angry cat, and got a bit more info from the receptionists. The owner and her daughter had come home from last minute shopping to find their black, 18 month old, longhaired cat had developed a brownish tint to his fur, was looking a bit startled and was hiding behind the sofa. Clearly this cat had been a victim of a bleach attack and they called us immediately.

I called the owner and her daughter through to the consult expecting the worst, and opened the cat's box to find a fairly relaxed browny-black longhaired cat inside. He sauntered out to greet me and settled on the scales. On examination I found him to have no skin inflammation or ulcers and he smelt more like shampoo than bleach. He was as contented as a cat in in a consult room could be. I asked the owners if perhaps they had just not noticed that their cat had become sunbleached over the summer until the sunlight fell on him a particular way that lunchtime, but no, he used to be very black indeed.

I retired to the computer to do some typing and most importantly some thinking, to see that their cat was both identichipped and only 18 months old. Now with a clue as to what may be going on here, I lifted the cat's lip to see the gingivitis and marked tartar of a cat of more like 7 years, I then scanned this cat to find no microchip.

It was the wrong cat. This cat had been sneaking around their house pinching their cat's food and comfy spots, only to rumbled and instantly taken to the vets! Anyway we all had a pretty relieved laugh about it, and I did not charge a consult fee as this case had made my day, and a lovely christmas dinner anecdote!

Re: Can you help with our out-of-hours advice to pet owners?

Bob Russell — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 18:05:49 GMT

[quote user="Evelyn Barbour-Hill"]

[quote user="robloxley"]good ideas on what do do with the weighty tome that is the Directory of Veterinary Practices that thudded through the letterbox: it might burn nicely for a good while and the information is all online, but I'm sure most people would rather just reduce the retention fee and get rid of it?[/quote]

On the contrary, I refer to it constantly.

[/quote]

Just seen the Directory - perhaps use for euthanasia of fish by dropping on their head! Heck of a sized tome!!!

Re: Can you help with our out-of-hours advice to pet owners?

Michael Woodhouse — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 17:44:34 GMT

The directory is useful, but not sure why we couldn't see all the information online and save a huge amount of money. Does any vet practice not have computer access? I can look on my mobile should I want to.

I never use the phone book or yellow pages either. Maybe a generation thing?

Re: Can you help with our out-of-hours advice to pet owners?

Malcolm Ness — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 11:56:32 GMT

I am with Wynne - the directory is very useful and amazingly accurate given the vast amount of changing data there is to collate.

Re: Can you help with our out-of-hours advice to pet owners?

Hannah Wynne Richards — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 11:15:51 GMT

I'm another who finds the Directory useful-in fact essential

I can be rather scathing when I disapprove of what Royal College is doing, but this time they've had a good idea, so give them credit-hopefully, if it's well recieved by both the public and the profession, they will be less inactive in other fields in future

Well done RC

Wynne

Re: Can you help with our out-of-hours advice to pet owners?

Evelyn Barbour-Hill — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 19:33:53 GMT

On the contrary, I refer to it constantly.

Re: Can you help with our out-of-hours advice to pet owners?

Rob Loxley — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 23:28:45 GMT

[quote user="Malcolm Ness"]please describe how this activity is properly part of the remit of RCVS[/quote]

Re: Can you help with our out-of-hours advice to pet owners?

Malcolm Ness — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 19:23:13 GMT

[quote user="Claire Millington"]the difficulties vets face in providing out-of-hours emergency cover[/quote]

Dear Ms Millington,

Please explain this phrase and please describe how this activity is properly part of the remit of RCVS in terms of the act and charter, those annoying bits of legislation that are so frequently used to justify the College's inaction on other matters.

Re: Can you help with our out-of-hours advice to pet owners?

Kate Richardson — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 15:33:42 GMT

[quote user="Claire Millington"]communications campaign to raise awareness amongst the animal-owning public of the difficulties vets face in providing out-of-hours emergency cover, and to encourage animal owners (particularly pet owners), to plan ahead for veterinary emergencies.[/quote]

[quote user="Claire Millington"]currently looking for a few stories (with happy endings!) [/quote]

I know the public might not like to hear sad stories, but surely ones with unhappy endings might actually be more effective in raising awareness and actually promoting some preventative actions?

Cats love to play with the sparkly tinsel strings that hang over the christmas tree- cue chewing, swallowing and intussusception or prolapsed bowel through rectum....

Re: Can you help with our out-of-hours advice to pet owners?

Mark Holmes — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 12:50:39 GMT

Oh and if running a campaign please request that people stop ringing an emergency line to 1) book an appointment, 2) request flea advice, 3) inform me that their dog has happily passed a puppy "just thought you would want to know" as though the news will make getting up at 2 am to take the call worthwhile etc etc. Even having a answer service and pager does not stop them. We I regularly have people insist I call them about the above and others.

Re: Can you help with our out-of-hours advice to pet owners?

vs0u — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 11:09:37 GMT

Working in an out of hours clinic last year on Christmas Eve was an absolute nightmare - did 12 euthanasias due to people who thought their pets would make it through Christmas then realised they wouldn't and didn't want to bring them on Christmas day. This was as well as the statutory chocolate ingestions, cats injured from playing in christmas tree, usual friday night type stuff such as dog that 'suddenly' developed a massive mammary tumour (it wasn't there this morning), puppy with 3 days history of parvo symptoms...and the dachshund breeder who thought it would be nice for her dog to have Christmas puppies - in spite of the fact that the dog had a caesarian last time - she had left it in labour for 2 days then brought it in at 1am Christmas morning and complained as I was not able to drop everything and operate on it instantly. She then complained about the bill as well obviously. There was a 2 hour wait time for most of the evening and luckily the pet ambulance man went to mcdonalds for us at 3am as we were starting to flag. Total cases seen were about 20 - on an average friday night it would be more like 5-8!

So yes - advance planning and being aware that their own vet will be shut for a few days. You can plan for an emergency - it means thinking about money and transport and what vet will be open and that home visits for euthanasia won't be possible. Also as said above getting sick pets seen during the daytime and before they get really poorly, thereby avoiding most 'emergencies'.

Re: Can you help with our out-of-hours advice to pet owners?

Julian Earl — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 11:01:46 GMT

[quote user="Utlendigur"]

[quote user="Claire Millington"]and to encourage animal owners (particularly pet owners), to plan ahead for veterinary emergencies.[/quote]

By definition (emergency - A serious situation or occurrence that happens unexpectedly and demands immediate action) you can't plan ahead for an emergency

I'm glad the RCVS is running a campaign, but is the focus on getting owners to plan ahead generally, to find out what the OOH arrangements are in case there's an emergency, to be more careful/warn of risks (chocolate), to try to get them to present ill pets during working hours, or to try to get educate as to what is and isn't an emergency?

So many of the cases I've seen OOH have been of the "well, he's been ill for the last 3days/weeks/months/years (delete as approriate) but we've decided we need to be seen immediately" variety, that I'd like to see the focus being on getting owners to bring pets in in good time if they're ill - rather than leaving it until the middle of the night, when there are minimum staff levels, more limited options and it will cost them more.

[/quote]

Is this turning into the "most ridiculous OOH call" thread? If so, may I present my entry: a call at 8p.m. on a Saturday night for a very old sheep to be euthanased because it was lame.

"How long has she been lame?", I asked.

"About twelve years", came the reply. After a stunned silence I agreed to go but considered that there was no rush. Which was just as well because it was half-time in the England v Germany World Cup semi-final, the "Gazza in tears" one. So I thought I would watch the second half, then go. Unfortunately it went to extra time. And then to penalties. But I went and tried to explain the meaning of "emergency" while I was there.

And they complained to my boss because I had taken so long.