The Animal Hospital of Rowlett and Heath are NOT. A link to the article is at the end, but please read our comments below! The article begins with a sentence that says: "It is always a little upsetting when the veterinarian, or veterinary technician takes your pet "to the back" for a blood draw or nail trim. What are they doing back there? And why can't you go with?"
First off...saying "in the back" is banned from our clinic...it isn't "in the back". That IS scary. It is the treatment area. They do go on to describe this well in the article. "{the treatment room} it is usually a catch-all location with several tables equipped for anything from nail trims to minor surgeries. The walls are usually lined with kennels for recovering surgical or hospitalized patients. This room is the heart of the hospital. Any time a pet needs to have blood drawn, a nail trim, or even a major cactus removal, they are often hustled into this room"
At Animal Hospital of Rowlett, we give our clients the option of having blood drawn in the room, vaccines given in the room, etc. If the client wants to see...great! We can do these items right there with you in the exam room. If you prefer not to see or don't want your pet to associate you with the pokes, we can certainly take them to the treatment area.
We want you to see what we are doing if you are interested. If we ever DO take your pet to the treatment area, it is because you have said it was okay and the doctor will typically stay in the room to talk with you about exam findings, recommendations, examine your other pet, etc.
The article then goes to say "The treatment room has several things that make it superior to the intake room for these minor procedures, first and foremost is that you are not there. As much as most people believe that their pets are far better with their 'parents' this is actually far from the truth, and pets, once away from owners are usually far easier to handle."
This may be true for SOME pets...there are some dogs that are protective over mommy or the kids and literally won't let us touch them with you around, and we take them to the treatment area so they can have a better experience. Often times just coming out of the room, the hackles go down, the ears come up, the tail starts to wag, and the pet is thinking "oh, this is fun! where are we going!" vs "Get away from my Momma"!
The part of the article that REALLY irked me was the next paragraph. I am completely floored that any clinic thinks this is an appropriate way to handle cats or that clients ever think that "their pet won't be handled with the same loving kid gloves that you use". Ummm...at AHR, yes, they will.
The article says "Second, though veterinary professionals are in the business because they love animals, they also have a job to do, and the longer any procedure takes to accomplish the more stressful it is for the pet, the owners, and the staff. So, in the back, though your pet will be handled with respect and care, it may not be handled with the same loving kid gloves that you yourself use. If the situation calls for it, cats will be scruffed, dogs will be muzzled. Even if your pet is a saint, and actually is one of the minority of pets that works better with the owner than without, the back offers better lighting, generally superior tables, additional staff, and all of the equipment necessary to get your pet the care it needs."
We will NEVER scruff a cat. That is old school and inappropriate. If your vet office still scruffs cats, go somewhere else. When we get cats that have been scruffed elsewhere, we have a harder time handling them because associate the vet office with that type of handling. At AHR, we use a dimly lit room. We use big fluffy blanket. We wrap them in a "kitty burrito". We use Feliway spray and diffusers to calm them. We let them stay in their carrier if they want. We give them bowls and comfy things to curl into so that they don't have to be "out in the open" and feel safe. We have a cat only treatment area so they don't see dogs. We have a cat only lobby and cat only exam rooms. We have art on the walls specifically chosen for kitties so they don't get scared. We play soft music.
We treat our canine friends with the same respect and love...yes, the same respect and love we would treat your dog with if you were standing right there. We spend lots of time training employees from other facilities OUR way. We use squeeze cheese and peanut butter during vaccines and lab draws. We sing songs and pat them as distraction techniques. We offer friendly visits and behavior modification visits where we slowly teach dogs that nail trims aren't scary. We don't hold them down and "get it done" with four technicians sitting on top of them with a muzzle on. We may use a muzzle on occasion for the safety of the staff and the patient, but we will never treat them harshly or hold them down. We try to go slowly and do as much as we can before we get to that point. We have soft muzzles and hamster balls and calming masks and all sorts of methods of restraining a dogs mouth comfortably and in a non-scary way. Even the way we approach them to put those devices on is different from some locations. We don't go at them from the front, we come from the back and slip it over where they do not feel threatened.
Please know that Animal Hospital of Rowlett and Heath are committed to the low stress handling of your pets. We follow Dr. Sophia Yin's low stress handling techniques. Our entire staff is in the process of working towards individual certifications and we want our clinic to be the Gold standard for handling pets with care. Please join us in the low stress revolution . Don't allow your pet to be placed in a stressful, scary situation "in the back" at another office who promotes this type of scruffing and aggressive handling. Don't you want a vet who uses "the same loving kid gloves that you use"????
http://www.examiner.com/article/why-do-the-veterinarians-take-your-pet-to-the-back
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