I didn't really want to tackle such a large topic for my first real post, but it came up quite a few times over the course of the week. Veterinary care is expensive. I spent a lot of my down time between appointments trying to commit our price list to memory. Contrary to how things worked when I was in veterinary school, I am now solely responsible for making sure clients understand the cost of care. If I recommend a diagnostic test, I have to be ready to tell the client the cost of said test. In veterinary school, I was so far removed from the financial side of things, that I feel like I am starting at square one.
When clients would come to they veterinary school for care, they generally knew what sort of financial commitment they were about to make. Most were told the exam fee over the phone and they understood that lab testing would be an additional charge. That's not to say that everyone was happy to pay the teaching hospital prices, but no one ever seemed truly shocked by the estimates. This is not the case in general practice. Finding out the cost of a heartworm test or skin cytology is sometimes a shock to people. You can see that some are thinking "I wonder if this would be cheaper with Dr. Smith down the road..." and some just want you to justify your recommendation so they know why you are asking them to spend more money with you than they anticipated. Because of my relative inexperience, I find it quite difficult to determine in which camp my clients belong.
For example, a young man came in with his very well trained dog. She was due for and exam and some vaccines. He chose to do all of the recommended vaccines almost without prompting. I gave what hindsight tells me was a very complicated description about why I recommend monthly heartworm preventative and monthly flea and tick preventative. I gave him a few minutes to consider these products while I examined his dog, and I fully expected him to decline both. Instead, he bought a year supply of each. Conversely, a woman brought in her adult dog for an exam and vaccines. I gave a much better explanation of heartworm disease and the dangers of fleas and ticks, but regardless of my reasoning, she was sure that because her dog only went out in her own yard, the products I was trying to sell were useless to her. I know I will get better at reading people over time, but for now, I'm just going to focus on good communication and hope that I am being clear with my recommendations.
Outside of the veterinary world, the Captain spoiled me all week. I came home from work to a home-cooked meal every night and he always insisted on cleaning up afterward. He also cleaned the apartment almost daily, did the laundry, and started feeding the cats at night so I wouldn't have to do it as soon as I walked in (and so the cats would leave us alone during dinner!). Unfortunately, he had to spend the day at the airport yesterday and he had to leave on a 2-day trip early this morning. He might be home when I get home from work, or he may get put on another trip. I'm planning a slow-cooker meal either way. I can't imagine he is going to want to cook dinner after getting up before 5:00am three days in a row. If he gets called on another trip, I'll still have a nice meal with minimal effort. Seems like a win-win situation to me!
