Veterinarians as Partners

Eileen Mitchell wrote an interesting piece in last Saturday's San Francisco Chronicle that I have spent some time thinking about.

She is a regular contributor to the paper and writes about her beloved dog, Elvis, who is a rescued greyhound. I look forward to each of her stories, and feel I've come to know Elvis via her column.

In this piece, she writes about her devotion to her veterinarian and the care he takes in treating Elvis. She outlines the extensive training and competition within veterinary schools, concluding that vets aren't in it for the money but for their love of animals. This has been my observation as well.

All this information is a backdrop to the main part of the story, which is not everyone feels so warmly about their vets. A friend wrote her an email in which one of the most scathing quotes is:

The fact that veterinary science has developed expensive tools to attempt to prolong the appearance of life in pets is not an advancement, but premeditated criminal theft. If you want to do something really valuable, expose the scam that is veterinary medicine.

Harsh.

Truth be told, there there are many of us who have had to face these wrenching end of life issues with our pets. It's an emotional tornado where each decision can seem wrong, where we find ourselves second guessing everyone's motivations, including our own. Is it any wonder that the vet wouldn't be a prime target in all of this too?


Not Tuesday, but a really cute Tabby!

I had the most beautiful tabby cat, Tuesday, who was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism at age 15 years. She took oral medication for a while, and for a couple of months, she did well. Then things began deteriorating for her. My vet at the time laid out the options: radioactive iodine treatment or surgery. Both required traveling to a hospital which was over 8 hours in driving time away. Without the advanced treatment, she would die of the disease in short order.

The questions went spinning though my head: Was this the right thing to do? Is this what I needed to do as her guardian? Is this something she would want? Or was I thinking only of myself, trying to prolong her life past its natural end because I didn't want to deal with her death? Was the vet "selling" this treatment, knowing she probably wouldn't survive? Looking at Tuesday's thin, frail body, I couldn't believe she'd come through these invasive treatments healthy and strong, but I didn't want to say no just in case I was wrong.

Here's the conclusion I came to: As Tuesday's pet parent, I needed to make a decision that was in her best interest. Whatever the vet told me was seen as data that I could consider in making the decision, but it would be my decision and no one else's. I couldn't have the vet or anyone else make the decision for me, and I wouldn't try to analyze anyone's motivations for their input. Things were hard enough without trying to read people's minds.

I decided against the surgery and radiation treatment. We put Tuesday on another medication which addressed her pain, and I took her home and made her as comfortable as possible in a hospice environment. When it was clear she was in more pain than the medication could cover, I took her back to the vet for her last visit, and through gushing tears, said goodbye to her as she was euthanized.

These are never easy decisions and I truly believe there is no one right path. There was a time I turned over my credit card to the vet for another cat, Chatty Cathy, because she needed her hip rebuilt after being hit by a car. As I was paying in advance for the $1500+ estimated bill, I told the vet, "I don't even like this cat all that much." But I was her caregiver, and when I adopt a pet, I do so for the best interest of them throughout their life. Chatty Cathy was young, less than a year old, and the prognosis was good that she'd come out of the surgery fine. She did, and lived another 12 years before dying of cancer.

Maybe my experience with veterinarians has been more positive than Eileen's friend. And as Eileen points out, every profession has its shady side. I'd like to think that if I sensed a vet was trying to guilt me into a procedure as this article describes, I'd find another vet for another opinion. Because the best outcome for our pets is to have a strong partnership with a veterinarian so they can live their lives to the fullest. And in the end, isn't that what it's all about?