When the vet becomes a patient

How guilty I felt last night when I got in from treating animals all day at 8pm and my husband asked if I had remembered an antibiotic injection for our own cat Buttons. I had forgotten and felt so bad for him. He had been involved in his first cat fight and not all cat bites need treatment, but this one did as his leg had swelled with the infection.

I was due to go back to work for another few days and the practice I work at is 45 minutes from where we live so I had no choice but to go to a local practice.

What a humbling experience it is. I think every professional should become a patient. I felt the same frustration getting Buttons into his carrier, then listened to him cry mournfully the whole way there. I felt very anxious waiting in the waiting room and struggled to hold Buttons for the young vet as he tried to shave and examine his sore leg.

I then had to feel the same stress of paying for his treatment (which I have obviously never had to worry about before either). So all in all, Buttons’ cat fight was a good lesson for me being on the other side of the table and luckily he is now on the mend.

This entry was posted on 03/07/2008 at 05:24 pm and is filed under Being a Mum and a vet, A veterinary day. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.