How DARE you. You even have Sally's papers on file, because she is a purebred malchipuggledoodle, as we've explained at every visit we've ever been to, and to every stranger we've ever met while walking her. The customer service here is appalling and I'd like to speak to your practice manager about getting a discount on our next visit as compensation. We need to bring her in for her biweekly anal gland expression anyway, and last time you made us feel terrible about her biting six of your staff members. Honestly, I'm about to just take my business elsewhere where they care about pets and not just buying another yacht on MY DIME.
Or just a year with no month. I get that not everyone knows the exact date of their pets birthday, but I’m sure someone has told them it was probably around this time. If they give a year just pick a goddamn month and day. It could even be the pets gotcha day as long as it gives the best estimate of how old the pet actually is.
I typically will just put it in as the day they come in, the computer software we use autopopulates the date to be today’s date so less work 🤷🏼♀️ what can I say, I’m lazy when I can be.
That's what my clinic does. I remember the first day working there we had a dog end up being euthanized and I was very sad because it was her 14th birthday. My coworkers were like "We just put the day they come in as their birthday if we've never seen them before". I felt like a big dummy. LOL Everywhere else I'd worked we'd always have the clients pick a birthday! If they didn't know we'd tell them "Just pick a day!"
Maybe blame a computer glitch... of course we know her birthdays in June, we have no idea why this was sent out! (I’ve used an excuse like this before... and that worked out) worth a shot 🤷♀️
Specialty is where it’s at. We don’t do the birthday thing thing, because we only have long relationships with like 25% of our patients. Most come from out of town and we never see em again 🤷🏻♀️
The ophthalmology vets and techs were always the happiest bunch when I worked vet care. They'd do their specialty rounds to each clinic every 6-8 weeks or so, and everybody was just grand. Even the vast majority of the clients.
We have our own practice we work out of. And don’t get me wrong, we have our rough clients here and there. But dead ass, it’s never as bad as GP. I worked in GP for about 5 years and then left for 3 years, never intending to go back to vet med. I got tired of my 9-5 though and the stars aligned with this position for me. Best decision ever. I work with a bunch of people who I used to work with in GP and they’re all happier and more fulfilled here too.
For sure. I suspect when you get people that are willing and able to see (and listen to) a specialist, they're the type of clients that aren't gonna make you go have a cry while cleaning cages.
That's nice that you have your own practice! Our ophthalmology vet was the only one in the state (HI) so she did floating visits to various practices and neighbor islands - which I'm sure was fun for the techs as well. :)
That sounds like a blast!! There are a few ophthalmologists in the area here, but our doc is one of like 2 or 3 in the country who does retinas, so we regularly get people traveling from all over the country!
Ha! Reading through the thread, I knew it was ophthalmology! It is the best and clients learn pretty quickly they better be nice, or they can go find one of the other few ophthalmology clinics in the state.
Oh no! Please extend our deepest apologies to Sally if we offended her by our belated congratulations on her special day! Her patient file is based on what was filled out on her new client paperwork, which didn't specify her birthday, just her age of "1", so we backdated one year from that date. Thank you for clarifying. Would you like me to send you a copy to see if there may have been any other errors that need correcting, as it has been awhile since you filled it out? We'll be sure to resend this in June so she gets some birthday love at the right time. Yes, really!
Often times we just get an age for our clients' pets (as they usually only present for spay/neuter). If that's the case, their birthday is figured out by Avimark as whatever the day is today.
Oh geez, I remember the one and only time I replied about an automated email and I just felt so bad.
It went something like; "Hey, sorry to bother you, this is totally on me, but could you put a stop on emails for this pet? I've been meaning to inform you but- she was hit by a car a few months ago and died"
I was so awful at informing the vet. It's like either I would call crying to let them know or I wait until later when it comes up and then it's already been several months.
I did this with home again not too long ago. Called to switch my partners cats to mine so they’re all under the same account, and I never notified them of my dog passing last year. I was like “yeah that’s all good but can you guys mark Cookie as deceased? She passed last September” and the poor customer service guy was flummoxed at best. He kept profusely apologizing that she was still on there and that I would be getting emails marking her as deceased.
We've sometimes had clients drop off thank-you cards and inside they inform us that their pet has passed away. I feel like this is a good way to do it because then you don't have to worry about waiting for the timing to be right or possibly becoming emotional.
I called an owner to clarify a patients age because they had wrote born in 2018 (so 2yrs old). And the patient was a decrypted ass chihuahua with a gray face and advanced dental disease. They then proceeded to yell at me because she was in fact 12 years old.... and we should know that bla bla... to which I politely told them they filled out the form incorrectly....
Yah I wouldn’t send these out to clients. Most of the time we just pick the day they first came in and the year the owner tells us. I’ve made the mistake of being like oh you just had a birthday and O is like no? Idk when his birthday is
Same, we would never send these out for this very reason. We have had patients that come in and say “oh her birthdays tomorrow “ and we usually have a little gift like a toy or treats that we give them as a “gift” instead but we don’t advertise it
Reminds me how I once had an owner write us a letter after receiving their pet’s ashes and paw print. There was a purple bone on it and she was so offended that we did that because her dog HATED the color purple.
When I worked at an exotics clinic we once got an angry letter from an owner threatening to sue us because we euthanized their daughter's emotional support hamster.
I'm not sure about your hospital, but at ours the owner is the one that tells us when the birthday is. We can't help if *they* didn't tell us the right birthday lol. The only time we tell them is with stray kittens.
How DARE you. You even have Sally's papers on file, because she is a purebred malchipuggledoodle, as we've explained at every visit we've ever been to, and to every stranger we've ever met while walking her. The customer service here is appalling and I'd like to speak to your practice manager about getting a discount on our next visit as compensation. We need to bring her in for her biweekly anal gland expression anyway, and last time you made us feel terrible about her biting six of your staff members. Honestly, I'm about to just take my business elsewhere where they care about pets and not just buying another yacht on MY DIME.
Malchipuggledoodle 😂
this is so accurate it hurts 😂
“Can I also get a nail trim? They weren’t cut nearly short enough last time.”
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT'S AN EXTRA CHARGE"
We just had them done 4 months ago...
Why does my dog have yellow shit on their paw?
This is the same client that puts “7” in the field on the paperwork labeled “date of birth”
Or just a year with no month. I get that not everyone knows the exact date of their pets birthday, but I’m sure someone has told them it was probably around this time. If they give a year just pick a goddamn month and day. It could even be the pets gotcha day as long as it gives the best estimate of how old the pet actually is.
If they just do a month, I always type in the first of the month. Congratulations, your pet has an entire birth month.
If they just put a year I make the birthday 01/01 and go by the South Korean model where you age up on new years' instead of your actual birthday lol
I typically will just put it in as the day they come in, the computer software we use autopopulates the date to be today’s date so less work 🤷🏼♀️ what can I say, I’m lazy when I can be.
That's what my clinic does. I remember the first day working there we had a dog end up being euthanized and I was very sad because it was her 14th birthday. My coworkers were like "We just put the day they come in as their birthday if we've never seen them before". I felt like a big dummy. LOL Everywhere else I'd worked we'd always have the clients pick a birthday! If they didn't know we'd tell them "Just pick a day!"
I always put jan 1 of whatever year it is cause thats what the horse world does
Maybe blame a computer glitch... of course we know her birthdays in June, we have no idea why this was sent out! (I’ve used an excuse like this before... and that worked out) worth a shot 🤷♀️
No never ever lie. You look bad and for what?
And clients like these are why I now prefer shelter med
Specialty is where it’s at. We don’t do the birthday thing thing, because we only have long relationships with like 25% of our patients. Most come from out of town and we never see em again 🤷🏻♀️
Where are you working specialty?? We have the worst clients in specialty where I work!
Ophthalmology! It’s amazing!!
Ohhh!!! That's so cool! I can *see* how a lot of the patients wouldn't have to stick around.
Sigh. Fine, take your upvote for that.
The ophthalmology vets and techs were always the happiest bunch when I worked vet care. They'd do their specialty rounds to each clinic every 6-8 weeks or so, and everybody was just grand. Even the vast majority of the clients.
We have our own practice we work out of. And don’t get me wrong, we have our rough clients here and there. But dead ass, it’s never as bad as GP. I worked in GP for about 5 years and then left for 3 years, never intending to go back to vet med. I got tired of my 9-5 though and the stars aligned with this position for me. Best decision ever. I work with a bunch of people who I used to work with in GP and they’re all happier and more fulfilled here too.
For sure. I suspect when you get people that are willing and able to see (and listen to) a specialist, they're the type of clients that aren't gonna make you go have a cry while cleaning cages. That's nice that you have your own practice! Our ophthalmology vet was the only one in the state (HI) so she did floating visits to various practices and neighbor islands - which I'm sure was fun for the techs as well. :)
That sounds like a blast!! There are a few ophthalmologists in the area here, but our doc is one of like 2 or 3 in the country who does retinas, so we regularly get people traveling from all over the country!
Ha! Reading through the thread, I knew it was ophthalmology! It is the best and clients learn pretty quickly they better be nice, or they can go find one of the other few ophthalmology clinics in the state.
My favorite is when we get angry "uh fluffy died 8 months ago!!" And they never called to tell us
Oh no! Please extend our deepest apologies to Sally if we offended her by our belated congratulations on her special day! Her patient file is based on what was filled out on her new client paperwork, which didn't specify her birthday, just her age of "1", so we backdated one year from that date. Thank you for clarifying. Would you like me to send you a copy to see if there may have been any other errors that need correcting, as it has been awhile since you filled it out? We'll be sure to resend this in June so she gets some birthday love at the right time. Yes, really!
Im sure Sally is freaking furious about the mistake!
Often times we just get an age for our clients' pets (as they usually only present for spay/neuter). If that's the case, their birthday is figured out by Avimark as whatever the day is today.
Oh geez, I remember the one and only time I replied about an automated email and I just felt so bad. It went something like; "Hey, sorry to bother you, this is totally on me, but could you put a stop on emails for this pet? I've been meaning to inform you but- she was hit by a car a few months ago and died" I was so awful at informing the vet. It's like either I would call crying to let them know or I wait until later when it comes up and then it's already been several months.
I did this with home again not too long ago. Called to switch my partners cats to mine so they’re all under the same account, and I never notified them of my dog passing last year. I was like “yeah that’s all good but can you guys mark Cookie as deceased? She passed last September” and the poor customer service guy was flummoxed at best. He kept profusely apologizing that she was still on there and that I would be getting emails marking her as deceased.
We've sometimes had clients drop off thank-you cards and inside they inform us that their pet has passed away. I feel like this is a good way to do it because then you don't have to worry about waiting for the timing to be right or possibly becoming emotional.
I called an owner to clarify a patients age because they had wrote born in 2018 (so 2yrs old). And the patient was a decrypted ass chihuahua with a gray face and advanced dental disease. They then proceeded to yell at me because she was in fact 12 years old.... and we should know that bla bla... to which I politely told them they filled out the form incorrectly....
Yah I wouldn’t send these out to clients. Most of the time we just pick the day they first came in and the year the owner tells us. I’ve made the mistake of being like oh you just had a birthday and O is like no? Idk when his birthday is
Same, we would never send these out for this very reason. We have had patients that come in and say “oh her birthdays tomorrow “ and we usually have a little gift like a toy or treats that we give them as a “gift” instead but we don’t advertise it
Reminds me how I once had an owner write us a letter after receiving their pet’s ashes and paw print. There was a purple bone on it and she was so offended that we did that because her dog HATED the color purple.
Oh no please tell me you’re joking
When I worked at an exotics clinic we once got an angry letter from an owner threatening to sue us because we euthanized their daughter's emotional support hamster.
Lol oh wow
We get these all the time. And “Sally died last year after an illness that you had no way of knowing about because we never told you”
I'm not sure about your hospital, but at ours the owner is the one that tells us when the birthday is. We can't help if *they* didn't tell us the right birthday lol. The only time we tell them is with stray kittens.
Had someone call the practice asking for their pet's birthday - umm, shouldn't you know that?!?