Buzzkill

Things have been so crazy at VBB central that the grown up, licensed veterinarians have left a happy post I wrote as the most recent story here for more than two weeks. Poor grown up vets. 'Tis the season for parvo, fleas, intestinal parasites, storm and fireworks anxiety dogs needing emergency Xanax, dog park fights, pets being run over, and all of that other fantastic outdoorsy warm weather junk that makes summer easily a vet's busiest and most angstful time of year. Tonight I plan to have a few drinks, and I'll pour one out in your honor.

In the meantime, summer is a Vet Student Behaving Badly's chance to nap, to not spend eight hours a day in a lecture hall, to maybe shadow a doctor or work on a research project. (And yes, some responsible vet students work all summer... but let's focus on just the VSsBB). Your resident VSBB has been living up to the title, though from time to time I've made it into a clinical setting.

Sometimes one meets a client who is truly a pleasure to work with. The mom who brings the dog's entire health record so the team has accurate, complete information. The dad who openly cries out of concern for his daughter's sick kitten. The totally reasonable, easy going couple who are patient and kind with the whole staff.

And then there are the people who send their 10 year old son in with the dog who has never had any veterinary care. They thoughtfully send the cute, pitiful kid into the office with no working phone number to reach the parents, no cash nor any other way to pay for services, and really no idea what's wrong with the dog in the first place (other than maybe he's been starving for a while?). Way to go, mom and dad. It's not every day we get to call both animal control and child protective services.

Meanwhile, in room 4, a receptionist is biting her tongue while a client refuses to fill out an application for care credit because her credit history is so bad she's sure she'll be refused and she doesn't want that on her credit report, too. Why won't the clinic just go ahead and set up a payment plan for her? I mean, she's here. Clearly she'll be responsible about paying this bill six months down the road.

And really, those two clients are enough to totally kill any warm fuzzies this VSBB was feeling about vet med. Time to start counting down until fall semester?