I have new respect for veterinarians. Our dog recently started acting kind of funny, and we weren’t sure what was wrong with him. He seemed to be moving very stiffly and slowly. The vet dived into it like a detective and determined that he herniated a disc in his back. When I have patients who strain their back, they come in and say “Hey doc, I hurt my back!” Dogs can’t tell you anything. Now granted, some patients are evasive, or confused, and we have to play detective as well, but we have the advantage 
of being able to order about 8 thousand tests. We call this the shotgun approach. For example, one of the most common complaints among elderly nursing home patients is weakness, or “not acting right.” This usually results in a battery of expensive tests, searching for an explanation. Pet owners won’t put up with that kind of expense, and so vets have to be “sharp shooters.” Kudos vets.
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Thank you… vets are often under appreciated for their diagnostic skills..made across a wide range of species too..
but I wouldn’t do your job for the world
That’s right! You might have a giraffe with the flu, and your next patient could be a lizard with depression, then a gunshot wound in a walrus. No limits! I thought I had to be prepared for anything!
I know a certian relative who could have told you that long ago!! LOL ;-0
Am glad to see your vet get the respect he deserves–so many think they are “imitation” doctors. As one who works in both fields (full-time as an ER nurse, and part-time as a volunteer surgical nurse/vet assistant at an understaffed and underfunded animal shelter) I have a very high regard tor (most) veterinarians. Not only can their patients not tell them what is wrong, they also have to deal with the same clueless public as those in human medicine do. And while high-end diagnostics (CT, MRI, advanced specialty practitioners) are available in veterinary medicine, they are not often used, since most of the patients are uninsured and the high costs are paid out-of-pocket. So for the most part, good old-fashioned hands-on diagnostic skills are the rule rather than the exception.
I’ve also found that vets’ “bedside” manner both for patient and owner is often better than that of many doctors.
thank you for the acknowledgment. it’s nice to know that not all MDs view us as faux doctors. just last week, i treated immune-mediated hemolytic anemia, diabetic ketoacidosis, a hit by train dog, and right-sided heart failure secondary to heartworms…all in companion animals.
Very impressive Doctor.
You have gone too far!
I have to say people who can’t respect what a veterinarian does doesn’t need to post their opinions. Vets save dogs lifes whether their there to operate or just be a helping hand. I am greatful to all the vets out there from the ones who operate on dogs all the way to the ones who check tiny birds. Their all there for YOUR animals well being. BE RESPECTFUL! Didn’t your mother teach you any manners!?
This post is one of my favorite on your blog and my first comment though I have read many of your other posts. Last reason I had to go to the vet was because my parrotlet broke her leg (they are tiny birds, maybe about 3 inches long). I still don’t know how they got a mask over that little tiny head — must have been just a little bit bigger than a thimble. She needed suturing on the tiny little inside part of her ankle after setting her leg. How on earth do you sew up something so tiny? Then the cast which she kept chewing off and having to replace that and finally having to take her back in to have a toe amputated and then sewing up that tiny little wound after cutting off her toe. The vet anticipated pain so I was given pain medication but the dosages was so very small for such a tiny body.
I guess people are combative in emergency rooms if they’re on drugs but I can’t imagine anything worse than a scared macaw (I have one of those as well). A macaw’s scream rivals a jet engine at full throttle and that hooked beak can be lethal when it chomps down on flesh. Get bit by one of those and the person will be visiting you in the ER. A scared macaw’s screams are horrible, loud and ear piercing when you’re in a tiny examining room. Their screams can give an aspirin a headache. I’ll have to remember to bring ear plugs for the vet & myself next time my macaw needs attention — he is loud and the very definition of obnoxious when frightened and will use his beak if he gets the opportunity. At least human patients can say thanks for the care, the animal’s response is to bite the doctor.
The vet has to treat the animal but also has to deal with the sometimes nutty human owners. OY!