I wanted to write a little about Veterinarians here. As a Veterinary technician, I see what these kind people go through every day. I have known many of them and have never met one that does not love animals. That is the reason most people choose to become a Veterinarian.

Oftentimes the Veterinarian is seen as some sort of *GOD* or miracle worker and is expected to save an animal NO MATTER WHAT. This is sadly not the case. They are human beings with very special training that allows them to diagnose illnesses or perform surgeries that can help save our pets. Sometimes the Veterinarian cannot save an animal no matter what. Sometimes they can give us another day or 48 hours more with our beloved pets. What one MUST realize here is that the MOST IMPORTANT thing of all is the quality of life for the animal, not whether the owner has *gotten a sign from the animal that it is ready to go* or that the owner is not ready to let go of the animal. The life of the ill creature must be the first and foremost issue in the matter.

It can be easy to blame a Veterinarian for the death of a pet. They did not treat the animal with the correct drugs. They did not do the right procedure. They let the pet die. To be fair, there are instances of veterinarians missing the boat on a diagnosis. However, most of the time Veterinarians are trying their hardest to SAVE lives. Their motto is: First, Do no harm. I know that most will do anything to save an animal. If you are told that there is no hope, or that a particular procedure will not work or a particular medicine is not suitable, you have the right to take your pet to another vet and get second and even third and fourth opinions. I find that most vets do NOT do most things for *the money*. They do what they do out of love for animals. When we get a diagnosis or prognosis or even the advice that it would be better to let our beloved friend go, we sometimes want to deny that. We think that the Vet is just trying to get rid of us, does not know what they are doing, (even though we have been happy with the treatment they have given our pet for many years prior) and we blame them for the death of our pets. They are an easy target. After all, who is the one who sticks the needle in the vein. I have been present at many a euthanasia and I can tell you, no matter how many you have done or whose pet it is, or if it is a stray or a beloved champion show animal, the vets have always been touched and affected by every death.

It is the Vet Tech's job to do 99% of the work in a Veterinary Hospital. The Vet diagnoses disease or injuries, gives instructions for the proper treatment, performs surgeries and prescribes medicines. The Vet Techs are the workhorses of the office. They check vitals all the time. They actually give the treatments, watch the progress of the disease and report to the Vet, they draw the blood and do the tests. They set broken limbs and are ICU nurses. They do the anesthesia in a surgery and assist in surgeries. They are the ones who spend most of the time with your pet. They are the ones who let the Vet know if a treatment needs to be changed or is having a good effect or no effect on your pet. They are the ones who comfort your pet, who nurse your pet back to health. The Vet gets involved in emergencies and in changing treatments. They check the animals on a regular basis, but some diseases and injuries are not treatable. These cases break all of our hearts. When an owner is begging us to try something different and we know there is nothing that is going to save that animal, it is hard to tell the owner that it is not going to work. There are times when the owner thinks that the vet *should have* done something different and in the end killed their animal. What the owner does not know is that everything that could humanly possibly be tried without INJURING the animal further probably has been tried. To get 1 more hour or 48 more hours at the expense of the animal's comfort is not a good reason to keep an animal alive. If an animal is suffering and an owner cannot let go, this can be the cruelest thing to the animal. I have seen it in practice, and it has made me weep for the animal, who is lying there and literally in pain, because an owner refuses to let go or has not seen some sort of sign from their pet that they want to go. What more of a sign do they need, except that the animal can no longer eat on it's own, cannot stand up, or go to the bathroom or the opposite, has unstoppable diarhhea and is peeing endlessly. What more of a sign do these owners want? I have heard many statements about how "the animal will let me know when it is time..." That could not be furthur from the truth in some cases. They are very good at hiding symptoms and could well be futher along than you could imagine, yet not be showing you that it is time to go.

We all love our pets so much and never want to lose them. We are given such a short time with them and we wish it could be longer. It is a price we pay for loving and being loved by a creature whose lifespan is shorter than ours. To prolong pain because we cannot let go is a disservice to the pet we loved so dearly. And to try to rationalize it as somehow being the Vet's fault or even our own is not realistic.

We have Vets because we have pets. We need to keep them healthy as much as we take care of ourselves. These people who choose this calling are amazing. I have worked in offices in the richest parts of town and in offices in the ghetto and every single one of the Veterinarians were in the practice because they loved animals. It was not about money. Are there bad vets? Yes, but few. And what const*itutes a bad vet. Mistreatment, malpractice, the same that we would see in our human doctors. I have seen very few of those people in the Veterinary world.

Now we have choices about what kind of medicine we want for our pets. Do we want old fashioned medicine or holistic, chinese acupuncture or old fashined massage therapy, traditional meds or flower essences and homeopathy... There are many choices to make and you could go to a combination of Veterinary Pract*itioners to find a balance that will take care of all things.
Our very own Chinese pharmacist told us that even he has Kaiser. He said he would not be able to *fix* a broken limb with chinese herbs, it must be set in an old fashioned cast or splint. So there are balances that must be made in any medicine.
To rule out the mainstream Vets and curse them for their treatment when you believe that a holistic doctor could have saved them is implicitly wrong, just as it is wrong to blame a holistic doctor for misdiagnosing something if a mainstream doctor could have helped them. Unless the two pract*itioners are working TOGETHER on a disease or injury, there is no way one can tell if the other has failed at treatment.

In closing I just want to say that I have had the honor to work with some of the most loving and compassionate people in the world. Those who choose the calling of being a doctor to God's creatures are filled with immeasurable love. The Vet Techs that I have worked with are the same, giving tirelessly to save pets and to do all they can to ease the suffering of beautiful animals. It is a tough and sometimes heartbreaking job and it takes a special person to be able to work with sick, wounded and terminally ill pets everyday. You sometimes just want to close your eyes and make it go away, then you remember the WHY of what you are doing. You are part of a team that tries to save lives and help the injured and be rewarded with a lick on the face or a soft purr at the end of the day. It is worth it after all to be in the Veterinary field. It is worth it for the animals...
susan

amen.

let me add that i feel vets (and their techs) i have met have greater compassion on average than human doctors. my children's mother is a vet and i know she often cries after losing a patient. not sure if any human docs do that (apologies in advance; i am making a very general statement, i do realize there are vets who have little compassion and docs/nurses who do).

I wanted to finish the above post from another angle: That of the Pet's Guardians.
When we look at the care our animal friends and children get, we want the very best for them. We make choices about what Vet to go to and we try out several sometimes. We go to one because a friend has recommended them, or we have heard about them on T.V. (In my case this is true, our cats have the vets at Alameda East in Denver as their primary doctors.)

Before I became a Vet Tech, I was a pet lover and mother to many furry friends. I thought if I did everything right and got them their vaccines and made sure they had good food and a place to live, we were good. Then reality strikes. A pet gets sick and you have to find out what is wrong. Some years back I could not afford the kind of care some of my pets needed. Some were simple fixes and my cats lived long healthy lives. I wish that were true for all of them. I had a kitten that was infected with FIP, a serious deadly disease. I did not know that, I thought palliative care could *fix* it. That kitten died in my hands while I gave it CPR and artificial respirations. That was a huge wake up call to me. I couldn't fix them all the time.

I decided to become a Vet Tech because I had already worked a career for twenty years and had always wanted to work with animals.So I went back to school and labored for a degree that made me proud. I did all sorts of volunteer work and also had a job at a local shelter at the same time. I did 3 internships at 3 different hospitals and had in hospital training at the Vet tech School, Bel Rea in Denver.

It CHANGED me. I no longer can look at animals JUST as pets. I see them as MY patients and I feel like I want to do whatever I can to make their lives long and healthy. As a pet mom I always saw things in little windows. If we could fix one little problem, then we could tackle the next problem, then the next...As a tech, I have learned that one has to look at the big picture window. You cannot just treat one part of a disease or injury. The body is whole ent*ity and what you do to one part, affects the whole.

An example of this: Three weeks before we lost our beloved Orion to cancer, he was constipated and dehydrated. We took him to the hospital where he stayed for 3 days. They had him on fluids and kept him there with his diabetes meds and his cancer meds. They could not give him an enema due to the fact that he was already compromised. He was diabetic and had cancer and was in a weakened state. The enema could have been a cure that killed him. The first thing to know is that a cure should never make a situation worse and you always err on the side of caution. A cure should NEVER kill! Orion eventually came around with days of fluids and lived only 3 more weeks, due to the progression of his cancer. We were fortunate we had him that much longer.

When we brought him home we had to watch him like a hawk. It was at the end that he went into kidney failure and became dehydrated again, would not eat and was peeing constantly. The mommy part of me was griefstricken. I could not believe I was losing my baby boy. The Vet Tech part of me knew that we needed to make his end as painfree, peaceful and loving as possible. If I had not become a Vet Tech I probably would not have been able to handle Orion's death as well. My hubby kept asking me what else can we do, a kidney transplant, get him to the vet and on fluids again and take out his cancer riddled spleen. I had to tell him that there was nothing we could do at that point. Sometimes they just reach that point and you need to say goodbye.

I cannot say that being a Vet Tech has helped me learn to live through the grief better. I am still a human and still a mommy to my beloved furchildren. That will never change. The vet tech in me can handle emergencies better and figure out what is wrong more quickly in some cases, not always. That is the Vet's job, to diagnose. By law, Vet techs cannot diagnose, prescribe, perform surgery and instruct what treatment regimen to follow. You can be sure if I am your Vet Tech and watching your pet, that pet is going to get 100% of my attention when I am giving it treatment. I look at every animal like I see as my own, with a family that loves him/her and I will do my best to make sure an animal does not die on my watch of unforeseen causes. If an animal is terminal in ICU, I will spend more time with him/her and talk to them and brush them and moisten their dry tongues until it is time. I have done this with aged dogs and tiny kittens. It is my duty to make the end of their lives as loving as their lives have been with their families. I do it and am crying inside and everyone of the creatures that I have personally participated in the passing of, remains in my heart and memory.

When it was my baby, it was harder. I had the burden of loving him as my child and knowing what to expect in the process of dying. It is a pain free and peaceful death. An animal that reaches a point where this needs to be their way out from disease and injury feels no pain and passes over the Rainbow Bridge quietly and with dignity. It does not make it easier to make that choice, but sometimes the choice is right in front of your disbelieving eyes and you have to step up and be the parent that makes decisions. The animals NEED for us to do that for them.

Sometimes I find myself slipping into Vet Tech mode when I talk about animals, other times I am just my kittys' mommy. It is dificult sometimes to reconcile the two. But I would not trade it for anything. If I am allowed to help the most beautiful creatures on the planet, then I have been given a great responsibility and honor and I will always be their loudest advocate.
susan

Susan,

Respectfully, I'd have to disagree with some of your points, though I agree with other ones. I may be wrong, but overall it strikes me that this discourse may discourage others from talking about some of the anger (whether justifiable or not) that is one of the natural responses in the grief state, and that would not be helpful to those who are mourning.

I have been here and elsewhere long enough now to have seen a number of grievers who had just cause for being angry at their vets (and in far fewer cases, some vet techs, too), whether that was from a treatment/diagnosis standpoint, bad advice or simply from the lack of aftercare/concern for the client once a furbaby had passed, either naturally or via euthanasia. Personally, I've even had about 3 experiences where the techs thought they knew more than the vet they worked for and I was forced to inadvertently 'rat' on them in order to check the facts out. Luckily for me and my girl, I'd learned enough already to suspect what they claimed was in error. I won't list all the other circ*mstances of poor service I remember from others or myself, but suffice to say I've seen and experienced it often enough myself over almost 20 years to know insufficient &/or poor care exists widely enough for discomfort, even if it's not always a consistent state with any one vet. But sometimes it is. And where I live, it's quite common, even among some of the most caring vets, who just happen to not be too smart, frankly, or don't keep abreast of current advances or other matters affecting their professional services. With some, it's not as much about the money as it is about ego, or just plain complacency.

To deny that this exists to a larger extent is, I believe, to live in a glass bubble, and further, robs people of the opportunity to work through their grief issues in a realistic way. Naturally, part of that grief process also involves working with oneself to the point where one can more rationally assess whether the anger/blame is appropriate or not. I have had to do this myself and was able to disseminate between the things that were done rightly and those that were definitely not, and even things that could just stand improvement (in either the vet(s) in question, OR myself). To suggest that my perception of a vet's service is totally skewed only increases the anger, I'm afraid, as well as increasing the common perception that professionals take care of their own, over and above their clients' feelings or opinions about the matter. Perhaps you've just been luckier to have lived and worked with people of a generally higher caliber than in other parts of the same, or other, countries.

This is not to say, though, that animal guardians are never at fault, either. Sometimes it's a combination of the two that lands animals in dire trouble.

There was a poll/study done not long ago concerning 'people' doctors who'd made mistakes that cost patients their lives, and where it was determined that a majority of the loved ones left behind would have been greatly helped in their grief simply by the doctor laying aside his/her ego long enough to make a sincere apology to the victims of their mistake(s), despite that act not being able to bring back these people's loved ones. In the majority of cases, however, these doctors were told by their professional bodies that to do so would put them at more risk of lawsuits, and so they refused to do the more humane thing, and just apologize. Since this study, another body has sprung up (originating in my city of origin) that is working to correct this one aspect of this unfortunate state, and with good success I've heard, so far. So often, this is all that is really needed to help people come to some kind of better reconciliation with their loved one's death.

Certainly, it's best and ideal, to have a team-like medical approach on behalf of whomever we love, be that animal or human, but from what I hear too often, professional egos seem to rule the day and disallow for such an effort, and so if vets/doctors of a particular modality you'd prefer aren't widely available, one must either settle &/or fight for, or even sneak around behind their backs to find what's good/better/best for your loved one or yourself. The fact that this even needs to be fought for is an indication of the sorry state of affairs that exists out there, in my opinion. This does NOT follow the credo of "first, do no harm", for the patient's overall, holistic (meaning "whole") welfare is not being considered first and foremost....and that does harm.

I could take issue with and list the many ways those in the medical profession (both animal and human) have fallen down on the job, but I don't feel a need to. Other doctors and vets who are among the more compassionate, holistic and disseminating types have already done much of this themselves through the years, and since they are the ones dealing more intimately with the health systems and various modalities, I tend to believe them when they see problems such as this and act to change them or actively buck them, especially when to do so can often mean they will personally and professionally be adversely affected.

All of this is not to say that there aren't some mighty FINE vets, techs and human docs out there as well and I'm betting that in future we will see even higher numbers, as people finally begin to be more discriminating in what they want and what they won't settle for. And those of us who take the responsibilities of caring for our babies from start to finish (and even beyond, in certain ways) most seriously are the first ones to laud the praises of the vets (and techs) we see doing outstanding work. But we're also the first to discredit those who aren't, and if not for that, not only would nothing ever change but the poor care would get even more prolific. It is up to each one of us to be the best 'consumers' we can possibly be (and 'vote' with where we do our business), in this and every other area of our lives, otherwise we WILL suffer appropriate or 'growing-pain' guilt, in order to continue learning and growing, just as our babies would have us do. It is NEVER too late to learn, to become more aware and to take steps to help others do the same for themselves and on behalf of the ones they love. If our passed babies cannot benefit from this effort any longer, then someone else will, in time, and our beloveds would be the first to encourage that.

So yes, we appreciate beyond words the more caring kinds who open themselves up to being not only human, but more humane, in the course of treating our babies and other loved ones. But that is also another topic all by itself, as "suffering" itself is widely open to debate and perspective, as well as to considering medical and other knowledge to date. This, too, like everything else in this world, is in constant flux and evolution and deserves the application of an open mind in order to truly do one's very best to "do no harm." We can't expect total perfection from ourselves, though some of us strive dearly for it, but that striving also helps us to do our very best in each challenge, leaving fewer stones unturned. And in the end, that becomes another helpful component of our eventual healing.

I never set out to diminish anyone's way of getting through their grief.

I had been thinking of how I went through my cat, Orion's death compared to the death of a cat I had many years ago when I was not a Tech. I handled them both so differently. The knowledge I gained from my studies gives me a unique outlook on the subject of animal medicine and euthanasia. Are there bad vets? Yes, most definitely and we have every right to take issue with them. We must demand the proper care for our furry children and if we feel they are not getting it, then we need to remove them from the care of that vet and go elsewhere. I would never work for a Vet that I felt was only in it *for the money* or had a holier than thou att*itude. Fortunately, I have not run across those kinds of Vets. A friend of mine worked for a Vet who was like that. She ended up having to leave and found work elsewhere, because she could not condone the way he practiced. I think as a rule the good ones outnumber the bad. That is something to be thankful for. We need to stop the bad ones from practicing if they have lost their compassion or did not have any in the first place. I wrote this piece because I felt I wanted to acknowledge the good Vets and Techs that we depend on so much for the health and care of our furry loved ones. I wanted to in some way commemorate the kindness of the Vets and Techs who were so instrumental in Orion's quest for good health throughout his short life.

It is not my intention to take anything away from anyone who is grieving. Everyone must go through the stages of grief in their own way. We all do it on our own terms and in our own time. It is a neccessary process for those who have lost a loved one.

Many of us in the profession suffer along with our furry patient's parents and know the grief all too well. Most of us in the profession care a lot and we consider it an honor to be allowed to care for others' furry children. We know the joy and pain of having one of these wonderful creatures touch our lives. For those of us who have known the joy of having our own furry friends, as well as being able to care for other people's precious pets, we feel double the joy when we can help an animal and twice the sorrow when we cannot. It is a double edged sword. I for one, love the feeling of helping bring an animal back to health so much so, that I will take the pain and try to give comfort to those, whose pets we cannot help. It is a priviledge to be able to be in the lives of so many of God's beloved creatures.