Behind the Scenes

Working at a walk-in vet clinic is a unique way of life. Every day from a specific time, when we unlock the door, until a second specific time, when we lock it again, every single member of our staff is at the complete mercy of random events. A car hit a dog. A dog attacked a cat. A cat had a seizure. A puppy stopped moving. A kittenate something poisonous. In some ways, the walk-in vet clinic is much like a human urgent care, but in many ways they are worlds apart.

Walk-in veterinarians serve every possible medical need, and it is a challenge. Many of the services we take for granted in the medical care of humans just don’t exist in veterinary medicine. There are no veterinary pediatriciansand virtually no animal dentaloffices. There is no veterinary trauma center, animal EMT service, or stroke specialty hospital. No pet psychotherapist. Animals experience the same types of problems as human beings but without the same health care infrastructure. In veterinary medicine, these needs are all servedunder the same roof. That means you could be sitting in the waiting room for your routine well-baby visit when a patient with two broken legs and massive internal bleeding (or something evenworse) comes blasting through the front door. That never happened at your pediatrician. You could be discussing your pet’s itchy skin in one room, while the person in the next room is agonizing over the decision to euthanize a family pet that has become unpredictable and aggressive.

Human beings don’t generally die at the urgent care, and they are definitely not dying at your pediatrician or family doctor. It’s very different at the vet clinic, particularly at a walk-in center, where dying is an inescapable component of each day. Dogs and cats,far more than humans, are prone to dangerous accidents such as poisoning, ingestion of harmful objects, and automobile trauma. Violent injuries inflicted by another animal are very, very common. Even the healthiest, luckiest, longest-lasting dogs and cats have a much shorter lifespan than virtually every person you have ever met, and they often leave this world from a point somewhere inside the vet clinic. Every shred of effort in human medical facilitiesis dedicated to postponing death. At veterinary hospitals, however, dying is a frequent event, even a regularly requested service.

All this is genuinely happening behind the scenes at your veterinary clinic. When you visit for routine care, it would be nice for your pet to get in and out rapidly. You both have other places you’d rather be. Sometimes, though, there is a significant wait, because this isn’t the barber or the dentist. Eighty feet away from your chair, someone is having his leg amputated. One hundred feet away, it’s touch and go for someone who is gasping for air in the oxygen tank. Eight feet away, someone is saying good bye to their best or only friend of the last 15 years. It’s not pretty, but it is unfolding continuouslyjust on the other side of that wall as you wait for your checkup at the clinic.

Dr. M.S. Regan