Do other Vets do this? Please advise me

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molly&meme

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I just love my Vet but...
This worries me and i wonder if other Vets do this.

When a cat has to have IV sedation a worker there (not a tech) will draw
the medication up and give it IV.
Also when a cat has to have gas for anesthesia the workers (not techs) will give the gas.
Vet is not in the same room when these procedures are done.
I don't know how often this happens but if it shouldn't be done then once is too often.

There are so many good things about this Vet(he will not use metacam and i have read here how harmful it can be)
He never gets angry no matter if you disagree with him or make suggestions.
(I am afraid if i ask him about this practice i would be pushing too hard tho)

He has a huge practice and people from ALL walks of life come to him.
There are so many Vets in this area that are not good but i know that has nothing to do with my question.

My MeMe is 9 years old and she will have surgery soon.
What do i do?

I just love this Vet.

Please give me your opinion. Do other Vets do this?
Thank you so much,
Molly
 
Molly I would personally not like it at all if a worker (not tech) did anything so much as draw blood from my cat much less administer meds or anesthesia. I think that is criminal. Other's may come along with a different experience but I doubt it. I hate that we are afraid to tell our vets what we think is wrong...I also feel afraid cause I'm a pain in the A$$ with my tomtom when we are there.
 
Well, for surgery, I would be worried. Do you have a teaching hospital in your area? Not that they
are that much better ..... but they have so many eyes watching what is being done, they tend to
follow protocol to the letter. Surgeons do surgery. My beautiful dog had a leg amputated last year
because of cancer and we had the choice of my personal vet doing it in her back room .......
(she graduated in 95) or having it done by surgeons, in the hospital.

A vet who is good for a lot of things, may not be good for delicate stuff IMHO. We went to the
leading bird vet in No. CA for years and found out he completely, completely was out of his league
in A LOT of things. He was in private practice, so no other eyes were watching him. I like lots
of eyes watching/taking care of my animals.

Good luck but trust that inner feeling you have, I wish I had. And by the way, having a huge
practice doesn't mean your good, the bird vet had people coming from great distances and he
was always very busy.
 
Not all vets are using just techs. If he is easy to talk with, ask him and tell him your concerns. Some "workers" have been working for years with a vet and learned from the ground up with hands on experience. Not everyone can afford to go to school to get that tech degree and the vet teaches them. I don't know state laws concerning this but I have known over the years a lot of good workers and a lot of lousy techs. Talk with your vet.
 
that sounds like very good advice and words of wisdom Hope.
 
Remember this, you are the client. You are the one paying the bill. You have every right to discuss your concerns with the vet and if the vet doesn't like, then the vet has a problem, not you.

Think about it this way...if it were you getting blood drawn or preparing for surgery - would you want a candy striper prepping you or the surgical nurse?

Well why is it any different because we are talking about your pet? If these "workers" are not qualified, certified vet techs, then no matter how much "experience" they have, I would be very concerned and would take my cat somewhere else.

A vet tech is taught the proper way to handle these matters and go through the education process to learn the proper techniques. While "on the job" learning is vital to the learning process and while they may not have gone to school, there is something to be said about a certified, qualified individual over one who only learned "on the job" and may not realize that the process they are following is not acceptable process as one would learn in school.

Yes, there are certain jobs where on the job learning is better than what one learns in school, but when it comes to the medical field.....I want to know the person has the educational credentials as the foundation of their experience.
 
hmmmm...again, good point. i guess i agree with both sides confused_cat but both do advocate as I do...talk with the vet and remember you are the mom and naturally you ask questions and voice concerns. my vet does not like that but i do it anyway and am not well liked over there. apparently i make the staff uncomfortable. I do behave but I need to know that Tom is being handled carefully :lol: (i can understand why i make the staff uncomfortable!)
I'm shirley Mclaine in 'terms of endearment' last couple of scene's.
 
What you describe may to be perfectly legal in most states. What is legal is covered by the states' medical practice laws and statues. Here is part of what the Virginia ones say:

A licensed veterinarian may delegate the administration (including by injection) of schedule VI drugs to a properly trained assistant under his immediate and direct supervision. The prescribing veterinarian has a specific duty and responsibility to determine that the assistant has had adequate training to safely administer the drug in a manner prescribed. Injections involving anesthetic or chemotherapy drugs, subgingival scaling, or the placement of intravenous catheters shall not be delegated to an assistant.
 
I think I'd ask about the staff's training and supervision, not just if they are a registered Vet Tech. And I might say I'm not comfortable having them do the anesthesia and ask the vet to do it, understanding it may cost a little more for the procedure.

My Vet has a large and small animal hospital. She has 5 women working for her. Only one is a registered vet tech. The others have a lot of farm animal experience. One has been with the practice 20 years, another 12 years. The last two around 7 years. I trust that Vet Vicky taught them the basics and provides adequate supervision.

By the way, schools didn't really begin to offer degrees to become Veterinary Technician until the 1970's. Before that vets just trained their own staff.
 
!

Thank you all for your comments.

Before i started seeing this Vet i was going to a clinic here that employed 6 Vets and several Vet Techs. One of my cats had to stay there over night due to kidney problems. I went down the next morning to see my precious cat and there he was with three large places on his body that had been shaved and i counted 16 places where they had stuck him, trying to restart an IV that had come out during the night when he was alone with no staff!
This clinic trains Vet Techs and they had taken turns practicing on my gentle cat! I am still angry and i still cry a lot about that. I didn't know that could happen.

At this clinic i go to now a worker drew blood from MeMe before i knew he was gonna do it and he got it the first stick.
I just want licensed people taking care of my cats.

I wish i could go to a specialist but i don't have the money and they are a 4 hour drive from here.
This is forever on my mind. I can't sleep. I have to decide soon what to do. I know the Vets in this area and bad things happen.

Molly
 
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