I have always felt that the best way to judge anybody is to simply let my dogs do it for me. Our vet, who we had for 12 years died of lung cancer a few years back. We decided to try out the vet who had filled in for him a few times in the past. On our first visit, he walked into the room and promptly sat down beside me on the floor and conducted his entire exam, in the floor with me and my dogs. I fell in love and so did our dogs. When I had to put Chichi down, he again walked in, saw me sitting in the floor with her in my lap and sat down beside me to talk before getting all his equipment and again sitting down beside me to do it. I love our vet and would not trade him for all the tea in China. He takes all my calls and writes notes about everything we discuss on the phone or in person. I can go by his office anytime and he will take the time to come out and discuss whatever it is I want to talk about. He is fantastic! If you don't get the feeling that your vet truly cares about you, your concerns, your pet and your pets issues, keep looking. Okay, list of questions. 1. If for whatever reason you have to leave your pet at their office overnight or on a weekend, what is their policy on care given and who stays with the pets and how long? 2. What is their experience with your breed of dog, how many, how many years, etc.? 3. What kind of pets do they personally have and why? 4. What vacation time do they take during the year and what is their policy on having a vet fill in for them? What about emergency care at night or on weekends? If they refer you to a different vet, what about your records. Are they accessible by the other vet? 5. How extensive are their resources on possible issues that they may not be familiar with? Do they have a veterinary teaching college that they have a relationship with? Are there specialists that they have a relationship with? How do they brainstorm on unusual conditions and with whom? 6. What associations or groups do they belong to? How active are they in them? (This would give you an idea of how often they are in the company of other vets, which is a great source of continuing education on an informal basis for any medical professional) 7. Do they take interns or students in training into their practice? This will tell you if there are others in the office, who are still learning the job and would probably have recent formal training including more up to date practices and information. 8. Where do they get their info on new medications that hit the market? Hopefully, the vet will say from colleagues, not pharmaceutical reps. 9. How do they feel about alternative therapies and homeopathic treatments? You may never be interested in trying something like this, but you want to know that the vet is open minded and willing to try new things and explore new ideas. That is all I can think of at the moment. Good luck with the new vet.
Kathy
