10 Things Veterinarians Won't Tell You

When Marc Bluestone’s dog Shane died after being treated for seizures at All- Care Animal Referral Center in Fountain Valley, Calif., Bluestone decided to sue. In a precedent-setting ruling, a jury awarded him $39,000 for malpractice, claiming he and his dog had a “special and close relationship.” (All-Care appealed the ruling, to no avail.)

But that’s an exception—suing a veterinarian is at best a dodgy financial undertaking. The reason is that under the law, pets are considered property, says Ireland Moore, the animal lawyer in Oregon. More often than not, that means court awards are for the straight market value of the pet, which could be as little as $10 for your beloved mutt. Meanwhile, suing a vet is likely to be an expensive undertaking.

If your pet becomes the victim of a medical mishap, know that your legal recourse is anything but guaranteed. “It’s not always the most economically smart thing to do,” Moore concedes.

While a referral is probably the best way to select a veterinarian, many people pick one simply because the office is around the corner. Indeed, according to the AVMA, only about 11 percent of cat and dog owners choose their vets through referral. That could be a mistake. If you have an aging kitty and the neighborhood vet doesn’t have geriatric expertise, it won’t be a good fit, says Nancy Peterson, a registered veterinary technician and a spokesperson for the Humane Society of the United States. Peterson adds that in her experience few pet emergencies happened during office hours anyway, nullifying some of the benefits of geographic convenience.

So how best to assess a vet? First, check out the facility. Are the staff friendly? Is the place clean? Look into the veterinarian’s educational background, board certification, and record both with the state’s medical board and the local humane society. Beyond that, veterinarian Elliot Katz, president and founder of In Defense of Animals in San Rafael, Calif., recommends studying the veterinarian’s body language with animals. Make sure she greets animals in a friendly way, approaching them slowly and touching them gently. And if you have a special request, such as wanting to hold your pet when it gets vaccinated, make sure you and your vet are on the same page.

The study of animal behavior is a relatively new specialty in veterinary medicine. In fact, the AVMA lists only 38 board-certified animal behavior specialists on its website, compared with 1,675 internal medicine specialists. Yet many pet owners get rid of their cats and dogs, or even put them to sleep, for annoying behavior ranging from barking to eating drywall. Daniel Aja, a veterinarian in Traverse City, Mich., and former president of the American Animal Hospital Association, recalls one client who brought in a St. Bernard to be euthanized because of severe separation anxiety. Once when the owner left the house, the dog jumped through a plateglass window to chase after him. Aja convinced the owner to treat the pup with antidepressants and had behaviorists on his staff counsel the client on how to work with his dog.

Not all vets will make the extra effort to diagnose a behavior problem, which entails taking a complete medical and behavioral history and spending hours with a pet. What do you do if Champ continues to chase his tail? Ask your vet if he has experience with behavioral issues. If not, request a referral. Or find a trainer through the Animal Behavior College online, at www.animalbehaviorcollege .com/dog_trainer_search.asp.

While veterinarians and animal hospitals are increasingly working with the same level of sophistication as human doctors and hospitals, the regulatory oversight within the field is far less stringent. Under federal law, human hospitals must be inspected, but it’s possible for a veterinary hospital to operate for years and never undergo an independent inspection, Aja says.

The American Animal Hospital Association does accredit animal hospitals, assessing them on more than 800 different standards ranging from organization of medical records to diagnostic capabilities. But only about 15 percent of hospitals in the U.S. and 7 percent of hospitals in Canada have been accredited by the organization. Some states, such as California, perform their own inspections on vet hospitals, checking them for everything from outdated drugs to unsanitary conditions. The upshot is that even seemingly petty requirements can have lifesaving results: After a California mandate required vets to have “emergency lighting” on hand, one veterinarian used a flashlight to finish surgery when a blackout hit.