Last Friday I took Scoops to Ashland Area Veterinary Clinic for some slightly overdue rabies and distemper vaccinations. I have been to this clinic once before and really enjoyed the experience, but I was a little less happy overall with how this visit went down.
Scoops didn’t seem that into it, either, but I suppose that’s to be expected:
Scoops gets a shot from the kindly Dr. Jahnke at Ashland Area Vet Clinic.
First, some background: I have been shopping around for an Ashland-area vet clinic for some time. The process began when I took my dog Penny, who has since passed away, to Willow Animal Hospital, where her former owners had also taken her. I liked the care she received in terms of physical ailments and disease prevention, but I didn’t feel I was getting the help I needed with her serious separation anxiety problems. (And there were rapture-and-doom-style evangelical pamphlets out for the customers. While this is not necessarily a deal-breaker, it made me wonder if the staff thought I was a hell-destined lesbian, as I attended the appointment with then-roommate, who is a lesbian. With the way we were co-fawning over Penny, we probably seemed like romantic partners. But perhaps I’m just being neurotic — it’s been known to happen before, eh?)
In search of a doctor that would more aggressively treat Penny’s separation anxiety, I went to Gretchen Gerber at Country Care Pet Hospital in Washburn (715-373-2222). She came highly recommended by many folks in the area’s left-leaning crowd, as she is interested in trying out behavior training and natural remedies as well as pharmaceutical treatment. I really enjoyed the care I received from her, and I felt she and her staff were generally quite thorough and attentive to me and my dogs.
But — and this is a complaint I’ve heard echoed from several area pet parents — it was just too damn expensive. So, I decided to try yet another practice, in hopes of finding high-quality care at a more affordable price. (But if I ever make it rich, I’ll definitely go back to Country Care, because they provide good treatment.)
Which brings me back to my Friday visit at AAVC. I expected to see Dr. Gretchen Wilson, whom we’ve dealt with before, but Scoops was instead treated by Dr. Heidi Jahnke. I liked Dr. Jahnke’s kind manner — although it took me a while to figure out that she was in fact the doctor, because she did not introduce herself when she came into the room and started checking out petrified little Scoops. Dr. Jahnke’s soft-spoken demeanor earns the experience one gold star; the lack of a basic introduction earns it a half-demerit. Along with another staff member, Dr. Jahnke vaccinated Scoops against rabies and distemper and extracted blood for a heatworm test.
Post-shots, the nice lady at AAVC hugs Scoops.
While I waited for the heartworm test results, Scoops and I saw Dr. Wilson fondling these specimens of ultimate cuteness in the room next door:
Ultimate Cuteness: 5-day-old springer spaniel puppies
She was joined by several staff members who let me snap a few pictures and then ushered me out the door and shut it tightly.
It turns out the pups were there to have their tails docked and their dew claws removed so they’d be in compliance with the breed standard. Over the next five minutes, the screams and wails emanating from the room were harrowing. Around the time Scoops’ test results were ready (he was negative for heartworm, thank god!), the puppies reemerged from the room, piled on top of one another in a padded basket. Now, though, their soft fur was smeared with blood.
Seeing and hearing this earned the experience a few demerits. I suppose, though, that non-essential, cosmetic surgeries like this happen at almost all veterinary clinics. I think removing part of a dog’s tail — one of its essential communication tools — is sort of inhumane … but me just thinking that isn’t going to change the practice, which seems rather ingrained in the purebred dog community.
Here’s another shot of a puppy, pre-procedure:
OMG: I wanted this cute creature
So, another element that earned the visit a demerit was a conversation I had with Dr. Wilson while I was cooing over the puppies. Here’s the basic gist of how it went down:
Dr. W: So, what do you do for a living?
Me: I work as a reporter for The Daily Press.
Dr. W: You mean The Daily Mess? You work for THE DAILY MESS?
Me: (stumbling awkwardly with my words) Well, uh, I don’t exactly refer to it as that …
Dr. W: (interrupts and gets louder) Tell me something –why has the paper gotten so small? There is like no news in there anymore. Is it because it’s too expensive to pay the writers, or is it because of printing costs, because there is like hardly any news in The Daily Mess anymore. But all the newspapers are going down the tubes …
Thus the conversation went on far longer than I ever hoped, until I finally extricated myself by paying my bill getting the hell out of there.
You know, Dr. W is not unique in calling the paper for which I work — and which has no sponsorship, endorsement or connection with this personal blog, I must add — The Daily Mess. It’s a term that’s used quite often around town.
But knowing that there is a general disdain for our product does not mean I am not insulted when someone calls it that to my face — and especially when I’m forking over a significant amount of money to their business.
So, these comments earned the experience like 10 million demerits. In the plus column, however, was its total price: Scoops received several vaccinations, his heartworm test, a bag of bones to freshen his fetid breath and six months of heartworm preventative medicine for around $110, quite a reasonable fee.
Due to the lack of other affordable options in the area, I think I probably will return to AAVC – although, to avoid another irksome conversation about my profession, I will request to be seen by Dr. Jahnke.
3 Comments
March 16, 2009 at 10:58 am
Awesome post, Miss KH. Though I have missed PK thoroughly, 30Rock is a reasonable defense. I’ll write soon.
March 16, 2009 at 2:24 pm
Wow, the vet lady wasn’t too savvy as far as customer relations then. Not only did she not introduce herself right away, but then she proceeds to trash your place of employment. Way to bring in repeat business. Dirka!
Yes, it totally blows when you cringe every time someone asks the inevitable question, where do you work? When I first moved here, people at my church quite naturally asked me what brought me to Ashland. Having had some experience in these matters, I vaguely replied “a job.”
Then, of course, they wanted to know what that job was. Sigh. As soon as they learned I was the new night editor, they were like, oh, so now when there’s a mistake or a story gets cut off, we know who to blame. I had to admit that that was mostly true, except for some factual errors over which I really have no control.
They haven’t been too awful about it, but there have been a couple of instances where they have brought up something that went wrong, like the time the front page came out in black and white. LOL
Anyway, good post, galfriend!!
April 13, 2009 at 5:13 pm
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