I’m a bit delayed in writing this post, I wanted to write about it the day after it happened, but life kind of got in the way. As always, I am going to keep names in this anonymous (other than mine and my dogs, since you all already know that), and I won’t be naming the vet clinic. I’ve vetted my pets with them for probably close to 20 years now and I still stand by them as a very good vet clinic.

Zelda has had an ear problem for months. I tried to take care of it myself, trying to save us on money and the hassle of booking with the vet, but I was unable to treat her. I’ve had dogs for many years and have had several pop up with different kinds of ear problems over the years. They’ve almost always needed vet care because you can never really tell what you’re looking at until you look at it under a microscope (or rather, a trained professional does). But it didn’t seem THAT bad and I thought I could take care of it myself. I tried several times and I struggled to just look in her ear, never mind actually clean it out. She is part husky and I believe this contributes to her dramatic response. That, and, well… I learned during the K9 first aid training that I really dropped the ball on conditioning Zelda to touch. I hug on her and play with her, I’ve always groomed her myself, but I didn’t do everything I should have to make for a dog who will allow people to poke around at them when they’re not feeling well. I got Zelda when my first daughter was 2 and 4 years later my second daughter is almost 2. I’ve had my hands full. I don’t think that’s the best excuse, but it’s the truth. To properly condition a dog you need to spend time daily followed by weekly just sitting down and poking at your dog. Well, don’t poke your dog, but get your dog used to touch. This should be done from the time they’re a puppy, if possible. Touch their toes, praise and reward (use treats, especially to start). Touch their ears, praise and reward. Touch their mouths, praise and reward. Touch their tails, praise and reward. Get them used to physical handling of all kinds. I failed to do this with Zelda and as a result she is a handful in these situations.

I muzzled her and had my husband hold her while I tried and it was still a struggle. Finally, I caved and e-mailed my vet clinic to book an appointment (side note: I absolutely love that my vet will book via email). It was a 3 week wait, and in that time I tried one more time unsuccessfully to look at/clean her ear.

Since I injured my foot back in June, I haven’t been able to really drive myself. I just recently started driving again, and can only manage short trips. Since all vet clinics are located outside of our town, I had to drive a ways to get Zelda to the vet. This meant getting a ride. My husband worked all morning but got home just in time for me to leave. I asked my dad to drive us, since my husband would have to be home for our toddler and pick up our eldest from school. My dad told me he was just happy to have the chance to help me out. What are dads for, huh? He drove me and my very hairy dog (who left white hair all over the back of his car) to the vet clinic.

When I got to the vets I learned that I wasn’t allowed in with Zelda. They would come out and get her and then bring her back out when she was done. They’ve been doing it this way since COVID (2020), they said. They told me it was just easier to do it this way. I didn’t see how? Wouldn’t they need to talk to me? Usually they ask questions while they examine my animal. I had also warned them that she would be very dramatic and may need muzzling. My vet, let’s call her Dr Green, has known me a very long time and she has seen many of my crazy dogs in her clinic. I’ve had a lot of aggressive dogs over the years and when I got Zelda I had made the decision to get a puppy and raise it exactly how I wanted. I was tired of “second hand dogs” that had problems. Disclaimer: I have absolutely nothing against rescues or rescuing older dogs. I am very pro rescue and Zelda is also a rescue dog. I am just a bleeding heart who always takes home the worst case I can, because “who else will?”. I focused a lot in off leash training and socialization with Zelda. She’s always been in good shape and I haven’t brought her to the vet since she was a puppy, and back then Dr Green didn’t even see her it was a different vet in her practice who administered shots. Just wait, it’s important that you understand that the last time Dr Green saw me I had one after another aggressive dog, or “problem” dogs.

I reluctantly handed Zelda over when they came out to us to get her (we had to wait in our car in the rain). Zelda looked back at me, hesitant to go but I told her it was okay and like a good girl she followed the lady into the clinic, didn’t even pull on the leash.

We waited an hour… I was really worrying at this point. Wondering what the heck was going on and why hadn’t we heard anything from them yet. It was routine exam, vaccines and ear exam. It shouldn’t take this long. We waited some time after an hour went by and then I had to pee. I decided to go in and ask if I could use their bathroom. The bathroom is located a bit within the clinic so you kind of have to see back there to get to it. When I walked in I heard Dr Green telling Zelda “NO, DON’T BITE ME”. I had to pee really bad so I told her to muzzle Zelda and I went into the bathroom. After I was done relieving myself I came out to the clinic and saw it was just Dr Green trying to hold Zelda and administer the ear cleaning at the same time. I was a bit taken aback by this and kind of thought “no wonder it’s taking so long”. Half of the reason I booked an appointment was because I knew I needed trained professionals to both hold and look in her ear. We needed multiple people who knew what they’re doing. So I asked “can I help you hold her?” she said sure. Dr Green asked me “are you completely at your wits end with this dog?” As soon as Zelda saw it was me her little tiny ears perked up and she had this look on her face that can’t be explained as anything except relief. It lasted a split second and then it was gone when she realized I wasn’t there to rescue her I was there to hold her through the torment. At one point Zelda reached her nose to my cheek and I looked at her and asked “what are you doing?”. Dr Green asked me “will she bite you?” I said “well, I don’t know. I mean, she’s a dog. She could, but I don’t think she will”.

Dr Green did muzzle Zelda, and with my help she was able to quickly clean out Zelda’s ears. She had already done her vaccines and swabbed the ear but had not looked at it under the microscope yet. She had made a comment to me that she’d seen dogs come in with RAGING ear infections that acted better than Zelda did when they tried to handle her. I was honestly pretty embarrassed about it. I apologized and admitted I hadn’t conditioned her as well as I should have. I kept thinking about what Dr Green had first said about being at my wits end with Zelda. I wasn’t even close to that. I adore Zelda and she’s honestly the best dog I’ve ever had (dare I say?). She is extremely well trained and behaves like a dream with my family (even the toddler who tries to step on her when she’s laying in her way). She is very faithful and an extremely sweet dog. She has her quirks and I believe that her litter wasn’t properly socialized during the first fear impact stage. I explained all of this to Dr Green. I tried to stress that Zelda is not a “bad dog”. I said she’s not aggressive, she’s just in pain and a bit on the dramatic side as well.

Dr Green looked at the ear contents under a microscope while I put Zelda’s usual leash back on her and gave her some well deserved treats and pets. She kept panting and panting. It was the most stressed out I have ever seen her. When Dr Green came back in the room I asked her for some water for Zelda. “I mean, we can try,” she said, “but most dog’s won’t drink here.” she put the water bowl down and Zelda lapped up nearly the whole bowl. In that moment I knew this whole experience didn’t sit right with me. I know my dog. I know she would have done better with me there holding her. She wouldn’t have been perfect, she wouldn’t have even been calm, but she wouldn’t have been as traumatized as she was.

The microscope didn’t really tell us much. Dr Green said there is mostly inflammation that’s the problem which could either be allergies or it could be something stuck in her ear. She prescribed Zelda steroids to help the swelling go down. She said she wasn’t even going to try to send me home with an ear solution because I wouldn’t be able to get it in there. Hopefully we could bring the inflammation down and it will sort itself out from there. If not, she has to come back to the clinic for a scope. Dr Green warned me she would need to be there a while because they’d need to sedate her. It’s a rigid scope and they can’t risk her thrashing about with it in her ear.

I asked for de-wormer for my cats, and Dr Green responded with a sigh and said, “if I can get someone to get it. Everyone’s busy with appointments.” to which I thought, I’m an appointment too.

I brought Zelda out to the car and told Dad I still needed to pay, but wanted to get Zelda out of there. When I open the lift gate on the car she is usually cautious and waits for me to tell her ‘allons-y!” (I’m sure any Doctor Who fans reading this will appreciate that). This time the gate was hardly halfway up and Zelda was already in there, ready to go. I went back inside and waited, and waited, and waited. By the time we got out of there, we had been 2 hours longer than I expected to be.

When I went home the whole thing just didn’t sit right with me. I looked at Zelda who slept the whole way home and then some, and I felt like I failed her. I failed to condition her to this sort of treatment but also I failed to advocate for her. I should have said something, I should have tried harder to go with her instead of just handing the leash over. I should have advocated for her. I lost sleep thinking about it all night. The next morning I sent my vet an email and explained all of these thoughts and feelings in the most respectful way I could manage. I told them I was disappointed and didn’t feel Zelda got the kind, patient treatment that I expected from them. All because of some left-over COVID rule. I explained it a lot nicer than that, I promise, but this was how I felt.

I was surprised when Dr Green phoned me back right away. I missed her call, I am terrible for not answering my phone as it’s always on silent and I was busy getting my eldest ready for school. Dr Green left a message and explained that she read my e-mail and she was disappointed to read it but glad I brought my concerns forward. She explained about her comment with the cat de-wormer and the reason I couldn’t go in with Zelda from the start was because they are absolutely so overwhelmed (which I made sure to mention in my e-mail that I understand that’s part of the problem). Too many people want to chat and visit while they’re there and it makes appointments go longer. She said since COVID their caseload has increased by 300%. She said the main reason they don’t let owners in is because people want to chat and visit and it just takes too long and they can’t get through all the patients if they do. Fair enough, I totally understand this. But I think Zelda ending up with just one person handling her while also administering the ear cleaner made the process a lot slower as well. If I was there sooner to help hold her, I truly feel it would have gone faster. As I said in my e-mail, admittedly, I didn’t know what happened before I walked in. Maybe they were all holding her for all I know, but I know what I saw when I came in. It wasn’t proper technique for a dog reacting the way she was. She needed it to be over as quickly as possible. Dr Green also explained that right before Zelda was a really flighty cat that was also a nightmare to deal with. She said once she understood the history I gave her she said she thinks Zelda actually did quite well, all things considered. This is also another point I have, with the owner there you can learn these things sooner. She was treating Zelda like she was a snarky aggressive dog. That’s just not Zelda, and I could have explained that from the start.

I totally get that Canadian vets are completely overworked now. This is a multi-tier problem. It is contributed by an increase in pets after 2020, but mainly it’s due to a lot of older vets retiring (baby boomers are all retiring now) and there’s not enough new vets taking their place. Vets in BC are now required to travel to vet livestock and this takes up a lot of time. There is also not a lot of options for vet schools in Canada and it’s a long, slow process for education. We are waiting for more vets to graduate. Vets are stretched thin and there’s just not enough of them to go around. I know this and I feel for them, but I also feel like it’s all the more reason to let me in with my dog. I don’t think every single vet case requires this, but the ones that do and say ahead of time “my dog/cat is dramatic and will require a muzzle or may be harder to handle” should be considered. Another pair of hands never hurts in these cases and you have the owner there to answer questions. I don’t expect to be involved in any complex procedures and I certainly don’t expect special treatment. I want all animals who require a little more handling to have this option. Tell the owners upfront that this isn’t a social call. I get it, I wanted to chat with Dr Green too, it’d been a long time since I’d seen her. But if they told me they don’t have time to chat, I’d respect that.

I tried to phone Dr Green back that morning she left a message, but she was already in surgery by then. I sent another email and said I understand their side, I just want to be able to come in with my animals when they need it, in the future. I hope we can reach a middle ground that benefits everyone, especially the animals.

I also told Dr Green that I’d work on conditioning Zelda, and that next time I need something extra I’ll try to make sure I ask them for it before the appointment.

I feel like with the right dialogue back and forth, we should be able to come to some sort of middle ground where everyone gets their needs met. It’s important to have these kinds of discussions. Too much these days people run to Facebook or other social media outlets to complain about businesses and a mob mentality grows. I don’t want that, which is why I’m not even going to name the vet clinic. I respect my vet, but I don’t respect policy that is blindly followed when it doesn’t fit all scenarios.