General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: The doctor's office just told me that they were not allowed to call in [View all]kestrel91316
(51,666 posts)your pet can't talk, and we aren't psychic. Add to the the propensity for clients to completely misinterpret things they observe about their pets, exaggerate terribly, minimize terribly, or just plain lie, and you have a huge malpractice case in the making along with the risk to your license if you don't examine the patient when it is indicated.
I have lots of patients on long-term medication that we just refill as needed, but when a client calls and says "my cat is REALLY SICK" the answer is always going to be "what day do you want to bring it in, and do you want a morning or afternoon appointment?" I'm not going to commit malpractice or jeopardize my license just because somebody doesn't want inconvenience or expense over an acutely ill pet.