Vets, what is wrong with you!!???

I've had atleast 3 times now, where a client dog under regular care, seen just the week or two previous, had something large brewing that was blatently obvious to me, and the vet didn't catch it.
Very frustrating. While it is my job as a trainer to encourage people to know their dogs and know what is normal, I shouldn't have to be doing the diagnostics that the damn vet should be doing. This is going to be a rant, cause I'm very sad for my clients and pissed off. So it goes.

I don't think some of these vets actually LOOK at a dog anymore. They don't just watch the dog, observe it. They certainly don't listen to the owners descriptions of behavior or symptoms.

Here's some examples:
Puppy with new teeth coming in, one is coming in sideways. I tell them to have their vet look at it the next week when they go in. They do, tell me that the vet says it is fine.

Bullshit.

Several weeks later, they say the pup is chewing up everything, everything, mouthing and crazy, quite unlike how he'd been previously. I open the mouth, and find that the tooth is now making a sore in the cheek, is nearly completely in now, and is totally sideways. Yeah, the pup is in PAIN!! That is why the sudden behavior change. I show the owners, tell them that their vet was very wrong, and that they need to go back, pronto. So now, poor pup has to get it pulled, when it might have been able to be moved if the vet had caught it earlier.

Different one: Puppy in puppy class, seems to not have good vision, or something is just off. Can't put my finger on it quite, but keep asking what their vet says. By the end of the first series of classes, pup has obvious hind end weakness, and is a breed that has an inherited neuromuscular disease issue. They go see the vet, vet says pup is fine. Pup clearly cannot walk properly! How can they not see this? How? Do they not know what a proper pup of that age moves like? Do they not think maybe, when the clients say that there seems to be a lack of coordination, etc, in a breed with issues, that maybe just maybe they need to see the dog gait up and down the hallway to see for themselves? WTH? A couple of weeks later, I check reflexes, a completely normal vet thing to do in this situation - and they are bad bad. I have to be the one to tell them to take the dog in again and make their vet check the reflexes and get their vet to do something, NOW! And amazingly enough, now the vet can see the situation. Huh. If they'd been looking they probably could have seen it fully 6 wks earlier. 6 wks. That's a long time, in a puppy. A long time for owners that would have done anything for the pup had they known what to do. A long time to bond to a great smart new pup who they had to likely make a very hard decision on. Not forgiveable. It just isn't.

Numerous cases of normal cases of dogs chewing butt hair because they have a flea, and the vets charging the owners amazing amounts of money to put the dog on allergy foods and allergy tests and drugs. Fleas people. Just fleas. They can't figure out what a normal case of flea dermatitis looks like?

Goes to show, just like doctors, you have to be an educated consumer. If you think there's something just not right, ask the vet. Make sure that you run through the simple explanations first. Make sure they watch the dog move, interact with the dog, and know what a normal dog looks like. Make sure they know your breed - I choose my first vet because I was getting a Brussels Griffon and wanted someone who knew the breed. Don't leave until your questions are answered. Shop around - there are plenty of good vets out there, and it is worth it to find them. I like my vet. I go to a different vet for repro stuff, but that's fine. And I know, watching him, he watches the dogs down the long hallway gaiting. Even if it isn't a lameness issue.

And I think that trainers also need to know anatomy, basic movement and what's normal in the breeds they deal with in order to support our clients. Illness affects behavior. What would have happened to that pup with the tooth if I'd just told them how to deal with the chewing and mouthing? Would he have been able to stop with just training? I don't think so. Would he have ended up with frustrated owners, frustrated pup and an abcess to boot?

More than likely.Sigh.