Like many of their clients, numerous veterinary practitioners long for a return to normality. At the same time, though, most acknowledge that any normal state that ultimately emerges will not be the one they remember from their pre-COVID-19 days. Relative to their ability to communicate in a meaningful way with each other, clients whose animals needed a significant amount of essential care in pre-COVID-19 times and the practitioners who treated those animals probably mastered the art of transitional client communication the most readily.
For example, Sarah Schweibel’s geriatric cat’s multiple problems routinely resulted in multiple visits to Dr. Rousseau’s veterinary practice for several years. Because of this, Ms. Schweibel was accustomed to apprising the practitioner of any changes in her life pertinent to her cat’s health in a timely manner. When COVID-19-related changes resulted in changes in the client-clinician process, she smoothly incorporated these too. At the same time, the veterinary staff ’s established and close working relationship with the client made it easy for them to keep her up-to-date regarding how changes made to ensure client and veterinary staff safety specifically would affect her cat’s treatment.
In the food animal and equine realm, Alex Kohlmann considers the ambulatory veterinarians from Dr. Rousseau’s practice an integral part of his total animal health program. He counts on them for preventative as well as problem-oriented care. Because client and practitioners routinely had contact with each other remotely or face-to-face, he and they also were better prepared to make the transition from this to their COVID-19 altered one. This does not mean that these veterinarians and clients experienced no COVID-19-related changes in their personal lives. They did. However, both clients and practitioners also had arranged for others to care for the animals if they could not. In these situations, two related factors ensured a relatively smooth transition to other-care should something happen to these clients that prevented them from caring for their animals themselves: an established practitioner-client-patient relationship and comprehensive records regarding the animals, any problems, and treatments. Consequently, when unanticipated changes interfered with the client’s ability to perform their care-giving functions, another person could step in and assume that responsibility with minimal disruption.
Similarly, all veterinarians in Dr. Rousseau’s practice were expected to keep comprehensive, up-to-date client records so treatment continuity could be ensured if something happened to the primary care practitioner. Clients previously had also become familiar with the entire veterinary staff via the practice’s newsletter and annual clinic open house. Even if all they shared was a smile and a “hi,” these casual contacts can ease the transition when one practitioner must cover for another at the last minute.
However, not all clients and practitioners have the kinds of long-standing working relationships that support stabilizing transitional communication in changing times. Consider the following examples of such relationships, beginning with that between Herb Thorndyke and the veterinarians in Dr. Rousseau’s practice.
“Though Herb’s animals periodically show up in our client files, he’s not really a client. Nor do I think he sees himself as one, either,” Dr. Rousseau explains. “He has lots of animals and in his own way he cares for them. Not the way most veterinarians would, but he’s an old-timer with lots of animal sense and a big dose of common sense too. He can handle things most others can’t or don’t want to. But he knows his limits and when he reaches them, we hear from him. Which isn’t often.”
Herb Thorndyke also comes from a large, multigenerational family and has a relatively active social life. Or he did until his age and pre-existing medical conditions put him in the high-risk coronavirus group. Dr. Rousseau’s next contact regarding Thorndyke’s animals came from Thorndyke’s son who has temporarily relocated to the area to care for his father’s animals. He wants to know what kind of care his father’s animals will need while his father hopefully recovers in a nursing home.
In this admittedly dramatic situation, the client’s ability to care for his animals has gone from acceptable to nonexistent in a relatively short period of time. But unlike in the previous examples, neither the practitioner nor the substitute caregiver has any idea regarding the animals’ health or treatment status when the client fell quickly and seriously ill. Nor does the veterinarian know whether the caregiver has the knowledge and experience to implement any care the quasi-client’s animals may need. Consequently, it will require a great deal of time and effort on the part of the veterinary staff and the caregiver to properly care for the ailing owner’s animals. Moreover, they all recognize that their efforts may not please the animal’s critically ill owner. At the same time, though, all of those actively involved in the process agree that this is the best way to ensure the animals’ care during a difficult time.
“Even if my father survives his illness, it’s going to be a long time before he’ll be able to care for his animals the way he used to,” explains his son. “At best, he may always need me or someone else to help him care for them. At worst, we may need to sell his livestock and find full-time homes for all his pets. That will be a lot easier if there’s a current record of their veterinary care.”
Although financial concerns may trouble clients with food-producing animals the most, clients who depend on their companion animals for support also may experience difficulties during periods of transition. The longer and less predictable the transition, the more important what they perceive as their pets’ supportive responses will become. However, some companion animals do not handle these transitions any better than their owners do. Instead of offering the emotional support their owners’ need, the animals may become equally upset when their owners become upset. Some of these animals may develop intermittent or chronic, non-specific gastrointestinal or other medical or behavioral problems instead. In some cases, their problems may be like those of their owners.
Consider the case of Callie Madrone. She simultaneously considers her Pomeranian, KiKi, her baby and her 24/7 emotional support dog. Unfortunately, KiKi was neither bred nor trained to assume this responsibility.
“If it weren’t for this little dog, I doubt I could survive all the COVID-19 related changes in my life,” she tells all her social media friends. “I’m sure I would have died without her!”
Ms. Madrone also considers the veterinarians in Dr. Rousseau’s practice more sympathetic and approachable than her own human medical doctors. This results in a troubling time-consuming cycle for the veterinary staff. The client contacts Dr. Rousseau’s practice frequently because the mutually exclusive roles she assigns to a dog who lacks the temperament and training to fulfil contributes to the animal’s chronic or intermittent medical or behavioral problems. Although everyone she communicates with at the practice wants to help her dog, past experience tells them that the probability of her following any veterinary recommendations is low. Because staff time is at a premium as they attempt to adapt to new practice norms and catch up on postponed practice-related client obligations, patience with the needy client may grow short.
“The whole staff wants to help Ms. Madrone and her dog,” Dr. Rousseau readily admits. “But she was a time and energy vampire when things were stable. At a time when the situation is less structured, none of us has a lot of time to hand-hold a client who seems to want to do little more than talk. One of our techs described her as a phone stalker and I’m afraid it’s only a matter of time before he says something he regrets.”
Ultimately, Dr. Rousseau decides they need to replace their current reactive approach with a more comprehensive, proactive solution to these situations. To accomplish this, they used their newsletter and social media posts to address the animal-related communication challenges they and their clients are facing at this time. They also address these issues using the same tone they use when they informed their clients about new animal diseases in their area, their prevention, and treatment. Multiple newsletter and social media posts address client loneliness, its possible negative effects on their animals’ health and behavior, and ways to address these. They also include links to informative and enjoyable animal-related books, movies, and how-to instructions for calming animal massage and other techniques that could benefit human and animal alike. They discuss the value of client records and supply templates that clients could download and use to record their animals’ vital information and any treatments instead of counting on their memories. They position their clients as active and valued members of their animals’ healthcare team. By doing so, they also increase their clients’ sense of control and the confidence that goes with this at a difficult time. In the process of doing so, they also ensured that their time with their clients will be productive.
Footnotes
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