Tuesday. My day off. And yet already I’ve spend two hours at the hospital working on my creatures and getting frustrated with pseudo-clients.

One phone call in particular led me to a particularly poor state of mind. The offending individual on the other end of the line couldn’t even boast the designation of client. She was, nonetheless, an annoying stakeholder in a case I happened to see yesterday, and so I had little choice but to listen to her rant.

In this particular case, a very sweet little doggie came in to see me about a slight limp she had been suffering for an indeterminate amount of time (at least a day, I was assured). The history of said malady was fuzzy, attributed to the fact that it was not the actual owner who was presenting the pup for evaluation. And things got more complicated from there.

In brief, the deal is that the doggie was to be purchased by the bringer’s boyfriend but the bringer thought the situation somewhat fishy since the dog was(1) older than expected, (2) expensive, and (3) limping.

The left leg was indeed ouchy. X-rays showed a not-too-pretty set of hips. The puppy’s back hurt, too. I wrote all this down and sent the bringer on his way back to his boyfriend. The boyfriend apparently cancelled his check, thereby insulting the seller (enter annoying stakeholder on the telephone), who called me in a huff demanding to see X-rays and such (which I cannot legally disclose without lots of signing of stuff).

And so my complaint: I find myself in many increasingly legalistic veterinary situations (among which this is but one tiny example) for which I can never be financially compensated directly. That means everyone’s veterinary fees go up, not just the annoying, suit-happy people’s.

Imagine: a half hour of my time (on my day off) devoted to an insulted breeder threatening to subpoena my records. (Go ahead!)

I hate to say it, but this aspect of veterinary medicine is not likely to get any better anytime soon. Something will have to change or else your pet’s vet bills are likely to get higher through no fault of your own and for no additional benefits your pet will ever see. I know vets who charge for phone-time. Sounds like a nightmare. I hope I’ll never live to see the day.

This photo, by the way, is of a completely different ouchy pup.