Is anyone allowed into vets with their pet?

[freedomontheway]

My elderly pooch is slowing down somewhat. She has a slight mitral valve prolapse and I'm guessing it's worsening. She's not uncomfortable as such just struggling on walks a little.
My vets has a blanket ban on owners going in with their pets to the surgery due to Covid
They explain that they don't have adequate ventilation in the room.
I've asked what they will do about this and they don't seem to have a plan except to keep owners out for the foreseeable future.
What are other people's vets doing?

My vets allows one owner, with mask in the consulting room with the vet and the pet. Vet has mask.

I was allowed in to have my girl PTS two months ago but normally they don't let you in.

Ours used to be a lovely family run practice, but the owner sold out to a large chain and it's become something completely different. And we can't change because the other practice in the town isn't taking on new patients due to Covid

We had to let our elderly cat die at home earlier this year, as I couldn't bear the thought of handing him over in the car park. Thankfully he passed very peacefully on the rug in the dining room lying in the sun. But it was really distressing at the time, and he was poorly for around a week longer than he needed to have been

yes, I was back to being able to be in the treatment room again at our appointment on Wednesday. I think the staff is even more relieved than the owners and pets! We are in a area of extremely low covid cases.

Allowed in
Screens, masks etc. And they've split the vet team into two, who never cross over shifts. So if one lot has to isolate, the others are ok

We’re allowed into the waiting area but not into the consulting room. If it’s not routine vaccinations etc then the practice ask you to email them details of any concerns ahead of the appointment. The vet then comes out afterwards to discuss them. It works okay but not as easy as having a two way conversation while the vet does their examination.

Better than the original lockdown method where you had to put your pet in a crate outside and step back before a vet in full hazmat suit came out to fetch them. Any paperwork had to go in a bucket which was then sprayed with goodness knows what!

I had no idea some vets were still doing this - We are in the South East, in an area that has had low cases for quite a while. We had hand over outside during the first lockdown - but since then it's been one client + animals allowed in the building at once, so no use of waiting room but brought straight through into the consulting room, all masked.

Payment at the desk as usual, just use sanitiser and the card machine. It's a bit of a pain having to wait outside with dogs if it's raining, but I soon realised I needed to bring a coat just in case.

It's a small, new, private practice started by vets who moved when the surgery they were at was sold to a big corporate player.

I started a thread about this last week after I went to my vet to pick up some medicine for my dog.

I was very surprised when the receptionist invited me into the waiting room and apparently we're now going to be allowed in to the consulting room when we take our pets in.

My dogs been quite unwell over the last several months and having to stand outside and conduct a conversation over the phone has been really difficult, especially as I'm a bit deaf.

They've been very sensitive about animals that had to be pts though, and have done it in the owners cars.

I know that some vets have just been taking the animals inside to pts while the owners have had to wait outside in the car park or street, which seems incredibly heartless to me. I'm sure those vets could have found some one round that.

I’m a vet, I’m 56 and 2 days past my second vaccination. The practice I work at is still seeing people in the car park and I’m very grateful as my husband is clinically vulnerable. If you have a client inside holding the animal, you are right next to them with them talking much less than a metre away. The windows have to be shut in case the animal escapes and the rooms are all poorly ventilated. If someone tests positive the whole small team has to isolate so the surgery has to close. Consulting without owners takes longer, but the animals are on balance calmer: much of the time I don’t need anyone to hold the animal for me at all. Within the wider industry, most veterinary staff are not yet, or only just, vaccinated, because they are young. Human health care workers were prioritised but vets weren’t, so unlike your dentist most vets and nurses have had to wait till now for vaccines.

I’m letting people in for euthanasias and will be happy to see other people inside in a couple of weeks’ time, personally, if the nurse I’m with is also happy about it. This has been a tough time for everyone and different surgeries will make different decisions. The vet you see is likely to be working very long hours: morale in the profession is awful at the moment. We really aren’t just being difficult for the sake of it.

I was allowed into the vets to take our puppy for his injections today.

I have a mobile vet who comes to me.
All the vets around me are owned by Medivet, and they won’t let you attend with your pet.
Ridiculous when you are far closer to someone on a train or in the supermarket

I’m afraid Im going to be very controversial here, so am expecting a lot of anger from some of the vets who have replied on hereto say how absolutely necessary these rules are.
Sorry, but I’m afraid my opinion of many vets has plummeted to the same level that my village has of our local GP surgery which hasn’t even deigned to answer the phone since March LAST year.
All through the lockdowns my DH has been attending for injections into his eyeballs, you can’t get much more up close than that. As I previously said my old vet is still following the no contact wait in the car park, never even seen the vet face to face just a phone call. While the new vet I was recent,y recommended let’s you into the consulting room, which is much smaller, in a small terraced house compared to the huge building of the old one.....why?
How would the vets feel if supermarket staff refused to be in contact with hundreds of customers, just behind a mask, or bin men refused to empty bins that are full of germs, or all the other essential workers who make their life run smoothly despite lockdowns, Covid or all the other germs that are constantly around us ?
The only reason I still attend my old vet now is because they have the years of records that my oldest little lady is on several drugs for as she has an ongoing condition. I refuse to take my younger ones & have now switched to the one who will let us in. I’ve been in dogs for over fifty years, At Risk breed showing & breeding, & have never been so disillusioned with vets before.

I was allowed in to have my beautiful cat pts.

One person allowed in with pet, everybody masked, only 2 chairs in waiting area, and they’ve got supermarket type tall screens across the table.
It’s a relatively modern building though.
This time last year nobody was allowed in, animals handed over outside.

@Darklane - I don't think we are going to agree on this and I think the examples that you give are not fair comparisons. I'm sure everyone's experience have been different but this past year I have noticed interruptions to many services that I would have previously considered 'essential'. Education for example. Dental care. Any realistically bookable appointment slot at the tip. Hospital appointments and check ups. Council services. Carparks. Public footpaths (!!?!!). The list goes on. It's not just vets.

If you are not happy with the service your practice is giving, just move vets! Your old vet can forward any history on to the new practice. If you are so disillusioned with your vet that does not sound like a good situation.

My group 6 work colleagues are just getting their second vaccinations at the moment, and my area seems to be ahead of schedule. It is really important that they are protected and that they feel safe at work. It is not my decision whether or not to let people in and opinions do differ amongst our workforce.

Maybe you think that those of us who are vulnerable or older or carers outside work, should just leave, and let the healthy get on with it? I doubt that would help with the availability of veterinary services.

The risk isn’t just catching or passing on Covid , but also the requirement to self isolate if a contact of a positive case. Vets aren’t exempt from test and trace like other human medical practictioners even if wearing full PPE. If they examine a pet with the owner they are coming within a metre of them. Our local practice had a Covid outbreak earlier in the year and nearly all staff caught it and the rest had to self isolate. Many of their family members also caught it. The branch had to close for over a week. However, due to the way they were working and distancing from clients, no members of the public were affected. A lot of veterinary staff are too young to have had one let alone both vaccinations. If pets are still receiving the treatment they require while the humans are being kept as safe as possible I can’t see a problem with being asked to wait outside for a bit longer.

@freedomontheway

Does anyone know why vets are still doing this I very much doubt it It would interesting if a vet could come here and tell us but I guess that isn't going to happen Given the money made from pet owners I'd really like to know why, in 16 months, vets have not adapted their surgeries to have adequate ventilation

I am a clinical director and only last week I had a call from HSE checking out COVID security. We discussed our current management and still HSE critique us from not being able to socially distance over a cat and no being able to open a window when we have a loose cat in the room. As a practice the vast majority of my staff are under 30 so not yet vaccinated in any way at all. Prior to COVID in regular consults I would have owners in close contact ( less than 1m) for quite a considerable period whilst they restrained their pet and I say clipped it nails often. Virtually face to face. I have to balance my staff safety against the benefits of clients coming in the building. Lots of vets buildings are old small rooms, narrow corridors unable to make one way systems. As previously said due to working in close proximity as a team if one is COVID positive everyone would have to self isolate taking out the entire practice and preventing us from carrying out our legal obligation of providing a emergency care. We are making plans for clients to come back in the buildings, probably from 21/6. We don't see ourselves as special, just trying to protect ourselves, our staff and keep being able to provide care. Pet ownership has increased massively in the last 15 months so demands on our service have increased, the vast majority of us have worked all the way through seeing clients through out (at the start we really didn't know what risk we were taking). Practice staff are exhausted often working longer hours than we did previously as Brexit has caused a shortage of vets and vet nurses. Abuse of staff in vets surgery is up massively, one of my colleagues received a death treat the other day for asking some to pay a £65 bill. We want clients back in it would help us, but we want to keep everyone safe and ensure that we can continue to offer care.

I like my vets but I was contemplating at one point last year about moving when they were still taking pets from owners outside when generally everything had opened up but fortunately they started to allow people in again.

I also don't buy into the view that most pets are calmer without their owners. My dogs default position is to shut down so yes he would appear calm but actually he is so terrified he switches off. I once had to visit him in the recovery area where he was in a crate inside the vets after an operation and he had shut down. No eye contact, no emotional response.

With everything about covid there are people that take it to the extremes and those that minimise contact but still give a good service. I am thankful that my vets are now being sensible.

It would interesting if a vet could come here and tell us but I guess that isn't going to happen

There's a very strict set of requirements from RCVS, and vets are not praticijg legally if they do not follow them. So if you want to know, it's the College to enquiry of.

I took my cat to the vet the other day and could go in the consultation room

Last time I went. I had to wait in the car park. I think they've changed it now. But have to stand in the doorway of the room.

When dcat had to be PTS earlier this year we had to hand her over in the car park, then they brought her out to the car afterwards so we could take her home. This was during the last lockdown so I can understand their reasoning, sort of, but it still felt awful.

Vets who won't be letting clients in soon will be losing them to practices who will.

Personally I am sticking with our lovely vets even though they aren't letting in people just yet, but I can understand why people want to go in with their pets especially for pts.

We had to hand over baskets at the front door. One of our cats had to be PTS and they sedated her and brought her to the car so we could be with her when she fell asleep and then we handed her back. We lost our other cat suddenly, probably a stroke, and they told us he didn't make it while we were out on a busy street. We were completly devastated and sobbing.

Consulting without owners takes longer, but the animals are on balance calmer
Interesting as this is exactly the opposite of what the vet said to me on Wednesday. She said that things were so much easier since they had owners back in the room as pets are so much calmer when their owners are with them, especially dogs. It makes sense to me.

Covid is not going to go away, so how long is this going to go on for? I've been put on the shielding list from the first wave due to a genetic condition. I've had my two jabs for weeks now and I have accepted I have to resume life as normal. I put myself more at risk sharing a room with the vet than her in most likelihood, but there comes a time when you have to accept that things are not going to get any less risky for quite some time.

I can't help but wonder whether it suits some vets to not have to deal with humans at all. I'm glad my practice encouraged owners in the room as soon as the guidelines allowed them to do so.