Social distancing and vets

The Government’s advice is clear. We should not be leaving our houses for anything other than four very clear reasons:

1. Shopping for basic necessities, as infrequently as possible
2. One form of exercise a day – for example, a run, walk or cycle (alone or with members of your household)
3. Any medical need, to provide care or to help a vulnerable person
4. Travelling to and from work – but only where this is absolutely necessary and cannot be done from home

Incredulously, a large proportion of the public still does not seem to respect that.

As a vet, I qualify for number four, and this week, our practice has received a barrage of abuse for trying to follow RCVS and BVA guidelines to provide an emergency service only.

Emergency on planet earth

To some members of the public, it would seem they deem a flea tablet crisis-worthy…

We’ve had clients coming up with every excuse under the sun to be seen by a vet – even lying about the fact they had already tried other vets, been given medication via remote prescribing and yet still felt this was insufficient so exaggerated the urgency to us who, based on the false information we were given, conducted a physical examination.

In a time where humans are getting chemotherapy postponed to free up hospital resources and staff, the only companion animals that should be treated should be genuine, life-threatening emergencies.

Scaling things down

Farm animals are slightly different, as some of the routine farm work is essential to keeping the food chain moving, but vets are scaling any non-essential physical farm work down, where possible.

Small animal and equine vaccines have seemingly been a contentious issue, but I believe I am correct in saying these guidelines are now generally being interpreted in the same way.

Our practice is postponing all small animal vaccinations, and will only give a tetanus vaccine to horses that present as emergencies with severe wounds that require veterinary attention.

Blatant disregard

Don’t get me wrong, the world is not full of horrible people, but it does sometimes feel that way when you break this news to clients. Some are very sensible and understand the serious risk to human health. Others, however, are outraged at the thought they may be inconvenienced by having to restart vaccinations at a later date.

My sympathy is somewhat lacking, having seen the hordes of crowds at Snowdon last month, the abuse the police are receiving for trying to break up gatherings and the assault on a farmer for telling a walker to go home while disinfecting a gate in the Peak District.

I cannot believe the absolute ignorance of some people, their blatant disregard for Government advice and the hateful attitude towards those who are following the guidelines. My faith in humanity is dwindling…

Not just for laughs

As vets, we are advocates for preventive health care and animal welfare. We are not postponing our routine services for a laugh or to be awkward, we are doing it for the greater good of society and, ultimately, to help preserve as many human lives as we can.

We would never deliberately put animals at risk of any sort of harm (funnily enough, as vets, that’s the opposite of what we are trying to achieve), but, unfortunately, some clients just will not take our word for it.

Believe us

If we – and I mean a collective WE as a profession, not just “we” in our individual practice – have decided the risk to human health is too great and outweighs the risk of puppies contracting vaccinable disease or horses getting flu, believe us – take the alternative advice, such as keeping your puppy inside instead of taking it out (you shouldn’t be going out other than for the aforementioned reasons, anyway).

While vets are only physically seeing animals for genuine emergencies, we are more than happy to provide telephone consultations for any other concerns you may have. We are not being deliberately evasive, we are just trying to do our jobs in the way that is most appropriate at this time.

Please remember that animal welfare will always be our priority, but in these unprecedented circumstances, human health trumps that.