Vet Connect

By Kim VanWagner, D.V.M.

Relationship With Your Vet

Healthy relationships are considered one of the pillars for your wellbeing, because they provide you with life energy that nurtures you from within. As humans, we feel the need to relate to others in order to feel worthy and to feel we belong. We are social creatures. All kinds of relationships play an essential role in our lives! Just being in the presence of people with whom you have something in common already contributes to your well-being! Healthy relationships will contribute to a good environment that anyone around you can benefit from energetically. You probably never thought about your relationship with your veterinarian (or any other service provider) as a relationship at all. The main relationship with your vet is considered the veterinarian-clientpatient-relationship (VCPR) and is the essential basis for interaction among veterinarians, their clients, and their patients. It is critical to providing quality veterinary care and vital to animal welfare by allowing a veterinarian to regularly assess a pet’s entire physical status, family environment, and to regularly communicate with the owner. In Texas, veterinarians are required by law to maintain a current VCPR within the year in order to continue to dispense medications or even make recommendations for your pet. AAHA defines VCPR to require all of the following: • The veterinarian has assumed responsibility for making medical judgments regarding the health of the patient and the need for medical treatment, and the client (owner or caretaker) has agreed to comply with the veterinarian’s instructions. • The veterinarian has sufficient knowledge of the patient to initiate at least a general or preliminary diagnosis of its medical condition. This means the veterinarian has physically examined the patient within the past 12 months (or more frequently as dictated by the age of the patient, medical condition, or treatment therapy--such as with controlled substances).

• The veterinarian is available for ongoing care of the patient or has arranged for emergency coverage or continuing care and treatment of the animal by an appropriate veterinary professional. • The veterinarian maintains complete and legible medical records, including assessment and treatment plan, in such a way that another veterinarian will be able to proceed with the continuity of care and treatment of that patient. Healthy relationships require that both people respect and trust each other and have an open and non-judgmental dialogue, as well as a practice of give-and-take. Things most important in healthy relationships are trust, loyalty, happiness, respect, emotional support, humor, compromise, freedom/independence, safety, friendship, honesty, forgiveness, communication, quality time, and random acts of kindness. When considering your relationship with your veterinarian, building trust, having good open and honest communication, and treating each other with respect will be greatly beneficial to the care of your pet.

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