Saturday mornings tend to be fast-paced and pre-filled at veterinary clinics nationwide. Most practitioners recommend that you leave Saturday appointments to those who need them and cannot get their pets to the veterinary hospital any other time.
That is, those practitioners who are open on Saturdays. There is an increasing trend for veterinarians to close their clinics on Saturdays and leave weekend care to the emergency hospitals.
Molly, a patient I saw this morning (a Saturday) is a good example. Molly’s mom called about 9 AM to report that she was very sick. We advised her to come straight over so we could begin a workup for her.
When Molly arrived we discovered that her complaint was vomiting, and that she had been vomiting for three days. While we were quite happy to see Molly today and put an end to her vomiting, she and mom were both at a little bit of a disadvantage compared to the scenario if she had come in three, two, or even one day ago, on a weekday. Here’s why:
- Commercial veterinary laboratories are open, giving us access to full-service, veterinary-specific laboratory testing, should it be needed.
- Saturday mornings are usually pre-booked completely full, so any patients coming in at the last minute must be worked into the schedule.
- Because the usual pace of Saturday mornings is so hectic, we might not have as much time to spend on a given individual patient, compared to a weekday appointment.
As it turned out Molly’s situation was easy to diagnose and easy to treat and we had her on her way within an hour and a half. We expect a full recovery.
See you Monday, Dr. Randolph.
