Practice Philosophy
Those of you old enough to
remember going to Disney World in the 60's and 70's will remember
buying A - E coupons when you entered the Magic Kingdom. You would
tell the ticket lady how many of each type of ticket you wanted to
purchase. An A ticket got your kid a ride on Dumbo the Flying
Elephant, but if you wanted to go to Space Mountain or The
Haunted Mansion, you had to use up one of your precious, more
costly, E tickets. The same sort of thing happens in a
veterinary clinic when it comes to choosing the level of care you
want for your pet. You can decide if you want your pet to have
A-class treatment, or E-class treatment or some treatment
in-between the two. No one in this clinic is going to criticize any
decision anyone makes in either direction. With A-type treatment we
will do a good physical exam, make our best call on what condition
or conditions may be going on and try some treatment before
proceeding with more expensive workups. As we go up the
diagnostic ladder adding more and more tests to pinpoint
the disease, the cost obviously escalates. Many of our
clients like us to try "A" treatment first and an equal number like
to buy an E ticket, all the way up ultrasounds, CT scans,
radiation treatment for cancer, expensive chemotherapy protocols
and now, MRI scans. We maintain a strong referral network
of specialists at specialty hospitals here in the Chicago
area and at Purdue and the University of Illinois vet schools and
can offer any level of care. We frequently have three specialists,
a cardiologist, a radiologist, and a surgeon for the more
difficult surgeries, in our clinic giving care to our
client's pets. I very much enjoy
working up the difficult cases as that is what keeps practice
interesting. On the other hand, I have no problem taking a
good history, doing a good physical exam and then
"give it your best guess, a shot and some pills, doc".
The only thing I won't do is to euthanize a pet that I think can be
easily treated and cured with minimal cost.
