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Again, I am attempting to be helpful and educational, rather than just ranting vehemently about the stupidity of the masses. Today's lecture is on the giving of a medical history.
When you take your pet (or child, or self) to the doctor, please do your best to give a complete, relevant, and accurate history, with note of changes/progression and frequency of problems. Do not tell the doctor what you think the diagnosis is or what you think the doctor should do to treat it--diagnosis and prescriptions are the doctor's job, not yours. But the full history is necessary to get an accurate diagnosis.
Example: Patient presented today because "urine smells strong". It was not until after collecting urine, discussing infection, palpating the bladder, and deciding we needed to x-ray because it feels like the bladder is full of gravel, that the owner chips in "oh, well, I know she's got bladder stones; the groomer found some in her urine a month ago."
This is decidedly not providing the doctor with the full and relevant history.
Useful things the doctor wants to know:
When did the problem start? Is this the first time the patient has had this problem? How has it changed? What have you done at home to attempt to treat it? Is the patient on ANY medication or supplement or nutriceutical no matter how apparently unrelated to the current problem? Besides the obvious problem, how is the patient's general attitude? Has appetite or thirst changed (decrease OR increase)?
Things the doctor does not want to know:
Your medical history. Your financial problems. Your marital problems. Stories about dogs long-dead and gone which may or may not have had similar problems.
As a side note; it is wildly inappropriate to delay treatment for urinary stones for over a month.
When you take your pet (or child, or self) to the doctor, please do your best to give a complete, relevant, and accurate history, with note of changes/progression and frequency of problems. Do not tell the doctor what you think the diagnosis is or what you think the doctor should do to treat it--diagnosis and prescriptions are the doctor's job, not yours. But the full history is necessary to get an accurate diagnosis.
Example: Patient presented today because "urine smells strong". It was not until after collecting urine, discussing infection, palpating the bladder, and deciding we needed to x-ray because it feels like the bladder is full of gravel, that the owner chips in "oh, well, I know she's got bladder stones; the groomer found some in her urine a month ago."
This is decidedly not providing the doctor with the full and relevant history.
Useful things the doctor wants to know:
When did the problem start? Is this the first time the patient has had this problem? How has it changed? What have you done at home to attempt to treat it? Is the patient on ANY medication or supplement or nutriceutical no matter how apparently unrelated to the current problem? Besides the obvious problem, how is the patient's general attitude? Has appetite or thirst changed (decrease OR increase)?
Things the doctor does not want to know:
Your medical history. Your financial problems. Your marital problems. Stories about dogs long-dead and gone which may or may not have had similar problems.
As a side note; it is wildly inappropriate to delay treatment for urinary stones for over a month.
