Weird and Wacky cases in vet med😵‍💫

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In vet school, it seems like there’s a logical sequence to everything:

• Pet gets sick
• Owner tells the vet what’s wrong
• Vet examines pet
• Vet and owner decide together what diagnostics are appropriate
• Vet assesses diagnostics and decides on treatment
• Owner approves of treatment
• Treatment is given to the pet
• Pet is no longer sick

Problem solved, right???

And you’re an amazing veterinarian who has just saved yet another animal, and the owner loves you!! Right???

Just as we think life is A—----------------> B, as long as we do all the “right” things…

We also kinda expect the day in the clinic to be sort of A—-> B —------> C —-----> D, and so on.

But… there’s almost ALWAYS a “but” in veterinary life, isn’t there?

Sometimes whatever is going on is just … Weird and Wacky.

And you won’t be able to solve it immediately (or ever).

Pet gets worse while you and the owner get more and more frustrated.

And this is where you want to be able to manage your mind, and be aware of your brain telling you stories like:

• You’re just not good enough
• You don’t really know what you’re doing
• You’re not as good as the others/as good as you thought/as good as your mum thinks you are
• You should go and work in ASDA instead
• This clinic doesn’t have the right facilities for you to work properly
• If you had more experience, you would be able to solve for this

These thoughts are likely to send you into a spin of feeling defeated, anxious, stressed out and frustrated. You’re likely to experience impostor syndrome (if you want to know more about impostor syndrome, you can watch my free webinar about it via the link in my bio).

And all this is going to prevent you from making the next decision you need to make to at least stabilise the animal and make it comfortable while you buy time to find out what the hell is going on.

Just like life is a 50/50 experience mix of amazing and not so amazing stuff, so is veterinary life. Perfection is rarely achieved, and as a veterinarian you’re likely a person who strives for it, and beats yourself up for not getting there, thinking something must be wrong somewhere (for example you).

If you can accept that sometimes it’s just - Weird and Wacky happening, and all you can do is your best, and your best is good enough, no matter what the owner claims - then you’re in a good place. And the best place to gain a perspective and make sure you’re feeling calm and grounded and confident enough to be able to treat the symptoms as they arise one at a time, and make sure the pet is as safe and comfortable as possible.

You don’t actually have to know everything and be able to diagnose and treat everything in order to feel confident and grounded. You just need to be there, and do your best. No-one can ask anything else of you (the owners probably will, but that’s their thing, not yours).

If you get hung up on a case - just remember it might be a case of Weird and Wacky - and just go with the flow.

If you’re struggling with feeling confident enough in the clinic, and often beat yourself up or spend hours ruminating over all the “shoulds” in your head, unable to shake the anxiety off, reach out for a free consult with me and I’ll walk you through what’s going on for you.

In your corner,

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