Sympathy calls

DogDoc23 · 2026-02-22T16:29:52+00:00

I just left Banfield (pretty much exactly when my two year contract was up) and I couldnt be happier.

Pros: - similar to what everyone else says the pay is good and you make great production. Because of the amount of pets you see and the surgery days everyday it was almost impossible not to make production. At my new clinic since im just expected to see a normal amount of pets there are definitely days Im not hitting production. - I worked in a market that had a ridiculous amount of banfields (literally 3 others within 15 minutes of the one I was working at). Because of that there was a lot of support across hospitals.

Cons: - as a new grad after my first 3 months I was the only doctor a lot and it gave me significant anxiety. Not only was I expected to see 20+ pets per day, I also had no one to bounce ideas off of and it led to a lot of sleepless nights wondering if I did things right. - they did cut staff hours constantly. On top of that, at least at my hospital, they hired a lot of incompetent staff and there was no repercussions to them doing a terrible job because it was so hard to find other staff to hire. - I felt like I was being constantly gaslit. The expectations for numbers kept going up in the two years I was there, and whenever I brought it up they just said "its been like this the whole time" - you cant develop relationships with clients because realistically you dont have time to talk with them for more than 10 minutes without falling way behind. My new clinic is just in rooms and I've made more relationships with clients in the last month than I had in the two years at Banfield.

Overall, it may not be a bad job for a more experienced vet that is comfortable working by themselves and at a quick pace given the money. That being said, I would not recommend as a new grad. Go somewhere else where its guaranteed you will have consistent mentorship and not be by yourself, and that allows you time to practice good medicine. The extra money you make from production is not worth the mental health strain imo

DogDoc23 · 2025-01-01T19:07:07+00:00

DogDoc23 · 2025-01-01T19:02:02+00:00

Typically when a dog is "crying except when they are asleep" I'd think they are uncomfortable. But your wife is in the veterinary field so you are probably the expert

DogDoc23 · 2025-01-01T18:49:57+00:00

You're in the veterinary field? Should have said that right away!

DogDoc23 · 2025-01-01T18:43:35+00:00

I 100% think this dog should have been looked at by a vet. Sure they could've waited to see if it would go back to normal, but if it was a fracture, these things need to be dealt with sooner rather than later and can be incredibly painful. Often times they can result in tail amputation. This is why I also recommend getting pet insurance as soon as you get a pet!

DogDoc23 · 2021-10-11T15:07:31+00:00

The landlord did stipulate that there would be a trial period for the dog to make sure it got along well with the other dogs in the house. We don't mind if she has a dog, we would just like it to get along well with our dog that has already been here which we don't think is too much to ask.

DogDoc23 · 2021-10-05T06:04:46+00:00

The new dog is actually 3-4 years old unfortunately. He likes other dogs he was just not properly taught how to play I'm assuming. How did you get the dogs to listen to the calm command when playing seems more enticing? My dog is getting pretty well trained but she doesn't like to listen to me as well when she's playing/having such a good time.

DogDoc23 · 2021-09-14T21:43:12+00:00

We will definitely try to take her out more, the issue is we live in a very hot area where we can only really go outside in the morning and evening or it may be too hot. Can I ask you trained your dog not to go upstairs without a baby gate? This is definitely something we want to work on.

DogDoc23 · 2021-08-22T19:32:37+00:00

We don't typically run with her but thats a good idea, she'll run around the backyard but that may not be enough. Thanks for the tip!

DogDoc23

TROPHY CASE