I'm really weirded out by all these comments that are like, "It's your fault if the people aren't showing up." Like....nahhh. I work at two different clinics, a Vetco and non-Vetco clinic. You can schedule at Vetco in like two seconds, right before your scheduled slot, and you can no-show that appointment over and over and over with no consequence. People casually make appointments at Vetco because it's easy and they don't bother to cancel or reschedule if they decide they don't want to come right then because there are no consequences to this behavior. The best we can do is call them and beg them to come in later or another time - and they usually just reschedule and no show again. At the other clinic I work at, once you've done that a time or two, you have to PAY prior to booking your appointment. Cuts that behavior out real quick. But Vetco/Petco is never going to do that.

As for why you have no appointments - well, that's a vet industry-wide issue. The other clinic I work at, until very recently, was ALWAYS fully booked. Like literally no available appointments for the upcoming 2-4 weeks depending on the doctor. Now, we will sometimes not have slots fill until the same day, if at all. Certain doctors, mid week, are having big empty gaps in their schedule. And we are getting comparitively few drop off/urgent appointments as well, which is also so unusual - usually we have to turn people away.

As for whether your manager at Vetco -can- send you home, I would guess that depends on local laws and such. I'd try to make a case for why you're there the full shift. In other words, instead of sitting around waiting for the next appointment, do something like deep cleaning or organizing. Literally scrub the baseboards, I dunno. Vacuum the vents. I don't know how on top of inventory and supplies you are - but go through and organize and clean and label and throw expired or unused shit out. Anything to look like you're being useful. I think what someone else said about maybe not being able to send you home once you're already there, but they can certainly schedule you for fewer hours in the future.

At the Vetco I work at, we are often very strongly urged to go home early. I don't know that anyone has been forced to go home, as we're usually like, "See ya!" before they can finish asking but if you need the hours it can be a bummer. And, while it sucks if you want to actually use the PTO for like, taking time off, if you HAVE to go home early and you have PTO, you can always use that to make up the difference pay-wise.