Wednesday, May 13, 2020

Covid-19 A Veterinary Journal (6)


As we cruise into the middle of May, we find ourselves almost back to full strength, staff wise, at Crawford.  There are still challenges to face as New York prepares to move towards allowing certain businesses to start to open up.  Our goal and the goal of our upline management remains to maintain staff safety while meeting the needs of our patients and their owners.  I can’t lie, it has been a challenge for us and understandably a frustration for pet owners.  This past week saw two staff members return to work and one more announce her intention of returning in two weeks.  We hope to welcome Dr. Wu back from leave at the end of June.  As the staff ramps up, we are maintaining vigilance while keeping an eye forward to the time when we can be back to a full-service veterinary practice.

So, what are we doing to move towards that goal?  We have started to allow drop off appointments in addition to our curbside check in appointments.  This gives us greater flexibility to work in sick animals rather than sending them away to specialty practices when that is not indicated.  This allows the pets to be in a more familiar environment and helps contain costs.  We have been working with a new urgent care center in Carle Place for our after-hours emergencies when that is the appropriate level of care.  We have experimented with different schedules during the day to see what gives the best capacity to care for pets that need more immediate attention, while still providing the essential preventative care so that we don’t see sick puppies from inadequate immunization or a public health crises due to lapses in Rabies and Leptospirosis vaccinations.  We continue to dispense parasite control for both internal parasites as well as fleas and ticks. 

As I was out today (social distance running) I thought how thankful I am that so many of our clients are appreciative of the work that the doctors and staff are putting in to help care for the pets in our area.  I am also thankful for the support that we have received from our field supervisors and corporate managers.  Their compassion for your pets and our safety have really helped us to maintain a safe, effective, and professional environment at Crawford during this period of stressful crises.

Thursday, May 7, 2020

Covid-19 A veterinary Journal (5)


What a lovely day today is.  The weather was perfect, and my team and I are off after a long two weeks.  The other team headed by Dr. Waters was on self-quarantine for 14 days, but today they are back, almost at full strength.  My team is off today and then we have a long weekend after one day back tomorrow.  Working with a reduced staff has been a real challenge for everyone, but I am happy to say that the Crawford team pulled together and we were able to take care of all essential health issues for our patients.

Going forward, we are getting ready for the changes that Governor Cuomo will propose next week and we will see how that impacts the services that we can offer.  We are hoping that we can start to once again offer routine preventive care in addition to essential veterinary services so that we can keep our furry friends healthy going forward.  While we do not see an imminent end to social distancing and curbside check ins, we are working on plans to improve on the efficiency of our processes and the effectiveness of our client communications so that we can serve the owners and pets of our community.


But back to today.  After a morning of errands, always stressful in this environment, Bella and I returned home.  I left her and I went for a run in the neighborhood.  It is easier to maintain distance here than many of the places that I like to run.  Not ¼ mile from my house I came upon a little Yorkie jogging towards me down the middle of the street.  Fortunately, there were no cars.  Also, fortunately, he was friendly and had tags with his name and phone number.  I called his owners and indeed, he had escaped when grand mom had come to help take care of the kids and left the door open.  I tucked him under my arm, continued on my run and dropped him off at home.  This just emphasizes the importance of watching out for our pets while our regular routines are disrupted.  It also shows the importance of proper ID for our pets in case they do get out.  Tags and microchips are the best combination for pet identification.  Maybe once restrictions are lifted, we can offer reduced pricing on microchips to pets that are not identified in this way.
In the meantime. 

Enjoy this weather and stay safe.