I have a friend called Nova. Her owner is called Chloe. We met only a couple months ago when Mother arranged for us to walk together. Nova is a staffordshire bull terrier and matches me for energy and enthusiasm. Mother loves it when I come back from a walk with Nova because Nova is the only dog to have ever actually tired me out. I go for walks with Nova on Tuesdays.
Mother pays them to take me, but I like to pretend that isn’t the case, because nobody wants somebody to be friends with them because they’ve been paid too! How humiliating would that be?
Anyway, Chloe works for a company that Mothers work uses. Its a all round odd job animal company. They do pet sitting, and dog walking, and doggy day care, and at home euthanasia’s, and pet ambulance services. Mother will regularly see the staff in consults helping the clients with their pets, or even bringing in the pet on behalf of the client. Mother set me up with them as she wanted to have a back up plan in case work got too busy in the day and she was unable to walk me herself. It’s very rarely happened. Maybe about five times over the first year. Once I had an account set up, Mother started me with a dog walk with them every Tuesday, so that I could get comfortable with them (stranger danger people!) and they could get comfortable with me, but also takes the worry off Mother on a day when she wants to go to Jiu Jitsui after work. At first I was a bit unsure. Chloe seemed nice, but I wasn’t sure why the nurses at work were handing me to this stranger. But, she had my lead, and my treats, so when she let me off the lead on the field I was a good boy and went back to her when she called. After a couple of walks just me and Chloe, she introduced Nova to the mix.
As much as I love Chloe and Nova. I love walks with my Mother more.
But these past 2 weeks, Mother has had to pay for four additional walks with Chloe’s company. Three of them with Chloe, but one of them with John, who I’d never met at all until this walk. Mother doesn’t like having to ask them to walk me. She says it costs extra money and she feels like a bad owner.
But this month the other vet in the clinic has now been off for three consecutive weeks, and will be off next week also. Mother and the remaining vets have struggled. Mother and I haven’t left on time once in the last two weeks. Mother had three days with no lunch what-so-ever and the other days only managed 15-30 minutes (she’s supposed to get an hour for lunch). Which is why she needed to pay for Chloe to take me for a walk.
Also, Mother and I had to go to work this Saturday afternoon to do some appointments. Mother explained to me that basically, because with the other vet off, that’s a whole consult list of appointments that need to get rearranged and there’s no space to move them too because we don’t know when the other vet will be back for sure. So Mother and one of the nurses agreed to come in on their Saturday off to get some of the appointments done. Mother said they’re probably going to need to do this a fair bit. We did it a lot last year, and Mother promised to not do is quite as often this year. Mother likes having some Saturdays to herself.
This week though, Mother is very tired. She always makes sure I have good food, my dinner and fishy treats. But she doesn’t look after herself quite as well. She had cereal for dinner two days in a row. And toast for lunch three days in a row. On Thursday, Mother didn’t manage to get a lunch. She knew she wouldn’t because she had seen the ops list the day before, and there had been an emergency leg amputation added to the full list last thing on Wednesday. So we got up and headed to work earlier than usual so I could have an extra long walk. Mother promised me that because she was off work on Friday I’d get an extra long walk then too (I got a four hour walk!), so I didn’t get a lunch time walk. I had a few toilet breaks, and a frozen food puzzle to keep me entertained.
At one point, almost home time (I’m very good at telling when it’s almost home time.. I start barking to let Mother know too), Mother came into the kennels where our VCA (veterinary care assistant) Charlotte was working. She was telling Charlotte about the medicines the inpatients would need, but also informed Charlotte that another emergency had arrived, a possible foreign body. This would be the second emergency that evening. Mother and Charlotte looked at each other, and then they both started crying. Then laughing. They are both so weird. Mother says sometimes when days or weeks are so bad, you have to laugh and cry, otherwise you actually cry. Mother had been laughing all day. Thankfully the foreign body seemed well with no signs of being actually obstructed (when the foreign object gets stuck and makes the patient unwell). I think if it had actually been obstructed and needed investigations and treatment, Mother would have had a mental breakdown.
Mother tells me, that before I existed, she worked a summer like this when one of the vets left the job suddenly. It made her depressed. When Mother gets a bit stressed, and starts feeling lethargic and fatigued, she feels a bit empty, hollow inside. It doesn’t happen often. Mother says she’s quite a hardy person, and this job is difficult and stressful and emotionally draining on a regular basis. Other vets often struggle with mental health issues because of the strain of the job. But where others are struggling, Mother is usually coping okay. So Mother says, if she’s feeling the burnout, then the rest of the team are definitely feeling it. And Mother is definitely feeling it.
Mother loves her job. But she wants to love her job, while being able to give it the time and concentration and care that it deserves, while also having time for lunch, and toilet breaks.
We are not looking forward to the coming week. Mother is already so tired, and emotionally drained, and there’s at least another week of this insanity to come, if not longer. Wish us luck.
Burnout affects most vets as some point in their career. The problem is when the burnout is so severe that a vet can’t see their way out of it. Sometimes that’ll mean they leave the profession totally (which means less vets overall which doesn’t help the stress factor), but sometimes its much worse. Veterinarians are four times as likely to die by suicide as the general public.
Not all people who struggle show it. So please bear it in mind, when you next speak to any kind of medical professional. They are all so tired, and busy, but always doing the very best they can for their patients.
Thankfully Mother and I have two days off work now. And lots of dog walks plans with friends for me to play with.
To click on the heart because I love what you have written seems cruel and unkind, when your mum is clearly going through it right now, but you sharing these things must help your mum when she reads what you write. Give mum a few extra wags of the tail for Susan and me and woof/bark the message that we have a big garden (I bet she hasn’t told you that) and we do food to order. Thanks for sharing. ❤️❤️❤️O L O BUNNY 🐰