Mh (-)
Nothing like reading the yelp reviews of your own vet to accidentally trigger your anxiety on a Saturday morning.
(I thought I was clicking through to leave a google review, and the only reason I was seeing them at all was to check their hours for when I could go pick up antibiotics for my iguana today. I've had nothing but good experiences with them! But now my brain's like "aaaaAAA."
It'll be fine, but: bleh. I know negative response bias is a thing, but anxiety doesn't care abt logic)
re: Mh (-)
@hummingrain Man, I wish there were a filter for angry one-star reviews from soccer mom's named "Karen." ;p Yeah, if my experiences reading restaurant reviews apply to vets, they're probably fine.
First thing I do with any restaurant is filter by worst rating and see how many of the one-stars are stuff like "was closed at 9:56 pm on a Monday, site said was upon until 10:00, how DARE you." I think a lot of people just want a place to vent when they're frustrated, and can't tell the difference between "genuinely badly run place" and "my feelings were briefly hurt by a misunderstanding."
What sort of stuff were people complaining about?
re: Mh (-)
@zebratron2084 Lots of things from "the receptionists were RUDE" to "I didn't get a call back when I called in to ask about XYZ" to things like the vet accidentally misdiagnosing an animal and getting a second opinion elsewhere, that sort of stuff.
Everything from "goddammit Karen" minor stuff to things that are well within the realm of understandable human error. Lots of people who came in with pre-conceptions about what was up w/ their pet + didn't like how the docs handled things.
re: Mh (-)
@zebratron2084 But yeah, like...the vet didn't go and try to kill your animal, and especially with exotics sometimes they just don't show signs until it's too late. Also notable that most of the complaints were about exotic mammals, and also about the other vet at the practice, rather than the one I interface with for reptiles.
OH, and it's expensive. But you got a fucking exotic animal what did you expect.
re: Mh (-)
@hummingrain Yeah, that all sounds like par for the course, especially when you factor in that people are gonna get uptight (and *sigh* look for someone to blame) when nothing can be done for their pet.
Just drawing from my own Yelp experiences—maybe comparing with the low reviews on other vets in the area would help reassure that anxious part of your brain? Betcha anything they've got 'em too.
Pardon me a moment while I grumble about people and their "exotic mammals" that probably shouldn't have ever been in captivity in the first place. No, Karen, nobody knows how to take care of your goddamn binturong. ;p I'm still carrying a grudge 20 years later over my ex-girlfriend's poor sickly, shivering little hedgehogs. >_<
re: Mh (-)
@zebratron2084 ALso I am sorry to hear about those hedgies. ;_; I can see why you'd still be carrying a grudge. There's definitely exotic owners (reptiles, birds, mammals, etc) who know what they're doing, but they're vastly outweighed by those who don't. :(
re: Mh (-)
@hummingrain And, I mean, "exotic" covers a lot of territory. I've known people who kept skunks and ferrets who were, like, 5th-generation captive and they seemed pretty darned happy and attached. I'm talking about, say, the kind of people who want to have a serval or a raccoon or a wolfdog or something without, you know, at least making wildlife care their *main hobby*.
And then at the other end of the spectrum you have the woman who runs dailycoyote.net, who just kinda had a coyote dropped in her lap and is one of my personal heroes...
re: Mh (-)
@zebratron2084 Yeah. There was one review on there that was from an iguana owner who *clearly* didn't know what they were doing, the vet was like "dude, your iguana is not doing so well," the O cried, and then they LEARNED and DID BETTER and the iguana lived for twenty years and I'm SO PROUD OF THEM. ;_;