By Jesi Peck, Executive Assistant
I am 25 years old, and therefore am a member of the Millennial Generation. We are a large percentage of the general population, and many of us are pet owners. Some of us, like myself, are taking care of our senior pets that we grew up with as children. One of my cats, Sierra, is 14 years old. My parents gave her to me when she was a kitten, as a gift for my 11th birthday. We have been inseparable ever since.
A little over 2 years ago, I moved across the country. I had to find a new animal hospital to take Sierra to, which is no easy feat. Sierra is quite temperamental…to say the least. She loves me, enjoys my husband’s company, and dislikes every other living thing. Even my parents, who gave her to me as a gift, can attest to this fact! While I still love her dearly, this can make visiting the vet extremely stressful for me.
1 year ago, when she was due for her annual checkup, I searched for a new animal hospital to take her to. After some research, I found a feline-only animal hospital nearby, with excellent reviews (reviews are important to a Millennial!). So I booked an appointment for her thinking, “I can always take her somewhere different for her next checkup if I am not satisfied with this place.” Turns out, I loved this new animal hospital!
Last week, I took Sierra in for a dental cleaning, and I’ll tell you all about my experience and why I love our new animal hospital.
Before The Dental Cleaning
Before Sierra’s dental cleaning last week, we had visited our veterinarian 3 other times for 2 regular checkups and 1 instance of Sierra feeling under the weather. At our last checkup, our vet showed us her teeth, and highly suggested she get a dental cleaning, as long as her bloodwork came back normal. The veterinarian explained to us the importance of keeping her teeth clean and how all cats are different when it comes to oral health. According to her bloodwork, she’s quite the healthy girl, and so we moved forward in scheduling her dental cleaning! We were able to choose between a few dates, schedule a drop-off time and schedule a pick-up time. This allowed us to know exactly what our schedule would look like on the day of her dental cleaning.
The Dental Cleaning
Part of the reason why I love our new animal hospital, is that Sierra seems more at ease going to the vet than she ever has in her whole life! Like I said, she is extremely temperamental, so she’s definitely not purring with joy every time we walk into the clinic. However, there is an extremely noticeable difference in her, when compared to visiting our previous clinic (our previous clinic saw both dogs and cats). Every visit, our clinic provides us with extra Feliway wipes to take home for future vet visits. So before each visit, I wipe down her carrier. In the waiting area, they supply blankets that have been sprayed with Feliway, so I can cover her carrier with one if I feel the need. They also have Feliway dispensers in each exam room. Each time we go into the exam room, they put Sierra into a small tub, which has one of the blankets sprayed with Feliway inside. Before visiting this animal hospital, I had only ever seen a vet examine Sierra directly on the exam room table. I truly think this simple tub makes a huge difference for her.
When she is in the tub, and the vet is examining her, a veterinary assistant is holding onto Sierra, trying to comfort her. Now, every time we have taken Sierra to the vet, we have had the same veterinary assistant, and my husband and I now call him “the cat whisperer.” Before Sierra’s dental cleaning, our veterinarian performed a quick exam to make sure everything would go smoothly. While Sierra was in her little tub on the exam table, the veterinary assistant had his hand over her head, gently petting her. At one point, she lifted her head out from underneath his hands, looked at him, sniffed his hand, and then slowly allowed herself to go back underneath his hand. As I have said before, Sierra hates everyone and everything besides my husband and I, and to see her on the exam table doing that was amazing! I could not have felt more comfortable leaving Sierra in their care to go under anesthesia and have her teeth cleaned.
Before leaving, our veterinarian went over the cost of everything, what would occur if she needed an extraction, and a brief timeline of what Sierra’s day at the vet would look like. She told me that she would treat Sierra as if she were her own cat and then I signed some paperwork, double checked Sierra’s pick up time with the front desk, and headed out!
After The Dental Cleaning
No more than 3 hours later, I got a call from our veterinarian who let us know that everything went as planned and that she needed no extractions. She let me know that Sierra was just beginning to wake up from the anesthesia, and seemed intrigued by all of the activity happening at the clinic. She let me know that they would give me a call if anything weird happened, but that I was good to come pick her up later in the day because everything went so well.
That evening, I went to go pick her up and our veterinarian showed me pictures of Sierra’s teeth. She explained to me what they look for in X-Ray images that signifies healthy teeth, and then explained how healthy Sierra’s teeth looked as well as if anything seemed abnormal. I truly appreciated the time our veterinarian took to explain everything regarding Sierra’s dental hygiene.
As animal lovers and pet parents, our beloved pets mean the world to us, regardless of the generation we were born in! As a Millennial pet parent to a temperamental senior cat, I spent a lot of time and effort in finding a new animal hospital to take her to when I moved across the country. After having multiple experiences with our new veterinarian in which Sierra is comfortably laying in a tub on an exam table at her new vet, as opposed to screaming at a technician on the floor in the corner of an exam room (yes, this happened!), I can say that I am so glad I found our new clinic, and will be happy taking her there for any surgeries, exams, or dental cleanings she will need in the future!