Following, you’ll discover a very small sample taken from a comprehensive (colourfully hand-written!) veterinary receptionist guide I created, in my own time, to help colleagues when I worked as a vet receptionist for a well-known charitable veterinary organisation. For data protection reasons, I am limited as to the information I’m able to share.
© D.E. Kendall
Useful Facts…
- All animals (aside male cats) require a pre-neuter check within 1 month of their neutering surgery.
- Dog castration from 6 months.
- Dog spay from 6 months, or, 2-3 months after first season.
- (Male & Female) Cats neuter from 4 months.
- (Male & Female) Rabbits neuter from 5 months.
- Puppies: 1st Vaccination from 8 weeks old.
2nd Vaccination 2-3 weeks later. - Kittens: 1st Vaccination from 9 weeks old.
2nd Vaccination 3 weeks later. - Rabbits: 1st Vaccination from 5 weeks old.
- Annual booster vaccination will be 1 year after the date of the 2nd vaccination. If a pet has missed the due date for their annual booster, check with a vet in case they need to re-start.
- Standard flea treatment is usually once a month and standard wormer is usually required once every 3 months, unless treating for lungworm which is required monthly.
Stray Cat Procedure…
- If a client has tried all means to locate a cat’s registered owner (checked microchip, put posters up, checked will all local vet practices for missing cats matching description of stray cat, put posts up on social media etc.), and no response – and if they’ve been caring for the cat for 3 months or more – that cat is then under the care of the client, who is responsible for all the cat’s treatment costs.
- If they don’t wish to keep the cat, direct them to a local cat rescue charity.
- All veterinary practices have a duty of care to seriously ill or injured stray cats.
- Microchip will be checked and if no owner found, cat’s care will be handed over to a cat charity.
- The cat charity will decide whether or not to re-home the cat with the person who found them, should that person wish to take on ownership of said stray cat.
Data Protection…
- CANNOT provide a client with a pet’s details unless they have completed data protection questions correctly: Surname, First Line of Address, Pet Name etc.
- Can provide pet’s medical history if requested by another vet practice who completes all data protection questions correctly.
- Owner can be sent their pet’s medical history, provided they have correctly answered data protection questions and provided enough details about the pet to assure you they are the pet’s rightful owner.
- NEVER repeat a client’s phone number or full address back to them! Instead, ask whether last 3 digits of phone number are correct, or check their postcode (when checking them in – obviously they need to provide first line of address when completing data protection questions).
Phonetic Alphabet…
This is definitely the best way to spell out words, or to check spelling of a word, when setting up records!
A – Alpha / B – Bravo / C – Charlie / D – Delta / E – Echo / F – Foxtrot / G – Golf / H – Hotel / I – India / J – Juliet / K – Kilo / L – Lima / M – Mike / N – November / O – Oscar / P – Papa / Q – Quebec / R – Romeo / S – Sierra / T – Tango / U – Uniform / V – Victor / W – Whiskey / X – Xray / Y – Yankee / Z – Zulu