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HALO 5 XBOXONE ARRIVED TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is a bit of an odd rave, I suppose, but in the "euth can be a good thing" category....
.... I had a txfr last night of a dog in respiratory distress thought to be from rodenticide toxicity. RDVM didn't have aPT and was basically going off the quick onset of signs, dog vomiting yellow stuff that looked like the yellow rodenticide found at the house, other bloodwork unremarkable except for some elevated liver stuff .... all pretty reasonable given an otherwise reportedly unremarkable history.
Anyway, I get the patient and run an aPT, which is normal. Even with the Vit K that the RDVM gave, it shouldn't be normal yet if it's rodenticide. I start talking to the owners and getting a timeline and the whole rodenticide thing isn't adding up - clinical signs are too soon after potential exposure. And the dog isn't coughing - it's just super exertional, and most rodenticides that bleed into the lungs cough.
So I shoot rads. Major right sided heart, possible left-sided. Perihilar nastiness. The biggest liver I've ever seen in a dog. Almost definitely effusion in the abdomen. So I call it heart failure and start lasix, which doesn't really help. aFAST the abdomen and find fluid that turns out to be blood. Now it's looking like this dog probably has a bunch of downhill nastiness - heart issues, pulmonary issues, liver issues, hemoab, etc. I share all that background just to convey that this dog was headed down the tubes pretty swiftly and there comes a time when the problems just become overwhelming.
Dog lives through the night and goes back to the RDVM on his last legs (last night I was at a non-24-hr facility, we have to ship animals off in the weekday mornings, which can REALLY suck if they are O2 dependent). I get a call from the RDVM today to let me know they euthanized him.
The owner is from out of town and in-town because her father died Sunday night. His wake was today. And now she had to euthanize her dog today in an out-of-town hospital with just her and her friend to send the dog off. Apparently the dog had a favorite song that the staff at this clinic pulled up on their treatment room computer outside the O2 cage and the owner sang the song to the dog while they euthanized him.
Talk about a literal "euthanasia". Rather than make the poor animal suffer its way out gasping for breath, they sang him a song and ended his suffering. Really, a beautiful thing. I feel absolutely horrible for this owner, who was a sweet, kind woman who lost her father and companion animal all at the same time. But talk about sending the dog out with compassion ..... really amazing thing.
Wouldn't it be great if we could do that with people? I sure wish that's how I could go out - with someone singing me my favorite song before I suffer overly much.
Wouldn't it be great if we could do that with people? I sure wish that's how I could go out - with someone singing me my favorite song before I suffer overly much.
Beautiful post. In response to this quoted part of it, you might find this TED talk enjoyable. I did.
Fun! What did you get?I got a new stethoscope!
Fun! What did you get?
COME VISIT ME PLZ
Really she just wants to meet your cute pupHey babaaay, wanna go flyin in my aero-plane?
Hey babaaay, wanna go flyin in my aero-plane?
And now LIS just picks up preteens in his candy van. Oh how the mighty fall.
QFTReally she just wants to meet your cute pup
Really she just wants to meet your cute pup
So you use your service dog to pick up girls? Nice!Story of my life.
So you use your service dog to pick up girls? Nice!
So you use your service dog to pick up girls? Nice!
... it was all pretty slam-dunk downhill after that.
Nah. I was living in Tokyo. Flight there was impractical, but I am impressed.So, I dunno if yer married ... but I'm just gonna say this. Very early in our relationship, I flew my wife from Minneapolis to Chicago and had a limo waiting for us at the airport to chauffeur us downtown for dinner, and then flew us back ... it was all pretty slam-dunk downhill after that.
@StartingoverVet ... did you do something similar?
Nah. I was living in Tokyo. Flight there was impractical, but I am impressed.
Although I did rent a plane in the U.S. when I took her there on vacation, and then flew her to the Florida Keys, but that was more of a test to see if she "qualified to be my wife".
In 8 months, I earned my base salary for the year!
I feel silly, but . . . what's a base salary?
I got a little lost...Where did you get the $25,000 production goal from?So vets get paid in a few different ways. Some get paid straight salary. Others are on some sort of production system so they get paid usually between 18-22% of the revenue they bring into the hospital plus benefits.
I'm on a prosal (production-salary) system, which means that I'm guaranteed to be paid a base salary each month, so that if the hospital is slow or I get sick/take vacation or something and need to take time off, I still get paid enough monthly to pay my bills. Each month, my production (revenue) is assessed, and anything I make over my base salary is paid as a bonus.
Example:
If your guaranteed base salary was $60,000 with 20% production, it means your monthly salary is $5,000. That means that you need to raise a revenue of $25,000 each month to meet your production ($25k x 20% = $2,000).
So if you actually bring in a revenue of $35,000 one month let's say. That's $10,000 in excess of your base salary, so you get 20% of that as a bonus, or $2,000. A total of $7000 instead of $5000 for the month.
Some places will pay production quarterly instead of monthly. Some places will hold a "negative" production against you such that you need to make it up the next month. Others don't.
Edit: It just clicked in my head once I posted. This sounds like 20% commission with a guaranteed base amount.
I would have thought prosal would be more like a base salary plus a certain percentage of all production. Interesting.
That makes sense. 40% would be a lot! I have 4 hours of class tomorrow on contracts and negotiations so maybe I'll get to learn more about it!Yeah... That's what prosal means usually.
Some places will do a percentage on top of your base salary, but no way in all hell will it be 20% on top of base. That means they're paying you upto 40+% of what you generate. Industry standard is like 22-25% including all benefits.
Whatever compensation system you're on, it's fair as long as you're getting that 22-25% total. It's just a matter of how transparent the system is, and how to minimize damage due to slow times, etc...
I'm getting paid like almost double now what I was getting paid on salary at my first job. I was super underpaid.That makes sense. 40% would be a lot! I have 4 hours of class tomorrow on contracts and negotiations so maybe I'll get to learn more about it!
I forget, do you have on call shifts where you work at the moment?I'm getting paid like almost double now what I was getting paid on salary at my first job. I was super underpaid.
If you ever take a salaried position, you want to make sure that at least at the end of the year, you can see your production numbers to make sure no one is seriously cheating you.
Nope. It's fabulous. I work 4 days a week on a consistent schedule. My days off are totally off.I forget, do you have on call shifts where you work at the moment?
Nope. It's fabulous. I work 4 days a week on a consistent schedule. My days off are totally off.
Like super duper offLike OFF off, or just off?
Like super duper off
Sometimes if there's a case where I personally want to deliver news to an owner I'll call from home out of my own volition. But even for ongoing cases, I'll round with the other doctors that will be there on my days off so they can take over from there. Whoever makes the phone call for lab results get paid for it, so it works out really well.
Like super duper off
Sometimes if there's a case where I personally want to deliver news to an owner I'll call from home out of my own volition. But even for ongoing cases, I'll round with the other doctors that will be there on my days off so they can take over from there. Whoever makes the phone call for lab results get paid for it, so it works out really well.
Had an appointment yesterday with a client whom I had had the end of life conversation with 6 months ago. Her dog is doing fantastic enough on metacam to tear a toenail and frisky enough to try to bite me! And the owners feel that she is doing so well that they are considering cataract surgery.
For some reason, I'm always bizarrely excited about the super old dogs who feel good enough to still try and bite.
We did end up talking about prosal in class this morning! Our speaker mentioned though that the avg compensation is dropping towards 17% I'm not sure if that number included benefits or not.Yeah... That's what prosal means usually.
Some places will do a percentage on top of your base salary, but no way in all hell will it be 20% on top of base. That means they're paying you upto 40+% of what you generate. Industry standard is like 22-25% including all benefits.
Whatever compensation system you're on, it's fair as long as you're getting that 22-25% total. It's just a matter of how transparent the system is, and how to minimize damage due to slow times, etc...
Was it Barn Hill Preserve? I used to intern there!! I got to spend time with joeys too so adorable while theyr'e still tiny and harmless! I hope this one's okay!There was a kangaroo in the clinic I work at yesterday! These girls who work at a wildlife preserve in Louisiana were traveling with him, and he was pretty sick. I took the call and said "well, we do see exotics, but I'll have to go ask about that one!"
We did end up talking about prosal in class this morning! Our speaker mentioned though that the avg compensation is dropping towards 17% I'm not sure if that number included benefits or not.
The more I think about this the more I'm bugged about it. average compensation of whom? All associates? Small/large? And is he including people on straight salary (i.e. people who are ripped off?). Or is he strictly talking about people on a production system? Cause if the average was 17% and most people I know are at like 20+% as new/recent grads, that means some people must be at like 15%. Who signs a contract like that? Is that really common?We did end up talking about prosal in class this morning! Our speaker mentioned though that the avg compensation is dropping towards 17% I'm not sure if that number included benefits or not.
It has a citation for DVM360 Karen Felsted but I'm not sure of what particular article it came from. I"ll try to look for it tomorrow!The more I think about this the more I'm bugged about it. average compensation of whom? All associates? Small/large? And is he including people on straight salary (i.e. people who are ripped off?). Or is he strictly talking about people on a production system? Cause if the average was 17% and most people I know are at like 20+% as new/recent grads, that means some people must be at like 15%. Who signs a contract like that? Is that really common?
There are fine details, like some clinics won't include refill prescriptions, euthanasias, cremations, OTC products, prescription diets (or pay at a reduced percentage for those things), etc... but still... Where is that number coming from???