08/30/2026
Pic of Sherpa, Dr Arthur's recent addition, for attention. 💛🐾❤️
We're actually talking about Spectrum of Care here.
➡️➡️ to learn more.
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TLDR: we all need to talk about the gold standard medical recommendations *and* more budget-friendly options when costs are a factor.
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When we're clear and honest in these conversations, we're practicing good medicine, and we're in line with board expectations and legal requirements. 👩🏼⚕️🐾❤️
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Veterinarians are licensed to practice with wide discretion: we are allowed to perform any surgery that we have the skill and knowledge to do. That's a personal judgement call for each veterinarian.
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The training and experience that each veterinarian has varies widely. Veterinarians who are credentialed as board-certified veterinary surgeons have years' more training in surgery than general practice veterinarians.
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There are general practice veterinarians who truly excellent in the OR and are successful with challenging, complex cases. There are also surgeons and general practice veterinarians who take on procedures they have less experience or success with. As pet owners, we all want to make the right decisions for our four legged family members' care. 💛🐾❤️
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🔺it may be right for an experienced, board-certified veterinary surgeon to do a straightforward mass removal surgery, since surgical margins, clean technique to avoid tracking cells, consideration of tension & healing, and efficient OR management are all factors that can affect outcomes.
🔺it may be right for a highly skilled general practice vet with deep orthopedic experience to repair a complex fracture. It is possible, although rare, to develop this skill without formal residency training.
🔺it may be right to have emergency foreign body surgery done on an outpatient basis.
🔺etc...
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We can all recommend what we think is truly best and stretch a little to offer Spectrum of Care options with informed consent.
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What is not right is to ignore or hide the opportunity for alternative options. Sometimes the options are more limited or worse than we would like, but there are often more choices than gold standard vs euthanasia.
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