A Second Time Around the Sun

A Note from Dr. Travis

As we enter the second year of the pandemic and all of the changes that it has brought, we want to express our gratitude for your patience and the crazy processes we’ve had to make up and endure in order to safely deal with things.  We are hoping for a little bit of normal by summertime, but we don’t want to make any promises yet since things seem to change on a daily basis, but we’re making plans and as things progress we’ll keep you informed.

The entire staff has begun their vaccine series. We had an opportunity to all get our first vaccine last week, so we closed for an afternoon to make that happen. We apologize for anyone that was inconvenienced, but it seemed the only way to move forward for us.

In addition to wearing masks when we come outside to see you, we’ve been wearing them inside as we practice medicine. There’s no way to social distance while we’re working with animals, so there weren’t a lot of other options. Since many of us are at work up to 10 hours as day, it’s been exhausting!

If you’ve had to wear your mask for long periods, you know what we mean.  We found that we weren’t drinking water enough, since drinking required us to leave the room or at least turn away to briefly remove the mask – so we’ve spent a year being dehydrated.  And some days it just seems so much more difficult to breathe than others!

With all of the trials and tribulations, I am so proud of our team and how disciplined everyone has been.  Despite having spouses, significant others, kids and needing to do things outside of work like grocery shopping and school stuff, we’ve stayed safe and stayed open. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel now – just a few more weeks until we’re fully vaccinated.

I know there’s a lot of concern about vaccines out there, but our team is pretty vaccine-savvy. We discuss and deal with your pets’ immunizations every day. We keep up with which of them are safest, new technology, reaction rates, etc. I feel so fortunate to work in a place that has a hive-mind about this. Everyone wanted to get vaccinated. The morning before we went, the place was a-buzz with excitement.  You’d have thought it was Christmas Eve. The thought of getting a little back to normal is beyond exciting!

So, soon you may see pictures of our entire smiling faces on social media and us working inside the hospital. With you and with anyone from outside of our “pod” we will still wear masks, we know there are a lot of people who are still not vaccinated or are unable to get a vaccine.

Stay safe and we’ll soon be through this!

It’s the End of March & We’re Working on so Many Changes it Makes Our Heads Spin!

Some of them you won’t see, but we hope you’ll feel them. 

Saving Trees.  We’re finally taking the leap and changing our practice software and going paperless!  There are so many reasons: efficiency, space and (for me) very importantly: the environmental impact of cutting down on paper usage as recycling becomes more challenging.

Check In Procedure.  You’ll also soon see numbered parking spaces with instructions on them as we implement a mobile-phone based kiosk check in system. You’ll be able to fill out your “paperwork” at home in advance or when you arrive from your car.

FaceTimed Appointments.  At the end of last week we finally got a little project off the ground that took much longer than anticipated – letting you “be” in your pet’s appointment via FaceTime on an iPad.  If you’d like to give it a try, just let your nurse know.