Vaccinations reduce the risk of infection, parasite preventives reduce the risk for parasites, senior screening reduces the risk that we will fail to detect a disease process early, and so on. Client education follows risk assessment and management. We teach the clients about topics that pertain to their pet – for which the pet is at risk (see 10.5 Early Detection Campaigns).
When it comes to hip dysplasia in at‐risk breeds, we would want to do screening radiographs and educate pet owners about arthritis diagnosis and treatment (see 3.12 Orthopedic Screening).
Breed‐specific wellness is the next big leap for educating clients once all the basics have been covered. Breed tendencies for disease can jump right to the top of a “diseases or problems that could be fatal” list. For example, cardiomyopathy is common and deadly in boxers but occurs later and in a milder form in some other breeds. The more common and the more severe the risk, the more you need to talk about it early and often, so for a boxer owner annual screening should be a big priority. For a Dalmatian, one might choose something else to talk about, like bladder stones. Instead of electrocardiogram (ECG) screening, one might discuss feeding a special diet and an annual urinalysis.
Practicing high‐quality medicine is all about being a better teacher. This is as simple as putting a handout in every file before the appointment, so we remember to discuss the topic with the client and send them home with written information. Preparing and preloading your patient files ahead of each visit is a very important step.
Have a system. If this is the year you want to educate every client on dental disease, load a dental brochure in every file. If you want to talk about breed‐specific wellness care or healthcare plans, you need to come up with a structure for your program that makes it easy to implement. Specific recommendations and client education topics should be developed and used for every breed.
The following are links to some client education videos that can be helpful in practice. They also serve to illustrate what a breed risk discussion with a client might look like.
Breed risks in bulldogs: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kgz3xCzlM_c
Eye diseases: www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_RGk2UEdgs
Foreign body (FB) ingestion: www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYNJrVS3u8g
Gastric dilation‐volvulus (GDV): www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrX2BJ7EI‐o
GDV and von Willebrand disease in Dobermans: www.youtube.com/watch?v=7l_gL0_6cOA
Glomerulonephropathy (GN) in wheaten terriers: www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTwyUbiFPbU
Hemangiosarcoma: www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HBPwYG5CW4
Hip dysplasia and arthritis: www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgAJeeSE‐GA
MDR1 testing in herding breeds: www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7D3d3Rgm7U
Intervertebral disc disease (IVDD): www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZqXvkN67rM
3.13.4 Developing a Breed‐Specific Wellness Program
Wellness programs are a lot of work, including program development, fee setting, appointment times, team training, client education, marketing and, lastly, protocols – what will you do with the information once you have it? Actually implementing a program can be challenging – it's complicated and time consuming. The more statistics you know about common disease problems, though, the more you see how early diagnosis and treatment is key to being an effective veterinarian.
Breed‐specific wellness has been building in significance for a long time. Follow this link to a client education video titled What is Breed‐Specific Wellness? www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDvl5L2cRNQ.
It could be started in the most basic fashion with simple laminated sheets for clients to read while waiting for the doctor that explains a single disease that their pet would be at risk for due to its breed. Then they could decide whether they wanted to do a screening test, such as an ECG screen, a Schirmer tear test or a urine protein:creatinine ratio (UPC), to diagnose it.
Such as system is simple, but the hit‐or‐miss approach of having such conversations may not engage many pet owners. Whenever possible, it is better to have a coherent approach to most breeds, and even mixed‐breed pets (see 10.7 Breed‐Specific Marketing). It often works better for a practice to put together a package that includes all the exams, tests, and vaccines we think are appropriate for the pet at its age and we factor in breed risk tests and any other services recommended because of lifestyle – so the package for a middle‐aged Labrador retriever might include thyroid testing and if it has exposure to deer ticks, we would also include Lyme prevention. With pet‐specific care, pet owners often select more services, so if payment (wellness) plans are being used in the practice, the client can split the larger total into monthly payments (see 10.17 Payment and Wellness Plans). A significant percentage of the client base may also elect to pay in advance for the full range of services.
Most practices market such healthcare plans through the website and social media (see 10.6 Target Marketing and Targeted Client Outreach). In time, practices will detect more problems, and earlier, so revenue from both diagnostics and therapeutics will help offset the higher costs of client service.
Every client interaction is an honest discussion about common problems that we can do something about. Our best marketing isn't what's on the screen, it's what's in our hearts and minds that we share with our clients every single day.
3.13.5 Marketing Breed‐Specific Wellness
Always leave the client with something to read or watch when they have to wait. Use that time to get clients thinking about a decision they will need to make or to get exposure to a new product or service. Clients are more willing to read or watch something they know has been chosen especially for them and the needs of their particular pet (see 10.7 Breed‐Specific Marketing).
Be consistent within the hospital. A patient or client should never get a greater or lesser level of care because one doctor saw them and not another, or one receptionist spoke with them and not someone else. Breed‐specific care should be the standard of care throughout the practice (see 9.4 Standards of Care).
Anything you want to teach clients about has to be taught to your team first and
