Malaysia Veterinary Forum (Archive)

Chevy · Joined: 02 Jun 2007 Posts: 13

Yes, so my question is - is it the vet's place to educate pet owners - especially in Malaysia?

Situation
More often than not, Msians take in a pet without any knowledge on pet maintenance or care. It's also one of the reasons why pets get dumped,mistreated or uncared for.

If the pet owner comes in with an issue about its pet - how much knowledge does the vet pass on to a clueless owner?

What are the experience of our vets here/abroad when faced with a situation like this?
- Are brochures about pet care adequate for a clueless owner?
- Does the vet schedule a next appointment for the owner & pet?
- Does the owner receive reminders about the next vaccination round?

Dr Nat · Joined: 07 Dec 2005 Posts: 1834 Location: Klang Valley

Some clinics actually do have good education material and they even schedule next appointment, etc. However, I think most of the ignorant pet owners are the ones that NEVER step into a vet clinic at all.

Client education is always something important for all vets. Client compliance is a whole other story. I've talked to pet owners before, and I dont think they get everything that I say. Maybe they'll get like 10% only. Even if printed material is given, how many of them actually read and understand it entirely? Client education is always the more difficult part of the job.

Please share any of your ideas to improve on educating pet owners.

fhinz · Joined: 25 Aug 2006 Posts: 295 Location: KL or Miri

There's a clinic near to my home that quite good, I think. Coz after I brought my kittens to the clinic for eye treatment, the vet called me to ask me whether I want to bring my cats for vaccination and deworming.

Chevy · Joined: 02 Jun 2007 Posts: 13

Hi Dr Nat,

Thanks for your reply. It certainly boils down to educating owners.

The least vets can do is just to inform the owners, for sure. I posted the 'how to stop vets from being cynical in msia' was because I witnessed the vet I worked with not telling enough to the pet owner. The high opinion of that particular vet I had at the time sorta crumbled at that point.

Anyway, some ideas:

-Performing a 'step into classroom' and educating schoolchildren about animals,basic animal care and basic maintenance seemed like a good idea. It's pretty popular in UK; since the RSPCA has its own literature on what to teach schoolchildren. Unfortunately, I am not sure if this has ever been brought up in schools and such. However, this seems to be the perfect step since most families with kids do have a pet and letting kids know what the correct behaviour around animals are; seems to be the best thing to do.

- Putting fear into owners is the only thing that works. Do it or else pet will suffer.. I know it's pretty contraversial but it seems to be the only thing that Malaysians understand sometimes.

I know vets are doing the best they can via phone reminders on vaccinations and the like. And telling the owners when they visit the clinic.

Dr Nat · Joined: 07 Dec 2005 Posts: 1834 Location: Klang Valley

Quote: -Performing a 'step into classroom' and educating schoolchildren about animals,basic animal care and basic maintenance seemed like a good idea. It's pretty popular in UK; since the RSPCA has its own literature on what to teach schoolchildren. Unfortunately, I am not sure if this has ever been brought up in schools and such. However, this seems to be the perfect step since most families with kids do have a pet and letting kids know what the correct behaviour around animals are; seems to be the best thing to do.
Yes, education when young is the best thing. There are some very interesting programs overseas. But unfortunately, our kementerian pendidikan dont simply allow just anyone to walk into a school to give a talk. And our JPH is not pushing it either. What the schools can do instead, is to have a school trip to animal shelters like the SPCA, which will certainly give this kinda talk to those kids.

Quote: - Putting fear into owners is the only thing that works. Do it or else pet will suffer.. I know it's pretty contraversial but it seems to be the only thing that Malaysians understand sometimes.
I agree. It may seem harsh, but it will make the pet owners take it more seriously. I actually love the word "DIE", cos "suffer", "complications", "get worse" or other words don't seem to work. Imagine this.. "your pet almost DIED you know!" or, "if you don't do it properly, your animal WILL DIE" ... works most of the time. Sometimes, another thing can also grab their attention - "if you dont do this, next time when there is complication it will cost you RM1000!" LOL

fhinz · Joined: 25 Aug 2006 Posts: 295 Location: KL or Miri

[quote="Dr Nat
Sometimes, another thing can also grab their attention - "if you dont do this, next time when there is complication it will cost you RM1000!" LOL[/quote]

I most agree about this coz this is how I manage make my mom to realize if we just delay to bring our cats to the clinic, the medication cost might become much higher. actually, she got bad experience when she was younger - her cats died when she was away, one of flood and another one by car accident. so, she doesn't want to give her love to any cats coz afraid she might lose more cats.

Chevy · Joined: 02 Jun 2007 Posts: 13

Dr Nat wrote:
Quote: - Putting fear into owners is the only thing that works. Do it or else pet will suffer.. I know it's pretty contraversial but it seems to be the only thing that Malaysians understand sometimes.
I agree. It may seem harsh, but it will make the pet owners take it more seriously. I actually love the word "DIE", cos "suffer", "complications", "get worse" or other words don't seem to work. Imagine this.. "your pet almost DIED you know!" or, "if you don't do it properly, your animal WILL DIE" ... works most of the time. Sometimes, another thing can also grab their attention - "if you dont do this, next time when there is complication it will cost you RM1000!" LOL

LOL i can imagine you making full use of those words! i mean, msians seem to only understand that - die or more money!

I didn't realise that the ministry and JHK did not allow pet education. What a pity.. :P they were probably worried about religious issues - adults worry or think too much - kids can past the complicated stuff pretty easily..

varanus · Joined: 12 Feb 2006 Posts: 472

I'm not sure it's a good idea to threaten, scare, blackmail... a client. If I'm the owner, I will go to other vet and said my dog never recover despite so many treatment and the vet wanted to charge another RM1000...

Angel D · Joined: 05 Jun 2007 Posts: 20

I have really been wanting to create a simple pamphlet or something educating people about the core requirements of owning a pet (vet visits, hygene and health, attention needs etc) which could be distributed to pet shops/ vet clinics/ grooming salons and then given directly to owners to give them an idea of what is neccesary for their pet. I was planning on focusing on dogs as that is where all my experience is (at home and grooming) but giving general info that can be applied to any animal.
However after coming up with the idea i got lost when i found out that the cost for printing a batch of simple color pamphlets would be around RM20,000 as i am still a student without that kind of money to throw around yet.
I have been trying to think of ways to get sponsorship for the pamphlet however as it is pretty much a once every now and then thing (getting new ones printed every few months) i thought it wasn't enough to set up a charity for.
I already thought of getting money for small adverts (such as a list of vets etc) in the pamphlet itself but then didn't want the people advertising to try and dictate what should be written to make themselves look good or get extra business as i want it to be purely educational.
If anyone has any ideas as to how i can make this happen or anything that should be included in the content i would love to hear about it.