Talking to people without misunderstandings is a very difficult task. Even when you think you have been precise, people can misunderstand in some of the craziest ways (see my posts How to Communicate with Clients in Veterinary Medicine and A Challenge in Veterinary Medicine: Helping Clients Understand). Most people are not idiots, but in the medical field it’s necessary to talk down to everyone, to take into account the confused few. I was taught in school and at the first practice where I worked how to be as precise as possible in my language, and to try to use simple words whenever possible. But even when you think you have gotten the message across, it is amazing the way people can misinterpret what you say or just the situation in general.

For example, a few weeks ago, I was sending dewormer home with someone who was going to foster a puppy for one of the rescue groups our shelter works with. The dewormer was pulled up in three separate syringes, one for each dose. The dewormer is messy (at least in my hands it is. I make a mess just about every time I handle it!), so I always wipe off the syringe and place a cap on it. When I gave it to the foster, I went over the written instructions, and then I showed her how to use it. I started by telling her to take off the cap on the syringe, and she burst out laughing. I started to laugh, too, because she was hardly the first person to laugh when I told them to remove the cap. I had to explain that many years ago, I had a client who brought her new puppy in to see me. The puppy was healthy, but she had hookworms, so I dispensed dewormer and sent her home with it. On her next visit the client told me that it had been very difficult to deworm the puppy. In fact, she wasn’t sure it had worked, because the pup happily took all the liquid, but the client could only get her to swallow two of the four syringe caps!!!

I also remember my first employer telling me the story of one of her early clients and her dog with an ear infection. Normally, we treat ear infections with drops that go in the ears, but if an infection is really bad, we may add an oral antibiotic as well. Apparently, this dog had a long standing infection that had gotten very bad. The ears were actually draining pus, so my boss prescribed the usual drops and also gave the client an antibiotic pill. The dog was supposed to come for a recheck in two weeks, but after less than a week, the client was back, and very unhappy. She told my boss that the meds were actually making her dog worse! Before the treatment he could at least hear, but now he was nearly deaf, too! When my boss got the dog in an exam room and went to look in his ears, the reason for his deafness was quite apparent. The client had been putting both the drops and antibiotic pills into the ears. The drops had dissolved the tablets into a thick sludge that had filled up the entire ear canal!!!

Luckily, both of these incidents are humorous, but no serious harm was done. The plastic syringe caps were small enough that I’m sure the puppy just pooped them out, and once the gooey sludge was flushed out of the dog’s ears, his hearing was magically restored. But we all know that mishaps in medicine can have very serious consequences, which it is why we, as veterinarians, have to be so very careful what we say and how we say it. That’s also why you, as clients, need to ask questions if you’re not sure what to do with your pet’s medicine. Have any of you ever had a funny misunderstanding? I’m sure we all have. Let me hear your story.