Fear-Free Visits with CheckOut Veterinary

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Out the clinic here and there, but we haven't really
broken down some of the great features of the clinic
and depth, and I'm gonna ask you a little bit
about that this morning. About Checkout Veterinary. By the way,
you can learn more online the website checkout vet dot com.
That's checkout vet dot com. It's a great data start
that relationship. You can, of course schedule an appointment to
rite online at checkout vet dot com. Also a great data.

(00:21):
Stop on and say hello. They're right at twenty seven
to ten Prairie Lags Drive in Sun Prairie Dolphin number
six oh eight three one eight sixty seven hundred. That's
six oh eight three one eight sixty seven hundred and
doctor Greer. Checkout Veterinary is It's an amazing concept. It's
one of those ever so often things come along and
you go, why hasn't everybody done it this way all along?

(00:42):
I think both people and pets feel that way. Let's
I want to talk about some of your certifications other
things in just a moment, but first and foremost, let's
just talk about the clinic itself and what was the
inspiration for this? Are there other clinics like this and
you know what's what's kind of the background there.

Speaker 2 (00:59):
Well, when we built the clinic in Lamira sixteen years ago.
So in two thousand and eight, we built in one
what was originally going to be one garage bay and
turned into three at that practice, and it attaches our
main practice, which is a ten examin in practice with
seven doctors, to the staff building where the lunch room
and the doctor's offices are. And I wanted to have

(01:20):
a place for clients to pull into so that on
bad weather days, if they had a euthanasia, an injured
pad post op patient, any of those things, we didn't
have to go outside because I mean, I grew up
in Nebraska, but it's not exactly like I'm not used
to Midwest weather. But it was kind of a difficult
thing to manage patients in and out of the hospital

(01:42):
when they're not feeling well, when they're sick, they're injured,
their postop, all those things. So we built a garage.
Originally it was going to be one stall, and then
during construction I called my architect and I said, one
garage stall's not enough. I need three. And he said, okay,
but don't screw up my rough line. So we just
pushed the other building over and made a three style garage,
one of which we use for exams, one we use

(02:04):
for some storage, and the other one is free for
clients to pull in and out of for exactly the
things that we perceived. And when I first did it,
one of my clients, whose wife is a dog breeder, said,
and he's a b diatrist, he said, this was the
dumbest thing I thought I'd ever seen until I needed
to use it. And he had a very sick dog
one night that came in on emergency after hours and

(02:24):
he's like, this is brilliant. Yeah, like it really changed
his mind.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
And check out the Sun Prairie Clinic for Bays right
four drive in Bays at the clinic and it's a
really really fantastic layout and a really cool design as well.
If you haven't a chance to check out again, they're
really easy to get to right off the Interstate, right
on the highway on Prairie Lakes Drive and Sun Prairie.
You can learn more online checkout vet dot com. That's

(02:48):
checkout vet dot com and you are all the vet
vets at checkout vet are fear free certified and for
folks that don't know what is that, And I've got
to guess at that certification works perfectly with what you're
doing at checkout vet already it does.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
And actually all of them are not fear fry certified
I am, but we are all of the mindset that
fear free is the way we should deliver veterinary services.
It's a relatively new program that was developed by another Marty,
Marty Becker. He took some of Sophia Yun's information that
she had developed prior of the time that she passed
away and really expanded it into a program that we

(03:27):
train staff on how to handle pets so that they
have low stress and as fear free as possible. Now,
I personally would rather see different terms applied to it,
because anytime you start a term with a negative like
stress or fear, I always worry that that sort of
implies a negative connotation that people are like, oh, should
my pet be afraid? Should I be afraid? What does

(03:48):
that mean? So I try and to kind of emphasize
the more positive, which is collaborative or cooperative veterinary care,
positive reinforcement, those kinds of things. But it all applies
to the same thing. We want your pet to come
in and be as comfortable in their surrounding as they
possibly can be, so that may mean feeding them lots
of treats because that makes them happy. So for the

(04:08):
cat's chicken baby food and the little churros, you know,
those kinds of things. Kittens especially are easy to convince
that they should eat chicken baby food. They'll stick their
head in the whole, you know, in the jar and
try and eat the whole thing. For dogs, we have
a whole a variety of treats. We have ginger snaps
because ginger settles their stomach. We have peanut butter. We
have cheese squeeze cheese. We have anchovy paste, we have

(04:30):
marshmallow cream. We have all kinds of stuff, just depending
on what your pet's preference is or if you have allergies.
You know, if you have a peanut allergy, then we're
not going to get the peanut butter. I had an
employee who was allergic to peanuts, so that didn't happen.
So there's lots of things we can do, and of
course you can bring your own treats if you feel
like your pet is either on a restricted diet or
extremely fussy about their treats. But I mean we buy

(04:51):
good stuff, you know, like peanut butter and cheese. That's
not bad. So we try to make it as positive
we can. And those treats do two things. One is
it helps us to keep the pets relaxed. And too
is as soon as they shut down, if they shut
down to the point that they're no longer eating anymore,
that kind of alerts us to the fact that we
need to go slow. We need to take it easy
on them. We need to be really gentle with even

(05:13):
more gentle with how we handle them. Now, there are
some dogs that, you know, anything you do to them,
they're absolutely fine with. They're labradors. They're going to storm
through the door and grab cookies and they're not even
going to notice you've done a blood sample. And then
we have other dogs that put on the brakes as
soon as you get close. Sure, So the garages are
really meant to help them to be less stressed because
they're not ever going into a waiting room, a lobby,

(05:35):
other pets aren't interacting with them. They go straight from
your vehicle into the exam room or stay in your
vehicle at your preference and then their care is provided
there with little interaction with other dogs, cats, humans. It's
really quiet, it's really limited. It smells good, you know,
it doesn't have a veterinary clinic smell because we hose
down everything. So it's a whole different experience.

Speaker 1 (05:55):
Talking this morning with doctor Marty Greer of check Out
Veterinary online check out vet dot that's checkout vet dot com.
Great day to start that relationship and start that conversation.
And of course you can schedule appointment right online at
checkout vet dot com or pick up phone get a
call six so eight to three one eight sixty seven hundred.
That's three one eight sixty seven hundred. Do not forget
that first visit to check out vet. That exam that

(06:16):
is free for you, so I can learn more again
online checkout vet dot com. That's checkout vet dot com. Again,
as we talk with doctor Greer, you had mentioned working
with and look at the Leamira clinic, working with your
architect and obviously it worked quite a bit with your
architect on your Son Prairie clinic. Does that help too
as we talk about you know some of these goals,

(06:37):
that calm environment and that very conducive environment to to
keeping the pets relaxed. That was probably a big part
of your conversation as well, working with the architect to
design checkout veterinary to meet that right.

Speaker 2 (06:51):
Right, I mean, fear Free has not really dictated how
floor plans should be designed for veterinary clinics, but honestly,
this is absolutely the best that it could possibly be.
Our pictures are in some of the publications that architects
share with one another and with other veterinarians for how
to develop fear Free. We've elected to paint the walls

(07:13):
and the floors and all those things different colors, colors
that are soothing, you know, those spa colors. So we've
done a lot to try and make this as positive
as possible. But that vehicle, I mean especially dogs love
to be in the car. I mean most of them.
There's a few that don't like the car rights, but
most of them love to be in the car. If
you get out of the vehicle and they're not in

(07:34):
a crate or a seat belt, they're going to run
over and sit right behind the driver's seat. It's pretty funny,
you know. You go through parking lots at the grocery store,
at the department stores, and you see the dog. It's
always behind the driver's seat, in the driver's seat, behind
the wheel, and somehow they know that that's the position
of control. So I want to be there, so they
hop right into that seat. But they love to be

(07:55):
in the vehicle, and so this gives them a safe
place to be. If you have an suv, it can
be in the back. If it's a truck or your car,
it can be in the back seat.

Speaker 1 (08:02):
We want them comfortable, you know. I think about obviously
the great benefits for pets, and I think for pet
parents and owners, what a great benefit is What about
for doctors and the staff at checkout veterinary having this setup,
I've got to assume that it's really not only is
it much more joyous for you guys, but also probably
a lot easier to get your job done with.

Speaker 2 (08:24):
Yeah. Yeah, because we don't have to overcome some of
the hurdles that other clinics have to deal with. So
by design, we are not designed to have surgery, we're
not designed to have X ray, So we eliminated those
to just keep us down to a streamlined wellness type
of facility. Because you can't do those things in a vehicle,
so we deliberately designed it to do that. But yes,

(08:45):
it makes our jobs easier because the pets are more relaxed,
they're happier, they're easier to work with. Clients love it
because when they come in, their pets just seem a
lot more relaxed. And additionally, if you have a pet
that needs to be on anti anxiety medication, there's no
reason that you can't have that. We're more than happy
to prescribe that. We're more than happy to work with
you and make sure that your pet has the best

(09:07):
mental state that they can. There's some pets that, like
I said, those Labradors and Golden Retrievers, they run through
the door. There's nothing you can do to them that
will deter them from loving to be at the vet clinic.
But we have others that inherently if they had a
bad experience at any point, remember that even if we're
not the clinic that had happened at. So it's really
important to us that we make everything as positive as

(09:29):
we can. We try to make things low key, easy going.
I have staff that's just amazing with handling the pets
so that they have the best experience, and my doctors
are very aware. I just hired a new doctor. I'm
so excited. Actually, in the last four weeks, I've hired
four doctors, one for each of our four practices. Wow.
So yeah, this is like whoo, this is like it

(09:50):
doesn't happen that way. But the one I hired for
check Out is an older veterinarian who used to do
dairy so he's kind of in spirit with my husband
and he's very big into behavior, as is doctor Johnson
at our check In Veterinary clinic. So we have doctors
that are very in tune with that that really want

(10:11):
to make this happen. So you're going to see that
difference between us and the person who just says, well,
too bad, You're going to have to lay here and
we're going to trim your nails and were gona draw
your blood and just deal with it. We try to
make it a much more positive experience in that.

Speaker 1 (10:22):
Talking this morning with doctor Marty Greer, of course doctor
Greer comes, so it's from Checkout Veterinary. She mentioned check
In Vet as well. Of course, Checkout Veterinary open on weekends,
open during the week as well, and check In Vet
is open Monday through Friday, which means the doctors at
Checkout and check in Veterinary have you covered all week long.
You can learn more online checkout vets dot com. That's
check out vet dot com. Continue your conversation with doctor Greer.

(10:44):
We will do that next as ask the Experts with
Checkout Veterinary continues right here on thirteen ten dou wuib
i Hey fifty five thirteen ten wiba and ask the experts.
Hanging out with doctor Marty Greer of Checkout Veterinary. Always
a great conversation with doctor Greer. Learned some great stuff
and of course there is a passion for what the
doctors at Checkout Veterinary do. It's a fantastic design, a

(11:08):
really really cool concept. You haven't seen that Checkout Veterinary.
Stop on end. They'd love to see you do a
little tour at twenty seven ten Prairie Lakes Drive and
Sun Prairie. You can also learn more of the newly
redesigned website checkout vet dot com. That's checkout vet dot com.
It's got a lot of really important information about how
schedule appointments, about the clinic. You can really really get in.

(11:28):
It's a fun website to visit checkout vet dot com.
That's checkout vet dot com. And speaking of fun for visits,
I know that if folks have an unpleasant experience with
their pet, they tend not to go as often. And
I don't know if it's been researched or if a
UW researchers has contacted you yet to see about free

(11:49):
because that seems like something that's probably been studied. And
having the setup like you have, there's got to be
pretty good results for getting pets in for routine checkups
and everything, as well as wellness exams.

Speaker 2 (12:01):
Oh yeah, and it does make it a lot easier.
And people, I think if they're a little bit nervous,
their pet picks up on that. And I don't think
we give our pets enough credit for what they perceive.
So if you seem a little nervous, your pet's going
to feed on that, and then it just becomes suspicious
cycle that they get nervous and then you try to
calm them, and in the reality when you're trying to say, oh,
it's okay, it's okay, you're actually reinforcing that behavior and

(12:22):
so it becomes this cycle. So if we can keep
that from happening. It can make it much better. There's
definitely been studies done on anxiety, vaccine, hesitancy, lots of
different things. Last weekend, when I worked at the Sun
Prairie office, I worked at checkout because I.

Speaker 1 (12:38):
Do actually work there see patients. I do.

Speaker 2 (12:41):
I do. I had a cat that came in that
was twenty years old with a twenty three year old owner.
Because I looked at the young lady who had the
cat and I said, so, how long have you had
this cat? And she said since I was three? Wow.
So yeah, but this cat had not been to the
veterinary clinic between the time she was spadings of age
and this visit. So that's way too long. Two decades

(13:04):
between visits is too long. You need regular veterinary care.
And you're absolutely right. We have become nervous about it.
Especially the cats don't like coming in, So people tend
to avoid those things because they don't like them, and
maybe they don't think their cat needs to come in
because it seems okay. Well. Cats need wellness visits, sandy,
blood work when they get older, they need to have
vaccine boosters, they need all those things done. So it's

(13:27):
really important that we're keeping up with their care. So
please go to the Feline Practitioners website. They have information
on how to pet into a carrier to make the
trip easier, the treats you can use. Like I said,
there's anti anxiety means that we can give both to
dogs and cats and it makes a world of difference
for their experience. We want them to come in and
love being there. I want them to think they just

(13:49):
came to a drive through restaurant and not that they
came to a veterinary clinic. So we try to kind
of get ahead of that. So yes, this is the
doggy drive through.

Speaker 1 (13:57):
That's great illustration. One thing two of you when you
mentioned cat owners, I don't know if we've talked about
it on the air. I know you and I have
talked about it off the show. Is oftentimes much like
that the woman that brought her twenty three or twenty
year old cat. And you tend to see kittens when
they're born and then when they're much older, but people

(14:18):
tend to in those mid years and they forget. They
forget and.

Speaker 2 (14:21):
Cats because the cat doesn't go outside and the cats
seems fine, so it must be okay. Because they're not sick.
But really we can catch a lot of diseases, especially
as cats breach that twelve year plus age category. We
see a lot of thyroid disease, hyperthyroidism, We see kidney disease,
we can see diabetes, we can see cancer, we can

(14:42):
see all those things. And with anything, it's early detection,
and the earlier we detect and treat something, the better
off the outcome. So we don't want you waiting until
pet has a problem. Dental disease a big deal in
cats and indgs because we're not doing the adequate dental
care that we should be. We're not brushing their teeth,
we're not flossing. Yes, you can foster castine. So if

(15:03):
we're not doing those kinds of preventive care and we're
not getting in the treats they need, they may not
be on the correct diet. And these are all things
that your veterinary professionals can help you with. It may
be your veterinarian, it may be your veterinary technician, and
those are all really great resources for you. So please
come in, don't hesitate, And like you said, we have
our first visit free. You're welcome to come without a pet,

(15:23):
if you just want to come in and see the place,
if you want to bring your pet, and all you
want to do is just drive into the bay, look around,
kind of get the feel for it, and have the
doctor meet your pet, and then you leave and we
don't do anything else. I'm perfectly fine with that because
that's your experience of seeing does this work for my pet?
Does this work for me? And because we're around the
corner from Costco and cross our movements, we're in a

(15:45):
really convenient location that people are out running errands. Anyway, Hey,
just come on over and see this.

Speaker 1 (15:51):
Great data To get in learn more online, checkout vet
dot com. That's check out vet dot com right at
Prairielaks Drive in Sun Prairie. Doctor Greer, it's always great
seeing you have a fantastic Hey. Vicky mcketta is in
next here on thirteen ten w Ibi m HM