Getting to Know Checkout Veterinary with Dr. Greer

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Eight thirty eight, thirteen to tenWIBA and Ask the Experts, joined this
morning and studio by doctor Marty Greerof Checkout Veterinary. Doctor. Great to
see you. How are you doingthis morning? I'm doing great, Thank
you. It's good to see you. And you and I have had for
folks that don't know you and Ihave had the chance to talk a bit
behind the scenes. But finally todaywe get to have you on the show.

(00:20):
And you are the owner of CheckoutVeterinary checkout vet dot com. We
got a clinic right in sun Prairie, right on Prairie Lakes Drive. Let's
talk about real quick the history ofCheckout Vet and what a great concept this
is. Well, thank you.The history. Well, we own three
veterinary practices in Wisconsin. The firstone that we started was forty two years

(00:44):
ago in Leamira and moved into athird building there in two thousand and eight.
When we did that, we builta garage in the practice for clients
to pull into for sick pets,post up care, those kinds of things.
And I was sitting at a meetinga couple of years ago before COVID
to be perfectly clear, about tenyears ago and listening to one of the

(01:07):
speakers who was an accountant that wasan expert in veterinary the field talk about
the overbuilding of clinics and the availabilityof veterinary teams and all the stuff that
goes with that. And while Iwas sitting there, I thought, you
know what, we can make thisgarage concept into the entire focus of the
practice. So, like I said, nine or ten years ago, well

(01:29):
before COVID, that was my conceptionof the process. So I have this.
I think a lot of us havethis, whether maybe we've experienced this
firsthand, seen the dog on theleash outside the vet clinic would like to
break pose going and the owner going, come on, come on. Now.
Some of us are lucky enough tohave chihuahua that they just scoop up,
or cats in a crate that arelike and they're ready to go.

(01:53):
This really alleviates that problem, doesn'tit. Yes, there's a whole concept,
a whole movement called fear free inveterinary medicine. There's low stress,
fear free, all these kind ofnegative kind of terms that get thrown into
that. But this is truly theepitome of the easiest veterinary visit. You
could develop your pet for you,for your dog, for your cat.

(02:14):
The cats especially are very cool aboutit. When I developed this, I
thought it would be mostly a dogpractice because that's what people do is put
their dogs in the car and drivearound. They go to soccer practice,
they go to whatever with the kidsand the dog. But we have about
a forty percent cat population, andthe cats come in. They never go
into a lobby, they never gointo a waiting room, they never see

(02:37):
a dog, smell a dog.Here a dog. They go straight from
the vehicle into the exam room,which is adjacent. So it is truly
a drive in, drive through veterinarypractice. And it's hard for a lot
of people to get the hang ofthat because they're like, what do you
mean I drive in? Well,we have four garage bays with two doors
on each bay, and essentially youdrive up to the door, we pop
up the door, you drive in, we put the door down, and

(02:58):
then there's an examiner am adjacent.Small dogs and cats or your dog can
have their care in the vehicle orin the garage bay itself. If you
have a larger dog, and everybody'sjust a lot more chill. It makes
it so much easier for owners,for the for the pets, for the
staff. It's it's been very wellreceived. Talking this morning with doctor Marty
Greer. Of course, Doctor Greercomes to us from check out Veterinary the

(03:21):
website, checkout vet dot com.You should check that out this morning.
Check out vet dot com locally clinicor right and Sun Prairie Round on Prairie
Lake's Road. Their telephone number sixoh eight three one eight sixty seven hundred.
That's three one eight sixty seven hundred. Years ago, I had a
doctor friend, a vet friend actuallydescribed me. They said, if you
were to ask like a human todescribe a space, they would tell you

(03:44):
what it looks like. And hesaid to me, he said, if
you were to ask an animal likea dog to describe a space, they
would tell you what it smells like. And when you mentioned especially with little
kiddies and stuff, they are verykeen to things that as humans we are
just completely oblivious to, aren't they? Exactly Years and years ago, many
many years ago, I went toa dog camp that Patricia McConnell was providing

(04:06):
one of the speaking roles for,and some of you probably remember Patricia McConnell.
She was dog's best friend. Sheis retired now. She's written a
number of books. She was onpublic radio for years every Saturday morning with
Larry Mieler. Great show, verywonderful, really bright person. She's a
PhD in animal behavior. And atthis camp, she set it up so

(04:29):
that there was a boombox playing ineach of the four corners of the room
and asked us all to stand up, take a piece of paper, and
she was walking through the room,throwing balloons around that we were supposed to
keep in the air, and recitingoff a list of words we were supposed
to write onto the paper. Andthe point was every boombox was playing a
different song, so you had fourkind of audio inputs plus her, plus

(04:51):
the balloons bouncing and run in theair. And what was really interesting is
she I didn't even realize she wasgiving us a spelling list until the third
word, because I was so focusedon trying to figure out what else was
going on around me. It wasjust it was this very discombobulated thing.
The only thing she was missing waspopcorn popping, because you could have smelled
that, and that would have addedthat extra layer that we and her point

(05:13):
was, this is what it feelslike for our dogs when they go into
a setting like a veterinary clinic,like a training class, like a lot
of these different places, dog parks, daycares, whatever. It's just this
on so slot of sensory input thatthey can't accommodate. Hey, and we
think about it as you were talkingabout the things doctors too, that you
know, you guys are trying toto balance all this and it's it's it

(05:36):
is. It is well illustrated there, doctor. I've got a guest too
with with for your patients, foryour for the pets that are coming in,
this has got to be obviously lessstressful on them, but also for
you and the doctors at Checkout Veterinaryto treat the animals when if they're more
relaxed, I think that's got tobe a huge benefit as well. Yes,

(05:58):
and like I said, there's beenthis move we're starting to put more
dogs on medication and cats on medicationto reduce their anxiety when they come in.
But this really alleviates a lot ofthat. There's less just everything is
just less. It's easier for thepet. They're more comfortable, they're more
relaxed. They don't feel as threatened. They aren't in a claustrophobic space.
They're not being looked at by somebig rottweiler that is sort of intimidating.

(06:20):
It's just a much easier environment.And the staff, my doctors and my
lay staff absolutely love it. Theyare very engaged in doing this and it's
been really fun, yeah, tobe able to do this. It's a
fun way to practice and it's afun way for our clients to get their
veterinary services. It's really amazing whatyou guys are able to do at checkout

(06:41):
Veterinary and all the great benefits.You can learn more of the website checkout
vet dot com. That's checkout vetdot com talking this morning with doctor Marty
Greer of Checkout Veterinary. They've gota clinic right and Sun Prairie r on
a Prairie Lakes road. To mentionthe website. You can learn more at
checkout vet dot com. I wantto ask you about your hours because this
is another neat thing. We talkabout the convenience and all the benefits of

(07:03):
checkout vet and having the drive throughanother thing you do. And I had
to double check when I saw theon the website. I'm looking at your
hours Monday through Wednesday nine to fivenine am five pm. Thursday's closed,
and then Friday through Sunday. Ithought that's got to be a typo because
it says nine to five. That'sweekends. Doctor sure is. It's got

(07:26):
to be a real popular option too. It is because people need time that
they can get into the veterinary clinic, and we're there now. Checkout was
really conceived to be a wellness outpatientcare. But on weekends when you can't
get into the emergency clinics because theyare just swamped with really seriously ill patients,
we are there for the less seriousthings, so ear infections, limping,

(07:49):
a little bit of diarrhea, youknow, the things that happen on
the weekend, and either you needto take care of it on the weekend
because the pet needs the care,or you have to work on Monday.
You can't really take Monday off torun in. So what we've really been
able to provide is that level ofservice that clients can come to expect.
So we have two practices. Insome Prairie, we have check in and

(08:09):
we have check out. Check Inis also in some prairie. It's in
the Nature's Preserve office park there,So they're there Monday through Friday, so
on Thursdays, we're not leaving youhigh and dry. You have a place
to go on Thursdays, and they'remeant to do the more in depth kinds
of things like X rays and surgeryand dental care and anesesia and lump removals

(08:31):
and spas and neters and all theother things that go along with pet care
that isn't quite wellness. So wellnesswe really look at as being the preventive
blood work, the stool sample checks, the vaccines, the exams, the
healthy pet kind of care with someminor exclusions on the weekends for the people
that can't wait till Monday. Ifeel like I think every pet owners experienced

(08:52):
this. It's always a Friday afternoon. Friday afternoon, yes, and it's
like and you're a and and there'sthat struggle of do we wait till monday
or do we and and that that'sthat's something get solved here. We're to
talk more with doctor Marty Greer talkabout some of the other some things as
pet owners. As we we're goingto do the show each and every week.

(09:13):
And one of the great things goingto be is as we go through
we'll be taking questions. We'll alsotalk with some things coming up the news.
I know a lot of times certainthere'll be a news story, and
having an opportunity to actually get indepth with a doctor and get some get
some little background on some of thesestories is going to be an absolutely fantastic
thing. In the meantime, youhave been to the website, check it
out check out vet dot com.That's checkout vet dot com. You can

(09:35):
learn more there. Delphy number sixO eight three one eight sixty seven hundred.
That's three one eight sixty seven hundred. Welloksend you our conversation with doctor
Marty Greer of Checkout Veterinary. Wewill do that next as Ask the Experts
continues right here on thirteen ten wuI B I thirteen ten WU I B
A and Ask the Experts talking withdoctor Marty Greer from Checkout Veterinary. The

(09:58):
website check out vet dot com.That's checkout vet dot com. Del phone
number six oh eight three one eightsixty seven hundred. That's three one eight
sixty seven hundred. And as wetalk about the concept at checkout vet.
How you guys have been in practicewith this concept now a number of years
right check out, it's been therethree years. Check in. We purchased

(10:20):
a few years before that with theexpectation of opening the drive through, so
we purchased that before COVID knowing thatthis is something that we wanted to do.
But the original practice that I'm inwe started I started in nineteen eighty
two, so forty to almost fortythree years ago, so we've been in
practice that long in the community andwe're still family owned. It's myself,

(10:41):
my husband, one associate, andwe're adding two new doctors to our ownership
as well, so it's locally owned. And that's I think really important to
a lot of people. Corporate medicineis changing the face of veterinary practice,
and for people that are concerned aboutthat, we are still family owned.
We still make individual decisions based onwhat your needs are, so we guarantee

(11:03):
that we will come up with atreatment plan that's suitable for you and your
pets needs. And I think that'sa really important feature for people to recognize
that it's not cookbook medicine. It'snot this is what we're told to do
by corporate and this is how we'regoing to practice, So that's a big
deal to us. It's interesting whenyou mentioned that. I sometimes think some
of that's hidden the corporate side andfor obviously on there for their persecutivities who

(11:28):
want it to seem as local aspossible. Knowing that the VET that you're
seeing is actually that is a localoperation is really important. People. I'm
going to ask you about scheduling.How does that How does that work with
checkout veterinary? Can you schedule onlinecall? What's kind of the process for
getting your pet in? Sure?So you can go to our website and

(11:48):
request an appointment through that, oryou can give us a call. We
do take walk ins, but thatdoesn't always get you the fastest service,
so you're better off to call ahead. We have four garage bays, we
have the capacity to see multiple patientsat the same time, and enough laystaff.
And I'll tell you my assistants areamazing. They're very devoted to this.

(12:09):
They absolutely love it. And likeI said, my doctors are great
as well. So we have fourdoctors that are in practice there, plus
myself, and then we have anumber of laystaff because we have two locations,
so we have a whole team ofpeople that are really devoted to making
the best care for your pet possible, Doctor Greer, have you seen pet
owners? I think we're all kindof guilty of this is sometimes because of

(12:33):
in that in that kind of thatmodel of having to take your pet physically
into a into a building, andthat in that interaction maybe sometimes hesitating to
get in for some routine things likewhether it's heartworm for for our rabies,
I've got to guess you see amuch higher rate of animals actually staying on
on course for things that are youknow, some of these wellness wellness checkboxes

(12:56):
right. And we also have ourprisis published online because it's sort of a
black box for people. They don'tknow exactly what it's going to cost them
when they go in. And there'salways an exam which we are required to
provide that care so that we arefamiliar with the pet's health before we do
anything else. But the heartworm preventivesand the flee and tich preventives and the
heartrom test and all those things.It's sort of a mystery at most veterinary

(13:18):
clinics how much it's going to costyou when you go in, and we
want to make sure that you knowin advance and that we help you select
the best products and the best servicesfor your pet. So I think that's
really important that that you're made awareof that in advance. It shouldn't be
a secret, it shouldn't be somethingthat you're not aware of. Talking this
morning with doctor Martin Greer of CheckoutVeterinary, the website checkout vet dot com,

(13:41):
that's checkout vet dot COM's got anemail while you were talking email or
share, he says, I've takenmy cat to see doctor Greer for years.
Our cat is thirteen. Yeah,really good. Yeah, I probably
have been seeing it for a longtime. Yah. Is there any kind
of for pet owners in general?Is there something that if you could tell
you this your general pet owner,something that's really important that oftentimes is overlooked

(14:07):
to help with their longevity. Sothey're kind of like one kind of key
piece of advice or like a goldenrule for a pet owner just to keep
in mind. And it's just likefor us, preventive care is really essential.
This past year, we've seen ahuge uptick in the number of lime
disease anaplasmosis and ailiquia cases, allthe tick born diseases, and that's something
that when we do a heartworm test, we test for all three of those
along with heartworm, and being ableto diagnose those early and get those pets

(14:31):
on antibiotics before they're clinically ill canbe really critical. We've seen labradors get
really sick from kidney failure due tolime disease. We've seen a number of
different disorders that go along with it. So don't overlook that that it's just
a tick. It's a big deal. The ticks not only are on your
dog, but they can come intothe house on you. Two weeks ago,
my husband, who practices with meand Lamira, he's also a veterinarian,

(14:54):
had three ticks on him that hadcome off of a dog that he
was doing an exam on. Soobviously the dog didn't taste very good,
and he was probably going to tastebetter because he wasn't taking flee in tick
preventives. But those are really importantthings. People don't think it's that important,
and they don't think it needs tobe year round. But for instance,
this year, in January, wehad a couple of really cold days
and the rest of January was prettymild, so we were seeing ticks even

(15:16):
in January, and people don't reallyexpect that. They're just like, oh,
well it's cold, I'm fine.No, we need to go year
round with our heartworm and flee intick preventives. We need to keep them
up on their vaccinations because there's somuch we can do to prevent. Dental
health is another really important aspect.And although we don't do dental cleanings at
check out, we can't assess themfor whether they need a dental cleaning and

(15:37):
schedule them for check in. Andpeople overlook the importance of dental health.
It's not just bad breath, it'swhat else does it do to their organs?
What does it do their kidneys,to their heart, to their livers.
Super important that we have good dentalhealth. Talk this morning with doctor
Marty Greer this morning. She isfrom checkout Veterinari. The website checkout vet
dot com. That's checkout vet dotcom. You can make an appointment right

(15:58):
online. The telephone umber six soeight three one eight sixty seven hundred.
That's three one eight sixty seven hundred. As we get bigger, are we
seeing our pets get bigger, sedentarylifestyles, poor diets. Do we see
that reflected in our pet sticky?Oh boy? Yeah. But it was
kind of interesting during COVID because thedogs were getting out on walks far more
often. So we got a lotof phone calls the first couple of months

(16:19):
of COVID as my dog went fromhaving two stools a day to having four
stools a day. So we'd gothrough the history and talk to them,
and it turned out that mom wouldwalk the dog in the morning before she
started work, and then the kidswere home from school, so they would
walk the dog in the middle ofthe morning. The afternoon, the dad
would walk the dog in the evening, and so the poor dog was exhausted.
So we did have I think abetter health with our pets during that

(16:41):
time period because we were focused moreon getting out and walking and doing some
of those things. But yes,absolutely it is critical that our pets stay
in good body condition, and wedo talk about that as well. We
can weigh them in if you wantto come in once a month and pop
your dog on the scale and justsee how am I doing? Are we
heading in the right direction? We'remore than happy to have those things and
of course there's not going to beany charge for that. If you need

(17:03):
to see how much your puppy hasgained weight so that we keep them on
the right dose of heartworm and freeand take medication. Bring them in,
we'll put them on the scale,we'll make sure that the doses of medication
are correct. So, yes,we're more than happy to participate in that.
And doctor, does the type offood you're feeding them make a different
I wish we were on a cameraright, yes. Yes, And that's
one of the things I talked toevery single client about is what do you

(17:26):
feed? I asked three questions,what do you feed? What else do
you feed? Because we all knowthat you're cheating, that you're giving something
off the table, and it's okayto do some of those things as long
as we have some limitations on it. And then what supplements are you giving?
Because I think those are important forus to know as a general health
question. We see pets coming inon CBD oils and those can interfere with

(17:47):
other medications. So those are thethings we need to know as veterinarians to
make sure that what we're medicating yourpet with and what food they're on is
appropriate. So yes, they makelow calorie dog foods. There's some really
great products on them market. Withsome help, we can do those things.
But I feed my dogs for treats. My dogs don't get dog treats.
I don't go to the store andbuy those. My dogs get fruits
and vegetables with the exception of grapesand raisins, and they love them.

(18:11):
Carrots, candilo, broccoli, lettuce, almost anything other than citrus. Dog
dogs can eat citrus, but mostdogs don't like it. So you're absolutely
fine to give that as long asyou're feeding ninety percent dog food and less
than ten percent other things off thetable. There is nothing more entertaining than
watch a dog. Watching a dogdevour a carrot or cherry tomato that they

(18:33):
chase around the floor or how dothey you know, you scoop out the
candle up seeds and then let themkind of gnaw on the inside of it.
It's pretty entertaining. Do not letyour dog have corn cobs because those
will cause bowel obstructions. So youhave to be careful if they get corn
that they just get the corn andnot the cob itself, because sometimes throwing
it in the trash isn't good enough. The dog knows how to open the

(18:53):
trash can lid and get in there. They're pretty they're pretty sharp. Dogging
this morning with dog Marty Greer.Today's day. If you've if you've been
looking for a vetter, looking tostart that conversation. More information at checkout
vet dot com. That's checkout vetdot com. You can also make a
boyman right online Delvil number six Oeight three P one eight sixty seven hundred.
That's three one eight sixty seven hundred, Doctor Greer, Great talk with

(19:15):
you this morning. Beford to doit all again real soon. Thank you.
Daniel Donald has a chance to winone thousand dollars next year at thirteen
ten wib i