Conference misery::feline_v1

2428.0. "HEY!! This Vet does HOUSECALLS!!" by CPDW::MCDONOUGH (I'm a friend of THUNDER) Wed May 03 1989 10:21

      The following is reprinted without pwrmission from a recent issue of
    the Worcester Mass daily Telegram...
    
                 "Katmobile" rides to felines' rescue...
    
      When the telephone rings in Dr. Katherin Reiner's late-model, grey
    Subaru, more often than not it's another case of the "Katmobile" to the
    rescue!.
      Reiner is a veterinarian. 
      She specializes in cats. And she makes house-calls!
      With a weighing scale and several medical bags stuffed in the back
    seat of her car, Reiner is only a telephone call away--on the
    "fe-line," of course--from a pet-owner's cat-tastrophe.
      Based out of her home at 3 Gould Road in Lexington, the 31-year-old
    graduate of Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine in Grafton
    has taken her practice on the road.
      Her territory covers a dozen or so communities in the
    Bedford-Concord-Lexington area, including Maynard, acton and Stow. 
      Having a veterinarian make house calls is getting "a little more
    popular these days," Reiner said as she traveled Route 62 to Concord
    and the Peter Spring Road home of Andrea Boudreau and her eight cats,
    two of whom were scheduled for examinations.
      "I started the housecall practice in my "Katmobile" a little over a
    year ago and it's really growing nicely," she said. "The population is
    increasing and the office overhead is increasing, so what you are
    seeing is an old-fashioned medical idea--the housecall--coming back."
      The housecall is a financially sound alternative to opening a clinic,
    especially for a veterinarian just starting in the practice, said
    Reiner. "The cost of opening an animal hospital is astronomical."
      A spokeswoman for the Grafton-based Massachusetts Veterinary Medical
    Association said there are relatively few veterinarians who specialize
    in one type of small animal. Most are general practicioners, she said.
      There are also very few veterinarians who provide mobile service, she
    added.
      "It's very expensive to start a practice," she said. "However, most
    veterinarians will try to establish their own clinics within five years
    of starting practice."
    
      Born and raised in Lexington, Reiner graduated from Lexington High
    School and received her undergraduate degree in 1980 from U.N.H.. She
    received her graduate degree in veterinary medicine in 1984 from Tufts.
      Her specialty is cats, "and that, too, is becoming a little more
    popular." She is a member of the Feline Practicioners Association, a
    national association of veterinarians who specialize in treating cats.
    Reiner said the association boasts of a membership of around 70, "but
    it's growing daily."
      According to Reiner, America's love affair with the cat is in full
    bloom.
      
      "Cats are now the #1 pet; they've surpassed dogs in popularity." she
    said.
      "They're more suitable to people's lifestyles these days. You have
    situations where two adults in the family are working or out of the
    house a lot. There's nobody there to walk a dog or to housetrain a
    puppy. Cats are a lot easier to take care of.
      They're a good house pet when there's not going to be people home for
    long periods of time during the day."
      Reiner chose to specialize in felines "after sitting around deciding
    that I hated what I was doing--basically a small-animal practice of
    cats, dogs, and exotics(birds). I wasn't happy. I knew I wanted to work
    for myself, and I knew I couldn't afford to in a traditional style."
      She said she made a list of the things she enhjoyed "and realized
    that I enjoyed working with cats. And whe I was in school, I seemed to
    gravitate toward cases that involved cats. When I was working in the
    hospital, it made me happier when I was working with cats."
      Reiner said she was "born wanting to be a veterinarian."
      Reiner worked part time while in high school for the Audubon Society
    in Lincoln. "I just couldn't come up with anything else I ever wanted
    to do as much as be a veterinarian."
      Affiliated with two animal hospitals---"Cat Doctor" in Bedford and
    "Animal Emergency Care" in Acton---Reiner can have her patients treated
    in either location should they require more care than can be given at
    home. Mostly, the home visits concern routine veterinary matters,
    including vaccinations and leukemia testing.
      She said her fees--$25.00 for the housecall and $15.00 for an
    examination---are "not outrageously expensive. People are paying for
    the convenience of not having to travel to a veterinarian's office."
      While Reiner has found that "generally it's easier to treat cats in
    surroundings that are familiar to them," she has found herself in some
    unusual positions in providing treatment. "I had to crawl under a sink
    once to innoculate a cat. And another time I had a cat trapped in a
    bathroom and kinda wedged behind a toilet and couldn't get it out. I
    gave it it's shot right there."
      "I've even put cats to sleep in their owner's homes," she said. "I
    think people find that a lot more comforting than dropping them off
    some place to have them put to sleep."
      "Mrs. Brodeur, who said she collects stray cats like a flame
    attracting moths, finds the "Katmobile" service a difficult attraction
    to pass up.
      "I've got two children---a daughter, 4, and a son, 9 months, three
    birds and eight cats," Mrs Brodeur said. "I don't know when I'd find
    time to get all the cats over to the vets."
       "This is perfect"---only it came out sounding "PURRRRfect..."
    
    JM

    My vet does housecalls too...in fact, the name of his "clinic" is
    indeed HOUSECALLS.  I believe he will work on both cats and dogs,
    is very prompt and available, and subscribes to the theory that
    pets are more comfortable to be treated in their own homes.  They
    are not plucked out of a nice safe surrounding into the new and
    strange vet office, poked and prodded and then have to be transported
    back home where by then, they are all stressed out.  Instead, at
    home, they are already on safe ground and less stress is caused.
    
    My cats have been spayed by Dr. Thies and then put in the bathroom
    where it's quiet as they come out of anesthesa (boy, do they look
    stoned for a while).  His motorcoach has pretty much everything
    he needs to do most forms of surgery and treatment and in general,
    I have found him to be LESS expensive, in most cases, than taking
    my animals to a clinic (altho bones has upcoming surgery that would
    be better done where he can have supervision, being an older cat).
    
    His area is pretty extensive throughout the San Jose area (it includes
    most of the South Bay--which for you not of this area is all those
    cities down at the south end of the San Francisco Bay).  I am really
    happy with him--it beats loading the cats up to take them in.  He
    comes to me (and even on Saturdays!).
    
    So anyway I am not surprised other vets are doing this nowdays.
     There's definately the need and market for it.
    
                                                               ---kim

    
    	
    Kim-
    
    your kitties were spayed in your home?  
    
    This type of vet sounds great.  I have a friend in Maynard whose
    cats have a vet who makes house calls.  I enquired about the cost
    for him to travel to my house, out of his way - in a big way, and
    therefore it would be too expensive.  ANything to make the experience 
    easier on Nippa is my main goal -and my current vet does a great job, but
    I have to draw the line somewwhere (in regards to $$), however
    this house call thing seems like the way to go...      I hope someone
    in my area will pick up on this type of buisness!
                                             
    Michele

    Dr. Thies will not come to Morgan Hill.
    
    :^(
    
    So I drive an hour to Fremont instead.
    
    Jo

    Re: 3 (Jo, that's too bad cause with all your cats it'd save you
    a trip!)
    true, his area is somewhat limited...he won't go to fremont either.
    but for san jose, santa clara, cambell, los gatos, etc...good deal.
    
    Re: 2
    
    well, she was spayed inside the motor coach, then brought IN the
    home to recup.  i don't think he wants to gross us out too much,
    plus we don't have the sugery table yet.  ;)
    
    

    Kim-
    
    I was hoping you'd say something like that.....but I _had_ to ask
    ;^)

    To gross you out...  ;-)
    
    	One of my friends uses a vet who makes housecalls, and about
    	a month ago, he neutered two of her males on her kitchen
    	table.  (so you won't have to ask, he took the bits with
    	him when he left.)
    
    I've assisted the vet with C-sections, etc., but always in the
    safety of the hospital -- scared to death that I'd turn the valve
    the wrong way on the oxygen or something terrible.
    
    	Pennie

Well, does anyone have any experience with Dr. Reiner?  We met her the other
day, and were wondering if we should switch our cat care to her.

/john

    We (and a number of our friends) have been very pleased
    with Dr. Reiner.