• DVM360_Conference_Charlotte,NC_banner
  • ACVCACVC
  • DVM 360
  • Fetch DVM 360Fetch DVM 360
DVM 360
dvm360 | Veterinary News, Veterinarian Insights, Medicine, Pet Care
dvm360 | Veterinary News, Veterinarian Insights, Medicine, Pet Care
By Role
AssociatesOwnersPractice ManagerStudentsTechnicians
Subscriptions
dvm360 Newsletterdvm360 Magazine
News
All News
Association
Breaking News
Education
Equine
FDA
Law & Ethics
Market Trends
Medical
Politics
Products
Recalls
Regulatory
Media
dvm360 LIVE!™
Expert Interviews
The Vet Blast Podcast
Medical World News
Pet Connections
The Dilemma Live
Vet Perspectives™
Weekly Newscast
dvm360 Insights™
Publications
All Publications
dvm360
Firstline
Supplements
Vetted
Clinical
All Clinical
Anesthesia
Animal Welfare
Behavior
Cardiology
CBD in Pets
Dentistry
Dermatology
Diabetes
Emergency & Critical Care
Endocrinology
Equine Medicine
Exotic Animal Medicine
Feline Medicine
Gastroenterology
Imaging
Infectious Diseases
Integrative Medicine
Nutrition
Oncology
Ophthalmology
Orthopedics
Pain Management
Parasitology
Surgery
Toxicology
Urology & Nephrology
Virtual Care
Business
All Business
Business & Personal Finance
Hospital Design
Personnel Management
Practice Finances
Practice Operations
Wellbeing & Lifestyle
Continuing Education
Conferences
Conference Listing
Conference Proceedings
Upcoming dvm360 Conferences
Resources
CBD in Pets
CE Requirements by State
Contests
Partners
Spotlight Series
Team Meeting in a Box
Toolkit
Top Recommended Veterinary Products
Vet to Vet
Veterinary Heroes
  • Contact Us
  • Fetch DVM360 Conference
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy
  • Do Not Sell My Information
  • About Us

© 2023 MJH Life Sciences and dvm360 | Veterinary News, Veterinarian Insights, Medicine, Pet Care. All rights reserved.

Advertisement
By Role
  • Associates
  • Owners
  • Practice Manager
  • Students
  • Technicians
Subscriptions
  • dvm360 Newsletter
  • dvm360 Magazine
  • Contact Us
  • Fetch DVM360 Conference
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy
  • Do Not Sell My Information
  • About Us
  • MJHLS Brand Logo

© 2023 MJH Life Sciences™ and dvm360 | Veterinary News, Veterinarian Insights, Medicine, Pet Care. All rights reserved.

Legally, puppy visits are never routine

October 1, 2006
Christopher J. Allen, DVM, JD

In regard to legal troubles, expect it where you least expect it. As a veterinarian, I've had more than my share of employees, associate veterinarians and litigious clients.

In regard to legal troubles, expect it where you least expect it. As a veterinarian, I've had more than my share of employees, associate veterinarians and litigious clients.

One important lesson that I have learned from my experience is that legal trouble in veterinary practice most often arises from the most unlikely situations.

I often write about catastrophic partnerships, allegations of mishandled surgeries, veterinarians who are sanctioned for drug-handling improprieties and other major career-shaking events in this column. While many of the anecdotes I have described have had origins in some major workplace transaction, most practicing veterinarians encounter legal problems that have roots in much more pedestrian situations.

In no instance is this truer than in the case of initial puppy examinations. For example, in the days when I was hiring my first few associate veterinarians, I never gave too much thought to the occasional comment I would receive from breeder and pet store clients that a given new graduate's first examination of a new puppy seemed cursory or incomplete. Later on, when I became more familiar with the economics and legalities of the puppy trade, I realized new puppy visits should never be considered routine.

The primary risk associated with performing an incomplete puppy physical involves the missed chance to give a "heads up" to the puppy seller and/or its purchaser. Over the years, I have come across a number of instances where pet owners were never made aware of genetic or acquired abnormalities that almost certainly existed at the time the patient was first adopted as a youngster.

Advertisement

In one notable instance, one of my own associates identified a significant cardiac abnormality on a puppy that had been shipped to its new owner from the other side of the country. Immediately after spotting the problem, my employed doctor ended up spending more than a little (non-billable) time talking on the phone with the breeder, the veterinarian in Texas who had done the initial puppy exam and the pet store where the animal was purchased. Threats were flying, arguments were heated, and my phone bill (pre-unlimited long distance) was swelling.

The initial puppy (and to some lesser extent, kitten) examination has a tendency to be dismissed by some practitioners as an annoyance. In other instances, discounted, superficial puppy exams might be employed as a public relations gimmick. Some practices offer such office visits as a free or reduced-fee service in order to simultaneously develop a relationship with a new potential client and possibly sell a fecal or some flea preventive.

Legal issues numerous

Beware of the casual first exam! There is nothing wrong with doing these physicals at a discount but don't do them casually. In many ways, it is the initial puppy examination that exposes the practitioner to the greatest legal liability of the pet's life. This is unfortunate considering it is frequently performed at a loss and involves a great time investment. (Pet owners love to ask questions during first exams, especially if they are free.)

The legal issues presented by that first puppy visit are numerous. The first major point involves a matter of state statute. In many jurisdictions, the state legislatures have enacted a sort of statutory warranty often called pet lemon laws. These types of laws permit a new pet owner to return an animal or obtain financial redress from a party who sells a domestic animal afflicted with known or knowable abnormalities or illnesses. Generally, though, such consumer protection is limited in duration.

If a new pet owner consults a veterinarian who casually examines a puppy and the pet is found to be normal and not "a lemon," the new owner may well cruise through the period of statutory protection without bringing any abnormalities to the attention of the puppy's vendor. Once the period expires, the pet owner is on his own in paying for the costs of subsequent care of a condition that the veterinarian should reasonably have identified.

Once the pet's vendor is off the hook, who do you think the new animal's owner will be looking to in order to make him whole financially?

Right - the veterinarian who performed the initial exam finding the dog fit for purchase. Worse still, if the new puppy eventually needs costly care, it is a virtual certainty that the owner will not bring the animal to the veterinarian who missed the problem. Rather, in strict compliance with Murphy's law, the pet owner/plaintiff will choose the most expensive veterinary hospital in town or an out-of-state veterinary teaching hospital.

And there are other issues.

Remember, the amorphous yet obligatory "adequate standard of care" never takes a vacation. Just because the first puppy visit will likely be followed by others, there is no way to know in advance. If you have one chance to see a new pet, you bear the responsibility for alerting owners to apparent zoonotic risks and for proactively recommending an appropriate parasite and infectious disease control program.

These routine steps must be carried out, and they need to be documented. That way, when the new puppy owner's children contract scabies and the dog dies of parvovirus, you will not be in the crosshairs of some plaintiff's lawyer, some aggressive state board investigator or some local health department compliance officer.

Dr. Allen is president of the Associates in Veterinary Law P.C., which provides legal and consulting services exclusively to DVMs. He may be contacted at (607) 754-1510 or info@ veterinarylaw.com.

Related Content:

Law & Ethics
The biggest legal threat to veterinary professionals
The biggest legal threat to veterinary professionals
How to set yourself up with lawsuit protection
How to set yourself up with lawsuit protection
Bill addressing veterinary shortage in Arizona signed into law
Bill addressing veterinary shortage in Arizona signed into law

Advertisement

Latest News

The Vets appoints Dr Zach Mills to VP of Medical Performance

Communicating the importance of genetic screening

Purina announces its 2023 Pet Care Innovation Prize winners

AmeriVet Veterinary Partners deemed a 2022 Business of the Year

View More Latest News
Advertisement