Top 10 signs you need a vacation

You've heard people refer to this mysterious and elusive concept "vacation," but how will you know when you need to begin the difficult quest to make one actually happen in veterinary practice? Review the following symptoms and decide for yourself if you should prescribe a vacation for yourself.

Click here for a shareable version of this Top 10.

1. Your cell phone rings and your only thought is, "What now?!"

2. The sound of your own name (especially if preceded by “Doctor”) is abhorrent, because whoever has uttered it only wants you to fix something or do something.

3. Your morning is back-to-back surgeries and your serum chemistry machine has broken down.

4. A client you haven't seen in two years calls to say your treatment “just never worked,” but they need a refill so they don't need to come in to see you.

5. The groundbreaking treatment you've been pitching to everyone who would listen goes on infinite FDA-ordered backorder …

6. Your last appointment of the day always seems to be an emergency surgery.

7. Someone at the practice talks about their next vacation and you can't remember whether your last vacation was before or after the Age of the Dinosaurs.

8. You've explained federal prescription laws and why you can't just fill medications over the phone 14 times (today).

9. The Internet says you're over-vaccinating while you're treating five parvo cases and a suspected case of distemper.

10. Dr. Google is seeing more of your patients than you are, but you're still fixing his mess-ups.

Life is too short. Make that vacation happen-even if it's only a short one.

Kathryn Primm, DVM, owns and practices at Applebrook Animal Hospital in Ooltewah, Tennessee, and is the author of Tennessee Tails: Pets and Their People.