What is Pawbly?

Marni

It is a veterinarian's mission to help people and pets.

While in veterinary school we spend prodigious amounts of time to take great care in understanding the complexities of disease so that we can accurately diagnose and treat our patients. We are taught that the tiniest clinical sign or subtlest change from our mute patients can be the biggest clue to help unlock and unravel a complex illness. It is a skill and an art that takes years of study, years longer of experience, and years of failures and successes in building both our diagnostic and communication skills.

Rio

Budding veterinary students spend the day light hours noses rooted in 4 inch thick textbooks of all sorts and subjects. Little studious nomads determined to cram volumes of text into a tired and saturated brain. The nights hunched over cadavers dissecting out the muscles, nerves, arteries, veins, and bones from every domesticated species ranging from 2 to 2000 pounds. That doesn't leave us much time for honing your interpersonal communication skills. In fact, for most of us, we only spend time with each other and we quickly forgive others lack of effective or polite socialization when we are all merely trying to survive the day at hand.

Daisy.

After four years of books, tests, professor intimidation, and a diploma, it is time to go out into the real world and practice our craft.

What I have learned about my profession is that veterinarians are mediators. 

Our job is to assess one species and translate it to another. 

Not an easy task. Think about all of the effort involved in understanding an illness/disease from a patient who doesn't talk? How hard it is to describe it to another person in a common tongue. How you have to posture and present the answer so that your client will work with you on their pets behalf. Then think about trying to predict which client wants to help their pet. Which client has the ability to help their pet, and which pet will tolerate the help if you can coerce part A and B to coalesce. Every pet and every client is a new calculus problem with a list of variables that may, or may not be defined, and may or may not provide the answer you want.

The successful cases are those that are managed with a team approach. The mediator is only successful if they can solve, translate, and conquer or conspire with all players, all pieces of the puzzle, and all variables. How do you do this? Pay attention to every clue your patient provides, every word your client says, and offer options. Be an advocate for your patient, be honest, be flexible, and for gods sake invest a piece of yourself in every life you touch.

For me being a veterinarian is about educating my clients and being an integral part of their journey. 

From this stemmed my blog as a way to provide more information to my clients outside of the office and appointment hours, and from that stemmed Pawbly.com.

Lilly

The mission of Pawbly is to help bridge the gap between all of the information available to people, all of the skills learned from those people who dedicate themselves to helping pets, and those people in need of help. 

Pawbly is just the place to meet and exchange information to benefit pets and the people who care about them.

Pup-pup.

Pawbly can help our clients understand our invaluable role, and supplement our advice.

Our pups, the couch-keepers.

How else can Pawbly help? Anyone who cares about pets, works in any pet related field, owns or operates a pet centered business, or has a lifetime of pet knowledge to share is welcome. Pawbly is free and open to anyone who cares about pets. Pawbly is built by pet people for pet people.

Participating in Pawbly is easy. Just sign up and start asking questions, answering other peoples queries, or sharing all of the things you love about animals. Pawbly.com is free for everyone to use!

You can also follow me on Twitter @FreePetAdvice, or find me in person in the veterinary clinic, Jarrettsville Vet, in Jarrettsville Maryland.

Our pups, Jekyll and Charlie, the watchful pair of guard pups.