I am very fortunate to have two very skilled and dedicated vets treating my 11 yo diabetic cat. They have just saved his life for the second time.
I would like to give the vets and the practice a gift. I was thinking of $$ for the vets (I have a feeling they do a lot of work for people who can’t/don’t pay) and an assortment of home-baked cookies for the staff? Any other ideas? A gift certificate for each vet for the nicest restaurant in the area (–something I would like)? Any ideas are welcome, especially if you are a veterinarian.
hmmm… Since I’m a vet I thought I would respond. Certainly home baked cookies and that sort of thing are always extremely popular at my office. As far as gifts for the vets, it kind of depends. Just giving them cash would be kind of strange in my opinion (if that’s what you meant by giving them $$$'s). Don’t get me wrong I like cash as much as the next guy but it would be kind of strange.
How well do you know your vets? A gift certificate to a restaurant would be nice but something allowing them to purchase something for their hobbies would be really cool. My boss likes to do a lot of hunting so people will get him Cabella’s [sp] gift certficates and such. People know I really like chocolate chip cookies so that’s what I get baked when people want to give an extra thank you. In general it’s always nice to receive a gift that has nothing to do with animals. We all love them but the last thing most of need is a cool dog collar or some type of pet accessory. I think regardless of what you do it will be appreciated, don’t get me wrong.
In my personal opinion a simple thank you is worth a lot. So many people don’t even give you that or even seem the least bit appreciative. Don’t stress out too hard, regardless of what you actually come up with the gesture will be much appreciated.
I don’t know that I’d make that big a difference between the vets and the staff. Depending on how the practice is run, the techs may be the ones who actually saved your cat’s life. In many, many practices, the techs are the ones who start IV’s, pull blood, take radiographs, put in trach tubes, etc. The vet makes the decsions, but the actual procedures are done by the techs. In all practices, the techs are the ones who do the medicating and the monitoring to make sure your pet is still doing all right. If your cat started crashing while in the clinic, it was almost certainly a tech who noticed and got things started.
I don’t know about your vets, but the vets I’ve worked with prefer for clients to make any gifts things that can be shared among all of us. It would make them extremely uncomfortable to get a gift cert for a fancy restaurant while the techs got a plate of cookies to share with the receptionists. Of course, every clinic has its own dynamic.
Trust me, food always goes over well. Personally, though, I prefer cards and letters. They’re not nearly so fattening, and I don’t have to walk past them and exercise my self-restraint a hundred times a day.
As a vet, I’d be appreciative of any gift a client gave me. Just to know that someone was grateful enough to do something nice for me would be gift enough.
But then again, a monetary gift is not the best idea, IMO. You’re already paying them money for the services they’ve rendered; giving them more of the same doesn’t really say “thank you” quite like other gifts could. Homemade presents always give me a warm and fuzzy feeling, especially if they show a personal, thoughtful touch. Perhaps you could present the clinic with a large, framed picture of your cat enscribed with a nice thank-you message from your dear cat.
A gift like that shows A) how very grateful you are to the hospital staff and B) how important your cat is to you. Those are two things vets and their staff looooove to see. A picture is also a gift that keeps on giving because if they put it on the wall, other people can see how appreciative one client is of their great work and that translates into greater respect and maybe even better business for them!
Sometimes vets and techs and admin staff are on a diet, that’s why I don’t give cookies and muffins. My usual thank-you for an office is a basket of teas and coffees along with some fresh flowers. Dull, yes, but I try to make up for that with the note.
How many people work at your veterinary office? If it’s just a couple of vets and their staffers, enough gift certificates to go around might not be a bad idea. (My animals go to a practice with five vets and I long ago lost track of the staff.)