We took Seamus to the vet to get his teeth cleaned. They found a problem and had to pull a tooth. The vet sent him home with instructions for his care, which included eating only soft foods for ten days.
As you probably know, cats are fussy about everything. And stubborn. Seamus doesn’t like soft foods. He wanted his regular food and when it wasn’t forthcoming, no matter what we offered him, he wouldn’t eat more than a few morsels.
He wasn’t drinking water, either.
We were concerned. The vet said that if he didn’t get water, his kidneys could shut down. She said we should probably bring in him to be hydrated via IV.
My wife went online and found an alternative. Some cat owners in this situation used a big syringe to force feed their cat during their recovery period. And so for the next several days, that’s what we did. I held him tightly and my wife fed him baby food and water. He didn’t like it. Not one bit. It was torture, but it kept him alive.
But he was still unhappy and listless. He wanted his regular food, in all its crunchy glory. But it wasn’t ten days post surgery and we didn’t want him to bust his stitches.
Do we wait three more days and watch him suffer?
My wife went online again and found another vet’s website that discussed the issue. He said that one week on soft food was enough and the animal should be sufficiently healed by then.
We crossed our fingers and gave Seamus a bowl of his regular food. He devoured it. He looked at us like he wanted to say, “oh hell yes,” and when he was done, he drank water.
And today, he’s fine.
Anyway, here’s the thing.
When you give your clients advice, are you telling them what’s best for them or what’s best for you? If you tell them ten days when seven days is probably okay, are you doing that to cover your tush in case something goes wrong?
This is why two thirds of our population is on some kind of medication. Physicians don’t want to suggest anything non-traditional. If something goes wrong, one of our kind will will come at them with our six-shooters a’blazin. So they take the easy way out and prescribe the medically accepted pill of choice. It’s best for them, even though it may not be the best for the patient.
So, how about you? Where do you draw the line?
Do you tell your clients they need to have certain documents prepared to protect themselves or do you let them “take their chances”? In a contingency fee matter, do you recommend settlement because it is best for the client or because you don’t want to risk losing your fee?
I admit, it’s often a tough call. But that’s the gig. That’s what we get paid to do.
I do wish for one thing, though. When a stubborn client doesn’t want to follow our advice even though it is truly what’s best for them, we should be allowed to waterboard them.
