10 year Anniversary! May 22, 2017 18:59
It’s Been 10 years!
The month of May marks a very special anniversary for me here at Dr Amy The House Call Vet. It’s hard to believe but I have been in business now for 10 years!
This mobile vet business that I started so long ago has been a 3 way win-win-win situation.
Pets win – so many pets get proper care that cannot cope with travel, or whose owners cannot travel, or who need to have their last moment in peace at their own home.
Families win – less stress, trusting relationships, more convenience.
And we win – I have been able to continue practicing as a veterinarian through the years of having children.
So many vets leave the profession to have a family and find it too daunting to ever return. My current goal is to continue it on, and allow other Mums to join me and to continue doing the work they love. Experienced vets who will be able to care for and appreciate their patients the way I do.
I pulled the old document storage box out last week and unearthed my hand written record cards. The first pet I visited as “Dr Amy The House Call Vet” was “Rowley”, a sweet little Corgi. I still remember that visit – it was the 25th of May 2007, and I had just finished an early shift at the vet surgery I was working at. I went from there to his home in Mt Gravatt, where he lived with his elderly Mum. This lady and I saw a lot of each other over the next few years, and I got to know about her many grandchildren and children and her sister’s 90th birthday that she travelled interstate to attend. In her turn she sympathized with me as I fought morning sickness and then sleepless nights, as my own little family grew.
This was the first of so many similar relationships that I have thoroughly enjoyed. I 
didn’t realise this when I started the practice, but being a mobile vet for dogs and cats is a great way to meet the most wonderful people our city has! Dedicated families who have gone out of their way to find a vet that will come to their homes to give pets the care they need in a less stressful and more personal way.
We have come a long way from the early days. I am no longer answering every single phone call, entering appointment bookings into a personal diary book and hand writing reports onto record cards after each visit. These days we have computerized records with automatic reminders, google maps to give us directions to your homes, reception staff to do all the organizing and admin for me, and facebook to share the cuteness. The soul of the business is still the same, but the processes are gradually becoming more efficient. Technology being as it is, imagine what will change in the next 10 years.
So I would like to say an enormous thankyou! To all my amazing patients and clients, past and present, for inviting me and my team into your homes and trusting us the way you do. Some of you have been with me since the very early days, and we have shared some triumphs and suffered some losses together over the years. You know who you are! Being a vet is not always easy. It can be incredibly challenging and emotionally draining, as well as enormously rewarding and fulfilling. It’s the sense of relationship and of being able to help the innocent and dependent ones that makes it wonderful.
Dr Amy Coles