FB and the vet's office

[Susie]

Our dogs' vet has a pretty active FB page.  The practice has two veterinarians who are partners both in and out of the office.  Together they do a lot of awesome stuff for rescues, taking in fosters who need vet care, providing the care, and then helping find forever homes.  They post a lot of pictures of their fosters on the FB page:  new fosters that need homes, fosters convalescing at the vets' house before going to forever homes, etc.  That part is cool.

But they also post before/afters of the dogs' health issues and some "during surgery" pics.  (I could PIP here, but I figure if I find them a little unpleasant, others might too.)  They've posted before/during/after pics of a foster who needed a leg amputated and was adopted after recovery (a tripod like Champion!), a puppy's hernia repair (currently available for adoption), and an older dog's teeth cleaning.  That last one was a client's dog, but I assume (hope) that they got the owner's permission to post.  The during surgery pics show the pups intubated and draped, but generally not actual open surgical sites.  They also post pics of dog/cat patients doing funny things in the office.

On one hand it really shows how much they do for their fosters and rescues, and makes me feel good about what we pay for the Doggies Derkins' care.  I am happy to help fund their ability to do what they do.  OTOH, I don't want to picture what Doggie D might've looked like when he was put under for his few surgeries!  

I know I can just un-like if I want to, just curious what your thoughts are on where the line is on appropriate pics.

[cajunmom]

Our vet has everyone sign a release allowing any pictures taken to be used in any way (teaching, social media, etc). I know that some clients have declined to sign the release and it's NBD, and many others that do sign it, myself included. The only thing I would object to is any pictures being taken/posted of dear pets that are being euthanized for whatever reason. Surgeries, etc...no big deal.

[hopenotlost]

Personally, things like that wouldn't bother me. I wouldn't want a picture of my animal being euthanized though, but I imagine they wouldn't post a picture of that on fb (I would hope they wouldn't at least!). I think sometimes people don't realize the amount of work that vets do for animals. Animals aren't much different from humans, so maybe people seeing them in that way will help them value an animal's life. Idk...I guess that's my take on it.

[Deleted]

Our vet has a FB page, but definitely no surgery pictures. They run the occasional contest, post pictures of rescue pets, grooming photos, occasional exam picture or animal in a cast with well wishes for a speedy recovery. I agree that I would find that a bit unsettling.

[alleinesein]

Our vet has an FB page and its pretty active. They do post pics of clients but they do get permission. I love seeing all the pics because our vet office gets a wide variety of animals- last month they had rabbits, guinea pigs, a chameleon and a pig as the featured pets. The owner has birds so we get bird pics for the holidays featuring his birds all dressed up. No surgery pics though they do have pics of pups sporting casts and getting ready for bath time.

[mcc]

I think it's bad to do. It's like, "Look how great we are, we even take pictures while we're supposed to be monitoring Fluffy's vitals!"

There's no need to post those pics unless it's clinically significant - these are pets at a vet, it's not a teaching hospital marketing itself toward new doctors. I wouldn't want to see that either. A sad "Before" pic and a happy "After" pic should suffice.

[Susie]

Mar 5, 2015 16:21:28 GMT -5 cajunmom said:

The only thing I would object to is any pictures being taken/posted of dear pets that are being euthanized for whatever reason. 

No, they don't post those, at least not that I've seen.  I agree it would be inappropriate.  Most everything they post is with the tone of yay, somebody's getting all fixed up and going home!  Which is very cool... I just get caught by surprise on the regular by pics in feed of an intubated pup whose limbs, tongue, etc. are all positioned for surgery.  

Some of the "afters" are super cute though.  A decent number are puppies being speutered so they can be adopted.

[Deleted]

My vet does this. There are quite a few surgery pics and pics of births, mostly cows. I enjoy it. I learn from it because they always post good information with the pics. They recently posted a pic of triplet calves and there was quite the discussion because those are rare and seldom do all 3 survive. My vets are obviously rural vets, they are very involved with our local vet school. I signed a waiver that Hank and Harley can be photographed.

[AAM2012]

Ok I didn't read your entire post.

Surgery pics doesn't bother me and I'm seeing it more and more.

However what concerns me is the doggy day care pics. I'm always afraid someone will see a high end breed cute dog and try to come and steal them from the facility or something crazy.

[Susie]

Mar 5, 2015 19:32:10 GMT -5 AAM2012 said:

However what concerns me is the doggy day care pics. I'm always afraid someone will see a high end breed cute dog and try to come and steal them from the facility or something crazy.

No, they don't do doggie day care - they just post pics of their vet client dogs, and their fosters.  So that's not really a big worry.

I can't remember ever signing a waiver for Doggy and Puppy D's pictures to be posted.  Maybe I did?  They've never had their pictures put up AFAIK.  Which is a waste, of course, because they are adorable.

[gibbinator]

I can see why they do that particularly for rescues. The more pathetic an adult animal looks, the more sympathy it gets, and the more likely it is to be adopted.

[dexteroni]

Ooh. If I knew a photo existed of any of our dogs during a procedure, I would probably want to see it. I don't think I would want to happen upon that photo unexpectedly on FB, though. I would certainly hope they get permission first, and if any of our dogs were going in for a procedure, I think I might mention it, or at least open FB very carefully for a couple days.