A very small portion of communication is conveyed through actual words. Some sources indicate that it is as little as 7%. It makes you wonder why we talk so much all the time.
When your veterinarian walks into the exam room with your dog’s lab results, do you already know what kind of news they’re bringing before they open their mouth?
I still remember the phone updates I was getting when Jasmine was in the ICU. I remember the monotone voice reciting her vitals, “her blood pressure is good, her heart rate is good …” Translation: “she’s hanging in there but I have no good news to give you.” Morning after morning after morning.
When they were releasing her to home care, the non-verbal communication was saying, “there is nothing else we can do for her, it’s up to her now. Hopefully, she’ll bounce back when she’s in her home environment.”
I remember the message between the lines when discussing Jasmine’s prognosis on her last days.
The messages between the lines
When I was discussing Cookies ALT elevation with her vet, the tone of voice was quite neutral. No alarm bells going off. It was a mild anomaly which could mean something or could be normal for Cookie.
The phone call after her ultrasound was much more guarded. Before we even got to discussing the actual results, I was already worried. No word has been said about the actual ultrasound yet. But I knew that while it wasn’t going to be horrible news, something about the ultrasound wasn’t quite right.
Just the time it took for them to call me about it at all was suspicious.
As time went on, I started thinking they saw something and were waiting for the biopsy results before talking to me. As it turned out, it was exactly why they were making me wait. It took three phone calls from me to finally hear back.
I was on pins and needles awaiting the biopsy results.
We were out walking the guys when the phone rang and it was from the vet hospital. By the time the vet introduced herself, made sure I was who she was trying to talk to and that I had time to discuss things, I KNEW it was going to be good news.
Does your vet’s non-verbal communication give away the news they’re bringing?
Related reading:
What Makes a Good Veterinarian: Veterinarians Are People First
Further reading:
Communicating with Clients through Body Language