Veterinary Acronyms

The other night my husband asked if I was going to make it home on time.  My response, "They scheduled an ADR for my last appointment : (

A what? he asked.  An ADR stands for aint doing right; this can mean anything from the pet looked at the owner funny to it's wobbling around and on death's door.  An aint doing right or ADR is kind of like the card that you pick up in a board game that could mean you won $1,000 but most likely is going to mean you miss a turn or go to jail....

A HBC is a hit by car.  A FUO is a fever of unknown origin.  For the average layperson- a FUO means a large bill because you basically have to rule out the presence of an infection or cancer anywhere in the body.  Oftentimes, an ADR in a cat becomes a FUO once you take the cat's temperature and then it is basically a bite wound or abscess unless you can prove otherwise.

A DOA- dead on arrival.  Not a happy one.  Neither is a TTJ (Transfer to Jesus).  A GTL is similar "Going Towards the Light" or a CTD "Circling The Drain."

We have comments for temperament too, of both the patients and the clients.  DTH is Difficult To Handle (which could apply to the owner or their pet).

PITA and PIA, I'm sure you can figure those acronyms out.  Apparently our human medicine colleagues use some of the same codes, but they also use numbers and colors.  One late night I found myself in a hospital waiting to get a rabies vaccine- long story.  I kept hearing a Code 51 or some other code called out over the intercom.  One of our veterinary technicians used to be a paramedic, so she clued me in that the two codes I heard most frequently meant, "drug overdose" and "psych case". I could understand why you would call that as a vague code instead of an obvious announcement.  So now consider the above part of your "veterinary education".