SOMETIMES a veterinary life is simple and sometimes it is a veritable minefield where the bombs are a mixture of professional ethics, the Data Protection Act, client confidentiality, moral judgements and common sense. 
And every now and again you get the feeling that it all might just blow up in your face. And even the simplest of consultations can lead you to say, “Blast, blast, blast!”
Take a situation that happened upon a young veterinary colleague. He has been with the practice for just the right amount of time that you can start to relax a little. 
All the potential terrible disasters that he lost so much sleep about have failed to materialise and life is good. Then, just when you least expect it, trouble appears from nowhere. Enter stage left mother and son to have their cat vaccinated. A simple thing. No problem. He’s done it uneventfully a thousand times. Then mother just happens to say that the cat is a stray that walked in on them about a year ago and she’s finally got round to taking it to the vet. 
Now our young vet is keen and thorough. He decides, as you rightly should, to scan the cat for a microchip. The reader bleeps. The cat is chipped. Mother is anxious at the noise and asks what it means. Our intrepid vet explains that the previous owner of this cat, because yes, it did have a previous owner, went to the trouble of having the cat permanently identified with a microchip. 
Now young son is angry and says it’s his cat. Mother asks what happens next and our vet explains he will phone into a central database, give our password and they will contact the original owner. Mother wishes she had never brought the cat to the bloomin’ vet in the first place. 
Then the dilemma deepens. A quick search of our own database tells us that the first owner turns out to also be a client of ours. Indeed, we microchipped the cat two years ago. 
Inspection of their history shows that they reported their cat missing about a year ago. But wait! They found their cat three months later! Sure we thought it was strange that we couldn’t find its chip when they brought it in for a check-up but they were convinced it was their cat. They have since had that cat vaccinated and seem very happy with it. 
So our young vet has a problem. We have two cats and two owners, both of whom are happy with their lot. We cannot tell either party the other’s name and address.
Young son is crying because he’s worried he is going to lose his wee pal. Mother is absolutely spitting fire. So what do you do? You do the only thing you can. You tell the original owner.
After an agonising 24 hour period for everyone concerned, they thoughtfully and thankfully decide to leave things the way they are. 
Sometimes, as they say, it is best to let sleeping dogs lie. Young vet is very relieved.