Pawcurious Vet Blog: With Pet Blogger and Veterinarian Dr. V

A whale of a tale

I haven’t been whale watching since I was a kid. It seems counter-intuitive, seeing as how I live right along the path of the gray while migration, and I have a marine biology background, but I guess it’s one of those things I keep meaning to do but never get around to. Just like people who live in Las Vegas never go to the strip, or those in LA stay away from Universal Studios, you tend to avoid the touristy stuff in the area in which you live.

So when a friend of mine asked if anyone was interested in joining her family on a whale watching trip on Monday, I said, “Oh! We totally need to do that!” The kids were excited, I was excited, we were good to go.

It was a gorgeous day in San Diego, albeit choppy as heck on the water. While we boated out of the harbor, a volunteer naturalist from the Birch Aquarium told us all about the annual gray whale migration. (more…)

Giveaway Tuesday: Eye Charts for Dogs and Cats from Local Paper Studio

Eye exams for animals are a little different than they are for people. Sure, you can examine the physical structures of the eye and evaluate its anatomic vigor, but figuring out just how well your pet sees is a little more tricky. We can’t exactly sit them in front of one of those big eyeglass flippy things (I’m sure they have a name, but I never bothered to ask) and get the dog to tell us which is better: This, or….THIS?

Nonetheless, the ubiquitous eye chart is synonymous with the doctor’s office. To that end, Local Paper Studio has created two charming eye charts- one for dogs, and one for cats- that might not reveal whether or not your lab is nearsighted, but they will add a touch of whimsy to an exam room, office, or home of a pet lover.

For today’s Giveaway Tuesday, Local Paper Studio is giving away THREE sets of eye chart posters. Gift one to your vet or keep them for yourself! Who can resist the cute? To make it even better, read on for the way they use eco-friendly paper and donate to Best Friends for each sale!

Set of Two 18″ x 24″ Dog & Cat Eye Charts – Standard Size Posters

Designed for veterinary clinics, this set of two posters makes a
perfect gift to say thank you to your favorite vet. They are sure to
get a laugh in waiting rooms or exam rooms. Also fun to share with dog
and cat enthusiasts.

Each poster measures 18″ x 24″ and will fit easily into a standard
size frame. All posters are shipped rolled and are not matted or
framed.

The artwork was printed in the U.S.A. by a Forest Stewardship Council
certified printer, using vegetable inks on 100% recycled paper from
60% post-consumer waste and processed chlorine free. Due to the
environmentally friendly production of this paper, please note that
small amounts of fibers and recycled matter may be visible on the
paper surface.

$1 from the sale of every poster will be donated to the Best Friends
Animal Society. Visit them at bestfriends.org.

——————————————————–

This is a little bit about our studio:

Printed With Love And Care For The Environment And You.
This pledge appears on all of Local Paper Studio’s projects and
summarizes our belief in community, sustainability and giving back.
Our main goal is to give you fun ways to share a little joy with your
family and friends—the people local to you. 100% recycled papers are
used for all of our projects and we work exclusively with eco-friendly
printers located in the U.S.A.

To enter, leave a comment below and make sure you enter here on Rafflecopter! Additional entries available for tweeting the contest. Good luck!

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Dr V, purveyor of poisonous crafts and ideas

I like spending time with my family. We do crafty things, because they’re fun and everyone enjoys them. One of our traditions, started back when my daughter was in kindergarten, is to make little Valentine’s Day trinket boxes to send to school on Valentine’s Day- a craft I found on the Martha Stewart website and immediately fell in love with. It’s a cute craft- you take empty matchboxes, cover them with scrapbook paper and ribbons, and fill them with conversation hearts. It’s simple, sweet, and it’s always gone over well.

Until this year.

Last Friday, as I was at home recovering from the jetlag of my Westminster trip, I was interrupted in my reverie by a phone call from the school principal, who called to let me know that she had received “multiple complaints” about my little craft. My immediate thought was, oh no, the kids forgot to remove the matches from some of the boxes, but that wasn’t it. Some parents were just mortified that I used matchboxes for a craft. The principal patiently explained, in the same tone one might explain to a kindergartner why gargling with Drano is a bad idea, about the dangers of sulfur residue. Then she said the part that really killed me: “You need to think about the message you are sending here.”

The message I had sent, or so I thought, was, “I care enough about your kids to spend a day running around gathering supplies to make a cute and time consuming re-purposing project.” But people being the contrary types who like to assume the worst read something else into it, what, I don’t know exactly. “Hey kids, pyromania is fun!” “Crack is cool!” Empty matchboxes are the gateway craft, y’all. (more…)

Trolled by travel

Veterinary work is an emotionally charged field. Rarely are people in an ambivalent, steady state sort of mind the way they are, say, at the gas station, or buying bananas at the grocery store. They are either happy because they have a cute young pet getting routine care, or stressed because their pet is ill/expensive/having surgery/waiting too long in the exam room. You get the picture.

So I’m used to dealing with stressed and angry people. You have to be. There are ways to defuse situations, and ways to escalate them.

Now I know that I am, personally, sometimes but not always, a bit of a hothead. Shocking, I know. I’ve never yelled at clients, never gotten loud, never thrown things or berated coworkers or any of that. Not because I’ve never felt the urge, but because that’s not what you do. Being pleasant and polite in the face of stress is what professionals are paid to do, so you do it. That aside, getting into it with clients or customers never serves any purpose, right? Help them solve their problem and move on.

Now on the flip side, when I’m out and about living life, I get irked not uncommonly. I try really hard not to, but it happens. And when it’s accompanied by jet lag, lack of sleep, and dehydration it only gets worse.

It was in this state that I arrived back home on Wednesday. I was already mad because I had to gate check my bag, which I HATE doing, and despite my attempts to make the bag handler-proof as it was being whisked away I realized my car keys were still in it. Greeeeeeat.

And because I am lucky when I travel and we had the extra pleasure of a TSA agent at the gate doing a triple level of screening, he took my nervous fidgeting as I watched my car keys being handed off to some stranger on the tarmac as signs of impending terrorism. He pulled me out of line for additional harassment, which consisted of him looking at my drivers license, up at me, back at my license, back at me for a good three minutes while asking me my name and my destination about three times. But he wanted to be thorough, so then he asked my middle name just for funsies, I guess, and, convinced of my benevolent intents, finally let me on the plane. (more…)

Westminster in pictures

I’m not sure if I’m bone tired, beyond tired, or jetlagged beyond repair. Any way you look it I’m even more incoherent than usual, thanks in part to some shenanigans during the travel home and a dearth of sleep. So, while I shuffle through all the pictures I took at Westminster, here’s a few to kind of give an overall picture of the event. Like I said before, this was my first time alone on the DSLR with no training wheels, so they’re not perfect, but I learned a lot.

One, Westminster is a sea of people. I mean, worse than Disneyland in July. Just elbows to rears everywhere. They pack in like sardines on the floor around the little green oasis that is the carpeting of the show ring, where everyone oohs and aahs over such delights as a gaggle of beagles.

On the main floor of Madison Square Garden, during the day the floor was divided into five rings, so if you stood high enough in the stands you’d get a view of multiple groups going at the same time, all day, for two days. For people like me who didn’t want to jostle for space on the floor, sitting in the stands offered a bird’s eye view of all the action. (more…)

West Coast Meets East Coast

Westminster was so much fun. I can’t wait to go home and sort through all the pictures. For my first time there, it was an eventful experience.

One, there was drama. There’s always drama at these shows to begin with, it seems, but this year was extra dramatic. I know lots of you already know about the controversy about Westminster breaking ties with Pedigree, and all I can say for now is that I am going to do all I can to get a better understanding about what happened and report back to you, because I think it’s a worthy topic to discuss.

But there was other drama too. I actually like the Pekingese who won, but there were plenty of disgruntled people muttering around me about how they liked the Irish Setter or the Dalmatian or what have you. I’m not vested in that world so to me, so I just sit back and enjoy seeing the many beautiful dogs. Who won or did not win is not that important to me. I met Maverick, who some of you have already heard about- he went from being a rescue dog on Craigslist to showing at Westminster and Eukanuba. AMAZING story and I can’t wait to share him with you all.

But aside from that, I took a breather to do the one thing I really wanted to see in New York aside from the show itself, and that was the World Trade Center memorial. It was very moving, and jarring and surreal to be there.

It’s late, and I have to be up early to jet back home, so forgive me this abbreviated post. I promise to write lots more later. In the meantime, how was your Valentine’s Day? Anyone have anything fun they did with the pups or something else exciting to share? I’m already in the doghouse for missing this holiday at home so I have to plan something good in the next six hours.

I Love NY

I’ve made no secret of the fact that I was a little nervous about heading to New York by myself to watch the Westminster show. I mean, I’m no streetwise chick. I live in the burbs. The thought of hanging out by myself there scared me, because based on everything I was told I had come to expect the following:

1. Bone chilling cold requiring layer upon layer of thermal undergarments
2. Unhelpful scoundrels who would ignore me, scoff at me, or mug me
3. Cacophony

And all I have to say is this: New York, you’ve disappointed me.

The cabbie took me from the airport straight to the hotel, no driving around and taking the long route.

No one’s yelled at me, not once.

I haven’t put my hat one ONCE and my gloves only on sometimes. It’s actually, dare I say it, refreshingly brisk. I even walked two whole blocks all by myself when I bid Annette goodbye at the subway station and I didn’t get mugged, not one single time on the way to the hotel.

I’ll even take it a step further- when I was going into Madison Square Garden, there is the main entrance, and there is the press entrance. The main entrance is right by my hotel. The press entrance is around the block, under a rock, through a tunnel, past some murder holes in a dark alley, or at least it felt like it in the morning when it was cold. So I went in the main entrance, expecting to be firmly rebuked, kicked, or escorted off the grounds, and the guard just shrugged and let me come in the nice warm brightly lit entrance. I will take ambivalence over power trips any day.

But seriously, so far New Yorkers have been quite nice. I think you all have been fibbing to me all along, or else living in LA for years has desensitized me to poor behavior. I don’t know.

Sure, some of the handlers are a little stressed, and tensions are mildly elevated, but aside from two press journalists almost coming to blows over an occupied cubicle in the press room I saw very little in the way of yelling, drama, or overt hostility. It’s actually been quite pleasant.

And now here is my favorite part about New York (aside from the 15 story David Beckham billboard on the side of the H&M building): some of you know I grew up in Boston. So despite multiple decades on the West Coast, I still have some New Englander tendencies in me. Now, after living in Southern California for as long as I have, the one thing I’ve never particularly gotten used to is the expectation that you will strike up conversations with complete strangers. At the grocery store, standing at a crosswalk, people just feel the need to chat. I’ve come to expect it.

No one does that here. Everyone just walks along looking straight ahead or at their feet and ignores you, pausing only to dodge tourists taking pictures. If you try to talk to a stranger, they either just keep walking, or throw you a dirty look THEN keep walking. I LOVE IT.

Oh, and the show’s fun too. I have been taking pictures feverishly with the DSLR, though don’t get your hopes up since I’m still in a steep learning curve so I may end up with 300 pictures of blur.

And they call it Puppy Love

Ah, New York.  Land of frigid temperatures and, well, that’s as far as I’ve gotten so far. I have only one goal over the next two days, and that is to figure out how to get to Madison Square Garden from my hotel and maybe see some dogs. The rest is just gravy.

Yesterday was fun. I woke up at 6 to take Brody to the Helen Woodward Puppy Love 5K, and about 5 minutes after I left the house it started drizzling. 5 minutes after that, it was pouring. Now, I looked up the weather report that morning and it mentioned nothing about such drenching debauchery, so I had found myself leaving the house with absolutely nothing that would protect me from a long wet run, no hat, no windbreaker. Things were not looking good.  (more…)

Feast or famine and the mental block of learning DSLRs

My life is a long series of monotonous daily routines punctuated by brief and terrifying moments of outright insanity.

Take this weekend, for example. On Sunday, I’m running in the Helen Woodward Puppy Love 5K on the inaugural Team Iams with an ace group of dogs and friends. Brody and I are super excited. And by excited, I mean, Brody is excited for a long walk and I’m just now realizing I should have spent more time training and less time sampling Girl Scout cookies.

No matter. I may walk a lot of it, but we’re getting out there, and there’s going to be dogs and awesome people and doga, and it will be great.

Then, I’ve given myself just enough time to run home and shower before running to the airport to catch a flight to New York to see the Westminster Kennel Club show for the first time. I could have caught a slightly earlier flight and foregone the post-5K shower, but I figured out of a sense of respect for my fellow travelers this was probably not an optional item.

I still have no idea what I’m going to be doing there- I have no agenda, no scheduled meetings (aside from finally getting to meet Annette from Biscuits by Lambchop!) and nothing that I have to do. What I do have is a list of people I want to meet for drinks, and that is good enough for me.

What I do want to do is get some good photos, and this is always a challenge for me on these solo trips because my husband always takes the pictures. This is both a blessing (when he’s around) and a curse (when he’s not.) I’ve never learned the art because I’ve rarely needed to use it.

After seeing that hysterical and slightly cringeworthy screenshot of me trying to hang with the big guys at the AKC show with my point-and-shoot, I decided to go big or go home and bring my husband’s DSLR with me to New York. I’ve been using it for three years, but by “using it” I mostly mean “I set it to full auto and fix it the best I can with Elements”.

What this translates to is that I have spent the last 24 hours with the camera in my lap, flipping through “30D for Dummies” learning what all the buttons mean. I’m reminded of my first clinical days in the vet school hospital, when I stood in the exam room with one hand on the dog and the other looking at the chart murmuring, “Eyes….OK, looked at that….teeth….lymph nodes.”

It took me 15 minutes to get through the exam in those days. That will be me trying to take pictures of squirmy dogs with a new camera. “OK….hmmmm, low aperture means narrow depth of field? Or is it the other way around? Wait, where’s the button for adjusting shutter speed….” and then I will say forget it and flip the dial to Auto and just throw a sock over the persistent auto flash just like I do now.

Much like perfecting the art of the spay, I assume this will take a little more time to learn than the one afternoon I allotted to the task. Oh well, such is the life of a procrastinator. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a bag I need to think about packing and not do until late Saturday night.

The Pawcurean Presents Lazy Man’s V-Day Treats

I love making treats for the pets, almost as much as I love things that are easy to make. Sometimes I’m in a complicated mood, and sometimes I’m in a lazy mood. This month, I’m lazy.

As you know, I’ve started a torrid love affair with my dehydrator, using it to suck the water out of everything I can get my hands on in the house like a hydrophilic vampire. The chicken jerky treats went over very well, so I figured, hey, let’s make some Valentine’s Day treats while we’re at it where I don’t have to turn the oven on.

Sweet potatoes cut with a heart shaped cutter are as easy as it gets.

Though no one will blame you if you want to spice things up with a little bit of cinnamon. These are great not only because they’re easy, but in small bits they are relatively low-calorie and a veggie that is rarely allergenic.

Be still, my tangerine heart. One for you, one for me, sweet potatoes are super yummy.

Now, if you want to get fancy, and a little grosser, you can also continue experimenting with meat. I took some thinly sliced beef and cut it into little strips to evaluate its performance in the dehydrator.

But you know, it’s Valentine’s Day, so before you put it in to dry, you should arrange it in festive patterns by poking it into heart shapes.

OK, the resulting jerky hearts are not the most cosmetic of treats, looking more like actual dried out hearts than the adorable meaty love-nibbles I had in mind, but I can tell you of two dogs in the house who didn’t care that it looked like something you might find in a serial killer’s pantry. They loved the effort. And the meat.

Are you doing anything for your pet for Valentine’s Day?

Meet Joe. And get to know the word Esterilsol

Joe Tosini knows how to command a room. When he shakes your hand with an iron grip and leans in to stare you in the face, you know right away that whatever it is he’s about to say, he feels it from his temples to his toes.

“I used to be a preacher,” he said to me, and I believe it. He has that ability to grab a group of people. I first watched him do it at an ACES session at the Helen Woodward Animal Center, when he was there to tell a group of animal rescue advocates from around the country about his company, Ark Sciences, and how he wanted to change the world.

His subject now is not religion but unwanted pets, but he brings the same fist-clenching conviction to the topic that one would expect from any passionate believer. “We’re going to change the world,” he says, while talking of the pain he felt travelling all over the world and seeing the suffering resulting from animal overpopulation. The room felt it too.

With no background in animal science to speak of, Joe founded Ark Sciences and assembled a team of veterinarians, scientists and animal experts to move forward with his goal. They acquired the patent for a form of chemical castration, which had languished as Neutersol, and re-vamped the protocol under a new name, Esterilsol. (more…)

Them cookies are serious business, people.

One of the reasons many vets give for choosing their profession is, “I like animals better than people.” It’s not a good reason, mind you, and those with misanthropic tendencies learn to cover it up pretty quickly or else have a rotten career, but I will tell you from experience that well, it’s true.

I’ve been working on it. I actually get along pretty well with people, as far as I can tell. But every once in a while I experience one of those penultimate human experiences that I’m supposed to relish, and all I can do is run away screaming and bury my face in the dog and not want to talk to another person for at least eight hours, possibly ten. I had one of those this week.

In an attempt to raise a good citizen, I enrolled my daughter in Girl Scouts. I did it when I was a kid. I tried to find my picture of me in my Brownies uniform to prove it, but I think it’s in the storage facility somewhere, at least that is my excuse. Anyway, as far as I could recall, it was fun: we made some ribbon barrettes, colored, got to wear those badass brown sashes to school and strut around every Tuesday, and I think one time I sold some Thin Mints. It was low key.

And I look around at the second graders these days dressing like Miley Cyrus and singing all the words to “I’m Sexy and I Know It”, and I realized something with horror: I’m apparently an old school prude. And I’m really not, but compared to what’s out there, I kind of am. And I had two main choices for after school activities for my daughter: Girl Scouts or the local dance studio, and if you saw what the eight year olds were wearing at the last recital you would understand why I went with the scouts.

Because the Scouts are the answer to all the things we bemoan about being a woman today, right? It’s about teamwork and solidarity. It’s about empowerment. Equality. Buoying your fellow woman instead of throwing her under the bus. Girl power and all of that, embrace your brain, etc.

Well. (more…)