My true love gave to me: Two turtles, Dove And a cat messing up my new tree! (Thank you Heather for sharing your awesome crew! I'm always so impressed when people pull of the literal translation) ... Read more »
On the first day of Petmas
My new pet gave to me: ... Read more »
She might have a Caesar
One part of being a medical professional that no one really prepares you for is how to deliver bad news. If you watch those who have done it long enough (read: emergency doc) you'll see the professional approach: sterile, blunt, quick. You have to do it that way, because you have a bunch of patients still alive to attend to. OK, not this blunt: But that's a learned skill. Those who haven't done it as frequently have obvious tells: the grimace when your hopeful face meets their eyes, the ... Read more »
A Veterinarian’s Holiday Wishlist
I usually spend this time of year making up wishlists for dogs and cats, and with a new kitten in the house, there's plenty she could be interested in finding under the tree (though for her, the tree itself is present enough). But then I saw a few things that I just had to stick on my Amazon Wishlist, and because I thought they were awesome I thought some of you out there might find them awesome too. If you want to get that special vet in your life something that blows the lid off a "I love ... Read more »
The Secrets to Saving Money at the Vet
Hoo boy, that 20/20 piece sure stirred up some emotions, didn't it? And it's Thanksgiving, a week of gratitude, so I'm going to take a step back and say thank you to all the wonderful readers and colleagues who make writing this worthwhile. In honor of that, I'm going to take a moment and also share with you some of my own veterinary secrets. For the low low price of nothing, I want to explain to you what I believe, based on over a decade now in the field, is the best way to save money at the ... Read more »
Some Veterinarians Sell Unnecessary Online Memberships By Throwing Colleagues Under the Bus
Some Veterinarians Sell Unnecessary Shots, Tests to Make Extra Money, Says Former Vet Did you see this bit on 20/20 this weekend? Ah, media. Titled "Veterinary Confessions," the piece follows a couple of dogs through a series of veterinary visits where different vets offer different services based on their clinical experience, interspersed with the contrite admonitions of a former veterinarian who says that he was, before he relinquished his license (more on that later), the medical ... Read more »
Better With Pets
Hardened criminal. Swimsuit model. New media revolutionary. NPR host. Animator. What do they all have in common? Their lives have been made better by having a pet. And we're not talking oh, I have a cute cat and I sometimes feed it and it makes me chuckle, I'm talking about people whose lives have been profoundly affected by the animals in their lives. I assume if you're here reading this blog, you feel it too. Something about the bond between ourselves and our pets goes way beyond the ... Read more »
Paws for the Philippines: The Power of One
You, right now, are needed. By now we have all seen and heard about the devastation wrought in the Philippines by Typhoon Haiyan. The stories are almost too much to bear. If you're wondering why the media hasn't been more active covering the story than they have been, it's because everyone is still trying to get there. It is BAD. Bad, bad, awful, nightmarish. My heart goes out to those many souls and I will, as always, make a donation to the Red Cross to help the human ... Read more »
Thank you, even for that.
This week my Facebook newsfeed has been filled with friends listing, day by day, those things they are thankful for. Health. Family. Security. All good and wonderful things, and what a lovely sentiment to take a moment out to acknowledge how fortunate we are to have what we do. I like that. I think it's safe for people to assume I am thankful for my family and their health and the nice things I am lucky to have, absolutely. But I think a more interesting question is this: What are you ... Read more »
The day of our dead
It's one of my earliest memories: kneeling on the soil next to my grandmother in her lush front yard just to the left of her Mary on the half shell, her hair tied back with her ever present babushka. She clips a dead marigold and hands it to me. I look at it, brown and crinkly in my hand, then look up at her in askance. "Look," she says, and peels back the dead leaves. Inside, a pocket of seeds spills into my hands. Mary- I called her Babcia, because in her native Polish that is how you say ... Read more »
Zombie on a leash
Those of you who watch The Walking Dead know about Michonne, arguably one of the most kick-booty characters on television today. When we first meet her, on her own after the zombie apocalpyse, she is holding her own thanks to her katana and a pair of neutered (as it were) zombies she has put on a leash and uses to avoid detection by other zombies. Even though we are now on Season 4 and Michonne has long since lost her zombies, it remains the only instance in which zombie power ... Read more »
Three things to know about the jerky illnesses
Let's imagine, for a moment, that there is a serial killer loose in your town. One by one, he picks little kids off from the local playground, and it's horrible and awful. The police are working around the clock, but the killer remains elusive. But he only ever chooses his victims from that one playground. You wouldn't take your kids there, right? Even if *most* of the kids who play there end up ok, even if the police chief says, well, it might be OK now? Why take that chance, when there ... Read more »
I had a moment
I had a moment. I admit it. A moment of just sheer utter sad, thinking on the amount of death and loss and unpleasantness that's been floating about lately. I thought of my daughter's poetry book, which she started after Kekoa died to work through her grief. Just as she was finishing up with it, now she writes about Apollo. I thought about the little shadow in the background that used to flit about. I thought about the happiness certain things bring me and the kids. I thought about ... Read more »
Poke, pay, push off
I used to work in a clinic that offered twice a week vaccine clinics. During those times, we would waive our customary exam fee (at the time it was $45), as long as the client was coming in solely for vaccines and had no health questions. We did this to provide a service to those clients who would go to the weekend vaccine clinic at the pet store instead of coming to us. I know how those weekend clinics work. They are much like the flu clinic I took my kids to last week. You go, you get your ... Read more »
How to talk to your vet about death
I'm getting Apollo's ashes back this week. I still haven't quite processed it yet, because his death lacked that months long painful preparation/ agonizing over a pet in the process of dying: The Infinite Hovering of the Big Hanging Clock. He woke up Wednesday morning, meowed for his food like always, and was dead 12 hours later. Whenever you learn of a terminal diagnosis, that invisible countdown clock that all living beings share suddenly appears. And we know that it's winding down, sooner ... Read more »
Headless dog cakes and other sundry sacrifices
Before I get into the details of this weekend, it's important to understand the massive pile of guilt from under which I was trying to emerge. One year ago this month, the chaos began. The endless lines of people rifling through our home in an endless stream had already been going on for seven months, but one year ago was when we agreed, from exhaustion more than anything else, to sell the home. All for the promise of a better education for the kids, which necessitated a move out of the ... Read more »
my sweaty self, my gym bag, my cat
One of the things they always tell you in vet school is "don't go on gut instinct alone." And this is a good point, because you can't really practice sound medicine based solely on intuition. You get a hunch, then you follow through with science to prove or disprove your hypothesis. Most of the time, though, you're right, even if you don't want to be. Like the time I was patting Nuke on his side and felt a mass pushing back on my hand. "Splenic hemangiosarcoma," my mind spit out, and an ... Read more »
Pet Disaster Relief: How It Works (hint: don’t show up without calling first)
September is National Preparedness Month, according to FEMA. It's easy to see why. A lot of bad things happen in Mother Nature this time of year; Colorado the latest in a long series of national disasters to catch the eye of the nation. Few images are as evocative as that of a stranded animal, confused, petrified, and facing an uncertain fate while we sit in front of the TV and wonder, is anyone going to help him? How does animal rescue work? Katrina According to Kim Little, my Technical ... Read more »
