It's generally accepted that of all the controversial people food trends out there, the paleo/raw/low carb/low fat rules of ingestion, the one thing everyone seems to agree on is Michael Pollan's Food Rules, which at its core is this: don't eat so much processed food, and don't eat so much food in general. Agreed, and you can certainly extrapolate this to pets too. However, with over 50% of US pets overweight or obese- a condition with definite and real consequences- I'm more concerned with ... Read more »
In the Game of Boys, you win or you die
Every once in a while I find myself remembering just how similar we are to our primate relatives; how, when the trappings of modernity are removed from our dextrous fingers we regress to our most primal of behaviors with nary a glance backwards. You don't even need to travel to a different continent to explore indigenous tribes or venture out with an anthropology researcher intent on dissecting human behavior. You just need to go camping. Preferably with a large group of young boys. When ... Read more »
Who’s Jimmy Moses? And other dog show musings
This winter marked my third trip to the AKC/Eukanuba National Championship, and while I've learned a great deal more about dog shows over that time (mostly due to the instruction of my friend Susi Szeremy over at DogKnobit), I think it's fair to say that I'm still mostly clueless about that world. Which is fine, since I'll never show a dog; I just need enough knowledge to be able to watch. I know a bit about the point system and the actual play by play of showing a dog, like how you're ... Read more »
Community
I grew up in a small New England town, surrounded by what by today's standards would be considered 'nosey' neighbors. To this day I remember their names, the Kerrys and Kellys and Jeffreys and their parents who had no problems doling out discipline, dinner, and hugs in equal measure. I've lived in many places since then. I can't tell you what my neighbors' names were; I'm not sure I knew it even then. When I was in vet school, a five year old boy down the street drowned in his pool. When a ... Read more »
Helping Animals in Moore
Every animal disaster is a little different than the one before. The infrastructure may be fairly intact, or devastated. Local roads to receive supplies may or may not be accessible. The presence of local organizations and their willingness to help plays a major role in what constitutes an appropriate response. That is a field that is hard to navigate each and every time since the landscape is constantly changing from one disaster to another. What doesn't change? Who needs help. Why we do ... Read more »
Don’t Fitch the Homeless
I've never bought a piece of Abercrombie and Fitch clothing in my life, so to say I'm not going to in the future wasn't a big loss for me. I'm with everyone else who was disgusted with CEO Mike Jeffries' recent statement about their painfully shallow approach to marketing: "Because good-looking people attract other good-looking people, and we want to market to cool, good-looking people," he said. "We don't market to anyone other than that." And so on and so forth we only sell small sizes and ... Read more »
Spiders till proven otherwise.
Deep in tender recesses of our cranium lies a small chunk of neural tissue that, should I prove its existence, will explain a lot about human behavior. I believe we all have this structure, though it may lie dormant for many years, perhaps forever. It's the arachnobellum. It's a small, primitive bit of grey matter tucked right in the center of the brainstem, that area that controls our deepest, most primal instincts. It's the part of the brain that blames all maladies, no matter how big ... Read more »
Hi, I love you, yep
Yesterday, I went on a field trip with my daughter's class as a chaperone. I was reminded, yet again, of why I became a veterinarian. The teacher is an angel on earth and I do not, for one second, think I could do what she does. I watched one nine year old dissolve into an inconsolable heap of tears because she lost during a game of Red Rover. I watched another child, who was walking barefoot on the park grass, get called over by her mother and told to apply hand sanitizer to her feet at ... Read more »
Be Kind to Animal People Week
May 5-11 is the American Humane Association's Be Kind to Animals Week. Hopefully, we're kind to animals every week, but it's good to have a reminder every now and then, and maybe a reason to go out of your way to do that thing you've been putting off. In last year's post I listed 5 ways to go about this, such as the shelter drive-by (still love this idea! I'm due for another trip!) But for today's post, I would like to discuss something that's been nagging at the back of my brain for a long ... Read more »
It’s not what it looks like
Someone said this to me the other day: "You have such a glamorous life." And I laughed, because I assumed it was sarcasm, but she said it with such sincerity that I paused and said, "Really?" And she said, "Oh, you know, maybe exciting is a better word- all the travel and....well, the trips and stuff you talk about." She paused, tilted her head to the side, and realized she was talking to a person holding a grocery bag full of mops and Zero Odor. I was, in fact, on a trip as we spoke. To ... Read more »
Apollo Chaplin Wishes you a Happy Hairball Awareness Day
If there's one thing that's harder to get a good picture of than a black dog, it's a black cat. At least Kekoa was easily bribed. Apollo- well, let's just say this was an all-hands on deck sort of mission. For National Hairball Awareness Day- which is today, by the by- we were invited by Furminator to participate in their Cats with Moustaches Campaign. The concept was simple: Furminate your cat (cakewalk), glue the hair onto a cardboard moustache (Messy, but elementary), then get a photograph ... Read more »
There goes the neighborhood (again)
After several months of leading the kids around our new and blessedly quiet neighborhood hoping to find some children running about, the spring temperatures have brought them out of hiding like little hibernating bears. We have both two little girls and a little boy within the block, and now the kids self-eject from the house as soon as their little feet can take them in the morning to go bike riding. As an added bonus, the little girls have a 12 week old Golden Retriever who comes by on his ... Read more »
Mountain biking is a lot like veterinary medicine
When I first began practice as a veterinarian, it took all of about three months before I got tossed out on my own. This was not by choice, mind you. My clinic had opened up a satellite office and sent my ‘mentor’ over to staff the place, leaving me at the main clinic with a couple other part time vets. To be frank, I was glad to have a break from the guy. He was a nightmare. Within one week the entire staff at the new clinic threatened mutiny if they were forced to work with the vet in question ... Read more »
I think I need to break up with Disneyland and its 999 Happy Haunts
I spend a lot of time thinking about customer service, and how we as veterinarians are sometimes so focused on being amazing clinicians we neglect to remember the fact that we are in a customer service industry. You can be the most astute diagnostician in the universe, but if your front desk staff or technician (or you!) is rude, ambivalent or just generally unpleasant, it ruins the whole client experience. It doesn't take much to be minimally pleasant, but I'm amazed how uncommon that has ... Read more »
Death Match: Social Media vs. Rotary
Two weeks ago, I had the honor of speaking at the AAHA National Convention as a part of the BlogPaws veterinary social media track. In a fit of what I can only imagine was perhaps a hypothermia-induced lapse in judgment, Bill Schroeder invited me to co-present for the day. For those of you who don't know, Bill helms In Touch Vet, a veterinary marketing company that works with 8,000 vet clinics across the country with website design and social media. And I, well, I manage one site, which ... Read more »
Minimizing the Stress of Euthanasia
I can't believe Koa's been gone over a month. Sometimes I still look for her around the corner or find some black fur stuck to a sock buried in the laundry pile. We are still adjusting. I did a quick Google Hangout video talking about some of the lessons I've taken from my own dogs as well as my experience in the clinic. I hope it has some information people find useful, especially to those who have never been through the process before. ... Read more »
Puppy Cupcakes- now with video!
Shortly before we moved, I got to shoot a cooking series with the incomparable Robert Semrow of Pet World Insider. He was an awfully good sport since I made him bake for this one: For the original post, see here: Which reminds me I am over due for a new cooking piece, aren't I? Now that I have a kitchen unpacked and all. Hmmm....Easter.... ... Read more »
Gaming the system
Raising kids is a lot like raising dogs. There's a lot of responsibility, a lot of poop, ridiculous amounts of cleaning, and no small amount of frustration. Regardless, the benefits far outweigh the costs, and with a little consistency and training, it's all good. Training being the key component. My son likes Legos and chihuahuas, two things I kind of like but wouldn't really say are my "thing". He is his own kid. I realized he was fascinated with mechanical devices more than biological ... Read more »
