There are few things I like to do less than anesthetize an overweight angry cat. Maybe an overweight bulldog, with a heart murmur. That would be bad too. But I don't see them nearly as often. At least once a week, I arrive to find an 18 pound cat here for a dental hissing at me from the confines of his carrier, glaring from beneath his folds of chub, just daring me to try and get a pre-anesthetic blood sample. Fat cats have very little scruff. It's like trying to hold a squishy ... Read more »
Question of the day
"Do vaccines cause autism in dogs?" Answer: No. P.S. I'm pretty sure they don't cause autism in people either. ... Read more »
Scientific progress goes boink
(Extra points to anyone who knows the title reference without Google!) At least a couple times a week, a client with a particularly hard to deconstruct mutt asks me, "So what do you think my dog is? I've heard schnauzer/chow/Yorkie/pit bull but I'm not really sure." I look at the dog and hazard a guess. "Well, he does have Australian shepherd eyes, and his tail looks like a chow chow...." and we both shrug. Sometimes, people are obviously misinformed. "I bought this Pomeranian/chihuahua mix ... Read more »
Bee-ware!
As everyone has probably guessed, I like animals. Animals are pretty cool. I enjoy them and I have a lot of respect for their place in our world. That being said, I also have a pretty healthy dose of wariness when it comes to certain animals who, on occasion, present less than benevolent faces to the world. Take bees, for instance. When I was in high school, I remember talking to my father on the phone one afternoon about a strange buzzing noise that I couldn't figure out the source of. "It's ... Read more »
Canine Cuisine, Part Three: So, what should I feed my dog?
In Part 1 of the Canine Cuisine trilogy, Name that Food, I talked about how the name of the pet food itself gave you clues as to its content. In Part 2: Name that Ingredient, I went into detail about some of those baffling ingredient names you see on the back. In the last installment, I answer the omnipresent question of, "What should I feed my dog?" This is probably one of the most frequently asked questions I get asked as a veterinarian. I wish I could make it easy for you and just say, ... Read more »
We’ve got the blues
Yesterday, we had a sick little puppy in the hospital with vomiting and diarrhea. While he was in the back, getting rehydrated and filled up with anti-nausea meds, I was putting my head on my arms thinking, oh no, I'm getting sick. We were quite the pair, the two of us. While he was improving, I was declining. I envied him his quiet cage and his IV and I wondered if I crawled into a lower cage with a blanket and a hot water bottle how long it would take anyone to notice. It's amazing how ... Read more »
Helping hands (and rears)
About 2 years after I adopted Mulan, she had a TPLO surgery. This is a pretty invasive knee surgery, and as part of the requirement she was on cage rest for 6 weeks. She had a very difficult time getting up, and I had to assist her. We were pretty low tech in vet school, and whenever we needed to assist a pet in getting up we would use a towel looped around their abdomen. This is also what we do at work. It works fine, but getting the towel around a recumbent animal and then supporting 40, ... Read more »
Story of the day
"Room 2 is Freddie," says the tech. "He's been vomiting for a couple of days." I grab the chart of the door and take a peek as I go in the room. "Hi there, Mr....Krueger-" pause- "Freddie Krueger?" I look at the dog, a wrinkly shar pei. The owner grins proudly. "I was going to save that for my first born son, but I figured I'd use it on the dog." Good choice. ... Read more »
The Accidental Veterinarian: I
I want to know why, in a profession where 75 + % of the entering class is composed of women, all the veterinarian memoirs out there are written by men. Vet school memoirs are even more scarce. I find this simply unacceptable. All those doe eyed little girls out there want to know how it really happens, right? I've seen the class pictures plastered inside the dean's office going back a bajillion years, and I guarantee it isn't what it once was, back in the good old days. For a lot of ... Read more »
More news of the obvious
The CDC just released a report estimating 86,000 falls a year are caused by dogs and cats. I wonder if they do a similar report on the number of falls caused by roller skates, weak ankles, wet floors, and banana peels. The report seems to infer that the majority of injuries are to the elderly, caused by tripping over little dogs out on walks. Interesting, but I can't quite figure out what they want to happen. The benefits of having a pet are well documented. Are we going to place warning ... Read more »
True confession
I have a confession to make, and this one is hard. Skippy is no longer with me. This is painful. I feel like a failure, especially since I spend so much time talking about responsibility and how a pet is a lifetime commitment. I still believe that, which is why I also think you should be really careful about the hows and whens of bringing a new pet into the home, and that is where I really screwed up. I knew after Mulan died that I would eventually want another dog, and I had a specific kind ... Read more »
Working on the hyperlichenification process
I.e. trying to get a thicker skin. Today I went into a room to give a little dachshund puppy his vaccine boosters. This was a cute dog. Seriously cute. I had seen him once before, 3 weeks prior, for his first vaccination and he was healthy and adorable then, as he was today. I went in and gushed, trying to ignore the fact of the very stone faced owner glaring at me. Everyone has bad days and bad moods, right? She asked me a couple of questions that I started to answer, and she cut me off each ... Read more »
Cruelty Free made easier
I suppose this isn't directly related to my job, but I think the concept is one that is of interest to many of my 5 readers so I thought I would share this with you. Long before I became a veterinarian, I was a mini animal rights activist in training. I remember being 6 and hassling my mother mercilessly about her rabbit fur coat: "Eeeeeew mom, that is soooo ugly! Why are you wearing dead bunnies? We live in California! Yuck!" etc etc. She actually stopped wearing it because I hassled her so ... Read more »
Yesterday sucked.
As I was leaving the house this morning on my way to work, my phone rang. "Hi, it's Carmen," said my tech. "I know you're probably just about to leave anyway, but I wanted to let you know Comet is here and he doesn't look good." I grabbed my keys and shot out the door. Comet is owned by one of my favorite clients, an extremely sweet woman who adores her cats. Not three months ago, she lost a recently adopted cat to a nasty virus that has been striking hard in the local shelters. It hit very ... Read more »
This is what we call the ‘turf’
My license allows me to legally practice medicine on just about anything- except humans, of course. If you really want to make a vet's hair stand on end, ask them why they didn't become a "real doctor". Most people only ask that once, at least to me. Granted, that's a hell of a lot of species to know. Sheesh, MDs manage to eke out a living focusing on one organ system of one species- OBs, for instance, or dermatologists- and yet somehow I'm expected to be able to handle a cow dystocia as well ... Read more »
Dog Poops Money
That was the headline CNN gave this story. I admit I was a little disappointed to hear it was just a dog who just snacked on some Benjamins. Dogs eating stuff they shouldn't it as newsworthy as "cat barfs hairball in shoe, live at 10." I was hoping it was going to be a modern day Golden Goose, a dog who could miraculously generate currency in their colon. Need some gas money? Feed Fido some kibble and wait. Need a quick $100? Add in some fiber. If you're really desperate and loan sharks are ... Read more »
More reasons to be happy you went to business school instead
Vets are more likely to be boozers. Considering my vet school classmates, I shouldn't be surprised. We were all pretty happy go lucky back in those days, but I imagine close to a decade of stressors has taken its toll on more than a few of us. James Herriot sure made this profession look bright and shiny, bold and beautiful and whatever other heartwarming couplets float your boat. It is, sometimes. Other times it is all things smelly and stinky, green and abscessed, angry and litigious. Health ... Read more »
Shades of silver
I haven't euthanized a pet in a couple of weeks. That is one of the things I like about day practice, as opposed to emergency, less of that sad stuff. But for whatever reason, this sort of thing comes in waves, and the tide came rolling in today. First was a young cat who was horrifically sick. He was so jaundiced that you could see the yellow tinge from across the room. The owner had him euthanized. I never did find out what the cause was. Next was an older cat, who was also horrifically ... Read more »
