An upcoming article in Emerging Infectious Diseases is already raising hackles and stimulating a great deal of debate by suggesting sleeping with your pets in the bed can be risky. The authors, one of whom I remember from Davis as a great zoonotics expert with a vast and horrifying litany of case studies, reviewed past medical literature to come up with examples of human infections that most likely originated from the pet. Before we get into anything else, it's worth noting this fundamental ... Read more »
News
Be careful where you’re rubbing that thing
I absolutely, positively adore the Veterinary Information Network. It is a subscription-based website open to veterinarians with a whole wealth of specialists, bulletin boards, news bits, and resources. I can check the dosing on a rarely-used medication, see the prognosis of a particular type of cancer, or ask my colleagues for an opinion on an odd case, all without leaving the treatment area. In an office where I am by myself 99% of the time, it gives me real-time access to a group of like ... Read more »
He Who Must Not Be Named
I've talked to lots of pet bloggers in the last couple of years, and seen all sorts of topics get discussed and dissected. Much like mommy bloggers learn early on to avoid lecturing on the merits of breastfeeding lest they actually enjoy getting called names, most pet bloggers have to step in it on a couple topics once or twice before realizing- oh. People get really upset about that one. If you're a pet enthusiast and really want to get people going, utter these two magic words: "Cesar ... Read more »
Never never never
Several years ago I was sitting in an exam room with a man who was about to euthanize his cat. "Is he going to wave his legs around?" he asked. "That's pretty uncommon," I said. "No seizures?" he asked. "No." His shoulders relaxed. "That's good," he told me. "Because when I was a kid and we euthanized our cat, I took him home to bury him, and the next morning I found him halfway out of the grave." He took a breath. "When we called the vet, he told us sometimes the pet can have some ... Read more »
National Drag Your Cat to the Vet Week
We now interrupt my special vacation guest postings for a regularly scheduled posting- but it's for a good reason. August 16th-22nd marksNational Take your Cat to the Vet Week, a reminder to all us cat owners that despite what your cat may tell you, they really should get a vet checkup at least once a year. Cats are masters of disguise, which is something I repeat regularly to owners who just can't figure out how the cat who was acting normal last month now has raging diabetes or a thyroid ... Read more »
When puppies die, who’s to blame?
One of the duties I most dreaded at a previous job of mine was evaluating the dogs for a local pet store. The pet store owner would go pick up new shipments of puppies at the airport, drop all 14, 16, 25 crates off at the clinic, and one of the vets would have to 'sign off' on the puppies before they headed to the store. The puppies all came with paperwork from the, ahem, "breeder" (aka puppy mill.) We would look at them to check for heart murmurs, cleft palates, that sort of thing. The dog ... Read more »
Blog the Change: Pet Fire Safety Day is today!
One of the greatest gifts of being involved in a pet blog is finding a greater sense of cause and community with like-minded people. Whether you are a cat person, dog person, bird person, ferret person- each with their own distinct personalities and interests- everyone is equally interested in improving the lives of animals across the world, and that is something I love. Driven by the desire to bring community-minded bloggers together to make a difference, Kim Clune at This One Wild Life and ... Read more »
Boards, bones and Brodes
It's Brody's First Birthday Week! I have some really cool stuff in store for you guys. Stay tuned! And to kick it off, I'm sharing the awesomeness that was the Loews Surf Dog Competition this weekend here in San Diego. There are few things in this universe more delightful to watch than a happy dog on a surfboard. It's cute, they are clearly having fun- I mean, who could possibly NOT like that? (Don't answer that.) I remember seeing the promotions for the 2009 competition last May, thinking ... Read more »
New frontiers
Do you know Batman the cancer dog? I didn't either, until today, when I read that he died. This is sad news, but also one that represents a great victory. Batman was diagnosed with an incurable brain tumor in 2008; according to the news article, the same type as that which took Senator Ted Kennedy- a glioblastoma. Average survival time for a human: about one year. The senator survived 15 months. Batman survived 19 months. Needless to say, most pets with a diagnosis of cancer live ... Read more »
The path to hell is paved with good intentions
The local news has been buzzing for the last day with the news of a local woman arrested on suspicion of felony animal neglect. According to the animal control officers on the scene, she had about 60 dogs in a 750 square foot 2 bedroom house. Now here's where it gets fuzzy: this wasn't your typical animal hoarder situation. The woman in this case runs a rescue out of her house, and by all indications was genuinely trying to rehabilitate and adopt out the animals. In fact, the reason animal ... Read more »
Mea culpa
You know I don't write on the weekends very often, but given my post on Friday I wanted to make sure to come back and give credit where credit is due. We just got back from Circus Vargas with 2 tired and happy kids. I can't believe how much the show has changed from what I remember! It was more like Cirque du Soleil than the old school three-ring circus, with aerialists, trapeze artists, and unique acts from different corners of the world. Plus popcorn. I didn't miss the animals (obviously) ... Read more »
The Ruffolution is here!
January 29, 2010- Stunning the digital media world and tech insiders alike, Apple today swiftly announced a new product right on the heels of the much discussed iPad. Introducing the iPawd: The best way to experience pet ownership, adoration, and companionship. Hands Down. Ingenuity By digitizing the household pet, we've streamlined the pet ownership process from start to finish. An all-in-one experience Surf the web. Check your e-mail. Take it for a walk. Whatever your day has in store, ... Read more »
Let’s Work Together
One of the best parts about reading a blog is finding other blogs. Looking at the blogroll of a site you enjoy visiting often leads you to corners of the internet you would never have found otherwise. Soon you start commenting, then you're going back and forth on Twitter, and before you know it it's 11 at night and the dog's still waiting to be fed. Not that I know from personal experience or anything. Point is, it's a community. Certain specialized blog niches- parenting bloggers, for ... Read more »
The must see blogging event of the year details!
OK, maybe that is a wee bit of hyperbole, but I'm not Pioneer Woman here, OK? I can't just post a picture of a cow and get 500 responses, or be dooce posting a picture of a pillow with 800 gushing responses. I'm still in the promotional phase here. Speaking of hyperbole- OK. Onto important details: INAUGURAL PAWCURIOUS BLOGATHON SUPPORTING NATIONAL ANIMAL SHELTER APPRECIATION WEEK 1. START TIME: Friday at 6 pm PST. 1 post hourly until 5 pm on Saturday. 2. Topics: All sorts of ... Read more »
National Shelter Appreciation Week!
It's National Animal Shelter Appreciation Week! November 1-7 marks a week to honor the people who do so much for some of our most vulnerable animal friends. It is a tough and often thankless job. Romeo, the wonderful cat fundraiser extraordinaire over at Romeothecat and founder of the pawparty on Twitter, has issued a challenge: do something. Anything. So, I'm trying to come up with ideas. I was mulling a Brody calendar (or even better, a calendar of multiple pets we've come to love) but I ... Read more »
Ode to the Ocelot
I have a black cat. Most of you met him a couple of weeks ago. His name is Apollo. We also call him Squeaks, Smelly, and "STOP MEOWING AND GO TO BED I ALREADY FED YOU!" When we adopted him, I had the brief uneasy rumbling that being mildly superstitious might bring when one adopts a black cat. It didn't last long, though. Honestly, black cats seem kind of lucky to me- as my neighbor so ominously noted when we first moved in, "the black ones last longer." (If you don't know what I am ... Read more »
Puppy Mill Awareness Day
Saturday, September 19th marked Puppy Mill Awareness Day. I know people are generally aware of what puppy mills are, but is everyone aware just how deplorable these operations are? To say it's heartbreaking is an understatement. At a previous job, one of our duties was to inspect the animals that a local mall pet store acquired from a, erm, "breeder" as they arrived from the airport. They were always sick. The pet store owner always got mad when I documented their maladies. Eventually he ... Read more »
September 11, 2009
It's a little surreal to think that it has already been eight years since the events of September 11th. The coverage over the past couple of years has been quieter and quieter, as those sharp visceral memories have faded into sad remembrances of a horrible time in our history. I was far from New York at the time, in my last year of vet school in California. My mother woke me up with a phone call, telling me to turn on the TV. We silently sat and watched the towers fall; both of us alone, ... Read more »
