On this Memorial Day, when we're honoring the men and women who have given so much in service of their families and neighbors, I'd like to also recognize the thousands of canines who have given the same. Although dogs have been used in military actions for as long as someone has been around to record it, it wasn't until World War II that the United States officially recognized the use of dogs in war through the creation of the "Dogs for Defense" program. Interestingly, the breeds initially ... Read more »
Daily Life
When I die…
Please let me come back as a dog that lives in Carmel. I just got back from a most wonderful mini-trip to see a friend (if you read this blog from day one you would remember my mention of Candie from vet school) who is now an emergency vet up in Northern California. She mentioned that she has been to Carmel a few times and suggested we go grab dinner there one night and try to spot Clint Eastwood. While I didn't see Dirty Harry, I spotted a good 50 dogs in a one block radius- in and out of ... Read more »
Daily graffiti
Yesterday my receptionist came out of the restroom with the most perplexed look on her face. Imagine her surprise when she entered the washroom, only to be greeted with this: For those who can't read graffiti scratches, it says, "(name of our clinic) bitches are ugly". Aside from the annoyance of having graffiti in our bathroom that we now have to deal with, it's an odd choice of insult. Our staff is, all things considered, quite attractive, so it's not much of a blow. Are they instead ... Read more »
OK, you first
I had a client complain about me this week. To back up a bit, he had come in a month ago with his dog, whose left side of her head was swollen to about twice its normal size. "It's an abscess," he told me, and wanted me to 'stick something in it and drain it.' I do what I always do, and come up with my list of differentials- all the things it might be. You just can't assume it's the most likely thing, even though it probably is, because sometimes it's not, and if you aren't keeping all the ... Read more »
Good news!
Emmett is in remission! He's in his third week of chemotherapy. He will continue the weekly regimen until about 8-12 weeks, when it starts to decrease in frequency. After 16 weeks it is done once a month, hopefully for a long, long time. We also typed his lymphoma. There are 2 types, B cell and T cell. I remember learning in school that B=Bad and T=Terrible, as in, neither one is good, but T is the worse kind to have. The median survival times are markedly less for T cell lymphoma. And Emmett ... Read more »
Here’s how you can inspire confidence
I saw a dog in today who had something funny going on with his eyeball. The medication that I would normally send home is one we don't use too often, and when I grabbed the last remaining box on the shelf I saw it had expired sometime last year. Great. So I asked my tech to bring the dog back to the owners while I figured out what to get for them. I don't script out eye medications too frequently so I wanted to make sure the prescription I wrote was for a human drug they would be able to fill ... Read more »
Why dogs are better than people, part 32
Before I had kids, life was much more exciting for Emmett. We went to dog park all the time, I bought little dog cookies from specialty dog bakeries, I used to nap on his belly. Life was good. Then I had my daughter, and things got a lot more boring. We hung out at the house. He had to eat grocery store treats. I napped with the baby. It wasn't that Emmett was less loved, or less important, or even that I thought things like specialty dog cookies were unnecessary now that I had a real kid. ... Read more »
Happy Mother’s Day!
To all the pet moms out there: We ply them with food and treats and toys, spend hours grooming them and rubbing their bellies. We may not get any handmade cards or macaroni necklaces in return, but we do get this: pure, unadulterated, unconditional love. It's the best gift they can give, and the primary joy of having a pet. Have a Happy Mother's Day! ... Read more »
That sound you hear is my heart breaking
I was a very sensitive kid. So much, in fact, that my mother only got through "Rock a Bye Baby" one time because I cried so hard at the idea of "down will come baby cradle and all." What a mean lullaby. I couldn't watch Road Runner cartoons because I was so sympathetic to the coyote- he wasn't evil, he was just a carnivore. He just wanted to eat. And Tom and Jerry? Awful. Poor Tom. I'd cry every time I had to watch him get disemboweled, electrocuted, or decapitated. Man, that was a sadistic ... Read more »
Least favorite things
I could lie and tell you of all the things I do at work, I like them all equally well. Sadly, I'm a crummy liar. I have definite preferences, as do most vets I know. If you figured those preferences out early on and don't mind putting yourself through the wringer to be able to do just that for the rest of your career, then congratulations, you're a specialist. The rest of us have to muddle through the stuff we don't like in order to do the things we do. If you're really lucky, you end up working ... Read more »
A new reality
I am very fortunate to be in the position that I am, as a veterinarian, with a sick pet. I know I have more access than most to specialized care. I am very grateful to my colleague and boss, one of my clinic's owners, who also works at an internal medicine facility and is both a very confident diagnostician and very good to his friends and colleagues. On Friday at 4:30 pm, the lab faxed over the pathology results: DIAGNOSIS: LYMPHOSARCOMA. There's never a good time to get that result, but of ... Read more »
An unplanned entry
When Mulan was sick last year, the simple act of petting her was a stressful event. There was always a new lump, some sore spot, something to make me nervous and want to do tests and see what was going on. It was always such a relief to pet Emmett, so sturdy and unproblematic, to scratch him under the chin and not feel enlarged nodes, to thump him the way you thump big dogs in greeting and not worry about hurting him. And after Mulan died, under the grief and sorrow there was also a weight ... Read more »
So, about this whole swine flu thing…
Am I the only person not freaking out about this? No? Must be a slow news week, because hoo boy, are the media outlets going crazy over this or what? It's the flu, it is unpleasant, but so far it doesn't seem to be any worse than any other kind of flu we have seen lately. A lot of the naysayers are ominously talking about the winter, and the Great Pandemic of 1918, but there's a lot of months between now and then for us to be run over by buses, electrocuted, hit by errant meteors, and all ... Read more »
Phone call of the day
Conversation my receptionist had this afternoon with a caller: "Oh, hi, um, well, I think my dogs had, um, sex..." "OK...." "And, um, well, they're...sticky. Is that normal?" "Um, sure. They can get sticky, I suppose." "Well, my wife says they are really sticky....hold on a minute...what, Gerturde?" talking in deep Eastern European accent "She says the dog's entire back is really sticky. Like sap." "Well, sir, honestly, I'm not entirely sure what to think about that. Would you like to ... Read more »
Well, that was fun
I had the unfortunate need to go to the emergency room this weekend with my 4 year old, thanks to a protracted Saturday night of vomiting that didn't respond to any of the things I normally do to help at home. My husband took her at 4 am, which is usually a pretty quiet time in the ER. Imagine his surprise to find the waiting area full- totally full- of groaning zombielike walking dead, all convinced they are dying of swine influenza. Granted, this is a real possibility, especially in our area, ... Read more »
Florida tragedy and the sticky compounding situation
Most of us animal lovers have been following the tragedy surrounding the death of 21 polo horses in Florida with great interest. The details just get worse the more we know, don't they? According to the latest report, the Venezuelan polo team was used to using Biodyl, a supplement that is available elsewhere, but not approved for use in the United States. So, they had a compounding pharmacy mix up a similar concoction- with this result. Veterinarians use compounding pharmacies a lot- I've ... Read more »
5 Favorite Urban Myths
I could go on and on about this and probably come up with a lot more than 5, but there's plenty of time to do some sequels. So in no particular order, here are 5 of some of the most common myths people ask about on a daily basis. (I use the word dog in this, but they all apply to cats as well.) 1. My dog must be sick because his nose is warm. There are several places to take an accurate temperature on the dog, but the nose is not one of them. Note the multiple corollaries to this one: My dog's ... Read more »
The way to go
I just finished reading "Still Alice," a book about a fictitious Harvard neurology professor who is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's disease. It's a good read, albeit a depressing one, and it brings up a lot of issues about terminal disease. In the earlier part of the book, she goes to her doctor and asks for a bottle of sleeping pills- with plans to take them all once her disease had progressed to a certain point. In real life this situation plays itself out over and over, the ... Read more »