Vaccines: the big, the bad, the ever changing topic. There's enough information to write about this for a whole week, but for now I'm going to keep it to a few posts. This week, I'm doing a 2 part series on dog vaccinations. Today, I'm going to summarize the most current vaccine recommendations for canines. Tomorrow, I'll share some of the tidbits I got at the Western Veterinary Conference that give us some additional insight about how to use these to optimum benefit. Here's to our dogs' ... Read more »
Daily Life
Koa Go Bragh
Today I had to take the kids for a haircut, and in the way kids do, the stylist at Fantastic Sam's got to know everything there is to know about their lives. "Who's Brody?" she asked my son. "My dog," he replied. "He's a Golden Retriever." "Oh, you have a dog," she said agreeably. "How cool." "I have two dogs," he corrected her. "Brody and Licorice." That one was new to me too, so I leaned in closer. "Licorice?" she asked. "What kind of dog is that?" "She's a labrador," he ... Read more »
Adopt the Internet= Winning
I don't know what is going on with Charlie Sheen, nor do I want to know. Whatever the problem is, I wish only that he would withdraw from the public eye and deal with it. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the plan. I can't open my news websites or turn on the TV or listen to the radio without being subjected to the latest soundbite and there is no end in sight. Fortunately, I have a solution. In honor of Petfinder.com's 15th anniversary, they are designating March 15th as "Adopt the ... Read more »
The real yogi reveals himself
I've already made my thoughts on dog yoga pretty clear: they'll do it, but not willingly. Certainly not with the spirit of relaxation and meditation one is supposed to bring to the practice, anyway. Cats, on the other hand, are natural yogis. They can inherently go from a million miles an hour to dead body pose in 2 seconds flat. They meditate, as anyone who has watched them stare intently out the window for an hour and a half will attest to. Their spines bend and twist into conformations ... Read more »
The Girl with the Curl (with apologies to Ted Geisel)
Yesterday was a hectic day. Apollo had his dental, and of course everything went fine, at least from my perspective. From his perspective, he was unceremoniously deprived of breakfast, stuffed into a carrier, and dumped into a moving vehicle next to Brody for a terrifying ride into town. THEN he was poked, prodded, shaved, rendered unconscious, only to be awoken, groggy and disoriented with a funny taste in his mouth. THEN he had to go in the car again. Brody went to doggie day care, to ... Read more »
Cat in a Box: The Litterbox Chronicles, Part 1
I have pages of notes from the Western Veterinary Conference, which I will be sifting through over the next week or so to bring you the most valuable bits. For me, the most personally useful seminars were those on kitty problem potty behaviors, which as you know is something we are dealing with here at the casa. Dr. Sophia Yin is a veterinary behaviorist and wonderful lecturer who I was fortunate enough to learn from this go round at the conference. She broke down this confusing and ... Read more »
A conference in pictures
I actually did have a decent camera with me at Western Veterinary Conference this year. But I didn't use it. Vegas is, of course, a spectacle. One expects to see tourists walking blindly through the streets, eyes to the sky at the visual cornucopia of overstimulation, mouths hanging agog in disbelief. When you're strolling through the casino behind two 8 foot Amazonian showgirls in purple feathers and not much else, it's a given people will be whipping out their cameras. Ditto for the ... Read more »
Near Chef Experience
I know at some point I am going to actually have to write up all the medical stuff I have learned at the conference, but for now I'm just sharing the Vegas Experience with you all. Because seriously, it is an experience the likes of which exists nowhere else on the planet. Everyone should go at least once in their lives, if nothing else at least to people-watch. Because even if you don't gamble (I don't), and don't drink (well, let's say I am not averse to a glass of wine), there is always ... Read more »
Wired
One thing that I've learned over the years, despite all our drooling over newfangled shiny toys and the latest in technology, when it comes down to it the medical professions are fairly resistant to modernization and change. It happens, but very very slowly. Think I'm kidding? How many of your vet clinics are on Facebook? I rest my case. The last conference I went to was BlogPaws, where every lap held a laptop and the speakers looked out onto a sea of head crowns, bent over the keyboard, ... Read more »
Emphasis on the casual
I function under the clear delusion that I might, at events like these conferences, actually run into someone I know. There are about 13,000 people packed like sardines into the Mandalay Bay Convention Center, agreeably migrating from room to room like thirsty, badge-wearing wildebeests looking for the River of Knowledge from which to imbibe. You are an anonymous, faceless member of the herd. Which is why I shouldn't have worried this morning when I cracked open my suitcase, packed under ... Read more »
He saved the drama for his mamma
Saturday night, 11 pm. I am drifting off to sleep, in preparation for Sunday's trip to Vegas for the conference. I distinctly remember the glorious silence, thinking to myself the famous last words: It's so nice now that the kids are older and sleep through the night. 1 am: Screaming. Wheezing.My daughter, who was sleeping in my son's room, yelling for me that my son can't breathe. My son has had off and on bouts of croup since he was a little one, but it's been about a year since he had any ... Read more »
Old Dogs New Tricks
Like most medical professionals, a veterinarian's education is far from over the moment they graduate. Indeed, it's just beginning. Not only do we need to continue to learn and refine the skills we've already acquired, the continuous and exponential increase in knowledge requires us to practice in a perpetual state of evolution. I graduated from veterinary school in 2002. I still feel like a new grad sometimes, but in the grand scheme of things I might as well be a dinosaur. Some of the ... Read more »
Wordless Wednesday: Convo me
Someone left a handful of conversation hearts in my purse. There are some clues as to who. ... Read more »
Why I never get invited to block parties
Apollo's been looking exceptionally mangy lately. It happens whenever he's been getting into the foods he shouldn't have, which is pretty much all of them. I do the best I can, but with the household we have, it is pretty much impossible to keep all foods out of reach of all animals at all times. There are dogs eating, kids snacking, people munching at all hours of the day, and all it takes is one forgotten nugget for Apollo to go temporarily bald. This despite the fact that he feasts on ... Read more »
Love is in the air (at least I think that’s what it is)
Why do we humans have to make love so complicated? I've spent the last week listening to radio ads appealing to desperate men without a clue what to get for their mate: bears? chocolate? jewelry? pajamas? flowers? massages? Screw this one up and you could be paying for weeks, the ads direly imply. Kids don't have it much easier. When I was in elementary school, I would stress for days over which Valentine to give to which kid. Tommy's gross, so I can't give him the "Be Mine" ones. He gets the ... Read more »
Much Love to the Cat Guys
I had no idea it was National Cat Guy Week. I knew it was Pet Dental Health Awareness Month and For the Love of God Please Don't Get Me a Vermont Teddy Bear Week (I made that up, but I think it could catch on), but it's also Black History Month, American Heart Month, National Grapefruit Month, and National Snack Food Month. Needless to say with the plethora of festivities and momentous occasions one can celebrate this week it can be hard to pick, but when I saw this great brainchild of the ... Read more »
So Cal sledding
While so many are digging themselves out from snowdrifts the likes of which have never been seen, we're hanging out, like we always are, in the 75 degree weather. Don't get me wrong, there's not much to complain about when you can get out and enjoy the outdoors almost 365 days a year, but there are certain things I miss about not having a winter. Ice skating, for one. My children have learned to improvise with a pair of socks and the hardwood floor. Add a strong Golden with a hardcore tug ... Read more »
Have Blendtec, will veg
I have decided, after a bit of time off the wagon, that I again need to re-commit to a vegetarian diet. I did it once for a year, felt great, then got lazy, overcompensated with pasta and unhealthy stuff, and just decided to throw in the towel. But I didn't feel good about it. I did it for health, yes, but also because I wanted to make a more conscientious choice about what I eat. I wanted to avoid contributing to factory farming and the multitude of ills it visits upon the world. Finding ... Read more »
