Woo hoo! I am so excited to have my fancy schmancy awesome new website live! My website designer is probably excited too since this means I am done pestering and asking questions that make it apparent how very little I know about web development. In honor of this exciting occasion, how about a prize? Comment below with: 1. A story about your pet 2. The coolest feature of this new design or 3. A good joke (We can always use good jokes.) I'll toss all the names in a hat and let the ... Read more »
Daily Life
Stay Tuned!
Jon and Kate got you down? Need some good news to look forward to? I've got you covered. Stay tuned to pawcurious- I've been working with the fabulous Joelle at Moxie Design Studios, and the New and Vastly Improved site will be up and running shortly! I can't wait. It looks fan-tastic. Comments are disabled while the entries are being migrated to the new server, though my e-mail will still work if you have a pressing need to contact me, which I imagine you won't. If you need something else ... Read more »
Ah, continuing education
Like most (all?) medical professionals in our state, veterinarians have a continuing education requirement. I'm not against it at all. It's actually pretty staggering how much changes in the field from year to year. I've been out of school less than 10 years and I already feel like a grumpy old geezer when I go to these things- "Whaddya mean you're not supposed to use steroids for trauma? In MYYYYY day, we slugged those guys with 2 bottles of solu delt! And they LIKED it!" (needs to be said in a ... Read more »
Things Dogs Like
I've been wanting to take Emmett to dog beach in the worst way, but life keeps getting in the way. Emmett gets Very Excited at dog beach. The first time I took him was not two weeks after I brought Mulan home; I didn't know her too well so I was focused on her while we were there. Emmett went nuts. He was having the time of his life. So much so, in fact, that he followed his new doggie friend out of the beach, down the sidewalk and onto a busy road. The whole time I am running after, dragging ... Read more »
Question of the Day
Because there's always an interesting misconception to clear up here at the vet clinic. Every pet that has an anesthetic procedure at our clinic also has an intravenous catheter placed in one of their front legs. We leave it in until the patient is recovered, in case we need quick access for additional injections. We remove the catheter before the owner arrives, and place a small bandage on the arm which the owner is to remove at home. This is our standard discharge procedure. I spayed a very ... Read more »
It’s all a matter of perspective, I suppose
Today I had an appointment with Dr. White. She is a human doctor. I was lucky enough to find her in time for my second pregnancy. The doctor I had while I was pregnant with my daughter was all right, I suppose, but we didn't have much of a connection. When I asked him if I, as a veterinarian, should get a Toxoplasma titer done, he laughed at me (who does that to a pregnant woman??) and shook his head as if I had asked, "Do I need to be worried about alien abduction now that I'm pregnant?" Not ... Read more »
Woo hoo, kinda
Southwest Airlines is allowing pets on board!* Finally! *-must fit under your seat -no more than 5 per flight -cannot go in cargo -counts as your carryon -$75 per pet -cats and small dogs only In other words, this is great news for....uh, Paris Hilton. And cat owners who want to take Fluffy to Vegas for the weekend. Oh well. It's a step in the right direction. ... Read more »
I only help small dogs from now on
I don't know why, but in my current neighborhood I always see dogs running around. I've never lived somewhere where it is this common. I'm not in the boonies, either- this is a densely populated suburban area where there are lots of cars zooming around, and it always scares me to see a dog trotting on the side of the road. They are owned dogs. I know this because I always stop and take them home. I can't help it. I keep a leash in the back of my car for just such an occasion. I do it because ... Read more »
When Daddy’s away, the kiddies will play….
My husband was out of town all week at some sort of conference thing. Although I miss him terribly when he's gone, I also admit there is a flip side to having the place all to myself for a few days. No arguments over the Tivo. I can watch all the reality TV I want. Eat whole wheat pasta and/or risotto without getting any grumbling. Reprogram the car radio to all top 40. The list goes on and on. Emmett and I decided to make the most of it. A little port to set the tenor of the week will do. ... Read more »
Ahoy!
I had a very nice new client today who brought his recently acquired puppy in for vaccinations. Tagging along were his roommates, two scarlet macaws. I was, to say the least, a bit apprehensive when I looked into the lobby and saw two large macaws perched on his shoulders like mini-feathered Sphinxes, but as long as I wasn’t expected to actually do anything with them, I was happy to have them visit. If I didn’t have confirmation from my co-workers that I was in fact seeing this, I ... Read more »
Call of the day
Phone rings. My tech answers: Tech: Hello, this is XXX Clinic, how may I help you? Kid: Do you have tapeworms? Tech: ....uh, not personally, no....what do you need exactly? Kid: So, well, we're doing a scavenger hunt and we need to find a tapeworm. I've already called 12 other vets and no one has one they can give me. My tech agreed to loan the kid a tapeworm from one of our plastinated displays on the promise of its safe return. When the kid showed up, she asked who the heck would have ... Read more »
Bittersweet moments
We had a busy weekend. Someone had a third birthday party, which meant a lot of fun. And cake. And boxes and trash, too. It was worth it. Everyone pitched in that afternoon to get the place cleaned up. And by everyone, I mean my husband and I, since the kids had too many new things to play with to be able to concentrate much on helping. They took off into the front yard with Emmett. What's this? Past the detritus, I mean. Yup. It's Emmett under a trash bag. The kids have a close relative ... Read more »
Conversation of the day
First, the phone call: "My cat has red bugs. What are they?" After several minutes of trying to figure out what the person was talking about, we told him to come in. My tech went into the room to look at the bugs in question, which had been extracted from the cat and gingerly placed in a Tupperware bug habitat. "Those are scabs," she told the owner. "What do you know?" retorted the owner. "You're not the doctor." So I go in, and confirm to the owner that yes, those look like scabs. I ... Read more »
In memoriam
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 »
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 »
