Pawcurious: With Veterinarian and Author Dr. V

Celebrating the truth that pets make people better.

Daily Life

Here’s how you can inspire confidence

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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

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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!

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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…

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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 »

You Don’t Know Bo

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Here he is, ladies and gentlemen. The new First Dog- Bo. A Portugese water dog. Bred for herding fish, working long hours out in the field, about to come into a tightly regulated fishbowl and become the unwitting symbol of rescue dogs everywhere. Backyard Portugese water dog breeders everywhere are rubbing their hands with glee. Shelters and Portugese water spaniel employees are rubbing their temples resignedly in anticipation of the unusual breed now catapaulted into the spotlight, courtesy of ... Read more »

Happy @#%$@! Easter.

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We had a more eventful than intended Easter Sunday. The plan was to spend the day at my parents' house, an hour away. We packed up the kids, and then as we were headed out decided we should bring Emmett along too. He doesn't get out as much as he would like and we wanted to include him in the day. We enjoyed the typical Easter bacchanalia, with Emmett of course skulking in the shadows trying to pilfer from whomever felt sorry enough to slip him a bite of ham. After everyone was thoroughly ... Read more »

Touching moment

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I don't get a whole lot of physical contact with my clients. A handshake at the beginning sometimes (though I'm more of a big smile type greeter than a handshake greeter), on occasion a hug when it's appropriate and the client initiates it, but as medical professionals it's not something you do on a regular basis. Professional comfort zones and all of that. I spent more than enough time with hands on their pets to make up for it. I've been seeing Mr. Kramer for about a year now. He owns Lola, a ... Read more »