In the olden days, people used to turn to carnival medicine men or the back pages of Look Magazine for the latest way to solve all of their problems. People don't change, just the technology. Now we have the internet to turn to. If the web is to be believed, and it always is for some reason, there is a new cure for all the world's ills. That cure is coconut oil. It's good for your hair, your skin, your GI tract, your dog, your mental health, and your aura. It's anti-inflammation and ... Read more »
Daily Life
Dog: World’s Worst Coach
I am training for a half marathon. I thought about training for a full marathon, but then the reality what that was like the last time I attempted it kicked in and I remembered that oh yeah, I don't like to run. I think you can do a full marathon once when you don't like to run, just to say you did (Rock n Roll 2001 for me), but after than there's really nothing to prove other than, "oh yeah, this hurts." A half marathon though, is doable. Still not fun, but manageable. I have decided, ... Read more »
Good health is a revelation
When I took my son in for his first routine eye exam, I had no idea he needed glasses. Neither did he. He seemed fine, wasn't running into things, was reading fine in school, but nonetheless the optometrist suggested glasses. OK, I said, let's give it a shot. One week later, his glasses arrived and we went into the office to pick them up. He picked them up dubiously, slid them over the bridge of his nose, and stood there for a moment, blinking as the refracted light hit his retina in new and ... Read more »
Arya of House Potcake
One thing I've learned about going on vacation, is that I don't like to relax. How can I, when there's so much to do and so little time! I want to see ALL THE THINGS! And most of the time I vacation with my husband he responds with a blank stare and a "why would you want to do all of that?" So this time around we went to Turks and Caicos, a small island chain in the Bahamas whose island upon which we landed is only 38 square miles, so I think he assumed he would have me boxed in by ... Read more »
Restful dreams, Red King
I once worked in a very stressful place. It was an emergency hospital, always about 3 staff members short of a full crew and 25 people piled in the lobby waiting for treatment. It was a large staff of doctors, about 10 at the time, and as how things tend to happen in nutso environments the staff would get nutso a little bit as well. Stress does that to people. You never sat still at that hospital; it was run run run, a dog bleeding out in room 1, a dyspneic cat gasping in room 2, five clients ... Read more »
Do we need pet care advocates?
In the depth of my despair when Apollo was dying, the medical resident at the specialty hospital made a comment I will never forget. He was dying of a blood clot, a sequelae of hyperthyroidism and heart disease. I was in shambles, having come home from the gym to find him immobile on the couch, and rushed in straightaway, sweaty and spandex-y. I scribbled his medical history as quickly as I could, which the resident pored over with her intern as I sat in the room planning to say goodbye. I ... Read more »
Mañana
The look on the doctor's face was more bemused than annoyed as he tried to explain what happened to the centrifuge we were supposed to be bringing to Nicaragua for the clinic. The valuable piece of medical equipment had been confiscated by a leery customs official the day before, and the shifty eyed official wouldn't release it to us without running it by his boss. Who would be in tomorrow. Mañana, the official said. Come back mañana. So a local veterinarian, who understands the language ... Read more »
Glad to meet you
It is one of the sad ironies of being a veterinarian in clinical practice that most of your clients are majorly unhappy to see you. (Retrievers don't count, they're always happy to see you.) The reasons are obvious: vet clinics mean temperature taking, and shots, and cold tables. Trust me, I don't much enjoy heading off to my doctor's office either, nice as the staff is. Those awful half length hospital gowns they give you (ladies, you know the ones I'm referring to)- cold and humiliating. ... Read more »
One Twenty Over Eighty
A few years ago I ran away from my job. At least, that's what I called it at the time, that is how I framed it in my head. I couldn't hack it, I was a failure as a vet. My mind was wrecked, my physical health was wrecked, and my stomach curled up into knots every time I pulled into the parking lot. It wasn't only me who suffered; I knew my heart was not where it needed to be for my patients. They deserved for me to want to be there. It was a bad place to be in. With the gift of ... Read more »
A grateful heart spreads like….well, wildfire
There are many things I could be upset about today. The fact that authorities suspect arson in the vast majority of wildfires that devastated San Diego this week, for example. That's a good place to start. Or the trolls whose only response to the news was, "That's what you get for living in a dry place, morons, burn" as though there were a place on Earth immune to Mother Nature in some form or another. But I'm too grateful to worry myself with fools and psychotics at the moment. There is ... Read more »
How to Write a Blog vs How to Write a Book
After writing a blog for half a decade now, you'd think that the transition from blog to book would be effortless; and if not that, at least somewhat intuitive. You'd be wrong. It's kind of like saying, hey, I walk my dog every day, I'm totally up for a triathlon. Some of you have asked how it's going or what it's like. It's not easy, but really, what good things in life are? I'm enjoying the process immensely. I'm Ralph Macchio currently getting edited by my very own Pat Morita. We are on ... Read more »
A Feast For Crows
I am a horrible horticulturist. Dogs I got. Cats I can do. Plants? Fuggitaboutit. Nonetheless, hope springs eternal, and every year an unfortunate crop of plants are sent to their doom as they peer out in horror from the back of my car on their way to purgatory from the relative safety of the nursery. This year, I decided I would bring the kids into the fold and have them start a few seedlings. Maybe they have better juju than I, I reasoned. Perhaps they inherited their father's talent for ... Read more »
Class of 2014: 5 steps to loving your first job
We're about one month away from colleges and universities turning new grads loose on the world, a day of joy and, if I recall correctly, complete, abject fear. 2014 is a rough year to graduate vet school. In my day (cue Dana Carvey Grumpy old man voice), back in the middle of the dotcom boom and a perceived 'veterinary shortage', the world was at our fingertips, a lush green forest ripe for the plucking. Now new grads are being forced upon a Dune-like landscape filled with such ominous ... Read more »
Nobody puts Geeky in the corner
When I was six, my mother enrolled me in my first dance class. I enjoyed it, I had fun, I got to wear cute little sailor costumes and get up on stage and tunelessly tap my feet. The teacher always arranged us in two rows, and this being the early 80s before everyone had to get equal play, she arranged us not by height but by talent. The precocious dancers with the big smiles and the good rhythm were front and center, and those who tripped on their shoelaces or danced with the angry pounding ... Read more »
Dog Trail: Poetry, sheer poetry
People often email me things in the hopes I'll share them: contests, stories, pictures, YouTube videos that tickled their fancy. Sometimes I share them, when I know it's something you would enjoy. I love to write poetry and I think you all know that. I even have a tag: "Bad Poetry." My poems are bad, but lovingly crafted. I know this. But the other day I opened an email from a writer, a real live good one, and it was just beautiful and I think you all would really like it. It's about a black ... Read more »
Lean On, Over, and Around
March is Women's History Month, if you didn't know. I work in a strange profession, one that has changed quite solidly in demographics from its original incarnation to its current status, graduating classes of row after row of- well, men, mostly- now replaced, to an 80% extent, by women. I spend a lot of time talking about veterinary medicine, and I would say about 80% of the time I am talking about it with women (who'd have guessed?) Does the changing demographic matter? Yes and no. I may be ... Read more »
Stupid people tricks
There's nothing worse than sticking your foot in your mouth. I hate that feeling when the words escape your mouth and hang there, floating in the air, as it slowly dawns on you what horrible thing you've just said. I try to be cognizant of these things in my work as a vet. I'm pretty sure I've said some awful things unintentionally, and the most I can do is hope the person didn't actually really register it. Like when I'm coughing in the middle of a euthanasia, and I apologize by saying, "My ... Read more »
A place of passing
"I'm never going back," I have heard more than one pet owner say. They are talking about the office of their veterinarian, a person with whom they have built a relationship for years, someone they like and trust. But their pet died there, and the painful memories are too strong. So strong for some people that they go and find a new vet, even if they liked their old one just fine. It's one of the reasons I like having the option that I offer, of performing in-home euthanasia and pet hospice ... Read more »
