A recent FDA alert about the possible connection between grain free diets and dilated cardiomyopathy has been gaining momentum. I'm getting tons of questions about it, and I'm learning as much as I can too. Let me start by saying this: we ALL want what's best for our pets. We might have different approaches for getting there, but that's the goal. For the video version, check out my interview with Dr. Lisa Weeth, DVM, DACVN: You can tell by my intense face we were having a GREAT ... Read more »
Picks of the Litter
Summer is Coming! Travel Tips for Pups
Every summer, our family makes the trek from San Diego to Seattle for a little family vacation. Usually we fly, but twice in the past years we’ve driven so the dogs could come as well. I’m not going to lie- it takes some preparation and work to manage a road trip with kids and dogs, but the fun of having the entire family together at our little lake cabin makes it all worthwhile. And as it turned out, dear Brody passed away this winter, so I am even more glad we put in the ... Read more »
6 Myths About Veterinary Telemedicine We Need to Get Over
The very first time I used my insurance program's telemedicine service to call and get a prescription for a minor problem that nonetheless couldn't wait for Monday, I had two thoughts: This is awesome (Friday night at the ER is no bueno). I wonder when this is going to be a reality in veterinary medicine. This was, hmmm, maybe 2015 or so. I asked the people around me what they thought and they all laughed and said it was never going to happen, just like they said to me in 2010 when I ... Read more »
Here’s Who I Blame for the High Cost of Vet Care
In 2014, I got a whole bunch of people fired up by writing a piece called "No Obamacare for Dogs" that spoke to the issues people face when they arrive at the vet ER without enough funds to pay for a pet's needed care. And here we are now, three years later, same old same old. Somewhere, in the United States, a pet has arrived at an ER and the owner was unable to afford the estimate. Chaos ensues. Nothing new, really, and here we are again waiting for someone else (read, the veterinary ... Read more »
The Truth About Media Mobs, Vets, and You
Once upon a time, a man brought his dog into the veterinary clinic for a routine procedure. While under anesthesia, the dog died, probably due to negligence. The veterinarian called the owner, left a cruel message, threatened him to pay the bill anyway, then refused to return the body. She was callous, indifferent, and verbally abusive, and didn't even care what happened to the much beloved pet. Naturally, the man was tremendously upset, so he called the local media outlets and told them the ... Read more »
How To Age Like a Rock God
Last night I got to rock out at the last North American stop of the Guns n Roses "Not in This Lifetime" tour. In a moment that made me realize just how old I've gotten, I realized the last time they played San Diego- in 1992- I was also there. I was in high school, high on life (and probably a few other things unintentionally, as tended to happen at those arena shows), idealistic about the future. Guns n Roses was the biggest name in rock at the time, at the height of their fame and the zenith ... Read more »
Life is a macaron
My mother was not a great cook. I think she would happily cop to that. She made spaghetti, burnt steak, and stuck underseasoned chicken breasts in the oven until they turned rubbery. Her mother was not a great cook either. She was Irish, so I guess that was part of her legacy to boil everything until it fell apart and all the taste seeped out, or so she claimed. However, her father was French, so she inherited a different type of culinary genius: boy could she bake. If I had to choose one of ... Read more »
I’ve Got Thick Skin, and a Fuzzy Heart
I was certain when I had kids that my motherhood chip would finally kick in, that I would finally start to react to babies the way I reacted to dogs and cats. Because surely that maternal instinct in my heart had merely been misdirected all these years, and was simply in need of a little oxytocin and fine-tuning to point it to the appropriate species upon which I should lavish my affection. Now my kids are 11 and 9 and I can say this with absolute certainty: not so much. Don't get me ... Read more »
California’s End of Life Option Act and How it Would have Changed Mom’s Death
In 2014, a young, vibrant woman named Brittany Maynard moved from the home in California she had known all her life so that she could die on her own terms in Oregon. Diagnosed with glioblastoma, arguably one of the most monstrous forms of cancer in this world, Maynard was willing to uproot her life, put her face out into the world, and share a most intimate decision with a universe of strangers in order to help people understand why someone might make the decision to hasten their death. With ... Read more »
Lend me your ear
Get it? Because we're short one over here. Warning: Blood ahead. When it comes to my dog, I am just as nuts as any other client. I can't think logically, I panic, I just gnaw on my fingernails and try to figure out what's the best thing to do. For this reason, I had no interest in doing Brody's surgery whatsoever and instead entailed the services of my friend, board certified veterinary surgeon Dr. Tracy Frey of Soft Surg and the lovely staff at Animal Urgent Care, who took amazing care of us ... Read more »
Pet Doctor Barbie and the Pet Food Dude
It's been a while since I've done a Pet Doctor Barbie post. It's past due for a new episode, yes? I think it's time for Pet Doctor Barbie to meet one of her self-appointed arch nemeses, Pet Food Dude. Episode 8 Hi Mrs. Sandford, good to see you and Muffin. It's been a while! I'm really glad you're doing housecalls now. I want to get Muffin's bump looked at again. OK, I'll just look at my notes here- 1 cm, top of head...mm hmmm... So where we left it one year ago was that you ... Read more »
Painting the Roses Red
It's pub day! The book is out at long last! I really hope you all enjoy it- All Dogs Go to Kevin has truly been a labor of love. (That link goes to my new website. Did I mention I have a new website? It's been so busy around here I think I forgot.) Last weekend I went to Warwicks to sign the preordered books. Brian and the kids were at ComicCon, so I went to Warwicks by myself. It was a short task, no more than 20 minutes, so I couldn't figure out why I was so bummed about going alone, and ... Read more »
Balancing the scales in medicine
I am becoming increasingly convinced the communication gap between veterinarians and clients is the number one problem we've failed to solve. We're just not on the same page a lot of the time, it seems, and it makes me sad. I can't read a single article online without coming across "veterinarians are money grubbing pigs that suck" (true blog title) and someone else saying "if you can't afford x/y/z/q you shouldn't have gotten a pet, jerk." I feel as though this is perhaps a bit extreme, but it's ... Read more »
Confessions of an Agnawstic
A few weeks ago, while my publicist was asking online dog lovers if they might be interested in reviewing my book, he came back with a question: "Do you recommend Science Diet or raw?" he asked. "It's really not an either/or thing," I said. "The book doesn't talk about nutrition at all." "Well, one of the people we approached said they only write about things from a raw food perspective," he said. "Oh, then they don't want my book," I said. "It's just from a dog lover's perspective." ... Read more »
How Emmett helped save me from depression
When people ask me what my book is about, I feel silly saying, "Dogs," so I've been trying to refine it. I got a little further: "3 Dogs," and then, "3 dogs who were really important to me and also it's about my friend Kevin and a funny play on words," and then I took a break. It didn't really hit me until my mom got sick: This is a book about the purpose dogs have in our lives, about how they are here for a discrete space and time and change us for the better in very specific ways. And the ... Read more »
Brain Food
Did you know tomorrow is National Donut Day? Donuts have always held a special place in my family's heart. Mystical, you might even say. I grew up in New England, where Dunkin Donuts are as ubiquitous as Starbucks and McDonalds. Driving through for a box of Munchkins was our way of celebrating, commiserating, or simply getting a sugar fix. For my grandfather, the Dunk was also a neighborhood gathering place where he went to shoot the breeze, down a jelly donut with a coffee regular (it's a ... Read more »
And still we are here
So here we are. I wake up every morning and do what I have to do, because that is what you do, and write articles about broken toenails and plan for the book release, and then when I pause in my activities I remember: oh yes. That. It wasn't a bad dream. I have done what I am supposed to do. We held hands and stood in the face of a futile fight, and laid down our weapons. You may come, death. We do not fear you. And yet now that we have welcomed him, he hesitates, the rotten bastard. We ... Read more »
The Everything in Nothing
I know I've been remiss in posting, and I wish very much I could say it's because I've been so busy creating amazing and exciting book campaigns and creating a plan to hit the NY Times Bestseller List in July. I still want to, don't get me wrong, and I still plan to at least give it ago. But that's not why I've been quiet. I guess you could say I've been doing nothing. Nothing. Let me explain. I've said to many people when I started working with as a hospice veterinarian two years ago it ... Read more »
