Crooked Beak

One of my fairly regular patients is a blue and gold macaw with a deviated beak.  This is commonly called "scissor beak" and happens most commonly in larger parrot species.  At some point when they are young, part of the beak grows abnormally, pushing the beak away from the normal middle position.  Over time this becomes worse and worse as the normal wearing of the beak happens abnormally as the upper and lower portions do not meet up properly. Improper beak shape can lead to difficulty eating as the bird cannot grab its food properly.  Here's an example of what this can look like.In mild or early cases an experienced avian...

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Caution In The Heat

It's been pretty hot where I live, with temperatures in the upper 90s (Fahrenheit), and heat indexes in the low 100s.  Being of Scandinavian blood, I try to avoid being outside at all in this kind of heat, as I quickly feel the effects.  Any yard work is done first thing in the morning before the day has a chance to heat up much.  I also make sure to drink plenty of water and take breaks. It's in weather like this that veterinarians start to see cases of heat stress or stroke, especially in dogs.  In most cases the pet was left outside in the heat without shade or an ability to get out of direct sunlight.  Access to fresh water is vitally important, but it's the direct, unrelenting sunlight that causes the most harm.  If a pet is kept in an enclosed environment,...

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Rules For Visiting The Vet

I saw these posted on a work-related forum, and thought that I would share them here. All veterinary staff will immediately understand these things. For the non-vets reading this, you may see some of yourself in this. It's all in good fun.Rules For Visiting A Vet1. Do not make an appointment. Just walk in, because they are going to be there anyway. Demand to be seen immediately! Become irate if you have to wait for anyone who was there ahead of you.2. Bring your children, bring your neighbor's children. If you have no children, borrow some from a friend.  Toddlers who have been walking for less than a year are best. If they are talking let them run around all over the hospital to ask everyone on the staff questions.3. Place your pet on the exam table, then sit down. Please do not hold...

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Is It Worth It?

Jessica sends in this timely question... I came across your veterinary blog the other day when I was searching the internet, and I happened across a post discussing if you could do everything over again would you go to veterinary school again? From the post it sounded as if there were many times when you regretted your decision for various reasons. The reason I am emailing you is that my situation is unique, I had planned on being a veterinarian most of my life (I love animals and come from a family of professionals), but ended up switching for various reasons (e-calls and long hours being one reason) to optometry once I got to college. To make a long story short I got accepted to optometry school and not long after decided that it wasn't everything I thought it was, and thought...

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The Other Half Of A Vet

For the past couple of years I've talked about life as a vet.  However, there is another half to me...my wife.  Most vets are not married to other vets and those spouses have to put up with a lot of things that they probably never expected.  I've been married to my sweetheart for almost 12 years, and she's had to deal with some pretty odd things.  She also isn't a science-based person, having majored in English and minored in Drama.  She has a pretty weak stomach and doesn't like "creepy-crawlies".  In fact, when she saw the cuterebra picture from last week she became nauseous, and couldn't even come close to watching the videos.  Here are some other things my wife has had to deal with....*  Trying to get blood, feces, urine, and other unseemly things...

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Aggressive Dog Problem

Reader Rockjdog asked this question...Question for you. One of my dogs is very aggressive. When I first got her from a rescue a little dog (off leash) got in her face and she bit the dog. The dog died on the way to the hospital. (Severed artery).  So I have discovered she is very aggressive to all animals. She goes bonkers when she sees another dog. Last week she caught a full grown ground hog. She carried it and shook it for a good 20 minutes. No matter what I did she would not let go.She is 125 lbs and my other dog Rock is 175 lbs so it is very hard to walk them together. Rock is fine but Molly can get very excited.  I have been to two trainers and have done the work they suggested but she still remains very hyper when it comes to other dogs.She has had blood work done...

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Spammers Must Die

Over the last few weeks I've been having more and more spammers post comments with links to outside web sites.  Up until now I've simply deleted these comments as soon as I noticed them, but my frustration has been building.  I already have the comments set up where you have to manually enter a code to help prevent bots from posting automatically.  Apparently the bots have found a way around this or some of the spammers have determined that they should spend their time hunting down small blogs like mine and posting links to unrelated and sometimes offensive sites.Well, I'm going to have to put a stop to that.  For the time being I'm going to have to approve all comments posted here.  I'm not a fan of censorship and welcome any opinions contrary to mine (as long as...

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"Holistic"

Merriam-Webster describes "holistic" as the following: relating to or concerned with wholes or with complete systems rather than with the analysis of, treatment of, or dissection into parts; holistic medicine attempts to treat both the mind and the body; holistic ecology views humans and the environment as a single system.Many pet-food companies have jumped, nay, leapt, on the "holistic" band-wagon, and pet owners cannot get enough of them. Based on my experience, most pet owners do not have a good (or any) understanding of what "holistic" is. That their pets are eating some sort of "holistic" diet is the only thing that many pet owners care...

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For The Kids

Today I got to do something fun.  There are groups around the country that a promoting the children's book Martha Speaks in libraries.  They bring in veterinarians and therapy dogs for the kids to meet and hear from, and then spend some time reading the book.  There are six such events being held in the metro area around me, and I'm participating in four of these with today being the first.There were almost 30 children ranging from pre-Kindergarten to 1st and 2nd grade.  I opened with discussions on what kind of things pets need, where pets live, and how vets take care of them.  Then the therapy dog group spoke for a while and let the kids pet their dogs.  I had some vet-related coloring books, crayons, and stethescopes to pass out to the kids as the left.I had...

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Wolf In The Fold

It was like a scene in a science-fiction movie.  The dog had a swelling under its arm with inflammation and a small hole in the center.  Just inside the hole you could see something small moving.  Very carefully we used a pair of hemostats to gently grasp the object and start to pull it out.  We place the object on the table and see a fat larval creature wriggling around.  It was like the ceti eel in Chekov's ear in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.As odd as this sounds, it's not uncommon to vets, especially those who practice in rural areas.  These "worms" are larvae of a type of fly called cuterebra.  More...

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Vet For A Vet

New reader Rockjdog made this comment about my recent post on my own dog's illness.I am sure you have been told this but would'nt the best course of action be to have another vet treat the dog?That's actually a very valid question, and it's one that we have to wrestle with periodically.  On one hand it does make sense to give the main clinical duties over to another doctor.  As I mentioned when dealing with my own pet, when you have that close emotional tie it's difficult to maintain good clinical objectivity.  The feelings that run through you as you fret and worry can make it hard to keep good judgment.  Last year I had another vet I know have her husband bring her dog to me for a second opinion.  The dog was in congestive heart failure and she was scared that she...

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Doing The Right Thing?

Brandie sent in a rather lengthy letter.  For the sake of brevity, I've edited it a bit, though I appreciate the detail I got to read. When [my lab] was about 8 years old I noticed she was having trouble keeping up and getting tired a lot. Extensive testing only revealed mild hip dysplasia.  At about 9 1/2 years old I noticed she was walking differently, more stiffly, and it would be especially noticeable after she did a large jump. So another vet visit determined that it was merely arthritis and hip dysplasia working against her. She was put on pain meds.  She seemed to continue to worsen gradually, which was expected. But then suddenly she seemed to be worsening more and more rapidly, much faster than myself or her vet anticipated based on what we thought it was at...

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To Catch A Thief

Yesterday I had to do something very unpleasant.  I had to fire one of my staff members.  A few weeks ago we noticed a strange transaction, with another one almost a week ago.  After some investigating we suspected that there was something wrong happening, and there was one common denominator.  Yesterday this person was confronted, admitted to stealing money for several months (much more than we had realized), and was subsequently fired.Most people don't think about these sorts of things going on in a veterinary practice, but it happens more commonly than most may realize.  I remember when I was in college and working at a local veterinary clinic.  There was one woman who was pretty much the office manager, and very well liked and trusted.  She had everything...

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Doctor Death

Some days are rougher than others when you're a vet.  One of the hardest things we do is euthanize pets.  Even when we know it's the right thing to do and will end their suffering, it can still be emotionally draining.  The worst part isn't that we're ending a life, it's the reactions of the owners.  Seeing people say goodbye to their loved ones is pretty hard, and no matter how many times I see someone break down in tears it never gets easier.  Frankly, I wish we had more training in grief counseling, as it is an important part of being a vet yet something that appears to be under-appreciated by vet schools.  It can be difficult to make it through some of these cases.And then some days are even worse than others.  Like today. Most vets would consider it...

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Smells Like Work

When you're a vet, your nose tends to get pretty immune to most odors.  I regularly deal with diarrhea, blood, pus, rotted tissue, anal gland excretions, and many other undesirable things.  All of these can have some pretty offensive odors, and you simply get used to them.  There are very few scents that turn my stomach anymore.  However, I still can find them offensive and certainly don't like smelling like these things.The worst part about odors is when they stick with you.  Today I had a severely constipated and impacted cat and had to give it an enema and pull firm feces from its rectum.  There was several days worth of stool backed up in its colon and all of it needed to come out.  So I ended up filling the colon with soapy water and digging the stool...

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With Clear Vision

Okay, so sometimes I'm a little late to the game.  I'm 40 years old and have just gotten my first pair of contact lenses.  I've been wearing glasses since I was 10 or 11 years old, and in the last 5-6 years my sight has worsened to the point where I have had to wear them all of the time and not just occasionally. Honestly, it's never bothered me to have my glasses.  I'm so used to wearing them that I don't notice them, and I don't mind how they look on me.So why the change?  Well, I do a lot of costuming at sci-fi conventions and Renaissance faires, and when I'm in costume I don't want to wear my glasses because they don't fit with the theme.  However, without my glasses my vision is more blurred, making it harder for me to enjoy looking at the vendors.  For a...

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