Remember recently my entry titled "Sometimes You Win"? Well, that isn't always the case. As a vet, sometimes unexpected and unpleasant things happen.This afternoon I saw a small parrot who had been acting sick for a few days. His symptoms were vague, just acting "fluffed" and breathing a little heavy. Unfortunately, birds hide their illnesses very well, not acting sick at all in the earliest stages. This is an instinctual behavior, as in the wild the weak or sick are usually the first preyed upon. What this means for pet owners is that when birds start acting sick, they actually have been for a while and have now become so ill that they can no longer hide it. For Duke, that was not a good thing.I began my exam as usual, carefully holding him while I looked him over. Birds have very...
Being The Boss
Here's another insight into the life and times of a vet that many people never realize. Though I don't own the practice I work for, I do manage one of the locations. Much of the daily duties I delegate to my Office Manager and Director of Pet Nursing (DPN), but I keep track of things closely and put my hand in when needed. Tomorrow I have to help fire someone.The person in question has had a problem with repeated tardiness, coming in late regularly even up to 30+ minutes. My DPN and I have talked to her repeatedly about it and have given her warnings. That didn't seem to correct it. So we had written discussions outlining what she needed to do to improve (very simply, show up on time). Even that didn't seem to help. So a little over a month ago we had a final discussion, basically stating...
Cute AND tasty?
I could almost hear the collective "awwwwwwwww..." after the country learned of the piglet that wiggled its way from the confines of a transport truck onto the shiny asphalt of North America's busiest freeway, the 401, to then be saved by a good Samaritan who brought the pretty porcine to the THS. The piglet was examined by veterinarians there and will be treated for a broken leg.Though admittedly adorable, I cannot but think of the piglet's fate, had it not fallen from the truck: it would have arrived at a pig farm, to grow and be fattened up over a few months or more, to then be slaughtered and used for our consumption, the beings so willing...
Cesarian Questions
My story about the Cesarian section a few days ago sparked some questions that I thought would make an interesting discussion.As a vet-in-the-making with an unending string of questions, do you mind if I ask you a couple of things?Is it normal procedure to spay after a caesarian, or were there specific reasons (eg the difficult birth or the pregnancy was accidental) that you chose to do it on this occasion?Presumably removing the ovaries affects the bitch hormonally - does this have an effect on her maternal instincts towards the puppy? (Or even affect her physically, eg reducing lactation?)Thanks, just interested :)C-sections usually happen because the mother can't give birth naturally, often because the puppies are too big. In English bulldogs this is routinely done since they have such...
For Those Who Have Gone Before....
When I was in 10th grade I had to do a special project for my American History class. I had two uncles who fought in World War II in the Pacific, and thought that it would be interesting to interview them on their experiences. They had a friend of theirs who was a prisoner of war in Germany and included him in the interview. My Uncle James was in the Merchant Marine and saw combat on ship against the Japanese. My Uncle Dan was a mechanic in the Air Force and stationed in the South Pacific. Though he wasn't a direct combatant, he was still in combat situations. Their friend (whose name I'm sorry to say I don't remember almost 20 years later) was in the Army and was captured in Europe. All three had extraordinary stories. The POW talked about interaction with the Nazi guards at the prisoner...
Sunday Cesarian
I don't normally work on Sundays, but today was filling in for a doctor at one of our hospitals (the practice I work for has multiple locations). The day started off pretty slow, which wasn't surprising for a holiday Sunday. Late morning a very pregnant maltese came in. She had been seen over the last couple of weeks for assessment as she came closer to full term. A week ago x-rays showed that there were two large puppies, and that they were possibly too large to give birth to. We found this to be true today, as a repeat of the x-rays showed slightly larger puppies than a week ago. She had been actively contracting for at least six hours without any puppies being born. My usual rule-of-thumb is that if there are contractions for more than an hour without any birth, the dog may be in...
Age Is Not A Disease
For whatever reason, many people seem to think that pets don't need any care beyond a certain age. I've had people decline vaccines, heartworm prevention, and other routine services because their pet is "too old". I've also had clients who don't want to do dental cleanings or other simple anesthetic procedures because their dog or cat was geriatric. It's interesting that different people have varying definitions of "old". The "magic age" might be 8, 10, 14, or just about anything. And perceiving their pet as old often has nothing to do with the pet's actual health. Just today I saw an 8 year-old boxer that the owner didn't want to do more than a rabies vaccine because he was too old. However, the dog was in excellent health and acted half his age.Age is NOT a disease! Honestly, a pet's...
Do What The Doctor Says
In the last couple of years a major topic in veterinary medicine has been owner compliance. Surveys have been done and have shown that pet owners don't follow the doctor recommendations far more frequently than vets believe. And that's not with whether or not they authorize services. The surveys looked at how compliant owners have been with giving prescribed medications or following treatment directions. And surprisingly, half or less of owners follow veterinarians' instructions. Often times they don't give medications as often as recommended or for as long as recommended. They also don't manage bandages, restrict exercise, and otherwise do what the doctor has said.Why does this happen to this degree? Part of it is that people have busy schedules. It can be very difficult to give medications...
Carrying your dog around
I've blogged about this before: how inappropriate it is to conduct your day with your dog in a purse or other semi-capacious item not normally used to tote living things. How it has come to incense me so, I do not know, but that I feel sorry for the dogs is clear.Humans had it right millenia ago. Their behavior towards humans has changed little since then, while ours towards them has inexorably led to the very many doggie behavioral issues that need to be eschewed from the development of our intimate human-canine relationships.I will continue to bring this topic up, as I would like to drill it into the minds of as many people as possible, in...
Snake Bites
A week ago Saturday one of my regular patients came in for an emergency situation. Little Brandi is a 5-6 pound Yorkshire terrier, so she's not very big. Her owners witnessed her walk right up to a rather large snake, sniff at it, and receive a bite right on her muzzle. The husband quickly killed it and they were able to identify it as a copperhead, a common venomous snake in our area. They rushed her right up to me for treatment, and had her to me in a matter of minutes.Right now most of you are probably thinking that a little dog like Brandi is lucky to have not been killed instantly. And that she probably needed life-saving hospitalization and treatment that cost the owners thousands of dollars. After all, a bite like that is pretty serious and usually fatal. Right?Actually, that's...
Human rights
Unrelated to veterinary issues, I am ashamed by the most heinous violations committed by Russia against the gay community during a pride rally in Moscow. Activists were arrested during this peaceful rally, hours before the all-inclusive Eurovision finals were to take place (which was won in 1998 by Dana International, an Israeli transsexual). As GPOC writes on his blog: an attack on the liberties of one group is an attack against us all. Where are Toronto's lefty protests now? We must all decry Russia's devolution to barbarism. It's 2009 and this is still occurring on this plan...
Sometimes You Win
Being a doctor can be hard, and unfortunately you can't help every case. Sometimes the diagnosis itself is pretty difficult. Sometimes there isn't a good treatment available. And sometimes the patient doesn't respond to your best care. So when you get the difficult cases that turn out well, it makes it all worthwhile.Tucker is an 8 year-old golden retriever that I have been treating. Several months ago he came to me with a swelling around his right eye. I suspected an allergic reaction, and we treated him with short-term anti-inflammatories. He responded well, but then a short time later it came back even worse. This time that side of his face swelled and he started having pain eating or opening his mouth. An aspirate of the swelling didn't show any signs of cancer or abscess. Based...
The True Value Of Pets
Can you place a monetary value on pets? Many people do. "I paid $1200 for my labadoodle!" "This was a free cat, so I ain't spending much money on her." "It's just a guinea pig. Your office visit is more expensive than buying a new one." Lawyers also put a specific value to a pet's legal worth, which normally isn't much. Here in the US pets are considered a special form of property, and therefore people aren't entitled to settlements for more than the replacement value, or possibly the future breeding revenue. However, I don't think this really give the true value on pets. Whether or not somebody finds "value" in a pet is more a factor of emotional bonding, and may not have anything to do with how much they paid to get that pet.Back in march I saw a hamster for a lump on its chest....
Training Tips
I knew Twitter was good for something: I would never have found this page with 12 excellent tips (I think they're essentially mandatory) every dog owner should follow.Click here for an obedient dog.Lookee the photo I found onli...
A Father's Milestone
As this is a blog about a veterinarian's life, and not just one about veterinary medicine, I'm going to step away from what I do and talk a bit about who I am. In this case, my role as a father.Yesterday my son had his first baseball game. He just started minor league a few weeks ago, and this is his first time in organized sports. When I was growing up I was never really "into" sports, and neither was my father. However, I played soccer for many years, and swam competitively, doing very well in both sports. In fact, if I had pursued it into high school, I probably could have gotten to the point of earning sports scholarships. I was never interested in baseball, basketball, or football, the main US sports endeavors, and remain disinterested to this day. My pursuits are more in the "geek...
Moving An Elderly Cat
Here's a tough situation sent in by Jackie.I have an elderly cat,17 years old, and showing signs of her age - cataracts, vomiting, limping, dull coat, but she still has an appetite. She has always been a very anxious cat, does not like to be touched, but will lay next to you. I am moving from a home in Florida to an apartment in Colorado and fear the 3-day trip, by car, will be too hard for her and then the adjustment there, as well. She has never been outside except for the necessary vet appointments. I feel that euthanization would be more humane and would like your view on this. Thank you. I know this is a hard situation for you Jackie, and I'll try to help you out. But realize that this may be a discussion to also have with your personal vet, as he or she will know your cat's health status...
I joined Twitter yesterday in order to boost readership of this blog. I have many great followers and readers (for which I am grateful), but I would love to reach out to more people out there in the blogosphere. Is it egotistical to want this? To want thousands and thousands of people following what I have to say? My training as a vet has helped bring me to this: a practitioner, a blogger... someone who is opinionated and isn't afraid to share it.By joining this ultra-popular networking site, I, too, have been introduced to some spectacularly interesting blogs - there are some darn incredible writers out there!My quirkiness notwithstanding,...
To Specialize Or Not
Here's a recent comment that I thought warranted further discussion.I'm quite surprised they don't offer more specialization since as a vet it seems you can go into a variety of different speciality areas (my neighbor is a large animal vet). Do you think if they retained the basics for every major area, but included more specialization it might increase the productivity of vets? Veterinary medicine has changed a lot in the last 100 years. When our society was more rural, veterinarians were mostly working on the farm animals, and would see the dogs and cats while they happened to be on the farm. In the last 50-60 years, our culture has dramatically shifted to animals being pets and family members, not livestock and workers. This has also changed the focus of veterinarians and where you find...
Vaccinating Sick Pets
Here's a common scenario that many vets face. A pet comes in for an illness. Sometimes it may be for something relatively minor like a skin or ear infection. But more likely it will be a potentially serious problem such as profuse vomiting, not eating, being extremely lethargic, and so on. Chances are good that this problem has been going on for a while, and it seems that these cases happen in pets that rarely get veterinary care. So there we are with a pet that might have a very serious illness when the next question comes up."Hey, doc. While we're here could you give him his shots?"Sometimes I can't completely understand some people. Their pet is sick and I'm talking about having to do a battery of tests to determine if it may be life-threatening. Yet they seem more concerned about...
Preparing To Enter Veterinary Medicine
Emily has asked a series of questions, and I'm going to answer each in turn.So why am I considering becoming a vet? I have been an animal activist for years, lost hope in people and kept it all to myself. Until I met the vet for my two dogs who inspired me to look into the Vet programs as a way for me to help animals. I believe that not enough owners are properly educated about nutrition and care for their animals- their front line for information is from their Vets. No other job field inspires me quite like this one...yet no other scares me as much. Ergo, I have questions....if you'd be so kind to answer?Emily, I think it's great that you've found a vet that inspires you so much. However, if you lost hope in people beforehand, you may be in for a rude awakening as a vet. If you've...
Spring is here!
Spring is a time when many people take their pets to the vet for their yearly check-up. The snow has melted - in areas that receive snow - and pets become exposed to different things, like plants, dirt, baseball fields (and therefore baseballs), fossils, fault lines, fleas, ticks, and trolls (where they're indigenous).Ok, jokes aside: dogs (and cats - cats are more complicated with respect to heartworm disease) require heartworm testing, monthly flea, tick and heartworm prevention, and possibly vaccines/boosters. You should always your vet which vaccines are being administered to your pet and why. Ensure that a rabies vaccine is not given more...
More Fat Cats
My recent entry on how to talk about fat cats brought up a couple of other questions from readers that I thought I would address.Is it more common for a cat to be free feeding? I thought this was discouraged in dogs, but is it more acceptable in cats? This is an area of a lot of discussion among veterinarians. In the wild, cats are considered to be "grazers", meaning that they tend to eat small prey throughout the day rather than one large prey once or twice per day. Therefore, pet cats should have the opportunity to eat throughout the day as well. The problem is that many people equate "free feeding" with keeping a bowl constantly full, which promotes obesity. The main issue to look at is not really how often they feed, but how much they eat.Cats should get a certain amount of calories...
Anal Gland Answers
Dan sends in this scenario. Hello there, I have a small Terrier who is about to turn 9 years old. He never had anal gland issues until about 6 months ago, when I noticed him scooting. I have taken him to my vet and the techs expressed his glands (one was impacted and came out like paste). Since then I have returned monthly and had them expressed, no problems.My question is this…. His normal defecation isn’t nearly as large and firm (not runny but soft). I asked the vet tech if he needed more dietary fiber to increase his stool volume and if that would help his glands. She told me no but in my research of the issue it appears that many vets do believe that fiber seems to help. What is your opinion of fiber offering any aid in anal gland maintenance and also will it help his loose...
Voracious cat
As you now know, my cat is acromegalic and diabetic. This means his diabetes is difficult to control and his high levels of circulating growth hormone (and uncontrolled diabetes) means he's constantly hungry. As I blog, he is bothering me for crackers and peanut butter, and is slowly making his way towards the New York style banana pudding (courtesy of Red Rocket Coffee). Aside from a lick, which he now and then steals, I do not let him eat these things. While slightly humorous, I must remember that not long ago, he would never have wanted to eat these things. Isaac, I must remember, is sick. This fact I have accepted.Not Isaac, but I haven't...
