Though practiced in many countries, I believe that Halloween and trick-or-treating is biggest in America. I know that I grew up loving the holiday, and had a lot of fun. Some of my best memories of childhood are wandering through the neighborhoods begging for candy with a simple "trick or treat!" One year my parents and a few other neighbors designed a haunted woods that wound through the suburban forest behind three houses. There were elaborate spooks, decorations, and even a miniature Dr. Frankenstein's laboratory with a brief skit (I was Igor!). All of it was safe, mildly frightening, and always fun. As I grew up I realized that I still enjoyed Halloween, with all of the spooky decorations and costumes. Now I get to pass it on to my own kids.Nowadays are different,...
Brad's Guide To Veterinary Medicine
A vet I know named Brad sent me a list of 31 rules he has developed over a lifetime around veterinary medicine (his father is also a vet). Here are a few of the choicer ones. These are all tongue-in-cheek, but also give some profound truths about life as a vet.Rule #6--The condition is never an emergency until 3 a.m.Rule #8--The more money spent on procuring the animal, the less spent on maintaining it.Rule #11--The more ignorant the client, the more certain they are that they know more than you do.Rule #12--The nicer the clothing, the more nasty, disgusting, and malodorous a procedure you will be asked to perform.Rule #17--If the client does not comply with orders and the animal gets worse or dies, it is your fault.Rule #18--All lesions occur overnight ("Really, Doc, he was fine...
Helpful Paranoia
Remember my "almost-deadly mistake" of last week? Today I did my first neuter since then, on a dog about the same size. Last week's case was running through my mind the whole time, and I was extra careful. I watched my suture placement more closely than I have since I first started doing this surgery, despite the fact that I've done thousands of these procedures. This is something that I'll probably do quite a bit in the future, not being as comfortable and complacent as I have in the past.Honestly, this isn't necessarilly a bad thing. I realize that I'm only human and mistakes will happen (not just as a vet but in my life in general). However, I hope that I learn from my mistakes and never make the same one twice. I can clearly remember each slipped...
Private Vs. Corporate Medicine
Here in the US we have two basic business models for veterinary practices. The most common is the standard private practice. Most are owned by a single veterinarian who has a single practice location. However, it's not uncommon to have 2-3 partners owning a practice together and perhaps having a couple of locations in an area. A corporate practice is run a bit differently. There are multiple locations within a region or nationally who are run as any corporation: there is a president, board of directors, location managers, and so on. In the US the two biggest corporate practices are Banfield, The Pet Hospital and VCA, each having hundreds of locations. However, there are also smaller, regional corporate practices that may have a few dozen clinics.What...
Almost-Deadly Mistake
I've mentioned this before, but it bears repeating. Veterinarians (and other doctors) are humans; therefore they can and do make mistakes. The bad thing about these mistakes is that when things go wrong it can affect the life and health of the patient. I just had a mistake that was almost very, very bad.Yesterday I neutered a Yorkshire terrier. This isn't normally a big deal, as by my calculations I have performed over 2,000 of these surgeries. This case was slightly complicated by the fact that one of the testicles had been retained in the abdomen (a condition called "cryptorchidism"), which means we have to make a second incision and go hunting after it. Again, this isn't normally a real concern as I've done several dozen cryptorchid surgeries over the years. ...
Lead In Tennis Balls And Other Pet Products
A very interesting study was just released showing a potentially serious danger with some pet products. According to HealthyStuff.org, numerous pet products had noticable amounts of lead."Pet Products – HealthyStuff.org tested over 400 pet products, including beds, chew toys, collars and leashes. Since there are no government standards for hazardous chemicals in pet products, it is not surprising that alarming levels of toxic chemicals were found. One quarter of all pet products had detectable levels of lead, including seven percent with levels higher than 300 ppm – the current Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) standard for lead in children's products."A particularly startling finding was that almost 50% of tennis balls sold for dogs had lead in them, and that tennis balls designed...
The Season For Skin?
Normally the Summer months are the worst for skin problems. Allergies are at a height, and the heat and humidity allow microorganisms to grow quickly. There are seasonal allergies in the Spring and Fall, but the worst seems to be in the Summer. Combine these conditions with a growing flea problem and you have a recipe for dermatology disaster. It's something we know about and expect. Which makes it surprising when you have a run of cases that break from the season.Over the last week my associate and I have been bombarded with itchy dogs and cats. Most of them have come in with sudden intense itching to the point of causing severe self-trauma. The itching is bad enough that they chew themselves raw, creating large hot-spots. We expect this in...
Salary Up, So Is Debt
Every year the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association publishes a study of salaries, employment and debt among American veterinarians. This year there was some mixed news. On one hand, starting salaries were up from 2008. Across all vets, the increase was 0.7%, with an average starting salary of a little under $49,000 annually. When looking at those employed solely at private practices the increase was a more noticeable 6%. Pretty good news! Vets are very underpaid for their knowledge and skills, so it's nice to see the salaries increasing for new graduates.However, there is a fair bit of bad news with this. The amount of debt incurred in acquiring this education and training rose by 8%. Yes, salaries grew, but debt grew by a...
A Thespian's Guide To Life
For the last 2 1/2 months my wife and I have been rehearsing for a community theater production of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. For the last couple of weeks the rehearsal schedule kicked into high gear as we neared our performance dates (hence my lower posting frequency on this blog). What an experience this has been! My wife is the major thespian in the family and has far more experience than myself. Though I enjoy theater and have a certain amount of raw skill, I don't feel the strong draw to it like she does. I also absolutely hate memorizing anything, which makes it a challenge to learn lines.For the...
Soft Paws
Regular reader Mary brings this question....I recently ran across a cat product that looks really interesting. I'm sure in your years of practice you must have heard of it. The product is called "Soft Paws" and they are little vinyl caps to put over a cat's claws to keep the cat from scratching furniture or people. What do you think of this product? Would you recommend it? Are there any hygiene problems associated with the product? Soft Paws have been around for a long time, and are based on a sound concept. By blunting a cat's claws with a rubber cover, they keep the claws from causing damage to people or furniture. For those not familiar with them, they come in a kit and are applied to each claw (front and rear) with a glue. The principle is similar...
"Dr. Layperson"
I was chatting on an online veterinary site recently, and several people were comparing notes about various crazy client complaints. One of the big things that comes up is clients who think they know better than the doctor, or somehow think that medicine is easy. Just this week I had a client bring in her shih-tzu puppy who was having diarrhea and vomiting. I had my tech present a treatment plan which included checking for intestinal worms, parvo, and giardia. The client asked her why I couldn't tell what was wrong with her dog. Umm....that's why I want to run the tests...to find out what's wrong...Apparently the person thought that I could figure out the problem simply with an exam, even though I had explained the possibilities to her before I stepped out of the room.A few years ago...
Pet Psychics
Don sends in a very interesting scenario...What is your take on pet physics? We have a dog that we saved from the pound. She is about three years old and is an Austrialian shephard mix, red in color. We were told she had some "issues" when we got her and she used the house as if she had never been potty trained. We were told that she was house broken and cage trained, however that did not seem to be the case.She also liked to lick, which seems to be a trait of this breed. She was very shy around my wife but not around me.We contacted a pet physic for help and talked to her on the phone. She ask us to place the phone next to the dog and she spoke to the dog. The dog immediately left the room but the physic said that she was now in the dogs space and did not have to be in direct contact...
Dieting Cat
Here's a question from Sami...About 10 months ago my vet advised me that my male 8 year old cat, Pete, needed to lose 3 pounds (he weighed 18 lbs then). He's successfully lost 2 lbs, I can definitely tell that he's healthier, he actually runs to his food bowl and is a lot more affectionate. I feed him 3 times a day but he still seems to be hungry all the time and I hate reducing what he eats further. The problem is that he is losing weight really slowly (only an ounce a week for the past 6 weeks--previously it was about 3 oz a week). My question is, is this too slow a rate of weigt loss? Should I just be happy he is still losing weight at all? This is normally the time of year he usually starts to put on weight and sleep even more.Congratulations on the weight loss, Sami. It's not always...
Slaughtering Horses
Eating meat is controversial to many people, resulting in an increase in the presence of vegetarianism in developed countries. For some people raising and then killing animals for personal consumption is wrong. But that's not what I want to discuss this time. A recent hot-button topic here in the US has been slaughtering horses for meat. In fact, there is currently a ban on slaughtering horses in the US or exporting them for slaughter.Humans have been eating animal meat for as long as our kind has been around. For most of history it was never a big issue. However, the idea of "forbidden" meat has always seemed to be around. Usually it's cultural, such as a ban on pork among Muslims, a Hindu reverence for cattle, or an American aversion to eating companion animals. And while some cultures...
It's A Dog's World
According to recent surveys, cats are the most common pet in the US, followed by dogs and then ferrets. I know that my readership is international, but I suspect that there would be similar proportions of dogs and cats in other countries. There are around 75 million pet dogs in the US and about 88 million pet cats. Given these numbers, I find my recent poll results very interesting, even though I know that this is very unscientific polling. Here's how everyone responded to the question "if you could have any pet you wanted, what kind would it be?"Dog--66%Other--7%Cat--5%Bird--2%Reptile--2%And 0% for small mammals or fish.Another interesting fact is that though there are more cats in the US, yet they are seen far less frequently than dogs by vets. In my own practice I would estimate that...
Pet foods: where to begin?
I've wanted to write on the topic of pet food for ages, but I didn't really know where to start. Frankly, there is such a huge variety of pet foods on the market today, it is impossible for me to know each of them in detail.I am often asked, "What is the best food for my cat/dog/kitten/puppy?" That is the million-dollar question. What is the best food for our pets? Is it kibble? canned? what brands? raw food?I don't have the scientific answer, sorry everyone. However, I do have some facts to share, which everyone should consider when choosing what to feed their pet.Dogs are omnivorous, which means their gastro-intestinal tracts have evolved...
