For quite a long time I have been against people feeding bones to their dogs. I've simply seen too many problems with this practice, and have seen the pets suffer from it. Unfortunately it's hard to get people to stop feeding these treats since it's such a traditional thing to give to dogs and is all-pervasive in the media and entertainment.Well, lo and behold, the American Food and Drug Administration just issued a warning against people feeding bones to their dogs. Here are the reasons for the warning (quoted directly from the report)...Broken teeth. This may call for expensive veterinary dentistry. Mouth or tongue injuries. These can be very bloody and messy and may require a trip to see your veterinarian. Bone gets looped around your dog's lower jaw. This can be frightening...
The Play's The Thing
Regular readers may have noticed that my posts have been a little less frequent this month. And there's a good reason for that. My wife and I do community theater and have been in a production of Is He Dead? Rehearsals have been fast and furious, and last week was the play's opening.The play was written by Mark Twain, but never published or produced. It was found in an archive of his works, adapted by modern playwright David Ives, and first produced on Broadway in 2007. To quote a description of the play... "Richly intermingling elements of burlesque, farce, and social satire with a wry look at the world market...
Pee Problems
Here is the second part to Diana's email...When he was a puppy he was very well litter trained. However, after he was left at a family member's house whilst my mum and myself were away, he seemed to have been neglected in some ways (or so me have assumed) and certainly had not been taken out for a while and all the litter training was, well, "forgotten" by my dear best friend. He is now an 11 year old male (not castrated, no other pets or children at home), and has problems with urinating in the house since then. He is taken out for walks regularly (at least 4x a day and let out in the garden in between) and has no bladder problems, UTI infections etc. His bladder is thus never bursting! He tends to urinate objects that are not meant to be where they are placed (e.g. a plastic bad...
Educating About Behavior
Diana wrote me some questions, and I'm going to answer them in two parts. Here's part one...Firstly, I'm interested to hear about whether you advise owners on behaviour problems very often. I'm a prospective vet student in the UK and have seen many consults (It's mandatory in the UK to carry out work experience if one wishes to pursue this career) and have yet to see many owners come to their vets with sole behaviour problems, and I am unaware of many people seeking advice from behaviour specialists which seems to be less common than vets! Does your training as a vet in the US include behaviour issues to any extent (out of curiosity)? Since I've only visited the UK, and that was about 20 years ago, I honestly can't say how veterinary training may be outside of the US. ...
Mourning in dogs
A wonderful eleven year-old Shih Tzu, owned by a very close family member, was struck recently by a car and killed. She left behind a mourning human couple and a lovely canine companion.Her owner was reasonably, and rightfully concerned about how the living dog would fare after her companion's death. "I don't know," I replied honestly. "We'll have to see."After more than three weeks since the accident, the surviving Shih Tzu has shown absolutely not a shred of evidence that she is missing her departed canine companion. It's paradoxically sad to report that she continues to thrive in the other's absence (obviously we don't want her to suffer,...
Ceiling Critter
A while back I had a small leak from my bathroom shower that dripped down into the ceiling of the laundry room underneath. It was a very slow leak, but enough to drip on the ceiling tiles (it's a drop ceiling) and through them. One of the tiles closest to the wall became soft enough to eventually crumble, leaving a small gap. I finally figured out where the leak was coming from and fixed it, but still haven't gotten around to replacing that tile.That's when I discovered that one of my cats, Tristan, decided to make the area in the ceiling his personal play place. One day we heard him meowing but couldn't find him. ...
The Yellow Season
In the northern hemisphere it's now spring, and that means it's also allergy season. For some parts of the US this is simply a nice time when plants bloom and the weather starts to warm up. But for other places, such as where I live, it means that we get to pay attention to daily pollen counts. The worst part is the layer of yellow that coats everything: cars, streets, porches, and pretty much anything that spends even a few moments outside. Thankfully my seasonal allergies aren't too bad. But that pollen gets into some amazing places.One of the most common tests we do is a fecal exam, looking at prepared fecal samples...
Getting Adjusted
My little bearded dragon (who I still haven't named) is settling in well. He's getting used to his tank and has been eating well, which is helping my anxiety a bit. So I thought I would share some pictures of him. You can see his missing left hind leg.My daughter is especially gleeful about him joining our family. Today she got to hold him by herself for the first time, and you can see the expression on her face. She's the daring animal lover in the family.Now, my wife is still not certain about him, even though she allowed me to bring him home. She refuses to touch him at all. However, she has admitted that...
Beardie Comes Home
Last week I posted about a recent surgery I did on a tiny bearded dragon. Today he came in for his final post-operative recheck, and he was doing great. He had been active for the last two weeks, and eating regularly every day. The incision had healed well so I took the sutures out and cleared him for going to a new home.Now one of the interesting things about this little beardie is that he was from a pet store. With only three legs, they couldn't sell him, and knew that going into the surgery. When things like this happen, they give the pet away to a good home for free. In this specific case the original adoptee turned him down for some reason. I had mentioned that I might be interested in him, and the let me know he was available. So, I brought him...
Laying Down The Law?
It's hard being a vet and being in charge of a hospital. There are numerous difficult decisions to make. Which lab tests do I need to run? What treatment do I use for a given disease? What are the odds of survival in any case? How many surgeries to I take each day? But I think that the hardest decisions involve running personnel. At my current location I've been facing this problem off and on for a couple of years now, always with different people. Part of it is that many people seem to enjoy gossiping and talking behind each others' backs. I've had team meetings and tried to tell everyone that it had to stop, but I can't be there every time people talk. My latest problem involves two very skilled but very strong-willed people. ...
Whoa, this is interesting:
A recent study by Ottawa researchers showed that people who live alone and have a dog do not feel less lonely than those without dogs. This contradicts a long-held myth that our canine companions offer an escape from our solitude. People with dogs and a lack of a good social circle did not feel less lonely than those living similarly and without a canine friend. You can read the entire article HERE but I just had to quote a paragraph from the Montreal Gazette article:People with limited community connections, for example, were more likely to humanize their dog - and those who engaged in this type of anthropomorphism were more depressed, visited...
