Last night my family dodged a bullet. Storm systems tore through the southern US over the last couple of days, spawning possibly a record number of tornadoes and so far causing almost 250 deaths (the count may rise as wrecked homes and buildings are searched). They hit my area yesterday and killed a dozen people in Georgia alone. Only a few miles north of my home there were houses that were blown down to their foundations, trees and power lines down, and the county just west of us is probably going to be declared a disaster area due to the damage. I sincerly thank God that the only damage near us was one branch down in a neighbor's yard and my lawn swing blown over. My family made it through unscathed, though unfortunately too many families were devistated.Just...
Clueless Helpers
Everyone in the veterinary field knows the following scenario. A client comes in with their pet and you start asking them questions. Maybe they're coming in for vaccines, or maybe they're coming in with a sick pet. As soon as you talk to them they respond with "I don't know. My husband/wife/significant other just told me to bring him in. He/she keeps up with everything."Really? First, if you're the person sending someone else in with the pet, make sure they know everything there is to know as well as you do yourself. We're going to ask questions about how long the problem is going on, what symptoms you're noticing, how often it's happened before, or even something really hard like "when did he last have his vaccines" or "is she on heartworm prevention." ...
Dismember My Dog, Please
I know I've already posted once today, but I was reading one of my favorite sites, Not Always Right, and came across the following exchange, reported from a vet clinic in Madison, Wisconsin. Me: “Thank you for calling [pet clinic]. How may I help you today?”Client: “My dog is due for it’s dismemberment shot.”Me: “Distemper? We can set up an appointment for that.”Client: “Yes, dismemberment. I need my dog to get his dismemberment shot.”Me: “Distemper.”Client: “How much is the dismemberment shot?”Me: “The distemper vaccine is [vaccine]. Would you like to set up an appointment for your dog to receive the distemper vaccine?”Client: “Yes, please. I would like you to dismember my dog.”Frankly, I can't think of any witty comment to follow that. So there you ...
Scrubs Make The Tech
Most people who go into a veterinary practice probably don’t think a lot about the scrubs or uniforms. But I can promise you that the practice owner does! The first decision comes down to whether or not the practice wants to have a very uniform look with everyone wearing the same color and style, or whether they want the freedom to express their individuality with different scrub styles. The second decision is exactly which styles to use! Do you allow only animal prints, or do you give complete freedom, knowing that you may end up with people in Spider-Man or Spongebob scrubs?As a professional veterinarian, it...
Shaking Hands
Rahul emailed me with this question...Currently I am a second year undergraduate student and I'm leaning strongly towards going to veterinary school when I graduate. But one practical issue is really concerning me: my hands are mildly shaky and I'm wondering if I could still do the surgeries that most general practitioners perform. Would I be forced to specialize to get around this problem?Steady hands are very important for a vet, and not just for surgery. Obviously, being able to safely and accurately handle surgical instruments is crucial. However, you need fairly steady hands regardless of which field of practicing medicine you end up in. With internal medicine specialists there are needle aspirates, endoscopy, ultrasound and other diagnostic procedures...
The Veterinary Blogosphere
When I started this blog in 2008 I honestly did not know how many veterinary blogs were out there. I started it partially on a whim, and truthfully I'm a bit surprised at myself for having kept it going for 2 1/2 years. As I have continued to do this I have learned of other vet blogs and made some connections with vets and veterinary students around the world. I have several of these other blogs linked on the right-hand bar.Recently I learned that my blog had been noticed and put on a list of the "50 Best Blogs For Veterinary Students". I was surprised to see so many blogs dedicated to veterinary medicine, most of which I had never heard of! It's probably a bit small-minded of me, but I had never imagined that so many vets and vet students would be writing blogs. ...
The Frustration Of Not Knowing
I wish that we as doctors knew everything and could figure everything out. Unfortunately, we can't. And it bugs us to no end!Yesterday I saw a cat for the first time. The cat wasn't eating, and over a month or two had gone from around 24lbs to 17lbs. On physical exam he was purring and happy with no obvious physical abnormalities other than an abnormally unkempt coat and some mild dehydration. We ran a full battery of tests: blood chemistry panel, CBC, thyroid screen, heartworm test, leukeima test, and AIDS test. I was expecting to find a leukemia infection, hyperthyroidism, or kidney problems. When all of the test results were in, my jaw dropped a bit. There really weren't any significant abnormalities! The ONLY problem I found was...
The Big 1-0!
It can be amazing how time flies. Today my son turns 10 years old. Wow! The first of our children to number age in double digits. Last night my wife and I were looking at pictures from just a few years ago and it's pretty remarkable how much he's grown during that time. I very clearly remember when he was born, after a long and hard labor, and how he had to be in the hospital for a week because of pneumonia. They had whisked him out of the birthing room as soon as he was born and we didn't get to hold him until the next day. I saw him before my wife did since I was able to get up and walk over to where he was. Thankfully it wasn't too serious and he's had no complications since then. But what a start!The last 10 years have had their ups...
Too many pet foods, too little time...
Where to begin? All commercially-available pet foods have one thing in common: their manufacturers want you to feed their food to your pet. Quality, like any product on the market, is highly variable. You can probably buy a 60-pound bag of questionable-quality dog food for $30, but I wouldn't go for the cheapest. Conversely, I don't subscribe to the notion that pet foods require "human-grade," "holistic," or "organic" ingredients. Pets are not humans - these are highly effective marketing ploys. Don't fall for them (THE SAME MARKETING IS USED ON US TO BUY OUR FOOD!) That said, many moderately-priced pet foods are indeed high-quality pet foods (because of their ingredients and not for what's written on the bag).MYTH: By-products are unhealthy for pets. TRUTH: There is nothing inherently...
Artificial Paw For Pets
I think many people are surprised at what veterinarians have the capability of doing. I try to tell people that vets have just as much medical and surgical skill as human doctors, but because we work on animals I'm not sure how many people really understand our capabilities. In fact, did you know that pets can get implanted artificial limbs?North Carolina State University's College of Veterinary Medicine has been doing implants for pets since 2005, and have performed them in both dogs and cats. The most recent surgery happened just a couple of weeks ago! Check out this article in the local Raleigh, NC newspaper. This latest surgery was done for the first time on a front paw, with all previous surgeries performed on hind legs. What I personally think is especially...
Rotting Mouth
In 13 years of practice I've seen some really bad dental infections. But today I saw one of the worst in my career. He's a dachshund around 12 years old and when my associate saw him a few days ago she knew that he would need some teeth pulled. But none of us knew just how bad it would really be when he came in today.We got him under anesthesia and before my assistant started doing any cleaning I figured that I'd see how many teeth would be left to actually clean. Within a matter of a couple of minutes I had pulled almost every tooth on the right side of his mouth! The odor was unbelievable and even made me have to breathe shallowly. Most of the teeth were literally held in the mouth by extensive dental calculus. The tartar went to the bottoms of many...
GabCast!
Several weeks ago I was contacted by someone from a new web site, GabCast.tv. They had come across my blog and were looking for a veterinarian to host a regular live webcast on their site. I said I was interested, but didn't put much stock in it as it's not infrequent for me to be contacted about various "opportunities" related to this blog, most of which aren't worth my time or effort. However, this one was different, as within a week I was on the phone with the CEO discussing what they were looking for. Long story short, and after some negotiations, I am now one of the hosts on their site!The site just went live yesterday but is still very new and expanding, and we're not sure where all of this will go. But there are some big names behind this, including former...
Fearless!
Don't you just hate that feeling you get when you come home from a vacation and realize that you have to go back to the "real world"? Yeah, me too.Today my family and I just got back from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, a favorite vacation spot for us. Though my wife and I prefer the mountains, our kids really love the beach. Besides the beach itself, there are lots of family-friendly activities in the area, so it's perfect for us. Two events this week showed me just how incredibly fearless my little eight-year-old daughter is.One of the places we visited was Alligator Adventure. This is an animal park designed around...
Wandering Vet
I've mentioned before that the practice I work for has multiple satellite locations in our area and I manage one of them. Over the years I've worked at almost all of the locations and have developed a reputation as someone who can jump in and work in just about any situation. Sometimes this is to my detriment. For some reason or another we've had a lot of doctors go on vacation or suddenly take ill, leaving a clinic without a doctor to see patients. This isn't good for business, as we can't do much revenue without seeing the pets. It's also not good for the clients and pets as their illnesses can't be seen or treated by us. So when we have a doctor deficit we look to some of the other locations to fill that gap. And I seem to be one of the main go-to people!Today...
It's NOT The Flea Product...Really! (Part 2)
Today we get a bonus entry, courtesy of Thomas! He made a lengthy comment, but for some reason it won't show up in the comments section even though I am receiving the emails that tell me that a comment has been made. Since he had some good points, I thought I'd post it myself, and address some of his ideas. I'm going to break in and comment as we go along.I can tell you're getting a little bit tired of repeating yourself on this. :) I also have no doubt that most of the "it's not working" cases are exactly what you describe, and that it must be extremely trying to deal with such unfounded claims on a daily basis. However...
It's NOT The Flea Product...Really!
As we're warming up here in the US we're starting to see "flea season emerge". So this brings up a good time to talk about flea prevention again. I thought to bring this up after a reader in Chile commented on an older post about Frontline, believing resitance to be taking place in his area. But before addressing that, I want to remind everyone of previous discussions on flea control. Go back and read these if you haven't before, as I don't plan on repeating the same information. Bugged By Fleas?Winter Prevention?That Flea Medicine Isn't Working!eBay Flea PreventionFollow-up On Fleas & FrontlineYes, You Really Are Doing It WrongEven Yet More Flea ProblemsBest Heartworm/Flea Preventatives?Here's the bottom line...Advantage/Advantix, Vectra/FirstShield, Frontline, and Comfortis...
Scrimping On Heartworm Prevention?
Here's an interesting question I received...With the economy the way it is I am trying to figure out ways to help our dollar go further. I currently am trying Trifexis with our 2 1/2 yr old Golden Retriever. We live on a lake and she swims daily. The topical treatments were not working. I heard via the internet that most heart worm medicines can last 45 days but the companies use 30 days for ease of remembering. If she can go every 45 days, it would be most helpful. Thanks for your willingness to help.First, let's briefly talk about how heartworm prevention works in general. Most people don't realize that these medications don't stay in the body for a full month (with some exceptions, such as ProHeart). Heartworm larvae go through...
Best Hours Of Operation
My latest poll came from a discussion with one of my colleagues about what operating hours our clinics should be open. Most of them are open from 9am to 7pm. We try to have extended hours to accommodate client needs, but that the same time keeping in mind the quality of life for our staff. So, I thought I'd ask my readers!Interestingly, 10% opted for the existing hours, not preferring any extension of the time. I suspect some of my veterinary readers didn't like the idea of getting in early or staying late. Opening 1 hour early was preferred by 54% while staying open late was preferred by 34%. I find the results interesting as conventional wisdom among my colleagues is that more clients would prefer being open later in the evening to help with the sick pets...
