After the previous post on surgiphobia I received an email from a concerned pet owner wanting to know whether she should change vets. Reading about my lack of surgical competence in my first years of practice struck fear into her heart.  She was now worried her twenty-something vet would maim...

I think most non-medical people assume that doctors are born with some kind of innate ability that allows them to complete their medical educations with skill sets polished to a fine sheen and ready to implement—like the mythical Athena popping fully formed from some hinged fixture on her...

In an effort to combat the spread of an avian flu outbreak, South Korean officials have decided that an unspecified number of dogs and cats in the regions neighboring the virus’s source will have to be killed alongside 260,000 chickens. Pigs, too will be slaughtered (though they’ve garnered less...

For the most part, I’ll answer: NO! However, as always, I have some exciting examples that actually make me think twice about how much dental care is appropriate—and I’m a dentistry junkie.

Let me first confess: I believe only a tiny minority of dogs can get through life comfortably without...

I have just spent the better part of the Thanksgiving holiday workweek in New York City. Every time I come visit my sister here I’m reminded of how much more exciting and successful my career would be if I practiced here. Don’t worry, my loyal clients—I am not moving (the free childcare won’t...

One issue that interests veterinarians more than most pet owners care to hear about is the guardianship vs. ownership thing. Unless you live in California you may never have heard of this controversy. So let me be the first to describe it in infuriating lack of detail with controversial...

This year I’m thankful for…

My biological family—especially my beautiful and fabulously intelligent (if video game obsessed) eight-year-old son and my tirelessly helpful family (without whom Dolittler would get only weekly attention).

My adopted family—my perfect little Sophie Sue (of course), my...

Yesterday morning (Tuesday) at approximately 6:30 AM I found myself at the tail end one of those horrendous airport lines we only experience the week of Thanksgiving and Christmas in this great nation of ours. It was not moving.

Saddled with belongings and wailing children, we waited patiently...

Ever get up in the middle of the night to the distinctive sound of Fido retching uncontrollably in a corner? Or to piles of bloody stool dappled across the bedroom floor? How about the invariably alarming midnight seizure? You’re not alone. It happens to us all at some point.

Next thing you know...

The title of this blog may sound coarse but it is, nonetheless, the one trite, vet school maxim that sticks to my grey matter more than any other—perhaps because it reeks of callous, old-style vet medicine but more likely because it has actually served me well.

Garth, a geriatric yellow Lab with...

Teeny-tiny dogs often have more heart than most people think. And that’s not just because the bigness of their personality is inversely proportional their size. Some of these teeny pocket-pooches can have a bit of extra vascular tissue near their heart that keeps them from surviving beyond one...

I’m working on this series as part of a concerted effort to put a positive spin on all things veterinary (the last few posts have been decidedly depressing). I hereby promise to forego the use of the e-word (you know the one) for the next few entries. This post is a rehashing of one I submitted...

It is with the understanding that this might read like a smarmy Chicken Soup For the Pet Lover’s Soul entry that I’ll proceed with my story. It’s about Bruno, my adored, adopted Boxer, and his euthanasia at the untimely age of seven.

Bruno and Agatha, two Boxer dogs that saw me through my six...

It should be an oxymoron but unfortunately it’s not. Not, at least, in the reality of today’s veterinary medicine. Convenience euthanasia is the term we use to describe the euthanasia of a healthy pet whose owner wishes to have him euthanized for personal reasons. 

Convenience euthanasia applies...

I realize that it’s late in the day for me to be posting my daily entry. I sincerely apologize. But I have a good excuse. Since the day I wrote my post on little Hugo’s gastroenteritis I have been suffering the same vile symptoms he managed to overcome in only 48 hours.

Today has been the worst...

Once upon a time there was a dog named Bobo. He was born to a Lab mix in a lush Miami back yard and by the time he was six weeks old he had been deemed `the cutest pup` by a neighbor’s kids and was taken away from his brothers and sisters to live in another home with a lush back yard. What a...

My newly pregnant cousin Marlene (who says women with child don’t glow?) has the most beautiful specimen of a French bulldog you’ve ever seen. While he’s currently the perfect vision of Frenchie masculinity, he’s in desperate need of a snip-snip (but that’s another post). I’m writing about Hugo...

Let’s say you are one of the dedicated minions longing to save the world one dog at a time. I worship you. Specifically, I respect your zeal for the zillions of homeless dogs waiting hopefully for you to pour your love and devotion into the lucky one you choose every ten years or so. Thank God...

On this Saturday when many of you are gearing up for a weekend love fest with your pets we vets know one of your agenda items often includes washing them. I know this not only from my own dog’s rituals but also from the smell of moist dog that pervades the waiting room on Saturday mornings....

Reading the Wall Street Journal on Election Day, I was pleasantly surprised to see a front-page article on the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and its current director. It’s not exactly standard fare for this business-themed paper so I read the piece with a particular exuberance the...

Every week I get at least one call from a client that goes something along these lines:

Doctor, my family and I are ready for a new pup and we’re having a hard time deciding on the breed. My son wants an American Bulldog and my husband wants an English Bulldog. I’d really prefer a Pug but I know...

OK, so I caved. Last week (Halloween, to be exact) I brought home a new pet. Not a dog not a cat not even a bird or fish. Eschewing the traditional indoor fauna, I adopted a snake—a corn snake, to be precise.

Yep. Her name is Dart. She had belonged to one of my techs and, since she had taken...

I spent this past weekend at one of those boring conferences you have to go to every so often to make sure your license doesn’t get revoked for some odd regulatory issue or another. It was torture. I sat there like a good girl, knitting away while trying to look profoundly interested in the...

A few days ago I wandered into the hospital on my day off (I just can’t stay away) and walked into one of those disaster scenarios worthy of Animal Planet’s Emergency Vets TV show.

The scene: Two techs vigorously trying to stimulate respiration in two recently extricated newborn pups. A German...

Imaging my surprise when Sophie Sue and I arrived for brunch at our favorite Coconut Grove restaurant and we were turned away. It seems that new legislation currently makes her presence at an outdoor eatery unwelcome—illegal, in fact. (I could hear the Peanut’s cartoon music playing in the...

How many rabies vaccines does your average, well cared for pet get? About one a year in most parts of the US. How many rabies vaccines have I received in the past fifteen years? A series of three vaccines back in 1991. I haven’t needed one since—my antibody titers are sky high.

No wonder vets...

For the next couple of entries I thought I might indulge myself with some biographical information on the typical veterinarian’s upbringing, using myself—ever the exhibitionist—as example.

In the beginning there was…Marsha: my first cat.  According to Khuly family lore, she queened her kittens in...

S--- happens. This bumper-sticker philosophy of life has actually served me well at times. And, rest assured, even in the glorious profession of vet medicine there will always be times of extreme stress and overwhelming personal doubt when pithy sayings are all you’ve got. That’s when you really...

Wow! What big words you have! All the better to make you feel like your cat has as complicated a problem as you suspect she does.

Psychogenic alopecia is a term we use to describe both cause and effect of this itchy kitty syndrome. Psychogenic refers to the origin: the brain. Alopecia refers to...