I know I spend a lot of time talking toxins. That’s because it’s something YOU can do something about. Pancreatitis, liver disease and cancer? Maybe not. But snail bait is one thing you can live without—for the sake of your pets.

One of my favorite clients (and an avid Dolittler reader, to boot) is a four-year convert to the charms of our beloved canines. Before that, she’d not known the...

It happens several times a day—at least—when a frightened cat empties her bladder onto the table or, more commonly, when a nervous dog leaves a pile of steamy stuff on the way into the hospital.

Owners are invariably mortified. So much so that they don’t always tell the staff about the mess, leaving unsuspecting clients to navigate a mine-field on their way in—or worse, slip in the excrement....

OK so it’s about time I mentioned the pigs (…and now maybe chickens). I have one thing to say: What were they thinking???

OK so maybe I have more than one—and they’re all questions:

Who sold this “surplus” food to pigs meant for human consumption? Was it appropriately labeled, “pet food recall last call”? Who bought it? Does anyone even know the withdrawal time for melamine in pigs? Its effect...

In the blue corner, it’s the Humane Society and ASPCA crowd. In the red corner, it’s the AKC and Cat Fancier’s Association. How’s that for a bruises-all-around match-up? It’s such a potentially ugly fight I’m impressed that more hasn’t been written nationwide on this topic. And it wasn’t even on my radar until this past Tuesday. Bad blogger!

At issue is a proposed bit of legislation...

A corollary to yesterday's post: Today’s teeny-tiny, six-week old teacup pup was a perfect example of what we vets love to hate: people who spend a thousand-plus bucks on a pup and another $300 on a glorified duffel bag to sling it around in, then get all hot and bothered about the price of pet healthcare.

Even worse is when the pet is so ill that nothing short of a lengthy hospital stay is...

The pet business sounds so sweet to most people. Visions of puppy dogs in windows and cute kittens curled up in balls line most humans’ empty heads with respect to this issue. But we know better—or so we think.

The educated [and increasingly cynical] pet lovers among us continue to amass evidence that reveals how rife with abuse the pet industry really is. Far from the "cute overkill" pics on...

I know I’m not alone when I concern myself with issues of language and culture in how I practice veterinary medicine. Although I live in Miami (the away-from-home capital of Latin America) other places have their melting pots, too. OK, so Miami is really more of a paella and less like a stew—everyone keeps their individual flavors. But that’s what makes it so much fun to live here.

On any given...

There’s a new microchip out there and it’s meant to make your dog smarter, if only because his subcutaneous tissues carry extra information about his health…in a rice-sized grain of silicone-slicked metal.

Schering Plough, one of our industry’s biggest pharmaceutical companies, is the bearer of this new technology. They’ve just bought the Home Again brand of microchip…and they’ve made a few...

I remember the very first time a client presented me with a claim form for their pet’s health insurance policy. I felt my lunch lurch in the pit of my stomach—it was 1998…and vet medicine seemed so much “easier” then.

Most vets had misgivings about pet insurance in the beginning, but fast-forward a decade later and (generally speaking) we vets seem almost at ease with the pet health insurance...

Ever thought about getting pet insurance? If you’re typical of Dolittler’s readers, I’m sure you have. After all, you’re likely to spend more on your pets and worry more about their healthcare than most. And I love you for it.

But is pet insurance really worth it? Does it make any sense when the premiums you’ve researched sound so high and the payouts seem so potentially inadequate?

Maybe you...

Since last week’s diatribe on exercising with your pet, I’ve read a couple of articles on the emerging trend of “doggie yoga.”  Before seeing these national pieces I had thought it another quirky South Beach phenomenon and not a bona-fide national trend.

Silly as it sounds (at least to me), people across the US actually practice yoga with their dogs in incomprehensibly large groups. And—if the...

The answer: somewhere in the middle and, increasingly, closer to the bottom. This week, the University of Chicago reported results of its most recent study on job satisfaction. Clergy and artists came out first…waiters and bartenders dead last. Human docs? Somewhere in the middle, despite their high salaries, proving yet again that money doesn’t buy happiness.

(I couldn’t download their PDF,...

Do you have a large or giant breed dog? Then you should know that bloat (aka, gastric dilatation-volvulus) is a surgical emergency worthy of any gut-wrenching Emergency Vets episode.

Great Danes, Wolfhounds, German shepherds, Dobermans, Labs and other deep-chested large breeds (including mixed breeds with similar proportions) are especially at risk due to loose gastric ligaments that allow a...

Imagine you’ve had a rough week. Your kid’s been sick again with the same darn upper respiratory thing he’s had since he started preschool and you’ve had almost no sleep since. This is the fourth long course of Augmentin since the start of the school year. And today you received results from the allergist your pediatrician recommended.

The news isn’t good. Strong positives were registered for...

I’ve been doing my best to ignore the online, recall-related chatter that dwells on conspiracy theories regarding intentionally poisoned pet foods. The only conspiracy I’ve discussed so far is the one of silence within the industry—undertaken, in my opinion, to protect brands before pets.

Since day one, I’ve maintained that the deliberate addition of toxins to grain seemed far-fetched. After...

Today I received two interesting phone calls: one was a prospective client recommended to me for an ear crop, the other, one for artificial insemination. Both services are easily within my reach. In fact, I dare say I perform these far better than most vets, having worked for a regional provider of both these services (and having had little choice but to undertake many of both services early...

Though I'm loath to admit it, the Pet Food Recall (in caps, now) has made a hero (for me, at least) of the one outfit vets love to hate: Banfield, The Pet Hospital. In case you live outside the US (or in a Banfield-free pet zone), let me first explain that this is a group of 600-plus hospitals once owned by PetSmart and now run independently.

I’ve always thought the single best thing about...

I mean, really! ER, Scrubs, House, Grey’s Anatomy? All we have is a pseudo-reality TV show called Emergency Vets. And, while I like it OK, it’s kind of smarmy (you know, feel-goody and tear-jerky). But then, I’m not one to opine. I’m into real reality (less like MTV’s The Real World and more like actually going to work). In fact, I don’t even have a TV (really, there are some of us still out...

After getting a harsh, personal email on this subject (not at all like your tactful dissent, Stacy), I thought I’d take a stand and defend this fictional, satirical, meant-to-be-thought-provoking post. (BTW, I think it’s perfectly OK to disagree. I just thought the post required more of an explanation before others dismissed it out of hand.)

For starters, I’m not advocating cat breeding here....

Twenty years from now…

There’s a revolution afoot and it’s about time! Intelligent, caring cat owners are finally taking control of the lives of their favorite species through in-home, captive breeding programs.

An offshoot of the burgeoning hobby-farm movement, where citizens demonstrate their dedication to healthful practices, family activities and the environment through home-based...

As promised, here’s an update on Poppy, the newest member of my family and an asset to any home, really. Where else can you find an alarm clock, security system, weed-killer and thermometer for the price of some hay and a bag of goat chow?

Her bell, securely attached to her nylon collar, wakes me up in the morning. It also wards off unsuspecting meter readers (he left a note saying he’d come...

This week was a rough one for one of my clients. Last Monday morning dawned to the recognition that her middle-aged Lab mix had a lump on her leg. She’d been in and out of the car several times on Sunday and her owner assumed one of these ungainly maneuvers had occasioned a bruise. She made an appointment to see the vet on Wednesday, her day off, hoping it would improve by then and she’d have...

It may be subversive to say so but not every shelter or rescue organization is worthy of your patronage. There are rescues and there are…well, less-respectable rescues. All have good intentions, if my experience is exemplary. But that doesn’t mean they all do a good job. If you’ll pardon my saying so, some just plain stink—and not just literally.

Most mom-and-pop rescues are hampered by their...

It’s no surprise that George Orwell (of Animal Farm fame) often wrote scathingly about politicians. He once penned the most impressively damning line I’ve ever read on the subject of “politician-speak”: “Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give the appearance of solidity to pure wind.”

Ouch. I’m so glad he never took up the subject of...

OK, so I once took the politically incorrect step of mentioning that obesity in pets is often mirrored by their owners’ own weight issues. I implied that cultural attitudes on food are transmissible and that our pets are not immune. After all, we’re in control of their diets.

That was quite a leap, you informed me—vociferously. You were right to point out that my statements were inflammatory...

Yesterday’s first case was a non-starter. The Yorkie cradled in this well-dressed woman’s arms was a foundling. She wasn’t a dog person, or so she claimed, but she was well-informed, nonetheless. She wanted to know whether this young, intact purebred had a microchip. Good call. He did.

Unfortunately, this dog’s microchip was not the kind our hospital carries. We use Home Again (for the record,...

There’s a common axiom among medical people that urges clinicians to expect horses at the sound of hoofbeats…not zebras.

Translated, this means that common things happen commonly and clinicians would do well to keep this in mind when faced with an unknown disease process. So, for example, when a young dog has a cough, we should place kennel cough at the top of our list of possibilities,...

Over the past few weeks I’ve caught myself thinking: How much worse would this pet food recall have seemed (to the world at large, and to the US in particular) had the majority of its sufferers been dogs instead of our renally sensitive cats? Perhaps it’s somewhat cynical of me to think this way, but cats get so much less respect than “man’s best friend” that I can’t help but wonder…would the...

I’m a reformed commercial dog food feeder. Over three weeks ago I [defensively] explained my choice to feed my dogs kibble for breakfast. It’s no different from feeding my kid Cheerios, I argued—basically wholesome and fortified with vitamins and minerals (if mass-produced and somewhat tasteless).

I submitted that fateful post the Thursday before the recall. Great timing, right? I offered my...

By popular demand…

When I was a mere babe (a ten-year-old), I began spending my summers at the hospital where I currently practice. I was tall for my age (really tall) so they had no idea how old I was (so they now say).

I worked hard—scrubbing cages, feeding patients, even reading fecal floats under the microscope (one of my favorite pastimes back then). My brother and sister? They spent their...

Somehow, everyone here’s got a favorite plastic surgeon. An opinion on the subject is as widespread as any on the weather at the height of hurricane season. We love our implants, tucks and lasers, alike. Welcome to Miami!

But never assume that women are the only combatants in the war against the bulge and other beauty-defacing features—men, teens, everyone…and now, even our pets are going under...

One of you raised an interesting point yesterday on the potential effects of the now-infamous pet food recall on the legal industry with respect to pets—and their vets. I’ve thought about it a lot, especially since I’m personally at risk for a lawsuit on this issue.

First, a reprisal of my POV on the malpractice thing:

I’ve long-argued that our pets are worth so much more than the miniscule,...

Have you ever heard of AAHA? It’s the four-letter acronym for the American Animal Hospital Association, a professional organization of vets who seek to increase the standard of care for pets through an accreditation process. Hospital membership is granted only to veterinary practices that meet standards deemed important for distinguishing higher quality practices from all others.

Of course,...

I know I hit this topic frequently but…

Yesterday I had a would-be client walk into our hospital requesting a treatment for mange on some outdoor cats in her neighborhood. She stormed out the door after the following exchange:

Her: I need something for mange on cats.

Receptionist: I’m sorry but by law we’re unable to provide specific care for animals the doctors haven’t examined directly.

Her: But...

I’ve gotta say it: I know next to nothing about goats. Sure, I’m a vet and I can tell a rumen from a reticulum about a mile away. And I’ve long desired a goat after falling in love with them in my field service rotations. But that doesn’t mean I know a damn thing about ‘em.

In fact, I’m feeling pretty darned stupid after this weekend’s marathon of shelter-building, goat-catching, fence-laying...

For Cate (and others in her place):

Last week the news on the pet food recall was grim. Among the stories of loss we shudder to read about came the “revelation” that more pets were affected than has likely been reported by the pet food companies. Then finally, on Friday, news out of the FDA of another toxin: melamine. Though its role is unclear, it plunges vets and owners ever deeper into the...

We’ve all heard loads of scary stories from our cousins on the human medical side of the fence but few vets have yet to gain firsthand knowledge of the deposition table drama that comes with a malpractice law suit. And thank God for that! Or maybe not…depends how you see it…’cause maybe it’s different on the client side of the fence? (I’m sure you’ll tell me in your comments.)

I have a vet...