The obsessive-compulsive collie that licks deep wounds into her forelimbs. The obese, food-obsessed chocolate Lab unable to relax in the presence of any potential meal. The dominant aggressive Maltese cross that rules her family’s roost with snarls and lunges. The severely thunderstorm-phobic GSD who impales herself on windows as she tries to escape her home’s confines during a storm. And the...

First thing on Wednesday morning I was treated to a waiting room scene no vet with a steaming hot, vente-sized latte in her hand ever wants to see: blood, tears, and a painful poodle with puncture wounds. So much for the $5 coffee…

This poor ten year-old poodle obviously needed a look-see and some pain meds ASAP. She’d been attacked by a neighbor’s dog just as she’d set out for her morning...

I must be a blind kitten magnet. Remember the one from the Starbuck’s parking lot? If that one was pathetic, this one’s a travesty.

This little five month-old was found in one of my clients’ back yards. The black and white female was discovered hunched over and staring at the ground, pitifully reminiscent of a target…for three big dogs (who were almost unleashed in her direction before it was...

In case you didn’t know it, "acceptable compication" is a technical term. That's becase some complications in medicine are counted among the “expected” variety. They have little to do with human error or poor quality healthcare. Statistically, they have been proven to have more to do with individual responses to treatments than with surgical technique, choice of medication, or specific...

M.ethicillin R.esistant S.taphylococcus A.ureus, AKA, MRSA. It’s all over the news and the news is not so good. Though this group of bacteria has been with us for decades, alarming the medical community with its recalcitrance in the face of our most useful antibiotics, its newsworthiness has suddenly soared. That’s partly because of its increasing incidence in the general population (94,000...

Just last week, the “Academy” issued its short list for best documentaries of the year—and one of my sister’s films made the pick of the litter! (I’m so proud!)

For the record, her production company invested in the amazing film, War Dance, as a result of its treatment of human rights issues—but she wasn’t its director. Her self-directed documentary, Shoot Down (another human rights-themed...

If you live in a major media market you’re likely to hear radio ads for vet hospitals, see TV commercials for specialty practices, slog through reams of vet-themed, color photo-adorned ads in the Yellow Pages and come across benches or billboards graced with puppies signaling, “This way for all your pet health needs.”

Maybe it’s just Miami, but I see it everywhere: coupons in my junk mail,...

Now that you’re feeling overstuffed and you’ve successfully avoided the midnight trip to the vet after the turkey-carcass-in-the-garbage meal your beloved may have consumed, here’s a fun post for you:

Every holiday season brings in a bigger haul of new pet products to the marketplace than the previous year’s stash. But who’s got time to sort out the losers from the well-designed toys, treats,...

Yep, it’s time again for some happy posting. Given the last few posts most of you regular readers are probably breathing a sigh of relief. Whew! She’s finally given up harping on THAT for a while. You’ll also be pleased to hear that tomorrow’s post is just as lighthearted in tone—and just in time for your Holiday shopping spree.

Here are the top ten things I’m thankful for this year…as a vet, a...

I have a delightful acquaintance whose career in human pediatrics is nearing its finally-out-of-residency phase. Her exuberant style ensures that I never fail to find her in-hospital anecdotes engaging, irreverent and funny.

Everything from questioning how it is possible for healthcare workers to consume so many cookies and brownies while babies are succumbing in the NICU, to describing the...

We vets have a soft spot for those sick creatures in our midst whose owners might not have the funds to undertake treatment. We often go the extra mile, finding surgeons willing to donate a freebie, calling breed rescues, sourcing inexpensive medications online, rummaging in our stash of donated meds, even using out-of-date stuff when it’s clear there’s no cash for care. Sure, we cross the...

Let’s say you’ve decided you want a particular breed of dog but you’ve never been schooled in how one goes about these things. You haul yourself over to the nearest pet shop and fork over the proceeds from your new job’s first check. And you’re happy with yourself—you love your puppy.

Fast-forward three years later and you still have that new job—at the vet hospital. You know a whole lot more...

Yesterday I made my first pickup from my local farm cooperative’s stash. Over the summer, I’d signed up for a winter’s supply of fresh, organic veggies raised by local growers here in South Florida. It got me to thinking: some parts of the country probably offer the Thanksgiving bird this way, too.

Imagine picking up your freshly slaughtered, humanely-raised bird the day before the...

Yesterday was a tough day for this vet, news-wise. It was my day off and I’d been working on getting my ducks in a row for next week’s Thanksgiving festivities. Part of that necessarily includes prepping my future posts so that my holiday in New York isn’t unnecessarily fraught with last-minute Internet nightmares. This invariably includes scouring the news, interesting emails and other...

This past Tuesday, I arrived at the specialist’s hospital with my little Vincent in tow, hoping to secure a fit-in appointment for the following day (which I managed, as you may already know). As a referring vet, I’m granted the privilege of standing in the treatment/ICU area while I wait. When I do this (often), I thoroughly enjoy reading the cage cards and treatment schedules. It gives me a...

I’ve never considered myself real big on vaccines. Still, I rely on them to handle a huge chunk of the work I’d have to do if I didn’t have them around. Think of all the parvo pups and distemper cases alone—where would we treat them? How would we deal with the refuse, the contamination, the inevitable transmission?

That’s why I, for one, am grateful to the drug companies for doing this kind of...

…and today was Vincent’s. For those of you unacquainted with the [unnecessarily stressful] saga of the quarrel between my dog’s dominant behavior, his testicles, and his cleft palate, let me summarize:

First up, the cleft palate, which he was born with and had surgically attended to when he was an eight week-old mite of a Frenchie. Then the drama of the divot still remaining after the surgery,...

It’s always interesting (and often an endless source of amusement) when the pet an owner had imagined was a he turns out to be…a she. Most clients take the news in stride, changing a kitten’s name from Lucifer to Lucinda or Fidel to Fidelina in one notable case (as you might imagine, this Cuban-American vet wasn’t crazy about the masculine version).

But it’s even more amusing when even the vet...

For the first of the year, 2008, I’ve resolved to make Dolittler better. Since I started writing blog entries (on December 15th 2005) and posting under www.dolittler.com (since May, 2006) I’ve made almost no changes to this site.

But I’ve been way pleased with this format since it went live. Sure, my sister says my goat photo is outdated. I’ve been told my snake pic on the “About Us” page is...

Since embarking on this blog almost two years ago, I’ve undergone something of a conversion on the subject of pet food. With last March’s pet food ingredient crisis fresh in our heads, I would imagine that most of you could easily fess up to the same.

Yet this shift in my thinking has come about less as a result of the recall than you would imagine. Rather, the healthy exchange of ideas you’ve...

According to the New York Times, there’s one medical arena in which veterinary medicine reigns supreme relative to its human counterpart: killing humanely. If you haven’t read my previous posts on the subject of human euthanasia and capital punishment killings, let me warn you: I’m armed with deadly opinions on the subject.

Not least because I’m good at death, as most vets with any experience...

Imagine you were ready for your first dog since becoming a grown-up and having a family. You undertook careful research. Found a breeder by referral. Traveled several hours to view the premises. Picked the puppy of your dreams. Socialized her to the best of your ability and undertook puppy training classes. Then, on her very first romp in the puppy park…she comes up horribly lame.

Now you’ve...

What happens when your pet bites someone while he or she is on the end of a leash or being held in your arms in a veterinary hospital? Regardless of the circumstances, the owner of the practice is almost always held liable.

But under some circumstances, you could share some of the blame: “Go on, pet him. He’s sweet as sugar!” is not a line that will garner you any sympathy with the judge if...

I love cows. Just this morning, I was explaining the concept of cow comfort to my sister over a cup of hot café con leche. She’d requested I invest in a more cow-friendly brand of milk. I stood behind my own selection: I’ve seen the dairy. Those fancy organic brands? Ain’t seen theirs. ‘Nuff said.

After this brief exchange, I settled down to a perusal of the day’s newsworthy events. As it...

Did you ever think to write a question to one of those online advice kind of vets? Ever throw your credit card down via ether expecting to get an intelligent response? I’d like to know.

Why? Because we’re a growing phenomenon, we e-vets. Of course I don’t take credit cards, nor expect any of your hard-earned money to leap magically into my checking account—your eyeballs are enough for this...

Sometimes even the simplest things can be brutally painful. Ever ripped a toenail? Yow, that hurts! Same goes for pet claws (toenails to you). They limp. They lick. They invariably make a big deal out of this seemingly miniscule injury…because it hurts like hell.

Sure, keeping your pets’ claws to a minimum length is helpful in preventing such disasters—as is the removal of dewclaws in dogs....

Time for something light and airy after all that [self-] righteous energy lost to the ether of this blog’s “post entry” button:

Today we’ll talk books, I think. Now that I’m a “top-ten pet health blogger,” deemed so by Fox News Online last July (hooray for me!) I get lots of offers for free pet books from their publishers. For the record, this is the only financial remuneration a top-ten pet...

While we’re all so hot and heavy on the topic of pain, I thought it might be an opportune time to discuss the issue of pain relief when it comes to chronic arthritis and orthopedic injury. But this time I’m not going to wax poetic on the merits of Metacam or write with revolutionary zeal on the miraculous mix that is Rimadyl and Tramadol.

No, today I think I’ll dedicate to the phenomenal power...

I don’t think anyone can blame me for outing one of my own on this issue. A vet in Sumner County Tennessee has been observed on video brusquely “euthanizing” non-sedated pets with intracardiac injections. That’s bad.

This is no Pulp Fiction Uma Thurman fantasy freak. This is some shelter vet who gets paid nine bucks for every pet he kills. He has the tools and the knowledge to do it kindly—yet...

Hurrah! The feline genome project is a success! Thanks to cats like Cinnamon, a four year-old Abyssinian, cats can count themselves on the short list of the mammalian genomes now fully sequenced.

Human, chimpanzee, mouse, rat, dog, cow—and now cat—genomes have been sequenced by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI). And I, for one, am impressed.

It’s not just that cats might...

I received an interesting email yesterday from a Miami Herald reader needing clarification on a certain point of law: “Is it truly illegal to inter your pet in your back yard?”

I’ve known the answer to that question since I started practicing in Miami-Dade County over ten years ago: YES. According to County regs, no one is to engage in residential burials of domesticated pets. But because the...