Have you ever started reading a book only to find that after rocking your world for sixty-plus pages it next serves up a section so annoying you're hard-pressed to actually finish it?

That’s what happened to me with Nathan Winograd’s revered book, Redemption: The Myth of Pet Overpopulation and the No-Kill Revolution in America.

Its basic tenet? Our system of shelter management is broken, but...

OK, let’s say you’ve got some cash to give away. Maybe that’s neither you nor me (definitely not me) but someone out there’s got money better off spent on a tax deduction than on clearance-priced holiday do-dads at Macy’s (if that’s not the definition of money to burn I don’t know what is).

So here’s my list of worthy charities for those really needing to allocate good money to great...

I’ve got this cute-as-a-button Jack Russell from puppy mill origins (sense a theme in this months posts on my patients?). His first visit: Mild upper respiratory symptoms, for which we prescribed augmentin (Clavamox) ASAP. Second visit (one week later): Heavy duty fever and runny nose in addition to sneezing. Bloodwork: Highly suggestive of Canine Distemper Virus (CDV).

Canine Distemper is a...

It’s a big species world out there. Though we may love our goats and parrots and rabbits no less than our beloved cats and dogs, it’s a mission to find approved drugs for them when they’re ill. In fact, it’s mission impossible—truly—as there are almost none available.

Any vet wanting to obtain some measure of safety and efficacy-related security in selecting a drug for a minor species patient...

As we’ve often discussed on Dolittler, not every person has the means to pay for even the most basic pet care. We can vilify them all we want for their irresponsibility but it ain’t gonna make a difference once their Fido or Fluffy’s arrives at the hospital on death’s doorstep.

Such was the case with today’s critical case. A dying, four year-old female Min Pin. Her brother had succumbed two...

I’ve always felt that with a little perseverance, intelligence and a hefty dose of excellent PR one could sell almost anything. So far, however, I have one case study on this principle that seems hell bent on discouraging my continued faith in its universality. Her name is Helen.

I’ve put the news out on the Dolittler wire. I lobbied hard to get The Miami Herald to include this deaf and blind,...

If my recent rash of whiny, self-indulgent posts haven’t put you off this blog forever, then here’s to a very Merry Christmas from Vincent and Sophie, Dart, Helen, Poppy…and me. Here are a few pics…silly and sweet, I think, from my recent photo session (I finally gave in and had a few proper pics taken, as some of you suggested I should). I know it’s self indulgent, too, but I couldn’t...

As if the week before Christmas isn’t enough to drive anyone mad, Miami-Dade County took this time out of their schedule (and some money out of our exorbitant property taxes and sizable dog license fees) to send every licensed dog owner a holiday postcard.

I guess they couldn’t decide between a manger scene and a menorah. Instead, they sent us all a personalized nasty-gram reminding us to...

It’s 9 AM. It’s the day before Christmas Eve and I’m at my cousin’s house in the Florida Keys again. It’s been a week of serious compassion fatigue so I think I can justify a little R and R before the melee that accompanies Christmastime at ground zero in my family.

I’ll be driving back soon while the rest of the entourage takes the boat out for the day. But I’m not depressed over my early...

The definition of stress: over thirty minutes spent hunting down the exact location of a stray testicle in a dog’s abdomen. In the abdomen? Yep. Because it ain’t hanging between his legs like it should be. Instead, it’s stuck up in his insides making trouble for those of us on the outside who are simply trying to make sure it doesn’t turn into cancer or get all wrapped up in guts.

When...

Yesterday one of my clients came in with her two year-old Yorkie. The dog had spent the last four weeks and the lion’s share of ten thousand dollars in and out of multiple specialty hospitals.

After coming down with granulomatous meningoencephalitis (GME) the day before Thanksgiving, she’d failed to recover measurably. She could not stand. She could not see. She couldn’t even lay down without...

The party line’s the same from almost every vet in the country: spay and neuter your pets. Though there’s some variety in the preferred age at which these procedures are performed, six months is still the generally accepted “ideal” on this front.

Nonetheless, new research is chipping away at our rock solid beliefs on the perfect time for spaying and neutering—especially in dogs. Most recently,...

I love this Terrierman site. It pleases me to no end to see knowledgeability and common sense get play in the lay pet world in ways that explicitly encourage more of the same in others. That’s why a recent post defending up-front payments to vets while decrying the commercialization of the vet profession caught my eye and held it all the way through its winding argument.

So you know (in case...

Yesterday found me leafing through a high-gloss magazine on French bulldogs one of my devoted clients had gifted me. I was immediately drawn to an article on “decoding Frenchie sounds,” expecting to be informed about airway issues.

Though it did touch on the concept of respiratory disease, it reveled in the snuffly-snorty Frenchie noises as an immensely cute characteristic of the breed—strike...

It’s been the week for bad gastroenteritis cases—‘tis the season and all that. Ubiquitous Cuban pork rinds on dinner tables make it stealthily into patient maws lurking beneath tablecloths. The black beans get scooped into bowls when everyone’s too busy to make sure Fluffy’s food made it in the grocery cart. And ribbons are strewn everywhere as if expecting to disappear without a trace....

With the holiday season in full swing I sometimes forget we’re just a couple of weeks away from the first Presidential primaries. And it’s getting hot out there. Celebrity endorsements are flying fast and furiously. (Hmmm…should I vote for Oprah’s candidate or Barbra Streisand’s?) And the debates are looking more like precursors to a yearlong knock-down drag-out fight. I can’t wait.

But what...

I awoke this AM to the sound of strange, shuffling footsteps at my bedroom door. In a second I was up and out of bed, heart pounding, ready to pounce or hide from my attacker. I don’t know which tack I would have taken, since I flung the bedroom door open only to find my Sophie Sue practically dragging herself across the floor.

Hands shaking and in tears, I made her relax and lie down where...

It’s just goose liver, right? So what’s the big deal? How can an overstuffed bird’s digestive organ bring the vet profession down a notch? Here’s how: Ask the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) for a policy statement on the issue. As in… Does the practice of raising animals for food in this way constitute a welfare issue?

Well… The debate was raised and the hemming and hawing was...

The Everglades has lots of problems. Among the National Parks, it gets ranked almost dead last by environmental groups as a result of development, farmland runoff (primarily the sugar industry’s), canal-clogging invasive species of vegetation, global warming and now—get this—snakes.

While snakes make up a small percentage of this country’s pets, they’re an increasingly popular pet here in...

Though we know a judge has heard our pleas and remanded Vick into the hands of our penal system (for what’s been deemed a [relatively] harsh 23 months), it’s clear that jail time will never be enough for some Vick-haters out there. And I won’t argue with them.

While we could go on at length debating whether Vick’s comeuppance is complete,  one thing is certain:

These 23 months were brought to...

My poor Sophie Sue. She’s had a rough couple of weeks. Every morning she gets up feeling creaky and stiff. When she finally gets to walking her head is low to the ground, her sizable ears are pinned flat against her head, angry horse-style and she takes slow, shuffling steps so as not to flex her neck and back at all.

Sophie’s probably got IVD (Intevertebral Disc Disease). I don’t know for sure...

Here’s a question for you: How much should a vet charge for a house call? I’m not talking about the large animal vet who does farm calls or the small animal vet who takes the hospital with her. Here I’m drilling you specifically about the vet who attends your pet pillow-side after hours, at lunchtime or on her free time as a “courtesy.”

While euthanasias are the mainstay of my house call...

Let’s say you have a kid. Or maybe you have a few kids on your Holiday list. These children like animals—or maybe you just want to pass along a little some of you with that present (and you’re obviously a pet-person). And let’s imagine that giving an animal to a child as a Holiday gift happens to be anathema to your personal ethic. What is a responsible child-gifter to do??

To this end (and by...

Unfortunately, being a conscientious vet involves knowing when to apply a judicious touch of sadism to your work. Whether it’s yesterday’s Muscovy duck, whose broken limbs and puncture wounds I had to assess (sadly, before euthanizing him), or the circumspect exploration of a cat bite abscess (by way of determining whether surgery is required), inducing pain is a standard part of my...

I love the concept of TNR (trap-neuter-release) as a means of population control. It’s not an ideal solution (TNR combined with exclusive indoor living gets my vote), but it seems the best we have to offer given the deadlocked status of tree huggers vs. cat fanciers. So at the risk of incurring your wrath (yet again) on the subject of wildlife and cats and population control, here’s a short...

As I write, Sandy is driving us all insane. He has not yet given up on his devious plan to ensure his release through relentless barking, howling and other forms of [extremely annoying] vocalization. It’s been three days of this—the same amount of time I’ve been suffering a mild but unrelenting headache and stomach virus. Hmmm…could it be the two are related?

Today, I was uncharacteristically...

As the title suggests, this is the third post I’ve dedicated to the cat vs. bird conundrum. A recent decision in the “Texas Plover vigilante” case and last weekend’s New York Times Magazine article (on the same issue) conspired to ensure my revisitation of the theme.

For those of you not yet in the know, let me summarize the case: One prominent Galveston, TX birder takes premeditated aim at a...

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. After recommending a holiday pet gift that suggests you shove your hamster into a “Hamtrac” racecar, snap the plastic door shut and watch him run circles around a miniature racetrack, I got to thinking (and it didn’t take much): Something about that vision just ain’t right.

After confessing this sin to my mother, who vehemently agreed (or so it...

Yes, it’s that time of year—and yet again it’s time for vets across America to wring their hands over the holiday pet thing. It’s a love-hate issue for us, for sure. While we condemn the trivialization of petdom that comes with a rash “Puppy Palace” purchase, how else would we manage to ring in the New Year with a shower of new patients?

But let me be fair: A large enough percentage of holiday...

It’s party season again. Time for the annual round of how-have-you-beens and the ongoing reassessment of one another’s family lives, waistlines and balding pates. That’s humanity for you. And it’s annoying.

You’d think it would be less daunting for me now that I’m a woman of a certain age. Now that I don’t feel so set-upon by the masses as to my marital status (been there—so no one asks much...

Friday’s news was interesting…Michigan State University put out its findings on their research into just how many cats and dogs had succumbed to an early death as a result of the chemicals that spawned the pet food recall. “How many?” you ask expectantly…

Ummm….348.

Wow. That’s more than the 224 number “US Health Officials” reported earlier this year. And that’s even more than the 16 the FDA...

The patient lies under the heat lamp, limp and lifeless but for the slow up and down of his chest under a baby-blue blanket his owners brought him earlier that day. His eyes are closed and I detect a faint shiver to his head when I look closely. It’s clear he’s on a mission to survive, though I somehow doubt his chances.

Yesterday he was a perfectly normal eleven month-old black Lab pup. Today...