Vet P.O.V. Strange bedfellows and reluctant crusaders after Eight Belles' finish

Were you one of the recipients of PETA’s email missive on the subject of Eight Belles? Here’s my receipt from the “PETA Action Center:”

Dear Patty:

As I am sure you have heard, after crossing the finish line in last Saturday's Kentucky Derby, a young filly named Eight Belles collapsed when both her front ankles snapped. She was euthanized in the dirt where she lay, the latest victim of the dirty...

May 7th, 2008 11 Comments

Vet School 101 Prozac pet nation: Brain drugs, overmedication and the human psychiatric connection

Last night on NPR you may have heard a report on the over-diagnosis of bipolar disease in humans. Hearing the psychiatrists decry the increasingly ready use of this terminology to describe many merely depressed patients, I couldn’t help but think about how this over-diagnosis (and over-medication) applies to pets.

After all, drug companies are increasingly targeting pets in their drive to...

May 7th, 2008 8 Comments