One of my favorite client recommendations involves the use of a small, spiral-bound notebook (or a handy PDA, depending on your taste) and a pencil (or a set of quick thumbs). Keeping a log is so simple...and bears such magnificent fruit when carefully employed.

In case your veterinarian has never suggested it, you should know that many chronic, episodic or as yet undiagnosed pet diseases...

Ever wonder at all the “stuff” your veterinarian carries in his/her hospital? Sometimes it seems the products and foods are literally dripping from the well-stocked walls, the melamine shelving teeming with pet-themed goods––sometimes even in the exam rooms. You’d never expect to see so much for sale at your human doc’s place, right? 

After yesterday’s post on euthanasia costs––and a...

Here’s a killer topic. It’s one veterinarians hate to handle due to its sensitive nature and accusatory undertones. And yet it’s worth raising, especially since someone else did so in a nationally syndicated pet health column last month. 

The issue is this: Why should veterinarians charge their “faithful” clients for euthanasia? After all, it’s painful enough to have your pet euthanized. No...

Have you ever spied a fleshy protuberance between your dog’s toes that looked either like...

a) a fleshy welt

b) an ulcerated sore

c) a hairless bump, or

d) all of the above?

If so, you more than likely ran (fast!) to your veterinarian’s place only to be told your pet probably has a “simple” interdigital cyst (more correctly termed an “interdigital furuncle”). Your veterinarian may or...

As if it’s not already tough enough to discuss weight loss, veterinarians get treated to a range of excuses for why their pets are tipping the scales. Broaching the “o” subject is itself an adventure, one which is commonly met with defensive postures, nervous laughs or just plain disdain. 

At the outset of any conversation on the subject of extreme body mass and its ills, with fat pet as...

One of my personal favorite Dolittler posts was titled after the immortal words of Chris Rock: “That tiger didn’t go crazy, that tiger went tiger!”

In case you don’t remember, that was the post that followed the Christmas Day mauling of three young men at the the San Francisco Zoo last year. It was a horrific event, capturing the nation’s googly-eyed greed for the violently salacious every...

Strangest thing happened last week. I was sipping coffee curbside in the alley behind the hospital...with my laptop in my lap, of course. I was more than likely stealing wi-fi and reading over your comments on a recent post...when a chicken approached. 

Yes, a chicken. A small, dirty-looking, hen-like creature strutted towards me in standard gallinaceous style, clucking and pecking at the cat...

Are you spending less on your pet’s healthcare lately? If you’re anything like my clients, you are. But if my practice is any guide, you’re not necessarily scrimping on all kinds of veterinary care. Nope. You’re picking and choosing, trying hard to do your best by your pet in a scary economy....and that's why specialists are feeling the slowdown more than most.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not...

Ever thought you’d look to the pages of a mass-market magazine for advice on feeding your pets?

The crotchety, consumer-advocate periodical you know as Consumer Reports claims millions of readers who turn its pages in search of “best buy,” “smartest sale” and “look-out-you’re-getting-hosed” kind of fare. On the whole, this mag is real close--if not right on the money--when it comes to telling...

In case you hadn’t noticed, the subject of animal law is getting more popular in the US...and not just on Dolittler. Though the theme gets relatively little play in American courts, law students don’t seem to care. 

Lawyers-to-be have organized themselves into coalitions to push for animal law curricula at their individual schools and the lucky recipients have packed their classrooms. Though...

How many times do I have to say it before my clients digest the recc? Spare your pet the nightmare fecal rod and BYO sample...please!

Do I really have to post a statement to that effect in the waiting room? Given the reluctance-slash-memory lapse on my clients’ part when it comes to snatching a fresh sample pre-visit, the 8.5 x 11 poopy poster goes up this week.

Much as I try to make the...

OK, so that’s just a salacious title. Your veterinarian may well recommend pet health insurance. And I do, too. That makes...um...two of us. 

Well...maybe I exaggerate. It’s clear that veterinarians increasingly buy into pet health insurance. When faced with very sick patients whose owners hold insurance policies for them, we breathe a sigh of relief. In our experience these clients more...

Share your home with some intelligently designed indoor fauna? Yeah, me too. 

If you’re anything like me, you’ll understand when I explain how their presence constantly gives rise to thoughts of ancient dogs on the range and slinking cats in prehistoric prowl mode. While my feline ferals may be most reminiscent of their animal antecedents, I can even picture my Frenchies’ forbearers...

On this Valentine’s Day I have a special idea in mind. Here's some background in advance...

While in veterinary school, my class was lucky enough to enter clinics (late third year and all of fourth year) with a veterinary social worker's omnipresence as part of the curriculum. 

As a group, my class (as many before it, I’m sure) entered clinics considering this ageless woman a tad creepy...

Have you ever had cause to have your veterinarian undertake a necropsy? Has your veterinarian ever offered one? Maybe you have...but you’re still not quite sure what the word “necropsy” means.

“Autopsies” are for humans as “necropsies” are for animals. It’s a procedure we undertake by way of gaining more information on your pet’s disease...after he’s dead, when we no longer have to tread so...

How much do you care about your pets? This Sunday, your local PBS station may offer you the answer. On a program, to be aired February 15th, PBS producers will tell the story of, “Why We Love Cats and Dogs.”

Dolittler BFFs, Jim Nelson and Renee Agredano from Tripaws.com, will get to have their say on how much they care about Jerry...even now that he’s gone. They’ve been interviewed for...

Will it be on the blanket-topped, stainless steel table, surrounded by friends and family? Or will it be a quiet affair with your veterinarian...in your back yard?

An increasing number of pet owners are beginning to realize they have a choice in the matter. Many veterinarians will do house calls for euthanasia...if you ask. At-home euthanasia services (practitioners who dedicate their...

If you listened to the [horrible] audio on my decidedly amateur YouTube video attached to yesterday’s post on the Florida Black Bear, you may have heard me exclaim: “Veterinarians are the most resourceful...because we have to be.” 

I don’t know who it was I meant to compare veterinarians with, but my off-the cuff outcry was the result of a small success in that ultimately demoralizing day....

Last Thursday arrived sunny and unseasonably cold here in Miami. My morning flew by in a flurry of surgeries and appointments and I was making good time. I had only two procedures left when my cell rang with the urgent message: “Bear on the way. Better be here before the media if you want in on the action.”

That was my boyfriend, intrepid veterinary surgeon Dr. Marc Wosar at Miami Veterinary...

Dear Readers: 

I have been writing daily posts on Dolittler for three-plus years. I stay awake late every night researching new topics and I wake up early every morning to click them into my computer. I know you value this because about 2,000 of you keep coming back day after day to see what’s new. 

I write 500 to 1,000 words on Dolittler every single day (mostly without fail) while...

Your cat’s been diagnosed with diabetes...or your dog with Addison’s disease. As much as your veterinarian explains the situation, issues handouts and takes your wigged out phone calls, there’s only so much you can glean from any one mind. You need more. 

That’s when you take to the surf, cavorting about the waves of websites chock full of information. But how do you know the information...

There is an etiquette to every practice under the sun. Whether you’re a lounging lizard intent on staying alive through breeding season or a dog entering ground zero in a puppy park, there’s a right way and a wrong way to go about it. So, too, should you consider your approach to switching veterinarians.

You’ve been with your vet for years, but sometimes you get the feeling your pet may...

The AVMA (American Veterinary Medical Association) is by far the largest professional organization for veterinarians in the US. It represents most veterinarians in this country, whether we practice on pets or swine or spend our days in a laboratory or board room. 

Veterinarian members don’t always agree with the AVMA’s position on any given issue, but we recognize that it’s the best way we’ve...

What does the case of the California woman whose womb carried eight implanted embryos have to do with veterinary medicine? Only that the ethical slippery slope is steeper in our sister profession when it begins to approximate ours.

Implanting eight embryos into a woman following in vitro fertilization is not even remotely defensible if you ask most bioethicists. Where does the woman’s psych...

I have family that just moved out to the San Francisco Bay Area. Attached to their dogs as they are, they’d begun stressing about finding the right vet right long before they’d pulled up roots in New York City. So of course, they asked me to hook them up.

Contrary to popular opinion, we veterinarians don’t have an automatic function that allows us to know who the good vets are in any given...

Ever wondered what it means when you contemplate the purchase of pet foods labeled “human grade”? 

I’ve always thought it a murky designation given the FDA’s lax regulation of pet food. When even our human supermarket fare gives off mixed signals on the labeling of everything from “green” and “organic” to “heart healthy” and “lower fat,” can you blame me for my yellow-eyed perplexity?

I...