Why is it that men always seem to keel over first? Though the ones that “know thineselves” are smart enough to walk away at the first sign of an impending needle stick or bodily effluence, I always seem to get the ones who pretend to want to be “in on the action.” 

And that’s often a bad idea. 

Yesterday's roster smacked of the full-moon lineup. You know, the list of new clients coming in...

by Dr. Phil Zeltzman and Dr. Patty Khuly

You might find this odd, but there’s a whole world of denial out there with respect to aggression in dogs. These are the pet owners who ignore the growls and snarls, live with the snaps or suffer near-misses...and for what?

Because they can’t face the reality of what their pet’s aggression might say about their ownership skills?  Likely. Because it...

Today’ post is inspired by Tripawds.com and Maverick's Story, two pet health sites dedicated to a couple of individual dogs and their diseases. 

Tripawds is all about Jerry, an osteosarcoma patient who lived well after amputation. But it’s also about all the other pets who may lose limbs, live with cancer and survive their diseases comfortably with the assistance of their humans. 

It’s a...

Things in Miami don’t happen the way they do in the rest of the US. Unlicensed usage of dangerous chemicals is my newest example. After being accidentally fumigated with a variety of bug-killing chemicals (whose true provenance we’ll likely never know), this gorgeous kitten suffered a variety of neurologic effects that ultimately rendered him homeless.

I know what you’re going to say....

You've digested the lists for top dog towns and cities that rank high for animal welfare concerns, but have you ever read one that tells you where you might rather live if you love cats?

CATalyst is a multi-group organization founded in response to the growing concern that while cats are pulling away from dogs as the most popular pets in the US, their veterinary visits are on the...

I’ve got an in to lots of new stuff happening in the world of oncology. Two of my classmates from back at Penn are tops in this field at the academic level. And they’re both working hard to find a cure for lymphoma in dogs.

That’s why I jumped at the chance to blog about lymphoma when BFF Dr. Steve Suter (VMD, MS, ACVIM-certified and PhD) emailed me his latest excellent and thoroughly...

For today’s post I’d like to share the contents of a reader’s email for your consideration. This is Catherine Shaffer’s story, one she and I believe is worth sharing with other Dolittler readers. My comments will follow.

Dr. Khuly,

In 2006, we had a ten year old English mastiff named Nala. In October, she seemed to suddenly develop a lot of back pain. She'd been increasingly arthritic, but...

OK so here’s where I confess: I don’t like to trim toenails––nor do I relish delegating claw detail to my staff. And no, it’s not because we’ve got better things to do and can’t be bothered with the lowly pedicure. It’s more that I can’t stand the stress of the event. 

The problem: By and large, my canine patients hate having their claws clipped. Though a few of my owners have trained their...

Yeah, after neutering 91 cats in three hours our fingers might’ve been on automatic––and every male in my vicinity in the immediate thereafter should’ve been on high alert––but we felt sooooo good. 

Sure, we could have neutered twice as many, but for our first event we did pretty darn good. Add an additional 120-plus spayed females and we were all on cloud nine. Spaying and neutering has...

I couldn’t pick a more incendiary topic for a Monday. Even if I recycled last week’s Cesar Millan post, condemned a breed of dogs, and picked on the HSUS––all in one post––it still wouldn’t raise hackles any more than the opinion piece Paul Greenberg put out in the NYT yesterday. Well...at least not my hackles. 

Titled, “Cat Got Your Fish?,” it starts with a sad story:

“My cat Coco died...

No, this post is not on clumping vs. non-clumping, scented vs. unscented, organic vs. inorganic, scooping vs. non-scooping, or any other such litter trivia (though your comments on these are always welcome). 

Nope. This post is about how the litterbox plays into your cat’s emotional life in ways you may have never thought possible. As in, yes it’s great that you care enough to buy your cat...

You heard right. A team of two veterinarians from Atlantic Veterinary College in Charlottetown (Prince Edward Island in Canada) offered a two week clinic in seal skull crushing.

With a snazzy slideshow and bloody cool pics of exploding seal calf skulls, these two veterinarians made international news when they invited Newfoundland seal harvesters to come on down and watch the show.

But no,...

You’re so unsure. And that’s an understatement. You know it’s time...but then you really don’t...perhaps you think you could never be sure. After all, it’s a life you’re taking into your own hands...your beloved life...the one you raised, shared so much with and adored unconditionally throughout. 

You need time. But do we veterinarians always give you a chance to reflect carefully on your...

On Dolittler we’ve talked ad nauseum about shutting down puppy mills, closing the pet stores that support the industry, and educating the consumers who keep the whole horrible clock ticking with their unenlightened approach to acquiring puppies.

That’s why there’s little need to rehash the gory details of unsanitary conditions, irresponsible breeding practices, poor-doer pups and the...

A recent study of veterinarians came to an obvious conclusion: Vets should not practice medicine on themselves. Not only is practicing medicine outside the scope of our licensed-to-do duties a not-so-effective means of accessing healthcare for ourselves...it’s also technically illegal. 

Yet veterinarians do so every day. And so do you, though perhaps not with access to the arsenal of drugs...

It’s a subject veterinarians hate to raise. But it’s a fact: Shelter dogs can harbor diseases we’d rather not think about when recommending shelter adoptions over other means of pet acquisition. Not if we want the unwanted to be granted loving homes.

Mitigating the pet overpopulation crisis through increased adoptions from shelters and rescues is crucial to these efforts. That’s why when

A few years ago one of my close relatives took a bad dog bite to the face. Plastic surgery––the works. Strictly speaking, there was no doubt it was her fault. He growled at her...and she bit him. 

Yes, you heard right. After years of dealing with this dog’s seizure/personality disorder by the book (neurologists, behaviorists, trainers, acupuncturists) his owner lost it and bit him. On the...

Remember my ugly hen? Well, it seems she’s got a back story to her. The upshot? Her name’s not Chicken Little...it’s Elsita. 

Since I know some of you enjoy following the story of my goats (who are hoofing it up in their efforts at biological deforestation of my previously jungly back yard), I figure you might like to get occasional notes on the progress of my back yard flock and...

Here’s a popular subject in my place of employ: For every single one of my patients diagnosed with allergies, I’ll recommend a “food trial.” Here’s when we ask you, the pet owner, to either purchase ungodly-expensive bags and cans of foods...or to spend inordinate amounts of your time (and maybe even more of your money) whipping up pet cuisine at home. 

Have you ever received such a...

I’ve heard of “Apple Bottom” jeans for those sexy Cuban backsides and Applejack brandy for cold winter nights, but this is the first I’ve heard of “applehead” Chihuahuas.

‘Course it stands to reason that a Chi with a domed head might remind me of an apple, but I’ve never had cause to consider the etymology of appleheadedness in Chihuahuas until I was informed of this breed “type.”

Sad to...

Yeah, it’s time to talk rabies again. Because, in case you’ve forgotten while you were worrying about the admittedly not-insignificant risk of rabies vaccination for your pets, almost 50,000 people die every year of this horrific disease. 

But you want to know what would happen if rabies vaccine freedom reigned supreme in the “first world”? That’s right, we might start to look an awful...

Everyone knows that chocolate is bad for dogs, right? Problem is, most of us think it’s only about the sweet bars of brown stuff and big bags of candy-coated goo. 

Not so much so. In fact, the chocolate most likely to land your dog in the ICU is a baking staple––cocoa powder. This common pantry item, along with the almost-black chunks of the unsweetened stuff, are liable to kill a dog if...

So what’s that embarrassing caca test for, anyway?

It’s stressful enough to have your pet’s backside violated by a plastic rod, right? So what’s the point? 

You say: If the goal is to make my pet healthier and parasite-free then I’ll trust your judgment, but I have to say, stool checks are a kind of cruel and unusual sort of punishment. I don’t get that sort of humiliation until I’m...

Here’s a double-post offering for your pets. This is the first of two entries on the canine and feline “oil change,"––AKA, the indispensable annual visit. The kitty version will arrive later this week so stay tuned.

Every year, we veterinarians recommend you brighten our lives with your loyal presence. Sure, it means you trust us and want to support our businesses, but more importantly,...

Seriously, everyone was best kept far away from me yesterday after my Saturday morning disaster client. I even found myself apologizing to a waitress after snapping at her when my lunch order arrived all wrong. “It was a bad, bad pet owner’s fault,” I was forced to disclaim when everyone at the table looked at me as if I’d suddenly grown horns. 

But enough about the sorry aftermath, here’s...

One of my patients will die within weeks. Her congenital portosystemic shunts, presumably the result of a pre-birth complication or genetic defect, have led to almost complete liver failure after three short years of life.

Lily is a pet shop Maltese. Her true origins are as unknown as the exact cause of her liver disease. But we do know her liver doesn’t work. And we know it’s the result of a...

In Florida, where I live, a veterinary practice may be owned by anyone––a veterinarian, a corporation of non-veterinarian investors, a veterinary technician, an animal welfare organization...indeed, by anyone who cares to set up shop and hire a veterinarian. 

In many other states, however, such rules are not in play. Veterinary hospitals must be owned by veterinarians. That usually means...

“Trap, test, spay or neuter, vaccinate and release.” That’s my mantra when it comes to treating stray cats, feral or not. 

If you were paying close attention, serious cat people, you’ll have noticed that my party line didn’t include “ear tip.” Wondering why? Here’s my answer, couched in a recent experience:

In a couple of weeks a group of veterinarians will be getting together at...

There’s no better example to prove veterinary medicine can be an art as well a science than that of the interchange between veterinarian and pet owner in the face of a crisis. 

How a veterinarian handles these crucial moments can mean everything to how the patient is ultimately treated––or not. Typically, it all comes down to 1) how well these parties know each other, 2) the trust the pet...

I had another post planned for today, but since receiving word of Florida’s new plan to play de-facto breeder police I couldn’t help but change my lineup.

First the good news: Florida’s backed off its HB 451, the bill that would mandate spay and neuter of most pets over four months throughout the whole state. 

Now the bad news:  Instead, my great state has offered up twin bills, SB 2002...

Got a pet with a cruciate ligament injury? Well then, get ready, I’m armed with information and opinions. 

This time it’s not about the injury itself or specifically about the cost of its repair (check out parts one and two of this series for more info). No, this post is about the new pup on the block, the so-called TightRope technique for cranial cruciate ligament repairs (“cruciates” for...

OK, so that’s another one of my salacious titles. You’re not really going to profit––not financially, anyhow––from trapping backyard strays and local ferals. You will, however, entertain yourself while attacking your neighborhood’s stray cat epidemic in a satisfying way.

No longer will you be one among the whining minions clamoring for better municipal animal control. No, you’ll be...