I’ve deliberated all weekend over whether this story needs telling, especially given my general sensitivity to mental health issues among my clients. And so I disclaim: any resemblance in this tale to persons living or long-dead is a mere coincidence. Rest assured, I have also changed the names and physical characteristics of this client in deference to his privacy.

(Is that acceptable enough...

Last night’s houseguest was not exactly sick; she was pregnant—somewhere between 64 and 70 days pregnant. Darn near overcooked, I’d say. And no nine-year-old, ten-pound Shih-Tzu deserves to be in such a predicament without expert attention. So I took her home for the night in case her overlong labor came to fruition in the wee hours of the morning.

I don’t know what percentage of vets engage...

There’s something about the first day back after a holiday or long weekend that brings out the crazies in people. While their pets are legitimately sick and in need of medical attention, they have a way of over-dramatizing their need to see the vet—immediately. It’s especially annoying to us since they’ve sat with their sick pet all weekend avoiding the e-clinic like the plague and saving it...

Not a creature was stirring except mom and Dart's mouse...

No don't worry. I won't put you (or myself) through a whole personal rendition of the seasonal poetry I'm frankly quite sick of by now.

Apologies for my late (and barely existent) post. I'm sure all of you Christmas-celebrators with children can relate. In addition, I've a...

Yesterday was not exactly the kind of day we dream of as we file into our classroom on that first day of vet school. Nametag-adorned first year vet students live with another sort of fantasy—one of animal service provided lovingly for grateful parents and their beloved pets.

Yesterday it just wasn’t meant to be. It was one of those rare days when I had to practice colleague-free—an unexpected,...

Yesterday proved eventful—which is why this post comes a little later in the day than most. Three Yorkies presented themselves in varying stages of distress. All three are still hospitalized with extensive records full of lab results and treatment schedules pinned to their cages amid criss-crossed tubes and dangling fluid pumps.

Yorkie number one was the kind of disaster that gets vets yelling...

My last patient on Saturday scared the heck out of me. No, it wasn’t the scratch marks on my arms (that itched like mad for the whole day) or the shallow bite marks on my hands (which, incidentally, did not break the skin but itched nonetheless).

No, my last patient was especially frightening because of the red-ringed scratch-mark scabs all over my diabetic, immunosuppressed client’s legs....

Guess what I found yesterday!? A lost puppy! Actually, my mother saw him first—dodging cars on a busy residential street in our neighborhood.

FOUND:

A gorgeous, almost all-white, male Parsons (Jack) Russell Terrier. About five months old (adult incisors, baby canines). No collar. Intact—of course. With no basic training (You want me to walk with that thing around my neck?).

A quick trip to the...

Yesterday morning (Tuesday) at approximately 6:30 AM I found myself at the tail end one of those horrendous airport lines we only experience the week of Thanksgiving and Christmas in this great nation of ours. It was not moving.

Saddled with belongings and wailing children, we waited patiently for the next person to move up the queue to the baggage attendant. It was taking just a little too...

I realize that it’s late in the day for me to be posting my daily entry. I sincerely apologize. But I have a good excuse. Since the day I wrote my post on little Hugo’s gastroenteritis I have been suffering the same vile symptoms he managed to overcome in only 48 hours.

Today has been the worst of it, I hope. I`ve never been very good at staying home and watching my toes (so I don’t vomit—this...