Sorry for the mild profanity but nothing makes me crazier than clients who can’t figure out whether or not they want their pet to live…to receive treatment…or even to go to the vet in the first place.

I have a beautiful little calico in hospital who used to be a beautiful big calico about three or four weeks ago. 'Round about that time she decided to consume many small pieces of cellophane...

If anyone “gets” anesthephobia, I do. I don’t like my dog to enter into a controlled form of unconsciousness any more than you do. It’s somehow very stressful at a very raw, animal level: it’s unnatural and bizarre, if you think about it for too long.

But faced with two alternatives: my dog will suffer forty minutes of avoidable pain or my dog will receive fifteen minutes of anesthesia, I’d...

It happens. In fact, it happens a lot to some of my less discriminating patients. I’m talking about their often bizarre dietary habits. Technically referred to as pica, the eating of stuff not meant for dietary consumption (though usually this terms is reserved for soil-eaters and sand gulpers), the malady can become a truly expensive habit.

Today I stopped into my friendly neighborhood...

I’m sure you’ve all heard of pancreatitis—the notoriously painful inflammation of the pancreas that occurs commonly in dogs. This organ is so sensitive that swelling in the stomach, intestines, or any other abdominal organ can make it swell, too. And when the pancreas swells, things can get very complicated very quickly.

Here's a pic of a pancreas nestled between a slice of small intestine and...

I recounted this ten-year-old Yorkie’s last crisis in my tale of three Yorkies. He was the one who kept turning blue and wanting to die—but didn’t. Lots of drugs and beaucoup oxygen later he managed to manifest his curmudgeonly old self again. 

Sometimes I think dogs hate us so much they’d rather die than live under our care. This is definitely true of cats. But that’s usually more of a...

Whenever I get cases with two or more seemingly unrelated problems I automatically start looking for the possible connection. It dogs me (no pun intended) until I figure it out (or the specialist does it for me).

First thing Saturday morning I saw a ten-year-old Lab named Luby. She looked like a bar fight survivor. And her nineteen-year-old owner was convinced she’d been bitten by a rat in her...

Every hospital, provided it’s been in business long enough, has at least one story about The Fugitive. Usually reserved as a cautionary tale for all new employees, it’s one most of us don’t want to relive.

Our hospital has one famous case of a dog who escaped its collar and leash, tore through the hospital in a panic and fled through the back door at the exact moment the back door had been...

What a terrible day to be in the hospital. It must stink to be sick—especially on a beautiful, balmy Christmas Day like today. (Dare I gloat and tell you I’m sitting outside on my patio wearing a sundress?)

By the way, Merry Christmas for all of you to whom this sentiment applies. As usual, however, there is at least one extremely banged-up patient to whom I must attend on this holiday and who...

Today I was going to offer you a post on the merits of charitable giving with a list of worthy organizations for you to consider donating your taxable income. Unfortunately, the death of Peaches (the puppy with Leptospirosis whose story I’d recounted last weekend) has preempted my attempt at philanthropy.

After watching Babette’s feast last night (my favorite Christmas movie, though it includes...

Romeo the Rottweiler-mix, four years old but looking twice his age, came in last week for an evaluation after spending a sleepless night seizuring. They’d started last night—short bursts of violent, head-bashing convulsions (the grand mal variety) that eventually landed him in the local emergency hospital.

The following morning his brain was quieter, but addled nonetheless. He recognized family...