Sometimes you see a case so obviously infectious that it makes you want to put on a mask and yell for the Clorox as soon as the animal touches the exam room table. This, however, is a bedside-manner no-no. Professional though it might be from the standpoint of protecting your other patients, the reality is that no parent wants their pet treated like a pariah.

At first, this six-month-old pup...

Phoebe-the-Cat came in last week with her left paw curled under her sleek black and white frame. It didn’t seem to hurt. It wasn’t orthopedically awry. Every bone and joint felt normal. When coaxed into action, she was unable to bear weight on the paw—it appeared to give way at the wrist. But when the technician picked her up off the floor she astutely noted that the afflicted paw was cooler...

OK so I know I shouldn’t have taken this so hard but I did. A couple of weeks ago I performed a surgery that didn’t go just right. And the clients are not completely satisfied. The hyper-pleaser in me abhors this feeling. And so I went home last night feeling pretty low.

The back-story: A heavy-set (read: minimally sub-obese) Rhodesian ridgeback girl arrives with her brother for his follow-up...

For the most part, I’ll answer: NO! However, as always, I have some exciting examples that actually make me think twice about how much dental care is appropriate—and I’m a dentistry junkie.

Let me first confess: I believe only a tiny minority of dogs can get through life comfortably without routine dental care. Studies demonstrate that even those that may never experience oral discomfort would...

The title of this blog may sound coarse but it is, nonetheless, the one trite, vet school maxim that sticks to my grey matter more than any other—perhaps because it reeks of callous, old-style vet medicine but more likely because it has actually served me well.

Garth, a geriatric yellow Lab with the droopy face and plodding gait of a doddering old man, is one of my favorite clients. So it was...

My newly pregnant cousin Marlene (who says women with child don’t glow?) has the most beautiful specimen of a French bulldog you’ve ever seen. While he’s currently the perfect vision of Frenchie masculinity, he’s in desperate need of a snip-snip (but that’s another post). I’m writing about Hugo today as a result of his recent round of visits to my office.

Hugo, it seems, turned his nose up at...

How many rabies vaccines does your average, well cared for pet get? About one a year in most parts of the US. How many rabies vaccines have I received in the past fifteen years? A series of three vaccines back in 1991. I haven’t needed one since—my antibody titers are sky high.

No wonder vets are widely criticized as vaccine-pushers. We’re addicted to vaccines despite the science that now...

Dr. Allison Cannon is one of those idealistic, hard-working super-women we’d all love to be. Young and energetic, she just completed her internal medicine residency at the University of California at Davis (a top-tier vet school and an impressively grueling program) and has just started her real-work career at Miami Veterinary Specialists. When she talks about her patients she has that...

I adore my neighborhood specialists. Not only do they make my life more pleasant and educational with their open-door policy, they also make me look like a rock star when a client receives a special procedure or amazing, state-of-the-art care. I love that.

The heartfelt thanks my clients shower me with when I send them away to a specialist seems a little odd considering I did none of the hard...

Friday is always busy, especially in the afternoon, what with the mad rush of OMG-I-just-noticed-Fluffy`s-been-vomiting-all-week-and-I-don`t-want-

to-end-up-at-the-emergency-clinic-over-the-weekend emergencies.

Yesterday was no different. We had two critical cases come in simultaneously (different clients): one geriatric cat and one small dog. Both had been attacked by dogs—two days before.

The...