Recent comments from pet owners, vets and vets students on Dolittler have got me thinking about vet school and all I’ve had to learn since...on my own. While the science of veterinary medicine was covered well in school, there are some basics most of us missed out on in our years in school. Here’s my top ten:

#1

Keeping Up 101: If only someone had explained how to properly digest veterinary...

Some vets are charming soft-talkers who recruit your involvement in your pet’s care with their winning, whitened smile and a penchant for flattering, incandescent lighting. 

Others might well be better vets (or not)…but their delivery leaves much to be desired.

We vets can’t always be all be all things to all people. But some clients demand the whole package—on every visit. And that’s not...

A couple of months ago the Journal of the AVMA (American Veterinary Medical Association) ran a cover illustration of three English bulldogs. In response, last month’s JAVMA featured a finger-wagging letter (written by a veterinarian AVMA member) accusing the AVMA of supporting the cruelty inherent to breeding such malformed creatures.

In many ways I couldn’t agree more. And the problem isn’t...

At least a hundred Galvestonian animals have been found and remanded to shelter care each and every day since Hurricane Ike. Abandoned in homes, roaming the streets, tied to poles and occasionally washed up on the beach, these pets (and the occasional member of a wildlife species) are flooding nearby Texas shelters and sanctuaries.

We talk a big game here on Dolittler about what needs to...

California’s ballot initiative to improve conditions in factory farms has already led to a whole lot of “unintended consequences”—even before the state’s voters get a chance to enact this “sweeping” animal welfare legislation. It’s pitted vets against vets in a battle over what’s good for the animals, the industry and consumers.

Proposition 2, “Standards for Confining Farm Animals” is...

Those of us who like to think in epidemiological terms know that pets can act as sentinels for cancers, infectious diseases and toxin exposure. The Chihuahua in the coal mine and all that.

The recent press on thousands of sickened babies in China (and at least four deaths to date) recalls that line of thinking, begging the question that’s in all of our minds: How could they let this...

If you read Dolittler relatively regularly, you’ll know I post in defense of pit bulls as pets. As an ex-pittie owner, I feel strongly about breed specific legislation (such as the banning of pit bulls from many municipalities across the US).

In practice, it’s a fear-based, discriminatory policy where justice is too often meted out unfairly. It condemns dogs almost exclusively on the basis of...

The former mayor of Wasilla, Alaska has more on her animal welfare record than hailing from the town where the Iditarod makes its annual start. However you feel about this famous sled-dog race, its potential welfare issues pale in comparison to the sport of aerial hunting and the opposition to endangered designations for needy species.

Though it won’t necessarily drive my vote, knowing how my...

When you buy a puppy you buy a “health certificate” to go with her. Like any literal-minded consumer you assume a certificate with this title means she’s been examined by a veterinarian and has received a stamp of approval in the health department.

Guess again.

Last week I fielded a flurry of emails from my FVMA (Florida Veterinary Medical Association) list-serve. The topic was the widespread...

The problem with this Good Morning America segment on the ABCNews website is all in the title: “Poisonous People Food.”

Beyond the scary headline, everything contained therein is pretty responsible, just like everything else Dr. Marty Becker works on. My criticism is confined to the acknowledgment that whenever “people foods” get singled out for their evils (even in this case, where toxic...