Here’s a question for you: How much should a vet charge for a house call? I’m not talking about the large animal vet who does farm calls or the small animal vet who takes the hospital with her. Here I’m drilling you specifically about the vet who attends your pet pillow-side after hours, at lunchtime or on her free time as a “courtesy.”

While euthanasias are the mainstay of my house call...

As I write, Sandy is driving us all insane. He has not yet given up on his devious plan to ensure his release through relentless barking, howling and other forms of [extremely annoying] vocalization. It’s been three days of this—the same amount of time I’ve been suffering a mild but unrelenting headache and stomach virus. Hmmm…could it be the two are related?

Today, I was uncharacteristically...

Yes, it’s that time of year—and yet again it’s time for vets across America to wring their hands over the holiday pet thing. It’s a love-hate issue for us, for sure. While we condemn the trivialization of petdom that comes with a rash “Puppy Palace” purchase, how else would we manage to ring in the New Year with a shower of new patients?

But let me be fair: A large enough percentage of holiday...

It’s party season again. Time for the annual round of how-have-you-beens and the ongoing reassessment of one another’s family lives, waistlines and balding pates. That’s humanity for you. And it’s annoying.

You’d think it would be less daunting for me now that I’m a woman of a certain age. Now that I don’t feel so set-upon by the masses as to my marital status (been there—so no one asks much...

In case you didn’t know it, "acceptable compication" is a technical term. That's becase some complications in medicine are counted among the “expected” variety. They have little to do with human error or poor quality healthcare. Statistically, they have been proven to have more to do with individual responses to treatments than with surgical technique, choice of medication, or specific...

Don’t worry, I’m not about to out some underground society where vets don black robes and bird-like masks at midnight before foisting poor Fluffy into one another’s arms like a hot potato. It sure sounds a heck of a lot sexier than this sport’s daytime reality—and yet the real version might surprise you more than my pulp-fictional one.

Yes, vets sometimes play “hot potato” with pets. We tend...

If only I had a dollar for every time I heard this line…“This breed is sensitive to anesthesia. You need to be extra-careful with them.”

I know the words are well intentioned and born of fear, not the I-know-more-than-your-vet-about-these-things breeder snarkiness we vets are too often exposed to. But you should still know that it drives us nuts sometimes.

For starters, we’re extra-careful with...

We’re currently suffering such a chronic shortage of vet techs in our area that I’ve been told my hours might get cut short this coming month. Dr. Khuly? Do you mind working only in the afternoons while X technician is out on vacation?

Although I like to think I’m pretty efficient and can manage a lot on my own in the hospital, a lack of technicians means that even I’m without work when push...

Your pet throws up a couple of times first thing in the morning (something she never does) and you want to know whether you should bring her in to the vet’s office. You’re willing to take all the time you need to do so but you want to wait until your vet calls you back to decide whether you should take the morning off work for this possible emergency. Good luck with that.

Depending on my...

In case you’ve never been here, you should know that suburban Miami is full of peafowl. These critters, adored for their feathery good looks, have grown in popularity—and population—over the past decade. My neighborhood is full of them.

Most of them wander the yards, occasionally straying into the street when they need to cross it to find more fruitful foraging grounds. Who owns them? Someone...