Can you guess how many animals I euthanized last year?

Sadly, this morbid mental exercise is kind of like guessing how many jellybeans are in a jar. But it’s undertaken less as a senseless descent into morbidity than by way of reaching into my profession’s heart of darkness…and attempting an exorcism of the demons that live there.

That’s what whatikilledtoday is all about. In case you’ve...

Until last week, my air conditioner had been broken for a month. No big deal this time of year in Miami. I just opened the windows. But the cause of the malfunction and the effect of a return in central air circulation have been eye-opening—in a way that, strangely, involves my pets.

Turns out the goats love following an amused meter man as he makes the rounds of my house. They love poking...

I imagine most of you won’t find this topic amusing but I can’t help presenting it here by way of soliciting your impressions. Here’s the deal: Over on VIN (mostly for vets only), there’s a thread about a vet who “spayed” her first male cat.

Well, not exactly…she just started to, making an abdominal incision and seeking out a set of tubes that weren’t there…before realizing it was a boy cat...

I hate people sometimes. Strong words for a peaceful Sunday morning, right? There I was, sitting at Starbucks, recovering from catering my mother’s lavish annual holiday party (75 peeps!), just cooling my toes in a cappuccino…when the phone rings:

Unknown number. S---! Should I answer it?...why not?

Is this Dr. Khuly?! Dr. Khuly my cat is dead. Dead! This is the third cat I’ve taken to your...

When it’s time for your pet’s euthanasia most of you want a veterinarian who will show the right degree of compassion, know just what to say, give you a big hug or the room you need, and treat your pet with reverence and humanity—almost as if he were her own.

That’s hard to do. But most of us try hard to do it right—to the best of our abilities.

When you’re trying to make decisions on the...

Your older cat’s sudden bout of vomiting led your vet to tentatively conclude that his kidneys were failing. Indeed, his renal values were significantly elevated and abdominal X-rays were fairly normal. He was hospitalized. Your regular vet goes out of town and leaves the case to her associate.

When significant hydration failed to resolve the vomiting your vet’s associate solved the case by...

Raise your hand if you saw Best in Show. Remember the couple with the Weimeraner? Picture them…with a cat instead of a dog…and you’re starting to get the picture. They’re my clients. Let’s call them “the Bickers.”

For those of you who didn’t happen to see this excellent film (which parodies the dog show world as it exults and examines the human-animal bond), you’d better go rent it right...

A veterinarian can’t be all things to all people (I’ve said this before many times and many ways on Dolittler). And this little ditty rings especially true on holidays.

We’ve all been there…a sudden bout of vomiting…a lacerated leg…a cat bite abscess that rears its ugly head…or, in today’s example, the recognition that her back is horrifically painful again…on a major holiday.

The prospect...

After the ratting-on-a-vet post from earlier this week I received an interesting story courtesy of a fellow vet. It detailed the subject of his own brush with a nearby state’s Veterinary Board a few years ago. Here’s the story, paraphrased, with some identifying details altered:

Vet sees a new client with a young black shepherd. After congratulating the owner on her stunning dog, vet innocently...

Here’s an ethical dilemma on what might otherwise be a boring Tuesday:

A new client comes in with a dog whose leg has been broken since last February. Though the leg sports an impressive external fixator device (one of those scary but sometimes necessary tools used to piece a broken leg together), it’s clear this semi-young dog’s leg ain’t fixed (he isn’t using the leg at all).

You spend twenty...