OK so I did a bad thing last Saturday…a very bad thing.

A client I know well from years of stray cat care brought in a stray six month-old kitten so I could treat its ostensibly broken leg. Instead, I determined that a small abscess (probably from a bite wound) was the cause of his lameness.

Because the kitten was a tad on the wild side, I sedated him and proceeded to clean the area and debride...

OK, so I’ve finally decided it’s time to give you an update on Sophie Sue’s story (reference my ten year-old French bulldog’s confounding condition of the past few weeks’ duration).

After playing an unrewarding game of surgical hide and seek, we found no insulinoma (or other abdominal tumor) to explain Sophie’s low blood sugar and drunken gait. Nonetheless, Sophie continued to...

I truly enjoy getting the opportunity to see how other veterinary hospitals do their thing—mostly.

Last Tuesday’s visit to my area neurology/oncology/radiology team (again, reference my Sophie’s illness) was impressive for a whole bunch of reasons. Among them, one thing really stood out for me: the DNR form at the very bottom of the release I signed before she could get her MRI.

In case you’ve...

After playing a unrewarding version of hide and seek in Sophie’s abdomen last week (reference my ten year-old French Bulldog and her recent health concerns), I decided to take Sophie to my area’s closest neurologist, oncologist and radiologist team (with no traffic, about an hour away in Cooper City, Florida ).

While waiting in the lobby area with all the creatures and their caretakers, I felt...

Last I spoke of Metacam in any detail it was to describe how helpful the manufacturer (Boehringer-Ingelheim) was after one of my canine patients (allegedly) experienced an adverse reaction to it. The B-I folks rolled up their sleeves and helped out on this one.

Turns out it was a gall bladder problem my patient was suffering. Though it had absolutely zero to do with the Metacam (contrary to...

I’m used to all sorts of evening and weekend telephonics. And guess what? I don’t like ‘em. Truth is, I seriously dislike being called on my personal phone—at all—unless it’s an emergency and I’ve expressly given YOU permission to call me in such an event.

Yet even in the case of an emergency my friends and family think I’m crazy to allow such an intrusion on my non-working hours: “I mean,...

There’s nothing more demoralizing than failing in your job. It’s a reality all of us face daily. (Can’t none of us be perfect, right?) And when we do screw things up it’s enough to send you under the covers for a long bout of escapist slumber.

That’s what happened last night after I learned of last Saturday morning’s misdiagnostic mishap. Yeah…I missed it. Here’s the scoop…

While all of you...

It’s common for me to ponder the ways we euthanize animals. That’s because I’m always looking for the ideal version of “beautiful death.” With each creature I euthanize—beloved rabbits, injured birds, stray cats or well-loved dogs—I really do try my best to make it the most peaceful experience modern drugs can manage.

Because I’m working hard to fatten up my darling doeling Tulip (see how cute,...

While in New York last weekend (I know, the stories from my trips never seem to end, right?) all the vets involved in the K-9 Down course got together for a friendly vegan dinner in Midtown Manhattan (funny…none of us are vegans).

At dinner, I was lucky enough to find myself seated near a decidedly extroverted fellow blogging veterinarian by the name of Dr. David Bessler. Like me, he’s a GP....

You’d never know it by looking at us, but veterinarians are four times more likely to commit suicide than the average person—that’s according to a study conducted last year in the UK and reported on in DVM Newsmagazine this month..

British researchers were stumped when they reached this conclusion and are currently undertaking a new study to determine what factors might be at play in such dire...