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Speaking of pets | Animal Care | Animal Diseases | Cats are not little dogs | Creepy Crawly Parasites | Wildlife and exotics | Vet Life and It’s not just a vet life | Out and About | Howlidays
Speaking of pets
OVMA
“Where did you go on vacation last week? I tried to get in and you were out.” “Vacation? I haven’t been on vacation in about 18 months. Oh, last week I attended a conference to get my continuing education.” Actually, most conferences are a lot of work....
World Rabies Day Award!
We won!! “Did you see The Big Fix won the World Rabies Day Award?” I hadn’t seen it. I had meant to check. I knew the award was being announced on Nov 3rd or One Health Day, but I had worked, then ran to The Greenup Holiday Market before it closed at two....
Pets in Uganda
We do not know what poverty is in the United States. We went to Africa to help animals, but what I saw when well beyond the animals. I got in late at night. Ellie and Moses picked me up at the airport with my two fifty pound bags of supplies. I didn't look...
Animal Care
Circle of Life
COVID 19 has probably changed the rest of our lives. Everyone who is alive now will change in some way. While I am quick to point out the ways these changes have not been ideal (just ask my best friend), not everything that is COVID 19 related has been bad. I must...
How to Spend More at the Vet
I’m getting a late start to my article writing this Saturday afternoon because we had an emergency come in after we closed. While some of us finished up the end of the day procedures, four staff members and I stayed and worked with the emergency patient for almost two...
Pet Aggression
I know it hasn’t really been this way, but it seems like it has been the week of aggressive animals. Every day there has been a ‘special’ dog or cat. Generally, we do very well with animals that have problems at other places. We do a lot of things to not trigger...
Animal Diseases
Coprophagia
My yellow lab, Whiskey, eats poop. Technically is it known as coprophagia, the consuming of fecal matter. And it is a frequent complaint of dog owners. It can cause gastrointestinal (GI) upset, intestinal parasitic infection, transmission of infectious disease and...
Miracles
We first saw Rusty in mid August. The 27 pound, red male fiest mix was about nine years old and had been vomiting blood since April. He now had a bloody mucoid stool. The owners had not been ignoring the problem and various things had been tried at another vet, but...
Good Ideas, Or Not
I had a talk with a couple in the exam room. Their dog has a chronic disease and they were asking if they had caused it. My honesty made that a hard answer. Every time we do something we have a choice. We can choose to do something that is good for us or...
Cats are not little dogs
Ember
I have a new roommate. She purrs. Actually, she has been here for almost two weeks and it is the first time that she has been in my office. The first week she spent in an oxygen cage while it was touch and go. Perhaps I should start at the beginning. I was...
Cat Fights
Saturday morning, nine A. M. There are two appointments scheduled. Both are cats. Buddy was just neutered four weeks ago, so we see him first. Besides Mow Mow’s parents are new clients and still filling out their paperwork. Buddy had gotten loose a couple of times and...
Cats Are Not Little Dogs
In veterinary medicine, we have to treat many species. There are too many variations and too many species to learn each species separately. Veterinarians are taught what the similarities or differences are so all of the knowledge can be stored to use....
Creepy Crawly Parasites
Heartworms
The recent rains will produce swarms of mosquitos. Getting the pups out of the truck, I paused and slapped my arm. A mosquito died from the single slap. As I removed them from my arm, I thought it would be a banner year for mosquito born diseases and heartworms. But...
Vaccines
I had a shingles vaccination Saturday. My shingles vaccine reaction started that afternoon. A vaccine is a weak or small part of the disease that trains the immune system. The idea is that it prepares the body to fight the disease without the disease symptoms. I do...
Vaccines
Last week, Matt drove me to Charleston to get a yellow fever vaccination. I need a booster vaccine, because this fall, I am going to northern Uganda in Africa to vaccinate and neuter village dogs, and yellow fever is one of the vaccines that I needed to...
Wildlife and exotics
Marine Iguanas
The first animals we saw in the Galapagos were the up close bright orange crabs and sea lions, but I had gone hoping to see blue-footed boobies, Galapagos tortoises, marine iguanas, and perhaps if I was lucky a Galapagos hawk. The sea lions and crabs seemed to be on...
Blue-Footed Boobies
Someone asked me what my goal for visiting the Galapagos was. At first, I didn’t know how to answer. The Galapagos is a bucket list trip for everyone, isn’t it? I’d known about the islands for decades, but it had never seemed possible to go before. It was so far from...
Happy, Healthy Iguanas
I can't picture what walking up on their legs looks like. Can you paint a word picture of that? Zee and I just returned from a long overdue trip. Zee had just graduated from Wooster with dual degrees in theater (behind the scenes) and history. I had not been out of...
Vet Life and It’s not just a vet life
Pet Article: Weekend
We have recently started not being open every Saturday. Of course, I end up pulling shifts at our local ER fairly often. I prefer to work on weekends because staying up all night affects me for the next week, and leaving animals uncared for after midnight doesn't seem...
Pet Article: Pet Aggression
I recently saw two beautiful doodles. They had been in a home, but had recently returned to the breeder. Unfortunately the two brothers had been fighting. These were big doodles, 82 and 74 pounds. The owner was scared. I understand that fear. I had a charpei that...
Pet Article: Emergency Care
We saw an emergency last week at our veterinary hospital that really emphasized the importance of understanding the costs associated with pet care. The pet owner couldn't get into any other veterinary hospital, so they came to us on my day off. Unfortunately, they...
Out and About
Blue Green Algae
I am camping this weekend. Although camping with a kitchen, bathroom and air conditioning does seem like cheating, I am old enough to have earned it. It has been a busy week! Major medical cases, intensive care cases, taxes, employees headed to college, new employees...
Found Dog
I was talking to my best friend when I pulled in the driveway and saw ears and a tail. It was dark and the front of the truck blocked the body, but I was pretty sure, but not positive, it was a medium to large dog. We are a bit off the road and away from...
GA5k
Two weeks to go! Guardian Animal Medical Center is hosting a 5K run and 1-mile dog walk on Saturday, May 18. This will be our fourth year. We decided at our roles and goals meeting at the New Year that it would be an annual thing. When the talk of...
Howlidays
New Year’s 2021
New Years is a big holiday for me! Not New Year’s Eve, that seems too much gluttony, excess and lateness for my age, but the start of a new year. A time to reflect on where we have been and where we and especially I am going. The whole staff will get together next...
Cat’s Night Before Christmas
A Cat’s Night Before Christmas (apologies to Clement Clarke Moore) Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house Not a creature was stirring, wait did I hear a mouse? Among the stockings by the chimney did he dare, I mean, really? St Nicholas soon should...
The Holidays Vet Style
While the holidays are a festive time for many, they are often a busy, sad time for veterinarians. On my Facebook vet list, practice owners were discussing whether to be off the day after Thanksgiving or not. Many said that they enjoyed the days off with family and...