Archives: Pets

New Help for Obese Dogs and Cats

For those of you who have not already received the lecture from your veterinarian about the danger your pet’s obesity poses to his/her health, I am happy to fill that role in this post.  Diseases both caused by and exacerbated by obesity include degenerative joint disease, degenerative disk disease of the spine, diabetes, pancreatitis, hypertension, cardiac disease, and...

Knowing When It is Time to Say Goodbye

As I was leaving work last night, I got a call from a friend and client who needed to have a serious conversation about his dog’s current quality of life and what the right decision to make is.  My friend has had his goofy, wet kiss giving, fun loving chocolate lab since he adopted him at the age of 8 weeks in 1999, when my friend was 24 years old and single.  His dog is...

Veterinary Advice Online? Does That Really Exist? Should Pet Owners Really Be Seeking Online Veterinary Advice?

The internet is deeply engrained in the fabric of global life.  Whether it is social media, shopping, getting directions, getting our news, or simply entertainment, the internet has become the first place we often look.  But veterinary advice online?  Does that really exist?  If so, is it a good idea to get veterinary advice online? It has actually been going on for much...

Why yearly heartworm screening when my dog is given heartworm prevention year round? (and other commonly posed heartworm prevention questions)

This is a question that is commonly posed to me in clinical practice, and to be fair, a fair one.  If you are giving your dog year round heartworm prevention, why do we still ask you to have your dog get a heartworm test once a year to renew the heartworm prevention prescription?  If you live in an area where the mosquito vector responsible for transmission of the disease is...

Don’t Tell Me You Cannot Afford Vet Care After You Spend $3000 on a Pure Breed Pet

I recently have written about how pet ownership should not be a privilege of the well off and wealthy.  In my previous most recent blog post, I also wrote about costs of veterinary care seemingly being poised to outpace general inflation and wage increases of the average pet owner, along with precautions pet owners must engage in if they are to deal with this new reality of...

Protect Your Pets Against Rising Health Care Costs

I was inspired to write this blog post after I was informed this week of my clinic’s reference laboratory’s across the board fee increase of 5%. The stated reference laboratory, Antech, is the lab to which we send out of house laboratory diagnostics, from blood work profiles, biopsies, and EKGs, to x-ray imaging consultations. Antech offers the most competitive pricing for...

Why/How Do Cats Purr?

The purr is one of the most distinctive features of our feline companions, yet many cat owners and feline enthusiasts do not really know how and why cats do this.  To be quite honest, even us veterinarians do not completely understand the reason behind purring and the physiological mechanism that enables feline purring, but we do have some level of understanding I will be...

Pets Increase Health, Longetivy in People

With over 60 % of Americans owning pets, collectively pouring approximately $41 billion a year into pet care, it is abundantly clear that pets are a major aspect of the fabric of American life.  So while we know full well how much we love our pets and consider them members of our families, many do not know that the love and money we pour into our pets is also a great...

Help Me Help You

Discover Pets Internet Radio with Roger Welton DVM on BlogTalkRadio Before I elaborate further on today’s topic, let’s first discuss compliance. By definition compliance from the perspective of medicine means: willingness to follow or adhere to a prescribed treatment course and/or regimen. In the field of veterinary medicine, many factors can affect compliance, such as:...

Pet Companionship Should Not Only Be a Privilege for the Financially Well Off

New Pets Internet Radio with Roger Welton DVM on BlogTalkRadio I had an experience this week that has really gotten me thinking about the gift of loving a family pet; and how that joy should not be a privilege reserved only for the financially well off.  It was Tuesday afternoon, and a colleague and friend of mine, the surgical spet at the local veterinary emergency and...