Archives: Pets

How Veterinary Study Groups Is Saving Veterinary Medicine

Veterinary medicine as predominantly  independent small businesses has been under assault from corporate big business since the early 2000’s and continued ramping up of big business efforts to acquire veterinary clinics is changing the face of veterinary medicine.  Companies like VCA, Banfield, Blue Pearl, Vet Core and NVA are buying up veterinary clinics in record...

5 Reasons Veterinary Technicians Are Heroes – A Tribute On National Veterinary Technician Week

In honor of 2018 National Veterinary Technician Week, I would like to highlight 5 reasons why veterinary technicians are nothing short of heroes.  As a practicing veterinarian for 16 years and a practice owner for 13 years, I have known for a very long time that a veterinary clinic/hospital is only as good as the veterinary technicians that see to patient care and minute by...

In Pet Food, What Constitutes “Natural,” “Human Grade,” or “Holistic?” Diets

Pet food marketing deception is taking over the pet food industry in ways that are making veterinarians feel like we are banging our heads against a wall.  With beautiful pictures of whole foods in their native state on diets self labelled as natural, human grade, and holistic, who can resist the temptation to feed one’s pet these amazing diets?  Read on and learn...

Plan To Have Your Large Breed Female Dog Spayed? Read This First!

A spay procedure as it is commonly called, is an abdominal surgery where the veterinary surgeon removes the female organs of reproduction, the ovaries and most of the uterus.  The procedure is therefore technically called an ovariohysterectomy.  Since the veterinary surgeon has to make a surgical entry into the abdomen in order to perform the spay procedure, this presents a...

A Contrast Between Veterinarians & MD’s

It never fails to amuse me when I hear human medical doctors referred to as “real doctors,” when making the distinction between a veterinarian, aka, animal doctor, and a doctor that treats people.  I know in most cases it is not any attempt to be disrespectful or malicious, just a manner of speech, but having heard this so many times for so many years, it...

The Most Tried And True Method For Training Your Puppy

I am not shy to admit that dog training or behavior is not particularly high on my lists of interests or something I am especially good at.  However, having recently been unexpectedly convinced to rescue a Labrador Retriever puppy (not that it took much arm twisting), I am in the midst of house training a young puppy.  While it is a lot of work as anyone who has raised a...

Price Shopping For A Spay Or Neuter Procedure? Read This First!

Earlier this week I had a neuter that cancelled after the owner had already showed up to drop off her dog for the procedure.  The admitting technician recognized immediately at check in that the front desk staff member who had scheduled the procedure made a mistake in not checking and ensuring that the owner received a printed, itemized treatment plan that outlines exactly...

Why The Millennial Generation Is Great For Veterinary Medicine

It disappoints me when I hear members of my Generation X speak disparagingly of Millenials, referring to them as lazy, unmotivated snow flakes that will run our country into the ground as their generation ages into raising families and running our government and businesses.  How quickly Gen Xers forgot that the same things were said about us by our Baby Boomer parents, yet...

Health Issues I Commonly Find On Routine Veterinary Well Visits In Pets

I having been banging the drum of the importance of the yearly well visit for dogs and cats since I graduated veterinary school. It has always been less about the vaccines for me and more about parasite screening and early disease detection via physical examination and after the age of 8, taking blood pressure and sending out routine blood profiles. Are the vaccines important...

Trump Administration Proposes Stripping Of Key Provisions Of The Endangered Species Act

The Trump administration has a proposal that would strip the Endangered Species Act of key provisions, a measure that conservationists say would gravely weaken the law that was enacted in 1973 to keep plant and animal species in decline from going extinct.  The proposal that was jointly announced by the US Department of the Interior and the US Department of Commerce (each...