Archives: Pets

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...

Strong Evidence Suggests That Popular Grain Free Pet Foods Are Linked To Deadly Heart Disease In Dogs

I have written about the grain free pet craze that has gripped the pet owning world convinced by very clever marketing that grain free pet foods with ingredients more in line with the diets of the dog’s ancient ancestor, the wolf, are the path to optimal quality of life, health, and longevity.  I have written about how there is no evidence that even suggests that grain...

What I Wish I Learned In Veterinary School

Veterinary school is an interesting institution.  Veterinary colleges are tasked with teaching veterinary students the foundations of animal nutrition, physiology, infectious disease, pathology, epidemiology, parasitology, medicine and surgery.  In the first 2 years of veterinary school, this is primarily done in the classroom.  The second 2 years are spent in the teaching...

Please Do Not Take Offense When A Veterinarian Offers The Gold Standard Of Care For Your Pet

It happens occasionally that a new client enters my exam room usually having been through a vet or two or three in the past few years and is guarded and not very forthcoming with information or wanting to engage in much banter at all for that matter.  I am always excited about the prospect of a new client: a new relationship with a person, couple or entire family, new pets...

When It Comes To Pet Quality Of Life Decisions, Better To Be A Week Early Than A Day Late

Making the decision for humane euthanasia when there is longer quality of life or any reasonable path to quality of life is agonizing for most pet owners…including me.  I deal with this reality just about every day as a veterinary practitioner but I got a call from a good friend a few nights ago that inspired this post.  His beloved 12 plus year old dog that was only...

3 Out Of 10 Dogs Have Whipworms! Why Is This And How Get We Prevent This?

The whipworm is a worm parasite that infects the cecum and colon of a dog’s intestinal tract.  The biggest trouble with whipworms is that they shed heavy eggs that commonly escape detection on routine stool examinations because they do not float (stool flotation tests are the most cost effective and commonly performed routine parasite tests).  Some dogs that carry...

Yikes, Look What Is In This Dog’s Urinary Bladder!

Urinary bladder stones are very common in dogs and cats.  My inspiration for writing this article today were three cases of dogs this past week that presented with lower urinary tract disease signs whose x-rays looked just like the image above.  I successfully performed surgical removal of the first two and the third is scheduled for surgery on Tuesday (2 days from now). ...

Cat Get Stressed For Veterinary Visits? Try This!

Cats are stress driven animals, that is, they have a very strong fight or flight response.  It is an evolutionary adaptation that they inherited from their wild ancestors that enables them to survive alone as solitary animals without the aid of a herd or pack to support them.  Stress hormones drive the strong fight or flight response which can be particularly powerful in...

How I Work Up A Chronically Vomiting Cat

Cats vomiting up partially digested or completely undigested food is one of the most common feline appointments that I see, several times a week at least.  Other than the tendency to vomit up food, the cats I am writing of in this article are generally otherwise normal: good appetite, no weightloss, normal drinking patterns, normal attitude, etc. I am glad when cat owners...