I watched a friend's Yorkie this past weekend and snickered as he and my own critters sized each other up. This got me thinking about "Dog and Cat politics" and their personality types. You can't watch the news this time of year without being bombarded by opinions on how to run our country.
Last week's newsletter was about the value of running a periodic urinalysis - not just for diabetics but for pets who are ill or as screening tests for senior pets.
Every now and then one of our customers asks me about testing urine glucose instead of blood glucose testing. There is a time and place for testing urine in the home, but in general blood glucose testing provides us with much better information for insulin dosing adjustments.
Hurricane season is a bit stressful for this veterinarian. Recently, Tropical Storm Erika threatened to visit. I’ve lived in South Florida for 5 years but hadn’t had such a close call from a potential storm until Erika. I had to buy hardware for my shutters for my vet clinic. I bought gas cans and gas for […]
I was talking with a kitty owner today. Her kitty stopped eating earlier this week. We ran bloodwork and took radiographs and then sent her to an internist for an ultrasound yesterday.
Question: My vet put my diabetic dog on probiotic. Should my other dog also be on probiotic?
This may be a long answer! In general, probiotics are safe and do some amazing things in our bodies. There are several situations where we know that probiotics speed recovery and promote health in dogs and cats, but more studies […]
I got home the other day after a busy day of surgeries and just wanted to be horizontal. Instead, I opened my front door and got blasted by the stink of fish. Only a cannery might have smelled more fishy than my front entryway smelled. One of the dogs had pulled a nearly full bottle of […]
I'm sure you've heard of diabetic cats that were on insulin then off then on again? Are they doing this just to vex their humans and veterinarians? How can a cat be diabetic then not diabetic? Why has the incidence of diabetes increased in our felines? Are there factors predisposing felines to diabetes the same as with humans?
Nobody wants to be boring. The ole hum drum gets pretty old after awhile. As mind numbing as routines can be, they are also of great benefit when managing diseases. Patient compliance is one of the bigger obstacles to good diabetes management for human diabetics.
One of our readers asked me this week to write about when to “let go” when a pet is struggling with medical issues. This is such a difficult subject. We’ve all been through loss. Some loss hurts more than others. Sometimes we can’t fathom going on without a loved one. Sometimes it takes years to overcome […]