When my son got chiggers at camp, he asked his mom what to do about the itching. She suggested the traditional remedies of Benadryl cream, Chigarid, or clear nail polish. He didn’t care for those alternatives, so I facetiously suggested that he "scratch them till they are bloody sores". He gave me a quizzical look […]
Monthly Archives: September 2006
It’s not the heat, it’s the stupidity. That is, it’s the stupidity of the body’s defense system that results in allergies. You’ve got this great and amazing array of mechanisms that protect your body from foreign invaders. When some harmful germ or poisonous molecule (i.e. a really tiny thing that is bad for you) enters […]
We had a horse come in with a runny eye on one side. He didn’t seem to be bothered much by it, but his face was wet and a little gooky (scientific term: things with gook on them are gooky). Now it just so happens that your tears are made in glands around your eye, […]
Thinking about Macey’s battle with cancer (see yesterday’s post) reminded me that a lot of people have some real misconceptions about chemotherapy. The commonly held belief is that the treatment is worse than the disease. I often encounter pet-owners with the preconceived idea that chemotherapy makes you really sick, rarely works, and just generally makes […]
I had intended to write a more light-hearted post this evening, but sometimes things take an unexpected turn. Macey was a Boxer who developed lymphoma a year ago in July. She had been misdiagnosed elsewhere and put on antibiotics for her swollen lymph nodes. After four weeks of that, they sought a second opinion, my […]
Of all the strange beliefs of pet-owners, the notion that "a dog’s mouth is cleaner than a person’s" is one of the more surprising. I suppose it may arise from the fact that you can get a really nasty infection if a person were to bite you (those old "germs that cause bad breath" again). […]
Lane e-mailed me to ask how to get the pooch used to the idea of tooth-brushing. Actually, we want them to accept the actual practice of tooth-brushing in addition to the idea of it [joke: observe the twinkle in my eye, please]. Lane’s second question was about the type of toothbrush you need. Why not […]
…or stay stupid. Today was the fall semi-annual meeting of the Southeast Missouri Veterinary Medical Association. Our district of the Missouri VMA extends from the Bootheel (and me) up north to Hillsboro (which is practically St.Louis), and west over to Salem. Our meeting was at the Dexter Barbecue restaurant, which (oddly enough) is in Cape […]
Today we performed dental cleaning on a couple of 10-years old German Shepherds. The tartar on their teeth was pretty thick. One of them lost a molar. The tartar had eroded its attachment to the gums, and it was pretty much falling out, despite being free of cavities. When I go to the dentist, the […]
Well, the weather was perfect at Camp Pine Ridge this weekend. Wood Badge Course C-37-06 came to a successful conclusion with many newly trained Scout leaders headed home to strengthen their Cub Scout packs, Boy Scout troops, Venture crews and Varsity teams. I had a great time, but I find that sleeping on a camp […]