Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal carried two articles that were obviously prompted by our pet-food recall problems. The first is about an apparent widespread use of unsafe additives for local consumption on a routine basis across Asia. Formaldehyde, which has been linked to cancer, has legitimate uses in adhesives and embalming. But in Indonesia, Sutikno, a […]
Author Archives: Doc
One of the difficulties in being a solo practitioner is that you can really only do one thing at a time. Sure, you can "multi-task", working on multiple patients in the same time period: some patients will be in a holding pattern while waiting for lab results, or their initial ear cleansing can be done […]
An idosyncratic reaction is a reaction that is peculiar to one individual (or at least to a very small minority of patients). Some reactions might be called an "intolerance". Everybody else can take this medicine, but it always makes me sick. For example, the orthopedic surgeon gave me a sample of an anti-inflammatory medicine when […]
When someone calls and says that their dog or cat is "constipated", we don’t just automatically hand out a list of laxatives over the phone. We always ask "What is your pet actually doing? Passing small hard stools? Squatting and straining a lot?" It is usually the latter. This is often the outward appearance of […]
If you’re interested, I’ve got the rest of my pictures from the Wild West Arts Convention available on Flickr now.
Today I got a call from a man I hadn’t heard from in years. He used to raise dogs and he also brokered exotic animals, from monitor lizards to lion cubs, including this one ( in this ancient daguerrotype from when my clinic and I, and Becky, here, were young). Gee, his son-in-law is on […]
My siblings and I are members of the last generation to grow up immersed in America’s mythology: the cowboys in the Great American West. [That’s me, Leah, and Matt with the six-gun in 1961] Between my father’s great love for horses and 4 out of 5 TV shows being Westerns (even the test pattern had […]
Okay, it may look like I’m getting close to the end of sequel titles, but I’ve got a few more up my sleeve. It would be good if we get to the end of the recalls pretty soon, though. Today’s announcement by American Nutrition is a little farther ranging. That sounds like a pretty generic […]
And the hits just keep on comin’. Natural Balance has added more foods to their recall list, but the web link is the same. Drs. Foster & Smith are the new kids on the block. The summary is on the KVC webpage.
When we welcome a new client to our practice, part of the process is a questionnaire about their pet’s health history and environment. The last question is: "Do you consider your pet to be a member of the family?" and most people answer "Yes". The human-animal bond is very strong. It’s very common for people […]