Every good cat deserves a good poop

Constipation and difficulty defecating are common in older cats. Why is this? A lot of it has to do with the kidneys.

Rescues need a remedy

A study came out last year from the Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science listing the most common reasons that people give for surrendering their dogs to shelters.

They list behavior (specifically, biting) at number 10. There is an argument to be made that the percentage of animals relinquished for behavior issues is much higher than this.

The Husbandry and Feeding of Veterinarians (for new owners)

Congratulations on your new relationship! Partnering with a veterinarian is not without its challenges, but with some care and effort you can make things work. Here are a few pointers to help you maximize the bond with your veterinarian.

1. Veterinarians are omnivores – unless they are vegetarians. You’ll have to figure out which type you have. Start out by offering a nice mid-rare steak. If your veterinarian looks ineffably sad and turns away, you have a vegetarian. Eat the steak yourself and turn on fans to vent the smell of cooked flesh, then offer your veterinarian a nice pasta or salad.

Madison Avenue & Fido

Don Draper (Mad Men). He could take any product and craft an advertisement in print or on screen that really hooked people and made them buy. Cigarettes, floor wax, cars, burgers, shoes, mundane things were magically transformed by the ad men from “meh” to “I need that” or “I love that”.

Who can forget the iconic Coke commercial with all the young people singing, “I’d like to teach the world to sing, in perfect harmony…”?

Open up a whole new world

Get pet insurance. Veterinary medicine is advancing at a rapid pace. It always has, I guess, just like human medicine. We can do things now that were impossible 20 years ago, but 20 years ago we were doing things impossible 20 years before that, so in that respect progress is unchanging.

Now, though, I think that the advances are relatively more expensive. New stuff always costs, but I think the technology that backstops the latest advances is costing more of a paycheck percentage-wise than the lower-tech advances used to. A new surgical procedure, suture material, or antibiotic are cheaper to implement than a million-dollar MRI machine.

Perhaps steps just used to be smaller. In any event, this hike in cost presents a problem when it comes to providing excellent care to my patients.

Does Kristen Lindsey deserve to die?

People are angry. There are calls for Kristen Lindsey, the veterinarian in Texas who allegedly shot a cat with an arrow, to be killed. Strung up from the nearest tree. Shot through the head. Tied up and dragged behind a car. Skinned alive. Many say she should kill herself and save all of the outraged readers the trouble. Save the state the cost of a trial.

She didn’t set off a bomb in a public place, or commit genocide. She didn’t join ISIL and behead journalists, drive drunk and kill someone with a car, burn down a school full of children, or shoot a police officer. She didn’t bilk old ladies out of their retirement money, didn’t sell drugs to ten year olds, didn’t sit in a clock tower with a gun and pick off strangers.

Not quite speechless

I’ve been inundated with emails about the recent case of a veterinarian who allegedly shot a cat in the head with an arrow. (Warning – the link contains graphic content.) While I like to reserve judgment about everything reported online, the evidence is pointing toward this report being true, and her actions as being deliberate.

“Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.” ~ Anatole France

I always thought I would be identically fond of all my pets. As a kid, before I had any furry pets, I was in love with the concept of loving a cat or a dog, having a little best friend to be mine; all mine, not shared with sisters or brothers, as loving and loyal to me as I would be loving and loyal to him.

Stuck in the 60’s

There’s an interesting mind set with some clients when it comes to treating animals, a sort of temporal stickiness. Their minds get stuck in time, to when they were kids and how animals were treated “then”.

Most of the time this happens with people from a rural background, and I can understand why. Animals on the farm are regarded as commodities, which most certainly are (thinking cattle, sheep, chickens). You can only put as much money into them as you think you can get out, or you’ll go broke.

The “it” factor

I will admit to a personal pet peeve. Well, OK, I have a bunch because I’m old and crotchety, but this is one that’s in the front of my brain at the moment.

I simply cannot stand it when pet owners refer to their pets as “it”. Pets are not “it”, even when they are neutered. They are “he” and “she” and a proper name or a cute nickname. “It” distances the person from an emotional involvement. “It” means that the pet is a thing, not a companion or a friend. “It” means you can’t even remember whether your own pet is male or female, or it doesn’t matter to you.

It even bothers me that animals are referred to as “it” in veterinary journals. I really want to change all of the “its” to “he” or “she” when I read these articles.

We don’t call our friends “that man” or “the subject”. We save that for people we don’t know or care about; strangers. Pets should be close to us, tied to our hearts. We should know their personalities, their foibles, their likes and dislikes, and we should strive to make their lives pleasant and fulfilling. If we have this relationship with animals they aren’t objects, but little furry beings that deserve better than to be called “it”.