Answering the unanswerable and other trials inherent to veterinary Q & A
I was listening to this radio show on NPR on Thanksgiving morning when it suddenly occurred to me: Answering questions for a radio show on cooking turkeys is pretty much the same as answering questions for a pet health website. How so? It’s entertaining...regardless of whether you’re asking, answering or just tuning in. Questioners and listeners/readers get more informed. The answering party gets put on the spot and has to work hard to stay on top of the subject matter. And, of course, no cash is exchanged (a un

Pet shopping, Black Friday and YOU
Turns out that 52% of pet owning Americans plan on buying their pets a present this year. According to the Associated Press poll that brought this news to a publication near you, that’s up from 43% last year. Conclusion: Pets are beloved and becoming more traditionally so if their ability to rake in the holiday swag is any measure. Which has elicited some impressive media responses to the concept of pet spending. As in (yawn!) the tired old argument that we waste

The tell-tale tail and its veterinary implications
I used to think it was a red herring akin to the old wives tail about dry noses and warm ears. Sure, I thought, sometimes a “down” tail truly means something. But most often it’s all in the eye of the beholder. As in––he who lends credence to things as frivolous as the carriage of a tail deserves the stress said observation evokes. Is her nose warm, dry, moist, cool, chilly? Who the heck cares? Not if it doesn’t correlate with any significant physiologic change or disease state. So too for her normally curly tail. It’s just a curly tail that’s no

What to do when pet owners call you "Sweetie"...
Here’s a question: What’s the protocol for handling clients’ off-color jokes, taming their florid outbursts and rejecting any untoward advances? I have no clear answer for all these cases. That’s where you come in. No matter what business you’re in, you’re bound to be exposed to undeserved assaults on your dignity and/or your domestic status. Some people are, simply put, “inappropriate.” So much so that sometimes all you can do as the target of the language or behavior is backpedal in the opposite direction and employ a technician, assista

Still looking for the perfect “free range” turkey?
Never fear. You still have time. Place an order by tonight (or maybe tomorrow night) and you’ll have a turkey. But not just any turkey. This is a turkey that, as we speak, lives and breathes on a free range farmstead in all his or her gallinaceous glory. All those Whole Foods birds? They invariably best the standard supermarket Butterball for flavor, freshness and potential for “free range” living. But even at a fancy purveyor of expensive poultry, what’s the guarantee that “free range” really means what you hope