How much would you pay for a dog? Here, in the richest country in the world, several million dogs and cats are euthanized each year because there are not enough homes for all of them. That number grows every day, mostly because people won’t have their pets spayed and neutered. How many times have our [...]
Here we are back in the laboratory with your pet’s doctor. Today we’ll be discussing the test called bacterial culture and sensitivity.As the name implies, it’s a two-part test: The culture part of the test tells you that something is going to be grown. In fact, laboratory technicians will take the specimen the doctor sends [...]
Ahhhh, the good life. After I wrote of my current bout with the flu, a client sent me an email. Seems he was really concerned. Seems he could feel my pain. Almost. He probably could have felt my pain if he had been at home, here in Long Beach, but, instead, he was in San [...]
What started out as “cute” might actually be a bad habit. Take pets drinking from a faucet. It’s really cute to see a little kitten tilt his head to drink. It’s cute the way he comes meowing to the faucet every time you pass a sink. Did you ever think it would be your cat [...]
What does a solo practitioner do for patient care when he is out of the office, sick? I’ve often heard the question asked, “How do you know the difference between a cold and the flu?” I’ve often heard the answer, “If you have the flu, you’ll know it! You will feel like you have to [...]
In an ongoing series, MyPetsDoctor.com has informed you about laboratory tests your pet is likely to have performed as routine screening tests, as preoperative tests, and as tests designed to diagnose illness. Today we’re going to look at tests commonly performed on urine. The most basic is urinalysis, which is performed in two parts. First, let’s [...]
Cute, cute, cute! After Catherine’s osteosarcoma diagnosis and subsequent passing, her “sister,” Sara, went into a deep funk. Most dogs and cats snap out of their depression quickly when a disruption such as loss of a roommate occurs, but Sara’s unhappiness seemed to linger and linger. Another of our clients had adopted Hoagee from a [...]
In our ongoing series about how and why your pet’s doctor chooses laboratory tests, and what the results mean, we continue our look at the Chemistry Profile. Glucose. Everybody knows glucose. It’s also known as blood sugar. Problems can occur when it’s too high or too low. Rarely is low glucose, hypoglycemia, a problem in [...]
Pets must not ride in the front seats of cars. The principle is the same as children not riding in front seats. Let’s look at the reasons. When airbags deploy properly in an automobile crash they can save lives and minimize injury. “Deploy properly” means: AIRBAGS Driver or passenger will be the proper distance from [...]
I have long been fascinated by a syndrome that occurs in cats that has no logical explanation I can come up with: Why do cats with blood in the urine deposit that abnormal sample on white surfaces where the contrast will show the blood? Suppose you’re a person who is deaf and are unable to [...]
Poor Sam. Sam, the West Highland Terrier whose progress many of you have followed (STORY ONE) (STORY TWO), had a setback today. We scheduled a Medical Progress Examination to evaluate the current state of his skin problems and itchiness. As his Dad and I spoke, Sam stood on the floor and scratched first one part [...]
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