Pet Health Tip#5-"Are premium pet foods worth it?"

I have had a lot of people ask me whether or not I think that premium pet foods are really that much better than the cheaper brands.  Here is my answer:

Typically premium pet foods such as Iams or Science Diet have been formulated to provide a well balanced diet for your pet.  These brands of pet foods do not contain as much "filler" as other brands.  There are several benefits to this.  First of all, you do not have to feed as much to your pets for them to get the same amount of nutrition.  This actually lowers the cost to make the premium foods a little more comparable to the cheaper brands.  In addition, the volume of feces that your pet will eliminate is significantly decreased when they are on a premium diet.  This is due to the fact that you aren't feeding them as much as well as the fact that they have less "filler" in them.  Finally, the consistency of your pets stools will be more solid.  This is especially important for dogs.  Dogs have glands that are naturally expressed when you pet eliminates.  If the stool is too soft, then they will not be expressed.  This can lead to problems if the glands become impacted.

So, to sum it all up.  Do I think that premium pet foods are worth it?  YES!

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Humorour Life Story #3-"Are we having fun, yet?"

Several years ago, my Mom and I decided to take our first cruise.  We didn't want to take a long cruise for our first venture onto the highseas, so we decided to take a five day Carribean cruise to Cancun, Mexico.  As many of you know, when you book a cruise, the price that you pay doesn't include any excursions.  So, they give you a booklet with a list of the excursions that can be added to your trip for you to enjoy at each port.  You feel obligated to buy a few of these, so that you don't spend each day in port on the ship.

Mom and I read through our choices and decided to sign up for the "Jungle Cruise." This excursion included an open jeep ride through a tropical jungle, a visit to an exotic animal park, and a party at the beach.  Sounds great, right?  Mom and I thougth so, too.  We were really excited about it.

"Jungle Cruise" day finally arrived.  We were really pumped up about it.  We eagerly jumped into the back of our jeep.  The driver climbed in and we were off!  There was a line of about 10 jeeps filled with passengers from our ship.   The caravan drove for several miles down a highway, where we were getting completely windblown, due to being in an open sided jeep. We finally came to a very small village where we turned down a rutted side road.  On each side of the road, there was thick foliage.  Mom and I got excited.  We were finally make it to the "Jungle" part of the trip.  We started heading down this rutted path getting bounced around like a sack of potatos, when we started getting attacked by a swarm of the largest mosquitoes that I have ever seen.  They looked like hummingbirds.  The driver stopped the jeep and jumped out and started spraying insect repellant all over us.  Then he jumped back ino the driver's seat and off we went again.  We traveled about a mile down this rutted path; came to a dead end; and just turned around and headed back out.  I turned to Mom and said, "Was that it?" 

"I think so," she replied.  "I wonder what the exotic animal park is going to look like," she said.  Then we both started laughing.

Next stop, the exotic animal park.  When we arrived, we all climbed slowly out of our jeep's.  We were all very stiff and sore from the jeep ride.  They took us down a path and the first thing that we came to was a small pen enclosed with chicken wire.  Inside the pen were a few goats and some chickens.  Mom and I burst out laughing.  These were the exotic pets?  We walked a little further down the path and there was a monkey tethered to a tree.  Then, the guide turned around and walked up back up the path.  Sure enough the "Exotic animal park" consisted of some goats and chickens, and a monkey tied tethered to a tree!  By this time Mom and I were laughing so hard tears were rolling out of our eyes.

Final stop, the beach party.  When we arrived at the beach, we were fed some of the best guacaomle that I have ever tasted.  Then we all headed out to the beach for swimming and sunbathing.  I have never really enjoyed swimming in the ocean, so I set up a beach chair and sat to enjoy the view.  My mom headed down to the water. After a few minutes, I see my Mom starting to run out of the water toward the beach.  I hear her yelling, "Run, Billi! Run!"

I stood up and shouted, "What? Why?"  I couldn't imagine why she was telling me to run.  If she had spotted something in the ocean, the how was going to get me on the beach?  I thought my Mom was just joking.  Then, suddenly, a huge gust of wind pick up my beach chair and hurled it through the air.  Then, I could see the line of rain that was pelting down on my Mom as she ran toward me.  I turned and started running toward the building behind me.  I didn't make it in time.  I was soaked to the skin by the time I finally made it inside.

So, there we were, about 30 passengers from the cruised huddled inside a building, soaking wet.  Then the leader of our guides gets up on a table and yells with a heavy hispanic accent, "Are we having fun, yet?"

There was a resounding, "NO!" sent up by the crowd.  My mom and I were back to laughing hysterically.  It was hilarious.  To this day, all one of us has to do is utter the phrase, "Are we having fun, yet?" and the other one starts laughing.

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Welcome Home Review by The Midwest Book Review

"Happiness isn't much to a dog, but sometimes that's too much to ask for. "Welcome Home" tells the journey of a black labrador retriever who had a hard journey being pulled away from his mother, abused by a new owner, only to find what he was looking for down the line. "Welcome Home" is a charming story of what a dog wants out of life, worth considering."-The Midwest Book Review

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Pet Health Tip #4- "Are vaccines really important?"

Routine puppy vaccinations against Parvovirus and Distemper are essential to ensuring your puppies health.  Puppies are protected against these viruses until they are approximately 10-12 weeks old through the antibodies that they received from their mother.  After that, they are susceptible to becoming infected with the viruses.  That is why it is essential that they receive the full vaccine regimen.  Veterinarians recommend that you give the first vaccine at approximately 6-8 weeks of age and then repeat every 3-4 weeks until they reach 16 weeks of age.  This is to ensure that they receive the full round of vaccines and have developed their own protection at close to the same time that their mother's antibodies are no longer effective.  There is a window of susceptibility during which time the puppies mother's antibodies are no longer effective and they have not developed their own protection.  This is approximately between 8-12 weeks of age.  It is really important to keep the puppy away from environment's where they could possibly be exposed to the virus during this time. 

Parvovirus and Distemper virus are both found throughout the environment and can survive for long periods of time in the soil.  It is imperative that you keep young unvaccinated puppies away from any yards where there was a known positive puppy for at least 1 year.

Both of these viruses cause severe intestinal distress.  Basically, they cause the intestines to shed their lining.  These are the cells that absorb water and nutrients out of the intestines.  Therefore, the puppy ends up losing a lot of water (i.e. diarrhea) and losing a lot of weight due to the inability to absorb nutrients.  The shedding of the intestinal lining is also very painful.  Many puppies, especially small breeds, do not survive this loss of water and nutrients.

If you choose not to vaccinate your puppy and they survive puppyhood, their odds of contracting the viruses does decrease significantly.  However, unvaccinated adult dogs can still contract the viruses. 

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Welcome Home review from Kirkus Reviews

"Veterinarian Tiner’s debut is a middle grade reader told from the dog’s point of view.

The book opens as Jake, a large, black mixed-breed dog, leaves his mother to move in with his new owner.  Jake is horrified to discover that his new master is an abusive man. He escapes to fend for himself on the city streets. But Jake has dreamed of finding a kind owner with a beautiful yard since he was a puppy, and he isn’t prepared to give up hope. As he searches far and wide, Jake befriends a homeless woman, fellow stray dogs Bo and Rico, and a feral cat and her litter of kittens. Though the violence that Jake suffers will be upsetting to young readers, Tiner avoids graphic descriptions; she writes, “Every day Joe would come out with the stick and beat Jake ruthlessly, and each time Jake just felt fear and confusion grip his heart.” The story moves along in episodic fashion as Jake and his friends struggle to survive in the city. In the spirit of such books as Black Beauty and Charlotte's Web, the animals can speak to one another; Chihuahua Rico's stilted dialog may have been meant to evoke accented English, but instead comes across as awkward, tripping up the reader's flow.  Occasional bouts of clunky phrasing also slow the pace of the story.  Finally, the author's failure to wrap up a few loose ends as the book draws to a close may leave readers wondering about the fate of Jake's friends. 

Young readers who like animal stories will appreciate this warm canine tale." Kirkus Reviews


Overall, I thought that the reviewer did a pretty good job.  They provided a very accurate description of the book.  However, I am really unsure what the reviewed means by, "The author's failure to wrap up a few loose ends as the book draws to a close..."  I don't want to give away the book's ending.  However, I will say that if the reviewer is referring to Jake's friends, Bo and Rico, then their story is wrapped up at the end of the book.  So, due to my confusion, I am asking for feedback from anyone else who reads the book.  Please let me know what you think the reviewer meant by "loose ends", because frankly, I think they just got that point wrong.

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Humorous Life Story #2- "April Fools"

In honor of the fact that April 1st is just around the corner, I thought that I would share an April Fools joke that my husband and I played on our then 13 year old daughter. 

My daughter had gotten her hands on a couple of pairs of high heeled shoes that she liked to put on and wear around the house.  She had a really bad habit of kicking them off right in the middle of walkways. My husband and I were getting really tired of tripping on them.  So, one day my husband picked them up and hid them in our closet.  They were there for several months.  Then, it dawned on us that April 1st was just a few days away.  My husband came up with an excellent plan.  He went to the school and told them the situation.  He then asked if he could leave the shoes in our daughter's locker on April 1st as an April Fools Day joke.  The principal of the school thought that sounded hilarious and quickly agreed.

April 1st finally arrived and my husband took the shoes in a Wal-Mart bag down to the school and placed them in our daughter's locker.  When my daughter's bus arrived at home, I could see that she was carrying the bag full of shoes.  I went to my computer and pretended to be working, but was dying to know how she had reacted.  My husband wasn't home yet and I didn't know if I could keep a straight face until he arrived, so that we could confess together. 

My daughter came up to me and dropped into a chair.  She just sat there looking at me for several minutes.  Finally, she said, "Something really weird happened at school today."

"Oh, really, what?" I asked, as I tried to keep from busting out laughing.

"Well, you know those shoes that I have been looking for, the high heels?" she asked

"Yes," I replied.  "What about them?"

"I found them in my locker today!" she said, clearly in shock.

Really trying to stall things.  I asked, "Didn't we tell you not to take those things to school?"

"I didn't!" she wailed.

"Well, they didn't walk there on their own," I stated sarcastically.  Then, I heard the garage door opening and knew my husband was home.  That was a good thing, because I was just about to lose it. 

He walked in just as my daughter yelled, "I really didn't do it!  I think that I have a stalker!  I think that he must have come in here and stole my shoes, then hid them in my locker.  I am really scared."

My husband and I burst out laughing and said in unison said, "April Fools!"

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Humorous Life Stories #1- "Oh Crap, What Do I Do Now?"

I am the type of person who tries to see the humor in life.  I have found that if you look for the humor in a stressful or awkward situation, it can make it almost enjoyable. So, in an effort to let you know more about me and my life, I thought that I would periodically share humorous stories about me, my life as a veterinarian, and my family.  Hope you enjoy the first installment.

"Oh Crap, What Do I Do Now?"

It was the beginning of my last year of veterinary school. We were finally to the stage in our veterinary training where we were moving out of the classroom and into the clinics.  We were all very excited to get to finally see patients.  The year was divided into different rotations such as radiology, surgery, anesthesia, large animal medicine, and small animal medicine.  My first rotation was small animal medicine.  This was the rotation that I looked forward to the most.  During this rotation, I was going to get to see examine patients and make diagnoses.  It was the most hands-on real world training of all the rotations.  The first day, I was really nervous about making a good impression.  I was also scared about whether or not I would be able to make the correct diagnoses.  The first thing that we did when we arrived at the clinic was to go to the front desk and sign our name next to the patient that we wanted to see.  All that we had to go on was a time, the owner's name, and the name of the patient.  I was the first one to the sign up sheet, so I signed up for the first patient on the list.

We had been instructed to take a thorough history and perform an examination, then find an instructor to run through our list of differential diagnoses.  We had been given a check-list of questions to ask when taking the patient's medical history as well as a check-list of things to look at during the examination.  I went to the back of the clinic to review the check-lists.  The history questions were things such as:  What symptoms have you noted?, Is your pet eating normally?, Is he having any problems urinating or defecating?, etc.  The examination check-list included things such as:  check ears, eyes, skin, heart, lungs, and temperature. 

So, the time finally came for me to go in to see my first patient.  Armed with my stethoscope, thermometer, and pen light.  I went out into the lobby and called the owner's name.  A woman stood and walked toward me carrying a large cardboard box.  I thought, "Cool, my first patient must be a puppy or kitten."

The woman placed the box on the exam table and opened the lid.  I looked inside and lying there was a large coiled up Boa constrictor!  As you may have guessed, the thought screaming through my brain was, "Oh crap, what do I do now?"  I didn't know anything about snakes.  It was just my luck that the very first patient in my veterinary career was a snake.  The check-lists were of no use to me.  I didn't want to look like an idiot, but I had no idea what to do with a snake.  I asked the woman what symptoms the snake was having.  She told me that the snake had a rash on its belly.  While she was telling me this, the only thing that I could think of was, "How am I supposed to perform an examination on this thing?  Where the heck is the heart?"

I pulled the stethoscope from around my neck and just stood there staring into the box.  The woman laughed and pointing to an area about a third of the way down the snakes body said, "The heart should be right around here." At that point, all of my anxiety whooshed out of me and I started to grin from ear to ear.  I admitted that I really didn't know anything about snakes and thanked her for understanding my awkwardness. The snake ended up having a bacterial infection that was cleared up with a shot of antibiotics.  That was the last snake that I have ever had in an exam room..  At the time, I was really disappointed that my first patient wasn't a fuzzy puppy or a patient with a really complicated issue, but I definitely won't ever forget it!

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