Power tools? Uh oh...........

I want to start this blog by saying no animals or people were harmed in this story. As for the wall......I'm so sorry wall! I will back up a bit so this story makes a bit of sense. I have an amazing client who was not only taking care of her pets, she was doing her best to take care of a family member's two cats. Long story short, I insisted the two cats come stay at the hospital until I could find them a home. Whenever I would attempt to make introductions to a potential new family, Willow would hiss. Three months later, they are still with me.

What is a girl to do but revamp the home office into a forever cat room? Hit the internet and found some "easy to install" wall cat shelves. Not so much! I ended up buying out most of Home Depot's wall brackets. I wasn't taking a chance on the girls getting hurt. It was both frustrating yet very fun to get it done.

My supervisors did not seem to think I could do it without their help!

Pretty sure Cardinal was wondering if I had lost my mind. It may have been what I was muttering......

Woohoo!! Finally finished.

Hoping they think their new digs are pretty cool!





So today was the day, I brought them home. I had food out in a variety of places and some well placed pinches of catnip.

The shelves are holding!!!! Huge relief! : )

Willow is certainly more confident in my carpentry skills than Sadie!

It could also be because she was having a blast with the catnip!!!

I think they are happy and I am absolutely thrilled!

Now I'm barking mad

So I'm sitting here watching "Barking Mad" on Marketplace. Well, here are some of my issues: 1. What was the context of the examination? 2. Why are they asking Dr. Jean Dodds who has not published any papers in recognized journals in over 10 years for information? 3.Why do they have to paint all veterinarians in Canada based on ten vets in one city?

Yes, I still recommend vaccinating many of our pets on a yearly basis and I will explain why. The research that has been done has, on average, 20 to 50 dogs. On the human side, you would need thousands upon thousands of people for the research to be valid. Another important thing is that, except for Rabies, we do not know what titres are actually protective. Simple reason, the research that would be required would never be approved. Hypothetically, if we could actually do the research, a group of say 2000 dogs would be used. 1000 would be unvaccinated and the other half vaccinated. Then all the dogs would be exposed to the virus........yes, possibly upwards of 80% to 90% of the unvaccinated dogs would become sick or die. It would depend on the virus used in the study. We all know how devastating the parvo virus is to our dogs. This is not a humane research project.

Another point from my soapbox. The prevalence of heartworm determines the testing done. In the areas of the States where there is heartworm everywhere, they recommend testing yearly even when the dogs/cats are on heartworm prevention. This is because some of the medications are not completely protective. Undetected, this is a life threatening disease. Typically, I recommend the dog be tested once every four years if the owners are regularly taking them to heartworm endemic areas and will keep them on medication during the mosquito season. If the person is taking the dog to the an endemic area but are only staying a few weeks or couple months, we only dispense the amount of medication required after doing a test. Here's something to think about. If the dog does come down with the heartworm disease and has been properly tested, the drug company will help pay for the treatment.

The food, omg, are you kidding me? The metabolic diet by Hill's is an excellent diet for obese dogs. OBESE!!! There is no way on earth this dog was obese. Sure, it could loose a few pounds but, wow!!! I was embarrassed during that section.

Okay, the medication prices. Yes, they are cheaper down in the States. We have no control over our cost price in any way shape or form - the distributing companies control that. Our mark up depends on many things such as rent, staff salaries, supplies we order from our distributing companies, equipment and the list goes on. Plus, the majority of our clients appreciate the convenience of picking up the medications at the time of their appointment. I also think the animal's prefer the animal flavoured medications as well!!!

Student again!!!

I have always been fascinated by animal behaviour. It is my true passion in veterinary medicine. This spring I found a board certified veterinary behaviourist, Dr. Diane Frank, who is going to mentor me through my non-conforming residency. Yup, I am going to be a student again!!!!

For those of you who don't know what a non-conforming residency is, I will try to give you the short form of how I plan on accomplishing this. (The proposed program I sent to the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists was 26 pages long!) I will still be practicing general practice veterinary medicine at my hospital; however, Dr. Frank will be coming out once a month for three or four days at a time to oversee my initial cases.

Here's how my caseload works. She will be present for the first 25 cases and then she will be present for 25 of the next 50 cases. There will be varying amounts of supervision as we progress through my minimum of 400 cases. Not only will I be seeing dogs and cats, but horses, birds and zoo animals. This is going to take me about five years. If I were to go to a university with a behaviour residency program it would take about 2 to 3 years. The thought of leaving my patients, clients, work family and, of course, my patient husband, just doesn't work. As well, I will be writing a paper based on research I will be doing that will be published in a peer reviewed journal. I also will find the time to write three peer-reviewed case reports. Once I have completed my program, I will be apply to sit for the boards. This is a two day test (not stressful at all!). Upon passing, I will be board certified in animal behaviour.

Now, during this process, I will still be practicing veterinary medicine as usual. I would likely go absolutely mad if I couldn't. I will also continue to do general medicine once I am a specialist. Being able to help my patients to have a great experience at the hospital is so fulfilling as is helping my scaredy cats and dogs learn to relax.

PEI generosity

It is has been a bit of a roller coaster week and a half. I absolutely love being a veterinarian but I always feel so helpless when there is something going on with one of my Mom's animals.

Last Thursday my Mom had to take her assistance dog, Tag, to the Atlantic Veterinary College for neurological signs (one eye had started to sink into its socket and a tilt to her head). She ended up getting there later in the day and we knew that being able to find her a hotel room was going to be a challenge. It was Old Home Week on the Island and almost all the hotels were fully booked. On her way to my old vet school, in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, my amazing office manager, PJ, did some calling around and found her a room at the Garden Gate Inn.

Mom finally gets there and over the next few hours, in between other emergencies being brought in to the Veterinary Teaching Hospital, Tag was examined, admitted and a game plan was determined. At nine her time, I received a call from the owner of the Garden Gate Inn. Joan Cumming was wondering if I knew when Mom was going to be arriving as she had to step out. Since I hadn't heard from Mom at that time, she instantly said it wouldn't be a problem. She was going to leave a note for Mom on the door telling her to look in the mailbox for the key to her room!! This is an example of the famous Island hospitality. Mom was at the hospital until 1 am and all she had to do was drive up the street and go to bed.

Through a few emails with Joan, we figured out that I'd worked with her daughter, Karen, when I was a student in Truro, Nova Scotia. Karen is an awesome AHT and taught me many things that I still use today. Joan is also the woman who directed me to the dress maker who made my wedding dress. Such a small world!!!

After six long days, Tag was finally able to come home. Mom will be taking her back to the AVC Monday (tomorrow) for the final test. The moment I found out that Tag was going to be going back for an MRI, I contacted Joan. With that kind of personal service, I knew Mom would be well taken care of during this trying time.

If anyone is ever going to be visiting beautiful Prince Edward Island, I would highly recommend staying at the Garden Gate Inn. I know you will be thoroughly impressed with the service. Thanks again Joan, you are an angel!

Yes, there is a Tim Horton's right beside the Inn! Yet another plus for this Tim's addict!

Yes, I can turn you away

Today was an interesting Monday to say the least. I know that people's tempers are a bit frayed from the continued state of emergency in High River. Here's the thing, it does not give you the right to be rude to my staff. They are my work family and I tend to be very protective of my family.

A lady called and made an appointment for her dog because it had a cut on its leg. Not a problem, the staff "made" an appointment (aka, we were fully booked and needed to find a place to squish her in). The fun started when she arrived. My receptionist, Belle, told her that she would take them into a room and I would be in shortly to do an exam to see what needed to be done. This person told her (in no uncertain terms) that the dog was not going to have an exam because the dog just needed to have some stitches put in. Oh yeah, she didn't want antibiotics either cause vets just like to over medicate the animals. Belle tried to explain that unless I saw the dog, I wouldn't know how to treat the dog appropriately. The person informed her that she should just get the vet.

So Belle came and got me. I came out and asked what the issue was. I sure got an earful!!!! Can I tell you how much I love being told how to do my job? Here's the thing, without examining the dog and coming up with a treatment plan, how do I know what needs to be done? Does it have a small cut that can just heal on its own? Is it a large laceration needing a general anesthetic? The person flipped out when I mentioned a general anesthetic as her vet never used an anesthetic and would just take the dog out back and throw in some stitches. I finally figured that no matter what I said, it would start another argument.

I took a deep breath and told the owner that we had obviously gotten off on the wrong foot. She nodded her head in agreement. "So, with that in mind, Belle, would you mind calling X veterinary clinic to see if they have any room to deal with this patient?" After picking her jaw off the floor, she stormed out with the poor dog in tow.

This is my dear Reason who is now 14 years old. Just added her picture as a reward for reading my little rant.

Things I learned today

Well, I have learned a number of things about myself today. I can still run in my heels. I can almost get myself stuck under a car. I can climb around the engine block to get a scared cat. Yes, I learned this during business hours!!!

Let's start at the beginning. I was having an informal meeting with another vet, Dr. Leicht, when one of the staff said they needed help catching a cat in the parking lot. Out we all went to find the cat which was now hiding in the engine block of someone's Mazda. Easy to find the car as there were a number of people surrounding the cat. Luckily, the vehicle owner was found so she popped the hood. Before the two of us on top could move, it darted down, dove past everyone stretched out around the car and took off. I went running to the sidewalk in hopes of keeping it from going on the road.

Our group gathered around another ....... Mazda. If you want to see a well protected engine, go look at a Mazda. I tried to get under to have a peak and almost got stuck. So there we all are, standing around the vehicle. I joked that it would be a good idea to get the owner's attention by setting off the car alarm. I hit the car and son of a gun if it didn't go off! I may never be able to hear quite the same again. That didn't bring an owner so my girls and Dr. Leicht went to the different businesses to find an owner.

It took a bit, but finally the owner of the car came out. He popped the hood for what turned out to be the first time since he'd owned the car. The girls were ready underneath with the fishing net a kind young teenager had offered to the cause. The others were placed strategically around the car. As the hood opened, I jumped on top of the engine and almost grabbed the cat by the tail. The cat poked its head down under then aborted mission and hid on the other side of some part of the engine. Luckily my arm was just long enough to reach the scruff and I held on for dear life. My Mom would have been so proud. Dr. Leicht had the cat carrier ready and in she went.

So, this scared little cat is in our quiet cat room. We will look for identification once s/he has settled. If you know of anyone who lost a cat in the Walmart parking lot today in Okotoks, it is safe with us. Oh yeah, the current nickname is Mazda!!!

Something so tiny........

I recently performed dental surgery on the cutest little cat. During her yearly physical, we found that Button (as in cute as a button), had fractured one of her incisors. Since the pulp was exposed we needed to extract it. It did turn out to be an eye opening procedure as we found something we weren't exactly expecting.

My RAHT, Kelly, took a great picture of the cavity on the canine tooth. The green arrow is pointing at the tiny little defect that was so painful that her mouth chattered when it was touched under the general anesthetic. If you've only read one of my dental blogs you know the next step was a radiograph.

This picture did not give me the warm fuzzies cause the root sucked! (Yes, that is a professional and medical term!) The picture on the right is from my dental book to show you what a normal root is supposed to look like. Needless to say, we extracted that tooth as well (after tracking Mom down at her dental appointment across town, LOL)!