You know that elephant quip, the one about how a pachyderm is best consumed? Well, I have the scar to prove it’s true…this time, as it applies to the Sisyphean task of treating the pets of inner-city Miami’s homeless population. Here’s the story:

Last Sunday three vets and three assistants ventured out to Camillus House, the most well-attended and centrally located homeless shelter in the Miami...

Please excuse my extremely late Saturday evening post. I was attending the Florida Veterinary Medical Association (FVMA) Conference in Orlando…just a stone’s throw away from the Mouse King’s lair.

Somehow I was able to exit the city in less than 24 hours without paying Disney dues—or the $500 conference fee, for that matter (press credentials are golden), but I did manage to spend $100 on gas,...

Not every pet plays well with others. We all know a recluse or three and more than a couple unsociable fight-pickers. While members of the latter variety are usually great one-on-one, the prospect of taking one of these canine examples to the dog park is not a sunny one—in fact, it’s fair to say they're unwelcome, banned, verboten.

But that doesn’t keep some similarly socially challenged dog...

Recent posts on muzzling and vet-client divorce have led to comments that intimate the desire for veterinarians to treat their cats in feline fashion—not as small dogs, as some practices tend to do.

Veterinarians can’t always love all species equally. It’s sort of like saying you really don’t care if your bedroom is painted red or blue. Everyone’s go an opinion on which they prefer, right? I...

At least two or three times a week I’m finding it necessary to ask my clients to get more technologically savvy when it comes to their pets. No, it’s not about the novel drugs and specialty veterinary services. Not this time. Instead, this post is about PetCams and other high-tech means of documenting pet health concerns.

But you think these PetCam gadgets are kind of hokey, right?

Sure, it’s...

No doubt the pet insurance world is hoping their business is recession-proof—perhaps even recession-fueled.

It’s clear that having less money with which to pay for your vet expenses must leave lots of pet owners standing outside their vet’s place, credit card statement in hand, echoing Scarlett O’Hara’s immortal sentiment: “God as my witness, I will never let Fluffy live without pet insurance...

Ten years ago pet owners had only a handful of sites to choose from when it came time to research a variety of medical conditions their pets might confront. Renal disease, diabetes, hip dysplasia…these biggies always had an online presence. But lesser known pet health concerns were relegated to the very few sites attempting an encyclopedic approach to pet healthcare.

Fast-forward to 2008 and...

You’ve heard about the five Boogers right? No, it’s not the opening line of a coarse joke. I found it in this week’s dog news:

There are now five Booger’s because Booger #1 was the pit bull who saved her mama’s life and consequently sent this owner scrambling, post-mortem DNA sample in hand, to South Korea for a chance at the litter of her dreams: Five Booger clones!

God help me if I know why...

Going over my expenses today, searching frantically for something worthy of the axe, I reached my blogging expenses and looked extra-carefully for something to cut out—but I knew I wouldn’t find much there.

Sick to death of the bugs you, my die-hard readers, know too well, I just recently blew a wad on Dolittler’s rewrite. Gone, soon, will be the unmanageable, Cold Fusion core of the site. In...

I’ve been asked on several occasions to lend my veterinary skills to the cause of pet wellness in an online Q&A format. I’ve also seen numerous announcements looking for vets to fill this function on several “ask the expert” websites.

In these cases I invariably ask myself, “Why would anyone like me do this?”

So you know, it doesn’t pay dividends in bucks-per-words. The biggest return is in...