The new year is upon us. Though 2,009 is just another number, the ‘turning of the clock’ always provides exciting new incentives to reassess the state of any given process. In this case, the process in question is the evolution of the veterinary industry.

There’s no doubt that veterinary...

A shocking news story out of Northeastern Pennsylvania: A basement-dwelling groomer offers “Gothic kittens” for sale on eBay. The uniquely “Gothic” quality? A pair of pierced ears, a pierced neck and a pierced tail.

What the seller didn’t know is that not only is it illegal to sell live animals...

Every year I like to offer a rundown of my holiday nightmare cases. Usually, these are the pups purchased in pet stores. With their…

…unrelenting coughs, watery eyes, sniffly noses, undescended testicles, whopping umbilical hernias, honking heart murmurs, popping knees, crunching hips, stunted...

As if Paris’s penchant for pocket-pooches wasn’t already problematic enough, the breed is bound to suffer in the wake of Disney’s release of Beverly Hills Chihuahua. In case you’re not aware, here’s the official site for the flick.

With more CGI dogs than 101 Dalmatians, Disney’s Chihuahua love...

When you take your pet to the veterinarian for a “simple” spay and the incision requires multiple follow-up visits as a result of its obvious superficial infection, should you pay for follow-ups?

When your vet “misses” a diagnosis and you have to go see the [expensive] internal medicine...

Just two months ago Miami-Dade County (where I reside) approved an ordinance that would ban the chronic use of tethering (chaining or otherwise confining a dog via tether) as a way of “housing” dogs. But it didn’t happen without a fight, one which the welfare-minded residents of neighboring...

Last Monday the AVMA (American Veterinary Medical Association) issued an important position statement on tail docking and ear cropping. Stronger than the 2005 version, which frowned upon the practice without showing any teeth, this statement still stops short of opposing ear crops and tail docks...

Every once in a while (OK so more often, recently) I like to write about veterinarians in my specific employment circumstance. That is, I get a hankering for telling stories out of school on the realities of working for a practice I don’t own. But it’s not always all about me. To that end,...

Lots of breeders and regular pet owners give their own vaccines as a way to save on multi-pet care. Many of them do research on the vaccines, ask their vets for advice, buy the vaccines online, store them properly, administer them carefully and keep excellent records.

I have no problem with this...

Over the last few weeks I’ve seen about a dozen cases of cats with a deadly infection that looks like panleukopenia. (That’s feline distemper, otherwise known as the “P” in the FVRCP vaccine most well-tended cats receive.)

Their families bring them in to our hospital in carriers with perforated...