Being a food animal veterinarian can offer a broader range of opportunities than the average American might think. We can shuffle papers for a big behemoth of a swine operation, sit behind a desk in Washington D.C., condemn carcasses at a CAFO, manage herds for 1,500-head dairy facilities, consult with family-run farms as they attempt to go organic or introduce chicken fanciers to the sweet...

It’s a huge issue. So big it fuels a sizable niche industry created specifically to meet the needs of pets who won’t––or can’t––tolerate drugs and supplements designed to treat and/or prevent their ills.

It’s nearly every day we access our favorite compounding pharmacy’s expertise in the formulation of new versions of the same-old drugs that line our shelves. After all, pets can be picky...

Here’s another entry born of an email response to Monday’s post on how to identify quality in veterinary care. This time, it’s related to my comment on the issue of compassion in veterinary medicine––particularly with respect to high-priced, technically savvy hospitals where concern for the owner’s pocketbook takes a back seat to what’s best for the pet.

The suggestion led one emailer to ask...

After yesterday’s post on how to spy quality in veterinary care, I received an email asking this simple question (and I paraphrase): How do I know if my veterinarian should be referring me to a specialist? What are these “complex” situations you allude to in your post and how would I know if I’m being led astray?

Excellent question! More so because there’s no clear answer. While our leading...

In response to the question I field most frequently (though seldom worded so succinctly), I’ll offer you a post that attempts a concise response to the issue of quality in veterinary care...and how you know you’re getting it. 

It’s like the tired old quip on porn: No one quite knows how to define it...but you always know it when you see it. So goes quality in veterinary care. Hard to...

First up: Thank you all for the encouragement on kicking the habit-which-shall-not-be-named. Next: Apologies for the rare lapse in my daily posting schedule and the tardiness of this Saturday entry...

...but I’ve been working. Mostly, anyway. Today, I spent 3.5 hours lecturing (again, sort of) on issues surrounding new graduate integration into the work force. It was really more like a...

I’m heading out to Denver today to lead a roundtable discussion on the topic of new graduate integration into the workforce (more on that tomorrow). In advance of a trip out to the Rockies where the oxygen is thinner and the hiking trails are steeper, I’ve been taking drugs...lots of ‘em.

I’m on my second week of Chantix, Pfizer’s blockbuster smoking cessation pills. They work by blocking...

Surprisingly, yesterday’s Wall Street Journal dedicated a slice of its weekly Health section to the use of aromatherapy in pets. Though it could have elected a less cheeky tone, the author of "A Scent to De-Stress Pets" actually did the topic some justice, citing literature instead of pointing to the potential silliness of a subject that, on the surface, sounds as if it would treat doggie spa...

One of suburbia’s dubious delights involves the long vistas of manicured lawns through which my neighbors seemingly compete on the basis of their greenness and unbroken blandness. Which inevitably means chemicals: pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers and parasite-killers.

Even if your lawn is free of such nasties, your nearest neighbors’ likely aren’t. So whether you spray or not, your...

I burned my arm last Friday night. Big time. Hell-raising home chef that I am, I was prepping a friend’s gas grill when the whole thing went up in a fireball. Starter malfunction combined with a high flow of gas and basic gas grill unfamiliarity (mine is charcoal) conspired to singe my brows, my eyelashes and every single hair on my right arm...from hand to axilla. In streaks, it burned the...