I had an exceptional day at work yesterday. Too bad it was of the impressively depressing kind. Three diabetics––all very sick––made it through my door. All three made it back out...as their owners picked them back up and took them to the internal medicine specialist’s place for more intensive care than I could provide. 

So you know, I’m happy to treat diabetics in my hospital. But by the...

I have the best luck. My veterinary surgeon boyfriend holds a rarefied kind of certification human and veterinary surgeons share. It grants him the ability to perform research and lecture on all kinds of fiddly limb deformity-fixing techniques. Yesterday his talents came in very handy.

Slumdog is the newest addition to my family. Every bit of this puppymill pug mix signals that he’s worthy of...

No, I haven’t yet written the great American novel. Or the great American veterinary tome, either. But now that my introduction’s attached to Homer’s Odyssey, I’ve officially been published in a hardcover book. As of today, it's available on Amazon for your shopping pleasure.

Lest you think I’ve been moonlighting as a classics prof, let me explain: Subtitled, “A Fearless Feline Tale, Or How I...

No, we can’t save them all. But we’ve all been guilty of letting the occasional long-shot kitten case worm its way into our psyches, sucking up all our energy reserves like a feline singularity as we battle to save it against all odds––not to mention our better judgment. 

The kitten in question is a stray twelve-weeker currently living in the company of a new-client couple. They’d come in...

Sense a theme on Dolittler lately? It seems I just can’t keep myself from addressing the most obvious killer problem in our midst: pet obesity. 

But how do you know if a pet’s fat? And just how fat denotes obesity? These are just a couple of problems I face in my daily life as someone who advocates for the best care of my individual patients.

Take the 158-pound Labrador retriever I’ve been...

Have you ever known a somnambulist? You know, a “sleepwalker”? If so, you’ll know this disorder, though usually benign, can sometimes lead them into odd situations where they do things like raid the fridge, drive the car or climb on the roof. 

How about this one: Have you ever been sufficiently startled (out of a deep sleep or otherwise) that you reflexively defended yourself? 

Something...

Things in Miami don’t happen the way they do in the rest of the US. Unlicensed usage of dangerous chemicals is my newest example. After being accidentally fumigated with a variety of bug-killing chemicals (whose true provenance we’ll likely never know), this gorgeous kitten suffered a variety of neurologic effects that ultimately rendered him homeless.

I know what you’re going to say....

You think cancer’s so bad? OK, so maybe it is given the alternative of perfect health. But consider that cancer is eminently treatable. In fact, for cancer cases there’s a great deal veterinarians can do to prolong a perfectly comfortable life, sometimes well beyond all predictions so that pets can achieve normal lifespans.

The words cancer, neoplasia, tumor, oncology and malignancy may fill...

Yesterday’s patient was a well-fed Shih-tzu. About four years old, this little specimen of her breed was the picture of health—except for the prominent pudge about her waistline. When questioned about her diet, by way of treading delicately in the direction of her “excess baggage,” her owner fessed up to little Chi-chi’s problem with food:

“Doctor, she just does not like to eat. I have to...

Last week one of my nineteen year-old patients died. Or rather, as the euphemism goes, I put him to sleep. In truth, it was a race. If I’d been a few seconds slower he would’ve beat me to it. Such was the extreme of his advanced decrepitude.

Foxy had been blind, deaf, chronically disoriented, episodically anxious, unable to walk without assistance and periodontially challenged in the extreme....