I am going to be honest, to start, fat cats are adorable. With their tiny round heads sprouting off a fat body there is not much more endearing. The bad news is that this excessive overweight cat cuteness combined with an inability to just “walk them more” tends to lead to overweight cats. W…

So you made a resolution to get your pet in shape, but already it seems a little less important than it did before. I get it. For some reason 2022 feels like it has lasted several years already. Maybe that’s just me, but it seems like it’s wearing thin already. So yes pets live longer, but l…

Time for a weight loss article! And the great thing about this one is that I can roll it in with resolutions. So instead of me just blabbering on about weight, we can make it part of a weight loss/fitness resolution if you made one. If you didn’t, that’s great too. I also didn’t. I also don’…

So we all know what my New Year’s article is going to be because I love talking about weight loss and diets in our pets. I’ll give you a reprieve for one week only but get the ball rolling by talking about food. You’re in luck because I just did a continuing education session talking about f…

So it seems my new holiday tradition here is doing a myth-busting article. I know we all have so much going on in our lives that this may not be the time for serious discussions. So I will keep it light and you can peruse some common myths while you eat Christmas ham and cookies.

We are getting toward that time of year when Christmas trees go up. I have a strong love for Christmas trees and especially lights. There is just something about a lit tree in my house that makes dark mornings and evenings brighter and happier. My cat has entered into the geriatric phase and…

T his seems a little bit early for a winter article, but alas...it just keeps wintering! For me this year the transition wasn’t smooth, and I recently realized that I haven’t really walked my dogs for close to a week. One of them cares, one of them is happy to sit next to the woodstove and o…

December is (just barely) here! I am not going to pretend that I am always an expedient gift giver. However, with backorders and shipping delays and everything else I am actually trying this year. This brings me to one of my most important December messages: do NOT ever gift pets. There are …

We have had dentals after dentals lately. This is the first week we had a tooth break which gave me time to think about and talk about it. Dental health is so often overlooked but is so important to general health and how our pets feel.

So I’m going to start this article with a truth bomb — I don’t like hunting season. I know that people look forward to it all year, I know it can be the social event of a lifetime. I respect that. I think responsible hunting is great for the deer population and a good connection to the natur…

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays (OK, I love all holidays) and I feel like during COVID times holidays that are outside with masks are extra great. Most of the activities don’t involve your home, but there are still a few things to keep in mind with pets around this holiday.

We’ve covered the negatives of this time of year, but the truth is that the positives are bigger. We can walk, enjoy the amazing foliage, not deal with flying bugs and also not sweat. Honestly, for me, there is nothing better than being outside in the sunshine without being roasting hot and …

Off the Leash I talked about ticks last week, which are my least favorite little pests. This week I will talk about another downfall of this gorgeous weather; fleas. Fleas live pretty happily outside for most of the summer, but when it gets cold they want to hitch a ride in where it is warm.…

So I am going to digress from my autumn love fest to talk about one of the few things I hate about the season- ticks! I also don’t love those falls where it rains all the time, but for now, I’ll assume that isn’t going to happen. So back to my one true hatred of fall, the ticks.

We have all noticed the weather change lately, but did you know that there are a lot of other changes that happen as seasons change? Some of these are benign, but many of them actually cause changes enough that we see pets at the veterinarian for them. I will talk about a few of the changes,…

So I might be jumping the gun a little bit, but I love fall. As soon as it stops being a million degrees and I stop sweating every time I walk outside I get excited. There are so many great (informative? Maybe they aren’t all great per se) topics to cover about fall that I figure I might as …

It’s that time again — back to school! Whether this brings dread or elation, it happens regardless. I’m sure that some of our pets will be happy for a nice quiet house again, but others will suffer from the change from constant activity. We tend to forget about the changes our pets will go t…

You may have noticed recently that your favorite restaurant is closed some new random nights or that you can’t get an appointment with your veterinarian immediately. We can blame covid for some of the workplace crunches, but there are other factors. The face of veterinary medicine is changin…

OFF THE LEASH

As I sit here in sunny but not too hot weather, I’m in a wonderful mood. Since we are having a short burst of fall weather (my favorite) in my summer I’m going to talk about one of my favorite topics! I know I have a lot of favorites, but one that could use a revisit is pain. I don’t like to…

So I dropped the ball on the 4th of July article (as usual, time is passing much faster than I can keep up with!) Now the 4th has clearly passed. I was thinking I missed my chance to talk about booms and barbeques, but then I realized that fireworks, barbeques, and thunderstorms last all sum…

Lately, I have been getting many questions in the same vein, so I’m going to do a question and answer article. A lot of questions end up repeating themselves over time because you don’t worry about them until they happen for YOU and your pet, but these have come up a lot lately so are worth …

I often get a lot of people that are reluctant to start medications for different things, but we still need to do something. There is a really great place for holistic medicine during this ‘“in-between” phase, and also that we can add on when our current medications just aren’t quite cutting…

So I have written a lot of articles about feline cystitis, but you’re going to get one more! For some reason, we have been seeing and talking about these guys a lot lately. This issue is truly so widespread, and many cats have bladder inflammation long before they show us signs.

It is time to kick off this (coldish?) summer week with some Mythbusters! The kids are getting unfocused, you keep thinking about vacation plans instead of work. Essentially, it is time to take a fun break! We will get back to serious information next week. That isn’t to say these aren’t imp…

Is it early for summer, late for summer, in between for summer? Who knows anymore. I feel like dates have become fluid and the weather does what it wants. But as I sat out scorching in the sun I realized it’s time to talk about the heat.

We’re doing lots of our annual exams right around now. But what does that really mean? Why not just go to a shot clinic or find your own? What’s the benefit of an annual exam? We will be transitioning off curbside soon, but it can be extra hard to know what’s happening when you’re in the car…

The warmer weather is here, the vaccines are here and all of our covid puppies are raring to go.

Ticks, ticks, ticks! I went walking this past weekend and my dogs were covered in ticks. I found a tick on my human child as well. Thus starts the time of year when I am emotionally scarred from ticks and consider surrounding myself with a ring of fire to stay safe. I start thinking I see th…

Today I’m going to talk about one of my favorite topics. I know I say that about weight control, tick prevention and a hundred other things. I suppose I have a lot of favorites, but one of my all time passions is pain control. There are a lot of reasons that I am passionate about pain contro…

Off the leash

So now we are moving on to dog vaccines. All vaccines are important, but since our dogs are out and about more often than most cats, they become especially important. In addition, several of the diseases that we vaccinate dogs against are fatal in many cases. So these vaccines don’t just hel…

So now that we have talked about the basics of immunity and vaccines, I’ll talk about the actual diseases that we vaccinate pets against. As I discussed last week, what we consider “core” changes based on area and lifestyle, but I’ll talk a little bit about that as we go.

So while we often do vaccines throughout the year, a lot of people think of Spring as “vaccine season” so it is a great time to discuss them. Since puppies start their vaccine series whenever they arrive in a home that can be any time of year. I actually love to spread out vaccines throughou…

While my yard is still mostly snow, the warm days last week are a sure sign that Spring is coming. I went out to talk to clients in just my scrub top. The birds are singing, the snow is melting and the mud is becoming plentiful. While it is Vermont and we might get more winter, it’s time to …

So while I yapped on about my by-product pet peeve last week, it got me thinking about some other veterinary-related fallacies that I try to educate against. We’ll now be discussing what things in this profession that irk me and how it affects my practice model. Don’t worry, it won’t necessa…

One benefit to my readers is that whatever continuing education I’m currently doing comes through into my articles. This may not seem like a huge benefit because I get excessively excited about random topics, but I swear it is. The great thing about all of my continuing education is that I a…

Pandemic stress talk time! While I could go on about human stress for a long time, I won’t because that’s not my area of expertise (well, at least not giving advice on it.) A lot of people got new pets during the pandemic. A lot of schedules changed during the pandemic. Many schedules aren’t…

Heart disease is checked off for this month of hearts, but now we will move on to my other heart favorite-heartworm. Those of you who are less veterinary inclined probably don’t automatically associate heart holidays with heartworms as I do, but since this is my article you still have to joi…

What does a picture of a heart bring to mind to you? Love? Chocolate? Heart disease? Heartworms? I think it is clear by now that my mind travels to strange places, and for the next two weeks while others think of loving hearts I will talk about issues with pet hearts. I swear I did get invit…

I am once again starting my article by telling you a personal story. If we aren’t careful, 2021 will reveal more about my life than you ever wanted to know! So I got up to pee in the middle of the night a few weeks ago. I’m shuffling along, only 10% awake, in my bare feet, and WHAM! I step i…

I am going to start this article with a personal story. So if you’re not ready to learn more about my personal life you should probably skip it. But if you alternately want to know more about cat bathroom habits — read on.

So let’s say you read my resolution article. You’re thinking I’m being unrealistic right? You’re feeling a little bit salty because let’s face it, 2021 also is sort of terrible. Then I start talking about making your pet lose weight like you don’t have anything else to worry about. It’s icy …

So everyone knows by now that I love to talk about pet weight loss. I do know that your eyes probably glaze over as you stroke your adorable fat cat and lament that I just don’t get how cute they are fat. I do. Trust me. But they will be cute thin too, and most importantly...healthier.