So, we can’t escape the month of hearts without talking about heart disease. We all want and hope for healthy hearts in our pets. They give their hearts to us fully and quickly, and it is our job to take care of them. The problem with heart disease in our animals is that it often goes undete…

Somehow I let Valentine’s Day pass without talking about heartworms! This was a big lapse on my part that I will try to make up for now. Those of you who are less veterinary-inclined probably don’t automatically associate the two as I do, but you still have to come on this journey with me! H…

I walk my dog outside most days, but when it is very cold she cannot tolerate it well. What other types of things can I do for exercise?

Although the weather doesn’t agree, spring is in the air. I heard bird calls again when I was out last week! As days get (slightly) longer and (slightly) warmer, we start to think of spring. While we often spread vaccines out over the year, spring means pet vaccines to most people. It also m…

We are right on the brink of kitten season! I love kittens for about a thousand reasons. They’re adorable, feisty, zoom around the house, climb things and make me laugh. Do you know who doesn’t laugh at these shenanigans? Existing older cats. They often view these kittens as troublesome room…

My vet hasn’t mentioned that my dog needs to lose weight, but I think she does. How do I know?

No surprise, we’re going to deep dive into resolutions this week. Truth be told, I loved 2019. I’m not trying to jet off and leave it in the past as with some other years here and there. Second truth? I don’t love resolutions. I feel like it puts a lot of pressure on us for a while, then the…

I am throwing out articles about euthanasia, and now pain in December? What kind of holiday spirit is this? The truth is that talking about pain warms my heart for one reason — I can do a lot to help it. Pain is sorely (see what I did there?) underdiagnosed in our pets because they aren’t wh…

I have great news for all inquiring minds: my tree is up, and so far two dogs, a cat, AND a human baby haven’t conspired to knock it over, eat it or pull the lights down. Let’s not underestimate how happy I am not to have had to cage my tree.

So, I am going to introduce a topic that isn’t very uplifting, but for some reason always comes up around the holidays — end of life. We often have very specific and concrete memories and traditions around the holidays. In contrast to the very slow changes we see daily, sometimes these tradi…

So, right as you were about to start walking seriously to offset the gravy and upcoming cookies, we got a bunch of snow. I know how disappointed you are! Dr. Anna is here to rescue you though, I have lots of winter walking tips to keep you out and about in the dark, cold, deep snow.

No doubt about it, it is dark. My dogs get extra stir crazy when they don’t get long walks in the woods or fields during the week, so when they get room to run they make the most of it. We are now firmly in the middle of hunting season though, so some precautions should be taken.

Since we talked about diabetes last week, what better to talk about now than Thanksgiving?! Yes, we have an entire week left, but we all know it takes a week to prepare for this holiday. I love Thanksgiving. I love baking, eating, walking, and football. Is there anything better than waking u…

So, we’re stuck in between Veteran’s Day and Thanksgiving, it’s cold, and lots of people are starting to get grumpy about it being dark as soon as our day starts (it feels like.) This is the perfect time to let you know that although vets may be knowledgeable about something, they may not li…

Over the past few weeks, I feel like every time I turn around at work there is a urinalysis for me to look at. Urine issues are on the upswing right now. For reasons we don’t completely understand, urinary issues are more prevalent with drastic weather or light changes, both of which are hap…

As I’m trying to be a better adult, I have been cutting back on my candy consumption. This is never so painfully clear as during this wonderful holiday revolving around candy — Halloween. Thankfully, there are plenty of other activities (pets in costumes) to occupy my time. Like me, pets sho…

As the cooler days move in, blankets aren’t the only thing added to our house. Suddenly, almost all new kittens and most pets that weren’t on flea protection started showing us a flea or two (or many more.) While fall makes us load up on firewood, wood pellets or heating fuel; it makes the f…

Let’s imagine for a moment that you are a dog. Don’t feel weird about it, I try to take this perspective almost daily! And while that might not reassure you much, it is actually very helpful to think of training and behavior from a dog’s world. So, there is this same darn truck that drives u…

So today we are going to get personal and talk about your behavior. Just kidding, I mean your dogs’! Though one is often directly related to the other. Recently it was brought to my attention that dogs often get pushed aside when life gets rough, and many new moms don’t like their dogs as mu…

My eyes are itchy, my contacts feel like they are sitting on top of a layer of sand, and I keep sneezing. This may not seem relevant to a pet article, but I know as soon as I start feeling these changes that my appointments will fill up. However, they won’t fill up with sneezing, they will f…

So, it has been established that I love the fall. I love hiking through the foliage, I love being outside without being hot (this last weekend excluded!), I love almost everything about it. What I hate, however, are fleas and ticks. We have fewer ticks for a while, but they make a resurgence…

The first week in October marks National Walk Your Dog Week, but since autumn is here a little early, I’m going to talk about fall walking a little early. Anyone who knows me knows that fall is my favorite season. There are a lot of reasons why, but mostly it has to do with temperature. Of c…

Back to school means different things to different people. To many parents, it is a sigh of relief and return to normal schedule. For many teachers, it is a return to normal schedule, but not always with a sigh of relief. You may be surprised to learn that back to school also has an impact o…

Many people balk at the idea of “alternative medicine” for their pets, but what does alternative really mean? We are quick to choose foods or products that claim to be all-natural, so why do we only look to drugs as a solution to our pet’s problems? While medication can be a very useful tool…

Anesthesia and surgery can be a scary thing for pet owners. One of the most common fears that I hear about procedures is putting pets under anesthesia. I understand this concern because everyone and every pet reacts differently to the medications used for anesthetizing, but I’m going to go o…

Summer is here, which gives families extra time at home together and longer days to reflect on needed new family members. We are seeing lots of new pets lately, which I love so much, but leads me to my next topic of choosing a new pet. As we all know, baby animals are adorable. One of the re…

We are in full-on summer mode! The temperatures are hitting the 90s, my air conditioning runs all night, and my hair is twice as voluminous and half as attractive. Summer is my personal least-favorite season, though I admit it has a few advantages. The long daylight and cooler nights can be …

We go out on the boat a lot. My dog loves to swim but I am afraid she will jump off when we are moving. How can I keep her safe?

Everyone has heard the lines on spaying and neutering, and for the most part it is a common practice. Not many of us have made it this far without heeding Bob Barker’s advice. I’ll help explain some reasons why it is so important. We will start with the fact that Bob Barker said so every day…

Imagine as you are going about your evening the sky is suddenly filled with bright flashes and loud noises. The Earth seems to actually tremble, and you feel the walls of your house vibrating. You thought this was a safe place, but the world seems to be exploding around you. Your owners are …

My dog loves to swim in the summer, but starts to get a lot of skin and ear infections. Is there anything I can do to prevent this but keep letting him swim?

Summertime and the living’s easy, mostly. Summer brings longer hours of daylight to do activities outside and often more free time. But it also brings increased heat, increased bugs (I think the mosquitos almost carried me away playing with the dogs in the yard) and more considerations for o…

I talk a LOT about ticks, but did you know that internal parasites are also a very real thing? We don’t tend to see this as often. I mean that they aren’t as common, and that we don’t see them with our eyes either. Worms and internal parasites are very common in puppies, and not as common in…

There is one topic that is near and not dear to my heart — Lyme disease. Not only are more and more dogs affected, but more and more people are as well. Lyme disease causes joint issues, kidney failure, heart disease and neurologic disease in dogs. I’ll go over the main things to know about …

One of my favorite things in my job is the ability to alleviate pain in our pets. While our pets seem very far from their wild counterparts, they still hold on to a few adaptations. One of these is the ability to hide their pain. While most of our pets would be lost without an owner putting …

People often say to me that the hardest part about my job must be putting pets to sleep. Full disclosure, this is actually not the hardest part. Make no mistake, I love my patients, and having to let them go does break my heart. But I also think that having the ability to release our pets fr…

So, it may not be raining the minute, or even day, that you are reading this. But, judging from the past few weeks, it will again very, very soon. We are suffering the effects of rain here big time.

As the grass turns green and a hundred dog poops appear on the lawn from melted snow, we finally welcome spring in all its glory. This brings me to some common questions from readers and clients.

Easter is a great time to welcome spring, regardless of your religious views. We are welcoming new grass, buds on trees, flowers peeking up from the ground. We also welcome many things in our house. Most of these are great for us (candy, flowers, delicious food) but not all of them are great…

Well, despite a few snowy interludes, it is mostly grass and relative warmth lately. This means that people are shaking themselves out of hibernation and getting those dogs out again. I love this, because I love exercising and fit dogs, but often they need a little behavior brush-up. If you …

Diabetes is something we are all familiar with, but did you know pets can get it too? I recently had gestational diabetes, which opened up a world of counting carbs and checking my blood sugar. It involved giving up baked goods and candy, but (hopefully!) that isn’t a problem with our animal…

So, as I sit here looking at a deep snow cover, it feels weird to broach my next topic. But that’s Vermont for you! The truth is that we started seeing them last week before the snow, and we will continue to see them this week as the snow melts. Environmental allergies start as soon as the w…

Two of my favorite things to talk about are pet fitness and tick prevention. This is clear to anyone who reads my articles, since you’re probably sick of hearing about both. BUT, the reason I go on and on about them is that they are so important to pet health, and I love healthy pets. So, we…

Spring is coming! Sure, it is in and out between lion and lamb, but the important thing is that I can go outside at 5:30 without a flashlight! While we often spread vaccines out over the year, spring means pet vaccines to most people. It also means that it is time to start thinking about pre…

For humans, culture dictates how elders are treated. In a way, this is the same for our pets. I like to think that our pets earn a lot of goodwill over their lives. They see us through big life events, heartbreaks and joys, weddings and divorces, births and deaths. They get calmer and easier…

I feel like coming out of February always lightens us all up. We may often get tons of snow in March, but the temperatures even out (no promises though), daylight is present for more than four hours and we see spring in our sights. Thankfully, I spent February with a new baby, so night and d…

The number-one concern that people have about dental cleanings is that the pet must go under anesthesia. I will walk you through a dental at our clinic and explain why being under anesthesia is in the best interest of everyone involved. Different clinics have different protocols, and this wi…

It is the week of Valentine’s Day! This means different things to different people. To some it means romantic dinners, to others (most of us) it means that delicious candy will soon be on sale. The one thing that everyone thinks about is hearts. Sure, we think about cute red and pink heart s…