The Advice I Wish I Had Been Given. New Grads in Veterinary Medicine
Diary of a Real-Life Veterinarian
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3w ago
  We are at an unprecedented time in veterinary medicine. Never before has the demand for veterinary care been so great, and never before has the availability of veterinarians to take care of animals been so thin. It is very important for new grads to understand this. We are also at a place where the ethics and intentions behind every decision being made within vetmed has serious long-term consequences. Never before have you had to start making life changing, and life influencing decisions so soon out of the gate. No one from the other side is going to tell you this. They won’t tell you ..read more
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Reflection's In The Sea Glass
Diary of a Real-Life Veterinarian
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3w ago
Morning writing time with Birdie The sunshine beaming in my windows delivers just enough warmth to remind me that Spring is right around the corner. I am at home in Southern Pa., close to the Maryland border. It is the last week of February. The tail end of Winter's quiet. The peaceful transition from snowy sleepy slumber to the bright burgeoning of the explosive Spring colorful life. There are few birds congregating outside my window at the feeder I fill daily. They sing the songs of cheerful excitement, catching up on free pickings as if prepping the internal organs for the demand a ..read more
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I AM NOT AN E.R. The Story Of Sophie. Baclofen Toxicity
Diary of a Real-Life Veterinarian
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1M ago
It has been a week since I last flossed. It seems like a confessional to the internal self to seek a pardon, and once again, promise to do better. It seems I seek a peaceful acceptance of all of my inadequacies within my inabilities too often. This week was exactly like this… a series of internal confessions with a humble begging for forgiveness to a self that doesn’t take disappointment, or failure, easily. This day, this Wednesday evening, within this moment, was about Mollie, Genie, Maxi, Taylor, and Sophie. They were all in some degree of desperate dying. Each patient was supported by at l ..read more
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The Dilemma. What do you do when you don't think it's time to euthanize?
Diary of a Real-Life Veterinarian
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2M ago
  There was still a tag attached. That’s what I remember most vividly. There was still a big cardboard tag, the kind that keeps you from being able to fit the merchandise in your pocket as a theft deterrent device, still attached to the obviously brand new toy she held so proudly in her mouth. It was the kind of tag that allows it to be hung on a rack for easy display whilst also providing the descriptor that announces the features of the toy that your pup might find most exciting and enjoyable. The colorful cardboard backing to allow plastic ties to prop up mouthpiece rope from the stu ..read more
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Consent to Care for a Blocked Cat. Pet Parents Edition.
Diary of a Real-Life Veterinarian
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2M ago
 I, ________________________________________, authorize care for my cat __________________ to relieve his urinary obstruction in the most affordable means necessary to provide him immediate relief. I authorize pain management be given to him in any and all options possible including a written prescription that I can fill elsewhere. I understand that this may include declining best care practices and recommendations in an effort to help manage funds to allow him the best chance at cure/survival based on unknown future factors that might influence his healing and prognosis.  I request ..read more
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Blocked Cat. UO. The Introduction. What Does A Blocked Cat Look Like? Part One of the Series for Feline Parents
Diary of a Real-Life Veterinarian
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3M ago
The blocked cat.  Beau. Blocked again, $8K in, his story is so typical, and could have been another tragic ending. Blocked cats are my lifelong veterinary mission. They are the place that veterinary medicine can offer the most impactful life changing care and they are also the single place we have the most alarming, dismissal statistics in actually doing it.  The vital care needed for these cats is my passionate determined purpose. It is my hope to shed more light on this condition while inspiring others to offer more help with any, and every, degree of compromise needed so ..read more
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To Harry, The Best Cat Ever.
Diary of a Real-Life Veterinarian
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3M ago
 "Harry was the best cat ever." We ended the day, today, the last day of the year, on this. Harry was a 16 year old debonair, distinguished, dark tabby dying from kidney failure, and all of the myriad of afflictions it brings with it. Kidney failure brings you a cascade of  collaterals. You are hungry, but too nauseous to eat. You are frail, but still want to try to jump up on the counter because in your kitty brain you are still a total badass, yet unable to gain any air. You are thirsty, drain the water bowl dry, pee out the buckets in piles voluminous and dehydrating, only to walk ..read more
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How Did We Get Here? The intersection of veterinary medicines needs and the professions gains.
Diary of a Real-Life Veterinarian
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3M ago
I have tried to hold on, to not lose faith. I know I am not alone. I used to believe, heck, know emphatically, that every veterinarian came into this profession with the same common goal. We all came here because we loved animals in such a compulsory way that we would endure decades of schooling to help them in whatever capacity we could. We were pragmatic in knowing we could not always bend fate by sheer hopeful will, nor cure where disease had overtaken, but every so often some little wet nose would be saved by the hard work of our hands and the training of our mind. Vetmed was abo ..read more
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What Your Pet Wants For Christmas
Diary of a Real-Life Veterinarian
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4M ago
In the heart of Macy's department store for the month of December rests a large red Santa's mailbox. It is nestled between the racks of clothes, flanked by flocked evergreen trees, and it is always easy to find as it is the center of the crowd in the middle of the first floor. I visit it each year as a reminder of how magical this time of year is to the little kids in all of us. The front mail door swings open with its traditional metal hinge melody so often it sounds like part of the caroling. Children, of every size, from every corner of the world, congregate here to mail their present list ..read more
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My Christmas Wish
Diary of a Real-Life Veterinarian
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4M ago
Some people are just building a body of work. The getting up day after day to repeat the same tasks for the same boss. Punching the same clock. A small cog in a bigger wheel that they cannot identify their own importance, or the meaning of it, within. Day, after day. Weeks on end, until at some point you realize that the novel within you lacks a central character you can relate to, or, even root for. There is that someday where you realize that there is more behind you than in front, and you are at the intersection of what's left to do, vs., what is left that you want to do? Others are just tr ..read more
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