When I do a “V”-plasty on your dog’s eyelid(s) there’s a notch taken out of the eyelid and it’s opposed again with tiny, dissolvable stitches. But is it THAT easy? Nahhhhhhhhh
There’s stuff to watch out for. And that’s in this document.
Category Archives: Recommendations
As part of Veterinary Care, recommendations and advice are huge. Whole-istic approach to vet medicine gives comprehensive management instead of a pill as needed.
How To Get Little Dogs To Chew Stuff.
How To Get Little Dogs To Chew Stuff.
It’s so common to see little dogs with terrible teeth. And I found something that a lot of little dogs will actually chew. For example, to find something that a YORKIE will chew is miraculous.
What’s the problem with terrible teeth?
Diabetes II: How to Give an Insulin Shot
Diabetes II: How to Give an Insulin Shot
This is a well written description of how to give an insulin shot. It discusses “the bubble” and how to load the syringe. It doesn’t have doses but it does have “my favorite” type of dosing syringes etc. Continue reading Diabetes II: How to Give an Insulin Shot
Diabetes III Insulin for a Fractious Pet
Diabetes III Insulin for a Fractious Pet
A mask may be necessary. Racing muzzles are pretty easy to put on. There are lots of kinds of masks.
Some people are like “Nuts to this, I know she has a right to complain but I’m not getting bitten over this” and let their dogs go. Depending on the ‘battle’ it is, I could be aligned to that thought process.
But…. Continue reading Diabetes III Insulin for a Fractious Pet
How Covid Works on the Body – Easy to Understand and HIGHLY Listenable.
How Covid Works on the Body – Easy to Understand and HIGHLY Listenable.
Yeah, so the guy has a delivery that makes you perfectly okay listening to a 50 minute presentation on Covid and how it wrecks the body. Why 58% of cases are UNDER 60 years old. Anybody’s-Body could react to the virus this way. He makes it easy and listenable.
>>COVID4>>
Covid 19: How a 3 Week Lockdown Could Stop the Pandemic
Covid 19: Why, and interestingly HOW a 3 Week Lockdown Could Impact the Pandemic
First, this is a little bit like some Liberal College Students saying “The US should pay for free college educations and free health care” (Not thinking about whether it’s actually even possible.)
So when I mention a 3 week total lock-down for a 99% reduction in virus transmission – and a hard-stop to the pandemic….I realize that’s never happening because many Americans are thinking: “I’m too young to die from Covid, so…. Who’s going to the beach with me?”
But. If we all went indoors for three weeks – -the virus would infect no more people. While we were all hiding indoors, people at home or in the hospital who are infected with the virus would die or get well (they’re doing that anyway) and at the end of three weeks we’d walk out into a nation where everyone’s either OVER it, or UNinfected.
The following video is NOT banging the “lockdown drum” at all. It’s just an EASY education on how pandemics work and can be managed. Extremely useful.
>> COVID3 >>
Please watch this video on Youtube.
Hand Sanitizer? No I Like Ethanol Spray Better
Hand Sanitizer? No, I Like Ethanol Spray Better
Note to my family on how to protect themselves. Personal.
See note at end about corrosive side effects of some alcohols*.
Hand sanitizer is great. Above 60% ethanol it’s effective. But it’s not great for keypads, door handles, chair-arms, etc.
You go to the gas station and are confronted with a LOT to touch that may have corona virus on it. So when my spouse mentioned we could be using ethanol spray, I was piqued. So she made up some pure ethanol and essential oil spray and it works great. So much more versatile than gels.
I like my little spray bottles with ethanol, I add a drop of essential oils to make it smell better and avoid so much drying on my hands. (I don’t like gloves very much.)
Buying ethanol / alcohol from medical / pharmacy sources is right out, now. They barely have any. But most of the time you can still find STRONG alcohols at 190 proof, at the liquor store.
And that’s what you need. I prefer “Everclear” but “Gold Grain” is the same basic idea. 190 Proof is 95% pure alcohol.
Your hands are one of the main routes that viruses make their way from surfaces to your respiratory system, so keeping them clean is one of the most effective things you can do to stop yourself contracting the virus. Wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water where possible and if you can’t get to a sink, an alcohol-based hand sanitiser will do the trick.
While the effectiveness of alcohol gels depends on the virus being targeted – which is why some alcohol hand rubs aren’t very effective against norovirus – the coronavirus has an envelope structure which alcohol can attack. Hand sanitisers with more than 60 per cent alcohol content are most effective at killing microbes.*
*From: https://www.wired.co.uk/article/alcohol-kills-coronavirus-myth-busting
**A note of caution however: I’m using ethanol, Everclear 190 Proof. That’s it. I’ve been warned by Heather that the isopropyl and other 99% medical alcohols at my office will eat paint. And stuff. Then one of my best friends sent me a picture of his door lock. Same lock as I have on my house. But look at his!
Why I Don’t Like Gloves For Contagion-Containment-Avoidance
Summary of gloves: Use hand sanitizer a LOT with your gloves. Your skin will thank you. But so will your environment:
I don’t like gloves for prevention of contagions. People put gloves on, and then they touch everything. I mean, EVERYTHING all day from light switches to paperwork to equipment, medical keypads, bags of fluids and never think:
The FIRST thing the glove-wearer touched had Corona on it. Fortunately, and as intended, the virus was intercepted by the gloves. The virus is on the gloves. But for folks wearing gloves, the gloves have largely replaced hand sanitizing: So everything those gloves touch *after* that becomes contaminated with the virus. Later (at any point within 3 days) a person is NOT wearing gloves and handles all those unsanitized, glove-touched surfaces. There you go.
Irony: Person wearing ink-stained, obviously-day-old exam gloves touches his face. There you go.
Here’s the worst part about gloves. When you take them off:
Your first hand is gloved and removed that contaminated other glove. Then your ungloved hand takes off the contaminated OTHER glove. There you go.
Summary of gloves: Use hand sanitizer a LOT with your gloves. Your skin will thank you. But so will your environment:
What Are The Perfect Conditions to Make or Keep Fish Healthy?
Perfect Aquarium, Hospital Tank, or Quarantine? Everything Perfect to Make or Keep Fish Healthy
There are a few essential criteria for improving fish health and if you’re not already “doing it thusly” perhaps it’s time. There are TONS of ways to “do it right” but the following is how I treat fish, and house my tropicals. Goldfish benefit from all the same. At my house, this isn’t just for hospital tanks. This is exactly how I keep my community tanks. Continue reading What Are The Perfect Conditions to Make or Keep Fish Healthy?
Azo and Cranberries for Dogs
Folks sometimes call the office looking for something they can do for their dog til it can get seen, or over the weekend, or just IN CONJUNCTION with a standard treatment.
And they ask about AZO, AZO Standard. Which is FINE to ask about except it turns out, the compound in AZO STANDARD is toxic to dogs.
Azo Cranberry, on the other hand, can be soothing, and it makes it harder for bacteria and inflammation to occupy the bladder and urethra.
Currently, Azo Cranberry isn’t made with Xylitol (it’s been years since manufacturers used Xylitol in anything that was possibly going to be used for dogs and cats. They’ve gone to sorbitol for the most part but MAKE NO ASSUMPTIONS and look. Xylitol can be toxic to dogs.
These are Azo Cranberry gummie chews and perhaps they'd be better taken by pets? The tablets may be better suited to embedding in peanut butter, cheese or your favorite form of pill disguise. | |
This is the tablet version. You can use "the adult dose" per 50 pounds of dog. That means if the 12 to adult dose is 2 tabs twice a day, go with that. If you're treating a little dog, consider quarters to halves. Still, the margin of safety on 'pure cranberry' is high. | |
I would add, that if some dog-breeder message board is running off telling people to use "just any" Azo, or they're recommending another Azo, (for example the one with the extra chemistry in it) AND you try it, AND it works and doesn't wreck your dog's kidneys or mentation, please let me know. That is COMMONLY a way I learn new things, is treating things the breeder message boards cause, SOMETIMES for better, SOMETIMES for worse. | To wit: |
How Dogs Are Supposed to Eat
How Dogs Are Supposed to Eat
- A puppy eats BIG
- A stray eats BIG
A normal dog eats dry dog food with little interest, may even skip meals.
You have to add something to the dry food to keep them eating ‘well’ at every feeding, but then they go past “lean” and into fat.
A dog’s waist should be exactly 75% of the diameter of the chest*.
- A 12 inch chest should have a 9 inch waist.
- A 20 inch chest should have a 15 inch waist.
- A 30 inch chest should have a 23 inch waist.
*exceptions exist in greyhounds and Salukis which may be < 2/3rds the chest.
When a dog is eventually at a healthy weight it will get PICKY about dry dog food. If we left it at that, our dogs would never get fat.
At that point it’s your call whether you mix something in the dry food to coaxe a lean dog to eat, or simply let her eat per her needs, and stay lean.
“She stopped liking her food. She just wouldn’t eat it.”
This is because they don’t NEED many calories when they’re mostly indoors, lean and healthy.
If I don’t say something about a dog’s overweight it means I gave up. It suggests the dog is an ornament or plaything, not a real creature.
The leading killer of dogs is overweight impacts on heart, airway and joints.
The number one owner error is struggling to convince an overweight dog to eat.
“If I don’t mix something in his dry food he won’t eat it.”
“Yes he will, he’ll regain an interest when he loses a little weight on his bratty hunger strike and he realizes you aren’t going to cave in.”
“No, I let him go hungry for two straight days looking at his dry food, then I gave him his usual milk shake, his peanut butter, Skittles and his bacon, so he wouldn’t die.”
“You just made my entire point.”
