A lot of people don’t know this about me, but I was once a serious horse person. I rode horses for most of my life. In high school I was a hard working competitor. I loved to ride and train my horse as well as others. I managed to hang on to the horse world when I went to college by leasing my show horse, doing a bit of horse show judging and always keeping in touch with my horse friends.

When I went to veterinary school, I was pretty intent on being an equine veterinarian. But, I also loved dogs and cats. When I graduated, I took a job working on dogs and cats and ran an equine practice on the side. After a couple of years, I decided I’d rather have horses than practice on them, so restricted my career to my day job. I continued to ride regularly and did a little Quarter Horse breeding.

About 15 years ago, I was having a lot of trouble with one ankle. It made riding painful. After a couple of years, I had a surgical fusion that took a long time to heal. At that point the horses in my barn were getting old and having health problems of their own. So I rarely rode, unless I was invited by a friend. I mostly mucked stalls, fed and generally cared for three aging horses. Within the last two years I have had two horses euthanized due to geriatric health issues. That left me with one old horse.

I thought about getting a new horse. Pro and cons. I’m not getting any younger, so I knew a young horse was out of the question. But, I also did not want to deprive myself of something that had truly been a part of who I am. So, I began looking around. Parameters were preferably another Quarter Horse, one with a little age, maybe 15 or older, and a retired show horse.

My friend of forty-five years, Dale, in Virginia, had a horse. He had been her daughter’s show horse. A few years back when Dale’s daughter was looking for a new horse, I had been visiting them and accompanied them on the horse buying expedition. The trainer brought this big chestnut gelding out of the stall and I took one look and told my friend she HAD to buy that horse. He was gorgeous. Good structure, healthy feet and a kind eye. Yes, Dale did buy the horse. He went on to have a stellar show career with her daughter. And, if you haven’t guessed yet, he is spending his retirement with me! Welcome to Pennsylvania, Dir!

 

My dogs have a history of surprising me. Sometimes it is by doing something to prove they are not perfect. The couch in my den has examples of that. My youngest, Bangle, has had more access to that piece of furniture without supervision than she should have. The chewed cushions are proof of that. It’s my fault. I know she is too immature to be trusted alone in the house.

They also surprise me in  good ways as well. More than once lately, Bangle took her turn on the grooming table for a nail clip. She gets very excited to get up there as she knows she will get treats. She puts her front paws up and I help get the rear end up. That’s pretty typical of one of my dogs. But the surprise has come after she is “in place”, she raises her right rear leg toward me for the nail clip. I always start with that foot. The first time she did it, I was stunned. The next time, I was still happily surprised.

Dogs really are amazing. Picking her foot up for me to clip the nails was not something I intended to teach Bangle. But, through repetition and treats, she figured it out. Next, we must address ignoring the couch.

Why is routine blood work important?

There is a reason most veterinarians recommend routine blood work. I do it all the time, especially in my older patients. The advantage of doing this was evident only 10 days ago on my own cat. CC, a beautiful three year old calico Selkirk  , was due for her annual checkup. She seemed absolutely fine, happy and playing, eating very well. Her weight remained stable; she is a small cat despite her prolific appetite.

 

I don’t really know why I did a CBC on her. She had blood work last year when she had a mild issue. Her white blood cell (WBC) count was slightly elevated, I treated her with antibiotics and about a week later her count was down at recheck.

 

Last week her WBC count came back wildly elevated. Honestly, I was shocked that a cat that appeared so healthy had a value of over 40, 000 (normal is 3,500- 16,000.) When I look at values like this, I think of serious infections somewhere in the body. That evening, I took her home and segregated her from the other pets and started her on antibiotic therapy. It was important for me to be sure she was doing as well as I had thought. In a household with a lot of pets, I was worried that I had missed something. As it turned out, she really did seem fine. She took her antibiotics like a trooper. Never missed a crumb on her plate and was eager to play.

 

After nine days on the antibiotics, I packed her up for a trip to the hospital for a recheck on her blood. I was anxious, worried that the results would not be what I wanted. But, today, the results were back and CC’s WBC count was less than 20,000, a dramatic decrease in just over a week. I am so relieved. My plan is to continue her antibiotics for another week and recheck again.

 

In reality, I could have lost my cat to a terrible infection. My guess is one day I would have noticed she was not herself and then she would have deteriorated very rapidly; at that point, there would have been little I could do to help.

 

Lesson learned. It never hurts to check the blood.

My oldest dog Twinkle is fifteen years old today. That’s really old for a Labrador Retriever. She has certainly aged in the last year. It happens. There is no cure for old age. My job is to keep her as comfortable as possible with pain control (you know, those aches and pains that come with old age), good nutrition and weight management, and mental stimulation.

She has been blind for half of her life. She has also been deaf for a year or two. She has a fantastic sense of smell to make up for the loss of those other senses. She likes to dig in the yard; I think she enjoys the smells that digging produces. She likes it when I throw kibble on the floor so she has to sniff her way around to consume every small piece. She likes it when Puzzles, one of the cats, snuggles up to her for a nap.

It’s been years since Twinkle was a competition dog. She earned her AKC championship with ease. She was a natural in the show ring. She was also a natural in the field and earned her Junior Hunter title at a young age. After titling in AKC obedience, Twinkle retired. Her failing eye sight made it more difficult for her. She enjoyed competition, but she learned to love the couch. That is where she spends much of her time these days.
Champion Willcare’s Shooting Star JH CD is a good dog. She always has been. Every day she is still with me is a gift.

Jigsaw came from a rescue in Philadelphia. Her sister Puzzles, a long haired calico, caught my eye on Petfinder. I drove down to adopt Puzzles and ended up bringing two kittens home as I just couldn’t bring myself to leave the little short haired tortoise sister behind.

On the way home, I was in a traffic jam, so while sitting there, decided to take out one of my new kittens for a cuddle. Jigsaw promptly jumped on the vehicle floor and climbed up into the dashboard. I panicked. I thought my new kitten was going to climb into the engine from there and drop down on the highway among the stationary cars. I had no clue there was something called a firewall to prevent that from happening.

I pulled the car off the road and got out and looked around. No kitten. I decided I needed to check under the hood to see if there was a kitten in the engine. I had to read the owner’s manual to see how to pop the hood. That’s embarrassing to admit, but true. I’m not a car savvy person.
So, looked under the hood, no kitten there that I could see. At this point, I was attracting the attention of nearby car occupants. I explained to them what happened. Then , I saw two tiny legs drop out from behind the dash. I grabbed them and pulled. Out popped Jigsaw. I immediately returned her to the crate with her sister.

The rest of the trip home was uneventful. Puzzles and Jigsaw were incorporated into the household. They developed very different personalities. While Puzzles became  an easy going social kitty, Jigsaw became the opposite. While she would sleep curled up on my bed, she would tolerate only limited petting.

Jigsaw developed expertise as my escape artist. My large fenced in cat yard has been relatively cat proof, but Jigsaw could not be contained. She routinely scaled a tall tree that was wrapped in metal and ventured out on to a long  branch. From there she would perform a dramatic dismount,  leaping about twelve feet through the air making a hard landing on the roof of the house and jumping to the ground from there. Very similar to a large flying squirrel. I gave up trying to keep her in.

This week, Jigsaw went where all cats go after their time with us. She left me with memories of her adventures to make me smile. And her sister Puzzles to warm the bed.

Pretty much every week I go to visit a friend of mine in a nursing home. For the sake of this blog, I’ll call her Mary. I’ve known her a long time and am well aware of the love she has for animals. Only 10 months ago, after an acute illness, Mary found herself living in a nursing home separated from her beloved cats. Knowing how much her pets mean to her, I found loving homes for her two cats.

I almost always bring one of my pets to visit Mary. It doesn’t seem to matter which one. She is happy to see anything with fur and four feet. I honestly think she is a bit disappointed if I come alone. I generally take turns taking a cat one week and a dog the next week. Mary loves whatever I bring. The animals seem to know that she needs them.

I can’t fix Mary’s health. But I can try to make life a little bit better by providing her with the companionship of a loving pet on a regular basis.

This weekend I had the privilege of judging a match show for the Keystone Labrador Retriever Club. It’s the second time I have done this. It’s my Lab club, many of the exhibitors are friends of mine, but there are also people I do not know; I honestly wanted to do the best job I could for all entered.

I’ve attended quite a few structure seminars, have participated in a lot of shows, and seen at least my share of Labradors. But, it is different when one is evaluating dogs to pick the best examples of the breed shown that day. After seeing each class, studying the angles, coat, feet, dentition, etc, and watching the dogs movement, I picked my favorites. It came down to which dogs I would want most to take home.

Now, this process is not fool proof. Another judge may very well pick different dogs on the same day. It is pinpointing what is most important to an individual. For me, I tend to look for overall balance, no extremes, correctness in structure and a dog that not only can do what it was bred to do, but also has a body that will hold up well into its geriatric years.

A big shout out to the KLRC. Many members contributed to Schuylkill Veterinary Hospital’s Happy New Woof program. I brought home an assortment of items for Military Working Dogs along with donated cash to buy treats and toys that will be sent to some hard working dogs in our armed forces.

Every year I fire up the oven, get out the cookie sheets and proceed with holiday baking. I know a lot of people that do the same thing. Mine is a bit different though. Instead of the usual snickerdoodles, chocolate chip, etc., I bake liver brownies. Yes, liver brownies. If you Google liver brownies, you will get about 500, 000 hits for recipes. Honestly, the dogs don’t care which is chosen.

I start by defrosting the liver that my hunter friends have saved for me after deer season. I make batches of them for canine gifts and to freeze at my house. I have a favorite recipe (as it is the easiest). I use about one pound of liver, a box of corn bread mix, an egg and some salt. All goes in the food processor until fairly smooth. Then I spread it thickly on a sprayed cookie sheet. I cook it for maybe thirty minutes at 350. Voila! A treat every dog will love. This year I ran out of muffin mix before I was done, so used the quick oats I had in the cabinet. No big deal.

After cooling, I cut them up and store them in zip lock bags. They look just like the chocolate brownies that people enjoy. So……when I take them to a friend’s house, I make it very clear what they are, or they might be in for a rude surprise!

This week was my eight year old rescue cat Puzzles’ turn for her checkup. Even though I see my cats every day, they get their formal checkups every year. I walk the talk, as they say. I did not expect Puzzles to have any issues. But, you never know. Her examination revealed a small weight gain, heart and lungs sounded good, coat, eyes, etc, looked fine. But, the examination of her mouth revealed gingivitis. I was surprised, as generally, my cats have good dental health.

So, Puzzles had routine blood work performed. Fortunately, the results were good. She also had dental work. Her teeth were cleaned and polished. Honestly, there was not a lot of visible plaque present. But there were issues under the gum line. She even needed to have two teeth extracted!

I am so glad this issue could be addressed now before it spread. Bacteria in the mouth can spread to major organs and cause significant problems. So, for now, her mouth is healthy, her gums feel better and I can relax knowing her mouth is no longer painful. I remember seeing Puzzles on Petfinder years ago and driving down to a rescue in the Philly area and bringing her home along with her sister Jigsaw as tiny kittens.  She has always been a good cat with no health issues until now. Hopefully, now that this problem has been taken care of, she will have many years left to hang out on the cat tree.

Last weekend I attended a two day seminar sponsored by the Lehigh Valley Kennel Club. The presenter was world famous canine structure expert Pat Hastings. I’ve been to a number of her seminars in the past. This time was the third time I have served as part of the seminar commenting on veterinary issues caused by structural problems.

Canine structure interests me not only as a breeder and competitor in dog sports, but as a veterinarian. Incorrect structure leaves a dog susceptible to injury , arthritis, and pain. It is important for every breeder to consider structure when breeding as the goal is (or should be) to produce puppies that are as healthy as possible. As a veterinarian, it is my job to recognize weaknesses in a pet that could cause a decrease in the animal’s quality of life. The average pet owner does not recognize early signs of pain.

As an example, when doing a routine examination on the table, I may find “slipped hocks”. It is not a serious issue for a pet dog, but can be a hindrance if the dog is to jog alongside its owner for exercise, compete in a sport like agility or even be expected to go on long hikes on the weekend. At this point I need to explain to my client the limitations this flaw in structure means for their dog. Yes, the dog would likely be able to compensate short term and perform as the owner wishes, but long term, the compensation would lead to break down and pain.

Another part of the animal that can cause chronic pain and is often overlooked is the mouth. When a dog’s dentition is not what it should be, meaning an overbite, underbite or even crooked teeth, it will likely develop more decay. Teeth may even push into the opposing palate causing pain and infection. As a veterinarian, I want to be proactive and manage a problem as soon as it is recognized. As a breeder, I want to do the best I can to prevent dental issues through genetics.

 

One of the questions I have been asked is why do I go back to the same seminar again and again.  It’s a simple answer. I learn something new every time. Different dogs are evaluated and I get to handle some excellent examples of various breeds. Even outstanding dogs have flaws. In a breeding program, their owners must endeavor to find mates that will improve on the next generation.

 

I love all dogs. My goal as a breeder and a veterinarian is for every dog to live  an active, pain free life.