Doc Smith's Blog

Veterinary Medicine provides vast opportunities to see many strange and wonderful things. This profession also provides daily possibilities to make you look like an idiot. These stories give rise to the romantic ideas and dreams that everyone believes life as a modern veterinarian must be. I can’t deny that I have seen my fair share of crazy over the last three decades, but it’s the routine stuff that will drive you mad.

Clients ask me all the time, “If this were your pet, what would you do?”

I appreciate your question, and yes I hear what you are asking of me. However, it is an unfair question and I sweat a little each time someone asks me. I do not want you to be offended in any way by my saying it makes me nervous because I truly am flattered that you have that much confidence in me to ask.

Pet Obesity is a problem. We know this.  The question is, why are our animals so stricken with obesity? I mean dogs can’t open the fridge and make a sandwich nor remove the top of the soda-pop can. If one ever shows that talent, I'm buying him!!!

I heard the first crack followed by a loud pop. My hands tightened around the tree branches hoping that would save me in the event that things decided to go south, literally. I clung to the snow-covered limb not moving a muscle. So far things seemed to be holding. I could see the ground some 60 to 70 foot below me all covered in snowy powder from the night before, and I knew it would be of little cushion if I fell out of this tree.

So, yesterday I was looking at a dog in my exam room when I made a horrible statement that got me in a lot of trouble. After I said it, I got “The Look.”

I find it very interesting when reading The Bible that there are two famous parables related to the same subject: that of something that was of value that was lost and then found.

Every day at Cumberland Valley we are asked to deal with dermal tumors of some nature. Of course, as a rule of thumb, the sooner you identify and remove a potentially life-threatening lesion or mass, the better the outcome would be expected. Still, sometimes factors get in the way of early identification and we are presented with much larger growths that prove hard to remove.

I believe it was Lord Byron that penned the phrase, “Truth is stranger than fiction,” which of course I have been saying wrong all along as, “Life is stranger than fiction.” Whichever saying you hold nearest and dearest to your heart, I would enjoy reinforcing your philosophy with one of the craziest veterinary stories I have had the pleasure and awe in dealing with lately. This is the story of Cookie, or as we like to call him, Zombie Dog.