A sped-up video of my family circus as we construct a gingerbread house kit. Complete with chipmunk voices and cat cameos by Delphi, Popcorn, and, finally, Toad.
Christmas Puppy!! Or not?
I was recently floored when I learned something new. I mean, I get that they say you learn something new everyday, but some are more disturbing than others. I admit to be pretty naïve about most things. I don’t like sad or scary movies because they affect me for weeks to months, I’ve only been with one man (Biblically) my whole life, I didn’t start drinking until I was of legal age, and was scared by our D.A.R.E. program as a child and am convinced that if I try drugs in any fashion, I will immediately become addicted and sucked into a vortex of waking up in my own vomit and prostitution. So, it’s no surprise that I was the only one in the treatment area at my clinic who was even remotely surprised by this, but I was and felt the need to discuss this with you all.
We had a puppy in our clinic who was sick. He was a VERY cute puppy, a “morkie” or a Maltese X Yorkie … a “designer breed” if you’re fancy and optimistic, a “mixed breed” or “mutt” if you’re honest. (I’ll get to this later, don’t get too mad yet) These owners obtained this adorable mutt from Puppy City for a whopping $2500! I mean, I get supply and demand, but sheesh! Aaaaaannnnnddd this puppy came with the dreaded and deadly disease, Parvovirus. (Others from that same shop have come with Giardia or coccidia – both parasites that are difficult to treat and typically come from a dirty living situation – ie – the breeder) This is where it gets me; the owners did not have the money to properly treat the puppy because they didn’t even have the money to purchase the puppy in the first place. Puppy City will FINANCE people to buy a puppy they already can’t afford.
I get it, Veterinary care is expensive and, even for responsible owners, can get out of the budget. I mean, honestly, if I found out my 10 year-old large breed dog had bad cancer, I’m not going to be the one who drops thousands of dollars to give him/her an extra 4-18 months – I have three kids to raise and have to set my priorities. And I get it when a cat or dog finds you and sticks with you as a stray and you do your best, but just cannot afford that cruciate tear (ACL in humans) surgery ($5000-8000) and have to keep your dog on pain meds the rest of his life instead. What I DON’T understand is PURCHASING an animal when you don’t have the money in the first place. This goes for dogs, cats, cows, horses, etc, but also for exotics. Little tip for all you who suddenly can’t live without a sugar glider: find a vet that will treat your species of choice BEFORE having one shipped to you from Bangladesh – or where ever your exotic desire comes from – the closest *knowledgeable* vet may be 3-4 hours away and cost $300 just for the exam – it takes a special specialist to know what they’re doing for these guys.
People who accidentally get pregnant and have to live on government programs to help keep their little one alive and healthy are one thing – crap (errr, blessings) happens – but willingly going to purchase or even “rescue” an animal without the funds to take care of it (and there are no government programs to help) is downright irresponsible and frankly, not rescuing, just relocating. What typically happens in the scenario, is instead of owning up their irresponsibility, these owners will turn on the vet and use something called emotional blackmail to try to get what they want.
“What?? It’s going to be around $1000 to treat my puppy for parvo – a perfectly preventable disease with a simple vaccine series that I refused/forgot to get or tried to give myself from the feed store?? You monster, YOU are killing my puppy!! YOU are to blame for my irresponsibility!!” “So, I refused to get my female spayed because I read something on the internet, and now she has a giant sack of pus taking up her abdomen and rotting from the inside, and it’s going to cost $1500 or she’ll die??? You money hungry B**** even though it would have only been $250 to spay her on a regular appointment and not in the middle of the night when you have to call in extra staff in overtime, take up your time with your family, and when the dog is crashing and needs all sorts of extras to keep her stable during a PERFECTLY preventable disease” “Yes, I bought an English Bulldog for $5000 having no idea that they suffer almost every and any disease under the sun and will cost at least $1000/year to keep up with, especially when I don’t heed your advice and come back every 6 months with all the problems out of control again”
Any who, whether you adopt or shop, just make sure you are doing it responsibly. I’ve had several owners bring in a puppy they purchased and told me that after seeing the conditions at the breeder when they picked them up, they felt more like they were rescuing them. Unfortunately, if you are giving the breeder money, you are supporting their breeding program, only to breed more puppies and get more money. If you are truly concerned about the condition, call Animal Control. Don’t support their function. There are REALLY good breeders out there who actually care about the quality of the dogs they are producing, not just the color or size, or just because they have a boy dog and a girl dog and want to make money. There are breeders who actually have their breeding stock checked for common diseases like OFA certification to make sure they have genetically good hips and elbows, heart tests, full genetic screens to make sure your dog will live as long as possible. They also only breed the dogs that have the best personalities for the purpose they are bred for. Personality is very heritable and if you go to pick up a puppy and the mom or dad it barking it’s head off on the end of a leash and you can’t touch it, or cowering in the corner with “whale eyes” walk away, you don’t want that disaster. These wonderful breeders will charge more than what you can find in the “for sale” section of the paper, but they are SO much more worth it, and 3-4x less than the “designer” breeds – which *tend to have ZERO testing or care taken. *I’m sure there are very careful breeders of Doodles, but I haven’t met them.
Last note: animals are for life. If you get a dog/cat, you’ll need to understand that every time you move you will need to find a pet-friendly place. If you decide you need a tortoise or African Grey parrot – you’ll need to leave them in your will to someone as they may outlive you.
Covid for Christmas
We made a heart breaking decision last night to cancel our plans to visit family in Georgia for Christmas. It wasn’t responsible in the first place, but then with numbers surging recently, COVID-19 being the number one killer in the US a couple of weeks ago – even over the long-reigning heart disease, some Georgia hospitals being at 97% capacity with some having to bring in refrigerated trucks to hold the dead bodies, and with increasing numbers of people here in Virginia testing positive that are getting too close to home, we knew that it was beyond irresponsible to travel. Down right reckless. I knew, deep down, that even though this decision would break the hearts of young cousins who haven’t seen each other in over a year, and may even anger some family members, that it was the right thing to do. I mean, it would be like hosting a party for unvaccinated puppies at a public dog park in the middle of a parvo outbreak.
You may be thinking “what does a veterinarian know about this human disease?” The answer is “Not much”. BUT, I understand outbreaks and highly infectious diseases and how to manage them and keep them under control. In small animal, I have dealt outbreaks when anti-vaxxer breeding kennels broke out with parvo as well as the not uncommon kennel cough outbreaks when people take their dogs to groomers, dog parks, kennels, etc. As a large animal veterinarian, we don’t even wait for outbreaks to occur to start with careful preventative practices such as isolation of dairy calves so they cannot touch each other, quarantine of new animals to the herd, health checks before shipping animals to a new herd, isolation pens for the sick animals, and the obvious vaccinations.
Honestly, thinking like a large animal herd health veterinarian, the idea that people all mixed together all the time and all over the world without protective protocols before this outbreak is kind of mind boggling. Masks should have been instituted long ago for anyone with the sniffles. Temperature checks should be common when intermingling groups of people. These are all very common ideas in the animal/herd health world that we just take for granted in the human world. And, no, your immune system does not get weak by not being exposed to highly infectious things. It maintains its memory – literally in your bones (marrow). You wouldn’t lick a toilet seat splattered with diarrhea to help your e-coli or salmonella immunity, would you? Some dirt good, some will kill you dead.
When COVID was fresh in the US, there was much discussion on my vet moms’ group because veterinarians have been dealing with a coronavirus for decades with no good answers. There is a feline coronavirus that is very common in the cat population and causes a transient (goes away quickly) diarrhea for most cats, but for some cats, it can change the way the immune system reacts to it and can cause a horrible death months to, even, years later and there’s not way to test to see which individuals will react this way. COVID-19, even though it is the same type of virus as FIP, is a respiratory virus whereas FIP is intestinal. They, very well, may not have the same long term threats, but COVID has only been around 10 months. It may take another year to determine if there will be any long term effects. Unfortunately, there is no effective vaccination for the feline form. We are hoping that with the increased money and interest invested in saving our human families, that this vaccine will be much more effective.
Long story short, if we can prevent spread of the disease, it would be smart, careful, it would be showing love for our fellow man. The death toll in the US is currently at 1.8% – seems low, but as my brother, who works at a cement company, pointed out – if everyone at his plant got infected, they would lose 4 people. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but if you had to look those 4 people in the eye before they died and say “well, it’s only a small percentage”, would you be okay with it? If you knew that only the people over 55 were the ones that would die, would that make it better? I mean, they’re too old to enjoy life anyway, right?
I could go on and on. Please comment with more questions. On to the point!
So, we begrudgingly announced to the kids that we would not be going to Georgia for Christmas. They were shocked, their little faces, fallen with mouths agape. Then, like little Cindy Loo Who, India muttered “but why?” When we explained to them about how terrible COVID was getting, they had lots of questions about the virus and the masks they’d been wearing. We explained how many people are dying of COVID. We explained that masks help, but are not 100% and that masks are for protecting other people and not ourselves – giving them the respiratory droplet explanation. She asked if some people were not able to wear the masks – we answered that a very small minority of people physically or medically cannot wear them, but that was even more of a reason for those of us who can to wear them, to protect others.
Then, India, my 8 year-old little girl asked me the hardest question yet: “Why don’t some people not want to wear masks?”
Was I supposed to explain the “sheeple shaming”?
Was I supposed to explain the greater fear people have of appearing to follow the crowd or somehow being controlled by the scheming government than that of killing strangers with their irresponsibility and selfishness?
How could I explain to a loving child who is always worried about how other people are feeling or doing that some people just don’t consider their own actions and the repercussions they could have? Those who don’t look past their front door for people to care about? All while teaching her the ways of Jesus?
So, I just took a few moments, trying to gather just the right way to explain it to her and finally said;
“Baby, I don’t know”
The 2020 Thomas Family Christmas Tree
I made the decision to go Christmas tree shopping this past weekend. I love Christmas, but I am willing to respect Thanksgiving as a holiday – mostly to eat dressing and macaroni and cheese. Getting a Christmas tree just two days after Thanksgiving would easily be the earliest I have ever had a Christmas tree. My mother’s birthday is mid-December and we never liked to override her birthday with Christmas, so when we were young, we would always wait until after her birthday to get a tree. Slowly, I had wiggled my way back to this day. It was going to be a perfect day! Beautiful Virginia mountains, 55 degrees F, sunny. We couldn’t wait!
Saturday morning came! I had to work at the clinic that morning, but I was just going to grit my teeth and bare it. Working Saturdays at a vet clinic is, at best, a crap shoot. Some people can only make appointments for Saturdays due to work schedules, some wait until the fear that they will have to watch their pet suffer a 42nd day in misery if they have to wait until Monday. At this clinic, I am the only doctor working and end up being scheduled to see a patient every 15 minutes – some easy vaccine boosters, some very sick, requiring extra time and care.
This particular morning, I was swamped. Sick animals everywhere, a very sad euthanasia, and a couple of headache inducing clients. At the end of the morning, ten minutes to the finish line, when the final client called and demanded her dog be seen for a broken toe nail despite our assuring her this is an issue that could be addressed at home – I mean, would you go to urgent care for a toe nail you cut too short? So, yes, we charged an emergency fee – hoping it would keep her away, but instead she spent 10 minutes griping about the price and brought the dog anyway, complaining that it wouldn’t take very long and it shouldn’t cost that much. Looking around, everyone in the clinic was super busy giving fluids to a sick cat, taking x-rays of a limping dog, cleaning, talking to clients in the cars (because curbside), and answering phones. I still had to write up all the records for the glob of cases I saw, make sure everyone was called back who had pressing questions or were waiting on lab work, make sure prescriptions were faxed out to the appropriate pharmacies. So, that, ma’am is why the extra charge.
Now, in my delightfully good mood, I will go Christmas tree shopping!
I finally arrive home, in such festive spirits that, after scarfing Thanksgiving leftovers, I sink down on the couch and contemplate whether today is, in fact, a good day to get a Christmas tree. Tony feeds into my foul mood by suggesting we wait until tomorrow. I consider the full out triple sized tantrum that would ensue if the kids found out we were not going that day and finally decide to get on with it.
We load everyone into the most neglected vehicle we own – “the truck” – the heat doesn’t work, it’s been rained in, the interior is likely rotted, the check engine light is ALWAYS on, but it does the work no other vehicle can do, so we haven’t scrapped it yet. On the way to the farm, we tune into a Christmas music station and the kids all join together in singing that classic yule-time favorite “A-B-C-D…” followed by Calvin screaming “NO! OSCAR!! It’s my turn!!! ABCDE…” then, all the kids joining in a harmonious fight to scream their ABCs the loudest while yelling and hitting their siblings that’s it’s their turn.
Finally, we get “the truck” to the highway where the shuddering of the vehicle in unison with the reverberations of the busted speakers finally silenced the kids into a fearful submission as I try to ignore the angry drivers passing feverishly since I would not go above 60 in a 70mph zone. We, then, get to peacefully listen to actual Christmas music and Oscar shushes everyone when “Frosty the Snowman” comes on and then we make it to the tree farm.
Pulling into the farm, we see it is PACKED! Everyone was walking around, dressed in their holiday best; sweaters, vests, and boots, when my kids jump out of the truck in short sleeves with India taking it a step farther with a flimsy cotton pink skort – Michigan raised kids, amirite? The kids all rushed to grab the deer carcass sleds they let you use to carry your slain tree, they argue incessantly over who gets to pull the thing, then Calvin decides he’ll just sit in the sled, which greatly upsets the other two as you cannot as easily sprint carelessly, demolishing all the baby trees when you have to actually try.
India sings to every tree that it is “the one” and we finally decide on one after, much unlike his choosing a life partner, Tony decides he needs to see every single tree before we settle down. We find a cute one to settle on – it’s not the tallest one we’ve ever gotten, but it’s full, green, and cute. Tony starts with the cutting down after we all have professed that this is “the one”. He gets a few saw strokes into it when I decide to help him out by pressing the tree away from the saw to open up the “incision”. At this very moment, I realize that this is the first any of us have actually touched the tree above the trunk. At this moment, it dawns on me that we have not chosen a tree, but a cactus. I CAN. NOT. TOUCH. IT. Tony asks if he should stop cutting, but we had already damaged the tree, it just was ours now. I picked up the sled to push it and we get it cut down. Tony, wearing work gloves, gets stabbed several times through the gloves to get it loaded on the sled and we consider donating this tree and getting another. “No,” I said, “it just fits with 2020 at this point.”
We get it trimmed and loaded and drive home, welts slowly growing all over Tony’s hands and arms, he is dousing his hands in hand sanitizer to help relieve the itch. India’s allergies and asthma is being triggered, likely by the mold in the interior of “the truck”. And so, we arrive home with the precious cactus, contemplating whether or not to just drag it up and down the gravel driveway until it softens.
Decorating of the tree goes much more smoothly than it could have with a destructive 3 yr. old, only 2-3 ornaments were broken, but that’s why I had my trusty hot glue gun plugged in and ready to go. Oscar ran around the ENTIRE time, hopping on one leg, around the tree, jumping over the strand of lights plugged into the wall, all to simulate being his tyrannosaurus ornament who had lost a leg. We finished adorning the tree with all the favorites, including homemade Pokémon cut-outs, a George Harrison action figure, and a Halloween dragon skeleton. Soon Calvin also joined Oscar in skipping, and then India, and we finished the day with skipping races across the living room.
Here’s to your Christmas/Holiday season!
