As the date approached, I began receiving occasional e-mails from the Mission Rabies volunteer coordinator detailing the finer aspects of the mission. For example, we were gently reminded that many of Mission Rabies’s projects take place in warm countries, so that we should avoid risks like sunburn, heat stroke, or heat exhaustion. I looked up, on the internet, the average…
Cats are meticulous about their appearance. They take grooming seriously, and most cats maintain a beautiful, spotless hair coat. Occasionally, however, cats will develop (horror of horrors)… dandruff! Of course, dandruff – dry, dead skin cells that flake off from the skin – isn’t a cause of social embarrassment in cats that it is in humans. They couldn’t care less. In most cases, dandruff…
In my last posting, I told how I discovered, applied to, and was accepted for the Mission Rabies project. Well, the paperwork and preparation for a mission like this is considerable. Before I can travel to Goa and work with the team, Mission Rabies needed a lot of documents. Veterinarians and veterinary nurses need to submit a “letter of good…
It’s hard to believe that 17 months have passed since I retired from veterinary medicine. I’m still trying to figure out where the time has gone. I really didn’t know what to expect once I retired. I did a little research on the topic, and many of articles that I read highlighted three primary issues that retirees face soon after…
When I retired last year, I thought my life could be divided into my “professional identity” and my “civilian identity”, and I was happy to leave my professional identity – and all of the stresses that arose from that – behind, and just live happily with my civilian identity. But being a veterinarian is not like being a toll collector…
Amsterdam is a biking city. There are actually more bicycles than there are residents. These bicycles all have bells on them, and there are nearly as many varieties of bell as there are bikes. Solid pastels, floral patters, messages, animals, stars, logos… a little of everything. I took a few pictures of some that caught my eye.
Few things are more frustrating and irritating for humans than the common cold. The sneezing, the congestion, the runny nose, and the watery eyes can make us truly miserable. Unfortunately, our feline counterparts can relate; they, too, can fall victim to this annoying malady. In cats, we tend to be a little more technical with the terminology, preferring to call the condition…
“Do you remember lying in bed with the covers pulled up over your head, radio playing so no one can see?” -The Ramones It was just the way Joey Ramone described it. I’m in my tiny bedroom in our apartment in Brooklyn. I’ve made a little tent with my blanket, and I’m beneath it, a tiny AM radio no bigger…
A successful examination begins with the owner. If you think about it, being a cat veterinarian is not very different from being a pediatrician. We can’t ask our patients what’s wrong. We just have to figure it out.Nowhere is the role of a cat owner more important than at the veterinarian’s office, where a good history can sometimes mean the…
Cats can be tricky to medicate. Veterinarians know that it is difficult to medicate a cat consistently with a medication that is required twice daily, and almost impossible to administer a medication reliably and unfailingly three times daily. Most veterinarians, when dealing with cats, try to strike a balance between efficacy and ease of administration, prescribing the most effective drug…
It’s been a little over a month since I retired from clinical veterinary medicine. I’m still finding it hard to get used to. I overhear other people say, “I’m not working the rest of this week” or “I’m off for the rest of this month”, and I realize that hey, I’m off for the rest of my life. There are many…
The brain is the main organ that comprises the central nervous system of the cat. It is the control center for receiving and interpreting information that comes from the cat’s own body, and from the outside world. Learning and perception takes place in the brain, and all of the sensations – sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, and pain – are…
They say that big things come in little packages, and nowhere is this more apparent than the feline pancreas. This small organ, often weighing no more than 6 to 8 ounces, plays a huge, multifaceted role in maintaining your cat’s health. The pancreas is shaped like an upside down V. The left lobe of the pancreas is nestled up…
Feline lungs are remarkably similar to a human’s lungs. For example, the lungs occupy most of the space in the chest cavity, lying on both sides of the heart, just like they do in humans. In my mind, I think of the lungs as being divided into two portions – the airways, and the lung tissue. An easy way…