Regular readers of my blog know that even though I retired from veterinary practice three years ago, Iโve remained active in the veterinary community. I still author the bimonthly โThe Vet Is Inโ column for Catster magazine, and I still pop into Dr. Soboroffโs practice, New York Cat Hospital, every now and then to visit him and Dr. Sheheri and…
Today is World Rabies Day. With a mortality rate of 99.9%, rabies is the deadliest disease in the world. Human cases of rabies are rare in the U.S., but in underdeveloped parts of the world (Asia and Africa in particular), rabies kills approximately 60,000 people annually, the majority being children under the age of 15. Most cases result from…
Last week, I read a Washington Post article about how there has been a huge surge in dog adoptions since the pandemic began. According to the article, shelters, rescue groups, pet stores, and breeders are having a hard time keeping up with demand. Rescue groups are getting dozens of applications for individual dogs. People have put themselves on waiting lists…
JOIN CFA EVERY WEDNESDAY ONLINE FOR MEOWY HOUR AT 6PM EDT/3PM PDT JULY 29, 2020Dr. Arnold Plotnick Shares His Tales About Cats Around the World ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐, ๐๐๐๐๐:https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82809871152Or, watch live here on Facebook. <- This is also where all the shows are saved, so you can watch the recorded show any time. ๐ ๐๐๐ญ๐ฎ๐ซ๐ข๐ง๐ Arden Moore, Casey the Pet Safety…
In an issue of the Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery there was a pretty interesting article about the effect of various genres of music on a few parameters of feline anesthesia. Being a big music fan myself, I was intrigued. The aim of the study was to determine if cats were able to process auditory stimuli even though they…
I took a trip to Morocco several years ago, and just recently I was sorting out my folders of photos. I came across my collection of stray cat photos from Morocco.
Although cats are generally more discreet about what they put in their mouths compared to dogs, some cats have a penchant for chewing unusual objects.ย One thing both dogs and cats often chew on are electrical cords.ย This can be a hazard for two reasons. ย First, it can be a danger to your cat, because of potential electrical burns.ย Second,…
In 2015, I sold my cat hospital, Manhattan Cat Specialists, to a corporation that owns and manages several veterinary clinics. I continued to work at my hospital, however, in June of 2017, I decided to retire from veterinary practice. My hospital continued on, in the very capable hands of Dr. Victoria Sheheri, and my faithful technician Hiromi Karagiannis, who started…
Mission Rabies Ghana, February 2020; what an adventure!! Let’s wrap this puppy up with a blog post. The tentative schedule this morning was: breakfast at 8:00, departure from Lake Bosomtwe at 9:00. I packed my suitcase last night except for the few things I would need in the morning, so I was pretty ready to go. I set the alarm…
There was a feeling of excitement in the air this morning as we all convened for breakfast. Today is the day we wrap up our project. At breakfast, we were assigned our given areas that we were going to cover, and we were also given an important statistic, namely, how many dogs we needed to vaccinate in our area in…
Our assignment this morning was a region named Oyoko. Itโs a small farming community, about a 40 minute drive from our base. We had five of us, and Adusei said he was feeling a bit under the weather, so the plan was to split up into two groups. Adusei and I would staff the static clinic, while Charlotte, our driver…
Today was a nice, mellow day. We were assigned a village called Piase. Last year, the static clinic that they set up in this area was very busy. Sure enough, our morning was busy as well, but again, in a very feast-or-famine manner. Weโd sit for 20 minutes with absolutely nothing to do, and then three people would appear, one…
Tuesday has always been the most nondescript day of the week, and this applies to Ghana as well, apparently, because today really bordered on being โroutineโ. I guess Iโve really grown accustomed to things here, because objectively it was amazing as usual. I had an egg sandwich for breakfast, and then went to base camp as usual to load up…
