Author: Glenn Kalick

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PETTALK: Tight Quarters

I have always been the Kalick family veterinary consultant, regardless of where my family lives. My family who lives in Ohio will always consult with me via the phone when there is a problem, and typically I will tell them they need to see their local veterinarian. Their veterinarian and I have become friends and she sends me all the records, digital x-rays, and bloodwork as soon as she gets them, it saves her a phone call from my aunt asking to send them to me.

One interesting thing that has changed since the pandemic is that my aunt and uncle have become very adept with Facetime and Zoom.

Today’s issue is with Titus, their cat. Titus is a geriatric tabby cat that my aunt thought was depressed because her kids moved out of the house. I would never contradict my aunt, but I think Titus is happy the kids moved out. Titus took back control of the big house, and because the kids took the dog with them, Titus gets to sit in the large bay window watching the world pass by.

However, today my aunt was concerned that Titus had a urinary tract infection because he was urinating in a closet on my uncle’s shoes.

My aunt sat in the room during the Facetime call, switching my view so I could watch Titus sleeping in the window. She wanted me to see the closet that Titus was using as his new litterbox, so she swung the camera around the room so I could see the hall closet. She told me he never used that closet before and now he never wants to leave the room.

Then she walked down the hall with her iPhone because she wanted to show me Titus’s litter box. My aunt, God bless her, talked the entire way from the front room to the bathroom, bouncing her phone the whole time. She got into the bathroom and showed me Titus’ litterbox crammed between the bathroom vanity and the toilet. It looked like it hadn’t ever been used. It. left no room for the cat to move in the box if he ever wanted to use it.

The craziest part of the story was that the bathroom door was closed like Titus could open it with his paws if he needed to.

When I mentioned that the bathroom door was closed and no one was using it, my aunt started to talk about changing the brands of kitty litter or playing music in the house. I even mentioned that if someone is using the bathroom or taking a shower, the door will never be open.

She said that she never thought of that.

Titus’ litterbox was always in the room where he slept, easily accessible, and near his food. I told my aunt that the rule of thumb is that you should have one extra box in the house.

This means: one cat equals two boxes and one of the boxes should be in the front room where he sleeps and spends most of his day.

After she thanked me and was about to hang up, I heard my uncle in the background yelling to my aunt, “What does he think of the new kitten?”

New kitten? My aunt winked at the phone and said it was a topic for another day.

 

By Dr. Glenn Kalick

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PETTALK: Doctors make the worst clients

I recently went to a socially distanced neighborhood block party and met a few people I had never met before. Where I currently live in Jupiter, most of my neighbors are snowbirds and based on the spike in COVID-19 cases in Florida, they may not be coming back anytime soon.

At the party, I met a female neighbor who, after finding out I was a veterinarian, dragged her husband unwillingly out of a group of men who were talking about golf and politics to talk to me.

I am going to call him Dr. Skin because he is a dermatologist and his demeanor got under my skin. Mrs. Skin told him to tell me about Annabella, their 9-year-old boxer, who had increased thirst and urination. Mrs. Skin wanted to take Annabella to the veterinarian, but with the pandemic, she was reluctant to allow Annabella to be seen by her veterinarian while she was forced to stay in the car.

This allowed Dr. Skin the opportunity to act as a veterinarian by searching Google. I asked Dr. Skin how he felt about his clients coming in and comparing his diagnosis to Dr. Google and he said he hated it. I told him that he was doing the same to the veterinary profession.

Dr. Skin told me that he had put increased thirst and urination into the search engine and based on his research, diabetes and kidney disease were the most likely diseases followed by Cushing’s disease and a high salt diet. I nodded my head in agreement that they were definitely high on my list, as well.

So, I asked him what he has done, knowing that he has not called or seen his veterinarian. He told me he obviously wouldn’t start insulin therapy without taking Annabella’s blood sugar but was tempted. He didn’t think Annabella had kidney disease because her urine was very yellow in the morning and he would assume that if she had kidney disease her urine would always be clear in color. Then he abruptly left to get the bag of dog food so I could look at the sodium level.

I told Mrs. Skin that Annabella needs to see her veterinarian. Bloodwork and urine need to be analyzed and Annabella needed to be examined.

She agreed.

Dr. Skin not only brought back the bag of dog food for me to look at but Annabella as well. From ten feet away, I could see that Annabella’s lymph nodes on her neck, chest, and rear legs were swollen.

Annabella is a boxer and boxers are the number one canine cancer breed.

As Dr. Skin was showing me the bag of dog food, I interrupted him and asked if a patient came to him with swollen lymph nodes and abnormal clinical signs, would he take the necessary tests for cancer? He said absolutely and wondered why I had asked. I told them Annabella’s lymph nodes were very enlarged, and her clinical signs were classic for hypercalcemia, secondary to neoplasia.

It was a very hot day and Dr. Skin’s face went from red to pale white in one second. He left abruptly with Annabella and Mrs. Skin. I hoped he was going to the veterinarian.

Follow-up: Annabella had lymphoma and is currently being treated with chemotherapy. I later got a fruit basket from Mrs. Skin, and I would be happy to continue calling her husband Dr. Skin.

Dr. Glenn Kalick

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PETTALK: OK, who’s the stupid one now?

To my wife, I am probably getting a little judgy, but I literally had a Clint Eastwood moment from Gran Torino when he tells everyone to “get off my lawn.” To better explain, I was walking on Juno Beach and maintaining a 6-foot social distance as my wife and I walked on the sidewalk along the road. It was one of those days that said it was 88 degrees but the RealFeel index said 107. We brought water and, probably every 1⁄4 mile, there was a shower under which we kept wetting our baseball caps.

It was nice to be outside and see something other than the same houses on the block, then we heard someone behind us, but could not see him. He had one of those booming voices. I knew he was from New York from the accent and it took nearly 30 minutes for him to catch up to us. There he was, wearing a t-shirt without sleeves, a Yankees hat, mirrored sunglasses, and walking a 6-month old Boxer pup. Over the thirty minutes it took him to catch up to us, I heard about his life, his girlfriend, his frustration with the pandemic, and the stupid dog he bought. It wasn’t until he was close enough that I realized it was a puppy.

When Mr. Yankee was right behind us, I could see that the puppy was thirsty. He was hyper salivating, and when he walked by the showers you could see him try to lick the puddles on the sidewalk, but Mr. Yankee pulled on the leash because he was walking and having an intense conversation on his phone. For the next quarter mile, the puppy kept walking on the grass and Mr. Yankee pulled him back on the pavement making comments on his phone to whomever he was talking to about the puppy being stupid. I made sure that we stayed close. Mr. Yankee was about to walk by the next shower when I stopped and decided to tell him that the puppy was thirsty. Mr. Yankee told me that he didn’t bring a bowl and I told him to cup his hands and fill them with water which he did, and the puppy drank three handfuls of water.

He looked at me and asked me if I was a vet or something.
I told him that I was. He asked me if I could look at his dog’s weird walk. His last dog was a German Shepard and he had to put him to sleep because of hip dysplasia and this puppy never walks straight. I said that I would but I told him that hip dysplasia is a radiographic diagnosis. I asked him what the puppy’s name was and he said it was Aaron, after Aaron Judge, the Yankee superstar. Figures. I watched Aaron walk and he kept getting off the pavement and walking onto the grass. Mr. Yankee kept pulling him onto the sidewalk. This happened multiple times and finally Mr. Yankee stopped and said to my wife and I that this dog either has hip dysplasia, needs extensive training which his German Shepard never needed, or is stupid.

I looked at Mr. Yankee and saw that he was wearing sneakers. I asked him to take off his shoes. He asked me why. I told him it was a training trick. I was so surprised that he listened to me and when he stepped on the pavement, he jumped off the pavement and onto the grass. He told me that it was “f****n hot”. I agreed. Aaron is not stupid he has probably burned his pads and wanted to walk on the grass because it is cooler. He picked up his puppy and saw that the puppy’s pads were raw. It was great watching Mr. Yankee carry Aaron back home.

 

By Dr. Glen Kalick

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Pet Talk: Socially distanced, we told stories on my driveway

One night my wife and I were socially distancing with neighbors on my driveway. People that I have never met, neighbors that have been living on the street for years were coming out of their home quarantines and bringing chairs and coolers to my driveway. The six chairs grew to 20 and we all stayed six feet apart. I learned that more than half of us were in the healthcare profession. The other interesting thing I learned was that everyone owned a dog and most of us recognized each other by their dogs. I went from the golden retriever guy to the veterinarian who lives in the two-story house on the corner. That was fun.

As the evening went on it was like a classic joke: A veterinarian, a physician and a dentist walk into a room. Literally, a dentist and a physician and I spent more than an hour trying to outdo each other with the crazy things we have seen, removed or took off a patient. At least my patients have an excuse why they do some weird stuff but what the physicians or dentist had to do for their patients was mind- blowing.

Then the conversation went to clients and patients that
did not follow the golden rules. The physician was a dermatologist and discussed skin cancer from not using suntan lotion. The dentist talked about severe dental disease from not brushing and flossing and I talked about the emergencies that I saw from not spaying and neutering.

I met a guy years ago who wanted to adopt a dalmatian. At that time, I was the veterinarian in charge of the Dalmatian Rescue League of South Florida. The only requirement to adopt was a home inspection and review of their current pet’s health care. The potential adopter owned two Pekinese dogs, and neither were spayed.

The owner did not have an issue that the female dalmatian that he wanted to adopt was spayed but had no intentions
of spaying his Pekinese. He wasn’t going to breed them but has never spayed or neutered a pet before and didn’t believe in it. I was a younger veterinarian and respected the owner’s opinion but was steadfast that he was not going to adopt this dalmatian. It caused a big problem for the rescue group and

for me. What I didn’t know was that he was a politician. He wasn’t used to not getting his way.

About a week after I told the owner and his kids that they were not going to adopt one of the dalmatians I got a call
on my after hours emergency line. It was from the politician. He was at an emergency hospital in Fort Lauderdale and his dog was being prepped for emergency pyometra surgery. Pyometra is when the uterus fills like a balloon with pus. It is the nightmare scenario that can happen when you don’t spay your female dogs.

He wanted to know if I could do the surgery, not because of my reputation, or that he respected me professionally, but he wanted to know if I could do it cheaper than the estimate he received at the emergency center. I hung up.

Back to quarantine. At the end of the night a female neighbor approached me. She told me my story gave her the courage finally to spay her Labrador. Her last dog died due to sepsis from a ruptured pyometra.

By Dr. Glenn Kalick

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Toothanasia

I recently went to a dental lecture where the Veterinary Dentist referred to a dog with a complete mouth of diseased teeth that needed to be removed as “toothanasia.” On the ride home from the lecture, my wife asked me if I have ever had to do that and I told her about Princess the Maltese.

Princess was not a princess. She was one of the only Maltese that I have ever had to muzzle so an oral exam was not going to happen and dental home care was also out of the picture. One day the owner brought in a video of Princess eating. She would go over to the food bowl and pick out a piece of kibble and chew it then spit it out. Then she would pick it up with the other side of the mouth and chew some more and then eventually swallow it. The time to finish the entire meal took her hours and she would frequently walk away without finishing. When the owner gave her a soft meal or canned food she would swallow it whole. I told them that it sounds like she is having dental pain and unfortunately I have to recommend a dental procedure without actually being able to look at the teeth. They were concerned about how many teeth would need to be extracted but were excited that the breath would be better and she would not be in pain anymore.

The owners were nervous about Princess and I told them if they wanted to stay for the induction of anesthesia and actually see her teeth before I x-rayed them then that would be fine. Her pre-surgical bloodwork was fine and I placed an IV catheter and gave her the sedative. From there we put in the endotracheal tube and was able to see a mouth of green and black teeth. The closer we looked the more the smell of the mouth hit us. We keep a jar of Vicks vapor rub that we can put a dab under our nostrils if the smell is that bad and for Princess it was. I decided to bring Mom and Dad in to see. I showed them that 85 percent of the teeth were actually loose in the mouth. When I took my probe to the molars her jaw would tremble. Under anesthesia, she should not be feeling any discomfort but a metal probe to the tooth root is uncomfortable. I let them stay in the other room while I took the x-rays and every tooth except the four canines was either abscessed or did not have enough bone coverage to make the tooth sturdy and solid.

Mom was upset and dad was concerned that if we took out all of the teeth minus the four canines how she would eat. I reminded them that the reason we got to this point is that they brought in a video showing that Princess could not eat pain-free and at home dental brushings were not possible. Not that the whole episode needed more drama, but when I was probing one of the premolars with my dental probe the tooth actually fell out. Mom looked at me and was mortified. She wanted to see the tooth and when she brought it close to her face the smell hit her. She was wondering why Vicks was on the table and now understood. So we all agreed based on x-ray we were going to perform the necessary extractions.

The surgery went well and Princess was sent home with a week of antibiotics, pain medications, and recommendations of soft food. I asked to see her a week later and mom said that she couldn’t make it, but she was doing well with the soft food. I eventually examined her one month later and could not believe the change. She was eating her hard food again. The owners were totally fine with the canned food but caught her eating a dog biscuit and enjoying it. They gave her the hard kibble and seemed to gum it and be more satisfied with eating it compared to the canned food. They put her on my examination table and without hesitation opened her mouth for me to see and it looked great. No teeth but for the first time I was able to look at her mouth without a muzzle. I felt a little lucky so I approached Princess to look a little closer and the growling started. I had to remember that Princess was no princess.

Glenn Kalick, DVM is a veterinarian at Brookside Animal Hospital. Visit Brooksidevet.com.

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