Tag: vet

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In the blink of an eye

I guess we are all getting older, but occasionally, there is a situation that reinforces the fact that you have become part of the older generation. That situation happened to me this past spring when I was lecturing at Auburn Veterinary School. I was part of a group of speakers talking to the veterinary students about life post-graduation. Speakers from around the country were mentoring young minds, eager to hear about their profession. There is nothing more rewarding.

While I was waiting to speak, I decided to walk around the veterinary school. It was cold outside, so I stayed inside and walked by a man and woman. When I walked by, I could hear them talking about me, and I heard the woman tell the man that she knew me but could not remember where.

I continued to walk around the building when I heard her loudly say down the hall, “she knew it,” and before I knew it, she was walking briskly to catch up to me. She tugged at my jacket and apologized, but she wanted to say hi to me.

She introduced herself as Paulette and said that I might not remember her, but her mother, who recently passed away, was a client, and I would remember Rocko the Rottweiler.

Dr. Glenn Kalick

Rocko the Rottweiler was one of a kind. The owner used to call the dog stupid because I performed four exploratory surgeries to remove foreign bodies from his intestines. A little biology lesson here: Rottweilers have large diameter intestines, so a foreign body would have to be large to obstruct Rocko. Interestingly, each of the four foreign body surgeries was for either the husband’s athletic socks or the knot on the end of a large rawhide dog bone. Rocko was one of a kind. He got into the fishing tackle box and got a fishing hook stuck in his tongue, and the one time he went to the beach, he got stung by a jellyfish. Thank god the owner had pet insurance.

Paulette introduced her husband, who also said he recognized me. He told me I probably would not recognize him, but he spent a day shadowing me for a school project when he was in high school. He told me that he was the kid who fainted when watching me in surgery.

I told him that it happened all the time, and he should not be embarrassed. He said that experience changed his career aspirations from wanting to be a human surgeon to pursuing his love for numbers, and now he is an accountant.

It was great to see Paulette and her husband, but it was strange that it happened at a veterinary school in Alabama.  I asked her if she was here because her pet was sick. She said she didn’t currently have a pet because she was too busy traveling. So, I had to ask her again, why is she there? My daughter is in Vet school at Auburn, and we are taking her out to dinner after the conference.

So, here is the circle of life. I took care of the grandmother’s dog, and I am lecturing to the granddaughter at veterinary school. Where did the time go? I ended up going to dinner with the happy family and hope to continue to mentor the young veterinary student throughout her career.

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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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