Category Archives: Vet Life

The end of June is a bittersweet time at the Schwarzman Animal Medical Center. It marks the end of one intern year and the beginning of a new one. This cycle has repeated itself 62 times since the original intern class completed their internships in 1965. Last week, we celebrated our new interns with a white coat ceremony, marking their transition from student to full-fledged veterinarians. Each one of our interns received a white coat, symbolic of the responsibility, empathy, knowledge, skill and integrity demanded by our profession.

The Schwarzman Animal Medical Center recently reached a major milestone in our 83,000 square-foot, $125 million “Gift of Love” hospital expansion and renovation project. We opened several new hospital wards, including our new intensive care unit (ICU), Medical-Surgical Unit (MSU) (formerly known as the Special Care Unit, or SCU), our expanded Avian and Exotic Pet Medicine Service and a new conference center. This blogpost will focus on the first two areas, ICU and MSU, and I will share more about the other exciting new spaces in a future blogpost.

A biopsy is one of the most important diagnostic tools in veterinary medicine. It’s so important that I can’t think of a veterinarian who never does a biopsy. Whether it’s a dermatologist, dentist, surgeon, internal medicine specialist or your primary care veterinarian, all use biopsies to diagnose different conditions. At the Schwarzman Animal Medical Center, veterinarians submit between five and fifteen biopsies on any given day. In many cases, a biopsy is the only way to confirm a diagnosis, especially for internal diseases like inflammatory bowel disease, liver problems and most kinds of cancer. In today’s blogpost, I’ll discuss how biopsies work and why they’re essential for diagnosis.

The end of the year is frequently a time for reflection. This year, I’m thinking about all of the amazing guests and stories I’ve been able to share on my podcast, Ask the Vet. Every month on the show, I highlight a trending animal from the prior month, and for today’s blogpost I’d like to highlight some of my favorite trending animals since we launched the show in 2022.

From October 13 to 19, the Schwarzman Animal Medical Center and veterinary hospitals across the country will celebrate National Veterinary Technician Week. This year’s theme is “Credentialed Veterinary Technicians Change Lives,” and it’s meant to highlight the profound impact credentialed veterinary technicians have on the lives of their patients, clients, colleagues and the community, whether this impact is known or unknown. Each state’s veterinary regulations designate the terminology used in licensing a veterinary technician. Here in New York State, we call them Licensed Veterinary Technicians (LVTs). There are also Certified Veterinary Technicians (CVTs), Registered Veterinary Technicians (RVTs) and Licensed Veterinary Medical Technicians (LVMTs). “Credentialed veterinary technician” covers them all. In this blogpost, I’ll show recognize the life changing role these essential team members play for veterinarians and pet families alike.