Tag Archives: emergency and critical care

Is Your Pet in Critical Condition? A Veterinarian’s Guide to Medical Condition Categories

A cat with an e-collar in an animal hospital
Recently, veterinarians at the Schwarzman Animal Medical Center worked with a pet family and their insurance company following a hospital stay. Before covering charges related to a hospitalization, the insurance company wanted to know if, at the time the pet was hospitalized, it was considered to be in critical condition. As an oncology specialist, I wasn’t sure the exact definition of “critical condition” by pet insurance standards so, in this blogpost, I will share what critical condition means and explain other relevant categories of patient conditions.

Happy Birthday, Leaplings! Celebrating Dogs Born on Leap Day

Oskar, a leap year dog, on a couch wearing a Happy Birthday crown
Leap Year rolls around every four years. For those born on February 29, they age (numerically) 75% slower than the rest of us because their birthday happens only every four years. The chances of having a “leapling” pet are about one in 1,461. Since the Schwarzman Animal Medical Center sees 50,000+ patient visits each year, I thought there must be some leapling patients in our system and, sure enough, when I queried our medical records, there were a number of them. To celebrate Leap Year 2024, here are their stories in order of their birth!