Tag Archives: pet health

The Schwarzman Animal Medical Center ER has its share of drama. Last summer, a dog family was at a pool party when they noticed their French bulldog missing. He was found at the bottom of the pool and was estimated to have been there 1-2 minutes. The owners rescued him from the bottom of the pool and administered CPR, miraculously reviving the little fella. The family brought him directly to AMC where, after an overnight in ICU, he was discharged and as good as new. This story highlights several things about dogs, pools and swimming. I don’t believe dogs understand what a swimming pool is or how dangerous it can be, and not all dogs are natural swimmers, as this Frenchie’s story clearly illustrates. Many dogs fall in the pool only once and, after they are rescued by their family, never go near the pool again. Every summer there are unsuspecting dogs who fall into the pool when no one else is around. Some drown because they are alone and cannot swim. Others can swim, but quickly become exhausted when they cannot figure out how to get out of the pool. To protect your dog, here are my suggestions to keep your swimming pool dog safe.

Last winter, Martina Navratilova announced she had been diagnosed with both breast cancer and throat cancer. Unfortunately, the simultaneous occurrence of two different types of cancers in a person is not a rare occurrence, with 2% to 17% percent of people with cancer developing multiple types. The same situation occurs in both dogs and cats, and I have detailed some specific patients in prior blogposts. In this blogpost, I’ll expand on the occurrence of more than one cancer at a time in veterinary patients.

The dog is the first animal domesticated by humans, and we have done a brilliant job creating a variety of dog breeds to meet our needs. Selective breeding, which began roughly 9,000 years ago and expanded dramatically during the Victorian era, has resulted in dogs specialized for herding, hunting, retrieving, ratting and companionship. We also created a single species ranging in size from two to 200 pounds. While veterinarians love the variety of dogs we care for, the challenge for us is to understand all the variations that make up normal dogs in order to provide excellent veterinary care. Here are a few of the issues in medical care for species with a 100x range in size.

Veterinarians at the Schwarzman Animal Medical Center bandage patient legs to hold intravenous catheters in place, immobilize a fracture so it can heal or to cover a wound to keep

April 9-15 is National Dog Bite Prevention Week. Once again, the cat is slighted, possibly since cat bites are less common than dog bites. But cat bites are a serious