To Vet School and Beyond

Small animal/exotics veterinarian. Animal science grad. Happy to respond to asks/messages. Animals, science, veterinary medicine, and my own experiences. WARNING: May contain pictures and descriptions of medical procedures. Queer af. She/her.

[vet-and-wild]

Why did I teach Raava to do this? Help she keeps opening all my cabinets 😭

[great-and-small]

When I was in vet school I went to this one lecture that I will never forget. Various clubs would have different guest lecturers come in to talk about relevant topics and since I was in the Wildlife Disease Association club I naturally attended all the wildlife and conservation discussions. Well on this particular occasion, the speakers started off telling us they had been working on a project involving the conservation of lemurs in Madagascar. Lemurs exist only in Madagascar, and they are in real trouble; they’re considered the most endangered group of mammals on Earth. This team of veterinarians was initially assembled to address threats to lemur health and work on conservation solutions to try and save as many lemur species from extinction as possible. As they explored the most present dangers to lemurs they found that although habitat loss was the primary problem for these vulnerable animals, predation by humans was a significant cause of losses as well. The vets realized it was crucial for the hunting of lemurs by native people to stop, but of course this is not so simple a problem.

The local Malagasy people are dealing with extreme poverty and food insecurity, with nearly half of children under five years old suffering from chronic malnutrition. The local people have always subsisted on hunting wildlife for food, and as Madagascar’s wildlife population declines, the people who rely on so-called bushmeat to survive are struggling more and more. People are literally starving.

Our conservation team thought about this a lot. They had initially intended to focus efforts on education but came to understand that this is not an issue arising from a lack of knowledge. For these people it is a question of survival. It doesn’t matter how many times a foreigner tells you not to eat an animal you’ve hunted your entire life, if your child is starving you are going to do everything in your power to keep your family alive.

So the vets changed course. Rather than focus efforts on simply teaching people about lemurs, they decided to try and use veterinary medicine to reduce the underlying issue of food insecurity. They supposed that if a reliable protein source could be introduced for the people who needed it, the dependence on meat from wildlife would greatly decrease. So they got to work establishing new flocks of chickens in the most at-risk communities, and also initiated an aggressive vaccination program for Newcastle disease (an infectious illness of poultry that is of particular concern in this area). They worked with over 600 households to ensure appropriate husbandry and vaccination for every flock, and soon found these communities were being transformed by the introduction of a steady protein source. Families with a healthy flock of chickens were far less likely to hunt wild animals like lemurs, and fewer kids went hungry. Thats what we call a win-win situation.

This chicken vaccine program became just one small part of an amazing conservation outreach initiative in Madagascar that puts local people at the center of everything they do. Helping these vulnerable communities of people helps similarly vulnerable wildlife, always. If we go into a country guns-blazing with that fire for conservation in our hearts and a plan to save native animals, we simply cannot ignore the humans who live around them. Doing so is counterintuitive to creating an effective plan because whether we recognize it or not, humans and animals are inextricably linked in many ways. A true conservation success story is one that doesn’t leave needy humans in its wake, and that is why I think this particular story has stuck with me for so long.

(Source 1)

(Source 2- cool video exploring this initiative from some folks involved)

(Source 3)

[happyhealthycats]

Here's to every pet-related worker who has to deal with "Her name is BELLA you've seen her before just look her up." You're a real one. May you grow in power for every Bella in your system.

[happyhealthycats]

I don't say this to shame owners for their pets names. But please know that if you bring in your goldendoodle Bella, or your black cat named Loki, or your corgi named Ein - Please give staff some additional info to help locate your pet's information. Approximately 1/10th of that database is filled with pets who have the exact same name and breed as your animal, don't get mad if we can't find them immediately please.

[happyhealthycats]

The 605 Bella Smiths in our system would like a word with you.

[trollprincess]

See also: Teddy, Cooper, Stella, Charlie, Finn, Leo, Lola, Luna …

Like, you try getting one Teddy at a doggy daycare/dog camp to listen to you when there’s three other Teddys in the group. They don’t know their last name. They’re all very cute names. But going out with the dogs at my job is like when I was a kid and literally ten percent of my class was named Jennifer.

[francesweyr]

So what you’re saying is that shouting “Bella” at the dog park would be like yelling “Mom” at the grade school pickup

[happyhealthycats]

You get it.

[vet-and-wild]

It may interest you all to know that this is a thing with exotics too.

Rabbits named Thumper and Bun Bun, skunks named Flower, ferrets and raccoons named Rocket and Bandit, pythons named Monty, lizards named Spike, Toothless, Bowser, and Drogon, turtles/tortoises named Shelly and Leonardo. But typically not the other ninja turtles, oddly enough.

[vet-and-wild]

Just out of curiosity for those that work with/own animals...

Would you rather deal with a fractious cat or a fractious dog?

Bring on the spicy purrito

I'll take Cujo any day

Voting ended onJul 8, 2024

[talesfromtreatment]

Did you know that heartworms in animals are transmitted through mosquitos?

yes

no

what is a heartworm?

Voting ended onJul 6, 2024

[talesfromtreatment]

addendum if you answered "no" on the above poll

I have not been primary caretaker for a mammal pet

I have been primary caretaker for less than 5 years

I have been primary caretaker for more than 5 but less than 10 years

I have been primary caretaker for more than 10 years

Voting ended onJul 6, 2024

[is-the-fox-video-cute]

Nature really knew what it was doing when it decided that orange and black was a good colour combo for animals

[vet-and-wild]

oh i have a stupid cat story!

once when she was a kitten, my childhood cat ate a bunch of slugs. (she was fine of course, just yarfed them back up) but my mom got really worried that there might be something poisonous about them.

When she called the vet all worried explaining what happened, the vet starts cracking up on the other line. she's howling and crying with laughter so much she can barely get out what she wants to say: "don't worry, im sure one day she'll catch something faster"

Hahaha I bet she was so proud of herself for that joke too.

[vet-and-wild]

Funny story from a few months ago that I cannot stop thinking about: I was casually chatting with other students at the start of a college Critical Thinking course, and mentioned that I'm very interested in animal science and vetmed even though it's not my (current) career path. The girl I'm talking to says "oh yeah, I work in pet food and there's so much misinformation from the big brands!" So I go, "wow, you seem very young to be a veterinary nutritionist, what's that like?" and she responds "...I work at Pet Food Express" 💀

Oof yeah that sounds about right. I always die a little inside when I go to the pet store and they try to sell me on their store's "grain-free GMO-free organic unicorn tears cancer curing dog food" and go off about not doing what vets recommend. Ugh. I try not to wear anything that identifies me as working in vet med because I just don't want to deal with those conversations in my free time.

[vet-and-wild]

I, personally, think Blue Bays are gorgeous, but I would never own one UNLESS someone managed to get the dogs away from the current idiot breeding them and went the way of the CsV. It's not fair at all to the dogs and one of them WILL wind up dead eventually.

I do think they're very pretty dogs in general, that's what drew me to them originally. I am very fearful of the popularity their gaining. I've seen them featured in "rare dog breed" videos and TikToks and the Facebook group has over 15k members. It's honestly the perfect draw for a lot of shitty owners; pretty dog that draws a lot of attention, "rare", and wolf content. People eat that shit up. I want to give the breeder the benefit of the doubt that they started with good intentions, but what they've created is such a mess and the fact that they can't see that makes me really sad. And also the fact that people that have concerns about the way the dogs are bred or what kind of health testing is done just get shut down in the comments. The support for the breeder is almost rabid sometimes, it's honestly bizarre the way this person has been placed on a pedestal.

Honestly CsV aren't perfect either, we have a lot of bad apples in our breed too. The breed club actually split because the people in charge were making questionable choices and promoting questionable dogs. There's also a couple of known crossbred lines and byb lines that do unfortunately show up in pedigrees a lot. It's those groups of people who are largely why CsV have a reputation for being fearful, anti-social, difficult to handle, etc. Which is dumb because in the breed standard it even says they should be "fearless and courageous." They have their own quirks and I wouldn't say they're an "easy" dog, but they're not supposed to be unstable, terrified of strangers, can't take out in public, etc like some people promote them to be.

I have to laugh a bit because they are supposed to be kind of aloof with strangers and I ended up with one that is kind of off standard in the other direction and loves people so much she gets distracted constantly trying to say hi to everyone. Not that I'm sad about it, it's just kind of funny that Raava's biggest flaw is that she's too extroverted. But I digress.

[vet-and-wild]

hi I saw your post about people always telling you horrible stories about their pets when you mention you’re a vet and you wanted to hear more stupid/cute stories so uhh. I said this in my tags but uhh.

here’s my cat having no idea what chicken nuggets were. she sniffed at them a bit curiously, watched me eat them, then proceeded to smack the everloving shit out of the one on the edge of the plate there because she was confused and had no idea what they were. she isn’t the most smart of animals.

I love cats they're so ridiculous

[vet-and-wild]

Happy reptile spay season! I have 3 scheduled in the next 2-3 weeks and a couple more that I recommended surgery for as well. I guess it's not actually that weird that it's kind of seasonal but it always still sort of surprises me. For all the baby vetlings out there, consider reproductive disease as your top differential for a sick female reptile until proven otherwise! And if it's on your schedule as a male but has never had the sex confirmed by someone experienced, make sure you double check. I've definitely had multiple ADR lizards that I looked at the schedule and said "I bet it's a female with follicles" and oh boy was I right.

[vet-and-wild]

Saw a post you rb’d about cat breed ethics. Do you know if there are any issues with American Curls?

I honestly have never met one and I'm not super familiar with the breed. I did find this article about them and read a few others saying that we aren't totally sure if the mutation causing the curled ears leads to the same kind of problems as the one that causes folded ears. Is this a case of "it's a small population so it just hasn't been reported" or "it doesn't cause the same problems." Honestly no idea. I have heard that they can be "sensitive", whatever that means, and they may be more prone to ear infections.

[vet-and-wild]

google is only giving me articles about feeding an entire raw diet and you seem pretty knowledgeable about feeding critters raw meat. i don’t feed my kitty a raw diet (unless the meat in store wet food is raw?) so those articles weren’t very helpful. is it safe to give my kitty a tiny piece of raw chicken as a treat every now and then? he’s a good boy and he deserves some treats, but if it’s not good for him i’ll either cook it first or just give him normal kitty treats :)

To be safe we recommend cooking it first :) Plain, cooked, unseasoned chicken is totally fine as an occasional treat. Don't sweat about giving some pieces of raw meat in the past though, it's not that raw meat is instantly toxic or anything, it's mainly the contamination/malnutrition concerns. Particularly when used exclusively/long term. Raw chicken is a pretty big culprit for food borne illness for people, however. Unless your kitty already had a serious underlying health concern a single piece of raw chicken here or there is unlikely to cause significant harm to them, but I'd definitely shy away from giving it because of the potential contamination issues for the humans at home.

[vet-and-wild]

I follow this disability aid dog trainer on Insta, and recently they "partnered" with a raw food company. I was completely dumbfounded, but I remembered that you and Dr. Ferox posted about raw food in the past and was able to refresh on that. You mention disease transmission, and I was wondering how specifically can a dog that has been fed raw food transmit disease? Mouth, feces? My thinking is that there are quite a lot of immunocompromised people in the disabled community, and this sends a red flag considering the brand they partnered with has no warnings or instructions about how to safely handle raw food or a sanitizing protocol after their dog has eaten a raw meal, such as how to handle feces or to sanitize their bowls. The trainer seems to feed her dogs using Kongs, and if they are anything like my own dogs, those Kongs are filled with teeth punctures and not easily sanitized. :(

Yes, the front end and the back end would be the main concerns. I remember a statistic from vet school where one study showed that something like 40% of dogs on a raw diet were shedding salmonella. But certainly there could be contamination in the mouth as well. We try to at least wear gloves when dealing with animals on raw diets but sometimes we don't find out until after the dog has already jumped up and licked our faces.

[vet-and-wild]

top 3 best vet schools in your opinion? 😄

I honestly couldn't say! They all have pros and cons and what's best for one person isn't necessarily best for someone else. There are some that I'm a little iffy on based on my own experiences but I don't want to shit talk anyone's school just based on that. If you're thinking about what school to pick for yourself, don't worry about rankings, they're pretty meaningless. Look at their programs, tuition, resources/support, extra-curricular activities, NAVLE pass rates, etc to find what fits best for you. Oh and try talking to as many students there as you can. I don't know any schools that don't have student ambassadors. And if they don't...well that would be a big red flag. I was a student ambassador for my vet school because I genuinely was happy with the overall experience. Not all the time, of course, but enough that I felt good about recommending it to prospective students.

[vet-and-wild]

Oh and it's even worse because it's not even difficult to contact the officials in your state to discuss the legality of a breed you're considering importing. I'm sure it does vary by state, and yes it's annoying and inconvenient, but considering I figured it out as a 20-something with zero legal expertise I think someone with supposed decades of experience with a breed should be able to manage it.

It's what's been done and is being done with CsV/Saarloos. The reason the CsV/Saarloos have been given official exemptions in some states with wolfdog bans is because we worked for it. We didn't assume that our dogs would be ok, we (owners/breeders/fanciers) reached out to various state government officials and spoke with them directly. And we got it in writing. I still have an official correspondence somewhere in my possession where I confirmed with the state Dept of Ag that if I imported a CsV into Michigan it would not be included in their wolfdog ban (and honestly I'd check again if I moved back, just to be safe). Even the state I live in now where pretty much anything is legal (hence the number of pet monkeys I see at work) I still reached out to the state government to confirm that my dog would not be legally considered a wolfdog. I got a response within a week. It was as easy as that. There's literally no good excuse for not bothering to check before selling a wolfdog/recent wolf ancestry (RWA) breed to someone in a state with a wolfdog ban.

And also, a lot of what helped legally distinguish CsV from wolfdogs was a. the closed studbook and b. being recognized by multiple large breed clubs (FCI, UKC, AKC FSS). Until designer wolfdog breeds have that, legal recognition as a dog is unlikely. In the grand scheme of things is the distinction honestly pretty arbitrary? Probably. Are there a lot of gray areas with the legality of wolfdogs/RWA breeds, particularly concerning rabies vaccines? Yup, definitely. But the legality matters. It matters a lot. So if you're that convinced that your designer dog breed is NOT legally a wolfdog, get off your ass and prove it for the sake of all the dogs already living in at risk areas. Get it in writing. Or at the very least refuse to sell to people in questionable states unless they go out and do it themselves (but honestly as a breeder that should be their job to keep their dogs safe). And educate potential owners about legality concerns, because even traveling through a state with a wolfdog ban can be dangerous. Because I can tell you right now there are some states that won't even tolerate CsV/Saarloos (i.e. Rhode Island) so they're definitely not gonna tolerate a designer dog with a short pedigree and zero club recognition.

[vet-and-wild]

Well if you needed any more proof that blue bay shepherds are unethically bred, the mods on the Facebook page just declared a new rule that you're not allowed to talk about the legality of ownership on the page. It can only be discussed privately with the breeder or the mods. They claim that it's not to censor the discussion but to prevent misinformation, but I'm calling bullshit.

For those that don't know, blue bay shepherds are a backyard bred, designer, low content wolfdog. There is one singular breeder and there is a severe lack of health testing, pedigrees, or literally any kind of titling/activities to prove that the dogs are mentally and physically sound. The breeder also frequently sells animals to people that live in areas with wolfdog bans. And yet when this topic is brought up the mods/breeder/fanatics will make claims that they are perfectly legal everywhere and low enough gen to not be considered wolfdogs. Is this information from federal or state governments? No. Is it information from a lawyer or other professional? No. Do they have any proof to back up their claims? No.

The people that own these dogs in areas with wolfdog bans are lucky, that's it. I've seen many claims from owners that "explaining the breed's origin" has been enough to calm concerns/suspicion, but that's still just dumb luck. It's lucky that the person they were talking to didn't push for DNA testing. Because a blue bay shepherd is gonna come back as a wolfdog, and that is enough for areas with bans to seize and potentially euthanize a dog. They honestly don't look much like wolfdogs so it may not be a high chance that they'll get caught, sure. That's what a lot of them are counting on. But why would you take that chance with your dog's life? No ethical breeder would ever put one of their dogs in that situation.