For years now, I’ve written about my concerns with veterinary consolidation. And, now this. Two of the biggest providers of online veterinary pharmacy services plan to merge. I don’t think that’s good news for pet lovers or for veterinary hospitals. Full disclosure: I wrote for one of the companies (MWI) for a long, long time (until their new, back then, global corporate overlords gave me the boot).
My friends and former, longtime colleagues at the American Animal Hospital Association’s TRENDS magazine shared this alert online this week. Apparently, reusable migraine gel masks may pose a serious toxicity risk to dogs — with veterinary toxicologists reporting cases of dogs developing major tummy troubles, rapid onset of neurological signs, and tremors, ataxia (wobbly walking), and seizures. Yikes!
To be honest, things aren’t going great with Mr. Stix’s massive dermatology problems. It feels like nonstop failure, but that’s just how things like this are. We can keep the worst of it a bit at bay, but we’re never going to fix it for real. That’s partly because throwing everything at it could ultimately shorten his life — which isn’t an option for something that’s awful, but not deadly itself. I try to adjust my expectations and not fixate on it because it’s never going to completely heal, but things got really bad due to an infection a while back. And, now, after many, many weeks of antibiotics, his skin still looks bad. We’re trying to avoid using steroids, even short term. I felt like I got sloppy with some of his doses of supplements for dogs with skin issues, so I had to do a little math and dug into this veterinary paper called “Evidence for Nutraceuticals to Treat Dermatologic Disease in Dogs.” I debated including photos of how bad his skin looks, way at the bottom of this post. Scroll at your own risk.
Having been through a lengthy, expensive, and devastating experience with an adverse rabies vaccine reaction with our original canine heroine, Lilly, I felt a little sick when I saw reports of under reporting of adverse drug reactions. The study was based in the United Kingdom, but I think we can assume similar gaps exist in the United States too. Before you read the rest of this post, make a guess in your mind about how stark the under reporting is. I guarantee it’s worse than you think. (Also, this post includes info on how to report adverse drug reactions in pets.)
There’s a joke in the journalism world about headlines that ask questions. Why? Because the answer is almost always no. It has a lot to do with headlines being framed as clickbait. That is not the case here. The answer is a big YES. Indeed, vaping near pets can put them at risk, especially if the area is not well ventilated. Here’s why and what to look for.
If you’ve ever wondered how we ended up with the dogs we love at our sides, what we know about their unique abilities (thanks to science), and how they help us survive all the things, then I hope you enjoy this For the Love of Dog book review. The book is part memoir, part research paper, and part life stress and pet loss treatise. It’s written by Maggie Marton, who also authors “Oh My Dog!” She’s a pal and a colleague; a dog and kiddo mom extraordinaire; dog nerd and cancer survivor. She understands and reveals a lot in this book. It’s subtitle is How Dogs Think and the Unbreakable Bond That Connects Us. You will cry a little. I did. But, you will also laugh out loud and learn a lot.
As of mid-September 2025, I canceled our pet insurance renewal — after having policies on all 3 dogs since the day we adopted them (11 years ago for Clover, as an example). A 65% increase up to $556/month premium is too much. I wrote the following at the time. As a pro writer in the veterinary / pet space for 30 years, as someone who understands more than most about the true costs of providing veterinary care, as one of the best Dog Moms you’d want as a veterinary client, I say this … if/when you lose me, that’s a bad sign. Here are answers to some frequently asked questions about the whole pet insurance situation these days.
A famous, longtime writer in the veterinary space who I follow online shared a link to a new site that lets you search for private equity veterinary hospitals in the U.S. and U.K. When the big corporate consolidators, or corporations that own a lot of veterinary hospitals, buy what was once a privately owned veterinary hospital, they often do not change the name of the practice. Until now, it was also hard to know if that big company is actually owned / funded by private equity. It’s affecting veterinary patient care, client service, and even doctor and staff retention and morale. This quick post also includes links to documentaries on the effect of private equity ownership of newspapers and other news organizations.
When I saw the headline that an international working group recently published canine cognitive decline guidelines, I thought — “perfect timing” — since we adopted a very old, frail, and often confused dog a while back + our other dogs are getting older too. When I read that the guidelines included a diagnostic flowchart, I got super excited. Except, now that I’ve read the paper and looked at the flowchart, it’s not as helpful (to me personally) as I’d hoped. That said, it includes good info about behavior changes to monitor and how to rank their severity over time. Toward the end, I include details and accommodations we’ve made for the Old Man Dog.
Monday, September 1, 2025, around 9:45 am, an officer from the Wheat Ridge Police Department in Wheat Ridge, Colorado, shot and killed a pet dog. That dog’s name was Boss. He lived near a highway exit with his owner, Dave, who is experiencing homelessness.
I learned about the case on Friday, September 5, 2025, from my veterinarian, who provided veterinary care for Boss.
I looked into the case because Boss’s life matters. He lived and died in my community, and that matters to me on both small and big scales. Unfortunately, Boss is a painful example of something that’s shockingly common. Police shoot and often kill dogs more frequently than you might think.
So, in Boss’s memory and to tell a story that, so far, no other local media has covered, I’m writing about some really difficult things. This is long, but I hope you will read it and share it.
