Among the many emails I get, I am seeing some kinda ick shifts and other worrisome details about the current state of vet med — veterinary medicine. Let’s walk through a few of them and see if we can recognize a pattern. (I’m experimenting with some color blocks to make articles easier to skim.)
Amid our ongoing worries about Clover’s lungs — first pneumonia, then a possible area of collapsed lung sacs — our veterinarian also discovered significant arthritis in Clover’s lower spine. I had no idea what spine arthritis in a dog looks like in an x-ray, so during our last appointment about 10 days ago, I asked her to show me. So, now I can show you.
If anyone has a right to be nervous about rabies vaccines, it’s me — after losing our original canine heroine, Lilly, to an adverse rabies vaccine reaction. Even then, though, I did not become an anti-vax drama queen. So, the hysteria and misinformation running rampant online about the new RNA rabies vaccine for dogs is insane. It’s meant to scare you. It’s total BS on several fronts.
Grateful to Dr. Sue Cancer Vet for alerting everyone to this new dog hemangiosarcoma study via her great social media videos. I dug around to find the full paper. I read it at the very beginning of the recent 4-day power outage, thinking how heroically productive I was being despite work limitations. I’m just going to hit a few of the main points, but basically this paper looked at possible associations between the number and location of splenic masses or lesions in dogs and them ultimately being diagnosed with cancer. In all the cases, looked at retrospectively, the dogs had their spleens removed (splenectomy) and follow-up pathology to figure out what was what.
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!
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.
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.
