Dog Life

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    Happy 4th Birthday, Clover

    It’s that time of year again. I cannot believe that Clover will be 4 years old this weekend. How is that even possible? It’s kind of freaking me out how time is flying. We have so much more to do, so many more adventures to have. From the (literally) thousands of photos I took of her in the last year, I selected about 75 of them for this year’s birthday tribute video. I like the final photo to be something really special, but I haven’t (yet) taken the perfect 04 photo of her yet this week, so we’ll stick with a photo of her sprinting so fast that all 4 feet are off the ground. She does fly. Happy birthday, baby girl. Here’s to many more!

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    Veterinary Costs New Insights

    The veterinary costs detailed inside the latest Nationwide Purdue Veterinary Price Index show interesting drops and increases in what people pay for veterinary care for their pets — particularly in the immediate aftermath of The Great Recession as well as in the most recent couple of years. My general sense is that my experience overall has been different as a Dog Mom in Colorado, where the recession wasn’t particularly bad, with costs going up and up. However, one point about veterinary costs at primary care / general veterinary hospitals versus at specialty veterinary hospitals rings true. Eerily true.

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    Corporate Consolidation in Veterinary Medicine – Why I Worry

    Corporate consolidation in veterinary medicine — and the pet world in general — makes me worry. Here is the latest example of how it’s changing my experience as a Dog Mom. Recently, I learned that the veterinary clinic I use for primary care decided to drop its AAHA accreditation. This is the latest unwelcome change at the clinic since it got bought out by one of the corporations that now collectively own about 11% of all veterinary practices in the U.S. I’m worried about what this may mean to me as a veterinary client and for the future care of my dogs.

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    Titer Testing in Dogs

    The American Animal Hospital Association updated its Vaccination Guidelines in September 2017. The guidelines include some important decision flow-charts about titer testing and how to respond to the results in a variety of situations. This is an important topic if you want to avoid over-vaccinating your dog. So, I figured it’s a good time to talk about Clover’s recent titer test results and about titer testing in general since it may be a new thing for you. This is a LONG post. Grab a snack.

  • Why Dog Lovers Hate Xylitol

    Xylitol Toxic to Dogs ! While cruising the aisles at the natural foods market recently, I nearly collapsed in a heap when I realized that you can buy WHOLE BOXES of xylitol (a sugar-free sweetener) to use at home — in baking and whatnot. I’d always thought the biggest risks to dogs (since xylitol is super toxic to dogs) was from food makers including xylitol in their products and not being particularly forthcoming about it and seemingly not giving a rat’s @$$ that it’s dangerous to dogs. Apparently, though, you can buy a whole box of death. Yikes!

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    Celebrating With Silly Holiday Videos

    I pay an annual membership fee (to JibJab) so that I can make silly holiday videos (for all major holidays). It’s almost embarrassing how much these videos make me laugh. If you need a giggle break amid your own holiday hubbub, don’t miss Clover and Tori starring in Elf Fun Factory, Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree, Super Santa, and Twinkle All the Way. (P.S. I make a cameo in one of the videos!)

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    Cooperative Care for Dogs

    Cooperative Care for Dogs is an important and growing topic in the worlds of dog lovers and veterinary medicine. Cooperative Care for Dogs simply means training dogs (typically using food rewards) to be compliant partners in the care they need. This could be anything from regular dog grooming and dog care tasks such as keeping toenails the proper length to prevent breakage or injury to teaching your dog to maintain certain body positions while being examined or even while getting an x-ray or ultrasound by your veterinary team. One of our canine heroines, Clover, helped me shoot a little video demonstration of what cooperative care means here at Champion of My Heart.