I love to put things back together. This is one aspect of veterinary medicine I
love more than most, which is good I guess, because horses seem to love to hurt
themselves. Over the years, I have sewn
up a lot of horses. There have been some
memorable ones. You see, when horses
hurt themselves, they do it in dramatic fashion. I have archived lots of pictures over the
years that I should probably not show without a serious warning to their
graphic content. This article could be
pages and pages but here are just two examples…
One of my clients called one very hot summer afternoon and
asked […]
We live in a very web-based society…a time where nearly
everything is found online.
Pharmaceuticals are no different.
The bygone era of buying everything from your veterinarian is long since
over. That is ok. From a practice owner’s perspective, I do
not mind clients purchasing medications from other resources. I do however mind when clients are sold
counterfeit products with no safety or efficacy to back up their look alike
façade. As the owner of Bear Creek
Veterinary Hospital, it is not my practice philosophy to turn a profit from
primarily the sale of preventions and other retail items. Even reoccurring prescription medications can
be outsourced most of the […]
In our area and throughout the South, heartworms are a
year-round problem. Though it is a
common conversation we have in the clinic, it is still a conversation we keep
having. There are still a lot of
misconceptions floating around out there.
This is not meant to be a technical article full of long names and terms
that most people have no idea what they mean.
I want this to be the kind of conversation I have in my exam rooms every
day.
First, let’s start with the most common misconception I hear
daily. Your dog IS exposed even if he
does not live outside. I see dogs on […]
When the weather turns warmer, people get the bug to go ride their horses. Many of those that enjoy trail riding, will often travel to lovely places away from home like Morrow Mountain, Uwharrie Forest, or H. Cooper Black.
Morrow Mountain
Veteran trail riders know that this also means it is time to make sure your Coggins test is up to date. For those that do not know what a Coggins Test is, let me explain. This test is for a disease called Equine Infectious Anemia or EIA. The federal and state governing agencies dictate that horses moving off the […]
This is a traumatic occurrence both emotionally and physically. Unfortunately, it is also a common occurrence. So common that we refer to it by its acronym, HBC, rather than saying those three dreaded words. Dogs and Cats do not have the mental capacity to equate getting in the road with ‘I might get hurt or killed.’ They will often chase prey into the road or simply run head long into traffic without so much as a care in the world. We see devastating effects from these encounters of dog meets truck. Common injuries include fractured limbs/pelvis, spinal trauma, lung […]
This is a dirty word in most veterinary clinics. We often refer to Spring as “Parvo season”, but only because we seem to have many parvo positive cases this time of year. There really is no season that is related to weather, it is most likely due to the many litters of puppies being born in the spring of the year. I want to break this down into a very simple explanation about this horrible disease. Parvo is a nasty virus that strikes the immune system and intestinal lining. It presents with vomiting, bloody diarrhea and lethargy (weakness).
Not […]
(The stories are real, but the names have been changed to
protect the innocent…LOL)
Since this is the first tale, there was a little pressure in
choosing the right one to start with. I
have elected something heartwarming, but don’t worry, the crazy, bizarre and
comical tales are yet to come.
One afternoon in the early fall, I was called out to a farm
in Union county to look at a cow that was down.
I was met by a middle-aged woman, named Clair and her two teenaged
children, Sarah and Sam. I followed them
out to the area of the pasture where a very skinny red […]
There are always challenges in running a business; but, when
it to comes to running a veterinary practice, the challenges come with names
and emotions. I wanted to take a moment
to explain our rationale for the hours of operation changes instead of just an
announcement to the change. There were
many aspects to take in to consideration for this decision. It is important to me that you are aware that
it was not taken lightly.
Our original intent in providing later hours was to provide
appointment times to clients that were more convenient and to lessen the
pressure and craziness during the day.
We have been providing […]
This is not a happy topic to discuss. It is an even unhappier thing to have to experience. However, when it comes to our pets and even
livestock, this is sometimes a necessary and humane decision. When an animal has a terminal disease and
their quality of life is poor with no real hope of improvement, often the
decision is made to end suffering. In
other instances, the cost of treatment is too great, or the risk of bad outcome
is overwhelming and does not warrant putting the animal through the procedure
to try for good outcome. In the case of
livestock, the procedure or treatment […]
