Bark, Bake & Beyond

Often, if your pet has an odor, the mouth is a great place to start looking. How many of you out there brush your dog’s teeth daily? Do you brush your own teeth daily? Maybe even a couple times per day? Many people are shocked when I tell them that they should start brushing their puppy’s teeth daily. These people are also shocked years later when I tell them that their dog has advanced dental disease, numerous loose teeth, and needs a professional cleaning under anesthesia. Why are we so surprised that our pet’s teeth are any different than our own? Without daily brushing, tartar/calculus will build up on your pet’s teeth, leading to dental disease. Dental disease can start simply with inflamed gums, then lead to gums receding and tooth roots showing, to teeth becoming loose, to tooth root abscesses, to difficulty eating, to odor, etc, etc, etc. Wouldn’t it be easier to prevent all of this with a few short minutes of brushing every day? While tooth brushing may not go perfectl...

Hello Everyone. Hooray for Friday and Hooray for another really cool case! This case was VERY traumatic for both the owner and the pet, but has a great ending!    Our case begins on a beautiful fall afternoon. One of those perfect fall sweatshirt, spend the day outside, get stuff done in preparation for winter kind of days. Our case involves a young yellow lab, who we will call Daisy (name changed for privacy). Daisy was outside with her dad, running around their many acres of land, chasing leaves and squirrels, and having a blast. Dad was preparing for winter. See, they had a natural fireplace and it was time to get all of the wood cut for winter. As you may know, this job is done much faster with a chainsaw. Dad was in the zone, cutting wood. Daisy was off having fun. Both happy to be enjoying the day outside, until the two of them had an untimely meeting. Daisy ran up to check on Dad mid-cut, and before he could turn the chainsaw off, her nose got stuck in the bl...

Here’s a touchy subject that really shouldn’t be touchy at all! How many of you out there use a crate for your dog? I do. And it’s not a bad thing. Today let’s talk about the uses of crates, the size you should purchase, how to not use the dog crate, and how it could SAVE your dog’s life! Yes, cages never bring up good images in our heads. Why put our sweet dog in a crate at all? Well, the usefulness of a crate begins the day you bring your new puppy home. The first use of a crate is for potty training. It can make all the difference for some dogs in how fast they are potty trained. Puppies at the shelter or at the breeder’s house may be used to having a large flex pen or enclosure to play in all day. Maybe potty training has been started before they come home with you, but maybe not. Often, these puppies will just urinate or defecate in their enclosure and run back to join their littermates. They don’t have the concept down of playing/sleeping inside, and pottying outside. ...

Diarrhea. This should be a fun post! I think we all have horror stories about diarrhea. Whether our 5 month old baby had loose poop that exploded out of the diaper and somehow made it all the way up to her neck (been there!), or maybe our adult dog had a particularly rough night and left us numerous diarrhea puddles to find in the morning. So, what are the causes, when should we be concerned, and what can be done about it? Let’s start with puppies and kittens. Did you know that many puppies and kittens are born with intestinal parasites? It’s true. Roundworms and hookworms can travel through the placenta from mom to baby in dogs and cats. This is why we Veterinarians recommend deworming pregnant female dogs and cats, and also recommend deworming new kittens and puppies every few weeks until they are 16 weeks of age. Source: Clinician's Brief Some parasitic infections can be easy to treat, but others require numerous treatments. Other parasites, including Giardia, Coccidia...

Hello!  It's Friday, so another case to share with everyone.  Today I share a tough case with you.  This is a heart-breaker, and this story may not be for everyone.  But, please read on for an important reminder as you are out driving.  As always, the patient's name has been changed to protect the family's privacy. Why don’t people stop when they hit a dog with their car? I can’t tell you the number of times I had a dog come into the veterinary hospital on emergency for being hit by a car. The stories all differed in why the dog was in the road…...chasing a car, saw a squirrel or a deer, excited because they recognized their owners car coming down the road, etc. But, one part of the story was often the same.....the person that hit the dog with their car either didn’t stop at all to see how the pet was doing and try to find help, or would stop a block down the road to check the damage to their car, then speed off. Meet Tilly. She was a 5 year old Siberian Hus...

 As I embark on a new journey of blogging my baking creations, I thought it would be fun to have a gallery of some of my past projects.  Some are WAY better than others, but hopefully you can see some progression through time.  You will see this in our own projects as well!  Remember, my first cake was a complete disaster, but with a lot of research and practice, I continue to improve over time.   Please forgive the lighting and background in a lot of these pictures as I did not have a light box or great setting for many of these pictures.  Either way, they were all fun to make over the first 10 years of my baking journey.  Some were cakes for my kids, some were cupcakes sent to school, some were my yearly gifts to my staff on their birthdays, and some were commissioned cakes.  Once you find that perfect cake recipe for your project, next comes the decorating!   My most recent adventure has been finding the perfect sugar cookie and ...