Cleo

I wanted to give Miss Cleo Crankybutt, our newest mascot, her own special blog post including photos. She is settling into her role nicely, though she is obviously a one-person cat and I am that one person. She has little interest in meeting clients, and does not like other cats (hence the buspirone we give her). Sometimes she will come up to the front desk to see who is here, but her favorite place is either in my lap in the office, or on a box in the ward just around the corner from the office. She was donated to us in February by an elderly gentleman who could no longer keep her.

Our phone appears to be out today.

No wonder it's not ringing. I am contacting Time Warner about it - my internet is fine. Hmmmm.

1:45 PM update: tech guy on the phone hasn't gotten back to me YET about the service tech's ETA. They can't fix it remotely. Sigh.

3:15 PM update: We have phones again. Phone modem died of old age (it was 18 months old). TWC needs to work on their hardware quality control.

Mar 12 update: Voicemail is out today, no way to leave us a message.

Mar 13 update: Voicemail restored. Time Warned Business Class unilaterally and without prior notice decided that I didn't HAVE voicemail. It took some very loud, angry discussion on my part to get them to accept that I had, in fact, had it for a year (since my account began). And that I am paying for it.

This Hinky Blog Format

Try as I might, I simply CAN NOT get this format to do what I want. So in order to see ALL my lists and gadgets you have to scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page and look on the right side for the Donate to Cat's Meow Charitable Fund button, my Favorite Links list, Recommended Reading list, and the gadget to subscribe to my blog.

I'm sorry. Complain to Blogspot. They are just weird.

New Year's Holiday Hours

We will be closed all day Saturday Dec 31 through Monday Jan 2. This year the Rose Parade and bowl games are on Monday (I have been told this is due to the NFL Sunday football broadcast rules). So I get a 3-day weekend to try to get my voice back!

Happy New Year, everybody! Have fun and drive safely.

Laryngitis

Well, it's that time of year again. My first day back in the office after Christmas vacation and I suddenly have a whopping case of laryngitis.

This, for those of you who don't know, appears to be my specialty. It's an annual wintertime tradition, and can have effects that linger for many weeks. So I am trying to not talk AT ALL. Of course, it's not actually going according to plan. Writing every thought down is hard, so I am whispering to my assistant. Bad idea. Sigh.

I can't even hum holiday tunes without making things worse. But the cats are happy about that.

Christmas Vacation Hours

I'm headed off on my annual pilgrimage to the frozen wastelands of the Upper Midwest. From tomorrow (Thursday Dec 22) through Tuesday Dec 27 the office will be open limited hours and only for administrative and retail purposes. Hours will be:

Thurs Dec 22 - 9 AM to noon and 5 to 6 PM
Fri Dec 23 - 9 AM to noon and 5 to 6 PM
CLOSED ALL DAY SAT Dec 24, Sun Dec 25, and Mon Dec 26
Tues Dec 27 - 9 AM to noon and 5 to 6 PM

If your cat needs medical attention during this time, please call Veterinary Specialists of the Valley at 818-883-8387.

Have a very Merry Christmas!!

The Cat's Meow Charitable Fund

In these difficult economic times we are encountering more and more hardship cases where long-term clients have encountered unforeseeable economic hardship followed by their beloved cat becoming seriously and unavoidably ill, or someone adopts a stray cat who turns out to be pregnant (and that certainly entails unexpected expenses), and occasionally someone presents us with an injured stray cat or kitten that needs medical or surgical care AND a home (and needs to stay here or in foster care in the meantime).

A charitable fund to help underwrite the often tremendous costs of some of these cases is something I have considered starting for a long time. Dr. Alice Villalobos started her Peter Zippi Fund for helping clients pay for cancer treatments for their pets in this same way, and it has helped hundreds, if not thousands of animals over the years.

For the time being, The Cat’s Meow Charitable Fund will be just an internal funding mechanism for subsidizing care for certain of our cases which we have determined would most benefit from it. We are accepting donations in any amount to the fund. They are not tax-deductible at this time, but we will be looking into the feasibility of taking that step. You can mail us a check – make payable to: Cat’s Meow Veterinary Clinic but please put “Cat’s Meow Charitable Fund donation” on the memo line. You can also ask to have your donation added to your bill when you are paying at the front desk.

I look forward to telling our clients about the kitties we (and YOU) have helped through this fund!

ETA on 12-17-11: A very kind person dropped by yesterday to make a very generous donation to the CMCF. S/he has been a FB fan for a while and saw the post about the fund. Huge thanks to ______ for your kindness!

Holiday Schedule

We are obviously closed all day Thursday. We will be open 8-6 on Friday but won't be seeing any new clients with seriously ill animals for second opinions because.......we will also be closed on Saturday and Sunday. All weekend!

Have a Happy Turkey Day, everybody!

Ok, Should I Start Up an Email Newsletter of Sorts?

I am seeking input on whether or not people are interested in any kind of email newsletter from us. It would be quite advantageous for us as a way to pass PDF files that don't have a web host on to you (my hard drive is just FULL of client information sheets and stuff that could be sent to your email inbox rather than posting here, formatting issues and all, and hoping you remember to visit).

If you are a client of Cat's Meow Veterinary Clinic, or if you are just an interested cat owner, please email me at gardvm at aol dot com - and please put "CMVC newsletter" in the subject line. Tell me if you would like to be on a mailing list, and how often you think a newsletter should be (I am sensitive to the issue of TOO MUCH EMAIL).

Please do NOT email me with questions about your cat's health. We can only advise you based on an actual physical examination of the cat here at Cat's Meow. I do NOT practice internet medicine.

Our Facebook Page

This is just a friendly reminder that we DO have a Facebook page and I am a little better about posting links to good news and info over there than I am here (lately).

Click here:
Cat's Meow Veterinary Clinic on Facebook

Weird Pets and Weird Infections

Dr. Scott Weese over at Worms & Germs has a great piece about some of the difficult considerations when you adopt an exotic species of animal and then get bitten by it.

As is virtually always the case, I agree completely with him. People sometimes ask why I don't treat various exotic species: ferrets, ocelots, chinchillas, snakes, etc. Well, aside from the small fact of our being a CAT hospital (ie DOMESTIC kitties ONLY), I don't have experience with these types of critters. They can and do have sometimes extraordinarily unique husbandry needs, and can have very rare and strange diseases, many of which can affect people. I never took the exotic animal medicine elective course in vet school, so I prefer to leave that to those who did.

The State of California strictly regulates ownership of many exotic species, and for good reason. The case of 49 large exotics having to be killed in Ohio recently is a tragic case in point. If you are going to keep lions and tigers and leopards, you simply MUST know what you are doing and be equipped to do it right. I will never forget the sight of all those gorgeous tigers lying dead in a heap. I would never want to enable that sort of neglect.

On rare occasion I still see pet domestic rabbits or rats, but the demand for that is virtually gone in this economy so I am phasing them out altogether.

We are all about Felis domesticus. We don't dislike other creatures, we just don't vet them. And yeah, we still don't do dogs.

Happy Ending / A New Beginning

Yesterday Mr. Happy, our fractured pelvis hit-by-car stray, went to his new home with a former employee of mine. By all accounts he is adjusting very quickly and likes things there.

I already miss him.

Hey, She's Posting!

I seem to spend most of my time doing quickie posts over on my Facebook page rather than blogging here, which is simply laziness on my part. I guess I feel like I need a lot more length, depth, and substance in my blog posts than FB posts, but in truth that's not some legal requirement. It's just something that got into my head and now serves only to make me avoid posting here.

Bad, bad Dr. R!

I hope to do better. But if you are looking for briefer, lighter fare, you can indeed find it on the CMVC FB page.

Please Excuse Our Neighbors

Please pay no attention to the one-handed Persian man who runs the print shop next door to us. He may yell and scream and fight with his wife and sons all day long, but he is harmless as far as we and our clients are concerned.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog.

Another Hit-by-car Stray.......

Well I was overdue for a post anyway, so I may as well cover the latest excitement at Cat's Meow Veterinary Clinic. Around noon an earnest young man walked in with a stray cat he had just found in the street, injured. Poor kitty appears to have been hit by car and he probably has a fractured pelvis. He's very sweet and gentle, and doesn't seem very disturbed by the whole experience. He just has a lot of trouble standing and walking.

So we gave him some medications for pain, inflammation, and to guard against infection, and am letting him have a little rest overnight as our guest. The young man can't adopt him but he'll be checking in tomorrow to see what has developed. If he seems stable we will probably sedate him and get radiographs tomorrow (the cat, that is, not the human).

Kitty is about 7 months old, not neutered yet, has no microchip, and is a Domestic Medium Hair gray tabby/white bicolor - a gorgeous cat! I have temporarily dubbed him Mr. Happy because, well, in spite of his situation he seems happy.

UPDATE:
Mr. Happy has been radiographed and neutered (he should have been named Mr Stinky). He has a fractured pelvis and will need cage rest, stool softeners, and pain medication for a while but we expect a full recovery. And a very good client is probably going to be his new mom when he is good to go in about a month.

We don't normally hospitalize cats with pelvic fractures for a month, BTW, but he needs confinement of some sort and that's the sort we have here. In a private home he would be housed in a bathroom or other smallish room.

Parking Meters

Last week at some point the parking meters out front got upgraded to the new version that accepts credit cards in addition to coins. We have been eagerly awaiting this change, hoping it would solve the 20-year-old problem of our local parking meters being broken more often than not.

Unfortunately, it seems we STILL have a problem, Houston.

For those who don't know - for the past TWENTY YEARS the meters out front have frequently taken money and yet provided no time. They have been broken. People have complained endlessly; unseen elves come and "fix" them; they function properly for a brief time, and then malfunction again. This has been an issue for as long as we have been here, which as I mentioned was TWENTY YEARS. No one from the city has made any attempt to replace the obviously broken meters. They prefer to ticket the hapless victims.

And therein lies the real problem. In Los Angeles it is illegal to park at a broken meter. You WILL be ticketed. It matters not how much money you put into said meter that you got no value for. It matters not that every meter for half a block is broken. You can't park there, and you will be ticketed if you do.

I swear it's some sort of a racket: the city makes far more money with all the ticketing than it ever would by fixing the meters permanently and then just collecting the parking fees.

I think our only hope for a permanent fix is to raise some hell as a community, so here is what I propose: everybody who has ever been ripped off by the meters at our curb needs to call the city at 311 and complain bitterly and at great length about how Woodland Hills Parking Meters #25, 25A, 26, 26A, and 27 are defective and perpetually breaking down. If enough people make a stink about it, something might just get done. Also, please feel free to call Councilman Zine's office at (818) 756-8848 and complain about how the meters, for TWENTY YEARS, have only had band-aid fixes and keep breaking.

In the meantime, good luck using the new meters. Someone has already complained to me that one wouldn't take their card. Please don't complain to me. The meters are not the responsibility of business owners. We have zero control over them. The CITY is responsible.

And of course you can always park behind our clinic, or next door in the lot at Papa John's (the building's owner has personally told me that he doesn't care if my clients park there, and nobody is using the lot until almost noon most days anyway). If you do park next door, please be considerate of that building's customers and do not take the prime spots near the street, but instead park toward the alley.

Holiday Weekend Closure

We will be closed Saturday July 2 through Monday July 4 for the Independence Day holiday weekend. If you have an emergency, please call Veterinary Specialists of the Valley at 818-883-8387.

Have a safe and happy weekend!

Frequently Asked Questions by Pet Owners about The Veterinarian-Client-Patient Relationship (VCPR)

(Provided by AVMA; NOT written by Dr. Robison)

Q: What is a Veterinarian-Client-Patient Relationship (VCPR)?
A: A Veterinarian-Client-Patient Relationship, or VCPR for short, exists when your veterinarian knows your pet well enough to be able to diagnose and treat any medical conditions your animal develops. Your part of the VCPR is allowing your veterinarian to take responsibility for making clinical judgments about your pet's health, asking questions to make sure you understand, and following your veterinarian's instructions. Your veterinarian's part of the VCPR involves making those judgments, accepting the responsibility for providing your pet with medical care, advising you about the benefits and risks of different treatment options, keeping a written record of your pet's medical care, and helping you know how to get emergency care for your pet if the need should arise.


Q: How is a VCPR established and maintained?
A: A VCPR is established only when your veterinarian examines your animal in person, and is maintained by regular veterinary visits as needed to monitor your animal's health. If a VCPR is established but your veterinarian does not regularly see your pet afterward, the VCPR is no longer valid and it would be illegal and unethical for your veterinarian to dispense or prescribe medications or recommend treatment without recently examining your pet.
A valid VCPR cannot be established online, via email, or over the phone.


Q: Why is a VCPR so important?
A: For one, it's required by law in many states – in order for a veterinarian to diagnose or treat your animal, or prescribe or dispense medications, a VCPR must be in effect according to the state's Veterinary Practice Act (if you have questions about your state's Practice Act, contact your state veterinary medical board). Two, it's the best thing for your animal's health. Your veterinarian should be familiar with your animal's medical history and keep a written record of your animal's health so they can provide your animal with the best possible care. The AVMA's Principles of Veterinary Medical Ethics also requires a VCPR for a veterinarian to prescribe medication or otherwise treat an animal.


Q: How can a VCPR be ended?
A: You, as the client, can terminate a VCPR at any time by notifying the veterinarian. If your veterinarian chooses to end the VCPR, they should notify you and, if your animal has an ongoing illness, provide medical care until you have transitioned to another veterinarian.


Q: What does my veterinarian offer that an online source can't match?
A: Your veterinarian knows you and knows your animal(s), and this is critical to keeping your animal(s) healthy. For example, your veterinarian can customize a vaccination program to give your animal the best protection from disease and make sure that it isn't getting a vaccine it doesn't need. Vaccine and drug reactions, although uncommon, can occur, and your veterinarian is trained to recognize and treat them to minimize the chance that the reaction will become severe or even life-threatening – you can't get that from a website!

Figuring out what's wrong with an animal is like solving a very complex puzzle – your veterinarian has to figure out how to fit all of the clues (pieces of the puzzle) together to solve it. Veterinarians have, on average, 8 or more years of college and in-depth veterinary school training to prepare them for this task. Their training makes it possible for them to thoroughly evaluate, diagnose and treat your animal's problem. Doing these things effectively involves thorough knowledge of your animal's body systems and how they function, as well as a familiarity with how medications and other treatments work and if any treatments interfere with others. Hands-on physical examination is incredibly valuable to your pet and can't be replaced by a phone conversation, web-based conversation, or email description.


This information has been prepared as a service by the American Veterinary Medical Association. Redistribution is acceptable, but the document's original content and format must be maintained, and its source must be prominently identified. Please contact Dr. Kimberly May (800.248.2862, ext 6667) with questions or comments.

Our Time Warner Phone Service

Dear Clients:

As I write this, we are AGAIN experiencing an interruption in our phone service. I guess I shouldn't complain too much - we also lost internet for over an hour, but it just came back on.

This is the second phone outage this week, and the third since I switched from AT&T. While I am happier overall with TWBC than I was with AT&T for a multitude of reasons which I won't delve into here, this inconsistent, unreliable phone connection has me a bit perturbed. Especially since I am locked into a two-year contract with these fools.

Sigh. You know the routine. 818-297-xxxx. I'm also going to try allowing comments on here and will check in periodically.

Update: 11 AM the phones are working again. Whew.

The Pancake

You might remember the kitten we had here last fall for a couple of months after she was brought in by a Good Sam who saw her collide with a car. Anne has been fostering her since just before Christmas.

Well, good news: Little Miss Pinkie Pancakes has got a Forever Home with a very kind woman who found herself catless and in need. The Pancake goes to her new home today, and we are hoping she has many good years there, and a long life full of love.

I'll post a pic of her with her new mom as soon as I have one.