Dr. Ernie Ward veterinarian committed to helping pets and people
I recently got a bad haircut. I was embarrassed. In fact, it happened the day before I hosted the annual Calabash Christmas Tree lighting and parade. I wasn’t happy but I soldiered on. The reason I mention this is because of a complaint I heard from a client recently.
Once again I am honored to be lecturing to my veterinary colleagues and friends at the North American Veterinary Conference in sunny Orlando, Florida. This is my tenth or eleventh presentation year and I couldn’t be more excited about my topics. NAVC is a special conference for me in that we get to meet many of my international veterinary colleagues as well as get the latest cutting-edge information in medicine and surgery. If you’re at NAVC, send me a message on my Facebook page here. I’ll be posting pictures and updates during NAVC so if you’re not following me there or on Twitter, do.
Each New Year we’re inundated with lists of things to do, buy, and become. This year I’m taking the opposite approach: here are the things you definitely don’t want to do, purchase or aspire to be more like. It’s time for my Anti-Resolutions for your pets.
Cooking during the holidays? How about including your pets? In case you missed them, I wrote a couple of columns on Vetstreet recently that give you advice on how to avoid holiday weight gain in your pet (and you) as well as some simple, healthy and low-calorie recipes for your pets.
It had been a tough year. The toughest you can imagine.
Two weeks prior to the end of his tour in the Middle East, a road-side bomb had taken her father. She’d been with him a grand total of one-hundred eighty four days her whole life. A scant six months spent with her father out of her five years. Her dad was a photograph, a video chat, a man her mom and grandparents told her about. She loved him dearly even though she hardly knew him. And now he was gone.
The little girl looked up at her mother and asked a simple question, “Mama, does Rascal love me?” In nearly twenty years of veterinary practice I hadn’t heard that question before and certainly not from a six-year old. Rascal was at my clinic and was very ill. As in chances-are-he’s-not-going-to-make-it ill. I had just remarked that I was sure Rascal loved his family very much. Now I wondered if it were really true.
I couldn’t even run a mile a few years ago. This weekend I’ll do my second full Ironman. Here’s why I’m thrilled to suffer like never before.
She didn’t looked stressed. Not a bit anxious or even nonplussed. She was a cat, after all. But I was convinced stress was the cause of this kitty’s conundrum.
Pet owners and veterinarians are always looking for that one tip, trick or advancement that will help pets live longer, healthier lives. Me, too. And I found it.
