Author: dthomas

It was forty one years ago last month.  I was an excited young man starting the first day of veterinary college.  At that time, one in nine applicants were admitted to vet school.  One in three applicants were admitted to medical school.  It was a moment of mixed emotions; satisfaction from an enormous goal accomplishment,…

Pet caretakers who have dogs who have had TPLO surgery for cruciate ligament injuries, whose dog later on developed bone cancer at the site of the surgery, have been asking if there is a connection between the two.  The standard answer is that there is no evidence that shows that there is a connection.  But,…

Imagine that you want to grow some healthy, organic veggies in a garden. The first thing you must consider is the health of the soil that you will be planting your seeds. If the soil is healthy and you do your job with supporting the plants, you will likely succeed. If your soil is contaminated,…

Take a moment or two and contemplate this.  What is your pet?  With your eyes, you see the lovely eyes and nose and lolling tongue.  It makes you smile.  With your touch, you feel the soft fur, the wetness of the kiss.  With your ears you hear the breath, the paws softly moving across the…

As a vet for over 40 years, and having practiced from a holistic perspective the past 23 years, I could not have helped learning a few things about the people who take care of their pets.  Nowadays, I do phone consultations with people all over the world, most of them who have pets that are…

I talk to phone consultation clients all the time who tell me that their vet appears to have given up on their pet’s illness.  This attitude seems to be counterintuitive for the veterinary profession, but it is not.  If we look a little deeper as to how this can happen, we can learn what to…

A lady takes her dog to the vet because it hasn’t been feeling well.  The dog is put through a number of diagnostic tests and she is informed that her dog has malignant cancer.  She is devastated by the diagnosis and turns her focus on how to proceed with a treatment.  She is told by…

According to the dictionary, the word paradox means….A statement that seems contradictory or absurd but is actually valid or true. Epileptic seizures appear to be the pinnacle of paradox but in actuality there is truth behind the madness. The problem is, that we vets, have not desired to find the truth in the paradox. Until…

I remember years ago when I was in vet school.  We had two large animal clinicians who had been in practice for many years, retired from practice and were hired as clinicians at the vet school.  These two cow-practitioners had a wealth of experience and knowledge.  When a client would back his trailer with a…

I once read a statement that said, “The more you grieve for your deceased pet, the more you loved them.”  If you genuinely feel that this statement is correct, you might not read this blog and move onto something about feeding or not over-vaccinating. Grief is one of the most confusing emotions that humans experience…