Emptied storage unit today. Like Christmas! Found old photos, child’s childhood toys and baby clothes, my child hood toys, clay paw prints. Julianne Moore singing opera is not realistic. And Mike Greenwell of Mike Greenwell’s in Cape Coral played on the Red Sox for 10 years!

California recently passed a law prohibiting pet stores from selling puppies and kittens that are not from a shelter or nonprofit rescue. Pet store puppies and kittens are among the sickest we see at the vet clinic. People finance puppies and kittens and then end up with a sick one at the least or long-term health issues that require life time vet care, sometimes even death. Some people say they had to spend that much money to “rescue” them from the pet store. And if you’re not rescuing, what are you going to do? Take it back after you fall in love with it to get your money back? The decision to buy was because you fell in love with it. If it was merely the purchase of property you wouldn’t buy it if you did your research and were making a sound, practical purchase of a quality “item”. Don’t shop, adopt!

Of course your pet’s health is paramount. And most people need to save money in order to keep their pet’s healthy. What most people don’t know is that there are much larger, long term ramifications of using the cheapest online pharmacy or out door shot clinic. When you use these services to save money, you are not supporting your local veterinarian who provides local jobs and pays local taxes, and is the one who is there when your pet has an emergency, needs geriatric care, or even end of life care. Not spending money in your community can have the result in making local service providers raise their pricing so in the long run you may not be able to afford a teeth cleaning and tooth extraction to keep your pet from acquiring life-threatening endocarditis and pain free. In the long run you may not be able to afford blood work to diagnose early kidney or liver disease, early thyroid disease or more serious diabetes and cushing’s disease. In the long run you may not be able to afford those x-rays to diagnose arthritis in the knees and hips or bladder stones that need to be removed by surgery… Look at your bill or ask if you have been given a free toe nail trim, a courtesy ear cleaning, samples of shampoo or dental chews. When your local vet offers these in house discounts but you pay the manufacturer’s recommended price the vet can stay open and offer more services at an overall savings. But they are not able to offer courtesy nail trims, pay an employee to walk help you with your pet to the car, even give senior citizen, military or “frequent flyer” discounts if you don’t support their local businesses. The smaller clinics who can’t make it on there own because they can’t compete with bulk discounts will eventually be taken over by larger corporations who will limit the veterinarian’s independence in treatment plans and pricing, monopolizing the market and elevated prices. So if you are saving that exam fee once a year or 10.00 on food every other month, remember you will be paying more in the long run when your pet is in need of urgent and emergency care. Most veterinarians will give you the options of surrendering or euthanizing your pet if you can’t afford extensive hospital care or surgery. PLEASE SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL CLINICS! It’s what’s best for your pet and your pocket book!

Many people need to save money where they can, but people with animals should support their local veterinarian. The upside of Walgreen’s, McDonald’s, and now 7-11 pet vaccine clinics is you don’t have to pay for an exam to get your pet vaccinated for rabies. The downside is… every thing else. First, you don’t get an exam. Second, you have to stand in a long line, sometimes in hot weather, with other people and their pets whose disposition your not familiar with. You don’t know where the vaccines were from or how they were stored and if they are even effective. You don’t know with any vaccines given at any clinic if your pet is going to have a reaction. So if your pet has a life-threatening reaction and the “shot van” pulls out of the 7-11 parking after an hour on a Saturday or Sunday, do they point you to the nearest animal emergency clinic where you’ll likely pay 500.00 when you were trying to save 50.00? Today’s trends to shop online for convenience in order to get the lowest priced item shipped to your door can lead to purchasing short-dated, expired, or even counterfeit items. Other countries have different standards than our FDA. And while some people purchase their own prescription drugs from other countries; if you wouldn’t, don’t purchase your pets’ products online (at least without doing your research). If you buy popular name brand prescription food, flea and tick prevention, even “fish” antibiotics; contact the manufacturer first and ask if they sell directly to your preferred website. If they don’t, you are putting your pet at risk for at least a substandard product that won’t protect or help your pet; and at worst your pet could have a life-threatening reaction to the product that won’t be covered by the manufacturer, distributor or your local veterinarian.

In case your wondering, it was a “blue-tooth” Christmas. Our family got a karaoke machine and a blue-tooth toothbrush?? Relaxed, only had to go into the office for one pet and it was a false alarm–phew! Watched Christmas movies (some for grown-ups, some for kids–the old fashion Rankin/Bass are my favorite). Went to dinner at a friend’s house. It was wonderful. My other gift was “hex removal bath salts” which will hopefully remove the Polish curse I call the “malarkey” similar to the Italian “Malocchio”: “According to Italian folklore, those giving the malocchio can cause harm to someone else. Legend says it’s just another way of putting a curse on others that can cause physical pain such as head or stomach aches or even cause misfortune.” Another resolution for the New Year–get rid of the dreaded curse. Lose weight (as usual), become more financially secure this year, take care of my health, spend more time with my daughter (travel more), and take control of my professional life so I am less stress and more fulfilled. Let’s see where I am this time next year!

Thanks for joining me!  My name is Cindy…  you can call me Cindy, or Doc, or Dr. Young.  I’m not a big fan of Dr. Cindy or Cynthia.  Dr. Cindy sounds so “Romper Room” for those of you who remember that show growing up with the original “Electric Company”, “Captain Kangaroo”, “New Zoo Revue”, “The Howdy Doody Show” BACK in the day!  Today is Christmas, and the end of another year, a week from the new year and new resolutions.  As I look back, I have always been a resolution maker and breaker, but over my life have accomplished the super goals that I had in place.  Next year, 2019, I am looking to accomplishing my ultimate goal which I have only formed this year, 2018.  When I applied to veterinary school, I was aware that many different careers existed in the field other than a private practitioner.  That may have been one of the strong points in my application essay:  teaching future doctors, research that helps with human medicine (oncology), government (inspections and disease control).  I have to continue this introduction (thought) tomorrow…  have to go open presents!  Merry Christmas!!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton