A Michael Broad Blog
As I have said before, cat and dog caregivers need to have some knowledge of companion animal health and treatments in order to discharge their responsibilities concerning pet caregiving including being able to discuss in a meaningful way treatments at their veterinarian’s clinic. In order to try and assist a little bit in that …
Michael Petty DVM is a graduate of the veterinary school of Michigan State University. He owns the Arbor Pointe Veterinary Hospital. In an article which has been posted on Facebook, he criticises his fellow veterinarians for conducting non-essential surgery: cat declawing, dog tail docking and ear cropping. It is very rare for a veterinarian …
Although it appears to be a dumb question, it’s a fair one that demands a reasonable answer. Although I detest animal testing, we have to have a critical and balanced discussion about it. Common sense tells me that animals experience pain in animal testing. Am I correct? Perhaps a sub-question would be: “How much …
At the time this article was first published (2013) Onsior was a fairly new painkiller for pets. The active drug is robenacoxib. Before this drug became available in June 2012, a cat owner had little else to choose from when their cat was in need of drug therapy. You had Metacam, which has proven …
I don’t believe that cats feel pain exactly like humans because their brain processes pain signals from their peripheral nerves in a way which is similar to methods used by therapists when teaching people how to manage pain through psychological therapies. I think cats do it automatically whereas humans have to be taught how …
This is a follow up page on the Feline Grimace Scale which is a way of assessing if a cat feels pain moderately or severely or is pain-free. This is an interesting picture showing a cat in pain. It sums up the facial expression that cat owners can expect to see when their cat …
WJLA.com reports that the growing opioid epidemic is resulting in some cat owners stealing painkilling opioid drugs from their pets to service their addiction. The report says that opioid addicts are hurting their pets and that the FDA is sounding the alarm and sending a major warning to veterinarians. The FDA recommendations include using …
Even in the UK we have heard of the US opioid crisis. For instance, some less than ethical doctors (for humans) are overprescribing Tramadol to their patients to feed an addiction to these prescription painkillers. Overall there were 72,000 drug overdose deaths in 2017 in the USA. On Jan 16th 2018, The Times newspaper …
