Spring is such a lovely time of year. I enjoyed the nice weather we had at the beginning of the week – even if it was spent at the side of I-5 for a few hours – and I love seeing all of the flowering trees throughout the neighborhood.  The thing I don’t like about spring is the beautiful displays of Easter Lilies in all of the grocery stores. All I can see is kitty toxin! I want to pass out warning flyers that read DO NOT BUY IF YOU HAVE CATS.

Easter Lilies are toxic to cats (although the toxic principle is unknown) and  all parts of the plant are toxic. The horrible thing about Easter Lilies is that cats love when new plants come into the home, they are curious and are apt to take a taste.  Ingestion of Easter Lilies by cats can cause vomiting, inappetence,  lethargy, kidney failure and even death. Dogs and horses are not affected by these decorative plants.

Please enjoy the displays in the grocery store or at church but don’t bring these dangerous decorations into your home if you have cats. And if you don’t have cats but are thinking of purchasing one for a friend, please be sure they don’t have cats too!

HB2470-9 Update! The House is voting on the bill on Tuesday! If you haven't had a chance yet please take the time to contact your representative and urge them to vote YES! on HB 2470-9. To find out who your representative is please click here. I appreciate you helping the puppies and keeping puppy mills out of Oregon!

Wow! Things are incredibly crazy around here and in such a good way it's hard to complain. As an example let me just tell you that I woke up really early this morning for our trial surgery day with a planned 4 surgeries and two added on. Michael got home and into bed right as my alarm went off at 5:30am. We've been pulling a crazy schedule to get these things done but it does look like we'll make our Crepes Suzette opening day!

Our beautiful new sink

Ok, to start with we had our final plumbing inspection last week and I did not have any verification that the sink had been certified. Apparently sinks can be made all over the world, especially China and are not certified for safety. NOT ok in a business. We emailed the company we got it from who emailed the supplier and no licensing or certification. I had a hard time finding that sink and now I was faced with finding another. Not only did it have to be certified, it had to be the right size to fit the faucet that was already on the wall AND it had to be in stock locally because we wanted the plumbing inspection in 2 days in the morning so the final inspection could be that same afternoon! Talk about pressure. Well, I went around a few places and was having trouble finding anything. Finally I remembered A Ball on W. Burnside near where we used to live. They were so wonderful there. She had 4 certified vessel sinks in stock and started telling me the colors over the phone. When she got to gold...I rushed right over! The size was perfect - even better than the red sink and I must tell you, it looks great! (Even better than the red sink!) So it was put in the next day and we passed plumbing inspection the following day. Whew!

Then it was final inspection a few hours later. Our same framing inspector came out (the one that wanted us to insulate over our beautiful exposed fire brick!)  Well, it was interesting. There were some pretty big scary moments around our oxygen tank. There were all sorts of safety precautions they were talking about us putting in. A single sprinkler run to the back, venting the space - that would have been impossible! We'd have to go through 2 floors or into someone's backyard and we would not be opening anytime soon! Luckily, our Hazards inspector got things straight and we don't need to do the sprinkler or the venting but for some reason, unlike any other veterinary hospital in the area, we need to build a room for the oxygen and nitrogen tanks. It really is the best of all of the options for us and our framer, Derek built the room yesterday with a fire rated door. It looks really funny - we're talking about putting a welcome mat in front of the door.

Puddy - our first surgical patient!

And then, my friends, there was the trial surgery day I was talking about earlier. What a day! Not only passing my husband like ships in the...well...morning but not even anticipating all of the craziness that could happen that day. Both Katie, our veterinary nurse, and I arrived early. She got to the clinic at 6:30am because we were expecting an emergency early shipment of our pain medication and anesthetics that wouldn't be there until later in the afternoon originally. Ok, I did order everything in advance BUT things got a little weird at corporate because my originally shipping address for the distributor was to my home. A big no-no for controlled drugs! They had been sending all of my things lately to the clinic so how should I know that I needed to check on that?! Anyway, they came early. Our kitty patients had stayed the night and were there. We went to get started and realized that I forgot to order the preanesthetic profiles we needed to run bloodwork on them ahead of time. Oh yeah, no artifical tears either and the sterile water for the antibiotics (if we needed them) was on back order. There were other issues that I just can't bore you with right now. I took a trip over to visit my friends at Rose City Veterinary Hospital and they were nice enough to loan us some things. Granted, I didn't know about the eye ointment at that time and needed to take another of many trips out to Walgreen's. (I'm on a first name basis there now!). While at Rose City I picked up 2 more strays that needed spaying and neutering - that is 6 surgeries total on a day when we were discovering we didn't have everything that we needed!

To make a long story short, we ended up doing 3 of the surgeries and will pick up the rest next week. We definitely were ambitious even with the 4! Between using new equipment and discovering the things we needed and didn't have it was a long day with just doing 1/2 of them! But I can tell you, for as stressful as it was we are all grateful to have had this trial run with these shelter animals - they received services for free and we got the chance to run through our surgery protocols before we open. 

Friday we are doing a trial appointment day with friends and family and final inspection should be the day before we open! - I'll keep you posted.

Easter is a time of year when I get to eat one of my favorite seasonal foods - Peeps. I always stick with the original yellow Peeps - they taste best. I always buy them in the single packs because I prefer them soft and fresh. I know that I have fellow Peep lovers out that prefer them dried out with a little give but for me there's nothing like a fresh yellow Peep right out of the package on a spring day.

Yummy peeps picture from www.citykelly.com

And although Peeps may not have much to do with veterinary medicine - Easter time certainly does and when I was at the grocery store purchasing some "on sale" end of season Peeps I once again witnessed the horror of the wall of Easter lilies. My heart sinks whenever I see those lovely fragrant flowers and every year I break my vow to commit Guerilla warfare in the supermarkets and clandestinely place signs on the festive plants that say CAT POISON! These flowers are so dangerous to cats. They can cause irreversible kidney failure and death in cats. The sad thing is many people aren't aware of this and many buy these as gifts for friends or to liven up their house for the holiday and what do cats love to do but chew on new plants and flowers brought into the house. Within an hour after ingesting the plant the cat will begin to vomit. Within 12 hours they will become depressed and within 48-96 hours they show signs of kidney failure such as urinating more, depression, gastrointestinal upset and dehydration. If untreated within 18 hours most cats do not survive! So please help me spread the word - if you have a cat, know someone who has a cat, or know someone who knows someone who has a cat - please let them know the dangers of this beautiful and festive plant.

And don't forget that plastic grass or anything stringy can be a danger to cats too - for some reason there are cats out there that love to eat stringy objects! I knew one cat that loved to eat stringy objects and had 4 surgeries for obstruction. For his last one he was turned over to the hospital I was working at and we took care of him. One of the doctors adopted him and one day they saw him running down the hall with a balloon chasing him! He had swallowed 1/2 of the balloon string! Luckily they were able to gently remove about 2 foot of ribbon and free the cat from the balloon monster! Plastic grass can cause obstruction in the intestines if ingested which could mean surgery to remove the offending object and hospitalization for the recovery. 

Easter lillies - help spread the word! photo by Andrew Dunn from the Wikipedia entry

Not to leave dogs out of this informative but depressing holiday talk, they have some dangers too. The most serious are holiday chocolates, candy and tablefood sharing. Dogs have a much better ability to find hidden treats than children do so please keep your dog away from the Easter egg hunt area. You should take an inventory at the end of the hunt to make sure everything was collected and maybe even make a map ahead of time so you can find all of the goodies in the end. I did have a case of chocolate toxicity in a small dog 3 days after Easter. The family came home and found pieces of plastic Easter eggs and vomited up chocolate. The dog did fine but he was hospitalized for 2 days. Chocolate really is toxic to dogs but there are many types of chocolate and many sizes of dogs so not every chocolate ingestion is treated equally. A 90 pound Lab that eats one M&M is going to be fine - probably won't even show any vomiting or diarrhea side effects. A 7 pound Chihuahua that eats 1/2 a pound of baker's chocolate is in a whole lot of trouble. For detailed information on how chocolate toxicity works in dogs take a look at the Purdue Veterinary School Wellness Center Website. 

Chocolate Easter eggs - remember where you hide them! photo from www.bbc.co.uk

Other dangers for dogs at Easter time include ingestion of candy and tablefood that they are not used to eating - in some dogs this can lead to a painful and potentially fatal condition called Pancreatitis. Pancreatitis symptoms include severe vomiting and diarrhea (often bloody) and severe abdominal pain, depression and dehydration. Dogs with pancreatitis must be hospitalized for days with intensive care and pain medication. The last danger is foreign body ingestion - those darn plastic eggs with the goodies inside can lead to obstruction in the intestines if they are eaten. If obstructions occurs the symptoms are vomiting and usually with a good appetite in the beginning which progresses to loss of appetite, dehydration and depression with continued vomiting. With all of these similar symptoms it can be tough to figure out what exactly we're dealing with but diagnostics and your careful history can be very helpful in ruling out obstruction from pancreatitis and other conditions that cause similar symptoms.

I hope this information has been helpful. It is not meant to scare you and ruin your holiday. It is meant to give you information to help keep your pets (and other pets) safe. Does anyone have any stories to share? Any questions? Please post comments!

Happy Easter everyone! Construction updates are coming soon!

Yesterday I stopped by the space to pick up a key to the front door! We have the key but the space has not been delivered yet. Still waiting for the pipe to be placed and concrete to be poured, and the HVAC and electrical panel to be put in. Oh yeah, and the back door to the space to be installed. So really, no progress since the last update except the key. The good news is that with the key in our hands we have access to the space and since the space isn't officially delivered yet...the rent countdown has not begun! It's a pretty good deal but we are running into some snags.

Hole for the scale and the bathroom pipe

This morning Michael and I went to the space and opened up the front door...ahhh what a sweet sound to hear that key turn and watch the door open! Michael was meeting the floor crew there to start work on the floors.  They were grinding the concrete that they could - had to work around the dirt pile where the pipe isn't in yet and they started cleaning the back space to prepare to epoxy the floor back there. Ok so here is one of those unexpected hang ups - they need to warm up the space in order for the sealant on the concrete and the epoxy to work! Who would have thought? And we can't heat the space without the HVAC and electricity - darn! We were starting to make progress! So we got one small work around and put a space heater in the back space so they can do the epoxy tomorrow but the rest of the grinding and sealing is on hold until the space delivery. Such is the story of the buildout. An April Fool's opening date is more and more appropriate. The good news is that the back area floors will be done by next week which is when we get our cabinetry delivered! So at least we'll have somewhere to store the stuff while the rest of the work gets done. 

My parents' dog Topper enjoying his Planet Dog "tennis" ball

My last post on tennis balls seemed helpful to people but a little dogcentric. What about kitties and dental health? Believe it or not there is a "chew toy" out there for cats - it's a small toy with cat nip stalks on the inside and it's called the Petstages Catnip Chew Ring. I've seen them online but never in action. If you have a cat that loves catnip it could be an option. There are also the famous Feline Greenies - a dental treat that most cats are crazy for. They come in a variety of flavors and reduce tartar and plaque buildup. The only trick is your cat must CHEW them - many cats get so excited they just swallow them which kind of defeats their purpose. The last great dental chew treat I've been suggesting is actually a dog chew but you can cut it down to cat size. The chicken jerky (made out of just chicken) and salmon skin rolls can be cut into cat size strips for your cat to chew on like a raw hide. The chewing action helps to "brush" the teeth. We have to get pretty innovative to find things to help cats - they are each individuals with their own tastes and preferences!

FORLs - notice the left most tooth - the left root and part of the right root is destroyed! The right most tooth only has part of the crown remaining.

The other thing that you should know about cats and their teeth is that they are prone to these awful cavities called Feline Odontoclastic Resorptive Lesions or FORLs. They are incredibly painful and ultimately destroy the teeth. They are aggressive lesions that can't be filled like human, or even dog, cavities. We don't know why they happen but if your cat has one, they are painful. The crazy thing about cats though, is that they won't tell you that they're hurting. They will continue to eat and act normal even with the pain. Since cats are prey as well as predators they have developed a very good masking ability and act as though everything is ok. Or sometimes I think cats are just so dignified and so much braver than dogs and humans that they figure that's just life and they live with it. Either way, it's important to have your cat's teeth examined yearly and evaluated to see if they need a comprehensive exam and treatment under anesthesia. 

Please post if you guys have any other great ideas on how to keep your cat's teeth clean and healthy. I'll continue to post about pet's teeth for Dental Health Month. Any questions, feel free to ask! And comments are always welcome!

I'm sure all of you are wondering what happened to Foxx - the cute little kitten that turned my home into a care facility over Thanksgiving. Well, he's doing great! In fact he was doing so well that he was acting like a kitten and getting into all sorts of trouble. You should have seen him with the laser toy! He was even stalking DeeDee. She, of course, totally deserved this for all of the hassling she did while he was sick.

After the holiday he went back to Murrayhill Veterinary Hospital where he continued to get his medication and lots of food. He gained a whole pound in 4 days!! Boy, he sure does like to eat. As he was getting more and more strength back and he was getting into more and more trouble I started to realize that life in a clinic was not the best thing for a kitten. And so, after the holidays and when I was sure Foxx was going to continue to get better I called his owner with an update and asked if he would like to bring Foxx back home. You see, Foxx had been adopted with another kitten and I was convinced they needed to be back together.

 I wasn't at the clinic the day Foxx went back home but I know everyone was so happy. I got an email from his owner yesterday saying that he's doing well and he's getting into frequent wrestling matches with the other kitten (for awhile there, she was much bigger than him - but I think he caught up!). Sometimes it's amazing what we can do and what a little kitten body is capable of recovering from. I will miss Foxx but I know he's in a great place with people that love him and a little sister to wrestle with - what could be better?

This evening I brought Foxx home for another day of homecare over the holiday. Before I left Murrayhill this evening I was showered with shouts of “he’s eating!!!” Foxx was chowing down on the food we had put in with him this morning.

Monday, when I took Foxx back to work, he looked awful. I really thought he wasn’t going to make it. Everyone was sad and I set to work on everything I could think of to do for him. I started some major treatments: 3 different antibiotics, liver protectants, lysine, fish oil, Metacam, fluids, force feeding and nebulizing. The staff was so great and everyone worked so hard faithfully giving him his treatments and tons of TLC. Tuesday was a little better but he still looked pretty sick. His nasal discharge and congestion was getting worse and there was no change in his liver size. He was starting to resent his force feedings a little bit and seemed to be looking for a way off the table. Then this morning I came in and he looked better…really better. He was up and about, greeting people as they came in to see him (he’s going to be great at his job!). Everyone was happy.

Then tonight he really did it – after 9 days he finally ate on his own. I mean really pigged out! And then I took him home and he motored all over the place and settled down at DeeDee’s water dish. After 4 or 5 attempts he finally got a big drink of water. Then there was more food. And I caught him playing with one of our plants!!

At around the time we were experiencing these great tiny steps for Foxx, Michael got an email that our variance for permitting was approved!! The low part of our space in the back where we are putting radiology was not tall enough and we were worried we’d have to raise the roof or dig out all of the concrete and put in a lower floor to reach the few extra inches we needed. Crisis averted! (And we even take back most of the bad things we said about the planning department).

I am truly grateful and hope you all have a happy Thanksgiving.

It’s been a busy week. I got home late Tuesday night from the American Association of Feline Practitioners conference in Austin, TX and headed right to work Wednesday morning. (Michael was nice enough to usurp my blog and entertain you with some geeky tech stuff while I was away). The rest of the week was filled with work and meetings and Saturday night, after work I brought home the saddest kitten to continue nursing care over the weekend.

Sunday at Murrayhill, there are no technicians or doctors at the hospital to give the intensive care this kitten needs. This kitten was adopted from the Oregon Humane Society and had an upper respiratory infection – not uncommon in shelter kittens. His new dad took great care of him, medicating him and nursing him and through rechecks we could see that the kitten was getting better but not quite 100%. On Wednesday, he was so much worse. He had lost weight, was dehydrated and very weak – but still purred whenever you just looked at him. His new dad, a college student, was overwhelmed with the estimate for intensive medical care so we gave the kitten some treatments and sent him home overnight with the plan to return the kitten to the shelter for continued care. Thursday morning I got a call that the shelter couldn’t take him and had him brought to the hospital to relinquish him to my care.

This is not something I usually do but the circumstances were so unique and the kitten was so sweet and really deserved a chance. We hospitalized him, sent out laboratory tests, gave him medication, placed him on iv fluids, nebulized him multiple times a day and force fed him – he hadn’t eaten much in 5 days. He looked terrible and we were pretty worried about his chances for making it. Friday was also touch and go and Saturday he started to look better. He even ate a few bites on his own!

Foxx doesn't think the nebulizer is very amusing

So Saturday night I lugged home medical supplies and a large carrier with the skinniest kitten inside. You see, Michael is really allergic to cats so we don’t have one – I was the only one that could take a contagious kitten home.  Michael (he may be allergic but he’s really helpful) was nice enough to tech for me as I administered SQ fluids. I nebulized him, gave him his medication, force fed him and let him sit on my lap while I worked at the computer. We also let him get some exercise and DeeDee, our poodle, gave him her undivided attention – she was actually obscessed – following him around, nosing at him, and nipping at his ears. He really seemed to like her though and would follow her in the rare moments that food was more important than the kitten.

This morning he’s looking worse. He’s weak but he’s laying on my lap purring. I worry that he won’t make it but he had a good weekend and we’ll keep trying at the hospital. I promised, if he makes it, he’d be our clinic cat. So we’re rooting for him, he’d be the perfect greeter and I know he would take his job seriously of making everyone happy.