This year's Teddy Bear Surgery event at the Belmont Street Fair on a beautiful sunny day in September was another fun success. Annually our pesky bears get into our supply of toys and swallow them giving them terrible tummy aches and we rely on the skills of child surgeons to remove the foreign object at the Fair to help save them. These skilled surgeons keep the offending toy and hopefully learn a lot and have fun in the process. We even supply them with a Teddy Bear Surgeon tattoo to commemerate the occasion.

Preparing for surgery

This year we collected donations for a wonderful organization we work with Pound to Posh. They rescue dogs from high volume kill shelters and place them in foster care until they are adopted into their forever homes. We shared our space with them and really enjoyed talking to people about the great work they are doing. The money we raised at the event allowed them to rescue Toby (now Finn) - a sweet terrier puppy that was slated for euthanasia and he has already found his forever home! To find out more about what is happening with Pound to Posh - like their Facebook page!

Tattoo

We are thrilled to host this event and always have so much fun assisting the child surgeons. We appreciate all of your support for our annual event, the donations to Pound to Posh and for stopping by and visiting our booth.

 

Thank you note

Finn and his forever family

 

Teddy Bear Surgery experience complete!

Happy Monday all! Today is the first day since opening 4 years ago that we are opening on Mondays and on our Anniversary to boot! The transition to opening on Mondays has been a long process – planning, schedule arranging, hiring and that brings us to today – our first Monday, our 4 year anniversary!

Last night I was in the clinic, setting up our anniversary display and getting things ready for the big day. I was thinking about how far the clinic has come, how grateful I am for our fantastic staff, wonderful clients and joyful patients when I heard a loud pop and all of the power went out. Well, they are working on the new sushi place next door so I figured they blew a big circuit. I waited in the twilight a few minutes and still nothing so I went to check it out. They had power next door and in the rest of the building just none in our space. Upon investigation it turns out they drilled into our circuit box. No power, no email, no phones, no computers. This was 9pm Sunday... t minus 11 hours!

DeeDee loving the space during construction

This morning I woke up really early – I knew Mondays were going to be an early day but man! And met the electrician at the clinic at 5:30am. He got things up and running by 7:30am. The only causality appears to be the dog room computer who tried valiantly to come on and just couldn’t keep it going. We’ll have to work on that. Still waiting for the servers to come back up – it’s just now 8am…to the wire!!

The space pre-wall. Yes that's a truck in the kitchen!

The nice thing about being at work so early and having no power is I could do nothing but sit and drink tea and think about where we’ve been. I sat up front in the waiting room in the early morning light and thought about the start of the business and how happy I was for the little things like seeing the concrete poured up front and hoping for the keys to start the build out - life was so simple back then. I looked at all of the colors on the walls  and the peaceful rooms and remembered painting until 3 am and miraculously connecting with the exam room furniture driving down Grand and looking out my window to see the perfect pieces in a window display at Shleifer Furniture. I remember hiring each and every employee, honing our skills along the way. I remember meeting Krissy at the Portland Veterinary Medical Association holiday party, the software system changes, the growth, the new puppies and kittens, and the loss of so many sweet pets including some of our own. The most amazing part of opening this clinic has been the support of everyone in the community and our clients and our team. Really, I couldn’t have done this without you. Thank you.

Our actual anniversary is National Crepe Suzette Day – May 6^th. Please stop by and celebrate with us, share your stories and enjoy a Voodoo donut on us (crepes don’t keep)!

NEW HOURS!

Monday OPEN 8-6;  Tuesday – Thursday 8am-8pm; Friday 8-6; Saturday 8-noon

   

I love working with children and showing them what we do in the clinic. Last week we had a student visiting from our Day at the Vet program, Lauren. Her parents were the winners of the auction item we donated to the school Lauren attends and she was able to spend a morning with us, learning about what we do in the clinic. She got to meet some patients, observe us in the rooms doing physical exams and watch some anesthetic and dental procedures. We donate Day at the Vet auction items to 6 schools a year.

Lauren and Dr. Sulis

For lunch Lauren and I headed over to Slappy Cakes to talk about her favorite patients and go over what it takes to become a vet. We discussed how she needs to do well in math and science (which she loves) and talked about all of the schooling after high school - 4 years of college and then 4 more years veterinary school. We also talked about specialists such as neurologists, surgeons, oncologists, dermatologists, ophthomologists, etc which go for another 4 years of training after that.

Lauren has fun with her pancakes at Slappy Cakes

On Monday we also had the opportunity to visit with a group of 3 and 4 year olds from Childworks. We gave them a tour of the clinic - I think the highlight for them was the couch in one of our exam rooms - well that and listening to Chutney's heart. Theresa's dog Chutney loves kids and volunteered (to be paid in cookies) to be our demonstration dog. You can check out her other great work here where she helped us teach the firefighters how to use the oxygen masks we dontated. She loved the kids and let each of them come up and listen to her heart. I was fascinated by how much the children enjoyed listening to the stethoscope and how each one would have sat there for 10 minutes or more if we let them! You would think they were listening to a story.

All of the children were so well behaved. Another highlight for me was the question and answer part at the end of our visit. 3 and 4 year old children do not really get the concept of what a question is so they would let me know they had a question and then they would proceed to tell me a story. I could answer questions like that all day!

    

Anna, age 9, has wanted to be a dentist since she was 2. She has always been fascinated by teeth and fell in love with animals at an early age. She now hopes to combine the two for a future in Veterinary Dentistry when she grows up.

Anna (the future Veterinary Dentist) and Dr. Sulis

Anna's parents saw an excellent opportunity to give Anna the chance to see what veterinary medicine is like behind the scenes when they saw our donation to the Atkinson Elementary School auction offering a day of observation and lunch with one of our veterinarians. Mt. Tabor gives out 6 of these certificates a year to help raise money for local schools. We've been so pleased at the response to our donations. It's become a very popular item in these auctions and we really love working with the students that come through.

Bella after her spay surgery with her healing art from Anna.

We got to know Anna yesterday as she helped us out examining patients, getting them ready for surgery and making them feel at home in our practice. She loved our veterinary dentistry book and playing with the young cats that were here for their spay and neuter surgeries. She is a self proclaimed cat person and shared stories of her own two kitties with us. She took great care of our dog patients as well, comforting them, drawing them pictures and teaching them tricks to keep them entertained. We discovered early on in her observations that she doesn't really like needles and the sight of blood did create a bit of dizziness but we are all confident that she has plenty of time to overcome these obstacles on the road to fullfilling her dreams.

Anna's Art - in her spare time she likes to draw dresses.

Thanks for coming in Anna and for supporting your school. Good luck in your studies!  

Today is the Chinese New Year, taking place on the second new moon after the winter solstice. The Dragon is the only mythical creature in the Chinese Zodiac and for the Chinese people, Dragon is the luckiest and most auspicious of all of the animal signs. Chinese holiday traditions include forgiving past conflicts, hosting elaborate feasts, setting off fireworks and giving children money in red envelopes.

Bernie with his Water Dragon toy from his friend Wallie

Gung hay fat choy is the traditional new year greeting meaning “Best wishes and congratulations.” We wish you and your furry family an abundant and transformative 2012.

DeeDee also finds the Water Dragon to be a good friend.

It’s that time of year!! I would like to invite everyone to come down to the Belmont Street Fair on Saturday, September 10^th  for our 4^th annual Teddy Bear Surgery event. In the past years this event has become more and more popular with local children. When I first conceived of this event I really thought kids would find it “lame” since it paled in comparison to any video game they could play. To my surprise, it has been well received since the beginning with even young teenagers participating.

Teddy Bear Surgeons save the lives of bears.

This year the bears are up to their usual mischief eating crazy toys and needed to be saved by budding Teddy Bear surgeons. Kids get to anesthetize the bears, dress in surgical caps and masks, remove the toy the silly bears ingested, seal them back up and then recover their patient.

We are prepared for 600 this year! Last year we saved near 350. Check out the blogs from previous years to get an idea of what it's like! 

This year we are asking for donations of $2 per surgery to raise much needed funds for a local organization, Paw Team.  This organization provides volunteer veterinary services for low income and homeless people’s pets and is in danger of shut down due to lack of funds. They recently sent notice that they needed help and we thought this would be a great way to help raise money.  Check out their website to find out all of the great work they do and see how you can help.

Remember, the clinic will be closed for business on Saturday, September 10^th and you can find us at the fair from noon-8pm. We look forward to seeing you there!

Mt. Tabor will be closed for business Friday May 13th and Saturday May 14th. We are converting our software system to a fully integrated Veterinary software from our custom software that we have outgrown. Rest assured we will all be there working hard, entering data and getting ready for our first week on our new system. We believe that this new system will allow us to help you and your pets more effectively. Like with any change, aside from the inconvenience of us being unable to help you at the end of the week, there will be a learning curve as we work out the kinks and learn how to optimize the system. We appreciate your patience and understanding. 

DeeDee blogging

What this means to you: stock up on food, medications and supplements before close of business (8pm on Thursday 5/12). If you have an emergency please contact Dove Lewis or Southeast Portland Animal Hospital. They are open 24/7 and will be able to assist you. 

As part of these changes we are making to better serve you we will be eliminating the email notification system for new blog entries. Instead all new blog entries will be posted on facebook. Please friend our page! It's easy! We have a link at the left side bar or you can click here. We had a super fun idea -  sign up your pet on facebook and have them friend us too! We will use our new page to stay better connected, let you know about changes in hours, new products, current news events that may affect your pet like pet food recalls and what's happening at the clinic. You can also sign up for the RSS feed at the top of the page.  

One more seamless change that you can expect - a new phone system! Many of you have kindly given us feedback on our phone system - and it's not been pretty. It served us well in the begining and just like our software system, we have outgrown it. With how busy we have become we have found that clients are having to leave more voicemails. Many of these voicemails are getting lost in the system. We have been disappointed that anyone has to leave a message (I personally hate leaving messages for businesses) and finding out that some of these messages have been lost where we NEVER responded is horrifying. Please know that until this system is implemented, if you don't hear back from us please call again or email! We want to hear from you. This includes complaints as well. We cannot improve without your input. We do like postive feedback too so keep it coming. 

Thank you all for following and reading this blog. I've been keeping it for 3 years now! If you're new, be sure to browse the begining where I recorded real time the creation of the practice. Cheers to new beginings!

 

We will be closing early this friday 3/25 and will be closed on Saturday 3/26 to participate in the SOLV Beach Clean Up and our Staff Retreat.  Please be sure to pick up any food or medications needed for the weekend Friday by noon. We will be back open for business our normal hours on Tuesday 10am to 8pm. We apologize for any inconvenience.

In case of emergency please contact Dove Lewis Animal Emergency Hospital 503.288.7281 or Southeast Portland Animal Hosptial 503.255.8139 for care.  

Wow! Have you seen the lastest issue of Spot Magazine?! The Top Dog awards for 2011 are out and you guessed it! We won! (and won and won and won!). 

The clinic won Best Veterinary Practice 2011 which makes me so happy. We haven't even celebrated our 3 year anniversary and here we are winning accolades. I am so grateful to our clients who voted for us and for our fantastic team. This was a write in ballot which makes me extra honored to received these awards. 

Number 1: Dr. Kristin Sulis and Number 2: Dr. Krissy Bussmann

 

Thank you also for voting me Best Veterinarian for the second year in a row! This year I won by a landslide. I am not sure how this is possible and I am humbled by this kind recognition. The feature article in Spot Magazine was so sweet - I got teary when I read it! Check it out here. It's so much easier to talk about kudos when they are directed at someone else and I can't even tell you all of the girl squealing that went on when we found out that Krissy was the runner up for Best Veterinarian! I am so lucky to have her as my associate and you all clearly recognize how great she is to award her the #2 slot! 

As an extra added bonus we also won Best Cat Medical. We do take care of a lot of cat companions and both Krissy and I really enjoy our feline patients. They are a special type of companion and present their own challenges both in the clinic and medically. When it comes to cats any show of being singled out means so much.  

We are so grateful for your praise and support. Thank you again for voting and for making us the Best we can be!

 

Krissy and I both spent years in school to become veterinarians because we love the animals we work with (and their people too). We've created a clinic atmosphere to minimize the fear and our clients have really responded to that. Some of our patients however don't care that the surroundings are comfortable or that we have pockets full of cookies. Some become blinded by fear and think only "Oh no! It's the VET!!" They tense up, hide behind their human companions, pant, shake and cower. One particularly wonderful patient that both Krissy and I worked with was a large male Pit Bull that looked incredibly imposing until you approached him to examine him. I actually had his 95 lb body leap over my shoulder once to get away - he reminded me of the cartoons of the elephant with the mouse! Dogs become fearful of the vet from scary or painful experiences. They can even be mild. A vaccine poke that was unexpected can become a source of anxiety later. 

Do I really need to come out?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Veterinarians are not a mean bunch but our patients can lump us into that catagory pretty easily (much like some of us view dentists from childhood experiences). We are sad when patients are afraid and we do have our share of success stories - usually involving tons of food and gentle human companions or sometimes kind sedation. There are still some that no matter what hate our guts. They are afraid. They won't be touched, they will bark, growl, snap and do everything possible to prevent the hands (and sometimes needles) of the vet from touching them. This makes a full physical exam and annual wellness care difficult. Early conditions that can be found through these means are not detected and the entire experience is stressful for everyone. 

 

How do they know?

 

Thankfully Dr. Valli from Synergy Behavior Solutions is offering affordable classes  to help Fido work through their fear of the vet in GET SET FOR THE VET. Sign up quick! The first class is this Saturday the 29th  and the second in the series is scheduled for February 26th. Get more information on Synergy Behavior Solutions and their classes here. Many of you know Valli from her puppy classes and from her doing relief work at our clinic. You will love her fun style and her incredible knowledge as a trainer and veterinarian. She's had her share of  patients viewing her as the "bad guy" and will provide practical exercises to help you and your dog. 

Do you have any stories to share about how your pet feels about going to the vet?