Fighting The Battle Of The BulgeAugust 8, 2011 Around 2004, every time Ernie Ward, DVM, found himself among a group of fellow lecturers at a veterinary conference, he’d bring up the same topic: Had anybody noticed how many overweight animals they were seeing in their practices? The question always drew a few jokes. “Oh, look, the skinny vegetarian wants to talk about fat cats,” Dr. Ward recalls—but nobody ever seemed to take the question seriously, despite Ward’s persistence. It might have gone nowhere, except that one day a friend issued a challenge: Quit talking about obese pets and do something about it. So he did. In 2005, Ward, now 44, founded the nonprofit Association for Pet Obesity Prevention. Among other things, the organization helped launch an annual pet-obesity awareness day, and an annual survey that this year suggested that more than half of American dogs and cats were overweight or obese. This data has helped focus national attention on the problem, including high-profile coverage in such media outlets as The Wall Street Journal. “There are just a handful of people who have no additional training beyond veterinary school, who don’t pursue specialized clinical research, who still become hugely impactful in veterinary medicine,” says Steve …
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Caring For CatsJune 22, 2011 Right after graduating from Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine in 1990, Elizabeth J. Colleran, DVM, MS, set out on the typical small-animal career path. She did an internal medicine internship, then went to work for a mixed practice, caring for dogs, cats and the occasional bird. Right away, she saw some problems—or rather, some opportunities. “I came to see that cats were really underserved, and, in many respects, misunderstood,” says Dr. Colleran, 59. “I worked where there were barking dogs everywhere, and where there wasn’t great ventilation, and when cats came in, they freaked out.” That made Colleran think that the way to structure her own practice would be to create a separate specialized facility where cats could receive care in a less stressful setting. Cat Advocate Colleran joined the American Association of Feline Practitioners (AAFP) and began meeting other veterinarians who specialized in caring for cats. Finally, in 1998, she opened the Chico (Calif.) Hospital for Cats. She now also owns the Cat Hospital of Portland (Ore.). Elizabeth J. Colleran, DVM, MS Along the way, she became not only a passionate advocate for better veterinary care …
Changing The Face Of Veterinary OncologyJune 3, 2011 In late 2007, just as the Great Recession began to roll across the country, Mona Rosenberg, DVM, Dipl. ACVIM (Oncology), started seeing a difference in business at her Veterinary Cancer Group in Southern California, which comprises four clinics. Fewer people were coming through the door. And of those who did, fewer were opting to follow standard of care. Instead, more were choosing minimalist, less-expensive treatments. To Dr. Rosenberg, who founded her clinic as a one-person shop in 1992 and grew it into what may be the largest veterinary oncology practice in the U.S., this posed two major challenges: how to keep the business healthy and how to keep giving cancer-stricken animals and their owners the care they sought and deserved. A New Approach The answer, she soon realized, was to operate the clinics as she always had—just a little more creatively. For clients limited by money but wanting the best care for their pets, she and her staff suggested new ideas. Was there a clinical trial where they could get treatment essentially for free? Was there an outside financing plan to explore? Could they devise a less-expensive treatment plan that could deliver results similar to …
Doing The Right Thing For AnimalsApril 21, 2011 The little red heeler had a bowel obstruction and had crawled off into a ditch to die. By the time her owners found her and took her to Robin Downing, DVM, they feared that the veterinarian could do little but put her down. This was in the late ’80s, in rural Wyoming, a time and place where neither surgical specialists nor pain medication were much in vogue in veterinary medicine. At the time, “Anesthesia was considered mostly for the purpose of restraining animals, and pain management was not emphasized,” says Dr. Downing, CVA, CCRP, CPE, Dipl. AAPM. “In fact, in veterinary school, we were taught to fear morphine, because we were taught that it could cause respiratory depression and death. We weren’t taught the nuances of using (morphine).” But Downing knew she could save the dog, if she could control her pain. Even as a young vet, she says, she had observed a hard truth: “Unmedicated pain kills.” She consulted a client who was a medical doctor and general surgeon. He coached her through performing anesthesia and bowel surgery, and then how to manage pain through recovery. Two weeks later, the heeler was back to …
A Career Devoted To PestsApril 18, 2011As a young, perhaps slightly naïve graduate student, Michael Dryden, DVM, MS, PhD, began his work in parasitology at Purdue University in 1986 expecting that he would immediately be plugged into an existing structure of sophisticated research. Instead, his professor, S. Gaafar, DVM, PhD, gave him a simple assignment: Go into the library and absorb all the existing literature on fleas. At the end of three months, they would talk. “Within three days, I knew we were in trouble,” says Dryden, now 51. “I realized we knew nothing. We just knew nothing about the biology of fleas in dogs and cats.” But what he did next would change all that. Dryden designed what he calls a very simple master’s program focused on fleas. He decided he had to start by understanding the basics—where they mated, where they laid eggs, how many eggs they laid at a time, and how much time they spent on host animals. That research, and the years of study that followed, have earned him a catchy nickname—Dr. Flea—and a string of honors, including being named by Ceva Animal Health this past February as the 2010 Veterinarian of the Year. But it has also provided the very …
Two Sides Of One CoinFebruary 14, 2011 As far back as he can remember, Richard Palmquist, DVM, thought like a scientist. His father was a microbiologist, and young Richard would tag along to the lab on Saturday mornings, watching with curiosity as the elder Palmquist studied infectious disease cultures. His mother, a dental educator, read biology texts to him at his request. And by the time Palmquist was 7, he had a microscope of his own, spending hours looking at slides of tissues and organisms. So, when Dr. Palmquist graduated from Colorado State University’s veterinary school in 1983, he gravitated to conventional medicine. And by the mid-’80s, when he heard that a former client’s pet was being treated for cancer by a so-called “alternative medicine” specialist, he was instantly skeptical. “The guy must be a quack,” Palmquist remembers thinking. He got so worked up that he traveled from his home in California to the veterinarian’s practice in New York, planning to expose him as a fraud. But in New York, Palmquist watched the veterinarian, Martin Goldstein, DVM, present case after case where nonconventional treatments had improved or prolonged an animal’s life: A blind cat whose sight returned after dietary therapy. A paralyzed …
Doc HollywoodJanuary 14, 2011 California veterinarian James Peddie makes a name for himself on TV and movie sets. For the upcoming movie “Zookeeper,” starring Kevin James, the production company needed to move a menagerie of exotic animals to the set, Boston’s Franklin Park Zoo. But introducing an unfamiliar elephant, giraffe and bears—even the highly trained, medically pampered specimens that work in the film industry—into the zoo population worried the zoo’s veterinarian. The zoo wanted a barrage of tests done on the animal actors. The animals’ handlers balked. It seemed like an impasse that couldn’t be breached. Enter James Peddie, DVM—the “Hollywood Vet.” Having worked on dozens of film sets and with hundreds of exotic animals over the past two decades, Dr. Peddie understood why the zookeepers needed solid proof that the new arrivals wouldn’t bring disease with them. He also understood that the trainers were fiercely protective of their valuable charges and would not allow any overly invasive exams, especially one that would require anesthesia, a considerable risk in an exotic. Working closely with both sides, he brokered a level of tests acceptable to all. Next, he …
Horse SenseNovember 22, 2010 After graduating with a biology degree from Mount Holyoke College in 1975, Ann E. Dwyer went to work in a lab, doing immunology research. She soon discovered two problems: The work wasn’t her calling, and she wasn’t very good at it. It was really for the best, she recalls, when her boss gently let her go after a year. So Dwyer, who’d been a horse-crazy kid, went to work at a racetrack while she figured out what to do next. She stayed three years, discovering what she should have been doing all along. “It was the classic story that there’s always opportunity in failure,” Dwyer says now, cheerfully. Inspired by what she was learning by working with horses all day, every day, Dwyer decided to pursue veterinary medicine, and graduated from Cornell University’s veterinary school in 1983. Since then, she has practiced at Genesee Valley Equine Clinic in Scottsville, N.Y., and became the majority owner in 1995. This month, Dr. Dwyer will be sworn in as vice president of the American Association of Equine Practitioners at its convention in Baltimore. The position puts her on the path to become …
Agent Of ChangeOctober 18, 2010Health scare gives Brett Cordes new direction as a veterinarian By the time Brett Cordes, DVM, was in his mid-30s, he had worked in veterinary practices for the better part of two decades. He started in high school, worked his way through college and veterinary school, then spent 10 years as a practicing vet. The way he handled potentially hazardous materials, particularly chemotherapy drugs, was often cavalier during these years, he admits. He wore little or no protective gear when handling chemotherapy agents and often dumped pills into his ungloved hand when dispensing them. He poured oncology drugs down the sink, even after noting how some left an angry red stain that lingered for days. Then in 2006, a specialist diagnosed an almond-sized lump on his neck as a rare form of thyroid cancer. One of the first questions the doctor asked: Was Dr. Cordes ever exposed to chemotherapy? Suddenly everything changed for Cordes, from the way he practiced veterinary medicine to the way he thought about workplace safety. “Most veterinarians really do everything. We’re our own oncologist, radiologist, pharmacist, dentist,” says Cordes, now 39, who is careful to note that although he and his physicians strongly suspect his exposure …
Healing AfghanistanOctober 5, 2010 A modern dairy plant sits down the road from where U.S. Army Capt. Ryan K. Miller, DVM, is stationed. Built five years ago near Kabul, Afghanistan, the plant was to produce pasteurized milk and ice cream and create jobs for local Afghans. But after just three years, the plant shut down because the cooperative no longer could afford the diesel fuel needed to keep the factory running. The idled plant is a daily reminder of the challenges that face Dr. Miller and the multinational coalition as they rebuild and improve Afghanistan’s infrastructure and economy. And it signals a shift in focus, he says, from expensive, sophisticated agricultural projects to simpler, sustainable ones that better suit the needs, capabilities and culture of Afghan farmers. An Afghan man requesting treatment for his sick camel turns up after a training seminar in Helmand Province. “The [dairy plant] was great, but now we can see that it was too complicated and too expensive to operate and make a profit,” says Miller, who works with the army’s Cooperative Medical Assistance unit, which provides technical advice on livestock and agriculture across Afghanistan. “In the last couple of years we’ve …
