Blog list

You may remember that eight months ago I was told that my dog, Spudge, could die at any minute. In addition to sending me into a tailspin of grief, it also prompted me to look into ways I could hold on to his memory. I already knew about several options: making a paw print to put in a frame or hang as a decoration, keeping some fur, garden statues or grave markers, cremation urns, and donations in your pet’s name. Once, when I was in Vet School, I even researched taxidermy and freeze-drying a pet as options for a woman to whom I had spoken while staffing the Pet Loss Support Hotline.

How do you know when it’s time? That is a question I get a lot when pet owners are faced with an aging or perhaps terminally ill pet. I have a fairly standard set of criteria: when he stops eating, becomes less interactive, and/or when he can no longer do the things that give their life joy. Sometimes I say, “When the bad days outnumber the good days.”

Rachel and I recently attended our 10-year Vet School Reunion at UC Davis! Wow, has it really been 10 years already? When we graduated, we were fresh-faced and full of energy, ready to go out there and make a difference. Aside from our families meeting for the first time (which is a story unto itself), our transition from school to our first jobs was relatively smooth. Little did we know how much more learning there was to do in the “real world.” But that’s a future blog post.

We have wonderful news. Our AAHA accreditation has been renewed.

We would like to announce something exciting that is happening!

The hospital has been under new ownership for the past 10 months and has seen some dramatic changes.  We’ve updated our in house laboratory machines, replaced our old X-ray film processor with a new digital radiography system, started a social media campaign, developed a new website (www.ahsalinas.com), and next week, we will become a paperless practice with new management software and new computers!