Patch My Pet

29/10/2024

I have a No Politics policy here, but in this case am making an exception.
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I love my veterinary profession, but more than that: I love animals. Your animals, my animals, homeless animals; domestic or wild, I love animals, and am sworn both legally and morally to defend their welfare.
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And yours (that's actually in my veterinarian oath too).
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Colorado voters have a ballot initiative this year. To voters in the other 49 states: they are coming for you next.
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The decision on the ballot is to allow the formation of a new veterinary professional: Veterinary Professional Associate or VPA. This "Mid-Tier Professional Similar to Physician's Assistants" would not attend vet school, nor anything really similar to vet school.
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Yet this VPA would be legally allowed to perform ALL of the medical procedures -- including surgery, any kind of surgery (spays and neuters, but also organ removal, and even limb amputation) -- that a licensed veterinarian now performs.
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The formation of the VPA position is being presented by its backers as an act of charity, meant to fill in the perceived veterinarian shortage in the USA.
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Who are the backers of this initiative? As always, FOLLOW THE MONEY. CSU is basically owned by John and Leslie Malone. The Malones are billionaires, the largest land owners in the USA, and media tycoons. They are largely responsible for this overwhelming media universe we live in today.
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They are why YOU and ME are the products: the eyeballs, the attention, the buying power. The Malones know how to spin a topic in their favor, and they are working hard to get you to believe that VPA's will save you money (they won't - their salaries are going to be higher than mine!), and save your animals suffering (they won't - their education and training will be woefully insufficient).
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This issue may seem small, compared to others being considered this November. To me, it is not small. I make the world better by helping animals and their humans to live better, longer.
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I see, in my guardianship of YOUR relationship with your animals, the most beautiful aspects of human nature. You let your guard down, around your beloved dogs, cats, horses, rabbits, chickens. . . You become the best version of yourselves.
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Damn if I am going to stand by silently and watch billionaires take that away, all while convincing you it is for your own good.
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How many times have you heard THAT before from politicians?
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Coloradans, you are the first. Everyone else, get ready:
https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/images/committees/dr._wayne_jenson_-_plan_b_masters_program_csu_.pdf?fbclid=IwY2xjawGNtzNleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHU3ZIukRpmqQJ611-QdYJ_FgMqapJv1kbJCkvbBn0WI57oQrEnkuqWexNQ_aem_4H_oKfGVoeQ9IQs_9yVLyA

27/10/2024

Happy Sunday!!!
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Here in NY it is yet another sunny, mild day. The plants could sure use a watering, but it's lovely to be out in this kind of weather with The Terriers
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This post is for anyone who downloaded my eBook - What To Feed My Dog?! Link below if you want your copy . .
Have you read it? I created it to inspire as many Questions as it answered. What are your questions???
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https://www.drheather.vet/hhh-food

Supercharge your dog’s health, extend life, and maximize joy with this FREE GUIDE

24/09/2024

Hey-Hey!!! Look who's going wayyyy outside her comfort zone -
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Gonna do a FACEBOOK LIVE next week. Wednesday October 2nd at 5pm EDT I will go Live for 30 minutes of ASK ME ANYTHING
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Ya gotta be in my free group: Happy Hairy Holistic Pets with Dr. Heather to catch this event. Join us there, we are having some fun >>>
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This Live might be great - or - I might make the Blooper Hall of Fame - maybe both things will be true!
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Join us!

13/09/2024

FRIDAY THE 13th!!!
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You know what's really Unlucky? Buying pet food, and not knowing what it's made of...
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Pick up your FREE copy of my eBook, where you'll get the basics on the different dog foods - and why you might choose one kind over another.
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You even get an EASY superfood recipe hack to boost the longevity power of any food!
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PS: My Dad was born on Friday September 13, many years ago, so this is a really, really LUCKY day for me 🥰
⬇️⬇️ Grab your FREE COPY now! ⬇️⬇️

Supercharge your dog’s health, extend life, and maximize joy with this FREE GUIDE

10/09/2024

COME AND GET IT!!
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I've created my first-ever eBook. It's short and sweet, perhaps a 3-5 minute read. oh...it's FREE!!
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The topic? A basic primer that describes the pros and cons of different kinds of pet food.
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I produced it based on the needs of the wonderful, devoted pet parents who walk into my office, confused about some of the most basic facts.
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Let's get started!!

Supercharge your dog’s health, extend life, and maximize joy with this FREE GUIDE

26/06/2024

My posts and reels about heat stroke in dogs are getting a bit of attention.
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That’s good! I love that y’all wanna do right by your dogs.
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I kept that information INTENTIONALLY crisp and short. My own experience is that in an emergency situation, we humans often panic, and only remember bits and pieces of relevant info.
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I am no different from you. When one of The Terriers is injured, or acutely sick, I can hear my brain flushing like a toilet. That’s when I Phone A Friend….
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Here I am - your Friend on a Phone!! Ain’t social media neat?
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First, please remember that most people UNDERESTIMATE the negative effects of heat on their dogs. Walking around on a hot summer day, I see many dogs showing clear signs of heat stress:
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Panting, tongue out, flaccid/flabby - early stage overheating
Panting, tongue out, flattening at the end - closer to danger zone
Panting, tongue out, flat end, edges curling - DANGER OF HEAT STROKE IMMINENT!
Watery, squinty eyes
Can drink, but not much
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Dogs do not sweat, so while giving them water is of course necessary, it is just not going to cool them the same way it cools a human. The few sweat glands on their feet are not relevant at this point.
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Drinking ice cold water isn’t great for their system - it ain’t great for yours either, boss.
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Dogs get rid of excess heat by panting - that is their ONLY METHOD OF COOLING! This means that brachycephalic breeds - smoosh-faced babies like Pugs and Bulldogs - have their air conditioners permanently disabled.
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Dogs have been bred by humans to fulfill many different needs and niches. A Chihuahua is going to be much more heat tolerant, generally, than a Siberian Husky. The thick undercoat of Arctic and mountain breeds of dog insulates them for extreme low temperatures, and makes them much less tolerant of high temperatures.
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Heat Stress progresses to Heat Exhaustion or Heat Stroke when the dog is:
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Panting uncontrollably, cannot stop to drink much if at all
Staggering, wobbly
Trembling - can progress to seizures
Limp, trouble standing, prefers to lay down
Vomiting
Passing watery stools, diarrhea
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This is when Emergency Measures should be taken!!
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Immerse your dog in an ice bath, if that’s available to you quickly - like a cooler full of drinks at a party. Dump the beverages and immerse your dog.
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This will not cause organ failure. When a dog goes into multi-system organ failure after being cooled from Heat Stroke, the damage was done by the heat, not the cooling.
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Be aware, when I say immerse your dog in an ice bath, I don’t mean for you to leave them there for half an hour!! Dunk them, soak their fur to the skin, then take them out of the water and into A/C or a fan.
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This could be when you put your dog in an air conditioned vehicle, and transport to an emergency veterinary facility for medical care.
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Another thing I do not mean: do not spend precious time setting up an ice bath for your overheating dog. Use what is available to you: a cold hose, pool, stream, lake, bottles of cold drinks (even if they aren’t water, just get the darn dog wet!).
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While you are soaking your dog to the skin, someone else is starting up the vehicle and cranking the A/C. A third person could be calling area animal ER’s to find out who can provide emergent medical attention the quickest.
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The best way to prevent permanent damage from heat stroke is to avoid heat stressing your dog in the first place. Pay attention to the weather, remembering that any dog is LESS heat tolerant than most humans.
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Humans drink water to support sweating, which evaporates from your skin, and cools you down. Your dog does not sweat! Manually wet them down with a hose or body of water to promote evaporative cooling. Soak them to the skin, or it won’t help much.
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Stopping activity to give them water is helpful, but will NOT be sufficient in hotter temperatures. As a rough guide, let’s say anything over 80 degrees Fahrenheit (25 Celsius) is definite cause for concern. I know many dogs who struggle when temperatures rise over 60F (15C).
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I hope this clears things up.
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For more pro tips, thoughtfully considered information, and a community of awesome proactive pet parents, come join my FB group: Happy Hairy Holistic Pets with Dr. Heather

24/06/2024

Normally I don't share something new until I've tried it myself - I am my own lab-test animal 😬
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Since I no longer have cats 🥲 there's no way for me to test this platform! It's an AI app that assesses feline pain score based on a photo you take, from the comfort of home.
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Now, I'll never agree that automated "intelligence" is better than expert human care. But cats...well, cats are masters at hiding pain and discomfort. Even the most loving pet parents easily miss the signs.
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When you bring your kitty to the veterinarian, often they are stressed enough that a thorough pain evaluation is - well - challenging.
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Yet cats absolutely suffer from pain, arthritis, bladder inflammation, stress and anxiety - and loving cat families want to address those health conditions.
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A lot can be learned from a cat's face, and this AI tech helps to root out the signs your kitty might benefit from some assistance.
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Check it out:

At sylvester.ai, we create predictive healthcare products powered by artificial intelligence to improve animal health.

05/06/2024

I think y'all know I use, love, and sell BEMER devices for 7-8 years now. Selling medical devices was never a part of my plan, but I've learned to accept the opportunities that come my way.
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Somehow, I qualified to attend a BEMER Manager retreat this past weekend, in beautiful, warm Scottsdale AZ
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What a great little boomerang trip!! Privileged to see friend and brilliant colleague Dr. Joshua Berka 🥰 got to know Dr. Carsten Bartsch and what makes him tick 🤓 meet BEMER Int'l CEO Stephanie Gleim 🤩 and her newly hired VP of Sales Ben Woodward 😎 as well as friends old and new!
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I am 100% the worst at remembering to get photos, so most memories will have to stay uploaded in my personal Cloud 🤐 Here's a smattering of who's and what's.


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PS thanks for the hat, Ian Robb 🫶

18/04/2024

Are you like me?
Do you find daylight savings time a chore - especially winter into spring?
Mornings are always hard for me. I love - really love! - early morning. I love the angle of the light, and listening to the world wake up. The songbirds are back in NY and it's divine.
Still, waking up and getting out of bed is hard for me. It gets so much worse with the jarring time switch of DST.
What this tells me is that I am not In The Flow - specifically, the Circadian Flow of life on earth.
Everything I know about biology and neurology confirms that my body is designed to work in harmony with the natural flow of energy that follows the sun.
I want to fix this - do you?
Join me in this FREE PROGRAM that starts May 5th
YES I SAID FREE!!! no commitments except to yourself.
I'm doing it, because my dogs deserve a human who is more in tune with their reality.
If y'all want to do this too, we can even set up our own private FB group for moral support.
Info below, to avoid FB algo of hiding posts 🙃
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17/03/2024

In honor of St. Patrick's Day, let's look at the messages available to us in Nature. Water is something most of us just drink, and don't give much thought to it. The woman whose post I'm sharing has spoken extensively about what water can tell us - if we listen.
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This gorgeous crystallography was sent into me today by Robert.

He was asked by the folks from the EES (Enhanced Energy System – Mt. Wellington, NZ) to use my freezing technique to see how water responded to scalar energy. They gave him some water that had been through the scalar field to use. For this image he asked water what scalar energy looked like prior to freezing.

There are 3 hydroglyphs in this image - the creation glyph meaning creation, the lung glyph meaning breath and the tree of life glyph meaning whole, whole breath of creation. To learn more about hydroglyphs go to my website vedaaustin.com they differ from the art of water that I usually show.

02/02/2024

Nutritional supplements and herbal medicine: how do we know if they are safe, or even contain the ingredients listed on the label, at the doses indicated on that label?
There is little oversight, and even less accountability around companies selling these products. If the product is made for a pet, the standards are EVEN LOWER. Basically zero.
How do we know there aren't stray pharmaceuticals, solvents, heavy metals, and chemicals that can harm our pets?
A minimum requirement is that the product carries a seal from the NASC: National Animal Supplement Council. Look for that seal on the purchasing website, and again on the bottle.
I use ONLY products from trusted and verified producers. In many cases, I personally know the veterinarian who formulates the products I recommend in practice (and use at home).
When additional products are indicated, I use an online dispensary called FullScript. This supplement distribution company does the legwork for me, making sure each product they send to you is verified, safe, and of the highest quality.
Buying "the same" product that I've recommended on Amazon or Chewy is no guarantee of authenticity: counterfeit products are everywhere, and these distributors do not verify what they sell to you.
Think you could identify a counterfeit? I call your bluff: the thieves have gotten really, really good at fooling us!! It's easy to fake a label, including the NASC seal, and make it look exactly correct.
Just one of the many benefits of working with me: confidence that the supplements you give your pet are safe and effective!!
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