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Welcome to episode 111 of People, Pets & Vets!
Happy Late Memorial Day from everyone at GVA!
Dr. Brad Miller (00:00):
Hello. You're listening to people, pets and vets with Dr. Brad Miller and registered veterinary technician, Angel Martin.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (00:09):
Hello,
Dr. Brad Miller (00:09):
Each week we bring you current events and news in the veterinary industry and share our thoughts and perspective on how they impact us in our animal hospital. We also try to give you an insight and behind the scenes glance at our clinic and the people in it, this episode 111, I thought it was 110, but you corrected me.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (00:31):
I'm pretty sure it's 111. We may have misspoke last week,
Dr. Brad Miller (00:31):
111 is being brought to you once again by Georgia veterinary associates, a family of animal hospitals, caring for your family pet. So we are broadcasting from beautiful Lawrenceville, Georgia on Memorial day.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (00:49):
It is actually Monday Memorial day. So typically our podcast comes out today. But since we didn't have any staff in the hospital to post it for us, we decided that we would record it, and then it would post on a Tuesday. Okay.
Dr. Brad Miller (01:03):
So happy a late Memorial Day to everyone. Hope you all have enjoyed a long weekend. It is weird. All of a sudden the world is back to normal. It feels like. And so I hope that we can get through this Memorial Day weekend and not have any major outbreaks or whatever you would call it affects after everybody getting together over this past weekend in the form of COVID-related illness or deaths. So I think if we can get by this, that we're we're golden.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (01:42):
Yes.
Dr. Brad Miller (01:43):
So thoughts?
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (01:45):
No. The only thing is we did honor or mentioned that it was Memorial day. So I did want to take one second and just to honor those military and military personnel who've died obviously to help us keep our freedom and obviously be here and be worried about COVID and how we are going to quote unquote return to normal and that kind of thing. So thank you all.
Dr. Brad Miller (02:05):
Yes. And so for those military personnel and really for also the local personnel that keep us safe and sound it's not just about being a war veteran or being a dead war veteran, it's about the job you do. And so we have several clients that I'm aware of who are currently involved in local police departments. And many of them do have a historical past of being associated in the military. And so, yes, you know, thank you. Not, not trying to be corny, trying to be sincere and offering our thanks for everything that you have done and continue to do on a daily basis to help protect us and the country we live in. So,
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (02:51):
So on a different note, but similar, and I'm not to be disrespectful at all, but you know, Dr. Evans does treat some of the police dogs for Gwinnett county and that kind of thing. Do you ever think of what clients think when there is a car in the parking lot?
Dr. Brad Miller (03:08):
The truth is there's usually three or four, right?
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (03:10):
So do you ever think about like, what clients think? Like should we, should we come back for our appointment?
Dr. Brad Miller (03:16):
Yeah, we had an officer walk up maybe 10 days ago to the front door. So we're, we're going to open up the lobby tomorrow.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (03:25):
Tuesday. Yeah. 6/1.
Dr. Brad Miller (03:26):
We had been curbside up until then. And so there was this big old dude walked up to the front doors with his, you know, his hands down on his hips kind of as they stand and he was full garb, had the radio on. Yeah,
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (03:43):
They definitely were led vest now. So I think that's why they look so thick and bulky. I mean, they're big dudes anyways, most of them.
Dr. Brad Miller (03:51):
So, he walked up and I was like, I was checking out a client and talking to a client in the parking lot. And I walked back up to go inside and I see him standing there and I'm like, can I help you officer?
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (04:00):
Did you feel like you were doing some wrong?
Dr. Brad Miller (04:04):
Like what is going on? Because usually the, the, the K9 cops, right? I mean, their, their units are marked and they, they travel in pairs the other day. There were four of them here. There was two on the side of the building, two up front. I'm like, oh my gosh, are we have locked down? What is going on?
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (04:19):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Dr. Brad Miller (04:19):
But he this officer looked at me very sternly and said, 'yes, I need to get some medication for my dog.' And so I said, well, come on in, sir. And so we got him taken care of, he needed some meds for his personal dog and we walked out and I commented to one of my clients. I don't even know what the comment was, but she's like, well, yeah, it's a good thing it was not a professional visit, it was just a personal visit. So but yes, to your point yes.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (04:48):
So I've always wondered, like if clients, you know, how do they feel? Do they feel like, oh, how cool that my practice, you know,
Dr. Brad Miller (04:56):
I think they think what in the world's going on.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (04:58):
Exactly. I think so too. I think everyone naturally just kind of river resorts to like, oh, do they have a bad client? Or did someone like, you know, call to cause a disruption or disturbance? Do they have to call the cops on someone? Granted the lights are never flashing. Thank goodness. But there are, they are usually sitting in the cars or sitting in the parking lot and the cars are never turned off.
Dr. Brad Miller (05:18):
So I want to go, let's come back to that, to the four cop car scenario the other day. But before that I was at, Lowe's buying some flowers to put up front and inside the hospital the other day,
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (05:31):
Very spring like.
Dr. Brad Miller (05:31):
Four or five days ago. And I saw something I've never seen before at Lowe's.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (05:36):
Oh gosh,
Dr. Brad Miller (05:36):
Know what that was?
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (05:36):
A cop?
Dr. Brad Miller (05:36):
Uit was, it was cop related. I went in the entrance door through the Lowe's in Suwanee. Uso flower garden, and then you had the entrance door, then you had the exit door, then you have lumber right left. Right. So go in the entrance door, I get whatever I'm getting. And I walk out exit door and I'm walking back towards my car and there are,usome police, lights going off that catch my eye right before you get to the entrance door. And I look over and just as I look over, there is a man handcuffed with hands behind his back being escorted into the back of the police car.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (06:20):
Oh my gosh,
Dr. Brad Miller (06:20):
There's another police truck behind him. And so I'm trying to be like, cool, right? I'm like not going to gawk and look, but I really want to know what's going on. And I can't really see what the guy looks like before he gets into the car. I'm not sure why that matters, but I'm all these things are going through my mind. Was he shoplifting? Was he illegally in the country? You know, what did this guy do to have two Suwanee police officers catch him at Lowe's and to this day? I don't know.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (06:49):
Well, Yeah, it probably didn't make the news that night.
Dr. Brad Miller (06:52):
But, uh never have seen that before at a home improvement store. So back to the forecast.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (06:56):
Well, do you see people being escorted out of other stores and loaded into the back of police cars? I mean, it's rare.
Dr. Brad Miller (07:03):
I mean, it is rare. I probably, Yeah, but not, not at Lowe's at, at 11 o'clock in the morning. You wouldn't think so. Okay. So back to, so the other day we had two canine police vehicles on the side of Russell Ridge. We had to upfront, I think we had to, I'm going to say dog units. I don't really know what they call them inside the building. And I'm leaving out to lunch. And again, I'm wondering what the world is going on. So I called Dr. Evans and she's like, oh no, I'm just taking care of a couple of, of, of canines here. So when I got back, I asked her or a comment and I said, well, when I left out, there were the two SUV's pulled over, off the curb, on to the grass. And I thought they were broken down. They had their hoods up,
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (07:47):
They had their hoods up?
Dr. Brad Miller (07:48):
And yeah. So you don't know, you don't know what that means either.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (07:52):
No. And I didn't see them with thier hoods up.
Dr. Brad Miller (07:53):
Because I literally, I almost stopped and said officer, do y'all need some help. I'm like, they're going to think I'm being a smart, A-S-S and they're going to throw me in jail or something. So I didn't, but she said, oh yeah, all the K9 units, they have to keep the vehicles running, and in order to keep the vehicle from overheating, they raised the hood.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (08:14):
That's... Okay. So does your vehicle overheat?
Dr. Brad Miller (08:18):
The vehicles will overheat if they're left to idle at, along for a long time, because revving the engine and the fan, it keeps the engine, cool. And so the same thing happens at the Gwinnett Braves, the stripers now, the stadium, that cop car that sits on the little median before you turn in, he has his hood up and it's because his car is running and he does not want it to overheat.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (08:44):
That's so interesting. You think that they would like fix the paneling or something on a police car? That's so weird because you know, they can't see out the window if they're sitting in there. I always thought.
Dr. Brad Miller (08:55):
That was why, at the stripers stadium, he parks on an angle so he can see. So,
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (09:00):
Super interesting.
Dr. Brad Miller (09:01):
Yeah, I mean, again, I'm like, they're broken down. Why are these two cops over here right next to the clinic what's going on? They act like nothing's really happening. They're not, they're not acting like there's anything urgent. And they were just hanging out, waiting on their other two guys.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (09:17):
So if you were a lay person and you pulled into your veterinary hospital and you saw four cop cars, would you get out of your car and walk up to the door? Like, ain't nothing happening. I'm just here for my 2:30 appointment with my dog Skippy?
Dr. Brad Miller (09:29):
I'd probably either Leave the parking lot or.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (09:32):
I'd call the front desk and be like, is it okay if I come in? Yeah. So, so we're good.
Dr. Brad Miller (09:38):
Yeah. It's awesome that we're involved with Gwinnett county police department Sheriff's department as well, I think, but yeah, it can it can be imtimadating.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (09:47):
Likewise. So we do, sometimes we we'll vet some of the pets that are our animals, I guess, that are picked up off of the side of the road by animal control officers. And it is always crossed my mind what clients think when they see an animal control truck here also, do they think that we are shipping pets off versus like treating them?
Dr. Brad Miller (10:09):
Because , they had the, the quote unquote dog box trucks.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (10:12):
Yeah. They have the big square.
Dr. Brad Miller (10:16):
Yeah, I would agree. It's a little bit odd, I guess that they're in your parking lot, but parking lot, but yeah, the black and white Ford explorers or whatever, they're driving Chevrolet Suburbans,
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (10:30):
The animal control?
Dr. Brad Miller (10:30):
Uh no, the, the K9 cops. Oh, a little more intimidating.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (10:34):
Yes, for sure. But I'm just saying like, as a client,
Dr. Brad Miller (10:37):
What if there were four fire trucks out front or four ambulances. That would take it to a different level. Right?
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (10:42):
Firetrucks again, if lights are off, I don't know. I would think more like Festival ambulance. If they're four ambulances, I would be concerned, like, be very concerned.
Dr. Brad Miller (10:55):
So, we have had a fire truck in the parking lot before.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (10:58):
Is it ambulances?
Dr. Brad Miller (11:00):
Do, what?
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (11:00):
Is it ambulances?
Dr. Brad Miller (11:02):
It is ambulances. Yes. Not ambula. We've had a firetruck come because one of our clients, probably 10, 12 years ago, she actually was a skunk owner. And I was her skunk are her skunks, not her skunk vet. I was her skunks veterinarian. And she came in to get some medicine one day, one summer afternoon, and inadvertently locked her car, her vehicle. And there was a skunk inside and she completely panicked, So much, so she asked me to come break the window of her Jaguar. And I went out, I could not find a hammer. I got the biggest rock I could could find. And I tried to bash the back seat, little bitty trianglar window. I hit it like three times. My hands got all, not that cut up, but I kinda got abraided. And I'm like, 'this is ridiculous, Robin, we're, we're not going to do this.' The fire departments right over here. So he called the fire department within five minutes. Big fire truck comes, pulls in, takes over the entire parking lot, unlocks car, saved the day and saved the skunk. So
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (12:06):
While we're having a reminiscent stories and the fire department. So I remember when we called the, we called 911 on a client in exam room one, we had a client-
Dr. Brad Miller (12:20):
Do I know this story?
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (12:20):
-Have An active seizure. You should have an active seizure. She used to have a little go, whoa, gosh, what is it like a powder puff. Chinese Crested. Yeah. Yeah. So she would come in and visit. And I did not know she had like a seizure disorder epilepsy, but she we were treating the dog and she had a full blown grand mal seizure in the exam room. And we called 911 and the ambulance came and picked her up and the firetruck came to the parking lot. And of course they needed to assess her and all these kinds of things. So, It was, it was a big to-do. Yeah. They came in, examined the exam room, examined her in exam room one and then escorted her to the hospital. Yeah. So we, we held the dog here for a while until her daughter came. And then we had to have a big, giant conversation after the fact that this happens and we probably shouldn't have called 911 for her.
Dr. Brad Miller (13:13):
Yeah we panicked.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (13:13):
Um but yeah, it's a very scary thing. I felt kind of like a client would when they see their dog having a seizure, like just paralyzed, like, oh, my word, what do I do? But yeah,
Dr. Brad Miller (13:26):
You know, my, you know, my daughter has had seizure disorder since she was you know, a brief infant, whatever I'm trying to say there. It does take it to a different level when it's a person, but dogs are super scary because I've had our first, our first and second pet that we ever owned English mastiffs had seizure disorder as well. So yeah,
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (13:49):
Dogs, I mean, it's scary, no matter what, because literally there's nothing you can do for them. Right? You, you can't, it dogs are scary because they sometimes can get aggressive after and.
Dr. Brad Miller (13:58):
I'm having a flashback because within the last week I had this discussion with one of our my clients and I can't remember who or what the circumstance, but.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (14:05):
In regards to their pet, having a seizure?
Dr. Brad Miller (14:08):
Their pet, and the only thing worse than your pet is whenever it's your, human infant, your two legged pet, if you will. But yeah, it, it is so idiopathic epilepsy is what we see most commonly in the veterinary world, idiopathic, meaning we don't know the cause. Epilepsy is just, I guess, to describe the seizure. And that is very common in dogs that are six to 24 months of age. And we never figured out why they have seizures, but we can control them with medications. And so
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (14:41):
And we've talked about seizures on the podcast before, but do you also remember, we've talked about blue-green algae in the toxin.
Dr. Brad Miller (14:47):
Oh gosh, summer's coming. Here's what, here we go, year 3.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (14:49):
Yeah, so interesting that I, of course, in preparation for things to talk about on the podcast and kind of what's current and what's happening, I realized that even back in March, there were dogs, you know, miraculously or strangely dying after swimming in this lake in Texas. And the comment was that the lake did not appear to be cloudy or have algae apparent, but these dogs died within 30 minutes after swimming,
Dr. Brad Miller (15:17):
Blue-Green algae toxicity.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (15:19):
So they went back out and they had the county or somebody test the waters. And of course there was blue, green algae or cytotoxin there. But I just think it's interesting cause that comment and the reason I bring it up is because you, it doesn't have to be a green, nasty water. It doesn't have to be, do you
Dr. Brad Miller (15:38):
Usually just floats next to the shoreline and you don't even notice it or see it just kind of like a, a top floating.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (15:43):
But my point is, is that the people who let their six month old dogs swim in this Burton lake or like Burton or something like that, -
Dr. Brad Miller (15:50):
Lake Burton,
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (15:50):
-They'll try on in Texas. Yeah. They they were like, the water looked clear,
Dr. Brad Miller (15:56):
I think it's lake Burton around Austin. I believe,
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (15:59):
I believe you're right. Yeah. Yeah.
Dr. Brad Miller (16:01):
That's what my Texas previous history,
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (16:04):
But anyways kind of chick changing things from the things that we've talked about in the past, right? So seizures and idiopathic epilepsy to cytotoxin toxin and that kind of thing. But yeah, summer's coming, dogs are hot. Be very, very careful. If you're going to let your dog swim in a body of water, that's not, a backyard pool.
Dr. Brad Miller (16:20):
So nows a good time to kind of go into the Healthy Pet, Happy Life monthly preventatives in our case. So heartworm prevention, which takes care of and I, and what we recommend, which is Sentinel spectrum also in that product is a prevention to take care of. So I guess it's a de-wormer to take care of whipworms, hookworms, roundworms, and tapeworms, also kind of the, as we like to call it birth control for fleas, but ticks and fleas are about to be a big deal. In fact, the last couple of weeks ticks have already become a big deal in Georgia.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (17:03):
I have a funny tech story, at least I think it's funny.
Dr. Brad Miller (17:06):
Okay. Go for it.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (17:07):
So I was doing an exam in exam room one. We have four exam rooms for those that don't know an exam room. One is the closest to my desk and the closest to the doctor's office. I dunno why, but it's also probably one of the most used exam rooms here. But anyways, I was doing an exam with Dr. Merryl Reiss in, uh, exam room one, and it was a cat who was coming in for their annual exam with a doctor and needed to boost a one vaccine and get some annual blood work done. And I had talked to the owner and discussed with them like the products that we recommend, like revolution. And they said, 'oh no, we have one indoor cat. This cat is indoor/outdoor. And we had another outdoor cat and he kind of ran away. So we have enough.' And I was like, oh, okay. So they declined it at the time. So we are examining this pet and oh, and the pet also needed a fecal. So we're examining the cat.
Dr. Brad Miller (18:04):
Pause.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (18:04):
Yes.
Dr. Brad Miller (18:06):
Fecal.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (18:07):
Stool sample. Okay.
Dr. Brad Miller (18:09):
Fecal parasite test.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (18:11):
Fecal exam. Yes.
Dr. Brad Miller (18:12):
Okay. Thank you.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (18:13):
So we're examining the cat, Dr. Reiss is looking head to tail, you know, that kind of thing. And we are obtaining temperatures these days by the ear so that we're not stressing pets out and we're not grossing clients out. Although the client wasn't in the room with us at this time we had done everything and then I was like, oh gosh, I forgot a stool sample. If this cats indoor outdoor, the client is definitely not going to want to chase the cat around, outside and collect a stool sample. So let's just see if we can obtain one using a fecal loop. So I lifted the tail base and there is a giant tick attached to the cat's anus.
Dr. Brad Miller (18:49):
Wow.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (18:49):
And it really caught me off guard. And so hold on. So we had to have the conversation with a client that even if you have revolution and you're using it, maybe it's not working for this cat and you should consider Bavecto because if he's.
Dr. Brad Miller (19:04):
Or Revolution Plus.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (19:05):
Or Revolution Plus if he's indoor outdoor, maybe you should consider, you have to catch him once and apply it in a loss for three months and that kind of thing. So
Dr. Brad Miller (19:13):
Joanna would be so proud,
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (19:14):
Super interesting for the feline product. Yeah. Yeah. But anyways, that was my tech story. And I have a picture of it. So maybe we'll post it on the podcast
Dr. Brad Miller (19:24):
Two weeks or thereabouts ago. We were looking at, I think it was a dog, but it could have been a cat on the treatment table next to the surgery one and two. And I did a very similar thing. I picked, I think it was tail again. I picked the tail up and I heard this *thud*, which was a thump or a thud, and I looked down on the treatment table and there is a jelly bean size engourged tick that just fell off of that animal. So yeah, it's weird. We're mild today where we've been 72 to 75 all weekend. It was super hot, I think last weekend, you know, we have rain, we have heat, we have mildness, it's all over the place, but yeah. So ticks are upon us.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (20:14):
I do want to just comment real quick. It was really funny. So Dr. Reiss removed the tech from the cat's anus and just looks at it and she was like, 'oh, brown dog tick.' And just like it just some of the knowledge she has is just so funny.
Dr. Brad Miller (20:29):
Yeah. So Dr. Reese did research the six feet apart. And can you expound on that?
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (20:37):
Yeah, let me find the comments because it's escaping my mind at the time.
Dr. Brad Miller (20:41):
There was some science behind that it was all about air droplets and when people sneeze or cough. And my recollection is six feet was kind of the average that you should be safe because most things were transmitted within, at my mind within like 5.5 feet, but other organisms were transmitted as far as nine, 10 feet.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (21:04):
So my understanding is that it's there's a study, so essentially two meters or six feet done by the British medical journal article.
Dr. Brad Miller (21:15):
Back in
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (21:16):
Um 1897, I guess. Yeah. So it's the study of how droplets are admitted during speech and more forcibly when coughing or sneezing. So yes, there was some study obviously there and that is where the two feet, or excuse me, the six feet of the two meters came from. So thanks Dr. Reiss for that. And you know, our tick identification.
Dr. Brad Miller (21:43):
So back to GVA news, we mentioned the lobby's going to be opening up June 1st, which is tomorrow Tuesday. We're going to kind of go back to business as usual. Uh, masks are optional for staff and clients, excuse me, depending on their situation,
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (22:01):
We are, again, not going to, we're going to rely on the CDC guidelines, but we're not going to start asking people for vaccine cards. Right? So the word optional makes it seem like we don't really care and it's not that we don't care. We hope that people are responsible and respectful enough that they're going to follow those guidelines themselves. Everyone should know what they are.
Dr. Brad Miller (22:19):
I wonder who came up with, have you seen one of the, I don't have it in my wallet. One of the vaccine cards,
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (22:25):
I have seen pictures of them. Yeah.
Dr. Brad Miller (22:28):
They're bigger than your wallet. They're bigger than a business card. You have to bend them over. Yeah. So whoever the brilliant person was that design the, yeah.
New Speaker (22:35):
They're like a four by four square.
Dr. Brad Miller (22:37):
Like, why would you do that?
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (22:40):
You're so silly.
Dr. Brad Miller (22:41):
It's ridiculous. So, okay. We had nothing to talk about, but we're getting kind of deep into podcasts. We need to wind it up pretty quick. So real quick, let's touch on some news stories.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (22:51):
Okay.
Dr. Brad Miller (22:52):
So when the pandemic hit and we started talking about all the new pets that were being adopted, coming into families or being purchased, whatever the case may be, there was concern that once the pandemic was over, which it's not quite there yet that many of these pets would be given up and thus far that has not held to be true. So most people are continuing to own or keep their pets with very few being rehomed. And I think that's a very good.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (23:28):
I think it's fantastic. I it's a super encouraging thing that largely most of the dogs that were adopted are remaining in their new homes. I, I think still time will tell what the whole puppies, right? So we saw, we have seen some really terrible puppies and I don't know why specifically some of them are breeds specific rights. So
Dr. Brad Miller (23:53):
Lack of socialization, humanization of the pet and breed related are the top three things in my opinion.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (23:57):
So, but my point being is that these dogs that are adopted hopefully as an adult from a shelter or something like that, they had to have been adoptable in the first place. And so I would attribute that hopefully as to being a huge reason as to why they're staying in their homes. Now, granted, if you get a new puppy, whether you buy it from a breeder or you get it somewhere else if it's a terror, you we'll, we'll see. We had a, I don't know, eight week old Rottweiler puppy in that definitely has not had any socialization. And we had to go super slow with it because I wanted to literally eat us. It was so fearful
Dr. Brad Miller (24:34):
Yeah fight or flight kind of thing.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (24:35):
And so, yeah, I mentioned to one of the other technicians, who's much younger than me and we'll probably be doing this a lot longer than I will be doing this in the future. But I was like, great. You know, this is the, this is what we have to look forward to for the next 10 years,
Dr. Brad Miller (24:49):
Next 10 to 15 years, yup.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (24:50):
In veterinary medicine. So we need to get really, really comfortable with handling this in a slow, yeah, you can't just strong arm pets like that, that are afraid. And of course we don't believe in that anyways here, but
Dr. Brad Miller (25:03):
So here's another little twist on the whole you know, pet population and shelters, and it's all about supply and demand, right? So during the pandemic, the demand met up with if not exceeded the supply. And so what we have started seeing here locally in our practices is I was going to say many many's maybe not the right word, but several clients who have no idea what the dog breeding industry or business about all of a sudden, they want to start breeding these pandemic pups. And I don't know if it's monetary issues. I don't know if it's a
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (25:51):
Boredom, something to do.
Dr. Brad Miller (25:53):
Tarzan kind of a thing I'm sitting here being.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (25:56):
Pride? I don't know what that means?
Dr. Brad Miller (25:57):
Cause it's a male. I, you know, why are we wanting to, to bring more pets into the world? So I don't know that there are enough of our clients that are going to create a, another over supply of pets that restocks the shelters, but there's going to be some that contribute to it. So we'll, we'll kind of have to wait and see there most of the time breeders, whether they're quote unquote backyard breeders, or however else you want to label them. Most of the time they get in over their head and don't understand the husbandry quite enough to prevent a disease and other problems from happening within their litters. So I think that's a kind of another problem waiting to happen.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (26:43):
Yeah, sure.
Dr. Brad Miller (26:44):
Uh thought there were two other stories, but I guess the only other story I thought was interesting was Greek dog owners protest, mandatory sterilization of pets. And so somewhere in Greece, they have introduced a bill to I guess, mandate that all pets be sterilized. And there were, yes.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (27:08):
So household pets, like, I guess, unless you claim or like establish, your dog is like a, a working animal or something like that, then yeah. They need to be sterilized. So
Dr. Brad Miller (27:17):
A couple of hundred people that showed up on the footsteps of parliament and protested that.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (27:24):
So, I'm kind of at like a, I agree and I disagree, right? So I feel like if you, I don't feel like it should be a law that you have to alter your pet, but I do think that you should have to have responsibility for your pet. And so if they're, if they're think about a large breed dog, right. If they have a litter of 12 to 14 pups, those now become your responsibility. So why would you want to do that? So
Dr. Brad Miller (27:48):
I, I think the pet overpopulation problem is kind of, and I stalled mode right now, but if it becomes a big problem, again, I think the Greeks are absolutely on track with a way to prevent that from happening. So if you have a pet and you, and you want to breed it, or you don't want to quote unquote alternate sterilize it, if you had to pay a thousand dollars a year, that would be kind of a significant licensing fee. And it would make you kind of responsible for that pet next year rolls around. You don't want to breed it. You're okay with sterilizing it to not pay that thousand dollars you would that would keep a lot of these pets that are running around unaltered from being out there with testicles and uteri, uteruses.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (28:44):
Yeah, I think it's a little deeper than that, but I mean, I get your point
Dr. Brad Miller (28:47):
That's yeah. Just a thought process. If you, if, and, and if you are going to breed pets, you have to pay a licensing fee as well. So obviously it's not.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (28:58):
Yeah, It's definitely none of that is very well-regulated here in the states. Right? So I, in the county that we live in, you don't even have to certify your pet with the county and prove that it has a vaccine current. So there are some counties in the state of Georgia that are doing better than, than ours. There are some that are doing much worse because their animal welfare is not nearly as up to par with what we've got here in Gwinnett county either. So it is never going to be a hundred percent.
Dr. Brad Miller (29:29):
Okay. All right. Anything else you want to discuss or,
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (29:32):
Well, there's one other thing that I just thought was interesting. So VMG sends out a fountain report, you know, and so I kind of read through it every once in a while. And basically the founder report is just little snippets of articles and they've, you know, pulled through the headlines or they've pulled through pieces that they think they will, you know, obviously let you know briefly what's going on or you can
Dr. Brad Miller (29:51):
Nationwide or worldwide stories on a weekly basis.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (29:55):
Yeah, Their companion animal, their food production, animal industry specific, whatever. So one of them most recently was that the FDA is basically trying to ensure that there aren't medication errors at the human pharmacies for pet medications. And I clicked through it. Right. You can call it clickbait if you will. But we've talked about on the podcast before how we, especially in our practices, we try to really be competitive with online pharmacies and those local pharmacies so that people continue to get their pet medications from us. Right. most pharmacists, when they go to pharmacy school, they are not trained on animal medications. So they don't necessarily understand. So one of the examples that I was going to mention, and again, we don't typically write a lot of prescriptions that people take to human pharmacies. Most of them are going to be taken to other pet pharmacies, but there is an example that the FDA put in it's at the fda.gov website, but there's an example where a veterinarian called in a verbal prescription for zeniquin or, uh, marbofloxacin, I'm assuming they used zeniquin the name and asked if, you know, approved a generic, if okay. Um and the pharmacist misinterpreted the order for Sinequan, S I N E Q U A N, which is apparently Doxcpin, D O X C P I N ,uh, which is a product that's used to treat depression and anxiety in humans. And so this pet was prescribed an anxiety medication for humans yeah. For an infection. And so the, the article goes on to say, like, there are things that the pet owner can do to ensure that this doesn't happen. And then certainly there are things that the veterinarian can do. But really also the F the pharmacist as well, if they're not comfortable taking phone orders or that kind of thing, then they need to mandate that things are written in. And I think, honestly, there's a little, there's a lot of lax actually between veterinary world and human world and the human pharmacies. Right. So like, when's the last time you took a piece of paper to your pharmacy to get a prescription filled.
Dr. Brad Miller (32:09):
Many years, yeah.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (32:09):
They just, they don't do it. It's very technologically advanced. Right. So they send that prescription right from the doctor's office before you even leave. So I think that that would be a way too, that we could kind of mitigate some of that if it went right from the veterinarian's hands to the pharmacy. But anyways, the idea of it is hopefully to continue getting your medications directly from the source, and that would be your vet's office because there are mistakes that do happen. It is human error. We are all humans. There's no AI in pharmacy at this moment.
Dr. Brad Miller (32:43):
Yeah. We, Veterinarians tend to quote unquote blame human pharmacists, but I do think some of that blame comes back on us for not being clear a little bit different when you do send the piece of paper with it written out, you know, with the client which that's what we actually try to do here for clarity just to, to minimize mistakes. But I had a conversation actually yesterday with the pharmacist about this, and I asked her, you know, are y'all seeing an uptick in veterinary prescriptions? It's about the same. And she said, oh, it's about the same as it always has been.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (33:18):
Yeah.
Dr. Brad Miller (33:18):
And I thought that kinda made sense because the competition I'm going to call it for pharmacy in the veterinary world is not really as much the local pharmacist as it is the internet pharmacy. Yeah.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (33:32):
It's not a Walgreens or CVS or a Kroger pharmacy-
Dr. Brad Miller (33:36):
It's Chewy.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (33:36):
-And 1-800-Petmeds. Yeah,
Dr. Brad Miller (33:39):
Yeah. Petmed, you don't even hear, I don't even hear about them anymore.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (33:41):
I don't really either
Dr. Brad Miller (33:42):
And Fosters & Smith got bought and they went away.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (33:45):
Yeah they're gone. So there used to be like ally vet and some of these other places. And I don't really see or hear anything about that either. Chewy has truly dominated the market in that regard.
Dr. Brad Miller (33:54):
Completely dominant. So yesterday I walked in and I'm like, oh my gosh, what in the world have we ordered from Chewy? We had 10 boxes back in treatment. We had eight boxes up front and they said, oh, it's cat litter. And I just kind of chuckled and said, oh, we are killing them. They're losing money on us. On shipping. Yeah.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (34:11):
So the thing is about the cat litter is we definitely order it cause it's so easy. So the other boxes that you saw quite frankly, were Sams Club boxes back in treatment. And so finally Sam's Club will deliver cases of water. So think about this, right? The manpower it takes to go to the store, load up your cart with 20 pound bags of cat litter.
Dr. Brad Miller (34:32):
It's the convenience factor, the same reason clients will order off the internet. Yes, yes. Yeah.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (34:33):
Or 40lb bags of cat litter Yes, yes. Yeah. So it's super convenient. It's super convenient for us as a practice because now we don't have to pay someone to go to the store and load their cart and then load their car and then walk it down the hill and put it away here at the hospital. We order it and it gets here and we put it in away.
Dr. Brad Miller (34:55):
The cat litter has got to be a loss leader for Chewy.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (34:59):
I would hope so.
Dr. Brad Miller (35:00):
It's four or five bucks a bag.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (35:02):
It's $10 right now.
Dr. Brad Miller (35:05):
We should be getting it from Walmart.
New Speaker (35:06):
We spend $60 a month in cat litter here at this one hospital. Yes.
Dr. Brad Miller (35:11):
It's not bad.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (35:12):
It's not bad at all.
Dr. Brad Miller (35:13):
Okay. Yep. All right. Well let's wish everybody a happy Memorial or post Memorial day weekend. Hope everybody got back safe and sound enjoyed a little bit of time off.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (35:23):
Yeah. Had a long weekend, hopefully for most. Yeah. Check in next week guys, as we discuss more in the news and in our industry, follow us on Instagram at people, pets and vets, I'll make sure to put the anus tick cat photo
Dr. Brad Miller (35:38):
The anus, tick cat. Wow. Yeah. Yeah.
Angel Martin, RVT, CVPM (35:40):
The cat anus with a tick on it photo on on our People, Pets & Vets, Instagram, Please do follow all of our clinics on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and check out our blogs on our website at mygavet.Com. You can certainly get our podcasts on our website. Ubut wherever you're getting it from, just go ahead and hit subscribe or download and remember without people pets are simply animals.
Dr. Brad Miller (36:04):
Bye guys.
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