Speaker 1: You're listening to in the Vets Office with doctor Josie Horschak.
Speaker 2: All right, today we have doctor Amy Addis in the
Speaker 2: Vets office. She is the og house call veterinarian from
Speaker 2: New York City and she recently released the book Pets
Speaker 2: in the City. This book details her thirty four year
Speaker 2: career from its inception throughout all the peaks and valleys
Speaker 2: that followed. We hear about your journey to becoming a veterinarian.
Speaker 2: How you met your husband, Steve. I love that story,
Speaker 2: by the way, how you built your own house call practice,
Speaker 2: and the many behind the scenes tales of working with
Speaker 2: some pretty high profile clients in their homes. From an
Speaker 2: anal Gland expression, hitting one of your owners in its
Speaker 2: own two pe to sprinting down Second Avenue with a
Speaker 2: cat Carrie in hand. The storytelling in this book is amazing.
Speaker 2: I loved it. So welcome, doctor Amy.
Speaker 1: Thank you. I'm so happy to be here with you.
Speaker 2: We are really and by me and Sia. Sia is
Speaker 2: here with me today. We are so excited to have you.
Speaker 2: I really want to dive into the book, but before
Speaker 2: we do, we always start with a case of the week,
Speaker 2: and I was thinking, since you were here, I would
Speaker 2: let you take over and share one of my favorite
Speaker 2: cases from the book this week.
Speaker 1: I love the way you frame that, because one of
Speaker 1: my favorite cases was on a Saturday night when I
Speaker 1: was at home getting dressed to go to the opera
Speaker 1: with my husband, and the house phone rang and I
Speaker 1: picked it up, and I couldn't quite hear what the
Speaker 1: person was saying. There was so much static on the line,
Speaker 1: and she kept calling back and calling back until finally
Speaker 1: we had a clear line. And what I heard on
Speaker 1: the other end was Amy, this is Share. I'm landing
Speaker 1: at midnight. Can you see my dog? And I'm like share?
Speaker 1: And my husband said, who's on the phone chair? And
Speaker 1: I'm like no.
Speaker 3: Share.
Speaker 1: So she had been filming a movie in Italy called
Speaker 1: Tea with Mussolini, and there was a little stray dog
Speaker 1: on the set and she decided to take him home.
Speaker 1: Sounds familiar.
Speaker 3: That sounds very familiar.
Speaker 1: He had a terrible ration itch. So from the plane
Speaker 1: she decided that she wanted a house call when she
Speaker 1: landed at midnight. And even though I was going out
Speaker 1: that night, the opera was over at a quarter of twelve,
Speaker 1: it was perfect. I would go out with my husband
Speaker 1: and then I would go meet Art and take care
Speaker 1: of her puppy.
Speaker 3: That works out nicely, so it.
Speaker 1: Worked out nicely. I examined the dog. Unfortunately, she wasn't there.
Speaker 1: It was her staff that was there. I examined the
Speaker 1: dog and I diagnosed the dog with a condition called
Speaker 1: sarcoptic mange. Major little bugs that live in the skin.
Speaker 1: They cause enormous itching and they're contagious to people, one
Speaker 1: of the few things that are contagious to people. And
Speaker 1: I gave strict instructions that he shouldn't be held, and
Speaker 1: if he was sleeping someplace, we should clean the sheets,
Speaker 1: et cetera. And he needed a follow up injection in
Speaker 1: two weeks. The injection that I gave is a drug
Speaker 1: called ivermectin, and it stings like the dickens, and I
Speaker 1: warned everyone that was there, this is going to really burn,
Speaker 1: he might cry whatever, and he was just as calm
Speaker 1: as can be. What was his name, His name was Pepo.
Speaker 1: People people there the p so two weeks later it
Speaker 1: was time for his follow up injection. She was now
Speaker 1: staying in a hotel, so I went to make a
Speaker 1: hotel visit and I do that often for people who
Speaker 1: are traveling through New York and they need travel papers whatever,
Speaker 1: and also really fun for a lot of celebrities. And
Speaker 1: again I thought, this is my chance to meet Cher.
Speaker 1: And I get to the hotel and she's not there.
Speaker 1: So it's like the most beautiful hotel suite I've ever seen.
Speaker 1: They bring people in to see me. People looks much
Speaker 1: much better. But I'm a little alarmed because they're holding
Speaker 1: him in their arms and they're not wearing any protective clothing.
Speaker 1: But he did look a lot better. So when I
Speaker 1: went to give him his second injection, I expected him
Speaker 1: to behave like he did for the first injection, but
Speaker 1: this time he screamed like I was murdering him, and
Speaker 1: the door flew open, and Income Share yelling what did
Speaker 1: you do to my dog? And Share had her hair
Speaker 1: and rollers white face cream on and she was wearing
Speaker 1: a bathroom Did you almost die? I almost thought, so.
Speaker 1: I explained what was wrong with her dog, and that
Speaker 1: it was giving the second injection, and you know, at
Speaker 1: this point, you shouldn't be contagious any longer, and she
Speaker 1: said contagious. Nobody told me contagious, and then she lipped
Speaker 1: open her bathroom and she was there in her total
Speaker 1: body nakedness to ask me if the rash that she
Speaker 1: had on her belly was the same thing that the
Speaker 1: dog had, and then she thought about it for a
Speaker 1: second and she said, no, I think I had this
Speaker 1: before I got the dog closed up and left. So
Speaker 1: that was my meat and great from Share.
Speaker 3: You got a full frontal nude show.
Speaker 1: I got there full share show.
Speaker 2: I love that in the book you said your veterinary
Speaker 2: nurse on the way out was like, damn, I really
Speaker 2: got to get back to Pilate's.
Speaker 1: She's in good shame.
Speaker 2: She looks amazing for her age. That is hilarious. So
Speaker 2: I'm assuming people did great. Sharon did not have.
Speaker 1: Maids exactly and exactly tell but just to let you
Speaker 1: know that when you do house calls, I do experience
Speaker 1: things that are different from what you do in a
Speaker 1: animal hospital. That is not the only time that I
Speaker 1: saw a client in their full nakedness. I mean there
Speaker 1: are times when we were in the doorbell and a
Speaker 1: client answers the door with insufficient clothing on, and we'll say, like,
Speaker 1: you know what, we have time, please go put something
Speaker 1: on and we'll wait out here.
Speaker 3: We don't need to see that we don't. That is
Speaker 3: so funny. Yeah, I can't. I'm sure.
Speaker 2: I mean I got a little glimpse from the book,
Speaker 2: but I can't imagine the things that you've seen.
Speaker 1: So I come home every day from work and say
Speaker 1: to my husband, you will not believe what happened today.
Speaker 1: And that, of course was the genesis of the book,
Speaker 1: because I went in the other room and thought, I'll
Speaker 1: remember this forever, and then I think, let me just
Speaker 1: write a little something down so truly I remember the
Speaker 1: stories forever. Need a one word clue, and that's what
Speaker 1: I did, and eventually I realized I have a lot
Speaker 1: of great material here.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and here it is.
Speaker 2: One of the things I loved that you talked about
Speaker 2: in your book was your journey to veterinary school. That
Speaker 2: really resonated with me. And one of the quotes that
Speaker 2: you said was I needed a stellar GPA, stratospheric test scores,
Speaker 2: unreserved recommendations, and wide ranging extra curricular experience. And what
Speaker 2: I found in my journey to BET school is the
Speaker 2: extra curricular experience. They really put a huge emphasis on that,
Speaker 2: I think more so than human doctors, because we get
Speaker 2: small and will experience most people pre vet, but then
Speaker 2: you have to go out and work at a zoo
Speaker 2: or large animal I mean you're doing things that you
Speaker 2: would never even be dreaming about just in order to
Speaker 2: even get considered at a bet school.
Speaker 1: So one of the things that a lot of people
Speaker 1: don't realize is how competitive it is to get into
Speaker 1: veterinary school. And I think most students in veterinary school
Speaker 1: really have an idea of what it's going to be
Speaker 1: like to be in this field. Others go on for
Speaker 1: secondary education professional school, but they don't know what it's
Speaker 1: like to be a lawyer, they don't know what it's
Speaker 1: like to be a doctor. We actually have to get
Speaker 1: practical experience beforehand. I think a lot of that is
Speaker 1: to weed out people who might think being a veterinarian
Speaker 1: is all about playing with puppies and kittens. It's my
Speaker 1: favorite part of the job, but it's a small part
Speaker 1: of the job. I mean a lot of that is
Speaker 1: dealing with, you know, medical problems, and dealing with the
Speaker 1: emotions and sort of helping families deal with how to
Speaker 1: care for their pets who were really sick. And you
Speaker 1: should know that before you devote that all those years
Speaker 1: and all that money into becoming a veterinarian.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker 2: One of the stories you told was about working on
Speaker 2: a dairy farm and doing manual labor, and I had
Speaker 2: a very similar experience where I worked at a zoo
Speaker 2: and the zookeepers are like, well, we don't know what
Speaker 2: to do with this girl, so I shoveled bison poop
Speaker 2: for a whole summer.
Speaker 1: I've had a similar experience.
Speaker 2: I never had bigger biceps in my whole life. Came
Speaker 2: home for a weekend and my mom was like, oh
Speaker 2: my god, and I was like, yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, as I say in the book, I had to
Speaker 1: cut the seams of my shirt sleeved shirts because my
Speaker 1: arms had gotten so big. But there's another possibility. I
Speaker 1: was working upstate New York on a very very large
Speaker 1: dairy farm, and about two miles from the farm there
Speaker 1: was an ice cream parlor where they made fresh ice cream,
Speaker 1: so there was a daily hot fodge Sunday that might
Speaker 1: have had something gg you know, the change in my
Speaker 1: size keeping up.
Speaker 3: You were working hard and I trained you well.
Speaker 1: I mean I used to eat a dan and yogurt
Speaker 1: for breakfast back then I started eating three peanut butter
Speaker 1: and jelly sandwiches. I could not keep up with how
Speaker 1: much energy I needed to work on a floor.
Speaker 3: I remember being starving.
Speaker 1: Great deal of respect for people who farm.
Speaker 2: People do always ask like, why didn't you go into
Speaker 2: farm animal medicine or horses, And I'm like, I don't
Speaker 2: think people realize the the labor involved in it and
Speaker 2: what a taxing job it is, and so I respect
Speaker 2: them so much.
Speaker 1: So from what I know about you from listening to
Speaker 1: your show, I feel like you had the same thing
Speaker 1: that I had, which was a calling that we had
Speaker 1: to do this, and for me it was clear. I
Speaker 1: love all animals, but my calling was to be a
Speaker 1: veterinarian for dogs and cats likewise.
Speaker 2: And I think a really special part about that, and
Speaker 2: what you talked about in your book and especially making
Speaker 2: house calls, is that in caring for these pets by extension,
Speaker 2: we also care for their owners, and I think that
Speaker 2: we really get to know them very well, and that
Speaker 2: as one of my favorite parts of my job.
Speaker 3: It sounds like it's one of yours as well.
Speaker 1: It is, you know, one of the things that I
Speaker 1: wish I had even more training in, because most of
Speaker 1: my training has been from my years of doing it.
Speaker 1: Was like a little bit more about human psychology, because
Speaker 1: I really we deal with people in some of the
Speaker 1: most difficult times of their lives, and you know, of
Speaker 1: course we have empathy for them because we've all been there.
Speaker 1: Having an aging pet or having a really sick pet.
Speaker 1: We're having to say goodbye to a pet is truly
Speaker 1: one of the most traumatic days of someone's life, maybe
Speaker 1: the most. And yeah, and people say that, I hate
Speaker 1: to I don't like the way this comes out, but
Speaker 1: people will say to me, I didn't cry this much
Speaker 1: when my parent died.
Speaker 3: Yes, I hear that all the time, and.
Speaker 1: I feel like, you know, obviously we all love our parents,
Speaker 1: but we don't get into bed every night with our parents,
Speaker 1: and we often get into bed with our pets, and
Speaker 1: when they're not there, that loss is really really palpable.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I totally agree with that.
Speaker 2: And I just to touch on what you said, I
Speaker 2: think part time, we are part time therapists and part
Speaker 2: time veterinarians. And it's funny because you hear all of
Speaker 2: us say we went to med school because we love
Speaker 2: animals and working with animals, but the reality is that
Speaker 2: the majority of our days are spent working with people
Speaker 2: and Luckily we enjoy doing that, so.
Speaker 1: You're one hundred percent right. And when I counsel people
Speaker 1: who want to become veterinarians, and by the way, like
Speaker 1: Orders of Magnets, more since the book has come out,
Speaker 1: where younger people are calling me and saying, I read
Speaker 1: your book, I really want to be a veterinarian. But
Speaker 1: if the point is I only want to I want
Speaker 1: to be a vet because I only want to work
Speaker 1: with animals, this isn't the right job for you, you know,
Speaker 1: because they don't come in by themselves. They come in
Speaker 1: with people, and your communication is with the people.
Speaker 2: And it's been so nice for me, Like I don't
Speaker 2: think I was expecting this, but a lot of my
Speaker 2: lifelong friends now have are my clients that I've met
Speaker 2: through taking care of their animals. So it's been such
Speaker 2: a pleasant surprise for me for.
Speaker 1: Me too, But you have to be careful. They don't
Speaker 1: get discounts just because they've become.
Speaker 2: You're right, you hear that, friends. I guess one of
Speaker 2: the questions I had for you is in working with
Speaker 2: it sounds like a lot of people you got close
Speaker 2: to you were pretty high profile. And what I have
Speaker 2: noticed on this podcast especially as we'll have stars, country
Speaker 2: music stars or like Bobby Bones come on and you
Speaker 2: talk to them about their career and their goals, and
Speaker 2: they're kind of one person, and then when you talk
Speaker 2: to them about their animals, you can just see like
Speaker 2: a completely different side of them. I think just from
Speaker 2: watching her on TV that Joan Rivers is pretty intimidating.
Speaker 2: I'm assuming that you probably saw a lot more of
Speaker 2: a softer side to her with her animals.
Speaker 1: I saw all sides of Joan Rivers. She was an
Speaker 1: enormous personality. She was driven in a way that very
Speaker 1: few people are. When I would go into her home
Speaker 1: to work with the dogs, there would be posted on
Speaker 1: the refrigerator her daily schedule, and it said things like
Speaker 1: up at five, exercise, makeup, leave for studio, and then
Speaker 1: her entire day was calculated down to the moment and
Speaker 1: it ended at midnight. I mean, she was very regiment,
Speaker 1: old enough to be more than my mother, and she
Speaker 1: had a schedule that would have run me into the ground.
Speaker 1: So she was an enormously busy person and she was
Speaker 1: extremely demanding, and her dogs were so important to her.
Speaker 1: So I was used to getting yelled at on occasion
Speaker 1: or emails that I wish she had never sent to me.
Speaker 1: But when she was finished with that, she turned out
Speaker 1: to be, of course a very dear friend. So we
Speaker 1: would go through the cycles of Joan's love and her wrath.
Speaker 1: She was an enormous supporter of mine when I started
Speaker 1: my house call practice, she told everyone she knew. The
Speaker 1: relationship over those years turned into a lovely, lovely friendship
Speaker 1: where we went out to dinner together. I mean she
Speaker 1: called one day. We had homes close to each other,
Speaker 1: about one hundred miles north of New York City, and
Speaker 1: she called and said, take me to the movies on
Speaker 1: Saturday night.
Speaker 3: So it was like she didn't ask.
Speaker 1: Of course, she didn't.
Speaker 3: Ask a question.
Speaker 1: She would have the most beautiful dinner parties where the
Speaker 1: group of people around the table were just from all
Speaker 1: different types of parts of her life, and every person
Speaker 1: felt like they were the guest of honor. She was
Speaker 1: an enormously gracious, warm, loving person with a little bit
Speaker 1: of a biting part of her person.
Speaker 2: You don't want to be on her bad side. Oh no,
Speaker 2: I love the story about her Yorky. I think it
Speaker 2: was a Yorky that you had encouraged her to get
Speaker 2: a surgery that she did not really want to do,
Speaker 2: and then she ended up doing it and was like,
Speaker 2: I was right to do it.
Speaker 1: Well, she was never wrong, of course, but you know,
Speaker 1: like even with her first Yorkee Spike, Spike went to
Speaker 1: work with her wherever she was. He traveled around, he
Speaker 1: was part of the show, and I recommended that because
Speaker 1: he wasn't feeling well, that maybe she would leave him
Speaker 1: out of the show that week and he should stay home.
Speaker 1: And like all of a sudden, you know, she had
Speaker 1: just looked at me and she said, don't tell me
Speaker 1: what to do, just make my dog well enough to go,
Speaker 1: Like you didn't, I was mess with them exactly.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's funny we do, even if they're not famous.
Speaker 2: You have everybody that's a ugineer and has owners that
Speaker 2: can be a little bit more demanding, and I think
Speaker 2: our job is to kind of look past that and see, like, Okay,
Speaker 2: where's this coming from. They just really, at the core
Speaker 2: of it, love their pet and want their pet to
Speaker 2: be okay.
Speaker 1: I had a client who moved to New York after
Speaker 1: he retired. He had been a movie producer, so he
Speaker 1: moved from California to New York and he lived in
Speaker 1: his apartment with his two cats, and he paged me
Speaker 1: on a Saturday night for an emergency, and I called
Speaker 1: him back immediately. I said, what's the problem. He said,
Speaker 1: my cat just scratched me with his nails. His nails
Speaker 1: are too long. Come and cut them. I said, it's
Speaker 1: ten o'clock and a Saturday night, don't. I don't make
Speaker 1: house calls. If you truly had an emergency, it would
Speaker 1: help you. But I'm not coming to cut your cat's nails.
Speaker 1: And he kind of hesitated and said, you know, in La,
Speaker 1: nobody would ever say no to me. So he was
Speaker 1: like being brought back into the real world.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're like New York. No means no, and you're retired. Yeah,
Speaker 3: exactly exactly.
Speaker 2: Another thing that you talked about in the book that
Speaker 2: I really loved and I have seen with my own
Speaker 2: experience as a veterinarian, is that no, there is no
Speaker 2: such thing as a disabled pet, and so we have
Speaker 2: a lot of patients that require amputations, or they lose
Speaker 2: an eye, or they go deaf, and so I really
Speaker 2: loved how you put an emphasis on that. I think
Speaker 2: I tell my owners all the time. We can learn
Speaker 2: so much from our animals. I have had dogs going
Speaker 2: through chemo that are bouncing around and rolling in the grass.
Speaker 2: Dogs on three legs or cats on three legs that
Speaker 2: would never know the difference. And if someone cut my
Speaker 2: leg off, I probably would be in bed crying about
Speaker 2: it for six months.
Speaker 3: You're the rest of my life. Who knows. But they
Speaker 3: are just so resilient in that way.
Speaker 1: They're amazing. I learned that very much so from personal experience.
Speaker 1: I found a dog one day tied to a tree.
Speaker 1: I had a pug when I was a little girl,
Speaker 1: so I'm drawn to pugs. I love them. And I
Speaker 1: walked up to pet this pug tie to a tree,
Speaker 1: and I saw a note that said I am blind,
Speaker 1: Please take good care of me. So I untied him.
Speaker 1: I was in veticol at the time I brought him
Speaker 1: into the hospital. I had him checked out by the
Speaker 1: clinicians and everybody said, he's a healthy little dog. He
Speaker 1: probably came from a puppy mill. Puppy mill sounds too nice.
Speaker 1: Let's just call it factory farming of dogs, right, or
Speaker 1: they're just exploited and abused and they're not cared for.
Speaker 1: And he probably developed his temper which ultimately left him blind.
Speaker 1: So I didn't I couldn't have a dog. I was single,
Speaker 1: I was in veticool. I just I couldn't have the responsibility.
Speaker 1: So I looked at him and said, look, I'll get
Speaker 1: you everything you need. I'll take you home tonight for
Speaker 1: a home cooked meal, and tomorrow i'll work on finding
Speaker 1: you a home. So I took him home with me.
Speaker 1: He kind of bumped around my entire apartment. He went
Speaker 1: to the front door, he lifted his leg and did
Speaker 1: his business, as if to say, this is my territory,
Speaker 1: I'm home. I'm staying here. At that point, I gave
Speaker 1: him dinner and I locked him in the kitchen. I said, okay,
Speaker 1: tomorrow morning, I'm finding you a new home. And I
Speaker 1: woke up in the middle of the night and he
Speaker 1: had gotten out of the kitchen. He came into the bedroom.
Speaker 1: He had jumped on the bed and he was sleeping
Speaker 1: on the pillow next to me, and he declared, this
Speaker 1: is my home. And he and I were soulmates ever since.
Speaker 1: But I learned a lot from Bumper. Sorry I named
Speaker 1: him Bumper because yes, he bumped into everything.
Speaker 3: I love that name.
Speaker 1: But I realized like he was a little bit more
Speaker 1: difficult than a regular dog. Like when we went out
Speaker 1: on a leash, I was responsible for making sure that
Speaker 1: he had a signal for where to go.
Speaker 3: You were in seeing.
Speaker 1: I was a seeing eye human. He knew up, down, left,
Speaker 1: right over under. I mean we would go hiking together.
Speaker 1: He came to work with me, and he knew when
Speaker 1: we got to the curb to step down, and he
Speaker 1: knew how many steps to go back up again. Maybe
Speaker 1: I was giving him some cues, but I do believe
Speaker 1: he memorized everything. And he was such an inspiration because,
Speaker 1: like you said, if we went through something like this,
Speaker 1: we would be like, oh, I feel so sorry for myself.
Speaker 1: Bumper never felt sorry for himself a day in his life.
Speaker 1: And I used him at work as a teaching tool
Speaker 1: for people to see that you could have the most
Speaker 1: wonderful dog. They're not perfect, but none of us are perfect,
Speaker 1: and it doesn't matter if you can't see or you
Speaker 1: can't hear, you can get along just fine on three legs.
Speaker 1: There were all these things that would be considered disabilities,
Speaker 1: and they deal with them fine. I learned so much
Speaker 1: from Bumper. Years later, after he had passed, I got
Speaker 1: a phone call from a pet store, and the manager
Speaker 1: of the pet store knew that I loved pugs, and
Speaker 1: he knew that I had had experience with a blind dogs.
Speaker 1: And they had a blind pug puppy that the owner
Speaker 1: of the store had ordered to be euthanized at the
Speaker 1: end of the day. And he called me and said, Amy,
Speaker 1: I knew you know what to do with this dog.
Speaker 1: And of course I knew what to do with the dog.
Speaker 1: I brought him home. I don't want people to think
Speaker 1: there's an epidemic of blind pugs out there, but both
Speaker 1: these dogs had the same problem. They were puppy mill dogs,
Speaker 1: and they didn't get vaccinated and they developed a problem
Speaker 1: that could have been prevented with just some vaccine.
Speaker 3: Terrible.
Speaker 2: We did a whole episode walking through vaccines with listeners,
Speaker 2: just because listeners and owners come into vac clinics all
Speaker 2: the time, and I don't think they understand the importance
Speaker 2: or what exactly is distember what does that mean? And
Speaker 2: so just like you said, it's a problem that could
Speaker 2: be completely prevented with a vaccine, and unfortunately, puppy mills
Speaker 2: or puppy factories like you called it are just they're
Speaker 2: not doing their due diligence, and they're not taking the
Speaker 2: appropriate care of these animals.
Speaker 1: And it's interesting because so many of the diseases that
Speaker 1: we routinely vaccinate against, they're very diminished. Right now, we
Speaker 1: don't see a lot of distemper but if people stop vaccinating,
Speaker 1: we're going to see this devastating disease again. Same with parvo.
Speaker 1: In New York City, we didn't have a problem with
Speaker 1: leptosporosis for years, and now leptosprosis is a problem. It's
Speaker 1: a disease that's transmitted through urine and often through the
Speaker 1: urine of rats, and any big city that has a
Speaker 1: rat population we're seeing more and more leftis bersis. Yeah.
Speaker 2: We talked about that a lot in Season one as well,
Speaker 2: and we have it here in Nashville, So I mean,
Speaker 2: it's not just limited to cities. It is important and
Speaker 2: can be, like you said, preventive with vaccines, so super important.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: One of the I wrote down this quote from your
Speaker 2: book because I loved it so much. I think it
Speaker 2: might have made me cheer up, But I'm like, why
Speaker 2: am I so hormonal right now?
Speaker 3: But I just thought it was.
Speaker 2: Really beautiful, and I think about the human animal bond
Speaker 2: a lot.
Speaker 3: And I think this like.
Speaker 2: Really puts it, really articulates it beautifully. So you said,
Speaker 2: our relationship with a pet is like no other. By
Speaker 2: bringing animals into our homes and making them part of
Speaker 2: our families, sharing our lives with them, and caring for them,
Speaker 2: we are at our most compassionate, empathetic, and selfless. I
Speaker 2: believe that our love for animals defines our humanity. Simply,
Speaker 2: our animals make us better people. I believe that I
Speaker 2: do too. I believe that fully. I think the hardest
Speaker 2: of heart softens around animals. They're just simply the best.
Speaker 1: So I lived on the corner of fifty seventh Street
Speaker 1: for many years, and I would walk a bumper down
Speaker 1: that street, and the doorman at the building next door
Speaker 1: would come out every single day and he'd give me
Speaker 1: a big smile and a creeting, and he'd bend down
Speaker 1: and pet bumper. And this was our every day ritual.
Speaker 1: Bumper passed away. I walk that street every day. He
Speaker 1: never set foot out of the building. A few years later,
Speaker 1: I got another dog, and I walked down the street
Speaker 1: and he came running out and he said, where have
Speaker 1: you been? I was invisible to him without my dog.
Speaker 1: He like the whole connection to a human was through
Speaker 1: a dog love.
Speaker 3: That It's funny. I don't know if you feel the
Speaker 3: same way.
Speaker 2: But I'll see my patients out and about, and I
Speaker 2: remember every patient.
Speaker 3: I know their name.
Speaker 2: I can place them if they have something wrong with them,
Speaker 2: I know, And I can't ever remember the owner's name.
Speaker 1: One hundred percent the same.
Speaker 3: It's like you're Fluffy's mom.
Speaker 2: I don't remember the owner sadly, but the dogs and
Speaker 2: cats I don't forget. All right, you were dogless at
Speaker 2: the end of the book. Are you still dogless? Just
Speaker 2: waiting for the next one to come?
Speaker 1: So I never wanted to be dogless. Like I went
Speaker 1: to vet school. I know that there's a life cycle,
Speaker 1: and I know that they're going to pass at a
Speaker 1: certain age. And my Cleopatra was elderly, and when she
Speaker 1: was about thirteen, I put the word out that I
Speaker 1: wanted to rescue another dog. Every single pet I've ever
Speaker 1: had has been a rescue, and I worked with the
Speaker 1: local pug rescue group because I do have a thing
Speaker 1: for pugs, and I love pugs. They're just ridiculous they are.
Speaker 1: And I have when I was a little girl, so
Speaker 1: in the best way, except if you were black, which
Speaker 1: case you're just you have fur all over you. But
Speaker 1: I'm willing to deal with that. And I rescued a dog.
Speaker 1: She had been a dog on the show circuit at
Speaker 1: one point. She had been abused. She had been returned
Speaker 1: to the breeder, and the breeder heard that I needed
Speaker 1: and she was willing to let the dog come to
Speaker 1: my home. So she was much much younger. So I'm smart,
Speaker 1: like eventually, when something happened to Cleo, then Meatball would
Speaker 1: be she was a Meatball. She would be, you know,
Speaker 1: still a dog in our home. And this is the
Speaker 1: saddest thing because Cleo passed January one, and then three
Speaker 1: months to the day, Meatball passed on April one. She
Speaker 1: got a devastating disease. And I mean I was treating
Speaker 1: her friends who were specialists, everybody had a hand in it,
Speaker 1: and she just didn't respond. And we were and are devastated.
Speaker 1: So you know, I know that I'm going to get
Speaker 1: a phone call one day from a pug rescue group
Speaker 1: and They're going to say, Amy, we have this dog.
Speaker 1: It has such and such a problem. Can you fix it?
Speaker 1: And I'll fix it and I'll keep it the way
Speaker 1: that every one of them have come to me. But
Speaker 1: we're just just really really sad right now, just going
Speaker 1: through the healing process.
Speaker 3: My heart breaks for you.
Speaker 1: Thank you, and you know again wishing that we had
Speaker 1: more of training in human psychology. For some people, that
Speaker 1: healing process means the next day bringing another pet into
Speaker 1: your life, right and for some people it really is
Speaker 1: a very very long process, so.
Speaker 3: Can take a lifetime. I feel like sometimes and we
Speaker 3: all know.
Speaker 1: That the only thing that makes you feel better is
Speaker 1: another pet exactly.
Speaker 2: Just got to do it, got to rip the band
Speaker 2: aid off. But it's true, every pet I've ever had
Speaker 2: that pass, I've said, I don't know if I can
Speaker 2: do this again.
Speaker 3: It's the worst heartbreak.
Speaker 2: And then and then here we are, I know, and
Speaker 2: they just reopen your heart and remind you of why
Speaker 2: you did it in.
Speaker 3: The first place.
Speaker 2: So I hope your next rescue pug comes to you sooner, Appreciator,
Speaker 2: I'll keep my eyes in ears. Peel send you a
Speaker 2: picture please do. By the way, we had Doug the
Speaker 2: pug on Oh my.
Speaker 1: Goodness, he is pretty cute.
Speaker 2: He is.
Speaker 1: I would love to share with you the story of Squeaker.
Speaker 1: Squeaker was an unusual patient because he didn't belong to
Speaker 1: any family. He actually was a building cat. So I
Speaker 1: would go to this apartment house for a number of
Speaker 1: different clients, and one day the superintendent of the building
Speaker 1: asked me to come down to the basement to meet
Speaker 1: the building cat.
Speaker 3: So this cat belongs to the whole. HOA.
Speaker 1: He did the whole and he, you know, he had
Speaker 1: a job to do. It was to make sure that
Speaker 1: no mice came into the building, and he did a
Speaker 1: fantastic job of that. And one day I did my
Speaker 1: physical exam, I had a baseline on him, and probably
Speaker 1: a year or two later, they asked me to come
Speaker 1: down and see him again, and he had lost a
Speaker 1: tremendous amount of weight. And when I took his blood,
Speaker 1: the results came back that the cat had something called hyperthyroidism,
Speaker 1: too much thyroid hormone in the bloodstream, which beats up
Speaker 1: your metabolic rate. So he was eating ravenously, but he
Speaker 1: was burning the calories faster than he was eating them.
Speaker 1: So he had to go on medication.
Speaker 2: Which for all the listeners is a pretty common I
Speaker 2: would say disease in our cats as they get a
Speaker 2: little bit older. Exactly important to run routine blood work
Speaker 2: because we can detect it and treat it and they
Speaker 2: usually go on to lead nice, long, normal lives.
Speaker 1: And I agree with everything that doctor jay Z said,
Speaker 1: And that's the importance of the annual physical examination. People
Speaker 1: think it's for vaccines. We really want to touch your pets.
Speaker 1: We really want to take blood from them. So many
Speaker 1: diseases and pets are silent, we can find them earlier
Speaker 1: from blood tests. So a really important point. Squeaker's disease
Speaker 1: was no longer silent. He was already having the symptoms
Speaker 1: of hyperthyroidism and his blood work indicated that. So I
Speaker 1: started him on medication. But it's a medication that has
Speaker 1: to be given twice a day. And as I said,
Speaker 1: he was nobody's actual cat. So the superintendent of the
Speaker 1: building wasn't there at the right hours every single day,
Speaker 1: wasn't there on the weekends. So the people who lived
Speaker 1: in the building volunteered to give him his medication and
Speaker 1: it just wasn't working. They would go downstairs. He would
Speaker 1: not imagine it was beautiful. This is a lot of
Speaker 1: cooks in the kitchen and it's like this is a park.
Speaker 1: Avenue building. It was so heartwarming that everybody cared so much.
Speaker 1: It just wasn't working medically. He wasn't getting his regular medicine.
Speaker 1: So explained that the next way that we treat this
Speaker 1: disease is the way they treated in humans with a
Speaker 1: single injection of radioactive eye do on. The problem is,
Speaker 1: you can't come home, you can't come out of the
Speaker 1: facility until you're no longer radioactive. And it has a
Speaker 1: multi thousand dollars price tag on it, and the super said, oh,
Speaker 1: I don't know. They're just never going to go for that.
Speaker 1: It's so much money. And they had a board meeting
Speaker 1: and they said, yes, we'll pay for it. So Squeaker
Speaker 1: had his radioactive eye don He went on to do
Speaker 1: great for years and years and years. And then I
Speaker 1: went to examine Squeaker because he was limping and as
Speaker 1: I was feeling his leg, I felt a very bad
Speaker 1: bony lump and I was sure that Squeaker had bone cancer.
Speaker 1: The X ray showed that he did have bone cancer.
Speaker 2: There's nothing worse as a veterinarian doing your examine. You
Speaker 2: know you feel that leave him or your life, and
Speaker 2: you know the pit in your stomach and you know.
Speaker 1: And you know, and I explained to him that what
Speaker 1: we needed to do, and I know this sounds drastic,
Speaker 1: but we needed to amputate the cat's leg because the
Speaker 1: cat was in so much pain that immediately upon healing
Speaker 1: from the amputation, the cat would have no more pain. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: cats have four legs and they do just fine on
Speaker 1: three of them. And he just said, no, it's absolutely
Speaker 1: not possible. They're never going to go for the surgery.
Speaker 1: They won't want a three legged cat. He'll never be
Speaker 1: a mouser for them. Again. They called another emergency board meeting.
Speaker 1: The board came back and said, yes, do the amputation.
Speaker 1: Squeaker did great after the amputation. And on the day
Speaker 1: I went to the basement to remove the stitches from
Speaker 1: his surgery, he was nowhere to be found, and he
Speaker 1: came into the super's office while I was sitting there
Speaker 1: with a mouse in his mouth. He was not slowed
Speaker 1: down for a second. He had a job to do,
Speaker 1: and he did it. He lived the rest of his
Speaker 1: life as the building cat, and they took them up.
Speaker 1: Wonderful care of him.
Speaker 3: That really restores my faith in humanity.
Speaker 1: Great.
Speaker 2: I love that story. It is true, though I mean cats,
Speaker 2: especially if there's many dogs. Most dogs do great on
Speaker 2: three legs. But if I had to say cats versus dogs,
Speaker 2: cats are do great on three legs. I mean they
Speaker 2: get around beautifully. They're so nimble and agile.
Speaker 1: And they and even with our dogs, they really learned
Speaker 1: to do it. Even as a veterinarian, I'll be watching
Speaker 1: a dog walk on the street and my brain will
Speaker 1: register something's not right, and then when I look closely,
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, it's a three legged dog. They really
Speaker 1: they hide their disability from us so amazingly.
Speaker 3: They do. They really do. That is an amazing story.
Speaker 3: Thank you for sharing.
Speaker 1: Thank you for making me think of that as one
Speaker 1: of my favorite stories.
Speaker 3: Well, I loved this book so much.
Speaker 2: I and obviously I'm a veterinarian, so it really resonates
Speaker 2: with me. But I think any animal lover out there,
Speaker 2: and whether you're an owner or not, if you just
Speaker 2: are interested in animals, will love this book. The storytelling
Speaker 2: is amazing and it was a really nice little peak
Speaker 2: to what goes on in your daily life being a
Speaker 2: house called veterinarian.
Speaker 3: So thank you for writing it.
Speaker 1: I really appreciate your comments.
Speaker 3: We end our episodes with Paw and Order.
Speaker 2: So for today's episode on Paw and Order, we are
Speaker 2: going to take a few tips from doctor Amy's book
Speaker 2: Pets in the City. Number one, I would not give
Speaker 2: my pets any human foods or medications without checking with
Speaker 2: my vets Doctor Amy, and I know I've talked about
Speaker 2: this a lot on this podcast, but doctor Amy mentions
Speaker 2: a couple instances where owners gave their pets tile and
Speaker 2: all and grapes and all other sorts of things that
Speaker 2: aren't good for animals that were humans, they're perfectly fine.
Speaker 1: So I always tell people that are not people and
Speaker 1: cats are not little dogs, So don't share your dog's
Speaker 1: medicine with your cats. Don't share your medicine with your dog.
Speaker 1: And you know, if you're not sure, pick up the phone.
Speaker 1: You should be able to feel comfortable enough with your
Speaker 1: veterinarian that you can call and ask a.
Speaker 2: Question yes, anytime. And that brings up a good point too.
Speaker 2: If you have multiple dogs. That doesn't mean giving one
Speaker 2: dog's medication to another dog is always the right thing
Speaker 2: to do either, because doses can be very different.
Speaker 1: Of course, yes, I agree, And by the way, there
Speaker 1: are certain breeds that can't take certain medications. So just
Speaker 1: be educated, make sure you do no harm.
Speaker 3: Yes, I agree with that, all right.
Speaker 2: Number two, somewhat in the similar realm of advice is
Speaker 2: we recommend not leaving out your prescription medications where your
Speaker 2: pets can get a hold of them. There are dogs
Speaker 2: out there that will counter surf and jump up and
Speaker 2: grab anything that's on the counter, including your medication. Doctor
Speaker 2: Amy had one instance in the book that I found
Speaker 2: to be entertaining. I'm glad the dog's okay, though.
Speaker 1: So in this instance, the dog jumped on his father's
Speaker 1: night table. Dad was in his eighties, so he took
Speaker 1: a lot of medication, and the dog chewed up all
Speaker 1: of the vials and a lot of the medication, and
Speaker 1: we had to figure out what each one contained. One
Speaker 1: was his heart medicine, one was his blood pressure medicine,
Speaker 1: one was his arthritis medicine. And then he was a
Speaker 1: little hesitating before he said what the last one was
Speaker 1: that special medicine that he uses at night. The dog
Speaker 1: ate all of his father's viacra, and ironically, viacra has
Speaker 1: uses in veterinary medicine. We use it for certain types
Speaker 1: of heart disease, but not all the pills at once,
Speaker 1: so that poor guy had to spend some time in
Speaker 1: the hospital being monitored and watching his blood pressure. And
Speaker 1: we all laughed because he had been newter two weeks before,
Speaker 1: so like it didn't have any positive effects.
Speaker 2: On as we say in Nashville, bless his heart exactly.
Speaker 2: That did bring up a good point for me that
Speaker 2: I don't think I've talked about on this podcast. Or
Speaker 2: pet does eat something and you're not able to get
Speaker 2: a hold of your veterinarian, and even if you are,
Speaker 2: we recommend calling the Animal Poison Control phone number.
Speaker 3: It's very easy. You just google Animal Poison Control.
Speaker 2: The number pops right up, and if they have eaten
Speaker 2: something like a medication or anything that may be toxic,
Speaker 2: they are going to kind of walk you through exactly
Speaker 2: what you need to do. And it's very helpful for
Speaker 2: us as veterinarians too. We aren't always understanding the toxicology
Speaker 2: behind every single ingredient.
Speaker 1: Right and things you should know. You should know approximately
Speaker 1: how much your dog weighs. When you call, like, they'll
Speaker 1: ask you some questions about that. I always laugh when
Speaker 1: animals eat medication. I think the number one thing that
Speaker 1: people tell me is the hardest with their pets is
Speaker 1: they can never get them to take a pill. And
Speaker 1: how come, as soon as I drop one of my
Speaker 1: pills on the floor, the dogs will like, oh, got it,
Speaker 1: thank you. I think when we want to give them
Speaker 1: a pillbish to throw it on the floor and see
Speaker 1: if they'll go after exactly like.
Speaker 3: Don't touch this, haha, They'll go right for it.
Speaker 1: And by the way, not only don't leave your pills
Speaker 1: out on the night table, but a lot of the
Speaker 1: pills we give our pets are flavored to make it
Speaker 1: easier to give them to them, and you don't want
Speaker 1: to leave those on the counter where they'll go and
Speaker 1: eat them all at one time.
Speaker 2: Yes, I have had many a patient that love their
Speaker 2: flavored remadill or their flavored heart guard, yeah, heart Guard,
Speaker 2: and then they eat a whole pack of it, and
Speaker 2: that is not great for them either. So that is
Speaker 2: a great point. Our last and final point for and
Speaker 2: order is I would not get a pet unless I
Speaker 2: completely understood the level of commitment financially, time wise, all
Speaker 2: the responsibility involved that it means to be a pet owner.
Speaker 2: Doctor Amy wrote in the book, if someone accumulates animals
Speaker 2: to fill their home and heart. That person has a
Speaker 2: moral obligation and unbreakable contract to care for those innocent
Speaker 2: creatures for their entire lives. And I think that's so
Speaker 2: well put.
Speaker 1: They're for babies, you know, once you choose to open
Speaker 1: up your home, that is your responsibility to care for
Speaker 1: them forever.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think people see like, oh, this dog's so cute,
Speaker 2: or this puppy is so cute, and you don't realize
Speaker 2: that puppy is going to grow into an adult, maybe
Speaker 2: a very rambunctious one, maybe not, but they're going to
Speaker 2: be around for ten, twelve, fourteen, hopefully fifteen sixteen years,
Speaker 2: and your life is going to change and evolve, and
Speaker 2: you just need to remember that.
Speaker 3: It's a it's a big commitment.
Speaker 1: So when I told you this story of Bumper, one
Speaker 1: of the reasons I didn't say I'll take you immediately
Speaker 1: was I was scared of that commitment. I remember, like
Speaker 1: you know, waking up a week later, we're thinking what
Speaker 1: have I done right? And I decided I was willing
Speaker 1: to put all the time and effort into having him
Speaker 1: in my life, and it was so worth it.
Speaker 2: It is the best commitment anyone can make. I agree,
Speaker 2: well that concludes our paw and order for the week
Speaker 2: and really our episode. Thank you so much for coming,
Speaker 2: doctor Amy. I've loved chatting with you and if you
Speaker 2: guys haven't read it yet, please get online. You can
Speaker 2: get on Amazon. Pets in the City is out and
Speaker 2: ready to be read.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2: You are so welcome, and to all of our listeners.
Speaker 2: As always, you can contact me on Instagram at doctor
Speaker 2: jose Vetts. You can click the link in my bio
Speaker 2: to record questions for the podcast, and as always, please rate, review,
Speaker 2: and subscribe anywhere that you get your podcasts.
Speaker 3: We'll see you next week.