Ologies with Alie Ward - Veterinary Biology (CRITTER FIXING) with Dr. Vernard Hodges & Dr. Terrence Ferguson

Episode Date: March 18, 2020

At long last: an episode dedicated to veterinary medicine! Dr. Terrence Ferguson & Dr. Vernard Hodges have been friends for nearly 30 years and have co-owned their rural Georgia veterinary clinic, Critter Fixers, for over 20 years. The two wonderful buddies talk about getting accepted into vet school, caring for spiders & camels & lizards & toads & kittens & doggos, the weirdest things they’ve extracted from animal tummies, if our pets love us back, keeping kidneys healthy, grain-free diets, what to do if your (Alie’s) dog is plumping up by a few pounds, what they wish animal owners knew, when it’s time to let go vs. keep treating a pet, the daily rollercoaster of emotions that come with vet med -- and their charming, informative new show “Critter Fixers: Country Vets” on NatGeo Wild. Watch “Critter Fixers: Country Vets” on National Geographic Their vet practice: critterfixerveterinaryhospital.com Follow Dr. Hodges & Dr. Ferguson A donation went to: ittakesavillagefoundation.com Sponsor links: betterhelp.com/ologies; Sakara.com/ologies; StitchFix.com/ologies More links at alieward.com/ologies/veterinarybiology 100 Humans on Netflix Transcripts & bleeped episodes at: alieward.com/ologies-extras Become a patron of Ologies for as little as a buck a month: www.Patreon.com/ologies OlogiesMerch.com has hats, shirts, pins, totes and STIIIICKERS! Follow twitter.com/ologies or instagram.com/ologies Follow twitter.com/AlieWard or instagram.com/AlieWard Sound editing by Jarrett Sleeper of MindJam Media & Steven Ray Morris Theme song by Nick ThorburnSupport the show: http://Patreon.com/ologies

Oh hey, it's that diner that has bad coffee, but makes up for it by offering an English muffin as a toast option. Ali Ward back with another episode of oligies. Woo, here we are. We are here. It is March 2020, and it's a wacky time. This is a wacky time. But let's keep on keeping on, including asking some smart people some really stupid questions

about stuff that matters a lot to us. Okay. This one, woo, it's a twofer. Only once before in the history of oligies have I sat down with two doctors at once, partly because it's a nightmare to edit, but it's worth it. And this one, it's a real triple A, all about animals. So if you've ever petted a dog in the head, or if you've ever fawned over a bunny, or respectfully admired a llama from afar, get ready.

Also I hope you listened to last week's episode on virology to help you kind of wrap your head around why so many people on planet Earth are in pajamas on Wednesday afternoons. We're doing it, and we're doing it together by being apart. Now if you need more entertainment while you're isolating, you can always enjoy my new Netflix show, A Hundred Humans. It's weird social science looks at what makes us tick, and it may just scratch your itch for being around other people. And speaking of people, before we get started, a quick thanks to everyone out there making

oligies happen via patreon.com slash oligies. It's a dollar a month to join, and you get some extras, including submitting questions to oligists. For everyone who puts merch on your bodies by going to oligiesmerch.com. And thank you for writing and subscribing and reviewing that keeps the show up in the science charts, and for telling friends that honestly help so much. And I read all your reviews, sometimes they make me cry on the tarmac before a plane takes off, such as this one from N. Jack Danger, who says a lot of podcasts are popcorn for

the mind. Each episode is pretty much the same. You know the taste. It's good, but not really filling. Oligies is trail mix for the mind. There are always different flavors. Some you've never tried before, plus it's a little saltier than you might expect. Oligies satisfies sleepy John.

Thank you sleepy John. I'm glad that you're awake to listen to this. Okay, veterinary biology. Let's get into it. So veterinary comes from a Latin word, meaning a cow or an ox. And biology is the study of life. So veterinary biology is the medical study of kept animals. I have wanted to do this episode for so long, since so many oligists originally set their

sights on a career in vet med, and that is an insider term. It means veterinary medicine. And so it's super tough field. And I was so excited to hear that two of the greats were in Los Angeles for just a few days. They were willing to let me pepper them with questions. So I drove across town to Beverly Hills in traffic. It was worth it.

They were posted up at the swanky as hell four seasons while on a press tour for their brand new National Geographic series, Critter Fixers, Country Vets, put it in your DVRs. Watch it. It's amazing. They were both in suits. They were looking quite sharp at the end of a long press day, bringing a porcupine and an armadillo on entertainment tonight. But they squeezed me in and we settled onto a couch and some chairs and I shoved my mics

in their faces. And now audio note, my audio was being captured by a separate mic that I never use. And it turns out it was not ideal. So Jared and Steven worked a ton behind the scenes this week to help fix it. It might be a little different than you're used to. If this is your very first oligies episode you've ever listened to, I promise audio quality is usually top notch. I normally don't record to people at once and myself a little bit of a tech diff.

But this episode is 100% worth it because of both oligists. And they were kind enough to tell me about their friendship and their life in central Georgia dealing with all manner of animals, their vet practice, how they learn and retain so much about so many species, things they wish all animal owners knew, weird things animals have eaten, hairballs, kidney issues, grain free diets, junky monkeys, how to keep your pets healthy for as long as possible, when to let go, the emotional side of veterinary medicine, some awesome advice for me personally, plus livestock mysteries and more. So scrub in and get ready to fawn over two real life critter fixers and veterinary biologists,

Dr. Bernard Hodges and Dr. Terrence Ferguson. Yes, Dr. Bernard Hodges and Dr. Terrence Ferguson. How long have they been doctors? So I have been a doctor for a grand total of, so I've been a doctor much longer. So I've been a doctor for 23 years. And I've been a doctor for 22 years. Oh, got it. So one of you is a pro here.

Yes, exactly. Did you know each other going through vet school? How did you meet? We met in college. Yeah, we met in undergrad. So we've known each other almost 30 years now, give or take a year. And I was a veterinary science major, and he was a biology major, but I took classes in biology.

So that's how he and I met in classes there. And fortunately, he became my friend because he was a lot smarter to me. He was a good at two shoes and. Yeah, right. So you've been practicing doctors your 22, we'll say 22 and a half years, even a round average. It here. And how long have you been working together as you do?

Oh, for the for my entire 22 years, yes, we've been worked together. I've told him everything. Yeah, he graduated a year ahead of me. He worked at a local veterinary hospital. When I graduated, I worked at the same hospital. So we worked together a year at another veterinary hospital. After a year, we decided that we want to open our own practice. Right.

Amazing. For sure. And by the way, Dr. Bernard Hodges has an edgy hip asymmetrical haircut. It's almost like a half mohawk. And he's wearing a dark button-up shirt and a blue sport coat. And Dr. Ferguson has lower voice and he's wearing a T-shirt with the red critter fixer logo underneath a plaid gray blazer.

And his head is neatly shaved to a perfect shine. Now, they both grew up in Georgia, got their bachelors from Fort Valley State University and their doctorates in veterinary medicine from Tuskegee University in Alabama. Their southern accents, amazing. They worked elsewhere for about a year before they teamed up and started critter fixers, their own practice together in rural central Georgia, south of Atlanta.

But like we hear from a lot ofologists, sometimes the path is linear. Sometimes it has a few twists. What was it about animals or about veterinary science that you love? What drew you individually to this path? So I'm a big fish guy. I've always liked fish. I don't know. I just always had a fascination with fish.

You know, I teased them all the time. I wanted to be the first, like, black jacuzzo. I wanted to be like this fish guy. I love fish. I was one of these people that learned by doing. My grades were OK. To make myself competitive with veterinary school, I ended up working for the Agency for International Development.

And what we did was develop a fish project. So at 19, I went over to Nepal and we raised fish in cages because they were looking for a cheap protein source. So what we did was carp eat phytoplankton. So we kind of would put the cages at different depths, see where the phytoplankton grows and kind of we were able to tell them when to put out where to put the cages, especially during my summer times and everything. So when I got to, you know, to the veterinary school, when I was thinking,

I could do fish and do these different things, my grades were OK. But nobody, you know, all the people with AIDS couldn't say to help feed a village in Nepal. So that's how, you know, I've always loved animals. So other people may have had higher grades, but Dr. Hodges had life experience and hands on fish science. So when in doubt, GTFO, go work in Nepal for a while. And that's that's kind of what what helped kind of mold being, you know,

been in there present now, we treat fish, you'll see fish on the show. We treat a variety of animals. So that's how I got involved. And what about Dr. Ferguson? I've wanted to be a veterinarian for a long time, since I was probably eight years old, I was bitten by the veterinary bug, had a dog that was injured and I nursed it back to health. So I thought looking back, it really wasn't hurt very bad.

But I thought I did something miraculous. And here I am, I want to be a animal doctor. And I've always wanted to be one. It's fun. I tell people that, you know, a lot of time we talk about what we want to be when we're older. And but I can say that I want to be and you can look in the yearbook and it has veterinarian on my name. So I'm kind of proud of that, though, you know, and God just bless me to become.

But it did come a point, like you say, he did summer jobs and I did a couple summers also with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and had an opportunity to work in Alaska one summer with Salmon and whooping crane. But I reached a point where I became unsure. As you know, the profession of veterinary medicine is not very diverse. And it was until I was a junior in college that I saw the first black veterinarian or a veterinarian that looked like me. So it was a point that I felt like, can I do this?

I don't see anybody that looks like me and is doing it. And I almost veered over to Fish and Wildlife because I had we did it in the summer. I saw people look like me and I knew that was something I could do. And but I met a mentor when I was a junior in college and he was a black veterinarian and encouraged me to stay on path. If that's what you want to do. Wow. And do you think that you guys also kind of keep encouraging each other because you want to? Yeah, every day, every day.

I mean, in this profession, I mean, people kind of don't understand. Sometimes people think maybe we just play with puppies, you know, which we do. I mean, that's a great part of it. But I mean, in a matter of seconds, we can go from unfortunately, have to euthanize the animal and relieve suffering that's maybe 15 years old. Leave leave that room, wipe the tear out eyes. And a minute later, we're in another room with a new puppy and have to talk to the owner about different things and how to raise this puppy.

So the emotions are up and down. And sometimes at the end of the day, I mean, it pays when your emotions, especially if you do that four or five times a day, you know, the roller coaster is tough. So it is great to be able to talk to each other and say, hey, man, it's going to be all right. And like, man, I had a rough day or he tells me it was a rough day. And no, no, you won't be judged because this has been your friend for 30 plus years. So Dr. Ferguson makes the point that even though it's been his dream job for years,

it does not mean that it is a breeze. Who know? And, you know, being a veterinarian, we see multiple species. So, you know, I, you know, I may get an animal in that, you know, we've only seen one one animal that year that it may be a monkey or it may be something that's very strange or rare. And I may have to give him a call and like, hey, dude, man, I have this monkey. And, you know, I'm looking through the books and I don't see it. What do you think?

So it's great having him to be able to bounce things off of because it was just like you said, he understands because he's in the same shoes that I'm in. So it's great having each other. We definitely, I know I definitely wouldn't be where I am if I had not had a partner. But we also have also have a very playful competition, too. We'll be like, hey, dude, amen, I won up you. I mean, we literally say I won up you today. And he was like, what you got?

I was like, man, I had an African toe today. I was like, man, it's the same way three pounds. Oh, he'll call me and he have some case. You're like, man, I had a snake with pneumonia. So we, we definitely have a playful competition of stuff we say. When it comes to veterinary medicine, how do you even prepare for that? Because you've got a ruminant with four stomachs. You've got a toe of the breeze through its skin.

How do you, where do you begin? School, you know, a lot of people wonder, you know, you get out and you may practice large animal medicine or you may practice small animal medicine or you may practice exotics. We kind of do all of them. But when you're in veterinary school, you don't specialize. So we have to learn about all the species. And when you, you know, once we come out, you know, you kind of refining your

skills are there times when you have to go back to the book or cause one. Of course there are, you know, there are a lot of species and you don't see them every day. Dr. Hodges says that in the early days, they'd have to do dip tank x-rays, wait for them to develop and then send a snail male envelope with a question to a specialist, wait for it to get there, wait for the specials to write something back and snail mail back. But now modern technology lets them get an x-ray in less than a minute and they can get a complete pathology or cardiology report from a specialist in like half an hour.

So this is good news for vets. It's better news for pet owners, which by the way, in America, according to a 2019 study, there are 94 million pet cats in the US, 90 million dogs. And hey, guess what? Fish people, 157 million fishes out there in your houses. So yes, technology helps them too. Even though we're in rural Georgia, we do have the specialists that we can reach out to in the, in modern technology has definitely, definitely had his, his, his play.

I would say in our lifetime, right? Which is, I mean, don't you think we probably can keep an animal probably alive maybe two, four years longer? Yeah. Because of advancements, we can detect things a lot earlier. We have chemistry, pounds of blood. We can run down to take kidney problem a year or so before it happens. You know, at one time we only saw when the animal came in, it was sick.

We ran blood and kidney failure. And we hadn't seen that blood at all. And wait a day. Yeah. And we had to wait. So, but then we know two thirds of all kidney function is lost once we see the values are abnormal. So now we have tests that we can detect that we can do something to, to kind

of slow that process down. Or the old dog that had arthritis. I mean, we really, we had no medicine. But now, you know, what they came up with Remedill and derma there. So they come up with different medicines that the old dog that was arthritic that we're able to treat now. So something that I'll tell you, I thought about this the other day. Um, have you noticed we're having more talks about cognitive dysfunction,

which is doggie senile and all that. So we're able to keep them, keep them live longer. But unfortunately, we haven't figured out as far as the brain, they do get seen out. So we get the dog that is staring at the wall or goes outside and forgets where it is. So we have that talk a lot more. So it's kind of the gift and the curse of technology because I noticed I was like, man, I'm having this talk a lot, but I'm able to keep that dog that has a heart problem and we can keep him alive or arthritis.

We can keep him alive longer or kidding the problem. We can keep him alive. But we just hadn't figured out the brain yet. Where am I? And when it comes to your typical day, I know that you're sometimes maybe you're out looking at a llama in a barn. And then maybe you're delivering puppies in the office. Like, what is a typical day like?

And then also add cameras on top of that. There really is no typical day. And I'm not being, I'm being facetious, but then again, it's serious because we will make schedule out calls, but you never know what you're going to see when you go out and you never know what's going to come through the door. That's not scheduled. We try to do our surgeries in the morning. We want their schedule to try to get them in in the morning because we'd like

for them to be done about 10 and taken care of so that they're able to be up and go home that same day, depending on the procedure. And then in between surgeries and the rest of the day, we're seeing clients and we may, we don't, you just never know. What about a C-section that comes in in between? Right. You know, I may be in surgery doing a cruciate surgery that, you know, it may take a while to do and he calls in Hollison and look.

I have a dog in his room. Right. Cause he has a C-section. That actually happened on the show. I mean, it was not, it was like, he was in teaching one of our, our, our newer vets how to perform orthopedic surgery. And I was like, bro, I need that, uh, surgery room. And he thought I was playing.

Yeah. Initial idea. Hey, you know, we, we, we, we joke a lot, but you know, the second time around, I know when he was serious and it was a puppy dangling out of this dog that was stuck. So it's time to get real, get serious, you know, get the other dog with the table so we can get this C-section taken care of. It becomes just like that, a life and death situation.

That's what I mean. We just, you just don't know what's coming in the door. And it's definitely a rollercoaster. What do you wish that pet owners or your clients did differently or new? Is there something that you wish you could just telegraph it into pet owners' heads in society today? It's, it's bigger, the better, the more exotic or unique, the better. And everybody want to go big or go home and this thing.

But a lot of times the simple things like these, these exotic pets, I really wish they were educated on how to take care of them. You know, I had a case last week. Fair, it's a simple case. Um, this, this, um, bearded dragon, which is a type of, of Liz, it had, it came in. I took X-rays, it had brittle bones, it wouldn't move. It was dragging itself across the floor. It needs calcium.

It needs all of it. They need UV light or either sunlight. You know, obviously you can't stay outside with your lizard all the time. So you need some UV light. You try not to make the person feel bad, but I was talking to her. I was like, you know, this is what's going on. And, and it was something simple. I was like, I want you to Google something.

I said, just Google ultraviolet light and metabolic bone disease. And when I, you know, I said, I'm going to take an X-ray. When I came back in, she said, wow, doc, thank you. She said, I see what's going on. It's simple, but those kinds of simple things, something a $20 light could have prevented this, you know? So it's just, I wish that everybody wants to get more and more exotic. I mean, we're seeing all kinds of different, different animals, you know?

And so I just wish that people could were educated more. You know, it's not just the financial thing. Yeah. And that's a big thing, educating the clients. And it's not always that they can't do. They just don't know a lot of the issue with these exotics or husbandry issues, whether it's a type of feed or what they're feeding, the humidity or the temperature that they are, what they're feeding,

what they're, you know, things like that, that cause a lot of issues. So just basic education on how to take care of them would go my own. So that would probably be the biggest thing because with the advance, you know, everybody wants to have this cute little different animal. Yeah. But they just don't know how to take care of it. So I wish, you know, I mean, I want everybody to be happening. Enjoy, enjoy the pit.

But, you know, I mean, something simple is I know we have Easter coming up. So I am worried about these Easter bunnies. Because people, you know, they think, OK, you just put in a cage. You don't feed it. Hey, you don't have to worry about their teeth growing for the life. So then they don't understand the husband. Just the small things, you know, so or the chick, they get his little chickens. They get little chicks for each.

I mean, it's just those kind of thing. I just wish the the the population was educated a little bit more. Rabbits are fluffy and soft. They're easily litter box trained, but they live 10 to 12 years. Most people don't know that. And so most of these little buns, 95 percent of them, but as impulse Easter gifts end up in shelters or abandoned outside. 80 percent of bunnies in rabbit rescues were once Easter pets.

Sometimes they're rescued heavy air quotes, but used as food for reptiles. So before you acquire a living creature, consider if you can meet its needs. Are you saying I shouldn't I shouldn't have bought a stingray that lives in my bathtub? Oh, well, that might not be the greatest thing in the world. Such a good dinner party. For sure.

Wow. For sure. Just wanted something different. What about, you know, on the road to becoming a veterinarian? What do you wish people knew? Or what is like some encouragement that you would want to like give to your younger self or people who are like, I want to be a vet, but it's hard. So the first thing I like people to know is, and this is not to discourage, but I want them to realize when I talk to kids,

there are only 31 veterinarian schools in the United States. Yes, only 31. OK. So the average GPA to get in the veterinarian school now is about 3.7. That's very high. That is very high. So not only that, there are a lot of people with high grades. So you have to find that thing that makes you different and separates you. You know, go to go to your local venue and ask them, can you volunteer

and or go to your local shelter? Find that thing that that makes you different. But yeah, that is one thing I want people to see. I know we have 50 states. There are not even 50. Right. Yeah, there are only 31. And I guess on that same line of trying to separate yourself, I find a lot of time because I saw it when I was in

veterinary school that some want to be veterinarians and they see it looks very glorified from the outside. Like you said earlier, you get to hold the babies, you know, you get the cuddle. But, you know, dogs go to the bathroom. They urinate on you. They bite you, cats scratch you, horses can kick you. So what I encourage them at a young age is to come in, shadow me, shadow one of the veterinarians.

Let's make sure this is what you what your passion is and what you love because it can look glorified on the outside. But when you get on the inside, it may be something that you don't like. And the last thing that I want them not to do is invest all their time in energy and money into something. Then they decide I'm in the first year of veterinary school. Man, I don't think I really like this. So I want them to know that early.

This is what I want to do. I have a passion for this. I'm going to track on what I want to do. So to be honest, this is good advice for any profession, really. Except for podcasters, because no one wants to shadow me recording asides into a pile of towels in my closet, which I'm not even doing right now, because honestly, we're all isolating. And I'm just beached on the couch like job of the ward under a comforter,

which is not as exciting as some of the things that the critter fixers have seen. Dr. Hodges says when he was in vet school, they had a call and had to go out into the field. Into an actual field. So ambulance ambulance, you, you know, ambulance go out and get people. In veterinary school, we had some called ambulatory. And we're in I was in ambulatory class.

I was a senior veterinarian student and we went out and it was about seven of us in a in a veterinary truck. So it went out to this big farm. And when we got to the farm, you know, what you expect? You expect to see livestock in different things, right? But when we got this far, they're like 50 dead cows bloated smelly in the Alabama sun. It was both when the Tuskegee did.

And the first thing he said was what's going on? Well, obviously, we our mouths were wide open. Like, I don't know. So, you know, we we haven't learned all kinds of stuff over the previous three years. So we said, well, maybe this and this one, we're all wrong. He said, look, get out there and do something called a necropsy. Necropsy is when you check with animals, autopsy, always with humans.

So we did necropsy and all these bloated, smelly, stinky cows. And he said, what's wrong? And all of our answers were wrong. He said, listen, and this is one thing we learned. He said, listen, the first thing you got to come to do in a farm is you got to look, you got to listen, you got to look at your surroundings. He said, listen, it's been thunder and lightning every day. Look at the top of this tree.

It's burnt to a crisp. He said, the lightning struck the tree. Boom, all the cows who were gathered around during lightning, they were electrocuted, they died. What? What? Right. So you should simply look. You should learn and I never took that for granted.

So when I see a case, sometimes it isn't what it looks like. You got to look, you got to observe, you got to smell, you got to know it. So just always stop looking and listen. That's one of the things you learn in veterinary medicine. I'll never forget that as a senior veterinary student. Well, when I talk to kids, I always tell them that you have to use your senses except one, we don't taste, but we have to visually. It has happened a few times.

Well, unfortunately, not going. So, you know, even when you approach the animal or if we're in the clinic and it walks in the door, it may not even be coming in the room yet. But you're already getting the visual. And one thing that we always learn, probably first walked in veterinary school is you have to know normal before you know, before you know abnormal. There's no way to know what's abnormal unless you know what's normal. Yeah. Yeah.

So, you know, you're watching the gate, you're smelling. What does it smell? There are different things that clue you in. So almost like investigators, you know, we try to clue in on all these things. To try to figure out what's going with them. And but you have to be basic and work your way up. You never start with, you know, you have this big long word and because you want to be the veterinarian that says, yes,

I had the dog that had spiral tricking on us. So maybe the best show might be Matlock. Oh, are there any lawyers in this town? Yeah, that might be. That might be Matlock. Maybe Matlock, maybe. Because you got to be investigating. So, so maybe that's a show that Matlock, you know.

Dog detective. Yeah, exactly. Picture, dog detective. That's right. That is the thing that show that that maybe best describe what we do. Oh, can I ask you questions from the listeners? You can ask them there. Watch out.

So I let listeners know that I was coming to meet you guys and they sent in their own questions for you. OK, but before your questions, we're going to take a quick break. As you may know, each episode we donate to a cause of theologist choosing. And this week, the Critter Fixers chose the It Takes a Village Foundation, which instructs children in all aspects of business. And then it helps them come up with ideas for their own business. They provide also assistance to local adults.

They conduct community business outreach. And they are bookmarking this donation to go to testing and test prep to help kids. So you can learn more about what they do at ittakesavillagefoundation.com, which, side note, was founded by Dr. Hodges and the VP is Dr. Ferguson. So that donation was made possible by some of the sponsors of the show, which you may hear about now. OK, back to your questions. Now, this first one regarding just general weirdness was asked by Gabriel Jolin,

Ford Gonzalez, Unuseful Spoon, Ariel, PJ, Sakura, Janie Martin, Corny Williams and H.R. Bumper wants to know what is the weirdest animal you've ever treated? Probably, for me, I would think a spider. A spider? Yes. What kind of spider? We had this tarantulas guy brought in and it wasn't eating like he thought. That probably was different.

I did have to kind of research and think about that a little bit. I mean, he had these these big spiders. I don't know if it made the show. I know they did tape it, but I don't know if it made the show. But it would get in the web and it would kind of stay in the corner. It would eat there. But the biggest thing is this this cage was a little small. So it didn't need to eat as much.

So it was more of a husbandry issue. Actually, once I got it out, which was weird. This thing was as big as my palm in my hand. So, you know, and it actually kind of shot me. And when it bites, it's almost like a when it bites. Yes, almost like an electrical shock. It's not terribly bad, but that was probably the weirdest. I was wondering why was somebody wanted a spider, but it was interesting.

I think that was probably the weirdest. But the biggest thing is just knowing about what these animals need. In captivity, a captive spider obviously wouldn't need to eat as much as a spider that kind of lives in the desert or do everything. So that was pretty weird. Where are you? I guess the weirdest. I don't have a spider, but I think because we're in Georgia,

whether it's rural Georgia or Atlanta, doesn't matter. I think the camel, the camel was probably the most out of place. What was it doing there? Well, it was a camel that they used in the nativity scenes. And it's in the show also. And it's hard to say it was getting a little frisky. It was a little frisky, like the good boy in the mansion. So we had to go.

We had to go and remove some humphries to try to make. I think it did better this year. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think it did. Yeah, they were a little calmer this year. The kids weren't weren't surprised, but the camel wasn't wasn't swiping on tinder. Exactly. Kitty Coast wants to know if you could read animals minds, would you want to? Oh, yeah, most definitely.

Yeah, yeah, that would be, yeah, it would make our job a lot easier. You know, we knew exactly what was wrong when they came in. I always asked the students when I go do career day, I asked them to tell me what is the difference between you and I when we go to the doctor and when the pets come to me and they always overthinking it. They think of everything. I said, no, it's just simple. The animals can't talk.

Yeah. You know, so, you know, if I stood them on the table and I said, you know, open mind and what's wrong, I may get a bark or meow or a kick even. Yeah, I'm not going to get the answer. So of course we would. Exactly. That would definitely be down. So because, you know, it would save me some time.

I wouldn't have to go do an endoscopic exam. That's where we go down in the stomach and, you know, the dog would be able to tell me when I see a thing, because you can see clearly in there. So I'm in the stomach and I read P a M P E R pamper. So the dog is eating the diaper. So fortunately, I was able to pull that out. But but so he could have saved me a little bit of time. So, yeah.

Did you see that recent internet video of the Python? Yes, we did. Yes. Yes. That was a different. Yes. Right. For watching.

Yeah. For the snake. Yeah. Yeah. The snake, I'm sure was somewhat relieved. Is that is that the weirdest thing that you've seen a pet eat as a pamper? Do you ever find car keys in there? The car keys in an alley?

You know, years ago with the telephone course that were that were twisted. We didn't know what it was. We took an x-ray. That was back in the day when we had to dip tanks and took forever to develop x-rays. So we look at this video, we look at this x-ray and we just see a coil that's, you know, not very long. We're all looking like, what is that?

Spyrokeet. Exactly. What is that? So we end up having to do an exploratory and that's what it was. But the funniest thing. So after doing this during the surgery, the owner said, yeah, I know what that is. I'm going to put all this stuff away. We're going to get rid of it.

Cat came in two more times over the next few years with a court doing the same thing. Got to get a cordless phone. Yeah, thank God now. But back then, you know, they had the cordless phone. I think that was you telling ideas, bro. Yeah, well, that's your age, remember? Oh, I'm a little bit.

I got you. Yeah, I got you. But yeah, that was and we always see coins. You know, that yeah. So the weirdest thing I've seen is the actual the chocolate coins that the gold chocolate coins they come in a little mesh bag and I couldn't figure out what was going on. And this dog ate them whole though. So I couldn't figure it out.

So I literally took out, I think I counted twenty six, twenty six of those gold and the chocolate was still good. So so the rap was good because they didn't they didn't really melt. But that was probably the weirdest thing to just kind of keep pulling these coins out. Oh, my gosh, Sarah Trevino, first time question. Asker wants to know a very important question. Do dogs love us as much as we love them? And do they know how much we love them?

Do you think I don't know if they know? In veterinary school, we used to talk about the human animal bond. And I definitely can see it. I think my dog loves me as much as I think so. I mean, I love my dog a whole lot. Yeah, yeah, I mean, you just think you when you go to work, you can have a great day or you can have a horrible day. When you get home, it doesn't matter.

Every time you're going to be greeted the same way with excitement, with love. I don't know the level, but I definitely know they know that we love them. And it's unconditional both ways. Kind of like that move in hundred first dates. Don't call me loose. I barely know you. Sweetie, you're sort of dating it. Sorry, I'm not better looking.

You know, you know, every time, every time is the new year. They love you like a hundred. It's the first day. Every time we come home, every time we come home. Rachel Weiss wants to know why do dogs like to eat grass when they have upset bellies or is that a myth? You know, we used to be, you know, they have tummy aches or they have this. But I've seen dogs that just like to eat grass.

A lot of times in the wild, a lot of these guys eat a lot of berries and grass and different things. So I think it's just a pallet tool. So they'll eat it. Interesting. Yeah. Whenever I see my dog snacking on grass, I'm like, Oh, do I have to call an ambulance? And Mo Casey wants to know what is the number one thing we can do to protect the health and well-being of wild critters?

And Brianna Mozinski says this. Yes. Yeah. Anything we can do for wild critters? I think the environment protect the environment, protect the environment, conservation, yeah, things like the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Organization like that do to try to conserve different species. So those are the most important thing. I think a lot of times we can get in trouble, too, by trying to domesticate everything.

And I think we get in trouble then because it kind of mess up the natural balance of things. So like Florida Alligator. Yeah. Did someone try to domesticate a Florida alligator? Well, they do it all the time. OK, side note, just Google Florida plus pet alligators. Oh, boy, plenty of Fox News clips of people cradling giant reptiles pop up. Now, in the following news clip, a man in cargo shorts is crouched down next to a murky backyard ditch as the head

of his 47-year-old pet alligator bobs in and out of the water serenely, just waiting to be hand-fed more morsels of its favorite snack, chocolate chip cookies. Once he was in the house, he didn't want to leave. I think it took us like three weeks to get him to go back outside. He was on the couch all the time or in the bathtub. I did a little more Googling and heads up when they're not eating chips ahoy. A lot of pet alligators are, how do we say this? Rescuing other people's unwanted Easter purchases.

So that's bad news. I mean, yeah, all the time, you know, they're doing it for the gram. Yeah, doing it for the gram, for sure. Not necessary. And he's, ah, Veronica, Veronica says, cat hairballs. Oh, my God, they're so gross. Is there anything I can do or give the fur babies to prevent it or lessen the amount that they hack up?

Did I mention so gross? Yeah, there are different products that we have. Cats are naturally groomers. So they naturally lick themselves and groom themselves. And basically when you see the cat that is ungroomed or not thrifty looking, probably sick kitty. So you have mats or hairball. Now, some of them get some get so large and heavy, they can't groom themselves.

But normally they groom themselves and they're going to ingest hair. So they have products that you can give different laxatives and lubricants that you can give maybe a couple of times a week that will help clear them out. They will pass them out in the stool rather than having so many hairballs. And what are those products? But laxatone, purge, mineral oil. I didn't know we were going to cause products of mineral oil. OK, mineral oil, we got to give her some ounces, OK?

And then we'll tell her. I will say to her personally, be thankful, because I'm going to give her a fancy word and she will welcome to Google this. It's called a trochobrisor. Yes. That is a big, big hairball. Oftentimes we see that in cows. Yes. In cows. I mean, sometimes these things can be big as basketballs.

How did they get the hair in there? Because they licking themselves. So tell her. Yeah. So tell us. So she's very fortunate that she don't have a cow. Maybe she does. Maybe she does. She got a trochobrisor. Wow. Wow. OK, wow.

I know we're all socially isolating. We got some time on our hands, but do not Google Image Search a trick of Bezar. Unless you want to see what appears to be stomach-shaped dreadlocks still moist from their fresh removal from human insides. Now, the condition that causes hair eating in humans has been dubbed Rapunzel syndrome for the long tail that the hairball trails behind it. I like to imagine it does so elegantly, but it's a real thing.

I can't imagine it's comfortable. Boy, howdy, don't look at it if you can help it. Now, as long as we're talking whores, let's dip into your questions about American health insurance, but for pets. So this question was asked by Kate Koldron, Sarah Howell Miller and Heather Shaver. Heather Shaver has a question financially. And in your opinion, how much is too much to spend on pets that bill? Like, how do you make the decisions taking into economics and animal suffering?

And is it good to have pet health insurance? Like, how do you guys feel about that? My thought when it comes to that is definitely if you can start out, pet health insurance has definitely evolved over the over time. They has evolved over the years. And they, you know, we have it in our practice quite a bit now. And they usually pay for the well said, but you can't have any pre-existing things. But this is the thing I always ask, what will be the quality of life?

Quality of life is everything. I mean, you know, before you get the finance, I have people who come in and they have unlimited funds and they willing to do anything. But I talk to them, at least give them the option. I never tell them what to do, but I explain the quality of life and what will be the quality of life if they choose a procedure, if they choose not a procedure, if we keep moving on. Something you can ask your veterinarian, it's a tough decision.

What do you think my dog's possible quality of life for my cat's quality of life? But that's where I will start the the actual talk. And you can kind of go from there. So quality of life is the would be the best measures I could give people. I think so. Yeah. That's what I would say. You know, you can have unlimited funds and quality of life is not going to be good afterwards. That's that's not being fair to your baby. I always say, you know, they've given us so much unconditional love.

They've been so fair to us. So we want to be fair when that time comes. And sometimes it's hard to see it. It is. You know, so I know what I've done is I have a sheet that numerically has questions and you have to give an answer from zero to 10. And it has at the end, we add those those numbers up. And if we're lower than a number, then we're probably at the point that we're suffering. So we may need to consider making a decision.

And if it's higher than that, then we're doing fine. But a lot of times it's visually having the client to be able to see it helps a lot because I've been there. I've had animals and I know I want to do it. It's not time, but I'm I'm being unfair. I tell them, let's not be selfish. Let's give them the joy that they've given us all these years. And do you guys both have pets?

Oh, yeah. Of course, we have. So I have a German shepherd, a cane corso. Oh, hey, I look this up because I thought a corso was maybe a type of lizard or a house lemur, but it's a big Italian dog. And it looks like it would kill anyone who wronged you, but also hug you when you're sad, much like any Italian. I now love them. Oh, Frenchie, who's who sleeps on my hip every night.

I have Jamison, who is a gecko. And I have Drake, who is a bearded dragon. Oh, so you do have a bearded dragon face. Yes. So I have a cane corso, miniature snows or shidzu and a bearded dragon. Who's Rex? We call them Rex. Oh, my gosh. Do people ever come to you and and a pet needs a home

and you're like, should I adopt it? Sometimes, but typically we try to we try to be almost like the tender of it there, man. So we try to match me. We like, all right, we're going to swipe you to the left. I know somebody who needs it. So, so that's kind of what we do. Amazing.

Um, OK, Jamie Pickles wants to know, how often are you called on to answer human medical questions? Like your doctor, can you look at my rash? Every time I go to the grocery store. How annoyed are you by this? They want to know it definitely happens. Yeah, my boy, you know, I got ringworm and I be like, ma'am, that's can you look under?

Don't worry about this. You can say I said, ma'am, that's a little too much skin. I don't want to see that. Yeah. Is this a ringworm? Can you get closer? But yeah, often we do, um, you know, sometimes I can I try to steer people in the right direction. You know, because sometimes they're scared.

I mean, they're like, look, this is what's going on. Or the more common question that I never forget in parasitology class, and I'm glad we were taught that is a lice. Oh, but everybody has their own lice. OK, so humans have theirs, cats and all that. So everybody got it. So typically when people are like, you know, we'll get the physicians or someone come and say,

my dog gave me this lice, but not you didn't get it from the dog. Yeah, but they can get, um, speaking of parasites, mange, which is a external parasite. And, you know, the funny thing is we talk about scabies. So the dog comes in and has no hair and scabies. And you look and you say, have you been itching? And the funny thing one later, you know, she grabs a shirt and she snatched it up.

Yeah, that's what I'm like, is that what do you red spot? So I'm like, ma'am, please. I'm like, you know, you're like, you're not getting it. Exactly. I just asked the question, you know, do you have? I don't need to see him. If you do, you need to go see your dog. So yeah, the answer is yes, every time we go to the grocery store. Also, I was like, you can get scabies from a pet.

OK, so human scabies and cat and dog scabies, they're all different species, but you can get some bites if an animal is heavily infested, but it's tradable in humans just not by your vet. Oh, my gosh. Some other people asked about horses and someone wanted to know when a horse has a fracture, what can be done about it? And not not a lot at this time.

It's just typically unfortunate because of that weight and just the way they're built. Unfortunately, typically that is that that leads to veterinary medicine decision that we never like to make, which is unfortunately euthanasia most times. There's a lot of weight on that. It's almost like they're on one finger, so it's a lot of weight and it won't heal properly.

OK, side note, I looked into this and there's a woman named Dr. Julia Montgomery in Saskatchewan, working on research involving horse harnesses that could save their lives by lifting them up and letting their fractures heal without all that weight. So, hmm, Hippology episode. Anyone? Horses? Yes? Jen Lee wants to know, first in question,

ask her, is it really OK for people to take fish or other antibiotics? Have you ever known someone who did this? To take fish and antibiotics? Yeah, we don't recommend that people take any antibiotics that are prescribed to their animal. Right, I've I've known people who don't have insurance or like get tetracycline for aquariums. Right, right. Yeah, yeah.

No, I don't recommend that. This next nephrological question was shared by Joni Waldrop, Morgan Alexander-Coburn and Samantha Jay Gunther. A few people asked about preventing kidney disease and kitties and is adding water to their food a good idea? Or what else can they people do? A low protein. Yeah. You want to have water available all the time, but OK.

Low protein foods definitely help because proteins have to be broken down. And a lot of times that that puts more on the kidneys. So that's one of the things that's why they have these special diets with less, less protein and ash. So, you know, diet is it's one big thing that we do see. And I definitely see that angle that will come because we see a lot of kidney disease and in animals.

And going back to technology, they have a new test with SDMHA. I know you want to know what SMDA means. And I looked it up and it's symmetric dimethyl argon symmetric dimethyl arginine SMDA. But it's not to be confused with an SMDH test, which is the threshold at which something makes you shake your damn head. Which tells us before they even develop it now. Right. It's really it's really what you said,

it says maybe come along about two years ago at the most which is just amazing. It's amazing technology where before we looked at creatinine and blood. You're a nitrogen which tell us this animal is in kidney failure. Yes. But now a totally healthy kidney. We can find out those things by just something called an SDMH test. It's pretty cheap. And, you know, we recommend doing those as an early preventative, maybe at least after what, six.

Yeah. And then five or six and we don't know it before. And we can start making some some different medical type changes to prevent it. So that that will be the one thing. Try to do some preventative tests that more than anything can can let us know if there's a precursor to kidney disease. Oh, that's good because a lot of times these things can be hereditary. So testing them yearly or even when they get older every six months to catch these things before they start causing failure.

We definitely have a better chance. And they're pretty inexpensive. I mean, we're talking probably less than 80 bucks. I mean, it's not a not a terribly expensive test. Yeah. Oh, that's good to know. Lauren Maskebrota asked about mental illness or behavioral disorders in pets. They have a cat with anxiety. Another with behaviors that the research compares closest with OCD.

How about animals that you put on Prozac or how does that? Does that help? How does it work? They have we have several behavior drugs. The thing about it is most don't work or don't work well without having training with it. So basically, a lot of them put the animals in the frame of mind to learn. Then they have to be trained from there. A lot of dogs have separation anxiety.

The owners leave, they just tear the house up. They have to be put on medication, but there are certain training things we have to do along with it. They have to do at home. It's not like you're going to get a medication. Everything's going to go away. It's going to be fine. You have to do other things along with it, such as Dr. Hodges explains. OK. And some simple things you can do is

let's say you're going to stay home and watch television. Grab your keys, shake them. And if you have a pocketbook, grab your pocketbook and sit on the sofa because this dog is getting wound up, is watching you. It's getting accused. It knows like, OK, this guy is about to leave or this lady is about to leave. So find those cues that kind of you usually do. But just sit home, sit home that night.

So let's say you come home. One thing we recommend is if the dog is really really going to ignore the dog. You ignore it initially coming in. Let's say you get home, you kind of wind down. Grab your keys, grab your pocketbook, shake them and just sit down and watch TV or sit down with the dog. And the dog won't pick up on those cues or something. Those are some of the training things you can do that are really simple.

OK. Oh, that's good to know. And a few people, including Lacey Elaine and Jennifer Lemon, Kim Bonnaker, Katie Viles, Anna Elizabeth, Emily Jean, Demi Espinoza, Jessica Drew and Justin Dar, who wanted to know about grain free versus grain inclusive diets. Everyone seems to have an opinion. Nobody knows what to eat. How do you feel about it? Do we need to go down the road?

Well, I'll tell you, I'm asked this every day. OK, OK. So I'll tell you, I don't know the answer. But this is the thought, though, because I've talked to actually the drug reps. And, you know, there was a test and there was a trial and they were found that a small sample did develop cardiovascular disease. Right, on grain free. On grain free, right? I spread that study.

So there was a study. So, I mean, this was there's been millions and millions of dogs that have eaten this and this was a small sample. Now, I don't know, I tell them, but this is what I say. All my life, they've told me to drink a glass of wine every day to live forever. Man, a couple of years ago, they say, look, you drink a glass of wine, you're going to die. So I don't know the answer.

I'll be honest. So I mean, it's just testing. If there are more tests, I'll be honest. I just don't know because because it's just not enough tests, it's that one study. So I don't know what to drink one or not. So I guess if I've been told a lot more studies that even the regular food doesn't carry, it's not a lot of grain in it. Right.

So it's not enough to even make a difference. But we don't know. There are millions of dog foods. Right. One thing I can say is a lot of times when different fads come out, we have fads for, I don't know if maybe they're not fast, but things that are for humans. We transition those things right over to the animal world

and we fashion them to make them look pretty. And we label things that are attractive to us. They may not necessarily be good for your animal. May not make a difference. But because they're attracted to marketing, we grab it because they said it was good for us. Should be good for my animal. That's not always the case.

You know, a lot of the jury is still out on a lot of things. So that I don't know. I mean, I'm, you know, just like everybody else, we're bum-barbered with questions with our clients who see stuff on social media. I've researched and there is that one study. But I mean, it's not a huge, huge study. So I'll be honest, I don't know.

I read that that study was funded by Peerina. All right. So that's exact. So you, so you'll count it all over the place with it. Right. So I'm not sure. OK, side note. In case you're unfamiliar with this study titled Diet Associated Dilated Cardiomyopathy in Dogs, what do we know? It was published in the Journal of the American Veterinary

Medical Association in late 2018, and it relates grain-free diets high in legumes like peas and lentils with some statistics on reported heart problems in certain breeds like golden retrievers. Now, a lot of vets are not super convinced by this. All seem to say way more research is needed. And if you do scroll down to the bottom of this study, under the acknowledgment section, you'll see that its lead author has received research support by Peerina,

which makes a lot of grain-inclusive foods. Interesting. Now, speaking of research, what do two vets think about using CBD or cannabinoid oil for our furry and scaly and feathered friends? Melanie Baker, Emilia Hines, Michelle Krebs, and Teresa Bossenova. I'll want to know. What about Melanie Baker wants to know, is there enough data or research yet on CBD usage for pets to draw any conclusions about efficacy for pain or inflammation or fear, anxiety?

So that's something that just started. That's just that's another thing. It's probably pretty similar to the grain. You know, there are pros and there are no cons. The con is it doesn't work. But but we're seeing more and more products that are being labeled. And, you know, it depends on what state there are certain states as well as veterinarians concerned is we can use it or we can't use it.

So it's not something that's widely used yet, but it's definitely probably going to be. OK. I mean, just and personally, I don't know. You know, again, that's something. But I have seen some cases that it seems that people who kind of use it in conjunction with the seizure medicine that the seizures do go down somewhat. I have kind of, you know, I've seen some cases that I think, you know, I mean, I don't have scientific proof, but it seems I've seen some cases

that possibly that it may help in some epileptotypes. Possibly, yes. And then let's say I'm at this is a question I was asking for a friend. Being my dog. So who else asked about weight management? Absolutely no one. Just me. I was literally the only person with this question. OK. Well, then this is for all the people who are maybe ashamed to ask

how you deal with a chunk and when to intervene. If you are once a maciated rescue orphan becomes an absolute unit. She's like 12 pounds. Maybe she's gotten to be about 13 and how much should I be walking a little dog a day? All right, when you say 13 pounds, is that a is that right? Is that a Georgia 13 pounds? Well, you've got a little bit.

You know, you mean some some collard greens and a little bit of definitely. I got her in July. She was a rescue and she was a maciated. She's seven and she just you could feel every bone. And now she's definitely not. I can tell you one thing that an old veterinarian told me a long time ago is. You can kill them with kindness. Yeah, a lot of issues come from being obese and overweight. So just because you're telling me that you think it is, it is.

OK, OK, because that's how it works. So what you want to be careful because of joint issues, you know, being too heavy and not being mobile when we get older. Diabetes diabetes is another big thing. So what you may want to do is maybe find a diet that's lower lower. Yeah, or maybe even weight reduction. No, no, this is number one question I asked. The food probably is fine.

What kind of treats are you getting? Oh, I'm greenies. I mean, maybe like three a week. OK, not a lot, not a lot. Well, I think I need to. So this is what maybe we'll try. We both need to go. We're going to use green, but we're going to say green beans.

OK, yes, green beans is a good treat. Yeah, let's try green beans. OK, OK, that's so smart. Yeah, let's try. Are you supposed to be able to feel a dog or cats ribs? Yeah, you don't want to see them. OK, but you want to when you if I'm standing behind the dog or cat and I'm reaching on both sides, I want to feel them without having to press too hard.

OK, I should be able to feel them by rubbing. If I have to press a little bit, then we got a little bit too much fat there. OK, but I don't want to see them because we're too thin. So that's a good way to judge where we are as far as scoring them body condition. So guess who got a treat of a green bean today and didn't hate it? That's right, my chucky little love muffin, my small monkey, my little smunk. OK, also in Nephology, I said I had a pet raccoon and I was referring to Grammy, who was the dog and very much not a raccoon,

despite looking like a raccoon and her pre-adoption life of being a dumpster goblin on the streets, which is hard to even think about. I can't even think about it. Speaking of difficult things in the last questions I always ask. Yes, I always ask the hardest thing about your job. First, the worst thing about your job, even the most annoying thing. Is it paperwork? Is it is it having to stick hands anywhere? We're what's the hardest thing about being a vet?

For me, it's pretty easy. I mean, it's couldn't drive. It's probably the same answer. But so being in practice now, 20 years, we've had that. We're having to have the luxury now of seeing a full lifecycle of a dog. So we see a puppy that we've had. We've got it at six weeks old and we've watched it become 14, 15, 16, 17. And sometimes, you know, we've been with this dog, we've been with these people, we've watched the kids grow up, you know,

some cases and we have to unfortunately relieve their suffering. So, you know, as many cases now where we've watched them grow up and they'll say, well, Doc, can we wait a few hours because the kid is in college and they want to come be with us. So you have this kid come back who you've watched grow up with his pet, the pet and the family. And it's just heartbreak. That's the hardest part for me. Yeah, definitely euthanasia is tough.

Just being on an emotional rollercoaster sometime he mentioned earlier, you know, you may have that client in the room for that, you know, you're in and you're consoling them and you've seen this patient since they were born, basically. You've seen the family and the kids grow up and you have to go next door. And there's a client in here that has a six week old puppy or kid that's just starting to stay off. So you're emotionally going from one state to another state.

And sometimes this goes on and on. So emotionally, sometimes they can take a toll. So that's probably the toughest part of the job is just being able to regroup, go to another room, start over. And at human animal bond, like we talk about, but I mean, it's a human veterinary bond, too, because we watched these dogs. I mean, we watched them. We know them. We know the people we know.

And being in rural Georgia, again, I talked about the grocery store. These are the same people who see you in the grocery store and say, hey, Doc, Penelope is doing really good. And you're like, OK, or hey, Doc, I got to come see you because Penelope is not really doing good. And I'm afraid we're going to have to make that decision. And you dread that. You really do.

How do you guys make sure that you and Javette, in general, take care of your own mental health? Because I know that that's something that that is that is that is something that the profession is really looking at. Because, unfortunately, we have had, you know, a suicide. Dr. Ferguson, we went to your classmates who on the practice, he unfortunately committed suicide six or eight months ago. I mean, it is a mental rollercoaster.

Just just get what you pierce. I mean, we have to talk about it and talk it through. Because sometimes, you know, it's tough. I mean, you feel down. And you you can you can fix. A hundred animals. But if you lose that one, that's the one you think about. You know, people don't want to say that's the one that eats at you.

That's the one that when you go home and sit at your table, you're like, oh, could I have done something different? That is that, you know, and it's hard because we we're used to success. And we wanted to be 100 percent, but it never is. And that eats at you a lot. And they're definitely something, you know, in our profession. Now it's it's called compassion fatigue, which is a new term that they use. And that's exactly what it is.

It's just fatigue from compassion. You know, you just love that we're in a profession for a reason. We didn't get in here because we didn't like animals. We're here because we love them. And, you know, we have to make those tough decisions sometimes or sometimes they come in and they don't make it. And like you said, we want everyone to make it. You know, and you start questioning yourself.

Right. Um, could I have done something better? And you know that that's nothing you could have done better. But another thing about veterinarians, we're all we're all want everything to be 100 percent right. That's kind of who we are as a that's who we are. So if it doesn't go like we want to go, we really stress ourselves, put a lot of pressure on ourselves. And that and then we have to go from there to the room that now we're starting out with a new plebby. And then you have to go home and you take it home.

You know, right. So it is something that mental health is a big thing in veterinary medicine. And we're we're learning how to deal with it and cope with it. And, you know, once you have a classmate or someone, you know, that has it has happened to, you know, it's real then. It's becoming more and more. I mean, you know, and again, not knocking physicians. I mean, some of my best friends are physicians, but if a person goes to a physician and they have a lung and their physician thinks it's cancer,

they'll refer it and you go see somebody in two weeks, right? You waiting to get in maybe four weeks, a dog comes in with a lump. I got to think, okay, is this cancer? I got figured out. I may have to biopsy. I may even have to surgery to take it off all within three hours. You know, you got figured out, you got to take it off. You got to look at a histopathology under Mexico and make this decision, whereas even in humans, if they come in, you know, we give our physician, okay, well, he thinks it's a lump.

I got to wait to get into oncologists. I mean, you have to be in oncologists. You know, you have to be these things and that can mentally put you in some tough places. But you're wearing every hat for every animal in every species. You got a camel over here and you're his oncologist and you've got a spider over here and you're, it's a nutritionist. So it is a tough thing. There's a lot of allergies when I went to go, when I went to title this episode, I was like, is it veterinary technology and but a veterinary technology?

Is it completely different? It's more or less a veterinary system. Yeah, yeah. Like a nurse. Yeah. And they also help you run every week. Oh, correct. Yes, correct.

Yes. Yeah. So we'll give claps to them too because I'm here. Yes, for sure. Couldn't do it without them. We could not do it without them. Couldn't do it without them. Yes.

I was initially trained as a veterinary technician. Oh, yeah. That's how I got started. So I definitely have appreciation for that, for the technician and nurses. And what about the best thing about being a vet? What is something that just gives you butterfly skill? It gets you out of bed. You get to play with the babies every day.

Every day. And it's different. Like when I'm driving to work, I can be a dermatologist, a cardiologist, I own a oncologist, a surgeon, a pediatrician. Who delivers the baby? Obstetrician. Obstetrician. I may do a C-section all before lunchtime.

So that's the best thing. Yeah. And I always say, you know, the veterinarian has a special job because we can make everyone in the house happy. Because if you bring me your animal or your dog or cat, and it's not doing well, and I help you make it well, not only does a dog feel better, you feel better. Right.

So we can make the whole house happy. There you go. You're excited to go from being vets and being vets to TV stars also? We are. And we get that question all the time. So I don't know if we'll be TV stars. I don't know how this will go. But I can promise you one thing.

We'll always be Southern gentlemen. I promise you that. That will never change. And friends. Yes, and friends. That's right. So work hard at what you love and get by with a little help from your friends. Also ask smart people stupid questions

because the questions are not stupid. And look, they love answering them. Also watch Dr. Ferguson and Dr. Hodges on Critter Fixers, on Nat Geowild. They are amazing and so is the show. Also stay safe. Isolate, isolate, isolate. Wash your hands.

And listen to the virology episode from last week if you need to understand why it's important to stay inside and skip the discos for a while. Trust me, you're saving lives by introverting. More episodes are up at alleyward.com. You can follow us at oligies on Instagram and Twitter. I'm at alleyward with one L on both. And thank you, Aaron Talbert, for admitting the oligies podcast Facebook group.

Thanks, Shannon Feltis and Bonnie Dutch of the Comedy Podcast. You are that for managing all the merch at oligiesmerch.com. Thank you, Emily White and all the oligies podcast transcribers for getting transcripts made, especially so fast. They're on my website on the oligies extra page. And thank you, Jared Sleeper, for the assistant editing. He makes the mental health podcast, My Good Bad Brain, and he does weekly Sunday morning live streaming

with the traumatologist episode guest, Dr. Nick Barr, which is so good. And of course, to the rescue every week is Stephen Ray Morris, a cat daddy, and host of the Percast and the dino themed Sea Jurassic Wright. Nick Thorburn of the band Islands wrote and performed the theme music and happy birthday to my wonderful sister Janelle this week. If you stick around until the end of the episode,

you know, I tell you a secret. This week's secret is I know that we're all isolating. I have been sleeping like 12 hours a day. And I think that's just some major catch up. I don't know. I'm starting to worry. But I have gotten so little done, despite having all of this extra time from canceled events.

And if you're feeling the same way, please do not beat yourself up. So if you're feeling a little bit less productive, then you hoped you would be. Don't worry. You're in good company. I'm right there with you. And that being said, let's try to do things that will cheer us up a little, like little spoons,

or watch movies, or pet your pets, or maybe adopt one. Perhaps now is the time. Okay, stay safe. Love y'all. Bye-bye. Hack-a-dermatology. Homiology. Crypto-zoology.

Litology. Nanotechnology. Meteorology. Pneumatology. Nephology. Seriology. Pneumatology. Want some cookies?

Chips ahoy. Look. Chips ahoy. Your favorite.