Catching Up with a Classmate

I recently had the pleasure of reconnecting with a classmate from Veterinary school. Mike Petersen is a veterinarian in Madison Wisconsin. I can tell from the time we spent together that he is a great doctor with very diverse interests. I can also tell you that he is a great runner.

We met in Santa Barbara to run the inaugural Santa Barbara marathon. Over the previous several months we exchanged emails about our training. It was apparent that he was training to run very fast and I had no hope of keeping up with him. He ran a great time at the race and it inspires me to do better.

Mike has a small animal veterinary practice and also serves as the veterinarian for the zoo in Madison. When I connect with classmates it is nice to catch up and learn that the years have been good for most of us. Talking about running and how we train is educational. It also serves as a reminder that you never stop improving. During the heavy travel of my AAHA presidency I started to feel like I would never run marathons for speed again. Running with Mike and doing research on running has given me new focus and hope. The other nice thing is when I spend time with classmates it serves the same purpose for my veterinary hospital. I have never stopped trying to make it better and am very thankful for our talented staff that does the same.

Mike and I have been out of school for thirty years now and it is always a pleasure to see the vigor with which we approach our lives, jobs and the profession. Thanks Mike, it was great to see you again.

Please Pick up Your Toys

A number of years ago I saw a distraught owner with her Golden Retriever. Every family with young children needs a dog but there are some issues that arise with youngsters and their faithful companion. The Golden Retriever named Sadie was as gentle as the day was long. Unfortunately, Sadie had a bad habit of picking up items that were left on the floor. Sadie came to me early one evening after vomiting up a toy soldier. She looked great on a physical exam but after discussing the situation with her owner we decided to X-ray the abdomen. The film showed a number of other small objects. I gave her an injection to induce vomiting and several more toys were brought up. A follow up X-ray showed a very small item that would possibly pass. I suggested to the owner that we could send her home and fast her overnight. The next morning she returned for a follow up X-ray. This time there were at least seven more items in the stomach. We repeated the process of the night before and several more toys were vomited up. I still didn’t see the small item from the night before. After clarifying that we needed to be sure Sadie didn’t pick up any other toys, we sent her home.
The next morning Sadie had vomited up another couple of toys and she requested another X-ray to be sure that was it. Once again it looked like Toys R Us had set up shop in her belly. We went about our routine and sent her home with an empty stomach.
I called the owner after a week to be sure Sadie was doing OK. The owner informed me that she had brought up a few more toys but was acting fine.
Sadie eventually stopped eating toys, the kids got older or they just ran out of toys but she did great. I have seen dogs eat just about anything over the years but Sadie holds the record for the number of consecutive days on the “bad dog” list.