Amy Brown: Doggie Mushroom Trips, A Mysterious Bird Death & Dryer Dangers

This week, Dr. Josie Horchak makes a house call to Bobby Bones Show radio personality and podcast host Amy Brown for a heartfelt and hilarious episode. Amy opens up about her late parakeet, Chris Hemsworth, who may have met an untimely end due to scented incense. Dr. Josie weighs in and offers some clarity (and comfort) about birds’ sensitive respiratory systems. They also discuss a mysterious golf ball-sized lump on Amy's rescue dog Kara—could it be cancerous?—and the time Kara accidentally indulged in mushroom-infused chocolate and took the nap of a lifetime. Plus, Dr. Josie delivers a serious warning about cats and clothes dryers after hearing about Amy's cat Maggie’s recent obsession with curling up inside. In her Case of the Week, Dr. Josie tells the incredible true story of Valerie the dachshund, who disappeared on Kangaroo Island and was found over a year later—healthy and possibly raised by dingos. Finally, don’t miss this week’s Paw & Order segment, where Dr. Josie shares essential pet care reminders, including why age isn’t a reason to skip necessary procedures, and the importance of sunscreen for your sun-loving, hairless-bellied pups. This episode is packed with real-life pet drama, laugh-out-loud moments, and lifesaving advice every animal lover needs. 🐾

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Yeah, you're listening to In the Vets Office with doctor
Josie Horchak. Hi everyone, and welcome back to in the
Vets Office. I am your host, Doctor Josie, and today
we have a very exciting episode because I am joined
by radio host, podcast queen and fellow animal lover Amy Brown.
You may know her from the Bobby Bones Show and

(00:28):
her own hit podcast Feeling Things, and today that's my cat.
She is with me and her not so happy cat, Maggie,
to talk all things animals. Welcome Amy, Hello, Happy to
be here and Maggie. Maggie normally loves sitting here. I
just kind of was really hoping she would be a
part of the intro, which maybe some of her yeah were,

(00:50):
But she loves being in here room we record. Sometimes
she'll just sprawl out on the coffee table and it's
very cat like of her to come in here when
you're recording and you probably don't want her in here.
And then the one episode that's literally all about animals,
she's like, no, I'm good. Yeah, well that's how I feel.
It's I want her around me all day because I
love when she cuddles and she ignores me all day

(01:12):
and then when it's time for bed at night, I'll
normally be almost already asleep, and then I feel her
walking across my body to her little spot on my bed,
and then she lays down, imps down, and I'm like,
where have you been all day? And then she'll stay
with me all night, and I'm like, cats are weird.
The cats are aliens. They even like the illnesses they get,
like they're just on a totally different, totally different different

(01:34):
playing field. Can you guys hear Kara panting into the microphone?
I have her dog here too, Okay, perfect, Yeah, but
Kara will sit. She's not as annoying as she used
to be, So that's good to hear that you're not
as annoying anymore. She's just like going in my face
and just inhaling her doggy breath. Well, she has a

(01:55):
lot of anxiety. She's a rescue and I think she
tied up like the first year of her life was
spent wow on a rope, Like the rope was stuck
into her skin. Almost like her hair was mad at
like when they shaved her. Because she's a labbordoodle and
you know the curly hair, it gets all matted and

(02:17):
like the skin was coming off like it was, so
I think, you know, whenever she does not really like
to leave my side. She definitely seems like she's got
some bellcrow on her, which with it's cute she does.
I don't want to get tied up again. But she's
gotten a lot better the last couple of years. Did

(02:39):
you get her from a rescue? Yes? Through uh Well,
we work with the woman Kathy Stool at iHeart and
she's in sales and she has a rescue uh group
on her own. I think she named it after one
of her dogs that she rescued, Kie like Keeley's Rescue
or something like that. Oh, I wish I remembered exactly,

(02:59):
but that's her name. It's so great. She knew we
were looking for a dog because our rottweiler who I
had for years, who was just randomly dropped off at
our church. Was it her name, Josie. Josie's so cute,
and so I knew we wanted to rescue because I
loved that that happened organically with Josie. Whenever my pastor
called him was like, you want a dog? And I

(03:20):
don't know, it just felt like special. Now Maggie. She's
not a rescue, she's a fancy girl. She's a fancy
girl from San Diego. We call them trust fun babies. Yeah, yeah,
so I knew with a cat, I wanted to get
something as hypoallergenic as possible, which there's no such thing
as a hypoallergenic cat. But if you google, if you google, yeah,
it'll give you a list of the top ten that

(03:42):
have less allergies that aren't hairless and she popped up
or Ballinese, you don't want on the list. Cat did
not want a hairless cat because my sister's allergic. So
we got it, and my sister can pretty much be
hair and the cat's fine. But they also make a
new diet too for cats, and they can eat it
and it decreases their allergens like completely, Like there are
some people that are horribly allergic to cats. They feed

(04:05):
them this special food and then they are not allergic
to their cats anymore. Oh genius. Yeah, okay, well maybe
I need to do that. Yeah, so that because my
sister can mostly handle it and it's it's it's fine,
which has been great, especially when she comes to visit.
Carara is Kara Kara is a hypoallergenic, so that's good
about these types of dogs. And they don't shed, because

(04:26):
Josie shed everywhere. Yeah, so that's the best part, not
vacuuming around her, but then uh her anxiety. Yeah. One
day Kathy called and was like, I think I just
got a call that this uh dog is tied up
and it's a labbordoodle and if you want to foster
it for a little bit and see what happens, then
we can. We can foster and see what happens. Famous

(04:49):
last words, famous last words. Wow. I mean I love
that too, though, because we talk about this a lot
with rescues. People always think, oh, I'm going to get
like a mud or a pitbull or whatever off the streets,
but like, there's so many doodles in rescue you and
pure bread. So whatever dog you want, even if it
is hypoergenic, you can usually almost find it in a
rescue setting. Apparently why she was tied up is the
people that had her they wanted to breed her, and

(05:10):
so they had every intent of making her a puppy
machine and then selling the puppies, but they just never
got around to it. I think they were waiting for
her to be old enough and all that, and then
they were so busy and they didn't really care for her.
So honestly, when Kathy showed up to and knocked on
the door and was like, I'm taking your dog, they

(05:31):
were sort of like, okay, yeah, they just let her
have her. Wow. Yeah, how awful to wonder she has.
She probably has separation anxiety. Yeah, I mean, I can't
blame your girlfriend. That's terrible. And now look at you,
You've hit the jackpot. Yeah, living the dream, Just live
in large in the dream. Yeah, Okay, before we dive
into all things about your pets, we always start this
podcast with a case of the week. I have been

(05:55):
following the story for a couple years now and figured
we would talk about this story rather than a specific
case because I love it so much. Have you heard
of about Valerie the Docks in No, Okay? Valerie the
Docsin was on vacation with her parents in twenty twenty three.
Her parents are Australian and they went to an island

(06:16):
called Kangaroo Island. And I had to look this up.
I didn't know, but it's a big island off the
coast of Australia, and it's really desolate and they call
it like the bush, like it's forest. No one lives there.
People go there, they go camping and then they go
back to me Inland, Australia. So Valerie goes with her parents,
Georgia and Josh and they put her in her little

(06:38):
pin on the camp site and her parents go to
the beach. When they come back from the beach, Valerie
has escaped her pen and she is lost on Kangaroo Island.
They stay for a couple of weeks looking for her.
They cannot find her, and this island is massive, like
absolutely massive. There's tons of wildlife like it would be
getting lost in like the Amazon, like very scary. So

(07:00):
they have to go back home, like they have to
go to their jobs and back to their life. So
they leave knowing that Valerie is somewhere, maybe dead, but
somewhere on Kangaroo Island. And this wildlife rescue called Kongola
Wildlife Rescue, they kind of get involved. They hear about Valerie.
They start posting cameras randomly around the island. They set
up remote controlled traps. They put cheese in the traps.

(07:22):
They got some like T shirts and blankets from the
owners that smell like Valeries home. A year later, maybe
like fourteen months later, she pops up on one of
the cameras and they see her in the middle of
the night, like walking around Kangaroo Island. So they were
able to kind of narrow down where she was on
the island and they kept trying to catch her. They

(07:43):
couldn't catch her. Five hundred and twenty nine days after
she went missing, they caught her, which is what like
eighteen months, and brought her home to her parents. And
this dog put on weight. She was in perfect condition,
like perfectly groom, absolutely thrived in the bush of Australia. Wow,

(08:04):
So what do you think it Isn't it crazy? Yeah?
So they did some research and they said, we think
Valerie's been eating like dead animals, like roadkill basically, and
she was drinking out there was a fresh water spring
that she was drinking out of. And they think she
teamed up with other wildlife. They weren't sure. There's like
dingoes on the island, which is like a wild dog basically,

(08:25):
and there's like a type of fox. They were like,
we think she teamed up with them, and like they
must have helped groom her because she was in like
mint condition when they found her, Like they would lick
her and clean her. That's so cute. Valerie thrived in
the wild. Yeah, her parents. Her mom said this quote
which I really liked, which was, if even the smallest

(08:46):
of sausage dogs can survive in the bush for five
hundred and twenty nine days, you two can survive whatever
it is you're going through. And I just thought that
was so beautiful. Wait, what's the dog's name again? Valerie? Valerie.
She's an inspiration to us. Be a Valerie, be a Valerie.
And I also love that when I was watching all
these articles in Australia, they really don't call them dogs
and they call them sausage dogs. Oh like here we

(09:07):
call them wiener dogs. Yeah, so they call them sausage Yeah,
sausage dogs, sausage wiener fust thing ever, Kara ate a
rabbit the other day? Is she this is a rabbit
eating season? Oh? Is it? I have never experienced that
before and I didn't handle it well. I'm assuming it
was a baby bunny. I don't know. I just heard

(09:28):
squealing like a high pitch, like I didn't know what
was going on and I go outside and Kara has
a rabbit in her mouth, and I start chasing her
and spanking her like drop it, drop it, drop it,
And finally I get her to drop the rabbit and
the rabbit goes away. Well, I'm pretty sure she probably
injured the rabbit. So then like for forty eight hours,

(09:49):
she can't She's pacing this house, she's looking out the window.
She is like, I'm a hunter. Yeah, I'm a hunter,
and she I'm pretty sure the next time she was
able to go out on her own, she found the
injured rabbit. I bet she and I think the rabbit
didn't have couldn't because normally the rabbits are faster. Oh yeah, definitely,
but this one probably she probably and so damaged. That

(10:12):
was the last of the rabbit. This time of year,
I can't tell you. I have a client probably called
me once a week, usually in tears, being like my
dog has found a baby bunny nest and they get
the baby bunnies and they usually eat the bunnies, which
is so gross. But it's so gross. I know, I
know the circle, I know, but I'm like, this is
I was like, I don't want to be a part

(10:33):
of this circle of life, like this is terrible. These
little bunnies are so cute and you're a monster one.
My nurse Ellanoi says like, I want to be a
part of the beginning, in the middle of the circle
of life, but definitely not the end because it's really sad. No,
it's sad, I mean, and she's just being a dog.
I just wish and tell her like, we're not going
to do that. But it's also like Maggie runs around here,

(10:53):
our cat, and she doesn't try to eat Maggie. Yeah.
I mean, I think it's probably like there's such like
prey driving them, so when they see this teeny tiny
little creature that they've never seen before running away from them,
that is like immediately, let me get them. I feel
like Maggie's like, come, come and get me, sister, Like yeah, Maggie,
well straight up. She just always looks at her and goes, yeah, yeah,

(11:15):
I don't think. I mean, there's some dogs that would
definitely eat a cat, but they have I'm sure they've
determined their hierarchy. Okay, so we're we're good here. I'm
going with you. Yeah, because we did have a bird
for about twenty fIF do you know fifteen twenty days
short lived? Yeah, well, and I thought that Kara was

(11:37):
going to be the problem, the problem. So Maggie ended
up loving the bird. Well, how weird is that? Yeah,
Like I'll show you pictures of Maggie like with the
bird bird when my daughter it was a gift. This
was like watching it like, oh, I love you, I
want to eat you. Well, I don't know. So Hiera
was like I kind of thought that that's my daughter,
but she was like she's not trying to do anything.

(11:58):
And Maggie would always meow to go sit by the cage.
And then like here's a video of Maggie like car
is trying to come up to the bird. Oh wow,
and Maggie goes, oh, like get away from my bird,
this is my bird. But then look at the like
she would go my daughter was cleaning the cage and
the door was open, and she went and sat in
the cage next to the bird. This a COCKA deal

(12:19):
is a pair keet? Okay, clearly I don't know anything
about birds. Wow, look at this. Yeah. I can't decide
if she's planning her murder or if she's I think
she really just liked it. I mean she would well,
and I'll go ahead and just tell you, like the
big part, so hat a bird. Obviously we had it
fifteen twenty days. The bird died, okay, but not because
of car or Maggie. But when the bird was dead,

(12:40):
I mean, Maggie was almost in mourning. She would stand
outside Toashira's room or sit outside and go like this
mew that I had never heard before that was like
a moan, like a butter little sort of yes. And
I was like, I think she misses her little buddy.
They were this odd pair where they were actually friends.

(13:02):
But this is where the PSA comes in. Okay, let's
hear it. So I did not buy this bird. I
did not want the bird. I mean I wanted a bird. Good.
I got the bird. My daughter got the bird as
a gift from her best friend for her birthday. And
she did they say you like, yes, okay, and I'm
I'm all about a bird. But I think if I
had gotten the bird, and I listen, it's my responsibility,

(13:22):
I should have done the research. But I think if
I was into it, I was buying it, I would
have paid attention, like we're at the we're getting the
bird like these are the bird does and the bird don't. Well,
I didn't really do all of that, and uh, the
other day I decided to burn incense like I often
like to do, and I do it downstairs in the

(13:43):
living room, and the bird is upstairs in my daughter's room. Okay,
but it also never occurred to me that this would
be a problem. But then when I started googling after,
like the next day, when I went up to her
room to check on the bird when I got home
from work, it was just laying at the bottom of
the cage, just laying there, just like I don't know.
It was okay. First, well I googled it and it's like, yeah,

(14:03):
even in since traveling from downstairs to upstairs, their respiratory
systems are so they are sensitive, like they don't even
have like they have like little air sacks. Yeah. Yeah,
and maybe the incense is a little too much for
his air sack. His name is Chris Hemsworth and my

(14:24):
daughter with the crazy thing, Josie is I had just
gone on from work and I checked on the bird
and it was dead. And then we get a text
from my daughter that's like, hey, can you check on
Chris Simpsworth for me, and I'm like why, Like she's
at school, like what do you But I mean it
wouldn't have It would have been very normal if Chris
was soul alive and I'd been like, oh, yeah, I
just checked on it. He was great. But all of

(14:45):
a sudden, I'm like, did you just get some like telepathy? Yes,
like you're you're you're a mom bird and you're your
bird mom and you're at school and some you know,
you has mom as moms, you get this weird feeling.
And I was like, does she just get some weird
feeling from her? And I didn't want to text her
and tell her while she was at school, so I
just said, yes, I just I checked on him, which

(15:07):
I did, but I did not report back how he
was doing. And she very upset. Yeah when she got yes, okay,
like tears were shed? Yeah she doesn't she not. I
mean she was visibly upset, Like emotion is hard for
her to show. You know. Ra's personality is a little
bit different, and she's one where her sadness comes out

(15:28):
in other ways. And I almost was trying to encourage
her to use this as an opportunity to cry because
I feel like tears would be good, a really good
release for her, and she was sort of like, we
need to stop talking about it, or I'm gonna cry.
And I use that as an opportunity to say crying
is okay, it's actually very therapeutic and could be good,
so let it all out. But she sort of just

(15:50):
powered through. Maybe she was like alone in her room.
Maybe I'm an alone crier. I that I don't like
to cry really in front of people. I don't know why. Well,
I don't like it either, but I can't I control it.
I just do know all stuff, those tears right back
down in there. But then I get alone and I cry. Wow.
I know. I don't know what that says about me,
but no, I think it's just part of our personalities.
You're like a little do you have an appointment cry?

(16:13):
It is very rare. I will really not, Like if
it's a euthanasia, I'm always like, it's not my turn
to cry. I need to be strong for them. And
then afterwards I'll cry when I'm alone, okay, but I
almost never. I can think of one or two euthanasias
I've done in the last ten years where I've cried
in front of the owners. Yeah, it's super rare. That's
got to be really difficult, as I would think any

(16:34):
a veterinarian, a doctor, a nurse, like when you have
to what do you all call it? Your bedside manner? Yeah,
it's sad. I mean, gosh, it's sad, just you know,
when I'm doing it, I'm like, okay, I know it's
the right thing to do. Of course, like I wouldn't
be doing the euthanasia. I didn't feel one hundred percent
about it. So it's not that that's sad. It's watching
the owners be so devastated, Like it's just hard to watch,

(16:56):
you know. Yeah, but it's also a privilege. Why did
you with the nation on the bird? Did you? Well?
Oh directly, and I'm like, what, so did you did
you bury Chris? Well, he's in a box. Okay, we
have him in a box to that I ordered. He's
all wrapped up and we are going to bear him.
But it was wet and I didn't want the ground

(17:17):
to be wet, Like I want the ground to be
dry for a couple of days so we can get
him in there real good. I get nervous about other
pets digging him up. So do you know how deep
we need to go? I would like get a couple
of feet down. Oh really yeah, i'd be digging a hole,
a hook of a hole. I probably would go at
least a foot Okay, so then I'll thank you for

(17:38):
that advice. We'll do that. And then I went on
Amazon and you can order these little rocks. They'll customize
it for you, like little animal tombstones. Yes, so we
with my daughter, we did it together and we picked
out a little pair of keet and so they you know,
etched that into the rock and then we put rip

(17:58):
Chris Hemsworth. I'm sorry April twenty twenty five to May
twenty twenty five, Chris, you weren't here long, but you
make quite an impression. Yeah. So we ordered that shit
and it's going to come in the mail and then
we'll put it in the yard. It'll be nice. You'll
have like a little ceremony. I had a funeral for
my bunny rabbit, who I only had for a month
when I was younger, and I didn't go to school

(18:20):
for like two weeks after that Bunny's funeral, I was
pretty torn up about it. Oh gosh, what happened to
the bunny, she had a heart attack. Bunnies happened, like,
did your mom burn some incense? Because maybe she did? Lisa,
is there something you want to tell me? No, I
think yeah, no, the bunny had a heart attack. Bunnies
will like the wind will blow the wrong way and
they'll have a heart attack. Well, let me ask you
this about the parakeet. Because Maggie was spending so much

(18:42):
time next to it, I wonder if that was stressful
on the parakeet, even though Maggie wasn't doing anything. Do
you think the bird was stressed and maybe had a
heart attack. It's possible. I was going to go with
a they're going to go with that. I don't think
you killed this bird. I would be shocked if the
incense did it. My guess is that it did it
come from a pet store. Yes, a lot of times
they'll come with like a virus or something along those lines,

(19:05):
or it was stressed like it would be really unlikely.
I think that the incense killed Chris. Okay, well this
is very okay. I know that I told you I
googled it, but you are the professional, so I'm gonna
take your advice. I think that's it just was such
a coincidence that, yes, what's something that can randomly kill
a bird? And it listed out and there's incense right

(19:26):
in the list of things, and I had just burned that,
and I do burn it often, but not every day.
So it's like, it's but had you burned it at
all while Chris lived here? No, just that one time,
and then Chris ended up dead the next day, So
I guess I suppose it could be. But my if
it was in a separate room, I think it's much
more likely that it was something else. Okay, so maybe

(19:46):
it's Maggie, So it's the stress, maybe the dot and
sometimes Carr would get in there and like you know,
rustle the cage. But they're fragile creatures. Birds are fragile.
Rodents are fragile, like bunny is, hampers, hamsters, yeah, all
those things. Your kids had any of those? No, okay,
you had hamsters a lot as kids like me and

(20:07):
my sister when we were kids, we had them. I
loved its growing up. I retally love rodents, which is
such a weird thing to say. Yeah, well, I think
cancers are so cute. I don't like rats with the
tail like I don't. Rats are so smart and they're
great pets. Okay, like, do you like the she get
your daughter a rat but with the tail? Make your
name him Liam Hemsworth, Liam, Yeah, yeah, this is Chris's brother.

(20:32):
I'll get her a hanster. I can get a rat
as long as it doesn't have a tail. I can't
handle the tail. I think they all have tails. Well,
then we need to know rat it is. Maybe you know,
like Josie was a rattleiler and sometimes they would have tails,
and sometimes they didn't. That's true. So what is that
called when you give them a little nub? Well, that's
when you dock their tail, which is very credle Yeah,
well I didn't do it. She was dropped off at

(20:54):
my church. Like it wasn't me. It was a rescue. No,
and in some doc or sorry, some rottweilers are born
with the nub like they're not even docked. Sometimes they
just genetically have the nub. Oh, so maybe she wasn't
even docked. But so that's frowned upon? Is clipping the ears?
Frowned upon us? And decline cats? Oh, it's kind of
like giving your dog or cat a boop job. Who

(21:16):
would do that? Well, I only did it to her
front two palls. I mean, the internetrols are going to
come out after this episode. Well, she has the back
two claws. That's what I'm fighting for. Yeah, I mean
the reality is she's not going to be going out
into the wild hunting her food. And it spares your furniture,
beares my furniture. That was the whole point and my arms. Honestly, yeah,

(21:39):
like looks that is from her back pall. Yeah. So
I know that it's not right, but but here we
are and she's living a good life. We are. Maybe
your next cat will keep her to nails maybe. Well
I bought those, in all fairness, before I did it,
I looked into those little caps that you put on. Huh,
and they're colorful and their name was done. They're so cute. Yeah,

(22:01):
the jell nails. I did that for a little bit
and then it was kind of a pain in the butt,
but they are so cute. They're so cute. Yeah. You
can also get special scratchers too that like pull them
to like with pheromones on them so that they scratch
that and not your furniture. Oh okay, that would have
been good. Oh well, I already did it. Yeah, it's
I can't. I can't dwell on it. Helll me on
your next kiddy and then we'll figure it out. Yeah, I'll

(22:22):
call you on the next kiddy. Did you have dogs
and cats growing up? It did? Yeah, like dogs cats.
I had a bird It died. I think of a
heart attack. Well, I put Christmas lights on its cage,
and our cat would play with the Christmas lights and
I think it was swinging the cage back and forth,
and then the pert like one day it was just
like I've had it name. I don't remember. Okay, I

(22:45):
don't even remember what it was, but I'm out of here. Yeah,
and then we I know. I had a hamster named Snowflake.
It was white, and Cornflake it was brown. That's great, loves. Yeah.
I had a turtle named Fluffy at one point. I
had turtle Fluffy at missing eight months later. This is crazy.
It's kind of like Valerie on Kangaroo Island. Fluffy went
missing and one night we were my brother and I

(23:07):
were laying in his room when we hear this, and
Fluffy was under his bed. Shut up found him later.
What was Fluffy surviving on alive? And well, no, idea.
I couldn't tell you the great mystery of Fluffy. That's crazy,
isn't it. Oh and y'all never saw Fluffy for eight months?
How long can turtles go without eating? I don't know
a dang thing about turtles, to be honest, I'm a

(23:29):
mammalian girl, so I don't know about times. No, I
don't know anything. I have no idea how Fluffy lived.
We still talk about it as a family. Interesting too,
that it was a turtle named Fluffy. Yeah. I know.
My brother named it like this is stupid, but it's
like a hard shell. It's clearly not Fluffy. He thought
it was funny. Yeah, and Fluffy was a fighter. Are

(23:50):
you more of a cat person or a dog person?
That's so hard for me to pick because I love
them both, but I'm both. Do you think you as
a person, because I feel like people have cat energy
or dog energy. I kind of feel like you're like
a golden retriever. Oh really? Yeah? Or do you think
you have a cat? I can be a little bit

(24:11):
of both. I mean maybe a cat. I have to
be really extrovert for my job, and so then I
need to recover alone, and so I do a lot
of alone time recovery. Yeah, so maybe that makes me
more of a cat, maybe because I'll come out when

(24:33):
I need to come out and then you'll put it
on when I need to. But I have to have
my alone time recovery time. And it was real confusing
for me to trying to figure out because so many
people would label me as an extrovert, and I was
just conflicted with that because I was like, I don't
feel that way, but I also don't feel like an introvert,
So I think they call that an ambi avert or something.
I'm the exact same way. I recharge being alone, like

(24:56):
laying in my bed reading a book. But I can
be very social, yes, so, but I'm not like a
I don't know your if you know your Enneagram number?
Do you three? Your three? Okay? Same? But I have
two good friends that are sevens, and I am like,
I don't like they have the seven energy, Like they
always want something on their calendar. Yes, they love getting together,

(25:18):
oh they if they wants nothing's if they don't have
anything to look forward to, why are they even living? Right?
And I'm like, I don't have anything on my calendar,
Thank god, best day of my life, Yes, Or I
have to do something tonight. I need to like prepare myself,
like I sit in bed for an hour beforehand. Or
I'm like, shoot, I committed to this when I had energy. Yes, exactly,
that's a grave mistake. I will make plans and I'm like, yes,

(25:39):
I'm feeling social, and then the day comes and I'm like,
what have I done? My extrovert self made the plans
and then my introvert's going to show up. Yeah exactly. Yeah.
Do you see my cat coffee mat? I do I
think you're a cat? Actually, well, my friend gave it
to me. It says cat person, So maybe this is
our answer. I think this is a sign I'm a
cat person. You're a cat lady. Yeah. And how do
your kids do? Like do they help with the pets

(26:01):
or you the ones? I mean, I ultimately take care
of them, even though they're the ones that wanted it,
like they wanted the dog so bad. After Josie died,
so we adopted our kids. They came to live with
us late December, and then Josie died in February. Okay,
so it was like welcome and they were old, like
we didn't adopt them as babies. My son was seven
and my daughter was eleven or ten, about to turn eleven. Yeah,

(26:24):
so they knew the dog. Yep. They were excited about
the dog. It was like, welcome to your new home.
This is your dog. And then she died pretty settle,
like we weren't expecting her death. She got cancer and
it was just we had to put her down. And
so that was pretty hard to explain to them, especially
they didn't know English that well, We're like, that's tough dog,

(26:46):
no more, no more dog, dog to heaven. Dog heaven
knew dog. And so they really wanted a new dog.
They couldn't wait, and then we got her. They are
all in a little bit. But then I feel like
every Molly listening to this, it's probably like, yep, haill
as old as time. The kids want the pets, we

(27:07):
get the pets, and mom takes care of the dogs.
And my daughter wanted the cat. I mean I wanted
the cat too, let's be honest, but it was her
birthday present, like we obviously I'm not going to go
through all that if I don't want the cat too, right,
So I was very excited about the cat. But when
we flew to get it, like it was a whole thing,
and she was very into and it was cute, little kitten.
And then now I don't has she ever changed the litter.

(27:28):
I don't know. But I also like the litter to
be done right, oh, like a right way. I'm very
clean particular, okay, And yes, I like that situation to
be tidy. And I just don't trust the kids, which
I should coach them and guide them, I think, but
also we're trying to coach and guide in other areas

(27:48):
where I'm like, really right, it's like fine, the litter
that's like the bottom of the tote bowl. What do
you have a fancy litter box for her? So we
started off with a little robot and she, I think
is like part of the one percent of cats that
can't couldn't do it. Yeah, And I was so bumped
because I was so pumped for this litter robot and

(28:10):
it I hated it. It was the death of me.
I was like, she had like stuff all bathroom all
over her and I kept having to bathe her, and
I was like, finally I put it on Facebook Marketplace,
I sold it and I just got a regular old
plastic box with a plastic bag in it. It's kind
of crazy how particular A lot of cats are really
picky about, like the type of litter the litter box

(28:31):
set up. If you move the litter box from like
one area in the room to another area in the room,
it can like really throw off the routine, especially these
long haired goals because Maggie has long, beautiful hair and
they I don't know why, but they if they get
poop on their fur, which they're more prone to doing,
they like can really be thrown off. That's what she
was doing with the little robot, but with the og

(28:54):
litter box totally, the old plastic bin. She is fine,
and we use pretty litter, okay, yeah, clear, little Yeah,
if there's something better, let me know. I like pretty litter.
I would just say I like it if your cat
has a lot of urinary issues, especially like male kitties
that get have urinary stuff. But honestly, a lot of
times they have clients call me and they're like, my

(29:16):
pretty litter is pink or purple or whatever it means.
When it's not a normal color and nothing's wrong. Oh,
I don't really look at it, do it for that?
I mean, I know, I checked if something looks a
little weird and there's a little chart on the back,
but I'm not I just like that. It's like pretty little.
It is pretty crystals. Yeah, it's nice. It's pretty like
and if your cat likes it, great, go for it.

(29:37):
But I'm not like every cat needs to be on
pretty litter because, like, medically speaking, it doesn't really sway
much of what I do. Okay, they can eat something
and it can change the pH of their urine and
then cause it to change a color and people will
get really freaked out by that, And I'm like, don't worry.
This litter is causing you more anxiety than not. So
if you're not like stressed about it, I wouldn't worry

(29:59):
about it. Okay, Uh there I'm thinking of like her
when she's in the litter box and then she comes
into my bed, Like I do have to put that
out of my mind. Yeah, Like their palls are they
like I see her licking it, but then I hear
their mouths are not that clean, So then what like
what's going on? Sometimes though, when I get out of

(30:19):
the shower, I'll find her. She'll go into my bathroom
and get in the shower and kind of get in
the water and then clean herselfs. Yeah. You know, it's like,
this is such a great question. You have your dogs
that also go out in the yard. I mean they're
probably at some point stepping in an area they've peed
or pooped or other dogs or other dogs. Yeah, okay,
I know. I just I don't think about it. Okay,

(30:41):
So we're just not supposed to think about it because
I well cut it. Like I said, she'll come with
and cuddle up with me at night, and I just
have to ignore the fact that maybe she was just
all up in her litter boxx. Yeah. And then Carl
will want to hop on the bed, which I now
let her, but only because I put like a blanket
down that I'll wash more regularly because I don't want

(31:02):
to wash my dobeate cover yea all the time all
the time. But so the blanket mediums easier. And I
also have a blanket on the couch during on like
a part of the couch. She tends to get on
a lot. Now a solution would be like she's just
not lot it on the couch, but I don't. I
don't mind. But it's like, should our pets be on
our stuff or is that just making everything really disgusting

(31:24):
or do we just not think about it. I think
that they are they too grooming, Like, yes, their mouth
isn't the cleanest thing in the world. Would I let
my dog like ghostick its tongue in my baby's mouth? No,
but they are like it. Definitely. They do clean themselves,
and so I don't think they're like walking parasites by
any means. It's like your toddler goes to daycare and

(31:44):
they've probably got every germ under the sun, and we
still hug them, love them, kiss them, and let them
sit on our couch. So I don't know. I'm of
the mindset I let them onto my my furniture, but
I do think, like, if you want to put a
blanket down and wash that regularly, that's very reasonable. Okay,
if they have like behavioral issues, then maybe you don't
want to let them do that. But I don't know.

(32:04):
My pets are pretty good. So I let them come
up and hang out with me, and I put a
blanket down, and I try not to think too much
about it. Yeah, I mean, she's I'm alone a lot.
I don't know that I should say that I'm never alone.
I always have people in my house, but especially just
getting you know, and my kids go to their dad's house,
and so the dog was going back and forth. So

(32:27):
when the kids went, the dog would go with because
she also will sleep with my son at night. Was
part of like the joint custody situation, okay, and then
we just realized that we didn't think it was good
for the dog anymore because her behavior. We were trying
to really get that under control, and so, yeah, that
can be a lot for them, we keep her. At
the point where he was like, I want to keep

(32:48):
one of these dogs dogs or cats or you were like, no,
well he didn't want the cat. Okay, he did not cat.
We are good. Yeah, And then I think for him,
he travels more, and so he's like, I mean travels
on the week he doesn't have the kids, So then
if you were to have the dog like that wouldn't
really work out. So I think it just naturally fell

(33:08):
on me. Plus like I like having her here and
the cat, like it's very comforting, and so that's why
I like them being in my bed or on the couch,
like it's really you're you're more cozy, they're your buddies. Yeah,
my gosh, I totally get it. My husband travels all
the time, and having my dogs like just being there
with you, even though we're at home wanting to be alone.

(33:31):
It's nice to just like have that. Yeah, you don't
emotion support. Yeah right, we don't have to talk. They
like to watch what I like to watch. It's perfect,
it's perfect. What about I've seen Maggie lately has been
like such a little troublemaker with your treadmill. Oh gosh, wow. Yeah,
I don't know what her deal is with that, but

(33:52):
anytime I go get on the treadmill, she will hop
up and she just wants to be right there with me,
And I'm like, why do you ignore me again? All
the way? But then when I get on a treadmill,
you want to be right there, and you know, she'll
walk back and forth and there's a stop button and
so I'll be in the group and then her Paul
will go right on the stop so you can stop

(34:14):
the treadmill fast. And then all of a sudden, I'm
like abruptly stopping and I'm like, Maggie, you got to
chill out. And then yes, one time she was sitting
I have one of those a trade that I set
across the treadmill so I can put my computer up
because I like to walk and work, but not fast.
I mean I'm walking at like I get a two
point zero or something. Yeah, but the plastic thing is

(34:37):
what she likes to lay on, and so I wasn't
working at this point, but I so I was walking
more rapidly and had it on an incline, and the
incline went up and then she slid right off the
plastic thing and then onto the tumble down. Yeah, but
she she's still getting back up after it doesn't impacted. No, Yeah,
she's so good. She got their face. She was unfaced.
She was like probably, like that was fun. She's like again.

(35:00):
The other thing that I saw that she did, which
I've had my other patients do, is she gets into
your dryer. Yes, that's new. I did post about that
on Instagram because I was like, this is dangerous, Like
I because I have wool dryer balls, so I'm used
to hearing the tumbling of those. Yep. So I don't know.

(35:20):
Hopefully she would go, but if you're doing other things
or you're in another room, I don't know that I
would hear that, and that would be so scary. And
that's the first time I've ever caught her in there.
I have had clients turn it on with their cats
in there, and that's they don't they don't make it. No,
they don't make it like it's terrible, terrible. So I
would tell your kids too, like, if you're ever turning
the dryer on, look in there before you turn it on. Yeah. Sorry,

(35:45):
that's so sad. But I just saw that. I'm like, oh,
I have to tell anything. No, I mean I think
that's why. I mean, I posted it too, like it
was sort of cute, but then also it was like,
don't you know this is dangerous? And it's just a
reminder because I don't. I don't always think about it. No,
my gosh, I don't have cats, so I just like
throw everything in turn the dryer on. I don't. I
would never think twice. But if you have cats and
you're listening, check your dryer before you turn it on,

(36:07):
for sure. Yeah, check your dryer. They do love like
little nooks though, like that's the oh I leave anything.
Oh h that's like the dryers, like they're especially a
front load dryer. They love them. Yeah, I had, uh
a drawer open, I guess at one point, and she
went and got into the drawer and then we closed it,
and I had no idea she was in the drawer
and we could not find her for the longest time,

(36:28):
and sure enough she's like, we opened up the drawer
and then she's like hey, I'm like, oh my gosh,
like you would have been stuck there. Yea, cats are crazy.
I love it. What's going on with? Why is Morgan
laughing at me? Oh? I know she's laughing at my
speech IMPEDIMENTA drawer, dwar dwar Okay, yeah, it's w's are

(36:58):
weird for me? So also I say crown weird, crown
crown Like oh crown crown wow, But I know it's
crown and dwar. What do you say? Drawer drawer, draw drawer?
Like the way you're saying is like dwight, but I'm

(37:19):
saying so it ws or ws nrs Like if I
have to ever say uh uh real world, Yeah, I
had to really think that through, Like if I met work,
you had to really think that through, really think that through.

(37:41):
You have that as a child. I think so it's
just always it's I don't I only even notice it
if I have to say particular things. Obviously I've said, yeah,
so I can't dying over the war, and I don't
notice it until people point it out, like Morgan, but
it's okayb he does it all the time. He'll be

(38:02):
like what crown draw. I'm like, sorry, that's just how
I say it. Or on the Bobby Bone Show. For years,
I did endorsements for wait for It, I got it
West West West Rock Coffee, West West Rock, West Rock say,
West Rock West Problem. Yeah, okay, see I have to like,

(38:26):
I mean, it's really hard. I would be doing a
thirty second read and it would take me the West
Walk world right and I would have to say, like
go to West Rockcoffee dot com. It was bad that
having a conversation, I just hear more like chuckling. I'm like,
what is going on over here? Oh that is so funny.
Your kids don't have any w's or ours, No like that, No,

(38:50):
like you spirit yourself. Yeah, they'll babe there. Yeah, somehow
there are little things they pick up for me, but
they're not biologically mind but their names aren't like w
R rsh like yeah, no, no, okay, no, I don't
have to call it. It's not like you know, imagine
if it was like Warren and Warren Wendell have to

(39:13):
be like two W. It's normally if there's a W
and a R together like dwarfs. You know, it's not
that's not just W like I can say, you know
window right right that are in the wright. It's a struggle. Okay.
Back to Kiowa Kawa Cava. She has a bump on her.

(39:37):
You said, yeah, she has a few. Okay, the one
on her like neck, what does that trapezis? Yeah, is
her scapula or scapula a little shoulder plaine. That's the
biggest one, okay. And it's very hard and about the
size of a golf ball. I think. So you it

(40:00):
out to me before we started, and I felt it,
and what I was saying is like, did they test it?
And I always talk about this. I think I've talked
about this one hundred times now on this podcast and
probably on social media. But when our pets have a
new bump on them, we can take while they're wide awake,
just take a teeny tiny little needles to get into
the growth, pull them cells out, look under the microscope
and if it's like a benign, fatty growth. It's usually

(40:22):
just a bunch of fat cells and we don't worry
about it too much. If there's like some other more
questionable cells on there, then it tells us, hey, okay,
this could be a problem and we should take it
off surgically and send it in for biopsy. So okay,
So I need to say specifically, like, yes, I would aspirate.
It is the fancy term say, but that's not gonna
like pop it. No, no, no, no, I know it

(40:42):
seems like it would pop it. It doesn't. So it's not
like one day, you know, I just keep picturing like
one day she's just gonna be in the kitchen and
it's just gonna like pop and stuff's gonna gush everywhere.
I feel. It does feel like it's like a balloon,
almost like it's gonna pop. And maybe sometimes if it's
a cysts little rupture, but in her case, no, I
don't think so okay. So it's not a cyst. I
don't know for sure without poking it, but I don't

(41:05):
think so okay. But it could just be fatty benign cells. Yes, yeah,
the fancy term is a lipoma could just be lipoma.
And then if it's line fatty growth, if it's a
benign fatty growth, that's a lipe. But what if it's not.
What if it's a not then it could it technically
could be something cancerous. And the good news about skin
cancers and dogs as we take them off surgically and

(41:26):
they usually do great. Okay, so that would just be
considered a skin cancer. Huh. Yeah, it's not like a
it's a tumor. Okay, So melanoma or any kind of
like a basal cell like the normal tumors and skin
that humans get. Yeah, so it can be a skin
tumor just like us. But we you know, on her epidermis, Yeah,
on her epidermism. I got it basically basically, I went

(41:49):
to med school trapezispidermist. I'm like, well, look at you. Yeah,
but yeah, no, we remove them and most of the
time skin tumors and dogs, like ninety percent of the
time they don't metastasizer go elsewhere. So once you take
it off, these oh really well okay, Because I was thinking, well,
what if it shows up like a Yeah, that would
be unlikely, and but I mean definitely, I am such

(42:12):
a nerd and I said this in one of the
podcasts the season, But I always say, why wait, aspirate,
So aspirate it and figure out what it is. Why wait, aspirate? Yeah,
I mean that's it's a good thing. I could save
some dogs, save lives because the owners could be like, Okay,
why wait, we got to ask for right, exactly? Could
it be? Ever that if the skin part is metastasized

(42:34):
from somewhere else, like like say she maybe has a
liver cancer happening and now it's popping up on her skin,
it can happen. It's really unlikely. Most of the time.
We call it when it wherever it originates from. That's
the primary tumor. Most of the time, the primary tumor
is the skin. It would be really unlikely for it
to be elsewhere and then go to her skin. Okay,

(42:55):
so she should be fine, but I always say check
it out. And even like homas, like they are benign,
but if they continue to grow or they get in
an area like sometimes they can make it hard for
them to walk, I'll say, let's just take it off. Okay,
better safe, I'm sorry, Yeah, better safe than sorry. Why wait,
that's right? Yeah, could be live poma, but we don't know,

(43:18):
uh so basically a wrappa. She also I remember one
of the first time we had talked was she had
a hematoma. Wow, look at us. Oh what was that similar?
That was her? No, that was totally different. She had
remember in her ear. Oh my gosh, Yes, she was
as little. That was weird. Yes, heematma. For those listening

(43:40):
is usually dogs with longer ears, they'll get an ear infection.
They'll shake, shake, shake, shake, flap their head all around
and then all these little blood vessels will burst in
their ear and their ear will like get a big
pocket of blood in them, and that's such a pain
in the butt to try and heal them. They usually
have to like fix them surgically. Yeah she had done,
which is what. Yeah, and then she had stitches in

(44:01):
her all over her like little ear flap, but then
she healed up. Okay, yeah, look like she had the
cauliflower ear flat a little bit. They look wonky, but
then the hair grew and covered it. Yeah, and then
they're totally fine. So I remember that. Yeah, she's better now.
I forgot about that good memory. Yeah, I was sitting
in an airport and you're like, hello, this is Amy,
my dog has a fat sack in her ear. Yeah.

(44:21):
I also had to call you that one time. She
ate like chocolates that also had some mushrooms. So yeah,
I remember this. I like, are we going to say
this on it? Well, so I will. My sister lives
in Colorado and whatever this like chocolate mushroom concoction thing was.
It's from Colorado, so I don't know if it's legal
in Tennessee, but it's legal there. Yeah, and it Yeah,

(44:45):
her friend who was a shrama type person, like all
of this was given responsively. I hadn't even opened it. No,
like I'd had it for so long and I never
even opened it because I always felt weird about it
and I'm like, I want your Shama person to be
like with me. Yeah, I felt like I was gonna
eat the chocolate and like have some crazy trips. So

(45:06):
I never even opened it. And it was in my
bathroom sort of tucked back. It sort of just kind
of got put in this little box like there. Well,
I left my bathroom door or cabinet door open, and
I would think I was late to work, so I
didn't close it and ran out. And when I got home,
I see that it was in a gold wrapper of course,

(45:28):
with like no star ceiling, just being like oh no, yeah,
And so I was like, oh my gosh. She ate
the like mushroom bar mushroom laced chocolate, and it had
been We always tell owners, I mean, if you're ever
worried about this and you don't know what to do,
I tell owners, call the ASPCA Poison Control Hotline. You
can google it. It will pop right up if you are

(45:50):
like Amy, and you can call your friend that's a vet,
do that. But I think it had been a while,
so we weren't able to really do it. And she
had a great nap, didn't she Like Yeah, she was
pretty chill. She was like this was like, oh is
this yeah, little ketamine situation, Like I don't know, like
she she she never. I can't remember if there was
some heavy breathing, because we've had a couple of chocolate

(46:13):
episodes where she'll just breathe heavy yeah, you know, sort
of like she's just panting, yeah, and then she'll eventually
maybe throw up. Or we have a special calculation we
can do where we can like see what kind of
chocolate it is, is it dark chocolate? What percent dark chocolate.
How much does the pet way and we can know,
like if it's a toxic amount or not. In her
case with the mushroom bar, it was not a toxic amount,

(46:34):
but I was like, she's probably I know what I'm
like a nap of a lifetime, Like do we know
how to measure the mushroom? Like how to measure the mushroom?
I had a friend speaking of mushrooms, and this is
not about animals at all, but it made me think
of it. He had a mushroom bar in his house
and his nephews were coming over. We're in first grade,
so he put them up high. They're two twin boys,

(46:55):
and they spent the night. The next morning, one of
the twins comes down and he usually like really quiet,
and he was super duper chatty. And then the other
twin comes down and says, Uncle Jake, he ate your
chocolate bar. My brother ate your chalk caar. And he
was like, and the seven year old ate like half
of a mushroom bar. And he was like so worried
about him. But the little boy went to sleep. He

(47:16):
woke up a couple hours later and he went to
chuck on him. He was like, how you doing bud
and he was like, you know what, uncle, I have
never felt better. Yeah, it's okay. Probably had a little
his brain had a little healing, like took a little
nap and yeah, you know that's just I mean, I've
done a guided kedemine thing with a therapist and the

(47:39):
way it was described to me, and I really felt
that in my brain. And again I was with the
This was in the state of Tennessee, very legal everything. Yes,
so it's different than mushroom chocolate, but it I did
take a three hour nap and you wake up and
what's happening in there is you go on a journey. Yeah,
like I was on a I was saying weird things
like was a frog and all this stuff. But it's

(48:05):
like a little dustbuster is going into your brain and
like if there's a bunch of cobwebs and it's like
sucking stuff up. Like I had less anxiety. I wasn't overthinking,
Like I was like, oh, some people just operate like this,
And my therapist is like yeah, and I'm like you
just kind of give your brain a new baseline and
I'm like, wow, I did not. My brain has not

(48:27):
felt this calmon a long time. How interesting. I don't know,
like kind of means becoming way more mainstream with anxiety
and people. You know, we use it a lot in animals.
Well I forgot what you use for anesthesia? We use
it a lot. Yeah, it helps. It's like a tranquilizer basically,
and it's got some like pain properties too, So yeah,
we use it a lot in veterinary medicine. In fact,

(48:50):
keta mean, when not used with human doctors, can't be
used as a recreational drug on the streets, and a
lot of people will this is terrible, but steal it
from veterinary clinic to sell it on the street. It's
a lot easier to I would not I would not
recommend buying it on the street. But yeah, yeah, I

(49:11):
think not that dentists have access to ketemine. But how
are you all regulated? I guess I'm just asking because
I've heard that, like some people will get into dentistry
because the regulations are not as strict as like doctors
and nurses, and they have access to certain meds and
then they can get them wow, and they don't have
to like you know how like I don't know if
you have to enter in like if you're pulling out

(49:32):
a med you have to go into this locker almost
and enter a code. Like some doctors, that's what they
have to do, so everything is accounted for and I
could be totally I heard about this from someone the
data to dentist who had addiction problems, but it was
like they specifically went into that profession so that they
could have easy access to that stuff. Which I'm like,
that's that's scary. That's a lot of school to just

(49:53):
have easier access to drugs, you know what I mean.
I guess maybe we're not as tightly regulated at a
hospital setting putting your fingerprint in and all that whatnot,
but we are really regulated with the DEA. So I
have a DA license. Wow, are all of my meds
you know through the DEA any like scheduled to drugs?
So we're tightly regulated. They watch us like so does

(50:17):
like a undercover de agent ever show up with like
a pet. He's like like, ABC, here and do yours
a license? Yeah? You know, I haven't. I don't know,
maybe they've never done it with me, but they'll audit
you for sure. So we have to keep like a
really strict log book of all of our controlled drugs,
because if you have any control drugs that are not

(50:39):
accounted for, you could use lose your DA license for sure. Wow,
I had no idea you have a DA. Yeah license. Yes,
we have to be really mindful of that, and we'll fill.
I'll fill a lot of prescriptions at human pharmacies too,
so I'll call them because all the medications are the same,
so I'll call in. Like if Kara had, you know,

(50:59):
a UTI, I could call in an antibiotic for her
to CBS and they'll ask me for my DA number.
That way they can track me in the system as
a physician. Okay, yeah, huh, but we can't. It's not
advised to ever take Like if say, car I did
have a UTI and then there's like leftover medication for
some reason, and then one day I'm like, oh, I

(51:20):
have a UTI, Like it's I shouldn't. The doses are
probably very different, okay. Or if she has anxiety here,
like should I take a little? I could ask your
human doctor? Yeah, just kidding. I don't take that. Yeah,
I have. There's been a time where I took certain things,
but I I not anymore. So it's just that was
a little yeah, but it is dog humanodice and joke

(51:42):
shocked to hear that it's the same stuff, because it
is all of it's like pretty much the same. So
Maggie's looking so cute right now. She's sitting like a
little loaf of bread. Yeah. I love when catsit like bread,
and they do. They look like a loaf of bread
and it's the cutest thing. And of course, whenever I
want to do that, because I see people do cute
little Instagram posts of their cat like that. And then

(52:05):
if I were to get out the camera and try
to do it, she'd be like no. The second they
see the camera they know m like, I'm out. All right,
we are back with paw and order. Here are three
things I would never do with my own pets as
a veterinarian. Number one, this is inspired by our good
friend Bobby Bones. I would not forget to watch my
pets poop. Stanley and Ella are living the dream. But

(52:26):
as you may know, Stanley's got some intestinal things going on.
And so Stanley and el Eller have like free run
of the yard and they have a doggy door, and
I never know, I need to know, like is Stanley
having diarrhea or not? Like how is his poop looking,
And Bobby's like, I don't know. He just goes in
the yard and like, let's it go whenever he has to.
I'm like, I need you to go out and look

(52:46):
at his poop for me. So now Caitlin is sending
me videos like zoomed in videos of Stanley's but while
he's pooping, which I very greatly appreciate. But I just
think it's so important as an owner to be watching
your animals when poop and use the bathroom because that
really gives you like a good read on how they
are doing and if they're healthy or not. Yeah. So

(53:07):
just this morning, I had Cara on a walk, okay,
and I was picking up her poop and it was
full of bird seed. Oh so I know that. So
and then I was like, how did she get into
the bird seat because I have bird seed in my
garage I put out for my birds because I love
I was like, was this Chris is leftovers? No, this
is like my bird seed for my wild birds outside. Yes,
I love to have my little bird visitors. But it

(53:28):
was full seed. But that was the indicator to me. Oh,
she must have ripped a hole in one of the bags.
And sure enough I got home. I went to the
garage and there is a about a hole the size
of her mouth right in one of the bags, and
so I was able to steal it up. But thankfully
I paid attention because that was an indicator or she
would have ended up probably no eating the whole thing. Yeah. Okay,

(53:50):
speaking of bird watching, because I am also a big
bird lover, do you have the Merlin app? Yes? Amazing. Yeah.
For those of you listening, you leave the app open
and it listens to the bird stirping and it tells
you what birds you're listening to. Yeah. I have a
little bird callers? Do you I have the apps? I
play bird bingo? What's a bird caller? We can get
these little callers and you blow No. Are you in

(54:10):
the yard calling for birds? Yeah? I want them to come.
I need to see a video of this. Yeah. Well,
I especially into that when I was playing bird Beingo
because there was certain birds I was like trying to
get them to come because I was like, I haven't
seen this kind yet or this kind yet, And I
call and then the bird seed that I got Lunchbox
actually gave it to me as a gift. He ordered
it from somebody he saw on shark tank where they

(54:31):
will put together custom mixes for your zip code so
that way you can feed the ones that are in
your area. This is amazing, isn't that thoughtful? Amazing? Had
a great gift. The other Sorry, we're gonna go down
a rabbit hole here and I'm gonna pull us back
out of it in a second. But the other really
cool thing that I just learned is my one of
my best friends. She's also my nurse that I work with.

(54:52):
Her name's Ellen. Her like goal right now is to
befriend a crow. Did you know that crow? Very smart?
Very smart, and they will remember you and they'll bring
you trinkets. So there's like a whole Reddit page of
people that have a crow friend, and the crows will
bring them like little shiny gadgets that they find out
and about. It's my dream. Yeah, no, My sister and

(55:12):
I a long time ago named we have a nonprofit.
We haven't done anything with it, but it's if I
won't say, three formed, ready to go. We've done little
things through it, but nothing like what we've dreamt up.
But we it's called joy Crow and the Shoes. We
studied all about there no time like the present. Let's
get joy crow. Yeah. And it's also it's a double
meaning like the crow, because the crow actually is very

(55:34):
smart and so many people dismiss it don't like crows,
but it's actually very beautiful bird. And it can also
be like a cry like a crow, like you're I
don't know, crying for joy joy crowing? Yeah, Okaya, crows
lovers love that. Okay. Number two, I would not not

(55:56):
anesthetize my pets just because they are old. I can't
tell you how many time I hear owners come in
and they say, oh, well, we can't do this dental
or we can't do that because my pet's so old,
And I would say to that that age is not
a disease. And usually this is with dentals because a
lot of our older pets have bad teeth, and will
recommend doing a dental on them. And I understand people

(56:20):
being nervous because their pets are a little bit older,
but the benefit greatly outweighs the risk. Okay. And we
anesetize older patients all the time. And if you think
about it, most humans, the majority of humans that are
undergoing anesesia on a regular basis are going to be
our older population, and they all tend to usually do
very well. So if they are alive, if their blood

(56:42):
work looks good, and your vet is recommending that, I
would go forward with it, because if they have like
a rotten tooth in there, that can be really auchy.
And while they're here, I want them to be comfortable, right, Okay,
we're just feed on some mushroom chocolate or just give
them a little mushroom. It's just kidding. I did not
recommend that. Okay, Last, but not least, don't forget to

(57:02):
put sunscreen on your dog if they don't have if
they don't have long hair, oh especially or in my case,
the reason I'm saying this is my little Siah, the
one that I brought home from Mexico. She loves to
lay in the sun and her belly is like basically bald.
She doesn't have a lot of hair on it, and
she's sunburned her belly last week laying in the sunshine. Okay,

(57:23):
I know, so I didn't know that. Yeah, So okay,
so sunscreen on their bellies. Also, dogs that have like
don't have a lot of sun on their sun gosh,
a lot of hair on their nose, like the bridge
of their nose. You can put it on their nose
because they'll burn their nose too, Okay, but really it's
for like the big sunbathers. Yeah, I was thinking, like,
my dog's probably hard because she's totally covered. But yeah,

(57:46):
I can imagine. Especially, I mean you mentioned melanoma earlier
for so dogs can get melanoma. Yeah they can. Usually
that's not like linked to sun exposure like it is
in humans, but still sunscreen on them. I mean like
Sia has like brown spots like sunspot her belly from
laying in the sun. So I know, Paul and order,
Paw and order, honey, I think it gives people anxiety.

(58:08):
But my next season, I think I'm gonna make Paw
and Order be what you should do because you know,
like the what not to do I'm like, is this,
Oh yeah, like we should be more about what we're for,
not what we're against exactly. So the first three seasons
Energy have been real wie downers, but season four stay
tuned because it's going to be this is what we
should do, what we should do? How long should live?
Question regarding that, and then we can you know, called day.

(58:30):
But like how long? Like Car is nine and I
it's starting to heat up. But I always wonder, like,
am I she We don't have a fenced in yard,
so I take her on walks, and I always debate,
like am I giving her enough exercise? So is there
like a goal? And I know it doesn't have to
be all at once because I do have to break
it up because I also don't have the time to

(58:51):
take her on a really long walk, But like, what's
the goal? Every dog is different, like energy requirement wise,
Like I have a German shepherd who would like work
out all day if he could. I think for her
a reasonable amount of time be like a fifteen to
twenty minute walk twice a day. Okay, so it doesn't
have to be super long, Okay, I can do that.
The other big thing with the heat is if it

(59:12):
is really hot out, being really mindful of that. They
don't sweat like we do, so they can't regulate their
body temperature the way we can. They usually regulate their
body temperature through panting or through their paws, so if
their paws are on hot asphalt or concrete, it's gonna
be really hard for them to cool down. So if
it's really hot out I would be like minimizing that
that outdoor activity, okay, or try to welcome in the

(59:33):
grass or yeah, or walk them in the grass, or
do it in the evening or the afternoon when it's
not as sunny out cool. And then the other thing too,
is like it doesn't always have to be like outdoor
running them into the ground, playing fetch like really smart dogs,
Like she has poodle in her so she's probably very smart.
You can do like a puzzle feeder or things like
that that stimulate their mind and also can like get

(59:54):
their energy out without having to do tons of outdoor activity. Okay, Okay,
I saw puzzle feeders on Amazon. I ordered it. A
like a she eats out of a little maize so
it slows her down. Yeah, that's great, but it's not
like a puzzle. Yeah, I mean, but mazes are good.
Puzzles are good. Do that? Does she play with Maggie? No?
They I want them to be best friends so bad.

(01:00:16):
That'd be so great. But the closest they get is
at night when we're sleeping, like if she if the
dog is in my bed and the cat is in
my bed, like that's that's as closest we get, does
Maggie do the little pop pa pa like punch her
in the the I mean she'll kind of like get
up on her hind legs and be like and like
swat out of her, But she won't go and like
intentionally just start hitting her. It's more of Kara comes
in her space than she'll react, So she's reactionary. Okay, Well,

(01:00:41):
maybe your next dog or cat. We do love an
inner species friendship. I know I want that so badly.
Maybe Liam the Bird will bring it. I love you
guys all good, I love you all perfect well. Thank
you so much for coming on. Thank you for having
us chatting about your animals and mushrooms and crow and

(01:01:02):
parakeets and parakeets nonsense, all the things. Yeah. I don't
think you killed Chris, so I hope it gives you
some peace of mind. Thank you. That helps, And for
all of you listening, be sure to rate reviews, subscribe
As always, you can find me on Instagram at doctor
Josie Vett. Send me your questions. Click the link in
my bio to record any questions you want me to

(01:01:23):
answer on the podcast. Bye bye