Author Archives: Linda

Poor website design can be a dealbreaker for potential customers

Image by stevegarfield via Flickr In a recent survey by whose results were presented at the National Association of Women Business Owners 2010 convention, 75% of people surveyed admitted to making judgment about a business based on the businesses website.  And while the survey was directed a business websites in general, veterinary and pet health businesses have sometimes felt they were not as affected by how pretty their website was because their other factors, i.e. proximity and services, were more important than having a website. That was then. This is now. In today’s tougher economic … Continue reading

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FYI – Your clients are getting a second opinion from Dr. Google without telling you first

How many times have you heard this one from a pet owner:  “I read on the internet………….” Probably more times than you want to remember. Often when you’ve covered a report of findings with a pet owner, they go right out to get a second opinion from Dr. Google to make sure your finding are correct (or they come in armed with Dr. Google’s opinion of what’s wrong with their pet and they want YOUR opinion as the second one). Dr. Google is easy and good, and his advice is free.  He doesn’t even need … Continue reading

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Legislators Challenge Humane Society’s Euthanasia Practices and a controversial video

Image by therapycatguardian via Flickr 2 Connecticut Lawmakers have asked the Humane Society to issue a moratorium on euthanizing an animal because of behavior issues.  The matter is, understandably, a controversial one and the story is getting good media coverage. Below you’ll find two different news stories on the matter and then a controversial video from a veterinary tech on Euthanasia – one that I’m sharing with the pet owners in our Daily Paws blog. ——- CT News Junkie | Lawmakers Continue to Hammer Humane Society Unsuccessful at its first attempt to get the Connecticut … Continue reading

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Charges Filed Against Vet Following Pet Death

Image by Buckeye Beth via Flickr I think one of the toughest things about being a veterinarian or doctor must be having a patient lose their life after a procedure.  It’s upsetting and sometimes pet owners go all out to ‘get’ the veterinarian who last saw their animal.  Sometimes they have a good reason to be upset and sometimes they don’t.  It’s hard to judge when reading about such an incident in the news….. Recently charges were filed against a Florida veterinarian after a woman’s dog died within 72 hours of being treated by him. … Continue reading

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Deadbeat pet owners – even celebrity pets can have them

Image via Wikipedia The headline caught my eye:  Veterinarian calls Mariah Carey a deadbeat dog owner, so of course I just had to read the rest of the story. It seems that Ms. Carey engaged the services of celebrity veterinarian Dr. Cindy Bressler to help with the birth of one of her dogs, Dolomite, including a month-long stay in California for the event. For services delivered to Ms. Carey’s pets between October 31 and December 2, Dr. Bressler billed the singer $37,790.50 of which she’s received $8,231.50. Dr. Bressler is suing Mariah for the balance, … Continue reading

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Weigh In: How do you feel about Bayer selling Advantage and Advantix directly to stores?

In case you haven’t heard, Bayer, the maker of Advange and Advantix, has begun selling their prescription chemical flea and tick control products to pet stores. This flies in the face of their former policy, which was in effect for many years, of selling these potent chemical insecticides only through veterinarians. This move by Bayer is even more interesting because of the recent announcement by the EPA that it is receiving reports of increased number of reactions to chemical flea and tick insecticidal products. We’ve put together a short survey about this move by Bayer … Continue reading

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Give pet owners more knowledge of vet tech responsibilities

Image by Erica_Marshall via Flickr I remember going to the dentist when I was young and I think my dentist took care of all of the work in my mouth. Because my mom was religious about going there twice a year, we got to know each other very well and I kept the same dentist for many years.  When I finally switched, I recall going in for a procedure that my old dentist normally did himself and anticipated the same thing from this new dentist.  I’d made an appointment with THE dentist, but the procedure, … Continue reading

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Negative reviews and a lesson on what not to do from BP

BP = Broken Pipe How does your business respond to negative feedback? A recent Fast Company article talked about what a mess BP has made of it’s business brand through its handling of the Gulf oil disaster.  The CEO of the company seems to have a knack of saying the wrong thing at the wrong time and, as one publicity expert said earlier today “The best thing BP can do is keep the CEO as far away from any microphone, television cameras and reporters as it possible can.  The man is a walking PR disaster!”  … Continue reading

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Emergency Animal Clinic Case Study

Image via Wikipedia Here’s another example of how today’s economy is affecting business for some pet health care providers. Animal Emergency Clinic in Lafayette, IN recently announced Purdue University has bought them out. Here are some news articles that discuss this and the last is a post from one of the veterinarian’s wife who was affected by the buy out: Purdue buys out emergency animal clinic For about 10 years, the Animal Emergency Clinic in Lafayette’s Eastway Plaza has provided emergency care for pets on nights and weekends when regular veterinary offices are closed. Read … Continue reading

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Afraid you might be prone to prostate cancer? Get a dog

Image via Wikipedia French study says dogs can detect prostate cancer There is new research that suggests dogs can sniff out signs of prostate cancer in human urine. The lead author of this latest study said the findings are promising and could lead to better cancer-sensing technology. “The dogs are certainly recognizing the odor of a molecule that is produced by cancer cells,” said French researcher Jean-Nicolas Cornu, who works at Hospital Tenon in Paris. The problem, he said, is that “we do not know what this molecule is, and the dog cannot tell us.” … Continue reading

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