Long Beach Animal Hospital

08/29/2024

The Osprey and the Pond part I

Dr. P will start his quest for the holy grail of osprey photography in this post.

https://vetwildlifephotos.com/the-osprey-and-the-pond-part-i/

08/09/2024

Touching an Iceberg

As a general rule when you are in a zodiac you want to stay far away from glaciers. Not only can a calving glacier swamp a zodiac with a mini tide wave, we learned that when the huge mass of calving ice hits the water it can shoot out shards of sharp ice over 1 […]

08/01/2024

Dr. P just returned from a 10 day expedition trip in the high Arctic of Svalbard. This page has a smattering of the wildlife he saw. There will be more posts about what it is like to go on this trip logistically, the awesome guides, and more details on each of these species at a […]

08/01/2024

Arctic trip to see the polar bears.

Dr. P just returned from a 10 day expedition trip in the high Arctic of Svalbard. This page has a smattering of the wildlife he saw. There will be more posts about what it is like to go on this trip logistically, the awesome guides, and more details on each of these species at a […]

07/31/2024

Arctic Wildlife Teaser

Dr. P just posted a few photos of his recent Arctic trip:

Dr. P just returned from a 10 day expedition trip in the high Arctic of Svalbard. This page has a smattering of the wildlife he saw. There will be more posts about what it is like to go on this trip logistically, the awesome guides, and more details on each of these species at a […]

07/05/2024

The Black Skimmer of Bolsa Chica
Summer is the time to see them, and if you catch a glimpse of one streaking by you won't be disappointed.

Introduction The Bolsa Chica wetlands are a good place to observe birds and practice your wildlife photography. During the summer months the Black Skimmers make their appearance. Not only are they are beautiful birds to look at as they fly like an F-16 fighter plane, they are quite the photographic....

06/29/2024

River Otters Time

We scored, check out this link to see our group in action with some river otters:

Introduction   River otter families are one of the most playful and fun to observe animals in the wild. Dr. P and his veterinary students and California friends came across a family at a large pond in northern Michigan in June of 2024. Let’s meet the otters and our group of intrepid photographers...

06/29/2024

A great blue heron drying its wings in the sun while it stays cool by rapidly inflating and deflating its throat pouch.

06/29/2024

At a pond in northern Michigan this river otter caught and ate a rainbow trout. Otters are expert "fisher otters", and can easily catch a trout.

06/29/2024

This guy was enjoying his meal until a crow came around for some morsels and the otter decided to take his prize someplace else.

12/11/2023

12/11/2023

Extern Daily Diary Final Day

Farewell!

It is so hard to believe that my incredible externship experience here at LBAH is coming to a close today. I learned more applicable clinical skills and knowledge in one month here than I typically did in a didactic semester in veterinary school. The website with all of the medical information on it is a tremendous source of information, and I used it often to brush up and prepare my cases for rounds.

So many thanks are in order, and it’s tough to know where to even start !

Thank you Dr. Palazzolo who was instrumental in starting this externship program before I was even born. His comprehensive knowledge of everything veterinary medicine related is amazing, and with his dedication to teaching students, like me, even more astounding. I can’t imagine starting my career without his mentoring (and morning rounds). He taught me how to think critically by the way he challenged me in rounds as we reviewed case histories, exam findings, blood panels, radiographs, ultrasounds, and treatment plans.

Thank you to all of the doctors who also taught me this past month; Dr. Loper, Dr. Ridgeway, Dr. Seto, Dr. Yamamoto, Dr. Lin Dr. Adam, Dr. Brewer, and Dr. Reed as well. Each doctor was patient and supportive as they let me be a part of their daily cases even with their very busy schedules. They all answered my questions thoughtfully and have shown me ways to enhance my clinical thinking.

Thank you to all of the LBAH staff, receptionists, caretakers, and nurses alike, whose warm acceptance and kind support made me feel so welcome and part of the team (especially when I bring in Krispy Kreme doughnuts to boot !).

I learned so much about working with people, and appreciate clients' willingness to help me learn on my way to becoming a veterinarian. Thank you to the community for all the constructive feedback on my LBAH Facebook Daily Extern Diary posts, it is much appreciated !

Hope to see you all again soon, with my freshly minted California veterinary medical license and doctor of veterinary medicine (DVM) diploma, as I plan to stick close to this south bay community.

This is me, Kyle, and Mrs. Gosling, my last client. I hope to go to Africa with her when Dr. P goes back in 2025 (are you reading this Dr. P)?

I look forward to what the new year will bring, and hope everyone has a great rest of this one !

12/09/2023

Extern Daily Diary Day # 19

We are always looking for ways to decrease the medication we give our patients while addressing their problems. One of the modalities we have used for decades to treat arthritis in animals that accomplishes this goal is called Veterinary Neuronal Adjustment (also called VNA or VOM).VNA is a great part of multimodal pain management strategies that can help reduce a patient's drug therapy requirements.

Our patient today has chronic arthritis (osteoarthritis), and had become acutely constipated and barking (vocalizing) much more than normal. We took an x-ray to screen for any other apparent painful GI issues, such as a foreign body, and confirmed his colon was constipated.

His VNA procedure had the added benefit of helping him defecate his constipated f***l material as well as pain management for his long-standing arthritis.

You can learn much about this at our web link, including videos of actual treatments:

https://lbah.com/vna-veterinary-neuronal-adjustment/

Tomorrow is my last day at LBAH for my externship- 😢

12/09/2023

Extern Daily Diary Day # 18

Today I was able to scrub in with Dr. RL’s spay procedure in our surgery suite.

There are a few compelling reasons to spay our female pets, first and foremost is to reduce the chance of breast cancer (mammary chain tumors) developing later in life. In fact the earlier a patient is spayed (ie prior to her first heat) there is a significantly better chance she won’t develop breast cancer.

We typically recommend our friends be of at least 6 months of age prior to spaying and some large breed dogs may be a little older to support their required rapid bone growth..

More about the specifics behind spay procedures & the benefits can be found here:

https://lbah.com/canine/spay-canine/

Additional benefits behind spaying include, prevention of a canine’s heat cycle and or false pregnancy issues, prevents conception and canines from going into “heat”, and is the best (and sometimes only) treatment for when the ovaries or uterus has a severe infection (pyometra).

Thank you to the kind client who sought me out today in the clinic after her pet’s exam. Her feedback that these posts were helpful in her career counseling role, since they highlight aspects of what the day to day being a veterinary student can look like, was heartening to hear ! I am always happy to learn that these posts are benefiting our local community in a myriad of positive ways !