As I have stated before, the hardest part of being a working veterinarian is dealing with the people not the animals. Yes, we do sometimes get aggressive or frightened animals that act out, but even the worst of them can’t match some of the crazy things that people say and do. Sometimes they are aggressive and angry like Steven Smug, while other times they are worried like Mr. Gregson, and sometimes they purposely “misunderstand” what you tell them so that they can continue doing things their way like Mrs. White. And sometimes they just have some very strange notions about how thing work.

When I was working in private practice we used to see quite a few puppies and kittens for wellness exams and Puppy or Kitten Plans. The plans basically included everything the youngsters needed to get off to a good start and they were a good bargain. One of the puppies that I had been seeing was a very cute, wrinkly Shar pei puppy who belonged to a young lady who was a college student. She had gotten the pup from a local breeder, and she would sometimes leave to puppy with the breeder when she went away for a weekend. One day she brought the puppy in to see me because she was sick. She had vomited several times over night and hadn’t wanted to eat her breakfast that morning. Vomiting puppies are not all that unusual and there are quite a few things that can cause puppies to vomit. When my technician took a history on the puppy there was nothing out of the ordinary that had happened recently and no chances that the puppy had gotten into anything, so we started off with a couple of routine tests including a fecal check for intestinal parasites, and a parvovirus test. The fecal test came back negative (our puppy plans included regular deworming, so it was good to see it was working), but the parvovirus test was positive. Canine parvovirus is a highly contagious virus that attacks rapidly dividing cell, including those that make up the lining of the gastrointestinal tract, which can result in vomiting and diarrhea among other things.

After we questioned the owner about any places where her puppy had interacted with other dogs, especially puppies there were two places. She walked the puppy regularly in an area in her apartment complex that was specified for dog walking, and she had left the puppy with the breeder two weekends before. We weren’t sure based on that information where her puppy could have picked up the virus, but we knew it was possible that she was carrying it when she had stayed with the breeder, so I urged my client to call the breeder and let her know that her dogs might have been exposed. It seemed like the polite thing to do. I guess my client must have done just that, because later that afternoon I got an angry phone call from the breeder. I think she was under the impression that I had told my client that her puppy had gotten parvo at the breeder’s place. The breeder ranted on for about five minutes about how clean she kept her place, how all her dogs and puppies were vaccinated, and how it was just impossible that my client’s puppy had gotten parvo there! She finally ended her rant by telling me that I was stupid since she didn’t even think that the puppy had parvo. “After all”, she told me, “everyone knows that Shar peis are very prone to this disease called intisusseption! It’s because their intestines are wrinkled just like their skin!”.

I finally had to start laughing. I tried to explain to her that first of all an intisusseption, which is where the intestine folds inside itself and causes a blockage, would not turn a parvo test positive since it tests for antibodies to the virus and nothing else. And secondly, even though Shar peis have wrinkled skin, they do not have wrinkled intestines. That was when she started telling me that most breeders actually know much more about their breed than veterinarians do, and again reiterated how stupid I was! I even explained to her that I have done abdominal surgery on enough Shar peis and Shar pei mixes that I would have noticed if they had wrinkled intestines, but she was adamant. I finally ended the conversation by telling her that all we wanted to do was warn her that her dogs might have been exposed to a dangerous virus, and that she could do whatever she wanted to with that information, thanked her for calling, and hung up. I don’t know if any of her puppies got sick or not. I hope not, but my client’s puppy got treated for parvovirus and not intisusseption, and made a full and rapid recovery. I guess that’s all I can ask for in the end!

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