At this point, everyone in the veterinary profession knows that ticks are common on pets.

But until recently there was no national data documenting the breadth and diversity of ticks infesting dogs and cats in the U.S. With the help of veterinarians across the country, an ongoing study at Oklahoma State University is changing that. First launched in 2018, the 

 project has already identified more than 11,000 ticks from veterinary patients in 49 of the 50 states. Submissions will be accepted through 2020.

The overarching goal of the project is to characterize the species and stages of ticks infesting pets in various 

Geographic regions, providing real-time, local data about the tick risk faced by different communities throughout the year. This services a real need for clients. According to a 

 by the Companion Animal Parasite Council, 90% of pet owners want to know about parasite incidence and concerns in their area.

 The Show Us Your Ticks project makes this possible by providing reliable, local tick information to veterinary practices as well as tick identifications at no charge to veterinarians or pet owners.

Veterinary hospitals can use the geo-targeted information to educate pet owners about local tick risk and the importance of adhering to tick prevention and control recommendations year-round. Once ticks are submitted to the project, practices can opt to receive monthly emails with important tick facts and images to share on social media to remind clients about the need to stay vigilant with tick control.

If you're interested in participating, everything you need to know-including submission forms and mailing instructions-can be found at the 

. Ticks are welcome from all veterinarians, although submissions from the western U.S., where tick risk may be under-recognized, are particularly encouraged. Identifications and a list of diseases known to be transmitted by the species and the stages identified are provided by email within 24 hours of receipt of the ticks.

The Show Us Your Ticks project has identified 14 different species to date, including the newly introduced longhorned 

 Phase 2 of the project will test subsets of submitted ticks for pathogens, gaining further insight into tick-borne disease risk.

The project leaders would like encourage everyone in the profession to join in the ongoing effort, so … Won't you please 

Dryden MW, Payne PA. Biology and control of ticks infesting dogs and cats in North America. 

CAPC, Connecting with Today's Clients (CTC): The Importance of Local, Timely Parasite Information Study. (2014). 

http://veterinarynews.dvm360.com/pet-owners-veterinarians-tell-us-about-parasite-risks

Beard CB, Occi J, Bonilla DL, et al. Multistate Infestation with the Exotic Disease-Vector Tick 

 - United States, August 2017-September 2018. 

Meriam Saleh, PhD, is a postdoctoral research fellow at Oklahoma State University. Her research focuses on the distribution of ticks and tick-borne diseases in the United States, as well as the molecular epidemiology of Giardia duodenalis. Susan E. Little, DVM, PhD, DACVM (parasitology), is a Regents Professor and Krull-Ewing Chair in Veterinary Parasitology at Oklahoma State University. She is a founder and co-director of the National Center for Veterinary Parasitology, a past president of the American Association of Veterinary Parasitologists, and an emeritus member and past president of the Companion Animal Parasite Council.

Articles

Submit ticks you find your veterinary patients and in return, get information on tick risk in your areaall thanks to the Show Us Your Ticks project.

Veterinary practices: Show us your ticks!

Self-care is a buzzword in pop culture and workplace wellness initiatives lately, but it often gets boiled down into “treat yourself” items-bubble baths, spa days or face masks. While these items are great and can contribute to an overall sense of calm, where does that leave people who aren't thrilled at the idea of soaking in bubbles? Here are 12 other ideas for ways to improve your mental well-being, adapted from 

 by Tchiki Davis, PhD, a psychologist, author and founder of the 

Sleep effects how you feel mentally and physically, and stress or other distractions can impact the quality of your sleep. Cleaning up your nightly sleep hygiene routine can help you wake up feeling refreshed. Do you eat or drink right before bed? Keep an eye on your caffeine and sugar intake as these can keep you up, the article states. Do you watch TV in bed or scroll through social media? These activities can also keep you from getting good REM sleep, Dr. Davis says.

Gut health can significantly impact your overall health, well-being and vitality. An unhappy gut can lead to an unhappy person, Dr. Davis says.

Daily exercise helps you physically and mentally, by reducing stress and anxiety, as well as boosting your mood in addition to the physical benefits like weight loss. The article notes that it's hard to get to the gym every day, so try to find alternate exercise like walking or yoga that you can do at home that may fit into your schedule more easily.

Dr. Davis says that foods can harm us, contributing to weight gain or diseases such as diabetes, or help us by keeping our minds alert. Foods that can contribute to better self-care are fatty fish, blueberries, nuts and green leafy vegetables.

Saying no is hard, because you can feel obligated to say yes when someone asks for your time or energy. But if you're already stressed or overworked, saying yes can lead to burnout, anxiety or irritability, Dr. Davis says. Once you learn to say no, you'll have more time for your self-care and feel more empowered.

Getting away can make a huge difference in helping you disconnect, relax and be refreshed, even if you're not feeling particularly stressed, the article states. It doesn't have to be a costly get-away either. Try driving to the next town over and hit the highlights or go camping. The point is to get away from your normal schedule and take the time to do something just for yourself, Dr. Davis says.

Being outside can help lower your blood pressure and reduce your stress. Studies have shown that spending time in the outdoors can even help reduce fatigue, which can help overcome symptoms of burnout or depression, according to the article. Burning off some energy through outdoor activities can also help you sleep better, Dr. Davis says.

Pets can be hugely beneficial to self-care. They give companionship and love, and dogs especially can help reduce stress, anxiety and high blood pressure, the article says. This is why service dogs have been used increasingly with people who suffer from anxiety disorders such as PTSD.

Keeping track of the little things, in a calendar or planner, can help you figure out exactly what you need to do to take better care of yourself, Dr. Davis explains. Write down your responsibilities and appointments and think about creating an area to prep for the next day. You can keep keys, purses, backpacks and coats together and ready to grab and go.

With all the responsibilities people have these days, stopping for a quick meal in a drive-thru or popping a premade meal into the microwave or oven saves time and effort, but these meals aren't necessarily the healthiest. Even if it's only once a week, Dr. Davis recommends making a healthy meal at home for yourself and your family.

Social media on smartphones has become a go-to source of entertainment these days, but it can cause stress and anxiety. Instead of endless scrolling, Dr. Davis suggests bringing a book with you to read in downtime away from your house. It's even better if it's a book on self-care, she says.

12. Schedule your self-care time and stick to it

It's hard to find extra time in an already overscheduled life to practice self-care, but it's extremely important to plan regular time for yourself to help move forward and keep yourself grounded, the article says.

Spa nights aren't for everyone, but that doesn't mean that keeping up your physical and emotional health isn't an important piece to surviving in veterinary medicine.

12 self-care tips that don't involve bubble baths

As any boarded veterinary dentist will tell you, the best way to determine the extent of periodontal disease in a veterinary patient is to conduct an oral examination under general anesthesia. What's more, this exam needs to include dental radiography of the entire mouth so that each tooth can be evaluated individually. But this approach, while considered the gold standard of care, is both time- and cost-prohibitive in a population-dense environment such as a shelter.

Enter the awake oral exam. It doesn't allow for checking under the gum line, so most experts say it's likely to miss all kinds of pathology, but it is still employed in situations where general anesthesia is not practical. In 

, one group of researchers compared the results of oral exams on fully awake patients with those of anesthetized patients to see if a visual assessment provided any value at all in detecting periodontal disease.

Their conclusion? “Proper use of visual assessment as a screening tool,” they say, “can help to identify the dogs at greatest need of dental care.”

The authors evaluated 108 dogs, aged 1 to 14 years, from three veterinary clinics: a referral dental practice, a small animal practice with a focus on dentistry and a community practice within a veterinary teaching hospital.

Each dog first received a fully awake visual assessment that included examination of the labial and buccal teeth surfaces, gingival margins, and mandibular teeth and gingiva. The veterinarian performing the assessment used the tooth with the worst periodontal disease pathology to determine a full-mouth periodontal disease stage using a five-point scale from the American Veterinary Dental College (AVDC) adapted for awake patients. For consistency's sake, a second veterinarian performed a visual assessment and determined periodontal disease stage as well.

Next, the dogs were anesthetized for dental radiography and a dental examination that included periodontal probing. The anesthetized procedures were termed the “reference standard,” and the veterinarian performing these procedures determined the disease stage using the full AVDC scale.

After the examination, the authors determined whether there was agreement between the visual assessment and the reference standard, as well as between veterinarians conducting the visual assessments.

Overall, visual assessment agreed with the reference standard about 42 percent of the time. Agreement was strongest for stage 4 (55%) and weakest for stage 0 (17%). Notably, 25 percent of dogs classified as having stage 2 periodontal disease by the reference standard were misclassified as having stage 0 or 1 periodontal disease by visual assessment-such frequent misclassification as less-severe periodontal disease could lead to dogs receiving inadequate dental care. To counteract underestimation of disease severity, the authors recommended implementing veterinary dental management strategies for dogs at commercial breeding and long-term shelter facilities that have stage 1 or 2 disease according to visual assessment.

Consistency between veterinarians conducting visual assessments was 61 percent, indicating that visual assessment is a useful periodontal disease screening tool for fully awake dogs at population-dense facilities, the investigators concluded. The level of agreement increased with increasing disease stage, with 63 percent agreement for stage 4.

For stages where veterinarians were least consistent in their findings, additional diagnostics could help differentiate between gingival inflammation and bone loss, the authors suggested. For example, dissolved thiol is a biomarker that can be observed at the gingival margin. Whether commercial test kits that measure dissolved thiol are feasible for use in commercial breeding and long-term shelter facilities requires future study.

For the future, the authors suggested comparing veterinarians' findings on visual assessment with dental radiography results, given that such interpretation remains relatively subjective. In addition, because older and smaller dogs tend to have more severe periodontal disease, future studies could determine whether knowledge of a dog's age and breed could introduce bias when determining disease stage. Also, identifying key factors for improving dental care in population-dense animal facilities would be useful.

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0203930

Dr. JoAnna Pendergrass received her DVM degree from the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine. After veterinary school, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Emory University's Yerkes National Primate Research Center. Dr. Pendergrass is the founder and owner of 

Researchers examine effectiveness of visual assessment in screening for periodontal disease.

Oral exams on awake veterinary patients: Waste of time or helpful tool?

The process of building or remodeling a veterinary clinic demands that you focus your attention on aspects hospital you may have previously given little thought to or taken for granted. Like 

. If this seems like a less than scintillating topic, take it from 

 speaker Heather Lewis, AIA, NCARB, of Animal Arts in Boulder, Colorado, when she stresses its importance:

"Almost every veterinary professional has been scarred and traumatized by a flooring failure or some other spectacular material catastrophe," she says.

With that potential horror in mind, Lewis has outlined the top 10 high-performance surface choices for veterinary hospitals.

Lewis admits that this is not new, having been around since the Han Dynasty (you remember those guys, right?), but has undergone some upgrades. Nowadays this tile is available in a choice of styles 

This flooring takes over where epoxy left off, except that according to Lewis, they don't react poorly to thermal shock. Or get yellow over time. Or crack. Move over, epoxy-urethane resin is where it's at. 

This surface has a number of things going for it. Let's get this right out there: It's relatively inexpensive. Add to that the fact that it's good looking, and has very small joints, and you've got an excellent product.

"This flooring is a wonderful newer product that has been tried enough to have a track record in veterinary medicine," Lewis says. "It's sanitary enough to use in all client areas, and could be used occasionally in treatment spaces."

This is a non-slip flooring that originated in the field of human medicine. These surfaces have a veritable laundry list of factors to recommend them, including:	

They're prefinished and don't need to be waxed, so put that elbow grease to use elsewhere.

 wet and dry. No more pets slipping puddles of pee.

They can be heat welded (like vinyl) and some seal well to floor drains, and so can be used throughout the hospital (except in kennels). 

While earlier varieties of this product came in 

 colors (cream and beige), the newer models are available in eye-catching choices. Plus, some sorts of the vinyl have an acoustic rating.

"This trend is very exciting, as we can potentially get sound performance from a floor as well as a ceiling," Lewis says.

One-part epoxy paint. Photo courtesy Animal Arts.

Lewis says they've put these one-part epoxy paints through the paces at the Animal Arts offices. She is happy to report that they've stood up to Clorox and Rescue cleaners as well as they type of scuffs that would come with a runaway cart. They haven't gone so far as to urinate on the paint, unfortunately.

Get a load of this stuff: It doesn't sag, shed, get moldy or absorb water. You can use it in a standard grid, and it "can absorb up to 90 percent of reverberant noise with tested frequency ranges." For these reasons Lewis calls it their new favorite ceiling material.

These have come a long way as well. The current crop of fabrics are imminently more cleanable and are available with special images, like landscapes. Much better than the ugly, bulky panels of days past. 

Long-lasting and chemical resistant, these doors are a bit pricier, but when put in the right spot are worth it. Installed in dog kennel, they never rot or degrade. What's more, they don't need to be painted-ever. Lewis also notes that these are a hit as exterior doors in coastal regions where they'll last a long time.

Yes, those are shapes, not products. "We like hexagons because they hide minor imperfections, as they are naturally busier than squares or rectangles," says Lewis.

Consider the products that are available in a six-sided fashion: floor and wall tiles in a variety of sizes, acoustical wall panels, and even light fixtures if you want to give a trendy look to your ceilings.

So, get the jump on what we know are problems that plague veterinary practices and, as Lewis puts it, “Cautiously explore the boundaries of products to find newer solutions.”

Where nothing says sexy like durability and cost-effectiveness. 

Top 10 materials update for veterinary hospitals

Grain-free diets. They're everywhere and veterinary clients are constantly asking if they're a better option for their pets. Let's discuss what these diets are and why your clients want to use them.

Grains are dry seeds harvested from flowering plants with one or two seed leaves. Examples include corn, oats, quinoa, rice, barley and wheat. Some pet owners choose to feed grain-free diets with the idea that dogs and cats evolved eating a limited carbohydrate diet. While this is certainly true for cats, domestic dogs have more genes associated with carbohydrate digestion and metabolism than wolves do. While many pet owners equate grain-free with carbohydrate-free, the reality is grains are simply replaced with other carbohydrate sources like potatoes and legumes (e.g. green peas, chickpeas, lentils).

Many pet owners also hold the misconception that most food allergies are attributable to grains, such as corn and wheat, in the diet. However, meat sources such as beef, dairy, poultry (dogs) and fish (cats) are more likely to be the allergy culprit. While some animals can develop allergies to grains, the treatment of food allergies should happen under the care of veterinarians so pet owners understand how to perform a proper dietary elimination trial.

an association with grain-free diets and development of dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM)

 in some dogs. However, diet-induced DCM is not limited to grain-free foods and certainly not all grain-free diets have been associated with the disease. In dogs, taurine is derived from the essential amino acids cysteine and methionine. While dogs do not usually have a dietary requirement for taurine, higher dietary fiber and increased concentrations of plant-based protein sources may lead to inadequate concentrations of taurine precursors. There is much that is still not understood about the connection between diet and DCM in dogs, but the formulation of pet foods is a complicated process involving the interaction of many ingredients. Whether a diet contains grains or not, it's important to recommend foods from reputable companies with experienced pet food formulators.

Are grain-free diets superior to traditional pet foods containing corn, rice and oats? The short answer is no. Are grain-free diets harmful? The short answer is probably not, but it may depend on the company manufacturing the diet. When your client asks if a pet should eat a grain-free diet, there is usually not a medical benefit so they may be paying a premium for marketing. However, if an animal is currently thriving on a grain-free diet and the pet owner is happy with the food, I would not push to change their current feeding plan.

These diets are everywhere and causing controversy in the media lately. Whats the real deal with them?

Grain-free diets: Whats the hype?

 speaker Mary Berg, BS, RVT, RLATG, VTS (dentistry), calls clients brushing their pets' teeth "the gold standard." But let's face it: It's not happening with the frequency you'd like to see. In lieu of this, she has other suggestions that may be easier for clients to adopt. How to 

A conversation with veterinary technician Mary Berg

"I've been switching over to recommending products that are going to help the pet have better oral cavity," she says.

Berg cites products given approval by the Veterinary Oral Health Council (VOHC), dental diets and treats that clean as they're eaten, among others.

At Fetch dvm360 conference, we're the support system you need. With every conference this year, we intend to nurture your mind (meaning quality CE for days) while also encouraging you to take stock of your physical and emotional health. 

Videos

Adapting to what veterinary clients will put up with.


Beyond brushing pets' teeth

With the VR technology, veterinary students can now view the organs of a normal dog.

Virginia Tech's College of Veterinary Medicine had a problem. After a curriculum revision three years ago, students started taking anatomy classes alongside performing physical exams on real patients, making it difficult for them to connect what they were learning in anatomy to those physical exams.

“Students were struggling to get a mental picture of the animal. All they knew were surgical views, which are upside down. They were all turning into contortionists just to try to get the right view,” says Michael Nappier, DVM, DABVP, assistant professor of community practice at Virginia Tech's Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences.

That's when Dr. Nappier had an idea. What if there was a way for him to help students see a normal dog's anatomy? For this, he turned to one of his colleagues, associate professor of Virginia Tech's School of Visual Arts Thomas Tucker, for advice.

“I wanted to create a simulation of a dog's anatomy for the computer, but Thomas Tucker immediately said, ‘Oh, no, we're not doing anything that simple; we're going full virtual reality,'” Dr. Nappier says.

This resulted in an amazing collaboration between the veterinary and visual arts students. Tucker's students learned how to create the immersive dog anatomy environment while Dr. Nappier's students practiced veterinary medicine. In addition, Tucker's students were able to visit Dr. Nappier's class to see how their product worked in real time and take feedback from the people using it. And the veterinary students? They could examine a mid-sized dog's organs and bone structure without the confusion of surgical views. When they zoomed in on certain organs, they could see layers of tissue, and they could even step into parts of the virtual dog's body.

And the VR experience isn't stopping there. Dr. Nappier and his team recently received the grant money to create a VR cow, and, as you might suspect, other schools have contacted them about getting the VR experience in their classes. Dr. Nappier hopes they can soon put the VR technology on a streaming video game platform, making the technology free and open to everyone. So, it seems, VR might be the wave of the future in veterinary medicine.

Virginia Tech veterinary students were struggling to visualize a normal dogs anatomy. Enter Michael Nappier, DVM, Thomas Tucker and the VR experience.

Virginia Tech veterinary students use VR technology to study dogs anatomy

Our clients weren't taking our recommendations for dental procedures seriously. In the past, our approach was to present clients with the information in a low-pressure setting. These low-pressure interactions while recommending a dental often translated to “Fluffy could benefit from a dental in the near future.” But from a client's perspective, this rhetoric sounds more like a friendly suggestion than a medical recommendation.

I explained to the practice owner and doctors that it is our job to educate the client and make a firm recommendation for what their pet needs. We replaced our “We could ... ” and “You may want ... ” statements with “I recommend scheduling this procedure” or simply “Fluffy needs this.” Here's how that sounds:

 “I have some concerns about what I found in Fluffy's mouth. Do you see this area with (root exposure/gingival recession, mobility, a tooth fracture, etc.)? I recommend scheduling a dental prophy and oral evaluation as soon as possible so that we can address this.”

 “Leaving this untreated will result in (further bone loss, tooth loss, tooth root abscess, pain, infection, etc.), so let's get this scheduled.”

Also, rather than reporting exam results back to clients after they get home, we show them findings in the exam room whenever possible. Doing so helps clients understand why the procedure is being recommended and has proven to have a large impact on client compliance.

We also strengthened our recommendations in the exam room with a printed reference that illustrates our grading system for dental disease. The reference sheet shows photos and intra-oral radiographs from grade 0 (normal/healthy mouth) to grade 4 (severe disease). This is a great tool to help clients understand the irreversible progression of dental disease.

Need dental handouts?  We've got you covered! Click 

As a result, client compliance more than doubled in the past three years. In addition, the clinic's dentistry services revenue grew $30,000 annually from 2014 to 2017.

John Jeffreys is practice manager at Coastal Animal Hospital in Encinitas, California. Jeffreys was a finalist for 

2018 dvm360/VHMA Practice Manager of the Year

Firm dental recommendations nearly tripled this veterinary practices client compliance. 

Getting clients to take recommendations seriously

Editor's note: This article is part of our "Personal accounts" series. Money management is all about choices: where you live, the job you take, what you spend. But when it feels like the money's drifting out of the bank account much quicker than it flows in, it's hard to get a handle on where it all goes. We asked several veterinary professionals from different jobs and areas of the country to track their spending for one week. Our goal: to share what they've learned from a deep dive into the cost of living and the choices we make every day. 

Production with $50,000/year base salary. My monthly take-home income averages $4,000. If I make no production, which is very rare, my take-home salary is $2,900 a month. This has happened three times in two years. Those were rough months!

 Two years. I've been at three different clinics in the past eight years. It was hard to find a place that was the right fit. That meant a couple moves for me to different cities/states in the past several years, which was tough on my savings account. I feel like I can't get ahead and really start to build my savings, especially with my student loan. I still owe about $110,000.

I ended up buying my first home last year. I'd rented a house the prior year, but the owners decided to move back in. I had about two months to find a place to live. Rental homes are few and far between in this area, and the rentals that are available cost more than what I'd spend on a mortgage, so I ended up buying a home. I got lucky and found a house that was perfect for my boyfriend and me. I had three cats and he had one, all males. The introductions went pretty well. The house did require new flooring and paint before moving in, so that was a big expense I had to put on a credit card.

My boyfriend is a registered veterinary technician at another hospital. He gives me $200 every two weeks to help with expenses. The rest of his income goes towards his car payment, retirement and savings for our future. He also usually pays if we end up eating out.

Here's a look at my spending in a week. Daily and weekly totals are rounded to the nearest dollar.

 Wake up, feed the cats, scoop litter boxes and catch up on the 

 for a few minutes. I pack lunch (leftovers) and grab a protein shake for breakfast on the way to work.

 Stop at the gas station to return a Redbox movie. I grab a fountain Cherry Coke for the morning. 

 Stop at Walmart to grab a box of breakfast sandwiches for my boyfriend-they're his typical work-day breakfast. 

 Start with a full schedule, but a two-patient appointment cancels at the last minute. I take the time to catch up on lab calls, emails and Facebook posts for the clinic page.

Lunch is leftover Olive Garden from the weekend.

 Leave work and stop by my boyfriend's dad's house to check on his 13-year-old Labrador retriever.

 Try a new recipe for dinner for one-pot chicken and rice. Not bad. There are only leftovers for one person tomorrow, so my boyfriend will take that.

Relax a little before bed. We're fostering a kitten, so I let her out with some of our other cats. They all do well.

 This is my regular day off, so I take advantage and sleep in. My boyfriend worked today, so he's up early and feeds the cats. I cleaned over the weekend, so I don't have to worry about that, but I definitely need a grocery store run. I grab a banana and head off.

 Pick up the usual stuff as well as ingredients for dinner tonight, tomorrow and Thursday. I spend a little more than usual as they have Coke on sale, so I get four 12-packs for $12. They also have T-bone steaks on sale, so I pick up two to grill this weekend. There were a couple things the store doesn't have, so I need to run home to unload then head out to a second store. I hate that! 

 Stop at McDonald's for a quick lunch, including a free medium Diet Coke thanks to a deal on their smartphone app. 

 Second grocery store has a really good deal on ribeye steaks, so I buy two more. I'll freeze this pair for another weekend. 

 I'm finally home to relax for the day to catch up on laundry and maybe start the new season of 

 Dinner is homemade Old Bay chicken wings and fries.

 Chatted with DirecTV to cancel the monthly protection plan. I meant to do this months ago but kept forgetting. I don't think it's worth the extra $8.99 a month.

 We're running low on Purina DM canned food for two of the cats, so I buy that along with a box of FortiFlora from the Purina for Professionals website. The cats love the taste of FortiFlora, so we give that once a day-with added Zylkene for anxiety for our high-strung boy. Two of our cats eat Purina DM canned food and Hill's Metabolic + Urinary Stress dry food because of weight issues. The other two eat Hill's w/d canned food and Royal Canin Urinary + Satiety dry food, because one of them has issues with severe pancreatitis and high cholesterol. We're trying him on a low-fat diet trial and so far it's helping a lot. It's so nice to be able to take advantage of the staff feeding programs each of those companies offer. It makes a big difference. Sometimes I do wonder how we expect owners to afford therapeutic diets. I barely can. 

Today's the largest payday of the month, because it includes the bonus from last month. One credit card payment goes out today. 

Wake up, feed the cats, scoop the litter boxes and grab a bowl of cereal for breakfast. Today is my long day at work, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.

 I get an email that my monthly Chewy autoship order of six 15-lb jugs of cat litter shipped out today. With four cats, we go through a lot. Plus, I'm pretty OCD about keeping the boxes clean. I dump and clean entirely every two to three weeks. 

 Lunch is leftover chicken wings from last night. Very good!

 Another two-patient appointment cancels at the last minute. What is it with this week? Ugh …

 I transfer money to my parents for my student loan as well as my cell phone. My parents offered to refinance their house to pay off my student loan a couple of years ago. I now pay them back for that loan, but I will save a lot in the long-term due to the much lower interest rate. I'm on a family plan with them for the cell phone, which also helps me save a little. 

Total: $1,150 for loan, $45 for cell phone

 Usual morning routine. Bowl of cereal for breakfast. Took the foster kitten in with me to work for the day to visit everyone at the clinic.

 I had two sick patient appointments this morning that were fairly complex. Ran late with both. It stresses me out to run behind.

 Lunch was leftover chicken wings again. Still tasted good!

 We had three back-to-back euthanasias, which were tough on all of us. One was an FIP kitten. I hate FIP. I treated myself to a 7-Eleven Slurpee afterwards to try to brighten my afternoon and filled my car with gas. 

 I made tacos for dinner then relaxed catching up on a couple TV shows.

The usual morning routine: bowl of cereal and off to work.

 Salad and some watermelon from home for lunch.

 Off work. Beach traffic is bad heading home.

 We have birthday dinner out for my boyfriend's grandmother at a nice restaurant in a nearby town. She turned 83. We both have the seafood buffet-delicious-but we probably didn't get our money's worth. We enjoyed a couple cocktails with everyone as well. Boyfriend took care of the bill, which was close to $100.

 I took my car into the shop for an oil change and tire rotation. The tire rotation was free, because I'd bought my tires from the shop earlier this year. I did notice this week my car's A/C didn't seem to be cooling like it should. They weren't able to look at that today, so I have to bring it back during the week. Ugh ... I hope it's not too expensive. 

 Stop by Chick-fil-A to pick up a couple chicken biscuits for our breakfast on the way home. Boyfriend pays.

 Visit with my boyfriend's family for the afternoon. Nice day for the pool!

 Delivery from a local restaurant for dinner-pizza, wings and some subs. Boyfriend's dad treats.

 Drive home in an awful storm. It was very scary, but thankfully we made it home safely.

We both sleep in, then head out for Sunday breakfast at a local diner. 

 Swing by the pet store for some kitten food for the foster. We pick out a collar with a bell so we and our boys know where she is. My boyfriend takes care of this.

 Quick stop at the local wholesale club for cranberry juice and flavored water. I see a coupon for the shampoo I use, so I grab a double pack of that. 

Total: $18.82 for the drinks, $8.93 for the shampoo. 

 Cleaning house this afternoon, then some TV.

 Steaks on the grill for dinner. Tasty! Relaxed rest of the evening with some TV. Tomorrow starts another week!

This week, this vet muses about the steep cost of therapeutic diets for her four catsand thats with the professional discount. 

Vetted June 2019