January 2017

Thanksgiving
PeT TALk
leftovers for the
counter surfer
by Glenn Kalick, DVM
Thanksgiving at my house is all
about turkey, football, and listening
to old stories that have been told
thousands of times. This year was a little
different. Instead of the same crew at my
house, there were some of my daughter’s
college friends hearing the stories for the
first time. When I thought I was done my
mother asked me to tell the kids about
my first year being a veterinarian in South
Florida.
My first year being a veterinarian (I had
just moved from Boston to Pompano
Beach), I received a call from a client
on Thanksgiving. The first thing that I
had to say was that my boss forgot to
take me off call because I went home to
Massachusetts to celebrate Thanksgiving
with my parents. The owners were fine
that I was out-of-town because they
only had a question for me. I told them
that I was okay with that but if the dog
needs medical care they were going to
have to go to the emergency hospital in
Hollywood.
The story started with the fact that her
husband knew better than to leave
Roscoe unattended in the kitchen. I knew
where this story was going. They left their
turkey on the counter and Roscoe ate
it, all of it. Being a little sarcastic I asked
how long ago they noticed the turkey
was gone. They said he ate it within an
hour and probably ate it quickly. They
laughed when they said Roscoe was a
counter surfer and he pulls food off the
counter when he sees it. They could only
imagine the excitement when he didn’t
see anyone around and started to eat
the turkey. They also said that the turkey
was full of stuffing and that was also
gone. I asked how big the turkey was
and they said that it was 16 pounds. The
conversation then went sideways when,
for the next two minutes, she told me
that her house was full of hungry family
members that now wanted to go out for
dinner because the turkey was gone.
She actually told me that it was probably
too late to get reservations for dinner.
I had to get her back on track. At
that time my family was staring at
me because I couldn’t stop smirking
because for the last five minutes she
hadn’t asked me any medical questions.
I asked her if he ate the bones and
she said yes. I asked her if he seemed
uncomfortable and she said that he
seemed a little distended in the abdomen
and he was burping but he was drinking
water now and was sitting by her son
back from college begging for food. So
to summarize, her 80 pound Labrador
ate a 16-pound turkey, bones, and
stuffing within the last
hour and seems to be
acting normal.
So I started to talk
about intestinal
perforation secondary
to sharp bones. I
talked about bloat
where the stomach
fills with gas and flips
in the abdominal
cavity cutting off
the blood supply.
She quickly told me
that she was not
concerned about
anything like that.
So I asked her why
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she called? She said that she and her
husband have a bet. She wants her
husband to ask me. I put the phone on
mute and apologized to my family for
the length of the call. My wife asked me
if I told them that I was out-of-town and
I told her I did. At that time the husband
came on the phone and told me he has a
20 spot bet on the answer. The question
was whether we should feed Roscoe
dinner tonight or just skip the meal and
feed him breakfast tomorrow.
I told them Roscoe could probably miss
food for the next few days considering
he just ate 20 percent of his body weight.
My uncle, the pediatrician, welcomed
me to the world of emergency phone
calls. Unpredictable, late night, and
usually starts with “I can’t believe that he
ate that.” P
Glenn Kalick DVM is a veterinarian at
Brookside Animal Hospital of Coral Springs.
Visit Brooksidevet.com.
954-755-5540
10625 Wiles Rd. Coral Springs
In Brookside Square
www.brooksidevet.com
P
the PARKLANDER 109