Here comes 2016! It’s that time of year again, when everyone commits to their New Year’s resolutions. From living a healthier lifestyle, to managing your time better, to reducing stress, there are always ways that we can improve our lives. Since I’m a veterinarian and considering this is a vet blog, I’m a bit partial to sticking with a pet theme for my resolutions. You didn’t really want to give up bacon and soda anyway, did you? I certainly have no intention to, so here are some resolutions to work on for you and your pet. 1.) Take your dog on more walks. Even if you can only devote two to three days a week to walking your dog, this can make a huge difference for both you and your pet. Did you know that 34-41% of companion animals are overweight or obese? As you can imagine, obesity is associated with a number of diseases in dogs and cats, including orthopedic disease, dental disease, pancreatitis, endocrine diseases (Diabetes, hypothyroidism, Cushing’s Disease, etc.), bladder or urinary tract disease, heart disease, lung dysfunction, and an increased incidence of certain cancers. Studies have shown that keeping your dog at a healthy weight can prolong their life for two-three years! In a dog’s lifespan, that is a very significant amount of time. Walking or exercising your dog or cat can go a long way toward keeping them at a healthy weight. And let’s be honest, you need a little exercise too. Everybody saw you hovering over the Christmas party buffet line. Just because you only went through the line once, doesn’t mean you had one meal. Quite a few meatballs and little smokies never even made it to your plate. 2.) Measure your dog or cat’s food every day. How many of you are guilty of just filling up your dog or cat’s bowl and leaving it out for the day? This is what we refer to as “free feeding.” Look, I get it. Life gets hectic, and it’s simple to just fill up their bowls in the morning and move on with your day. However, most animals will become overweight or obese when free fed. Dogs and cats don’t know how to reason and limit their food intake in order to stay healthy. If I had an unlimited supply of chili cheese dogs, fried cheese sticks, nachos, and mashed potatoes and gravy, I would become overweight too (I have now revealed all of my favorite foods and am salivating while writing this). So how do you know how much to feed your pet? My best advice would be to consult your veterinarian. Most bags of dog food have feeding guides on the back or side of the bag. However, often times these guides can overestimate how much food your dog or cat needs, and doesn’t necessarily account for life stage or activity level. Your veterinarian can tell you how much your pet needs in cups each day. We usually recommend cutting the daily serving size in half and feeding them twice daily. The other catch: When your veterinarian says your pet needs three cups of dog food daily, they mean MEASURING CUPS! I cannot tell you how many times I’ve heard, “But Dr. Stroupe, we’re only feeding Lucky two cups twice a day” only to find out that the cup they’re using is a Big Gulp from the gas station (another sign that your health choices may need a little work too). Measuring your pet’s food may seem daunting and a little over-the-top, but this simple change can make a huge difference in maintaining a healthy weight in your pet and helping them live a longer, healthier life. 3.) Feed your pet a good quality diet for their life stage. With all the pet foods and advertisements out there, it’s hard to determine what the best foods are. Trends in veterinary nutrition can often reflect trends in human nutrition as well, so natural pet foods and grain free foods are making a comeback. Companies that make these foods often have very effective marketing, but their nutrition is very poor along with a hefty price tag. Many of my patients being fed these “natural” diets (*cough* Blue Buffalo *cough cough) are coming in at a very young age with bladder stones because the minerals in the diet are out of whack. Enough about my veterinary nutrition rant (trust me, I’ll devote an entire blog post to this sometime soon). What ARE the best pet foods to feed your pet? When my clients ask me this question, I refer to the “The Big Four.” The best dog foods to feed your pet are one of the following: Hill’s Science Diet, Royal Canin, Iams, and Purina Pro Plan. If you’re wondering if these companies are paying me to say this, the answer is no, although, that would be nice (Maybe I should look into that!). These four companies employ boarded veterinary nutritionists, perform appropriate food trials and research, and perform testing and quality control measures for safety. Once you’ve decided which of “The Big Four” to feed, you also want to make sure you’re feeding a diet for the appropriate life stage, or even a prescription diet if your pet has specific health needs. I recommend you feed puppies a puppy dog food for the first year of life. Once they’re a year old, you can transition them to an adult maintenance food. Dogs are considered seniors usually around seven years of age, but this can vary a little depending on breed, so around that time you can switch them to a senior diet. And, of course, as mentioned earlier, all of these brands carry a number of prescription diets for pets with specific health needs, like diabetic pets, pets with kidney disease, joint disease, the list goes on. Your veterinarian is a great source for helping you decide what diet is right for your pet. A good quality pet food can make all the difference in the world for your pet’s weight, hair coat quality, and overall health. 4.) Incorporate play time with your pet into your regular routine. Time can be so hard to come by, but your pet loves your time and attention more than anything else. Play time with your pet not only helps strengthen the human-animal bond, but it can help keep them mentally stimulated. Figure out what activities your pet enjoys. For dogs, this could be swimming, playing fetch, agility, or play time with other dogs. Cats can be more challenging to play with or exercise, but they often enjoy laser pointers, or even a good cat nip toy. 5.) Make a date with your veterinarian! Regular wellness checks with your vet are crucial for maintaining your pet’s health and detecting disease. As mentioned in the previous blog, dogs age seven years for every year that we age. By age two, cats have matured to the level of a 25 year old human. A lot can happen in one year of a pet’s life. Your veterinarian can check your pet’s weight, discuss concerns, give a thorough exam from head to tail, and make sure your pet is on the right preventatives to keep them healthy throughout the year. Now would also be a good time to discuss things like how much you should feed your pet, or what is the right food for your pet that we mentioned earlier in this blog. Your veterinarian has had years and years of training and education on how to keep pets healthy and happy. They can be a great resource to you. 6.) Start a pet savings fund. It’s always good to have a little money set aside for emergencies. You never know when your pet could slip out the door and get hit by a car or come down with an illness. Pet emergencies can be costly and can catch you off guard. As a veterinarian, nothing is more heartbreaking than not being able to treat a patient adequately or even having to euthanize a patient for financial reasons. Doing this can guarantee your pet-related financial health and help you rest easier knowing your pet can be taken care of if an emergency arises. I also cannot stress the importance of simply establishing a relationship with a veterinarian before a pet emergency arises. Having a pet fall ill suddenly is stressful enough, but trying to scramble around and find a veterinarian to see them after-hours makes the process infinitely more stressful. A little bit of planning and forethought can go a long way in ensuring your pet gets the care they need. 7.) Make sure your pet has adequate identification, either in the form of an ID tag or microchip. This simple act can increase the likelihood that you will be reunited with your pet in the event that they get lost. Unlike collars and tags, microchips cannot slip off or be lost. Most veterinarians in private practice (including yours truly) can insert microchips. It is a simple office procedure that just takes a few minutes. 8.) Groom your pet regularly. Coat maintenance can vary widely depending on what breed of dog or cat you have. Long haired breeds generally require more care and maintenance and should be brushed daily. Matted coats can cause skin problems and hygiene issues, and can even make it more difficult for your dog to stay cool in warmer temperatures. Certain breeds require regular grooming as their hair can get very long and get into their eyes or get excessively long around their feet. 9.) Bribe your veterinarian and veterinary staff with gifts and treats. Last, but not least! I’m only somewhat serious about this particular suggestion, but just in case anyone was wondering, here is a list of acceptable bribes for veterinarians or staff (well, I might share with them).
Well, here you go! Now that we have plenty of resolutions for you to choose from, you can stop worrying about what major food group or fun thing you have to cut out of your life. Happy New Year!
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Christmas is less than a week away, but if you're anything like me, you probably haven't finished or even started your Christmas shopping yet, so it's not too late to include your pet as well. Happy shopping! , 1.) A cute sweater! You may not be aware of this, but it’s cold outside in the winter! Sure, a lot of dogs come equipped with their own heat and layering system, but certain breeds of dogs can have thin hair coats and may not be genetically suited to their environment. Smaller breed dogs are also more likely to struggle to stay warm in the winter months. The other perks of buying your dog or cat a sweater? They look darn cute, and they’re usually only slightly humiliated. Proper fit is also important as you don’t want the sweater to be loose, dragging, or get caught in things, nor do you want it to be too tight. It should be snug but not constricting. 2.) Charitable donation- Tis the season! A great gift for your pet is to make a charitable donation in their name to a local shelter or rescue. I always recommend donating locally so you can have the most impact on pets or animals in your community. For my fellow friends and followers in the Howard County area, I recommend donating to PAWs, Fayette’s local rescue. Central Missouri Humane Society and Columbia Second Chance are also nearby rescues that could always use more resources or donations. Look at the bottom of this blog for information on sending donations to PAWs. 3.) New Tag or Microchipping! How ‘bout a little extra bling or just a new accessory for your pet? Buy them a new tag with their name and your contact info on it! Better yet, I recommend microchipping your pet if you haven’t done so already. A microchip is a small device that gets implanted under the skin of your pet. When it is scanned, it emits a number that links you to your pet. Unlike collars and tags, microchips cannot get lost and increase the likelihood that you will be reunited with your pet in the event they get lost. Most veterinarians in private practice (including yours truly) perform this service. If your pet is already microchipped, I recommend going online and making sure your microchip information is up-to-date. 4.) Walks and extra attention! Dogs will appreciate this gift almost more than anything else. Take your dog on a walk they’ve never been on before with new smells and things for them to see. Spend extra time with them playing fetch or their favorite activity. Time is the hardest thing to come by but can be the best gift to your pets and loved ones this Christmas. 5.) Veterinary wellness check- Has it been awhile since you’ve been to your veterinarian? Nothing is better than the gift of health. Dogs age seven years for every year that we age, so frequent wellness checks are very important for your pooch. By age two, your cat has matured to about the same as a twenty-five year old human, so wellness checks are very important for your cat as well. Your veterinarian can check your pet’s weight, do a thorough physical exam from head to tail, discuss any concerns, monitor dental health, and make sure your pet is on the right preventatives to keep them healthy throughout the year. 6.) Homemade treats- People who know me will know that I’m not much into cooking or baking. My husband does most of the cooking in our household and gets quite nervous every time I’m in the kitchen. I rarely bake for my husband, but occasionally I will bake for my dog. I decided to embrace my inner Martha Stewart (minus the whole stock trade fraud thing) and make homemade dog treats. I even used a recipe off of her website! The only exception I made was all-purpose flour for the barley flour. They don’t have that fancy stuff at my local grocery store, and considering my dog ate cow crap out of the pasture, I didn’t figure her palate was sensitive enough to tell the difference. Follow this link for the recipe: http://www.marthastewart.com/319172/izzys-apple-cheddar-dog-biscuits 7.) New Dog Bed or New Toy- A new dog bed is a great gift for your pooch and will help him/her feel cozy this winter. You can also buy your dog a toy that you normally wouldn’t get, like a Kong or even a toy with an obnoxious squeaker that they’ll love to tear up. While you’re at it, you could even buy a toy to donate to a shelter dog. 8.) Grooming- Make an appointment for your pup with the groomer for some pampering. Nothing is better than cuddling a freshly cleaned and fluffed dog. It also saves you the mess of cleaning up the bathroom and yourself after bathing your dog. 9.) New Leash and Collar- After a nice grooming and new dog tag, a new leash and collar is a great way to complete the doggie makeover. Collar fit is also very important, so I recommend taking your dog into the store when you buy them to ensure you get the right size. You want the collar to be snug enough that it doesn’t slip off, but loose enough that you can easily fit two or three fingers underneath it. 10.) Cat Perch- Ever notice how your cat loves to sit on the back of the couch or in the window sill? Cats love elevated spaces to rest on. Carpeted cat perches can also serve as a scratching post for your cat as scratching is also natural behavior for them. To get the most use out of your cat perch and scratch post, I recommend placing it in a high traffic area of your house. In the spirit of Christmas, here are some pictures of my friend's pets, willingly taken or obviously forced. Donations for PAWs can be sent to the following address:
PAWs c/o Bill Kountz 910 Hwy 240 Fayette, MO 65248 As a veterinarian, I treat many of my patients for all different types of cancer. I’m a mixed animal practitioner and not an oncology specialist by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, as a mixed animal veterinarian, I like to joke with people that I’m a jack of all trades, master of none. However, as you can imagine, I diagnose many patients with cancer each year. My role can vary from counseling them on treatment options, performing surgery to remove tumors, monitoring while they receive chemo, radiation, or more advanced treatments from a veterinary oncologist as their primary care veterinarian, to just helping them keep their pet comfortable so they can have more time to say goodbye. But like many things, despite being a veterinarian, I never truly understood the process of having a pet with cancer until I experienced it myself. Here is my story. It was a hot day in late June, just two days before my husband and I were going to leave on our vacation to Oregon and Colorado. Of course, I was excited as I hadn’t had a “real vacation” in two years that didn’t include either a veterinary convention or a track race. My husband is a professional racewalker, so the first part of our vacation we would be in Eugene, Oregon, for the USA Outdoor Track & Field National Championships. Once that was over, I would have a REAL vacation of hiking and relaxing in the wonderful Rocky Mountains of Colorado. I looked over at my dog Shalane as I was packing, and I noticed a lump on her lower eyelid. I didn’t think much of the lump on her eye as she is a young, healthy dog. Of course, I performed a standard ocular exam and everything was normal. I just assumed she got herself into something she shouldn’t have, possibly getting stung by a bee. My mother was kind enough to keep her for us while we went on vacation, so I left her with an eye ointment and a few other medications to give while I was gone. My mom gave updates on her throughout our vacation. She loves her “granddog.” The vacation was great and just what I needed, but it included a few hiccups. My husband lost his wallet at a gas station in Colorado. We had to cancel our credit cards, of course, but I didn’t worry because we had enough cash to get us by for a couple of days while our credit card company express mailed us new cards to Colorado. Also, there was a hiccup in that process and we were steadily running out of cash. The Western Union site was also down, so attempts to transfer money were not working. At one point, I wondered how we were going to get money for gas to get home. And I was growing very tired of PB&J. Things worked out and we were able to enjoy the rest of our vacation. My husband also received third in the 20k, so he redeemed himself from his forgetfulness. I returned home to a happy dog (Grandma spoils her), but I noticed the lump was larger. It was going to be a hectic week because I would only have about two days at work before I traveled to Boston for a veterinary convention. I took Shalane into my clinic and submitted some aspirates of the lump to be reviewed by a pathologist. Like many aspirates, they came back inconclusive. Luckily, I do not have a shortage of fabulous and brilliant friends. I texted a good friend of mine, Dr. Jackie Pearce, a veterinary ophthalmologist (eye ball doctor as my husband likes to say) at the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine (my alma mater). She agreed to fit her into her busy schedule. I had to fly to Boston the next day, but luckily my husband could take Shalane to her appointment. I was able to talk with Dr. Pearce in between my flights and layovers to Boston. She noted that cancer was a possibility, and they would like to take a biopsy. Cancer. When this first popped up, like many veterinarians, I’m trained to make a list of differential diagnoses (possibilities) in my head. Cancer was, of course, on my list, but it was definitely at the bottom. I enjoyed my veterinary convention, but spent a lot of my time in Boston feeling guilty that I wasn’t there for my pet. Had I not been so busy with vacation and this darn convention, would I have caught this sooner? It’s a running “joke” that veterinarians are often so preoccupied and busy taking care of their clients’ pets, that their own pets get put on the back burner. I arrived home, and a few days later the pathology report arrived. Shalane had a high grade soft tissue sarcoma. This particular type of cancer can be locally invasive and needs to be treated aggressively. Not that I’m biased or anything, but I’m convinced that my alma mater is the best veterinary school in the country. I am fortunate to live within 30 miles of it. We took Shalane back to the MU teaching hospital for a CT, oncology consult, and surgery consult. The good news was that the tumor was isolated to her lower eyelid and hadn’t spread. The bad news was that to remove as much of it as possible, Shalane would also have to lose her eye. I was at ease with this, however. Many of my canine patients were one-eyed dogs, and they seemed to adapt well and get along just fine. As a veterinarian myself, I perform a lot of surgery. However, this was a somewhat complicated tumor, and a bone in her face may have to be removed. The fact that she was my own dog also complicated things. We made the decision to leave her care in the capable hands of the MU teaching hospital and have her surgery performed there. Dr. Mann, veterinary surgeon extraordinaire, would perform the surgery. Dr. Mann was the patient professor who walked me through my very first spay during veterinary school, so I knew Shalane would be in very capable hands. Dr. Mann did a beautiful job on the surgery, and the pathology report came back with clean margins. Great news! This was an aggressive tumor, but they got all of it, and hopefully Shalane could go on to live a happy and healthy life. I was on cloud nine. However, life has a way of bringing you back to reality. After discussing Shalane’s case with Dr. Selting, an esteemed veterinary oncologist, I was made painfully aware that the mean survival time after a tumor like this is just over 500 days. 500 days. You mean I could have less than two years with my dog, even after they got all the cancer? The other sad news was that since Shalane was younger, the situation was more dire. These tumors are often more aggressive in younger dogs. I remained hopeful that the cancer wouldn’t return, but I would remain diligent by monitoring the surgery site carefully and taking chest x-rays (in case the cancer had spread) every three months. Shalane recovered wonderfully from her surgery and went back to being a happy, healthy dog within a few days. However, after losing her eye, she was a bit more irritable with our cat, Linus. She wouldn’t attack him by any means, but she would growl and bark at him frequently. Perhaps she thought the cat scratched out her eye in her sleep? Cats are evil like that. Fast forward about two and half months. My husband and I were winding down for the evening, watching reruns of The Office. I looked over at Shalane and saw a bump on her muzzle. No. It can’t be. After further inspection, I realized the tumor had returned. The veterinarian in me knew the statistics of this tumor and that recurrence was likely, but the optimist in me couldn’t believe it. For the first time in years, I had decided to be in a play with the local community theater. I figured it didn’t hurt for me to use the right side of my brain for once. Between work and my play rehearsals, most nights I wasn’t getting home until about 9:30 P.M. If I hadn’t been so preoccupied with work and play practice, would I have caught this sooner? Here comes the guilt again. I cried myself to sleep that night and got very little rest. The most important thing an owner of a pet with cancer can do is consult your veterinarian and let them council you. They can lay out all of the options for you, ranging from the gold standard, most advanced treatments to just keeping your pet comfortable for as long as you can. The hardest part about this process is that there is no “right” or “wrong” answer. Ultimately, only you can decide what is right for you and your pet. Your veterinarian just gives you the tools to make that decision. You not only have to consider the cost of treatment, but the time you spend with each treatment route and how that treatment could affect the bond between you and your pet. If your pet runs and hides from you or tries to bite you every time you give a medication, then some treatment options aren’t going to work for you. We made the decision to move forward with palliative radiation treatments and some medications given at home. My work schedule made shuttling Shalane to the MU veterinary school twice weekly difficult, but luckily I have a very supportive husband and family that were willing to make that process easier. Being a veterinarian can help in a lot of ways with this process. I am able to understand the pros and cons of different treatments a little better, and I have a lot of resources to help my pet through this process. However, being a veterinarian doesn’t make you immune to the guilt and emotions you go through when your pet has cancer. I am left with the harsh reality that despite investing years and years into my education (not to mention thousands upon thousands of dollars in student debt), Shalane will in all likelihood eventually succumb to her cancer and there’s nothing I can do about that. No matter how late I stay up reading scientific journals about soft tissue sarcomas, no matter how much money I invest in her treatment, no matter how many hours I spend giving medications and nursing her to health, her cancer in particular is incurable and no pet lives forever. The best I can do is live in the present and enjoy her while she has a good quality of life. Shalane is still as spunky as ever. She terrorizes possums, and she would bark at coyotes all night if we let her (as a Great Pyrenees, she feels this is her purpose in life). We have her excellent oncology team at the University of Missouri to thank for that. Thank you, Dr. Selting, Dr. Pearce, Dr. Mann, and all the students and team members that have helped make this process easier. I can’t imagine going through this with anyone else. I guess the take-home lesson and most important thing for pet owners with cancer (and pet owners in general) to remember is to love your pet, this day and every day. Whether you’re shuttling your pet back and forth for advanced treatment or just keeping them comfortable, just enjoy them and love them as much as you can. You never truly know how much time you have left with them. Throughout the history of washing machines, companies have come up with catchy slogans to advertise their product as the best. Of course, they have been geared toward women, and sadly, I still follow that stereotype. It’s partly because my husband is unable to understand the concept of separating clothes, but also because my clothes from work are very hard to wash. To get him to do it correctly, it really would take an instruction manual. It literally is a pile of crap, a pile of crap, and placenta, and fluids, and blood. The list goes on and on. This is partly a vent session on how much I hate doing my laundry and partly an instruction manual in case he gets the urge to do it correctly. It’s common knowledge in our office that I tend to get dirtier than everyone else in the clinic. I like to think it's because I work much harder. The reality is, as a female, I'm shorter, so my center of gravity is a little different. I also have shorter arms, which means when I'm behind a cow, I usually have to get closer to them. Omer, one of our vet techs, has said before, "If there's one cow pie in a field, you're going to find it and roll in it." This just creates more laundry problems. Angie, another vet tech at the clinic, also agreed with Omer that I am the messiest. She really hates it when she gets coveralls out of the laundry bin and they are covered in cow poop. I’ve even seen her wear exam gloves before handling our clothes, which is probably a good policy. When I asked her if I was the worst, she agreed happily, like it wasn’t that big of a deal, but she does a lot of the clinic’s laundry, and her eyes said more like, “I’d love my job if it wasn’t for the crap you roll in. I need a raise.” Maybe I’ll purchase a super-duty, hospital grade washer for the clinic to make her life easier. Nah, I’ll just get her some Oxyclean and a scrub brush as a bonus this year. I’m really trying to perfect the art of washing my clothes at home, which is taking an awful lot of experimenting. If I could get Heloise to come to my house and help me with the laundry, she’d pull in the drive and tell me to burn it down and start over, but that’s another story. I’ve found that soaking in warm water works best for that tricky mixture of placenta and amniotic fluid. They are oil-based (in case that comes up on Jeopardy) and need warm water to lift it from the fabric, but then I’m faced with the all too common problem that placenta and amniotic fluid are frequently accompanied by blood, which needs to soak in cold water. What is a girl to do?! Multiple tries, lots of extra space for clothes that are getting different treatments, and a little liquid Oxyclean to get the blood stains that are already soaked in or even dried. It’s a process. This is only my second blog, really my first that I’m writing, so I’ll just let it all out there so you know what you’re in for if you are going to be an avid follower. If you think my undergarments are TMI, move on to the next paragraph. Bras are a problem for 95% of women (the other 5% just don’t wear one), so it’s no surprise that vets have to test out their normal bras. I used to wear normal bras like a professional. I learned quickly that cheap sports bras from Target are the best option because during a nasty OB, it soaks all the way through. I also keep a spare sports bra (along with four extra uniforms) at the clinic. Nothing is worse than walking around with a wet bra all day, and I’m not entirely sure that soaking a regular bra got all the fluids out, and my husband was tired of smelling my bras for me to check for cleanliness. If you skipped the last paragraph, your loss. If you didn’t, consider yourself a creeper. Now on to the next laundry conundrum. A problem that looks like it would be a serious laundry issue, but actually is fairly easy to remove, are the remains of rotten calf or retained placenta. The real problem is getting rid of the disgusting smell. If you ever have to ride in my truck after a day of this, you probably will want to pack a gas mask and some Febreeze. That smell attaches itself to my skin and hair. I've found washing my hands with toothpaste works well. For those lovely pet owners who like to buy me a Christmas gift as a thank you for a year’s worth of top notch service, a basket of wine and toothpaste will be very useful. One problem I’m still working on is how to get the really tough cow poop out. The worst is when cows are just getting on fresh spring grass. Not only is their stool loose, projectile, and gets everywhere, but it's really hard to get out of clothes. Basically, I scrub and soak, scrub and soak, and definitely keep it from coming in contact with my other clothes. Like Omer says, if there’s one cow pie around, I’ll find it. I think this is why I love my dog so much. We are one in the same. I secretly enjoy rolling in cow poop. It makes the transition to Sassy, Off Call/Work Jessica so much more magical. You can probably imagine how much my husband appreciates seeing dressed up Jessica instead of normal Dr. Stroupe in her cow poop or fluid smelling clothing or his stinky running partner/wife in my sweat-drenched athletic outfits. From a distance I always look good. It’s when you get close that the smell starts to overtake you. For as much as he appreciates seeing me dressed up, he doesn’t kindly treat my dressy clothes. He refuses to sort anything. I put the most heavily soiled stuff from a farm call directly in the washer, but if I’m not watching, he’ll put whites, delicates, farm clothing, his tree trimming clothing, and formal wear/dress clothes all in the same load. If he ruins something, it only gives me an excuse to buy something new, so I also secretly look away at times if I feel the itch to get a new dress for my new heels. After eight years of marriage, I finally broke down and bought a high efficiency front loading washer. The thing is huge. It also has a steam treatment setting, which helps with more soiled clothing, so that has cut down on the process of laundry in my house. Being a veterinarian, having a husband that's a residential tree trimmer, and us being both runners, I probably easily do at least two to three loads of laundry a day. We don't even have kids yet, so I shudder to think what it will be like when that happens. If you enjoy doing laundry, this is the time to promote your services. Someone could make a living just folding my never-ending pile of laundry. With my busy work schedule and the fact that I hate folding laundry, the laundry usually only gets folded about once a week. I think this is a common problem in any household, but other people have the means and space to hide it. My house isn’t that big. The rest of the week, it gets put on a couch in our bedroom that we rarely use and you just have to stir the pile to find things. The other challenge with this is if the laundry doesn't get folded, both the dog and cat love to lay on it, which of course results in fur getting all over our clothes. That’s fine and dandy for my work clothes, but spending date night lint rolling each other really isn’t all that sexy. If you have any tips for my laundry, please feel free to send me a comment. I’d appreciate it. I think I should use all this time that I experiment with different products on my clothes to actually create my own product to get rid of serious stains (like cow poop). There’s Dreft for baby stains, which I’ve heard is fantastic, but have no experience with. Maybe I’ll call mine Bereft because if it’s strong enough to get out cow poop, you’re also going to lose some color as well. I guess that’s bleach, so someone beat me to the punch.
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Jessica Stroupe, DVM
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August 2017
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