Two generations, one mic. Here we are again, and we have a guest again this time, and she's fabulous. Her name is Dr Morgan Marshall.

Yeah, so she is a veterinarian, and the reason why we have her is because we are a family and we have three doggies right and for us it's always important to keep them I don't know live as long as they can. Our eldest dog is 15. Then we have another 14-year-old, and then we also have a 10-year-old, which we call the baby. But in this time, I think it's important that we can share some information about our pets at home. So, hi, morgan, hi, thanks for having me, of course.

Yeah. So to set the stage, you are a doctor of veterinary medicine. You graduated Texas A&M.

Yes, I graduated from Texas A&M in 2022. So I've been a vet for about three years and I work actually actually mostly emergency medicine, so I work like 12-hour shifts and do just ER now.

So yeah, Did you always want to be a vet?

I did, yeah, since I was little bitty, I grew up with dogs and all kinds of animals and horses and that kind of thing, and so I knew from a really young age that that's what was my passion.

You grew up in Texas.

I grew up in Texas, yep, in the Houston area, so kind of born and raised here, stayed here for school and yeah.

That's good. Well, you have to have a passion. I know Andy donates a lot of money to charities for rescue centers around the world.

Adopt done shop yeah.

Yes, her passion for puppies. Every day I get another video of another one that she wants to rescue. Yes, yeah.

If I could rescue all the dogs in the land Right, oh my God. Also yesterday I saw this video of this cow. It was the cutest little highland cow.

The little fluffy ones. Fluffy, yes, oh my gosh Cutest little highland cow, the little fluffy ones.

Oh my gosh, they don't want to give me one for Christmas. That's rude.

Well, my daughter pointed out that we have. Yes, you guys live in a three-story townhome. Where are you going to put your cow?

I don't know We'll find space, I know, but I think for us, our pets are more than that. For us, our pets are more than that. For us, our pets are family, absolutely, and that's the way it should be. And I can't imagine being in the ER like, how do you even make? I don't know, I don't think I could handle it yeah, you know it's definitely a calling for me.

Um, as far as you know, my passion is to help, like people and their pets in the hardest times that they're going through, and most of the people that come into my clinic, their pets, are their family. It's definitely difficult, but it also can be extremely rewarding when I can extend pets' lives or they get to leave the hospital and those sort of things. It's definitely not an easy job. That's why I only do it three or four days a week and have a lot of time off in between there, but it is extremely rewarding.

Well, I would imagine, being that we're in the metropolitan city, that the majority of animals you deal with on a normal basis would be cats and dogs.

Yes.

Do you ever get any other animals, wild animals, like wilder animals? That would not be the normal pet.

Yeah, we do see some exotics, if you will, in the ER.

Like someone come with an alligator or something like that.

So wildlife? I actually legally can't treat wildlife.

Wow.

I don't have a license for it, so you have to get a special license for wildlife. If they've been like hit by a car or something sad like that, I can help them out, and you know, in their suffering and those sort of things, but I can't like treat them. You have to have a special license for that. So but I do see things like a lot of guinea pigs, like pet birds, things like that. You know on the ER a lot of rabbits, but not as much, like you know, cattle or stuff like that, because we are in the metropolitan area.

Right, and I just think, like I mean the ER right, like for us having the dogs we have, especially I mean we have two Yorkies and one mini schnauzer. The mini schnauzer is 15. And it's been 15 years of gastroenteritis, yeah, which for us, at this point, we know when to take her to the ER and when not. Right, because it's always I mean, sorry I'm graphic, but it's always diarrhea, bloody diarrhea. It just looks like a shit show. And at this point we just realized, okay, we know what to give her or what to keep on hand in case that happens. So is there something that, like, I don't know? Sometimes people bring their pets thinking, oh, it's an emergency, and you're like, no, just.

Yeah, there's definitely lots of times where you know it's an emergency to them and I always say if you are worried, I'm worried, come in and you know we can always at least take a look, we can have a conversation and if you know, ok, go home and keep monitoring. That's completely fine. But yeah, there's some simple stuff like dogs like to get their nails caught on things and then they'll just start bleeding and it's really, you know, can be stressful for owners and so they rush them in. But really we kind of just put some like quick stop, which is medication to stop the bleeding, and then you know you monitor it at home. So there's some things you can have on hand like first aid. You can get that quick stop stuff you know like at the store. So there's things like that.

You know a couple episodes of diarrhea, like you experience, you know, with Emma. You know that can be kind of monitored at home. You can usually fast them for one meal and then start them on a bland diet at home, whether you get a prescription from your vet to have on hand at home or you cook like chicken and rice those sort of things and kind of monitor it. But if they're ever not eating for you having vomiting. If there's a lot of blood in the diarrhea, things like that, then you know we do recommend they come in on emergency basis, you know. But things like that, you know, one episode of vomiting, one episode of diarrhea doesn't necessarily warrant an emergency all the time. But it's hard for pet owners to know that at home. So I say if you're worried, always at least call your emergency vet or call your veterinarian and let them help you guide what to do.

Oh, absolutely. I have a friend. Her name is Jennifer. She has a. What is this? Oh, the howling ones, the ones that look like wolves, oh my God A husky A husky yeah.

She has a husky and she always asks me Andy, do you think I should take her to the vet? Like her name is Snowy, or like should I just like stay at home? Or like do I just schedule an appointment? I'm like I don't know, jen, like what does she have? Like the other day, like her paw was bleeding, uh-huh, and I think she got caught on something and she just leaked.

Yes, yes, yes, like leaked, leaked, leaked, made a hot spot is what we call, that yeah.

And of course it looked terrifying. It swelled and everything, and I I think she's just like trying to fix it, but I don't think you should take her to the ER for that. Just like make an appointment, yeah.

So make an appointment. Yeah, there's definitely lots of things where it's like, OK, you know they're not actively, you know having an emergency, you know if you can get in with your vet in the next couple of days, you can do that. There's also, though, some new urgent cares that are popping up that are meant to be kind of that in-between, so you have something you can't get into your vet, but you don't want to take them to the emergency room. Now, especially in the metropolitan areas, there's these urgent cares popping up, so just like a human urgent care, you know, if your kid had an ear infection but you can't get in with a pediatrician, they can help you out as kind of a middleman. So that's a nice kind of service that is starting to find that middle space for things that don't need a full-fledged emergency room, but you want to get your pet some relief on a quicker basis.

What is the worst part of your job?

Oh yeah, it's definitely when I can't save a pet. You know there's, unfortunately. You know I'm a huge believer in preventative medicine because I see things that you know are just too far gone, that I can't, you know, save, and just having to have those hard conversations with, you know pet parents that you know we can, we can try here, but you know we may just be prolonging the inevitable. And you know, or that there's something that's just too far gone, inevitable, or that there's something that's just too far gone.

And so a couple examples of that that are potentially preventable are things like pets can get masses on their spleen. Actually it's unfortunately, a fairly common form of tumor. They can be cancerous or non-cancerous, but the spleen is an organ that produces blood for the body and helps filter blood, so it's very vascular, has lots of blood vessels in it, and so if those masses grow quickly they actually can kind of burst and it causes bleeding into the belly and that's one of the hardest cases that I get in the ER because it's an, it's a extreme emergency, um, and it's it's something that we have to take them to surgery immediately to try and fix and um sorry to interrupt.

How do you know when your pet has that? How do you know they're internally bleeding?

That's a great question yeah, so the symptoms are usually. It can can be kind of wide, depending on how quickly it's happening, but things like collapse, um, you know, sometimes they'll kind of cry out. A lot of my patients, though, will just kind of be weak and lethargic. They won't want to eat. Their gums is a really good thing to look at. They'll get really pale. So normal dog's gums should be nice and pink, and so if they look, you know, kind of white or pale, then that can be a sign of that as well. Or you kind of touch their belly and they're really painful, are kind of the symptoms that typically, you know, kind of come in with that. But for me, like in the ER, it's usually their gums are pale, their heart rate's high, they're really weak, those sort of things tell me, hey, I need to look, you know, in their belly.

Oh Jesus, New level of fear unlocked. I know it's mostly their belly. Oh Jesus, you mentioned New level of fear unlocked.

I know it's mostly larger dogs, so you know it's less likely for your babies, unfortunately. But yeah, talking kind of about things we can do to prevent that.

Right.

Is early detection is the biggest thing and I am a huge proponent of early detection for our pets. And you know, I think I know you guys had a recent podcast about human health care. I think that there's kind of this mentality of oh, my pets are fine, I'm fine, I don't need blood work, I don't need diagnostics. It's expensive, those sort of things. But there's a reason that we as vets, you know, recommend these things for your healthy pets and it's early detection and so for, like the spleens, I'm a big proponent of having your vet do brief ultrasounds yearly because we can detect those masses before they become an emergency and we can schedule, you know, a surgery to removecancerous masses. It's curative and then they won't have that emergency and same with, like you know, kidney disease or other things like that. If we can catch it early, we can prolong their life. And so that's why early detection you know, yearly blood work, ultrasound, x-rays is actually really important for our pets because they can't tell us if they're having a pain somewhere.

We do blood work probably every six months, and we also do ultrasounds every six months on all three of them, and so, because of exactly what you said, we've managed to catch some things. We absolutely prolonged Emma's life because we caught. What did she have?

So when she was 12, suddenly and we thought this was just the age, right, so the schnauzers are always again picky and like with the food and then she was just wanting to eat, not her food, and she was getting very sleepy all the time. But I thought she was just lazy, right, so she will be sleeping all the time and suddenly Also very overweight.

Yeah, in three months, so she waited, sleeping all the time and suddenly Also very overweight, yeah, in three months.

So she weighted how big she was, probably about 15 pounds, and then in three months she went all the way to 22 pounds. And I was like this is not normal, like there's no way. She's just like gaining that much weight by eating the same things. And again, like at this point I thought maybe she's just like gaining that much weight by eating the same things. And again, like I've, at this point, I thought maybe she's getting older. But I was like no, something is not right. So went to the vet and, of course, blood work, ultrasound, everything. Well, the vet in Spain, because her vet is in Spain she told me this blood work has more red than anything I've seen in my life.

I was like, oh my God, menchu, Her name is Menchu and I was like Menchu, what do we dochu? And I was like Menchu, what do we do? She's like I don't even know what to target first. So she had diabetes, she had her gallbladder was about to burst, she. She was like she had also problems with her thyroid, yeah, and, and also kidneys. I was like, oh my gosh, this is it. And she's like, don't worry, we're going to treat her and let's see how it reacts. Well, we started with thyroid medication, which was great. She lost all the weight. So that was the thyroid and that was causing the diabetes.

and also extra weight.

Yeah, the extra weight and also the gallbladder. Well, that was an extra thing and we treated her with. There's this medication which is Ursodiol yeah, that Ursodiol and she still takes that till today.

Right, it's an amazing medication.

I love that medication we couldn't do surgery because you know, like it was a 12-year-old dog already Right, and after that, you'll, I'll, I'll. You'll see guys like this dog nowadays. She's, she's 15, right, she's in a perfect weight. She's still picky with her food, but whatever, that's her natural judgmental, as ever yes, she judges.

I love a good old schnauzer like that, you're like where you going, where you think you're going, woman yeah my dog doesn't bite, she judges you.

That's Emma. And now again, like because of that preventive thing, we did like the blood work, otherwise she will be long gone, because we thought it was just her getting older, right, and that wasn't it. The other two kids puppies we have same like Bonito, he's a 14-year-old.

He's a 14 year old. He was having also like a little bit of a um um lump in here. Thank god that's not um bad or anything. But also he was drinking a bunch of water and pissing inside the house and we thought this is not normal, right. So he has, uh, cushing syndrome, it's called, which we we detected again With blood work, with blood work and everything. Now, the little one. The little one that's, she's a little shithead all the time, but she never gets sick or anything, right?

She just sounds like she's choking. She just sounds like she's choking, but that's from her colostomy trachea.

But that's the thing with Yorkies they sound like they're choking, but that's just their normal basis. And we also run. I mean, if we're running analytics on two of them, just do the little one too, and she's perfect all the time. She doesn't need anything. And I'm telling you that's the main key Do preventive things.

Absolutely.

Not because they're dogs and I get it here. I'm telling you I try my best not to take them to the vet. Yeah, because I especially they are. Yes, they take up. Why would they do that?

They take your pet away. You cannot go in there with your pet, yeah, and so there is a new kind of model that's coming out. There's some ERs and in town that have an open concept, so you stay with your pet the whole time in the ER. But you know, that can be definitely really stressful and we at my practice try to do practice what's called fear-free medicine, so we try to limit the stress as much as possible. So you know, part of that for pets is, you know, keeping them with their owners as long as we can and keeping them in the room and those sort of things. Obviously there's some cases where we have to rush them back and they can't, you know, stay and those sort of things. But I you know obviously that can be really stressful for owners. So I definitely try my best to communicate the whole time and, you know, keep pet parents with their pets as long as we can and then obviously to take them back for diagnostics and things like that. But I mean, I could definitely be very stressful.

I mean, I can tell you my Emma every time we take her to the vet yeah, she's shaking without control and her blood pressure is to the roof.

Yes.

Why? Because she's scared. Yeah, she's like they're touching her and everything. And she also has this long blood pressure, high blood pressure in her lungs. So she needs to take viagra every day. Yeah, to fix that. But every time they take her, her um, I don't know, it's like an ekg or something and, uh, she's so stressed because they're touching her and and and she doesn't know what's happening, but it's part of that right, yeah if, if, if you don't have your pet and they don't see you, and then some strangers are just touching them, yeah, what's?

happening, yeah, and because you can't explain it to them.

You know, and there are medications that some pets do really well on, like before vet visits. It's kind of part of that fear free mindset in veterinary medicine and some parents, you know pet parents are a little bit afraid of it. Like I don't want to give my pet more medications, but there's some medications we can give them that are just anti-anxiety medications that you just give them like the night before and like a couple hours before the visit, and I've seen massive changes in pets where they would get aggressive in the clinic because they're so scared and things like that, and it's been really transformative for them. Obviously, in the ER it's a little bit harder because they're bringing them in an emergency, but for regular visits, you know, I definitely recommend people kind of talk to their vets about, you know, what are ways that I can make this less stressful, because we want them to be. We want you guys to, you know, bring your pets into us so that we can find things and and not be stressful for the pets.

Yeah, that would be yeah for bonito for sure. Well, no, our bonito, the, the 14 year old yorkie. He just loves going to the vet because he, yeah, they always give him like yeah, yeah, we love to give trees, they're like.

We want it to be a good experience.

We want you to come here he he just there for the treats he doesn't care like he's the funniest thing, so you could be poking him like with drop blood, anything, yeah, and as long as he has a treat in his mouth, he just sells his soul to the devil like that little guy to go those are our favorite kind of pets, but the other one no, emma will not take a treat outside the house? Yeah, she will never, so it's very complicated like doing that with her she just wants to get out of.

So what's the most rewarding part of your?

job. I mean definitely kind of was talking about you know, when I get to help a pet and when they get to go back home and I get to see kind of that, that joy from you know, that reunited kind of bond between, I mean the bond between our pets and people is so special, I think, and that that's the most rewarding thing for me is getting to you know pets and people is so special, I think, and that's the most rewarding thing for me is getting to you know, experience, that bond and help to extend. That is super rewarding for me. And you know, unfortunately I don't always get to you know prolong that, but when I do it's extremely rewarding.

We also like to see the advancement, slowly but surely, here in Texas and in the states in general, of allowing people to bring their puppies in more places. We've said before, we live in Europe half the year, half the year going back and forth, and in Europe, where we live, in Spain, puppies are allowed everywhere. So, we bring them in the restaurants. They sit at the bar with us. Everybody loves them. They bring their own little bowls. They bring them snacks. Everybody loves seeing the puppies.

I'm sorry If you're one of those people that oh, but duck hair. There's worse things that can happen to your food.

Believe me. Duck hair is one of the less concerning things that's my biggest pet peeve when people say, oh, I can't imagine you're letting the puppy sit at the bar, I'm like I can't imagine you're letting your kid sit at the bar.

I would rather sit with the puppy than your loud little kid that's making a bunch of noise at the bar.

The bars are not made for kids. That's what tables are for. Go over there and eat with the family.

Don't complain about the puppy, who's doing nothing but sitting there and being cute and everybody loves the puppy and there's definitely areas in the US that are like much more, you know, like pet friendly than Houston isn't, I don't think, the most pet friendly city. It's changing those in different spots, yeah.

We went to some great sports bars recently, oh yeah.

It's called.

PKO.

We were like wow, we saw them and they were like, yeah, you should come here and bring the puppies and hang out over here Everybody brings their puppies and sits outside. I was like oh, I love that that environment is just changing.

There's definitely a lot of outdoor bar areas and stuff like that that definitely allow it. How?

do you call them Beer houses? No, ice houses, ice houses yes.

One of my technicians. She has a little chihuahua. He's like I don't know, only a couple of pounds. He's like the size of a rat, I don't know. He's tiny and um, she will just bring him in her purse, just like everywhere. She's like I don't care if dogs are allowed here, they won't even know.

He just stays in my purse, yeah like a little chihuahua, yeah, like a little tiny, yeah I will do the same thing, but mine start like they're heavy, they get heavy yeah, and three of them they get heavy.

So what would you think? Um, I I think our people viewing they're very interested in knowing, like, the most toxic foods for dogs that we have at home. Okay, yeah, and also cats. I don't know if cats are even like allergic to something.

Those are evil things I love cats.

We've had one so, um, definitely most toxic things for dogs and cats in the house are going to be things like chocolate is extremely toxic for pets, onions are very toxic, and then a lot of like you know, kind of medications. Like people think, oh, my pet's in pain, I want to give them medications. But our human medications, especially like for cats, acetaminophen, is really toxic for them. So, like you know, you're you think, oh, I'm helping them, but it's actually can be really, really dangerous and require a lot of hospitalization and things for them because they can't process it correctly. And then things like you know, ibuprofen for dogs is not, is not good for them, it can damage their kidneys, you know. And then, yeah, so those are, I mean, those are kind of the big things that everybody is going to like kind of have in their household that your pets may get into.

At what point? Like do you, for example, because dogs are dogs, right.

Yeah.

Like if they get a hold into, like some chocolate. Yeah, at what point is like? Do I take him and rush him to puke, or is this amount okay?

Yeah, that's a great question. So, especially for chocolate, it is actually dose dependent. So a really great resource in general if you think my dog ate something that may be toxic is ASPCA Poison Control. I love their service. You call them Sometimes there's a little bit of a wait on the phone. They ask you for a small fee and you get to talk to somebody and they will consult with a veterinarian and tell you if you need to take your pet into the vet or not. And it is life saving for a lot of pets and you know.

So. If you ever think your pet ate something toxic, please call ASPCA, like that is. And if pet owners call me and say, hey, my pet ate whatever I say, get on the phone with ASPCA while you're on your way here. That way I can immediately know what their recommendations are, because I just I can't know. You know every toxic thing and they're just a great resource because they have veterinarians that specialize in that. So they'll give me treatment plans for them. They'll tell me you know exactly the step-by-step what I need to do to help your pet the best, because you know things like chocolate. Like I know exactly what to do for a chocolate toxicity because it's so common, but more rare things medications, supplements, other stuff like that that's a great resource for veterinarians and for pet parents, and that's also for cats and everything.

Yeah, cats, dogs, they'll help you with any species.

Well, that's a great resource. Thank you, definitely that's a great resource. Yeah, you have a hand at all times. Yeah, absolutely.

Well, we can't stress enough the importance we think and we promote this all the time is rescue and adopt. Don't shop yes, they're not disposable toys or gifts that you are infatuated with or your child is infatuated with for the moment, for the holiday, whatever it is, it's not a Christmas present, it's a lifelong commitment. Right moment for the holiday, whatever it is, it's not a christmas present, it's a lifelong commitment, right. And they're expensive. And you know I always say I apply. You shouldn't treat your puppy or kitty or whatever, any difference than you would treat your human child. So would you do that to your human child?

right then you shouldn't do it to a puppy right you know you shouldn't chain a puppy to a tree yeah, I mean, and hopefully they've outlawed that.

Yeah, the laws have really gotten much better about that too. As far as you can't leave your pets chained outside, it's illegal now, and they have to have shelter and food, and in Houston they have investigators that that's their sole job is to investigate animal cruelty, so it's definitely something that you know is continuing to improve. As far as, like the pets rights.

Yeah, you know, we were so happy in in in Madrid and Spain where we live that they enacted these laws. It's it's new laws they have there which guarantees puppies and animals and things almost the same rights as humans.

Yeah.

So if you, if you chain your puppy up like that, you're going to jail.

Yes, yep, it's the same in Houston If you leave your puppy longer than this period of time.

Like you cannot leave your animals by themselves at home for a longer period of time Like a dog is different than a cat. Right, a cat can like I think they're a little bit more independent. But at the end is more um you, you shouldn't be leaving your animals by themselves Right, like at home, because For a long like an exorbitant amount of time. Yeah, like days at a time.

You will go to jail and that's good, and you know, god forbid you get caught abandoning a puppy. I think if you, if you take a poor little puppy that's been in your family and just I'm getting rid of this puppy and just drop him off somewhere, you are a piece of shit Again. Would you do that to your child? Oh, I'm tired of my child. I'm going to drop him off on a lonely street somewhere.

Yeah, and if you're moving to a place where, like oh, no pets allowed, I need to get rid of my pets, well, find a place that allows pets. That's another bullshit excuse, oh.

I got to move and they don't allow pets, they allow kids. Same thing.

No difference.

Yeah, they shouldn't. No difference, no difference. So find another place to move. They're all bullshit excuses. You're just making up crap because, you don't think of them as like a living creature.

There's so many pets that that do need homes. You know the the statistics have been improving, but you know there were, I think, almost 7 million pets that went into the shelter in in 2023. And only like less than five um wait, 7 million, yeah and like only 5 million got adopted. Um, and so you know there's a huge disparity and unfortunately, in America, um, you know, a lot of those pets are put down um because they can't find homes and um, there's definitely there's some States where you know they, they don't do that, um, where it's it's illegal to to euthanize a pet just because they don't have a home. But, you know, not all states are like that.

I think California is like that. Yeah, California, Because they also outlawed that's another thing we're not big fans of. They also had California breeding them for sale, for profit. And they outlawed that in California you can't breed animals for profit like that puppies anymore.

Yeah, like the pet stores can't sell.

Really I didn't know that they stopped all that that's outlawed in Spain too.

I mean there's definitely I do think there's ethical breeders. Now, am I a huge proponent for adopting? Yes, I have two adopted pets that I love more than anything, and so I think that, if it is, if you're just trying to find a companion, the rescue is a really great place for that. But there are ethical breeders out there and there are reasons for breeding certain breeds, like working dogs, labs and things like that, Police dogs, those sort of things, and even some companion dogs or hunting dogs and things like that. So if your dog is going to have a job, then you know you may want a purebred for that job. Um, but they have to be, you know, ethically bred and bred for a purpose and, um, you know, you know. So definitely doing your research if you're trying to find a specific breed for a specific reason, but definitely if you're just looking for a really great companion, you know, at least start with the shelters and then, you know, kind of go from there.

Yeah, Rescue is always good. All three of ours are rescues from different times and they they're our babies and we love them more than life itself.

Yeah, so well. Thank you so much. Yeah, we can talk to you forever, oh yeah. This is can take from this is what you said the aspcacom yeah, aspca, poison hotline, poison hotline.

Okay, poison hotline is the best thing to do there and adopt, don't shop. Yes, yes, awesome. Thank you so much, doctor so great being here.

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