Posts in Category: Events

The pressure to write an autumnal Halloween post regarding animals is intense. In a sense, I understand that the public wants to hear the hits. But doesn’t anyone want to read my small and carefully worded treatise on 1976’s children’s musical mafia masterpiece movie, Bugsy Malone? Or a simple reflection on how playing Hearts with one dog and two cats is the ideal with which all other forms of happiness should be compared? Yes. I understand my limitations to be understood. So in that regard:

There’s nothing bad about Halloween or this time of the year, and yet anyone who works in the veterinary world knows the inevitable problems this time of year brings into our everyday world, and I shall address all the obvious ones and a few not-so-obvious ones.

Candy:

As someone who spends a great deal of my free and sleeping time thinking about candy, I completely understand why having a complete and quality selection of sweets available for your trick-or-treaters is integral to your obligation of being a good human.

Again, and also at the risk of revealing too much, as someone who thinks about the difference in peanut butter-to-chocolate ratios between normal Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and Pumpkin Halloween Cups, I get why you may want to plan early and be prepared to have more candy than any one house could possibly pass out in a 3- to 4-hour Halloween evening.

That being said, despite whatever you have heard, thought, or been told by your co-worker who swears that his Aunt’s dog loves candy, candy is toxic to dogs and can make cats very sick.

Chocolate can kill your dog, causing neurotoxicity and cardiovascular toxicity and, at a minimum, forcing dogs to be treated for severe gastrointestinal and pancreatic trauma.

A small dog can get sick (and die) from a small amount of candy. A big dog can also get sick from the amount of candy it can consume in short periods of time.

One moment away from the candy tray to compliment a few kids who have come to the door dressed as Star Wars Jedi (though inevitably with the wrong color light saber, not that I am paying attention), can give a dog, especially my dog, just enough time to destroy your night and cause a quick immediate trip to the emergency room.

Just because your dog ate chocolate once and didn’t get sick, doesn’t mean that it’s safe forever. And there are differences between eating 6 oz and 36 oz.

Join the billions of people who need to call ASCPA Poison Control if you need help. Or call us, if we are open. Or call your local friendly ER. Do this immediately.

If you want to go out and participate in Halloween with your child who has very specific tastes and forced you to stay up till 3 am on Halloween Eve again for the fifth straight year so you can make Tron’s light sequence on his costume perfect, or if you want to go out yourself dressed in the Midwest’s most popular Halloween costume (Sexy Raincoat-wearer), well, first take care of your animal.

Chocolate has a delayed reaction, so people will sometimes think if their dog seems fine after a few hours, that the dog will be fine. Often the worst effects happen at hour 6, 10, or 12.

Costumes:

Someone needs to stick up for people who want to dress their animals up in costumes. If your dog or cat had real agency, they’d break out of our houses and set up an equal and free society in an abandoned but warm warehouse somewhere in Pilsen. But they don’t. So dress them up, take a picture and just enjoy your day. If they don’t like that type of thing, then don’t. If you have a Pug and dress them up as Pugsy Malone, I would appreciate a photo. And, really, any photo.

But:

Be attentive to your anxious dogs and cats. Doorbells ringing, witch decorations with electronic cackles, kids running around, people with “toy” guns (which in Chicago are just “guns”), screaming, flashing lights, and just general festivities can set tons of dogs and cats off in their angst-ridden misery.

Just like you do for 4th of July and New Year’s, feel free to ask for sedation protocols or anxiety medications, and it’s never a problem to pre-medicate for the subsequent GI upset and urinary discomfort that occurs from severe and acute trauma.

Maybe walk your dogs at 4 pm and then wait until 10 pm to avoid the rush. Maybe lock your cats upstairs so they can’t run out the front door.

And do you have a black cat? Well good, because I love them, but don’t let them outside. Actually, keep all your animals inside that night.

Call with questions or concerns. Send us your Halloween photos. Dress as your own ethnicity. Read books with first-person cat narrators.

—Brett Grossman, DVM

Illini Pet Fair
Saturday, November 19
9 a.m.-1 p.m.
Medical District Veterinary Clinic
2242 W. Harrison, Chicago
Free Admission

You and your pet are invited to join us outside of the Medical District Veterinary Clinic for Illini Days fun at the Illini Pet Fair, hosted by the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine.

We’ll have a photo booth with fun props (for you and your pet!) and we’ll post images to Facebook, where we’ll hold an Illini Days 2016 Best in Show bragging rights contest. Our clinic’s medical director, Dr. Drew Sullivan, will be on hand 9-11 a.m. and veterinary behaviorist Dr. Kelly Ballantyne from Veterinary Behavior at Illinois will be there 11 a.m.-1 p.m. to chat and answer your questions. Plus, there will be giveaways and goodies for you and your pets, including apple cider, hot chocolate, paw print cookies, Rice Krispie treats, and Einstein doggy bagels. Get a free “Illini Pet” tag so your little buddy can show some Illini pride! We hope to see you there!

Is your pet dressing up for Halloween? We’d love to see! Come to our clinic on Saturday, Oct. 31, 10 a.m.-1 p.m., to get a complimentary photo taken and pick up a treat.

Due to popular demand,  we will continue to offer a 10% discount (and a 15% discount to all UIC students, faculty and staff) on ALL dental procedures that occur within the months of February AND MARCH! Call us to set up an appointment for your dog or cat today at 312-226-2588!

Stop by on Saturday, January 24, between 11:00 am and 2:00 pm, to help us celebrate our revamped digs.

• Enjoy a coffee/hot cocoa bar (with lots of yummy toppings)
• Bring your pet in for a complimentary body conditioning score
• Get advice on pet nutrition
• Tour our facilities
• Visit with our staff

Remember to enter through our new Suite 100 entrance.

Help Us Choose the Paws-Down Winner!

We have 11 furrtastic entries in our Fall Frolic Costume Photo Contest and we need your help choosing a winner.  Just cast your vote with a “like.” The pet with the largest number of unique “likes” will get their paws on some serious swag.

VOTE NOW

And don’t forget to share with your friends.

Contest ends at 5 pm on Monday, November 10. 

Join us on Saturday, November 1 from noon to 3 pm for the 2014 Furry Friends Fall Frolic.

• Dress your pets in their spooktacular best.
• Enjoy tricks and treats for pets and their humans.
• Get a free digital pet portrait and swag bag.
• All costumed pets in attendance with be entered into our Facebook Costume contest.
• Find out more on the Fall Frolic event page.

Help us make the Fall Frolic, more social:

• Follow us on Twitter and Instagram!
• Live tweet from the Fall Frolic (#FallFrolic, @MedDistrictVet)
• Tag your Fall Frolic pix (#FallFrolic, medicaldistrictvet)
• Tell us your furry friend’s favorite tricks for treats