This site is all about the treatment of dogs, cats, and animals.
But there's lots of other information here too. We discuss animal welfare, animal politics, veterinary history, wildlife issues, pet owner responsibility, and the Human Animal Bond.
We also talk alot about Preventive Medicine, wellness exams, vaccinations, parasite control and so forth.
And despite some hateful emails, this site also discusses hot issues such as declaw surgeries and vaccine protocols.
The vast majority of this site, though, is a tribute and celebration of my life-long love for animals by sharing with you the knowledge and experience I've gained as a busy veterinarian in the beautiful foothills of South Carolina, USA
Thanks for coming, Roger Ross, DVM
This web site is dedicated to helping you with pet health questions, with promoting better pet care, and in hopes of raising a little money for our no kill pet shelter:
Any links or banner ads to Amazon.com or other commercial concerns on this site earn us a small commission if you end up buying something and a 100% of these earning go toward helping the pets at our shelter. Thanks!
General Disclaimer
About diagnosing and treating your own pet:
That's not the intention of my comments in the treatment sections of this web site and I think you would be foolish in most cases to treat your pets based on what you read on my site.
In fact, I hope it will become obvious in the treatment discussions just how complex coming up with a diagnosis can be.
In addition to the educational background that veterinarians have, it takes seeing 10 plus cases a day for years to get really good at figuring out what's wrong and what will be needed to get the case under control.
The intention of these treatment pages is to give you an idea of what to expect if your pet has a problem and even better; to give you an outline of the main points you have discussed or considered with me or your vet during the exam.
Another intention of the treatment comments is to instill in you, the pet owner, the idea that while many cases are straight forward and respond well to our chosen initial treatment, there are lots of exceptions...not because the veterinary work was shoddy...but because the nature of curing disease depends on so many factors.
All my treatment comments include options for a reason; there is no one set best way to treat every case.
And all my comments leave open the possible need of referring to another vet, usually a specialist, because no vet has all the answers or equipment or expertise needed for every case.
And lastly; Trust your veterinarian...the vast majority are extremely dedicated and talented people with you and your pet's best interest at heart.
If you run your own business and aren't already a TradeBank member, click on the TradeBank logo above to learn about this successful barter club. Tradebank members are eage to spend their trade dollars at your business.
This whole web site was written partly to share my joy and love for my job of caring for sick and injured pets, and partly to promote pet owner responsibility. But I was also hoping to raise money for our no-kill shelter. Here's how you can help:
1. If you shop at Bi-Lo, we're registered there as an official 501c, tax deductible charity. If you'll print out the bar code below and take it to Bi-Lo groceries and ask them to scan it the next time you shop: everytime you use your Bi-Lo Bonus card, we get 1% of your purchase ... the amount Bi-Lo donates to charites.
2. Visit our Ebay Store where we sell all the interesting stuff that people donate to our shelter. This includes pet clothes had made by our supporters, Custom painted T shirts, Craft items, and lots of yard sale items. Click here to link to our EBay store site
3. And of course, we'd greatly appreciate a straight donation. Our staff is 100% volunteer and we do a great job of finding homes for 200-300 pets a year that would otherwise be euthanized. With a little more money we could care for another 100 pets a year.
Please check out our shelter web site at ARF-SC.org
