Michelle Gerhard Jasny V.M.D.
Visiting Vet: Senior animals
It’s one o’clock in the morning. I can’t get comfortable. I have bursitis in my hip, and it hurts. I toss and turn. If...
Visiting Vet: Connections
“Do you carry electric blankets?” the voice asked when I answered the office phone. For a moment I was confused. Veterinarians use a variety...
Visiting Vet: Happy holidays
Deck the Halls
(Please sing out loud to your pets for full effect . . . with apologies to Scottish musician Thomas Oliphant, 1862, who...
Visiting Vet: Help is here
Two o’clock in the morning. The telephone rings. A dog vomiting repeatedly. Sunday afternoon. The telephone rings. A limping cat. Halfway through dinner. The...
Visiting Vet: Bones are not humerus
Three families. Four dogs. A whole lot of short rib bones. The first people were not regular clients, but referred to me as “the...
Visiting Vet: Greylock’s case
When Greylock arrived for his appointment, his owner and I spent some time chatting on the porch. The handsome grey middle-aged cat had originally...
Visiting Vet: ‘My dog is choking!’
“My dog is choking!” I get these frantic phone calls way too often. Sometimes at two o’clock in the morning. Or the time I...
Visiting Vet: Cats’ eyes
Ketzeleh, a sweet older cat, came in for an appointment. Her owner reported the cat’s eyes had been a little runny for a few...
Visiting Vet: Mako’s miracle
The answering service relayed the message to me at 7 pm by quoting the client’s exact words — her dog, Mako, had eaten “a...
Visiting Vet: A Great Dane’s final journey
The phone rang. 10:30 pm. Alannah, a 6-year-old Great Dane, was acting oddly — restless, panting heavily, and occasionally making a “throat-clearing” noise. Late-night...
Visiting Vet: Frolicking Fenster
It was just a freak accident. Fenster, a beautiful but shy Tabby-Siamese mix, somehow got one of her hind legs caught under a double-hung...
Visiting Vet: Considering euthanasia
Everybody, please. Sit down and take a deep breath. One of the hardest things veterinarians deal with is helping owners with decisions regarding euthanasia....
Visiting Vet: Read the signs
Benedict, a 5-year-old English setter, recently arrived on the Vineyard after a two-day drive from down south. “He’s usually a good traveler,” his owner...
Visiting Vet: Mushroom mayhem
It’s been a particularly soggy July. Everything’s damp. Even the dry laundry doesn’t feel dry. And let’s not talk about my hair. Know what...
Visiting Vet: Belvedere is back on his feet
“I think my dog is paralyzed,” the owner said when he called on emergency one afternoon. “He’s fourteen, a Labrador. Something’s really wrong.” I...
Visiting Vet: Simple treatment can work wonders
Roro, a 3-year-old cat, lives a freewheeling feline life rambling around the backwoods of West Tisbury, but coming home regularly for food and affection....
Visiting Vet: A different kind of wake-up call
5:30 a.m. I am good at sensing what time it is by the way the morning light angles in through my bedroom window, by...
Visiting Vet: Keeping cats happy
Back in the 80s, before the Land Bank acquired the Duarte’s Pond property and removed the buildings there, I lived on the edge of...
Visiting Vet: What a day
I should have known it was too good to be true. My Thursday 24-hour shift on call had been exceptionally quiet. Friday looked to...
Visiting Vet: The case of Wynken’s ear
After a visit to a local rescue operation, a couple of my clients who had lost their elderly cat in January went home with...