By Steve Mehler, DVM, DACVS The short answer: anesthesia should be performed efficiently, but the evidence does not support a universal time limit or a predictable amount of danger added by every additional minute. Patient health, urgency, procedural complexity, physiologic stability, monitoring, and recovery care are more informative than the stopwatch alone. Why the stopwatch is an imperfect measure It seems intuitive that a longer anesthetic must be more dangerous. Anesthe

By Steve Mehler, DVM, DACVS What the Evidence Actually Shows Endotracheal tubes are routinely reused in many veterinary hospitals. A tube is removed after anesthesia, washed, soaked in a disinfectant, dried and placed back into circulation. If it looks clean and the cuff still inflates, it may appear ready for another patient. But looking clean is not the same as being microbiologically safe—and eliminating recoverable bacteria is not the same as proving that a single-use tub

By Steve Mehler, DVM, DACVS Bottom line: FMT is a biologically plausible, generally well-tolerated microbiome intervention with the strongest canine signal in parvoviral enteritis and selected chronic enteropathy cases. It is not yet a standardized treatment, a substitute for diagnosis, or a reliably effective therapy across all dysbiosis-associated disease. In cats, evidence remains early and safety deserves particular caution. Why FMT is more than “transferring good bacteri

By Steve Mehler, DVM, DACVS The future of veterinary medicine will not be defined by a single breakthrough. It will emerge when artificial intelligence, wearable sensors, continuous monitoring, precision medicine, targeted therapies, and enormous amounts of patient data begin working together. What will veterinary medicine look like in 2035? I do not think the biggest change will be a new drug, a new surgical procedure, or even artificial intelligence by itself. I think the r

By Steve Mehler, DVM, DACVS One day your puppy is sprinting through the backyard. The next, they're limping. You don't remember a fall. They didn't yelp while playing. Yet suddenly they don't want to put weight on one leg. For many puppies, especially large and giant breeds, this isn't simply a sprain—it's often the first sign of juvenile orthopedic disease (JOD). Juvenile orthopedic disease refers to a group of developmental conditions that affect growing bones, cartilage, g

By Steve Mehler, DVM, DACVS For decades, veterinarians have repeated a remarkably specific set of numbers when discussing when to spay a female dog: Spay her before her first heat, and her risk of developing mammary tumors is only 0.5% of the risk in an intact female. Wait until after one heat, and that relative risk increases to 8%. Wait until after two heats, and it rises to 26%. These statistics have appeared in veterinary textbooks, lectures, client education materials, a

By Steve Mehler, DVM, DACVS The short answer: glucosamine is generally well tolerated, but the best available veterinary evidence does not show a reliable, clinically meaningful benefit for most dogs with osteoarthritis. It should not displace treatments with stronger evidence. Few supplements have become as closely associated with canine arthritis as glucosamine. It appears in tablets, chews, powders, prescription diets, and combination products. Owners often begin it at the

By Steve Mehler, DVM, DACVS For decades, few topics in veterinary medicine have generated more concern—and more misinformation—than vaccine-associated sarcomas (VAS) in cats. Pet owners worry about causing cancer by vaccinating their cats. Veterinarians worry about balancing disease prevention with a rare but devastating complication. A new systematic review and meta-analysis published in the Journal of Small Animal Practice provides one of the most comprehensive evaluations

By Steve Mehler, DVM, DACVS For more than two decades, stem cells have been one of the most exciting frontiers in veterinary regenerative medicine. The idea seemed straightforward: inject stem cells into damaged tissue, allow them to become new cartilage, tendon, or other specialized cells, and watch healing occur. But science has a way of challenging our assumptions. Today, many researchers believe that stem cells may not be the primary treatment at all. Instead, much of the

By Steve Mehler, DVM, DACVS For decades, pain management in surgery was largely reactive. A patient woke up from anesthesia, showed signs of pain, and then received pain medication. Today, veterinary medicine has embraced a very different philosophy—one supported by decades of research in both human and veterinary anesthesia: The best pain management begins before the first incision is ever made. It may sound counterintuitive, but one of the primary goals of modern surgery is

By Steve Mehler, DVM, DACVS For many pet owners—and even some veterinary professionals—that statement comes as a surprise. After all, medications like morphine, oxycodone, hydrocodone, codeine, and tramadol are among the best-known pain relievers in human medicine. If they're powerful in people, shouldn't they be equally effective in dogs? Not necessarily. One of the most important lessons in veterinary pharmacology is that species matter. Dogs are not simply smaller humans.

By Steve Mehler, DVM, DACVS Gabapentin has become one of the most frequently prescribed medications in veterinary medicine. Every day, veterinarians dispense it to help dogs with chronic pain, nerve injuries, seizures, and anxiety associated with stressful events such as veterinary visits or fireworks. For many practices, it has become a cornerstone of multimodal pain management. Yet despite its widespread use, gabapentin is also one of the most misunderstood medications in v

By Steve Mehler, DVM, DACVS For generations, veterinarians have been taught a relatively simple approach to canine hip dysplasia. If a dog wasn’t painful, we watched. We monitored body condition, recommended appropriate exercise, managed weight carefully, and introduced medications or surgery only if clinical signs eventually developed. It was a logical strategy. After all, why perform orthopedic surgery on a dog that appears perfectly happy? Today, however, advances in biome

By Steve Mehler, DVM, DACVS If your dog has ever been prescribed Pepcid® (famotidine) for stomach ulcers, acid reflux, or a mast cell tumor, you may assume that it works the same way every day it’s given. Surprisingly, that’s not always true. One of the more fascinating—and often overlooked—concepts in pharmacology is something called tachyphylaxis. While the name sounds complicated, the idea is actually straightforward: some medications become less effective surprisingly qui

By Steve Mehler, DVM, DACVS If you’ve spent any time on social media, you’ve probably heard someone say: “Dogs only sweat through their paws.” It’s one of the most common facts repeated online. The problem? It’s not entirely true. Like many things in veterinary medicine, the real answer is more interesting. Dogs Do Have Sweat Glands Dogs actually possess two different types of sweat glands, each serving a different purpose. 1. Eccrine Sweat Glands These are the sweat glands m

By Steve Mehler, DVM, DACVS For decades, veterinarians have given a familiar warning: "Avoid fatty foods—they can cause pancreatitis." It's advice that has become almost unquestioned in veterinary medicine. Every holiday season, emergency hospitals prepare for an influx of dogs that reportedly developed pancreatitis after eating turkey skin, bacon grease, or other rich table scraps. But what if the relationship isn't as straightforward as we've believed? A recent narrative re

By Steve Mehler, DVM, DACVS A young cat develops chronic sneezing. Another has noisy breathing. A third suddenly develops a head tilt and one constricted pupil. At first glance, these problems may seem unrelated. But they can all be caused by the same disease: Feline inflammatory nasopharyngeal (aural) polyps. Although these growths are benign, they can significantly affect a cat's quality of life and frequently originate deep within one of the most fascinating structures in

By Steve Mehler, DVM, DACVS Walk into any veterinary hospital and you'll see one piece of equipment that almost every veterinarian and technician carries—but it's probably not listed on the inventory. A cell phone. We use them to communicate with colleagues, look up drug dosages, review radiographs, access medical records, answer client questions, set timers during anesthesia, and even take clinical photographs. But here's the question researchers recently asked: Are our phon

By Dr. Steve Mehler Dental procedures are among the most common surgeries performed in dogs and cats. Yet one question continues to generate debate: Should pets routinely receive antibiotics before or after a professional dental cleaning or tooth extraction? For years, many veterinarians have prescribed antibiotics out of concern that bacteria released during a dental procedure could enter the bloodstream and cause serious infections elsewhere in the body. A new 2026 systemat

By Steve Mehler, DVM, DACVS For decades, one of the most common recommendations after a dog develops pancreatitis has been simple: Feed a low-fat diet. The logic seems straightforward. If the pancreas helps digest fat, then reducing dietary fat should reduce pancreatic inflammation. But what if the evidence supporting that recommendation isn't as strong as we've believed? A new 2026 narrative review published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association (JAVM