vets office.

Ben Westhoff Each week, Ben Westhoff shares the ups and downs of owning Pippi, the dalmatian mix he and his wife Anna adopted as a puppy in late 2009, and the first dog Ben's ever had. Back in April, Anna wrote about her trying experience meeting Pippi's first vet. Not only did this woman lack a decent bedside manner (implying Pippi had behavioral issues. As if!), but she pushed to prescribe Pippi a bunch of pointless medicines and treatments, including an unnecessary antibiotic and a preventative lyme-disease treatment (despite the fact that she already had a recent negative lyme-disease test). The experience left Anna exasperated, and many of you readers commiserated with us. After ...

splityarn, Flickr Ever been at your vet's office when a fellow pet owner let his cat crawl over other clients? Or had someone's unrestrained mongrel take a chunk out of your thigh as you ambled innocently by with your totally chill pug? These things have happened to us here at Paw Nation and though the second incident hurt more the first, both are, at the very least, breaches of pet etiquette. While your vet might not advertise waiting room policy but there are unspoken rules you should follow. In "USA Today," veterinarian Patty Khuly offers 10 waiting-room dos and don'ts on which we reasonable pet people can agree including when to restrain animals and smart ways of dealing with a packed ...