Veterinary Medicine - December 2007 - (Page 810)

Mind Over Miller musings from Dr. Robert M. Miller ’Twas the night before Christmas I was on emergency call for 32 consecutive Christmas Eves—and I remember almost every call I had to make. n 1959, Thousand Oaks was a small town. It could have been called Thousand People. It had only one physician—Dr. Mario Zoller— and one radiography machine—mine. On Christmas Eve, Dr. Zoller called me because a patient’s mother-inlaw had stepped off the bus to spend the holiday with her family and had gotten clipped by a passing car. Dr. Zoller thought she had fractured her wrist, but he needed me to X-ray it to be sure. Well, the lady did have a fracture. And 20 years later her son-in-law was still telling people, “My motherin-law got run over by a car, so we took her to the vet.” Darryl became a house pet. He rode in the car and played with the family cat. One day, he was visiting the hospital and his vision returned. I was taking a photo of him outside on a leash when another client arrived with a large dog. Darryl cringed, and his pupils abruptly distended. He could see! Six months after Christmas, Darryl was asleep on the fireplace mantel when a visiting neighbor tried to stroke him and he bit her. His brain had repaired itself. From then on, he would attempt to bite whenever he was handled. Eventually Darryl returned to the wild, and the Chamberses never saw him again. But one day, they came home to find several wasteDr. Miller (left), assisted by his partner and friend I’ll never forget the Ortega family, Dr. Robert Kind, examines the eyes of an injured baskets overturned—one of Darryl’s whose cow came down with milk fox called Darryl. favorite tricks. He had apparently fever on Christmas Eve. The family entered through an open window. was anguished when I arrived. I tried to sive care for two days before slowly reA year later, a client who lived in the reassure them as I started administering gaining consciousness. A mature male, canyon in which Darryl had been found the intravenous calcium solution. They the fox made no attempt to bite, and we asked me if foxes got rabies. I said yes were overjoyed at the cow’s dramatic resuccessfully spoon-fed him. We split the and asked why. covery. In gratitude, they presented me hospital bill with the Chamberses, and “We have a fox around here that sits with a huge box of tamales, a traditional they took the fox home. on the windowsill, looking through the Mexican Christmas dish. My wife, Debby, Gradually the fox, named Darryl, the glass. But if we step outside, it runs off.” and I ate tamales for a week afterward. 20th Century Fox, recovered except that I told him about Darryl, and we agreed he seemed to be blind and had lost his that it must be the same fox, confused by sense of smell. Darryl would not eat unhis wild instincts and his memories of six The most memorable Christmas Eve less the food was spooned into his months of human kindness. O story of them all started when Jack mouth. His eyes were normal, but beChambers called because he had found cause of brain damage, he could not inRobert M. Miller, DVM, is an author and a an unconscious fox, apparently the victim terpret what his eyes perceived. Interestcartoonist, speaker, and Veterinary Medicine of a hit-and-run. He said he’d pay me to ingly, Darryl had lost all hostility and Practitioner Advisory Board member from Thousand Oaks, Calif. His thoughts in “Mind examine the fox and see what I could do. aggressiveness. He would cringe in fear Over Miller” are drawn from 32 years as a The fox, a California gray, was in inten- but never bite. mixed-animal practitioner. Visit his Web site I at www.robertmmiller.com. 810 December 2007 VETERINARY MEDICINE The views expressed in “Mind Over Miller” do not necessarily reflect those of the editorial and practitioner advisory boards or the editorial staff. http://www.robertmmiller.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Veterinary Medicine - December 2007

Veterinary Medicine - December 2007 Contents Letters Editors' Guest Thanking Our Valued Reviewers The Veterinary Medicine Interview: Dr. Joseph Harari Clinical Exposures Idea Exchange Answers to Three Commonly Asked Questions About Lyme Disease Practical Ideas for Managing Common Internal Medicine Problems A Tip for Interpreting Leptospira Species Titers Investigating Proteinuric Kidney Disease Counseling New Puppy Owners: Normal Play vs. Aggressive Tendencies 11 Guidelines for Conservatively Treating Chronic Kidney Disease CE Form Product Preview Advertiser Index Marketplace/Classifieds Mind Over Miller Merial Insert

Veterinary Medicine - December 2007

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