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Hi, everybody . Welcome back. I’m Dr. Erica Barron and this is our newest vet here at the clinic. This is Dr. Kristina Bazemore. She’s really, really nice. You guys are really going to like her. So Ellen had to leave because her daughter isn’t feeling well. So I thought we’d just take a couple minutes so you could meet Dr. Bazemore and you could ask her any questions you have. I have a couple but feel free to jump in and ask your questions too. We also have this kitten named Mouse. Mouse say, “Hi ”
She likes Dr. Bazemore’s laugh a lot so that’s how it is. Hello? All right. So, Dr. Bazemore, where are you from? I am from Washington DC, born and raised. I went to public school here and then, attended veterinary school at Virginia Tech. Go, Hokies. Hokies ! All right. Hokies are fun . All right. What is your favorite type of cat? Well, I don’t have a specific favorite type of cat but I do love Brown Tabby patterns so any of your breeds in Brown Tabby, I love them. It’s always good that we all have different cats we like. Hi, Sophie! You wanted to ask us about FIP in cats? Okay. Hold on just a sec. We’re going to go through the rest of these questions and then, we will talk about FIP. Feel free to put your question in the comments, though, and then, we’ll circle back to that if that’s okay. All right, Dr. Bazemore, what are your hobbies? Well, I like to sing. Well, I didn’t get a chance to this summer. I like to go bike riding. The weather’s been kind of crappy so– Oh, it wasn’t great this year. — didn’t get an opportunity to do that as much. And then, sometimes, I like to go roller skating so. Roller skating? Yes. That’s fun . I haven’t been rollerskating in a long time. That sounds like a really good time. Yeah. What do you like to sing? Whatever’s on the radio. Aha! I’m a shower singer. Me too . Oh, wants you to sing for everybody. Oh, maybe in another video . All right. She’ll work on it, request what songs you want her to sing and then, we’ll go from there. Hello. Hello. Hey, everybody. All right. So what’s your favorite color? I am a pink and red girl, so. Oh, pink and red. Yes.
Pink. Pink and red. All right. Also, in case you didn’t know, Dr. Bazemore’s birthday’s soon and she really likes opals because her birthday is in October [laughter]. Opals are awesome. Yes. I love opal. “Oh, boy. She reeled you in.” Yes. I did reel her in [laughter], I did. You weren’t here and we haven’t done a video in a bit, so I felt like we had to do it. All right. So what’s your favorite holiday? I would have to say, probably, Christmas just because of the family time together, so. Yeah, my favorite, be Christmas. Last night, when I was hanging out with my daughter, while she was skipping down the hall and someone gave her a candy cane, she told me she was upset we don’t celebrate Christmas because she doesn’t get enough candy canes [laughter]. So I told her this year, for Hanukkah, I would buy her lots of candy canes– Lots of candy canes. –and she got very excited.
So I was actually thinking maybe one night of just putting a bunch of candy canes in the menorah. If I do that, I’ll have to take a picture for everybody. Yes. I think that’s pretty funny. All right. And what is one of the things you’re most excited about being at NOVA Cat? I guess, the opportunity to pick your brains. Coming from a small practice, kind of limited on the number of doctors, so being able to have more minds to come together as a team to learn more and take advantage of the opportunities that are presented by having multiple doctors on board, so. And I love cats so it’s always exciting just to be able to spend time with them, so. Yes. The rule is you can’t be here unless you love cats. Yes. One of the rules . So anyway, if you wanted to meet Dr. Bazemore in person, she is here Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursdays, and Fridays, and once in a while on a Saturday. We all say that “Once in a while on a Saturday.” And, so far, you’ve been here like a month? Is that right? About a month and– almost a month and a half. Oh. I’m sorry. Yeah. I didn’t mean to diminish your six weeks here. No. No. It’s okay. And we’ve been having a great time. So I hope you have the chance to come in and meet her because she’s really fun to be around and she has a great laugh [laughter]. So let’s see what these questions are. Let’s see. Ooh, hold on. Seymour– oh, it’s not working. I’m sorry about that. So there’s a question about someone going outside of the litter box with a– so, Miss Hall, if you could text that in again, I can’t see the full thing. I’m sorry about that. And let’s see– and somebody else was asking about FIP cats. So, for me, I feel like FIP is a great pretender. And I’m pretty good at forgetting about it because it’s not super-common. But when it does happen it’s very tough. There’s a couple different diagnostic tests we can do to rule it in or out. I think Ellen and I did a talk about FIP. Unfortunately, one of Ellen’s cats, a couple years ago, Benny’s sister, had FIP and it was very sad. So it’s not common but when it happens it’s quite bad. There’s a couple markers we can see in blood work. There’s a couple markers and couple tests we can do. So if you have more questions about that maybe– I think Ellen and I did a talk about this, but if not we could do one for you if you like.
And then, Miss Hall, if you can ask the rest of your question. For some reason, it isn’t all coming on the screen and I’m sorry about that. “My parents’ two-year-old Golden was with us for a week. My cat did number one outside the box”? It’s not letting me see more. I’m really sorry about that. So if you want to email us your question– for some reason, Facebook isn’t letting me expand it and I’m sorry. And then, we can help you from there. “Any advice for helping my boys with their sister crossing the bridge before Friday morning?” Oh, I’m sorry about that. Do you have anything you like to do or recommend with cats when other pets are crossing over the rainbow bridge? For people who don’t know that, that means they’re being put to sleep.
I guess just continue to show them extra love. I think it’s going to be more of what you do afterwards that would be very important. Just making sure that you’re watching their behaviors and appetite, and making sure they’re not hiding. I do believe kitties do grieve when others go on past the rainbow bridge. So I just say, “Keep an eye on their normal behaviors,” and sometimes, you do start to see changes at home where one that wasn’t so snugly is now snugly, now that the other one isn’t there. But there are hormones and things like that, that also, I think, help them at home to ease with the transition. But it’s just extra love and care and I think they’ll be okay after some time. Some of the pheromones Dr. Bazemore’s talking about are things like Feliway, you can plug it in. You can also spray the Feliway. I always remind people, “Don’t let your cat see you spray it because cats don’t like that.” So close the door, spray it on a towel and then, put it out. And you can also try Zylkene which is something you put in their food. Or, you could try Calm Diet which you can get from your veterinarian. It has tryptophan and it just kind of makes you a little happier. Just like even a big turkey dinner makes you a little bit happier.
So, Miss Hall, I’m sorry. I saw that you tried to message us a couple different ways and for some reason, my iPad is not letting us see the full message. So feel free to shoot it to us and we’ll try to respond later today if we can, and we’ll try to help you further. “How can I get my cat to chill out for vet visits ?” Great question. Ellen and I did a full video about this a couple weeks ago, so feel free to look at that because we went through how to do it from start to finish, best practices. So I would just recommend looking at that. Well, I feel like Dr. Bazemore should probably go see cats that are here to see her, so we’re going to cut this short. Thanks so much for spending this time with us today. And thanks for getting the opportunity to chat with me and Dr. Bazemore. We’re happy that you’re here. And if you have any questions or concerns, feel free to shoot us a message below. If there’s something you specifically want Dr. Bazemore to get out here and talk with you about, we can do that or we’ll just go back to me and Ellen because she’s– I think her hair might have changed colors since our last video. So I don’t want you to miss out on that [laughter]. Anyway, thank you. I hope you all have a great rest of your day. Thank you, guys. Nice to meet you all and look forward to seeing you soon. Yeah. She’s nice. You’ll like her , I promise. Bye.