About Veteran Pet Care

Meet Ron

Baseball and animals were the two threads running through my life growing up. Baseball took me through degrees in sports management and business management, and over the years that path led to building multiple businesses, including a baseball team. I loved every minute of it. When Bradenton became home, my focus shifted to the other thread: animals.

In 2023, my cat Mel threw a blood clot. A cardiologist diagnosed him with HCM, a thickening of the heart’s left ventricle, and put him on the standard protocol — two familiar blood thinners, Plavix and Xarelto. Everything I read about that combination in cats, who had already had a clot, pointed to about a year, maybe a year and a half lifespan. (You can read the study here) I wasn’t willing to accept that there was nothing more to be done, and that led me to Dr. Joshua Stern and his rapamycin research in cats with HCM. Rapamycin wasn’t FDA approved at the time, but given the minimal side effects of rapamycin in clinical trials, my primary care vet prescribed it off-label. Mel remains healthy to this day, and rapamycin is now FDA approved. That search also led me to become certified in Animal Naturopathy.

That same fresh set of eyes way of looking, now shapes how care happens for clients’ pets. When something doesn’t add up, I’ll dig in. Here’s one example. Did you know that dogs don’t have the same experience that people do when it comes to chemotherapy? Many people picture that brutal ordeal — and for good reason, because for people that’s often exactly what it is. Studies show dogs tolerate it much better than their human counterparts. (a diluted dose is needed for dogs) I didn’t know that either.

That experience is present in every home we visit, especially with seniors and special-needs animals receiving care right where they belong: at home.