Upper Peninsula Veterinary Service & ThunderPaws Boarding

06/06/2026

https://youtu.be/dwEg1RoULBw?si=BuorBqSszQp_nco1

Vet Locks Himself in Hot Car To Show What It's Like | This vet sat in a hot car for 30 minutes to show what it's like for a dog — and discovered it was "unbe...

06/05/2026

When you call--what does it mean when the message says I'm 'OUT OF THE OFFICE'?

It does NOT mean:
I'm gone on a vacation.
I'm unavailable for an urgent care case, call someone else with your situation.

It means, that I don't have scheduled in office hours for the day. I'm available in the event of an emergency but you HAVE to call the emergency number. If you leave a message about scheduling an appointment or medication, it will not be returned until the next business day.

As a solo mixed animal practitioner, I don't take days 'off'. BUT I absolutely do need time set aside to catch up. This includes calling to discuss lab work, sending out samples, preforming in-house tests, paying bills, having maintenance done on equipment, etc.

I hope this helps to clarify any confusion and what to do when you get our voicemail messages.

06/04/2026

Hey... Charlie here...
Wondering if you all can do me a huge favor?
My 3rd human (of course my boys are 1&2) is really struggling getting people to realize how terrible tick borne diseases are.
I hear her talk about how bad ticks are every day. Like EVERY DAY.

Remember she's diagnosed 5 cases of Lyme nephritis, which only happens in 1-2% of cases.

Last week she had a very concerning case.
Young dog presented for several days of strange behavior--circling, hugging the walls when walking, being scared, hiding, avoiding her humans.
She was running a fever so she got some lab work done. Guess what--her test said: Lyme positive. An additional test confirmed she has an active infection.
Human 3 called multiple other doctors to discuss the likelihood of her symptoms being from Lyme encephalitis. And it is seeming that is likely since she's finally responding to treatment human 3 started last week.

Please, please, please-- if your furred friends aren't on protection-- contact your vet & get them covered.
Tick borne diseases are real.

Charlie

05/29/2026

There's been A LOT of rumbling the past few years about veterinary accessibility after-hours for urgent/emergency care...& here in the UP it is no different. Most offices require active client status to be eligible for emergency service for multiple logistical reasons.

But...
2wk ago today we were having dinner with friends and received a call about a dog who had been shot. Caller was local but dog didn't have a vet. We agreed to see him and assess the situation.

Story goes--dog got startled by a loud noise, took off & neighbor shot him for being on his property. Don't know if that's true or if the dog was in his chicken coop causing chaos but... dog not walking on a rear leg and clearly wounded.

I recommended taking a rad to evaluate bone and see if what I was feeling was indeed the slug. Bone intact and slug close-ish to surface. I recommended we knock him out, clean his wounds & try to fish it out. Owner agreed that was best. Try as we did, it kept tracking back on its entrance path. To avoid further injury after 30min we stapled him up and started him on pain meds and antibiotics with a plan to remove staples and update his Rabies, as he'd never had one, the following Wed.

Now here's the best part, after giving an estimate before we started and the owner agreeing to it, he tells me as we're getting ready to send him home, he only has a portion of it.
Never met the guy, don't know the dog. I'm now thinking, I've just left my night with friends, to not be compensated for my time, the radiology equipment, medication for sedation, instruments, go home meds...
I smile, and say 'All good, just pay me the balance when we remove the staples-- it will be ~$X.'

And guess what...?
He didn't show. He didn't call. He didn't come for the staples to be removed. He didn't come and take care of his balance...
He had no intentions of coming when he agreed to the follow up appointment. He wasn't ever planning on coming, which is why he so badly wanted that Rabies vaccine that evening.

And this happens way too often! I bet if you asked, it is 1 of the top 5 reasons vets no longer do after-hours calls. Because they give & give & give their time, their family-friend time, their entire personal life away to people who don't appreciate it--again & again & again... and it is just expected 'because you do this job because you love animals.'

Think about that for a little while...
That IS why many private practice vets turn their calls over to answering services & refer you to emergency hospitals.
Because this is an all to often occurrence.
It is exhausting, maddening & heartbreaking to not be appreciated...
So... if you are lucky enough to still have a local vet who provides after-hours Veterinary care--take care of them, because if you don't, there will come a day when they are forced to take back their time...& then what...??

05/16/2026

Dear clients--if you have an EMERGENCY...

Do NOT: Facebook messenger me privately or at Rusty Belle Farm; these are my personal accounts and should not ever be used for veterinary access.
Do NOT: email, I don't check it outside of business hours.

Call 906.399.2043, listen to the message, follow the prompts.

05/14/2026

Guess what time of year it is??

As a general reminder:
If we're on farm calls for the day the voicemail will say so.
If you have an emergency, when leaving a message be sure to say it is urgent.
Non-urgent matters like scheduling, will be called back on our next in office day.
There are weeks where we may be scheduled on the road 2 days sequentially. Messages are not deleted until we call you back.
Although convenient, email is an unreliable form of correspondence--Please just call.
Appointments for wellness exams are scheduling into June and for surgery end of June. Please don't let your annual wellness expire before you get your pets on tick protection!
As mentioned below, we do now have an online store, so you don't have to track us down for picking up meds!

05/12/2026

PSA: reminder all agricultural properties including those around Upper Peninsula Veterinary Service & ThunderPaws Boarding & Rusty Belle Farm are private but DO NOT need to be posted as such. Unless you gain permission from the property owner leaving the roadway & entering onto it to pick apples, asparagus, mushrooms, flowers, hunt, take pictures, etc is committing recreational trespassing. The 'road right of way' is only for maintenance by those who do it-- not public access. Pls don't do it...