| Urban Strategist |
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| Dermatology/Allergies | |||
| Heather
Peikes Board-certified dermatologist Veterinary Internal Medicine and Allergy Specialists 207 East 84th Street (212-988-4650) New kid on the block Heather Peikes is giving her veterinary neighbors plenty to talk about. She began practicing as Manhattan's only board-certified dermatologist four months ago, at a new 24-hour hospital that's the animal-care equivalent of Weill Cornell's pricey Greenberg Pavilion. vima Specialists may cost a little more than other veterinary clinics, but clients benefit from three internal-medicine specialists, state-of-the-art equipment, and hour-and-a-half appointments. Though general practitioners often treat dermatology and allergy problems (which make up 20 percent of all vet cases), Peikes is adamant about the value of her tiny specialty field. "The problems I see can be very severe, to the point where the animal is just one big scabby mess." Some owners don't realize their pets even have a dermatological problem. "I had an owner tell me their dog was very nervous -- he bit his nails all day long," says Peikes. " 'He's not nervous!' I said. 'He has a yeast infection on the skin around his nails!' " Skin problems also tend to develop as symptoms of internal ailments, which she can not only diagnose but team up with the hospital's internists to treat. Karen Helton-Rhodes Helton-Rhodes, 45, also runs a horse farm and is dermatologist to the show-circuit stars. Allergy sufferers constitute more than half of her practice. Chronic, itching dermatitis is a common hereditary problem in dogs, "kind of like hay fever in people," she says. "Once an allergy gets into a breeding line, it's there to stay. Allergies are in goldens and Labs, so they've kind of taken over where West Highland White terriers used to be the big itchy breed. Boxers are their own little problem child. I saw three yesterday. All I can say is, thank goodness the shar-pei is in decline. The worst skin -- and that's all they were." Mark Macina The difference between allergies in humans and in animals is that people respond with respiratory problems (stuffy nose, watery eyes) while dogs and cats respond with skin problems (itching, redness). But the science of immunotherapy is the same for both, as are the most common environmental offenders: dust, mold, grass, trees, weeds. Macina, 40, who grew up in the city -- "My family was troubled when I went to this hoity-toity liberal-arts college and then ended up cleaning pee and poop from cages" -- also takes urban challenges into consideration when treating allergic pets. "Like the constant construction going on outside your window," he says. "The cats have to hear that all day. Noise and pollution can exacerbate allergies. Plus, I see a lot of obsessive-compulsive behavior in New York -- licking, chewing, grooming." Whether that last comment referred to pets or humans, we weren't eager to ask. Nina Shoulberg |
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| Alternative Medicine | |||
| Bridget
Halligan Certified by the International Veterinary Acupuncture Society West Chelsea Veterinary Hospital 203 Tenth Avenue, at 22nd Street (212-645-2767) A dozen needles are still visible in Angus's dense coat, but the thirteen-year-old German shepherd is unfazed: He's about to receive treats. Thirty-six-year-old Bridget Halligan is rummaging through the cupboard under her examining table as Angus attempts to nose in. She produces a biscuit, then runs her hand along Angus's back several times to remove the last of the tiny needles. Angus doesn't flinch; he does this every two weeks. Roughly a third of Halligan's practice at West Chelsea is acupuncture patients, and most of them, like Angus, suffer from pain from orthopedic problems. She also treats some diabetic cats and older dogs with arthritis. Her patients generally don't mind the five to fourteen needles involved in a treatment. "I'll try to make the visit different from a regular trip to the vet," Halligan says. "For some newcomers, we even lower the lights." She grew up in Staten Island -- not exactly a holistic-health hotbed. Yet it produced three acupuncturing Halligans: Her father and sister practice the art on humans. "So many people will say acupuncture works because people believe it works," she says. "When it's effective on dogs, the evidence is obvious." Richard Joseph Each week, he schleps a mobile MRI unit from the neurology practice he shares in Yonkers with another of the rarefied 110, Jason Berg (see page 34), to clinics in Norwalk, Connecticut, southern New Jersey, and Manhattan. He has a thick Queens accent, longish dark, curly hair, and a hoop through his left ear. Joseph estimates that he has achieved an 80 percent success rate in joint-pain management through acupuncture. "It's a reasonable alternative to medicine, with its side effects, and surgery, with its risks. My clients' pets walk better, feel better, even revert to old habits, like jumping on the couch." That's success, in Joseph's line of work. |
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Having Too Much of a Ball... It happened in a blink during a Central Park dog gathering last spring. One moment, Oakley was holding the ball in his jaws, the next moment, it was down his throat. Read Oakley's story >>> |
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| Endocrinology | |||
| Andrew
Kaplan Internist Rivergate Veterinary Clinic 403 East 37th Street, (212-213-9885) Tall, dark, and humane, Andrew Kaplan is like a refugee worker, compelled to be wherever the need is greatest. So he moved back to New York -- where he'd done his residency at the Animal Medical Center -- from California about a year ago. "The situation in San Francisco is as good as it gets in terms of animal control and overpopulation," he says. In the five boroughs, by comparison, 40,000 to 60,000 animals are killed in accidents or by euthanasia each year. The 37-year-old general practitioner considers his specialty to be "puzzling" diagnoses and hard-to-manage diseases such as diabetes. His own mixed breed, Katie, is diabetic; you'll see her slowly but sweetly padding around the Rivergate clinic, where Kaplan says he will be practicing only until he can start his own shelter project. The vets at Rivergate support his plan, he says: "They believe in a lot of the same principles I do."
Mark E. Peterson
Friendly, soft-spoken, and anything but hyperactive himself, Peterson grew up on a dairy farm in Minnesota. In vet school, he became interested in dogs and cats when he realized that medicine for pets was more sophisticated: "If you can't fix a cow for $25, well, it gets shipped off." |
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| Laser Declawing | |||
| Kristin
Iglesias General practitioner St. Marks Veterinary Hospital 348 East 9th Street (212-477-2688; www.stmarksvet.com) "If it's going to be the claws or the cat, we'll save the cat, of course," says 29-year-old Kristin Iglesias. "Laser declawing is the kindest, least traumatic way to do it." Thanks to St. Marks's laser-surgery machine, Iglesias and the other vets there are masters of the scratchless cat. Iglesias estimates that her homey clinic performed about 55 laser declawings last year. Many vets don't like to declaw cats, and Iglesias is no exception. Tugging at her ponytail, she says, "We're talking about major surgery that, no matter what technique you use, involves removing the whole tip of the [cat's] finger, the entire bone." Confident and politically committed -- "Sometimes people bring in these beautiful cockatoos and I just think, Oh, you should be in a rain forest" -- Iglesias received a prestigious scholarship in high school to work in Cornell's vet college for the summer. She was assigned to the department of pathology and necropsy, she says, "and I thought, If I like animals this much when they're dead, imagine how much I'll like working with the live ones." |
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