{"id":2435,"date":"2014-10-11T03:47:00","date_gmt":"2014-10-11T03:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aercmn.com\/?p=2435"},"modified":"2014-10-11T03:47:00","modified_gmt":"2014-10-11T03:47:00","slug":"what-is-internal-medicine-how-can-it-help-my-pet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/what-is-internal-medicine-how-can-it-help-my-pet\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Internal Medicine? How can it help my pet?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Internal medicine specialized veterinarians are specialists who apply scientific knowledge and clinical expertise to the diagnosis, treatment, and compassionate care of pets across the spectrum from health to complex illness.\u00a0 Internists in human medicine are sometimes referred to as a “doctor’s doctor,” because they are often called upon to act as consultants to other doctors to help solve puzzling diagnostic problems, and in veterinary medicine, the same dynamic applies.<\/p>\n

Animal Emergency & Referral Center of Minnesota (AERC of MN) provides emergency care 24\/7, as well as referral care, which means that, just like in human medicine, pets can be seen by a specialist, like an internist, for complex medical problems.<\/p>\n

Recently, Grace, a beautiful tortoise-shell cat, came to AERC of MN to see to Dr. Steve Shadwick, DACVIM, an Internist, for the removal of a nasopharyngeal polyp. Grace\u2019s regular veterinary clinic is\u00a0Lake Animal Hospital\u00a0<\/a>in White Bear Lake. Initially, Grace had what her owner thought was an ear infection in her left ear, but after two weeks of an antibiotic, it did not improve. During her check-up, the veterinarian at Lake Animal Hospital found a polyp (or an abnormal growth of tissue) in her left ear. When she was anesthetized to remove that polyp, they had trouble intubating her due to the presence of another polyp in her nose.<\/p>\n

Grace was then referred to AERC to see Dr. Shadwick. \u201cGrace had snorted since she was a young cat.\u00a0\"\"She had a constant runny nose, which I had to wipe several times a day; the sound of the tissue being pulled from the box would send her running from the room. Occasionally, she even regurgitated when eating. She was on the thin side, and when she’d get sick, I couldn\u2019t keep weight on her,\u201d said Grace\u2019s owner Heather.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a great experience at AERC. Since her surgery there to remove the polyp in her nose, she no longer has a runny nose, breathes so much easier and doesn\u2019t snort. She has so much more energy, and within three weeks of the procedure she’d put on nearly a pound, which is great. She’s playing like a kitten again, and I\u2019m so happy that she doesn\u2019t have to stop to catch her breath,\u201d Heather added.<\/p>\n

Heather went on to explain how AERC handled a miscommunication in regards to the procedure being performed on Grace, \u201cDr. Shadwick worked with me to lower the bill and provide me with a free recheck as compensation.\u201d<\/p>\n

During Grace\u2019s recheck, Heather was also delighted to see that the technicians remembered Grace and were truly happy that she was better. \u201cGracie’s health means so much to me. I\u2019m so happy that her life is tremendously improved that I don\u2019t even mind that her now unending energy is completely exhausting. She is a little spitfire. She’s now even able to keep up with my other cat, her sister Calleigh, who is twice her size,\u201d Heather said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI now feel confident that my Grace has a full life ahead of her. My commitment to both of my cats is paramount; I would do for them what any parent should do for their child. I’m glad that I was able to fulfill that commitment with the help of Dr. Shadwick at Animal Emergency & Referral Center of Minnesota. There is nothing like the unconditional love of a furry being to make life worth living sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Internal medicine specialized veterinarians are specialists who apply scientific knowledge and clinical expertise to the diagnosis, treatment, and compassionate care of pets across the spectrum from health to complex illness.\u00a0 Internists in human medicine are sometimes referred to as a “doctor’s doctor,” because they are often called upon to act as consultants to other doctors […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat is Internal Medicine? How can it help my pet? | Animal Emergency & Referal Center of Minnesota<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/what-is-internal-medicine-how-can-it-help-my-pet\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What is Internal Medicine? How can it help my pet? | Animal Emergency & Referal Center of Minnesota\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Internal medicine specialized veterinarians are specialists who apply scientific knowledge and clinical expertise to the diagnosis, treatment, and compassionate care of pets across the spectrum from health to complex illness.\u00a0 Internists in human medicine are sometimes referred to as a “doctor’s doctor,” because they are often called upon to act as consultants to other doctors […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/what-is-internal-medicine-how-can-it-help-my-pet\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Animal Emergency & Referal Center of Minnesota\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-10-11T03:47:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Animal Emergency & Referral Center of Minnesota\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Animal Emergency & Referral Center of Minnesota\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/what-is-internal-medicine-how-can-it-help-my-pet\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/what-is-internal-medicine-how-can-it-help-my-pet\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Animal Emergency & Referral Center of Minnesota\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/50bbf04df56a8f8be5d5d9d637cb827f\"},\"headline\":\"What is Internal Medicine? How can it help my pet?\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-10-11T03:47:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/what-is-internal-medicine-how-can-it-help-my-pet\/\"},\"wordCount\":590,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Blog\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/what-is-internal-medicine-how-can-it-help-my-pet\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/what-is-internal-medicine-how-can-it-help-my-pet\/\",\"name\":\"What is Internal Medicine? How can it help my pet? | Animal Emergency & Referal Center of Minnesota\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-10-11T03:47:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/what-is-internal-medicine-how-can-it-help-my-pet\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/what-is-internal-medicine-how-can-it-help-my-pet\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/what-is-internal-medicine-how-can-it-help-my-pet\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"What is Internal Medicine? How can it help my pet?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Animal Emergency & Referal Center of Minnesota\",\"description\":\"Our Veterinary Blog | Animal Emergency & Referral Center of Minnesota (AERC)\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Animal Emergency & Referral Center of Minnesota\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/cropped-ms-tile.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/cropped-ms-tile.png\",\"width\":512,\"height\":512,\"caption\":\"Animal Emergency & Referral Center of Minnesota\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/50bbf04df56a8f8be5d5d9d637cb827f\",\"name\":\"Animal Emergency & Referral Center of Minnesota\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1f46ceaad3df4fa231de22989fe6a3cefb1b0420f2f1a7da4b76fd429428bdf5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1f46ceaad3df4fa231de22989fe6a3cefb1b0420f2f1a7da4b76fd429428bdf5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Animal Emergency & Referral Center of Minnesota\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/author\/beyond\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"What is Internal Medicine? How can it help my pet? | Animal Emergency & Referal Center of Minnesota","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/what-is-internal-medicine-how-can-it-help-my-pet\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"What is Internal Medicine? How can it help my pet? | Animal Emergency & Referal Center of Minnesota","og_description":"Internal medicine specialized veterinarians are specialists who apply scientific knowledge and clinical expertise to the diagnosis, treatment, and compassionate care of pets across the spectrum from health to complex illness.\u00a0 Internists in human medicine are sometimes referred to as a “doctor’s doctor,” because they are often called upon to act as consultants to other doctors […]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/what-is-internal-medicine-how-can-it-help-my-pet\/","og_site_name":"Animal Emergency & Referal Center of Minnesota","article_published_time":"2014-10-11T03:47:00+00:00","author":"Animal Emergency & Referral Center of Minnesota","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Animal Emergency & Referral Center of Minnesota","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/what-is-internal-medicine-how-can-it-help-my-pet\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/what-is-internal-medicine-how-can-it-help-my-pet\/"},"author":{"name":"Animal Emergency & Referral Center of Minnesota","@id":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/50bbf04df56a8f8be5d5d9d637cb827f"},"headline":"What is Internal Medicine? How can it help my pet?","datePublished":"2014-10-11T03:47:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/what-is-internal-medicine-how-can-it-help-my-pet\/"},"wordCount":590,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Blog"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/what-is-internal-medicine-how-can-it-help-my-pet\/","url":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/what-is-internal-medicine-how-can-it-help-my-pet\/","name":"What is Internal Medicine? How can it help my pet? | Animal Emergency & Referal Center of Minnesota","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-10-11T03:47:00+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/what-is-internal-medicine-how-can-it-help-my-pet\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/what-is-internal-medicine-how-can-it-help-my-pet\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/what-is-internal-medicine-how-can-it-help-my-pet\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"What is Internal Medicine? How can it help my pet?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/","name":"Animal Emergency & Referal Center of Minnesota","description":"Our Veterinary Blog | Animal Emergency & Referral Center of Minnesota (AERC)","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Animal Emergency & Referral Center of Minnesota","url":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/cropped-ms-tile.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/cropped-ms-tile.png","width":512,"height":512,"caption":"Animal Emergency & Referral Center of Minnesota"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/50bbf04df56a8f8be5d5d9d637cb827f","name":"Animal Emergency & Referral Center of Minnesota","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1f46ceaad3df4fa231de22989fe6a3cefb1b0420f2f1a7da4b76fd429428bdf5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1f46ceaad3df4fa231de22989fe6a3cefb1b0420f2f1a7da4b76fd429428bdf5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Animal Emergency & Referral Center of Minnesota"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog"],"url":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/author\/beyond\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2435\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aercmn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}