Oakdale Animal Clinic

08/14/2026

STRANGER THAN STRANGE

It was a Saturday morning in Lake Charles and everybody decided to bring their animals in to the vet. The waiting room was full and people were waiting outside. Hectic did not adequately describe the scene as we worked our way through one patient after another. My receptionist poked her head into the exam room mid morning and said some one was on the phone with a cat with a knife wound. To busy to think I told her to tell them to bring it in. Forgetting all about it, I continued to process the patients I saw one after the other.

Some time later my receptionist came in in a panic and told me I needed to see the next patient quickly. I was finishing with the current patient so I stepped into the waiting room and saw why my receptionist was upset. Standing just inside the entrance was a young man with a black cat in a shallow box. The cat had an eight inch butcher knife protruding from it’s skull like a unicorn. The cat was becoming increasingly agitated and the young man appeared scared out of his wits.

I quickly took the cat from him and told him to give his contact information to the receptionist. Taking him into the exam room, I knew I had to hurry before the cat went ballistic. I really wanted to take pictures of this because I knew no one would believe me when I told them about it. I had someone call my wife who dabbled in photography, hoping we could get pictures before anesthetizing the cat. But I quickly realized that wasn’t going to work out. So I went ahead and put the cat under anesthesia. The knife was lodged firmly into the cat’s skull just above its left eye. X-rays showed the tip of the blade protruding into the cranial cavity.

Removing it took considerable force but left a very small clean wound. After making sure there was no contamination, I closed and sealed the wound with surgical glue, administered and antibiotic and placed the cat in a cage to recover.

To this day I have no idea how this occured. The owners said the cat showed up at their door after having been outside with the knife in its head. The next morning the cat must have had a monstrous headache because it was not a happy camper. The owners picked it up Monday morning and I never saw it again.

Later,
Joe Soileau

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08/10/2026

Dr. Sara would like to Thank the Slaughter's for the beautiful flowers and the candy for her Birthday today.

08/06/2026

WEIRD PARASITES

Many years ago when I was practicing in Lake Charles I had a client who had dozens of stray dogs. These dogs tended to come in with a variety of problems with skin and parasites. Most responded to routine worming and good nutrition. One dog in particular did not come around and continued to do poorly. No amount of good food and care seemed to make any difference.

One day the owner brought her in and she seemed to have collapsed and was really weak and poorly responsive. That night she passed away and I proceeded to do a necropsy the next
morning to see if we could determine what had happened to her. Mr. Bruce my trusted kennel hand placed her in the tub in the kennel room and I proceeded to open her abdomen. Mr.
Bruce was standing at the end of the tub as I started. As I cut the abdomen open a large red tubular worm started out of the abdomen and Bruce and I stood back in shock. Mr. Bruce in a
high pitched voice shouted “Doc that’s a snake!!”. I told Mr. Bruce that it wasn’t a snake but I wasn’t sure what it was.

Further investigation revealed two worms that were 3 feet long in the abdomen and a much smaller worm. They turned out to be kidney worms. The large ones were the females and the small one was a male. They are very rare. Dogs get them from eating crawfish or other crustaceans that transmit the worms. That was my first case of finding kidney worms and I have never seen them again.

The dogs kidneys were completely hollowed out and ruptured open leading to the worms being in the abdomen. Bruce and I had a great laugh about it and told the story many times over the years.

Later,

Joe Soileau

07/31/2026

Angels

Today I return to my days at LSU to tell a story I call my encounter with an angel. I was in my first semester at LSU and I had just come out of a poultry class on my way to the cafeteria for lunch. A fellow student was walking beside me and he asked me if I’d like a ride. He was an athletic specimen with blond hair and blue eyes and he got on a small motorcycle that I think was called a Moped. So I said sure and hopped on the back. During the ride we were talking
and he asked me what I was studying. I told him I was in pre veterinary medicine and planned to apply to Auburn University after two years. As Louisiana students we had the option of three
schools who would accept Louisiana students for vet school, Texas A&M / Oklahoma State, and Auburn. Louisiana at the time had no actual veterinary school.

After listening to my story he told me that if I wanted to get into veterinary school after two years of pre-vet, then Auburn was not a good choice because they seldom accepted anyone without a B.S. degree. This was news to me. I had chosen to apply to Auburn because they had responded to my inquiry about veterinary school with copious amounts of material and seemed genuinely interested. No one had ever mentioned they would only accept students with a degree. I was trying to find the quickest path to a veterinary degree, so applying after two years was important since my financial situation was limited. He elaborated that Texas
A&M accepted students after two years more frequently and that it was probably a better choice. With that said I immediately had a new perspective on what direction I had to take.

Keep in mind that I had never seen this person before and never saw him again while I was at LSU. He dropped me off at the cafeteria and drove off on his Moped. Consequently, I have
always believed in my heart that he was an angel sent from above. It dramatically changed my direction and allowed me to efficiently accomplish my goal of being a veterinarian in almost half the time while at the same time greatly improving my financial situation.
Maybe angels are real!!!!

Later,
Joe Soileau

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07/27/2026

We will not have a Dr. here today from 1-3 PM

07/24/2026

DR HAMMATT STORIES

While in vet school I spent a lot of my time when we had breaks following Dr. Hammatt around on calls. For those of you who didn’t know Dr. Hammatt, he established Oakdale Animal Clinic back in 1968 the year I got into vet school. From the beginning he was very supportive and always anxious to teach me in any way he could. Brave beyond safety, I was often surprised at what he would do in the performance of his duties. I may have learned as much about what not to do as I did how to do things. He was truly remarkable.
Because of the time he gave to me during my time as a vet student, I wanted to repay him once I graduated. I offered to work for him for a week free of charge before I started my regular job so that he and his family could take a vacation. Something he would never have done if he had to leave the clinic without a relief veterinarian. He finally agreed after some hesitation and we set up a time that worked for both of us. True to his style he set up a surprise for me on my first morning alone at the clinic. Remember I had never worked a day as a veterinarian on my own. Baptism by fire was his favorite way to do things. So, I was greeted with a horse castration right off the bat. Dr. Hammatt was still using a harness to lay horses down for surgery. I had to wade through the mechanics of putting
the harness on, get the owner to help me do that and pull the ropes to lay the horse down on his side and then trust that he would hold the ropes so the horse couldn’t get up or kick my
head off. My heart was racing but I managed to act cool and collected, knowing that this was a test Dr. Hammatt had given me. Everything went smoothly and we had a big laugh about it when he got back.

Thankfully I was still young and naive enough not to let myself think about all the things that could have gone wrong.

Later, Joe Soileau

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07/16/2026

THINGS PETS EAT

One of my first experiences with dogs eating things they shouldn’t occurred early in my career. My first job after graduation was with an experienced veterinarian in Lake Charles. He was a gifted practitioner both in medicine and bedside manner. Being just out of vet school I had a lot to learn in both areas.

This client who later became a good friend had a Labrador who loved to eat anything foreign to her natural diet. She had ingested many things and had a couple of expensive surgeries to remove some interesting foreign bodies. She even ingested and managed to pass a whole bed sheet. Richard was beyond frustration but his love for the dog would not let him give up on her. I had developed a friendship with group of people of whom Richard was a part and it so happened that Richard’s son was on a little league baseball team that I was helping with. One Saturday afternoon the team was playing a game and Richard came running to the field and found me. He said “ Doc I was working in my backyard and I put down my work gloves for a second while I was doing something and when I turned around they were gone.” He was in quite a panic because he felt reasonably sure that his Labrador had eaten them. Thoughts of
expensive surgery to remove them were going through his head. “What can I do.” I suggested he run home and pour a concentrated salt solution down her to try to get her to throw them up. He ran off and I forgot all about it and returned to the game. After the game people where standing around talking and beginning to head home. I saw Richard walking our way and remembered our conversation as he approached. A big smile broke out on his face as he came up to me and said “Doc its a good thing she had eaten both those gloves or I would still be pouring salt down that dog. She had promptly upchucked both gloves to Richard’s great relief! He and I laughed about that for many years afterwards.

Another of the more memorable foreign body occurrences was with an Irish Setter. A client came in one day with his dog and told me he was worried because he had made a habit of throwing large rocks for his dog to retrieve. The problem was that the rocks were disappearing before the dog made it back to him. He thought maybe the dog was swallowing them. I immediately noticed that the dogs abdomen appeared distended. As I kneeled down and
placed my hands on the dog’s belly I could actually move the rocks around with my fingers. His stomach was full of large rocks. The dog had no discomfort and was happy as a lark. This time I suggested the owner leave the dog with me so I could try to get him to throw up the rocks. After administering Apomorphine, the dog promptly vomited a huge pile of rocks. I sent the dog home with instructions to find something larger for his dog to retrieve.

Later,
Joe Soileau

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07/14/2026

We have 4 puppies in need of a home. 1 looks like a border collie mix it is a male, 1 looks like a pittie mix it is a male, the last 2 are brindle natural bob tails, these two are a male and a female (might make someone a squirrel dog. when I took them out to take photos the squirrel ran up the tree they were looking and winding him.) Please call the office at 318-335-3814 All these puppies have been started on vaccines and deworming.

07/13/2026

JANE DOE

I am so very fortunate to live on the old home place where I was raised. I have so many great memories of the times my brothers and I ran all over those woods as children. Yesterday afternoon I was watching a doe with her twins grazing in the tall grass near my house. Her last years twins were also with her. Always alert they moved around eating the most choice marsels. Ever since I returned home 26 years ago I’ve had a doe raising her babies on my property every year.

It brings back memories of the time years ago that a client called me one morning and wanted to know what he could do with a baby fawn he had picked up in the middle of the road
between Lake Charles and Cameron. It was a foggy morning and the fawn looked completely lost. I immediately told him to bring it to the clinic. At the time there were no regulations on keeping wildlife so we took it in. It turned out to be a little doe, fully spotted and still nursing. We came up with the name Jane Doe and she thrived. She stayed inside and liked a blanket in a little closet behind the receptions desk where she layed perfectly still. Most people thought she was a ceramic animal until we told them different.

Word got around quickly that we had a baby fawn and we welcomed many a kindergarten class and untold numbers of kids with their parents who came in to see Jane Doe. She became
totally at ease with people because of all the interaction she had with so many people. As she grew she spent a lot of time in the back yard with my wonderful kennel person Mr. Bruce. Mr. Bruce was a gentle giant who had a gift with animals and a wonderful since of humor. Many times at lunch he would go around the corner to a grocery store and buy a plate lunch. Well Jane quickly learned what he had because he would share his lunch. It got to the point where he had to come in the front door and divide his lunch in two before he went to the back yard. She loved his food.
Eventually she became more than we could handle and somewhat dangerous because of her hooves. Luckily, one of my employees had an uncle who had deer in Eunice so we sent her to live with him. She eventually raised some babies of her own and had a wonderful life.

She gave us and many other people a lot of joy while we had her.

Later,
Joe Soileau

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07/08/2026

UPDATE She has found a home!!!!

It is time to find Linda a home. No one has come foward to claim her. She is about 5-6 months old. She looks to be like a yorkie x chihuahua mix. SHE IS NOT COMPLETELY HOUSE BROKEN!!! She is still a puppy with puppy ways. She is a snuggly baby but will also be in your feet. She has had some vaccines but will need booster vaccines, heartworm prevention and to be spayed. If you have the time and patience to housebreak her please call the clinic at 318-335-3814