Pawcurious Vet Blog: With Pet Blogger and Veterinarian Dr. V

The cat food experiment

I was very pleased to see how many people are interested in the cat food discussion and are thinking about making a change! In the spirit of that, I spent a good hour at the local boutique pet food store collecting some different cat diets. I’m going to try giving them to my cats and tell you what sort of reaction they have to them, as well as what kind of reaction I had (being someone who is, ironically, easily grossed out). I’ll also give you the lowdown about how much work went into preparing each one, and tell you how much I paid for a general cost-comparison.

Fortunately for me, I have two very unselective cats, which is not that common in cat-world. There are some cats who show a marked preference for one kind of food over another (ie will only eat dry or only eat canned); if you decide to try changing foods, just be aware of this and do it gradually if needed. Sometimes *very* gradually. Where it’s not a big deal to make your average dog wait it out for a day or two to decide they are hungry enough to try a new food, letting a cat go without eating for a few days can have some nasty consequences, so proceed with caution.

I picked up four different kinds of foods for comparison. All of them are grain-free, which I think should be a minimum requirement for anyone trying to improve their cat’s health with diet. The four types of representative foods I selected are a bag of dry food, a stack of canned food, one bag of freeze dried food, and one bag of pre-made raw diet nuggets. I’m starting off with the freeze dried food this weekend, since I found the idea of cat astronaut food strangely appealing- stay tuned for the results!

This brand is the first contender.

As a side note, it’s always fun to go into those kinds of boutique pet food stores as a veterinarian. “I’m so happy you are doing this,” said the owner. “I’d give you some cards to hand out to clients, but I know you’re contractually obligated to recommend XXXX brand so I won’t.” When I assured her that wasn’t the case, she seemed shocked. I know I sound like a broken record, but although vets may have preferences just like everyone else, there’s no one holding a gun to my head to make me recommend a brand, even the ones whose prescription diets we might stock. No one could make me recommend a medication or a food I didn’t want to- I shudder to think about what that would mean for medical professionals if that were required. She also told me how horrified she was at the number of vaccinated dogs she’s seen who are coming down with parvo, and is telling customers to just not vaccinate and the problem would be solved because obviously the parvo vaccine is causing parvo. That’s when I smiled, took my bags of food, and left.

My point is: Go there and get the good food but ignore the rest of the blather, OK? Listen to me.

Attack of the Michelin kitties

There are few things I like to do less than anesthetize an overweight angry cat. Maybe an overweight bulldog, with a heart murmur. That would be bad too.

But I don’t see them nearly as often. At least once a week, I arrive to find an 18 pound cat here for a dental hissing at me from the confines of his carrier, glaring from beneath his folds of chub, just daring me to try and get a pre-anesthetic blood sample.

Fat cats have very little scruff. It’s like trying to hold a squishy watermelon, one with claws and teeth and a vendetta. My techs are much better at cat wrangling than I (a fact I remind them of continually in order to butter them up and get them to do all the dirty work) but sometimes even they get stymied, and then we have to sedate the cat.

Most vet clinics have a small assortment of drugs to choose from, based on the needs and health of the pet. The drug we use most often for very angry pets is a nice one, but it really knocks them out. And overweight animals, just like overweight people, can have a host of metabolic and respiratory issues that make deep sedation and anesthesia a little more dicey than it might be for other animals.

We don’t have much choice in the matter, unfortunately. When a cat cannot be safely handled, it’s better for him and for us to go ahead and sedate him. But I don’t like it. My tech will sit with him and watch him like a hawk during recovery, with me hovering nearby and occasionally sticking a cotton swab in his ear to try and get him to respond a little faster. They recover, albeit slowly. It’s stressful. I don’t like doing it.

Overweight angry cats are often angry for a reason. It’s hard to breathe. Their joints hurt. They have diabetes and asthma and cystitis. People pose them for pictures and think they are cute. And yet it’s a very difficult problem to combat, especially for owners who don’t see it as the big problem it really is.

While there are some similarities between cats and dogs when it comes to medical issues, I find obesity to be one area where there is a big difference between the two. Cats are obligate carnivores. They simply aren’t built to process carbohydrates the way other animals are. Yet we plug them full of carb laden dry foods that are a far cry from the types of food they eat in the wild- and look at the results. It’s tragic.

Did you know that some diabetic cats can be treated- to the point where they no longer need insulin at all- simply by a change in diet? Even those who continue to need insulin often have a vast improvement in their disease management on the right food. It’s amazing to see that kind of change, just from a switch in food.

It does need to be a food change, as opposed to a lifestyle change, when you are dealing with fat cats. Ever try to get one to go for a run with you? That doesn’t go well. But people who have fought with their cats over trying to get them to eat less calories and suffered the consequences of an unhappy cat in the house are often pleasantly surprised to find that the problem as much the quality than it is the quantity.  Less carbs. More protein. Less cat.

If there were just one thing I had to pick to wish* that people had more understanding of, it would be this: The best pre-made food for a cat is low carb and canned. If you can’t do both, do at least one. Your cat will thank you, and so will your vet as they gaze at your svelte little kitty in amazement. (CAVEAT: If your vet has recommended a different food, please talk to them before making a change. This is particularly important if your pet has other health issues that may make this type of diet a less optimal choice.)

*Veterinary-related wish, of course. If I had only one wish at all, it would be for more wishes.

Canine (and feline!) Cuisine, Part Two: Name that ingredient

So in the previous installment of canine cuisine, we reviewed the 4 rules of pet food labelling as pertains to the name of the pet food itself. This time around, I want to give as succinct a description I can of pet food ingredients.

I say, “as succinct as I can,” because it’s a hard topic to be brief on. The rules are nebulous and sometimes ill-defined, and even amongst veterinarians there are some discrepancies and things open to interpretation. There are some great resources on the web if there are specific ingredients you are concerned about and I will post them at the end of this blog for those who are interested.

The fundamentals, the stuff everyone freaks out about, are meats, by-products, meals, and digests. So here are some AAFCO definitions, simplified:

BEEF: Refers to striated muscle tissue from cows. May contain some other bits and parts that got stuck on.

BEEF BY-PRODUCTS: Parts that aren’t horns, hair, teeth, and hooves. Examples: lungs, spleen, kidneys, brain, livers, blood, bone, cleaned-out guts.

CHICKEN: Can refer to just about any part of the chicken that is not feathers, feet, heads, and guts. Can include bone.

CHICKEN BY-PRODUCTS: Anything that doesn’t count as regular “chicken”, except feathers. Read: heads, feet, guts, etc.

MEAL: Dried and ground down whatever. So it is the same as the non-meal form, just dehydrated and ground up.

DIGEST: Something that has been chemically or enzymatically hydrolyzed to break down the chemical bonds. I.e. it has been digested. Scrumptious.

I’m limiting the discussion to common ingredients because this blog is brief, and this is the area people seem to be most confused by or interested in. There is a much more complete list of ingredients here, and I encourage you all to look it over just to get a feel for what goes into these products. Their list leaves out one of my personal favorites, cellulose, which can and has been interpreted by some manufacturers as sawdust. Fiber!

A couple of things to keep in mind:

By-products aren’t necessarily a bad thing. By-products sound bad, but really, if you go to any Michelin rated French restaurant you’ll see them served up for $400 a plate. Organ meats are a good dense nutrient source. If you watch nature shows on Animal Planet, when the lion takes the gazelle down, they don’t peel off the muscle parts and leave the organs behind, do they? They gut them. So some foods that tout “no by-products” may just be trying to appeal to our own human squeamishness, since by products are themselves really not inherently evil.

Final note: Does pet food actually contain pets? It’s a persistent rumor that dogs, cats, and roadkill end up in kibble by the ton. All over the internet you’ll find “Joe’s friend Frank who worked at a plant said this happens”, but not one person, not one persistent PETA undercover agent, has been able to show proof this happens. Pet food manufacturers aren’t stupid enough to take that kind of PR risk. From the AAFCO manual: “The ingredient “Meat” and “Meat by-products” shall be qualified to designate the animal from which the meat or meat by-products are derived unless the meat or meat by-products are derived from cattle, swine, sheep, goats or any combination thereof. For example, ingredients derived from horses shall be listed as horsemeat” or horsemeat by-products.”

In a nutshell ‘meat’ does not mean ‘roadkill’- it usually means ‘livestock’, and unless your food specifically has “dog by-products” on the label it can’t contain Fido.

For more information:

The Dog Food Project- I have this site bookmarked. It’s a great and very comprehensive resource.
The FDA Pet Food Labelling page- straight from the regulatory source.
Snik Snak- list of pet food ingredient definitions from the AAFCO manual.

Any questions?

Canine Cuisine, Part One: Name that Food

One of the most common questions I get asked is, “What should I feed my pet?” It seems like a simple question to answer, but it’s not. The most basic answer is, “Feed the best food that you can afford.” And if you answer the best that you can afford is Ol Roy, I’ll try and convince you that no, you can afford better. A lot of time people ask this question but what they want to know is, “What should I feed my pet that I can easily buy at the grocery store/Petsmart/Walmart”, which is a different scenario than the person who is willing to do mail order or drive to a boutique store for a premium pet food.

For the purpose of simplicity, I’m omitting any discussion of homemade diets simply because they are a whole ‘nother ball of wax, but if enough people want to hear my thoughts on it I can talk about those at some point as well. For now, I’m going to try and do my best to demystify the confusing realm of commercial pet foods so you might feel a little more confident about what you are getting yourself into at the store.

In today’s blog post I want to focus on the first thing you see when you are looking at pet foods: the name of the product. The vast majority of pet food manufacturers adhere to AAFCO standards for manufacture and labeling (I’ll address that in a different post, but for now all you need to know is that there are regulations, and a body that creates them.) There are four rules that apply to naming pet foods:

1. The 95% rule. If a product says, “Chicken Dog Food,” then at least 95% of the product must be comprised of this ingredient. If it says, “Tuna and liver for cats”, then the combination of tuna and liver must be at least 95% with the greater amount being the tuna since it is named first.

Pretty much the only time you are going to see this type of label is on a canned food.

2. The 25% or ‘dinner’ rule. If a product says, “Chicken Dinner for Dogs,” then at least 25% of the product must be comprised of this ingredient. If it says, “Tuna and rice formula for cats,” then the combination must be at least 25%, with the greater amount being the tuna. Other descriptive names, such as “entree”, “platter”, or “chunks” fall into this category as well.

The majority of good quality dry foods on the market fall into this category. Be careful, though- a “lamb and rice dog formula” may have chicken or some other protein as its number one ingredient; it’s not an uncommon practice. If your pet has food sensitivities or allergies, you need to read the label EVERY time you buy.

3. The 3% or ‘with’ rule. “Dog Food with Chicken” needs only contain 3% chicken. The difference between “chicken dog food” (95% chicken) and “dog food with chicken” (3% chicken) is pretty drastic, isn’t it? Confusing stuff.

4. The ‘flavor’ rule. “Chicken flavored dog food” has no minimum amount of chicken. It only needs to have enough flavoring to be detected as chicken flavored by a dog who is trained to eat chicken.

So, how does this apply to you? Let’s say you are wandering the aisles and you see a tempting bag of dog food on aisle 4. “Critter Num Nums Chunky Bits Beef and Vegetable Flavor!” the label proclaims, with a mouthwatering ribeye on the cover, flanked by piles of green vegetables. Looks amazing, doesn’t it?

Let’s flip the label over and take a peek at the ingredients:

corn, soybean meal, beef and bone meal, ground wheat flour, animal fat (bha used as preservative), wheat middlings, corn syrup, water sufficient for processing, animal digest (source of grilled flavor), propylene glycol, salt, soy protein concentrate, hydrochloric acid, potassium chloride, beef, vegetable blend (peas, carrots and green beans), caramel color, sorbic acid (used as a preservative), sodium carbonate, minerals (ferrous sulfate, zinc oxide, manganous oxide, copper sulfate, calcium iodate, sodium selenite), vitamins (vitamin E supplement, vitamin A supplement, niacin supplement, D-calcium pantothenate, riboflavin supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride, thiamine mononitrate, vitamin D3 supplement, folic acid, biotin, vitamin B12 supplement), choline chloride, calcium sulfate, sodium bisulfate, titanium dioxide, yellow 5, yellow 6, red 40, BHA (used as a preservative), dl methionine, blue 1, potassium sorbate (used as a preservative).

Take a peek at where ‘beef’ is on the ingredient list: somewhere below salt and hydrochloric acid. Not looking so great after all, is it?

You’re probably wondering what the heck the rest of that stuff is (animal digest? bone meal?) Stay tuned.

Part 2: Name that ingredient

Part 3: Choosing the right food for you

Pet pick of the week

I live in a pretty warm climate, and it’s a common occurrence for me to be in a hot parking lot calling the cops on a dog panting away in a boiling car. Conversely, it’s hard for me to forget the story of the dog abandoned in a van in a New Hampshire airport parking lot in the dead of winter, who miraculously survived. It amazes me how many people seem to think non-humans are somehow immune to the effects of temperature.

Granted, the types of people who make poor choices like that are not the types who would probably be interested in a climate controlled pet carrier, but for the rest of us who think about it on a regular basis, it’s a pretty cool idea (get it? ha ha!)

When I travel with my pets in the car we are obviously at a comfortable temperature for me, so I’m not entirely convinced this is a must-have for all people who travel with their pets. On the other hand, given the airlines’ increasing reluctance to take on the liability of putting pets in cargo, I can see this being a fantastic idea for people sending their pet by plane. I was in a rough situation the other day with a man who had to ship his dog from Los Angeles to Florida. The airline required that I sign a statement saying the pet could tolerate temperatures of 25 degrees. He couldn’t, really- the dog lived in Southern California. He wasn’t acclimated to that any more than the owner was.

Yes, the chances of the dog being in those temperatures for any significant length of time were pretty low. Yet on the off chance they were forced to make a stopover in Boise and the connection got delayed, and the dog sat on the tarmac freezing into a fur-sicle, guess who would get sued if he ended up dying of hypothermia? Good old Dr V, who never should have signed a statement saying it would be fine. The airlines have put us in a really bad position there- they won’t ship without that statement of acclimatization, and most vets are uncomfortable making a blanket statements that “this pet will be fine in both boiling and freezing scenarios, so if something goes wrong, don’t blame the airline, blame me.” Then the owner is stuck at the airport, usually yelling at me on their cell phone.

Next time a client tries to arm twist me like that, I’ll simply write, “This pet can tolerate temperatures between 25 and 80 degrees” (this is what they requested) “as long as they are in a revolutionary climate-controlled pet carrier.”

There’s a reason the Marlboro Man doesn’t own dogs

There is a touchy question I have to work in whenever a client brings in a pet with a chronic cough. Somewhere in between the “how long has it been going on”s and the “what medications have you tried”s I have to find a way to tactfully phrase, “Are there any smokers in the house?”

Most of the time it isn’t really that hard a question to pose. I just ask it, and get either a yes or no. I don’t ask if it is them personally who smokes, so that leaves the door open to blame the roommate, which most people do.

But, when you open the exam room door and you are immediately assaulted with the stench of stale Menthols, and the poor dog is so steeped in secondhand smoke it stays on your hands long after the exam, and when the owner shakes your hand with tobacco stained fingers, it’s pretty obvious what the answer is. I’ve found through trial and error that a direct “Your habit is killing your dog” isn’t met with much enthusiasm, but simply skirting around the issue talking about air fresheners and the risk of other airborne irritants HINTHINT is usually met with a blank stare.

Strangely enough, although the risks of secondhand smoke are well known and documented, most people haven’t yet made the leap to the fact that dogs and cats, who also have lungs and breathe the same air that we do, would also be affected.

I just read an article from the journal Tobacco Control stating “one in three of the smokers said knowing smoking was bad for their pet’s health would make them quit and about one in ten said this would make them ask other smokers they lived with to quit.” They tried really hard to make this sound positive, but I guess I’m a pessimist. 100% of current smokers know smoking is bad for their own health and it hasn’t stopped them. And this study was conducted by survey- a theoretical situation- so I’m guessing of the 1/3 who would even make the attempt, how many would actually do it?

Smoking makes me sad. I’ve watched people I love suffer a great deal for it. It’s so frustrating to see a pet suffering terrible consequences for a choice they didn’t make and have no control over, and feel so helpless. I try to introduce the topic gently, just to clarify to people, yes, smoking can do this. And does do this. Then we look at the dog, wheezing and coughing on the table, and I put my stethoscope to his chest and hear the snap/crackle/pop of chronic bronchitis, knowing that nothing I can do will really help unless the owner makes a change.

Without a change, the story is always the same. The pet comes back, as bad as ever. I’m not sure what they want me to do. The meds help, somewhat. I address the owner who is somewhere in front of me in a cloud of smoke-stench. “This isn’t going to get better unless you get him out of the smoke,” I tell him or her. And they shrug, guilty as charged. Their kids look at me with red rimmed eyes. Good luck with that, lady.

I’m a real upper today, aren’t I? *sigh* Sometimes my job is like beating my head against a wall. While coughing.

Say cheese!

Sometimes, in the wee hours of the morning, I lay curled in my bed and dream of Geroge Clooney -er, I mean my husband- whispering sweet nothings into my ear. I turn my head to him and smile. “Wow,” I say as I lean in, “Did you eat sardines last night?” He just stares at me, breathing heavily, until I open my eyes and realize it’s Emmett blowing dog-breath into my face.

There are myriad causes of icky breath, but the most common cause is icky teeth. Most of us know that the ideal standard of care is to brush our pet’s teeth every day. Do you? If you don’t, you’re not alone. The vast majority of pet owners, including (cough cough) even a few veterinarians, aren’t as consistent as they would like on a daily basis.

If the thought of wrangling your cat with one hand and liver flavored toothpaste in the other strikes terror in your heart, don’t fret. February is Pet Dental Health Month, so there is no better time to revisit some other options available to you.

Over the counter treats are a good way to help reduce tartar and plaque buildup. Greenies and CET chews are just two of many examples product choices out there. These help reduce buildup, but they aren’t going to eliminate the need for brushing or cleaning.

People often ask me, “How come I brush my dog’s teeth and you’re still telling me I need to get my dog a dental? I don’t see any tartar.” And I always respond the same way- “You brush your teeth every day, right? And you still need dental cleanings, and accumulate tartar, and get gingivitis, even though you don’t have big chunks of tartar on your teeth.” Unless they do actually have big chunks of tartar on their teeth too, then I just leave that last part out. All the tooth-brushing and Greenies and rinses out there help keep the teeth and gums healthy between dental cleanings, but these pets still do need and benefit from the full dental cleaning at the vet.

Some dogs and cats are more naturally prone to developing tartar than others. It depends on genetics, the shape of the mouth, and luck. For example, if you have a pug, don’t even think about- your dog needs a dental. Some dogs, like Emmett, get cleanings twice a year- and he has a normal bite. Dogs with malocclusions, overbites/underbites, and teeth turned in all different directions are little teeming petri dishes of bacteria-filled crevasses. It doesn’t stop me from letting the dogs kiss me and the kids, but it is motivation to keep the chompers in good health.

Dental cleanings at the vet are very similar to the cleaning you get at the human dentist- we assess the gums and teeth, scale the teeth, and polish them. Many practices also have the ability to take dental x-rays, which are an exceptional diagnostic tool. Because pets don’t hold still nicely, we have to do this under general anesthesia. I know a lot of people have reservations about this last part, but dental cleanings offer real medical benefits that usually far outweigh the risks of anesthesia in healthy pets. Talk to your vet about your concerns and the risks to your pet. It is tremendously sad to have to remove a mouthful of rotting, abscessed, decaying teeth and realize just how much pain the pet must be in. I can’t tell you how many times I see a pet a few weeks later and the owner says, “It’s like having a puppy again! I thought it was age slowing him down but it was pain.” In addition, these cleanings offer an opportunity to assess the mouth for things we wouldn’t necessarily be able to see in an awake dog- such as fractured teeth and oral masses- and deal with them early.

Many offices are offering special discounts or packages for the month of February. There’s no better time to get your pet’s mouth back in shape- and the kisses you get in return will be all the sweeter for it.

Some days are great, and some are like this

Mr. Randall is one of my favorite clients. He and his wife adopted a kitten about six months ago from the shelter; over Thanksgiving they got a second kitten to keep him company. Both the cats and the people are just tremendously nice and pleasant, and it’s always a bright spot in my day to see them.

He came in to see me because they were concerned that Pawsy, the newer kitten, had worms. His belly looked a little big to him, he explained to the tech. My tech came out of the room shaking his head. “It’s not good,” he told me.

I went in the room, smiled at Mr. Randall, and looked at Pawsy. My heart sank. Two weeks prior, Pawsy had been the epitome of healthy young kitten. Today, he looked like the textbook example of FIP.

FIP (Feline Infectious Peritonitis) is a nasty virus that seemingly strikes at random. No one is entirely sure how it works. The current train of thought is that it is a strain of coronavirus, which is pretty endemic in shelter environments; normally corona is fairly benign. But in some cats, for reasons unknown, the coronavirus turns into something horrible and rapidly causes a variety of symptoms, which invariably lead to death. There is no cure.

I knew this. Mr. Randall didn’t. He thought Pawsy had a mild treatable case of worms. Usually, when clients bring in a critically ill pet, they are aware that something bad is going on, and I just have to confirm their suspicions. In this case, I had someone smiling and cheerful and just so damn nice and I have to figure out a way to say, I’m sorry but your kitten is going to die soon.

I have a terrible poker face, by the way. It is a both a blessing and a curse to be completely unable to bluff or deceive. It took a monumental effort to merely be neutral as I did my exam. I examined Pawsy, dehydrated and a little thinner than before. I palpated his large, fluid filled belly and furiously searched my brain for something, anything else it could be.

By now Mr. Randall has realized I’m a little more serious than usual. Rather than a sudden smack across the head with a sledgehammer, this is gradually holding the shoulders and turning someone in a different direction. This, and not that, is the road we are heading down. I am sorry. He looks at me when I finish, and we have the same frown. “I’m concerned that Pawsy has something pretty serious,” I tell Mr. Randall. “I’m going to take him in the back and do a belly tap.”

Now he has a minute to digest this, and re-frame his expectations. In the meantime, we take Pawsy back and unfortunately, his belly is filled with the exact straw colored fluid that I knew it would be. Sure, you can say you don’t know for certain unless you do a PCR test, but there just isn’t anything else that does this, like this.

So when I finally have to tell Mr. Randall the entirety of the problem, what FIP is, he is a little more prepared to hear it. “I’m so sorry to have to tell you this,” I say, and mean it. He grabs my hand. “I know,” he says. “Thank you.” He takes Pawsy home to talk with his wife. We don’t know how much time they will have, but it’s not much. Days, probably.

After reading the information I gave them and looking around on the web for a few hours, the Randalls call back and say they would like to come back in that afternoon. The reality of the situation has sunk in and they don’t want him to suffer. “It’s so hard,” Mr. Randall tells me while his wife cries. “He still looks OK, but I know how bad it is.”

I pause, ponder whether it’s appropriate or not, and tell him briefly that I had to euthanize my own dog just the week prior. “I know how hard it is,” I say genuinely. “It’s just awful.”

Then he said something I wasn’t expecting. “Oh no….I am so sorry.” And he meant it. We both look at Pawsy, lying quietly in his wife’s lap. There is not much more to say.

His ashes arrived back at the clinic the same day as my dog Mulan’s. It’s a frustrating reminder that some things in this field are a constant no matter how hard you try.

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