Ah, fall. The leaves are turning, the air is getting chill, and people everywhere are assembling the assorted holiday regalia that autumn brings. Now we all know chocolate is bad for pets, right? I don't need to tell you about that. Don't leave it on the counter. Here are a few others, some well known, some less so, that many of us run into this time of year and may not realize how dangerous they are. 1. liquid potpourri Little old ladies the world over take note: Sure, it makes your house ... Read more »
Health
The good news is, it’s not a tumor…
When a client tells you a pet is rolling over and acting really out of it, they get priority in the queue. That is how I found myself in the exam room with a small, middle aged grey terrier and a small, middle aged bespectacled owner. "When did this start?" I asked her. "This afternoon," she said quietly. "Georgie just started listing to one side and kind of stumbling." The list of differentials start running through my head as I instruct the owner to place Georgie on the exam table, ... Read more »
Top 5 Nutrition Myths
OK, I don't know if they are myths so much as long-held veterinary standard talking points, but it was a lot easier to type "myths" than "standard procedures and protocols with which I disagree." 1. Feed your pet the same food every day or they will get sick. This is true in some cases, namely if you have a pet on a prescription diet or a pet with dietary sensitivities, but for most healthy pets, there's no reason not to switch it up. You have to be careful if you are watching your ... Read more »
How to vaccinate a dog in 13244 easy steps
I feel compelled to do one of those serious "issue based" posts, with "facts" and all that boring stuff. Partly because I've spent most of the week blathering on about my animals, but mostly because my friend shared last week's vaccine post on Fark and someone responded with something the equivalent of, "Well, the lady has a point." NO SHE DOESN'T. She has a pointy head and that I will concede. Let me be clear: If you say to me, hey, I have some concerns about overvaccinating my pet, can we ... Read more »
Teach me, Jedi master
As a vet, I get asked behavior questions all the time, both at work and here through the blog. They are important questions, questions that set the tone for the entire bonding process and the life of the pet. They are complicated questions, more often than not. I am happy to answer them as follows: "Has he been to training?" I ask. If they say no, I tell them to go find one. If they say yes, I tell them to call their trainer and ask them. Boom. Next question. Hopefully it's about ... Read more »
Cast your eye this way
Have you ever stayed up late at night wondering to yourself, "What is the most common cause of broken bones in dogs?" No? Well, I'm going to tell you anyway. Veterinary Pet Insurance, one of the largest providers of pet insurance in the country, reviewed 5000 claims from 2008 and summarized the most common causes as follows: 10. Car accidents. The truth is, most people don't securely restrain their animals while driving, and even accidents at low speeds can turn a pet into a projectile. 9. ... Read more »
Nutro cat food recall
This one is flying somewhat low on the radar, but Nutro has recalled several types of dry cat food. Here's a snippet of the press release linked above: " Franklin, Tennessee (May 21, 2009) -- Today, Nutro Products announced a voluntary recall of select varieties of NUTRO® NATURAL CHOICE® COMPLETE CARE® Dry Cat Foods and NUTRO® MAX® Cat Dry Foods with “Best If Used By Dates” between May 12, 2010 and August 22, 2010. The cat food is being voluntarily recalled in the United States and ten ... Read more »
Or, maybe not
I received a fax from our emergency center yesterday morning (yes, we were open Memorial Day) about a dog who had died over the weekend. His littermate had died earlier in the day with bloody diarrhea, and he presented to the emergency clinic with the same. He didn't make it. A 2 year old dog, dead of parvo. Make that two 2 year old dogs, dead of parvo. Adult parvo deaths are uncommon, but not unheard of, especially in undervaccinated or immunocompromised dogs. The owners stated their dogs ... Read more »
OK, you first
I had a client complain about me this week. To back up a bit, he had come in a month ago with his dog, whose left side of her head was swollen to about twice its normal size. "It's an abscess," he told me, and wanted me to 'stick something in it and drain it.' I do what I always do, and come up with my list of differentials- all the things it might be. You just can't assume it's the most likely thing, even though it probably is, because sometimes it's not, and if you aren't keeping all the ... Read more »
Tip of the day
Here's a helpful tip for everyone: 1. If you have a brachycephalic breed dog (pug, bulldog, Boston terrier, etc) you need to be very careful with their eyeballs since they are particularly susceptible to eye injury. 2. This means, you probably shouldn't let them roll around in the sandbox. 3. If they do roll around in the sandbox, and you notice a ton of sand in their eye, instead of wiping it out and thus dragging it all over the eyeball, rinse it out with saline. Better yet, call your ... Read more »
The cat food experiment, Part 2- or, uh oh
So the last you heard of me and my cat food experimenting, I had to give all the freeze dried food to Emmett and was tackling my bag of raw food patties. The Nature's Variety brand makes feeding raw food very convenient, if you're not into preparing all that stuff yourself. It appealed to me for several reasons: 1. You can buy it in little 1 ounce medallions, or larger 3 ounce patties. 2. The meat is ground up, so you don't have big bone chunks floating around in the stuff. 3. They actually ... Read more »
Weird things happen in threes
It's the oddest thing. I can go 3 months without seeing a blocked cat or a glaucoma, and all of a sudden I will see three in one day. It always comes in waves. In yesterday's case, we marked the start of foxtail season. In our area, foxtails are one of the banes of a dog's existence. They aren't found everywhere, but in my neck of the woods they are ubiquitous. Foxtails are, essentially, grass awns. When they dry out, they turn into nasty little sticky bayonets that stick to a dog's fur, and ... Read more »
Waiting on pins and needles
I'm going to give you a sentence, and you have to picture it for me, OK? "Today I took Fluffy to the veterinary acupuncturist." So what are you seeing? Some frizzy haired tank top wearing hippie haphazardly sticking insulin needles in your cat while waving catnip in front of her face, right? That's what I was picturing when I heard some classmates talking about it in vet school. "Oh, you went to one of those vets," we'd snicker, then go back to studying NSAID effects on renal perfusion. I ... Read more »
Not all flea products are created equal.
In news that is not exactly news because it's not saying anything we didn't already know, the EPA is investigating whether it needs to more closely scrutinize spot-on products for flea and tick control. Unlike most veterinary drugs, which fall under the jurisdiction of the Food and Drug Administration, spot on flea and tick preventives are overseen by the Environmental Protection Agency due to their classification as pesticides (the exception being those products that also function as a ... Read more »
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 ... Read more »
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 ... Read more »
Canine Cuisine, Part Three: So, what should I feed my dog?
In Part 1 of the Canine Cuisine trilogy, Name that Food, I talked about how the name of the pet food itself gave you clues as to its content. In Part 2: Name that Ingredient, I went into detail about some of those baffling ingredient names you see on the back. In the last installment, I answer the omnipresent question of, "What should I feed my dog?" This is probably one of the most frequently asked questions I get asked as a veterinarian. I wish I could make it easy for you and just say, ... Read more »
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 ... Read more »
