Holiday Concerns

Be careful how you deck your halls! The holiday season is generally a time of family togetherness in which even our pets participate. One’s thoughts generally are far from thoughts of injury; however, one must be aware of some important seasonal hazards in order to insure a happy holiday season.

RIBBONS & TINSEL
These are of special interest to playful cats and kittens who see these materials as toys (or prey) to be chased, pounced upon, chewed or swallowed. While chasing and pouncing pose no health threats, chewing and swallowing do, as these strings or “linear foreign bodies” can catch in the GI tract, leading to bunching of intestine as the body tries in vain to move the string or ribbon through. This is a life-threatening condition requiring surgery for correction. Supervise animals who play with string closely.

ELECTRIC LIGHT CORDS
These are also tempting to cats who like to play with string as well as to puppies who are teething and interested in chewing. If a pet bites through an electrical cord, it could result in a severe burn to the tongue which causes the pet’s lung to fill with fluid, causing respiratory distress. This is also an emergency requiring immediate veterinary attention.

CHOCOLATE
Many people do not realize that chocolate can be a poison. Unsweetened baking chocolate carries a much higher dose of the toxin “theobromine” than does milk chocolate, but even normal milk chocolate can be dangerous; a small dog sharing candy can wind up in big trouble. Clinical signs of chocolate poisoning include hyperexcitability, nervousness, vomiting, and diarrhea and death.

POINSETTIA
Consuming this festive-looking plant can be irritating to the mouth and stomach of the dog or cat that chews on or eats it. Contrary to popular belief, poinsettia is not specifically toxic.

MISTLETOE
The fact that there are several types of mistletoe makes it difficult to predict the clinical signs of poisoning. Some mistletoes produce only stomach upset while others may lead to liver failure or seizuring. Consider mistletoe to be a hazardous substance and keep it inaccessible to pets and children.

COOKING
Keep pets out of the kitchen during the hustle and bustle of the season. The last thing you want is for someone you love to get underfoot and get burned from spillage.

DIETARY INDISCRETION
We all like to include our pets in Holiday meals along with the rest of the family, but try to keep in mind that sudden rich diet changes are likely to upset a pet’s stomach. Vomiting and diarrhea are not uncommon. If leftovers are of an especially fatty nature, the pancreas may become inflamed and overloaded. This condition is serious and may require hospitalization

Real Bones are Bad

Real bones & the damage they can cause our dogs:

Bones can cause damage to the GI tract:
Real bones can cause perforation of the GI tract.  This is a serious concern and would require surgery to repair.  Impaction of the GI tract can also occur as a result of feeding real bones.  Not as common, but still a concern, is aspirating bone particles into the lungs.

Bones can cause damage to the teeth:
Real bones are also a concern, because they can fracture the teeth.  The tooth that usually gets injured is the upper fourth pre-molar teeth.  This tooth is a 3 rooted tooth and if fractured, requires root canal therapy or oral surgery to extract the tooth and root. We hear a lot of hype that dogs should get real bones, because wolves get real bones or (following statement from the American Veterinary Dental College) that “Dogs are carnivores – they chew on bones in the wild. However, AVDC does not recommend cow hooves, dried natural bones or hard nylon products because they are too hard and do not mimic the effect of a dog tearing meat off a carcass. These hard products are associated with broken teeth or damaged gums.”

Dental Care

A pet needing oral care is something we see so often around here. Heavy tartar, gingivitis, fractured teeth, periodontal disease, etc. are a common finding at routine annual exams. We also hear a lot about how horrible everyone’s pet’s breath smells. 

Daily oral care is vital in keeping your pet’s oral cavity healthy. As humans we our taught to brush our teeth 2-3 times daily, floss regularly, and visit the dentist every 6 months. Animal’s teeth do not receive this same care and that can lead to tartar, gingivitis, periodontal disease, etc. There are products out there that are easy to use daily if your pet does not allow brushing. Hills & Purina both make a dental diet that is a large kibble designed to scrub away plaque. Maxiguard OraZn is a blue gel that contains zinc to reduce the bacterial count in the oral cavity. There are also enzymatic rawhide chews to help reduce the tartar build up.

Even with daily oral care, routine dental cleanings should still be done. Dental cleanings are done under general anesthesia. We do pre-anesthetic exams and blood work to ensure your pet’s safety under anesthesia. The dental cleaning includes an oral examination, periodontal probing, ultrasonic scaling of teeth above and below the gum line, polishing with prophy paste, and oral cavity irrigation with chlorhexidine rinse.

Until December 31, 2012, our periodontal therapy prices will be reduced by $50!!!

Food Information

We are hearing a lot lately about good and bad diets for pets. We are all very concerned about what to feed our furry friends. Of course we want to make sure we are giving them the best possible nutrition, but what is that exactly? 

In order to determine what makes the best pet foods, we need to first talk about some of the myths of pet food advertisers. The pet food market is a multibillion dollar industry and everyone wants a piece of the pie, so a lot of these companies are trying to find a new angle to get in. The veterinary nutritionists feel that these companies are marketing by using guilt. One of the biggest myths that we are hearing right now is that corn is bad for dogs or that it is a common allergy for dogs. Corn is a natural and wholesome ingredient loaded with a lot of really great benefits for your pet. In a recent article that our staff read, it was stated by 4 board certified veterinary nutritionists that corn, wheat, and soy are usually innocent when accused of causing food allergies. The top allergens for our pets are usually the protein source they are ingesting if in fact they do have food allergies. 

We’ve been hearing that a lot of people believe that you can tell everything about your pet’s food by reading the ingredient list. The ingredient lists of pet foods, however, are often misleading. For example, a dog food could claim that corn is not the number one ingredient in their pet food, and certainly have the protein source as the number one listed ingredient, but corn could in fact be the majority of the kibble. The way to achieve this is by weighing the protein source prior to dehydrating it and weighing everything else after it has been dehydrated. Water weighs a lot! The other thing that these tricky companies do is to split the ingredient into multiple categories. Corn, for example, might be split into corn meal, whole corn, corn starch, etc. They do the same thing with rice, soy, barley, etc.  The better part of the bag to read is the AAFCO statement. You want to make sure that the food underwent studies and is not just “formulated” to meet your pet’s needs. It should also be listed for a specific life stage whether it is puppy or kitten, adult maintenance, or senior. A food listed for all life stages is one that has been either tested or formulated to fit the needs of a puppy or kitten. Puppy & Kitten food is generally higher in calories and not the best food for adult or senior dogs to be on. 

Did you know that there are also a large number of companies that do not make their own pet food? These foods tend to have less quality control than companies that make their own food.  "Diets from pet food marketing-distribution companies that don't make their own foods may potentially fluctuate more from batch to batch than a company where it's all done in-house".  "Royal Canin, Hill's Pet Nutrition, Nestle Purina and Iams PetCare will control all aspects of development, manufacturing and sales, so there is more company oversight of the pet food process." "These are also the companies that are investing in research that promotes veterinary medicine and veterinary nutrition."  stated Dr. Weeth, a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Nutrition. (Veterinary Practice News, Volume 24/Number 9).

All in all, PVAH recommends feeding a high quality pet food such as Iams, Royal Canin, Hills Science Diet, Purina One or Purina ProPlan. We also recommend that everyone base their pet food choice on research and not on marketing. Every pet’s nutritional needs are different and we can help you decide what food would be the best o

Otitis Externa

We are seeing a lot of otitis externa this time of year. Some symptoms you may notice are a bad odor from the ear, shaking the head, scratching the ears, or even debris in the ears. The doctors do recommend routine ear cleaning to help prevent this.  Otitis externa is inflammation or “infection” of the external ear canal. It is almost always caused by allergies and can often lead to a secondary yeast or bacterial infection. There are different types of allergies that can cause otitis externa from inhalant to food allergies. 

Step 1: Instill a liberal amount of ear cleaner into the ear canals. The ear cleaner should be gentle on the ears. We recommend using one that does not contain alcohol, such as Epi-Otic Advance. 

Step 2: Massage the cleanser into the canal by rubbing the base of the ear. This step also breaks up the debris.  

Step 3: Wipe out what you can see and reach with a cotton ball. Dogs and cats have “L” shaped ear canals, so you will not be able to reach in far enough to hit the ear drum. You do not want to use Q-Tips down in the canal.  

Step 4: Instill any medications as prescribed by Dr. Emmert or Dr. Diemer.

Flea Control

Fleas are an unpleasant pest to have to deal with. Getting rid of them can be tricky, unless you proceed with the following steps. We recommend applying Vectra 3D to all animals in the household for a minimum of 4 months. An environmental spray such as Knockout, which kills the eggs, larvae, and adult life cycle stages is recommended. Vacuuming should be done regularly, as the vibrations can cause the fleas to hatch from the pupa stage which is impossible to kill with current products. When you are doing your environmental treatments, please remember that fleas migrate to where it is dark, so cleaning/spraying efforts should be focused in dark areas such as underneath furniture. We do not recommend flea bombs as the product only penetrates the tops of surfaces. If you follow these steps/rules, your pet(s) and house should be flea free in 3-4 months.    

FYI From the Veterinary Information Network:

Q: Why is buying product from the Internet or from the pet supply store some kind of a big deal?

A: With the flea product revolution of 1995, the market for flea products changed from being primarily pet supply store / over-the-counter outlets to primarily directly through veterinarians. The pharmaceutical companies like this arrangement as they feel that their products are now being marketed by trained personnel who can explain best how the product should be used or not used. The veterinarians also like this arrangement as they have more input regarding what their patients are using. The pet supply stores do not like this arrangement at all as they have lost their market-share. In an effort to gain it back, they have resorted to a number of black market techniques (paying large sums of money to veterinarians to order product for them, going to other countries to buy product and smuggling it back to the U.S. for re-sale, even counterfeiting product). We caution anyone who buys flea products from a black market source. Product purchased through pet supply stores or from an online source that is not a veterinary hospital is not guaranteed by the manufacturer.

Allergies

PVAH is seeing a lot of seasonal allergy sufferers right now. We had a very mild winter, so the fall & spring allergy seasons ran together. There is unfortunately no cure for allergies, but there are things we can do to help alleviate some of the symptoms.

Pets with allergies should be on an omega 3 fatty acid to help with inflammation. This is especially true for animals on prednisone, as it will help reduce the amount of prenisone needed.  Aloe & Oatmeal baths can also help. Animals with allergies that present as otitis externa (ear inflammation) can be helped by routine ear cleaning with a gentle cleanser. Antihistamines may also be beneficial.

Remember to call the clinic for help on this topic. If your pet's allergies are in need of medical therapy, please call to schedule an appointment today!