Dr. Di's Vetblog

H.B. 14 January 25, 2012 update: Ohio vicious dog law

2012-01-25T11:41:00.000-05:00

Way back last year, I wrote about Ohio House Bill 14 that would remove the word "pit bull" from Ohio's vicious dog law. This bill NEEDS to be passed. Ohio is the only state in the U.S. that specifically names a breed of dog in the vicious dog law. The original wording of this bill got passed umpteen years ago and like all things in government, it is taking eons to fix this mistake.

You can find my original blog post here. If you are in too much of a hurry to read the entire post, I think the last paragraph sums up the gist of why H.B. 14 needs to pass:

This is an important issue to all dog owners. If the pit bull is specifically named in the law now, what will keep Rottweilers, German Shepherds, Dobermans, Akitas etc from being added. All of us as dog owners have a stake in this. Treat dangerous dogs harshly, but treat them as individuals.

The bill is progressing through the legislative process. It has made it through its initial committee and the Ohio House. It has made it through the Ohio Senate committee just a couple a weeks ago. The next step is a vote by the full senate. It was suppose to make it to the Senate floor yesterday, but it did not. All expectations are that it will be heard and voted on by the Senate in the next few weeks. The next general session is next Tuesday on January 31st.

I'm asking everyone who lives in Ohio and especially dog owners to call your Ohio Senator and tell them you support Ohio H.B. 14. A few links below to help you out.

Find your Senator here.

Link to Ohio House Bill 14

General information on efforts to stop breed specific legislation

This bill may be voted on very soon. The time to call or email your Ohio State Senator is now. Fingers crossed that this bill makes it through the Senate. It is important to every one of us who owns a dog.

Dogs with bad backs - Emmett's story

2012-01-20T13:30:00.001-05:00

I've heard it said that 80% of people will experience back pain at some time in their lives. While back problems are not as common in dogs as they are in people, they are still one of the more common conditions that a small animal veterinarian will treat. Today's blog is about Emmett. This cute little dog is up and walking around today thanks to his very astute owner and a wonderful surgeon. (I have told you I like success stories, right? *grin*)

I saw Emmett for a sudden onset of back pain one Friday last June. I had to look up the month, but for some reason I can distinctly remember what days of the week this all happened. Anyway, his mom brought him in on a Friday and I remember how painful Emmett was. We took some X-rays and confirmed that he indeed had evidence of intervertebral disc disease. (Click on the link for a very thorough explanation of disc disease in dogs.) Just like in people with disc disease, pain is caused when a disc, which is the cushion in between the vertebrae, swells and bulges. And just like in people, almost all dogs will heal with some anti-inflammatory drugs, rest and sometimes muscle relaxers. Only 5% of dogs need surgery. Emmett only had pain with his back disease and he did not have any neurologic signs such as weakness in his legs or paralysis. And so, he got sent home on medical therapy, but I still remember how I thought Emmett seemed more painful than most dogs that I treat with this condition.

Four days later on Tuesday morning, Emmett's mom called to tell us that Emmett started have some weakness in his legs that just started that morning. Tuesdays are my main surgery day so I was gloved up and working in sterile surgical field when all this was happening. I remember my wonderful staff relaying messages back and forth between me and Emmett's mom. At first Emmett's symptoms weren't too bad so it was decided to just wait a bit, but within an hour his weakness was much worse and progressing toward paralysis. The question then was should Emmett come into the clinic for a recheck? Well, I've seen symptoms progress this fast before and this is not the time to delay treatment. We had Emmett's mom come and pick up his X-rays from Friday and go directly to see the veterinary surgeon. Within hours, Emmett had surgery for a disc in his back that had gone from bulging to ruptured.

The next day, Emmett got sent home from the surgical hospital. I remember how his mom commented how she was expecting to have to help him walk at least in the beginning as he healed from major back surgery. When they left the hospital, Emmett walked over to a post and lifted his leg to pee on it. Amazing. Emmett is doing well today (although he did have a flare up of back pain a month and half ago but only needed medicine to treat). Emmett is doing well because his owner was so incredibly on top of what was going on with her dog and also a big thanks go out to the wonderful surgeons and staff at our not-so-local referral hospital.

This is definitely a story of a bad disease where everything went right. I am always amazed when I have an owner bring in a paralyzed dog and when I ask how long the dog has been this way, they tell me a day, or two, or three, or sometimes more. Really? Your dog goes suddenly paralyzed and you wait days to bring it to the veterinarian? Bulging discs with mild to moderate pain and no weakness of the legs can wait until morning. Ruptured discs that cause paralysis cannot. This is definitely a disease where HOURS count. Not days. HOURS. If it happens at night, you don't wait until morning to see your regular veterinarian. Certainly there are many diseases where a "wait and see" approach is totally acceptable. This is not one of those. Even with quick action, not every dog will recover, but most will if treatment is not delayed. Thanks to Emmett and his "mom" for letting me share his story. He is a remarkable little dog to be sure.

If I never declaw another cat ......

2012-01-13T12:10:00.001-05:00

If I never declaw another cat, I would be a happy veterinarian. OK, I am a happy veterinarian, but the older I get, the more I dislike doing declaws. So now I am on a mission to educate cat owners about alternatives to declawing their cats. We might was well get used to practicing the alternatives now because this is the way the world is going. There are a whole slew of countries around the world that already make declawing illegal or severely limit the procedure. I don't see this happening in the United States anytime soon, but the winds of change are swirling around and that is a good thing for cats.

As I was doing some research for this blog topic, I did a little surfing around the web and the array of opinions on both sides is quite interesting. Everything from declawing is perfectly acceptable to declawing should be criminal. I wanted to link to some good solid info on alternatives to declawing (scratching post training, nail trimming, Soft Paws, etc) and it took me a good half hour to find a link that didn't start off with a page or two of "you are evil if you have your cat declawed" or "if you are a veterinarian who declaws cats, you are evil". It's kind of a turn off when you are trying to change someone's opinion, to tell them they are scum of the earth right off the bat. Kind of human nature to dislike being called a horrible person and I am not so much against declawing to make it a mortal sin. Finally though, I was successful in finding some "just the facts m'am" information on cat scratching behavior and minimizing damage to the house that I will link to further down the page.

Like most people who get older, I find myself contemplating all sorts of things in life. I used to give very little thought to declawing cats. I grew up in a dog household so the fact that cats like to scratch things meant little to me. When I went to veterinary school twenty-cough-some years ago, we were taught to declaw cats. There was no discussion. It was just another procedure that we would need to learn in order to be proficient small animal veterinarians. I acquired my first cat during my first year practicing veterinary medicine. She was a sweet little stray calico that a good samaritan had found and brought to the clinic where I worked. She had a horribly mangled leg that needed amputated. Since she was such a sweet little cat and seeing as how I didn't have a cat, I volunteered to amputate her mangled leg and take her home. She would be an indoor cat and as I was dutifully taught, indoor cats sometimes scratch furniture and woodwork and if that was not acceptable, the cat should be declawed. I don't remember her having any problems with the declaw surgery at all and she lived happily inside my house as a declawed cat until she got intestinal cancer and had to be put to sleep many years later. At this point, my opinion of declawing cats had not changed much.

It was sometime during my second job as a veterinarian that I started to contemplate things. Back then, I worked for a veterinarian who did ear crops for clients who owned show dogs. Fortunately I never had to perform one of those horrible procedures, but I did often have to take stitches out. Ear flaps are very tender and delicate body parts and while most times, we could just hold puppies to remove sutures, I was surprised at how often we would have to sedate puppies to remove stitches because the ears after surgery were so tender and painful to touch. I vowed I would never perform an ear crop on a dog. And this is when I started changing my feelings toward performing painful procedures on animals. If it is for the animal's benefit that is one thing. If it is totally cosmetic (like ear crops), that just doesn't sit well with me.

Declawing falls somewhere just shy of cosmetic surgery for me. On one hand, there is absolutely zero benefit to the cat to get declawed. On the other hand, I have done a lot of work in animal shelters over my career and know of all the cats that are out there desparately seeking homes or facing death. I also know there are people who will open their home to a cat or two or three, but only if they are declawed. That is just the way it is. There are anti-declawing advocates that will say that I am copping out by performing a surgery that I don't really agree with and to that I say rubbish! I am for cats being able to live plain and simple. If declawing gives a cat a life, I can live with myself. But my hope for the future is to educate, educate, educate and inform cat owners that declawing is a painful procedure and there are alternatives. I know that my own opinion about declawing has changed overtime. I have come to recognize declawing for what it is: a painful surgical procedure with not one health benefit to the cat. So if I can change my own stubborn opinion, I know with a little education I can hopefully persuade others to rethink declawing their cats.

So let the education begin. First I have to make sure all who want to get their cat declawed understand what the surgery is all about. The claws cannot be removed without also removing the last bone in every toe that is being declawed. Declawing is AMPUTATION of the end of the toes X 10 toes in the case of front claws being permanently removed. Just cannot sugar coat that any which way.

For some, just knowing that fact is enough to turn away from declawing. But the biggest hurdle is what to do with a cat that wants to use it claws to scratch furniture/woodwork/ carpet, etc and cats DO want to use their claws to varying degrees. Scratching is a normal behavior. You cannot get rid of a normal behavior. You have to redirect it. You have to do a little work. Yes, work. Never did understand why dog owners will go through all sorts of effort to housebreak dogs and teach dogs to do this and that, but cat owners will not teach their cats appropriate scratching behavior. It is no different. It does take some effort.

There are lots of web sites out there that give training tips. This is one of my favorites because it is complete with pictures and I LOVE pictures.

How to stop a cat from clawing furniture

If you don't want the hassle of training a cat when and where it can scratch and taking care of things like keeping claws trimmed, perhaps you shouldn't own a cat. It is simple logic.

If you don't want to listen to loud cock-a-doodle-dooing early in the morning, don't have a rooster.
If you don't want a house full of hair, don't own a dog that sheds.
If you don't want an animal that has claws and might use them on occasion, don't own a cat.
Just think about it. That is all I ask.

Positively Perfect Poodles

2012-01-04T17:00:00.000-05:00

I like success stories. I like stories that allow us all to see what is possible. So this blog is about two positively perfect poodles. Ok, perhaps they have a fault or two somewhere, but if they do, I don't know about it. What I do know is that they are gracefully living life through their senior years. One of these poodles is 16 years old and one is well over 17 years old. What they have in common is being senior poodles with no bad breath, no mouth pain, both have nearly a complete set of teeth and good health. If you haven't been reading the news lately, good dental health often translates to good overall health.

You may ask how is this possible. After all, teeth are one of the genetic weaknesses of almost all small breed dogs. There is some confusion about soft diets causing bad teeth and I think this is because often small breed dogs are fed canned or table food. But food plays a very minor part in determining if a dog's teeth are healthy or diseased. Genetics plays a much more dominant role. Poodles can have some of the worse diseased teeth I have ever seen. Perhaps until you see a little toy poodle screaming in its owners arms because rotting neglected teeth have eaten through the jawbone and caused the jaw bone to break in two, perhaps then you can appreciate what pain can be caused by rotten teeth. This is the extreme, but all rotting teeth cause pain. Unless the pain is extreme though, dogs seldom complain. Maybe they will sleep a little more. Maybe they will be a little more cranky. Maybe they will drool or chew funny. Maybe. Often times they just deal with their chronic pain and live their lives. But their pain is real. Believe it. And this is a story about how we can make a difference in our pets' lives by providing them with regular dental care if they need it.

So let me introduce you to the two positively perfect poodles.

Buffy age 16

Frodo age 17

And as a special treat I have a picture of Frodo's teeth during his teeth cleaning at age 17. Is this not the prettiest set of 17 year old poodle teeth you have ever seen? Excuse the little bit of blood on his upper lip as Frodo did have one small tooth that needed to be pulled, but that was it. I think of the 42 teeth that Frodo started his life with, he is only missing one or two.

Buffy is missing a few more teeth than Frodo, but not many and her teeth look just as lovely.

Buffy and Frodo have been blessed with owners who realize the importance of dental health and these two dogs have come in to get their teeth cleaned under anesthesia every single year starting when they were much younger poodles. They don't have heart disease secondary to bad teeth. They don't have kidney failure secondary to bad teeth. They don't have liver disease secondary to bad teeth. They don't have bad breath or mouth pain. They are positively perfect poodles.

The Angel Fund

2011-12-21T16:58:00.001-05:00

I must say that the last almost 6 months has been a crazy time for me, but fortunately in a good way. Although the blog postings became a little thin earlier this year, the blog abruptly stopped on July 31st. That was because the first week of August we opened a new location, converted our computer software to a totally new software program and went to electronic medical records all in one fell swoop. Since that time Dr. C. and I have been working both clinics, learning the new software program and learning how to input records into the computer instead of writing on paper. It's been a fun but crazy journey, but I am thinking that we have somewhat of a routine going now. Well, not that any day at a veterinary clinic is routine, but you get what I mean. So in the spirit of the New Year I am going to resolve to get my blog up and running again and what better topic to start off with than helping others.

I've said it before, but I work with some of the most amazing and generous people on the planet. Quite a few years ago, the staff here wanted to come up with a plan to help pet owners in need and they came up with an idea called "The Angel Fund". I kind of hesitate to write about this fund in an open blog because this is not a fund that can be used by request. It is small potatoes and would never withstand an onslaught of requests. The best part of the fund is that it gets used in spontaneous moments when someone really needs help, but they are not asking for help. The money in the Angel Fund comes from a couple different sources. Sometimes a client will see the sign in the waiting room and donate. Most of the money is raised via the generous donation of time from our awesome staff. Every 6 weeks or so, the staff will stay late after Saturday office hours and run a toe nail trim clinic. Clients bring in their pets for a $10 nail trim and all the money raised goes into the Angel Fund. So this blog is mostly for the people who have donated money or for those who come to the Toe Nail Trim Clinics that support the Angel Fund. I thought some might be curious as to how the money gets used.

Meet Shadow. He looks a little sleepy in his photo because he is. He was recovering from sedation. The flash on my camera very appropriately left a shadow on Shadow. Anyway, he is a 3 year old male cat that is owned by a nice older woman who is retired and lives on a fixed income. He came in a couple weeks ago with a life threatening condition - a blocked urethra. A lot of cat people are already familiar with this condition. It happens almost exclusively in male cats and usually it is caused by sludgy gritty material that forms a plug in the urethra and makes it so the cat cannot pee. When that happens the bladder gets filled with urine and the bladder becomes huge and very painful. Once the bladder fills, there is nowhere else for urine to go so the kidneys shut down and the cat goes into kidney failure. The cat quits eating, vomits and becomes very ill. Without treatment, the cat will die a horrible excruciating death in a few days.

Shadow's owner brought him into the clinic relatively early in the course of the disease so that was good. But still, to "fix" the obstruction requires sedation in most cases and then intensive fluid therapy to restart the kidneys that have shut down. All of this can cost several hundred dollars minimum and more if there are any complications. Coming up with money like that can be pretty hard when one lives on a fixed income and it is right before Christmastime too. But with treatment, almost all cats that develop this dreaded condition will live if caught early enough. Shadow's owner had no options. She did not have the money for treatment and euthanasia was the only humane choice available to her. Enter the Angel Fund. Money from the fund was used to pay for Shadow's treatment and two days later, Shadow went home urinating on his own and is on the road to recovery.

I am so proud of the staff and clients of the Country Doctor for making the Angel Fund possible. You can't save the whole world, but every once in awhile, you can help out in your own little corner of the world.

Outdoor dogs: Oh what that fur coat may be hiding

2011-07-31T11:30:00.002-04:00

This is the story about a hot spot. It's about a hot spot that started off small and grew up big and bad. But at least this story has a happy ending because they do not all turn out that way.

"Hot Spot" is a fairly common term used mostly to describe a moist area of skin infection and most of the time we use the term when we are talking about this skin lesion on dogs. If you haven't heard the phrase "hot spot" before, here is a nice article "Hot Spots in Dogs: What are they? How to cool them down!" that talks all about them. Veterinarians see hot spots all year-round but they are certainly more common in the summer because the underlying causes (fleas, insect bites, scratches from thorns, allergies, etc.) are more common in summer. But the "hot" in hot spot is not because we see them in hot weather, it is because the skin is "hot" and inflamed. And while most hot spots are indeed a "spot" on the skin, as you will see from this next case, they can become very large and do so very quickly.

Except in some cases of working breeds of dogs (Alaskan Huskies come to mind and sheep/cattle guarding dogs as another), I never quite understand why someone would have a pet dog and leave them tied outside 24/7. But I have seen it work well many times for both dog and owner so I am not judgemental as to say it should never be done. (There are those who would criticize me for all my outdoor barn cats too.) However, if you have an outside dog, there are some particular hazards that you need to watch such as heat related issues in the summer and cold related issues in the winter. And in the summertime, you need to pay particular attention to the health of your dog's coat and SKIN! That is SKIN capitalized with an exclamation point! Most of our dogs are very very furry and that fur can hide a lot of problems.

This is a picture of Big Red (not his real name) the Saint Bernard. He is sedated and lying on a treatment room table. Red came to the clinic because his owner had been trying to clear up a skin infection for about a week and things were getting worse and getting worse quickly. I fully believe that all of this happened in about a week because I know how fast a small hot spot can turn into a big hot spot.

Doesn't look too bad does it? You can tell the fur is a little matted up along his back, but most of this is because the owner had been using Kopertox to try and treat the skin infection. For those who don't know, Kopertox is a green liquid that is used to treat a condition called "Thrush" that occurs on the bottom of hooves in horses and cows.

Now here is a little side note and a heads up for all dog owners. If you want to make your veterinarian or veterinary technician thoroughly disgusted and upset with you, go ahead and treat your dog's wounds with anything sticky or gooey. This means BAG BALM or VASELINE or CORONA OINTMENT or KOPERTOX or the list goes on and on and on. Gooey ointments are not meant for animals with thick fur coats and all they do is make everything worse. They attract dirt and they keep wounds moist when wounds really need to dry out. They gum up clipper blades when fur is needed to be shaved from a skin wound and makes the job 300% harder. Enough said.

Now back to Big Red. Big Red was an outside dog. He had a hot spot start on his back. He lived outside. It is summertime. Can you think of what might make this whole situation worse? I'll give you a minute to think. Times up. Think flies. Think maggots. To give Red's owner credit, he was trying to work on this problem. He had been hosing Red off with water every day. He saw that every time he hosed the dog, maggots would be flushed out of the wound area. He tried fly spray, but the hot spot had already started to spread and was like a runaway train. Other than the Kopertox (which I think was just applied in a moment of frustration), the owner was doing everything right, but he did not know the first basic principle of treating a hot spot. You HAVE to shave the fur off the infected area of skin. Oh, you can sometimes get by without this step in an inside dog with a half dollar or small sized hot spot. But if you have a big dog with a wound and it lives outside and it is summertime, you HAVE to shave the fur. And so that is what we did and this is a picture of Red after having his hot spot shaved.

And then one more picture after his skin has been cleaned and scrubbed and he is sleeping on the big blue furry blanket in the clinic kennel area.

This looks awful and it is, but this is not a case of abuse. This is just ignorance. Ignorance can be cured through education. And thus the purpose of this blog. Red's story has a happy ending. His owner brought him in early enough that Red walked into the clinic with a wagging tail and left with a wagging tail. Not all maggot infested dogs are as lucky. I've seen many that have to be carried into the clinic on a stretcher. Some live, but some get to go home in a body bag.

And so the lesson to be learned from this little adventure is if you have a dog and especially an outdoor dog, you need to be DAILY checking your dog over for what might be hiding under that fur coat. Your dog's life could depend on it.

Paying for veterinary care

2011-07-09T22:50:00.010-04:00

Well, well, well, it has been some time since I have blogged. My only excuse is life being busy. Not only is May, June and July the busiest season for veterinarians, it is also busy farming season and I have responsibilities on the farm too. Keeps me out of trouble, but also keeps me off the computer. Which is probably a good thing in a way. The best part is I have a few blog topics lined up ready to go. One is a REALLY happy story that I want to share and I also have a sad and hopefully thought provoking story to share.

One of the very self indulgent parts about blogging is that along with passing on (hopefully) useful information, I get to clear my head of junk that is building up inside. One of my staff said I was getting feisty today. I think that is an accurate assessment. 99% of my clients are beautiful people. I am blessed to spend my days with such wonderful people. We laugh together, we cry together and we enjoy life with our pets together. But there is that 1% that makes you wonder and when you get a few one percenters stacked up back to back in a few days, it can drive a person to become feisty. Like the person who brought their VERY healthy looking overweight cat to me to be put to sleep. When I asked why, they said the cat has a tendency to throw up and they were getting new carpeting and didn't want to deal with the mess. Really? (I did not do the euthanasia by the way.) Or was it the person who brought their sick dog into the clinic and when I asked them how long it had been since the dog had not been eating normally, they told me 6 months. Really? Or was it the guy in the exam room who was upset about the estimate I gave him and became very irate with me and said "Look here girlie"? Really? You are really calling me "girlie"? Come to think of it, maybe I should have taken that as a compliment. I was at least about as old as he was and probably older. I feel much younger now. Thank goodness for the ninety-nine percenters. I love you all and you keep me sane.

And so I am going to re-start my blog with a topic that always seems to get those feisty feelings going: Why most veterinarians will not bill clients for veterinary care, but instead ask for payment at the time of service? And then my goal is to put a positive spin on the topic and list some suggestions for pet owners so they can be prepared financially in case of a pet health emergency. And because I really like reading blogs that have pictures attached and because I do not have any pictures lined up for this topic, I am going to randomly insert pictures of my chickens.

Mama Chicken. One of four hens that have been elevated to "pet" status on the farm. She is a barred Plymouth Rock. My oldest chicken. I think she is around 5 or 6 years old now.

Give this some thought. If people you barely know came up to you on a daily basis looking for a loan and told you "My family won't loan me any money. My friends won't lend me any money. The bank won't lend me any money. But I really think you should lend me money because I need some." How would you feel about that? Would you lend them money? Maybe you would lend money to the first few people who asked because you are kind hearted and feel bad for that person's plight. How would you feel if at least 90% of these people never paid you back? What if you were lending so much money to people that now you yourself were not able to pay your bills? I guarantee that after weeks, months, years of this, you would feel taken advantage of and you would not want to lend money to strangers any more. This is the scenario that plays out in every veterinary clinic multiple times every day. People who we barely know are asking us for money. I'm sorry, but if friends, family and banks won't lend you money, that is a red flag as to your reliability in repaying your loan back to the clinic.

This is Whitey. Also a pet hen, she is a Delaware. Whitey is my most social chicken and follows me around a lot when I am working around the barns.

So we have a dilemma. Someone calls or shows up with a very sick pet needing medical care and they have no money to pay for treatment. They are distraught because they love their pet and don't want it to die. On the other side we have the veterinarian. He or she loves animals (yes, we all do. It is why we got into this business.) We do not want to see animals die either. But we have a business to run. If we do not make money, our business ceases to exist. We employ people who need money to live. They have their own families to take care. If the veterinary practice where they work ceases to exist, they lose their means of supporting their family. This is an emotionally charged issue on both sides.

So I bring you a real life story to make a case for the veterinarian's side of this issue. After 20+ years of being a veterinarian, I am pretty adamant about not allowing people to run up a large balance for veterinary care at the clinic where I work. But because I do love animals, there is this soft hearted side of me that creeps into the picture about once a year. I always seem to get burned, but that is the name of the game. About 6 months ago, a woman who had never been to the clinic before brings in a sick dog. The dog is VERY sick and will die without treatment. The disease is bad and the treatment is complex and time consuming and therefore expensive, but there is a VERY good chance that with treatment the dog will live. I start talking to the woman about how she is going to pay for the treatment. She does have some money, but not nearly enough to cover the entire cost. She is crying. I feel bad. We try to get her approved for our clinic's third party payment program. She is declined. She cries. I feel bad. I know I can save this dog's life. I explain that I cannot let people I don't know charge for services because there is a tendency to not pay. She looks me straight in my eyes and tells me that she is not like those other people. She is different. She will pay her bill. She sounds so damn sincere. She cries. I feel bad. I give in. I get my staff to reschedule all my afternoon appointments so that I can perform emergency surgery on this woman's dog. I am now relying on this woman's word to pay my staff for that day, pay the electric bill for that day, pay the rent for that day, pay for the drugs I used on her dog, and many many other bills that need to be paid to run a veterinary practice.

A box of day old Golden Buff laying pullets arrives at the farm. There are few things cuter that day old baby chickens.

So what happened? The dog is alive and doing well. The clinic has received one very small payment since the dog went home and that was about 3-4 months ago. Nothing since. This one woman's bill is nearly 10% of our entire accounts receivable balance. It's ok though. I have used up my quota of random lending of money this year, but next year is open if you want to come see me then.

So let's take all the negativity out of this topic and let me lay out some positive steps that pet owner's can do in order to have money in a pet health care crisis.

1. If you borrow money from ANYONE, pay it back. OK, this one might sound kind of flippant, but it really works. You have a much better chance of borrowing money from someone you know in a crisis than from someone you don't know. However, if you borrowed $500 from your brother 3 years ago and never paid him back, he is probably not going to want to lend you more money now. Common sense, eh?

2. This is a corollary to #1. Establish a relationship with a local veterinarian. Take your pet in for regular check ups. Even if you cannot afford to do every preventive medical recommendation your veterinarian gives you, at least do something. And do it every year. This is just human nature, but I am much more apt to lend money to someone I know. Most veterinarians are the same way. We want to know that people are at least putting some effort into caring for their pets. And if you can't afford to spend at least $100 per pet per year on a veterinary visit, perhaps you should not have a pet. (I think a good blog topic would be how can people who love animals, but who have very little money, still have animals as part of their lives. I have some ideas on that one.)

3. Get a credit card. If you do not like credit cards because you have no self control and spend beyond your means, then get one anyway. Give it to your meanest family member and have them hold on to it and only give it to you for emergencies.

4. Start a pet health care savings account. OK, this one takes some motivation, but it works and is probably the smartest choice financially. Might want to enlist the help of that mean family to oversee this account too.

5. Ask your vet about third party payment programs. Most vets use them. Get approved ahead of time. If you are declined, find out why and fix it.

6. Pet health insurance. This business is in its infancy, but it may be a good option for some. It forces you to put money aside for your pet's health care and can often cover a higher dollar amount than some people can save on their own. Most veterinarians will give you pointers if you want to go this route. Ask.

7. Lots of communities have programs to help senior citizens and those on fixed incomes pay bills. Our county senior center has set up a program with donations from the local kennel club that helps seniors pay veterinary bills in case of a treatable illness. Ask around your community BEFORE the crisis happens to see what programs are available.

8. Look online. There are many organizations from veterinary associations to humane societies that have money earmarked to help people with veterinary bills.

So there are my 8 ideas, anyone else have any good ones?

Chicken feet and the call of the wild

2011-04-21T15:50:00.001-04:00

I dedicate this blog to the big healthy portion of chicken feet pictured above and those who love to eat them.

Food and food choices absolutely fascinate me. The science of nutrition fascinates me. Perhaps that is why my college days (before vet school) were spent pursuing a degree in animal nutrition. Animal nutrition was going to be my fall-back profession just in case I did not get into vet school. Now that I am focused on medicine, my nutrition interests have become more a personal hobby, i.e. cooking for me and my husband. Of course it helps that we live on a working vegetable farm and have an endless supply of fresh veggies all summer long. And we raise our own chickens both for meat and eggs. I do a lot of home grown food preservation so we can enjoy summer's bounty all year round. I have come to truly appreciate the labor and the taste of cooking from scratch. Not to say that I don't have some processed food items in the pantry for those weeks when late nights at the clinic use up my supply of pre-made homemade meals. Sometimes when the body is tired from a long day at work, nutrition becomes more of a necessity rather than something to be savored and enjoyed. Give me a microwavable dinner and let me go to bed!

Because I enjoy preparing meals so much, I get the whole homemade pet diet craze. I don't partake it in personally, but I get it. While I prefer sitting down to a meal with roast chicken from my farm, homemade mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli from the garden over chicken nuggets and previously frozen french fries, my dogs do not show the same type of preferences in their diet. They are what I call "appetite driven" and not taste driven. They show the same enthusiasm toward a bowl of dry commercial dog food kibble as they do a few morsels of my cooked chicken as they do the mouse that one of the barn cats left in the back yard three days earlier. OK, that last one is a fairly bad example because it is quite rare that the rodent carcasses brought home by the cats last more than a few seconds if discovered by any one of the dogs. But you get my point. So while I do home cook for myself, I admit I take the easy way out and feed commercially prepared food to my dogs and cats and chickens for that matter. Lots of science goes into creating balanced and nutritional diets for animals and I am more than happy to take advantage of all the hard work spent to create a balanced animal food. Scooping feed out of a bag simplifies my life enormously and I've always had a healthy bunch of animals in my household and on my farm.

As a veterinarian, I have very little problem with most commercial diets. I see dogs that are healthy eating every type of dog food from typical grocery store fare to exotic pet shop diets. For that reason, I am very hesitant to recommend specific brands when having discussions about what to feed pets (unless there is a medical need). I think the obesity problem (that means OVER feeding) has way more to do with how healthy or unhealthy our pets are than what brand of food they eat. Genetics plays a HUGE role too. There was an interesting study published in the Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine recently about causes of death in dogs by breed and age. Not surprising was that as dogs grow older they are more likely to die from cancer. Some would blame our environment or diet as the culprit, but interestingly enough was that after a certain age, the incidence of cancer started going down. You would expect that if diet or environment were totally to blame that the cancer incidence would continue to climb all the way through the oldest individuals. It doesn't . Here is a nice blog that discusses this study.

But you would be living under the proverbial rock, if you did not at least know there are murmurings about how bad commercial diets for our pets. Ah yes, the internet buzz. I have three issues with the undeserved demonization of commercial pet diets. The same people who have jumped on the "raw diet" and homemade diet bandwagon are the same ones who proclaim commercial pet foods are some toxic product of the animal slaughter house industry because you will find ingredients such as chicken by-product meal in pet food. Oh the horror when it is discovered that chicken by-product meal is this: " Chicken by-product meal consists of the ground, rendered, clean parts of the carcass of slaughtered chicken, such as necks, feet, undeveloped eggs and intestines, exclusive of feathers, except in such amounts as might occur unavoidable in good processing practice.". Chicken feet! Oh my, it contains chicken feet! Well did you know that chicken feet actually do have some nutritional value? They are considered a delicacy in many Asian cultures and can be found pre-packaged on grocery store shelves in many parts of the world. Just because most Americans (me included) wouldn't put a chicken foot within a few feet of my mouth doesn't mean they aren't edible. Actually one of the women who was at one of our farm's chicken butchering days last year requested cleaning and packing up some of the chicken feet because her mom makes soup stock from them. No problem. I was planning on throwing them out.

But yet the "raw food" crowd jumps up and down and shouts how raw diets are "natural" when all they are feeding is meat and perhaps ground up bones and veggies. What is so wrong with the feet, necks and internal organs and perhaps a few feathers mixed in? The coyotes that raid the farmer's chicken coop don't seem to mind eating those other parts along with the meat and bones. I don't get the prejudice against animal parts that most AMERICANS do not tend to eat. And what is great about chicken by-product meal is that it is cooked so that all the nasty bacteria and parasites that are found in raw food are now dead.

The second issue I have with raw food diets is the "raw" part. I've gotten a little better with my own cooking, but after going through public health class in vet school and learning about all the parasites that occur naturally in the meats that we eat, I had a tendency to cook every cut of meat until it resembled a charcoal briquette. Not because I wasn't paying attention to how long I cooked my meat. No, it was quite purposeful as I would flip burgers on the grill and mutter "die parasites die" under my breath. I have loosened up a bit these days in the pursuit of good flavor and juiciness of the meat I eat, but you will never catch me eating Sushi.

Raw foods can be an issue for pets too. Remember about how my dogs love to snack on the rodents that the barn cats catch and deposit so lovingly on the front porch of the house? Well this caused quite a bit of embarrassment for me last winter. I used to let the dogs sleep with me in bed before I got married. Then I married a farm boy who was raised with the "dogs don't belong in the house" philosophy. He was quite tolerant of the dogs in the bed until one day one of the dogs ate a pile of cat poop outside and then proceeded to jump on the bed and vomit said pile of cat poop all over said bed. That was the last day the dogs were allowed on the bed. He has no problems with the dogs in the house (and even cuddles with them on the floor every day), but no dogs in bed. Because I don't sleep with the dogs anymore, I may be a little slower on the uptake about things like, um, tapeworms (which dogs get from eating rodents). Sue, our office manager, was so kind to watch my old dog Molly at her house while my husband and I went out of town on vacation. Sue has such a kind heart and even though Molly is not allowed on the furniture at my house, Sue puts a blanket on her couch and lets Molly sleep there. When I got back from vacation Sue informed me that she had found tapeworm segments on her couch. Ooops! So sorry Sue. Guess I had better worm my rodent eating dog. Dogs and cats DO get parasites from raw food. They DO get salmonella and other bacteria from food. As someone who sees firsthand the harm that parasites and bacteria can cause pets and people, I don't understand why cooking pet food is evil to the raw food believers. I guess I can't understand everything. I will continue to cook my food and mutter "die parasites die". I am a cooked food believer.

Last but not least is the nutritional balancing act. You've got your big nutrients (carbs, proteins and fats) and your little nutrients (vitamins and minerals). All must be in balance. Now there is some deep philosophical stuff right there. So for those who want to make homemade diets for your pets, I beg you PLEASE learn how to do it correctly. It takes months and months of eating a diet with nutritional deficiencies before you might see a problem. It makes me so sad to see a blind cat or a young dog with thin brittle broken bones all because they were eating a poorly made diet.

I am going to give you two great sources of homemade diets. Both companies are run by veterinarians. Both are VERY reasonably priced for their consultation services. One is BalanceIT and the other is PetDiets.com. Check them out so I don't have to see your pets in my office for a nutritional deficiency. I have enough to do treating all the bone impactions and the diarrhea from people feeding raw diets to their pets. (OK sorry I couldn't resist that.)

As for me, I will be heading home to make some homemade enchiladas with rice and beans for me and my husband and scooping food out of a bag for my doggies. Guaranteed smiles from my husband and wagging tails from the wooferdoodles (as I like to call them).

Thanks again to Flickr creative commons for some of the photos (linked back).

The 3 day GREAT IDEAS FOR GIVING LOCAL blog - Day 3

2011-04-11T11:00:00.001-04:00

Last but definitely not least, here is the third idea for giving local and making a difference. This one will have you coming away with a deep sense of "fullness".

Event #3

What: Spayghetti Dinner
When: Monday April 18, 2011 5-8pm
Where: Wagon Wheel Restaurant, Madison, Ohio
To Benefit: The Ashtabula County Animal Protective League

This is one is a no-brainer. We all have to eat, right? What better than to have a great spaghetti dinner and raise money for the local animal shelter! I have been to a couple of these and they are VERY well attended and for good reason. The food is great. The homemade desserts are great. The atmosphere is great. The people are great. Oh I could go on and on. They always get a bunch of great donations for a Chinese auction and have a 50:50 raffle.

The Ashtabula County Animal Protective League is the largest shelter in our county. When you call the dog warden to pick up a stray dog, this is where they go. The people who work and volunteer at this shelter are saints! Really! They have such a hard job to do caring for all these animals and they do it with such compassion. A truly amazing group of people. But once again, this is an organization that relies HEAVILY on donations in order to take care of all those animals.

I know times are tough and money is tight, but like I said in the opening paragraph, we all have to eat. Tickets are $8 and $7 of that goes to the ACAPL. You cannot beat that! For more information head over to the ACAPL web site. You can even purchase tickets online. Can it be any easier? Dinner, dessert, fun!

Thanks again to flickr's creative commons for providing the pictures.

The 3 day GREAT IDEAS FOR GIVING LOCAL blog - Day 2

2011-04-10T13:30:00.001-04:00

Here is the next idea for helping local animals and you can even help your own dog or cat out in the process!

Event # 2

What: Rabies vaccination clinic

When: Saturday April 30, 2011 from 1-4pm

Where: Ashtabula County Humane Society, Austinburg, OH

To Benefit: Ashtabula County Humane Society

This event just has all sorts of good written all over it. First and foremost is the public health aspect of vaccinating pets for rabies. If you have been paying attention, you know that after quite a few years of not having a wild animal test positive for rabies in our county, we have had 3 raccoons in the eastern part of the county test positive. This is a big deal folks. Rabies kills. It kills thousands of wild animals, hundreds of domestic animals and a few people every year in the United States. And every year, I read stories in the national news of someone's beloved pet that got in a scuffle with a rabid wild animal and had to be euthanized because the pet did not have a rabies vaccination. How sad! I cannot for the life of me fathom why someone with a dog or cat would not get it vaccinated for rabies. Seems as though when you acquire a dog or cat, you should budget in a rabies vaccination, if not for the pet, then for the health of your family. And for those of you with indoor cats, they are not exempt from this. I remember a case quite a few years back of an indoor only cat whose family did not get it a rabies shot because the cat never went outdoors. One day a bat got into the house and the cat did what cats do and caught the bat. The bat turned out to be rabid and the cat had to be put to sleep. All the family's heartache could have been prevented by simply getting their cat vaccinated. End of the vaccinate your pet sermon.

The second part of this is that the rabies vaccination clinic serves to raise a little bit of money for the Ashtabula County Humane Society. They are not as big or as well known throughout the county as the APL is, but they are equally important. They serve a very different function too. The APL is an animal shelter that houses our county's stray and unwanted dogs and cats. The Ashtabula County Humane Society are the folks who investigate cases of abuse and neglect toward animals. They have a shelter too where they house dogs and cats and adopt out animals to new homes. And these are the folks that get to see the worst of the worst of animal abuse/neglect. I've seen some bad stuff in my time, but nothing compared to what the humane agents get to see. And remember, local Humane Societies are just that LOCAL. If you think giving to a big national organization like The Humane Society of the United States helps your local humane society in any way, then think again. The two have no affiliation with each other. HSUS is a multi-million dollar lobbying group that gives less than 1% of its budget to help animals in shelters. I will blog more on this in the coming weeks, but just remember if you want to help abused animals, keep your donation dollars local.

So if you have a dog or cat or ferret that needs a rabies vaccination, come out to the AC Humane Society on Saturday April 30th and get your pet vaccinated and help out your local humane society at the same time. For more information click on this link: ACHS Annual Rabies Vaccination Clinic.

The 3 day GREAT IDEAS FOR GIVING LOCAL blog - Day 1

2011-04-09T11:00:00.002-04:00

Normally I like to put up blog postings that have some lasting value: something that can be referred back to from time to time. But I am going to stray from that for the next three days. My usual M.O. is to put upcoming event postings up on the Country Doctor Facebook Page or my Twitter feed instead of in my blog. But there are 3 events in the next couple months that deserve some special mention and give Ashtabula County residents a great chance to help animals and keep donation dollars local. So I will highlight 1 event per day for the next three days. All 3 events benefit local Ashtabula County animals that really need our help. Each event helps a different group so you have a chance to go to 1, 2 or all 3 events and do multiple good deeds. And everyone of us (me included) need a little prodding and a little cheerleading to get motivated to do something for a good cause so let the cheerleading begin...........

Event #1

What: Family Fun Dog Show
When: Sunday May 22nd starting at 1pm
Where: Ashtabula County Fairgrounds Sheriff Station
To Benefit: local police and sheriff working canine units

I cannot say enough good about our county's K-9 units. Trained police dogs are such an invaluable part of our local law enforcement. Because of them and the officers who train and work with them, we are a much better off community. From drug detection to apprehension to search and rescue, these dogs are amazing. The K-9 unit departments do have quite the challenge though when it comes to budget. It takes quite a bit of money to keep these units up and running and we all know how bad the budget situation is in our county. So being the best staff on the planet, the women who work at the Country Doctor decided they wanted to come up with a fund raiser to help out the K-9 units. The dog show is 100% their idea and I think it is great! Giving back to the community is what this life is all about. Making a difference. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I am blessed to be working with such generous and caring people.

Now on to the dog show details...............

In case you think that your dog can't enter a dog show because it is not a show dog, not in this case. This is a fun show! You can find the complete flyer and the dog show registration form over at the County Doctor web site by clicking on the hot links. Here is a list of classes that you and your dog can enter:

Best Tail Wagging

Best Under bite

Crazy hair do's

Pet and owner look alike

Cutest eyes

Best pet trick in 60 seconds

You can enter for only $5 per class. There is something for every dog. There will be guest judges (including me and if you really want to know, my weakness is chocolate frosted brownies *wink,wink*) Several of the K-9 units will be at the event so you can meet them. We are going to have a bake sale too so if you can't find a dog to enter, you can at least come over and eat.

Since this our first Family Fun Dog Show, we need folks to sign up by early May so we can plan. If you need more info you can visit the Country Doctor web site at http://www.countrydrvet.com/ and look for the show flyer in the "Patient Center" tab and then go to "events". OR you can email us at info@countrydrvet.com. We would love to see everyone there and help us raise money for the dogs who do so much to make our communities a safer place to live.

And thanks to Flickr's creative commons for helping me fill in a few pictures.

The spring treasure hunt

2011-03-09T09:30:00.001-05:00

The birth of this blog topic took place in the grocery store this past Sunday. I don't even know how we got on this topic, but I said hello to one of the employees who I see in the store all the time and before you know it we were discussing the fine art of spring yard clean up and what that means to a dog owner. What amazed me the most about the conversation was how we both were waiting for the exact same moment to begin our yearly clean up task. There was some incredible bond between us. A bond between two dog owners that knew exactly what the other was thinking and feeling. And here I thought I was the only one who was eagerly awaiting a perfectly crisp sunny March morning to begin the job that awaits.

The yard looks so pretty and white covered in snow. This is how my yard looked two weeks ago. Actually, this is how my yard looked from the first week of December until about three weeks ago. Then it rained about 2 inches, melted all the snow and then it snowed again. That is why my yard looked like this two weeks ago. Then it rained about 1 inch, melted all the snow and then it snowed again. My yard looked like this last week too. But I have three dogs. There are hidden treasures waiting for me under the snow.

I have had a glimpse at the vast glory of all those gems scattered around the yard twice in the last two weeks. Most years we will experience at least one thaw in mid winter so that I can split my yard treasure hunt into two parts. Not this winter. The snow has been unrelenting in its coverage of the yard. Those waiting treasures have multiplied to astronomical proportions over the course of three straight months of snow. So the wait begins. You see collecting all the yard treasures requires the perfect weather conditions that have to coincide perfectly with my work schedule. Obviously the snow has to be gone for the hunt to begin. It can't be raining. In fact it can't even be above freezing or else the awaiting prizes turn into piles of mush. It can't be too far below freezing either because the valuables become one with the ground and are impossible to remove without digging up the yard. No, the perfect conditions are a sunny morning with temps in the upper 20's and expected high temps to rise into the 30's or 40's. On mornings such as this, there is a glorious hour or two when collecting the treasure is at its best. The gems hold their shape, but yet lift easily from the ground. Heaven.

And so the grocery store employee and I had this great conversation about waiting for those perfect conditions. And we will wait a little longer. Yesterday the sun came out and melted most of the snow, but of course it was dark and above freezing when I got home from work. Today will be more rain and lots of it. Then followed by more snow. Waiting. Waiting. I will take care of my own yard all by myself, but I can't help but think that this company that I made fun of last summer is going to be mighty busy this spring.

Happy poop scooping to all my northern friends and neighbors!

Does this tooth hurt? You betcha!

2011-03-03T16:10:00.001-05:00

I get asked all the time by pet owners if I think their dog or cat is in pain. The simple answer is that if it is something that would cause pain to a person, it will cause pain in a dog or cat. What is different is how dogs and cats in pain behave compared to people. The signs can sometimes be very very subtle. Of course most of us would not miss a dog that just had its foot stepped on and is delivering an ear piercing cry that can be heard halfway down the block. Puppies are particularly good at this and if anyone has a husky or a beagle, then you KNOW how loud they can be when they are hurt. But this is a case of sudden onset of pain. What about chronic pain? How about an example.

Very early in my veterinary career, I treated a beautiful Golden Retriever whose name escapes me. I'll call him Max. Max lived on a farm and like a lot of farm dogs, he would occasionally go exploring in the woods. One day Max went missing and didn't come home for 3 days. When he finally showed up at the farm house, he was badly injured and his owner brought him into the clinic for me to examine. Max's left rear leg had been shot with a high powered rifle. The tibia leg bone below the knee had been shattered. No, more like evaporated into nothingness. Most of the skin and muscle was gone too. There was a 1" wide strip of skin still there and that was all that was holding Max's lower leg and paw to the upper part of the leg. So I walk in the examine room and here is this beautiful, happy, tail wagging, bouncing around on three legs, Golden Retriever. He was so excited to see me and as he was bouncing around the exam room, the lower part of his left leg that was dangling by a strip of skin was twirling around every which way. He never cried out. He never slowed down. Was he in pain? I guarantee he was. What happened was that he had just spent the last 3 days out in the woods adjusting to living with his pain. Life goes onward in a dog's mind. The end of the story was that I amputated Max's leg and he went on to live his happy Golden Retriever life.

The point of that story is two fold. First, dogs and cats have nerve endings that send pain signals to the brain. I am 110% absolutely positively you can't convince me otherwise sure that our pets feel pain. Second, you cannot always tell if an animal is in pain by its behavior alone. Sometimes you can, but sometimes you can't. If there is something that you can see or feel that looks like it should be painful, then it is painful.

On to a tooth story. Yesterday a regular client brought in her dog for me to check a tooth. She had heard a story on the radio about dental health in pets and decided to look at her dog's teeth and a back tooth didn't look quite right. Here is a picture of the tooth:

Do you see that pink spot on the tooth? That is where the outer enamel has broken off the tooth and is exposing the pulp cavity of the tooth and yes, exposing the nerve. Does that not make you cringe seeing that raw tissue exposed? It makes me cringe. I just wanted to rush over and give this client a big hug for being so observant and knowing when something didn't look right. But I did restrain myself because, well, you know, it's probably not proper exam room etiquette to rush into someone's personal space and give them a big bear hug. *grin* I do just love it though when pet owners are really in tune with their animals. Now this dog was not showing a bit of behavior that would make you think it was in pain. I can guarantee this tooth was painful. There are two choices for treating a broken tooth: extraction or root canal with a crown needed in some cases. In this case, the owner chose extraction which we did today. This dog will go home with oral pain medicine for 4 or 5 days and then should be on her way to a painfree mouth.

Now I don't think that all pain needs treated in all animals (although we probably should be treating pain more often then we do). If I bang my knee and it turns all black and blue and sore, I don't go reaching for the bottle of Advil right off the bat. But I do think that animals hurt the same way you and I hurt. I think different individuals have different pain tolerances too just like in people. So while not 100% of pain needs treated, just know that even if they an animal is not acting painful, if you see something or feel something on your pet that looks like it should hurt, well, then it does hurt. If you have any doubts, ask your veterinarian.

Cats, kidney disease, and making a difference.

2011-02-23T16:50:00.001-05:00

Last week was kind of a rough week at the clinic. We had several patients die or get diagnosed with advanced cancer or other equally horrible diseases. These kind of weeks happen in the medical profession. And not to say that one individual loss of life doesn't have any effect on us, but when multiples occur in a very short period of time, the stress level certainly rises above the norm. During times like this, a person needs to have a coping mechanism in place or they won't last very long in this very emotional environment. When I am faced with great sadness at work, I grab on to the successes for the successes are why we do what we do. Last week I said goodbye to a patient of mine named Sabrina when she was brought into the clinic for euthanasia. It was time to say goodbye, but Sabrina's life has special meaning because of her story and Sabrina's owners graciously said "yes" when I asked if I could tell her story in my blog.

When I decided to do this blog, I asked Sabrina's people if they could send me a few pictures to add to the blog which they very kindly did along with a note about how and when she first made her way into their lives. I am going to include that note word for word because I was touched by a feeling of love that came across to me in those 2 short paragraphs about Sabrina's life.

Sabrina was just a tiny kitten when found at the McDonald's dumpster in Conneaut in the winter of 1992. Efforts were made to find the owner to no avail, so the people that found her kept her at their home in Conneaut. When it was not possible to care for Sabrina anymore, they asked a mutual friend of ours if we would mind taking care of "Ashley" (Sabrina's name at that time). Since we already had one cat--a seven-year-old male "Bailey", we took in "Ashley" on a trial basis in October 1993. Everything worked out well--we renamed "Ashley" to Sabrina.

Sabrina adapted well and became the "Queen Bee". She adapted well to travel to and from Florida (sometimes twice a year) and various trips to Connecticut. In 2002, "Bailey" died, but she was not alone for long. "Buster", a male cat about two years old, was adopted from a shelter in West Virginia in November 2002, so she had another male cat to boss around. In 2007 she was diagnosed with a kidney disease that would be fatal. She was on medication for that until she died in February 2011. She was at least 19 years old.

I first met Sabrina in 2002 when she was 10 years old. Over the next few years all her visits and bloodwork were for routine check ups or to get her teeth cleaned. In the summer of 2006, Sabrina came in for her regular check up. She had been doing well, but had lost a little weight. This year her bloodwork showed that she was in the beginning stages of chronic kidney disease. We changed her diet to a commercial feline kidney management diet and started her on Calcitriol, a drug that helps with some of the changes in parathyroid hormone that occurs in kidney disease. Over the course of the following years, there were a few minor bumps in the road and Sabrina needed a treatment for a urinary tract infection once and was treated with an antacid stomach medication a few times. Through out all of this, Sabrina's owners were very diligent about giving her medicine and bringing her in for regular appointments and bloodwork. This is what made all the difference.

The point of Sabrina's story is that this is what early diagnosis and treatment can accomplish. Chronic kidney disease is one of the most if not the most common disease veterinarians see in our senior cat population. There have been several studies that have shown on average, a cat that has been diagnosed with early stage chronic kidney disease will live about 1 year with no treatment. With treatment, cats will live an average of 2 years. Sorry this is not a scientific paper so there are no footnotes. If you want me to dig out my notes about these studies feel free to shoot me an email and I will find them. In Sabrina's case, she lived 5 years. Not every cat will do as well as Sabrina did, but many will. BUT the kidney disease needs to diagnosed early. Not when the cat has shriveled down to a skeleton, quit eating and is vomiting bile all over the place. Sabrina's 5 extra years of life is why we veterinarians harp about bringing your cat in every year for a check up. It's why we tell you that your senior cat needs routine bloodwork every year. We are the ones who see what can be possible. We can't work miracles, but with a little help and perhaps a touch of good luck, we can make a difference. The successes. It is why we do what we do.

Along with some pictures of Sabrina all by herself (and one with her "brother" Buster), I was also sent one picture that made me cry and smile all at the same time. You understand I am sure. It is the sadness that comes at the time a pet's life ends and we have to say goodbye. It is the smile that comes from knowing how blessed we were to have met and how much that pet's life meant to our own. Dear Sabrina, I hope you have a good job supervising computer work on someone's lap over the rainbow bridge. It was a blessing to have known you.

Socialization biscuits and delivery people

2011-02-10T14:27:00.002-05:00

Last week I got to see Molly, my 14 year old Brittany, interact with our fuel oil delivery guy. I'd like to invent an award for most favorite delivery person because if there were such an award, he would win it hands down. The morning of the ice storm last week, the clinic where I work was put on a 2 hour delay in opening so that none of the staff had to drive to work during the early morning when the roads were the most treacherous. So instead of going out to start my car and clear ice off the windshield at 8am, I was doing this chore at 10am. Molly followed me outside and as we walked toward the driveway, the fuel oil delivery truck pulled up. From all the years I have lived on the farm, I know the driver's name is Jessie. I said hi to him as he was getting out of the truck and I continued on over to where I had parked my car in the driveway. Now I know Molly is a good social sort of dog, but I am rarely home when the fuel oil gets delivered so I don't really know how she behaves around delivery guys. I've just never had a complaint and I almost always follow the "no news is good news" way of thinking. Molly has lived on the farm since a year and a half old and is trained to stay in the yard so most days when no one is at home, she is outside keeping the yard safe from, well, really not safe from much of anything. Mostly she sleeps with the cats on the front porch. So when delivery people come to the house, she is free to greet them or chase them or whatever. Last week was a rare opportunity for me to watch Molly and Jessie interact.

Jessie got out of the truck, stopped for a minute, reached for something inside the truck and closed the truck door. Molly saw him and trotted over to him. Jessie reached down and patted her head and gave her a dog biscuit. Molly was wiggly and wagging. Another dog cookie was fed before Jessie unrolled the hose and started filling our fuel oil tank. Molly followed him. As he was waiting for the tank to fill, he knelt down and was scratching Molly behind the ears and talking to her. I couldn't hear what was being said if much of anything. Dog cookies 3 and 4 were fed during this time. Molly loves Jessie.

I feel for delivery people and having to deal with all sorts of dogs. I live in the country. I am a big bike rider. I have been chased by my share of farm dogs both mean and friendly. I know what delivery people have to put up with. But it does my heart good, to know that their are delivery people out there who are smart enough to realize making a life long friend is a good goal to accomplish if possible.

I had a similar experience with a Fed Ex driver. It was probably 5 or 6 years ago, but I was headed home in the middle of the day and as I drove down my road toward my house, I saw a Fed Ex truck pull into my driveway. Again, I was wondering how Molly was going to act toward the Fed Ex guy so I purposefully slowed down so I could watch what happened from a distance. The Fed Ex driver got out and as he started walking up the sidewalk to the front porch, Molly came trotting off of the porch to greet him. He promptly tossed a couple dog biscuits her direction which she happily ate while he put the package on the porch. Another delivery, another positive experience for the dog. It's no wonder she likes delivery people so much. Good thing we don't get more deliveries or I would be wondering why my dog was getting fatter.

For years, I've been passing out a handout called "Socialization Biscuits" that was given to me by Dr. Wayne Hunthausen. Dr. Hunthausen is a veterinarian who does a lot of behavior consultations to help owners with their pet's behavior problems and he writes and co-writes a lot of behavior handouts and articles. His hospital's web page can be found here. But I love the Socialization Biscuit handout. Getting puppies started off on the right foot, or perhaps I should say paw, is so important to good behaviour later in life. But even as dogs get older, I think we tend to forget that they need positive encounters all the time to keep them happy and well balanced. I am blessed that my dog Molly has had so many good encounters with some very savvy delivery people. I know this is not always the case and that's where trouble can start.

I am glad I can trust Molly around strangers. That is a blessing in and of itself. But it's also nice to know there are plenty of people out there who know that you can catch more flies with honey. Being positive and friendly gets you into a lot more places than being scared and/or grumpy. I need to go invent my favorite delivery person award now.

Pit bills and Ohio's vicious dog law

2011-02-02T12:00:00.045-05:00

Meet Rommel. Sweetest pit bull on 4 legs. I absolutely love this dog. He has a pit bull "sister" Val who is equally as sweet, but don't tell Val that Rommel is a bit of a favorite of mine. I think there is a certain amount of charisma that goes along with old age and Rommel is certainly showing his age. Maybe I just have a great deal of empathy since I have my own geriatric dog at home that is developing her share of old age doggie quirks. A few people good naturedly chuckled at the picture of me holding on to Rommel in my office. They said it looked like I had a wrestling hold on him. Truth be told, he was hanging out in the office with me after having anesthesia to remove an abscessed tooth. He is a bit unsteady on his feet to begin with and with just a touch of left over anesthesia in his body, well, he was kind of doing the weeble wobble (without falling down). But the weebling was making it really hard to get a good picture so I was just giving him a little physical support. Kind of like the boy scout helping the old lady across the road. Sweet ol' Rommel.

The point of introducing Rommel is that pit bulls are one of my favorite breeds to work on as a veterinarian. I meet very few who are truly vicious. If they are vicious, they are not sneaky about it. I like knowing where I stand with a dog when my face is in their face doing an exam. But like I said, very few are aggressive in the vet's office and that is just the plain and honest truth. I could give you a list of about a half dozen other breeds that can make me cringe a bit inside when I see one of them appear on the appointment calendar. But even on my own personal list of breeds that could just go away and never be seen or heard from again (and all vets have this list whether they admit to it or not), there are good individual dogs and bad individual dogs. For some reason I prefer breeds where 80% are happy and friendly in the strange exam room setting as opposed to breeds where 20% are happy and friendly in that same setting. Call me crazy.

Which brings to my reason for writing about pit bulls today. The state of Ohio's dangerous dog law specifically names the "pit bull" as a vicious breed. I'm not quite sure the history of how this type of dog and no other became part of the law, but it is there and the law needs changed. Notice I said "type" and not breed because "pit bull" is not even a recognized breed. There are actually several different breeds that fall into the pit bull "type", but none of this is spelled out in the law. All this does is to make the law ambiguous and that is a big problem.

What it comes down to is that dog bites are a serious issue. The physical and emotional damage caused by a dog bite can be enormous. And on occasion, dog attacks can be fatal. The laws need to be harsh toward those who choose to keep dogs that are aggressive. The law does not need to punish people who keep dogs that are well mannered and even tempered just because that dog belongs to a specific breed. Dangerous dogs need to be treated as individuals. Period. Breed specific laws are just plain wrong.

Fortunately Ohio House Representative Barbara Sears has sponsored a bill to remove "pit bull" from the vicious dog law. The bill (which was actually floating around last year too) is now known has House Bill 14. The bill is in committee right now and has been assigned to the Criminal Justice committee. There was actually a committee meeting earlier this morning to hear testimony on this bill. If you would like to help get H.B. 14 passed, please feel free to contact members of the committee and voice your opinions. Follow the links below for contact and other information.

Ohio House of Representatives Criminal Justice Committee

Lynn Slaby Criminal Justice Committee Chair

Barbara Spears H.B. 14 Sponsor

Ohio H.B. 14 details and links to status

I'll try to keep this blog up to date with details on how this bill is progressing. This is an important issue to all dog owners. If the pit bull is specifically named in the law now, what will keep Rottweilers, German Shepherds, Dobermans, Akitas etc from being added. All of us as dog owners have a stake in this. Treat dangerous dogs harshly, but treat them as individuals.

The sky is falling and other good tales of doom

2011-01-26T13:40:00.003-05:00

The past week has been a gold mine for pet lovers who blog. (I will put my thoughts from a veterinarian's perspective on all this hoopla at the end of this blog.) Last week the media picked up the story of a CDC (Center for Disease Control) study that talks about the risks of sharing your bed with your pets. All sorts of scary diseases from the plague to methicillin resistant staph aureus that can be passed from pet to person were mentioned in the study. And not only did the news media pick up this story, they ran with it. If I search "sleeping with pets" on Google news search, I get 202 results. And that is not a very detailed or complete search by any means. The news articles range from the informative to the overly sensationalized to the humorous. Here are just a few that I have stumbled across.

FoxNews reports "Study Claims Sleeping with Pets May Be Dangerous". I was a little disappointed by this headline. I go to FoxNews whenever I want to look for really cool headlines like these I found on January 26 "Woman Allegedly Mowed Down After Facebook Feud" or "Man Seeks Police Protection from Sex Crazed Wife". Really, how can you not click on those stories to read them. Then there is the story headline "Fire on Hudson River Ferry Over; no injuries reported". What a great story to link to off of their front page on their web site. There was a fire. It was brought under control. No one was hurt. I love FoxNews. They make me smile. So you can see that I was totally disappointed when I read the story that pets sleeping in bed with you "may" be dangerous. Such ambiguity is just not like them.

This was especially disappointing after AOL news linked to a news article which headline reads "Letting Sleeping Dogs Lie In Your Bed Can Kill You". No ambiguity here. It's not that pets in bed "may" be dangerous or "may" make you sick. No, those furry carnivores in our homes can KILL you. See, I knew it was much worse than I first thought.

But beyond the regular news stories, there are the bloggers. I actually enjoy these the most because they take life much less serious. I like that. Living in a cold northern climate, I can really related to this blogger from USA today who writes "Final Word: Ban on pets in bed is giving folks cold feet". In my younger and single days having a dog or two or three in bed with me was quite an advantage in lowering my heating bills. Nowadays I have a husband and a pre-menopausal body that provide me with more than enough heat during my sleeping hours, but pets can provide a very practical source of heat at night.

Then there is the blogger from The Tallahassee.com web site that informs us "Alarmist nonsense implicates dogs at the foot of the bed". He goes on to talk about how the hand washing industry is probably behind all of this nonsense. He certainly is on to the fact that we are become a nation of germaphobes. I still remember working for a mixed animal veterinary practice years ago. At lunchtime we would gather around the employee lounge to eat and hang out. One of the small animal veterinarians who worked in the clinic all day was totally obsessed with personal cleanliness. I still remember that he would wash and sanitize the top of his can of soda before opening it and taking a drink. The rest of us would come into the clinic fresh from large animal farm calls with bits of manure on our clothing, wash our hands, dry them on our clothes and eat lunch. The small animal veterinarian was always sick with colds and flu (nothing serious) and the rest of always stayed healthy. I have no scientific basis for this, but I have always had the contention that some low level exposure to germs is actually better for your immune system. It just makes sense. Oh and before you panic about my cleanliness in treating my patients, I have had "cleanliness is next to Godliness" drilled into my head from the beginning of time. Or you can just look at my shrivelled up dried out hand like body parts that are a result of my 457 hand washings I do every day at the clinic. In the hospital, sanitary conditions are not optional. In my personal life, I prefer a little dirt under my nails. Life is more fun that way.

One of my husband's favorite sayings is "If it weren't for house fires, I wouldn't leave the house at all". He always says that in response to the latest news article about the dangers in our life. Remember the dihydrogen monoxide scare from a few years back? Just check out the facts at DHMO.org FAQ if you want to read about all the dangers of this deadly chemical that we are exposed to every day of our lives. Heck just this winter I saw a news article that sled riding is dangerous and can cause injuries. Really? Before I was born, my mom actually tore some ligaments in her knee in a sled riding accident. You would have thought that mom would have banned us kids from such a dangerous activity, but no, she actually took us sled riding and we had fun. Oh the horror of it all. (And don't you just love the label on this bottle of water I got at a convention years ago? (picture below) I LOVE people/companies with a sense of humor! Maybe they should have put the dihydrogen monoxide warnings on this label though.)

So where does all this doom and gloom news about pets sleeping in our beds leave a veterinarian who lives, loves and breathes all the beauty of the human-animal bond? Well, it leaves me with being informed about what is out there, minimizing the risks and then going ahead and loving the life I lead with all the animals that surround me at work and at home. Would you sleep with your spouse if he/she didn't take a shower for months on end, never brushed their teeth and had lice crawling all over them? If you want to sleep with your pet, make sure you bathe them regularly, keep up with their dental hygiene and for gosh sakes keep them free from fleas, mites, intestinal worms and many other various parasites that can plague our pets. If you don't know what it takes to make sure your pet is healthy, see your veterinarian. Don't forget to exercise extra caution if you or whoever is sleeping with the family pet does not have a healthy fully functional immune system. End of the be careful sermon. Now go love your pet and live your life.

Second Annual 'Sleep in Heavenly Peace'

2010-12-24T10:45:00.000-05:00

I mentioned that I would post a blog with new information about Lyme Disease sometime in the month of December. Well I wrote up the article on Lyme disease for our clinic newsletter that will be out in January. And I will post the article here too, but really, it is the day before Christmas and who wants to think about Lyme Disease. Not me.

Last night, I walked outside to unload some bags of cat food from my car when I noticed the mass of furry critters in the dog kennel on our porch. We have 8 barn cats that live on our farm. They are some what of a rag tag bunch of cats with various minor problems, but they are all neutered, vaccinated, wormed, treated with flea and heartworm prevention and VERY well fed. We actually laugh because the group has split into two. Three cats who really spend all their time on our front porch and the other five that spend most of their time in the barn. For some reason this year, 2 of the "barn" cats have abandon ranks and joined the "porch" cat group. I am used to seeing 3 cats curled up together in the dog kennel on the porch, but last night I had 5 sets of eyes staring back at me. I think the youngest cat in the bunch is 7 or 8 years old. So interesting to me to see older adult cats sleep like this. I'm sure they like the warmth in the colder weather.

The cats sleeping together made me once again think about how peaceful animals look when they are sleeping. The beagles are once again curled up beside the computer desk and they too have a look of total peacefulness. A good thought to have because after all this is the season of Peace. What a good time to step back and have a peaceful moment to reflect on all our blessings. I for one feel totally blessed to have animals a part of my life. May each and every one of us have a Merry Chritmas or a blessed holiday season in whatever way we choose to celebrate.

Pictures with Santa

2010-12-03T14:11:00.000-05:00

So you have been thinking about getting your pet's picture taken with Santa? Or perhaps you want a picture of the dog and the kids together with Santa? How about your 2 cats and your 4 dogs? Well now is the time. In the next 10 days, you have 3 chances to get pictures with Santa and support either the Ashtabula County APL or the Ashtabula County Humane Society. Here are the three dates in order:

TONIGHT December 3, 2010 at the Geneva Lodge from 4 to 8pm. This event sponsored by the Ashtabula County Animal Protective League

TOMORROW Saturday December 4, 2010 at the Ashtabula County Humane Society in Austinburg from 11am to 3pm. This event is sponsored by the Ashtabula County Humane Society

NEXT SUNDAY December 12, 2010 at Country Doctor Veterinary Clinic in Jefferson from 11amm to 3pm. This event is sponsored by the Ashtabula County Animal Protective League.

Links have been included above so you can check out the web pages for each organization to get more specific information.

This a great way to support your local Ashtabula County animal shelters and have fun too. Bring the whole family!

That dirty old ear sucking dog

2010-12-01T21:30:00.001-05:00

I should have know my childhood fascination with my grandma's Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings albums would lead this city girl down a country road. It wasn't until after college though when I married a farm boy that I disappeared down that road for good. I won't go into all the long drawn out details of the journey, but here today I find myself with two huntin' beagles that keep the blanket on the floor next to my computer desk warm and furry. It is required that they are called "huntin' beagles". Saying "hunting" with the "g" would be too cityfied. Besides, these dogs work for a living. I am a big believer in dogs having an outlet for whatever their genetic make up tells them they should do. So all year long, a couple times a week, the two huntin' beagles get to run rabbits in the creek bed behind our house. Except during hunting season, there is no danger to the rabbits. The two dogs work the trail SLOWLY. I think I have even seen a rabbit stopping to nibble on a blade of grass as it lazily hops along to stay ahead of the trailing dogs.

The two beagles at my house have very different backgrounds. The older beagle, Gabby, I adopted from the local animal shelter. I had absolutely no idea if she would hunt rabbits, but I wanted her as a pet first and foremost. The fact that she loves her beagle job is just an added bonus. The younger beagle, Buddy, I acquired earlier this year from a guy who raises beagles. He had kept two pups from his bitch's last litter, but then was finding that he couldn't spend as much time with them as he liked. So my husband and I agreed to have Buddy come live with us. The two dogs bonded immediately. Well, Buddy bonded with Gabby like glue. I'm not sure the feeling is entirely mutual, but Gabby does not protest at the young teenage hound that follows her everywhere.

There is a ritual that is played out nearly every evening on that blanket on the floor next the computer desk. After the evening feeding and the usual racing and chasing around the lower level of the house, the two beagles settle down on the blanket. What happens next just amazes me. As Gabby starts to fall into deep slumber, Buddy will start licking one of her ears. It progresses to him taking all of Gabby's ear flap into his mouth and sucking on it. And Gabby has big ear flaps. Every evening I ponder why Buddy does this? And how can he get that whole flap in his mouth? And why doesn't Gabby seem to care? This goes on for several minutes and then the two dogs just fall asleep side by side. I would stop this behavior if I noticed anything bad happening, but Gabby's ear flap doesn't have any side effects except that sometimes it will kind of stick out at an odd angle if the saliva dries and makes the flap kind of stiff. Otherwise all is well.

I took some pictures of what this all looks like. The only reason that Gabby's eyes are open in these pictures is because of the flash from the camera.

Which brings me back around to Johnny Cash. While Buddy is definitely not old and he is mostly not dirty, he is an ear sucking dog. Up from the depths of my childhood memories came the memory of a Johnny Cash song "Dirty Old Egg Sucking Dog". I remember it was from the album "Everbody Loves a Nut". I'll bet I wore out the vinyl on the copy that my grandma had at her house. But other than remembering that I loved this song, I had forgotten the words. So of course I had to go and look them up. I guess it wouldn't be very politically correct to sing about stomping a dog's head into the ground or shooting it with a rifle nowadays, probably even more so for a veterinarian. All I know is that I remember liking this song as a kid. It probably made me laugh. Maybe it's like the Blake Shelton song says "we've all got a hillybilly bone down deep inside no matter where you're from you just can't hide". Time to go feed the huntin' beagles and watch that ol' ear sucking dog for a bit.

And for those who haven't heard the Johnny Cash song that I write about, here is a version with the muppets. Now how can you go wrong with Johnny Cash AND the muppets. Enjoy!

Blood worms vs poop worms

2010-11-15T16:45:00.001-05:00

Right here by popular demand: It's blood worms vs poop worms. No it's not a WWE match. But it is something I get asked about all the time. And it is something that causes great confusion in the exam room. So my office manager and vet assistants asked that I write this blog to try and clear up some myths about worms that we hear all the time when talking to pet owners. So here are the top 5 worm myths that we hear.

Myth #1

I'm sure my pet doesn't have any worms because I don't see anything in its poop.

Answer of course is "seeing" or in this case "not seeing" does not tell you what is happening inside a dog or cat's intestines. Tapeworms may the one exception as most tapeworm infections in dogs and cats are diagnosed when the owner either sees the worm segments in the animal's poop or sees the worms actually crawling out their pet's butt while they are snuggling together in bed. Nice, eh? These segments are where the tapeworm eggs are found and that is how they reproduce and spread. But the other major worms (roundworms, hookworms and whipworms in dogs) just tend to happily attach to the lining of the pet's intestines eating and having sex. Then they produce eggs that are passed into the poop and worm eggs are microscopic. Adult roundworms are large enough to see easily, but adult hookworms and whipworms are much smaller and rarely if ever seen. Unless there are hundreds of adult worms hanging out in the intestines or they are killed with deworming medicine, there is no advantage for these adult worms just let go and pass outside the body. So they just hang onto the inside of your pet and pass microscopic eggs into the environment.

Then there are all the single cell parasites out there like Giardia and Coccidia. They are not worms at all, but can make pets pretty gosh darn sick. I challenge anyone out there to be able to see a single cell organism with the naked eye. Ain't gonna happen.

Did you know that a single female roundworm can produce 100,000 of these microscopic eggs every day? (From CDC web site)

Myth #2

My pet had a negative stool sample, but I am seeing worms. Your stool sample test sucks.

Answer is that the test does not suck, but it does have limitations. Worms don't always produce eggs every single day of their lives. Some worms are more likely to produce lots of eggs (roundworms) then others that produce few eggs (whipworms). And as I mentioned above, tapeworms like to pass segments through the stool. The eggs are inside these segments and that is what the fecal test picks up. So if there is no segment in the poop sample, it will be negative. Your pet still has worms.

We still recommend stool samples be tested though because they are a good screening tool. They will pick up a lot of worms that we would never know a pet has just by looking at the poop. You just have to remember that once in awhile, a "negative" is not truly a negative. (If you look at our medical records, we actually don't write "negative" in the results box, but rather we write "no ova(eggs) seen".)

Myth #3

We tell you your dog needs to be tested for heartworms. You say that you brought in a stool sample a couple weeks ago and it was negative for any worms.

Answer is that HEARTworms live in the HEART. So when they reproduce and have children, they do it inside the bloodstream. You will not find baby heartworms in a poop sample. We need to draw blood. Adult heartworms live in and near the heart and when they give "birth" it is to little squiggly larvae called microfilaria. Again, these microfilaria are microscopic and just waiting for a mosquito to suck up some blood and carry them off to another dog, cat, coyote, or whatever. There are blood worms and there are poop worms. Heartworms are in the blood.

Myth #4

My dog can't have heartworms because it is not around any other dogs and it hardly ever goes outside.

Answer is that heartworms are spread by mosquitoes and while you may not want to admit it, mosquitoes can and do get inside our homes. Mosquitoes can also travel a good distance when the wind blows whether they like it or not. My best example was a little dog that came to the city clinic where I worked about 20 years ago. It was a little toy poodle that lived in a high rise apartment and pooped and peed on a pee pad inside the apartment. Yep, the poodle got heartworms.

Myth #5

My dog can't have heartworms because it doesn't even act sick.

Answer is that depending on how many heartworms are in a dog's heart, they could walk around for years before they start showing symptoms (coughing, getting tired more easily). Dogs with lots of worms will show signs right away, but some dogs will only have a few worms. By the time that they get symptoms, they are at risk for permanent lung or heart damage. We need to test all dogs before they are sick.

Now if you read my last blog, you read about a lovely picture of bloody diarrhea that came out of a dog and ended up on the floor of the waiting room. This dog's diarrhea was caused by massive hookworm infection and there were a few tapeworms thrown in for good measure. If you don't want to look, then don't scroll down. You have been warned.

The moral of the story is listen to your vets when they speak of worms. Worms are a fact of life in dogs and cats and trying to ignore that worms exist can lead to trouble. Let's keep our pets and families healthy!

All things gross and beautiful

2010-11-10T13:55:00.001-05:00

Because of James Heriott, just about every pet lover is familiar with Cecil F. Alexander's hymn "All Things Bright and Beautiful".

All things bright and beautiful

All creatures great and small

All things wise and wonderful

The Lord God made them all

Well my take on this hymn is "all things gross and beautiful" should be the first line. Earlier this year, I got the chance to do a career day talk at a local school. After my little spiel, there was a question and answer session. The first question by one of the students was "Do you ever see gross things?". I think the teacher was a little taken aback and she tried to redirect away from that question, but leave it to a veterinarian to jump on any opportunity to talk about all things gross. I thought that was a GREAT question and I was more than happy to talk about having a career that has daily exposure to bodily excretions of all types. I know the human medical field has their fair share of the gross factor, but veterinary medicine excels in this field. There is nothing like coming home from work smelling of anal sacs, tom cat urine and infected Cocker Spaniel ears all at the same time. God bless the families of veterinarians. They will surely achieve sainthood for putting up with such odors making their way into their entrance ways and laundry rooms.

A couple months after career day, one of our vet techs came running into the back room all smiling and excited and in search of the camera. Something had happened in the waiting room and she wanted to get a picture for my blog. Awwwww, thanks for thinking of me! I had just seen a young large and gangly dog in the exam room that came in because it was having diarrhea. After history and physical exam and a stool test, I determined that worms were the most likely cause of this dog's diarrhea. As the client was waiting to check out, the dog deposited of pile of liquid bloody diarrhea complete with wiggling worms onto the tile floor. I still have this photograph and might even use it for a future blog (you have been warned!).

Then last week I had another case of a dog that had pyometra (pus in the uterus). I've seen a lot of pyometras in my career, but I don't think I have ever seen a case that had a vaginal discharge like this dog did. It was creamy and mucousy and if you really want an accurate description, her discharge looked like the biggest nastiest ball of snot you could imagine. Quite fascinating actually.

OK, stop. I now realize that all of us in the veterinary field thrive on gross. It is not that we wish bad things on our patients. Far from it. I would be happy if I saw nothing by wiggling puppies and purring kittens all day long. But diseases happen and gross diseases fascinate. When you actually step back and think about it, isn't it amazing how much pus can come from a cat abscess or how much diarrhea a parvo puppy can produce. I think if you are in veterinary medicine your brain is just hardwired so the first words out of your mouth when you see something particularly gross is "Wow". You may say "ewwwww" and hold your nose second, but "wow" is always first. That response is what sets us apart.

By the way, the dog with diarrhea and the dog that had surgery for pyometra are both doing great. So if your pet has something really gross going on, don't hesitate to take it to your veterinarian. It may just make our day.

First hard frost and blanket month

2010-11-03T15:35:00.000-04:00

What the heck does the first hard frost in the fall have to do with veterinary medicine? Well not much except that it helps explain the absence of this blogger. Unlike my early days just out of vet school, I actually have some semblance of balance in my life which means that sometimes I actually do things that aren't associated with veterinary medicine. The biggest chunk of time outside of medicine revolves around the farm business that my husband and I own. Most of you already know I raise meat chickens and laying hens although that is a very small part of the farm. Most of the farm income comes from raising vegetables. My husband is really the force behind the farm, but there are times during the height of the picking season that I will pitch in. I've spent more than one evening after work helping the guys pack boxes of produce. And as a by-product of living on a vegetable and poultry farm, I am in charge of food preservation for the family. Eating fresh, locally grown, healthy food is very important to me. So during the months of August, September and October, many of my days off from the clinic are earmarked for preserving food for the winter. Of course we have butchering day for our meat chickens. Then I'll spend a day blanching and freezing sweet corn. Green beans get a day for canning. Apples get made into applesauce and frozen. Pumpkin gets made into pumpkin puree and frozen. Broccoli blanched and frozen. Tomatoes get canned. Each of these is done on separate days and takes up much of my free time during the late summer and early fall. Combine that with a very hectic schedule at the clinic and something has to give and it has been my blog. So now the first hard frost has finally killed the garden. The chickens are all butchered. Only some winter squash is left to put up for the winter. I can actually do some other things on my days off and maybe leave myself a little time to blog.

October was a very fun month for us at the clinic. Everyone at work has expressed a desire to reach out to the community with various projects. (Do I not work with the greatest people on the planet!) So October was Blanket Month. We collected blankets to give to the Ashtabula County Animal Protective League and the Ashtabula County Humane Society and Dr. C. agreed to donate $1 for each blanket that was donated and the amount would be divided equally between our two local shelters. The end result was so much more than I expected. It was so fantastic. We took in 249 blankets total. One of clients that works at one of the schools got the students involved and they brought in 182 blankets. Now you have to understand that we have a kind of small building at the clinic. There is no wasted space. The doctor's office was already being taken over by bags and bags of blankets, so when Shannon dropped off 182 blankets, well, we were at a dilemma on where to store them. My car got to be the designated storage location.

I now have an appreciation for people who hoard and their cars are full of stuff. I drove around like this for two days before making it to the shelter to drop off my "treasures". Unfortunately I never did make it up into town with my car looking like this. I thought I could start some crazy rumor about why Dr. Di. has a car full of stuffed full trash bags. Maybe my husband kicked me out of the house and I had no place to live. It was close to Halloween, so maybe it could have been some creepy spooky rumor. But no, just home, back to work, home, back to work and to the shelter with no chance for anyone to make up some juicy gossip.

Well we are doing a canned food drive at the clinic in November. Maybe I'll get another chance.

How, when and why did corn become so evil?

2010-09-29T16:52:00.000-04:00

Fall is the most beautiful time of year in northeastern Ohio. As I drive to work in the morning, I pass by fields of soybeans and field corn maturing in the fall sunshine. I love watching the fields of corn change from green to brown and the ears of corn go from upright to hanging downward as the kernels mature and dry out.  Bunches of cornstalks are showing up on front porches and mailbox posts everywhere as people decorate to match the season. My husband's last planting of sweet corn should be maturing this coming week. There is nothing better than picking an ear of sweet corn, taking it directly to a pot of boiling water and 7 minutes later, putting it on your plate to eat. Not to give the other veggies in the garden short shrift because everything is ripe and fresh for the picking, but this blog is about corn.  There is a lot to love about fall and well, fall just wouldn't be fall without corn.

Maybe I shouldn't be writing this blog because I love corn and you know how it goes when someone says bad things about something you love. You want to stand up and defend your love. Of course fresh sweet corn is the best, but grind corn into meal and you can make all sorts of yummy tortillas and muffins and breads and cakes. If you want a snack food free of artificial this and that, what could be better than good old corn chips? Ok so they pack a good amount of calories and salt, but in limited amounts, they can be a tasty treat.

My first recollection of corn being portrayed as evil was with the high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) controversy. How many years later are we in this debate and there is still no proof that HFCS is the evil root of this nation's obesity epidemic. Do I think all the sodas and sweetened foods full of HFCS that we consume are good for us? No, but I also believe that obesity stems from consuming too many calories and these foods typically have a big caloric wallop. You see I was majoring in nutrition before I got into vet school. It is very hard for my scientific brain to wrap my head around the notion that the body reacts differently to a molecule of fructose or glucose in HFCS vs a molecule of fructose or glucose in table sugar. I just can't make that make sense. Back when I was an aspiring nutritionist, I learned the 10% rule. It is ok to eat foods that have minimal nutritional value as long as they don't account for more than 10% of your daily calories. That means for most people who eat in the 1800-2000 calorie per day range, no more than 180-200 calories per day in sweets and snack foods. Hard to do in this hectic life, but if we all lived by this, I think we would all be a lot healthier (and thinner).

So that brings me to the corn in dog food controversy. I don't even know the history of how corn in dog food became so evil. But I see and hear it around me everyday. I have clients who tell me they only feed dog food without corn because they read on the internet that corn is bad. Pet food companies have jumped on the band wagon and specifically marketed foods that are "corn free". And don't even get me started on the raw diet craze. It seems to me that I hear one of several concerns over corn. I'll go through the most common arguments one at a time.

One is that corn is not digestible. Well, that would be true if whole corn kernels were in dog food, but they are not. Once corn is ground, the inner goodness of the inside of the corn kernel is open to the digestion process. Corn does have protein and some good amino acids and fatty acids that help make a balanced diet.

Second is that corn causes allergies. I've heard the veterinary dermatologists and nutritionists talk about this for years and corn is WAY down on the list when food allergies are diagnosed in a patient.  Foods that are a lot higher up on the list are foods like wheat, beef, dairy products, eggs and chicken. Not to say that an individual cannot be allergic to corn because they can. It's just that it is not very common.

Third is that corn is added to dog food as "filler". This is the one argument against corn that I have the hardest time understanding. Why would a pet food manufacturer put anything in a pet food that has no nutritional purpose for being there and it costs money? The truth is that corn has a purpose for being in pet foods. It is part of the nutritional balancing act to make a food balanced and complete. People seem to have no problem with feeding pet foods with rice or peas or barley or one of many other plant based carbohydrate sources that are found in pet food companies that are jumping on the corn is evil bandwagon.   When it comes down to it, the reason that corn is the most popular carbohydrate source in dog food is that we live in a country that has a climate that is perfect for growing corn. This makes corn cheap. It does not make it bad. If we lived in a country that had a climate perfect for growing rice, then rice would be the most common carb in dog food.

I guess there are those who want to live complicated lives. That is fine with me. For myself, I try to live under the K.I.S.S. principle of life (keep it simple, stupid). I've been a vet for over 20 years and dogs are living longer and healthier lives than ever before. And most dogs that come to see me eat a store bought commercial dog food their entire lives with scraps of this and that thrown in for good measure. Commercial dog food has way less of an impact on overall health than does things like obesity and poor dental health or at least that is how it seems to me. So I am happy letting the pet food manufacturers do the research and balance my dogs' diet for me. It saves me time and money and my dogs are just as healthy as anyone else's. And they eat dog food with corn in it. Keeping it simple.

Odo and the power of healing

2010-09-08T14:00:00.001-04:00

Every once in awhile I like to do a profile of a case that is somewhat unique. Today's story is about Odo. Warning: a few of the pictures in this blog are quite graphic.

Odo is a very cool friendly 18 year old black cat. One Saturday last month, Odo's owner brought him to the clinic to check out some wounds. Seems as though Odo, who lived his life as an indoor cat, decided that he just couldn't live his whole life without seeing what the outdoors was like. About a week earlier, he had escaped from the house and was gone for a day. At first when he came back home everything seemed ok until the night before he came to the clinic when his owner noticed some draining wounds on his back and sides. When I walked into the exam room, Odo's owner said that the wounds were REALLY bad. I hear that all the time, but since I have been looking at wounded animals for 20 years, my REALLY bad and an owner's REALLY bad are usually two very different things. Most wounds are gross, but not bad at all. In Odo's case, his wounds were REALLY bad. Even so, Odo was standing on the exam table and bright and alert and happy. His "dad" even reported that Odo had wanted to eat that morning. When an animal that is obviously in serious trouble is gosh darn happy, you just have to go along with it. (Reminded me of a golden retriever I saw over 20 years ago. It had disappeared for 3 days and when it came home, it had been shot with a high powered rifle through the lower part of the back leg. The entire lower leg was just hanging on by a thread of skin and the dangling lower leg was even twirling around. That dog was happily wagging its tail and hopping on three legs all over the clinic. Can't keep a good dog down. geez!)

Back to Odo. So we took Odo to the treatment area in the clinic where we can clip fur and wash infected wounds. With no tranquilization and no fussing at all on Odo's part, he let us clip all the fur away from the sides of the chest and back area. He just stood there and purred. Go figure. The wounds were large, full of pus and went 360 degrees all the way around his chest. As best I can describe it, the holes in the skin looked like holes in Swiss cheese. There was dead and dying skin and tissue everywhere. Odo let me trim off most of the dead skin and flush the wounds out with sterile saline. I think the word "wow" was uttered about 137 times between myself and the staff. I told Odo's dad that I was really worried that there may be some sort of underlying disease going on to cause the wounds to get as bad as they did. He did not want to get into an extensive medical work-up due to Odo's age and I had no problem with that. But since Odo was so gosh darn happy, we decided to put him on antibiotics and see what happened.

What happened next is amazing. And it's not like I haven't seen it before, but every single time it amazes me. The healing power of the body. Given a little help and some tincture of time, it is amazing to watch the transformation. Again, the first pictures are pretty graphic so you have been warned.

I really think this first picture does not do justice to how bad this was. This was taken before all the fur was shaved off. This was only one side. The cat's top of his back, both right and left sides and the bottom of his chest all had the same amount of holes and pus.

Unfortunately, I did not take a picture of what this all looked like after shaving the fur, but I did take this pleasant close up shot.

One week later this is what one side of Odo's chest looked like.

And two weeks after this, here is what Odo looked like. A little scarring as the skin regrows and contracts, but the wounds are almost healed and Odo is doing fantastic.

Amazing. Every single time.

Really?

2010-08-25T15:52:00.000-04:00

Last week, my husband and I were making a produce delivery (we own a vegetable farm) and we came across this vehicle in a parking lot. I looked. I looked again. My husband walks over and all I can say is "Really!?". Probably said it 4 or 5 times in a row. I just had to take a picture.

Now I must be way behind the times because when I got back to the clinic I was all excited to tell everyone about this SUV I saw advertising a business that would come and clean up dog poop from your yard. A few were surprised, but several had heard of this before. Really? Maybe it's because I live in a township of less than 1000 people. It is mostly farmland and dogs can roam a lot of acres. I live on a farm too, but I like to keep the doggie droppings picked up from around my house. I have three dogs too so they do their fare share of doo doo. But really, it takes what? Maybe 10-15 minutes once or twice a week to do this task.

Well after I found out that this is a business that people have heard about before, I checked out the Scoop 4 U website. They have a really nice web site. Plus there is a link on there for a site called Pooperoni. It is a directory of pooper scooper companies all over the U.S. You just have to love the entrepreneurial spirit of people. I am not belittling this at all. In fact, I think it is great. I just can't believe someone would pay someone else to scoop their dog's poop. Really?

Support your LOCAL animal shelter

2010-08-18T10:27:00.009-04:00

I'm going to do something in my blog this week that I normally avoid and that is scraping along the edge of politics. My mama always told me "if you don't have something nice to say about something, then don't say it". Good words to live by. And although I am certainly far from perfect, I really try to look at the positive side of issues. That is why I try to avoid politics like the plague. Sometimes the truth just needs to come out and be told. And the truth is that animals need our help. Specifically, the thousands and thousands of animals that end up in animal shelters in this country every year. Now all of you who know me, know that I am a HUGE adopt a pet from a shelter fan. The people who run these shelters are such good people. They work hard. They love caring for the animals. And it's a tough job because most local animal shelters struggle with funding. But for those of us who love animals, there is not a better cause than supporting your local animal shelter.

So where's the part about politics and the truth? Well, it has to do with the Humane Society of the United States. Now, if you are in favor of what this organization stands for and how they operate then by all means support them. They are a lobby group. They are strongly entrenched in the animal rights movement that would love to see the end of things like ALL livestock farming, not just the large commercial farms. All livestock farming. Period. And realize this: the Humane Society of the United States is a very wealthy political action group. They are NOT the parent organization for your local humane society or animal shelter. They give only a very small percentage of the money they raise to animal shelters. I LOVE this HumaneWatch.org advertisement that ran in some national publications some months back. I think it says so much.

I guess what bothers me the most about HSUS is they love to place pictures of forlorn puppies and kitties in their literature soliciting for donations. It makes people think they are helping the local animal shelters when the fact is the money raised is all about supporting a big political action group. It's just deceiving and that is what gets my goat. Well, if I had a goat. Of course the HSUS is probably thrilled that I don't have a goat. Check out the information at HumaneWatch.org. It may be a little eye opening for some.

Here in Ashtabula County, we have two larger organizations, the Ashtabula County Animal Protective League and the Ashtabula County Humane Society (they are not and I repeat NOT NOT NOT affiliated with the Humane Society of the United States) plus several smaller privately run animal rescues. They all need our help. So as the saying goes "Donate, Volunteer, Adopt". There are so many good people out there doing the hard work for all the homeless dogs and cats. Let's all donate locally to make sure the money gets to where it needs to go.

Adrian

2010-08-09T10:03:00.002-04:00

Throughout our lives, there are people who touch our lives in unique ways. And throughout the life of a veterinarian, there are animals who do the same. Today's blog is about a very special dog. Adrian died two weeks ago today of a ruptured tumor on the spleen. It still doesn't seem real to me as his loss was so sudden. He was 11 years old which is a good number of years for a German Shepherd Dog, but still it seems too soon.

Adrian was a police dog and the partner of Sergeant John Koski of the Ashtabula City Police Department. I feel very privileged to be able to work with these incredible dogs and with the officers who are their handlers and their partners. As a veterinarian, I understand the human-animal bond pretty well. I understand the pain of losing a trusted friend and companion. But I really think I cannot fully understand what these canine officers mean to their human counterparts. It is not just about love and companionship. It is about life and death on the job every single day. These dogs are invaluable and repeatedly save the lives of the officers they work with. It is a level of bond that I think you need to live to fully understand.

I must admit that I truly admired Adrian for very selfish reasons. Here was a working dog that was trained to be aggressive and known as one of the hardest biting dogs on the police force. But in all my years as his veterinarian, Adrian never once displayed an ounce of aggression in the clinic. Not a growl. Not a lift of the lip. Not "the look". Nothing. Some of the police dogs we work with actually become very fear aggressive in the clinic setting. Not Adrian. He was an amazingly social and well adjusted dog. I could do a physical exam on him without fear of losing any fingers or facial features. Sergeant Koski would often tell me how good Adrian was with his own kids. I know he took Adrian to schools for presentations. That is why Adrian commanded my respect. A lot of this praise should be heaped onto Sergeant Koski as well. I still remember a conversation I had with him some years back when Adrian was in his middle years of life. We were talking about training dogs and Sergeant Koski talked about how every single day he took time to run Adrian through his paces even if it was only for a few minutes. That is what it takes to have a well trained dog. All of us with house dogs that disobey commands on a daily basis should stand up and take note. We train our dogs and then forget that reinforcing that training is a daily commitment. I am as guilty as the rest of not following through. Perhaps Adrian's legacy to me is to remember him by being a better dog owner and training my dogs like they should be trained.

And to John Koski, my heart goes out to you. In your pain, think of all the lives that were touched and made better by knowing Adrian. You were a huge part of that. Thank you sir for the job that you do. I will always think of you and Adrian together and smile.

Rat discrimination

2010-08-02T18:14:00.006-04:00

Last week, I had the opportunity to take a tumor of a little rat named Fonsworth. She is the sweetest little rat that there ever could be. I just wanted to give Fonsworth's "mom" the biggest hug for having this tumor taken off. She had actually been to another vet awhile back that said nothing could be done. And so the tumor got bigger, but it was in a pretty good location to be able to be removed. Now rats are little tumor growing factories so to speak, but a lot of the tumors they get are benign. They just get so darn big that they do gross things like break open and get infected. But if taken off early, surgery can make big difference in a little rat's life.

I must admit there were a few snickers about doing surgery on this rat, but not from me. I think it is shameful that rats are discriminated against. No one would say a thing if this were a dog or cat. So why should a rat be different? Some said why do surgery on a little critter that can be replaced for not very much money? Uh, I have yet to pay one dime for any of my cats, but I spend lots of money to feed, spay/neuter, and give flea and heartworm prevention to them. Plus treat them for their illnesses if anything goes wrong. I have only bought one dog in my life (a hunting beagle for my husband). Every other dog I have ever owned as been free. Ok, acquiring them has been free. Afterwards, not so much. Just ask me about the "free" beagle I adopted that got a stick up inside her nasal passage a few weeks after I got her. A trip to the specialty clinic and several hundred dollars later, not so free.

Maybe it is the life span issue. But again, I clean teeth and take lumps off my 13 and 14 year old dogs that may only live another year at most. So do a lot of my clients. So I am not buying that either.

I just think rats have a stigma. So rat lovers unite! Spread the word that they are not disgusting little vermin running around the barns and fields and buildings of this country. Well, ok the ones that run around barns and buildings are disgusting vermin. But no, I'm talking pet rats here. I for one think they should be treated like any of our other pets we keep in our homes. Just meet Fonsworth. She will make a believer out of you.

The fair is coming to town!

2010-07-28T15:15:00.008-04:00

I do believe I may be back and blogging. Finally. What a crazy life it is sometimes. Wish I could say that I was on vacation the whole time I was not blogging, but alas I was only vacationing about 5 days. I have some more serious stuff to blog about in the upcoming weeks, but to tell you the truth, I need to blog about something fun today. We've had a rough couple weeks at the clinic with lots of very terminally ill patients coming into the clinic and many not going home. It has not been quite as bad as a stretch I had last year (maybe some day I'll blog about that), but it does seem sometimes that the "when it rains, it pours" factor takes over from time to time. It's sometimes hard to remember all the successes we do have when we are in the midst of a rash of bad, non-fixable problems.

OK, so where is the fun part. Well the Ashtabula County Fair is coming up in just under two weeks. I absolutely LOVE the fair. You might say I am somewhat of a fair junkie. I love the whole experience. The noise, the smells, the sounds. The animals, the exhibits, the food. The entertainment, the tractor pull, oh how I love the tractor pull. I'm just smiling thinking about it. I only eat jalapeño poppers once a year and this is it!

Now that we don't do large animal medicine at the clinic anymore, I don't get to see the horses, cows and pigs prior to fair like I used to, but I do still get to see a handful of turkeys for pullorum testing. I really like turkeys. They have lots of personality and are just very cool birds. When the turkeys start showing up in the appointment calendar, I know the fair cannot be that far away. Their arrival at the clinic marks a very special time in summer for me. I think the rest of the clients enjoy seeing them out in the parking lot as much as I do too. Plus there is nothing cooler than seeing appointments out in the clinic lawn.

Maybe because I was raised a city kid and now live and work in the country, but I really have enjoyed learning about where our food comes from. And no, it does not come from the grocery store wrapped in a package of cellophane. It comes from the farms of rural America. And the future of our food supply is in the hands of our children. I do worry that the children of today are getting so out of touch with where food really comes from. I know as a kid, I did not understand half of what I understand today. So I'm rambling a bit, but here is the true value of our county fairs and our 4-H programs. We need to teach our kids the truth about food. The alternative is that farms will be so over-regulated by people who have no idea about the truth of food production that farms in this country will cease to exist. Then how do we feed our nation? From exported food products? Sounds like a recipe for disaster to me. OK, got a little bit serious here, but I love the fair for so many reasons. Fun is one, but education is another. I guess it should be no surprise that a veterinarian is an education junkie too.

So please go support your local county fair. Take your kids and let them learn about the cows and the chickens and the pigs and the horses. Have fun eating greasy fair food (just don't do it all the time). Enjoy what local agriculture brings to the table. And when you hear those diesel engines cranking up, you can think of me sitting in the infield at the tractor pull and cheering on my farmer friends!

Happy summertime!

2010-07-14T16:46:00.001-04:00

Just wanted to give a quick blog update. No I have not dropped off the face of the planet even if my blog appears to have. Just busy with covering for Dr. C. while he was on vacation. Now I am ready to hit the road for a few. I should be back and blogging soon. Hope everyone is having a good summer!

Empathy for dentists

2010-06-26T18:37:00.004-04:00

Every once in awhile, I like to throw in a "day in the life" blog. Two days ago, my day ended with me having great empathy for my professional cousin - the dentist. I have nothing but respect for dentists. It has to be a hard job because does anyone really like to go to the dentist? But fortunately for dentists they are the most likable people. I noticed this trend in college too. The med school student parties were fun. The vet school student parties were fun and unique. But the dental school parties were the BEST! So you can see that early on, I have developed this theory about dentistry attracting the most fun loving people on the planet. I think this personality trait makes them better able to cope with the fact that all their patients hate coming to see them.

Thursday morning seemed like a normal morning at the beginning. Mostly routine annual physical exams with some itching and diarrhea thrown in for good measure. Then one after another it happened. Every single dog I examined lifted its lip and growled at me. I even had a 12 week old puppy snap at me. WHAT? Are you kidding me? That happens so rarely I can't even remember the last time it happened. There is always the occasional growling dog that comes along, but every single one? After 24 years of doing this, I'd like to think I have a pretty good vibe with my patients. The vast majority of dogs that growl or snap at me do so out of fear. Which is actually the good thing about being a woman since a lot of dogs tend to be less fearful of women than of men. They don't, however, like coming to the clinic any more than I like going to the dentist. But most dogs show some modest amount of restraint when it comes to showing their fear. Usually it's just a little shaking, a lowering of the head or tucking the tail. It certainly left me wondering what just happened. It was probably just luck of the draw as the saying goes, but I did have a cat pee down my pant leg earlier so maybe it was a reaction to my eau de cat urine parfum that I carried into the room with me. Fortunately the growling stopped in the afternoon. But unfortunately, there were three euthanasias. That always makes a day stressful for both me and the staff.

At the end of the day, I sat an pondered about how dentists deal with all their patients "growling" back at them all day long. In typical stream of consciousness thought, I remembered a conversation I had with a human surgeon. He had brought his dog into me to have neutered. During the follow up visit for booster vaccinations and suture removal, we got into a discussion of the differences between human surgery and veterinary surgery. I said that I bet he never had a patient chew their stitches out. Must have hit a funny bone with him because he just burst into hysterical laughter. He was probably having a vision of one of his patients licking their incision. I guess you might say I had that surgeon in stitches. Always good to end the day with a happy thought.

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On a final note, I take back everything I said in last week's blog about not seeing many fleas yet. With the first day of summer has come fleas out the wazoo! This is REALLY early for northeastern Ohio. Usually flea season doesn't get cranked up until the end of July/beginning of August. I guess all the warm wet weather has sped up the flea life cycle compared to what is usual for this time of year. So get those dogs and cats on flea prevention now because the summer has just begun.

Some like it hot

2010-06-19T14:42:00.009-04:00

What better thing to do on a hot summer afternoon than escape the heat outside and do a little writing. Now some may argue that northeast Ohio is never all that hot and for all but a few days of the year, I would agree. Still, upper 80's with dew points in the upper 60's is just downright uncomfortable for this northern girl. For some odd reason I decided to take a quick walk back to the blueberry patch on my farm and waited until the sun was blazing high in the sky. My beagles are lounging in the shade of the big maple in the back yard, but the Brittany decided she needed to see the blueberries too. Fortunately for her (but not for my house) she has access to the creek and a quick dip was definitely in order as we walked back to the house. She really is as dorky as she looks in the picture of her just getting out of the creek.

In honor of the heat, I thought I would list some of the big summertime mishaps I see every year at the clinic.

Heat stroke: most commonly seen in animals left in parked cars or dogs that run (or even just walk in some breeds) when temperatures are above 70 degrees. Remember dogs and cats do not get rid of heat from their bodies as well as people do.
Insect bites: deer flies, bees, wasps and many more. Be especially careful to watch for the tips of ears on dogs that spend a lot of time outside. There are insect repellents made just for the purpose of applying to dogs so ask your vet. I really hate seeing bit up ear tips.
Hives: little welts all over the body, swollen faces. Can be caused by insect bites, but I think more likely from plants that are ingested. Most of the time we never do find out what the trigger is.
Maggots: oh yes, a favorite, NOT! Maggots should not happen, but they do every summer. Heavy coated breeds such as Chow Chows and Saint Bernards are especially at risk. Senior pets that aren't as mobile and may soil themselves with feces or urine are especially prone. Check your furry and old dogs that are outside EVERYDAY!!! Don't' forget your rabbits. I see a couple maggot infested rabbits each summer. You may have to lift up the fur and check the skin to even see them. Maggots aren't just a nuisance. Maggots kill.
Animal bite wounds: cat fights, dogs cornering groundhogs, raccoons, possums and just about anything else with teeth. Please make sure your pets are vaccinated for Rabies.
Skunk spray: this one is oh so fun. From personal experience, the solution made from 1 quart 3% hydrogen peroxide, 1/4 cup baking soda and 1 teaspoon of liquid soap works pretty good. Tomato juice isn't half bad either in a pinch and at least my dog enjoyed licking her fur afterwards even though I rinsed it pretty well. Just be warned that even thought the smell is reduced, your dog will probably give off a faint skunk aroma every time it gets wet for 3-6 months.
Poison Ivy: no, dogs and cats do not get a rash (I get asked this all the time), well, I never say never, but it's almost never. But they can pick up the oil on their fur and then share it with their human friends. Again, personal experience here.
Hit by car, tractor, brush hog, motorcycle, 4 wheeler, golf cart, etc.: be careful out there and don't let your dogs and cats play in the road. Be careful about senior pets that may be hard of hearing and like to lounge in the driveway.
Ticks: I live in an area that is not heavily populated with ticks. Thank goodness, because I really hate ticks. They carry all sorts of bad diseases and they are just gross. At least I don't freak out any more when I see them like I did as a teenager. I guess I'm so used to them now. Still, if your dog and cat picks up a lot of ticks, it is worthwhile to use a product such as Frontline or Preventic collar on them. You do not want to see what happens when an animal gets a full blown tick transmitted disease.
Fleas: it's June. Starting to see the first cases of flea bite dermatitis this past week. With most of the dogs and cats I am seeing, I have to search long and hard to find a flea because there just aren't a whole lot of fleas hatching. Yet. Wait 2 months. If your dog or cat is losing fur and scratching, even if you don't see any fleas, it may be flea allergy. Itchy pet = treat for fleas. And please used something that works well and is safe. I get tired of cats coming into the clinic seizuring because someone has used an over the counter flea product on the cat incorrectly (or sometimes not even incorrectly, just a sensitive cat). Ask your vet for recommendations. Many of the good flea products are being sold over the counter now. Just do the research. AND TREAT ALL THE PETS IN THE HOUSEHOLD EVEN THE CATS THAT NEVER GO OUTSIDE!!!!!!!! Did I say that loud enough? Put yourself in your pet's place. Would you like to feel things crawling over you and biting you every day, all day long?
Heartworms: should not ever ever ever happen except in some instances in the lower Mississippi River Valley, but that is not here. Should not ever happen in northeastern Ohio. Remember cats can get heartworms too. Ask your vet. And also, for those who say their dog never goes outside, heartworms are spread my mosquitoes and yes, I am sorry, but mosquitoes do find their way into our homes and apartments. Several years back, I had a client with a little toy poodle that lived in a high rise and did its doggy duty on pee pads. This dog never went outside. Guess what? Yep, it got heartworm. ALL DOGS SHOULD BE ON HEARTWORM PREVENTION!!!!! Did I say that loud enough?
Gunshot wounds: OK this is directed at the jerks that shoot other people's animals. I am not talking about dogs that kill livestock/other people's pets or aggressive dogs. I am talking dogs and cats that roam the neighborhood. Yeah, well maybe they shouldn't be roaming the neighborhood, but don't shoot them. Sorry, that is just mean and stupid. There are better solutions (and I am not talking poisoning you jerks!). Sorry if I got carried away there, but this subject just makes me mad.
Cuts, scrapes, impalement on sticks, etc. OK these sometimes just happen. I guess if we lived in cages they wouldn't. I chalk most of these up to the scars of life. Don't worry so much about these. Living life is a risk. Go have fun!

Guess I'll be having a busy summer as usual.

What is that lump anyway?

2010-06-11T15:00:00.000-04:00

Seems to be a lumpy bumpy kind of week here at the clinic, but I had two of my lump removal surgeries decline a biopsy this week so I thought I would do a little discussion of lumps and bumps that are found on our pets.

First let me say that lumps on or under the skin are REALLY common in dogs. Not so much in cats, but they can get them too. But dogs love to grow lumps and bumps. Fortunately probably 90% of skin bumps in dogs are benign meaning that they don't spread into the surrounding tissue and they don't spread throughout the body. Most benign lumps are harmless, but some can grow quite large and then they can cause a problem. I once removed an 11 pound benign lipoma from the rear leg of a dog that weighed 17 pounds after surgery. The dog sure could walk better after that surgery! The most common lumps I see in dogs are sebaceous cysts (they sometimes can rupture and ooze a cottage cheese like material), sebaceous adenomas (I call these "moles" to use a common slang term and most owners tend to call these "warts") and lipomas (which are fatty tumors that form a smooth lump under the skin).

Now if 90% of lumps and bumps are benign, that would mean 10% are cancerous growths. These growths are more aggressive and have the potential to either invade into the surrounding tissue or spread throughout the entire body. I know the word "cancer" scares a lot of people (heck it does me too), but surgeons all over the world are curing patients from cancer every day. A cancerous lump grows. The lump is removed before any of it spreads. Patient is cured. Now there are aggressive cancers that don't follow this plan, but when it comes to lumps on the skin, those lumps have the best chance for cure because they can be found when they are small.

Before I go any further, I am going to answer the most common question I get in regards to lumps. What causes a lump to grow in the first place? The answer: I don't know. That is the one million dollar question now isn't it? Lots of research going on right now and the puzzle is slowly being solved. But I am the practical sort and for me, it really doesn't matter why a lump grew because I have no means to stop them from growing. What matters to me is what to do about a lump now that it is already here.

Unfortunately, it can sometimes be hard to tell a benign lump from a cancerous lump by just look and/or feel. I'm not going to go into great detail about ways to tell the difference other than to say they vary from needle biopsies to surgical biopsies with some differences in between. But if I feel strongly enough that a lump or bump be surgically removed, then 95.7582% of the time I am going to recommend that the lump be sent to the lab so the folks in the white coats can look at it under the microscope and determine if it is benign or malignant. Now I know that a biopsy is not cheap, but believe me, sending lumps off to the lab is not a big money maker for the clinic. Most of the fee covers how much the lab charges us with a little tacked on to cover the cost of the vet tech preparing the sample to be sent and the doctor interpreting and calling the owner with the results. I can't even say that I am purposely sending business to the lab. I don't even know the folks at the lab. I said they wore white coats, but I really don't even know if that is true or not. What is true is that if I recommend that a lump be sent out to be biopsied, I truly want this information in order to best care for my patient.

But I will sometimes get someone who says that they do not want to know the results because if their dog has cancer, they aren't going to treat it anyway. Fair enough. But let me give you two real life scenarios that I have personally encountered.

#1 A cute little beagle comes in to have a growth removed and it turns out to be cancer. The pathologist says that this cancer is invading into the surrounding skin and that little microscopic fingers of cancer cells are spreading outward and not all of them were removed at the time of surgery. So I go back to surgery and remove more tissue. This time the pathologist says all the cancer was removed. Three years later the dog is cancer free with no recurrence. What if we had not sent the lump out to be tested? The dog would have had its cancer return and maybe spread throughout the body. Then it might be too late to do anything.

#2 Sharpei with an ugly nasty mass on the front of one front leg. I took off the mass and the owner refused to pay for a biopsy. 3 or 4 months later, the mass grew back and she brought the dog in and asked what should be done? Hmmmm? I have no idea what to do because you didn't want the lump biopsied the first time around. So back to surgery, remove the lump again, and this time send it to the lab. Turns out the mass was a kind of deep seated infection that could have been treated with long term antibiotics instead of another surgery. The first biopsy could have saved that dog a second surgery and saved the owner a lot of money.

Now I am not so anal retentive as to say every lump that is removed should be biopsied. I don't send out sebaceous cysts most of the time and known lipomas don't need sent out either. In general though, if a lump is important enough to be surgically removed then it is important enough to find out what is that lump anyway?

Banging head against a brick wall

2010-06-03T12:30:00.004-04:00

According to the free dictionary online, the definition of "banging head against a brick wall" is to keep asking someone to do something that they never do. Sometimes there are very valid reasons why someone doesn't listen to what you are asking them to do. You wouldn't go play out in traffic or jump of a cliff just because someone asked you to, right? Right. But most of the time when I am talking to clients in the exam room, I am not asking for anything so extreme. You see, I love my animals very much and I assume that everyone loves their pets as much as I do. I want my animals to live happy and healthy lives and I want that for my patients. So why do have I such a hard time convincing people to put their overweight pets on a diet? I know this isn't just a "me" problem because my friends who are vets have the same problem. But why is this a problem? That's what I am here to explore today.

The facts are there. We are bombarded in the news media about the health risks of obesity in people. We know that obesity speeds the aging process. Purina did a cool study in Labrador Retrievers a few years back that showed that lean dogs live almost 2 years longer than dogs that were overweight. We know fat cats get diabetes. We know that fat dogs develop arthritis much earlier than lean dogs. We know that too much fat in the body causes inflammation throughout the body.

Now I know the issues dealing with obesity in people are complex and I guess they are in dogs too, BUT. Don't you just love the "but" part. Two days ago I was talking to a client in the exam room about how we take better medical care of our pets than we do ourselves. I can totally relate to this. I will bring my own dogs into the clinic every year to get their teeth cleaned, but I won't get my own teeth looked at unless there is a problem. From my reasoning, I think I do this because I see my pets as very innocent. They need me to feed them and look after them. I can choose to have rotten teeth if I want to. They cannot choose. It is up to me to make those decisions and I choose to take care of their routine medical needs to the best of my ability. You would think obesity would be a simpler solution then regular medical/dental care. After all, health care costs money and in this economy, sometimes money is hard to come by. But we all have to feed our pets. In fact if we feed them less, that would save MONEY! But yet pet obesity is rampant.

As I started typing this blog, I found myself reaching into the box of chocolates sitting on my desk next to me. I can choose to do this. My dogs cannot choose how much they eat because I choose the amount for them. They cannot go to the grocery store, or the drive-through burger joint, or open the refrigerator or even open the locked-as-tight-as-a-drum container that holds their dog food. If they would they could, but they can't. How much they eat is my decision. I am the ruler of the household. Ok, only on this one subject, but hey, I'll take what I can get.

Back to the banging head part. Case #1 Just this month I saw a little dog owned by a woman who lives by herself. She came to me because her dog couldn't walk and wanted to put it to sleep. I could tell how attached she was to this dog. She thought the dog couldn't walk because it was getting old and had some disease. Well, the dog did have bad arthritis, but 90% of the reason this dog couldn't walk was because it was obese. I put it on medicine for the arthritis and talked long and hard about weight loss. But how does this happen? How can someone feed their dog so much that it gains weight until it can't walk? And how can they not know this is happening? Someone please explain this to me.

Case #2 I'm in the exam room seeing a dog for its annual physical exam and notice that every year it has gained weight and every year we have counselled the owner on feeding and weight loss. So the conversation goes like this. Client: "But doc, I only feed Muffy 1/2 cup of food twice a day like you told me last year." Me: "It doesn't matter what I told you last year. If that is what she is eating and she is still gaining weight, then she needs to eat less.". Client: "But if I feed her any less, she will starve to death.". Ok, tell me how this makes the slightest bit of sense?

Case #3 Seen by Dr. C. this month. A couple with an obese Chihuahua. The dog can hardly breath and has heart problems. They go on and on about how much they love this little dog and what this dog means to them. Really? They are slowing KILLING their dog. Why is reality so hard to grasp?

All this head banging though will go on. I will continue because there are successes. In fact I wrote about a couple of them in a November 2009 blog on obesity. I also know that what works well for one person doesn't work so well for another. The one thing I will not do though is shut up about this. This is too important. Pets' lives are at stake. I am their advocate. Their voice. I want them to live long healthy lives. That is what I want for my own animals. I expect no less for all animals that I see at the clinic.

If anyone has an overweight pet and would like help, I am an email away. Or you can wander over to Dr. Ernie Ward's web site on pet obesity prevention. LOTS of good information over there. Maybe you have your own story of what works and what doesn't for you and your pets. And if you have any suggestions on how to motivate people to get their pets to lose weight, I am all ears.

ps I wrote this blog last week and just yesterday I saw a patient that had lost 8 pound from last year. Looked great! So yes, there are successes. That was a very nice part of my day.

In honor of those who have served and have fallen

2010-05-28T08:51:00.012-04:00

As we start what some call the first weekend of summer, I would like to take a moment to reflect on the true meaning of Memorial Day - to remember and honor those who have served and who have fallen. At the same time, I would just like to say thank you to all the fine men and women in our military that are out there working hard and fighting for our freedom. It makes me proud to be an American when I think about all the sacrifices that both our soldiers and their families make to keep us safe. I have a nephew who is in the Air Force and currently serving overseas. How I have enjoyed watching him grow and turn into such a fine young man.

So as we all enjoy our weekend festivities full of cookouts and softball and family fun, please remember why we are able to enjoy all our freedoms.

This rendition of our national anthem was video taped at a memorial service overseas. Most of us are used to hearing it played at a ball game or other festive event with a lot of cheering and clapping. The silence in this video gave me chills. Thank you thank you thank you to all who have served.

Commitment and dedication

2010-05-23T13:23:00.006-04:00

I've said it before and I'll say it again, one of my absolute favorite parts of veterinary medicine is spending time in the exam room chatting with clients. What better way to spend one's day than hanging out with people who love animals as much as I do. A lot of my blog topics are born in the exam room during those conversations. Unfortunately my love for gab can get me in trouble sometimes and when I leave the exam room, my techs will give me the "look" and whisper "Code Red". This means the waiting room is filling up with people and I better quit talking about people's kids and where they are going on vacation this year and how their garden is growing. Ooooops. I can get off track sometimes.

A couple weeks back I was seeing Meike, a friendly high spirited German Shepherd Dog, for her annual physical exam. Meike is a special dog because she really would not be alive today if it weren't for the dedication of her owner. As soon as Meike started on solid food at around 6 weeks old, it became obvious that something was wrong. She regurgitated food often and wasn't growing as fast as her littermates.

Here is a picture of Meike's chest x-ray after giving a barium slurry. She was just a small puppy at the time of this radiograph.

As you can see, there is a big blob of barium balled up in the esophagus in the front part of the chest. Turns out Meike was born with something called a persistent right aortic arch. This is a birth defect where a ring of tissue circles around the outside of the esophagus and makes it difficult for food to pass through on the way to the stomach. The danger is that food collects in a pouch in the esophagus and gets regurgitated from time to time. If a little food or fluid leaks down into the lungs, it can cause pneumonia.

Meike went and had surgery done by a surgery specialist. The surgery got rid of the tissue causing the stricture so that food could better pass through to the stomach. The first part of her esophagus still does not function properly though and so Meike has to eat a liquefied diet. The esophagus not returning to normal is quite common in puppies with this condition and is called megaesophagus.

Now Meike is four years old. She is still smaller than her littermates, but her coat is shiny and she is very playful and happy. Every once in awhile, I have to treat her for a bout of pneumonia, but she really has done quite well. I give all the credit to Meike's owner. As I was doing Meike's exam earlier this month, Meike's owner mentioned that every day for four years she has soaked dog food in water and ground it up into a liquid slurry to feed. She said this so casually like this is just something she does and it's not a big deal. Holy cow! This is a huge deal! All I can think about is coming home dog-tired after a long day and whining in my head about having to feed the animals when I really just want to sit down and put my feet up. And all I have to do is scoop some food out of a bag and into a bowl. I will never whine again. Or at least until I'm really really tired and I forget that I wrote this.

So kudos to Meike's owner. I am in awe of her love and commitment to her dog. Meike would truly not be alive today and grace all of our lives if it were not for this devotion. See, what a great way to spend a day talking to people who love animals. I am truly blessed to be able to spend my days this way.

Animals can get in the strangest trouble

2010-05-15T08:17:00.008-04:00

One of the things that makes working at a veterinary hospital a great job is that it is never boring. I'm sure it's kind of like working in a hospital emergency room. The news is filled with stories like the guy that shot himself in head with a nail gun and didn't even know it until his head was x-rayed or the woman that had a toilet seat stuck to her back end. I once had someone bring in a stray cat that they found walking around with its head stuck in a clear glass jar. That was pretty cool. He kind of looked like one of those cartoon astronauts. I had to sedate him to safely break the glass and get the jar off his head. I'm sure he was happy to get that off his head.

Well a month or two ago, this cute little dog Princess was running around her backyard playing with her dog friend when her owner heard Princess cry out and come running up to the back door. At first she couldn't see anything, but then noticed that Princess had a piece of a stick coming out her skin on the lower part of her neck. So she brought her into the clinic.

I sedated Princess to get a better look at what was going on. Here is the what it looked like after we sedated her and shaved all the fur off her neck.

And when I opened the wound and pulled the stick out, this is what I found.

That was one big ol' hunk of wood that Miss Princess impaled herself on. It took a lot of time to clean out all the hair and debris that the chunk of wood carried deep into her neck. When all was cleaned up, everyone in the surgical room got a good look at Princess's jugular vein. That was quite impressive and quite the lucky dog for the stick to miss this. (I just had to make this picture a little bigger so you all could get a good luck at that big old vein.)

Princess went home with a drain tube in place. You can tell in this picture taken after the wood was removed that she was sore and didn't want to bend her neck.

Princess is all healed up now and doing well. Let's hope in her young dog exuberance, she doesn't impale herself on any more objects.

Taking a trip down Memory Lane

2010-05-12T10:39:00.003-04:00

First I want to thank everyone for the well wishes and prayers during these last couple of weeks. For those of you who don't know, my dad passed away a couple weeks ago. He was truly blessed in that he lived into his eighties, he traveled and golfed up until the last day of his life and died peacefully in his chair at home. If we should all be so lucky, eh?

One of the positive things that came about because of all of this is that I got to go through my entire photo collection I had stuffed in the back of the closet. It was fun pulling out pictures of my dad from when I was a kid. I also got to remember all the pets and animals along the way. All things that influenced my path to becoming a veterinarian.

One photograph that made me chuckle was this picture of me around age 6 or 7? God Bless patient dogs. This was my first dog and her name was Micki. Gosh it looks like I'm strangling her, but I'm just being a kid and making her look at the camera. Too funny though. She was a very forgiving dog for having to put up with me. Love my grandad sitting on the couch in the background and looking bored. I loved that man. He was so kind and giving.

Hard to believe I was so blond too. My husband says that explains so much. Thanks dear.

I guess the point of all of this is that I really enjoyed going through all those old photographs. It is something that I intend to do more often. After all, our memories are what we have to take with us through our life. Treasure the good ones and treat them like they are precious. And when we pass, we will hopefully live on in the memories of others and make them smile when they think of us.

Do indoor cats have stress? You betcha!

2010-04-20T14:59:00.010-04:00

I was at a wedding this weekend and in the course of talking to other guests at the wedding, someone asked if I like dogs or cats better. I cannot remember anyone asking me that question before. I've been asked which one I like to work on better, but not just plain and simple which one do I like better. My answer was that it is really like comparing apples and oranges. If you had asked me this 20 years ago I would have said I was a dog person. Sometimes I still say that I am a dog person, but then I think about how I have 7 cats, but only 2 dogs. So how does a dog person end up with 7 cats? Perhaps I am a closet cat person? Hmmmmm?

Well, the closet cat person inside of me would like to dedicate this blog to cats, specifically indoor cats. I've seen a lot of changes over my 20+ years as a veterinarian and one of the biggest is more and more cats are being kept inside 100% of the time. You would think that is a good thing and it is mostly. We see many fewer cats being hit by cars, shot by the neighbors, attacked by dogs, etc. But we have exchanged those problems for a whole new list of problems including obesity (which leads to diabetes, arthritis, skin disease and others) and stress related diseases such as urine marking behaviors (the number one behavior problem that leads to cat death) and bladder disease. Seems as though everything in life has its trade offs doesn't it?

As more and more cats are being kept exclusively indoors, more and more information is coming out about the special needs of indoor cats. And you thought having an indoor cat was as simple as just not letting it go outside? Nothing is ever that simple. *grin* What we professional cat people are finding out is that keeping a cat indoors can be very stressful for the cat. To relieve stress some cats eat. A lot. And get fat. Or they pee outside the litter box like on your shoes, or your dirty laundry, or your favorite throw rug. Or if they are really good at hiding their true stressed out cat feelings, they develop an inflammation of the lining of the bladder called interstitial cystitis and then they pee outside the litter box but their pee has blood in it. Why does this happen to indoor cats? Because staying inside every day, all day long is boring especially if you are an animal that is programmed to roam and climb and hunt. OK, staying inside all day long day after day after day is boring for us people too don't you think? (Remember northeastern Ohioans how you were feeling two months ago when we had snow up to our eyeballs.) Ohio State University has started something called the Indoor Cat Initiative. Follow the link and you will be taken to a wealth of information on keeping your indoor cat healthy and happy.

If you are dog person reading this blog, right now you are scratching your head and thinking wow, I knew there was a reason that I'm not a cat person. But if you are a cat person, or a closet cat person like I am, then you are probably thinking how cool all of this is. Ok, maybe I'm the only one thinking about how cool this all is. So be it. But keeping our animals' mental state happy is as important as keeping their physical being healthy. Ah, the mind - body connection. We've all heard that one before. In a previous blog I talked about giving your dog a job to keep them happy and healthy. Well, our cats deserve no less. They need to be cats and do cat things to stay happy and healthy.

So if you have an indoor cat or two or three or whatever, I invite you to go over and snoop around Ohio State's indoor cat web pages. Find out how many litter boxes you SHOULD have. Find out how to find out what kind of toys (prey) your cat likes best. Read about perches (I LOVE perches), and sleeping/resting areas, scratching areas and why cats like small bits of attention more frequently and people like longer social get togethers, but less often.

Now stay tuned for a politically correct (or maybe politically incorrect?) announcement. I don't want to leave the outdoor cat owners out in the cold. And truth be told, while I have had 100% exclusive indoor cats in the past, my current herd of 7 are all outdoor cats. I live on a farm. I have chickens and these cats work for a living keeping the rodent population under control. Ok about half of them work for a living. The other half sleep on my porch. But they are all spayed or neutered, vaccinated, wormed and treated for fleas and heartworms. Such is the life of a barn (or porch) cat that lives with a veterinarian. As the owner of outdoor cats though, I accept the possibility of all the hazards listed earlier in the blog. Certainly some outdoor environments are more dangerous than others. I am fortunate to not have neighbors who shoot cats. In fact, I don't really have neighbors that are all that close anyway so that really cuts back on the conflicts over cats that roam. I guess when it comes down to the bottom line, indoor cat or outdoor cat, both have their challenges. I am not against either one. All I can say, is love your cat and celebrate them being a cat. They are a truly fascinating creature.

A very special thank you to Vicki who was kind enough to send me pictures of her indoor cats to use for this blog.

Be the change

2010-04-16T09:45:00.009-04:00

I know some of you may actually fall out of your chair when you find out that I am blogging TWICE in one week. Heck, even my once weekly blog has been tough to come by lately. But sometimes you come across other individuals who motivate you to take action. There is a colleague of mine, a woman veterinarian from California, that has a very very well-written blog Pawcurious. If you are a fan of veterinary/animal blogs, you should really check this out. You may want to read them in a place where, if you spontaneously start laughing out loud, you won't be given dirty looks (i.e. do not read on the library computer!). Anyway, she is very passionate about helping animals (ok I think that applies to all veterinarians), but has a great way of getting people to listen. So a few days ago, I was reading her blog and she had a great idea for this Friday, today! Calling all bloggers to band together to inspire change. Her cause is to support a Columbus, OH shelter "Pets without Parents" (I LOVE that name!). So if you go over to her blog, feel free to donate to the cause.

I'm going to tell you what is going on locally in little ol' Ashtabula County because let me say, we have some GREAT people that do GREAT things for animals here and probably don't get enough pats on the back. These people work hard in a very hard environment. They get to see animal abuse up front and personal. There is a lot of burnout and emotional toll, but God bless them all because it is a job that needs done and they do it well. But there is always room for more help so if you love animals, here's your chance to BE THE CHANGE.

And as my Pawcurious colleague Dr. V. has said so eloquently in her blog, you don't have to drop everything you are doing in your life. If everyone gives just a little chunk of their time or their money, it will all turn into something great. Don't shy away from a big problem because it seems to big. We just need to all take a small little chunk. (For some reason I feel like bursting into song ala Mary Poppins "In every job that must be done there is an element of fun. You find the fun, and snap! The job's a game") OK, sorry back on track. The point is that Nike was right when they said "Just do it".

So do you need some suggestions. Well the Ashtabula County Animal Protective League has a bunch of great events coming up. This coming Monday April 19th, they are having one of my FAVORITE events (because it involves food!) the Spayghetti dinner at the Wagon Wheel restaurant in Madison. Tickets are only $8! And you won't have to cook dinner that night! Next week you can also recycle all that old scrap metal you have laying around to benefit the APL. Clean up your yard, celebrate Earth Day AND help the APL all at the same time. Now really, it can't get much better than that! Go and visit the APL web site for all the details and see what else is in the works for fundraisers. The Ashtabula County Humane Society is holding a Rabies Clinic on Saturday May 1st. Cost is $10 per pet. Hey, and I'll be there too! Visit the AC Humane Society web site for location, time and other details.

So you can't show up at a specific event. No worries. Think of getting a new furry family member. Adopt from a shelter. Both organizations are always in need of donations. Money of course, but dog and cat food, paper towels, blankets, towels are always appreciated. If you visit each organization's web site, you can find out more.

No money? How about going out to the APL and walking/exercising dogs. Do you know how much it helps those dogs to get out for a walk once in awhile? Such a small gesture that means so much. Or volunteer to help at one of the many events that are coming up.

Kudos to Dr. V. over at Pawcurious for coming up with this fantastic idea. Now time to think of how you can help. And remember every little bit helps. And I mean every LITTLE bit helps.

Note: Only shelter adopted animals were used in the making of this blog.

You cannot succeed if you do not try.

2010-04-13T16:56:00.008-04:00

Wish I could accurately depict sitting down and taking a deep breath in a blog, but that's what I am doing right now. Was last week crazy or what? Most of you around these parts were off on spring break or your kids were off on spring break. Was it crazy for you too? I spent the week holding down the fort, so to speak, as Dr. C. was on vacation. Lots of sick animals all week, an emergency c-section Tuesday morning, a midnight emergency at the clinic on Friday night, Saturday office hours, a quick day off on Sunday and then spay/neuter at the shelter on Monday. Whew! You know how it goes. We all have those crazy weeks.

So here is a case from a couple weeks ago. Every once in awhile, I get to see something other than a dog or a cat and in this case it was Geri the guinea pig. Geri was just the sweetest little g.pig ever. Her owner brought her in because she hadn't been feeling well for a day or two and also Geri's belly was getting bigger. Not a good thing for any critter but especially one in her geriatric years like Miss Geri was. After examining Geri, I could definitely tell she had something large inside her abdomen. Pyometra (uterine infection) was one of the top possibilities. A tumor was also possible, but guinea pigs don't get tumors as often as little critters like rats do. We decided to give Geri a chance and did exploratory surgery that evening. Unfortunately it was a large tumor, but it was on the right ovary/uterus so I did go ahead and remove the tumor and the entire uterus and both ovaries. Geri actually made it through surgery fine, but died the next morning. I was really hoping it would have been an infected uterus because I think she would have had a better chance of making it overall. I'm including some pictures taken during surgery. This tumor was VERY impressive. It totally filled her abdomen and when we weighed it afterwards, the tumor was 1/3rd of Geri's before surgery body weight. That would be like an 150 pound woman having a 50 pound tumor removed and then the woman weighing 100 pounds after tumor removal.

Tumor picture taken during surgery.

Geri and her tumor laying side by side on the surgery table right before going to recovery.

I am so grateful to Geri's owner for giving me the chance to try and save Geri's life. It didn't work in the end, but as with so many other things in life, you cannot succeed if you don't try first.

For the love of chickens

2010-03-31T11:26:00.010-04:00

Some of you already know this, but if you don't, you will by the end of this blog. I like chickens. I REALLY like chickens. So much so that I share my farm with anywhere from 30-50 laying hens not to mention the 100 or so meat type chickens that live a happy (I think) but short life on my farm every summer. Those crazy birds add so much to my life. I get to go out the barns to feed in the early morning light. This time of year, the songbirds are all returning from their winter homes and they sing their songs while I do the morning chores. The wild turkeys across the road sound off with their yelping and gobbling. There is a woodcock that sits in the pasture behind the chicken coop making his little "peent" call as dawn is breaking. During the afternoon, the chickens wander the yard. They are pretty social too. A few of them like to hang out on the porch with the cats. If I walk across the yard, they will often follow me. Well, at least until they are sure I am not going to feed them a tasty morsel or until they spy the movement of a tasty worm or bug. In the evening as the light is fading, I get to walk outside to the barns to close the pen doors for the night. The spring peepers are now announcing that they have awoken from winter slumber. But anytime of the year, I am more than happy to collect sunsets as I go about my final evening chores. Sunsets are kind of like snowflakes in that no two are exactly alike. I truly treasure them.

Now the chickens on my farm work for a living. The meat chickens are expected to look very cute as day old chicks and make cute little peeping noises. Then, when they get feathers, the are required to go outside in the fresh air and sunshine where they eat bugs and grass and other tasty treats they find out in the yard. Of course their last job is being supper, but it is after all the end of their job on the farm. The laying hens have a longer course of employment. Sometimes 3 or 4 years. They are, of course, required to lay eggs. But their other duties include making soothing clucking noises out in the yard and providing an endless source of entertainment as they chase after moths and grasshoppers in the pasture. They do a good job of scratching and turning over the soil in the flower beds too although they do sometimes leave holes that the dogs insist on trying to make larger. At the end of their employment contract, the hens also become supper.

People sometimes ask how, as a veterinarain, I can eat the chickens that are so lovingly raised on my farm (and I mean that sincerely when I say that I love raising my chickens). For me, it goes back to the circle of life. As a scientist, life fascinates me. Just think about a chick developing inside an egg. On the second day of incubation, the blood vessels begin to form. By the 44th hour of incubation, the heart starts beating. At the end of 21 days, out hatches a fully functional baby chick ready to go. Just amazing. But I also understand that it takes life to perpetuate life. Everyone who knows me will be poking fun at me after I say this, but I love this quote and I have to give credit where credit is due. A few months back, an animal rights group got on the country music band Zac Brown Band's case about their song "Chicken Fried". There was a suggestion to the guys in the band to abandon their meat eating ways and eat tofu instead. I love the band's response: "Plants are living creatures too ... Bacon had a mother, but so did Pickle. It takes life to support life -- welcome to the planet". I couldn't say it any better myself.

I would be amiss though without a paragraph about chicken pets. While most of the chickens on the farm end up in the freezer, there are special circumstances. My very first chickens were a small flock of golden comet laying hens. When they were about 2 or 3 years old, we had a stray dog come into the yard just at dark when the chickens were going to roost in the coop. I had gone for a short walk in the woods and when I got back to the coop to lock the pen door for the night, I saw the dog run out of the coop and across the road. Then I found the carnage. There were dead chickens everywhere. Of the 14 chickens that lived in the coop, 10 were dead, 2 were injured so badly that I had to put an end to their suffering right then and there. The last two had severe bite wounds on their backs, but no internal organs appeared damaged. Poor Doc Curie got to listen to me bawling my eyes out the next morning as I recounted what happened the night before. I brought the two injured hens to the clinic where they lived for a couple months while they healed from their wounds. It was summer and no way could they live outside with open wounds (can you say maggots!). They learned to walk up the clinic steps every day to go outside and come back inside in the evening. They both acquired names. Eagle because she had lighter colored feathers around her head and neck in a pattern like a bald eagle. Thumper because she used to kick with her feet when I would clean her wounds every day. I don't blame her one bit though as the dog did a lot of damage. I'm sure it hurt. Eventually Eagle and Thumper healed and made their way back to the chicken coop. It was quite obvious to everyone that those hens had an extraordinary will to live. Their ordeal paved their way to pet-chickendom. They both died a few years later of old hen reproductive problems. My current pet chicken flock consists of the four "porch" chickens. You know, the ones I mentioned that hang out on the porch with the cats. They did not achieve their status by tragedy, but rather by personality. Whitie, Brownie, Blackie and Mama Chicken now occupy a special place on my farm. Ok, not very original with the names I know, but least I can remember who is who. So while most of my chickens live a typical barnyard existance, there are a few exceptions.

I highly recommend getting a few chickens of your own if you live someplace where chickens are allowed. So if anyone out there has always thought about adding a few chickens to their yard, but doesn't quite know how to get started, feel free to ask. I am more than happy to be spreading some chicken love. And if any of you want to share your favorite chicken or egg recipes made from fresh ingredients, that would be great too. I admit that I am a fresh food and recipe junkie.

National Poison Prevention Week

2010-03-17T10:04:00.005-04:00

Spring has definitely arrived in Ohio this past week. How can I tell? The clinic has turned into our own version of Emergency Vet. Dogs hit by cars, in dog fights, cut legs, impaled on stick (I'll share the pictures of this one later), gunshot wounds. Warm weather = dogs running loose or sometimes just playing in the backyard a little too exuberantly. That all adds up to dogs getting into trouble. Believe me, my dogs are not immune to cut pads or sliced open tails. The word is that the E.R. at the local human hospital is going crazy with trauma cases too. Like I said, spring is here.

With all the dogs and cats outside exploring for the first time after months and months of snow, there sure are a lot of ways for them to get in trouble. Then this morning I open my Internet news feed and find that lo and behold this week is National Poison Prevention week. What a good time to remind ourselves to be on the lookout for things that can poison our animal buddies.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/37301604@N00/ / CC BY 2.0

I chose the common toad to represent this topic because some toads are known to be poisonous and because toads make a much cuter picture than a bottle of pills or a box of rat bait. Now the toads in Ohio are not the real dangerous variety, but they certainly cause some irritation in the mouth if a dog gets hold of one. I find it quite interesting to watch my dogs and toads. Young dogs will taste a toad once. My dogs now know toads. They will be trotting down the sidewalk, see a toad and make a w-i-d-e path around the toad. Quite comical actually.

As far as more common and much more dangerous poisonings, the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center has published their top 10 poisonings for 2009.

Human Medications
Insecticides
People food (yes people food! Follow the link above for more information)
Plants
Veterinary Medications
Rodenticides
Household cleaners
Heavy metals
Garden products
Chemical hazards

Check out this handout on Poison Proofing Your Home. Very well written and helpful information.

After you follow all the steps to prevent poisonings, we all know that animals will be animals and sometimes accidents happen. The Pet Poison Helpline provides a 24 hour service to help both pet owners and veterinarians in cases of potential pet poisonings. There is a small fee for the service, but these folks are well worth the information they provide.

So happy spring everyone! It sure is nice to see the sun shining for a change!

The power of observation

2010-03-12T11:20:00.007-05:00

Change of plans. This really is the norm for daily life at a veterinary clinic. I was going to blog this week about some really great indoor cat information that I found at the veterinary conference last month. But alas, it has been crazy busy this week at the clinic courtesy of sunny days and warmer weather. (Just remember to be careful with your puppies and kitties when outside because I have treated quite a few animals that have been hit by cars this week. Happens every year with the first warm weather.) Anyway, the indoor cat project has a LOT of information I need to organize so that I can at least somewhat coherently blog about it. Plus I have a whole bunch of great pictures that were sent to me just for this topic and I have to organize them too. Thanks Vicki! I am so grateful to you for sending me the pictures. So stay tuned for more on the indoor cat blog.

Instead I am going to tell you about something that happened at the clinic this week that I think is just so cool. I don't mean it's cool about animals being sick of course, but, oh, here is the story.... Earlier this week I saw the sweetest little black and white cat named Broccoli. Is that not a cool cat name? OK, maybe it's because I really like broccoli (the vegetable), but everything about Broccoli (the cat) is likable. Well, Broccoli came to see me because her "mom" noticed that her hair coat was just not very shiny and well-groomed like it usually was. There was a little bit of hair loss under the tail too, but not very bad. Broccoli was eating, drinking and acting fine, but something was not quite right. First I must tell you that Broccoli was 6 years old and not spayed. There never seemed the need since she was an indoor only cat, perfectly behaved and never had those awful symptoms of being in heat that make owners call me on emergency asking to spay their cat NOW! After the physical exam, I had my suspicions and the rest of the tests confirmed that Broccoli indeed had pyometra - aka an infection in her uterus. In case you don't remember, I blogged about pyometra in dogs a couple times back last fall. Those blogs can be found here and also here. Pyometra is a little different in cats than in dogs, but the result is pretty much the same. It makes cats really sick and the treatment of choice is surgery to spay. Fortunately for Broccoli, her owner realized something was wrong very early in the whole disease process before Broccoli got too sick. Here is a picture of the little kitty's not so little cat uterus at surgery. The little tiny arrow (do you see it?) points to a cyst on one of the ovaries.

Here's cute little Miss Broccoli snoozing under the "covers" at the clinic shortly after surgery. So kudos to Broccoli's owner for paying such close attention and realizing that something was not quite right. Remember, Broccoli was eating and drinking just fine. Her only real symptom was the tiny bit of hair loss around her private parts (from licking the discharge coming from her vulva) and that her hair coat didn't look normal. That is what I call good power of observation! Just a reminder of how important it is to pay attention to our furry family members because although they cannot speak to us in words, they often can tell us when they are sick if we are only willing to "listen".

A dog is a dog is a dog

2010-03-03T16:39:00.006-05:00

I was going to start off this blog with the statement "I love animals". Well that's probably obvious, but I don't think it says enough. I could say I love life, which is also true. But more what I want to say is that I am amazed by life. Perhaps that is why I am in medicine. Just thinking of all the chemical reactions and electrical impulses that occur in every living thing fascinates me. So as time goes by, I'm sure you will see me celebrate everything from elephants to amoebas, but today I am celebrating dogs.

Why dogs and why now? Well get ready folks because the Last Great Race on Earth starts this Saturday. The Iditarod! I love this event. It intrigues me to no end. And this thing we call the internet makes it entirely too easy to follow the journey. Nothing like sitting snug in a warm house reading about the Alaskan wilderness. If I had better cold tolerance, I would really consider being part of the volunteer veterinary team. Instead, I'll just follow along from home.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mcmorgan/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

The race pairs a human being with a team of dogs. It requires great athleticism from both (the closet athlete inside me loves this!). It requires physical and mental toughness. And to do it well and succeed, it requires a musher that is so in tune with the needs of his or her dogs that they are almost one.

Unfortunately, the race is not without its critics mostly in the form of animal rights groups talking about inhumane treatment of sled dogs. Does this happen? Yes it does. Does that mean that those who do it right should have their pastime, their livelihood, their passion taken away from them. I think not. Not any more than driving a car being banned because of the few who drive drunk. These comparisons are endless.

Instead I choose to celebrate the working dog. There is nothing I enjoy more than watching and reading and hearing about dogs at work. The dog is a remarkable animal. In only 10,000 years give or take, man has created such diversity in the dog through selective breeding. From the sled dog to the hunting hound to the herding shepherd to the retriever and on and on. The bond between man and dog runs deep. And dogs seem to be at their happiest when they are at work. They are happiest when they have a "job". I think that is where we fail our dogs sometimes. We don't give them something to do. We don't let them do what they are bred to do. We don't let them be dogs.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonysphotos/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

So go hug your dog today. Let him or her snuggle in your bed if you wish. Spoil them. Love them. But please give them something to do with their life. Take them for a long walk. Play Frisbee. Find an agility class. Enter a dog show. Hunt. Herd. Retrieve. The list is endless. Celebrate your dog's life.

And I hope you enjoy following along online on the Iditarod Trail for the next two weeks as much as I am going to enjoy it. The stories. The journey. The wilderness. Dogs and man together. As it should be.

Pets of many names

2010-02-24T14:03:00.005-05:00

Meet Roundie. I found her picture when I was going through pictures I had stored on my cell phone. I had taken her picture one day when she was in the clinic for an exam. Actually Roundie's name is really Calico. I don't know who actually started calling her Roundie first, but it fits because she has the cutest, most perfect round kitty face. So now at the clinic at least, her name is Roundie. It took us a little while to fess up with Roundie's, uh Calico's owner that we all called her cat a different name, but now I think we are all on the same page. Ok, maybe the staff and I are a little nutty when we come to having fun with the patients, but that's what happens when you love what you do.

But all this got me to thinking about how all my own pets have several names and I am not talking about unprintable names that you might blurt out when you come down the stairs in the morning and step in a pile of vomit left on the living room carpet (not that that has happened to me recently or anything). I am referring to names I use to speak to my pets on a daily basis. I know I'm not the only one because I talk about this all the time with staff and clients, and we all do it.

This is my Brittany Molly. Also known as Stumpy. She got that name one day when I was talking to my husband about how she was wiggling her tail. He then reminded me that she didn't have a tail, she has a "stump". Well he's sort of right and sort of wrong, she does have a part of a tail since the rest was docked when she was a puppy. But ever since that conversation, we have called her Stumpy. I must have said enough to her because she used to come when I used either Molly or Stumpy to call her, but now she is old and going deaf so neither works very well. I also used to be able to get her very excited when I called her "Hot Tamale Molly". I think sounding like I was saying her name twice made her really start wiggling her tail, uh stump.

Here is Gabby, my beagle, caught in mid-woo. She has the most delicate little beagle bark when she wants attention. Much different than her BahWOOOOOOOOOOO that comes out of her mouth when she is trailing a rabbit. Her "look at me" bark is very feminine, almost always occurs in twos and sounds like "woo woo". So now her name is Gabby Woo Woo, or just Woo, or sometimes Dog of Woo. Every once in awhile I will call her Gabby Noodle. I think I just got that because Noodle and Woo Woo sound similar.

The list goes on. Dr. Curie's Jack Russell Terrier is known as "Honey", but if you look at the computer medical records, her name is "Ella". Country Doctor Staff pets are the same. Christine's old beagle that recently passed away was named Bwaster, but was called Boy Boy too. Rebekah, our high school mentor student, has a horse name Sunny, but she calls him My Peanut. For Katelyn, her cat Minksy is known as Minksy Doodle Butt or Oodles of Doodles. Ashley's mixed breed dog Bogg is also known as Bogg the Coondog. Ashley says Bogg gets so happy when she calls him that.

So now you know. If you are already a pet owner, then you understand. If you do not own a pet, then at least when your pet owning friends call their dog or cat by multiple names, you will know that it is not because they can't remember their pet's name. Well, at least in most instances.

WVC Day 3 and 4

2010-02-17T20:30:00.003-05:00

Day 3. Western Veterinary Conference in Las Vegas. Wow! Wow, wow, WOW! What a great day of lectures! I do so like to complain about Las Vegas and it is certainly not my favorite city to visit, but this veterinary conference is one of the best. Day 3 consisted of 4 hours of some the best information on chronic ear disease in dogs that I have heard in a long time. Ear infections are one of the top reasons that dogs are seen by veterinarians. Some dogs get over their infections with no problems. But in some dogs, ear problems can become chronic or recurrent. Believe me, as a veterinarian it is very frustrating to treat a problem that I may not be able to cure. I know how frustrating this can be for owners of dogs with chronic ear disease too. Hopefully, I can bring back some of this great information I learned to help educate owners why ear infections keep coming back and in some cases, how an ear infection that keeps coming back can sometimes be cured for good. I guess sometimes is the key to that sentence. I actually have personally been through an ear infection with my beagle I adopted from the animal shelter and I was able to "cure" her, but it took six months at least. Anyway, I'm excited to share this new information with everyone back at the clinic.

On day 3, I also went to lectures on ringworm in cats and the 2010 update on Lyme Disease in dogs. The Lyme Disease lecture was very good and while we don't see very much of it at all in our county, the disease is spreading. Every year it seems like I see more and more dogs with ticks and Lyme Disease is spread by ticks. Years ago, I was lucky if I saw one dog in a 12 month period with a tick. Now, at certain times of the year, I'll see them every week. There may be a time in the not too distant future that we are all going to have to think about stepping up the tick prevention on our dogs. Me included.

Day 4. This morning I went to a "wet lab" at a fairly new center built to educate veterinarians with hands on laboratory type classes. This kind of education has been hard to find once veterinarians graduate from vet school, but is becoming more common as the years go by. There is no way that veterinarians can learn every procedure they need to know in just a few years of schooling. Most of what we learn is on the job training. Now very few of us totally learn on our own, but learn under the guidance of other veterinarians. But what if there is new technology that comes along. That's when it is so helpful to learn new techniques from specialists and that's exactly what I did today. The lab was on using the video otoscope that we have in the clinic. It is a very useful piece of equipment in the exam room, but where it shines, is in deep ear cleaning in dogs with chronic ear disease. I learned so many of the finer points of using the scope and many many tricks and tips for helping my canine patients with bad ears. Great great information!

The afternoon of day 4, I spent several hours at the exhibit hall. This where all the vendors of different veterinary products show off what they have. While you have to get by the sales pitches, there is really really good information in here too. One of the best pieces of information I learned is that Hills is coming out with a diet for arthritic cats. They already have one for dogs that works very well, but in dogs we can also add on drugs like carprofen or meloxicam to help with this painful disease. None of these drugs are labeled for use in cats and some of them can actually kill cats (e.g. Tylenol: never never never use in a cat!). To date, I have not had a whole lot of alternatives in what to do with a painful arthritic cat. I'm excited about this new diet coming out this April. In up coming weeks, I will devote some of my weekly blogs to many of the diseases I learned about at this conference.

Day 4 will continue after I type this blog as I will be heading to a 7pm-9pm lecture tonight. Tomorrow, one more lecture in the morning and then making the trek back to Ohio and all the snow. My feet will be thankful as my mode of transportation from hotel to conference hall and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth has been by walking. Too bad I haven't been wearing a pedometer. Now THAT would have been interesting.

WVC Day 1 and 2

2010-02-15T23:03:00.005-05:00

I thought I might share with you what goes on at a veterinary convention. As a veterinarian, I am required to take continuing education classes every year in order to renew my license. Now this is something that is actually quite fun. I guess when you choose a career that requires at least 7-8 years minimum of schooling past high school, then to some extent you have to really like school. And so taking classes every year is fun. I love learning new things and believe me, medical advances happen so fast that there is always something new to learn. Some veterinarians take classes here and there throughout the year. I like to go to a large conference and get all my hours in one fell swoop. Ohio requires 30 hours of education every two years, but my goal ever since I graduated from vet school 24 years ago has always been to get a minimum of 20 hours every year.

Western Veterinary Conference (WVC) is one of the largest. One year I was told that there were around 15,000 attendees of which 6000 are veterinarians. I guess being in Las Vegas in February is a big reason, but there are also so many classes to take that it gives us lots of choice. Every hour, there are 20 to 22 sessions from which to choose. Quite overwhelming sometimes.

Day 1 (Valentine's Day) was a half day which is good if you arrive in Las Vegas in the morning which is what my husband and I did. Actually we started our trip out west last week and took some time to visit our western US friends. Sunday classes started after lunch and I started by going to a session on separation anxiety in dogs, then learned some new behavioral and medical techniques for treating cats that go outside the litterbox and finally a session on heartworm disease. No trip to Las Vegas would be complete without a little nightlife and my husband and I enjoyed a show by comedian Bill Engvall tonight.

Day 2 (President's Day) was geared mostly toward cats. Oral disease, bladder disease and brain diseases were among the topics. Oral disease is one of the most common problems I see in cats so that was particularly interesting. Bladder disease is also very common in cats and I learned some great new tips and tricks in treating this condition. Ended the day learning new information about intervertebral disk disease in dogs. With 3 hours of class on Sunday and 7 hours on Monday, I am halfway to my 20 hour goal. Once again, my husband and I took advantage of being west and had dinner with some friends that live in California.

I understand from family and friends back in Ohio that snow and cold are continuing. Here in Vegas it was sunny and 65 today. The palm trees are very beautiful in the bright sunshine. Just thought I'd rub that in! Tomorrow is Tuesday and day 3 of the conference. More to come...........

Talkin' Teeth

2010-02-03T13:31:00.007-05:00

This week I'm talkin' teeth. No I am not talking about those wind-up chattering teeth although they are pretty funny. I'm talking about National Pet Dental Health Month which happens every February. Nothing more exciting then talking about gum disease, eh? If you get look around online, I think just about every veterinary blog will mention dental health this month. Why? Well, frankly because it is important and it is probably the number one disease veterinarians treat in older pets.

Now I'm not much different than everyone else. I hate the thought of the dentist. OK, strike that. I like my dentist. He's really a very nice guy. I hate the thought of GOING to the dentist. But I see the effects of bad rotting teeth everyday so that makes going to the dentist a little more bearable.

The truth is that dental disease causes lots of other health problems such as heart, liver and kidney disease. Just think about it. A dog or cat has a bad rotten tooth and they are breathing in and swallowing all that bacteria in their mouth 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 356 days a year. That cannot be good for the body and it isn't.

What are the symptoms of a bad tooth? Well SOMETIMES bad breath, drooling, pawing at the mouth, but most often the symptom is .......... NOTHING! So how am I so sure that the pain of a bad tooth is real? I hear it time after time after time. I remove a bad tooth and then two weeks later, I talk to the pet's owner and find out the dog or cat is doing things that they hadn't done in months or years. They are more active. They are playing more. Little changes that weren't really noticeable before, but in hindsight they stand out. Dogs and cats in pain don't complain. They just live with their pain and it is up to us to be on the look out for something that is painful and they can't tell us about it.

Just so you can see what a tartar covered tooth looks like compared to a clean tooth, here are a couple of before and after teething cleaning pictures from a cat this week. In the after picture, the rear tooth still looks nasty because of all the gum disease, but the tooth is white and clean.

before cleaning

after cleaning

So pull your dog's or cat's lip back and look at those rear teeth. You don't need to get them to open their mouth at all. Just pull back the lip. Is the tooth white or brown? If it is brown, please take your pet to your veterinarian to have it checked further. In fact, all pets should have a yearly exam to pick up tooth and other problems early before they cause great pain to both the pet and the pocketbook. Let's treat tooth disease when the pain to both pet and wallet are minimal.

Saving Dot

2010-01-26T15:57:00.005-05:00

Today, I had some unexpected free time that is just perfect for writing my weekly blog. Usually I start looking for my next topic as soon as the previous week's blog is done. If possible, I try to use a recent case at the clinic for inspiration. Weekends are good for taking my dogs for long walks and thinking of blog topics. Funny how long walks are good for thinking. Unfortunately I spent most of the weekend attending to my dinosaur of a computer at home so when this free time fell into my lap, I was literally without an idea. Fortunately Ashley, one of my vet assistants, came to my rescue when she said "Blog about Dot!". Perfect! I know Ashley liked the idea because Dot is a cute dog with a feel-good story that has a happy ending. I liked the idea because I get to brag about the staff at The Country Doctor which, if I haven't said it before, is the best staff on the planet.

Dot is a year and a half old beagle whose story starts the week before Christmas 2009. She snuck out of the house and went missing. She was found laying in a nearby field and was unable to walk. Her owner brought her to the clinic. Dot had a lot of road rash, a broken pelvis and a broken right front foot and it became quite obvious she had been hit by some sort of vehicle. Her broken pelvis was so severe that euthanasia was thought about. Dot's owner is a teenage boy and referral for orthopedic surgery was not an option. Even though there will be some arthritis in one hip, Dot showed an extreme will to live so she was sent home on cage rest, pain medication and antibiotics for her wounds.

A week or two later she started chewing on her injured front foot. Not just a little chewing. She actually chewed off one of her toes and did not want to stop there. She was not walking on the leg either. It didn't take long to realize she had nerve damage and had severe nerve pain in that leg. Amputation was the treatment needed to get rid of Dot's pain. Dot's owner kept her on pain medication and had her wear an Elizabethan Collar so that she could not chew anymore of her foot off while they were deciding what to do. But surgery is expensive and money does not grow on trees. It is a cold hard reality of veterinary medicine that the choice becomes one of letting an animal suffer or putting it to sleep even though, given enough money, the problem could be fixed. This is something that everyone who works in a veterinary clinic has to deal with on a daily basis. Whether veterinarian or veterinary technician or veterinary assistant, we all are in this line of work because we love animals. We empathize deeply with our clients. But if we did not charge for what we do, our veterinary practice would cease to exist. This is the reality.

I happened to be out of town at a family wedding when the plan to save Dot was concocted. The staff got together and decided that they would volunteer their time for Dot's surgery. Dr. Curie agreed to donate the drugs and supplies needed. I found out about the plan as I sat in a restaurant on the road with my family. Another vet assitant Christine called my cell phone to tell me about the plan. I was the last piece of the puzzle as I would be doing the surgery. My decision was easy. I could hear the excitement in her voice as she told me about Dot. Two days later, Dot had her leg amputation surgery in the evening after regular business hours were done. Katelyn, Christine and Carly assisted with surgery. Ashley drove to the clinic late at night to do a post-op check.

Did I ever tell you that the staff at Country Doctor is the best staff on the planet?

Oh how I wish we could do this all the time. As for me, I'd like to thank Dot for coming into my life. She is a reminder to give back to others from time to time. There is a song "Satisfied Mind" sung by Hal Ketchum and written by Tony Arata. I think this says it so well........

Don't think wealth is ever having all you want all to yourself
It is found when you are giving what you have to someone else
The only difference in the rich and the poor is a satisfied mind

Do you need any other reason than THIS to get your dog spayed?

2010-01-19T15:05:00.003-05:00

Here is an interesting case from last week. Young female dog in her first heat cycle.

Nice, huh? This is called vaginal hyperplasia or more properly vaginal edema. This happens in some female dogs when they come into heat and the wall of the vagina swells and then sticks out through the vulva opening. As long as the owner keeps the dog from chewing on the exposed vagina and keeps the exposed tissue clean and moist, this will shrink back to normal when the female dog goes out of heat. Occasionally some females need surgery to remove this excess tissue. When a female dog has this happen once, it will likely happen the next heat cycle.

If you are not going to breed, get your female dogs spayed! It prevents so many problems.

The exploratory laparotomy

2010-01-12T15:06:00.008-05:00

laparotomy: a surgical procedure which involves making an incision through the body wall to gain access to the abdominal cavity. An exploratory laparotomy is a diagnostic tool used to visually take a look at the abdominal organs.

I have spent 18 of my 24 years as a veterinarian practicing in rural America. My first job out of veterinary school was in the hills of southwestern Pennsylvania. At that time, the closest referral or surgical practice was a 3 hour drive one way. Most of my clients were farmers or had bluecollar jobs. Needless to say, I did lot more procedures and surgeries as part of my general practitioner duties than I do today. Part of it was youth and that willingness to try anything once that goes along with being young. But most of it was necessity. The time and funds were just not available to my clients to take their animals to a specialist. I did a lot of exploratory surgeries in those days. Sometimes I could fix the problem. Sometimes I couldn't. But many times taking a look inside allowed me to come up with a diagnosis and more important a prognosis.

My next job was in an upscale suburb of a big city. Veterinary specialties were just starting to open up in the area. As a general practitioner, having access to different specialities allowed me to take pet care to the next level. Specialists are able to afford ultrasound machines because of their higher case load. What a great tool for taking a look inside at the internal organs when x-rays do not tell the whole story. Ultrasound is a lot less expensive than exploratory surgery too in most cases. Sometimes surgery is still necessary, but sometimes surgery is not necessary or the prognosis is too poor to do surgery. During these years, I did very few exploratory surgeries. It just wasn't necessary to do as part of a family doctor type practice.

Now for the past 15 years, I am once again practicing in a small rural community. The difference compared to my first job is that there are referral practices only 60-90 minutes away. Ultrasound machines are still out of financial reach for a small town practice, but there are enough larger practices nearby so that as a family doctor, I can refer my patients to get an ultrasound when I have exhausted all of my diagnostic tools. But something changed last year. The economy. While I still give every client the option of going to a surgeon or internist, sometimes it just not financially possible. Once again, I find myself using exploratory abdominal surgery as a diagnostic tool. And it is a great diagnostic tool. There is nothing like being able to see what the problem is close up. And just like 24 years ago, sometimes I am able to fix the problem and sometimes I am not. Cancer is a common diagnosis in older dogs. But even cancers can sometimes be cured with surgery. Let me share with you a couple of tumors I removed during exploratory surgery over the past month.

First up is Jake. Jake is a 13 year old Border Collie that came in because he was sick. X-rays showed an abdominal mass. The mass was located on the small intestine and was able to be removed. It is a very slow growing cancer. There is only a very small chance the cancer will return. What is most important is that Jake is feeling back to his own self. Here is a picture of Jake's tumor taken out at surgery:

Next is Bailey. Bailey is an 11 year old SharPei mix that also came in because she was not feeling well. She had a big mass in her abdomen that I could feel during her physical exam. The mass turned out to be on her spleen so I removed her spleen. Here is Bailey's spleen and mass:

Bailey's mass turned out to be benign and she should have an excellent prognosis. Here's another picture of Bailey right when she was moved into recovery after surgery:

So here I am, 24 years after starting my career, doing things like I did at the beginning. What is that old saying? The more things change, the more they stay the same. Seems like veterinary medicine is the same way.

Snow week

2010-01-05T16:20:00.005-05:00

I was going to call this blog "snow day", but then I realized that it has been snowing for the last 5 days with no real end in sight. About 6 miles east of here there is a National Weather Service observer that has measured 52" of snow so far in these past 5 days. Fortunately it is a very light and fluffy snow, so actual snow on the ground after a few days of settling is only 30". Now that makes it seem better. Not! The local businesses have switched from snow plows to front end loaders to move snow. We have been shoveling the sidewalk at the clinic nonstop, but within an hour, the snow is back. The good part about all this is that here in northeast Ohio, this is a fairly common occurrence during the winter. Everyone takes it in stride and life goes on almost normally if not just a little slower.

Good thing we don't use our basement door much. I just shuffled out through the frozen tundra to walk my dog though. Still wondering why I didn't wear boots today? Here's the view from the basement door up to the parking lot.

Yesterday I went outside to shovel my sidewalk at home and one my cats was gleefully running around in the snow. OK, maybe not gleefully, but he certainly wasn't hesitating about trotting around outside. Tough northeast Ohio cat! Caught this shot of him sitting watching me shovel the sidewalk.

All of this should be a reminder to take care of the dogs and cats in this weather. Don't forget to make sure your outside pets have a source of fresh water (not ice!). Make sure they have shelter from the wind and the wet. There is nothing I hate worse then to treat hypothermia or frostbite. Some short-coated breeds should just not be outdoor dogs in the winter. Period, end of story. Watch those large breed dogs (especially if they are overweight) as they go bounding through the snow. I can't even count the number of torn knee ligaments we see from over-exuberant bounding through the snow. Wash those paws if your four legged friend has to walk through ice melter. Some of it can be very irritating to the feet.

You may think I am crazy, but I love all this snow. OK I don't like the driving, the shoveling and barn chores are a pain in the neck. But it is beautiful. Just to watch the snow piling up outside brings back memories of how much fun snow actually was when I was a kid. The toboggan. The building of snowmen. The snow forts and snowball fights. Snow was not a chore. It was something to be played in and with. Snow got you out of school. Snow was special. It's nice to remember those feelings about snow. Makes me smile inside.

"Sleep in heavenly peace....."

2009-12-23T11:34:00.009-05:00

What is it about a sleeping pet or a sleeping child that is so entirely beautiful and peaceful? As hectic as the day can get, I quite often can be sitting at my desk, turn around and see peace. There can be dogs barking in the clinic kennel, but the office is peaceful. There can be stacks of charts piling up in my callback pile, but the office is peaceful. The appointment calendar can be double booked, but the office is peaceful. Ok, maybe not when the computer is acting up or the software program has logged it's twentieth error message of the morning. But all it takes is a moment to stop and smell the roses or in this case, stop and watch the sleeping dogs.

The Christmas season is a great time to step back and take a moment to look for the peace. When the shopping, baking, decorating, wrapping, traveling, socializing, eating and drinking are done and the night is quiet and silent, then everything comes back into a calm balance. All it takes is a moment to watch a sleeping dog or cat and you can just feel the calm. The innocence of the moment. The Peace.

Please enjoy some pictures taken in my office and a couple from home. Not all are my critters, but most of them have been heard snoring in the office at one time or another. Take time to watch your pets sleeping. I almost guarantee you will feel better.

May you and your family have a joyful and peaceful holiday season!

Getting ready for Christmas

2009-12-15T12:24:00.005-05:00

Christmas time is fast approaching and I suppose like most people I have been very busy. Probably not a very good excuse for not blogging, but it's the best one I have. I've also been taking off a few days here and there. Good for rejuvinating the body and mind, but not so good for getting things done at the office. The furry ones and their people come first when I am at work. My writing is secondary.

I am going to "cheat" a little with this blog. Some of you may have seen this video since it has been around awhile, but it is new to me. I thought it was very cleverly done. Enjoy!

Thanksgiving

2009-11-25T09:23:00.007-05:00

I have to say that Thanksgiving is absolutely my favorite holiday. Perhaps it was because I was born on Thanksgiving Day so growing up, the Thanksgiving "season" always had some special meaning. But as a grown-up, I think I love Thanksgiving because it is a celebration without strings attached. It is simplistic and that is refreshing when life can be so hectic and complicated. Thanksgiving is about getting together with family and friends and enjoying really good home cooking. No gifts, no fancy decorations, no fireworks, no baskets of candy. Just family, friends and food.

So for those reasons, I am going to indulge myself in this blog and stray away from veterinary medicine for just a bit. I encourage everyone to take the time over this Thanksgiving season to make your own list. Everyone has bad parts in their lives. Let's take a moment to push those aside and only think of the positives. I'll bet you can come up with more than you'd think.

Thanksgiving is the perfect time to reflect on all that we have to be thankful for. There are so many things in my life to be thankful for that when I truly think about it, I am overwhelmed. In no particular order....... I guess I'll start with family. I am so blessed that neither my family or my husband's family has any real drama surrounding them. We are just ordinary people going through life and livin' and lovin' every moment. I have a job that I truly love and I work with some of the most talented, brightest and caring people on the planet. I get to spend every single day working with animals. The community where I live is full of wonderful people. I am blessed to live on a farm with woods and fields out my backdoor that I can enjoy at any time. Except for minor glitches, my health is good as is the health of my family. I have food on the table and running water and electricity. Music is a big part of my life and that brings me great joy. I am blessed to be living in the United States of America and while we are not perfect, this is the best nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all and all that jazz (or in my case all that country music). *grin*

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Take time to cherish everyone and everything that you love.

The "O" word: the final word

2009-11-19T14:23:00.008-05:00

This is a good day for me to make the final blog on obesity series. This morning I saw Chloe the Boxer for her annual physical exam. Last year, Chloe weighed in at a chubby 67 lbs. I gave the standard diet recommendation and this year Chloe is a trim 58 lbs.. You do not know how happy I get when I see that! What a good job by Chloe's "mom"! Chloe's mom commented on much more active Chloe is now that she shed 9 lbs. That is a LOT for a dog. Equivalent to a woman losing around 20 lbs. Happy owner. Happy dog. Happy vet. Happy!

Now darn me I didn't bring my camera to work today so I don't have a picture of Chloe. What I do have is a picture of Harley. Harley is a slim and trim 7 year old Labrador Retriever. Some days I wonder if a normal weight lab exist, so Harley is a welcome change from the steady parade of obese retrievers that come through the door. Here are a couple of pictures of Harley. Notice in the view from above that he indeed has a waist. So cool!

So how to get your pet down to a happy weight? There are 2 basic options for cats and 3 for dogs. They all have their pluses and minuses so I will go over them one at a time.

Option 1. Standard diet and exercise. First you need to figure out how many calories your pet should be eating. I have a great chart at the clinic that works for 99% of the pets I see. It's too long to post here, but feel free to call or email me and I'll get the information to you. You can also get a smaller version of the chart at the http://www.petobesityprevention.com/ web page. After you get the number of calories needed per day, you get to count calories for your pet. You have to count calories from ALL food sources including treats. Yes, you can still give treats (lets be real. we all give our dogs at least a few treats every day), but you have to count the calories. Again call or email me if you have questions about how to figure out how many calories are in different foods or treats. I don't mention as much about exercise as I should, but we all need exercise. Good excuse to take the dog for a walk. Cats are a little harder, but laser lights and toys that dispense bits of food as the cat plays with it (instead of eating it out of a dish) work well.

The advantages of option 1. No diet change needed. The most inexpensive method.
The disadvantages of option 1. Studies show only about a 6% success rate. A slight possibility of pets not getting the right amount of nutrients if fed reduced amount of a standard diet for a long period of time (although I have not seen this happen, ever.)

Option 2. Prescription reducing diet. These are special veterinary formula diets that you can only get through a veterinarian. They tend to have low amounts of calories per cup or ounce of food. Again, you have to count calories; but because you have to get the diet through our clinic, there is a tendency for closer monitoring. This makes these diets more successful than using standard diets.

The advantages of option 2. Reducing diets provide more nutrients and satisfy that hungry feeling better than using a standard diet. There tends to be closer monitoring of weight and adjusting of diet if needed. Higher success rate than reducing the amount of a standard diet.
The disadvantages of option 2. More expensive than a regular diet (but remember, pets are not on this for life. Think of it as medicine to treat a medical condition which is what obesity is.) Have to order through a veterinarian.

Option 3. Slentrol weight loss drug. This is only an option for dogs. This option works very well for the dogs that are so appetite driven that when you cut calories they start doing bad things like getting into the garbage or breaking into the cupboards to get to food. The drug is a liquid that you give by mouth. It is basically an appetite suppressant and it does work very well when used properly.

The advantages of option 3. Controls appetite so the dogs are more comfortable during the weight loss phase. Works well for most dogs. Does not necessarily need a diet change (although you still need to change the way you feed your dog to keep the weight from coming back after discontinuing the drug).
The disadvantages of option 3. Requires veterinary monitoring and is a prescription drug. More expensive than option 1. The safety has only been tested for 1 year of continuous use so some very obese dogs may have to go with another option if weight loss takes longer than a year. Not to be used with some chronic medical conditions such as liver disease.

As a final note, I just have to show you a picture of Tuff the Golden Retriever. I saw Tuff last year for his annual exam and he weighed 106.3 lbs.. Unfortunately I don't have a before picture., but there is no Golden Retriever that I have ever seen that should weigh this much. So we discussed diet and exercise. Fast forward to this year when Tuff showed up for his annual exam sporting a new 85.7 lb weight. Oh boy did he ever look good. That is over 20 lbs of weight loss on a dog! How cool is that! Congratulations to Tuff's family for doing such a good job. The rewards will be a happier and healthier dog. You couldn't ask for better than that.

I'm sure I'll be posting more pictures from time to time of happy dogs that have lost weight so stay tuned.

The "O" word: part 2

2009-11-11T16:17:00.005-05:00

How does one week become two? It's called Dr. C. going on vacation and Dr. Di holding down the fort. Makes for little blogging time. So sorry. *grin*

Part one was an introduction to pet obesity. The biggest challenge that I face as a veterinarian talking about obesity is to convince people that being a chubby pet is not just cosmetic. It is a life threatening medical condition. It makes pets feel miserable. I know this because I see the difference between thin pets and fat pets. But to someone who has a chubby pet that is happy and wagging his tail, how do I convince someone that their chubby ball of fur would be even happier and live even longer? It's a tough challenge to be sure.

First, how does one know what is "normal" body weight? Start with looking at a body condition scoring chart. This is a chart that veterinarians use on medical records to show if a pet is normal, underweight or overweight. There are a lot of these charts out and about on the web. Purina has a great 9 point chart that I like to use, but the 5 point charts are probably simpler. Ohio State University has a good 5 point chart on their web site. Now I do have one pet peeve about most of these charts. Almost all will say something like "ribs palpable". Is palpable a word in common usage that most people know the meaning? I know what the word means, but do you (if you are not in a medical profession)? Why can't the charts just say "ribs can be felt". Simple and easy to understand.

Another hurdle to overcome in normal vs overweight debate is that more of our dogs and cats are overweight than are normal weight. I absolutely believe this is true. Pet owners are losing sight of what normal should look like because their neighbors, friends and relatives commonly have overweight pets. Overweight has become the "norm". But this is NOT healthy.

The third challenge is convincing owners that a dog or cat with a strong drive for food is starving if they beg, steal or "wolf" down their food. Food drive or appetite is an interesting phenomenon. Certainly having a strong drive to eat serves our wild carnivores well. If a wolf pack takes down an elk or a deer, it is the strongest and most aggressive wolf that gets the most from this feast. They have no way of knowing when their next meal will come. It could be a week or two at least. Our domestic pets have some of this instinct built in. We feed the dog at 8am and it chows down its food. The dog doesn't know that its next meal will be later in the day. It needs to eat its meal all and eat it right now. There might be no later. This is good for the wolf. Not good for the dog that snoozes on the sofa all day and gets daily food and treats.

Last but not least is realizing just how many calories there are in most dry foods. Although there are exceptions, a lot of dry dog and cat food has 400 or more calories per cup of food. If the average sized cat needs around 180-200 calories per day, this means a cat should be eating about 1/3 to 1/2 cup of food per day. How many cats will eat this little if food is left out all the time? Hey, leaving a bowl of dry food out all day for the cat to nibble on as it likes is how I was always taught to feed the cat. Sorry, but this feeding practice leads to a lot of chubby cats. We all need to learn new ways to feed our pets now that they sleep on the bed and bask in the sunshine streaming through the window.

Well, I said I would show you Tuff's picture in this blog, but it will have to wait as this blog is getting too long. Next blog: what can you as a pet owner do if you find out your pet is chubby and needs to lose weight. Stay tuned.

The "O" word: part 1

2009-10-27T16:26:00.007-04:00

Yes, that's right. The dreaded "O" word. This week's blog I'm going to talk about obesity. (Stayed tuned for the happy story of Tuff the Golden Retriever in the next part.) Since I was on track to get a degree in nutrition before switching my major to Animal Science and getting into vet school, I find all subjects related to nutrition very fascinating. There is so much cool information that is coming out of the research camps in the past few years on not just obesity, but how what we eat affects how our bodies function overall. Cool cool stuff!

But back on track to the obesity topic. I think it is pretty well agreed on by the medical community that obesity is indeed a disease and not just a cosmetic problem. Having a high percentage of body fat does really strange things to metabolism and actually causes inflamation in the body. There have been many studies that have shown how deadly obesity is not only in people, but in dogs too. One of the best known studies was Purina's life span study that was published in 2002. You can find some of the study information at Purina's web site http://www.longliveyourdog.com/ and click on the link to the life span study. This is such an oversimplification of the findings, but basically, the thin dogs in the study lived 1.8 years longer on average. I don't know about you, but I would certainly like my dogs to live longer. Their lifespans are too short as it is.

Cats have kind of received the short end of the stick in the past, but obesity surely effects them too and also in deadly ways. Not to worry though, there are some research projects ongoing and we should all know a lot more in the next few years. Some of the questions I hope will be answered are how a dry food diet affects cats. There has been some speculation that carbohydrate based diets (i.e. dry food diets) lead to obesity in cats. Is it because cats metabolize carbohydrates differently than dogs? Or is it that dry food diets are more calorie dense than wet food diets so cats just plain eat more calories than if they ate canned food? The story is unfolding.

Some of the diseases that we see much more often in our overweight and obese patients include:

osteoarthritis
diabetes (cats)
ruptured cruciate ligaments (dogs)
breathing difficulty
skin infections

For more reading, there is a very good web site at www.petobesityprevention.com. In next week's blog, I'll show you a picture of Tuff and tell you his weight loss story. I'll talk about how you can tell if your dog or cat is overweight or not. And best of all, what we as pet owners can do to either prevent or treat obesity.

2009 Boo Wow Walk

2009-10-20T15:24:00.011-04:00

Wow! What a fun time we had this past weekend at the Boo Wow Walk! Well, the weather could have been better, but it also could have been worse. Persistant rain showers and cold threatened to spoil everyone's fun. The cold didn't go away, but at least the rain showers did. Great job to everyone who showed up to support the Ashtabula County Animal Protective League!

The Country Doctor Veterinary Clinic was proud to be able to be a sponsor and also set up a booth at the event to raise money for the APL. The staff really has a good time supporting this great cause. The work begins in late August or early September. First up is soliciting donations from our veterinary suppliers so we have goodies to put in our treat bags and the gift bags that we raffle. This year's goodies came from MWI Veterinary Supply (kudos to them for being the biggest supporter!), Merial, Pfizer, Penn Veterinary Supply, and Bayer. Dr. Charles Curie donated all the Furminator supplies and dog toys. Our Vet Tech Katelyn baked more than 500 homemade dog cookies for the treat bags. Thanks to everyone! It takes all the donations to make this all happen.

Once all the donations are assemled, the staff stuffs the 500 or so treat bags that we give out at the event. The gift baskets are assembled. Ashley did a great job dressing up our event sign with fall colors. This year our office manager Sue, her son Charlie and I were the set-up crew. Thanks Charlie for helping us out! The three of us sold raffle tickets until the walk officially started at 1pm. Then Ashley, Katelyn and Leanne came to finish the event and tear down. Katelyn even got to walk "Charlie", one of the APL dogs that was up for adoption at the event. Good news is that "Charlie" did get adopted that day! A BIG thank you to everyone who attended the event. The weather was really cold and gray. Definitely took strong northeastern Ohio people to show up.

All the work is definitely worth it though. As you can probably gather from my previous blog posts, I am firm believer in supporting local animal shelters wherever you may live. This event is just so much fun it deserves a blog post all its own. If you want to see all the pictures I took from that day, feel free to visit our Facebook page. Raffle winners and more news from the Boo Wow Walk can be found on the Country Doctor Veterinary Clinic Web Page.

Lucky, the clinic cat

2009-10-13T14:35:00.003-04:00

I snapped this photo of Lucky the clinic cat last week as he slept on a blanket behind me while I was at my desk. Yesterday, Lucky had to be put to sleep due to progression of his kidney disease. He actually did well considering he was already in Stage 4 of 4 when he was diagnosed back in July. I never had said it out loud when he was first diagnosed, but he had some changes in his bloodwork and urinalysis that were very bad as far as a long term prognosis. I really didn't think he would live a month. The staff did an excellent job managing his medications and Lucky maintained his body weight up until just this past week or so. But there are some things we cannot change or manage.

Thank you Alaska

2009-10-07T12:49:00.005-04:00

Late last week, I put to sleep a dog named Alaska. It may sound kind of weird to say this, but every euthanasia is unique. Some are very emotional and some are calm. Some are done with a split second decision after a horrible accident and some are done after much thought at the end of a long peaceful life. There are no two exactly alike. That's a pretty amazing thought considering I've been doing this for over 20 years now. Alaska's euthanasia was as peaceful as they come. The day was a beautiful sunny fall day with just a hint of crispness in the air. Alaska, Alaska's "dad", my vet tech and I all sat out in the grass behind the parking lot. Everything was peaceful. Alaska laid his head in his dad's lap and when I gave the injection, he did not move at all. He just went to "sleep". He was ready. Even now when I am typing this, tears are in my eyes. I am glad that we don't have to let our pets suffer when they reach the end of their lives. It is still sad though.

I received the most special of all letters in the mail the other day. It made me want to cry and smile at the same time. The letter brightened the day of the staff members even though the reason for the letter is very sad to those of us left behind. Please note the return address on the envelope. I'm going to add an image of the letter because I think it adds so much to the letter to read it in hand or should I say "paw"-written form. I'll write the text of the letter below because it is hard to read off the photo and then after that will be my response.

Hey Doc Curie and Doc Veal and all your really cool staff. My trip here was real peaceful and guess what? I don't hurt no more - just lazin round with all the other cool cats and pooches. Plenty of time I got now to remember all the fun I had over 13 years & good care and lovin from my family and you guys. Remember that long walk I took one day and was found "dog tired" on the highway? or the time I took off and was gone for a hole week dragging my 10 foot chain with me? Ah, those were the days. I'm gonna really miss the snow, people food and sharing dad's beers (don't tell anybody that one). Well, so long, and thanks a bunch for all you did for me and my family. Your science really did touch my soul. Alaska.

Dear Alaska, Thank you so much for your letter. I am happy that your trip across the Rainbow Bridge (that's what I call it) was uneventful and that you are now safe and sound. I am going to miss seeing you even though I know you never really liked coming to the clinic. Does anyone really like going to the doctor anyway? I think not. Romping in the woods is much more fun. I'll still get to see your family though and we will remember you and all the fun you had. I'll tell your dad not to worry about the beer thing because (don't tell anybody) but I sometimes let my dogs drink the last sip of beer out of my bottle too. Maybe in the winter, we can try to send some of the snow your way. I don't think anyone here will mind. Have a good time in Doggie Heaven. Maybe if we are lucky, we willl be able to see each other again someday. Dr. Veale

World Rabies Day

2009-10-01T16:41:00.003-04:00

With World Rabies Day being observed earlier this week (Monday September 28th), I thought this would be a good reminder of the importance of vaccinating pets for rabies. September is also the month that the state, county and local health departments in Ashtabula County put out oral rabies vaccine bait aimed at providing the raccoon population with some immunity toward this deadly disease that affects wildlife, pets and people. Here are some interesting facts about rabies:

55,000 people worldwide die from rabies every year

widespread rabies vaccination in the United States has reduced the human deaths in this country to just a few every year.

Even so, thousands of wild animals test positive for rabies in the US every year and rabies cases in dogs and cats number in the hundreds. (6,841 wild and domestic animals tested positive in 2008)

Cats are the number one domestic animal testing positive for rabies. (294 cases of rabies in cats reported in 2008)

Rabies is always fatal once symptoms appear.

In 2008, a 55 year old man from Missouri died of rabies. He had been bitten on the ear by a bat 30 days before the symptoms began and did not seek treatment until after the symptoms started.

In Ohio in 2008, there were 64 reported rabies cases. 5 raccoons, 55 bats, 3 skunks and 1 coyote.

In Pennsylvania in 2008, there were 431 reported rabies cases. 60 in domestic animals including 53 cats, 3 cattle, 3 dogs, 1 sheep or goat. 371 in wild animals including 228 raccoons, 43 bats, 71 skunks, 25 fox, 2 bobcats, 2 groundhogs.

Rabies in nearly 100% preventable. Vaccinate your pets (dogs, cats, ferrets and horses) against rabies. If you or anyone in your family is bitten or scratched by a wild animal or unknown pet, contact your doctor. If your pet is bitten or scratched by a wild animal or stray animal, call your veterinarian.

Support your local animal shelter

2009-09-23T14:13:00.010-04:00

I'll admit up front that I've been kind of busy and very deficient in the blog department. Part of my being busy leads right into today's blog topic. I am fortunate to be able to spend one or two days a month at the Ashtabula County Animal Protective League spaying and neutering dogs and cats that are being adopted. My schedule worked out this month that I did two weeks back to back. So two Mondays ago with the help of Ashley from Country Doctor and Jeremy from the APL, we spayed or neutered 22 animals. Then last Monday with the help of Katelyn from Country Doctor and Jammie from the APL, we spayed or neutered 19 animals. Most of these animals had already been adopted and are now in their new homes. That is a good feeling. I am so blessed to have such talented people working with me. These past two surgery days went so smoothly and it is all due to Ashley, Katelyn, Jammie and Jeremy. Thanks to all!

Since the APL is on my mind, the timing is right to encourage everyone to support their local animal shelter wherever that may be. There is a lot of work to do. Adopt an animal. Donate money. Donate supplies. Donate time. We can all help out in some way or another.

This fall, the Ad Council and the Humane Society of the United States are gearing up for an advertising campaign to encourage adoption of pets from local shelters. I am very excited about this and looking forward to see where the ads turn up. I believe this link takes you to where the campaign starts: http://www.theshelterpetproject.org/index.asp There is a cool little video about the filming of the TV ads.

The Ashtabula County APL is also gearing up for lots of fun events this fall. They will be at the Grape Jamboree this coming weekend (Sept 26 and 27, 2009) and the Covered Bridge Festival (Oct 10 and 11). The big event of course is the annual Boo Wow Walk on October 17th. Country Doctor will be there again this year because we had so much fun last year!!!!! You might also get to meet Gabby the beagle I adopted from the APL two years ago. Also on tap this fall is a book signing at Ashtabula Towne Square on Oct 24th, Reverse trick or treat at the shelter on Oct 29th and one of MY favorites, the Spayghetti dinner on November 2nd. Visit the APL web site for more details: http://acapl.org/news.html

One more picture of Gabby doing what beagles do. Caught in mid "bow woooooooo" on the trail of a rabbit.

There are so many animals in need of homes. If you are considering getting a dog or cat, I'd encourage everyone to look no further than their local animal shelter. There are so many beautiful animals that just want a home of their own.

Uh ................ speaking of pyometra

2009-09-10T15:22:00.005-04:00

I think this may be a record for me. 8 days ago, I wrote in my blog about a disease called pyometra that is seen in older female dogs. Yesterday I did surgery on an 8 year old female dog with perhaps the largest uterus I have ever personally taken out of a dog. The dog's presurgery weight was 55 lbs and the uterus weighed 8.2 lbs.. Wow! Quite impressive! Remember, "pyo" means "pus" so this was a uterus filled with 8 lbs of pus. I just have to share the photo with everyone so if you don't like surgery pictures don't look below.

I'm going to re-post the picture taken of a normal 70 lb dog's uterus first. The second picture will be the 8.2 lb uterus from yesterday's surgery.

Oh and the dog that had pyometra surgery yesterday is doing very well and went home today.

Lucky the clinic cat 9/8/09 update

2009-09-08T11:23:00.005-04:00

Just thought I would give everyone an update on how Lucky the clinic cat is doing. If you don't remember, Lucky was diagnosed with kidney disease back in mid July. For the full blog on cats and kidney disease visit the July 2009 blog archive or click on this link.

There is some good and some bad in this update. Unfortunately Lucky has chronic kidney disease that is mostly stable, but in an advanced stage. He is hovering around Stage III to IV of four stages under the International Renal Interest Society (IRIS) classification. His current treatment is Hill's feline k/d diet, subcutaneous fluids given Monday, Wednesday and Friday, Azodyl, Epakitin and benazepril. By the way, all these treatments including giving the fluids can be done at home by any cat owner. We have been able to improve some of his blood values, but not all. I guess the best part is that he is eating good and his weight is stable. Maintaining body weight is one of the best ways to monitor how a cat is feeling. Eating good = feeling good. Cats with kidney disease that eat some and lose weight may appear to be ok, but the weight loss speaks for itself. So I am thrilled that for right now Lucky is maintaining body weight. That's the best we can ask for right now.

To spay or not to spay ...........

2009-09-02T14:30:00.007-04:00

This is the sad part of veterinary medicine. This is the part where a dog dies from a nearly 100% preventable disease. This is where I (or another veterinarian) have counselled someone how to prevent this death and it happens anyway. It always leaves me asking why. Did the dog's owner even hear what I said? Was money an issue? (when isn't it in veterinary medicine?) Did I state the facts, but fail to stress the importance? To me, this shows how communication is the key to much of what I do on a day to day basis. I have learned a lot about communication in my 23 years as a veterinarian, but I am still learning every day. Times like this make me think "how could I have communicated better?". Life makes you realize that there is always something new to learn.

The disease I am talking about is pyometra or literally translated "pus in uterus". This disease of female dogs will occur in nearly every older unspayed female dog if it doesn't die from something else first. Since spaying involves removing the ovaries and uterus, a spayed dog cannot get pyometra. I say it is nearly 100% preventable because I will occasionally see a pyometra in a young breeding bitch, but this is the exception. And because the whole disease process starts with hormonal changes to the uterus that occur over time, pyometra almost always occurs in older female dogs. Female dogs do not go through menopause like humans do and will continue to come into heat throughout their lifetime. If bacteria gets into the uterus, this can set the stage for a severe and possibly life threatening infection that is pyometra. The treatment for pyometra in nearly every case is to do surgery and spay the dog. Of course, now we are talking about doing a spay surgery on a sick dog with a greatly enlarged uterus. This is not the ideal time to do surgery. Many dogs will live through surgery and do well. A few will die.

"They" say a picture is worth a thousand words. So now through the magic of our digital world, I can show you all what I am talking about. The following pictures were taking during spay surgery from two different female dogs. Both dogs weighed about 70 pounds. Female dog #1 was young (about 10 months old) and healthy. She will never have to live through the horror of what pyometra can be. Female dog #2 was older and sick with pyometra. She died about 14 hours after surgery.

Female dog #1 uterus during spay surgery

Female dog #2 uterus during pyometra surgery

BIG difference eh? This is why I recommend having female dogs spayed. Female dogs can be spayed early if the owner does not want a litter of puppies or later if a bitch is to be used for breeding. I see the consequences of what can happen when older female dogs are not spayed. I do not recommend surgery lightly. I am the pet advocate. Whatever is in the pet's best interest is what I am going to recommend. Dog #1 is alive and happy. Dog #2 is dead. Sad isn't it?