Fleas...old news but bad problem!

by Zoe Forward, DVM, Dipl. ABVP (canine/feline)

Carolina Pets Animal Hospital

 

Fleas…those icky little brown bugs that infest your dog or cat when you lapse in flea control (or sometimes in spite of flea control). They are terrible this year, primarily because of the weather. We are seeing a huge surge in the number of flea infested pets in the past two weeks. So, I thought it time to parade out this old problem and remind you it is time to put that flea preventive product onto your pet. Fleas in this area spike in August and September and will be in high numbers until well into November. Indoor only pets are susceptible to infestations too.

Newsflash on flea preventive products: The traditional Frontline Top Spot and Frontline Plus, and its knock-off fipronil-containing products are not working well in North Carolina. Most inexpensive grocery/pet store products will not work.

What does work right now? Frontline TRITAK, which is the newest generation Frontline product is working extremely well. Both Frontline Tritak and Advantix (only to be used in dogs) are our only reliably effective products for both fleas and ticks. For flea-only the other effective products are Comfortis tablet (or Trifexis which has both the Comfortis plus heartworm preventive), Revolution (topical) and Advantage (topical).

What to do if you are already seeing fleas on your pet? First step, treat ALL furry pets in the household with an effective flea product such as one of those listed above; and use it once a month unless your veterinarian tells you to apply more frequently. If you are already using one of these products, give us a call. There are guarantees on some of the products that, if purchased through our clinic, we may be able to help you activate.

Second, treat the environment. For indoors, you should do a good vacuum every 2 to 3 days for 2 weeks. This as effective, if not more so, than any chemical sprays/bombs/powders.  For the outdoors we recommend you use a sprinkle granule treatment that you can purchase at any home improvement store that has the active ingredient: imidicloprid. Follow directions on package for application outside.

 

Call us if nothing is working or you have any questions:

(704)220-0226.

WATCH OUT FOR THE HEAT!

By Zoe Forward, DVM, DABVP
Carolina Pets Animal Hospital

 

It’s 90-degrees, your dog is panting heavily and dragging behind, but you’re almost done with your 2 mile walk. This scenario is flashing a big red **DANGER** sign.

The only way for a dog to dissipate heat is by panting it off or sweat glands in their pads. Therefore, in this scenario your dog is highly susceptible to heat exhaustion or, even worse, heat stroke if it gets too hot. Heat stroke is a life-threatening (as in death) emergency.

The best plan? AVOID THE HEAT. Exercise your dog in the cooler parts of the day (early morning or just before dusk).

 

 

 

 

What are the signs of heat stroke? It starts with restless behavior as your dog becomes uncomfortably hot. You will see heavy, sometimes labored panting, excessive drooling or frothing at the mouth, and red gums. This will progress to weakness and lethargy often to the point the dog cannot move or might collapse. Eventually, affected animals will be in so much distress that they will become listless and slip into a coma. Unfortunately, the coma point is bad news… death is fairly imminent unless the dog receives immediate and aggressive medical treatment!

 

Who is at highest risk? Very young and very old dogs have a higher risk of developing heat stroke than do dogs in the prime of their lives. Brachycephalic breeds (e.g., pug, Boston Terrier, Bulldogs, etc), obese/overweight dogs, long-haired dogs and dogs that are black or dark in color. Dogs with hyperthyroidism, heart disease, lung disease or thick hair coats have an increased risk as well.

 

Bottom line: If you and your dog were out in the heat and you notice (s)he is restless, uneasy, having breathing problems or otherwise is just not doing right, call us or bring your dog in immediately.  This is an emergency.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

INTERVIEW WITH MEGAN

Interview by Zoe Forward, DVM, DABVP


Hello Everyone!  I am so pleased to welcome Megan to our blog today.
Megan is a registered veterinary technician who has been working in the veterinary medical field for over eight years. Originally from California, she lived for a while in Colorado Springs before settling here.  She’s been involved in canine search and rescue groups and performed veterinary technician relief work in Haiti. She enjoys the small town atmosphere, close client relations, and the high caliber of medicine practiced here at Carolina Pets.

 

 

 

Megan, what is your favorite part of the job?

Of course I love working with animals, but I have to say I also really enjoy the medical aspect of the job. Being able to do everything from radiology to surgery and everything in between makes my job ever changing and unpredictable. I love it!

 

 

What advice would you give to anyone considering a career as a veterinary technician or veterinary assistant?

It’s not all puppies and kittens! You have to really enjoy the medical aspect of the job. It also gets messy sometimes! So, you need a strong stomach and a desire to challenge yourself.

 

Tell us about working in Haiti!

Working in Haiti was a once in a lifetime experience! I saw a lot of sad situations but it felt really good to help.  I was able to train villagers in areas of animal husbandry, nutrition, and preventative medicine as well as offer much needed care to animals that had gone so long without. The animals in Haiti serve a job, so you don’t see many companion animals. I always had to keep that point in mind when treating a sick or hard worked animal. Working there gave me a new perspective.

 

 

 

If money was no object, what hobby would you like to pick up?
Competitive Sailing

Favorite 4:

What’s your favorite word?

“Totally”…I’m from California!

What’s your favorite TV Show? 

Grey's Anatomy

How many personal pets do you have?  

 3 Dogs, 4 cats, and chickens!

What’s your favorite hobby?     

Backpacking and skiing in the winter

Thank you Megan for talking with us today. We are so fortunate to have you as a member of our team!

Anesthesia-Free Dental? Not so great a deal.

Posted by Zoe Forward, DVM, Dipl. ABVP (canine/feline)

Information provided by the article written by veterinary dentist, Dr. John Lewis in Veterinary Practice News (Vol 25, No 7)

An anesthesia-free dental cleaning sounds great, doesn’t it?  No anesthesia means lower risk.  But is it less risky? Sure the crowns of your pet’s teeth look great afterwards, but without anesthesia your veterinarian is unable to probe each individual tooth (there’s no way your pet will stay still to have this done), take dental x-rays or get a good look on the inside or back of teeth.  Therefore, this procedure barely scrapes the surface of dental disease….no pun intended. 

Although the term “anesthesia-free dentistry” is commonly used to describe the practice of cleaning teeth without anesthesia, the American Veterinary Dental college prefers to use the term “non-professional dental scaling,” or NPDS, to describe these procedures.

Why isn’t an anesthesia-free dental cleaning a good idea?

1.       Dental procedures can be uncomfortable!  Rarely is a dental cleaning for our animal patients just a tooth cleaning. When we take a closer look with the right tools, there are common problems found. This could be in the form of a periodontal pocket where bacterial infection has created a deep pocket between the tooth and gums. This requires therapy. Or a deep abscess or even a necessary extraction. Even the act of ultrasonic cleaning of the teeth is uncomfortable. We don’t want our patients to feel pain during treatment!

 

2.       A thorough mouth exam requires anesthesia.  A thorough evaluation of each tooth is essential. It isn’t a dental cleaning without this! As well there are mouth structures we cannot see without anesthesia such as tonsils and the back of the throat, where disease often hides.  Pets will not allow us to probe teeth away and this is how we check teeth for fractures, cavities, and infection. Probing means that a periodontal probe is submerged into the gingival sulcus in six places around each tooth. No dog or cat will allow this.

 

3.       Dental radiographs (x-rays) are the best care for your pet.  Dogs and cats simply cannot tell us when they have a painful tooth or when there is an infection brewing. Often the problem is not above the gumline where we can see. Most of these patients will still eat and may even have otherwise normal play behaviors. The only way for us to know what is going on beneath the gums is to take a picture.

 

4.       Scaling requires thorough polishing afterwards.  That gritty stuff your dentist puts on your teeth after cleaning is called polish. It fills in all the little defects caused by scraping off the tartar. If a patient is a moving target while scaling, then potential damage for the surface of the tooth is greater. Polishing smoothes out the rough surfaces, but the patient has to be still. This is often not going to happen on an awake pet.

 

5.       False sense of security.  When the crowns (tops) of the teeth looks clean, we assume all is going well beneath the gums.  The level of tartar is what clues us in that the teeth need to be cleaned and it looks great for a while after it has been scraped off, but it may be that there is more significant disease we didn’t know about brewing beneath the gums.

 

Weighing the Pros and Cons.

There is always some risk with anesthesia, usually small, but in some patients this risk is higher depending on the pet’s medical status.  There are pets who should not be placed under anesthesia, and perhaps only in those patients anesthesia-free dentals could be considered.

However, advances in anesthesia and monitoring equipment have allowed the risk to be lower than ever in the past. At Carolina Pets Animal Hospital we use the most current monitor tools and advanced inhalant anesthesia (Sevoflurane) to maintain our patients.

Thunderstorm Phobia!

By Zoe Forward, DVM, DABVP (canine/feline)

We might love a good storm, but our dog might not.

We suspect there are genetic factors that underlie a dog’s susceptibility to thunderstorm phobia. In people genetics contribute to fears. Studies show that identical phobias (e.g. fear of heights) will develop in identical twins raised completely apart. However, negative experiences can clearly trigger the development of fears. Specifically, personal experience and observational learning (witnessing another fearful dog or person) may be involved.

Storm phobia responses are not just physical, but also emotional and physiological. Physical responses include attempts at escape (flight), finding a safe place, shadowing the owner or hiding. Affected dogs may also pace, pant and whine or bark. Emotional responses include the immeasurable in a dog—the subjective experience of terror. Physiological responses include activation of the autonomic and endocrine systems triggering high heart rate, pupil dilation, salivation, sweating (paws only) and increase in stress hormones.

The Static Charge Theory. Storm phobia doesn’t happen overnight, though. Many owners will comment their dogs first became afraid of storms when less than 1 or 2 years of age, but most do not seek help from veterinarians (or veterinary behaviorists) until the dog is considerably older (usually between 5 and 9 years old).  The reason is that most owners say their dog used just be apprehensive, but something later on exacerbated this phobia to have other problem (such as those noted above). Some people can even name a particular date when things changed.

So, why would apprehension change to true terror?  There are a lot of theories. Clearly something unusual happened during that particular storm to make it different from all the rest. One interesting theory by veterinary behaviorist Dr. Nicholas Dodman is that dogs might have received a painful static electric shock during that one triggering storm.  Many fearful dogs will seek safety by climbing into a sink, bath, Jacuzzi, shower pedestal, or squeeze themselves behind toilet tanks or up against metal radiators or pipes during storms. Presumably they have found by trial and error that there is some degree of protection in these locations. All of these locations represent electrical grounds that would dissipate any built-up static charge. Owners often remark that they sometimes get static shocks from their dogs if they touch them during a storm. We know static fields build up during storms and some animals become statically charged during storms. Mast tips of sailing ships can glow with “St. Anthony’s Fire” during storms; airplane wings glow with static discharge for the same reason when planes fly though electric storms; and the horns of Texas longhorn cattle can glimmer at the tips like candles during thunderstorms, often heralding a stampede.

 
How to Treat Storm Phobia?

Desensitization doesn’t work well.  Desensitization is one of the key components of behavior therapy for pets. We try to make the dog less sensitive to the problem/situation that stress the dog out.  You might, therefore, think that playing a CD of thunderstorms should help, but it won’t.  Thunderstorm fear is complex and not due simply to the sound of thunder that, but also due to darkening skies, rain, wind and some say perhaps changes in barometric or static electric fields. Even odors may be indirectly involved; for example, oxides of nitrogen or ozone produced by lightning during storms. Many storm-phobic dogs are not frightened of other loud noises and the reverse is also true. Many storm-phobic dogs sense that storms are on the way well before we do, presumably picking up some subtle cues that humans are incapable of perceiving. Whether these cues involve changes in barometric pressure, static electric fields, odors or some other prompt has yet to be determined.
Second, the key rule of desensitization therapy is to eliminate and/or control exposure to the feared stimulus (storms, in this case). That is tricky to achieve in most geographical locations in the United States.


What does work:
1. Create a safe room for your dog to go during storms. Find a safe place where the dog can go to get away from all aspects of the storm. A basement, if available, is a great place to start. The safe place should have small or no windows so the storm cannot be witnessed by the dog. Even small windows should be blocked off using cardboard inserts or fitted with thick, lined curtains. Basements have the advantage of being semi-subterranean, insulated against sound by think concrete walls and surrounding soil.  Equip the safe room with a solid sided crate (door open), water, food, toys and treats. Turn up the lights to mask stray lightning flashes that might escape the window shielding.  Play classical music at a reasonable volume to drown out any remote sounds of thunder.

Introduce your dog to the safe place during a non-storm time and have some fun there playing. Later, he may take himself to the safe place when he first senses an impending storm. A doggy door may have to be fitted to make the room accessible at all times, even when you’re not there.


2. Use a storm jacket.  There are many storm jackets on the market. Studies show they help in 50% of dogs.  The Storm Defender has an anti-static lining and the new model is tight fitting, too, delivering a sort of ambulatory hug. Put on the jacket at first hint of a storm approaching.  The AnxietyWrap is another therapeutic jacket that works by swaddling pressure alone.  Another storm jacket is the Thundershirt. Finally, a Calming Cap may be helpful in some cases to attenuate visual aspects of storms.




3. Medication.  Of course, if all else fails, medication can save the day. Reconcile (Fluoxetine) is a first choice “background medication” to stabilize storm-phobic dogs’ mood during the thunderstorm season. Dogs are given this drug once daily throughout storm season. Sometimes another drug can be added in during especially violent storms. Xanax (alprazolam) is often used for this purpose but some dogs might have an unacceptable high level of paradoxical excitement reactions to this anxiolytic drug. Other choices might include  Klonopin (clonazepam) or clonidine.

 Information obtained from articles by Nicholas Dodman, BVMS, Dipl. ACVB.

 

Common Dangers that Pose a Threat to Pets on the 4th of July

Courtesy of Pet Poison Hotline

 

 

Fireworks. In addition to being loud and scary to pets when lit, unused fireworks can be toxic if ingested. Many contain hazardous chemicals like chlorates that harm red blood cells and the kidneys, soluble barium salts that cause life-threatening drops in potassium, and sulfur and coloring agents that contain dangerous heavy metals. Gastrointestinal issues like vomiting, a painful abdomen and bloody diarrhea can result. The severity of the reaction will depend on the type of firework and the amount ingested. In severe cases, pets can suffer tremors or seizures, along with acute kidney failure, bone marrow changes, shallow breathing and jaundice. When lighting off fireworks, its best to keep pets indoors, away from the noise and risk for thermal injury.

 

Barbecue Foods. We love cookouts, but they can have the opposite effect on pets. While rich savory meats aren’t poisonous to dogs or cats, they can cause anything from mild vomiting and diarrhea to full-fledged fatal pancreatitis, especially in sensitive dog breeds like miniature schnauzers, Yorkshire terriers, and Shetland sheepdogs. Corn-on-the-cob can also cause issues ranging from vomiting and diarrhea, to forming a severe foreign body in the dog’s intestines requiring surgery. Desserts made with xylitol, a sugar-free sweetener, can also be harmful, causing an acute drop in blood sugar and even liver failure. Likewise, foods containing grapes and raisins can result in severe, fatal acute kidney failure when ingested by dogs.

 

 

Pool Chemicals. Chlorine is a common pool chemical. When ingested in its concentrated form (e.g., powder, tablets, etc.) prior to being placed in the pool, it can result in severe corrosive injury to both humans and pets. Burns to the eyes, skin, mouth, and esophagus can develop, and result in permanent injury. Once diluted appropriately in the pool water, chlorine no longer poses a corrosive risk. Always keep pool chemicals and cleaners safely out of the reach of pets. 

 

Salt Water. If celebrating by the ocean, be aware of salt poisoning. If large amounts of ocean water are ingested while playing on the beach, hypernatremia (an elevated salt level) can occur, resulting in vomiting, diarrhea, lethargy, excessive thirst or urination, tremors, seizures, coma and even death. Instead of allowing dogs to drink from the ocean, provide them with fresh water. If salt water is ingested, immediate veterinary treatment is recommended.

Feline Idiopathic Cystitis: It’s NOT a Urinary Tract Infection!

 

Guest post by Amy Auwater, DVM

Your cat has started having signs that might look like a urinary tract infection: squatting to urinate in unusual places outside of the litterbox, making frequent trips in and out of the litterbox, straining to urinate, vocalizing, licking the urinary opening, and/or producing small amounts of blood-tinged urine (if there is no production of urine the kitty is male, he could have an obstruction which is a medical emergency!).  All of these signs are related to pain and discomfort in the lining of the urinary tract.  The fact is that in young-middle aged healthy cats (especially male), it is actually rare to get a true urinary tract infection.  Only 1-5% of cats with these signs will have a true urinary tract infection.

Other things that can cause similar signs might be bladder stones (20% of affected cats), trauma to the urinary tract (1-5%) or urinary cancer (1-5%).  A urinalysis is recommended to rule-out underlying problems, and bloodwork or x-rays may be indicated.  Most cats will not have any underlying problem found, despite extensive testing.  These cats have Idiopathic Cystitis.  This is one of the most common problems that we see in our feline patients.

What causes Idiopathic Cystitis?  Well, just like many things in life, it is multifactorial!  This is more likely to be a systemic disorder induced by stress than a primary bladder problem.  You may think your kitty has it pretty easy, but there are actually a lot of things that can stress out a cat!  It may or may not be easy to identify stress in your kitty’s environment, and some cats are more sensitive to stress than others.   Changing schedules, having company over, a new baby or pet in the house, moving furniture, moving to a new house, lack of access to elevated perches or a “safe place,” a stray cat walking outside the window… the list goes on!  An excellent resource is Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine’s website, Indoor Pet Initiative, for more information on stress management and environmental enrichment:  www.indoorpet.osu.edu/cats

Another important factor appears to be diet.  This doesn’t seem to be a condition caused by diet, but it is sensitive to diet.  Cats have evolved to eat a high-protein, high-moisture, low-carbohydrate diet, i.e. most canned foods!  If the majority of the diet consists of dry food, this may unmask or exacerbate signs in sensitive cats.  We recommend feeding your cat a high-quality canned food, or wetting the dry food, and increasing water intake.  Keeping the urine more dilute makes for a healthier feline urinary tract and a happier you!

Medications may be prescribed to help manage acute signs, and these may include pain relievers, anti-spasmodics, sedatives, anti-anxiety medications, or glucosamine/chondroitin supplements.  However, diet modification and environmental enrichment are things that you can do at home!  Often there is no quick fix for the problem, and a solution is found through various trials.  Patience and diligence are key.  Your kitty will thank you!