Vegas Rock Dog Radio Show Episode 73 What Can You Do When Your Dog Has A Luxating Patella?

Hello everyone, I’m Sam the Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll dogs and host of Vegas Rock Dog Radio Show. On today’s show I’m talking about knee health in dogs and a rare cardinal bird... so stay right there.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is Pet Life Radio. Let's talk pets. Let's bring

(00:44):
on the host, Sam the Queen of Rock and Roll Dogs.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
Hello everyone, I'm Sam, the Queen of Rock and Roll
Dogs and the host of Vegas Rock Dog Radio. On
today's show, I'm talking about knee health and those luxating bettellas.
So stay all right there.

Speaker 3 (01:29):
Let's bring on the host, Sam the Queen of Rock
and Roll Dogs.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
Hi everyone, welcome to the show. I'm your host, Sam,
the Queen of Rock and Roll Dogs, and this is
Vegas Rock Dog Radio. We are a show all about pets, people,
pop culture. That's a big umbrella. So we get to
talk about lots of different things, don't we.

Speaker 4 (01:54):
Jim, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
There you go. There's Jim, the producer of show. He's
also my husband, and in studio with us today is
mister Twigs and Miss Thornton. They've had their five mile
walk this morning and he's had a shower because he
just gets dirty. He's a dirty dog. And we're going
to talk about dirty dog toys later as well in

(02:17):
the show. Well, Jim, before actually before we get on
with a weekly update like we normally do, let's tell
everyone where they can find us on the internet. Shall
we do this like a quiz?

Speaker 4 (02:29):
Jim, a pentagram, a face phone, pinto grammar, fac of.

Speaker 2 (02:34):
Phone that sounds like a tiderkin, pintagram, facephone. There great? Great? Uh.
The website is Vegas Rockdog radio dot com and you
will find us on Periscope, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, and Instagram.
We have a blog. The blog is the rock and
Roll Dog dot com and you can also find us

(02:56):
if you If you do not catch the live show,
you can find us on iTunes, iHeartRadio, spoke by Serrus XM, Spotify,
Podchaser contacted us this week. Now the show is on
Podchaser and any podcast app you have. You can find
us after the live show, no problem whatsoever. And you

(03:17):
know what, Jim, I do think I need new headphones.
I swear, I think my headphones are just bleeding sounds dreadful.

Speaker 4 (03:23):
Because you're deafening me right now.

Speaker 2 (03:25):
So you should just pull one of your accounts off
your ear and then turn me on.

Speaker 4 (03:29):
And I can't listen and I have a job to do. Sorry,
Oh so just go on, then?

Speaker 2 (03:35):
Can you turn it up for me?

Speaker 4 (03:36):
I just did tiny.

Speaker 2 (03:37):
Bit more, which he didn't. He just pretended. You just
pretended to turn my headphones up, just pretended.

Speaker 4 (03:46):
People want to know what you have to talk about
about your problems.

Speaker 2 (03:49):
Then well it's actually a good thing to be able
to hear what the heck I'm doing. Anyway, that's why
you'll find us on the internet. And that was Jim's
version of the tadurkan with the social media hybrid word.
So that again, what was it?

Speaker 4 (04:09):
Put that on your wrist? Get some workout?

Speaker 2 (04:12):
Oh you know what's you know what? I think I'll
tell you about this. First of all, fit bit, can
you make one for a left handed person so that
the button's not on the opposite side of your wrist.
That is just not logical. It's ridiculous. You know how
you can normally, like with your phone, you could turn
your phone upside down the side and it'll still work.
You can't do that with fitbit anyway. And here's another issue.

(04:33):
I'm a very poor sleeper as it is, and every
time you turn over in bed and you move your hand,
it lights up like a flipping disco.

Speaker 4 (04:41):
I'm sure you could change that.

Speaker 2 (04:42):
I don't know. I wanted to figure out because I
don't need that every time I move. But you know
what's interesting, It says I've done a lot of steps
during the night.

Speaker 4 (04:51):
You probably have talk and yeah, you were talking last night.

Speaker 2 (04:56):
Or the night before. I know I was full on.
I couldn't I knew I was doing it. I couldn't
stop myself. It's a very interesting state of mind. Anyway,
I'm getting a little bit off track here, but let's
start with Tip of the Week, and then we'll do
our little weekly update and stuff that's in the news.
Something just came into us literally minutes ago that we're
going to tell you about that. I think you'd be

(05:16):
quite excited to know the details off But the first
thing is Tip of the week. If you are entertaining
the idea of moving your pets to a raw diet,
but you're still a little bit overwhelmed at the thoughts
of fully preparing pets food and doing all that research,
and I think you do have to make it a project.

(05:37):
You don't want to go into it willy nilly, as
we say, because you need to be able to come
up with a balanced diet for your pets. Like I
said last week, forget the whole chicken and rice that
is not a balance meal, my friends. But if you
are feeling like I really want to go in that direction, well,
you know, I've got a couple of easy steps you
can take to just get that one step closer to
your raw feeding goals. It doesn't always have to happen

(05:58):
all at once. There is a learning process to it,
and you want to make sure you're doing it right.
Is at the end of the day, your pets are
in your hands. But a very easy transition to get
away from process kibble. Yeah, and all kibble is processed,
is is to first of all, you could buy a
dehydrated base mix, you know, like the one you can

(06:19):
get from Dr Harvey's or the Honest Kitchen, and then
what you'll add to that is your your raw protein.
Some people still choose to cook it slightly until they
get the confidence, but that way you're taking another step closer.
It's closer to that goal of raw feeding, and it's
a it's a nice little transition people are comfortable with.

(06:41):
So that's one way.

Speaker 4 (06:41):
Do they cook it a little bit? I mean just
the raw is good because the pet has the acids
in their stomachs, they can handle it. So it's just
to make a person.

Speaker 2 (06:50):
And you know, you do destroy some nutrients when you
when you cook, you do, but some it's a it's
a thing for the people. It's a people thing. Get
over it.

Speaker 4 (07:00):
Just get over it.

Speaker 2 (07:01):
Now, what's your other saying that you say to people?

Speaker 4 (07:03):
Get it together?

Speaker 2 (07:04):
Get it together.

Speaker 4 (07:05):
We have to have a different chemistry than we do.

Speaker 2 (07:07):
Well, I know that.

Speaker 4 (07:08):
You may not eat it, but they may.

Speaker 2 (07:11):
You may give a a toad will not give you
a ward, but you may give a Toadal warter Ah,
you see how the show's going already, all these crazy references.
It's a people think. It's a confidence thing. Sometimes I'm like, oh,
I don't know. It just freaks me out. You know,
I've always said this, try and get some progress before

(07:32):
you worry about perfection. You'll get their step by step
and eventually you'll get over it and you'll be doing
your raw before you know it. But another step which
makes it incredibly easy, and seriously there's seriously little prep
to it, and that is to buy a pre made
frozen raw food from your you know, your local it's
going to be more of a boutique pet store that's

(07:53):
going to sell this. So just you know, be aware
of that. And I say it requires no help, really
you other than defrosting it. And Answers is a fantastic
pet food company and let me tell you balanced, it's
got everything in it. Your pets would need meat, organised bones,

(08:13):
and there's a small percentage of caps. They have two
different types of foods that they put out there, different
kinds of proteins. They do the real goat's milk, they
do the bone broth. It is, I've got to tell you,
really a fantastic company with so much integrity, and they're
very accessible. If you have questions, you can email them,

(08:35):
give them details and send you a little consultation thing back. Brilliant,
absolutely brilliant, but they are very say accessible. They do
a lot of Facebook lives, but it is a balanced meal.
They've got fermented vegetables in there, and say a company
that high quality, and they truly do care about your

(08:56):
pet's diet. They truly care about your pet's diet. So
that makes it super easy and you know you could,
you know, then add the goat's milk to it and
really have a lot of confidence in that. Now some
people stick right with that and they go, you know what,
my pet's getting everything it's raw. It's convenient because I

(09:17):
can buy tons of it and put it in the
fridge and I don't have to prep it, and they've
kind of done the work for me. So that's a
great step to take. As I say, answers, I can't
say enough about answers, And so that is my tip
of the week, and how to get yourself closer to
the goal of raw feeding your pets. And we do
know that we don't want them to just survive. We

(09:40):
want them to thrive on fresh food. It's the same
for us. And that kind of leads us into what
I received this morning from Emma Rutherford. She is a
functional I've got the wrong glasses on here to read
hang on. She is a functional canine dietary, sultant, holistic

(10:01):
canine nutritionists. Yeah. And she appeared on a well Love
TV program in the UK Couples Come Dine with Me. Yeah,
you know, I love anything to do with the k
the UK and in its fourteen year history, they've never
had anyone serve dog food to their fellow contestants. But
Emma did it. Yay, Emma, Emma, I am assuming you

(10:23):
are British. Also, I need to know where you live.
I would love it if you live near where I
come from, Sheffield, because the next time we visit, we
need to get together. And she created a menu. I
really love this because I think it really proves a point.
She created a menu with starters and main and a
pudding for the Americans. Gym, do you want to do
the translation of pudding cake?

Speaker 4 (10:45):
No?

Speaker 2 (10:46):
Oh my god.

Speaker 4 (10:47):
Sometimes I wonder I'm looking at sticky topic pudding right now.

Speaker 2 (10:50):
I know you are. You're looking at jasmines. Yeah, I
know you have psychic How did you know pudding is
a dessert? Yeah? Anyway, she creates did this menu with starters,
main and a pudding that both humans and dogs could
safely share with each otherlacious. Yeah. To promote the idea

(11:12):
on national TV or feeding a whole fresh living food diet. Yeah,
this is what we keep talking about fresh. We want
it to be alive. And Emma has been running the
campaign hashtag feed fresh for many years now. To celebrate
going on the show, and Emma set up this Facebook
live event and she's going to be talking about why

(11:33):
she created the recipes. Some behind the scenes filming fun.
You know, I love behind the scenes stuff, and I
love the Blue Perial. That's my thing because I think
I could fill hours and hours of a Blue Perial
with some of the ridiculous things that have come out
my mouth on this show. So I will look forward
to that. She's done lots of giveaways of raw dog food,

(11:54):
hampers and other goodies, and some special guests are going
to drop by, and there's a fun competition, she says,
the best of all. And this is what I really
like for all of you, is that you'll be able
to get the recipes from the TV show itself. I
looked at that list. I'm telling you now that menu fantastic, glacious, delicious, delicious.

(12:19):
And now the event, let me tell you where it's
taking place. It's on the Holistic Dog Dogcare Facebook group.
Of course. I'm going to link all of this in
the show notes and we will share it through our
social media. And it is February the nineteenth, which is
what day? Because I'm all discombobulated right now. What day
are we on? Now? Sixteen sixteen, seventeen, eighteen nineteen, Tuesday,

(12:43):
Tuesday at seven pm if it's if it's GMT, that
is going to be eleven am at least Vegas, Ton
but we will clarify so you can find that Facebook
page by going to Facebook dot com, backslash groups backslash

(13:03):
Holistic Dog Care. And I want to thank Emma for
sending that information. In sounds like it's going to be
a really really fun event. And Emma, if you're listening in,
feel free to share that straight on our Vegas Rock
Dog Radio page. We would be glad to have that
on there. And I have to say, the menu looked

(13:23):
really great, I mean really really good. So there you go.
So that that leads into like I say, you know,
we know how fresh food is good for us. We
know it's good for our pets, so why are we
not all doing.

Speaker 4 (13:36):
That this latest in since we're talking about food, Couples
who drink together, all right, are less irritated by each other.

Speaker 2 (13:48):
Scientists say, what kind of drink alcohol? Yeah, because you
know what it is. It blanks you out from your
partner that you can tolerate them. That's if you even
know they're there. In all honesty, that's funny. So there
you go. We've got a big theme of fresh going
on in the show today. So thank you Emma for

(14:11):
sending us that information and we'll share that with everybody.
Sounds like it's going to be lots and lots of fun.
Now let's go on to before we get onto luck seating,
but tellers. I kind of like saying that, let's get
onto dog toys. I think I am that person. Let

(14:32):
me take something. I am that person. I'll only use
the towel one time. I only want my clothes one time.
I'm continually washing the dog blankets and our blankets and
cushions a little bit of sessed. Yeah, say, were the
dog toys, But have you ever thought about the germs
on your dog toys. It's something that I've always paid
attention to because I think I'm becoming more and more

(14:53):
of a germophobe, wouldn't you say, Jim.

Speaker 4 (14:55):
Yes, your oddness is kicking in.

Speaker 2 (14:57):
That's all right. I embrace my oddness. At least it's
clean around here.

Speaker 4 (15:03):
Unlike your mother who says that germs.

Speaker 2 (15:05):
Are good for it, well you do, yeah, but this
is it. She's right.

Speaker 4 (15:09):
Actually, you put me at risk all the time. You
make me touch door handles, like, oh, yeah, you can
have germs in your life, but I don't want any
of your me. It's kind of even rude. It's all right, Jim,
it is rude. Okay, it's rude.

Speaker 2 (15:21):
I'm like the Queen of trying to open doors with elbows.

Speaker 4 (15:24):
Rude.

Speaker 2 (15:26):
Well, it's something I have always paid attention to, and
it comes to the cleanliness of my pets toys. And
they can get dirty so quickly, especially those soft toys
when they have a lot of sliver on them and
they're dragging them outside through the dirt, or your pet
hides them in really weird places, and of course they're
going to attrite bacteria and yeast and mold. And have

(15:47):
I grossed you out enough?

Speaker 4 (15:48):
Yat gem, I don't get grossed up by germs.

Speaker 2 (15:50):
The National Safety Federation NSF conducted a study to find
the germiest items in a typical home.

Speaker 4 (15:59):
It's going to be your bathroom in sink area in
this house.

Speaker 2 (16:04):
Why would you say that?

Speaker 4 (16:05):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (16:05):
That was just so random, just kidding, it's so wrong.
Don't have any Let's do a swab test. Let's see
how that goes down. It seems like we cannot get
a single thing out today without going all over the
houses all around the neighborhood. Oh my goodness. Anyway, I'm
sure that the study was not called how to find

(16:27):
the Jurneyest Items, but I really like that word anyway.
Surely you'll not be surprised that dog toys made the
top ten list. And in this particular study, twenty two
families swabed thirty household items to measure for various types
of bacteria and other organisms. Pet toys were found to
contain yeast, mold, and staff bacteria. Bad news, really bad news.

(16:49):
And there was a survey by Petco that found that
one third of pet owners were not aware that dog
toys collect dirty dirt and bacteria used to mold.

Speaker 1 (16:59):
What.

Speaker 2 (17:00):
I hope they don't have kids, And they do have
some guidelines by NSF and this is what they recommend
that everyone in the household wash their hands after playing
with pets and handling their toys. I'll never washed my
hands after play with my pets. I'm not going to be.

Speaker 4 (17:14):
Honest stand for nasty, stinky. What does it mean?

Speaker 2 (17:18):
National Safety Federation? Oh my gosh, I'll be honestly. They
don't wash my hands played with my pets, but handling
their toys, especially before eating, Yeah, I get that.

Speaker 4 (17:28):
What if you kiss your dog on the nose? After
they put their face in some of the dogs poop.

Speaker 2 (17:32):
I've done it, and I clearly have done it. You've
done it. No wash your dog toys monthly. I think
that's too long in between toys personally, or more often
if needed, especially the treat releasing toys and the ones
that you're stuff with food and they stick it in
the freezer. These types, these steps help prevent disease causing

(17:53):
organisms from being transferred to you or potentially making your
dog sick. And by handling dirty dog toys, you have
to think about the bacterium rises that may cause respiratory illness,
parasites or fecal contaminants may and they may all be
transferred by handling dirty dog toys.

Speaker 4 (18:11):
She don't worry about it.

Speaker 2 (18:13):
She is not a toy girl. She is not bothered.
She loves a bone and something she can chew on bone.
Not bothered about toys in the slightest and trick Twixie pants, Well,
anything is a toy to him. A shoe, a sock.
He steals gym socks. The minute he tries to take
them off, he actually you know, snatches him and runs

(18:35):
off them too. Gym. But he does love a toy.
He loves a soft toy and it's good ross. Anyway.
Here here are some tips on how you can wash
certain types of toys, hard toys. For hard toys, you're
gonna wash with hot soapy water and rinse and rinse
and rins and rinse and rinse. Use a toothbrush to
scrub the surface and get into all those crevices where
those gems like to lurk around. You can use a

(18:55):
solution of one part vinegar to two parts of water
for toys that are extra dirty, and you can soak
them and then you again rinse them thoroughly and let
them air dry. Do not put them back in the
toy basket when they're not thoroughly dry, otherwise you're going
to set yourself up for more problems in the future.
Rubber toys often toys a label does dishwasher safe, and

(19:17):
you're instructed to place the toys on the top shelf
off your dishwasher for the best level of disinfection. You
do not need to add detergent. Just run them through
this hot water cycle. And if they're not dishwasher safe,
don't put them in there because you risk the plastic
breaking down. Soft toys to me, I think these are
the ones that get the dirtiest the most. Toss them
into your washing machine, use the sanitized cycle, and if

(19:40):
the toys more delicate, you can wash it on cold,
use natural frequency detergent. I do not use detergent. I
do not use detergent. I would say use soap. Nuts
they're natural. They look like little dates, shriveled updates. They
look like they do it. They've got sappening in them,

(20:01):
but it's not soap. There's no soap, there's no detergent,
there's no fragrance, there's none of that. And you don't
want your pet to put in the toys in their
mouth after that. Yeah, anyway, So that's that's the direction
I would go in. And you can also add some
baking soda and vinegar to your in cycle, throw them
in the dryer, and or you can actually put them
in the sun to air dry, because that really does
kill off germs. Rope toys not a huge fan of these,

(20:26):
But have you ever heard of microwaving cleaning sponges the
one that you used to wash your dishes or clean
your bathrooms with.

Speaker 4 (20:33):
Usually just buy a new one.

Speaker 2 (20:35):
Yeah, that's always a good tip too, but it's a
common tip for killing bacteria. They found that if you
throw your cleaning sponges in the microwave for two minutes,
it will kill ninety nine percent of the germs. So,
with that being established, rope toys can be cleaning exactly
the same way. Wet them down, stick them in the
microwave for a couple of minutes, and of course make
sure there's no plastic or metal or any kind of

(20:55):
rings or weird things on the actual rope toy. Now,
caring for your dogs toys will keep them in good shape.
And I think this has overlooked a lot. And how
many times have you heard, Oh my dog chewed off
a big piece of this toy, has choked on it.
It's got tough surgery, it's got tough scope, you know.
So in previous shows, I've talked about cleaning your pet

(21:15):
toys once a week, and that's the time when you
would also inspect your pet toys for broken pieces or
sharp edges, just too filthy, just throughs.

Speaker 4 (21:26):
And yeah, inside stuffing coming out.

Speaker 2 (21:29):
Oh yeah, that really bothers me. That really freaks me out.
Always bring your pet toys inside because the elements can
cause mold, and it can cause plastics to break down,
especially in the heat, and you don't want anything leeching
out of those and then you know your dog's putting
them in their mouthuirrel has to go. I know we
have to constantly replace that squirrel because TWIXI he likes
to drag his toys outside and we do have extremely

(21:52):
hot weather, so the risk of them breaking down is
quite high. But I do love the idea of vinegar
and baking soda as a cleaning and personally, I would
rather do them every week. In all honesty, and with
everything we do with our pets, you've got to have
their health and safety in mind and always buy toys
that are made in your country of origin. You know,

(22:12):
so in the US, so in the UK or Canada, Australia.
Make sure that they're made of one hundred percent natural fibers,
organic cotton, natural rubber, other eco friendly and contaminate free materials.
And as many of you have experienced in buying toys,
strong strong chemical smell is a big no no. Avoid

(22:34):
it like the plague. So now that I've grocer out
about pet toys, I would suggest the next time that
you do buy toys that you buy, ones that can
be easily cleaned and made of safe materials and will last.
So there you go, Jim, do we have a commercial
we could try? We had a commercial that just disappeared

(22:54):
this morning, but we're going to try and run our
commercial for Petsy magazine and if it doesn't, I'll do
a read of a Commercial'll you got you can just
go with the flow. Go with the flow. So uh,
you'll listen to Vegas Rock Dog Radio with me Sam,
your host, the Queen of rokenhold Dogs, and we will
be right back.

Speaker 3 (23:11):
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Speaker 5 (23:14):
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Speaker 1 (23:52):
Let's talk past let's past life Radio, Headline Radio.

Speaker 5 (23:57):
At Light Radio dot.

Speaker 1 (23:59):
Com, Vegas Rock, Dog Radio, Pets people, pop.

Speaker 2 (24:05):
Culture, welcome back. So I guess that worked, Jim, can.

Speaker 4 (24:09):
You I have to save that playlist?

Speaker 2 (24:12):
Yeah, because now it's working properly. It's just weird. You
know technology, You love it and you hate it.

Speaker 4 (24:18):
I don't like it.

Speaker 2 (24:20):
There you go, that's Jim's point of view. Okay, So
let's get onto It's a big topic. It's a really
big topic this and it's about we're going to talk
about growth plates in puppies, and then we're going to
talk about luxating patella's because.

Speaker 4 (24:36):
I looking forward to that one.

Speaker 2 (24:38):
Dovetail's right into the next. And I found this very
good article by Adrian Fary Silly CBDTKA, and it's about
the impact of exercise on puppy growth plates. Exercise, as
we know, is an important part of any pets life.

(24:59):
But how much exercise should you be doing with your
new puppy when it comes to their development. Exercise does
equal impact on the body, but what does it do
to a young pop in, particularly in particular on those
growth plates. Now, new pet parents have a lot of questions,
but they you know when they first get their pets,
or to be honest with you, a lot of them
don't even think to ask some of these questions, but

(25:22):
some of them are and should be. Can I take
my puppy jogging with me? Can I take my puppy
to agility classes? Can I go bike riding and have
my dog run next to me? And I think it's
important to know that too much impact on a pop's
growth period can in fact have deleterious effects to the
pumps developing skeletal system. What do you think of that, Jim.

Speaker 4 (25:47):
You're on that word thing again. I know what's deleterious.
I never heard that word before in my life.

Speaker 2 (25:52):
You can look it up, Jim. Well, I continue, So
what are these puppy growth plates that I speak of?
The puppy bones are surrounded by layers of soft, developing
cartilage tissue that are found towards the end of most
long bones. These areas of soft cartilage are known as

(26:13):
growth plates, or on more of a technical term, they
call the epi epifecial epificial epi fecial plates. So there's
your growth plates. Scottish surgeon John Hunter studied growth plates
in detail in the late seventeen hundreds. I did not

(26:37):
make a mistake when I said that his studies on
growing chicken chicken. Gosh, I'm iving trouble today speaking even
though I did all of my warm up exercises. His
studies on growing chicken revealed that bones do not develop
from the center outwards, but rather bones grow lengthwise as
a new bone is generated at the end of long bones,
right where the growth plates are located. Her studies granted

(27:01):
him the nickname the Father of growth plate, so I
can think of a better name. The Father of growth plate,
and his contributions have surely helped both humans and animals.
As one may imagine, Since growth plates are made of soft,
developing cartilage, they are vulnerable and can be quite prone
to injury. Now puppy growth plate damage. So she goes

(27:25):
on to further right in this article that when it
comes to the skeletal development of puppies, it's important that
puppy's bones go through even growth, basically synchronized growth that
occurs evenly and as close to the same rate as possible.
If an injury to a growth plate occurs, the growth
of damage cells may slow down and come to a halt.

(27:45):
Meaning there may be no longer growth on one side,
and when the growing of the effect acide is delayed
and stopped, the unaffected healthy side may continue to grow
and this unevenness may lead to potential deformity. Most commonly,
the forearm area is the affected. When the injured growth
plate of the oullness stopped growing, the radius bone will

(28:07):
keep growing, potentially leading to one bone that is slightly
longer than the other and that can cause boned legs.
And that was a quote from veterinarian Dr Gary and
puppies are particularly prone to injury during strenuous exercise because
they lack coordination. They don't have a lot of muscle strength,
so they don't have that framework you know for joints

(28:29):
at that age. On top of you know, excessive strenguous exercise.
Injury to a puppy's growth growth plates may occur from
a fracture and it can happen from a fall or
being hit by a car. I mean, it's easy for
a puppy to get injured. And while these fractures may heal,
the bone may grow unevenly, which as we have seen,
can lead to a deformity of the bone. And if

(28:50):
you therefore, suspect injury in your pup's growth plates or
witness any or abnormalities, you do need to go and
talk to your VAT And they say, did you know
that some dog breeds having mutation in their genes responsible
for transforming cartilage to bone and this causes shortened legs,
a condition known as here we go a chondria plasia.

(29:11):
That was good, and it's seen in bassett hounds, sausage dogs, doxins, dashounds,
and corgi's. I'm saying dashounts. That's how we say everywhere
else except the States to say doxins here. Now they say,
you know, are they too young? Fragility at that point,
and puppies do need proper exercises they grow and develop,
but moderation is key and it's therefore important to be careful,

(29:33):
especially with high impactivity activities such as repeated jumping as
to catch a frisberry, hurdling through obstacles, or jogging especially
over hard surfaces such as asphalt and concrete. Turf offers
what they say, are more forgiving surface and better traction
compared to hard cement or this asphalt and sustained vigorous
exercise leg twisting activities or very rough place should be

(29:55):
avoided so that answers that question. So when can they
start agilitating the say, Many puppyoners may find it surprising
when trainers tell them that their puppies are too young
to start competing in agility. However, poppyoners may start the
puppies on some pre agility basics, such as getting familiar
with agility obstacles and other skills foundation exercises that aren't

(30:16):
particularly high impact and therefore won't put strain on those
delicate growth plates. And of course talk to your vett
and your adility trainer for when you can actually get
started on that. And they said in there was a
study involving over two hundred agility dogs. It found that
the tibia radius and ulna were significantly longer than the

(30:36):
fema and humorous respectively in dogs that were spade or
newted at or prior to age eight months of age,
as compared to these impact in tight dogs. We've talked
about this before on the show, and I'm going to
reference something a little bit later.

Speaker 4 (30:53):
Those hormones to.

Speaker 2 (30:55):
Develop, that's right, So when when does this these growth
growth plates finally close? You know, they're fully formed. And
it says as puppies develop, their growth plates close as
calcium and minerals harden the soft areas. But exactly when
does that happen? And since dog develop at different rates
based on size and breed, there's not a one answer

(31:17):
for you know fits all. But for example, growth plates
in a Chihuahua will close much sooner than a large
breed such as a Great Dane. Generally, most skeletal growth
occurs when puppies are between three and six months of age,
after longitudinal growth decreases, and by ten to twelve months
or up to eighteen months in the large giant dog breeds,

(31:38):
most growth plates have fused and closed. However, some suggest
the process can take even longer, all the way up
to twenty months. That's almost two years. And how can
a dog on and know for sure whether a dog's
growth plates have closed or not? Well, they say the
best bet is to talk to your vet before starting
your probably on any kind of rigorous exercise or sport
or you know that kind of thing. The best peace

(32:00):
of mind is they consider that that you should do
an X ray. I guess that's the only way you
would find out if the bones are fused or not
or just wait, just wait, and an X ray event
will be able to tell whether they have morphed into
a solid integral part of the bone, leaving its only
trace of existence under the form of a ficeal line

(32:23):
as seen in there's a picture here. I will post
all this for you, and they say most sports medicine
veterinarians recommend to not begin training until growth plate closure,
which depends on the size of the breed and can
be anywhere up to ten to eighteen months of age.
And that was a quote by Dr Wendy Baltzer. Hormones.
This is what I think is important. Hormones do play

(32:45):
this important role in a puppy's growth plates and that
skeletal development. Growth plates tend to generally close it say,
between twelve and twenty months old, depending on that breed
and size, and this happens to coincide with the end
of puberty. Therefore, intac dog's growth play it's closed after
exposure to whole modes. This is something I've talked about
on the show before and it's a big concern because

(33:07):
male and female sex hormones are known to play these
key roles inclosure of the growth plates. Therefore, if a
dog is altered so Spain Spain nooted prior to puberty,
there's a delay in the closing which causes affected dogs
to develop a rather leggy appearance, which makes them more
likely to suffer from orthopedic problems such as hip displasia,

(33:28):
CCL injury and possibly even bone cancer. Now Here in Nevada,
our Spain nootral law states that your pat has to
be fixed by the age of four months. Now you
can see where the problem lies right there. I have
no idea who was consulted when they put this law
together to choose that as a time frame. It is

(33:49):
not the correct time frame, and we're setting our pets
up for future injuries, and you know, decreases quality of
life when when you know through through through is law,
it's going to cause a lot of problems. I don't
like that at all. I'll look a little bit into it.
I don't know how long we've had that Spain hooter law.
I really don't know, but I would be very curious

(34:11):
as to who they consulted to come up with this number.
Did they bring any professionals and specialists?

Speaker 4 (34:16):
Signs they were just worried about overpopulation. They didn't care
about the other things.

Speaker 2 (34:20):
I love how they just think that's the and they
always think that's the one solution to the Spain spin.
It's a lot of different things to talk about overpopulation.
Trust made, babe.

Speaker 4 (34:29):
They say that because people usually aren't that responsible, so
you cover it with.

Speaker 2 (34:33):
A law, and then it's awful, isn't it really is
who suffers from there? The dogs suffer from that. That's terrible.
But delaying neutering in large dog breeds may help reduce that.
Incidents of orthopedic conditions and the effects of neutering during
the first year of a dog's life, especially in larger breeds,
undoubtedly reflects the vulnerability of their joints to the delayed

(34:54):
closure of the long bone growth plates. When neutrient removes
the gonadal or sex hormones, it's not a good thing.
And that was a quote by Benjamin Hart. Now according
to Chris zinc dvm oh Chris, this is what Chris says.
For example, if the female has achieved it's genetically determined
normal length for eight months, when a dog gets beda

(35:16):
neuted but the tibio, which normally stops growing at twelve
to fourteen, so there's a difference in the timeframe there,
and it continues to grow. Then this abnormal angle develops
at the stifle, which is the knee joint. In addition
with the extra growth, the lower leg below the stifle
likely becomes heavier because it's longer and may cause increased
stress on the cranial cruciate ligament HM. So that is

(35:40):
your growth plate information. Now this leads on to luxating
patella and dogs. This week, a friend of mine contacting
me to let me know that her dog has a
luxating patella. She wasn't sure at what degree because they
come in different degrees and then treatments different for each degree.
Hence this week's big show topic. And this is often

(36:01):
how the show happens. Real life things happen, and you know,
people reach out to me like my friend did, and
so what I did is all the resources that I have,
and I reached out to the veterinarians I know, and
I managed to get her a lot of information that
she can read upon. And sometimes you just don't know
where to go for the information. And this particular friend
of mine, she's very much into learning and learning as

(36:23):
much as she can, and she tries to do everything
as naturally as possible before going to anything quite extreme,
which is a great thing. Oh yeah, I have friend Patricia,
her little Peanut. I think Peanut's seventeen now. Really yeah,
And here's the thing. You know how a lot of
people go, oh, it's old age, No go all out,

(36:45):
Like we say, the very least you can do for
your pets is everything. So do everything for your pets.
And this is what she is doing. So I gathered
all this information for her, and you know it's it's
she loves her dog. She wants a dog of a
great quality of life, and age is not a reason
to not take care of their health and just accept

(37:05):
it as or they're getting older anyway. So let's talk
about luxating patellas. It is painful, but it is treatable,
and I think you'd be very happy to hear that.
And some people have no idea what that means or
what the heck you can do about it if you
are given a diagnosis. Well, luxating pateller and dogs is
a common orthopedic dilemma that many pet parents face, and

(37:30):
so in this article, gosh, it covers everything you need
to know about luxating patellas, particularly in dogs, and the
costs associated with it. I mean it does happen to
cats as well. Paatella luxation. It's a common musculo skeletal
disease commonly seen in many dog breeds. And like I

(37:51):
mentioned earlier, the stifle, which is the knee joint, you
have to kind of understand what the anatomy and biomechanics
of it are so that you understand what happened. And
so in a simple description, dogs have a knee cap
that's highly movable. I mean we have the same thing.
You know, as a kid, you would try and push
your patella from right to left, and you thought it
was really cool. But the kneecap fits in a groove

(38:12):
of the.

Speaker 4 (38:14):
That's creep.

Speaker 2 (38:15):
The kneecap fits in the groove of the femur bone,
and it's called the patellofemeral groove. And when a dog
flexes and extends its knee, that's that kneecap slides up
and down and pateello luxation simply means that the kneecap
is no longer able to slide across the groove. Therefore,
the kneecap has become dislocated. Yeah, and I say there
are varying degrees of this, so medial looxating pateella. In

(38:38):
a nutshell, it can be classified as either medical or
not medical, medial or lateral. Now, this just indicates the
direction in which that knee cap may be sliding. And
if a dog's patatello is sliding on the inner aspect
of the knee, then this is considered a medial luxation patella.
Now I mentioned human kneecaps. Humans also deal with dislocated patellas.

(38:59):
I think we see a lot of that with the
football players. Don't wish it anymore, and they're referred to
as patella sub luxation which occurs as a result of
injury or patella dislocation. And there is a difference between
the two between luxation and subluxation. And from this medical perspective,
patella dislocation refers to the complete dislocation of the knee

(39:22):
gap from the joint, whereas patella subluxation refers to a
partial dislocation. So now you know the difference. As I
said earlier, cats cats deal with patella luxation two, often
caused by injury or it can be congenital as well.
But I feel like cats have this really good framework

(39:43):
around the joints because they're very agile, they're very flexible,
they're very nimble, and you know they can they can
jump and recover really really quickly. Dogs not so much.
I mean, think about the times have dogs have fallen
out of bed at night. They don't. They don't land
great fully at all. They don't shake it off. I
am all right. I mean they just clunk them full

(40:06):
fall out of beds sometimes and I get blamed for it, yes,
because you're usually sticking your bomb out, taking all taking
all the room up. Yeah, don't push my dogs, don't
disturb them. You're not giving them en a room. They're
hanging on the edge and I just need a quick
drink there. So back to back to pella luxation in dogs.

(40:31):
It is most prevalent in small dogs, but it has
been increasing in large dogs as well. The most common
form of patella luxation is medial luxating patella. I think
I'm going for a Guinness Book of World records how
many times I can say patella in one.

Speaker 4 (40:48):
It reminds me of the pancakes you had the other.

Speaker 2 (40:50):
Day whyttella mattella patella. And it can be caused by
get this poor nutrition injury or could be present at birth.
So congenital. Now, let's talk about genetics a little bit.
Medial pateell a luxation is strongly associated with these skeletal deformities.
This is therefore considered congenital. Therefore, it is not recommended

(41:13):
that owners breed from these dogs for obvious reasons and
why subject to doctor health issues from the onset of
its life. I mean, that's wrong. Skeletal deformities include an
improper alignment of the quadriceps muscle, malformed trochlear ridges, tibial
tuberosity may be misaligned, and hypoplasia of the medial femeral condyl.

(41:35):
I'm good, I'm good today on my words. Poor nutrition
so well, you know what does that even play a role.
But dogs who have poor nutrition and coupled with being
overweight are at risk of developing joint problems associated with
the kneecap and this is due to an increase in
pressure on the joint capsule and knee joint medical conditions,

(42:01):
so that cranial cruciate ligament rupture or pain that has
been commonly associated with patella luxation is another issue, and
then we've also got some other symptoms. So before treatment
options are even considered, veterinarians will often conduct a physical
exam in order to determine the severity of the luxating patella,
and the severity of the luxation is often divided into

(42:25):
four grades. So you may you may give a toad,
you may give it, No, you will give a toaal wort.
A toad will not give you a wart. And if
anyone's listening to that, that is from League of Gentlemen,
because Jim and I like really off the wall kind
of dark comedy kind stuff. Anyway, there are four grades,

(42:47):
and I think it's very interesting that you may have
seen some of these symptoms and you may have not
thought much of it. But I will talk about that
in a second. So Grade one this is their dog
with Grade one luxation. They don't experience any severe pain
while their kneecap does slide out of place, and they
can actually easily with manipulation massage be massaged back into

(43:12):
place without surgical interventions. So that is grade one, and
you're hoping you have a Grade one. Trust me, everybody
wants a low grade. Grade two. Dogs with a grade
two luxation often feel pain when their pateller falls out
of place, and these dogs also may develop associated problems
such as arthritis. And despite this, the patella can be
massaged back into place temporarily. Grade three. Dogs with Grade

(43:36):
three luxation will con constantly remain in pain and can
develop severe arthritis. The kneecap will slide outside the groove
most of the time, but fortunately it can be manipulated
back into place. Grade four, the patella cannot be physically
manipulated back into place. Therefore, the dog will have a

(43:57):
bow legged appearance and will remain constantly in pain. Yeah,
and the treatments vary from each of those grades. And
here are these common symptoms. You may have seen them.
We're experiencing it as well with one with mister Twigs,
and I'll talk about that. You can sometimes hear a
popping noise and heard in the dog's knee, which I've

(44:18):
heard when I sometimes pick him up. The dog will
avoid bearing weight on the affected leg. Dog will be
in pain and a very abnormal gait, a very strange
way of walking, think hopping and skipping. And none of
these should be ignored at all, and who is going
to be most susceptible to these luksating patellas well? Unfortunately

(44:40):
it's small dogs and it's toy breeds, and it seems
it's most common in these particular breeds, which is Pomeranian Chiuaha,
Pickanese miniature poodle, Yorkshire Terrier, Toy poodle, Bassett Hound, Boston Teria, Lasapso,
which is what twixes, she can, Tella Terra, Karin Terrier, Cocaspaniel, Papeon,

(45:07):
American Pitotbull terrier. And they're saying, now, recent research is
indicated those large breeds can also be prone to that,
and they include the Great Pyrenees, Labrador, Golden Retriever, German Shepherd,
Newfoundland King Corso, Great Dane. And I know Yorkis are
very susceptible to it. They said that they found that

(45:29):
there was twenty six percent of Yorkis are affected by
that twenty six percent. It's too high. So what are
your treatments? What on earth are your options? That's the
one thing my friend wanted to know was, Oh, he's
saying it's gonna be surgery. So that tells me that
there are to grade four and she goes, oh, I

(45:49):
just don't really want to such a be cusp peanuts
about seventeen years old. So you know, that's why you
need to explore as much as you can and get
your experts on board and find out what's the best
thing for your particular dog because there are some variables there,
and there are many There are many treatment options available,
and here are some common treatment methods that can be done.

(46:12):
There is a QUADRUCEPS for Morris realignment surgery, and that
goal is to actually move part of the tibial tuberosity
towards the tibia bone itself. And here this is what
the surgeon aims to reposition the pateller bone with the
groove within the fema. And this procedure of realignment is
referred to as tibial tuberosity transposition. And what they do

(46:36):
is they do the deepening of the troclear groove, as
the name suggests, is where the surgeons simply just deepen
that gosh like a carpenter, deepen the groove out which
the pateller may be sliding against. And then there's the
femeral osteotomy surgery. During this surgery, the femur bone is
cut above the knee joint and restabilize with pins and screws.

(47:00):
If you don't do unless you really have Yeah, that's
that sounds like Grade four extremes.

Speaker 4 (47:05):
It sounds like, wow, that's a problem.

Speaker 2 (47:07):
And they say it's very complicated. It's quite a complicated surgery. Now,
let's talk about some non surgical things that you can do.
If you're looking at grade one and grade two, then
your vetinariy may simply recommend just these non surgical methods
of treatment, and the most common one is a knee brace, supplements,
physical manipulation, and physical therapy and they're all doable and

(47:31):
perhaps your dog may need, you know, a dog brace.
It is a common method of treatment and they do
stabilize that stifle joint. Knee braces are an alternative to surgery,
and they can help with all sorts of problems, including
cranial cruciate ligament rupture as well. I think if you,

(47:51):
I think this isn't one of those where you have
to just do a holistic approach and do everything that
is necessary to tackle the problem. And knee braces are
quite beneficial for dog suffering from this and canine knee
brace by neoprene is a knee brace that's doing very
very well, so it doesn't look so mechanical. It's a

(48:12):
neopren which is really thick and it does have a
lot of support. Of course, you're going to do all
of this with your veterinarian to figure out the best way. Supplements,
big on supplements, and this is plausible to suggest that
proper minerals and nutrients are essential for bone health. Yep.
And this means that you should look into supplementing nutrients
that will ensure your dog has proper collagen synthesis. And

(48:33):
they supply of antioxidants and proper bone growth. And let's
not let'sn't ignore the fact they need some fresh food.
Like we talked about earlier, massage great thing, they say.
It's a great way to move the patella back into
position and it improves the mobility of your dog. It
decreases pain and stiffness. It also gets blood flow. Going

(48:53):
our friend Brandy, she has a business called Animal Love
and Logic and she does pet massage and counseling. But
she she's a nurse also, so she has a lot
of information that she can, you know, give to a client.
And she was telling me. She says, I'm telling you now,
blood flow, oxygenated blood, getting it to those joints so important.

(49:16):
She had to do it with her own dog, and
she said, if I didn't massage my dog every day,
you probably won't have stood up and done anything. And
she had a pool, so she got to, you know,
train him in the pool as well exercise him in
the pool. But they say, you can actually talk to
you about how you can manipulate the patell about yourself.
But when lookxating peller treatment quite surgery, there are some

(49:37):
things you do need to know, and there are of
course very severe cases that require this surgery. And it's
it's not cheap either, But as the way I look
at it, you know, they're worth every single panty of
pets that we can, you know, spend on them to
make them healthy. They say that there are of course
post op care expenses as well, and they'll there's going

(50:00):
to be some hydrog therapy and some physiotherapy and follow
up checkups and medications, so there's a lot involved in
it doesn't come cheap there I was looking here. They
were saying that in twenty and sixteen to twenty seventeen
you're going to pay between twenty three hundred and twenty
seven hundred if the dog is less than forty pounds.

(50:22):
What's that got to do with it? Any which way?
Sometimes any which way, like forty pounds, always forty one pounds,
it's gonna be a lot much more money. So that's
that's where you're going to be. For the surgery itself.
It's quite a lot, isn't it. And there are risks,

(50:44):
of course, so orthopedic surgery can get quite expensive. And
this is because you know orthopedic surgeons, you know, do
quite complicated as surgeries, and you know there's going to
be post op care, and of course you've got to
be a really good pet parent and really comply with
what is you know, required of you for your dog
after surgery, Like, yeah, like your.

Speaker 4 (51:06):
Dog shouldn't jump around after we do this? Yeah, try that?

Speaker 2 (51:10):
Well, you do. You try your very best, don't you.
That's why that's why crates are very good for rest
really important that you figure out how you're going to
keep them from jumping around. Here are some of the
risks the surgical implant can migrate. There are pins that
used to stabilize that tibial tuberosity and it can migrate

(51:31):
to the wrong spot anesthesia. Of course, they are a
common risk. It's common risk surgical infection. Your dog may
not fully recovery. Say that's a risk, but they do
every honest with the success rate is really impressive. So
in twenty sixteen, this study to this overall look at

(51:52):
these grade four medial patella luxation surgeries and they concluded
that the generalized success success rate wasn't ninety three percent.
That's a great number.

Speaker 4 (52:03):
This is stuff that you have to do that if
you have to have it down.

Speaker 2 (52:06):
Yeah, that's that's a grade force.

Speaker 4 (52:07):
I'm like, listen that you tell all these words and
I'm like, no, this isn't something my dog doesn't look right.

Speaker 2 (52:13):
No, the vet will help determine the fact, determines the grade,
and then the grade determines the treatment. You don't get
to say it, yeah, I just put them in for
surgery when it's a grade one. No, But with proper
care and exercise, pets can begin properly using their recovering
leg within six to eight weeks of surgery. Hey, Mata,
he had two ACL surgeries and Pam she and you

(52:38):
know what she did. She tied herself to her dog
basically so that he could jump up and run around.
She had mates on a she had a thing round
a waist and she said, and we and he's never
been a crate. Couldn't cope in a crate. So she
basically just had him with her and they slept on
the floor and just that they did everything with each
other so that she could keep an eye on him,

(52:59):
so he wasn't jumping and running and all that good stuff,
because he really wants he's a runner, he's a frisbee dog.
But she did. She got into that surgery and they're
doing great. You should see that dog run now crazy.
I think they call him like the million dollar dog
because just keep spending money on him. He's worth it though.
We love him. So you're looking at six to eight
weeks of surgery, recovery, post surgery recovery.

Speaker 4 (53:24):
Hello um.

Speaker 2 (53:26):
And of course you know they say, you know it's
with it being prevalent in ninety eight percent of some
more breeds and slightly less common in large dogs, is
something we have to really pay attention to, they say. Regardless,
veterinarians and researchers strongly believe that any medial lukxating. Pateler
problems are strongly associated with skeletal deformities, and I think

(53:48):
that goes right into us talking about spain hooter and
cutting off the endocrine system, because you can sterilize your
pet without cutting all that off. I just don't think
people know enough. I think that's the problem. And then
we've got laws that people get frightened about. Oh my gosh,
I'm gonna fix my dog at four months and it's
not good that it's just not good. Sometimes you can't
fix the dogs are too all to go under a surgery,

(54:12):
you know, and you get you get, you get a
waiver for that. There are some tips here which I
really like for speeding up that recovery. They say post
surgery improves your dog post surgery, improve your dog's diet,
providing nutrient rich high food in high vitamins and minerals,
so you're going to get there from a fresh diet.
Avoid intensive exercise and activity. They need that time to

(54:34):
rest and recover. Keep the walking to a minimum, don't
allow your dog to run or jump around, and invest
time in physiotherapy and hydrotherapy. Exercising your dog in water
will allow pressure to be taken off the joints. I'm
wondering if a hyperbaric chamber would be a good thing too.
I don't know if we have one in town. Oh yes,

(54:54):
it's just up the road. Yeah, it's just on the horizon.
And of course we want to And this is what
I was most interested in. How do we avoid this problem?
What are we looking for? And they said the only
real way is too well. First of all, they say,
just stop breeding dogs who carry this gene. For this disorder,
ptelo luxation is strongly genetically linked. Therefore some dogs may

(55:15):
simply be born with it. And they say, if you've
got a dog at risk, and then the best thing
you can do is prevent your dog from getting overweight.
Have I always says that number one thing you can do,
keep them but healthy weight. Feed your dog healthy food,
avoid intensive physical activity. Now, like they said, it is painful,
but it is treatable. And if you do suspect that

(55:39):
your dog may have that going on, then definitely off
to the vet you go. Just don't leave it too late.
I did watch an incredible video by doctor Karen Becker.
I love her. She's fantastic and it's very comprehensive. That
video on luxating patellas. You know what causes it, what

(55:59):
the grades are, as I discussed earlier, what the treatments are,
treatment options, and surgery complications. And the most important thing
that she mentioned was is if you see your dog
in that hoppy skippy thing and then they go right
back to walking normally, you think, oh, that was weird.
Don't ignore it. Do not ignore it because that is

(56:19):
part of teleluxation at the beginning of it. So don't
ignore it. And what we're going to do because mister
Twigs does that, doesn't need gym, It does little hop
skipping a jump once in a while. Oh and he's
a jumper. He's a jumper. And oh my gosh. If
you've seen some of my videos in the house and

(56:41):
he's running up and down the hallways, it's like Scooby Doo.
It's crazy. But I think we really need to focus
on getting him, you know, a really strong framework. And
Dr Karen Becker talks about that. She says, you know,
if you've got strong muscles, if you do hydrotherapy, if
you can take them swimming, those kind of things, if

(57:01):
you can improve their diet and their supplementation. Then you're
giving them a much better chance of that not getting
any worse. So keep an eye on it. It's not
a cute little hobby it does. It looks like a
little rabbit, but it's it's so much more than that. WHOA,
it's a big topic, Jim. But I have one more
little nugget I'm going to throw in, nothing to do

(57:23):
with these whatsoever before we close the show out. In
your home state of Pennsylvania, Jim, they are found a
rare half male, half female cardinal bird.

Speaker 4 (57:38):
I don't believe it.

Speaker 2 (57:39):
Believe it because you know Jeffrey and Shirley a HARMFC cardinal.
I know you're going to say that we've been married
for twenty four years. My friends. I knew he was
going to say that Jeffrey and Shirley Caldwell have been
attracting birds for twenty five years with carefully tendered backyard feeders.
But the lifelong eerie Pennsylvania residents, I have never seen

(58:02):
a creature so wondrous as half vermilion, half tope cardinal.
It's colors split right down the middle. That first showed
up a few weeks ago in the dawn redwood tree
ten yards from their home, and in fact, they weren't
sure they saw it correctly until it came closer, and
they said, never did we ever think we would see

(58:23):
something like this in all the years that we've been feeding.
The anomaly is known as a bilateral hm gynandrumorph. You
play language. It's half body. Half of his body's male,
the other half is female. And this remarkable bird is
a genuine female male chimera, said Daniel Hooper. He's a

(58:47):
postdoctoral fellow at the Cornnell Lab of Ornithology, and that's
what his little statement ornithology study of birds.

Speaker 1 (58:56):
We're back.

Speaker 2 (58:57):
We're back to the big long word. Here to pronounce
it differently now. Gnandromorphs, known as halfsiders among orthonologists, are uncommon,
but not unheard of. They're likely. They likely occur across
all species of birds, Hooper says, but we're only likely
to notice them in species where the adult males and
females look distinct from each other, a trait known as

(59:19):
sexual dimorphism. Cardinals are one of the most well known
sexually dimorphic birds in North America. The bright red plumage
in males is iconic, so people easily notice when they
look different. They said, Oh, apparently there's a yellow cardinal.
There's like a one in a million bird. So how

(59:40):
the heck does this even happen? This is that Hooper
says that the sex determination in birds is a little
bit different than in mammals. In mammals, he says, males
have one copy of each sex chromosome Y and X,
and while females and white females have and females have
two copies of the X chromosome. And birds it's the opposite.
The sex chrom zones are called Z or they say

(01:00:04):
Z and W, and it's the females that have a
single copy of ZW, whereas the males have two of
the same zz zz top. I'm going to get in
before you gim sex cells nuclei nuclei yeah, including sperm
and eggs usually have only one copy of EYA the chromosome,
and males produce only Z carrying or Z carrying sperm,

(01:00:25):
and females produce either Z or W carrying eggs. Anyway,
this particular cardinal has been seen eating in the backyard
of of the of their home. Bet they couldn't believe
their eyeballs when they saw that, and they say it's
It occurs when a female egg cell developed with two nuclei,
one with the Z, one with a W, and it's

(01:00:47):
called double fertilized. Anyway, the chameric individual then develops with
half of his body as a male, half as female.
And if you examine a cell from the bright red
male side, it would have cell from ZZ ORZZ. And
if you look at this cell from the left, it
would have cells from z W. WHOA. This phenomenon happens
in birds, many insects and crustaceans, and they say, be

(01:01:11):
sure to check out those butterflies that are half male
and half female as well with colors split down the
middle as well. Amazing, but that's exciting. That part of
what makes this say, this particular cardinal is so exciting too.
But is it may be able to reproduce? They say,
most gynandromorph individuals are infertile, but this one maybe actually

(01:01:34):
be fertile as the left side is female and only
the left over it and birds is functional. The things
you learn, Jim, the things you learn you do not
look or even sound as dounded. But I love nature,
and wide do I love nature, Jim?

Speaker 4 (01:01:55):
Because you find it's perfection.

Speaker 2 (01:01:57):
It's I just think there's so much perfection in nature.
On to goodness. I do make Jim laugh when we
see roses and I show him the rose and I go,
look at that. That's perfection in nature, and he has
a good old laugh about it. They said, we may
soon find out. Surely, says the cardinal is always in

(01:02:17):
the company of a male. We're happy it's not lonely.
And Researchers in western Illinois observed another one of these
cardinal birds several years ago and reported that they never
saw it in the company of another cardinal. Hmmm. In
the meantime, the cold Wells get to observe this rare
visitor from the kitchen window. They say, it's like it
likes to feed on generous portions of black sunflower seeds

(01:02:40):
and suet on a pool feeder not far from the
lilet bush, very often purchased. So who knows, maybe we'll
be looking enough to see a family in summer that'd
been nice. So that would that'd be lovely Jim.

Speaker 4 (01:02:53):
Yeah, from Emily herm Africa. Cardinals. I like birds. Does
not mean that there's this special double bird out there.

Speaker 2 (01:03:05):
We have lovely humming birds in our back garden, don't we, Jim.
They are well, they're lovely into get near a nest
and unknowingly get near a nest, and then it feels
like somebody throw a baseball right by your head. I'll
try to hit you, because when they fly by your
head when they're not happy, you cannot believe it. And
I had that experience. I forgave her though, because it

(01:03:26):
was really she should have forgiven me, because I actually
didn't know I was near a nest that was on
the other side of the wall that's not even my garden.
She was not happy about it. But they'll be beautiful,
I mean really beautiful. So on that beautiful note, Jim
and the rare cardinal bird. I want to say thank
you for running the show. It was a big topic today,
wasn't it. And if you've liked the show, of course

(01:03:48):
you can share it from your smartphone or your computer
and tell everyone what you know that you like the show,
Tell your family and friends. I hope you hope you
listen to the show and come away with something. Then
you learn something or we inspire you to do something
you know with your pets, and we always like you
to remember you can always help an animal in need,

(01:04:08):
either rescue, adopt, don't it, volunteer or share their information,
feederm or or diet. How about that some fresh food,
rescue your next family member. Replace the word shop with adoptor,
and be kind to all animals again, Thank you Jim
for running the show. Everyone, please take a moment, come
come on over to our social media profiles. If you

(01:04:28):
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I'm your host, Sam the Queen of Rock and Roll
Docks and always kiss your pets, good morning and good night,
and I'll see you next time.

Speaker 3 (01:04:51):
And you've been listening to Vegas Rock Dog Radios, Pets people,
pop culture. You've been listening to Vegas Rockdog Radios, Pets, people,
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Speaker 2 (01:05:11):
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And remember, give your fur babies a big kiss from me.
Sam the Queen of Rock and Roll Dogs. You must
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(01:05:34):
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Speaker 4 (01:05:46):
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