Ask the Vets - Episode 497 May 25, 2025

This week's topics include do you let your dogs sleep in bed with you, summer vaccines, fleas, ticks & heartworm prevention, traveling abroad with your pet, and more! Tune in every SUNDAY at 12 Noon Eastern, 9am Pacific and call in with your questions at 877-385-8882 or join us on Zoom.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Day.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
This is Pet Life Radio. Let's talk pets. Good morning,

(00:22):
Good morning, and happy morrowing Day weekend to all help
you are planning some good fun stuff. You know, I
personally like the days of the week that I were
closed on a weekday because inevitably you think, Okay, it's
a day off for me. That kind of is Oh,
it's gonna happen is on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. I'm gonna

(00:43):
be like double triple booked because people still need to
be seen. So what happens is, Okay, he's closed Monday,
I'll go in Tuesday. Well, my regular Tuesday people are
coming in. Anyway. It's always a zoo, so I'm so
used to it by now anyway, but it is what
it is. So I'm waving a waving, waving as I
want to get into Wait till we get a few
more people here, because I'm very curious. You know, I

(01:04):
left you last week with the big question do you
let your dogs sleep a ded with you? Yes or no?
And we'll discuss what the experts say, the behaviorists, which
by the way, I don't listen to because I always listen.
You know, there's some experts that really know their stuff.
Know what they do. There are others that I think

(01:24):
the School of Hard Knocks is I think better sometimes
than the academia school. You're sitting and learning the basics.
It's kind of like a different bemunit University of California
and some of the other schools in general. You know,
the ucs are known for their theory, their research. For
a perfect example, psychology. If you get a PhD in

(01:45):
psychology from UCLA, you're obviously very well trained. You're more
like textbook theory the science behind it. You got a
CID from one of those local schools, and all your
knowledge has gone from clinical practice. So they say you're
probably going to be a better practitioner than a researcher
if you get one of those kinds of degrees. And

(02:07):
that's why I feel sometimes when it comes to the medicine,
when you're out there, you're seeing the real thing you're
practicing for. In my case, over forty years. That says something.
So first of all, Ellen says, yes, stays in Rubis
sleep on the bed with me. So we have five
and I have some pictures. You've seen them probably I'll
posted that before. And yes, all five on the bed.

(02:29):
First of all in all fairness, talk about the other
side of the coin, which is what the experts say.
I think that you want to keep things. Hey, step
Stephanie has two casts. Do they sleep in bed with you,
Stephanie or not? What I find is this that when
you have an animal that is having a behavioral problem,
possibly with aggression, possibly with you, make them too comfortable. Okay,

(02:51):
then they think by being in bed with you while
you're sleeping and they're sleeping, that puts them on an
equal level and then they're going to challenge you. So
the experts say it's not a good idea. Now my
side note to that would be, it's not a good
idea if if your dog is Hi, steph We're talking

(03:12):
about whether dogs have sleep in bed or in this
case with you cats. Do we let our pets sleep
in bed with us? And I'm just curious to know
what I mean. I have five dogs, as you know,
and yes, they all sleep in bed. Last I was
killing it out, three of my five cats came in
bed and joined us. So I think that there is
a pro and con. So if I think your pet
is having a behavioral issue with you, then almost definitely

(03:36):
I love that. So then I think that they have
a point that we have to set the boundaries. We
have to let them know that we are still the boss.
So if by doing them, by allowing them to be
in bed with you, they challenge you more on other matters.
For example, they think you're equal. They're eating and you
walk near them, or you want to, you know, take
a bone away from them, or they're chewing, or they'rechewing

(03:57):
and they start growling at you. They don't look you
as the master, and that could be that all is
related to how we treat them. But as long as
you know that those boundaries are set and they are
there not to be challenged. I mean, it doesn't bother
me at all when they sleep a bed. Now, let
me see if I'm sleeping a bed, is that they
jump off before I can help them? Their back legs

(04:19):
are okay, So that's an issue there. So the issue
is is a medical issue. Now, if you have a
high bed and you're worried about your pets jumping on,
jumping off, or you have a bet behaviorally, then that
was looking at your bed as a place they can
well relieve themselves. Then no, then obviously it's unacceptable. They
have to remember their place in the household as they

(04:41):
get much older. Now my labrador has a tougher time
coming into the bed. We have a footstool that he's
thirteen years old. So then what will happen is we
then will sometimes help them up. Getting down has no problem.
So we put a footstool at the end of the bed.
He can jump from the floor to the suck a
little chair at the end of the bed, and then
from there he can jump on the bed and he's fine.
And oh yeah, So for those of us again, so

(05:03):
there's another issue jumping off of the bed on the
hard floors. So there are two issues here we're dealing with.
One are the practical issues. The practical issues of is
a bed too high, are the floors too slippery? Is
the dog or too old? That's more the practical issue
I really want to know. Behaviorally, do you find that
your dogs challenge you more or showing evidence of misbehavior

(05:27):
or not really having that clear boundary of master and
pet because you let them sleep on bed with you.
That's the issue taken up by the behaviorists is that
it's where do we draw the line between you know,
master and the submissive when we are allowing them something

(05:47):
is equal with us as letting them sleep a bead
with us. As they said, my dogs have never really
challenged that, and I'm just curious to know, Lynette, how
are you. So that's how I feel about it, And
again I think it's it's very person But I would
tell you most of my clients and we talk about this,
we'll let their apective in bed. Now here's a good one.
Daisy's almost fifteen and I got a ramp for her

(06:09):
carpeted and she used it with no problem. So most
of us deb is timing in. It's never been an issue,
and it's never been an issue with me also, But
I do, in all fairness to the behaviorists, I do
here sometimes issues where how about this one? A dog
is biting and it has bitten its masters before, and
this particular dog has a tighter bond with the wife.

(06:33):
The husband gets into bed and moves a little too
close to the wife and the dog will snarl and
sometimes snap that one hundred percent, no, no, no, this
dog is no longer allowed on the bed because you
can't change your lifestyle. Now, sometimes what my dogs do.
There's a great cartoon about this, So the dogs are
huddled around one of the spouses that they are bonded with. Okay,

(06:57):
you see it's the wife. Might you go to bed
sooner earlier than the husband. Now the husband's coming into
the room, getting ready to jump into bed. And then
the cartoon, she says, the dog getting up. Guys spread out,
spread out, so nothing. Dogs are all over the bed,
including where are the husband inside of the bed? So
now get jump to get in the bed. Looks down
and all the dogs are scrawled over his area. He

(07:19):
scratched his heads like that, where am I going to go?
So you know again, one of my dogs will literally
it will sleep literally exactly where I am. But all
I have to do is I I don't even have
to lift him up. I just kind of slide him over.
I crawl into bed, and he swalls back and cuddles
with me. That is the best. That is where you
know your dogs still know their place. They know that

(07:42):
they are submissive, they should be submissive, and they don't
try to get in your way. Now he's up to
catch sleeps with me and my mouth nude, sleeps on
his own bed. I wish he didn't wake up at
five thirty. Yeah, well, of course that's about my dogs
get me up at five to five thirty every morning,
so but you know that's part of it, all right.
A couple of things I want to talk to you about.
Also added vaccines for summer vacation because two things that

(08:06):
happened during the summer. One we travel, and number two,
it's not just vaccines, it's other things too. Two we travel,
all right, and also because the longer days we tend
and the warmer weather, we are doing more for ourselves too.
We're out there more exercising. So one of the things
that I wanted to make sure you're very clear about

(08:26):
because of like, for example, let's talk about flee control.
A lot of people take off the winter by giving
the monthly flee products, which is, okay, we don't see
a ton of fleas here and during the winter. However,
come March April certainly now May, we're starting to see fleas.
So you want to make sure that you start up
your flea medication. I had a client come in this

(08:48):
past week and she wanted the line disease vaccine, and
my first question was, oh, are you traveling for the summer,
because yeah, we go back to Connecticut every summer. Ah, yes,
you need that vaccine. We don't have lime disease really
here in West LA, but many parts of the country do.

(09:08):
So you need to find out another one. Heartworm. We
are seeing more and more mosquitos here in LA, but
still not to the degree where we're having heartworm disease
that is becoming an epidemic. It's endemic in, for example,
the Northeast during the spring and summer, South all year round,
the Gulf Coast all year round. I mean when they

(09:29):
had Katrina and we got all these dogs, shelter dogs
being sent to LA from New Orleans, and I gotta
tell you everyone was heartworm positive. Everyone. So whereas I
had a case many years ago, it was the first
case in Los Angeles County of a heartworm positive dog.
It was a Golden Retriever that never left LA, was

(09:52):
born in LA and never left in had heartworm. Now
there was interesting. They lived in Burbank, right next to
Forest Lawn cemeter. As soon as the Southern California Heartrend
of Society went to visit the dog where they lived
to see what's going on, they knew right away, and
they went to the cemetery and lifted up some headstones
and what do they find under these headstones thousands, thousands

(10:15):
of mosquito larvae. Why because what a mosquitos thrive on moisture, humidity.
Well up on the lush green hills of the forest
lawn cemetery. They're watering these lawns all the time, so
you have the moistures there. It is hot at the base,
especially especially spring and summer, and this was a perfect
environment for mosquitoes. Not only that, but now we have

(10:39):
a mosquito's here in La that have been able to
multiply and survive in drier climate. So the prediction was
made then twenty years ago that we will ultimately it
could be twenty could be twenty five, could be thirty
years from now, we are going to have a heartworm problem,
just like back east and in the South. So my

(10:59):
recommend is that if you are sitting outside on a weekday,
a weekend afternoon, like for example this weekend, youah, I'm
an extra day off. The sun's going down, it's still warm,
and you're sitting there reading a book, whatever you do
with taking a little nap. And if you're swiding mosquitos,
you better put your dogs on a heart room preventative,
and if they are adult dogs greater than five or

(11:22):
six months of age, you should test them first. So
you want to test them, make sure they negative if
they probably will be. I have not seen another heartworm
positive in an LA dog since that first one, so
I know it's not a big problem, but you want
to then once it comes back negative, go ahead and
start your preventive. Now there are the monthly in fact

(11:42):
you're flee and tick products that you may be using.
One of your rice sos azoleines which is Cordelio Brevecto,
Simperica and next Guard. They now have next Guard Plus,
Cordelio Plus and Simperica Trio which gets fleas, ticks and
heartworm prevention. So I would talk to your veterinarian and
you want to do that as well. That would be

(12:03):
my recommendation. But you should test them first and stay
on it. Many of these companies and you need to check.
You should check with them. If you have your dog
on heartworm prevention religiously monthly and they end up still
getting heartworm, you put a claim into the company whose
products are using and they will help, if not completely
cover the cost of treatment. So they guarantee their products,

(12:27):
so you want to check with them first to make sure.
But that's what I tell my clients. That could be
great heartworm injections. They're cheaper, that's true. There's pro Hard twelve.
I don't know if there's still twelve on the market,
but six is definitely on the market. And the reason
we don't use them here is simply because you got
to give your dogs stuff the other stuff anyway, And

(12:48):
if you look at the cost differential between the next
guard and next yard plus, you're getting for like three
or four dollars, you're getting the extra prevention for the heartworm.
It's not that expensive. But if you aren't an area
where horror is a problem, mosquitoes are a problem. Yes,
talk to you veterin airin about the Prohart injections. As
they said, there was a twelve. It was taken off

(13:09):
the market. I don't know because I don't use it,
so I'm not unfamiliar with it. I don't know if
it's been brought on the back on the market, but
there was that option. Thanks for telling me that. Okay,
So anyway, if your summer plants change, Rattlesnake is another one.
If now you're starting to hike during the summer, you
got to be careful. If you're going into the canyons,
you're going to the mountain areas where you're going to

(13:33):
see rattlesnakes, then you want to make sure your dogs
are also given the rattle snake vaccine. Onder somebody think
about the rattle state vaccine. It is not a lifesaver.
It is not meant to combat the effects of the venom.
All right, you still need the anti venoin injection, but
what it's going to do is buy you time. So

(13:55):
another thing I recommend if you are going into an
area where rattlesnake are known to be a problem and
you're going to be hiking with your dogs, make sure
that you have recognized identified the closest veterinary hospital or
veterinary emergency facility that carries the anti venit down where
I am. I don't stock it. It's expensive, it's gonna

(14:17):
sit on a shelf. I don't think I've ever had
to use it. So what's gonna happen is it's going
to cost me money to sit there, not get used,
and then it's gonna expire. The expiration data is like
maybe a year but emergency facilities they usually stock it.
So if you're going to take your dogs in an
area where snakes are a problem, make sure you pre
identified the closest veterinary facility that is going to have

(14:40):
the anti nit. That's very important. All right, Now, what else? Oh, traveling?
Keep your questions coming, guys and I have always a
lot to talk about. Here's one my buggets. Frequent skin
infection is left ear. It clears up on a botix
but always comes back in that ear only. Any idea
is what can be triggering these infections. So, first of all,
usually animals, dogs especially that have persistent ear infections. It

(15:03):
could be allergy, it could be if it's one ear only,
it could be a latent infection okay of yeast. Yeast
infections outweigh bacterial infections in ears, so you want to
have that check. But most importantly if it's an issue
with only one ear, because it doesn't make sense have
dogs that have allergies and have o titis because of

(15:25):
an allergic otitis, it's gonna be both ears. So now
I would be looking in that ear very carefully, looking
for any some sort of congenital or just an acquired
narrowing of the ear canal. I'd be looking for pugs.
I'd be looking for a foreign body that is stuck
somewhere down deep in that ear like a foxtail. And

(15:47):
the only way to identify that is going to be
in anesthesia and having the ear scoped, ideally scoped with
a device that goes down in the ear hooked up
to a camera and you can actually vis visualize the
entire canal down to the ear drum and making sure
also that the ear drum is intact and healthy looking.

(16:08):
So you can also use what I do sometimes is
you could take an otoscope cone, the skinny one and
fairly long, and you go down the ear. As long
as you can visualize the entire canal and the ear drum,
then you should be able to see what is causing
this ear to be a problem. And if that doesn't work,

(16:29):
I would see a veterinary dramatologist and they can maybe
do some specialized testing. For example, here in LA we
have veterari skin and ear, so most of the dermatologists
are also well equipped. Is ears are between dermatology and medicine,
I would say the dermatologists are very well equipped as well.
To really do a thoroughootic exam. And that's what i'd recommend,

(16:53):
Hi doctor, want to travel to Europe with my friendly cat.
So not an issue, except you need to know the
specific requirements of every single country. You can go to
a website. It's the us DA DASH or APHIS a
PHIS that's the Animal Plant Health Inspection Service, So usd APHIS.

(17:17):
Go online and you can go traveling, domestic travel or
international travel with a pet and click on it which country,
click on them, and then it'll all these drop boxes
and it'll give you the exact requirements for that country.
Now I will tell you everyone is gonna need a
rabies vaccine, and usually they're gonna need them to be
up to date, and someone them every year. Every three

(17:41):
years is okay in most countries, but you cannot allow
it to lapse. If it lapses, you got to go
start all over again with two raby shots, one after another,
usually a month apart. And then some countries actually require
a rabies tighter test. You have to know. Now, depending
on where you're traveling, some of these restricts are very challenging,

(18:02):
time consuming, expensive, so keep that in mind. But preparation
is the key which takes me to another thing I
wanted to talk about. But I'm gonna answer this question.
Macie to me, my cat hates when I leave for travel,
very anxious today, of is this good time to use it? Yes,
you can use any kind of sedation. Cats really really

(18:22):
are smart. So what happens is they know when you're
packing to leave. One of my dogs used to jump
in the suitcase. She her name is Millie. She was
the funniest thing. If she could, she would let me
close the suitcase and take her along with us. You know,
it's crazy. They sense it, they know it, and so
it is not uncommon. So if they're getting uptight already,

(18:44):
you haven't even left yet, but they just know what's coming.
They make the association that suitcase means that mom is
going to be gone within a day or two. So
it's very important. So yes, it will be okay to
use something that'll help. All right, let me break here,
don't go way for a quick break here at pet
Life Radio, and we'll come back in just demand.

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Speaker 2 (19:45):
All right, we're back here at pet Life Radio too.
We're just talking about when you're traveling, make arrangements. Make
sure you are aware. Don't get stuck going into a
hotel with your seventy pounds labrador where you made reservations
and find out that there's a thirty five pound weight
limit coming from the hotel. Help, it's happened before. Also,
good ideas when you're traveling. Just the basics. Okay, oh yeah,

(20:06):
she just came from downy shelter. Yes, of course, I mean,
of course he's, you know, pretty scared, and that's that's
to be expected. It's gonna take some time to really bond.
And they get out of this place. They're in a
new home. They're kind of digging on it, and all
of a sudden they say, you're leaving, obviously, And also
cat's been in a shelter. Chances are as an adult
cat started in someone's home at some point and we

(20:28):
don't know what how that cat ends up in the
shelter with the problems wear home. But it's not uncommon
that now you're doing something that that cat is already
used to, it's already seen, and then you know that's
what it could be. So just throwing that in there now,
back to the hotel. Back to travel. Preparedness is the
key when you're traveling. Make sure the following your first
all that your pet is up to date with all vaccines.

(20:51):
Make sure you have proof of that, including rabe, especially rabies.
Make sure your pet is wearing an ID and is microchipped. Essential.
I make sure you have a picture of your pet, okay,
because that's important in case the pets should be lost,
you have If the pet is on medication, make sure
you bring enough and I would bring an extra week
or two just in case things happen in your plans. Okay.
Make sure you have the name of a veterinarian nearby

(21:14):
to where you're staying, naming phone number, and the local
emergency center of where you're staying. If it's with family,
make sure you use their vet if they have a
pet and they know you get you want to get
all that information. You don't want to rush for it
looking for it if something happens and you're ill prepared.
So it's always good to have give you that step ahead.
And you know, other than that, oh lease collar. And

(21:36):
when you're traveling, you're traveling by car. Interestingly, even we
always talk about abrupt changes in food. Now you can
go from great food A to great food BE. But
if you don't go gradually, the pedal get diarrheal. Well.
Guess what. Water supplies are also very different. So what
I recommend start your trip with a big, big gallon
jug of water from your home. And you know on
your trip you give a little water, you stop at

(21:57):
your pit stops, you d regularly little of water. Every
time you get to some other location, refill it. So
let's see you just use this much, fill it to
the top again, and then use this much again, fill
the top, shake it each time. So what's happening is
you are gradually shifting the water supply into the wailet
supply that they are used to. The majority will still

(22:17):
be your water, but you're always adding a little bit
at a time, and that ends that with that lensform
is a very gradual change to water. So that's a
good idea. So back in jpoh it's bank holiday here.
Also I'm joining a basic garden grab oh so Xena's home. Yep,
it's tougher to get them into UK. We Actually it's
easier now that it used to be when it wasn't

(22:38):
part of the EU, and now it's not part of
the EU again, But when it was where they wear
that shift. Before that you had to have rabies tighters
and now it's set the pain in the butt to
get Radies tighters and the raby shots. You really need
to know what you're doing. Dog wakes up with a
really noisy tummium, doesn't want to eat now your day.
But often more lately this happens also may have louse
stools tips. Yeah. What I would do to start with

(22:59):
that is its called this borberygmus. That is gas. It
is the stomach getting really active. It usually happens middle
of the night, late night, early early morning and it's
uncomfortable for them and they don't know why, but they
feel it and they hear it. It freaks them out.
So what I would do is the same way I
would do when dogs have that vomiting of bile. It's related,

(23:21):
and that is I would give a late night snack,
usually set aside about a quarter to a third of dinner.
Set it aside, okay, and you give it to him
as a late night snack. Before that snack, what I
also want you to do is give, depending on the size,
a half of a pepsid or a half of a
private sec Wait about ten or fifteen minutes, and then

(23:42):
give that remaining food from dinner. See if that solves
the problem, all right. If not, let me know. Okay, Candy,
you have a question. It looks like you started it
and didn't finish it, so let me know. All right, guys,
I have a nine thirty appointment this morning, so I'm
gonna wait for Candy to finish the question. If you
have to, have not and make sure I oh, you

(24:05):
know what I do this every time. Next week we
are going to talk about Fourth of July tips. Something
you can do now to gradually get your pets, especially
your dog. If your dogs freak out, gradually get them
to not only be okay with the loud sound of fireworks,
but actually associate them with something positive, like a treat.

(24:30):
It's a process. It takes a while, but it can Wow.
Came to see about a year ago. If my dog
Duffy has a lipoma on a side that you looked at,
my question would be it it needs to be removed?
All right? Well, Ken, if it's truly a lipoma, unless
it's gotten super big, waited out, it hasn't changed much
at all, there's no rush. We're Usually what I do
with lipoma is is I wait until we need to

(24:50):
nessitize the pet, usually for a dentistry or something that's
more significant that is a problem. Then while we're under
around a season, we can remove the lipoma lipoma' zumber nine.
And unless it's changing or getting really really big or
impeding their motion or something or making them uncomfortable, I'd
leave it alone. But I'd like to remove them as
an elective procedure when they're already down under anesthesia. So

(25:13):
if it's getting really big, or if it's causing a
problem for the dog, then yes, we should go ahead
and just remove it. And it was holistic into the
heart room because I'm working into my mosquitos and fleece.
It's a tough question. I'm not holistic that I can
refer you to some my dog's clean and takes menage
giving seizures. Yeah, some of the isochsazoleines can and or
have been related to seizures. So what I would do

(25:35):
is you could try some of the older products. You
could try comfortis, you could try triyfexus, and even revolution
doesn't work as well. I don't think that the admit cloprid,
which is the advantage, or the fipronil, which is the
front line, is going to be effective anymore. Really dogs,
most animals, well after the animals that have become resistant, the

(25:57):
fleas and tics have become resistant, so those aren't going
to work really well. But you still confort this, trifects,
this still work and you might want to try those.
And I think they are also having oral The revolution,
which celimectin, is still topical. Again, it's not as effective
as dogs, but it will still work. It's better than
nothing if your dogs are reacting to that shot. Saslines

(26:18):
and Revecto is a topical. I don't know if you
were giving the one of the oral ones, which is
next guard Vecto has both Cordelio or next Guard Cordelio symperica,
then those are all only oral Ravecto's the only one
that comes both. If you're using an oral, you can
try the topical. It may not have the same effect,

(26:39):
all right anyway, But if you want contact me privately,
if you want to get a hold of recommendations for
holistic bets, all right, anyway, that's it for all we
have time for I got an appointment. I got a
rush too, So we will see you next week and
please then the first thing we're gonna do is we're
gonna talk about it. If you want to learn this,
it's a great trick. You'll have about three weeks to
do it. Maybe hopefull will be enough how to basically

(27:03):
modify your dog's reaction to fireworks so if they freak out,
it's a great alternative and it can get to the
point where they actually not only will deal with them,
they'll tolerate them, but they may actually like them. Stay
tuned next

Speaker 3 (27:17):
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