July 31, 2024 • 25 mins
In this last episode of ER VET with Pet Life Radio, Dr. Justine Lee, DACVECC, DABT signs off by leaving some key tips on how to keep your dog and cat OUT of the veterinary ER. Tune in to hear her leave some lasting tidbits on what to do to keep your pets safe, including preventive medicine, poison prevention tips, general safety tips, and some clues on navigating through pet insurance and why you need it!
SHOW NOTES: Signing off ER VET with Dr. Justine Lee
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/er-vet-stories-from-the-animal-er-pet-life-radio-original-petliferadio-com--6667836/support.
SHOW NOTES: Signing off ER VET with Dr. Justine Lee
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/er-vet-stories-from-the-animal-er-pet-life-radio-original-petliferadio-com--6667836/support.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Is pet Life Radio. Let's talk pets.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Welcome to er vetom pet Life Radio. I'm your host,
Doctor Justine Lee, and I'm an critical care veterinary specialist
and toxicologist. Thanks for joining us today. I'm going to
be talking about how to keep your four legged friends
out of the emergency room. And the reason why I'm
talking about this is because I've practiced over twenty years
in the field of emergency critical care, and as you
(00:49):
know from the past several years of er VET, I've
been trying to educate you as a pet owner on
what you can do to keep your pet as healthy
and happy as poss book totally understand ic emergencies all
the time, and we know where emergencies are always going
to happen, but there are definitely things that you can do.
So we're going to talk about this today and I
(01:11):
also wanted to talk about some key big announcements. We'll
be right back after these messages.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Take a bite out of your competition, advertise your business
with an ad in Pet Life Radio podcasts and radio shows.
There is no other pet related media that is as
large and reach us more pet parents and pet lovers
than pet Life Radio, with over seven million monthly listeners.
Pet Life Radio podcasts are available on all major podcasts platforms,
(01:41):
and our live radio stream goes out to over two
hundred and fifty million subscribers on iHeartRadio, Odyssey, tune In,
and other streaming apps. For more information on how you
can advertise on the number one pet podcast and radio network,
visit Petlife Radio dot com slash advertise Today.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
Let's talk pets on Petlife Radio dot com.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Welcome back to er Vet on pet Life Radio. Today
we're going to be talking about how to keep your
four legged friends out of the emergency room. First of all,
my big announcement, I am going to be retiring from
pet Life Radio's er Vet Show. Don't worry, I promise
I'll still come and visit, maybe on other shows. But
I just wanted to thank all of you guys for
(02:42):
being such loyal listeners, because I know you want to
do everything as a pet owner to keep your pet
as healthy as possible. It's been a huge honor working
with Mark Winter on pet Life Radio, and again, my
passion has always been educating pet owners. So what I'm
going to summarize today are really the best ways to
keep your dog or cat healthy and hopefully out of
(03:04):
the er. Now, obviously, our pets aren't just animals. There
are four legged family members, and there's a couple of
key things when it comes to their health and safety.
That's a paramount importance. Despite what we do. Even as
a veterinarian myself, accidents are going to happen, diseases are
going to happen, and we never know when trauma's going
(03:25):
to happen or that poisoning is going to happen. But
that said, I want you to keep your beloved furry
friend out of the emergency room, and the first way
of doing that is by preventive medicine. What does that mean.
Preventive medicine is when we're doing everything that we can
to keep our pets healthy, and that includes regular visits
to your veterinarian. Now, I'm not your typical veterinarian in
(03:49):
that I'm a specialist. So I don't routinely do vaccines,
I don't do heartworm preventative. But I actually go to
a general practitioner in Minneapolis and bring my own pets
there for routine care. And the main reason why I
do that is because they're the experts in preventive medicine.
So we want to make sure your pet's well being
(04:10):
is taken care of, and the best way of doing
that is making sure you get that annual examination, keeping
up to date on vaccinations, and making sure that you're
on the appropriate prevention so things like heartwore medication and
flee and tick medication. These are really important as a
first line of defense. So key things that you need
(04:31):
to know. My general philosophy as a veterinarian is I
always treat my pet the way I would treat them.
I always treat every patient that comes into the veterinary
er as my own pet, and I do for them
what I would do for my own dog or cat.
And guess what, My own dog and cat go to
the VET every single year. They get a physical exam
(04:52):
at least every six months. Now, granted I'm often doing
this at home, but as a pet ages. So for
a dog this may be five to eight years of age.
For a cat this is going to be about eight
to eleven years of age. You do truly want to
make sure that you're considering regular visits at least every
six months to twelve months. Why because we as veterinarians
(05:14):
want to do that physical exam, so we can pick
up on a five roid nodule or a heart murmur,
or we can check your pets body conditions. Score so
many things on physical exam that we can pick up
as a veterinarian to be able to diagnose a problem earlier.
And remember, if we do diagnose a problem earlier, we
can always treat it earlier, the prognosis is better and
(05:37):
it's going to be less expensive. So one in doubt,
you always want to have it on your Google calendar
to make sure that your pet is going to the
vet every single year, staying up to date on their vaccines. Now,
what do I do as my pets age. I make
sure that my puppies and kittens go through the entire
puppy series and typically this is going to start at
five to six weeks of age. They need one vaccine
(06:00):
around five to six weeks of age, and then they
need a booster puppies now every three to four weeks
until they're about twelve to fourteen weeks of age, depending
on the breed of dog. Now, with certain breeds that
are more predisposed of parvovirus, a disease that causes profuse
vomiting and diarrhea. So dogs like piples, German shepherds, rotweilers,
(06:21):
Doberman retrievers. I often will vaccinate them out to fourteen
weeks when we make sure that our pets have gone
through the whole puppy series. I then make sure to
do an annual vaccine once a year thereafter until they're
middle aged, and we want to make sure that they're
going through their boosters to make sure that their immune
system is stimulated to protect them. I also want to
(06:45):
make sure that they're up to date on the rabies vaccine.
This is the most important vaccine and is required by
most states. So as your pet ages. So once your
dog is about three to four years of age, I
actually bump my vaccines, so especially the distemper hepatitis parvavirus
A vaccine or what we commonly call the DHLPP vaccine,
(07:06):
to every three years. That doesn't mean you're going to
go to the vet every three years. You're still going
to do that annual exam, but you can talk to
your vet and say I want to change to the
three year protocol and that's really really helpful too. Again,
it's a physical exam. It's a communication with your veterinarian.
That's the most important. I always say, if you're not
sure what to do, do what your vet does for
(07:28):
their own dog or cat. I make sure my dog's
on year round heartworm preventative and my dog, granted I
live in Minnesota where it's winter six months out of
the year, I keep my dog on flee and tick
medication either six or twelve months out of the year,
depending on where you live. So remember those routine preventive
appointments are your first line of defense to keep your
(07:49):
pet healthy. It also maintains a constant relationship with your veterinarian,
and this is really important, especially if you have one
of those emergency room visits where it could have been
treated at your family practitioner so went in doubt. Make
sure you are taking care of your pets with appropriate
preventative medicine. The next thing I wanted to talk about
(08:10):
is what you can do to prevent your dog or
cat from going into the er. Is pet proofing the house. Now,
as a toxicologist, I'm a little biased, but if you
have a Labrador Retriever or you have a young puppy
in the house, you always want to make sure that
they're appropriately crate trained, and that they're trained not to
jump on counters or tabletops where they can get into
(08:33):
something poisonous. Just a couple of tips when it comes
to pep proofing. I always say if every dog owner
out there taught their dogs how to be appropriately crate trained.
In other words, the dog loves their crate because they
view it actually as their wolf den, then we would
see a lot less poisoning situations. If you appropriately crate
(08:54):
train your dog, they actually want to go into the crate.
So appropriate crate training means doing it as a puppy,
not using it as punishment. Making sure that it's big
enough for them to stand in and be comfortable in,
but not big enough that they're going to urinate or
defecate in the opposite corner. That means that creates too
big Making sure to always leave the door open so
they can go in and out as they want during
the day. Making sure to give all treats and meals
(09:16):
and toys in the crate so they view it with
positive association. The second thing you can do to pet
proof your house making sure everyone in the household hangs
up their backpack, their briefcase or their suitcase or their purse.
I can't tell you how many times I see accidental
poisoning because someone through the backpack or the purse in
the corner. Dogs can smell that weird content that might
(09:37):
be in your purse or backpack. That may be a
snack sized box of raisins, or it could be prescription medications.
It could be things like hand sanitizer. It could be
xylotog gum. So many poisons there. The third way of
pet proofing, when you have those weekly pill holders that
have a ton of medication in them, well, you can't
blame a dog. Those things sound like plastic rattles. So
(10:00):
when in doubt, if you have a weekly pill holder
for yourself, keep it out of your dog's reach. That
means not keeping it on the kitchen table or the
kitchen counters where your dog can get into it. You
can't blame them. Again, it sounds like a plastic rattle toy.
The last thing when it comes to pep proofing, making
sure if you have guests that come into the house
that they don't bring in poisonous things. This may be
(10:22):
a bouquet of flowers that contain dangerous lilium or hemoricalous
lilies that are super poisonous to cats. This is especially
important around Easter time when people are bringing in easter lilies. Again,
these are poisonous to cats, not dogs. When people are
visiting for the holidays, maybe have family coming, and they
bring all their vitamins and their pills and they put
(10:44):
them in a little zip plastic bag and they throw
it in their suitcase. Well, those medications have weird smells,
and your dog or cat may go into the guest
room and munch on those, resulting in an emergency when
those people are visiting. So again that's another way of
being able to pet proof your house. The third thing
you can do when it comes to keeping your pets
(11:05):
out of the emergency room is leashing and training your dog.
I'm a firm believer that if you are going to
own a dog, you need to make sure they get
at least thirty minutes of exercise a day. Yep, that's right.
That's usually two fifteen minute walks a day. You opening
the back door so they're just pooping in the fence
in backyard is not exercise. Okay, we want exercise, whether
(11:28):
they're chasing a ball or exercising or pacing or jogging
or running, because that's what gets their energy out. That said,
we always want to make sure our dog is appropriate,
leash trained, and on a leash. I can't tell you
how many scenarios that I see dogs hit by a
car because they were running in the dog park and
(11:49):
they ran across the street and got hit by a car.
I will also say that's why my second rule of
dog ownership is making sure that your puppy or adult
dog goes through at least two you semesters a puppy obedience.
Even if you adopt an older dog. Remember you can
teach an old dog new tricks. When it comes to
obedience training, it's actually training you how to obedience train
(12:12):
your dog. And there's really only four to five commands
that I really care about. I don't care about shaking
or rolling over. Those are just like fun things that
you might want to do, but those are not life
saving commands. Life saving commands are sit, stay, down, off heel, come. Okay,
so maybe it's six commands, but those are really really
(12:34):
important because if your dog happens to be off leash
and is chasing a squirrel or wildlife or deer, you
need to be able to call them back immediately. I
used to have a dog, my first ever pitbull, who
was so high level obedience trained. If it was running
through the woods, I could say down and it would
lie down, even though he was in a full sprint.
(12:55):
So unless your dog will do that, or unless your
dog will one hundred percent come when you call them,
your dogs should always be un a leash, which then
leads me to the controversial cat Now. Personally, as a veterinarian,
I keep cats indoors because when they're outside, please know
that they do kill a lot of birds in wildlife. Now,
(13:18):
the reason why this is important is I also see
a lot of trauma related to outdoor cats. Even if
you think they're, oh, they're just going to stay by
my house, they don't. Not only are they defecating and
urinating in your neighbor's yards, which they don't appreciate, they're
probably eating the daylilies in your neighbors, so they're ever
risk for poisoning. They're killing wildlife, and so I always say,
(13:38):
if you do let your cat outdoors, please don't have
any bird feeders at your house. Okay, And the second
thing is please consider leash training your cat. Believe it
or not, cats can be leash trained and talked to
walk on a leash. It's quite amazing. It does take
some dedication, but remember cats can do it. You can
also consider things that keep your cat safe and enclosed,
(13:59):
like cadio. These can reduce the exposure risks to cars
and poisons and coyotes and things that can attack your cat,
so one in doubt please consider this. There's also a
lot of stray cats out there that can spread deadly
diseases like kitty AIDS or feline immuno deficiency virus or
things like feline leukemia. So again, we always want to
(14:21):
make sure to keep our pets as healthy as possible. Now,
keep in mind there are awesome ways to provide indoor
environmental enrichment. So this is going to include things like
a separate area for each cat, a separate cat tree
for each cat to climb, maybe a variety of different
toys for your cat to play with, cat nip scratching posts,
(14:44):
making sure that you have their food separated from whether
kitty litter is, making sure that you have the right
number of litter boxes and they're not near anything scary
like the water heater or hepathilter's going off randomly, So
again a lot of great information on how to keep
your pets environmental enriched. And again they can be just
as happy indoors. Again, these cats versus keeping them outdoors.
(15:06):
One in doubt. You can always go to the Ohio
State University website and just google environmental enrichment for dogs
and cats and they have fantastic information about that. We'll
continue with this really important topic right after these.
Speaker 5 (15:19):
Messages begging to hear more of your favorite show. Cool.
Full episodes of all our shows are available on demand.
Go to pedlife radio dot com to fed our entire
lineup of possome ped podcasts. Also dig us up in
iHeartRadio and iTunes. Let's talk pats lived only from Pedlife Radio.
Speaker 4 (15:43):
Let's talk past it, Let's.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Done pets on a pet Life Radio headline.
Speaker 6 (15:46):
Radio, pet live Radio dot Com.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Welcome back to earvet on pet Life Radio. We've been
talking about what you can do to keep your dog
and cat out of the er vet. So we've talked
about things like preventive medicine, keeping your dog on a leash,
making sure they went through two levels of poppy obedience,
leashing your cat, or using tatios instead of letting them
wander inside and outside, making sure we're providing appropriate environmental enrichment,
(16:29):
including for indoor cats. And then one in doubt, the
other thing I wanted to add is consider pet insurance. Now,
I will say, as soon as I rescued my second dog,
he was surrendered by a breeder for parbovirus, I got
pet insurance immediately. And the reason why I did that
is because veterinary medicine has gotten so cost prohibitive over
(16:51):
the past few years, and I will admit vet care
can be really expensive. Now, please keep in mind that
a lot of pet owners don't have pet insurance. I
think twenty years ago only about two to five percent
of pet owners had it, and that is increasing over time.
The last statistic I heard was that approximately five to
ten percent of pet owners do have it. Now this
(17:13):
varies by country. I know the United Kingdom has a
much higher rate of pet insurance. And I always say
it's really impossible to predict when an emergency is going
to occur, So having a financial buffer that's going to
relieve your stress and anxiety about your emergency veterinary care
is really really important. Please keep in mind that pet
insurance plans vary, but they can really provide peace of
(17:36):
mind letting you make the right decisions for your pets.
And again, it takes off that financial barrier. However, I
see a lot of mistakes when people are making that
decision about pet insurance. When it comes to pet insurance,
please know that all the ones that I know of
don't cover pre existing disease. Okay, they don't have Obamacare
(17:56):
for pets unfortunately, So when it comes to pet insurance,
you have to get it as early as possible because
if for some reason your dog was already diagnosed with
allergies or atopic dermatitis or flea allergy dermatitis or ur
an attract infection, that means future visits will never be
covered when it comes to those diseases. And I'll tell
(18:18):
you if you have a Golden Retriever who's got quote
unquote hate fever, what we call atopic dermatitis, and those
are seasonal allergies that can be extremely expensive and over
your pet's lifetime, that can cost like ten thousand dollars
on antibiotics, on topical medications, on dermatology appointments, on skin scrapes,
all these skin tests. So when in doubt, you really
(18:40):
want to get pet insurance before your pet is diagnosed
with any medical conditions, which means you have to get
it as soon as you get your pet. Now, Please
keep in mind, a lot of pet insurance won't cover
your pet within the first thirty days of signing up,
so you can't do it right before an emergency. You
can't do it right before you're about to take your
pet into the vet clinic because they won't be covered
(19:01):
for at least thirty days, So you really want to
do your research on it. And some will cover wellness,
like they'll cover dental procedures, they'll cover vaccines, while some
only cover emergency care. Now, I will say, if you
have a pet who's gotten into the garbage, and again
that emphasizes the importance of pet proofing. Right, so your
(19:22):
dog gets into the garbage, he eats a corn cob,
which is really dangerous. That's about the right size to
block the intestines that could be in an emergency surgery
and in the modle of the night, that could cost
five to ten thousand dollars. Again, that's one of the
reasons why I really want to advocate for pet insurance. Now,
pet insurance is typically a third party insurer, which means
(19:44):
you have to pay your vet upfront, including the deposit,
but you get reimbursed later and the degree or percentage
of reimbursement really varies with each pet insurance company. So
one in doubt, please do your research. You want to
make sure you're picking the right insurance paran's plan, and
you want to pick whether or not you're just looking
for basic coverage for emergencies and accidents versus if you're
(20:07):
picking a comprehensive plan that includes preventive care and chronic conditions.
So again, make sure to shop around, do your research.
There's a lot of great websites out there. In summary,
my goal over the past couple of years of having
these episodes of er VET and doing things that I've
done to help educate pet owners, like my great courses
(20:28):
Veterinary School for everyone caring for dogs and cats from
my two books that I've authored. It's a dog's life,
but it's your carpet and it's a cat's world. You
just live in it. My intention of doing all these
educational pieces for pet owners is truly to keep your
dog and cat as healthy as possible out of the
er and living as long as possible. A lot of
(20:49):
people get stuck in some of the details of like
what should I feed my pet? And I'm going to
say I have seen a lot of dogs who have
been on the most expensive, best dog food who unfortunately
die at young ages of genetic diseases. And I've also
seen the situation where I've had dogs that live to
a very very old age on pet foods that weren't
(21:12):
quite as high end. Right, Ultimately, when it comes to
your pet, you always want to check with your veterinarian.
My general rules again are getting that exercise, keeping our
pet in a good body condition score, not letting them
get overweight or obese, which is highly associated with osteoarthritis
and so many medical conditions like diabetes and difficulty breathing
(21:36):
in cardiopulmonary problems. Making sure that we're providing the right
environmental enrichment for our dog and cat. Making sure that
we're ensuring that our pets have preventive medicine. They're on
that fleentic medication, they're on that heartworm preventative year round.
One a doubt, do what your vet does for their
own pets and one a doubt, you can always ask
(21:58):
them what would you do in this situation. Please know
that I always want you to be an advocate for yourself.
If you do end up in the emergency room, please
make sure to bring your pet. And I know it's
really stressful, but you want to bring your wallet. You
want to make sure to bring any previous medical record,
which I always believe in having a folder where you
have copies of blood work and medical records and receipts
(22:19):
so you can always grab that in case of emergency.
If you do do routine blood work at your veterinarian,
always ask for a copy of it so you have
it in your medical record. Be an advocate for your
dog and cat. If you do end up in the er,
please know there's going to be a several hour wait,
so I always say you want to bring things for
you and your loved ones who are with you, a
(22:40):
smartphone charge or a computer or a book, things where
you can patiently wait in the er, because just to
prepare you. The weight in the er can be long,
and it's based on triage. The sickest pets are seen first,
just like a human er. The other thing that I
think is really important as a tip is one in doubt.
You want to be proactive to reduce the likely that
you have to go to the vetinary er. So if
(23:03):
your dog is vomiting on day one, you want to
call your vet and make an appointment because oftentimes they
may not be able to see you for a few days.
This is especially important as you're approaching the weekend. If
most vets are only open Monday through Friday, maybe a
couple hours or half day on Saturday. So if your
dog starts vomiting on Wednesday and he's still vomiting on Thursday,
(23:23):
you want to get to your family vet right away.
It's going to be less expensive in the least. Make
an appointment, make the earliest available appointment, and call twenty
four hours before if your pet's miraculously better. The reason
why I like to have that appointment is because I
want to make sure if my pet's not any better,
that you can see your family practitioner instead of having
(23:43):
to do it in the mid all of the night. Now,
I will say in the mill of the night. Things
are more expensive because vet ers have to be staffed
twenty four to seven, So the costs of running the
hospital twenty four to seven staffing at twenty four to seven,
having different types of tools that they need in an
emergency room versus in general practice, like blood transfusions, blood
(24:04):
work analysis that can run blood work right away, the
ability to get X ray reports and X rays done
right away, emergency surgery diagnostic tests that general practitioners or
family practitioners don't have to have. So it's understandably more expensive,
but again, we really want to make sure we're doing
everything that we can for your pets longevity and quality
(24:26):
of life. One in doubt. There are furry family members
and while they might not be able to thank us
with their words, their joy and comfort that they bring
us their undying love really is a testament to our
dedication as a responsible pet owner. With that, I'm signing
off from my last ERVET Pet Life Radio episode and
(24:46):
it's been a joy to work with Mark Winter and
with all of you. Thanks for your loyalty and listening,
and I hope to see you on a future episode
One in Doubt. You can find me at doctor Justinelee
dot com, on Facebook or Instagram at doctor Justine Lee,
or email me at doctor Justine at Petlifradio dot com.
It's been a joy being on er Vet and a
(25:07):
huge shout out to Mark Winter, our producer, for making
the show comfortable. Thanks for all that you do, and
don't forget to love up your core legged family member.
Speaker 4 (25:15):
Let's Talk Best every week on demand only on Petlife
Radios dot com.
Is pet Life Radio. Let's talk pets.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Welcome to er vetom pet Life Radio. I'm your host,
Doctor Justine Lee, and I'm an critical care veterinary specialist
and toxicologist. Thanks for joining us today. I'm going to
be talking about how to keep your four legged friends
out of the emergency room. And the reason why I'm
talking about this is because I've practiced over twenty years
in the field of emergency critical care, and as you
(00:49):
know from the past several years of er VET, I've
been trying to educate you as a pet owner on
what you can do to keep your pet as healthy
and happy as poss book totally understand ic emergencies all
the time, and we know where emergencies are always going
to happen, but there are definitely things that you can do.
So we're going to talk about this today and I
(01:11):
also wanted to talk about some key big announcements. We'll
be right back after these messages.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Take a bite out of your competition, advertise your business
with an ad in Pet Life Radio podcasts and radio shows.
There is no other pet related media that is as
large and reach us more pet parents and pet lovers
than pet Life Radio, with over seven million monthly listeners.
Pet Life Radio podcasts are available on all major podcasts platforms,
(01:41):
and our live radio stream goes out to over two
hundred and fifty million subscribers on iHeartRadio, Odyssey, tune In,
and other streaming apps. For more information on how you
can advertise on the number one pet podcast and radio network,
visit Petlife Radio dot com slash advertise Today.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
Let's talk pets on Petlife Radio dot com.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Welcome back to er Vet on pet Life Radio. Today
we're going to be talking about how to keep your
four legged friends out of the emergency room. First of all,
my big announcement, I am going to be retiring from
pet Life Radio's er Vet Show. Don't worry, I promise
I'll still come and visit, maybe on other shows. But
I just wanted to thank all of you guys for
(02:42):
being such loyal listeners, because I know you want to
do everything as a pet owner to keep your pet
as healthy as possible. It's been a huge honor working
with Mark Winter on pet Life Radio, and again, my
passion has always been educating pet owners. So what I'm
going to summarize today are really the best ways to
keep your dog or cat healthy and hopefully out of
(03:04):
the er. Now, obviously, our pets aren't just animals. There
are four legged family members, and there's a couple of
key things when it comes to their health and safety.
That's a paramount importance. Despite what we do. Even as
a veterinarian myself, accidents are going to happen, diseases are
going to happen, and we never know when trauma's going
(03:25):
to happen or that poisoning is going to happen. But
that said, I want you to keep your beloved furry
friend out of the emergency room, and the first way
of doing that is by preventive medicine. What does that mean.
Preventive medicine is when we're doing everything that we can
to keep our pets healthy, and that includes regular visits
to your veterinarian. Now, I'm not your typical veterinarian in
(03:49):
that I'm a specialist. So I don't routinely do vaccines,
I don't do heartworm preventative. But I actually go to
a general practitioner in Minneapolis and bring my own pets
there for routine care. And the main reason why I
do that is because they're the experts in preventive medicine.
So we want to make sure your pet's well being
(04:10):
is taken care of, and the best way of doing
that is making sure you get that annual examination, keeping
up to date on vaccinations, and making sure that you're
on the appropriate prevention so things like heartwore medication and
flee and tick medication. These are really important as a
first line of defense. So key things that you need
(04:31):
to know. My general philosophy as a veterinarian is I
always treat my pet the way I would treat them.
I always treat every patient that comes into the veterinary
er as my own pet, and I do for them
what I would do for my own dog or cat.
And guess what, My own dog and cat go to
the VET every single year. They get a physical exam
(04:52):
at least every six months. Now, granted I'm often doing
this at home, but as a pet ages. So for
a dog this may be five to eight years of age.
For a cat this is going to be about eight
to eleven years of age. You do truly want to
make sure that you're considering regular visits at least every
six months to twelve months. Why because we as veterinarians
(05:14):
want to do that physical exam, so we can pick
up on a five roid nodule or a heart murmur,
or we can check your pets body conditions. Score so
many things on physical exam that we can pick up
as a veterinarian to be able to diagnose a problem earlier.
And remember, if we do diagnose a problem earlier, we
can always treat it earlier, the prognosis is better and
(05:37):
it's going to be less expensive. So one in doubt,
you always want to have it on your Google calendar
to make sure that your pet is going to the
vet every single year, staying up to date on their vaccines. Now,
what do I do as my pets age. I make
sure that my puppies and kittens go through the entire
puppy series and typically this is going to start at
five to six weeks of age. They need one vaccine
(06:00):
around five to six weeks of age, and then they
need a booster puppies now every three to four weeks
until they're about twelve to fourteen weeks of age, depending
on the breed of dog. Now, with certain breeds that
are more predisposed of parvovirus, a disease that causes profuse
vomiting and diarrhea. So dogs like piples, German shepherds, rotweilers,
(06:21):
Doberman retrievers. I often will vaccinate them out to fourteen
weeks when we make sure that our pets have gone
through the whole puppy series. I then make sure to
do an annual vaccine once a year thereafter until they're
middle aged, and we want to make sure that they're
going through their boosters to make sure that their immune
system is stimulated to protect them. I also want to
(06:45):
make sure that they're up to date on the rabies vaccine.
This is the most important vaccine and is required by
most states. So as your pet ages. So once your
dog is about three to four years of age, I
actually bump my vaccines, so especially the distemper hepatitis parvavirus
A vaccine or what we commonly call the DHLPP vaccine,
(07:06):
to every three years. That doesn't mean you're going to
go to the vet every three years. You're still going
to do that annual exam, but you can talk to
your vet and say I want to change to the
three year protocol and that's really really helpful too. Again,
it's a physical exam. It's a communication with your veterinarian.
That's the most important. I always say, if you're not
sure what to do, do what your vet does for
(07:28):
their own dog or cat. I make sure my dog's
on year round heartworm preventative and my dog, granted I
live in Minnesota where it's winter six months out of
the year, I keep my dog on flee and tick
medication either six or twelve months out of the year,
depending on where you live. So remember those routine preventive
appointments are your first line of defense to keep your
(07:49):
pet healthy. It also maintains a constant relationship with your veterinarian,
and this is really important, especially if you have one
of those emergency room visits where it could have been
treated at your family practitioner so went in doubt. Make
sure you are taking care of your pets with appropriate
preventative medicine. The next thing I wanted to talk about
(08:10):
is what you can do to prevent your dog or
cat from going into the er. Is pet proofing the house. Now,
as a toxicologist, I'm a little biased, but if you
have a Labrador Retriever or you have a young puppy
in the house, you always want to make sure that
they're appropriately crate trained, and that they're trained not to
jump on counters or tabletops where they can get into
(08:33):
something poisonous. Just a couple of tips when it comes
to pep proofing. I always say if every dog owner
out there taught their dogs how to be appropriately crate trained.
In other words, the dog loves their crate because they
view it actually as their wolf den, then we would
see a lot less poisoning situations. If you appropriately crate
(08:54):
train your dog, they actually want to go into the crate.
So appropriate crate training means doing it as a puppy,
not using it as punishment. Making sure that it's big
enough for them to stand in and be comfortable in,
but not big enough that they're going to urinate or
defecate in the opposite corner. That means that creates too
big Making sure to always leave the door open so
they can go in and out as they want during
the day. Making sure to give all treats and meals
(09:16):
and toys in the crate so they view it with
positive association. The second thing you can do to pet
proof your house making sure everyone in the household hangs
up their backpack, their briefcase or their suitcase or their purse.
I can't tell you how many times I see accidental
poisoning because someone through the backpack or the purse in
the corner. Dogs can smell that weird content that might
(09:37):
be in your purse or backpack. That may be a
snack sized box of raisins, or it could be prescription medications.
It could be things like hand sanitizer. It could be
xylotog gum. So many poisons there. The third way of
pet proofing, when you have those weekly pill holders that
have a ton of medication in them, well, you can't
blame a dog. Those things sound like plastic rattles. So
(10:00):
when in doubt, if you have a weekly pill holder
for yourself, keep it out of your dog's reach. That
means not keeping it on the kitchen table or the
kitchen counters where your dog can get into it. You
can't blame them. Again, it sounds like a plastic rattle toy.
The last thing when it comes to pep proofing, making
sure if you have guests that come into the house
that they don't bring in poisonous things. This may be
(10:22):
a bouquet of flowers that contain dangerous lilium or hemoricalous
lilies that are super poisonous to cats. This is especially
important around Easter time when people are bringing in easter lilies. Again,
these are poisonous to cats, not dogs. When people are
visiting for the holidays, maybe have family coming, and they
bring all their vitamins and their pills and they put
(10:44):
them in a little zip plastic bag and they throw
it in their suitcase. Well, those medications have weird smells,
and your dog or cat may go into the guest
room and munch on those, resulting in an emergency when
those people are visiting. So again that's another way of
being able to pet proof your house. The third thing
you can do when it comes to keeping your pets
(11:05):
out of the emergency room is leashing and training your dog.
I'm a firm believer that if you are going to
own a dog, you need to make sure they get
at least thirty minutes of exercise a day. Yep, that's right.
That's usually two fifteen minute walks a day. You opening
the back door so they're just pooping in the fence
in backyard is not exercise. Okay, we want exercise, whether
(11:28):
they're chasing a ball or exercising or pacing or jogging
or running, because that's what gets their energy out. That said,
we always want to make sure our dog is appropriate,
leash trained, and on a leash. I can't tell you
how many scenarios that I see dogs hit by a
car because they were running in the dog park and
(11:49):
they ran across the street and got hit by a car.
I will also say that's why my second rule of
dog ownership is making sure that your puppy or adult
dog goes through at least two you semesters a puppy obedience.
Even if you adopt an older dog. Remember you can
teach an old dog new tricks. When it comes to
obedience training, it's actually training you how to obedience train
(12:12):
your dog. And there's really only four to five commands
that I really care about. I don't care about shaking
or rolling over. Those are just like fun things that
you might want to do, but those are not life
saving commands. Life saving commands are sit, stay, down, off heel, come. Okay,
so maybe it's six commands, but those are really really
(12:34):
important because if your dog happens to be off leash
and is chasing a squirrel or wildlife or deer, you
need to be able to call them back immediately. I
used to have a dog, my first ever pitbull, who
was so high level obedience trained. If it was running
through the woods, I could say down and it would
lie down, even though he was in a full sprint.
(12:55):
So unless your dog will do that, or unless your
dog will one hundred percent come when you call them,
your dogs should always be un a leash, which then
leads me to the controversial cat Now. Personally, as a veterinarian,
I keep cats indoors because when they're outside, please know
that they do kill a lot of birds in wildlife. Now,
(13:18):
the reason why this is important is I also see
a lot of trauma related to outdoor cats. Even if
you think they're, oh, they're just going to stay by
my house, they don't. Not only are they defecating and
urinating in your neighbor's yards, which they don't appreciate, they're
probably eating the daylilies in your neighbors, so they're ever
risk for poisoning. They're killing wildlife, and so I always say,
(13:38):
if you do let your cat outdoors, please don't have
any bird feeders at your house. Okay, And the second
thing is please consider leash training your cat. Believe it
or not, cats can be leash trained and talked to
walk on a leash. It's quite amazing. It does take
some dedication, but remember cats can do it. You can
also consider things that keep your cat safe and enclosed,
(13:59):
like cadio. These can reduce the exposure risks to cars
and poisons and coyotes and things that can attack your cat,
so one in doubt please consider this. There's also a
lot of stray cats out there that can spread deadly
diseases like kitty AIDS or feline immuno deficiency virus or
things like feline leukemia. So again, we always want to
(14:21):
make sure to keep our pets as healthy as possible. Now,
keep in mind there are awesome ways to provide indoor
environmental enrichment. So this is going to include things like
a separate area for each cat, a separate cat tree
for each cat to climb, maybe a variety of different
toys for your cat to play with, cat nip scratching posts,
(14:44):
making sure that you have their food separated from whether
kitty litter is, making sure that you have the right
number of litter boxes and they're not near anything scary
like the water heater or hepathilter's going off randomly, So
again a lot of great information on how to keep
your pets environmental enriched. And again they can be just
as happy indoors. Again, these cats versus keeping them outdoors.
(15:06):
One in doubt. You can always go to the Ohio
State University website and just google environmental enrichment for dogs
and cats and they have fantastic information about that. We'll
continue with this really important topic right after these.
Speaker 5 (15:19):
Messages begging to hear more of your favorite show. Cool.
Full episodes of all our shows are available on demand.
Go to pedlife radio dot com to fed our entire
lineup of possome ped podcasts. Also dig us up in
iHeartRadio and iTunes. Let's talk pats lived only from Pedlife Radio.
Speaker 4 (15:43):
Let's talk past it, Let's.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Done pets on a pet Life Radio headline.
Speaker 6 (15:46):
Radio, pet live Radio dot Com.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Welcome back to earvet on pet Life Radio. We've been
talking about what you can do to keep your dog
and cat out of the er vet. So we've talked
about things like preventive medicine, keeping your dog on a leash,
making sure they went through two levels of poppy obedience,
leashing your cat, or using tatios instead of letting them
wander inside and outside, making sure we're providing appropriate environmental enrichment,
(16:29):
including for indoor cats. And then one in doubt, the
other thing I wanted to add is consider pet insurance. Now,
I will say, as soon as I rescued my second dog,
he was surrendered by a breeder for parbovirus, I got
pet insurance immediately. And the reason why I did that
is because veterinary medicine has gotten so cost prohibitive over
(16:51):
the past few years, and I will admit vet care
can be really expensive. Now, please keep in mind that
a lot of pet owners don't have pet insurance. I
think twenty years ago only about two to five percent
of pet owners had it, and that is increasing over time.
The last statistic I heard was that approximately five to
ten percent of pet owners do have it. Now this
(17:13):
varies by country. I know the United Kingdom has a
much higher rate of pet insurance. And I always say
it's really impossible to predict when an emergency is going
to occur, So having a financial buffer that's going to
relieve your stress and anxiety about your emergency veterinary care
is really really important. Please keep in mind that pet
insurance plans vary, but they can really provide peace of
(17:36):
mind letting you make the right decisions for your pets.
And again, it takes off that financial barrier. However, I
see a lot of mistakes when people are making that
decision about pet insurance. When it comes to pet insurance,
please know that all the ones that I know of
don't cover pre existing disease. Okay, they don't have Obamacare
(17:56):
for pets unfortunately, So when it comes to pet insurance,
you have to get it as early as possible because
if for some reason your dog was already diagnosed with
allergies or atopic dermatitis or flea allergy dermatitis or ur
an attract infection, that means future visits will never be
covered when it comes to those diseases. And I'll tell
(18:18):
you if you have a Golden Retriever who's got quote
unquote hate fever, what we call atopic dermatitis, and those
are seasonal allergies that can be extremely expensive and over
your pet's lifetime, that can cost like ten thousand dollars
on antibiotics, on topical medications, on dermatology appointments, on skin scrapes,
all these skin tests. So when in doubt, you really
(18:40):
want to get pet insurance before your pet is diagnosed
with any medical conditions, which means you have to get
it as soon as you get your pet. Now, Please
keep in mind, a lot of pet insurance won't cover
your pet within the first thirty days of signing up,
so you can't do it right before an emergency. You
can't do it right before you're about to take your
pet into the vet clinic because they won't be covered
(19:01):
for at least thirty days, So you really want to
do your research on it. And some will cover wellness,
like they'll cover dental procedures, they'll cover vaccines, while some
only cover emergency care. Now, I will say, if you
have a pet who's gotten into the garbage, and again
that emphasizes the importance of pet proofing. Right, so your
(19:22):
dog gets into the garbage, he eats a corn cob,
which is really dangerous. That's about the right size to
block the intestines that could be in an emergency surgery
and in the modle of the night, that could cost
five to ten thousand dollars. Again, that's one of the
reasons why I really want to advocate for pet insurance. Now,
pet insurance is typically a third party insurer, which means
(19:44):
you have to pay your vet upfront, including the deposit,
but you get reimbursed later and the degree or percentage
of reimbursement really varies with each pet insurance company. So
one in doubt, please do your research. You want to
make sure you're picking the right insurance paran's plan, and
you want to pick whether or not you're just looking
for basic coverage for emergencies and accidents versus if you're
(20:07):
picking a comprehensive plan that includes preventive care and chronic conditions.
So again, make sure to shop around, do your research.
There's a lot of great websites out there. In summary,
my goal over the past couple of years of having
these episodes of er VET and doing things that I've
done to help educate pet owners, like my great courses
(20:28):
Veterinary School for everyone caring for dogs and cats from
my two books that I've authored. It's a dog's life,
but it's your carpet and it's a cat's world. You
just live in it. My intention of doing all these
educational pieces for pet owners is truly to keep your
dog and cat as healthy as possible out of the
er and living as long as possible. A lot of
(20:49):
people get stuck in some of the details of like
what should I feed my pet? And I'm going to
say I have seen a lot of dogs who have
been on the most expensive, best dog food who unfortunately
die at young ages of genetic diseases. And I've also
seen the situation where I've had dogs that live to
a very very old age on pet foods that weren't
(21:12):
quite as high end. Right, Ultimately, when it comes to
your pet, you always want to check with your veterinarian.
My general rules again are getting that exercise, keeping our
pet in a good body condition score, not letting them
get overweight or obese, which is highly associated with osteoarthritis
and so many medical conditions like diabetes and difficulty breathing
(21:36):
in cardiopulmonary problems. Making sure that we're providing the right
environmental enrichment for our dog and cat. Making sure that
we're ensuring that our pets have preventive medicine. They're on
that fleentic medication, they're on that heartworm preventative year round.
One a doubt, do what your vet does for their
own pets and one a doubt, you can always ask
(21:58):
them what would you do in this situation. Please know
that I always want you to be an advocate for yourself.
If you do end up in the emergency room, please
make sure to bring your pet. And I know it's
really stressful, but you want to bring your wallet. You
want to make sure to bring any previous medical record,
which I always believe in having a folder where you
have copies of blood work and medical records and receipts
(22:19):
so you can always grab that in case of emergency.
If you do do routine blood work at your veterinarian,
always ask for a copy of it so you have
it in your medical record. Be an advocate for your
dog and cat. If you do end up in the er,
please know there's going to be a several hour wait,
so I always say you want to bring things for
you and your loved ones who are with you, a
(22:40):
smartphone charge or a computer or a book, things where
you can patiently wait in the er, because just to
prepare you. The weight in the er can be long,
and it's based on triage. The sickest pets are seen first,
just like a human er. The other thing that I
think is really important as a tip is one in doubt.
You want to be proactive to reduce the likely that
you have to go to the vetinary er. So if
(23:03):
your dog is vomiting on day one, you want to
call your vet and make an appointment because oftentimes they
may not be able to see you for a few days.
This is especially important as you're approaching the weekend. If
most vets are only open Monday through Friday, maybe a
couple hours or half day on Saturday. So if your
dog starts vomiting on Wednesday and he's still vomiting on Thursday,
(23:23):
you want to get to your family vet right away.
It's going to be less expensive in the least. Make
an appointment, make the earliest available appointment, and call twenty
four hours before if your pet's miraculously better. The reason
why I like to have that appointment is because I
want to make sure if my pet's not any better,
that you can see your family practitioner instead of having
(23:43):
to do it in the mid all of the night. Now,
I will say in the mill of the night. Things
are more expensive because vet ers have to be staffed
twenty four to seven, So the costs of running the
hospital twenty four to seven staffing at twenty four to seven,
having different types of tools that they need in an
emergency room versus in general practice, like blood transfusions, blood
(24:04):
work analysis that can run blood work right away, the
ability to get X ray reports and X rays done
right away, emergency surgery diagnostic tests that general practitioners or
family practitioners don't have to have. So it's understandably more expensive,
but again, we really want to make sure we're doing
everything that we can for your pets longevity and quality
(24:26):
of life. One in doubt. There are furry family members
and while they might not be able to thank us
with their words, their joy and comfort that they bring
us their undying love really is a testament to our
dedication as a responsible pet owner. With that, I'm signing
off from my last ERVET Pet Life Radio episode and
(24:46):
it's been a joy to work with Mark Winter and
with all of you. Thanks for your loyalty and listening,
and I hope to see you on a future episode
One in Doubt. You can find me at doctor Justinelee
dot com, on Facebook or Instagram at doctor Justine Lee,
or email me at doctor Justine at Petlifradio dot com.
It's been a joy being on er Vet and a
(25:07):
huge shout out to Mark Winter, our producer, for making
the show comfortable. Thanks for all that you do, and
don't forget to love up your core legged family member.
Speaker 4 (25:15):
Let's Talk Best every week on demand only on Petlife
Radios dot com.
Popular Podcasts
New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce
Football’s funniest family duo — Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs — team up to provide next-level access to life in the league as it unfolds. The two brothers and Super Bowl champions drop weekly insights about the weekly slate of games and share their INSIDE perspectives on trending NFL news and sports headlines. They also endlessly rag on each other as brothers do, chat the latest in pop culture and welcome some very popular and well-known friends to chat with them. Check out new episodes every Wednesday. Follow New Heights on the Wondery App, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free, and get exclusive content on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And join our new membership for a unique fan experience by going to the New Heights YouTube channel now!
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!
Fudd Around And Find Out
UConn basketball star Azzi Fudd brings her championship swag to iHeart Women’s Sports with Fudd Around and Find Out, a weekly podcast that takes fans along for the ride as Azzi spends her final year of college trying to reclaim the National Championship and prepare to be a first round WNBA draft pick. Ever wonder what it’s like to be a world-class athlete in the public spotlight while still managing schoolwork, friendships and family time? It’s time to Fudd Around and Find Out!