August 11, 2024 • 30 mins
Get ready to uncover the fascinating world of veterinary medicine with Dr. Kostiuk from the Animal Care Alliance! Driven by a passion for animals, Dr. Kostiuk shares her inspiring journey and the heartwarming, essential care she provides to pets and their owners, no matter their financial situation. You’ll gain insights into pressing pet health topics, from the grain-free diet debate to the vital importance of the AFCO label on pet foods. Dr. Kostiuk also offers her expert advice on managing prevalent conditions like diabetes in cats and dogs.
We tackle the critical challenges of managing overweight pets, spotlighting an incredible transformation story of a morbidly obese dachshund who embarked on a weight loss journey involving a rigorous feeding regimen and swimming exercises. Dr. Kostiuk explains the necessity of tough love when it comes to feeding pets and highlights the significant health risks obesity poses, especially for long-backed breeds. Plus, learn about the importance of dental care and get tips on the best products and techniques for keeping your pet’s teeth clean and healthy. For those with large, energetic dogs, the benefits of using a gentle leader harness are also covered.
Finally, join us for a heartwarming segment on the Community Cat Spay-Neuter Initiative, made possible by the Wayne County Foundation. Discover the impactful efforts to care for community cats, like Sylvia, and the importance of dedicated feeders in ensuring effective trapping and spaying/neutering. We also share essential tips on avoiding common toxins harmful to pets and upcoming events at the Animal Care Alliance. As a delightful end to the episode, enjoy a charming story about Monty, a dog with an amusing passion for empty toilet paper rolls, and some creative ideas for turning everyday items into entertaining toys for your furry friends. Monty just so happens to reside with Dr. Kostiuk. Tune in for an episode packed with valuable information and heartwarming stories!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Life Inscripted with Kevin Shook.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Welcome to the show, Dr Kostik.
Speaker 3 (00:06):
Thank you, I'm glad to be here.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
I'm so excited to have met you and your dog that's
going to be joining us prettysoon.
This is exciting.
He's just kind of walkinglooking out the window right now
.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
He's a beast.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
So you're at the Animal Care Alliance, right,
Correct?
Yep.
So what is your role at theAnimal Care Alliance?
Right, Correct, yep.
So what is your role at theAnimal Care Alliance?
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Well, mainly I am their kind of main veterinarian,
so doing appointments,surgeries, helping take care of
the cats that we have up foradoption or cats that come to us
in need that don't really havea home, and just doing a little
bit of everything.
(00:48):
Well, animal Care Alliance is avery unique place.
Our main mission is just tohelp animals and help people
with those animals, and webelieve that every pet and owner
should have access to care,regardless of their financial
status, and so we're working ongetting better at that and
(01:11):
trying to provide people withmore options so that they can
seek care for their pet.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Very cool, so how long have you been doing this?
Speaker 3 (01:23):
In general.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Now I have to do basic math, so probably 15 years
.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
What.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
I don't know.
What is that 2009?
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
That's 15 years.
Time goes by fast Time flies.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
So what inspires you to get into being a vet?
Speaker 3 (01:45):
You know it's a really cliche answer, but I just
loved animals.
I would rescue the baby birdsthat didn't really need rescuing
, they were just trying to learnhow to fly.
We had horses, cats, dogs.
I would go to the place that Iwould ride horses at and I would
bring home a kitten, and my momwouldn't be home from work yet,
or my dad, and then when they'dget home I would say, mom, we
(02:06):
found a kitten on the side ofthe road and she'd say Take it
back to Andrea's.
So she knew, but I kept tryingto give us more cats.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
But yeah, then, going to college, I wanted to do
research on birds and thenfinally, about my junior year of
college, I realized Nope, nope,it's actually a veterinary
medicine that I want to do verycool so, uh, being in veterinary
care, what are some things youcould share with our viewers
about like maybe some um commonmisconceptions, um about like
(02:39):
health problems you might haveencountered?
Um, are there some things thatpeople should avoid?
Like I know, when you pick outyour dog food, cat food, people
are like grain grain free, graingrain free.
And then you know now you walkdown the aisle and there's like
all types of additives and stuffthat you see at the grocery.
(03:01):
So tell me about you know youcould kind of start with that
like some of the best things tolook for.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Sure, well, I mean dog foods.
I feel like there's a new brandcoming out daily, it feels like
, and so I just try.
I tell my clients that there'sa governing body called AFCO and
it's their job to make surethat the protein, carbohydrates,
the minerals all meet a pet'sneeds.
(03:27):
And there's two ways you canget an AFCO label on your pet
food bag, and that is byplugging the ingredients into a
computer and the computer saysyou have the right amounts of
everything.
Or you can do a feeding trialwhere they actually feed the
food to dogs and cats and makesure that it is appropriate for
them.
The food to dogs and cats andmake sure that it is appropriate
(03:48):
for them.
That costs a lot of money and abit of time, so not a lot of
companies are able to do that,but that's kind of the gold
standard we go through.
You know there's a wholecontroversy about grain-free.
Is it causing heart disease, acertain type of heart disease in
dogs that don't necessarily getthat type of heart disease, and
is food to blame for it?
And we're still trying tofigure that out, which is why I
(04:10):
just kind of say stick withthese main guys.
They've been around forever.
We know that your pets can dowell on them, but sometimes it's
just feed what you can and I'llhave going on a little bit of a
tangent but diabetes.
So dogs can get mainly get typeone diabetes.
(04:30):
So it's not necessarilyreversible, it's.
It's your pancreas isn't ableto produce the insulin and then
you have type two, which iswhere you get the insulin
resistance and we see cats getthat a lot, kind of overweight,
big, chonky boy, orange catslike to get type two diabetes
and that can be reversed and soa low carb diet is important for
(04:51):
them and honestly, like thefancy feast and the like
friskies, canned food are reallylow in carbs.
So while that's not like ourgold standard food, I have a lot
of people that I tell to justgo out and buy that for their
cats so we can get their pet inremission.
Now we do have prescriptionfood that can do that, but
(05:12):
especially our clientele justdon't have the means to spend
that much on food.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Right, you mentioned, like the grain-free, causing
cardiovascular issues.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
I was told that about my cat, because I, because I
have a sphinx okay and the stayaway from the grain free,
because it could causecardiovascular issues yeah, cats
are a little unique in that, um, they can't produce their own
taurine, and so you need to havea diet that has taurine in it,
and if you feed vegetarianyou're not going to get proper
amounts of it, so it's more of avegetarian versus grain-free.
(05:45):
And then some breeds are morepredisposed to heart disease in
cats and dogs.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
So you've been in this for roughly 15 years.
How have you seen things evolvesince then?
Whether it's technology thataids, it's medicine, I imagine,
uh, pharmaceuticals is kind ofsimilar um to, and I know they
use some, um, I think it wasketamine as a sedative and stuff
(06:16):
.
So so do we as humans, but um.
So what are some things you'veseen evolve throughout those 15
years?
Speaker 3 (06:27):
I mean a couple of things.
One, just a shift to pets notbeing just a property or a farm
animal, that they're really apart of your family, and so the
care that they can get hasevolved and specialized more.
That they can get has evolvedand specialized more.
So we have dog dentists,ophthalmologists, orthopedic
(06:49):
surgeons.
I mean if there's a specialtyin human medicine, most likely
there's going to be acounterpart in veterinary
medicine.
We've also evolved a lot on ourdrugs.
We used to see mange as a big,big issue and when I first
started out we'd have to takelike large animal ivermectin and
(07:11):
I'd have to titrate it up sothat they would get used to it
and not get like neurologic sideeffects.
And now we've got fleamedication that as a monthly
preventative you can give it andit'll treat the mites, and so
it's been way easier to treatthose and I rarely see them now.
And then our drugs we're gettinginto, I think in the human
(07:34):
medicine as well, a lot of thosebiologics where the monoclonal
antibodies, all those fancynames where it's really targeted
medication, and so a while backit would be here steroids if
you have an itch or if you havesomething that's causing your
immune system to go haywire.
And now we have a lot morespecialized medication that we
(07:55):
can give that don't have thesame side effects as something
like steroids.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
So it's kind of like you know, in the human
pharmacology is kind of likethis targets the alpha one
receptors, beta two receptors.
So is that kind of now we'regetting very honed in on um a
solution for a specific problem,versus throw the kitchen sink
at it.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Yep, that's very cool .
So is there anything, um, Iwould say like signs and
symptoms?
I'm trying to think ofsomething that would be very
beneficial for pet owners, um,when they hear and watch this um
signs and symptoms of any of umwith animals cats that are
(08:38):
unique, that most people wouldnot know to look out for.
That could maybe be earlybecause, I know there's like a
lot of mythological stuff likeif, if your cat licks its paw
every day, right?
Speaker 3 (08:53):
or the, the dry nose and all of that yeah, um, I mean
, I guess being conscientious of, of their eating and drinking
habits, um, a lot of diseasescan start with them maybe
drinking more and peeing a bitmore, I would say.
(09:14):
I mean, the one main thing isthat just getting them in for
yearly exams is going to be thebest thing, because there are
some things that you just don'tcheck as a pet owner at home on
a regular basis, that you knowyour vet's office will, I mean,
heck my own dog.
I'm not listening to him andlooking down his ears all the
(09:35):
time and so we don't pet in ourhouse.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
But yeah, just getting them in for a yearly
visit so they can get that noseto tail exam and then you know
getting a proper weight on them.
You may not like when I took myguy and normally he's 175
pounds and I finally weighed himand now he's 190 and you know
me as a pet owner I'm like oops,didn't mean to do that.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Right.
But he'll be sad if you don'tfeed him, if you put him on a
diet.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
No, he's managing quite well, is he?
I mean he, he gets what hewants off the counter, so that's
where he gets his extracalories.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
So okay, all right.
So kind of shifting gears alittle bit.
Um, throughout your wholecareer.
Um, is there like any one verymemorable moment or memorable
case that you've had?
Um, I know you were sharingsome pictures with me earlier of
some animals that that mighthave been attacked and
(10:36):
everything that you took care ofthat are healthy as all could
get.
Is there like one that reallysticks out that still kind of
hangs on the heartstrings alittle bit?
Speaker 3 (10:49):
I mean I had there's a couple of them.
I had a dachshund that he wasmorbidly obese and his owners
loved him very much and hewouldn't eat people food and he
had so many issues going on withhim and he was kind of mean to
the owners and they wouldn't lethim medicate.
But mainly we needed to getweight off him because
(11:13):
dachshunds with their long backscan blow a disc and become
paralyzed in the back end.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Oh, wow.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
It's just kind of anything with those long back
dogs they're just prone togetting those blown discs.
So we needed to get his weightdown and the owners couldn't do
the tough love.
And so he kind of came to ourclinic and I enrolled him in
what I called my fat camp and Ioffered him food for 30 minutes
twice a day, no treats.
(11:40):
He lasted eight days withouteating dog food and then he
finally started eating dog food.
I took him home to my bathtuband I put a life vest on him and
we made him swim for someexercise.
We got him from, I think, about38 pounds to, I think, 20
pounds.
But you know, dogs are verysmart, as are cats.
(12:02):
But a lot of people will startoh, my dog didn't want to eat
that, so I sprinkled somechicken on it.
And then, oh, he stopped eatingthat, so now I sprinkled some
steak.
Well, they figured out that ifthey refuse something, mom and
dad are going to add somethingbetter.
So they're holding out to seewhat can they get from this.
And so for dogs we candefinitely do that tough love
where we offer them food andthen we pull it up.
(12:24):
Cats you cannot do that.
You can throw them into liverfailure.
So cats are a little differentbreed.
If they go without food for toolong, all their fat stores in
their body they're starting touse them up and metabolize them
and so it goes to their liverand it really overwhelms their
liver and then they get reallysick.
So tough love for dogs, no,tough love for cats.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
I give my tough love all the time, like I, I can ball
him up.
I mean, he's not like a cat,yeah, he's just like a dog yeah
um no, that's really cool.
Um, so there's some things.
Um, you're talking about somewe're.
We were talking earlier aboutsome health tips when it comes
(13:09):
to brushing teeth and Iunderstand you brought somebody
to help you demonstrate this.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
I did.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
So, without further ado, I think we should bring him
in here.
Okay.
Life Inscripted with KevinShipp.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
Well, this is Monty.
He is my three and a half yearold Irish Wolfhound and he's
going to help us demonstrate howto brush your dog's teeth.
One of the most importantthings we can do is their dental
health, and the more you can doat home, the less likely
they'll need to go underanesthesia to have a dental
cleaning and maybe get someteeth pulled.
(13:46):
So, daily brushing is best.
There are also.
There's a website, theVeterinary Oral Health Council,
and they have a list of productsthat have gone through kind of
testing by veterinary dentiststo be effective in removing
mostly plaque.
Plaque is that sticky stuffthat forms on your teeth after
like a few days of not brushingand then tartar is what
mineralizes on the teeth andmost few days of not brushing
(14:08):
and then tartar is whatmineralizes on the teeth and
most of the products out theredon't get the tartar off.
That requires a dental cleaning.
So the more you can do at home,the less likely you'll need to
have a dental cleaning done.
So we have they make specialpet toothbrushes and toothpaste.
You can't use people toothpastebecause they can't continually
(14:30):
swallow that fluoride.
But this comes in variousflavors.
This might be chicken or mintpoultry oh yeah, it's a man, so
poultry slash mint, but theyhave beef liver and so what you
do is I just kind of keep themouth shut and I just spend like
20 seconds.
(14:50):
Just do the outside of theteeth.
You don't really need to worryabout the insides.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
He likes mint poultry .
Speaker 3 (15:03):
And I don't know, if you can see, he's actually had
dental work done, so he'smissing a tooth here.
Oh yeah, the bottom canines areactually a little shorter than
they should be, but he was bornwith his canines being too
narrow and so when he closed hismouth they would try and like
stab into his palate.
Ah, so he actually went to adentist, a veterinary dentist.
(15:25):
He had a tooth pulled.
He had one, he had a root canaldone on it and then the two
bottom teeth they had to kind ofthey're still alive, but they
had to cut off the crown so thatthey didn't stab into his
palate.
So now he's got a nice, healthymouth and he gets his teeth
brushed every day.
But, as you can see, it took me15, 20 seconds and it wasn't a
(15:48):
bother to him at all.
If you can hear us talking overhis panting.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
He's a very tolerant dog.
Hello, how are you, buddy?
Is that wild?
Huh, what's that all about?
What's that all about Oof?
He's like yeah, no.
He's also wearing.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
I like to recommend this kind of harness on big
pulling dogs or even smallpulling dogs.
But this is called a gentleleader, so what it does is this
goes around the mouth.
It's not a muzzle or anything,it doesn't prevent his ability
to open.
And then it snaps behind theears and then when he pulls, it
(16:37):
pulls his nose down.
And so in traditional harnesses, when you put it on, when they
feel that pull like they justhave an instinct, like they're
going to just pull against, thatkind of like a sled dog, and so
when this pulls their head down, it's really hard for them to
continue to pull forward withtheir head down.
So it's, it's a good way tostop them pulling.
(16:58):
And you know, every now andthen he gets annoyed and he
wants it off.
But they tolerate it reallywell.
But I can't have him pull medown the street.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Let's see what would you say, you sit up and just
kind of up and grab a leg goodboy.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
And he's how tall?
Well, at his shoulders he'sabout a little shy of 37 inches
at the shoulders and when hestands up he's probably over 6
foot oh easily, yeah, easily.
Yeah, I mean, the bad and goodthing about being a vet is when
you get like a purebred dog oreven a cross like you kind of
define them by the diseases theycan get.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Like oh, you want a golden.
Oh, they all get this, this andthis.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
Like oh, I want an Irish bullpup.
Well, these are the diseaseshe's going to get.
Life Inscripted with KevinShipp.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
So that was really cool, cool demonstration.
It wore him out.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
Well, he gets worn out by simple things.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
I mean, if I was eight foot tall and huge, yeah,
I'd be wore out too.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
Yeah, we'll go on a walk and he'll find a shady spot
.
He's like I'm just going to laydown.
So how old did you say he is?
He's three and a half.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
How old do they get?
He's three and a half.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
How old do they get?
Well, my last female she wasabout ten and a half when we had
to put her down.
So if we get to double digitswith these giant breeds, I'm
really happy With him being onthe high end of the spectrum for
height for wolfhounds.
If I get him to eight, I'll'llbe pretty happy, which is a
(18:51):
little depressing, um you'relike, I got attached to him.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Yeah, I mean, it took me seven and a half years, but
now we're attached and but youget those chihuahuas that you
know live till.
They're like 18 um no, I havethe.
I have the hairless cat.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
I've had pit bulls and they were amazing, and um
french bulldogs, smallest I'veever had yeah but no ankle
biters yeah, I mean, you know,do they tend to be the ones that
want to go after me, maybe, butum, since it says you know,
usually if I have an ownerholding a chihuahua, I need them
(19:29):
to like back it into me and Igrab it like this so that
they're not trying to bite me.
But they're spicy.
We appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
It's all right.
So veterinarians play a hugerole in promoting the health for
the pets.
How do you do that locallythrough the Animal Care Alliance
?
What are some programs thatthey might offer?
What's some things you couldshare with us.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
Sure, well, we do monthly vaccination clinics just
because you know kind of a herdhealth mentality.
If we get the majority of thepopulation vaccinated then we'll
less likely have parvooutbreaks or distemper.
And especially for those wherefinances are concerned, that's
where you can go in, pay for thevaccines and leave with them
(20:20):
updated.
Now, those don't have the noseto tail exam, nose to tail exam.
So we still recommend that ifthey have any concerns, um, they
should get a full exam, andideally just a full exam, even
if they don't have any obviousconcerns.
But from a health standpoint,um, especially for the community
, at least getting themvaccinated is doing something.
(20:42):
Um, we also do a lot of spayneuter, affordable spayay-neuter
.
We are doing kind of thosecommunity cats that maybe don't
have one particular owner.
Maybe you know someone like,let's see, recently we have a
little kitty in our care namedSylvia, and she came to us by a
(21:05):
very nice woman.
Her grandmother kind of has acolony of cats.
Through no fault of her own,some were dropped off and then,
you know, one, two, become eight, ten, and so this kitty had a
problem with its eyeball andthey brought it in and they
wanted to do what was best forit, but putting it back in that
(21:26):
environment wasn't going to bewhat is best for it.
So we don't normally like totake on just healthy cats, but
since this one was more of amedical kitty, we had her sign
them over to us.
We had to take out her eye.
We spayed her, we got her niceand healthy and then the
following few weeks we trappedall of the cats at our grandma's
(21:47):
place and then we spayed andneutered them so that population
wouldn't continue to grow.
And so we were awarded agenerous grant by Wayne County
Foundation to provide thosespay-neuter services of those
community or outdoor kitties atno cost to those people that are
feeding them or finding an area.
(22:09):
So what we ask for is that thereis a dedicated person feeding
them so that we can get them ona schedule, because our
spay-neuter attempts don'treally do much unless we can get
75% of that population.
So we want to try and trap themall at once and bring them in
(22:29):
for spay-neuter.
That way, if you're onlytrapping a few, they start
getting a little wary of thosetraps and then they become more
difficult to trap and get themin.
But we have them, feed them ona schedule so that when we pull
the food, we can put food in thetraps and they'll.
They'll go in the traps andthen we fix them, we vaccinate
(22:51):
them.
If there's any obvious medicalthings that we need to treat,
we'll treat them, keep them fora little while but then release
them to back where they camefrom and again at no cost to the
to the pet owners due to ourour grant from wayne county
foundation that's pretty cool,because that's I mean, that's a
hard thing to get ahead of and Idon't know if we'll ever get
(23:13):
ahead of that.
It's going to take a lot of work.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
Stray cats?
And right, I have.
I mean, I have one that comesacross my house.
Well, we have like three thatwalks across my house in town.
Speaker 3 (23:23):
Right.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
Um, one will just stop and hang out with me if I'm
outside yeah, like you're kindof cool, but don't know where it
goes, don't know where itbelongs, where it eats.
It's huge.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
I mean, if it's huge, it's eaten somewhere it's, it's
, it's well taken care ofsomewhere yeah, and I mean cats
are smart, so you may thinkyou're the one feeding it, but
it goes three doors down andthat person thinks they're the
one feeding it, and a block downthat person thinks they're the
one feeding it.
So, um, I know it's a hardconcept to to get behind
(23:53):
sometimes, but some of theseoutdoor kitties, if they look
healthy, um, we spay, neuterthem and they get to remain
outside, um, and then eventuallythat population will stabilize
and we shouldn't have as manykind of outdoor kitties as we do
now.
Now, if they are ill, look sick, unkempt, or if they're like
(24:14):
little kittens, then those arecategories where we want to take
them in and potentially findthem a good home and fix them up
.
So you know, by no means are wesaying we're going to leave all
cats outside and it's theirproblem.
Good luck.
If they're healthy, they'regetting fed, they get to stay
out.
But If they're healthy, they'regetting fed, they get to stay
out.
But if they're unhealthy orthey're young, then we'll do
something more dramatic withthem.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
That's really cool, kind of wrapping up.
So are there any eventsscheduled events coming up?
Are there any spray neuterclinics coming up Certain days
times?
Speaker 3 (24:46):
locations, Certain days, times, locations Right now
.
I think our next vaccine clinicis going to be, if this is a
Saturday, Saturday, August 17th,whatever Saturday falls around
that area I think it's the 17thand that's from 8 to noon, and
so you just come in, you pay,get, get vaccines and and head
(25:10):
out the door, Um, you can pickup some flea product.
Um, you know, if it's aprescription item, then we'll
need to do a full exam andthat'll have to be another day.
But over the counter, items youcan pick up and head on out.
And then we are working on some, some spay neuter days, um, to
be determined.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
So is this um vaccination clinic?
Is it at Animal Care Alliance?
Speaker 3 (25:33):
Yep over at Animal Care Alliance.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
And the address is 1353 Abington.
Pike.
We asked Dr Matt that one dayshe guessed it right.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
I will say I probably didn't know that until maybe
the last eight or nine months,the first year I worked there.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
It's hard to remember numbers sometimes.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
It is.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
You've got so many other things going on.
You know you can only fit somuch up here.
Well, is there anything elseyou would like to share with
everyone before we wrap this up?
Speaker 3 (26:07):
I guess a few things would be maybe some common
toxins or things that pets canget into, or to be aware of Um
cats really the main one islilies Um, they can't even
really lick the pollen off alily.
Um, it can cause kidney failure.
So if you have cats especiallyaround Easter and spring
(26:29):
holidays someone brings youflowers make sure there are no
lilies in that.
Tylenol, like over-the-counterpain medication, is tricky
because you want to help yourpet if you see that they're in
pain, and so a lot of placeswill sell over-the-counter
aspirin, doggy aspirin, to giveto their pets.
But if you come into the vetoffice and you've given aspirin
(26:50):
previously or within you knowdays of coming to the office, we
have to hold off and wait onprescribing stronger pain meds,
stronger anti-inflammatories.
So if you can get into the vet,I would hold off on doing
over-the-counter painmedications because that can
sometimes inhibit what we canprescribe.
But other common toxins withdogs are going to be chocolate
(27:14):
onions, garlic, macadamia nuts.
Xylitol is becoming a big oneand that's kind of a hidden
danger because some productslike sugar-free gum will have
xylitol in it and that can causetheir blood sugar to drop
dangerously low and if they getthrough that, then it can cause
liver failure.
So it's it's not a fun one.
(27:35):
Antifreeze we oftentimes get alot of antifreeze cases in the
winter, unfortunately.
Antifreeze, I think, has like asweet taste to it and sometimes
draws dogs to it.
I thought they were supposed toquit manufacturing it with all
of the bad stuff I hope so itwas a while back, like it's not
(27:57):
fun to treat right, and I mightbe thinking, uh, the 50, the
already diluted stuff, but itwas supposed to be manufactured
and without all that stuff um,and then rat bait and we get a
lot of rat poison cases, um, andI think they're phasing out the
ones where it just stops theblood ability to clot, um, and
(28:18):
those were a little bit easierto treat.
And now we get ones that aremore the neurotoxins, so they
come in with seizures and othermental issues that are more
tricky to to treat um, are thereany toys, dog toys, because you
could, there's, you go to anypet store.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
There's miles of dog toys and some people are like,
well, that might be kind of badfor them, or, um, or they're.
You know, I like the, I love.
When I had my pit I was alwaysa kong, big kong.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
Yeah, peanut butter kongs are great right um, I do
like, like for the big chewers.
Um, the problem with, like,some of those hard bones and
everything the dentists you knowI would always say if you hit
your knee with the toy and ithurts you, then it has the
potential to break a tooth.
So if you do any of those hardtoys, you're gonna run the risk
(29:07):
of fracturing a tooth, whichthen would need to be extracted.
Or if you wanted to save thetooth doing a root canal, um, so
I think kongs are really goodtoys and you can even I'll put
like dog food and then seal thecaps up with some peanut butter.
You can throw it in the freezer.
Um, you can do the same withtoilet paper rolls.
So, fun fact for Monty, hisfavorite treat is a toilet paper
(29:32):
roll.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
With nothing in it.
With nothing in it, it'scardboard.
Speaker 3 (29:37):
No, he was busting into our bathrooms.
I'm like I thought it was mychildren making a mess and no,
it was him stealing the toiletpaper roll.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
That's great, because that's kind of like how much
money have you probably spent indog toys and all you needed was
a toilet roll?
Speaker 3 (29:50):
well, I mean it's very short-lived because he just
eats it.
Yeah, I mean he held one in hismouth like a big cigar and he
was just drooling out of itbecause he was so happy so, but
you can use those to again putdog food and and uh treats and
and peanut butter and throw themin the freezer and then those
can be like little busy toys forthem.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
That's awesome.
Is he asleep?
Speaker 3 (30:18):
He's resting.
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
Well, I appreciate you guys coming up here.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
Yeah, thanks for having us.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
It was a treat having him up here and the
demonstration, although, likewhat did you say, this was
poultry mint yeah, it's uh likeverbex cet poultry flavored yeah
, but yeah, you know if I'm not.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
Liver is more of your thing, go for it.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
I'm not switching my toothpaste anytime soon to
poultry you get no fluorideprotection here, though, so
maybe you want somethingdifferent.
All right, we will wrap this up.
And again, Animal Care Alliance.
Dr Kostick, it was a pleasure.
Life Inscripted with KevinShipp.
Life Inscripted with Kevin Shook.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Welcome to the show, Dr Kostik.
Speaker 3 (00:06):
Thank you, I'm glad to be here.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
I'm so excited to have met you and your dog that's
going to be joining us prettysoon.
This is exciting.
He's just kind of walkinglooking out the window right now
.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
He's a beast.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
So you're at the Animal Care Alliance, right,
Correct?
Yep.
So what is your role at theAnimal Care Alliance?
Right, Correct, yep.
So what is your role at theAnimal Care Alliance?
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Well, mainly I am their kind of main veterinarian,
so doing appointments,surgeries, helping take care of
the cats that we have up foradoption or cats that come to us
in need that don't really havea home, and just doing a little
bit of everything.
(00:48):
Well, animal Care Alliance is avery unique place.
Our main mission is just tohelp animals and help people
with those animals, and webelieve that every pet and owner
should have access to care,regardless of their financial
status, and so we're working ongetting better at that and
(01:11):
trying to provide people withmore options so that they can
seek care for their pet.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Very cool, so how long have you been doing this?
Speaker 3 (01:23):
In general.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Now I have to do basic math, so probably 15 years
.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
What.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
I don't know.
What is that 2009?
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
That's 15 years.
Time goes by fast Time flies.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
So what inspires you to get into being a vet?
Speaker 3 (01:45):
You know it's a really cliche answer, but I just
loved animals.
I would rescue the baby birdsthat didn't really need rescuing
, they were just trying to learnhow to fly.
We had horses, cats, dogs.
I would go to the place that Iwould ride horses at and I would
bring home a kitten, and my momwouldn't be home from work yet,
or my dad, and then when they'dget home I would say, mom, we
(02:06):
found a kitten on the side ofthe road and she'd say Take it
back to Andrea's.
So she knew, but I kept tryingto give us more cats.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
But yeah, then, going to college, I wanted to do
research on birds and thenfinally, about my junior year of
college, I realized Nope, nope,it's actually a veterinary
medicine that I want to do verycool so, uh, being in veterinary
care, what are some things youcould share with our viewers
about like maybe some um commonmisconceptions, um about like
(02:39):
health problems you might haveencountered?
Um, are there some things thatpeople should avoid?
Like I know, when you pick outyour dog food, cat food, people
are like grain grain free, graingrain free.
And then you know now you walkdown the aisle and there's like
all types of additives and stuffthat you see at the grocery.
(03:01):
So tell me about you know youcould kind of start with that
like some of the best things tolook for.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Sure, well, I mean dog foods.
I feel like there's a new brandcoming out daily, it feels like
, and so I just try.
I tell my clients that there'sa governing body called AFCO and
it's their job to make surethat the protein, carbohydrates,
the minerals all meet a pet'sneeds.
(03:27):
And there's two ways you canget an AFCO label on your pet
food bag, and that is byplugging the ingredients into a
computer and the computer saysyou have the right amounts of
everything.
Or you can do a feeding trialwhere they actually feed the
food to dogs and cats and makesure that it is appropriate for
them.
The food to dogs and cats andmake sure that it is appropriate
(03:48):
for them.
That costs a lot of money and abit of time, so not a lot of
companies are able to do that,but that's kind of the gold
standard we go through.
You know there's a wholecontroversy about grain-free.
Is it causing heart disease, acertain type of heart disease in
dogs that don't necessarily getthat type of heart disease, and
is food to blame for it?
And we're still trying tofigure that out, which is why I
(04:10):
just kind of say stick withthese main guys.
They've been around forever.
We know that your pets can dowell on them, but sometimes it's
just feed what you can and I'llhave going on a little bit of a
tangent but diabetes.
So dogs can get mainly get typeone diabetes.
(04:30):
So it's not necessarilyreversible, it's.
It's your pancreas isn't ableto produce the insulin and then
you have type two, which iswhere you get the insulin
resistance and we see cats getthat a lot, kind of overweight,
big, chonky boy, orange catslike to get type two diabetes
and that can be reversed and soa low carb diet is important for
(04:51):
them and honestly, like thefancy feast and the like
friskies, canned food are reallylow in carbs.
So while that's not like ourgold standard food, I have a lot
of people that I tell to justgo out and buy that for their
cats so we can get their pet inremission.
Now we do have prescriptionfood that can do that, but
(05:12):
especially our clientele justdon't have the means to spend
that much on food.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Right, you mentioned, like the grain-free, causing
cardiovascular issues.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
I was told that about my cat, because I, because I
have a sphinx okay and the stayaway from the grain free,
because it could causecardiovascular issues yeah, cats
are a little unique in that, um, they can't produce their own
taurine, and so you need to havea diet that has taurine in it,
and if you feed vegetarianyou're not going to get proper
amounts of it, so it's more of avegetarian versus grain-free.
(05:45):
And then some breeds are morepredisposed to heart disease in
cats and dogs.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
So you've been in this for roughly 15 years.
How have you seen things evolvesince then?
Whether it's technology thataids, it's medicine, I imagine,
uh, pharmaceuticals is kind ofsimilar um to, and I know they
use some, um, I think it wasketamine as a sedative and stuff
(06:16):
.
So so do we as humans, but um.
So what are some things you'veseen evolve throughout those 15
years?
Speaker 3 (06:27):
I mean a couple of things.
One, just a shift to pets notbeing just a property or a farm
animal, that they're really apart of your family, and so the
care that they can get hasevolved and specialized more.
That they can get has evolvedand specialized more.
So we have dog dentists,ophthalmologists, orthopedic
(06:49):
surgeons.
I mean if there's a specialtyin human medicine, most likely
there's going to be acounterpart in veterinary
medicine.
We've also evolved a lot on ourdrugs.
We used to see mange as a big,big issue and when I first
started out we'd have to takelike large animal ivermectin and
(07:11):
I'd have to titrate it up sothat they would get used to it
and not get like neurologic sideeffects.
And now we've got fleamedication that as a monthly
preventative you can give it andit'll treat the mites, and so
it's been way easier to treatthose and I rarely see them now.
And then our drugs we're gettinginto, I think in the human
(07:34):
medicine as well, a lot of thosebiologics where the monoclonal
antibodies, all those fancynames where it's really targeted
medication, and so a while backit would be here steroids if
you have an itch or if you havesomething that's causing your
immune system to go haywire.
And now we have a lot morespecialized medication that we
(07:55):
can give that don't have thesame side effects as something
like steroids.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
So it's kind of like you know, in the human
pharmacology is kind of likethis targets the alpha one
receptors, beta two receptors.
So is that kind of now we'regetting very honed in on um a
solution for a specific problem,versus throw the kitchen sink
at it.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Yep, that's very cool .
So is there anything, um, Iwould say like signs and
symptoms?
I'm trying to think ofsomething that would be very
beneficial for pet owners, um,when they hear and watch this um
signs and symptoms of any of umwith animals cats that are
(08:38):
unique, that most people wouldnot know to look out for.
That could maybe be earlybecause, I know there's like a
lot of mythological stuff likeif, if your cat licks its paw
every day, right?
Speaker 3 (08:53):
or the, the dry nose and all of that yeah, um, I mean
, I guess being conscientious of, of their eating and drinking
habits, um, a lot of diseasescan start with them maybe
drinking more and peeing a bitmore, I would say.
(09:14):
I mean, the one main thing isthat just getting them in for
yearly exams is going to be thebest thing, because there are
some things that you just don'tcheck as a pet owner at home on
a regular basis, that you knowyour vet's office will, I mean,
heck my own dog.
I'm not listening to him andlooking down his ears all the
(09:35):
time and so we don't pet in ourhouse.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
But yeah, just getting them in for a yearly
visit so they can get that noseto tail exam and then you know
getting a proper weight on them.
You may not like when I took myguy and normally he's 175
pounds and I finally weighed himand now he's 190 and you know
me as a pet owner I'm like oops,didn't mean to do that.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Right.
But he'll be sad if you don'tfeed him, if you put him on a
diet.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
No, he's managing quite well, is he?
I mean he, he gets what hewants off the counter, so that's
where he gets his extracalories.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
So okay, all right.
So kind of shifting gears alittle bit.
Um, throughout your wholecareer.
Um, is there like any one verymemorable moment or memorable
case that you've had?
Um, I know you were sharingsome pictures with me earlier of
some animals that that mighthave been attacked and
(10:36):
everything that you took care ofthat are healthy as all could
get.
Is there like one that reallysticks out that still kind of
hangs on the heartstrings alittle bit?
Speaker 3 (10:49):
I mean I had there's a couple of them.
I had a dachshund that he wasmorbidly obese and his owners
loved him very much and hewouldn't eat people food and he
had so many issues going on withhim and he was kind of mean to
the owners and they wouldn't lethim medicate.
But mainly we needed to getweight off him because
(11:13):
dachshunds with their long backscan blow a disc and become
paralyzed in the back end.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Oh, wow.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
It's just kind of anything with those long back
dogs they're just prone togetting those blown discs.
So we needed to get his weightdown and the owners couldn't do
the tough love.
And so he kind of came to ourclinic and I enrolled him in
what I called my fat camp and Ioffered him food for 30 minutes
twice a day, no treats.
(11:40):
He lasted eight days withouteating dog food and then he
finally started eating dog food.
I took him home to my bathtuband I put a life vest on him and
we made him swim for someexercise.
We got him from, I think, about38 pounds to, I think, 20
pounds.
But you know, dogs are verysmart, as are cats.
(12:02):
But a lot of people will startoh, my dog didn't want to eat
that, so I sprinkled somechicken on it.
And then, oh, he stopped eatingthat, so now I sprinkled some
steak.
Well, they figured out that ifthey refuse something, mom and
dad are going to add somethingbetter.
So they're holding out to seewhat can they get from this.
And so for dogs we candefinitely do that tough love
where we offer them food andthen we pull it up.
(12:24):
Cats you cannot do that.
You can throw them into liverfailure.
So cats are a little differentbreed.
If they go without food for toolong, all their fat stores in
their body they're starting touse them up and metabolize them
and so it goes to their liverand it really overwhelms their
liver and then they get reallysick.
So tough love for dogs, no,tough love for cats.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
I give my tough love all the time, like I, I can ball
him up.
I mean, he's not like a cat,yeah, he's just like a dog yeah
um no, that's really cool.
Um, so there's some things.
Um, you're talking about somewe're.
We were talking earlier aboutsome health tips when it comes
(13:09):
to brushing teeth and Iunderstand you brought somebody
to help you demonstrate this.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
I did.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
So, without further ado, I think we should bring him
in here.
Okay.
Life Inscripted with KevinShipp.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
Well, this is Monty.
He is my three and a half yearold Irish Wolfhound and he's
going to help us demonstrate howto brush your dog's teeth.
One of the most importantthings we can do is their dental
health, and the more you can doat home, the less likely
they'll need to go underanesthesia to have a dental
cleaning and maybe get someteeth pulled.
(13:46):
So, daily brushing is best.
There are also.
There's a website, theVeterinary Oral Health Council,
and they have a list of productsthat have gone through kind of
testing by veterinary dentiststo be effective in removing
mostly plaque.
Plaque is that sticky stuffthat forms on your teeth after
like a few days of not brushingand then tartar is what
mineralizes on the teeth andmost few days of not brushing
(14:08):
and then tartar is whatmineralizes on the teeth and
most of the products out theredon't get the tartar off.
That requires a dental cleaning.
So the more you can do at home,the less likely you'll need to
have a dental cleaning done.
So we have they make specialpet toothbrushes and toothpaste.
You can't use people toothpastebecause they can't continually
(14:30):
swallow that fluoride.
But this comes in variousflavors.
This might be chicken or mintpoultry oh yeah, it's a man, so
poultry slash mint, but theyhave beef liver and so what you
do is I just kind of keep themouth shut and I just spend like
20 seconds.
(14:50):
Just do the outside of theteeth.
You don't really need to worryabout the insides.
Speaker 2 (15:00):
He likes mint poultry .
Speaker 3 (15:03):
And I don't know, if you can see, he's actually had
dental work done, so he'smissing a tooth here.
Oh yeah, the bottom canines areactually a little shorter than
they should be, but he was bornwith his canines being too
narrow and so when he closed hismouth they would try and like
stab into his palate.
Ah, so he actually went to adentist, a veterinary dentist.
(15:25):
He had a tooth pulled.
He had one, he had a root canaldone on it and then the two
bottom teeth they had to kind ofthey're still alive, but they
had to cut off the crown so thatthey didn't stab into his
palate.
So now he's got a nice, healthymouth and he gets his teeth
brushed every day.
But, as you can see, it took me15, 20 seconds and it wasn't a
(15:48):
bother to him at all.
If you can hear us talking overhis panting.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
He's a very tolerant dog.
Hello, how are you, buddy?
Is that wild?
Huh, what's that all about?
What's that all about Oof?
He's like yeah, no.
He's also wearing.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
I like to recommend this kind of harness on big
pulling dogs or even smallpulling dogs.
But this is called a gentleleader, so what it does is this
goes around the mouth.
It's not a muzzle or anything,it doesn't prevent his ability
to open.
And then it snaps behind theears and then when he pulls, it
(16:37):
pulls his nose down.
And so in traditional harnesses, when you put it on, when they
feel that pull like they justhave an instinct, like they're
going to just pull against, thatkind of like a sled dog, and so
when this pulls their head down, it's really hard for them to
continue to pull forward withtheir head down.
So it's, it's a good way tostop them pulling.
(16:58):
And you know, every now andthen he gets annoyed and he
wants it off.
But they tolerate it reallywell.
But I can't have him pull medown the street.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Let's see what would you say, you sit up and just
kind of up and grab a leg goodboy.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
And he's how tall?
Well, at his shoulders he'sabout a little shy of 37 inches
at the shoulders and when hestands up he's probably over 6
foot oh easily, yeah, easily.
Yeah, I mean, the bad and goodthing about being a vet is when
you get like a purebred dog oreven a cross like you kind of
define them by the diseases theycan get.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Like oh, you want a golden.
Oh, they all get this, this andthis.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
Like oh, I want an Irish bullpup.
Well, these are the diseaseshe's going to get.
Life Inscripted with KevinShipp.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
So that was really cool, cool demonstration.
It wore him out.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
Well, he gets worn out by simple things.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
I mean, if I was eight foot tall and huge, yeah,
I'd be wore out too.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
Yeah, we'll go on a walk and he'll find a shady spot
.
He's like I'm just going to laydown.
So how old did you say he is?
He's three and a half.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
How old do they get?
He's three and a half.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
How old do they get?
Well, my last female she wasabout ten and a half when we had
to put her down.
So if we get to double digitswith these giant breeds, I'm
really happy With him being onthe high end of the spectrum for
height for wolfhounds.
If I get him to eight, I'll'llbe pretty happy, which is a
(18:51):
little depressing, um you'relike, I got attached to him.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Yeah, I mean, it took me seven and a half years, but
now we're attached and but youget those chihuahuas that you
know live till.
They're like 18 um no, I havethe.
I have the hairless cat.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
I've had pit bulls and they were amazing, and um
french bulldogs, smallest I'veever had yeah but no ankle
biters yeah, I mean, you know,do they tend to be the ones that
want to go after me, maybe, butum, since it says you know,
usually if I have an ownerholding a chihuahua, I need them
(19:29):
to like back it into me and Igrab it like this so that
they're not trying to bite me.
But they're spicy.
We appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
It's all right.
So veterinarians play a hugerole in promoting the health for
the pets.
How do you do that locallythrough the Animal Care Alliance
?
What are some programs thatthey might offer?
What's some things you couldshare with us.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
Sure, well, we do monthly vaccination clinics just
because you know kind of a herdhealth mentality.
If we get the majority of thepopulation vaccinated then we'll
less likely have parvooutbreaks or distemper.
And especially for those wherefinances are concerned, that's
where you can go in, pay for thevaccines and leave with them
(20:20):
updated.
Now, those don't have the noseto tail exam, nose to tail exam.
So we still recommend that ifthey have any concerns, um, they
should get a full exam, andideally just a full exam, even
if they don't have any obviousconcerns.
But from a health standpoint,um, especially for the community
, at least getting themvaccinated is doing something.
(20:42):
Um, we also do a lot of spayneuter, affordable spayay-neuter
.
We are doing kind of thosecommunity cats that maybe don't
have one particular owner.
Maybe you know someone like,let's see, recently we have a
little kitty in our care namedSylvia, and she came to us by a
(21:05):
very nice woman.
Her grandmother kind of has acolony of cats.
Through no fault of her own,some were dropped off and then,
you know, one, two, become eight, ten, and so this kitty had a
problem with its eyeball andthey brought it in and they
wanted to do what was best forit, but putting it back in that
(21:26):
environment wasn't going to bewhat is best for it.
So we don't normally like totake on just healthy cats, but
since this one was more of amedical kitty, we had her sign
them over to us.
We had to take out her eye.
We spayed her, we got her niceand healthy and then the
following few weeks we trappedall of the cats at our grandma's
(21:47):
place and then we spayed andneutered them so that population
wouldn't continue to grow.
And so we were awarded agenerous grant by Wayne County
Foundation to provide thosespay-neuter services of those
community or outdoor kitties atno cost to those people that are
feeding them or finding an area.
(22:09):
So what we ask for is that thereis a dedicated person feeding
them so that we can get them ona schedule, because our
spay-neuter attempts don'treally do much unless we can get
75% of that population.
So we want to try and trap themall at once and bring them in
(22:29):
for spay-neuter.
That way, if you're onlytrapping a few, they start
getting a little wary of thosetraps and then they become more
difficult to trap and get themin.
But we have them, feed them ona schedule so that when we pull
the food, we can put food in thetraps and they'll.
They'll go in the traps andthen we fix them, we vaccinate
(22:51):
them.
If there's any obvious medicalthings that we need to treat,
we'll treat them, keep them fora little while but then release
them to back where they camefrom and again at no cost to the
to the pet owners due to ourour grant from wayne county
foundation that's pretty cool,because that's I mean, that's a
hard thing to get ahead of and Idon't know if we'll ever get
(23:13):
ahead of that.
It's going to take a lot of work.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
Stray cats?
And right, I have.
I mean, I have one that comesacross my house.
Well, we have like three thatwalks across my house in town.
Speaker 3 (23:23):
Right.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
Um, one will just stop and hang out with me if I'm
outside yeah, like you're kindof cool, but don't know where it
goes, don't know where itbelongs, where it eats.
It's huge.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
I mean, if it's huge, it's eaten somewhere it's, it's
, it's well taken care ofsomewhere yeah, and I mean cats
are smart, so you may thinkyou're the one feeding it, but
it goes three doors down andthat person thinks they're the
one feeding it, and a block downthat person thinks they're the
one feeding it.
So, um, I know it's a hardconcept to to get behind
(23:53):
sometimes, but some of theseoutdoor kitties, if they look
healthy, um, we spay, neuterthem and they get to remain
outside, um, and then eventuallythat population will stabilize
and we shouldn't have as manykind of outdoor kitties as we do
now.
Now, if they are ill, look sick, unkempt, or if they're like
(24:14):
little kittens, then those arecategories where we want to take
them in and potentially findthem a good home and fix them up
.
So you know, by no means are wesaying we're going to leave all
cats outside and it's theirproblem.
Good luck.
If they're healthy, they'regetting fed, they get to stay
out.
But If they're healthy, they'regetting fed, they get to stay
out.
But if they're unhealthy orthey're young, then we'll do
something more dramatic withthem.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
That's really cool, kind of wrapping up.
So are there any eventsscheduled events coming up?
Are there any spray neuterclinics coming up Certain days
times?
Speaker 3 (24:46):
locations, Certain days, times, locations Right now
.
I think our next vaccine clinicis going to be, if this is a
Saturday, Saturday, August 17th,whatever Saturday falls around
that area I think it's the 17thand that's from 8 to noon, and
so you just come in, you pay,get, get vaccines and and head
(25:10):
out the door, Um, you can pickup some flea product.
Um, you know, if it's aprescription item, then we'll
need to do a full exam andthat'll have to be another day.
But over the counter, items youcan pick up and head on out.
And then we are working on some, some spay neuter days, um, to
be determined.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
So is this um vaccination clinic?
Is it at Animal Care Alliance?
Speaker 3 (25:33):
Yep over at Animal Care Alliance.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
And the address is 1353 Abington.
Pike.
We asked Dr Matt that one dayshe guessed it right.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
I will say I probably didn't know that until maybe
the last eight or nine months,the first year I worked there.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
It's hard to remember numbers sometimes.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
It is.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
You've got so many other things going on.
You know you can only fit somuch up here.
Well, is there anything elseyou would like to share with
everyone before we wrap this up?
Speaker 3 (26:07):
I guess a few things would be maybe some common
toxins or things that pets canget into, or to be aware of Um
cats really the main one islilies Um, they can't even
really lick the pollen off alily.
Um, it can cause kidney failure.
So if you have cats especiallyaround Easter and spring
(26:29):
holidays someone brings youflowers make sure there are no
lilies in that.
Tylenol, like over-the-counterpain medication, is tricky
because you want to help yourpet if you see that they're in
pain, and so a lot of placeswill sell over-the-counter
aspirin, doggy aspirin, to giveto their pets.
But if you come into the vetoffice and you've given aspirin
(26:50):
previously or within you knowdays of coming to the office, we
have to hold off and wait onprescribing stronger pain meds,
stronger anti-inflammatories.
So if you can get into the vet,I would hold off on doing
over-the-counter painmedications because that can
sometimes inhibit what we canprescribe.
But other common toxins withdogs are going to be chocolate
(27:14):
onions, garlic, macadamia nuts.
Xylitol is becoming a big oneand that's kind of a hidden
danger because some productslike sugar-free gum will have
xylitol in it and that can causetheir blood sugar to drop
dangerously low and if they getthrough that, then it can cause
liver failure.
So it's it's not a fun one.
(27:35):
Antifreeze we oftentimes get alot of antifreeze cases in the
winter, unfortunately.
Antifreeze, I think, has like asweet taste to it and sometimes
draws dogs to it.
I thought they were supposed toquit manufacturing it with all
of the bad stuff I hope so itwas a while back, like it's not
(27:57):
fun to treat right, and I mightbe thinking, uh, the 50, the
already diluted stuff, but itwas supposed to be manufactured
and without all that stuff um,and then rat bait and we get a
lot of rat poison cases, um, andI think they're phasing out the
ones where it just stops theblood ability to clot, um, and
(28:18):
those were a little bit easierto treat.
And now we get ones that aremore the neurotoxins, so they
come in with seizures and othermental issues that are more
tricky to to treat um, are thereany toys, dog toys, because you
could, there's, you go to anypet store.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
There's miles of dog toys and some people are like,
well, that might be kind of badfor them, or, um, or they're.
You know, I like the, I love.
When I had my pit I was alwaysa kong, big kong.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
Yeah, peanut butter kongs are great right um, I do
like, like for the big chewers.
Um, the problem with, like,some of those hard bones and
everything the dentists you knowI would always say if you hit
your knee with the toy and ithurts you, then it has the
potential to break a tooth.
So if you do any of those hardtoys, you're gonna run the risk
(29:07):
of fracturing a tooth, whichthen would need to be extracted.
Or if you wanted to save thetooth doing a root canal, um, so
I think kongs are really goodtoys and you can even I'll put
like dog food and then seal thecaps up with some peanut butter.
You can throw it in the freezer.
Um, you can do the same withtoilet paper rolls.
So, fun fact for Monty, hisfavorite treat is a toilet paper
(29:32):
roll.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
With nothing in it.
With nothing in it, it'scardboard.
Speaker 3 (29:37):
No, he was busting into our bathrooms.
I'm like I thought it was mychildren making a mess and no,
it was him stealing the toiletpaper roll.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
That's great, because that's kind of like how much
money have you probably spent indog toys and all you needed was
a toilet roll?
Speaker 3 (29:50):
well, I mean it's very short-lived because he just
eats it.
Yeah, I mean he held one in hismouth like a big cigar and he
was just drooling out of itbecause he was so happy so, but
you can use those to again putdog food and and uh treats and
and peanut butter and throw themin the freezer and then those
can be like little busy toys forthem.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
That's awesome.
Is he asleep?
Speaker 3 (30:18):
He's resting.
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
Well, I appreciate you guys coming up here.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
Yeah, thanks for having us.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
It was a treat having him up here and the
demonstration, although, likewhat did you say, this was
poultry mint yeah, it's uh likeverbex cet poultry flavored yeah
, but yeah, you know if I'm not.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
Liver is more of your thing, go for it.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
I'm not switching my toothpaste anytime soon to
poultry you get no fluorideprotection here, though, so
maybe you want somethingdifferent.
All right, we will wrap this up.
And again, Animal Care Alliance.
Dr Kostick, it was a pleasure.
Life Inscripted with KevinShipp.
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