May 7, 2025 • 45 mins
Summary
In this episode, Mark Drucker and I address common questions from pet owners regarding dog and cat health. We explore issues such as incessant paw licking in dogs, the treatment of hotspots, chronic renal failure in cats, and the serious concern of weight loss in senior cats. Other topics we discuss are critical health issues affecting cats and dogs, focusing on weight loss in cats, the importance of vaccinations, and heartworm prevention. We also touch on the rising concern of heartworm disease in pets, regardless of their living environment, and the necessity of preventive measures.
Takeaways
Incessant paw licking may indicate pain or irritation.
Hotspots in dogs can be caused by allergies or infections.
Weight loss in senior cats can indicate serious health issues.
Behavioral problems can lead to excessive licking in dogs.
Dietary management is important for cats with renal failure.
Hotspots require cleaning and may need veterinary intervention.
Hyperthyroidism can lead to increased metabolism and weight loss.
Many senior cats suffer from osteoarthritis without owner awareness.
Small bowel lymphoma is increasingly diagnosed in cats.
Titer testing can help avoid unnecessary vaccinations.
Heartworm disease is prevalent in many areas, not just the South.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 01 (00:00):
You know, this wasn't on the list for today,
but I know it's hugelyimportant, so I hope you don't
mind my asking.
Uh what should people do aboutheartworm prevention?
Speaker 00 (00:13):
It's it's crazy important.
Um we just had, just to giveyou an idea, um we've just had
two indoor cats that areheartworm positive.
Never been out of the house,never been anywhere else but the
house, and they're heartwormpositive.
Now, how does that happen?
(00:33):
Welcome to PAWS Reflect & Heal.
I'm Dr.
Randy.
I'm here with my good friendMr.
Mark Drucker, and we are goingto do something uh a little
different today.
We've had a lot of questionsthat come across our website,
our newsletter, and we're goingto take this episode to answer
(00:55):
those questions.
Uh, we hope that we'll coversomething that interests you.
Uh, if you hear something thatyou like or you have want a more
of a follow-up, get a hold ofus through our website,
drrandypetvet.com.
Mark, how are you doing today?
Speaker 01 (01:11):
I'm good, Randy.
How are you doing today?
Speaker 00 (01:13):
Good, good.
It's a beautiful day in Tucson.
Speaker 01 (01:16):
It's a beautiful day in Portland, Maine.
Okay.
Yeah, and gorgeous.
So I'm really I'm really gladwe're doing this.
I think it was a great idea,and kudos to you for suggesting
it because as you see a lot ofthe questions that come into the
website and in through thenewsletter, uh, I also see them.
And what I've noticed, which isnot a surprise, is that there
(01:39):
are some common themes.
Right.
So um we've made we've takennote of those themes, and those
are the themes that we're gonnago with uh today.
And I hope, and as I'm sure youhope, I know that you hope,
this will be a really helpfulforum to answer some questions
that are just common among uhamong pet parents, and we're
(02:01):
gonna cover some for dogs, andwe're also gonna cover some for
cats as well, so not to worry uhon either front.
Speaker 00 (02:08):
No, I'd like to add one to what you're saying, Mark.
A lot of people email mequestions, and I do the best I
can to follow up on as many ofthem as possible, but bringing
them to a forum like this withyou uh actually is gonna be much
more revealing and I believe uha much better way to get a lot
of the numbers of questionsanswered.
(02:28):
So I apologize if you've youknow sent a Q ⁇ A and I haven't
gotten right back to you.
Uh I do have a very busy day uhhere at work most of the time
here in Tucson, but uh I do thebest I can.
So I'm glad we're doing thisalso, Mark.
Speaker 01 (02:43):
Yeah, so uh let's go and just get right into it.
And I'm I'm kind of loving I'mkind of loving our first
question because it's actuallyit's it's I've seen it come up
several times and it's a problemthat I had with my first golden
retriever, and that is someonewrote in, My dog is incessantly
licking his front right paw, butthe furs actually come off, and
(03:08):
the skin underneath is showing.
Can you tell me why he might bedoing this?
And uh do you have anysuggestions of what I might do
to correct the situation?
Speaker 00 (03:17):
That's that that's a great question.
Um, I want to say that none ofthese have been rehearsed for
me, so I'm doing a lot ofoff-the-cuff things, and this is
what I enjoy doing.
So uh let's talk about that.
So when a dog licks one paw,let's say, uh, in this
situation, uh, we worry aboutsomething specific that's
causing uh irritation, pain,nerve stimulation in that paw.
(03:42):
Often we want to look at allthrough the webbing and the
pads.
Here in Arizona, we have aproblem with cactus spines,
goat's beards, which are alittle foreign body that you can
get.
It's the bane of us bicyclistsbecause it flats our tires very
easily.
Uh but they can get stuck andsometimes even break off, and
(04:03):
you can't really notice uhwhat's going on.
So the first thing I would tellsomebody to do is check that
paw thoroughly, includingpressing on all the pads, uh,
putting some pressure becauseyour dog or cat, if it's a cat,
will indicate if there's aspecific spot that's really
causing them some issues.
(04:24):
Now, I will tell you that thereare multiple things that cause
pain in a dog and cat that cancause them to lick their foot.
So it's it's very strange.
So a lot of times we'll go tothat foot here on physical
examination at PAS VeterinaryCenter and not find anything.
But we'll get to the elbow orthe shoulder, and there is
(04:45):
intense pain in one of thosejoints.
These pains radiate.
And so often the dog won'tspecifically be lame, let's say,
or show specific pain in thatjoint, but it will radiate down
to the foot and cause problems.
But obviously, this issomething your veterinarian
could pick up very easily onphysical examination.
(05:06):
So, uh, you know, a really goodexamination of the foot, maybe
even um, you know, putting yourdog, you know, moving your dog's
joints a little bit to see ifyou can pick something up.
But from there, I would sayveterinary visit is probably
well indicated.
Speaker 01 (05:20):
Before we move on, I just I'm remembering back to
when my dog had it.
Yeah.
And one one of the things thatthey were considering doing, I
never did it, was putting thedog on Prozac.
Because they thought that itmight be Yeah, they thought that
it might be some kind of OCD,maybe because I was at work
during the day, even though Iwas taken out at lunchtime.
(05:42):
But you know, I guess OCDanxiety might be a possibility.
Yeah.
Or anything else.
Food sensitivity, allergies, oras you say, you know, pain
elsewhere.
Speaker 00 (05:57):
Well, you know, you mentioned a number of things.
Speaker 01 (05:59):
You sound like you haven't heard that before,
right?
What's that?
You sound like you act yousounded a bit surprised when I
said that.
Speaker 00 (06:05):
Well, not because the dog was living with you, so
I know that's part of theproblem anyway, but no, I'm just
teasing.
Um, I mean, it's a very goodsuggestion, but let let's let's
identify some things that gowith what you've said.
Okay?
Is that Hank?
That's Hank.
Okay.
So let's identify some of thethings you've said.
I mean, typically foot lickingcould be like nail biting in
(06:29):
people, it can be a behavioralproblem, and it can be uh part
of an anxiety issue or whatever.
It's not usually limited to onefoot.
Normally it's multiple feet,uh, you know, like they'll lick
both their front feet, let'ssay, or both of their back feet.
It doesn't have to be that way,but it could be.
Um, so yeah, if you'veidentified, uh, you've gone
(06:51):
through this and you've donethere's been a really good
physical examination.
There's obviously no signs forreferred pain, nothing local.
Yeah, I mean, then behavioralstuff could be an issue.
You would also mention therethere are a lot of things
systemically that I alwaysaddress too.
Allergy is a huge one.
Uh, but generally, foot lickingwith allergy is multiple feet.
(07:13):
It's not usually one foot.
Um, you that would be weird tosee that happen, quite honestly.
Now, allergies could havestarted the foot licking, and
then the dog irritated that footto the point where that's the
one that they're focusing on.
Um, and then, you know,obviously addressing the
allergy.
We've talked about this with inmultiple podcasts and and Q
(07:36):
⁇ A's, and we can address itsome more down the road.
Uh, but yeah, I mean, doinganti-anxiety type stuff would be
a possibility.
I wouldn't go right tofluoxetine or Prozac, I would go
more to something likeGABAPentin, which is an
anti-anxiety medicine that'svery, very safe uh on their
liver and kidney.
Uh, but there are definitelyways to address that uh if we're
(07:57):
thinking that's the area we'rewe're worried about.
Speaker 01 (08:01):
Okay.
You know what's interesting iswe could spend a half hour on
each question because there'smuch to cover.
Yeah.
All right, so let's let's uhmove on.
Okay.
Um maybe I'll do anotherquestion about dogs, and then to
be fair, we'll move over to thecat world.
Okay?
Perfect.
So another question that comesup quite a bit, which I've also
(08:22):
experienced, is what's the bestway to treat hot spots?
Speaker 00 (08:26):
Okay, well that I mean, and that that's a really
good question, and uh again, canbe, you know, really have
multiple factors to talk aboutwhat could be causing it.
So let's first describe what ahot spot is.
So a hotspot is what we call apyogranulomatous lesion, very
fancy medical term.
(08:48):
It just means that it's red,irritated.
Often they're infected andthey're thickened because the
animal's been, you know, the doghas been looking, you know,
licking at that area, scratchingat that area incessantly.
Um, so you know, we want tomake sure that we identify what
this looks like and what it is.
(09:10):
Now, I had a dog just last weekthat came in for a severe hot
spot over its right shoulder.
And when I examined the dog andwe cleaned up the area, now the
people had left this to scabover, which is a bad thing to do
because there's no air gettingto that skin.
And when we got it cleaned upand clipped the hair around it,
it was actually a tumor.
(09:31):
Uh actually a skin cancer.
Um, and it would, you know, thepeople wouldn't have known
this.
Uh, and this is again wheresometimes a veterin exam is
really important for thesethings.
But there are multiple thingsthat can get them started on
these things.
One of the things uh in yourarea that we'd worry about is
flea allergy.
You know, dog gets bit byfleas, starts to itch and
(09:53):
scratches, get starts to itchand scratch, gets one area
started, and we're often runningon this hot spot uh that could
easily be uh a cause.
Another thing could be umallergies, and we just talked
about this.
You know, food allergies,environmental allergies, all of
these things can cause our dogsto start to itch, and then
(10:14):
again, create one specific areawhere they've irritated or
excoriated the skin that nowgets infected sometimes.
And you know, again, we'reoften running on this chronic
problem.
Um, we see, you know, poorgrooming.
Like a lot of times, animalsaren't grooming themselves well
or they're not getting groomed,and the hair gets matted, just
(10:36):
like I described with thisanimal with the scab, and
there's no air getting to thatskin.
And that really can set themoff because it's a perfect
environment.
It's dark, it's moist, perfectenvironment for them to develop
a lesion at that uh that area.
And then, you know, underlyingskin infections.
We do see uh staph infections,we see malesthesia yeast
(11:00):
infections.
These are the typical what wecall doggy odor infections.
You know, often I get peoplecoming in, my dog smells so bad.
I said, What's it smell like?
Well, it smells like a dog.
Actually, it really smellsworse than that.
It's it's a moist, damp, youknow, bad smell.
And these are often underlyingstaph or malesthesia infections,
(11:22):
which again has a lot to dowith a lot of other things that
we address in all of ourpodcasts, things about biome and
food allergy and environmentalallergy.
And uh, but specifically as faras the hot spot goes, it needs
to be you know clipped andcleaned, it needs to be
addressed with something localthat's gonna.
I try not to use oralantibiotics because you know I'm
(11:46):
a real stickler about notmessing up the dog's biome or GI
tract by excessive use ofantibiotics.
So we'll use something locallywhere we'll clean it.
Uh, often I recommend uh 50-50like apple cider brags, apple
cider vinegar, and water.
Uh there are commercialcleaners that, you know, and
wipes that work really well.
(12:06):
I really like PUP Labs, itmakes something called a
soothing spray where you canspray on that area and it
decreases the sensitivity.
There's also a calming, anothera couple different calming gels
and sprays that are made by acompany called Duoxo.
Uh so these are the things wetypically do.
And the other thing is that alot of times we have to keep the
(12:29):
dog away from that area.
Uh, you know, I hate cones ofshame.
If we're going to use a conefor any reason, if the dog's
really licking a hot spot, uhwe'll use what's called a soft
collar or a soft cone.
Uh but also what works reallywell is a t-shirt.
So if it's a little chihuahua,you go and get a preemie baby
t-shirt at Walmart or Target andyou tie it midriff, and you got
(12:53):
a great way to cover it becauseyou're still getting air to
that area.
You don't want to try tobandage these things a lot of
times because bandaging doesn'tallow any air to get to it and
it won't heal.
Uh, but t-shirts work great.
It's a big dog, you know, youuse uh a regular, you know, uh,
you know, boys' t-shirt or men'st-shirt, and it worked, those
work really well.
Speaker 01 (13:17):
I've noticed I just I want to move on, but I noticed
when my dog used to get themgrow, like they can spread so
fast.
Yeah.
Like you can almost see itspreading it so fast.
Yeah, it looks so ugly andhorrible.
Speaker 00 (13:33):
Yeah, yeah, and sometimes you know, if we're not
looking.
Right, oh exactly.
It's very moist, and that's whyyou want to clean it and dry
it.
And you don't want to useperoxide, and you don't want to
use um um things like witchhazel, and because they are very
drying, like peroxide's greatfor the first time you clean it,
but not again.
And the reason why is peroxidekills new cells, it actually
(13:57):
lyses the new cells that areforming to try to heal this, and
so that will prevent it fromhealing.
Uh but like you know, we talkedabout like these duoxo sprays
or uh Pup Lab soothing spray andand keeping it clean on a twice
a day basis uh with uh Bragg'sapple cider vinegar, or um even
sometimes we'll use uh diluteEpsom salts and and and kind of
(14:21):
soak that area.
These are really, reallyhelpful for the animal and can
stop the spread and also uh umstop the the discomfort the
animal's having.
If it's an allergy, there thereare things like uh there's a
monoclonal antibody calledcytopoint, which is given by
injection, which is for allergy,that will stop the histamine
production.
We often can put them on minorantihistamines like benadryl or
(14:45):
diphenhydramine or somethinglike Xyrtech if we really need
to, but we you know it has eachcase has to be uh assessed, and
that's really a veterin call atthat point.
Speaker 01 (14:56):
Okay.
Let's move over to cats.
Okay.
Um we get we get comments quiteif quite often about chronic
renal failure.
Yes.
Um and you know, what are yourthe the the questions are are
less specific and more about doyou have ideas about it and how
(15:20):
you might manage it or treat it?
Speaker 00 (15:23):
Now you know that I have ideas about everything.
Speaker 01 (15:26):
Right.
You do.
Speaker 00 (15:28):
So you're setting me up for this one, buddy.
Speaker 01 (15:30):
So I want I want I want the big idea.
Okay, the big idea.
Well, what's what's the bigwhat's the big idea?
Speaker 00 (15:36):
Yeah, well let's first talk about what renal
failure is.
You know, we're talking aboutkidney disease in an older cat
typically.
It doesn't have to be, butoften it's in an older cat.
And uh these are uh situationswhere the owner sees them um
maybe being listless, um beingum not eating really well, uh
(15:58):
starting to maybe have vomitingor diarrhea.
Sometimes they will notice thatthey're actually seeing them
show weight loss.
Uh and there are other thingsthat can cause weight loss, but
this is one of those things thatdefinitely can cause it in that
cat.
Um, they'll go to the litterbox and they'll see blood in the
urine, uh, or they'restraining, or they're even
(16:20):
drinking more water and thenurinating even more often.
Um, these are the kinds ofsigns that can really be a
situation where that cat reallyneeds to be seen by a
veterinarian as soon aspossible.
Because there are ways to treatthis, and then there are ways
to treat this.
And so I'm gonna tell you theDr.
(16:41):
Randy Petvet way, and then youknow I'll leave the other ways
available out there becausethere's lots of other medicines
and prescription diets, and sothis so this is gonna be the big
idea.
This is the big idea.
unknown (16:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 00 (16:55):
So years ago, I got frustrated in the fact that um
what I was seeing was thedirection of all of these big
diet companies that madeprescription diets was to
formulate a low phosphorus,which is necessary in this
situation, uh, very low proteindiet.
(17:17):
Now, the thought was that inkidney failure or chronic renal
disease or chronic kidneydisease in cats, their um the
protein in their food uh isbeing excreted in their urine,
and you know, you it affects uhthings called blood urea
nitrogen.
(17:37):
That's a protein byproduct thatwe measure chemistry-wise.
Creatinine, which is the reallybig one, that's the main kidney
enzyme.
It's also a nitrogen breakdownproduct, again, protein.
SDMA, which is now somethingthat we can identify early in
cats and dogs, that will show usthat they're heading into a
(17:58):
situation with potential kidneydisease.
Um, but here's what happened.
And this is what I saw.
Um, my cats would be on theseprescription diets, and their
numbers would get better, butthey would start to waste away,
they'd start to lose weight.
And the question is, well, whydoes that happen?
And you don't have to be arocket scientist to understand
(18:20):
this.
What's happening in kidneydisease is the kidney's not
holding the protein that they'reeating, and it's excreting a
lot more protein in the urine.
So, what happens?
If you feed a food that's lowin protein, what ends up
happening is they start stealingit from their muscle because
they have to have the protein tosupport their body functions.
(18:41):
So they look better for three,six months, maybe sometimes
longer, but not usually.
And then all of a suddenthey're losing more and more
weight, they're getting more andmore lethargic, and the numbers
start to skyrocket again.
Um, so the prescription dietsin my world was not the answer.
Okay?
So the answer to me was how canwe get away with feeding these
(19:05):
cats a high-quality, low-carbprotein diet and still not
affect their kidneys adversely?
And the way I do that isactually using three
supplements.
So I go and I have my ownersnot use um kibble type diets,
preferably lightly cooked orfresh whole food or uh
(19:30):
freeze-dried raw diets for ourcats, where they're getting
plenty of protein, all of thecarbs from the veggies that they
need, but not getting excessivecarbs, which are inflammatory
and just going to create moreinflammation in the body and in
the kidney.
And I add a product calledazodil, A-Z-O-D-Y-L.
It's a refrigerated probioticthat actually binds nitrogen
(19:55):
from their diet so that thekidney can see, get we can, the
dog, the cat can utilize theprotein, but we're not getting
excessive nitrogen loss.
So the numbers, the B U N andthe creatinine, don't get
affected.
I also use a product calledNaraquin, which is an uh a
phosphorus binder.
(20:17):
It's a natural, it's reallyalmost a natural product.
Usually it's made from softshell crabs and stuff like that.
And it actually bindsphosphorus so that again, when
phosphorus starts to rise inthese cats, it causes irritation
to the stomach, it causesulceration, it causes
hyperacidity, and these guyswon't eat because they feel
(20:37):
terrible.
And then the last product I useis called amino vast,
A-M-I-N-A-V-A-S T.
And I use that because thatincreases blood flow to the
kidney naturally.
It's called GFR, glomeralfiltration rate, and by
increasing the blood flownaturally, the kidney can work a
little bit more efficiently andhandle what's going on.
(21:00):
And I, in early kidney disease,okay, I can really get these
cats to thrive, not to loseweight, to feel much, much
better, um, stop excreting allof the protein in their urine,
you know, not all of it, but butas but a lot of it, and not
having them affect the numbersthat we look at, the B UN, the
(21:22):
creatinine, and and the and theuh phosphorus numbers that we
that we really monitor.
Um I just did this exactseminar for uh a thousand
Japanese veterinarians uh a yearago to talk about this because
there there really isn't anybodytalking about this.
They're they're talking abouthow they can get around some of
(21:43):
the ideas on the diet, but noone's really um got this.
And I'll tell you honestly, Ifor years these cats have been
benefiting.
You know, where I would seethem waste away at three, six
months.
I got a cat that's a year downthe road, two years down the
road, and still benefiting fromwhat we're doing.
Now, sometimes the and manytimes the kidney's gonna get
(22:04):
worse, and and it will happen,okay?
Whether it happens at a year orit happens at three years, I
don't know.
Uh I don't have any way ofpredicting.
And then sometimes we will haveto add some actual medication
in there that can really help uhfor that situation.
But I try not to start it atthat rate.
Speaker 01 (22:23):
Hmm.
And what is there an age wherethis typically occurs or it's
all over the place?
Speaker 00 (22:30):
It's you know, it's really more of a senior disease.
I would say it is cats overeight years old that start
showing the signs that Imentioned earlier.
Uh that's when we really startto see it.
But we do see um, you know,I've had a couple animals
recently that have had uhproblems with their kidney.
We've actually done uhultrasounds on their kidney to
(22:50):
look at their kidneys, and we'veseen renal cysts, or we've
actually seen what's calledrenocortical hyperplasia, which
we're basically getting uhabnormalities to the kidney.
These are probably genetic insome nature, they could be
caused by some toxin or someinsult that they had that we
don't know.
Um, but those animals are alittle bit harder to deal with
(23:11):
because they actually havestructural disease that we've
got to get on top of also.
Speaker 01 (23:18):
Well, there's one more question that we have uh on
today's list about cats, andyou mentioned it uh earlier,
just a few minutes ago, but it'sit's about weight loss in
general in senior cats.
We see we see a lot ofquestions coming in about that.
(23:38):
So I guess renal failure couldbe one of the reasons, but there
could be many other I imagine.
Speaker 00 (23:47):
Yeah, no, and I I'm glad you bring this up because
um this is you know, this issomething that a lot of my pet
owners, you know, cat owners arethe most incredible pet owners.
I mean, you know, we know whycat owners have cats.
We've had we just did thatwonderful seminar about cats not
too long ago, that podcast thatwe just did.
Uh-huh.
(24:07):
Um, and I'll refer ourlisteners to that because it's
full of information.
But um cat owners many times,one, kind of look past some of
the things they're seeing andthey just kind of, you know, I
want to say blow it off.
They just kind of say, oh, youknow, it's really not a big
deal.
You know, um, Jinx is reallydoing okay.
I don't I don't really need togo to the veterinarian, I don't
(24:29):
really need to follow up on thisproblem.
But weight loss is really aserious problem.
So, and many times people don'tpick it up until there's
significant weight loss because,you know, and they're not
weighing their cat on a regularbasis, you know.
Some of my cat owners, I mean,you you know, I know you
probably understand this aboutmy pet owners down here.
Some of them will get on thescale on a weekly basis with
(24:51):
their cat and weigh themselveswith the cat and then weigh
themselves, you know, andthey'll know what the cat's
weight is, they'll extract.
Or they even go to the extentof getting a baby scale and
weighing them.
But, you know, every time a catcomes into feline focus here at
Paw's Veterinary Center, weweigh them.
And there's a really goodreason because I've had cats
(25:12):
come in for a general physicalexamination at, let's say, nine
years old, and you know, they'vebeen consistently 10, 10.1, 9.8
pounds, and here they are at8.1 pounds, and that's a
significant amount of weightloss.
And the owner didn't even know.
And so, so that that I justwant to basically mention that
(25:34):
because it's something youreally, as a cat owner, want to
be aware of.
So, kind of let's talk aboutthe things that can cause that.
Well, we just talked aboutchronic kidney disease or
chronic renal failure.
That's certainly one of them.
Another thing that can happenis something called
hyperthyroidism, which is causedby a nodule in their thyroid
gland.
And what it does is it causestheir thyroid hormone to go very
(25:58):
high, and it will cause theirmetabolism to go in overdrive,
and they're burning up most ofthe normal calories and protein
and all that that they wouldget, so they don't incorporate
that, so they lose weight.
It also can cause sometimeshyperactivity, where they're
(26:18):
they're really kind of active,much more active, even though
they start to fail after awhile.
It can also cause them to eatmore because they're trying to,
you know, gain those caloriesthat they're losing, but they
can't, and they can't tell youknow, our pet owners, our pet
parents, I mean, to like, youknow, increase my food because
my thyroid is burning this allup.
(26:40):
So that's where the biannualphysical examination and lab
work on senior cats is soimportant because we look for
trends.
You know, again, thyroid couldbe, you know, 2.1, 2.2, 1.9, and
then all of a sudden it's, youknow, let's say not abnormal,
but it's at 2.9 or 3.
(27:02):
Well, that jump could indicatethat it's starting to be a
problem, and we need to addressthat.
So hyperthyroidism isdefinitely another one.
Another one that can causeweight loss in cats is diabetes.
Diabetes mellitus is a reallyyou know dangerous disease.
It's it can be acquired,acquired disease, um, and their
(27:22):
uh, you know, their blood sugarsstart to rise terribly, and
they're not incorporating theirnormal amount of of um uh
nutrition into their into theirbody.
You know, often they'll be umthey'll be more lethargic.
Again, they'll be drinking alot more water, and that's those
are some hallmarks.
So there's some other thingsthat we need to worry about,
(27:43):
like um dental disease.
You know, the cat's mouth couldbe killing them.
You know, we see cats withgrade four out of four dental
disease, and the owners don'teven know it.
You know, but you open themouth and it smells like trench
mouth is what I describe it.
It smells like a sewer, it'sterrible.
And they've got all of these uhhard calculus and plaque on
(28:05):
their teeth, which is pushing upon their gums and retaining
bacteria.
Also, the number one reason whythey get urinary tract
infections, because thatbacteria just gets sucked up
into their blood system, goesright to their kidney and
bladder, and we'll see the samebacteria in the mouth as we do
in the bladder.
So um, so um uh dental diseaseis another one.
(28:25):
Another one could be heart orliver disease, and we see that
causing an issue uh with ourcats.
Again, a diagnosis that's madeby the routine lab work that we
do.
Um, but the the last one, whichis interesting, is arthritis or
pain.
You know, we know that 60% ofour cats over the age of eight
(28:46):
have osteoarthritis, yet many ofour owners have no idea.
You know, sometimes they catchthe fact that the cat hasn't
gone up on the bed recently ordoesn't get into its cat tree
normally.
Um, but on physicalexamination, we could pick this
up and sometimes well confirm itwith x-rays or radiographs.
Um, so all of those things, youknow, hyperthyroidism, chronic
(29:09):
kidney disease.
But then the last one that I'llmention, which is a new one on
the horizon, is called smallbowel lymphoma.
So we are seeing thisincredible rise of cancer in
cats' small intestine.
Um lymphoma is um aproliferation of white cells
called lymphocytes that line thelining of the bowel, and it
(29:33):
causes the bowel to swell andthem not to absorb normally, so
they're not getting their food.
Uh, and it can often beindicated by uh vomiting or
diarrhea, sometimes weight loss,uh, but sometimes it's silent
for a while, uh, and all we seeis that subtle weight loss that
I talked about on that cat thatwe picked up on you know on a
(29:55):
physical examination.
And there is a wonder I used tohave to do endoscopy.
On these cats, where I'd go inwith an endoscope and biopsy
their bowel and get the biopsyback and then have the
diagnosis.
Now, a company called VDI makesa laboratory test, a blood
test, that we can actually testfor lymphoma in our cats.
(30:15):
It actually looks at uhlymphoma, pancreatitis, uh
inflammatory bowel disease.
So it really is very, veryhelpful on helping that
diagnosis if the signs arethere.
Speaker 01 (30:27):
Okay, so let's talk, and maybe we can do a
discussion here for a fewminutes about dogs and cats.
But let's talk, let's talkabout vaccines.
Because my understanding aboutvaccines, and this this is a
question that does come in alot, uh, and depending on the
region they come in in from, theregion of the country, you get
(30:49):
different kinds of questions.
But I I guess what I take fromthat is there are vaccines that
are universal that your pet hasto have, rabies, for example.
Uh but there are other vaccinesthat are lifestyle-oriented.
So if you're living out in thedesert, you know, you might get
(31:11):
one set of vaccines.
If you're living in a woodlandsetting in the in New England,
it might be something different.
Um I'm just thinking, forexample, leptospirosis on the
West Coast or in the westernstates, in the mountains in the
desert, and I'm thinking Lymedisease, for example, in the
Northeast.
So let's talk about that.
(31:31):
And a question that I hearoftentimes is titer.
So let's let's talk aboutvaccines, let's talk about titer
and how to address this in yourokay.
Speaker 00 (31:42):
Good question.
It's it's pretty encompassing,uh, so I'll try to keep it
concise.
There are what we call the corevaccines for dogs and cats.
Okay?
So the core vaccine for dogs isdistemper, parvovirus, and
adenovirus.
It's often called DAP, DAPL.
I mean, there's a bunch ofcombinations, lepto is added to
(32:04):
that, but there's definitelysome core vaccines.
But distemper, adenovirus, andparvo are the core vaccines that
we typically look at here inTucson, Arizona, and many places
in the United States.
The other core vaccine israbies.
You know, rabies is a deadlydisease in humans.
Uh, it can be you know deadlyfor our animals.
It's out there, and we knowit's out there, so it's an
(32:27):
issue.
Um, so you know, uh, you know,that that those are typically
the the big core vaccines.
Here we we do do a lot ofsomething called upper upper
respiratory or borditellavaccination.
The reason that we do that isKennelkoff is very, very big.
Um, you know, we do have a lotof um uh we do have a lot of
(32:52):
places where people bored or dodaycare, and we don't really
want that, or grooming, and wedon't want that to spread.
Um so that's often a vaccinethat a lot of people ask about.
Um, and then you mentioned someof the subsidiary vaccines are
things like leptospirosis, let'ssay, or Lyme's disease, uh, or
(33:14):
or even some of the fluvaccines.
And these are pretty specificfor areas that you are in the
country, and I would leave thatup to your veterinarian to tell
you what's most important.
Um, we do have leptosporosis inTucson.
Um, we don't see it as often,but like in your situation,
(33:34):
you're going to hike in themountains with Hank.
Um, leptosporosis is probably areally good idea because it's
spread by you know cattlebasically being near water, the
water gets infected.
We also have it spread by a lotof avian species where there's
bird droppings or rabbitpellets, and the animal gets
exposed to that or water thathas it, and it can be very, very
(33:56):
damaging for the kidney.
Um, so those are the those arethe vaccines that most people
talk about in dogs.
Now, um we are huge titeradvocates here at Paws
Veterinary Center, here at youknow, canine uh co lab, here at
Feline Focus, where we havetiters for cats too, we'll talk
about.
But a titer is basically a um alook at how protected your
(34:22):
animal is to those vaccines.
So years ago, um we foundKansas State University, they
had a wonderful laboratory thatlooks at titers, which is the
measure of protection fordistemper, adenovirus, para
influenza, so DAP, or I meanparvavirus, and then also for
(34:44):
rabies.
So we started advocating in thedogs that have gone through
their normal puppy series thatafter the first year or so,
let's not vaccinate them rightoff the bat.
Let's look at their titer andmake sure they're or they're not
already protected.
Because, like anything else, ifthe dog is protected for
(35:04):
distemper adertivirus or parvo,why would you want to put a
vaccine on top of that that theydon't really need?
They're already showingprotection in their body.
The same thing goes for rabies.
Uh, we we often will advocaterabies titers.
Now, this is controversial,controversial, and I will tell
you that a lot of, like here inPima County and Tucson, they
(35:29):
won't license a dog with atiter.
They will only license a dog ifyou've given him a vaccine,
which is really strange, Mark,because here's the deal.
If you go to Hawaii or England,which are rabies-free zones,
they will not let your dog inwithout a titer.
So they don't care how manyvaccines Hank's gotten.
(35:49):
They want to know that Hank isprotected.
And if Hank has a protectivetiter, he gets in.
So why wouldn't we be in thesituation where if we're
licensing our animals, weutilize a titer and we can
license them from that titer?
Um, you know, the questionlies, is it a money thing?
Is it I don't know.
I I'm not even going to getinto that whole world.
Speaker 01 (36:11):
But we do titers here.
But if the dog has tight if thedog, so if they show up and
they have titer, then there's noneed to vaccinate.
Correct.
At that at that moment.
But yeah.
So is it like, okay, come backin a month, come back in six
months, let's do this again, orthey're good for another year?
Yeah.
(36:31):
We do it a year.
That's that's it.
Now.
Okay.
And I I guess I have a Goahead, sorry.
No, I I have a question as apet parent.
Um I'm particularly concernedwith Lyme disease.
And uh so I had my dogvaccinated for Lyme, and it was
(36:51):
a two ser two shots, uh a shotand then a booster three weeks
apart.
And I guess the question I haveis if the if the dog then gets
bitten by a deer tick that'sinfected, is the dog protected
now that he's had that vaccine,or is he still vulnerable, you
know, to being exposed andgetting sick from it?
(37:13):
I mean, how well I guess the chow well right, how well.
Speaker 00 (37:17):
It's not 100%.
I mean, it definitely confersprotection to them.
I mean, there's no doubt aboutit.
And in the Limes area, I wouldadvocate looking at getting that
done.
Uh because you know, it's a baddisease and it's silent for a
long time.
Um, but you know, I alsoadvocate them being on tick
preventative at that point, too,because we want to try to keep
(37:41):
them off.
So even if a dog gets bit by atick, the question is is there
still a percentage of dogs thatmight get Lymes from that bite?
And the answer is yes, it'spossible.
Uh now, much less if they'vebeen vaccinated, but also much
less if they're on apreventative, because what
happens is as soon as the dickthe the tick tries to attach to
(38:02):
the dog, um, it will get some ofthe preventative and it will
kill it or drop, it'll drop off.
Because the longer that thetick sucks on the blood, the
more chance that it can injectthe organism into their blood
system.
Speaker 01 (38:15):
Right.
Right.
You know what?
There are so many greatquestions, and I think what I'm
sensing is we should do anotherone of these in a in a in a
couple of months, and in acouple of months.
Speaker 00 (38:26):
Let me mention, let me mention the cat vaccines real
quick.
Just because um I think that'sreally important.
So the core cat vaccines aredefinitely rabies, again.
Now, not always required in ina lot of states.
Um, and then what we callfeline herpes virus, feline
chaleesi virus, and felinepanleukopenia.
(38:49):
And these are often upperrespiratory type viruses.
Again, the same thing goes fortiters for those.
We do titers on our cats.
We often find for most of thecats' life and sometimes
forever, that they're protectedand they don't need the
follow-up vaccines after they'vegone through the kitten series
and maybe past the first year.
(39:10):
So just to mention that becausewe do that in cats all the
time.
And again, my goal is um I justdon't want to give vaccines to
an animal that doesn't need it.
And I don't want to have thatimmunological load on top of
them if it's not necessary.
Speaker 01 (39:28):
You know, this wasn't on the list for today,
but I know it's hugelyimportant, so I hope you don't
mind my asking.
Uh what should people do aboutheartworm prevention?
Speaker 00 (39:41):
It's it's crazy important.
Um, we just had, just to giveyou an idea, um, we've just had
two indoor cats that areheartworm positive.
Never been out of the house,never been anywhere else but the
house, and they're heartwormpositive.
Now, how does that happen?
So, what people don'tunderstand is heartworm is a
(40:04):
disease that's spread bymosquitoes.
A mosquito picks up an organismfrom an infected animal,
whether it's a dog, whether it'sa cat, whether it's a coyote,
uh, and they will have thatorganism in their system, and
when they bite your animal, thenthey can inject that heartworm
(40:26):
organism into the blood system,which then goes through a
six-month period of developmentand becomes these adult worms in
the heart, hence heartworm.
And so it's it's it's you know,we used to think this was an
East Coast disease, a uh, youknow, a Gulf of Mexico to or our
(40:46):
Gulf of America, I should saynow, uh disease.
You know, water.
Speaker 01 (40:52):
No comment.
Speaker 00 (40:53):
But it's a no comment.
Right, but heartworm iseverywhere.
And and it's very, you know, wejust had a dog that came in
last this week that we didroutine blood work on.
The people have not givenheartworm preventative for two
years because they didn't thinkit was necessary.
Um, they had really badinformation from whoever they
(41:15):
talked to before, and the dogcame back positive for
heartworm.
And now is gonna have to gothrough a very uh a very
rigorous treatment to kill thoseadult worms.
And if the adult worms are badenough, they can cause clots,
and the dog can die even fromthe treatment because we're
killing those worms withmedicine that we have to give
(41:37):
the animal.
Speaker 01 (41:38):
So I there's no there's been a lot of talk as
well about all the rescues thatare going on right now all over
the country, and you know,heartworm is at least prevalent
in the southern states, and alot of these dogs come up from
the south, and then they'retaken up into the north, and so
(41:58):
suddenly it's everywhere.
That's one of the other thingsthat are aiding this.
And so I guess is therecommendation that if you have
a dog Is it a cat thing too,heartworm disease?
So if you have a pet, a dog ora cat, is it just regardless of
where you live, you should treatthe dog twelve months a year or
(42:19):
something?
Speaker 00 (42:19):
No, that's a good question.
No, what what what is therecommendation?
So the recommendation is theyshould be tested every year, no
matter what.
Because even on preventative,it's only 90 to 92 percent
effective.
Okay?
So you still have the animalsthat have received heartworm
preventative, let's say everymonth, and they're still going
to come back positive.
(42:40):
Now, it's obviously a verysmall percentage, but we make it
part of our yearly examination.
We make it part of the labwork, the blood work that we do
to make sure that they're testedfor heartworm.
That's how this dog we weretalking about just got picked up
because the dog hadn't hadyearly lab work in two years,
and boom, the dog's heartwormpositive.
(43:01):
Uh, the cats had never hadyearly lab work, and that's how
that was picked up.
So the recommendation to startwith is you test them every
year.
Now, when you receive anegative test, then the
recommendation is preventative.
Now, sometimes it's a littlehard to advocate preventative
for our cats because they'rereally not a lot of exposure,
(43:24):
but as I indicated, you know, wejust saw these two indoor cats.
So, I mean, it's ideally thething to do, but definitely for
our dogs, um, preventative isreally important.
Now, you had mentioned yearlyum treatment versus
intermittent.
There are a lot of places whereyou get um freezing where the
heart where the mosquitoes aregonna die.
(43:45):
So those areas you could getaway with not doing it yearly,
but I just tell people just giveit every month and then you got
it down.
Speaker 01 (43:54):
Right.
Speaker 00 (43:54):
What is this?
Is it a an herbicide, apesticide?
What is heart I'm sorry?
Speaker 01 (43:59):
Prevention.
Speaker 00 (44:00):
What is the prevention?
So prevention is is basicallyuh it's kind of like a very
minor insecticide that doesn'tcause a lot of issues in the
body, but is there to to tospecifically kill the worm when
it when it when it encountersit.
Speaker 01 (44:16):
Okay.
All right.
Okay?
Okay, so we should yes, that'sgreat.
I'm glad you know we could do awhole show on heartworm
prevention for sure, and we may.
Um anything else that you wantto talk about?
Anything that comes to mind foryou that you hear a lot about?
Speaker 00 (44:32):
No, I think I think this is good.
I think we should stop here umand you know, and we can do this
again.
Uh I again I want to I want toask our listeners to make sure
you subscribe to our newsletter,um, get onto our podcasts on
our website, subscribe to thosebecause it really helps us.
But send me your questions.
Uh, like I mentioned earlier, Ican't always answer them
(44:54):
individually every day, but Itry to batch them and do things
like this so we can get theanswers out.
Speaker 01 (45:00):
And if you go to drandypetvet.com, there's both a
form just to sign up veryquickly for the newsletter, and
there'll there's another formthere to ask a question.
So you make it really easy.
Absolutely.
Right?
Okay.
You know, this wasn't on the list for today,
but I know it's hugelyimportant, so I hope you don't
mind my asking.
Uh what should people do aboutheartworm prevention?
Speaker 00 (00:13):
It's it's crazy important.
Um we just had, just to giveyou an idea, um we've just had
two indoor cats that areheartworm positive.
Never been out of the house,never been anywhere else but the
house, and they're heartwormpositive.
Now, how does that happen?
(00:33):
Welcome to PAWS Reflect & Heal.
I'm Dr.
Randy.
I'm here with my good friendMr.
Mark Drucker, and we are goingto do something uh a little
different today.
We've had a lot of questionsthat come across our website,
our newsletter, and we're goingto take this episode to answer
(00:55):
those questions.
Uh, we hope that we'll coversomething that interests you.
Uh, if you hear something thatyou like or you have want a more
of a follow-up, get a hold ofus through our website,
drrandypetvet.com.
Mark, how are you doing today?
Speaker 01 (01:11):
I'm good, Randy.
How are you doing today?
Speaker 00 (01:13):
Good, good.
It's a beautiful day in Tucson.
Speaker 01 (01:16):
It's a beautiful day in Portland, Maine.
Okay.
Yeah, and gorgeous.
So I'm really I'm really gladwe're doing this.
I think it was a great idea,and kudos to you for suggesting
it because as you see a lot ofthe questions that come into the
website and in through thenewsletter, uh, I also see them.
And what I've noticed, which isnot a surprise, is that there
(01:39):
are some common themes.
Right.
So um we've made we've takennote of those themes, and those
are the themes that we're gonnago with uh today.
And I hope, and as I'm sure youhope, I know that you hope,
this will be a really helpfulforum to answer some questions
that are just common among uhamong pet parents, and we're
(02:01):
gonna cover some for dogs, andwe're also gonna cover some for
cats as well, so not to worry uhon either front.
Speaker 00 (02:08):
No, I'd like to add one to what you're saying, Mark.
A lot of people email mequestions, and I do the best I
can to follow up on as many ofthem as possible, but bringing
them to a forum like this withyou uh actually is gonna be much
more revealing and I believe uha much better way to get a lot
of the numbers of questionsanswered.
(02:28):
So I apologize if you've youknow sent a Q ⁇ A and I haven't
gotten right back to you.
Uh I do have a very busy day uhhere at work most of the time
here in Tucson, but uh I do thebest I can.
So I'm glad we're doing thisalso, Mark.
Speaker 01 (02:43):
Yeah, so uh let's go and just get right into it.
And I'm I'm kind of loving I'mkind of loving our first
question because it's actuallyit's it's I've seen it come up
several times and it's a problemthat I had with my first golden
retriever, and that is someonewrote in, My dog is incessantly
licking his front right paw, butthe furs actually come off, and
(03:08):
the skin underneath is showing.
Can you tell me why he might bedoing this?
And uh do you have anysuggestions of what I might do
to correct the situation?
Speaker 00 (03:17):
That's that that's a great question.
Um, I want to say that none ofthese have been rehearsed for
me, so I'm doing a lot ofoff-the-cuff things, and this is
what I enjoy doing.
So uh let's talk about that.
So when a dog licks one paw,let's say, uh, in this
situation, uh, we worry aboutsomething specific that's
causing uh irritation, pain,nerve stimulation in that paw.
(03:42):
Often we want to look at allthrough the webbing and the
pads.
Here in Arizona, we have aproblem with cactus spines,
goat's beards, which are alittle foreign body that you can
get.
It's the bane of us bicyclistsbecause it flats our tires very
easily.
Uh but they can get stuck andsometimes even break off, and
(04:03):
you can't really notice uhwhat's going on.
So the first thing I would tellsomebody to do is check that
paw thoroughly, includingpressing on all the pads, uh,
putting some pressure becauseyour dog or cat, if it's a cat,
will indicate if there's aspecific spot that's really
causing them some issues.
(04:24):
Now, I will tell you that thereare multiple things that cause
pain in a dog and cat that cancause them to lick their foot.
So it's it's very strange.
So a lot of times we'll go tothat foot here on physical
examination at PAS VeterinaryCenter and not find anything.
But we'll get to the elbow orthe shoulder, and there is
(04:45):
intense pain in one of thosejoints.
These pains radiate.
And so often the dog won'tspecifically be lame, let's say,
or show specific pain in thatjoint, but it will radiate down
to the foot and cause problems.
But obviously, this issomething your veterinarian
could pick up very easily onphysical examination.
(05:06):
So, uh, you know, a really goodexamination of the foot, maybe
even um, you know, putting yourdog, you know, moving your dog's
joints a little bit to see ifyou can pick something up.
But from there, I would sayveterinary visit is probably
well indicated.
Speaker 01 (05:20):
Before we move on, I just I'm remembering back to
when my dog had it.
Yeah.
And one one of the things thatthey were considering doing, I
never did it, was putting thedog on Prozac.
Because they thought that itmight be Yeah, they thought that
it might be some kind of OCD,maybe because I was at work
during the day, even though Iwas taken out at lunchtime.
(05:42):
But you know, I guess OCDanxiety might be a possibility.
Yeah.
Or anything else.
Food sensitivity, allergies, oras you say, you know, pain
elsewhere.
Speaker 00 (05:57):
Well, you know, you mentioned a number of things.
Speaker 01 (05:59):
You sound like you haven't heard that before,
right?
What's that?
You sound like you act yousounded a bit surprised when I
said that.
Speaker 00 (06:05):
Well, not because the dog was living with you, so
I know that's part of theproblem anyway, but no, I'm just
teasing.
Um, I mean, it's a very goodsuggestion, but let let's let's
identify some things that gowith what you've said.
Okay?
Is that Hank?
That's Hank.
Okay.
So let's identify some of thethings you've said.
I mean, typically foot lickingcould be like nail biting in
(06:29):
people, it can be a behavioralproblem, and it can be uh part
of an anxiety issue or whatever.
It's not usually limited to onefoot.
Normally it's multiple feet,uh, you know, like they'll lick
both their front feet, let'ssay, or both of their back feet.
It doesn't have to be that way,but it could be.
Um, so yeah, if you'veidentified, uh, you've gone
(06:51):
through this and you've donethere's been a really good
physical examination.
There's obviously no signs forreferred pain, nothing local.
Yeah, I mean, then behavioralstuff could be an issue.
You would also mention therethere are a lot of things
systemically that I alwaysaddress too.
Allergy is a huge one.
Uh, but generally, foot lickingwith allergy is multiple feet.
(07:13):
It's not usually one foot.
Um, you that would be weird tosee that happen, quite honestly.
Now, allergies could havestarted the foot licking, and
then the dog irritated that footto the point where that's the
one that they're focusing on.
Um, and then, you know,obviously addressing the
allergy.
We've talked about this with inmultiple podcasts and and Q
(07:36):
⁇ A's, and we can address itsome more down the road.
Uh, but yeah, I mean, doinganti-anxiety type stuff would be
a possibility.
I wouldn't go right tofluoxetine or Prozac, I would go
more to something likeGABAPentin, which is an
anti-anxiety medicine that'svery, very safe uh on their
liver and kidney.
Uh, but there are definitelyways to address that uh if we're
(07:57):
thinking that's the area we'rewe're worried about.
Speaker 01 (08:01):
Okay.
You know what's interesting iswe could spend a half hour on
each question because there'smuch to cover.
Yeah.
All right, so let's let's uhmove on.
Okay.
Um maybe I'll do anotherquestion about dogs, and then to
be fair, we'll move over to thecat world.
Okay?
Perfect.
So another question that comesup quite a bit, which I've also
(08:22):
experienced, is what's the bestway to treat hot spots?
Speaker 00 (08:26):
Okay, well that I mean, and that that's a really
good question, and uh again, canbe, you know, really have
multiple factors to talk aboutwhat could be causing it.
So let's first describe what ahot spot is.
So a hotspot is what we call apyogranulomatous lesion, very
fancy medical term.
(08:48):
It just means that it's red,irritated.
Often they're infected andthey're thickened because the
animal's been, you know, the doghas been looking, you know,
licking at that area, scratchingat that area incessantly.
Um, so you know, we want tomake sure that we identify what
this looks like and what it is.
(09:10):
Now, I had a dog just last weekthat came in for a severe hot
spot over its right shoulder.
And when I examined the dog andwe cleaned up the area, now the
people had left this to scabover, which is a bad thing to do
because there's no air gettingto that skin.
And when we got it cleaned upand clipped the hair around it,
it was actually a tumor.
(09:31):
Uh actually a skin cancer.
Um, and it would, you know, thepeople wouldn't have known
this.
Uh, and this is again wheresometimes a veterin exam is
really important for thesethings.
But there are multiple thingsthat can get them started on
these things.
One of the things uh in yourarea that we'd worry about is
flea allergy.
You know, dog gets bit byfleas, starts to itch and
(09:53):
scratches, get starts to itchand scratch, gets one area
started, and we're often runningon this hot spot uh that could
easily be uh a cause.
Another thing could be umallergies, and we just talked
about this.
You know, food allergies,environmental allergies, all of
these things can cause our dogsto start to itch, and then
(10:14):
again, create one specific areawhere they've irritated or
excoriated the skin that nowgets infected sometimes.
And you know, again, we'reoften running on this chronic
problem.
Um, we see, you know, poorgrooming.
Like a lot of times, animalsaren't grooming themselves well
or they're not getting groomed,and the hair gets matted, just
(10:36):
like I described with thisanimal with the scab, and
there's no air getting to thatskin.
And that really can set themoff because it's a perfect
environment.
It's dark, it's moist, perfectenvironment for them to develop
a lesion at that uh that area.
And then, you know, underlyingskin infections.
We do see uh staph infections,we see malesthesia yeast
(11:00):
infections.
These are the typical what wecall doggy odor infections.
You know, often I get peoplecoming in, my dog smells so bad.
I said, What's it smell like?
Well, it smells like a dog.
Actually, it really smellsworse than that.
It's it's a moist, damp, youknow, bad smell.
And these are often underlyingstaph or malesthesia infections,
(11:22):
which again has a lot to dowith a lot of other things that
we address in all of ourpodcasts, things about biome and
food allergy and environmentalallergy.
And uh, but specifically as faras the hot spot goes, it needs
to be you know clipped andcleaned, it needs to be
addressed with something localthat's gonna.
I try not to use oralantibiotics because you know I'm
(11:46):
a real stickler about notmessing up the dog's biome or GI
tract by excessive use ofantibiotics.
So we'll use something locallywhere we'll clean it.
Uh, often I recommend uh 50-50like apple cider brags, apple
cider vinegar, and water.
Uh there are commercialcleaners that, you know, and
wipes that work really well.
(12:06):
I really like PUP Labs, itmakes something called a
soothing spray where you canspray on that area and it
decreases the sensitivity.
There's also a calming, anothera couple different calming gels
and sprays that are made by acompany called Duoxo.
Uh so these are the things wetypically do.
And the other thing is that alot of times we have to keep the
(12:29):
dog away from that area.
Uh, you know, I hate cones ofshame.
If we're going to use a conefor any reason, if the dog's
really licking a hot spot, uhwe'll use what's called a soft
collar or a soft cone.
Uh but also what works reallywell is a t-shirt.
So if it's a little chihuahua,you go and get a preemie baby
t-shirt at Walmart or Target andyou tie it midriff, and you got
(12:53):
a great way to cover it becauseyou're still getting air to
that area.
You don't want to try tobandage these things a lot of
times because bandaging doesn'tallow any air to get to it and
it won't heal.
Uh, but t-shirts work great.
It's a big dog, you know, youuse uh a regular, you know, uh,
you know, boys' t-shirt or men'st-shirt, and it worked, those
work really well.
Speaker 01 (13:17):
I've noticed I just I want to move on, but I noticed
when my dog used to get themgrow, like they can spread so
fast.
Yeah.
Like you can almost see itspreading it so fast.
Yeah, it looks so ugly andhorrible.
Speaker 00 (13:33):
Yeah, yeah, and sometimes you know, if we're not
looking.
Right, oh exactly.
It's very moist, and that's whyyou want to clean it and dry
it.
And you don't want to useperoxide, and you don't want to
use um um things like witchhazel, and because they are very
drying, like peroxide's greatfor the first time you clean it,
but not again.
And the reason why is peroxidekills new cells, it actually
(13:57):
lyses the new cells that areforming to try to heal this, and
so that will prevent it fromhealing.
Uh but like you know, we talkedabout like these duoxo sprays
or uh Pup Lab soothing spray andand keeping it clean on a twice
a day basis uh with uh Bragg'sapple cider vinegar, or um even
sometimes we'll use uh diluteEpsom salts and and and kind of
(14:21):
soak that area.
These are really, reallyhelpful for the animal and can
stop the spread and also uh umstop the the discomfort the
animal's having.
If it's an allergy, there thereare things like uh there's a
monoclonal antibody calledcytopoint, which is given by
injection, which is for allergy,that will stop the histamine
production.
We often can put them on minorantihistamines like benadryl or
(14:45):
diphenhydramine or somethinglike Xyrtech if we really need
to, but we you know it has eachcase has to be uh assessed, and
that's really a veterin call atthat point.
Speaker 01 (14:56):
Okay.
Let's move over to cats.
Okay.
Um we get we get comments quiteif quite often about chronic
renal failure.
Yes.
Um and you know, what are yourthe the the questions are are
less specific and more about doyou have ideas about it and how
(15:20):
you might manage it or treat it?
Speaker 00 (15:23):
Now you know that I have ideas about everything.
Speaker 01 (15:26):
Right.
You do.
Speaker 00 (15:28):
So you're setting me up for this one, buddy.
Speaker 01 (15:30):
So I want I want I want the big idea.
Okay, the big idea.
Well, what's what's the bigwhat's the big idea?
Speaker 00 (15:36):
Yeah, well let's first talk about what renal
failure is.
You know, we're talking aboutkidney disease in an older cat
typically.
It doesn't have to be, butoften it's in an older cat.
And uh these are uh situationswhere the owner sees them um
maybe being listless, um beingum not eating really well, uh
(15:58):
starting to maybe have vomitingor diarrhea.
Sometimes they will notice thatthey're actually seeing them
show weight loss.
Uh and there are other thingsthat can cause weight loss, but
this is one of those things thatdefinitely can cause it in that
cat.
Um, they'll go to the litterbox and they'll see blood in the
urine, uh, or they'restraining, or they're even
(16:20):
drinking more water and thenurinating even more often.
Um, these are the kinds ofsigns that can really be a
situation where that cat reallyneeds to be seen by a
veterinarian as soon aspossible.
Because there are ways to treatthis, and then there are ways
to treat this.
And so I'm gonna tell you theDr.
(16:41):
Randy Petvet way, and then youknow I'll leave the other ways
available out there becausethere's lots of other medicines
and prescription diets, and sothis so this is gonna be the big
idea.
This is the big idea.
unknown (16:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 00 (16:55):
So years ago, I got frustrated in the fact that um
what I was seeing was thedirection of all of these big
diet companies that madeprescription diets was to
formulate a low phosphorus,which is necessary in this
situation, uh, very low proteindiet.
(17:17):
Now, the thought was that inkidney failure or chronic renal
disease or chronic kidneydisease in cats, their um the
protein in their food uh isbeing excreted in their urine,
and you know, you it affects uhthings called blood urea
nitrogen.
(17:37):
That's a protein byproduct thatwe measure chemistry-wise.
Creatinine, which is the reallybig one, that's the main kidney
enzyme.
It's also a nitrogen breakdownproduct, again, protein.
SDMA, which is now somethingthat we can identify early in
cats and dogs, that will show usthat they're heading into a
(17:58):
situation with potential kidneydisease.
Um, but here's what happened.
And this is what I saw.
Um, my cats would be on theseprescription diets, and their
numbers would get better, butthey would start to waste away,
they'd start to lose weight.
And the question is, well, whydoes that happen?
And you don't have to be arocket scientist to understand
(18:20):
this.
What's happening in kidneydisease is the kidney's not
holding the protein that they'reeating, and it's excreting a
lot more protein in the urine.
So, what happens?
If you feed a food that's lowin protein, what ends up
happening is they start stealingit from their muscle because
they have to have the protein tosupport their body functions.
(18:41):
So they look better for three,six months, maybe sometimes
longer, but not usually.
And then all of a suddenthey're losing more and more
weight, they're getting more andmore lethargic, and the numbers
start to skyrocket again.
Um, so the prescription dietsin my world was not the answer.
Okay?
So the answer to me was how canwe get away with feeding these
(19:05):
cats a high-quality, low-carbprotein diet and still not
affect their kidneys adversely?
And the way I do that isactually using three
supplements.
So I go and I have my ownersnot use um kibble type diets,
preferably lightly cooked orfresh whole food or uh
(19:30):
freeze-dried raw diets for ourcats, where they're getting
plenty of protein, all of thecarbs from the veggies that they
need, but not getting excessivecarbs, which are inflammatory
and just going to create moreinflammation in the body and in
the kidney.
And I add a product calledazodil, A-Z-O-D-Y-L.
It's a refrigerated probioticthat actually binds nitrogen
(19:55):
from their diet so that thekidney can see, get we can, the
dog, the cat can utilize theprotein, but we're not getting
excessive nitrogen loss.
So the numbers, the B U N andthe creatinine, don't get
affected.
I also use a product calledNaraquin, which is an uh a
phosphorus binder.
(20:17):
It's a natural, it's reallyalmost a natural product.
Usually it's made from softshell crabs and stuff like that.
And it actually bindsphosphorus so that again, when
phosphorus starts to rise inthese cats, it causes irritation
to the stomach, it causesulceration, it causes
hyperacidity, and these guyswon't eat because they feel
(20:37):
terrible.
And then the last product I useis called amino vast,
A-M-I-N-A-V-A-S T.
And I use that because thatincreases blood flow to the
kidney naturally.
It's called GFR, glomeralfiltration rate, and by
increasing the blood flownaturally, the kidney can work a
little bit more efficiently andhandle what's going on.
(21:00):
And I, in early kidney disease,okay, I can really get these
cats to thrive, not to loseweight, to feel much, much
better, um, stop excreting allof the protein in their urine,
you know, not all of it, but butas but a lot of it, and not
having them affect the numbersthat we look at, the B UN, the
(21:22):
creatinine, and and the and theuh phosphorus numbers that we
that we really monitor.
Um I just did this exactseminar for uh a thousand
Japanese veterinarians uh a yearago to talk about this because
there there really isn't anybodytalking about this.
They're they're talking abouthow they can get around some of
(21:43):
the ideas on the diet, but noone's really um got this.
And I'll tell you honestly, Ifor years these cats have been
benefiting.
You know, where I would seethem waste away at three, six
months.
I got a cat that's a year downthe road, two years down the
road, and still benefiting fromwhat we're doing.
Now, sometimes the and manytimes the kidney's gonna get
(22:04):
worse, and and it will happen,okay?
Whether it happens at a year orit happens at three years, I
don't know.
Uh I don't have any way ofpredicting.
And then sometimes we will haveto add some actual medication
in there that can really help uhfor that situation.
But I try not to start it atthat rate.
Speaker 01 (22:23):
Hmm.
And what is there an age wherethis typically occurs or it's
all over the place?
Speaker 00 (22:30):
It's you know, it's really more of a senior disease.
I would say it is cats overeight years old that start
showing the signs that Imentioned earlier.
Uh that's when we really startto see it.
But we do see um, you know,I've had a couple animals
recently that have had uhproblems with their kidney.
We've actually done uhultrasounds on their kidney to
(22:50):
look at their kidneys, and we'veseen renal cysts, or we've
actually seen what's calledrenocortical hyperplasia, which
we're basically getting uhabnormalities to the kidney.
These are probably genetic insome nature, they could be
caused by some toxin or someinsult that they had that we
don't know.
Um, but those animals are alittle bit harder to deal with
(23:11):
because they actually havestructural disease that we've
got to get on top of also.
Speaker 01 (23:18):
Well, there's one more question that we have uh on
today's list about cats, andyou mentioned it uh earlier,
just a few minutes ago, but it'sit's about weight loss in
general in senior cats.
We see we see a lot ofquestions coming in about that.
(23:38):
So I guess renal failure couldbe one of the reasons, but there
could be many other I imagine.
Speaker 00 (23:47):
Yeah, no, and I I'm glad you bring this up because
um this is you know, this issomething that a lot of my pet
owners, you know, cat owners arethe most incredible pet owners.
I mean, you know, we know whycat owners have cats.
We've had we just did thatwonderful seminar about cats not
too long ago, that podcast thatwe just did.
Uh-huh.
(24:07):
Um, and I'll refer ourlisteners to that because it's
full of information.
But um cat owners many times,one, kind of look past some of
the things they're seeing andthey just kind of, you know, I
want to say blow it off.
They just kind of say, oh, youknow, it's really not a big
deal.
You know, um, Jinx is reallydoing okay.
I don't I don't really need togo to the veterinarian, I don't
(24:29):
really need to follow up on thisproblem.
But weight loss is really aserious problem.
So, and many times people don'tpick it up until there's
significant weight loss because,you know, and they're not
weighing their cat on a regularbasis, you know.
Some of my cat owners, I mean,you you know, I know you
probably understand this aboutmy pet owners down here.
Some of them will get on thescale on a weekly basis with
(24:51):
their cat and weigh themselveswith the cat and then weigh
themselves, you know, andthey'll know what the cat's
weight is, they'll extract.
Or they even go to the extentof getting a baby scale and
weighing them.
But, you know, every time a catcomes into feline focus here at
Paw's Veterinary Center, weweigh them.
And there's a really goodreason because I've had cats
(25:12):
come in for a general physicalexamination at, let's say, nine
years old, and you know, they'vebeen consistently 10, 10.1, 9.8
pounds, and here they are at8.1 pounds, and that's a
significant amount of weightloss.
And the owner didn't even know.
And so, so that that I justwant to basically mention that
(25:34):
because it's something youreally, as a cat owner, want to
be aware of.
So, kind of let's talk aboutthe things that can cause that.
Well, we just talked aboutchronic kidney disease or
chronic renal failure.
That's certainly one of them.
Another thing that can happenis something called
hyperthyroidism, which is causedby a nodule in their thyroid
gland.
And what it does is it causestheir thyroid hormone to go very
(25:58):
high, and it will cause theirmetabolism to go in overdrive,
and they're burning up most ofthe normal calories and protein
and all that that they wouldget, so they don't incorporate
that, so they lose weight.
It also can cause sometimeshyperactivity, where they're
(26:18):
they're really kind of active,much more active, even though
they start to fail after awhile.
It can also cause them to eatmore because they're trying to,
you know, gain those caloriesthat they're losing, but they
can't, and they can't tell youknow, our pet owners, our pet
parents, I mean, to like, youknow, increase my food because
my thyroid is burning this allup.
(26:40):
So that's where the biannualphysical examination and lab
work on senior cats is soimportant because we look for
trends.
You know, again, thyroid couldbe, you know, 2.1, 2.2, 1.9, and
then all of a sudden it's, youknow, let's say not abnormal,
but it's at 2.9 or 3.
(27:02):
Well, that jump could indicatethat it's starting to be a
problem, and we need to addressthat.
So hyperthyroidism isdefinitely another one.
Another one that can causeweight loss in cats is diabetes.
Diabetes mellitus is a reallyyou know dangerous disease.
It's it can be acquired,acquired disease, um, and their
(27:22):
uh, you know, their blood sugarsstart to rise terribly, and
they're not incorporating theirnormal amount of of um uh
nutrition into their into theirbody.
You know, often they'll be umthey'll be more lethargic.
Again, they'll be drinking alot more water, and that's those
are some hallmarks.
So there's some other thingsthat we need to worry about,
(27:43):
like um dental disease.
You know, the cat's mouth couldbe killing them.
You know, we see cats withgrade four out of four dental
disease, and the owners don'teven know it.
You know, but you open themouth and it smells like trench
mouth is what I describe it.
It smells like a sewer, it'sterrible.
And they've got all of these uhhard calculus and plaque on
(28:05):
their teeth, which is pushing upon their gums and retaining
bacteria.
Also, the number one reason whythey get urinary tract
infections, because thatbacteria just gets sucked up
into their blood system, goesright to their kidney and
bladder, and we'll see the samebacteria in the mouth as we do
in the bladder.
So um, so um uh dental diseaseis another one.
(28:25):
Another one could be heart orliver disease, and we see that
causing an issue uh with ourcats.
Again, a diagnosis that's madeby the routine lab work that we
do.
Um, but the the last one, whichis interesting, is arthritis or
pain.
You know, we know that 60% ofour cats over the age of eight
(28:46):
have osteoarthritis, yet many ofour owners have no idea.
You know, sometimes they catchthe fact that the cat hasn't
gone up on the bed recently ordoesn't get into its cat tree
normally.
Um, but on physicalexamination, we could pick this
up and sometimes well confirm itwith x-rays or radiographs.
Um, so all of those things, youknow, hyperthyroidism, chronic
(29:09):
kidney disease.
But then the last one that I'llmention, which is a new one on
the horizon, is called smallbowel lymphoma.
So we are seeing thisincredible rise of cancer in
cats' small intestine.
Um lymphoma is um aproliferation of white cells
called lymphocytes that line thelining of the bowel, and it
(29:33):
causes the bowel to swell andthem not to absorb normally, so
they're not getting their food.
Uh, and it can often beindicated by uh vomiting or
diarrhea, sometimes weight loss,uh, but sometimes it's silent
for a while, uh, and all we seeis that subtle weight loss that
I talked about on that cat thatwe picked up on you know on a
(29:55):
physical examination.
And there is a wonder I used tohave to do endoscopy.
On these cats, where I'd go inwith an endoscope and biopsy
their bowel and get the biopsyback and then have the
diagnosis.
Now, a company called VDI makesa laboratory test, a blood
test, that we can actually testfor lymphoma in our cats.
(30:15):
It actually looks at uhlymphoma, pancreatitis, uh
inflammatory bowel disease.
So it really is very, veryhelpful on helping that
diagnosis if the signs arethere.
Speaker 01 (30:27):
Okay, so let's talk, and maybe we can do a
discussion here for a fewminutes about dogs and cats.
But let's talk, let's talkabout vaccines.
Because my understanding aboutvaccines, and this this is a
question that does come in alot, uh, and depending on the
region they come in in from, theregion of the country, you get
(30:49):
different kinds of questions.
But I I guess what I take fromthat is there are vaccines that
are universal that your pet hasto have, rabies, for example.
Uh but there are other vaccinesthat are lifestyle-oriented.
So if you're living out in thedesert, you know, you might get
(31:11):
one set of vaccines.
If you're living in a woodlandsetting in the in New England,
it might be something different.
Um I'm just thinking, forexample, leptospirosis on the
West Coast or in the westernstates, in the mountains in the
desert, and I'm thinking Lymedisease, for example, in the
Northeast.
So let's talk about that.
(31:31):
And a question that I hearoftentimes is titer.
So let's let's talk aboutvaccines, let's talk about titer
and how to address this in yourokay.
Speaker 00 (31:42):
Good question.
It's it's pretty encompassing,uh, so I'll try to keep it
concise.
There are what we call the corevaccines for dogs and cats.
Okay?
So the core vaccine for dogs isdistemper, parvovirus, and
adenovirus.
It's often called DAP, DAPL.
I mean, there's a bunch ofcombinations, lepto is added to
(32:04):
that, but there's definitelysome core vaccines.
But distemper, adenovirus, andparvo are the core vaccines that
we typically look at here inTucson, Arizona, and many places
in the United States.
The other core vaccine israbies.
You know, rabies is a deadlydisease in humans.
Uh, it can be you know deadlyfor our animals.
It's out there, and we knowit's out there, so it's an
(32:27):
issue.
Um, so you know, uh, you know,that that those are typically
the the big core vaccines.
Here we we do do a lot ofsomething called upper upper
respiratory or borditellavaccination.
The reason that we do that isKennelkoff is very, very big.
Um, you know, we do have a lotof um uh we do have a lot of
(32:52):
places where people bored or dodaycare, and we don't really
want that, or grooming, and wedon't want that to spread.
Um so that's often a vaccinethat a lot of people ask about.
Um, and then you mentioned someof the subsidiary vaccines are
things like leptospirosis, let'ssay, or Lyme's disease, uh, or
(33:14):
or even some of the fluvaccines.
And these are pretty specificfor areas that you are in the
country, and I would leave thatup to your veterinarian to tell
you what's most important.
Um, we do have leptosporosis inTucson.
Um, we don't see it as often,but like in your situation,
(33:34):
you're going to hike in themountains with Hank.
Um, leptosporosis is probably areally good idea because it's
spread by you know cattlebasically being near water, the
water gets infected.
We also have it spread by a lotof avian species where there's
bird droppings or rabbitpellets, and the animal gets
exposed to that or water thathas it, and it can be very, very
(33:56):
damaging for the kidney.
Um, so those are the those arethe vaccines that most people
talk about in dogs.
Now, um we are huge titeradvocates here at Paws
Veterinary Center, here at youknow, canine uh co lab, here at
Feline Focus, where we havetiters for cats too, we'll talk
about.
But a titer is basically a um alook at how protected your
(34:22):
animal is to those vaccines.
So years ago, um we foundKansas State University, they
had a wonderful laboratory thatlooks at titers, which is the
measure of protection fordistemper, adenovirus, para
influenza, so DAP, or I meanparvavirus, and then also for
(34:44):
rabies.
So we started advocating in thedogs that have gone through
their normal puppy series thatafter the first year or so,
let's not vaccinate them rightoff the bat.
Let's look at their titer andmake sure they're or they're not
already protected.
Because, like anything else, ifthe dog is protected for
(35:04):
distemper adertivirus or parvo,why would you want to put a
vaccine on top of that that theydon't really need?
They're already showingprotection in their body.
The same thing goes for rabies.
Uh, we we often will advocaterabies titers.
Now, this is controversial,controversial, and I will tell
you that a lot of, like here inPima County and Tucson, they
(35:29):
won't license a dog with atiter.
They will only license a dog ifyou've given him a vaccine,
which is really strange, Mark,because here's the deal.
If you go to Hawaii or England,which are rabies-free zones,
they will not let your dog inwithout a titer.
So they don't care how manyvaccines Hank's gotten.
(35:49):
They want to know that Hank isprotected.
And if Hank has a protectivetiter, he gets in.
So why wouldn't we be in thesituation where if we're
licensing our animals, weutilize a titer and we can
license them from that titer?
Um, you know, the questionlies, is it a money thing?
Is it I don't know.
I I'm not even going to getinto that whole world.
Speaker 01 (36:11):
But we do titers here.
But if the dog has tight if thedog, so if they show up and
they have titer, then there's noneed to vaccinate.
Correct.
At that at that moment.
But yeah.
So is it like, okay, come backin a month, come back in six
months, let's do this again, orthey're good for another year?
Yeah.
(36:31):
We do it a year.
That's that's it.
Now.
Okay.
And I I guess I have a Goahead, sorry.
No, I I have a question as apet parent.
Um I'm particularly concernedwith Lyme disease.
And uh so I had my dogvaccinated for Lyme, and it was
(36:51):
a two ser two shots, uh a shotand then a booster three weeks
apart.
And I guess the question I haveis if the if the dog then gets
bitten by a deer tick that'sinfected, is the dog protected
now that he's had that vaccine,or is he still vulnerable, you
know, to being exposed andgetting sick from it?
(37:13):
I mean, how well I guess the chow well right, how well.
Speaker 00 (37:17):
It's not 100%.
I mean, it definitely confersprotection to them.
I mean, there's no doubt aboutit.
And in the Limes area, I wouldadvocate looking at getting that
done.
Uh because you know, it's a baddisease and it's silent for a
long time.
Um, but you know, I alsoadvocate them being on tick
preventative at that point, too,because we want to try to keep
(37:41):
them off.
So even if a dog gets bit by atick, the question is is there
still a percentage of dogs thatmight get Lymes from that bite?
And the answer is yes, it'spossible.
Uh now, much less if they'vebeen vaccinated, but also much
less if they're on apreventative, because what
happens is as soon as the dickthe the tick tries to attach to
(38:02):
the dog, um, it will get some ofthe preventative and it will
kill it or drop, it'll drop off.
Because the longer that thetick sucks on the blood, the
more chance that it can injectthe organism into their blood
system.
Speaker 01 (38:15):
Right.
Right.
You know what?
There are so many greatquestions, and I think what I'm
sensing is we should do anotherone of these in a in a in a
couple of months, and in acouple of months.
Speaker 00 (38:26):
Let me mention, let me mention the cat vaccines real
quick.
Just because um I think that'sreally important.
So the core cat vaccines aredefinitely rabies, again.
Now, not always required in ina lot of states.
Um, and then what we callfeline herpes virus, feline
chaleesi virus, and felinepanleukopenia.
(38:49):
And these are often upperrespiratory type viruses.
Again, the same thing goes fortiters for those.
We do titers on our cats.
We often find for most of thecats' life and sometimes
forever, that they're protectedand they don't need the
follow-up vaccines after they'vegone through the kitten series
and maybe past the first year.
(39:10):
So just to mention that becausewe do that in cats all the
time.
And again, my goal is um I justdon't want to give vaccines to
an animal that doesn't need it.
And I don't want to have thatimmunological load on top of
them if it's not necessary.
Speaker 01 (39:28):
You know, this wasn't on the list for today,
but I know it's hugelyimportant, so I hope you don't
mind my asking.
Uh what should people do aboutheartworm prevention?
Speaker 00 (39:41):
It's it's crazy important.
Um, we just had, just to giveyou an idea, um, we've just had
two indoor cats that areheartworm positive.
Never been out of the house,never been anywhere else but the
house, and they're heartwormpositive.
Now, how does that happen?
So, what people don'tunderstand is heartworm is a
(40:04):
disease that's spread bymosquitoes.
A mosquito picks up an organismfrom an infected animal,
whether it's a dog, whether it'sa cat, whether it's a coyote,
uh, and they will have thatorganism in their system, and
when they bite your animal, thenthey can inject that heartworm
(40:26):
organism into the blood system,which then goes through a
six-month period of developmentand becomes these adult worms in
the heart, hence heartworm.
And so it's it's it's you know,we used to think this was an
East Coast disease, a uh, youknow, a Gulf of Mexico to or our
(40:46):
Gulf of America, I should saynow, uh disease.
You know, water.
Speaker 01 (40:52):
No comment.
Speaker 00 (40:53):
But it's a no comment.
Right, but heartworm iseverywhere.
And and it's very, you know, wejust had a dog that came in
last this week that we didroutine blood work on.
The people have not givenheartworm preventative for two
years because they didn't thinkit was necessary.
Um, they had really badinformation from whoever they
(41:15):
talked to before, and the dogcame back positive for
heartworm.
And now is gonna have to gothrough a very uh a very
rigorous treatment to kill thoseadult worms.
And if the adult worms are badenough, they can cause clots,
and the dog can die even fromthe treatment because we're
killing those worms withmedicine that we have to give
(41:37):
the animal.
Speaker 01 (41:38):
So I there's no there's been a lot of talk as
well about all the rescues thatare going on right now all over
the country, and you know,heartworm is at least prevalent
in the southern states, and alot of these dogs come up from
the south, and then they'retaken up into the north, and so
(41:58):
suddenly it's everywhere.
That's one of the other thingsthat are aiding this.
And so I guess is therecommendation that if you have
a dog Is it a cat thing too,heartworm disease?
So if you have a pet, a dog ora cat, is it just regardless of
where you live, you should treatthe dog twelve months a year or
(42:19):
something?
Speaker 00 (42:19):
No, that's a good question.
No, what what what is therecommendation?
So the recommendation is theyshould be tested every year, no
matter what.
Because even on preventative,it's only 90 to 92 percent
effective.
Okay?
So you still have the animalsthat have received heartworm
preventative, let's say everymonth, and they're still going
to come back positive.
(42:40):
Now, it's obviously a verysmall percentage, but we make it
part of our yearly examination.
We make it part of the labwork, the blood work that we do
to make sure that they're testedfor heartworm.
That's how this dog we weretalking about just got picked up
because the dog hadn't hadyearly lab work in two years,
and boom, the dog's heartwormpositive.
(43:01):
Uh, the cats had never hadyearly lab work, and that's how
that was picked up.
So the recommendation to startwith is you test them every
year.
Now, when you receive anegative test, then the
recommendation is preventative.
Now, sometimes it's a littlehard to advocate preventative
for our cats because they'rereally not a lot of exposure,
(43:24):
but as I indicated, you know, wejust saw these two indoor cats.
So, I mean, it's ideally thething to do, but definitely for
our dogs, um, preventative isreally important.
Now, you had mentioned yearlyum treatment versus
intermittent.
There are a lot of places whereyou get um freezing where the
heart where the mosquitoes aregonna die.
(43:45):
So those areas you could getaway with not doing it yearly,
but I just tell people just giveit every month and then you got
it down.
Speaker 01 (43:54):
Right.
Speaker 00 (43:54):
What is this?
Is it a an herbicide, apesticide?
What is heart I'm sorry?
Speaker 01 (43:59):
Prevention.
Speaker 00 (44:00):
What is the prevention?
So prevention is is basicallyuh it's kind of like a very
minor insecticide that doesn'tcause a lot of issues in the
body, but is there to to tospecifically kill the worm when
it when it when it encountersit.
Speaker 01 (44:16):
Okay.
All right.
Okay?
Okay, so we should yes, that'sgreat.
I'm glad you know we could do awhole show on heartworm
prevention for sure, and we may.
Um anything else that you wantto talk about?
Anything that comes to mind foryou that you hear a lot about?
Speaker 00 (44:32):
No, I think I think this is good.
I think we should stop here umand you know, and we can do this
again.
Uh I again I want to I want toask our listeners to make sure
you subscribe to our newsletter,um, get onto our podcasts on
our website, subscribe to thosebecause it really helps us.
But send me your questions.
Uh, like I mentioned earlier, Ican't always answer them
(44:54):
individually every day, but Itry to batch them and do things
like this so we can get theanswers out.
Speaker 01 (45:00):
And if you go to drandypetvet.com, there's both a
form just to sign up veryquickly for the newsletter, and
there'll there's another formthere to ask a question.
So you make it really easy.
Absolutely.
Right?
Okay.
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