Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Eight thirty eight thirteen ten Wiba and ask the experts.
Brought you by Checkout Veterinary Join this morning by doctor
Mardy Greer. Of course, doctor Greer is recognized by the
Westminster Kennel Club as Veterinarian of the Year. You can
learn more about doctor Greer. You can learn more about
Checkout Veterinary all on their website checkout vet dot com.
(00:21):
That's checkout vet dot com. Don't forget that first visit
that exam. It is free and they are open seven
days a week at checkout vet. Super convenient location, super
convenient setup. It is a phenomenal, phenomenal clinic. Again, you
can learn more online checkout vet dot com. It is
a fantastic day to start that relationship at checkout Vet. Oh,
(00:41):
I can just pick up phone, gave a call six
oh eight three one eight sixty seven hundred. That's six
oh eight three one eight sixty seven hundred. They're located
right at twenty seven to ten Prairie Legs Drive in
Sun Prairie, right off the highway, right near the interstate.
So basically, if you hear our voice right now, if
you are in the area, you are near checkout Vet
and the docs would love to see you at Checkout Veterinary.
A great day to start that relationship. And speaking of
(01:03):
the doctors at Checkout Veterinary, the one and only doctor
Marty Greer joins us. Doctor, how you doing this week?
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Oh? Thank goodness, there's only one you are.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
One of the things I love is obviously getting a
chance to talk with you each and every week on
the show. I also like getting to chat with you
a little bit when we're off the air, and I
really you know, the one of the things I really
enjoy about that is like just I got a question,
You've got an answer, And I really like that just
kind of that back and forth and just how comfortable
you are with talking about what you do, pet healthcare
(01:40):
and those type of things. And I know that that
that type of approach really runs throughout the clinic. I
know that's an important thing for you, is to really
have good conversation and good relationship with your patients and
their and patients and their families. I guess probably the
best way to phrase that.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Yeah, And we feel pretty strongly that that's how we
select our team members, our doctors, and our staff, and
that that's a really important one of our core values.
But we work really hard at that. So I appreciate
hearing that, because you don't always hear the good stuff.
Sometimes you don't hear, you know, the complaints. I flew
last weekend and I at the airport, and I'm thinking,
(02:19):
I would not want to work in that hospitality industry
or in the airline industry, because does anybody ever say
anything nice about their flight? You were late, it was cold,
it was hot, you didn't bring me the drink I wanted.
You know, there's just a lot of negativity when you travel.
So we work really hard to have a positive environment
for the pets, and we work really hard for that
as well for the owners and the client. Our goal
(02:42):
is to establish a treatment care plan that really worked
for you and your pet, regardless of what your resources are.
Resources may be money, it may be time, it may
be you know, skill set. If you can't give your
cat a pill, well then we need to find another
way for you to medicate your cat. If your dog
is really sick and you have to know what your
treatment options are, we want to help you determine what
(03:04):
makes most sense, because there's no reason to do a
bunch of diagnostics that you're not going to do anything
to follow up on the answer that you find. So
we work really hard to make sure that those things
are happening. And I'm very proud of my doctor team
and my technician and lay staff teams that they understand
that is their core value and their their goals.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
And you guys do such a great job with it.
And that's that's why. You know, we always talk about
starting that relationship, and it is a relationship, and it's
a really great day to start their relationship, start that conversation.
All I got to do is pick up phone, give
them a call. Doctor Greer, and the doctors and the
whole team at checkout fat would love to see you.
They'd really love to see your pet. All you got
to do is give them a call. Six eight three
sixty seven hundred. That's six eight three one eight sixty
(03:48):
seven hundred. Learn more online check out vet dot com.
That's check out vet dot com. You know, earlier this week, doctor,
we were talking about about getting our our pets outside,
and of course we get warmer weather start talking about panting,
and it kind of brought we were kind of wondering
about I think all of us are familiar you take
your dog, especially on a warmer day, for a walk,
(04:10):
or they're out in the out in the warmer temperatures,
you'll start to see him pant. And I said, I
don't know that. And I've had cats pretty much my
whole life. I can only remember one time where I've
ever remembered any of my cats panting, and it wasn't
heat related. It was my cat, Bailey, one of the
best pets I ever had, was staring out the window,
had his head, his mouth open and is kind of
(04:31):
doing a little panting. And I look him like, what
is because I'm all automatically concerned that there's something going
on with them, And I look and there's a darn
chipmunk outside the window, and Bailey just wanted to find
a way to get out there. Do cats pant, doctor,
They almost never pant.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
What you said is probably not quite panting, but more
just a throwing a rousal, because they'll open their mouth
and they'll chatter and they just some kind of funny
things and they're on that prey drive kind of thing.
But if a cat is panting, if a cat is
open mouth breathing, you're in trouble. A dog would if
a dog with respiratory problems would tell you like, I
(05:08):
can't breathe. I need to open I open my mouth
to breathe on a little show of breath. A dog
would tell you that A cat will not. A cat
will wait until the last possible second till every ALVEO listen,
their lung is squished, and then they're going to tell
you they're in trouble. So we can rarely see asthma
in cats. It's pretty rare. We almost never see it
in dogs, and we rarely see it in cats. So
(05:29):
more common in cats than dogs, but not at all common.
If it happens, it's really serious. And the other thing
that we can see with cats that can cause them
to open mouth breathe is fluid in the chest around
the lungs. So those are the two most common. My
first year out of that school, I worked at an
emergency clinic in Milwaukee, and that's when it was one
little emergency clinic and it wasn't very well developed as
(05:50):
a field yet, and I would expect that every Saturday night,
by ten o'clock, I would have a cat that would
come through the door sometime on Saturday with a chest
full of fluid, and if that happens, there's no good
cargnosis for any of those things. So please, if you're
worried that your cat isn't breathing, well get them in
sooner rather than later. Do not wait because cats will
lie to you. They will. They're prey, so they're at
(06:13):
the bottom of the food chain, so they're going to
pretend that they're fine until they can't pretend anymore. So
if your cat is having any difficulty with breathing, get
them in and have X rays taken out of your
cat immediately. Do not wait until you're in bigger trouble.
But anyway, by ten o'clock on Saturday night, I would
expect to see a cat come through the door, if
not more than one with a chest full of fluid,
because that's how common that it is, and when it
(06:34):
does happen, it is serious. So pay close attention to
your cat, listen to what they're telling you. Hairballs are
a different thing, and that can be a little bit
confusing because when a cat is a hairball, it sounds
like it's dying. It puts its neck out, it looks
like a turtle, It sticks its tongue up, and it
does this weird, wheezy noise, and honestly, the first time
you see it, you're pretty sure your cat's going to
(06:55):
keel or whatever. Unfortunately, that's usually a hairball, and if
you can give them some hairball medication like a lacks
that are in a tube, that usually resolved it. Even
if they're not vomiting a pair balls. That is a
very common cause of what we see that looks like
respiratory distress in the cat. But it's a whole different thing.
So I'm going to just tell you put this in
your DNA. It doesn't matter if it's a dog or
(07:15):
a cat or whatever it is. If you see your
pet doing something that you're concerned about that doesn't seem normal,
pull your phone out of your pocket and get some video.
Capture that video, and then you can email it, send
it to the clinic, take it in when you go
for your appointment, and have your veterinarian see it. Because
a lot of these episodes of things don't happen repeatedly,
and they certainly don't happen on command. So when you
(07:37):
get to the vat they're not doing what they were
doing at home, and you kind of feel like, how
do I describe this, and do they really think that
I saw this or am I crazy? So just grab
your phone, like I said, put it in your d
and I do not miss the opportunity to grab the phone.
Get some video. If your pet is limping, slow motion
video is even better. You know, we have those settings
on our phone so you can pull up some video
(07:59):
and know what's your veterinarians, if it's a lameness, if
it's a seizure, if it's if it's breathing weird, if
it's coughing funny, any of those things. Take take video
because it's really helpful to your vet and your vet
pack to see what you saw because you can't recreate it.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
It that that's it, and that's that's great advice and
great guidance as always, and and we forget, you know
what an amazing tool we have with our smartphones and
having that that camera on hand at all times. And
I also know, you know, as somebody, I think we've
all experienced this with you know, something happens with our
pat and we kind of go in that pan and
for good reason, we go, as as as their guardians,
(08:35):
into that panic mode. And our brains aren't always you know,
taking those necessary you know, those those observations that may
normally be there or like like we obviously we'd also
don't know exactly what we're watching for as we're more
concerned with is my pet all right? Less about like
well was it was? Did it appear to be like
a lean or what those tides? So, yeah, the phone
(08:56):
is is that's a that's a really good advice. And
doctor two, when you mentioned kats and hairballs, are occasional
hairballs with cats normal like like if they get like
you know, one once a month or so.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Yeah, that's pretty common, especially as a long haired cats.
So using a metal tiss comb can really be helpful
in getting rid of the loose hair and you know,
just putting them on a maintenance of a laxative type
of medication or hairball diet. They make hairball diets which
are high in fiber that can be very helpful in
getting the hairballs to pass through the GI tracks, So
(09:28):
that's really useful. And then the tube lacks that is
they're basically petroleum jelly, which is vacline that's flavored with malt,
so the cats will eat them and you can take
it and just let them squirt right out of the
tube and into their mouth, or you can put it
down in the front of their legs and they can
groom it off. And that's a really good way to
control hairballs. So our treatment if you have a hairball,
or you think you have a hairball and it's not
(09:50):
going to hurt if you're not sure, is to give
a quarter of a tube of the cat laxative and
you can give the pet, Story Amazon whatever quarter of
a tube once a day for four days, and that
you usually we'll get the hairball problem under control. And
then you go to a maintenance of so like once
a week and you know, a couple of sports of it,
and that will help the hairball. Diet's help a lot.
So there's a lot of things that you can do.
(10:11):
And if you've done those things that are already and
ruled out that it's not a hairball. And just you know,
cats can vomit, and they can vomit from a hairball,
but not vomit the hair off. And so that's where
it gets to be confusing again, is that it may
obstruct their ability to have the food move out of
their stomach, so they vomit it. But the hair doesn't
come with it, so it's sometimes a little hard to
make these diagnoses. And that's the tricky thing about pass
(10:33):
especially because like I said, they're really good at faking it.
So you know, just make all the observations, you can
take notes, do those things. Video is also really helpful
if you're trying to time the length of something that happened, because,
for instance, if your pet has a seizure, it seems
like it takes it ten minutes to recover, and it's
really like a minute and a half, but it seems
like a lot longer when it's your pet and it's
(10:53):
happening in front of you. So the video helps the
time stamp, the date, the time stamp, the length of time,
the documentation, all those things. And I have to tell
you a really funny story. I had a client that
came in one day with his dog, and his dog
it had some loose stool and he had taken a
photograph of it, which I get a lot of. I
get a lot of people that take pictures of the
vomit or the the diarrhea or whatever they're seeing. They
(11:16):
take pictures of it, which is great because then I've
got documentation. But I looked at the photographs and on
the graph next to where the stool was, there was
a ruler. And I looked at it and I said,
I looked at it again, and I looked at him
and I said, and this is And he said, oh,
I'm sorry, I'm a retired cop. And I'm like, oh,
I got them, like he was documenting evidence. So I
(11:38):
have now raised the bar from my other clients, like,
if you're going to take a photograph, I don't want
a ruler and the picture with it, or put a
nickel in there, or put something in that can help
me quantify the size of it. I just cracked up.
That was the funniest picture that I think I've ever
had a client share with me. Now I see some
really cute pictures, don't get me wrong, Yes, but it
was pretty hystorical.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
That is very funny. I'm talking this morning with doctor
Marty Grew. I almost want to frame that one and
hang it in the A nice little conversation.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Start, for sure, Yes, photo, I need to keep it. Yeah,
it's very funny.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Talking this morning with doctor Marty Greer of Checkout Veterinarian,
the website checkout vet dot com. That's checkout vet dot com.
Doctor does seem like with cats. As we're kind of
talking a little bit about cat health is a lot
of times people view them as small dogs, and obviously
they are. They have very very different needs and as
somebody who has both both cats and a dog. One
(12:35):
of the things, and I think you may have mentioned
this also, I love watching like nature and I'll watch
like the cats in this era and those type of
things that the big cats and you notice that there's
dry months. And the thing that I have always noticed
is cats don't always and I think you have mentioned
this as well in preview shows, don't always drink as
much uh just liquid water. Of course, they typically in
(12:56):
the wild would be getting a lot of their their
moisture hydration from pray. Do things like wet foods and
other things really help keep the cats hydrated, especially this
time of year, it does.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
And so you can add some water to the can
cat food, but don't put water in the dry food.
Cats do not like their dry food hydrated with water.
A lot of people with their dogs, they float their food.
They put food in the bowl and then they float
it with water because they want the dog to slow down.
And it's eating, they want it to take in more water.
They want the food to swell up in the bowl
instead of in their stomach. So there's a lot of
reasons that people do that, but cats don't tolerate that. Well. Yes,
(13:30):
you can certainly add it to the canned food the
other things that you can do for cats, Or you
can get one of those drinking fountains for the cats
because they like running water. If you have a cat
that likes to drink out of the sink or the bathtub,
just leave that water dripping so that they have access
to it. And that a lot of cats really like
sitting on the bathroom counter and you know, playing in
the water stream and drinking it. And then you can
(13:52):
do things like take chicken broth look sodium chicken broth
and freeze it into ice cubes and then float that
in your cat's water bowl, because then you've got flavored water.
So if you're used to cat like chicken, you can
do most of them chicken broth. As your catles fish,
you can take the water pactoona, not that oil pactoona,
and save the water off of it and again, you know,
dilute that down and freeze it into ice cubes. So
(14:13):
there's a lot of really fun things that you can
do for your pets. The dogs like ice cubes too.
We call those water bones, so you can have lots
of fun. I actually have one client that had great games,
and one of her great games knew how to use
the ice cube dispenser on the freeze fridge in her kitchen.
She had three great games and she came home one
day in the kitchen floor was just covered with ice cubes.
So they had clearly had a little bit of a party.
(14:36):
But dogs do love the ice cubes. Cats love them.
So there's some really fun things that you can do
to just make it, you know, a little bit more
of as an enjoyment kind of thing for pets to drink,
because the more they drink, the better health their kidneys have.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Fanta that's a great great tips and that's good to
hear as well as we talk about staying hydrated of course,
and your pets hydrated during these warm days, and of
course talking this morning when doctor Martin Greer, doctor Reer
comes to us from checkout Veterinary the website checkout vets
dot com. That's checkout vet dot com. An amazing drive
through service. The model for checkout vet is really really cool.
(15:13):
You can learn more actually online. I've got a great illustration,
great kind of pictures and kind of really do a
nice job of explaining how checkout vet works, why it's
so unique, why it's designed the way it is to
make it convenient for you and your pet. Make it
comfortable for you and your pet as well. Again, more
information available online checkout vet dot com. Great data. Start
that relationship and start that conversation at checkout veterinary er
(15:35):
telphone number six oh eight three one eight sixty seven hundred.
That's six eight three one eight sixty seven hundred. And
of course the website checkout vet dot com. That's checkout
vet dot com. I was gonna go to a break,
but Katie briefly stepped away, and I will ask you
this then as we're talking doctor about a little bit
about about cats and and and staying hydrit other things
with cat. Things you had mentioned the other week, I
(15:57):
think was last week on the show, when somebody had
commented to me they said, do they make there are
for diabetic cats? There are treatments that don't involve injections.
Did I hear that right? And did they hear that right?
I thought you said there were, yes, Yes, there is.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
There are two new oral medications that are on the market.
The one we've got our patients on it is called
Be's the Cat. It's a tablet. It's a small tablet
that's meant to be just taken by the cat willingly,
but it typically is just take it right out of
your hand. It's given once every twenty four hours. Now,
there are some pretty restrictions on which cats qualify for
that treatment. They're supposed to be under thirteen years of age,
(16:33):
they should not have keytones in their urine, and they
should have not previously been on influence. So you can't
take a cat it was on influent and switch them
to this. But a newly diagnosed diabetic cat can do
very very well on this product, Doctor Amen and I
have a couple of cats on it, and cats are
kind of interesting with their diabetes. When a job becomes diabetic,
it's forever. When a cat becomes diabetic, it can be transient.
(16:55):
It can resolve on its own. In some cases, maybe
ten percent of the cases get better and not need
long term insulin or long term bex the cat. So
it's actually pretty cool that we have this option. A
lot of people are very needlephobic and they find that
their pet is diabetic and it just sort of puts
them over the edge. And it's a shame to me
to see somebody that doesn't feel like they can manage
(17:19):
insulin injections. So this is a nice alternative. We don't
have that for dogs, but we do for cats. But
if your pet is diagnosed as diabetic, we're going to
work really hard to teach you to give the injections,
how to manage them. And those little libra and meters,
those little in things that you see people on the
back of their arms that help them to see what
their blood sugar is so they can see it on
(17:39):
their phone. We can put those on cats and dogs also,
so they they'll last two weeks. That way, you can
be in bed, or you can be at work or whatever,
and you can check your pets insulin or glucose level
from your phone distantly. So there's some really interesting technologies
that we have now that we haven't had in the past.
But if you have a newly diagnosed diabetic cat and
it's a thirteen and it's not ketotic, that can be
(18:02):
a really good treatment option for people that are afraid
of using needles. Now, the needles we use when we
do influence are any bitty teeny. We need little needles,
and that usually we end up having the pet we
put a bullet food down in front of them and
while they're eating, we give the injection, whether it's aodag
or a cat. And the advantages for that is twofold.
One is you don't want to give the insulin if
your pet isn't feeling good enough to eat that day,
(18:24):
because you could drop their footboms too low. So number one,
you want to make sure that they're eating. Number two,
they're pretty distracted by their food. Most diabetic patients are
pretty hungry, so they'll typically dive into foods fairly quickly,
and while they're eating the food, you can give the injection.
It's like I said, a tiny needle. You give it
over the shoulder. It's behind their ears where they can't
see what they're doing. And if they're adequately distracted, most
(18:45):
of them don't even react. So the first two or
two day it might be a little nerve wracking to
give the injections, and after that people become accustomed to it.
Very quickly and they do a great job.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Oh that's great. It's great to hear that as well
as we talk with doctor Marty Greer of check Out Veterinary.
It's a great day to start that relationship. Look in
new patients want to meet you, meet your pet, meet
your family. Get on in check out Veterinary. You can
learn more online the website checkout vet dot com. That's
checkout vet dot com. Telephon number six oh eight three
(19:16):
one eight sixty seven hundred. That's six oh eight three
one eight sixty seven hundred, and again the website checkout
vet dot com. Doctor Greer, thank you so much for
joining us this morning. You enjoyed this beautiful day and
we'll talk real soon.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Becky McKenna joins us next right here on thirteen ten
wuib A
Eight thirty eight thirteen ten Wiba and ask the experts.
Brought you by Checkout Veterinary Join this morning by doctor
Mardy Greer. Of course, doctor Greer is recognized by the
Westminster Kennel Club as Veterinarian of the Year. You can
learn more about doctor Greer. You can learn more about
Checkout Veterinary all on their website checkout vet dot com.
(00:21):
That's checkout vet dot com. Don't forget that first visit
that exam. It is free and they are open seven
days a week at checkout vet. Super convenient location, super
convenient setup. It is a phenomenal, phenomenal clinic. Again, you
can learn more online checkout vet dot com. It is
a fantastic day to start that relationship at checkout Vet. Oh,
(00:41):
I can just pick up phone, gave a call six
oh eight three one eight sixty seven hundred. That's six
oh eight three one eight sixty seven hundred. They're located
right at twenty seven to ten Prairie Legs Drive in
Sun Prairie, right off the highway, right near the interstate.
So basically, if you hear our voice right now, if
you are in the area, you are near checkout Vet
and the docs would love to see you at Checkout Veterinary.
A great day to start that relationship. And speaking of
(01:03):
the doctors at Checkout Veterinary, the one and only doctor
Marty Greer joins us. Doctor, how you doing this week?
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Oh? Thank goodness, there's only one you are.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
One of the things I love is obviously getting a
chance to talk with you each and every week on
the show. I also like getting to chat with you
a little bit when we're off the air, and I
really you know, the one of the things I really
enjoy about that is like just I got a question,
You've got an answer, And I really like that just
kind of that back and forth and just how comfortable
you are with talking about what you do, pet healthcare
(01:40):
and those type of things. And I know that that
that type of approach really runs throughout the clinic. I
know that's an important thing for you, is to really
have good conversation and good relationship with your patients and
their and patients and their families. I guess probably the
best way to phrase that.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Yeah, And we feel pretty strongly that that's how we
select our team members, our doctors, and our staff, and
that that's a really important one of our core values.
But we work really hard at that. So I appreciate
hearing that, because you don't always hear the good stuff.
Sometimes you don't hear, you know, the complaints. I flew
last weekend and I at the airport, and I'm thinking,
(02:19):
I would not want to work in that hospitality industry
or in the airline industry, because does anybody ever say
anything nice about their flight? You were late, it was cold,
it was hot, you didn't bring me the drink I wanted.
You know, there's just a lot of negativity when you travel.
So we work really hard to have a positive environment
for the pets, and we work really hard for that
as well for the owners and the client. Our goal
(02:42):
is to establish a treatment care plan that really worked
for you and your pet, regardless of what your resources are.
Resources may be money, it may be time, it may
be you know, skill set. If you can't give your
cat a pill, well then we need to find another
way for you to medicate your cat. If your dog
is really sick and you have to know what your
treatment options are, we want to help you determine what
(03:04):
makes most sense, because there's no reason to do a
bunch of diagnostics that you're not going to do anything
to follow up on the answer that you find. So
we work really hard to make sure that those things
are happening. And I'm very proud of my doctor team
and my technician and lay staff teams that they understand
that is their core value and their their goals.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
And you guys do such a great job with it.
And that's that's why. You know, we always talk about
starting that relationship, and it is a relationship, and it's
a really great day to start their relationship, start that conversation.
All I got to do is pick up phone, give
them a call. Doctor Greer, and the doctors and the
whole team at checkout fat would love to see you.
They'd really love to see your pet. All you got
to do is give them a call. Six eight three
sixty seven hundred. That's six eight three one eight sixty
(03:48):
seven hundred. Learn more online check out vet dot com.
That's check out vet dot com. You know, earlier this week, doctor,
we were talking about about getting our our pets outside,
and of course we get warmer weather start talking about panting,
and it kind of brought we were kind of wondering
about I think all of us are familiar you take
your dog, especially on a warmer day, for a walk,
(04:10):
or they're out in the out in the warmer temperatures,
you'll start to see him pant. And I said, I
don't know that. And I've had cats pretty much my
whole life. I can only remember one time where I've
ever remembered any of my cats panting, and it wasn't
heat related. It was my cat, Bailey, one of the
best pets I ever had, was staring out the window,
had his head, his mouth open and is kind of
(04:31):
doing a little panting. And I look him like, what
is because I'm all automatically concerned that there's something going
on with them, And I look and there's a darn
chipmunk outside the window, and Bailey just wanted to find
a way to get out there. Do cats pant, doctor,
They almost never pant.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
What you said is probably not quite panting, but more
just a throwing a rousal, because they'll open their mouth
and they'll chatter and they just some kind of funny
things and they're on that prey drive kind of thing.
But if a cat is panting, if a cat is
open mouth breathing, you're in trouble. A dog would if
a dog with respiratory problems would tell you like, I
(05:08):
can't breathe. I need to open I open my mouth
to breathe on a little show of breath. A dog
would tell you that A cat will not. A cat
will wait until the last possible second till every ALVEO listen,
their lung is squished, and then they're going to tell
you they're in trouble. So we can rarely see asthma
in cats. It's pretty rare. We almost never see it
in dogs, and we rarely see it in cats. So
(05:29):
more common in cats than dogs, but not at all common.
If it happens, it's really serious. And the other thing
that we can see with cats that can cause them
to open mouth breathe is fluid in the chest around
the lungs. So those are the two most common. My
first year out of that school, I worked at an
emergency clinic in Milwaukee, and that's when it was one
little emergency clinic and it wasn't very well developed as
(05:50):
a field yet, and I would expect that every Saturday night,
by ten o'clock, I would have a cat that would
come through the door sometime on Saturday with a chest
full of fluid, and if that happens, there's no good
cargnosis for any of those things. So please, if you're
worried that your cat isn't breathing, well get them in
sooner rather than later. Do not wait because cats will
lie to you. They will. They're prey, so they're at
(06:13):
the bottom of the food chain, so they're going to
pretend that they're fine until they can't pretend anymore. So
if your cat is having any difficulty with breathing, get
them in and have X rays taken out of your
cat immediately. Do not wait until you're in bigger trouble.
But anyway, by ten o'clock on Saturday night, I would
expect to see a cat come through the door, if
not more than one with a chest full of fluid,
because that's how common that it is, and when it
(06:34):
does happen, it is serious. So pay close attention to
your cat, listen to what they're telling you. Hairballs are
a different thing, and that can be a little bit
confusing because when a cat is a hairball, it sounds
like it's dying. It puts its neck out, it looks
like a turtle, It sticks its tongue up, and it
does this weird, wheezy noise, and honestly, the first time
you see it, you're pretty sure your cat's going to
(06:55):
keel or whatever. Unfortunately, that's usually a hairball, and if
you can give them some hairball medication like a lacks
that are in a tube, that usually resolved it. Even
if they're not vomiting a pair balls. That is a
very common cause of what we see that looks like
respiratory distress in the cat. But it's a whole different thing.
So I'm going to just tell you put this in
your DNA. It doesn't matter if it's a dog or
(07:15):
a cat or whatever it is. If you see your
pet doing something that you're concerned about that doesn't seem normal,
pull your phone out of your pocket and get some video.
Capture that video, and then you can email it, send
it to the clinic, take it in when you go
for your appointment, and have your veterinarian see it. Because
a lot of these episodes of things don't happen repeatedly,
and they certainly don't happen on command. So when you
(07:37):
get to the vat they're not doing what they were
doing at home, and you kind of feel like, how
do I describe this, and do they really think that
I saw this or am I crazy? So just grab
your phone, like I said, put it in your d
and I do not miss the opportunity to grab the phone.
Get some video. If your pet is limping, slow motion
video is even better. You know, we have those settings
on our phone so you can pull up some video
(07:59):
and know what's your veterinarians, if it's a lameness, if
it's a seizure, if it's if it's breathing weird, if
it's coughing funny, any of those things. Take take video
because it's really helpful to your vet and your vet
pack to see what you saw because you can't recreate it.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
It that that's it, and that's that's great advice and
great guidance as always, and and we forget, you know
what an amazing tool we have with our smartphones and
having that that camera on hand at all times. And
I also know, you know, as somebody, I think we've
all experienced this with you know, something happens with our
pat and we kind of go in that pan and
for good reason, we go, as as as their guardians,
(08:35):
into that panic mode. And our brains aren't always you know,
taking those necessary you know, those those observations that may
normally be there or like like we obviously we'd also
don't know exactly what we're watching for as we're more
concerned with is my pet all right? Less about like
well was it was? Did it appear to be like
a lean or what those tides? So, yeah, the phone
(08:56):
is is that's a that's a really good advice. And
doctor two, when you mentioned kats and hairballs, are occasional
hairballs with cats normal like like if they get like
you know, one once a month or so.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Yeah, that's pretty common, especially as a long haired cats.
So using a metal tiss comb can really be helpful
in getting rid of the loose hair and you know,
just putting them on a maintenance of a laxative type
of medication or hairball diet. They make hairball diets which
are high in fiber that can be very helpful in
getting the hairballs to pass through the GI tracks, So
(09:28):
that's really useful. And then the tube lacks that is
they're basically petroleum jelly, which is vacline that's flavored with malt,
so the cats will eat them and you can take
it and just let them squirt right out of the
tube and into their mouth, or you can put it
down in the front of their legs and they can
groom it off. And that's a really good way to
control hairballs. So our treatment if you have a hairball,
or you think you have a hairball and it's not
(09:50):
going to hurt if you're not sure, is to give
a quarter of a tube of the cat laxative and
you can give the pet, Story Amazon whatever quarter of
a tube once a day for four days, and that
you usually we'll get the hairball problem under control. And
then you go to a maintenance of so like once
a week and you know, a couple of sports of it,
and that will help the hairball. Diet's help a lot.
So there's a lot of things that you can do.
(10:11):
And if you've done those things that are already and
ruled out that it's not a hairball. And just you know,
cats can vomit, and they can vomit from a hairball,
but not vomit the hair off. And so that's where
it gets to be confusing again, is that it may
obstruct their ability to have the food move out of
their stomach, so they vomit it. But the hair doesn't
come with it, so it's sometimes a little hard to
make these diagnoses. And that's the tricky thing about pass
(10:33):
especially because like I said, they're really good at faking it.
So you know, just make all the observations, you can
take notes, do those things. Video is also really helpful
if you're trying to time the length of something that happened, because,
for instance, if your pet has a seizure, it seems
like it takes it ten minutes to recover, and it's
really like a minute and a half, but it seems
like a lot longer when it's your pet and it's
(10:53):
happening in front of you. So the video helps the
time stamp, the date, the time stamp, the length of time,
the documentation, all those things. And I have to tell
you a really funny story. I had a client that
came in one day with his dog, and his dog
it had some loose stool and he had taken a
photograph of it, which I get a lot of. I
get a lot of people that take pictures of the
vomit or the the diarrhea or whatever they're seeing. They
(11:16):
take pictures of it, which is great because then I've
got documentation. But I looked at the photographs and on
the graph next to where the stool was, there was
a ruler. And I looked at it and I said,
I looked at it again, and I looked at him
and I said, and this is And he said, oh,
I'm sorry, I'm a retired cop. And I'm like, oh,
I got them, like he was documenting evidence. So I
(11:38):
have now raised the bar from my other clients, like,
if you're going to take a photograph, I don't want
a ruler and the picture with it, or put a
nickel in there, or put something in that can help
me quantify the size of it. I just cracked up.
That was the funniest picture that I think I've ever
had a client share with me. Now I see some
really cute pictures, don't get me wrong, Yes, but it
was pretty hystorical.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
That is very funny. I'm talking this morning with doctor
Marty Grew. I almost want to frame that one and
hang it in the A nice little conversation.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Start, for sure, Yes, photo, I need to keep it. Yeah,
it's very funny.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Talking this morning with doctor Marty Greer of Checkout Veterinarian,
the website checkout vet dot com. That's checkout vet dot com.
Doctor does seem like with cats. As we're kind of
talking a little bit about cat health is a lot
of times people view them as small dogs, and obviously
they are. They have very very different needs and as
somebody who has both both cats and a dog. One
(12:35):
of the things, and I think you may have mentioned
this also, I love watching like nature and I'll watch
like the cats in this era and those type of
things that the big cats and you notice that there's
dry months. And the thing that I have always noticed
is cats don't always and I think you have mentioned
this as well in preview shows, don't always drink as
much uh just liquid water. Of course, they typically in
(12:56):
the wild would be getting a lot of their their
moisture hydration from pray. Do things like wet foods and
other things really help keep the cats hydrated, especially this
time of year, it does.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
And so you can add some water to the can
cat food, but don't put water in the dry food.
Cats do not like their dry food hydrated with water.
A lot of people with their dogs, they float their food.
They put food in the bowl and then they float
it with water because they want the dog to slow down.
And it's eating, they want it to take in more water.
They want the food to swell up in the bowl
instead of in their stomach. So there's a lot of
reasons that people do that, but cats don't tolerate that. Well. Yes,
(13:30):
you can certainly add it to the canned food the
other things that you can do for cats, Or you
can get one of those drinking fountains for the cats
because they like running water. If you have a cat
that likes to drink out of the sink or the bathtub,
just leave that water dripping so that they have access
to it. And that a lot of cats really like
sitting on the bathroom counter and you know, playing in
the water stream and drinking it. And then you can
(13:52):
do things like take chicken broth look sodium chicken broth
and freeze it into ice cubes and then float that
in your cat's water bowl, because then you've got flavored water.
So if you're used to cat like chicken, you can
do most of them chicken broth. As your catles fish,
you can take the water pactoona, not that oil pactoona,
and save the water off of it and again, you know,
dilute that down and freeze it into ice cubes. So
(14:13):
there's a lot of really fun things that you can
do for your pets. The dogs like ice cubes too.
We call those water bones, so you can have lots
of fun. I actually have one client that had great games,
and one of her great games knew how to use
the ice cube dispenser on the freeze fridge in her kitchen.
She had three great games and she came home one
day in the kitchen floor was just covered with ice cubes.
So they had clearly had a little bit of a party.
(14:36):
But dogs do love the ice cubes. Cats love them.
So there's some really fun things that you can do
to just make it, you know, a little bit more
of as an enjoyment kind of thing for pets to drink,
because the more they drink, the better health their kidneys have.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Fanta that's a great great tips and that's good to
hear as well as we talk about staying hydrated of course,
and your pets hydrated during these warm days, and of
course talking this morning when doctor Martin Greer, doctor Reer
comes to us from checkout Veterinary the website checkout vets
dot com. That's checkout vet dot com. An amazing drive
through service. The model for checkout vet is really really cool.
(15:13):
You can learn more actually online. I've got a great illustration,
great kind of pictures and kind of really do a
nice job of explaining how checkout vet works, why it's
so unique, why it's designed the way it is to
make it convenient for you and your pet. Make it
comfortable for you and your pet as well. Again, more
information available online checkout vet dot com. Great data. Start
that relationship and start that conversation at checkout veterinary er
(15:35):
telphone number six oh eight three one eight sixty seven hundred.
That's six eight three one eight sixty seven hundred. And
of course the website checkout vet dot com. That's checkout
vet dot com. I was gonna go to a break,
but Katie briefly stepped away, and I will ask you
this then as we're talking doctor about a little bit
about about cats and and and staying hydrit other things
with cat. Things you had mentioned the other week, I
(15:57):
think was last week on the show, when somebody had
commented to me they said, do they make there are
for diabetic cats? There are treatments that don't involve injections.
Did I hear that right? And did they hear that right?
I thought you said there were, yes, Yes, there is.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
There are two new oral medications that are on the market.
The one we've got our patients on it is called
Be's the Cat. It's a tablet. It's a small tablet
that's meant to be just taken by the cat willingly,
but it typically is just take it right out of
your hand. It's given once every twenty four hours. Now,
there are some pretty restrictions on which cats qualify for
that treatment. They're supposed to be under thirteen years of age,
(16:33):
they should not have keytones in their urine, and they
should have not previously been on influence. So you can't
take a cat it was on influent and switch them
to this. But a newly diagnosed diabetic cat can do
very very well on this product, Doctor Amen and I
have a couple of cats on it, and cats are
kind of interesting with their diabetes. When a job becomes diabetic,
it's forever. When a cat becomes diabetic, it can be transient.
(16:55):
It can resolve on its own. In some cases, maybe
ten percent of the cases get better and not need
long term insulin or long term bex the cat. So
it's actually pretty cool that we have this option. A
lot of people are very needlephobic and they find that
their pet is diabetic and it just sort of puts
them over the edge. And it's a shame to me
to see somebody that doesn't feel like they can manage
(17:19):
insulin injections. So this is a nice alternative. We don't
have that for dogs, but we do for cats. But
if your pet is diagnosed as diabetic, we're going to
work really hard to teach you to give the injections,
how to manage them. And those little libra and meters,
those little in things that you see people on the
back of their arms that help them to see what
their blood sugar is so they can see it on
(17:39):
their phone. We can put those on cats and dogs also,
so they they'll last two weeks. That way, you can
be in bed, or you can be at work or whatever,
and you can check your pets insulin or glucose level
from your phone distantly. So there's some really interesting technologies
that we have now that we haven't had in the past.
But if you have a newly diagnosed diabetic cat and
it's a thirteen and it's not ketotic, that can be
(18:02):
a really good treatment option for people that are afraid
of using needles. Now, the needles we use when we
do influence are any bitty teeny. We need little needles,
and that usually we end up having the pet we
put a bullet food down in front of them and
while they're eating, we give the injection, whether it's aodag
or a cat. And the advantages for that is twofold.
One is you don't want to give the insulin if
your pet isn't feeling good enough to eat that day,
(18:24):
because you could drop their footboms too low. So number one,
you want to make sure that they're eating. Number two,
they're pretty distracted by their food. Most diabetic patients are
pretty hungry, so they'll typically dive into foods fairly quickly,
and while they're eating the food, you can give the injection.
It's like I said, a tiny needle. You give it
over the shoulder. It's behind their ears where they can't
see what they're doing. And if they're adequately distracted, most
(18:45):
of them don't even react. So the first two or
two day it might be a little nerve wracking to
give the injections, and after that people become accustomed to it.
Very quickly and they do a great job.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Oh that's great. It's great to hear that as well
as we talk with doctor Marty Greer of check Out Veterinary.
It's a great day to start that relationship. Look in
new patients want to meet you, meet your pet, meet
your family. Get on in check out Veterinary. You can
learn more online the website checkout vet dot com. That's
checkout vet dot com. Telephon number six oh eight three
(19:16):
one eight sixty seven hundred. That's six oh eight three
one eight sixty seven hundred, and again the website checkout
vet dot com. Doctor Greer, thank you so much for
joining us this morning. You enjoyed this beautiful day and
we'll talk real soon.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Becky McKenna joins us next right here on thirteen ten
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