Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Eight thirty eight thirteen to ten WIBA and ask the experts.
Brought to you by Checkout Veterinary online checkout vet dot com.
That's checkout vet dot com. Learn all about Checkout Veterinary
on their website their amazing drive through service. They're hours
which of course Monday through Monday, that's seven days a week,
(00:20):
nine am until five pm. That first visit that exam
is free. A great opportunity also because they are accepting
new patients right now at checkout vet again. You can
learn all the details online checkout vet dot com or
give them a call. Six h eight three one eight
sixty seven hundred. That's six eight three one eight sixty
seven hundred. And joining us this morning from Checkout Veterinary
(00:41):
Clinic is doctor Marty Greer, recognized as Veterinarian up the
Year from the Westminster Kennel Club. Doctor, how are you
doing this morning?
Speaker 2 (00:48):
I'm doing great.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
We're going to talk this week about something very timely,
of course, with the holidays coming up, a lot of
different things in and around the house, things that really
spark your pets curiosity as well as you know, they're
basic instinctive looking for things that might be tasty. We'll
talk a little bit about that of course. Also as
we've got doctor Greer on with us this morning, if
(01:11):
you have a question, we've got a phone line open
for you at six's oh eight three two one thirteen ten.
That's six soh eight three two one thirteen ten. Will
take your call, of course, with doctor Greer from Checkout Veterinary.
You can also email. As a matter of fact, we've
got our email. I'm gonna ask you. I asked the
doctor about our email in just a moment. In the meantime,
I mentioned the website checkout vet dot com. That's checkout
(01:32):
vet dot com. It's an amazing model that they have
out Checkout veterinaryan doctor. One of the really cool things
about checkout vet is you've got checkout Vet, you've got
check in Vet. You've got the Marshall Clinic, you've got
the Lamira Clinic. You've got doctors and staff and knowledge
and caring people and amazing resources. You've got them everywhere.
I check out Vet. It's a pretty amazing system you've
(01:54):
set up. Doctor. I got to say thanks.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
We're pretty happy with it. You're very pleased. It's I
have a great team at doctors, a great team of staff.
It's just it's just a really cool system. So we've
got you covered pretty much everywhere. Now, they're going to
be closed on Christmas, even Christmas Day in Lamairo will
be open until noon on Christmas Eve, but the other
clinics will be closed on Christmas Eve on Christmas Day,
but we'll be back open again after the holidays, So
(02:20):
we're excited to be able to be there and help
people with what they need. We are positioned to take
care of a lot of the urgent care items that
your pet may have happened to them. Now, something major
like abdominal surgery X rays, we're not design deliberately designed
to do those at the checkout veterinary clinic. We can
do them at check in, but at checkout we're just
(02:43):
designed to be there for gosh, it's the weekend and
my dog's in your infection, or my dogs started limping,
or my cat is you know, has started to have
urinary signs. So there's all the things that are frequently
going to be seen, and you're either not going to
be able to wait, or you haven't ticket to work
and see you really can't work around the schedule and
miss a day of work for your pets healthcare. So
(03:05):
there's just a lot of options available to people with
those three locations in the Prairie area. We're really blessed
to have the staff and the doctors that we have.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
It's a really amazing you mentioned the staff, the doctors,
an amazing clinic itself. Again, you can learn more online
checkout vet dot com. That's check out vet dot com.
As mentioned, we're going to talk about some of the
holiday precautions you're going to want to take with your pet. Also,
if you've got a question, we've got a phone line
open for you can also email. As matter of fact,
we received an email for a listener says, by Kitty,
(03:34):
mister Buffer's having trouble with the mister. I'm guessing it's
the he with the nails getting too long. It gets
they get stuck in the carpet when walking. Occasionally person
gets in to see doctor Beth at checkout Vet, which
is fantastic they do. Doctor Beth doesn't a great job
with nail trimming, but she says sometimes they come back
(03:56):
and wondering if there is anything that she is able
to do to try and just kind of keep them
just always maintained and uh and and short. And I
know that's a big battle for folks, is I know
there's that back and forth about declawing not to declaw,
and then the question is like, if you don't declaw,
how do you prevent cats from doing what the reality
is cats are made to do, which is scratch at things.
(04:17):
So are they right? Yeah, go ahead, doctor.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Yeah, I mean, and that's really the truth is those
are the things that you know, there are claws on
cats for a reason. They have to catch little mice
if they're living outside. Now our house cats, you know,
I hope if you have mice in the house that
cat is deterring them, but that does that doesn't always
work that way cat. So sometimes I had three cats
one day that we're just sitting in a circle around
this mouse. I think the mouse is probably stressing out
(04:42):
because it was a sitting in the middle of the
three cats. My cats like, what is this thing? Maybe
you should do something about that, but of course why
would they. So yes, you can set up scratching posts,
and there's some you know, defined things that are really
helpful for scratching posts because we want the cats to
be deterred from scratch mysterious speakers in the sofa and
the furniture and the drapes and all the things, you know,
(05:04):
the curtains, all the things that we have in our
homes that are really not meant for cats. But there
are some really great cat trees out there, if they're
well constructed, that can really help with this because the
cats then do get to scratch at those things, and
that will help with nail care. Cats need to have
some nail care. So the trees, if you're going to
have a scratching tree, it needs to be tall enough
(05:25):
that when your cat is stretched out with their legs
their back legs and their front legs as far stretched
tall as they possibly can be, they shouldn't be able
to reach over the top of the tree. So the
tree has to be taller than your cat is long
from front legs to back legs fully stretched out. If
a cat can do that, they're pretty happy to scratch.
The other thing that has to happen is the cat
(05:45):
tree has to be really heavy or really well anchored,
so if a cat comes flying from across the room
and leaps at the cat tree and my cat trees
that I've purchased a few years ago are made from
actual logs, and then there's little sea shapeaped or you
shaped little beds all up and down it. And these
have a huge heavy base and the trees really heavy.
(06:07):
So if the cats are chasing each other around, or
they run from across the room and throw themselves at
the cat tree, it doesn't tip over and scare them.
Because the last thing you want to do is teach
the cat that the cat tree is a scary place.
They need to look to that as being oh, this
is fair game. I'm allowed to scratch here. Am I
allowed to scratch on the new leather furniture, but I
am allowed to scratch on the cat tree. And they
like the feel of the bark. They like that heavy feel.
(06:30):
So those inexpensive ones that you can buy that just
tip over easily and they're not very tall, are not
suitable for anything other than a kitten. No, that's one
place to start. The other is you just need to
do nail care. I mean, cats need to have their
nails trim and older cats get these really sick, kind
of gnarly looking nails as they grow, and sometimes they'll
(06:50):
grow up far enough it's over back into the footpad.
So with doctor Best's recommendation to do the nail strims,
that's really important. And you know, we are certainly happy
to teach you to do nails, but a lot of
people are not interested in that. Doctor.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
I remember a few years ago I saw like a
product where they were like these little plastic rubbery things
that you could slide over a cat's Now, don't I
never the cats. I've always had My thinking was those
things are going to be and who knows, they're probably
smart people engineered them. But my thinking was always like,
my cat's going to take those things off in no time.
Do things like that work or can they work? Or
(07:24):
is it jury still out or I go.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Oz that, Yeah, they do work. They're called soft paws,
and they actually are super glued onto the nail, so
you have they come in different sizes, they come in
different colors, so you can have like a rainbow of
colors on your cat's feet, or you can have them
all purple, you know, whatever color you prefer. But they
are super glued under the nail, and eventually the nail
will grow out enough that it will push it off.
But even if they have two or three on a foot,
(07:50):
it's still enough to keep them from really engaging their
nails well into your skin or into the furniture. And
I used to use them on some of my cats
because I had cats that I needed to do that,
so they're really effective. You can buy them online, you
can buy them at the pet stores, and then you
just glue them on and if the first time you
don't really feel comfortable doing that, if you come in,
we can do that, teach you how to do it.
(08:11):
You want to trim the nail first, and then you
slide those on with the super glue inside the shell
of the salt pause. You put the super glue into
the little tiny drop and then you slide it under
the nail with you pushing underneath. The paths of the
nail is fully exteriorized when you do it. The other alternative,
because decline is not allowed in Dame County anymore, the
other alternative is that there is a procedure called a
(08:33):
deep digital flexor tendontomy DDFT for short, so deep digital
flexure tendonontomy. We don't remove the nails when we do that,
but we make a tiny incision on the bottom of
each so and take out a small section of the
tendon and then they are glued. The skin is glued
back together. So it's an anesthetic and a surgical procedure,
but it's really fast and it's really easy on the cat,
(08:53):
and they still have their nail. But what it does
is it takes away the tendon that can exteriorize the nail,
so when they are running up your pajama leg or
running up the curtains, they can't expose the nail enough
to get a good grasp. So you do have to
do really good nail care with that, because then the
cats cannot scratch and get their own nail care taken
care of on a cat tree. But I will tell
(09:13):
you that it is a great alternative for people that
simply cannot live with the cats without doing something with
their nails. And there are patients that are on suppressive
drugs and chemotherapy and anecoagulance, and they are a whole
array of medical conditions that can make it difficult for
people to live with the cat because of their claws.
And I think that's really sad when someone can't have
(09:34):
a cat because of that. So I'm a huge proponent
of this procedure. I've done many of them. I've done
them on my own cats. It's quick, it's easy. The
cats walk out the door that afternoon like nothing ever happened.
They go home on three days of pay medication, and
they heal up beautifully so that you don't have those
concerns about them catching their nails on you when they
(09:55):
launch off your lap or when they you know, you
get up in the morning and they they're so excited
to see that they just run a proper job. A
bottom that can be that can be really uncomfortable.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Cats are. It's just so darn cool. But yeah, they have.
There's that level of excitement and certain things that they
can just amazing things.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
I like. I like.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
I always say I learned new things every time you
and I talked, doctor. I didn't realize i'd seen those
products with the with the soft clause. I had no
idea that they were attached that way. That makes that
makes a bunch of sense. I want one thing too,
about about cat nails and and cat paws and claws.
I know we've talked about litter boxes and having uh
a litter box plus one for for all of your kiddies.
(10:37):
Do they do they get territorial or like do they
do they not like sharing off like scratching poachs, Like
if you have multiple cats, would it be beneficial to
get multiple scratching posts or are they pretty good about
sharing those type of things or what's kind of the
thinking on that are there is there any kind of
guidelines as far as what you should have if if
you're getting cat trees.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
It does and on how well your cats get along.
And there are definitely territorial things that can happen in
your home where the cat decides that they're not going
to let the the cat go down the hall, use
the litter bux go down the hall to eat, or
you know some of those things. So you have to
be aware that those relationships exist in your cats, So
really watch them carefully. If you have cameras in your home,
you can watch them with fast forwarding through and seeing
(11:20):
if there's any activity going on that doesn't happen when
you're not there. I typically think that on those cat
trees that have the little U shaped beds in them,
that one new little use shaped bed per cat is
pretty useful stuff. You have seven cats, you may need
two trees. I used to have seven cats and one
time in my life. My mother in law's cats came
to live with us, so we had ours, we had hers,
(11:42):
we had everybody's cats, and they were all geriatrics. They
were all seventeen and up. It was a lovely household.
So there are definitely some rules about it. And if
your cats are territorial, get another tree and put it separately,
far enough away from the one that they're comfortable interacting.
And they love them in front of a window because
then they can lay there and watch the birds. Put
the bird feeder outside the window. The cat can hang
(12:03):
out in the cat tree, the bird feeders outside. I mean,
it's quite entertaining. They have even devices that go in
your window so that the birds are right against the glass.
I don't know if that makes cats happy or frustrated,
but it's really fun to watch these birds come right
up and the cats be able to almost interact with them,
but the glass, of course in the way. So yes,
(12:25):
there are definitely rules about cat tries.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Keep some keeps everybody happy and safe and enterty. I
have a feeling some of those birds know exactly what
they're doing. I know, the squirrels when they're outside messing
with my cats, they know exactly that's being played.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Squirrels are smarter than birds, but I don't know nobody's
ever IQ tested them.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Yeah, i'd be curious what. I'm convinced there are a
couple of squirrels that mess with both my cats and
my dog because they like they like to chatter out front.
Talking this morning with doctor Marty Greer of Checkout Veterinary
online checkout vet dot com that checkout vet dot com.
From cattrees to Christmas trees, we'll talk about keeping your
pets happy and healthy during this holiday season. We will
(13:07):
do that next as ask the experts with Checkout Veterinary.
Continues right here at thirteen ten wuibi height fifty two
thirteen ten wib A and ask the experts with Checkout Veterinary.
Talking this morning with doctor Mardy Greer of Checkout Veterinaria.
You can learn more online the website check out vet
dot com. That's checkout vet dot com. Don't forget that
first visit that exam. It is free. It's a great
(13:30):
day to start that relationship. They are now accepting new
patients at checkout vet. Very convenient to get too, very
convenient to get in, get out, keep you and your
pets super comfortable. It's a really really great model at
checkout Veterinary again you can learn more online check out
vet dot com. That's checkout vet dot com. One week
from today, we will be a lot of us celebrating
(13:51):
Christmas and there's a lot of activities going on around
the house. And of course anytime there's things that are
going to be a little bit different around the house,
you want to be extra cautious. And I know one
of the areas is food and people. Of course I
like to give gifts of cookies and other great things
and they're all good and well, but there can be
(14:12):
some dangers there. For pets can't their doctor, there can
so we.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Have to be careful with the chocolates, with the cheeses,
and sausages, with bread dough that's rising on the countershop.
All kinds of things that we don't really think about
as being hazard to our pets can be a little
bit risky. So don't put food wrapped gifts under your
Christmas tree if your pet is allowed in that area,
and of course being allowed means if you don't put
(14:36):
up a fence or a gate, then it is sort
of permission granted. So if a lot of people don't
know what an exercise pen is or an x pen is,
and it's basically a playpen that's portable for dogs and
mostly dogs, sometimes cats, So it's a small, portable fencing
and they come in various sizes, various heights, and you
(14:56):
can get them at the farm stores, you can get
them at the pet stores, and get them online. So
it's called xpen for short. And all the dog people
who show dogs and have large groups of dogs know
about them, have them travel with them, but a lot
of pet owners don't know, and it's kind of disappointing
to me because it is a wonderful tool to keep
your pets safe during the holidays. You can put one
around at Christmas tree. I just had a client here
(15:18):
on Monday afternoon and she showed me the pictures of
her Christmas tree with the xpen around it, because she's
got fourteen puppies in her house right now, so it
wasn't a really good idea to let the puppies run
around on the packages and pull the ornaments off the
tree and off the tree over So the exercise pen
or xpen does a wonderful job of that. It fits
across those wide open doorways that a lot of us
have now in our open concept homes because we don't
(15:40):
have little doorways anymore that you can put a baby
gait in, so those larger xpens can be very portable.
You can take them to the in law's house so
that your dog is not in big trouble with the
in laws when you're there, because we want everybody to
get along, So it's a wonderful tool to keep kids safe,
to keep the pet safe, to keep the tree in
the packages safe. So don't put food wrap packages under
the tree. Make sure if people are coming in and
(16:02):
out of the door that you're keeping the doorway safe.
And if they do come in with food, don't just
set it down and then give everybody a hug and
turn around and realize that the dog is just dove
into the bowl of jello and eating everything that was
supposed to different dinner that night.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
So just be.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
Thoughtful about those things. We have a dog in a
couple of weeks ago that has a loaf of bread
dough and it was rising in the stomach and so
ended up going to surgery. So all those things are
real risk. They happen pretty often you know that little
box that you have either on your countertop or above
your stove that has a little digital pad on it
a handle that we think is a microwave. Yeah, that's
really the place that you put all the stuff that
(16:37):
you don't want the dog to get into when it's
on the countertop.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
Great, great advice. I thought about that. What a great
use of that tool. It's really doctor. One of the
things I hear a lot this time of year is
point Setia's missiletoe holly like the three obviously holiday kind
of greens. I hear a lot of different information about those,
and obviously they're all probably very unique. But what's kind
of the thinking as far as as far as some
(17:02):
of these some of these greens that we can find
seasonally around our house, what do we need to look
out there for there?
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Despite what a lot of people believe, points eddies are
not toxic to dogs and cat. Now, it's probably not
good for them to chew on them. They may end
up with a little stomach upset and vomited up. But
cats like to eat plants and then they can vomit
on your dinning room table. Wonderful. That's the way casts function.
So points atdis are not toxic, but the berries on
holly and mistletoe can be. So you want to be
(17:30):
careful that if those are hanging, that they're well out
of reach. And if anything does fall off the little
branch of holly or a branch of missiletoe that you
get that taken care of. Points at is are great.
And then Christmas trees. You did mention that that we
love our Christmas trees, but they're easy to tip over.
The ornaments are fragile. So I always have a ceiling
(17:51):
hook above my Christmas tree, and then I tether the
tree to the ceiling hook so that it's well anchored.
And if the dog or the cat kitten, you know,
you get a kitten and a Christmas tree. Let me
just say, it is going to think you brought this new,
wonderful cat tree into their home and they're going to
be trying to figure out how to get a sigh
as they possibly can up in it. So I tethered
(18:11):
the tree to the ceiling. I had one time my
dog knocked over the tree and one time my husband
knocked over the tree. So you know, I have a
history of this, So I do that, and then I'll
hang the fragile ornaments where they're much safer than they
would be if they are on the lower branches, and
I'll hang bells or cellophane, not cellfane wrapped candy canes
on the bottom. Selaphane can cause gi upset and obstructions,
(18:35):
so unwrapped your candy canes. Put some bells on the
bottom branches, and that way, if the dog eats the
candy cone, it won't hurt anything. And if they hit
the bell, you're going to be alerted to the fact
that the dog has figured out how to get closer
to the tree than you one tended to even with
an X ten. I have a puppy of my own
right now that's nine weeks old. Then he can climb
an X tent. As he gets bigger, he'll have more
difficulty because he won't be his agile. But some of
(18:57):
these little kids can be absolutely amazing and what they
can do to get into things. So you have to
be one step ahead of them, because you spend ten
minutes trying to figure out how to keep the house safe,
and they spend the next twenty three hours and fifty
minutes trying to figure out how to undo everything. You've done.
They have a full time job of watching you more
on the house and all the things you do, and
then they're like, got this, and they undo everything.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Taking mental notes the entire time. You mentioned the cellophane
on candy, CAD's other things. I think a lot of
pet owners have and I think it just generally we've
moved away from tinsel. But for folks that may be
considering it that if I remember right, I know we've
talked about this before, that could be quite dangerous. The tinsel,
can't it.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Yes, the tinsol, the angel hair, those are all things
that can cause pretty significant upset stomachs. My mother in
law ended up with a cat that I saved from
the emergency clinic many many years ago that had eaten
cellophane and it caused the blockagenner's stomach, and the people
didn't want her. They didn't have the money to take
her to surgery, so I had them surrender her to me.
I took cellufane out of her stomach and she lived
(20:01):
the next sixteen years very happily with my mother in law. So, definitely,
cellophane and all the other rappers on candy, it may
not just be a candy, that's a concern. Like the
chocolate we know is toxic. We know xylotol and the
other sugar list sweeteners can be toxic, so we know that.
We know raisins are toxic, but the rappers are sometimes
a bigger problem than the constants of the rappers. So
(20:24):
milk chocolate isn't probably going to hurt your dog in
a small dose, but if they ate the entire Hershey's Kissed,
there's a lot of foil that does with that, So
be aware of those kinds of hazards.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Great guidance and information as always, do forget. If you miss
any part of the show, you can always listen back
to the podcast at WIBA dot com. Speaking of getting
online great data, checkout checkout Veterinary their website. Checkout vet
dot com. That's checkout vet dot com. Accepting new patients
right now. Great opportunity for you and your pet to
get a great start in the new year again, learn
more online. Checkout vets dot com. That's checkout vet dot com.
(20:55):
They're telephon number six SO eight three one eight sixty
seven hundred. That's six soh eight three one eight sixty
seven hundred. Doctor Grere thank you so much. We will
talk again in twenty twenty six. You take care, thank you,
Thanks Merry Christmas to you as well. Doctor Vicky mcketa
comes your way next right here. On thirteen ten Wiba
Eight thirty eight thirteen to ten WIBA and ask the experts.
Brought to you by Checkout Veterinary online checkout vet dot com.
That's checkout vet dot com. Learn all about Checkout Veterinary
on their website their amazing drive through service. They're hours
which of course Monday through Monday, that's seven days a week,
(00:20):
nine am until five pm. That first visit that exam
is free. A great opportunity also because they are accepting
new patients right now at checkout vet again. You can
learn all the details online checkout vet dot com or
give them a call. Six h eight three one eight
sixty seven hundred. That's six eight three one eight sixty
seven hundred. And joining us this morning from Checkout Veterinary
(00:41):
Clinic is doctor Marty Greer, recognized as Veterinarian up the
Year from the Westminster Kennel Club. Doctor, how are you
doing this morning?
Speaker 2 (00:48):
I'm doing great.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
We're going to talk this week about something very timely,
of course, with the holidays coming up, a lot of
different things in and around the house, things that really
spark your pets curiosity as well as you know, they're
basic instinctive looking for things that might be tasty. We'll
talk a little bit about that of course. Also as
we've got doctor Greer on with us this morning, if
(01:11):
you have a question, we've got a phone line open
for you at six's oh eight three two one thirteen ten.
That's six soh eight three two one thirteen ten. Will
take your call, of course, with doctor Greer from Checkout Veterinary.
You can also email. As a matter of fact, we've
got our email. I'm gonna ask you. I asked the
doctor about our email in just a moment. In the meantime,
I mentioned the website checkout vet dot com. That's checkout
(01:32):
vet dot com. It's an amazing model that they have
out Checkout veterinaryan doctor. One of the really cool things
about checkout vet is you've got checkout Vet, you've got
check in Vet. You've got the Marshall Clinic, you've got
the Lamira Clinic. You've got doctors and staff and knowledge
and caring people and amazing resources. You've got them everywhere.
I check out Vet. It's a pretty amazing system you've
(01:54):
set up. Doctor. I got to say thanks.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
We're pretty happy with it. You're very pleased. It's I
have a great team at doctors, a great team of staff.
It's just it's just a really cool system. So we've
got you covered pretty much everywhere. Now, they're going to
be closed on Christmas, even Christmas Day in Lamairo will
be open until noon on Christmas Eve, but the other
clinics will be closed on Christmas Eve on Christmas Day,
but we'll be back open again after the holidays, So
(02:20):
we're excited to be able to be there and help
people with what they need. We are positioned to take
care of a lot of the urgent care items that
your pet may have happened to them. Now, something major
like abdominal surgery X rays, we're not design deliberately designed
to do those at the checkout veterinary clinic. We can
do them at check in, but at checkout we're just
(02:43):
designed to be there for gosh, it's the weekend and
my dog's in your infection, or my dogs started limping,
or my cat is you know, has started to have
urinary signs. So there's all the things that are frequently
going to be seen, and you're either not going to
be able to wait, or you haven't ticket to work
and see you really can't work around the schedule and
miss a day of work for your pets healthcare. So
(03:05):
there's just a lot of options available to people with
those three locations in the Prairie area. We're really blessed
to have the staff and the doctors that we have.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
It's a really amazing you mentioned the staff, the doctors,
an amazing clinic itself. Again, you can learn more online
checkout vet dot com. That's check out vet dot com.
As mentioned, we're going to talk about some of the
holiday precautions you're going to want to take with your pet. Also,
if you've got a question, we've got a phone line
open for you can also email. As matter of fact,
we received an email for a listener says, by Kitty,
(03:34):
mister Buffer's having trouble with the mister. I'm guessing it's
the he with the nails getting too long. It gets
they get stuck in the carpet when walking. Occasionally person
gets in to see doctor Beth at checkout Vet, which
is fantastic they do. Doctor Beth doesn't a great job
with nail trimming, but she says sometimes they come back
(03:56):
and wondering if there is anything that she is able
to do to try and just kind of keep them
just always maintained and uh and and short. And I
know that's a big battle for folks, is I know
there's that back and forth about declawing not to declaw,
and then the question is like, if you don't declaw,
how do you prevent cats from doing what the reality
is cats are made to do, which is scratch at things.
(04:17):
So are they right? Yeah, go ahead, doctor.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Yeah, I mean, and that's really the truth is those
are the things that you know, there are claws on
cats for a reason. They have to catch little mice
if they're living outside. Now our house cats, you know,
I hope if you have mice in the house that
cat is deterring them, but that does that doesn't always
work that way cat. So sometimes I had three cats
one day that we're just sitting in a circle around
this mouse. I think the mouse is probably stressing out
(04:42):
because it was a sitting in the middle of the
three cats. My cats like, what is this thing? Maybe
you should do something about that, but of course why
would they. So yes, you can set up scratching posts,
and there's some you know, defined things that are really
helpful for scratching posts because we want the cats to
be deterred from scratch mysterious speakers in the sofa and
the furniture and the drapes and all the things, you know,
(05:04):
the curtains, all the things that we have in our
homes that are really not meant for cats. But there
are some really great cat trees out there, if they're
well constructed, that can really help with this because the
cats then do get to scratch at those things, and
that will help with nail care. Cats need to have
some nail care. So the trees, if you're going to
have a scratching tree, it needs to be tall enough
(05:25):
that when your cat is stretched out with their legs
their back legs and their front legs as far stretched
tall as they possibly can be, they shouldn't be able
to reach over the top of the tree. So the
tree has to be taller than your cat is long
from front legs to back legs fully stretched out. If
a cat can do that, they're pretty happy to scratch.
The other thing that has to happen is the cat
(05:45):
tree has to be really heavy or really well anchored,
so if a cat comes flying from across the room
and leaps at the cat tree and my cat trees
that I've purchased a few years ago are made from
actual logs, and then there's little sea shapeaped or you
shaped little beds all up and down it. And these
have a huge heavy base and the trees really heavy.
(06:07):
So if the cats are chasing each other around, or
they run from across the room and throw themselves at
the cat tree, it doesn't tip over and scare them.
Because the last thing you want to do is teach
the cat that the cat tree is a scary place.
They need to look to that as being oh, this
is fair game. I'm allowed to scratch here. Am I
allowed to scratch on the new leather furniture, but I
am allowed to scratch on the cat tree. And they
like the feel of the bark. They like that heavy feel.
(06:30):
So those inexpensive ones that you can buy that just
tip over easily and they're not very tall, are not
suitable for anything other than a kitten. No, that's one
place to start. The other is you just need to
do nail care. I mean, cats need to have their
nails trim and older cats get these really sick, kind
of gnarly looking nails as they grow, and sometimes they'll
(06:50):
grow up far enough it's over back into the footpad.
So with doctor Best's recommendation to do the nail strims,
that's really important. And you know, we are certainly happy
to teach you to do nails, but a lot of
people are not interested in that. Doctor.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
I remember a few years ago I saw like a
product where they were like these little plastic rubbery things
that you could slide over a cat's Now, don't I
never the cats. I've always had My thinking was those
things are going to be and who knows, they're probably
smart people engineered them. But my thinking was always like,
my cat's going to take those things off in no time.
Do things like that work or can they work? Or
(07:24):
is it jury still out or I go.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Oz that, Yeah, they do work. They're called soft paws,
and they actually are super glued onto the nail, so
you have they come in different sizes, they come in
different colors, so you can have like a rainbow of
colors on your cat's feet, or you can have them
all purple, you know, whatever color you prefer. But they
are super glued under the nail, and eventually the nail
will grow out enough that it will push it off.
But even if they have two or three on a foot,
(07:50):
it's still enough to keep them from really engaging their
nails well into your skin or into the furniture. And
I used to use them on some of my cats
because I had cats that I needed to do that,
so they're really effective. You can buy them online, you
can buy them at the pet stores, and then you
just glue them on and if the first time you
don't really feel comfortable doing that, if you come in,
we can do that, teach you how to do it.
(08:11):
You want to trim the nail first, and then you
slide those on with the super glue inside the shell
of the salt pause. You put the super glue into
the little tiny drop and then you slide it under
the nail with you pushing underneath. The paths of the
nail is fully exteriorized when you do it. The other alternative,
because decline is not allowed in Dame County anymore, the
other alternative is that there is a procedure called a
(08:33):
deep digital flexor tendontomy DDFT for short, so deep digital
flexure tendonontomy. We don't remove the nails when we do that,
but we make a tiny incision on the bottom of
each so and take out a small section of the
tendon and then they are glued. The skin is glued
back together. So it's an anesthetic and a surgical procedure,
but it's really fast and it's really easy on the cat,
(08:53):
and they still have their nail. But what it does
is it takes away the tendon that can exteriorize the nail,
so when they are running up your pajama leg or
running up the curtains, they can't expose the nail enough
to get a good grasp. So you do have to
do really good nail care with that, because then the
cats cannot scratch and get their own nail care taken
care of on a cat tree. But I will tell
(09:13):
you that it is a great alternative for people that
simply cannot live with the cats without doing something with
their nails. And there are patients that are on suppressive
drugs and chemotherapy and anecoagulance, and they are a whole
array of medical conditions that can make it difficult for
people to live with the cat because of their claws.
And I think that's really sad when someone can't have
(09:34):
a cat because of that. So I'm a huge proponent
of this procedure. I've done many of them. I've done
them on my own cats. It's quick, it's easy. The
cats walk out the door that afternoon like nothing ever happened.
They go home on three days of pay medication, and
they heal up beautifully so that you don't have those
concerns about them catching their nails on you when they
(09:55):
launch off your lap or when they you know, you
get up in the morning and they they're so excited
to see that they just run a proper job. A
bottom that can be that can be really uncomfortable.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Cats are. It's just so darn cool. But yeah, they have.
There's that level of excitement and certain things that they
can just amazing things.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
I like. I like.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
I always say I learned new things every time you
and I talked, doctor. I didn't realize i'd seen those
products with the with the soft clause. I had no
idea that they were attached that way. That makes that
makes a bunch of sense. I want one thing too,
about about cat nails and and cat paws and claws.
I know we've talked about litter boxes and having uh
a litter box plus one for for all of your kiddies.
(10:37):
Do they do they get territorial or like do they
do they not like sharing off like scratching poachs, Like
if you have multiple cats, would it be beneficial to
get multiple scratching posts or are they pretty good about
sharing those type of things or what's kind of the
thinking on that are there is there any kind of
guidelines as far as what you should have if if
you're getting cat trees.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
It does and on how well your cats get along.
And there are definitely territorial things that can happen in
your home where the cat decides that they're not going
to let the the cat go down the hall, use
the litter bux go down the hall to eat, or
you know some of those things. So you have to
be aware that those relationships exist in your cats, So
really watch them carefully. If you have cameras in your home,
you can watch them with fast forwarding through and seeing
(11:20):
if there's any activity going on that doesn't happen when
you're not there. I typically think that on those cat
trees that have the little U shaped beds in them,
that one new little use shaped bed per cat is
pretty useful stuff. You have seven cats, you may need
two trees. I used to have seven cats and one
time in my life. My mother in law's cats came
to live with us, so we had ours, we had hers,
(11:42):
we had everybody's cats, and they were all geriatrics. They
were all seventeen and up. It was a lovely household.
So there are definitely some rules about it. And if
your cats are territorial, get another tree and put it separately,
far enough away from the one that they're comfortable interacting.
And they love them in front of a window because
then they can lay there and watch the birds. Put
the bird feeder outside the window. The cat can hang
(12:03):
out in the cat tree, the bird feeders outside. I mean,
it's quite entertaining. They have even devices that go in
your window so that the birds are right against the glass.
I don't know if that makes cats happy or frustrated,
but it's really fun to watch these birds come right
up and the cats be able to almost interact with them,
but the glass, of course in the way. So yes,
(12:25):
there are definitely rules about cat tries.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Keep some keeps everybody happy and safe and enterty. I
have a feeling some of those birds know exactly what
they're doing. I know, the squirrels when they're outside messing
with my cats, they know exactly that's being played.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Squirrels are smarter than birds, but I don't know nobody's
ever IQ tested them.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Yeah, i'd be curious what. I'm convinced there are a
couple of squirrels that mess with both my cats and
my dog because they like they like to chatter out front.
Talking this morning with doctor Marty Greer of Checkout Veterinary
online checkout vet dot com that checkout vet dot com.
From cattrees to Christmas trees, we'll talk about keeping your
pets happy and healthy during this holiday season. We will
(13:07):
do that next as ask the experts with Checkout Veterinary.
Continues right here at thirteen ten wuibi height fifty two
thirteen ten wib A and ask the experts with Checkout Veterinary.
Talking this morning with doctor Mardy Greer of Checkout Veterinaria.
You can learn more online the website check out vet
dot com. That's checkout vet dot com. Don't forget that
first visit that exam. It is free. It's a great
(13:30):
day to start that relationship. They are now accepting new
patients at checkout vet. Very convenient to get too, very
convenient to get in, get out, keep you and your
pets super comfortable. It's a really really great model at
checkout Veterinary again you can learn more online check out
vet dot com. That's checkout vet dot com. One week
from today, we will be a lot of us celebrating
(13:51):
Christmas and there's a lot of activities going on around
the house. And of course anytime there's things that are
going to be a little bit different around the house,
you want to be extra cautious. And I know one
of the areas is food and people. Of course I
like to give gifts of cookies and other great things
and they're all good and well, but there can be
(14:12):
some dangers there. For pets can't their doctor, there can
so we.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Have to be careful with the chocolates, with the cheeses,
and sausages, with bread dough that's rising on the countershop.
All kinds of things that we don't really think about
as being hazard to our pets can be a little
bit risky. So don't put food wrapped gifts under your
Christmas tree if your pet is allowed in that area,
and of course being allowed means if you don't put
(14:36):
up a fence or a gate, then it is sort
of permission granted. So if a lot of people don't
know what an exercise pen is or an x pen is,
and it's basically a playpen that's portable for dogs and
mostly dogs, sometimes cats, So it's a small, portable fencing
and they come in various sizes, various heights, and you
(14:56):
can get them at the farm stores, you can get
them at the pet stores, and get them online. So
it's called xpen for short. And all the dog people
who show dogs and have large groups of dogs know
about them, have them travel with them, but a lot
of pet owners don't know, and it's kind of disappointing
to me because it is a wonderful tool to keep
your pets safe during the holidays. You can put one
around at Christmas tree. I just had a client here
(15:18):
on Monday afternoon and she showed me the pictures of
her Christmas tree with the xpen around it, because she's
got fourteen puppies in her house right now, so it
wasn't a really good idea to let the puppies run
around on the packages and pull the ornaments off the
tree and off the tree over So the exercise pen
or xpen does a wonderful job of that. It fits
across those wide open doorways that a lot of us
have now in our open concept homes because we don't
(15:40):
have little doorways anymore that you can put a baby
gait in, so those larger xpens can be very portable.
You can take them to the in law's house so
that your dog is not in big trouble with the
in laws when you're there, because we want everybody to
get along, So it's a wonderful tool to keep kids safe,
to keep the pet safe, to keep the tree in
the packages safe. So don't put food wrap packages under
the tree. Make sure if people are coming in and
(16:02):
out of the door that you're keeping the doorway safe.
And if they do come in with food, don't just
set it down and then give everybody a hug and
turn around and realize that the dog is just dove
into the bowl of jello and eating everything that was
supposed to different dinner that night.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
So just be.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
Thoughtful about those things. We have a dog in a
couple of weeks ago that has a loaf of bread
dough and it was rising in the stomach and so
ended up going to surgery. So all those things are
real risk. They happen pretty often you know that little
box that you have either on your countertop or above
your stove that has a little digital pad on it
a handle that we think is a microwave. Yeah, that's
really the place that you put all the stuff that
(16:37):
you don't want the dog to get into when it's
on the countertop.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
Great, great advice. I thought about that. What a great
use of that tool. It's really doctor. One of the
things I hear a lot this time of year is
point Setia's missiletoe holly like the three obviously holiday kind
of greens. I hear a lot of different information about those,
and obviously they're all probably very unique. But what's kind
of the thinking as far as as far as some
(17:02):
of these some of these greens that we can find
seasonally around our house, what do we need to look
out there for there?
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Despite what a lot of people believe, points eddies are
not toxic to dogs and cat. Now, it's probably not
good for them to chew on them. They may end
up with a little stomach upset and vomited up. But
cats like to eat plants and then they can vomit
on your dinning room table. Wonderful. That's the way casts function.
So points atdis are not toxic, but the berries on
holly and mistletoe can be. So you want to be
(17:30):
careful that if those are hanging, that they're well out
of reach. And if anything does fall off the little
branch of holly or a branch of missiletoe that you
get that taken care of. Points at is are great.
And then Christmas trees. You did mention that that we
love our Christmas trees, but they're easy to tip over.
The ornaments are fragile. So I always have a ceiling
(17:51):
hook above my Christmas tree, and then I tether the
tree to the ceiling hook so that it's well anchored.
And if the dog or the cat kitten, you know,
you get a kitten and a Christmas tree. Let me
just say, it is going to think you brought this new,
wonderful cat tree into their home and they're going to
be trying to figure out how to get a sigh
as they possibly can up in it. So I tethered
(18:11):
the tree to the ceiling. I had one time my
dog knocked over the tree and one time my husband
knocked over the tree. So you know, I have a
history of this, So I do that, and then I'll
hang the fragile ornaments where they're much safer than they
would be if they are on the lower branches, and
I'll hang bells or cellophane, not cellfane wrapped candy canes
on the bottom. Selaphane can cause gi upset and obstructions,
(18:35):
so unwrapped your candy canes. Put some bells on the
bottom branches, and that way, if the dog eats the
candy cone, it won't hurt anything. And if they hit
the bell, you're going to be alerted to the fact
that the dog has figured out how to get closer
to the tree than you one tended to even with
an X ten. I have a puppy of my own
right now that's nine weeks old. Then he can climb
an X tent. As he gets bigger, he'll have more
difficulty because he won't be his agile. But some of
(18:57):
these little kids can be absolutely amazing and what they
can do to get into things. So you have to
be one step ahead of them, because you spend ten
minutes trying to figure out how to keep the house safe,
and they spend the next twenty three hours and fifty
minutes trying to figure out how to undo everything. You've done.
They have a full time job of watching you more
on the house and all the things you do, and
then they're like, got this, and they undo everything.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Taking mental notes the entire time. You mentioned the cellophane
on candy, CAD's other things. I think a lot of
pet owners have and I think it just generally we've
moved away from tinsel. But for folks that may be
considering it that if I remember right, I know we've
talked about this before, that could be quite dangerous. The tinsel,
can't it.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Yes, the tinsol, the angel hair, those are all things
that can cause pretty significant upset stomachs. My mother in
law ended up with a cat that I saved from
the emergency clinic many many years ago that had eaten
cellophane and it caused the blockagenner's stomach, and the people
didn't want her. They didn't have the money to take
her to surgery, so I had them surrender her to me.
I took cellufane out of her stomach and she lived
(20:01):
the next sixteen years very happily with my mother in law. So, definitely,
cellophane and all the other rappers on candy, it may
not just be a candy, that's a concern. Like the
chocolate we know is toxic. We know xylotol and the
other sugar list sweeteners can be toxic, so we know that.
We know raisins are toxic, but the rappers are sometimes
a bigger problem than the constants of the rappers. So
(20:24):
milk chocolate isn't probably going to hurt your dog in
a small dose, but if they ate the entire Hershey's Kissed,
there's a lot of foil that does with that, So
be aware of those kinds of hazards.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Great guidance and information as always, do forget. If you miss
any part of the show, you can always listen back
to the podcast at WIBA dot com. Speaking of getting
online great data, checkout checkout Veterinary their website. Checkout vet
dot com. That's checkout vet dot com. Accepting new patients
right now. Great opportunity for you and your pet to
get a great start in the new year again, learn
more online. Checkout vets dot com. That's checkout vet dot com.
(20:55):
They're telephon number six SO eight three one eight sixty
seven hundred. That's six soh eight three one eight sixty
seven hundred. Doctor Grere thank you so much. We will
talk again in twenty twenty six. You take care, thank you,
Thanks Merry Christmas to you as well. Doctor Vicky mcketa
comes your way next right here. On thirteen ten Wiba
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