Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey thirty seven thirteen ten WIBA and ask the experts
with Checkout Veterinary joined this morning, Bye doctor Marty Greer.
Of course, doctor Greer is recognized as Veterinarian of the
Year from the Westminster Kennel Club. You can learn more
about doctor Greer, all the doctors, all the great clinics
of at checkout Vet, check in Vet, the Great Clinic
(00:21):
and Marshall as well, all sorts great information online checkout
vet dot com. That's checkout vet dot com shows you
also what makes checkout vets so convenient, such a great
experience for you and most importantly your pets. Again, they're
located right at twenty seven to ten Prairie Lakes Drive
in sun Prairie, right off the highway, meaning you can
hear our voices this morning. You are nearby Checkout Vet
(00:42):
Delpha number six oh eight three one eight sixty seven
hundred that's six oh eight three one eight sixty seven
hundred has mentioned joined this morning, Bye doctor Marty Greer. Doctor,
how you doing this morning.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
I'm great, Thank you, it's great to.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Talk to you. And we've got some emails and some
other things to cover this morning. And speaking of those, emails.
Folks at have questions, you can always email the station.
You can also head on over to checkout vet dot com.
You can email there as well. Or of course, if
you've got a question for the doc and'd like to
join us on the air, we'd love to get your
call six oh eight three two one thirteen ten. That's
six oh eight three two one thirteen ten. We'll get
(01:17):
you right on the air with doctor Marty Greer of
Checkout Veterinary. They are accepting patients right now at checkout Veterinarian.
Don't forget that first visit that exam. It is free.
You can learn more online checkout vet dot com. That's
checkout vet dot com. Speaking of emails, we got an
email from a listener. She says, Oh, Julie. Julie says,
(01:38):
a question for doctor Greer at checkout fat. I've got
a ten month old cavey Pooh fifty to fifty struggling
to get her to eat no interest in dog foods.
I've tried several brands and options. Any suggestions to get
her to start eating. Thank you for asking on the show.
And I guess I this is my naivete when I
(01:58):
think of dogs, I think they love the pig out.
Apparently not all of them, not all of them.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
No, And she's actually at an interesting age, so I
don't want to get off topic as far as what
together to eat, but she's at an age that puppies
tend to slow down their growth pretty considerably. They grow
really fast in the first six to eight months, and
by ten months they're starting to slow down, especially the
small breeds. The giant breeds are going to grow longer
and bigger, so they're going to grow maybe each other
fifteen to eighteen months old. But a little breed like
(02:24):
a kabapoo, which is a cavalier King Charles spaniel bread
to a poodle is going to be a smaller breed,
so they tend to not eat as well. They tend
not to have the ravenous appetite because that growth hurt
that they've been going through for most of their life
has now slowed. So that can be a little tricky.
There are some tricks, There are some ideas. There's a
couple of companies now that are making food toppers, so
(02:45):
they're you know, sort of like in a ketchup bottle.
You can put it on top of their food to
enhance the flavor. Some people will mix things like yogurt
with the food, or chicken broth, beef broth, some of
them that are you know, boxed or bone broth, those
kinds of things in jars. You can do that. There's
a company now. I love Royal Canon, I love Cheerina,
I love Hills. They all make great foods. Hills makes
the food called ad which is to improve appetite, so
(03:07):
it can be used as a food topper. Royal Canaan
makes a food called Recovery and that one can be
used as a food topper. And then we also have
other choices. We can use something just a second. We
can use something like like Royal Canan makes a puppy
(03:28):
diet called Starter Moose that can be used as a
food topper. And then there's a company that called bill
Jack that makes a food called Picky No More. So
we have a few choices for what we can see interesting.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
As we talked this morning with doctor Marty Grea of
check Out Veterinary, great question from Julie. You two can
be like Julie. You can always email or if you've
got a question, love to have you join us. We're
going to talk a little bit more about pet diet.
Phone lines are open. If you've got a question for
about doctor Marty Greer of Checkout Veterinary, tell for number
six eight three two one thirteen ten. That's six oh
eight three two one thirteen ten and share or joins us. Sherry,
(04:01):
welcome to the program. You're on the air with doctor
Marty Greer of check Out Veterinary.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Good morning to both of you. I do have a
question for you, doctor Grew. Do you run a full
scale hospital where if your dog or your cat or
whatever becomes ill, you bring them in to be checked
out at your clinic and they need to be an
overnight stay? Is there? Do you run a practice like
(04:26):
that or do you just.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
Know we Yeah, we don't have a twenty four hour hospital.
The facility that we're in doesn't allow us to keep
them overnight, so we are limited on what we can
do with that. But there are certainly some really good
ones around Madison. So we have the University, we have
MBS Madison Veterinary Specialists, we have MVA, there's dCas, there's
(04:48):
several good veterinary overnight hospitals. I believe there's a VEG
there now too. Veterinary Group Hospital. So I believe you
have several other good choices, which means that if you
needed a night care, that either the pet would be
admitted to that hospital to begin with or transferred to
that hospital for overnight care.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Really good question, Sherry, And that's that is an interesting
for folks that oftentimes wonder about different types of services.
I know, with checkout VET and check in VET, a
lot of different services are covered right in the clinic.
I know, when you design checkout VET, it's really designed
for those for those you know, those exams and kind
of those routine checkups. Check in VET the sister clinic,
(05:27):
you do a little bit more intensive stuff over there,
don't you correct?
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Correct? We do surgeries there. We do anesthesia, dentals, X ray, ultrasound,
lump removals, space neuters, all that kind of work. But
those are generally not overnight stays. We almost always, I mean,
we just don't keep our space overnight. Back in the
old days, we used to do that. We used to
keep patients overnight in the hospital, and that changed many
(05:53):
years ago when anesthetic agents became more short acting and
more effective in the ability of us to get dog
and cats in and out of surgery and really recovered
well enough to go home that night.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
It's pretty amazing too. And I know we've done previous
programs about all of the great advances and UH and
veterinary care, and you know, as we talk with doctor
Greer each and every week and learn new things about
about what vets are able to do for your pet,
it's a great day, by the way, as we talk
about starting that relationship, starting that conversation, getting to know
a vet, they are accepting vets patients at Checkout Veterinary
(06:27):
also accepting good vets as well. I know anytime, anytime
you can find a really good VET, you're definitely interested
in talking at Checkout Vet, as we talked this morning
with doctor Marty Greer of Checkout Veterinary. The website checkout
vet dot com. That's checkout vet dot com. If you've
got a question, we've got a phone line for you.
Six eight three two one thirteen ten. That's sixh eight
three two one thirteen ten. Let's talk doctor a little
(06:50):
bit about general diet and nutrition with Julie's email from
earlier kind of had me thinking about that, is like
what you know, you come to your vet, you ask.
You know, I think a lot of us think about
getting that exam. But talking about diet and nutrition is
an important part of that conversation, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
It really is. And unfortunately, most of the conversations that
veterinarians and veterinary staff have with their clients is that
your pet is eating too much of a good thing.
So we do often have to have the conversation about
reducing the caloric intake. And it may mean a diet change,
that may mean a volume change. So yes, there's definitely
a lot of things to talk about, and there's some
(07:28):
really great foods on the market, so I think it's
important that people are aware of what their choices are.
I'm a big fan of the commercially available diets from
the big three companies, which are going to be Royal, Canaan, Purina,
and Hills, primarily because they're the companies that don't just
test their food based on a chemical analysis. That's an
aft coanalysis. Does it meet the a F cost standards.
(07:49):
AFCOT doesn't actually test food, but does it meet the
af coast standards or you know, so they look at
that from a chemical basis, how much protein, how much fat,
how much carbohydrate, how much fiber in the diet versus
the other companies. The three companies that I mentioned, Hills, Purina,
and Royal Canaan. They do feeding trials for their food,
so they have a whole colony of dogs and cats
(08:10):
at Their full time job for their life is to
stand around and eat dog food or cat food as
the case may be. And I've been to all of
their facilities. I've been to Waltham in England. I've been
to Royal Canaan in France. I've been to Peka, Kansas
for Hills. I've been to Dayton, Ohio for the Yukanuba Diet.
So I've been to all their facilities. I've been to
Purina and Saint Louis and they have some pretty fabulous
(08:32):
feeding colonies. And I'll tell you, these dogs and cats
have an amazing life. They go out at lunch, you know,
sit in the in the picnic area with the staff
for lunch. They often go home at night with people.
They will after they're done. They're adopted out, So it's
really a great life for them. So I don't want
anybody to say, oh, that poor dog. Their whole job
is to eat I mean dogs like you said at
the beginning, that's what they love best. So it's not
(08:54):
a bad job description. You have to eat food your
whole life and we're going to see how much you like.
It doesn't sound like a bad job, No, not at
So they do these feeding trials. And then the other
things that these companies do is they're the ones that
are on the forefront of developing new diets that are therapeutic.
So that means that these foods are meant to treat
certain medical conditions. It doesn't mean that there's a drug
in it, because there is no medication in it. What
(09:15):
it does mean is that they manipulate the diets to
have a pH to have a protein, to have a fiber,
to have whatever person you know, whiching for ingredients they're
looking at manipulating so that it meets the nutritional needs
of a patient with a certain medical condition. And I'll
tell you if people could have their diets, or if
people would allow their diets to be manipulated in that way,
(09:35):
we'd probably live longer, healthier lives too, because you know,
you think about what you should eat and then you
pull in the drive through and suddenly all that idea
of having a salad goes out the window and you
try something off the stet. So I think it's really
important that people understand the science behind those foods and
that they don't just believe that they're feeding an ingredient list.
(09:56):
They're feeding a nutrient profile or a nutritional profile, and
they look at the ingredient lists and say, oh, corn
meal or chicken meal, that's not a bad thing. That's
what the pet food industry is required to put on
the label. It doesn't mean that they took beeks and feathers,
because I'll tell you what, some of those byproducts like
chicken feet sell for a lot of money in the markets.
(10:17):
So we're not getting cheap ingredients into our diet. We're
getting human quality ingredients that are really good. Hills rejects
more eggs grade A human grade eggs. They reject more
eggs than any other company in the country because they'll
pull in with a trunk and they'll check the egg
and they'll be like, nope, you're out. So they have
to go to another place, and so they'll sell it
(10:37):
to like human consumption. It might go into one of
the egg products that you're eating at the store, or
into baked cookies or something else. So we know that
the products are really quite good, and we know we
can treat therapeutics diets. We have intesnel diets and heart diets,
and kiddy diets, and pregnancy diets and baby diets. We
(10:57):
have dogs, you know, little dog diets and big dog diets,
and we have diets for certain breeds of dogs. So
there's so many things that we have seen manipulated and
really improved. I remember the first time we went to
a meeting that they told us we could dissolve bladderstones
in dogs, and I thought, yeah, okay, sure, I'm going
to feed a dog food that's going to make a
bladderstone go away, and guess what it does. We've been
(11:19):
doing that for thirty some years. Yeah. I've got a
dog right now that has a you know, bladder full
of little boulders, and we're, you know, very diligently feeding
her the food and we're watching her bladderstones disappear based
on how we see them.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
On the X ray.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
So those incredible things we can do with the right
diet if we have the right direction. So I think
it's a really good idea that when you go to
the vat clinic that you bring up diet because sometimes
the veterinary clinic is sensitive to your dog's weight or
they may not want to talk about food. But if
you bring it up and say this is what I'm feeding,
do you have a recommendation? Is this okay? Should I
change to a different diet? Because when you go to
(11:51):
the pet store, the kid that's selling you the food
is the one that's been told. You know, the sixteen
year old is telling you what they're supposed to sell
that week or that month. It may have nothing to
do with your dogs nutritional needs.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Talking this morning with doctor Marty Greer of Checkout Veterinary
the website checkout vet dot com. That's checkout vet dot
com talking specifically this week about eating issues. But if
you've got any question related to your pet, love to
have you join us six oh eight three two one
thirteen ten. That's six oh eight three two one thirteen ten.
Great data. Start a relationship at checkout vet. Yes, they
have an opportunity for you. They are accepting new patients
(12:24):
right now. You can learn more online checkout vet dot com,
or simply make an appointment by picking a phone give
a call six oh eight three one eight sixty seven hundred.
That's six oh eight three one eight sixty seven hundred again.
The website checkout vet dot com. That's checkout vet dot com.
We'll continue our conversation with doctor Marty Greer of Checkout Veterinary.
We'll do that next as Ask the Experts continues right here.
(12:45):
Thirteen ten wib A thirteen ten WIBA talking with doctor
Marty Greer of Checkout Veterinary. The website checkout vet dot com.
That's checkout vet dot com. Talking this week about eating
issues for our pets and things like habits and behavior
for our pets. I think two doctor, Things that can
affect humans also obviously can affect pets. Things like food
(13:08):
allergies are definitely a real thing for pets, aren't there
They are.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
We typically don't see those acute anaphylactic reactions to things
like peanuts and shellfish in our dogs that we see
in people. But we definitely see food allergies, and we
can see a lot of components so that we can
see them. With ear infections itchy ears, ear infections, they
can have skin problems associated with it. Of course, they
can have vomiting and diarrhea, and every single thing on
(13:35):
the market that's related to dogs and cats. As as
a side effect, vomiting and diarrhea. Every drug, including the injectables,
everything we give them because dogs just vomit pretty frequently,
so it's you know, it's a little hard to measure that,
but if you notice that there's a relationship between your
dog eating a certain kind of dog food or a
certain kind of snack or treat or table food, make
note of that and then reintroduce it at another time
(13:57):
that it seems like a safe time to do it
and see what the react question is. And you may
very quickly figure out that your dog is sensitive to
certain things. And there's really not a category that we
can say is all the time a problem, But any
protein source, any carbohydrate source, we can see an allergic
response to. So just be really thoughtful about what you're
feeding and watchful and keep a calendar if you have
(14:17):
a dog that you suspect has a food allergy. And
it's pretty interesting how many dogs we can improve their
quality of their skin and ears by doing a diet change.
It doesn't fix everything, but it fixes enough. And the
other thing to know is that a lot of dogs
that are allergic to food are also allergic to pollens
and molds, and so allergies are additive. So if they're
allergic to a food and then it becomes spring in
(14:38):
summer and there's pollens out that they're also allergic to,
you can have a dog going from being comfortable to
not being comfortable. So eliminating the food from their diet
that they might be allergic to can lower their threshold
and they can go back to being comfortable even in
the summer without a lot of medications. Now we have
really good meds for dogs with allergies, but they don't
work well for dogs with food allergies. In those cases,
(15:01):
we really do our best to try and eliminate the
source of the food that is causing the issues. So
that means flipping the bag around and not just reading
the big print on the front, but reading that little,
tiny ingredient list on the back. And you might need
your glasses to put and take a look at that
label because they make them really little, or you can
go home and look at it on your computer and
make the spring big enough that you can read the
ingredient list. So it's important that people know that they
(15:23):
have that option, and they should talk to their veterinary professional.
Many veterinary technicians are trained in nutrition, and many veterinarians are.
And a lot of people think veterinarians don't get nutritional training,
and actually we do.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
You know. One of the things, by the way, I'm
probably in denial. I probably need readers. A little thing
you can do too, is if you have a phone,
take a picture and then zoom in.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
I find myself doing.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
I don't need glasses.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
I'm just yeah, you're in denial.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
There's also an app you can put on your phone.
It's a magnifier that has a light. So if you're
sitting in a restaurant and it's too dark and the
print is too small, you just push the little app
on your phone and you can make it big and
you can have the light and so you don't looked
like such a you know, puts in the restaurant. You
can actually look like you can order your food instead
of ordering something you didn't know you were getting.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Who knew that that was? That's very cool. Talking this
morning with doctor Marty Greer of check Out Veterinarian, the
website check out vet dot com. That's checkout vet dot com.
I think something that It's something that surprised me the
first time you and I had talked about food was
your recommendation for kibble. And I think for a lot
of pet owners, they think that that kibble is great
(16:30):
because it's it's storable, it's economical, it's all these things,
and we assume that we're making a sacrifice and think that, well,
if in a dream world, I'd be feeding wet food
or raw or even even like a home cooked meal
for my pet each night. But but you strongly recommend kibble,
don't you.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
I do, And for a lot of reasons. We've seen
outbreaks of disease from raw meat diets. There was an
outbreak in California a couple of months ago with bird
flu and cats. So we can see parasites, we can
see the bacteria. Those things are all brought into your
home with the raw meat diets if you're not processing
and handling them correctly. And there are people who can
very successfully feed raw but many people are unsuccessful with
(17:10):
if they don't handle it correctly. They may start off
with a recipe that's really well balanced and it looks
great on paper, and then as time goes on, they
can't find one of the ingredients at the store, so
they substitute another, and then the next time they can't
find another, and so pretty soon we have what's called
recipe drift. So they're not really feeding the diet that
they thought they were feeding in the first place. So,
unless you're under the guidance of a veterinarian or a
(17:32):
veterinary nutritionist, I really recommend that people feed a kibble
based diet. And you're right, they shouldn't feel guilty. It's portable,
it's affordable, they can take it with you when you
go on vacation. It's easy to store, and that's well,
that's one thing I should say when you store your
pet food. You should not take your bag home, take
the top off of it, and pour it into a
plastic container. That is a big no no. The pet
(17:53):
food industry will tell you that universally that the bag
that the food is chipped in is the bag it
should be stored in. So you can take that bag
and lower it into a trash bin or a bigger
plastic container, but you shouldn't dump it out. One reason
is because the oils and the plastic react to each
other and the plastic starts to absorb the oil and
it changes the chemical and the plastic and it starts
(18:14):
to become concerning, so it should stay in the bag.
The other is if your dog has any kind of
an adverse event with the food, or if there's a
report of a problem with the pet food, if they
report samonilla or anything that happens in the pet food.
You don't have the lot number of the product. If
you don't have the bag of food and it's always
printed on the bag, it may be hard to find.
(18:34):
And there's a code that the companies use that show
the date it was made and packaged, the line it
came off of what Titi was packaged in. It's really
detailed information, but there's this little tiny code that's printed
in little tiny letters that is hard to find. But
if you take your bag to your veninary clinic, they
can help you find it. Call the company and of
course you can call their eight hundred number two and
have them help you figure out what the code is
(18:56):
if you have any concern. And this time of year,
we have to be really careful with our pet food storage.
It's humid. Sometimes we'll have bugs or moisture that gets
into the food. So if your pet was eating a
bag of food and you get to the bottom of
it and suddenly they stop eating. You should take a
really good look at the food, pour it out in
the daylight where you can actually see it, and you
might find that there's mold or mealworms or something in
(19:17):
that that you weren't aware was there. So it's kind
of gross the things that you were putting that in
your dog's bowl and then they're rejecting it, and they're
looking at you like, what are you trying to do
to me? But if you don't think about it, if
you don't realize that this is the time of year
we see it, you may not be aware and you
may make the mistake of assuming that there's something wrong
with your dog and it's actually something wrong with the food.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
That is fascinating. And I want to ask you too,
real quick about changes in eating habits. And just a
moment I asked doctor Greer about that, because as we
get a chance to talk with doctor Marti Greer each
and every week, don't forget it's a great day to
start that relationship. At Checkout Veterinary, they are accepting right
now new patients that first visit that exam. It is free.
You can learn more online at checkout vet dot com.
That's checkout vet dot com. Let's talk real quick about
(19:58):
those changes in eating habits. You mentioned something could have
happened with their food and the humidity and you know
things living in there. Are there other kind of things
that you should be paying attention to when it comes
to any type of change and eating habit. Are there
certain things that may be more concerning and some things
that are just kind of natural and normal for your pet.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Oh? Yeah, And a lot of pets, as they get older,
they're appetite changes, they might start to run into problems
with diabetes or kidney disease or liver disease. A lot
of things can happen. They may be stick for some
other reason. We see every single day in our practice.
I see at least one case of lime disease, anaplasmosis
or air lichia, which are the tick boorn diseases, every
single day. So this is not a disease that's uncommon.
(20:38):
And a lot of pets don't feel very well. Doggs
in particular, cats typically don't get lime disease, but if
they aren't feeling well, they're running a low great fever
they're not feeling good. They've got something going on. You
really need to get into the veterinary clinic and see
what's going on. So if they miss one meal, you know,
and that's what I hear from a lot of people
is well, my dog lives to eat, so I'm pretty
sure if he misses a meal that there's something seriously wrong.
(20:59):
They missed more than one meal, you really should be
paying attention to what's going on. You can take their
temperature at home. Please use a dog thermometer. I mean
the human thermometers are the same, but once you've used
it on the dog, dog give it back the kid.
Just say label it is the dog thermometer. But you
can take their temperature. A normal temp for a dog
and a cat is one hundred and one two one
hundred and two and a half. And back when I
(21:20):
started practice, I had two clients that lost thermometers, back
when you used to have the glass ones that you
had to shake down and then put in the gog
or cats. Two of them that would lose the thermometer
up inside the dog and like, okay, well, first of all,
that's going to come out, but secondly, why were you
taking their temperature in the first place. So if your
pet isn't feeling well and you feel like you need
to take their temperature, one hundred and one to one
hundred and two and a half is a normal temperature.
(21:41):
Anything over one hundred and three is reason for concern.
But there's a lot of diseases that dogs have that
they don't run a fever with. So just because they
don't have a fever doesn't mean they're healthy. It's just
one clue that we have. So if you call it
that clinic and they say, well, is the eating, is
vomiting a is the having diarrhea? Is the eating? Eating?
Is a really important question that we asked because that's
such an important key to saying is your pet sick
(22:03):
enough that we really need to get you in today
and get this figured out. And we do have same
day appointments at both clinics, or all three clinics, Marshall,
check In and check Out all have same day appointments,
So if you call and you feel like your pet
needs to be seen today, we're going to make We're
going to walk through fire to get you in because
there's almost never a day that we can't get you
in and we're there seven days a week at checkout.
(22:25):
We're Mondays, you're Friday at Marshall and check in, but
check out seven days a week. So if you feel
like you're pets stick on Saturday afternoon or Sunday afternoon,
you just call and come in and we'll take a
look and we may start a workup. We may just
give you some meds and help you to get through
the weekend and see how they're feeling on Monday. If
they need more diagnostics, we can always do blood work,
we can do X rays, and all those things can
happen so that we can figure out what's going on
(22:47):
with your pet, because we don't want to leave you
with a pets that stick over a weekend and then
you have to go to work Monday morning first thing,
and you really don't know how to manage all this,
So we want to make sure that you're not in
that situation.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
Great data, establish that relationship that get that opportunity going,
and you talk about getting into checkout vet accepting new
patients right now. You can learn more online checkout vet
dot com. That's check out vet dot com. Doctor Greer,
thank you so much for your time this morning. You
have a fantastic day. Thank you, news comes your way.
Next here a thirteen ten wib A