October 3, 2024 • 20 mins
Dr. Greer talks about what to do when you're bringing home a new dog, cat, puppy, or kitten.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Eight thirty nine thirteen ten WIBA and ask the experts
with check Out Veterinary. Join this morning by doctor Marty Greer.
Of course, doctor Greer recognized by the Westminster Kennel Club
as Veterinarian of the Year. And you can learn more
about doctor Greer. Learn more about Checkout Veterinary and the
other vets as well at checkout Vet on their website
(00:21):
check out vet dot com. That's checkout vet dot com.
They're amazing drive through service and of course they are
there when you and your pet need them. They're open
Monday through Wednesday, and then Friday through Sunday nine am
until five pm. That includes weekends. And you may be saying,
well what about Thursday, so well, Thursday's check in Veterinary
is open for you. So it's a really, really great,
(00:42):
great clinic set of clinics that are there for you
and your pet when you needed. Today's a great day
to start that relationship. Pick up phone, give a call
six oh eight three one eight sixty seven hundred, that's
three one eight sixty seven hundred, or learn more online
at checkout vet dot com. That's checkout vet dot com.
Doctor Greer, how are you doing this morning.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
I'm doing great. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
It's really good to talk to you. And we had
a story on the news this morning. Obviously we had
that the hurricane come through the South, and anytime there's
a natural disaster, a lot of just like people are evacuated,
a lot of pets are evacuated as well, from humane
societies and other places. And some pets are coming in
to the area from North Carolina and UH and South
(01:26):
and southern states that were affected by the hurricane. And
had me thinking about getting a new pet and adding
a new family member to your to your family, and
and what that process is like. And as I was
kind of jotting down notes, doctor I was I was
actually basically doing the opposite of one of what we
did when we got when we when we picked up
(01:47):
our dog. But I don't know, and correct, that's probably
probably not all that uncommon where sometimes folks don't really
plan all that all that well for a pet.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
They just connect, they do sometimes and sometimes it's a
match made in heaven and it can work really well.
Sometimes not so much. So you want to be thoughtful
about this because if the pet is young, you may
be spending the next fifteen sixteen seventeen years with them,
so you do want to have some strategies in mind
before you just you know, hoop out there, put your
hand up and say, yep, we'll take her. So I
(02:20):
do encourage people to give it some thought. And one
of the best resources for how you make these decisions
is your veterinary team. So speak to your veterinarian, your
veterinary technicians, the receptionists. These people know you. I'm assuming
you have a relationship with them already. They know you,
they know your lifestyle, they know what kind of pet
you're suited to have, and so they can give you
(02:42):
some really important input on making these decisions. It's really
easy to make an impulsive decision and have it not
turn out to be the ideal situation. So please please
please give it some thought and use those resources. Also,
there's some really good websites and really good books out
there for pet selection, so you know, think it through
(03:06):
and make sure that you figure out it's the activity level,
the grooming needs, the exercise needs, the behaviors of the
pets fit your lifestyle, because not every pet fits everybody.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Talking this morning with doctor Marty Greer of Checkout Veterinary,
of course, learn more online checkout vet dot com. That's
check out vet dot com and and doctor. It's interesting
we talk about kind of that, you know, that that
picking out that right pet and getting that right fit.
I remember years ago a friend of mine, this is
probably twenty years ago, he had a I don't know
(03:42):
what kind of dog. It was a big, big, giant,
hairy dog. And I'm like, and he's like me, he's not,
you know, mister, I jog every night. I don't run.
I don't do those type of things. I'm like, are
you sure that's the right dog? And I don't know
what type? It's like a maybe a Burmese mountain dog.
He's like, it really just likes to walk. And I'm like, oh, okay,
maybe that is a little bit of research goes a
(04:04):
long way, doesn't it, Doctor.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
It does. And there's some good books. There's one that
used to be in print and you can still pick
it up from time to time on Amazon's called The
Right Dog for You by Daniel Torture. And even though
it's a fairly old book, it still has really great
charts in it that go through the activity levels, the
grooming needs, all the bits and pieces that you might
(04:26):
not think about as a new cred owner. So it
walks you through some of those decisions. And then there's
a more recent books. There's a couple of editions of
it that Benjamin and Lynn Hart wrote called The Perfect Puppy,
And again, it's not about developing the perfect perfect puppy.
It's about selecting a dog or a puppy that suits
your needs. And they interviewed a CAC judges and breeders
(04:48):
and a number of different very knowledgeable people for that book,
So those are important. Now, a lot of these aren't
going to have the mixed breed dogs in them, and
oftentimes when you get a mixed breed dog, you don't
really know what you're getting because it doesn't come with
a DNA test in many cases. And those DNA tests
are pretty fun and pretty interesting. They can be very
helpful in understanding some of the behaviors, some of the needs,
(05:13):
and some of the potential health concerns for your pets.
But by the time you get a pet, if it's
coming through a rescue, you're not going to have that
information because they don't test before they place dogs. So
those are important, and I don't want to sound negative
about rescues, though I want to be really careful what
I say, but some rescues we have some behavioral issues with. Now,
(05:36):
any breed, any dog can have behavioral issues, so please
don't misunderstand what I'm saying here. But we do see
more fearfulness and behavior issues in some of these rescue
dogs because they weren't raised the way that we would
have raised them. They may not have been genetically selected
for behaviors, so sometimes we don't know. Some of the
(05:57):
rescue dogs are a little more challenging to work with
behavior than pure bred dogs. And the other downside to
the rescue is you don't have the predictability of knowing
when you got your little dog, your little chuahwah, you
knew about how big he was going to be when
you go get a rescue. I picked out a dog
for a client many years ago. She was an older lady.
Her husband had passed away, so she was a widow.
(06:19):
She'd always had dog and wanted another dog. And I
went to a teaching lab at the web school and
they had this really adorable little male puppy. So in
the procedures we were doing, we noted him, and I
called her and I said, I found this really great
little dog. I think he'll be about forty pounds when
he grows up. I think he'd be the perfect dog
for you.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
No, he turned out to be one hundred and twenty pounds.
So we misjudged what is potential was going to be. Now,
she always better dogs a little more than they needed,
but he wasn't going to be a sixty pound dog.
He was clearly destined to be one hundred and twenty
pound dog.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Oh wow.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
So yeah, So those are really important things, especially as
your aging as you're getting your last dog. If you're
sixty or seventy and thinking about getting your last dog,
you don't want it to be something that doesn't suit
your lifestyle. It's a lot easier to be flexible when
you're young and you have better physical capacity. I always
tell people ten years from now, fifteen years from now,
(07:17):
will you be able to pick that dog up? So
you're fifteen years older, the dog is fifteen years older,
so they're going to be a lot bigger than they
were as a puppy. Can you lift that dog and
put it in your car? If something catastrophic happens, then
you have to get the dog to the vets because
we have phone calls from people that say, I can't
get my dog in the vehicle. I don't know what
to do. I need help, and my neighbor's not home,
(07:38):
and you know, I don't have a partner or spouse,
I don't have anybody that can help me, and so
we have to kind of scramble to figure out how
we can get them to the VAT clinic. So, you know,
just thinks through some of those things. How much grooming
do they need? Do they have to go to the
groomer every eight weeks which means A they don't shed,
but b they need to be constantly groomed, So that
(08:01):
means ongoing expense unless you learn to do it yourself.
So there's just a lot of aspects of pet ownership.
In the book, the book that I wrote, The Pandemic Puppy,
it does go through some of this, and like I said,
there's some really good websites and really good books out there,
so please do a little research. But oftentimes the instinct,
the knee jerk reaction is oh my gosh, what an
(08:23):
adorable little dog. Let's just go pick him up. Once
you meet them, it's like taking home a car over
the weekend that the dealership says, here are the keys.
You know, take it home, park it on your driveway
for the weekend. They know that car is not coming back.
They know that puppy is not coming back once it's
home with you for the weekend. Yeah, you're already invested
in it, and it's too late. It's yours.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
You got to ask two doctor. For folks that do
go down the rescue route, would you recommend getting a
DNA test just to not just for obviously a lot
of fun to kind of identify what breeds are are there,
but just to kind of help you know what to
expect when you've already expect. I mean, but you've already.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Got the dog. Yeah. I think they're pretty helpful. We're
out to the point that there's about three hundred and
fifty tests on the paw print genetics test, so you
can get a ton of information that will help you
to say, are the liver and zimes always going to
be low? Because normally we don't worry about liver and
zymes when they're low, but this will be something that
you know the dog is always going to be that way,
or are they predisposed to having some kind of health issue,
(09:24):
so you can be vigilant, be watching for it. You
and your veterinarian can start paying attention to some of
their health needs when they're earlier so that you can
pick up on things. So I think those tests are
really helpful and really useful. They usually put them on
sailor on Christmas. That kind of keep an eye out.
If you want to give somebody a fun Christmas gift,
this can be it. Yeah, because then they just take
a cheek swabs, then to the lab and in about
(09:47):
two weeks they'll have results back. So those are pretty fun.
The other thing about rescues is, unfortunately a lot of
these dogs do come from the South Florida, Georgia, and
North Carolina. When we see them coming from Texas as well,
any place from Texas east on the southern border where
we have the ocean and a lot of water, we
see a lot of heartworm disease coming in with these dogs.
(10:07):
So if you are taking in one of the dogs
that are coming in as a rescue, please ask the
rescue organization to heartworm test the dog before they move
into your house. Again. Once they're with you, they're pretty
much part of your family, and you want to know
ahead of time is this dog going to need heartroom
treatments That can amount to one thousand dollars. It can
be expensive, it can lead to long lifelong health problems.
(10:28):
So you know, just ask them to do that simple
heartworm test so that they've already got that information before
you make the decision, and it's not just an emotional decision,
but a financial decision as well.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
Really helpful information as always from doctor Marty Greer of
checkout Veterinary, the website checkout vet dot com. That's check
out vet dot com speaking of things like having tests
and those type of things done on your new pat.
I know, one of the great things about checkout Veterinary
is that first exam, that first visit that's free. Obviously
testing and other things there are fees included than those
(11:00):
are spelled out right in black and white, which is
also great about the transparent pricing at checkout Vet. Let's
talk about then that that first pet visit and kind
of what goes on as a vet. What are you
looking for, how's that how is that communication then between
the pet family and and you kind of going on
what goes on in that in that first visit doctor.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Sure, So we're going to do a comprehensive physical exams.
Check their ears, listen to their hearts, steal their bellies,
check or hernias, you know, just do a really comprehensive
exam with our hands, with our stethoscope, with an otoscope,
just that hands on kind of stuff, not just but
that hands on kind of stuff. And then we will
if it's if it's a dog over six months old,
we will recommend a heart room test and of course
(11:40):
a fecal analysis because again the southern states tend to
have more intestinal parasites than we do here in the North.
The only good thing about winter, that is two good things.
One is allergies go away and the other's parasites go away.
Otherwise I'm not so much a fan of Wisconson January.
So those are things that you're going to want to do.
And if we have no vaccine history on that pet,
(12:02):
as we want, with them coming through a rescue, or
if it's a young dog that's coming from a breeder,
a rescue, whatever, they're going to need a series of
at least two vaccinations. So you're going to see your
veterinary clinic at least twice. Now with puppies, we may
see you every three to four weeks until the puppy
is sixteen to eighteen weeks old, and you'll be like,
do I have to come to the vent every month
(12:23):
for the rest of this dog's life? What have I
gotten myself into? Dogs are babies, just like our babies,
and they need to have a series of vaccine boosters
so that they get full protection. So one trip into
the veterinary clinic is not going to fill all the
needs of your pet. They're going to come in for boosters.
They're going to need to come in for being weighed
so that we know what size heartworm and what size
(12:45):
fleet and chick preventives we need to put them on.
Putting them on the scale is an important part of
our exam. Knowing it's they're gaining weight correctly. We're going
to talk about what diet you're feeding, and what supplements
you're giving, and what preventives we need to give, and
you know all the things that go into this. If
your vet isn't discussing some of those nutrition supplements, bring
it up, you know, they may have just overlooked it,
(13:05):
or they might have been kind of busy so your
vet tech, your veterinary assistance. They're also very well versed
in what foods are appropriate and which foods are not appropriate,
what kind of snacks and treats you can give, and
we've talked about those in the past, the fruits and
vegetables and those things that you can give, avoiding grapes
and raisins. So it's a great opportunity for you to
go in, gets your puppy acclimated, have them learned. The
(13:28):
veterinary clinic is a fun place to be. We're very
careful with our young dogs and our puppies that come in,
and of course the kittens too. I don't want to
leave out our cats and kitten friends with giving them
lots of food treats. I want them to think they're
at a restaurant and not at a vet clinic. Like
you came in and had a little snack because, oh,
by the way, while you were here, we gave you
a vaccination. But it wasn't really all that big a deal.
(13:48):
The big deal was you came in, we had fun,
you got on the table, we touched you. You got
to eat cheese or peanut butter or ginger snaps or whatever.
Fun things that we have for you, and then you
left and you're like, oh, that was great, So that
the next time you go to the veterinary clinic, the
dog is dragging you to the door, one is go
in and saying, hey, I remember them, we had cookies
(14:08):
last time. So I think those things are really important.
And if you're working with a veterinary clinic that is
not able to provide those kinds of things for you,
that they're not discussing some of these things, they're not
helping you with having a friendly, happy veterinary visit, then
you may want to look for somebody that's willing to
do that, because a lot of us are.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
It's great when you hear too about you know, kind
of seeing it. I think obviously I love getting the
chance to talk with you each and every week, and
one of the things I really love about it is
getting some of the different perspective is you know, as
a pet owner, we tend to you know, we tend
to think of our relationship with our pets, and we
tend to forget our vets have a relationship with our
pets as well, and the importance of that love and trust,
(14:49):
that bond being built there as well, And I love
getting a chance to hear from your perspective about what
you want that experience for the pet to be like
when they come and visit you at Checkout Veterinary. It's
a really really cool model. And we talked about that
drive through service a little bit earlier. Doctor Greer and
the team at Checkout Veterinary. They've got those garage bays.
They open right up, you drive your car right in.
Pet doesn't have to walk in through a lobby or
(15:11):
waiting room with other animals and other pets that other
smells are things that make can make them nervous and uneasy.
They're coming right on in in the car. They absolutely
love it. It's a fantastic, fantastic clinic. You can learn
more online checkout vet dot com. That's checkout vet dot
com even better, pick film, make that appointment today, give
them a call six oh eight three one eight sixty
seven hundred. That's three one eight sixty seven hundred, or
(15:33):
stop in there right at twenty seven to ten. Prairie
Lags Drive in Sun Prairie open Monday through Wednesday, Friday
through Sunday nine until five. That that includes the weekend,
so it's a really really cool thing at checkout Vet.
And I'm going to ask you doctor about We touched
on kittens just a bit there, but I'm want to
ask you a little bit about giddycats. Also want to
talk about introducing your pets to not only the family,
(15:53):
but other other furry friends as well around your family.
Will talk about that and so much more as asked
the Experts and doctor Marty Greer of check Vet continues
right here on thirteen ten wi b A eight fifty
seven thirteen ten WIBA and ask the Experts talking this
morning with doctor Marty Greer of check Out Veterinary the
website checkout vet dot com. That's checkout vet dot com.
(16:17):
Talking about adding a new pet to your family. Some
of the things you need to think of before you
add that patent, of course, some of the experiences once
you have that new family member. And doctor talked about
a little bit about dogs. What about cats and kittens
is what a great addition to a family they can
be and they are so much fun to have. But
(16:38):
you do want to also prepare for a homecoming for
a kitten as well.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Don't you, Oh for sure, especially if you have other
cats in the household. So first you want to make
sure that everybody's leukemi and FIV tested. Those are viral
diseases that are infectious. So you don't want to bring
a new kitten into the household with established cat or
cats that may have an infectious disease that will affect
the adult cats. That would break your heart, break my heart,
so you want to be really careful with that. And
(17:03):
then bringing in a new cat, you need to introduce
them carefully. You can't just plunk them down in front
of the other cats and say, here is your new
little buddy. Enjoy because some cats are not that friendly
about having a new cat in the household. So we
have to be careful how we introduce him, so that
the bigger cat doesn't feel offended, doesn't start urinating inappropriately,
doesn't hurt the little baby. So be thoughtful and careful.
(17:25):
There's actually a book called The Natural Cat, I like
books Thentral Cat, that has a whole page or a
whole section in it about introducing a new kitten into
the household and these kind of fun little techniques. Patricia
McConnell's book called Feeling Out Numbers and Patricia taught behavior
at the University of Wisconsin and has been involved with
(17:46):
behavior for her entire career. He's got a great book
called Feeling out Numbered on how to handle a multiple
pet household, a multiple dog household. So there's there's some
really good resources out there. Make sure the kitten knows
how to use the litter, but make sure they can
get in and out of the litter box because sometimes
they're any bitty and we forget that they're not tall
enough to crawl up into the box, and then you
get upset if they're going potting on the floor. It's like, well,
(18:09):
it's not really his fault because he's not able to
reach the box. So you know, make sure they can
get to their food and water. You know, be certain
that all those things are happening, so that your introductions
go well. Several of my staff members have just gotten
new kittens, and you know what I really like best
is not getting one kitten, but getting two. And I
know it sounds a little self serving, like, oh, sure,
(18:30):
she just wants us to have a bunch of cats
so that they spend a bunch of money. Kittens work
really well in pairs. They do very well if they're
socialized together, if they're raised together, they're always going to
be best friends, and that works much better than trying
to bring you know, a kitten into the house and
then six months later bringing in another kitten. So, if
you're thinking about getting a kitten, and you know, the
(18:50):
thing about kittens is there's usually a lot of them.
If you go to the shelter, you go to the
Humane society, there's usually an abundance of kittens. Especially spring
and fall. There's kitten seasons because the cats cycle seasonally,
so that there's kittens in you know, kind of bunches.
It's really nice to have two kittens. They raise together,
they keep each other company, they play with each other.
(19:11):
It takes a lot of the burden off of you
for socializing them and for having to, you know, like
endure their playfulness at two o'clock in the morning when
they're running around on your head and I'm sure Atum
probably can probably nodding right about now, yes, yes, So
those things can be really helpful. So if you're going
to get a cat, just get too. It's not twice
as much work. It's so much easier to have two
(19:33):
kittens in one.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Really good to know about any I also have two cats.
They're just the most fantastic things in the world. As
we talked this morning with doctor Greer, today is today
pick up phone. Give them a call at check Out
Veterinary telephone number six oh eight three sixty seven hundred.
That's three one eight sixty seven hundred. Learn more online
check out vet dot com. That's check out vet dot com. Doctor,
it's always great chatting you enjoy this most fantastic of days.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
It comes your way next year. On thirteen ten. Wivy
right
Eight thirty nine thirteen ten WIBA and ask the experts
with check Out Veterinary. Join this morning by doctor Marty Greer.
Of course, doctor Greer recognized by the Westminster Kennel Club
as Veterinarian of the Year. And you can learn more
about doctor Greer. Learn more about Checkout Veterinary and the
other vets as well at checkout Vet on their website
(00:21):
check out vet dot com. That's checkout vet dot com.
They're amazing drive through service and of course they are
there when you and your pet need them. They're open
Monday through Wednesday, and then Friday through Sunday nine am
until five pm. That includes weekends. And you may be saying,
well what about Thursday, so well, Thursday's check in Veterinary
is open for you. So it's a really, really great,
(00:42):
great clinic set of clinics that are there for you
and your pet when you needed. Today's a great day
to start that relationship. Pick up phone, give a call
six oh eight three one eight sixty seven hundred, that's
three one eight sixty seven hundred, or learn more online
at checkout vet dot com. That's checkout vet dot com.
Doctor Greer, how are you doing this morning.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
I'm doing great. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
It's really good to talk to you. And we had
a story on the news this morning. Obviously we had
that the hurricane come through the South, and anytime there's
a natural disaster, a lot of just like people are evacuated,
a lot of pets are evacuated as well, from humane
societies and other places. And some pets are coming in
to the area from North Carolina and UH and South
(01:26):
and southern states that were affected by the hurricane. And
had me thinking about getting a new pet and adding
a new family member to your to your family, and
and what that process is like. And as I was
kind of jotting down notes, doctor I was I was
actually basically doing the opposite of one of what we
did when we got when we when we picked up
(01:47):
our dog. But I don't know, and correct, that's probably
probably not all that uncommon where sometimes folks don't really
plan all that all that well for a pet.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
They just connect, they do sometimes and sometimes it's a
match made in heaven and it can work really well.
Sometimes not so much. So you want to be thoughtful
about this because if the pet is young, you may
be spending the next fifteen sixteen seventeen years with them,
so you do want to have some strategies in mind
before you just you know, hoop out there, put your
hand up and say, yep, we'll take her. So I
(02:20):
do encourage people to give it some thought. And one
of the best resources for how you make these decisions
is your veterinary team. So speak to your veterinarian, your
veterinary technicians, the receptionists. These people know you. I'm assuming
you have a relationship with them already. They know you,
they know your lifestyle, they know what kind of pet
you're suited to have, and so they can give you
(02:42):
some really important input on making these decisions. It's really
easy to make an impulsive decision and have it not
turn out to be the ideal situation. So please please
please give it some thought and use those resources. Also,
there's some really good websites and really good books out
there for pet selection, so you know, think it through
(03:06):
and make sure that you figure out it's the activity level,
the grooming needs, the exercise needs, the behaviors of the
pets fit your lifestyle, because not every pet fits everybody.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Talking this morning with doctor Marty Greer of Checkout Veterinary,
of course, learn more online checkout vet dot com. That's
check out vet dot com and and doctor. It's interesting
we talk about kind of that, you know, that that
picking out that right pet and getting that right fit.
I remember years ago a friend of mine, this is
probably twenty years ago, he had a I don't know
(03:42):
what kind of dog. It was a big, big, giant,
hairy dog. And I'm like, and he's like me, he's not,
you know, mister, I jog every night. I don't run.
I don't do those type of things. I'm like, are
you sure that's the right dog? And I don't know
what type? It's like a maybe a Burmese mountain dog.
He's like, it really just likes to walk. And I'm like, oh, okay,
maybe that is a little bit of research goes a
(04:04):
long way, doesn't it, Doctor.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
It does. And there's some good books. There's one that
used to be in print and you can still pick
it up from time to time on Amazon's called The
Right Dog for You by Daniel Torture. And even though
it's a fairly old book, it still has really great
charts in it that go through the activity levels, the
grooming needs, all the bits and pieces that you might
(04:26):
not think about as a new cred owner. So it
walks you through some of those decisions. And then there's
a more recent books. There's a couple of editions of
it that Benjamin and Lynn Hart wrote called The Perfect Puppy,
And again, it's not about developing the perfect perfect puppy.
It's about selecting a dog or a puppy that suits
your needs. And they interviewed a CAC judges and breeders
(04:48):
and a number of different very knowledgeable people for that book,
So those are important. Now, a lot of these aren't
going to have the mixed breed dogs in them, and
oftentimes when you get a mixed breed dog, you don't
really know what you're getting because it doesn't come with
a DNA test in many cases. And those DNA tests
are pretty fun and pretty interesting. They can be very
helpful in understanding some of the behaviors, some of the needs,
(05:13):
and some of the potential health concerns for your pets.
But by the time you get a pet, if it's
coming through a rescue, you're not going to have that
information because they don't test before they place dogs. So
those are important, and I don't want to sound negative
about rescues, though I want to be really careful what
I say, but some rescues we have some behavioral issues with. Now,
(05:36):
any breed, any dog can have behavioral issues, so please
don't misunderstand what I'm saying here. But we do see
more fearfulness and behavior issues in some of these rescue
dogs because they weren't raised the way that we would
have raised them. They may not have been genetically selected
for behaviors, so sometimes we don't know. Some of the
(05:57):
rescue dogs are a little more challenging to work with
behavior than pure bred dogs. And the other downside to
the rescue is you don't have the predictability of knowing
when you got your little dog, your little chuahwah, you
knew about how big he was going to be when
you go get a rescue. I picked out a dog
for a client many years ago. She was an older lady.
Her husband had passed away, so she was a widow.
(06:19):
She'd always had dog and wanted another dog. And I
went to a teaching lab at the web school and
they had this really adorable little male puppy. So in
the procedures we were doing, we noted him, and I
called her and I said, I found this really great
little dog. I think he'll be about forty pounds when
he grows up. I think he'd be the perfect dog
for you.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
No, he turned out to be one hundred and twenty pounds.
So we misjudged what is potential was going to be. Now,
she always better dogs a little more than they needed,
but he wasn't going to be a sixty pound dog.
He was clearly destined to be one hundred and twenty
pound dog.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Oh wow.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
So yeah, So those are really important things, especially as
your aging as you're getting your last dog. If you're
sixty or seventy and thinking about getting your last dog,
you don't want it to be something that doesn't suit
your lifestyle. It's a lot easier to be flexible when
you're young and you have better physical capacity. I always
tell people ten years from now, fifteen years from now,
(07:17):
will you be able to pick that dog up? So
you're fifteen years older, the dog is fifteen years older,
so they're going to be a lot bigger than they
were as a puppy. Can you lift that dog and
put it in your car? If something catastrophic happens, then
you have to get the dog to the vets because
we have phone calls from people that say, I can't
get my dog in the vehicle. I don't know what
to do. I need help, and my neighbor's not home,
(07:38):
and you know, I don't have a partner or spouse,
I don't have anybody that can help me, and so
we have to kind of scramble to figure out how
we can get them to the VAT clinic. So, you know,
just thinks through some of those things. How much grooming
do they need? Do they have to go to the
groomer every eight weeks which means A they don't shed,
but b they need to be constantly groomed, So that
(08:01):
means ongoing expense unless you learn to do it yourself.
So there's just a lot of aspects of pet ownership.
In the book, the book that I wrote, The Pandemic Puppy,
it does go through some of this, and like I said,
there's some really good websites and really good books out there,
so please do a little research. But oftentimes the instinct,
the knee jerk reaction is oh my gosh, what an
(08:23):
adorable little dog. Let's just go pick him up. Once
you meet them, it's like taking home a car over
the weekend that the dealership says, here are the keys.
You know, take it home, park it on your driveway
for the weekend. They know that car is not coming back.
They know that puppy is not coming back once it's
home with you for the weekend. Yeah, you're already invested
in it, and it's too late. It's yours.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
You got to ask two doctor. For folks that do
go down the rescue route, would you recommend getting a
DNA test just to not just for obviously a lot
of fun to kind of identify what breeds are are there,
but just to kind of help you know what to
expect when you've already expect. I mean, but you've already.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Got the dog. Yeah. I think they're pretty helpful. We're
out to the point that there's about three hundred and
fifty tests on the paw print genetics test, so you
can get a ton of information that will help you
to say, are the liver and zimes always going to
be low? Because normally we don't worry about liver and
zymes when they're low, but this will be something that
you know the dog is always going to be that way,
or are they predisposed to having some kind of health issue,
(09:24):
so you can be vigilant, be watching for it. You
and your veterinarian can start paying attention to some of
their health needs when they're earlier so that you can
pick up on things. So I think those tests are
really helpful and really useful. They usually put them on
sailor on Christmas. That kind of keep an eye out.
If you want to give somebody a fun Christmas gift,
this can be it. Yeah, because then they just take
a cheek swabs, then to the lab and in about
(09:47):
two weeks they'll have results back. So those are pretty fun.
The other thing about rescues is, unfortunately a lot of
these dogs do come from the South Florida, Georgia, and
North Carolina. When we see them coming from Texas as well,
any place from Texas east on the southern border where
we have the ocean and a lot of water, we
see a lot of heartworm disease coming in with these dogs.
(10:07):
So if you are taking in one of the dogs
that are coming in as a rescue, please ask the
rescue organization to heartworm test the dog before they move
into your house. Again. Once they're with you, they're pretty
much part of your family, and you want to know
ahead of time is this dog going to need heartroom
treatments That can amount to one thousand dollars. It can
be expensive, it can lead to long lifelong health problems.
(10:28):
So you know, just ask them to do that simple
heartworm test so that they've already got that information before
you make the decision, and it's not just an emotional decision,
but a financial decision as well.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
Really helpful information as always from doctor Marty Greer of
checkout Veterinary, the website checkout vet dot com. That's check
out vet dot com speaking of things like having tests
and those type of things done on your new pat.
I know, one of the great things about checkout Veterinary
is that first exam, that first visit that's free. Obviously
testing and other things there are fees included than those
(11:00):
are spelled out right in black and white, which is
also great about the transparent pricing at checkout Vet. Let's
talk about then that that first pet visit and kind
of what goes on as a vet. What are you
looking for, how's that how is that communication then between
the pet family and and you kind of going on
what goes on in that in that first visit doctor.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Sure, So we're going to do a comprehensive physical exams.
Check their ears, listen to their hearts, steal their bellies,
check or hernias, you know, just do a really comprehensive
exam with our hands, with our stethoscope, with an otoscope,
just that hands on kind of stuff, not just but
that hands on kind of stuff. And then we will
if it's if it's a dog over six months old,
we will recommend a heart room test and of course
(11:40):
a fecal analysis because again the southern states tend to
have more intestinal parasites than we do here in the North.
The only good thing about winter, that is two good things.
One is allergies go away and the other's parasites go away.
Otherwise I'm not so much a fan of Wisconson January.
So those are things that you're going to want to do.
And if we have no vaccine history on that pet,
(12:02):
as we want, with them coming through a rescue, or
if it's a young dog that's coming from a breeder,
a rescue, whatever, they're going to need a series of
at least two vaccinations. So you're going to see your
veterinary clinic at least twice. Now with puppies, we may
see you every three to four weeks until the puppy
is sixteen to eighteen weeks old, and you'll be like,
do I have to come to the vent every month
(12:23):
for the rest of this dog's life? What have I
gotten myself into? Dogs are babies, just like our babies,
and they need to have a series of vaccine boosters
so that they get full protection. So one trip into
the veterinary clinic is not going to fill all the
needs of your pet. They're going to come in for boosters.
They're going to need to come in for being weighed
so that we know what size heartworm and what size
(12:45):
fleet and chick preventives we need to put them on.
Putting them on the scale is an important part of
our exam. Knowing it's they're gaining weight correctly. We're going
to talk about what diet you're feeding, and what supplements
you're giving, and what preventives we need to give, and
you know all the things that go into this. If
your vet isn't discussing some of those nutrition supplements, bring
it up, you know, they may have just overlooked it,
(13:05):
or they might have been kind of busy so your
vet tech, your veterinary assistance. They're also very well versed
in what foods are appropriate and which foods are not appropriate,
what kind of snacks and treats you can give, and
we've talked about those in the past, the fruits and
vegetables and those things that you can give, avoiding grapes
and raisins. So it's a great opportunity for you to
go in, gets your puppy acclimated, have them learned. The
(13:28):
veterinary clinic is a fun place to be. We're very
careful with our young dogs and our puppies that come in,
and of course the kittens too. I don't want to
leave out our cats and kitten friends with giving them
lots of food treats. I want them to think they're
at a restaurant and not at a vet clinic. Like
you came in and had a little snack because, oh,
by the way, while you were here, we gave you
a vaccination. But it wasn't really all that big a deal.
(13:48):
The big deal was you came in, we had fun,
you got on the table, we touched you. You got
to eat cheese or peanut butter or ginger snaps or whatever.
Fun things that we have for you, and then you
left and you're like, oh, that was great, So that
the next time you go to the veterinary clinic, the
dog is dragging you to the door, one is go
in and saying, hey, I remember them, we had cookies
(14:08):
last time. So I think those things are really important.
And if you're working with a veterinary clinic that is
not able to provide those kinds of things for you,
that they're not discussing some of these things, they're not
helping you with having a friendly, happy veterinary visit, then
you may want to look for somebody that's willing to
do that, because a lot of us are.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
It's great when you hear too about you know, kind
of seeing it. I think obviously I love getting the
chance to talk with you each and every week, and
one of the things I really love about it is
getting some of the different perspective is you know, as
a pet owner, we tend to you know, we tend
to think of our relationship with our pets, and we
tend to forget our vets have a relationship with our
pets as well, and the importance of that love and trust,
(14:49):
that bond being built there as well, And I love
getting a chance to hear from your perspective about what
you want that experience for the pet to be like
when they come and visit you at Checkout Veterinary. It's
a really really cool model. And we talked about that
drive through service a little bit earlier. Doctor Greer and
the team at Checkout Veterinary. They've got those garage bays.
They open right up, you drive your car right in.
Pet doesn't have to walk in through a lobby or
(15:11):
waiting room with other animals and other pets that other
smells are things that make can make them nervous and uneasy.
They're coming right on in in the car. They absolutely
love it. It's a fantastic, fantastic clinic. You can learn
more online checkout vet dot com. That's checkout vet dot
com even better, pick film, make that appointment today, give
them a call six oh eight three one eight sixty
seven hundred. That's three one eight sixty seven hundred, or
(15:33):
stop in there right at twenty seven to ten. Prairie
Lags Drive in Sun Prairie open Monday through Wednesday, Friday
through Sunday nine until five. That that includes the weekend,
so it's a really really cool thing at checkout Vet.
And I'm going to ask you doctor about We touched
on kittens just a bit there, but I'm want to
ask you a little bit about giddycats. Also want to
talk about introducing your pets to not only the family,
(15:53):
but other other furry friends as well around your family.
Will talk about that and so much more as asked
the Experts and doctor Marty Greer of check Vet continues
right here on thirteen ten wi b A eight fifty
seven thirteen ten WIBA and ask the Experts talking this
morning with doctor Marty Greer of check Out Veterinary the
website checkout vet dot com. That's checkout vet dot com.
(16:17):
Talking about adding a new pet to your family. Some
of the things you need to think of before you
add that patent, of course, some of the experiences once
you have that new family member. And doctor talked about
a little bit about dogs. What about cats and kittens
is what a great addition to a family they can
be and they are so much fun to have. But
(16:38):
you do want to also prepare for a homecoming for
a kitten as well.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Don't you, Oh for sure, especially if you have other
cats in the household. So first you want to make
sure that everybody's leukemi and FIV tested. Those are viral
diseases that are infectious. So you don't want to bring
a new kitten into the household with established cat or
cats that may have an infectious disease that will affect
the adult cats. That would break your heart, break my heart,
so you want to be really careful with that. And
(17:03):
then bringing in a new cat, you need to introduce
them carefully. You can't just plunk them down in front
of the other cats and say, here is your new
little buddy. Enjoy because some cats are not that friendly
about having a new cat in the household. So we
have to be careful how we introduce him, so that
the bigger cat doesn't feel offended, doesn't start urinating inappropriately,
doesn't hurt the little baby. So be thoughtful and careful.
(17:25):
There's actually a book called The Natural Cat, I like
books Thentral Cat, that has a whole page or a
whole section in it about introducing a new kitten into
the household and these kind of fun little techniques. Patricia
McConnell's book called Feeling Out Numbers and Patricia taught behavior
at the University of Wisconsin and has been involved with
(17:46):
behavior for her entire career. He's got a great book
called Feeling out Numbered on how to handle a multiple
pet household, a multiple dog household. So there's there's some
really good resources out there. Make sure the kitten knows
how to use the litter, but make sure they can
get in and out of the litter box because sometimes
they're any bitty and we forget that they're not tall
enough to crawl up into the box, and then you
get upset if they're going potting on the floor. It's like, well,
(18:09):
it's not really his fault because he's not able to
reach the box. So you know, make sure they can
get to their food and water. You know, be certain
that all those things are happening, so that your introductions
go well. Several of my staff members have just gotten
new kittens, and you know what I really like best
is not getting one kitten, but getting two. And I
know it sounds a little self serving, like, oh, sure,
(18:30):
she just wants us to have a bunch of cats
so that they spend a bunch of money. Kittens work
really well in pairs. They do very well if they're
socialized together, if they're raised together, they're always going to
be best friends, and that works much better than trying
to bring you know, a kitten into the house and
then six months later bringing in another kitten. So, if
you're thinking about getting a kitten, and you know, the
(18:50):
thing about kittens is there's usually a lot of them.
If you go to the shelter, you go to the
Humane society, there's usually an abundance of kittens. Especially spring
and fall. There's kitten seasons because the cats cycle seasonally,
so that there's kittens in you know, kind of bunches.
It's really nice to have two kittens. They raise together,
they keep each other company, they play with each other.
(19:11):
It takes a lot of the burden off of you
for socializing them and for having to, you know, like
endure their playfulness at two o'clock in the morning when
they're running around on your head and I'm sure Atum
probably can probably nodding right about now, yes, yes, So
those things can be really helpful. So if you're going
to get a cat, just get too. It's not twice
as much work. It's so much easier to have two
(19:33):
kittens in one.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Really good to know about any I also have two cats.
They're just the most fantastic things in the world. As
we talked this morning with doctor Greer, today is today
pick up phone. Give them a call at check Out
Veterinary telephone number six oh eight three sixty seven hundred.
That's three one eight sixty seven hundred. Learn more online
check out vet dot com. That's check out vet dot com. Doctor,
it's always great chatting you enjoy this most fantastic of days.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
It comes your way next year. On thirteen ten. Wivy
right
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