When Nature Calls with CheckOut Veterinary

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Eight thirty seven thirteen ten WIBA and ESK the Experts
brought to you by Checkout Veterinaryclinic Online. Checkout vet dot com.
That's checkout vet dot com. We connecting with doctor Marty
Greer in just a moment. She is recognized as Veterinarian
of the Year. She is out on the West Coast

(00:20):
this week, so we'll be we checking in with her
in just a moment. A couple of thanks keep andy
as we talk with doctor Greer obviously, as I mentioned,
of course, recognized as the Veterinarian of the Year from
Westminster Kennel Club. Of course, she comes to us from
Checkout veterinaryan if you haven't had a chance to learn
about Checkout Veterinary.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
They've got a.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
Great website, checkout vet dot com. That's checkout vet dot com.
It does a really good job kind of walking you
through what makes it such a great clinic and such
a great design, and really learn more about checkout vet
all online. It's a great day to start that relationship.
I can do is either I go through the website.
You can also call six'h eight three one eight sixty

(00:58):
seven hundred. That's six eight three one eight sixty seven hundred,
super convenient to get to at checkout Vet. And of
course the clinic is convenient. The location is convenient the
days of the week. There's seven of them and they
are open, all seven of them at checkout fat. You're
not gonna beat that. And they are accepting new patients
right now. All the details online checkout vet dot com.

(01:18):
That's checkout vet dot com and waken the doctor up, especially.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
Earlier this morning.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
Doctor, So sorry you're out, And folks, I don't know
you're out.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
You're out of the West coast today, aren't you.

Speaker 3 (01:29):
I am at a conference on Yeah, well.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
It's great to have you along with us, and we're
going to talk about got some got an email. I
think it's probably gonna spark a conversation about about both
cats and dogs and uh and number ones and number twos,
which is.

Speaker 3 (01:45):
Those things that's pretty sophisticated.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
Yes, you know me, you know yah, I go deep
with this. So we've got we've got a great conversation ahead.
And I mentioned the emails. Of course, you can always
email the station. You can email me Sean Wiba dot com.
You can also submit an email at checkout vet dot
com also, and get it read on the air. Another
thing too. Phone lines are open, and if you've got

(02:10):
a question for doctor Greer, Doctor Greer would love to
talk with you. Love to have you join us this morning.
All I gotta do is dial in six oh eight
three two one thirteen ten. That's six oh eight three
two one thirteen ten. And speaking of the emails, Phil
wrote in he this is an interesting question because I'd
never heard of this, but he said, uh a preble
and doctor doctor Greer, somebody's clear been listening to the

(02:31):
show for a while.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
Very casual.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
I wanted to ask you your opinion on calming cat
litters that claim to reduce feline stress and anxiety. Have
you found these products to be effective in your experience?
He says, I've seen a few brands that incorporated these
incorporate these agents and or pheromones into the litter, but
I'm curious whether they truly make a difference, or are
there better alternatives you'd recommend for helping cats manage stress.

(02:56):
Thanks and advance for your insight. And that email comes
from Phil and obviously a serious concern here for sure.

Speaker 3 (03:02):
Oh yeah, and cat litter and cat litter and ones
and twos are very important. We see in veterinary medicine
a huge number of urinary issues and cats, not too
many with tools, but a lot of urinary issues. That
accounts for about three percent of all hospital admissions at
veterinary clinics, So it's a big deal.

Speaker 1 (03:21):
Three percent a lot.

Speaker 3 (03:23):
So anything we can do to reduce the stress level
of our cats and get them to use their litter
box more effectively is going to be important. The number
one reason people relinquish their cats is because of urinary issues.
So if you're going to, you know, see a problem
with a shelter and you go in and there's an
adult cat there, behaviorally it's mostly you're litter about to use.

(03:45):
Second most common is biting, and then of course the
other reasons people that relinquish their cats will be things
like they got elderly and had moved their nursing home,
and you know, there's a variety of other things. So
I don't want to sound like that's the only thing
that causes cats that are adults to go to a shelter,
but it is certainly a big concern. So anything we
can do to improve their little box us is important.
And so if cat litter Calmbing cut Litter's helped. That's great.

(04:08):
There's Calmbing cat food that's made by both Hills. That's
called the CD Stress. It's a prescription diet, and Royal
Canaan makes one called Calm Cleverly Clomb. So it has
trip to fan and some other ingredient incident like trip
to fan is the thing that after Thanksgiving dinner makes
you sleepy, that warm belly full of turkey, So trip

(04:31):
to fan helps of that. So those are the things
that we can do that are non pharmaceutical agents. Now
there are pharmaceuticals as well, and we can talk about those.
There's a feel away spray, a feel away room diffuser,
and those are again the pheromone feel Away and it
was developed by Siva Gosh twenty twenty five years ago.

(04:51):
We received some of the first samples as trials at
our practice. They were shipped from France in a paint
can with a lid on it. There were three containers
of it in a paint can. Because they didn't know
how it was going to handle international travel. They didn't
want the atomizers to explode while they were shipping them,
so they put them in a paint can. Now of
course they don't come that way anymore. You can buy
them on Amazon and you just plug them into your room,

(05:14):
or you can use it as a spray, and that
again is a pheromone. A pheromone is basically a hormone
that you don't give orally, but it's one that they
smell in the air, and it's derived from cat from
when they rub their little lips on the edges of
corners or your fingers or whatever, you know, how they
go over and they mark corners. That's a pheromone that
they're releasing from those little glands and their lips and

(05:35):
their chin. So that's meant to calm cats as a spray,
as an atomizer, and as this I'm assuming that that's
in these cat litters because I'm not privy to the formula,
but that's what they indicate. So yes, anything we can
do to reduce the stress of a cat to get
them to use the liuver box is an important thing.
So if that's what it takes, is buying a different
kind of cat litter, and it may be additive. It

(05:57):
may be that you need the room atomizer, maybe you
need the diet, maybe all those things, but any of
those things can be helpful, so collectively they're probably going
to add up to something better than anything alone.

Speaker 1 (06:08):
Talking this morning with doctor Murder Greer of Checkout Veterinary,
a great question this morning from Phil Filter the time
to email, and we've been talking about getting your emails
right on the show. All you got to do is
send them to the station and send them to me.
You can also email check Out Veterinary of course, right
on the website checkout vets dot com. That's checkout vet
dot com. If you're near your phone right now and
you've got a question, we'd love to have you join
us phone number six oh eight three two one thirteen ten.

(06:31):
That's six oh eight three two one thirteen ten. Anything
about your pets, healthcare and your pets care, Doctor Greer
is here. It doesn't have necessarily be about the topic
at hand. You can call in on anything. We'd love
to hear from you. Again the number six oh eight
three two one thirteen ten. That's six oh eight three
two one thirteen ten. By the way, when we were
talking to about about stress and anxiety for cats, what
are some of the signs for a for a cat

(06:53):
that's that's stressed out or a cat that's feeling anxious?

Speaker 2 (06:56):
Are there things we should be looking for?

Speaker 1 (06:58):
I got to be honest, doctor, I've never and maybe
that's probably a sign that maybe they're not, But I've
never thought about are my cats? Do the cats have anxiety?
What are some of those signs that they may have
some issues?

Speaker 3 (07:10):
Sure, and that is a really good question. I've done
three immersion courses and behavior over the last seven years,
before and after COVID. Just got back from one in Canada,
and it's really interesting because a lot of owners don't
pick up on the trussed cats are showing. So they've
sent in videos and they've presented them at our courses

(07:31):
and we'll be sitting in the room with thirty veterinarians
and these cats will come out and they'll walk around
in the house and you can see that the one
cat doesn't want to approach the other one because it's
laying in the hall and preventing their access to the
litter box or preventing their access to food and water.
There's this control thing going on and the owners don't
understand what they're seeing. The veterinarians are all like, oh no,

(07:54):
did you see that? And the owners are like yeah,
is that cute? And you're like, no, that's not cute.
So it can be really difficult for owners to pick
up on those things. So I would encourage people if
they're seeing something that they're not sure how to interpret
it that number one, they videotape it so that they
can take it. Everybody's got a phone, everybody's got a
camera on their phone, so grab your phone, take some video,

(08:14):
and then work with a veterinarian that does behavior. We
do behavior in our practice. Brooke Lewis in Madison does behavior.
So there's a couple of people around that do it
and they can help you number one, interpret what you're seeing.
In number two, help your cats with some medications, and
oftentimes it does take medication. If the pheromone's not enough,
that feel away the cat litter, the cat foods, those

(08:35):
kinds of things. If that's not enough to manage the
cat stress, then there are pharmaceutical agents. We use a
lot of GABA patents. We'll use bus parone, we'll use floxetine.
There's definitely some really good pharmaceutical agents on the market,
and the over the counter stress relievers that are supplements,
Oftentimes they are not sufficient to get you the level

(08:57):
of calmbing that you need for those cats. And these
may be lifetime medications, they may be short term medications,
depending on the severity. Sometimes it's eliminating a cat from
the household. Sometimes it's just not possible to integrate all
the cats together. And oftentimes the one outcome that happens
is failure to use the litter box. And it may

(09:17):
be urinary issues, may be medical, so they may have
a urinary tect infection. Like I said, that's three percent
of all the cats that we see in veterinary admissions
are urinary issues. So it may be medical, it may
be behavioral. So sometimes you can't get this under control
because the cat's not using the liter box. They can't
get to it. You don't have enough boxes, they don't
like the kind of litter you're using. They the rule

(09:40):
of some is more litter box per cat plus a spare,
but try different kinds of litter because you don't want
to come in with this calming litter or any other
kind of litter and put it in all the litter
boxes and have all the cats go nope, not in
and then stop using the box. So make sure if
you're introducing a new kind of cat litter, regardless if
it's the new scupable thing on the market, or if
it's this ca or just regular clay litter or corn

(10:02):
cob or soy or whatever you're using. Put it in
one box and let the cats vote with their feet
and tell you which litter they like, because that's the
one they're going to use the most. A number of
years ago, probably thirty years ago, there was a litter
that came to market that was a plastic pellet and
it didn't absorb the urine. It just ran through a
tray in the bottom, and it was meant to be
a perpetual litter that you didn't throw out that you

(10:23):
just rinsed thing out the stool, rinse the urine off,
and left the box. My cat's never used it once
in two years, so pretty clearly that if I had
only given them that one litter, I would have had
a mess on my hands. And once cats stop using
the box, it's a lot harder to get them back
to it than it is if you keep them in
it in the first place.

Speaker 1 (10:42):
Talking this morning with doctor Marty Greer, of course, Doctor
Greer comes to us from checkout veterinary. Great day to
start that relationship. They are accepting new patients or right now,
it's a great opportunity for you to start that relationship.
At checkout vet get your pet on in all the
details available to you online. Checkout vets dot com. Check
out vet dot com. Don't forget that first visit that exam.

(11:03):
It is free to your vet again. Check out vet
dot com. Tell for number six oh eight three one
eight sixty seven hundred. That's six oh eight three one
eight sixty seven hundred. It's funny Tuesday because trash Day
is on Wednesday, so Tuesday is generally my complete reset,
dump all the scoopable stuff and get fresh stuff. And
I'm at the downstairs, at the downstairs, at the litter box,

(11:25):
and one cat Mini is looking at me, minmn and
I said, as I'm pouring new stuff in, I said,
doctor Greer says, keep it shallow, and said to her,
So that is important too as well. And I know,
as as pet owners like, if we can kind of
make a process easier on ourselves, we're gonna do it.
And I think sometimes we'll be like, oh, put a
bunch more in here, it'll make it easier for me.

(11:45):
But that's not always the best thing for your kitty,
is it?

Speaker 3 (11:49):
No, not anything much stuper than about two inches. Cats
don't want to sink into their litter. They like the
way the litter feels, but they don't want to sink
down into it. And cats are very, very particular. If
you see a cat that doesn't use the litter box,
doesn't hit the litter box, people are like, oh you miss.
No cats don't miss Cats go in the litter box,
dig a hole, look around, turn around, take a look

(12:09):
at where the hole is. Dig it a little bit more,
look again, make two or three attemps, and they're like, Okay,
finally that looks good. So cats are really fastidious and
really particular. So if your litter isn't clean, if your
litter is too deep, if they don't like the way
the litter smells, if they don't like the kind of
litter they like that. Don't like that another cat use it?
Already there's one hundred and fifty regions that cats go nope,

(12:30):
I'm out. So really important that we give cats all
the good options so that we keep them in the
litter box. And like I said at the beginning, this
accounts for the number one behavior issue that we see
in cats, and a three percent of those are medical.
So not all of the things that we see in
cat litter issues our behavioral We always give the cats
the benefit of the doubt first, or at least we

(12:50):
should and do a ur analysis and an ultra sounda sea.
Do they have stones, do they have crystals? Do they
have a urinary attraction infection? And most urinary attraction infections
and cats the first time they have one, maybe even
the second or third are not bacterial, So your veterinarian
may not prescribe an antibiotic. We see beletter infections and
dogs and horses and cows and humans, but in cats
they're almost never bacterial to start with. So it's almost

(13:14):
always something related to a dietary thing that we can
adjust with the prescription diets that we have on the market.
So important that you follow your veterinarian's recommendations. If they
do prescribe a food it's low and magnesium and phosphorus.
It adjusts the pH it helps to reduce the urinary
tract infections that we see in cats. Well, I hate
to see the word infection because it's actually a urinary

(13:34):
tract issue. We now call it low feline lower urinary
tract disease FLUTD, and there's other names for it as well.
So it is not really a bacterial infection to start with,
and we can manage it many times of diet because
of the adjustment of the pH and the mineral content
of the food. But those foods are prescription and they
do cost a little bit more. They cost a lot

(13:55):
less than ending up with your cat with a urinary blockage,
which we do see in male we almost ever seen
in female cats that we can see in mail cats
pretty commonly, and those get into the thousands of dollars
with every episode. So really important that you follow your
VETS instructions because spending an extra few bucks on a
bag of food and keeping you out of a hospital
situation which is thousands of dollars is a real good

(14:17):
exchange for a payoff.

Speaker 1 (14:19):
Fantastic guidance as always from doctor Marty Greer of Checkout Veterinary.
You can learn more about doctor Greer. You can learn
more about the clinic as well. What makes it so
convenient and so special check out vet dot com. Of course,
checkout vet dot com open seven days week nine am
until five pm. They've also, of course got the other
clinic check in vet right there as well as a
Marshall clinic. I'm goin to get details at checkout vet

(14:41):
dot com. That's checkout vet dot com, or continue our
conversation with doctor Marty Greer. We will do that next
as ask the experts with Checkout Veterinary continues right here
on thirteen ten double u ib A eight fifty three
thirteen ten wu ib A and ask the experts talking
this morning with doctor Marty Greer. Of course, doctor Greer
comes to us from check out Vet the website check

(15:01):
out vet dot com.

Speaker 2 (15:03):
That's checkout vet.

Speaker 1 (15:04):
Dot com talking kitty litter this morning, and you think, boy,
that's got to be an easy one.

Speaker 2 (15:08):
There's a lot to this is for sure.

Speaker 1 (15:11):
And doctors started off with an email about a product
and I hadn't heard of it before. One of the
things I do hear about. And we're talking about some
medical conditions and other things with your cats. I have
seen these cat litter and I think a bunch of
different brands offered have like health monitoring kitty litter.

Speaker 2 (15:30):
Is there any benefit to that?

Speaker 1 (15:32):
Is that is that a gimmick or is that something
that legitimately could be useful in certain situations.

Speaker 3 (15:38):
No, it's legitimately useful. So if it picks up things
like glucose in the urine or blood in the urine,
it's pretty useful. And it's definitely a thing. So if
you have a cat that you're concerned about that's had
a history of UTIs, it would be a really useful
product to be having in your litter box so that
if the cat does develop blood in the air and
that's your first indicator of a problem, it'll There's also

(16:00):
pH changes that will happen with litter, but generally it's
blood that it picks up on those tests on the
litter change color change thing. So I would definitely use
it in a household where you had an issue. The
biggest trouble with multiple cat households, and many people that
have cats have multiple cats because they're like potato chips.
You can't. I think when you buy a cat or

(16:22):
adopt a cat, it's a good idea to have more
than one at a time. We talked about this on
a previous show, having two kittens adopted simultaneously, even if
they're not littermates do really well together. So the tricky
part if you have a cat that's not using the
litter box or a cat that's having urinary issues and
there's blood in the urine, is figure out which cat
it is. So that's the challenge because you you know

(16:44):
how many cats do you have. If you have six cats,
you need to take them off to the vet and
have them do urinis. That it's a little pricey, So
it can be a good idea to separate the cats
temporarily so that you can have each one using their
own box and figure out who's got what going on.
And if people don't understand this, and I think it's
really important that they know this, cats don't urinate in

(17:06):
a little coup. For us when we do a year analysis,
they don't wipe back and they don't urinate in a
little cup. So if we do see them, we'll typically
ultra sell them, take a look at the bladder, see
if there's any crystals or stones in it that we
can see on ultrasound, and then with a needle introduced
into the bladder through the abdominal wall, we'll collect the sterile.
You're on sample. Now, it sounds icky and it sounds

(17:27):
like something if they told you that's how they were
in to collect, you're and you can't flip out. But
the cats see well the cats, they don't really care.
They're back and for a little alcohol them and be
boomed by the bay. And we've got a sample. So
it works really well. You don't have to chase your
cat around and try and figure out what sample to
take in. Just take your cap to the vet with
a full enough bladder. If you put them in the

(17:47):
carrier a few hours before the appointment, that can help.
And please, please please, if you have a cat that
has dress and anxiety going to the vat or traveling
in the car, talk to your vet about getting gap
a patent for them in advance of the appointment so
that you can give a dose the night before, want
to do just the morning of, and your cat will
be much more compliant and much more comfortable. Therefore, you
will be a lot more compliant and comfortable in making

(18:08):
that trip into the vet clinic because we shouldn't stress
them out.

Speaker 1 (18:12):
Dogg This Morning with Doctor Greer, Doctor Marty Griff. Checkout
Veterinary the website. Checkout vet dot com. That's checkout vet
dot com One final thing on this on this subject
is I know, like with our dog Homer, it seems weird,
but like anytime you know, any of us take the
dog out, when we come back in, we almost do
like a report, like I'll tell my wife, oh, I
you know, tinkle twice and did a number two? Like

(18:33):
we do that just just I think it's probably just
to kind of make sure that you know, he's getting older,
to make sure that he's doing what he needs to do.
And we're all kind of on the same page. Same
as important for casts to kind of keep track of
their their litter box usage. And it sounds gross, but
be a little observant, right absolutely.

Speaker 3 (18:51):
Because those changes can be really important to know are
the tools normal, are they lose? Are they too hard?
Is their blood in it because they've had too heart
of a stool? You know what? What's the status of that?
Cats usually urinate only once or twice a day, and
the same with their stools, so they don't have the
frequencies that dogs do. And it is a little easier
to keep up with on the reports, but if you
have a problem, then start recording it so that your

(19:13):
veterinary clinic can have that information when you go in,
take in your calendar and say so, we've seen blood
miss stools three times, and it was associated with this
and this, and did it have any association with the
diet change or household changes. Putting up the Christmas tree,
Oh my god, that can totally stretch out the cat
because now you put it in the window where they
usually sit, and now I can't use my litter box.

(19:34):
So there's all kinds of things that happen in your life.
So be really observant because those keys are important and
it will save you money and time in diagnosing what's
going on with your cat.

Speaker 1 (19:43):
There are great pets. They are amazing pets. They are
so fun to have around the house and so sweet
and again really really good to be taking great care
of your cat as well as your dog and all
your pets. It's a great day to start that relationship.
Check out vet. They are accepting new paye It's a
great opportunity for you right now to get your pet
on into check out vet. Learn more online. Check out

(20:05):
vet dot com. That's checkout vet dot com again that
first visit that exam for your pet. It will be free.
All the details available to you at checkout vet dot com,
Doctor Greer. It's always fantastic, always a lot of great information.
Thank you so much for joining us this morning. We'll
talk real soon. Thank you, and again that website. Check
out vet dot com and there telephone number six SO

(20:26):
eight three one eight sixty seven hundred. That's six soh
eight three one eight sixty seven hundred. Vicky McKenna has
your chance to win one thousand dollars next right here
on thirteen ten wib A