Maureen Berry commutes from Roslindale to work in South Boston with Nicholas,
her 13-year-old Yorkshire terrier, in his stroller.
Debunking the myth of hypoallergenic dogs
Veterinarian Karen Becker writes that contrary to common belief, there are no truly hypoallergenic dogs, as shown by a 2011 study that evaluated household allergen levels by dog breed. The study evaluated homes with one dog, finding no breed-linked difference in levels of Canis familiaris 1, the most common canine allergen. However, Dr. Becker says pet allergens in the home can be reduced by taking steps such as washing bedding in hot water, using an air purifier and ensuring good pet nutrition. The Huffington Post/The Blog
The Allergy-Free Dog: Real, or a Myth?
A 2011 study published in The American Journal of Rhinology and Allergy reveals the amount of dog allergens found in households with dogs does not vary depending on the breed. In other words, families with so called “hypoallergenic” dogs are living with the same level of allergens in their homes as people who own non-hypoallergenic canines.
Study researchers measured the level of the most common dog allergen, Canis familiaris 1, or Can f 1, found in the homes of 173 families that owned one dog. Out of the 173 samples, only 10 had less than measurable amounts of Can f 1. No matter what type of dog was in the home, there was no significant difference in the level of allergens measured.
No One Knows How the Myth of Allergy-Free Dogs Got Started
“I have no idea where this whole concept came from. It’s been around a long time, and maybe people associated it with shedding. I think it’s just a legend,” says Dr. Christine Cole Johnson, an epidemiologist at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit and senior author of the study.
The scientists who conducted the study discovered 60 of 161 recognized breeds were named as hypoallergenic on various Internet websites. However, there is no official list of hypoallergenic breeds, though the American Kennel Club (AKC) does suggest 11 canine candidates for people with allergies. The kennel club only suggests certain breeds might be beneficial for allergy sufferers — it doesn’t recommend or endorse any specific breed.
How This Study Differs From Previous Studies on Dog Allergens
Studies conducted in the past looked at the skin and hair of dogs to measure and compare the amount of allergens contained on individual dogs. The results showed wide variations from dog to dog, but not from breed to breed.
The study authored by Dr. Cole Johnson is the first of its kind. The researchers set out to see whether so-called “hypoallergenic” pups were shedding less Canis familiaris 1 around their homes.
The study involved 173 single dog homes, and 163 of those produced measurable levels of Can f 1. Even though there weren’t enough dogs of each breed to analyze results by breed, the researchers compared allergen levels across various categories of purebred and mixed-breed dogs, both supposedly “hypoallergenic” and non-hypoallergenic. They even compared the AKC-suggested hypoallergenic breeds against all other dogs.
No matter how they did their comparisons, the scientists found no statistically significant differences in the levels of Can f 1 in dust samples in those 163 homes.
“You can’t be assured that some breed is going to produce less allergen than another. Allergists, based on their experience, really think that it’s just individual dogs who have some variations based on genetics or behavior, who produce more allergens than others. But it’s not going to be a breed classification that predicts that.”
Suggestions for Controlling Pet Allergens in Your Home
• Feed your pet an anti-inflammatory, species-appropriate diet. By reducing allergenic foods going into your pet you can reduce allergenic saliva coming out of your pet.
• Make sure your pet’s essential fatty acid requirements are met. By assuring your dog or kitty has optimal levels of EFAs in the diet, you can reduce shedding and dander associated with EFA deficiency. Adding coconut oil has also proven to help reduce dander and shedding.
• Bathe your pet often. Even kitties can be bathed regularly, but take special care to use only safe, non-drying herbal animal shampoos. Whatever you do, avoid using people shampoo on your dog or cat, and skip any shampoo containing oatmeal.
• Invest in a good-quality vacuum designed for households with pets.
• Clean your home frequently and thoroughly, including any surfaces that trap pet hair and dander like couch covers, pillows and pet beds. This will also help control other allergens in your home that could be contributing to the allergic load of family members.
• Wash bedding frequently in hot water.
• If your pet rides in the car with you, consider using washable seat covers.
• Purchase a good quality air purifier for your home.
• Remove carpeting, drapes and other fabric that traps animal dander. Tile or wood floors are much easier to clean of allergens.
Reference:
Dog allergen levels in homes with hypoallergenic compared with nonhypoallergenic dogs. Authors: Nicholas, Charlotte E.; Wegienka, Ganesa R.; Havstad, Suzanne L.; Zoratti, Edward M.; Ownby, Dennis R.; Johnson, Christine Cole. Source: American Journal of Rhinology & Allergy, Volume 25, Number 4, July/August 2011, pp. 252-256(5)
Dr. Karen Becker is a proactive and integrative wellness veterinarian. You can visit her site at: MercolaHealthyPets.com.
Her goal is to help you create wellness in order to prevent illness in the lives of your pets. This proactive approach seeks to save you and your pet from unnecessary stress and suffering by identifying and removing health obstacles even before disease occurs. Unfortunately, most veterinarians in the United States are trained to be reactive. They wait for symptoms to occur, and often treat those symptoms without addressing the root cause.
By reading Dr. Becker’s information, you’ll learn how to make impactful, consistent lifestyle choices to improve your pet’s quality of life.
For more by Dr. Karen Becker, click here
For more on pet health, click here.
Pet trusts protect animals if they outlive their owners
According to the 2012 AVMA pet ownership survey, there are some 164 million cats and dogs in homes across the U.S., and attorneys Elizabeth Carrie and Robert Kass recommend that pet owners plan for the possibility that they may no longer be able to care for their animals. Naming a caregiver, providing detailed pet care instructions and dedicating money specifically to the pet’s care are all important parts of the plan, according to Kass and Carrie. Bundling all the essentials into a specific, separate trust is the best way to ensure the plan will be implemented in the manner the owner intends, they said. Fox Business
If you’re a parent, odds are you’ve thought about the unthinkable: Who will raise your children if something happens to you? Who do you trust to love and care for them the way you would? How do you provide the money needed and ensure that it will be used properly?
These concerns also come into play if you become disabled, even temporarily. Who can you depend on to step in until you recover?
Now consider this: there are three times as many households in the U.S. that have pets than have children- 57%, according to the American Veterinary Medicine Association’s 2012 survey
.
Compared to the 28 million children living in this country, Americans own more than 164 million cats and dogs. Adding birds to the mix brings the total to nearly 181 million pets (not to mention horses, small animals, fish, etc.).
For many of us, our pets are our “children.” And, if you want to know they will be properly cared for in the event you can no longer do this yourself, Detroit attorneys Robert Kass and Elizabeth Carrie stress that you need to take some basic steps to ensure your wishes will be carried out.
Kass cites the case of a woman who committed suicide by jumping off a bridge. Although her body wasn’t recovered for months, it took five days for co-workers and neighbors to realize she was not just away on a trip, but actually missing. During that time her cats were without food, water, and of course, their primary human companion. “When the authorities finally went into her apartment, the cats were crazed,” he says.
If no one steps forward to take in an animal that, for whatever reason, can no longer be cared for by its owner, it is routinely taken to a shelter and put up for adoption. That’s traumatic enough. Unfortunately, unless it is a “no-kill” shelter, if it isn’t adopted within a certain period of time, an animal that was once your beloved pet, will be euthanized.
As Kass and Carrie point out in their book, Who Will Care when You’re Not There?, the biggest mistake a pet owner makes is assuming she or he will outlive her cat, dog, rabbit, African Grey. If you truly care about your pet, that’s a pretty big risk. Depending upon your age and health, the life expectancies of many species- parrots, for instance- make it very likely your pet will outlive you.
Another potential disaster is assuming that your cousin (Fast) Eddie- who always got along great with Fido on Thanksgiving visits- will: 1) know how to care for him (favorite toy, food allergies, medications, afraid of thunder, etc.) and 2) be willing to do so, even when Fido grows old and arthritic
While Eddie may, in fact, be an animal lover (he’s always been fond of the horses- the Kentucky Derby and Belmont kind), there have been sporadic family rumors about money problems. If you leave a bequest to cover the cost of Fido’s care, are you certain Eddie will use it for this purpose?
In the event Eddie surprises the family and ends up being a flawless replacement for you, what if he, himself, is incapacitated, hospitalized, or dies? Naming a successor caregiver is essential, say Kass and Carrie.
There are various avenues you can take to provide for the care of your furry and feathered “kids” if you become incapacitated. You can start with a Power of Attorney, which, unlike a typical POA (which generally covers financial assets) gives another individual the legal power to make decisions about your animal’s care. This includes everything from moving it into their own home, to giving them discretion to take it to the vet, and so forth. If the individual isn’t familiar with the pet, it’s a good idea to attach an instruction sheet listing the veterinarian and grooming names, the preferred type of food and any other important notes about the pet to help it assimilate to a new home.
However, to be on the safe side, Kass and Carrie recommend creating a free-standing trust, separate from the trust that deals with your material possessions and human children. You can fund it with an amount of money that you feel will cover the care of your pet(s) for the remainder of their lifetimes, leaving anything that remains to, perhaps, a pet-affiliated charity. They recommend using attachments to the trust since these can be easily amended as your pets and the care they need change.
Ideally, you want to have an attorney with experience in pet planning and the laws of your state draw up the documents. “If you can’t afford to do this,” says Carrie, “legalzoom.net offers pet trusts online for less than $100.” This document won’t be as customized, but it’s far better than nothing.
Consider everything you pet gives you- unconditionally and daily. Don’t you want to be sure it will receive the care it needs if and when you’re not able to provide it?
Ms. Buckner is a Retirement and Financial Planning Specialist and an instructor in Franklin Templeton Investments’ global Academy. The views expressed in this article are only those of Ms. Buckner or the individual commentator identified therein, and are not necessarily the views of Franklin Templeton Investments, which has not reviewed, and is not responsible for, the content.
Pets can have high blood pressure, too
Hypertension occurs in humans and pets, but the causes are different in each species, writes veterinarian Ann Hohenhaus. Humans with hypertension may have a genetic predisposition to the problem or lifestyle habits that increase their risk, such as smoking and obesity. Dogs and cats develop hypertension from health conditions, most often kidney disease, but also from other ailments, according to Dr. Hohenhaus. Eye problems, strokes and heart enlargement are potential consequences of hypertension in pets, and treatment is similar to that in humans, Dr. Hohenhaus explains. WebMD/Tales from the Pet Clinic blog
When you visit the doctor, before the physician comes into an examination room, a nurse measures your weight, temperature and blood pressure. When your pet goes to the veterinarian, the nurse comes in to take his weight and temperature, but not blood pressure. Does this mean blood pressure is not important in dogs and cats?
Blood pressure measurement is important in our pets, but in a different way than in humans. As many as one-in-four Americans suffers from high blood pressure and most may not even know it. Hypertension, aptly named the silent killer, causes heart attacks, strokes, and kidney disease.
Smoking, drinking, and obesity increase our risk of developing hypertension. Some of us are prone to developing hypertension even without smoking, drinking, or eating too much due to a predisposition in our genetic profile. Pets become hypertensive from completely different medical conditions.
Pets have different risks
Genetics is the first point where we and our pets differ with regard to hypertension. Inherited hypertension is extremely rare in dogs and cats, and because dogs and cats do not drink alcohol or use tobacco, these are not risk factors either. Obesity causes serious medical problems in pets, but not hypertension.
What causes pet hypertension?
The number one cause of hypertension in pets is one form or other of kidney disease. The normal kidney plays a critical role in controlling blood pressure. A diseased kidney can no longer perform well as a blood pressure regulator. Since we see more kidney disease in cats, we see more hypertension in cats, but I have a nice Wirehair Fox Terrier patient who has hypertension as a consequence of kidney disease. Hyperthyroidism, exclusively a feline disease, is another cause of hypertension. Finally, some rare tumors of the adrenal gland can cause hypertension, and I have seen only a small handful of pets with this type of hypertension.
Consequences of pet hypertension
Untreated hypertension causes serious problems in pets: strokes, heart enlargement and damage to the eye, causing blindness. Controlling hypertension decreases the risk of these disorders.
Treatment is the same for everyone
If you have hypertension, your doctor has recommended lifestyle changes such as quitting smoking and losing weight. You will be prescribed drugs to decrease blood pressure and you may even be asked to monitor your blood pressure at home since some patients get nervous at the doctor’s office and suffer from “white coat” hypertension.
If your pet has hypertension, your veterinarian will recommend lifestyle changes such as a special kidney-friendly food. A common drug used to treat pets with hypertension is amlodipine, a drug also used in people with hypertension. Other treatments will be needed to manage kidney disease or an overactive thyroid gland. Finally, your veterinarian may ask you to monitor your pet’s blood pressure at home since pets also get white coat hypertension. The procedure is not very difficult and The Animal Medical Center has blood pressure monitors to lend pet owners for home monitoring. If your pet has hypertension, ask if home monitoring is necessary.
Ultrasound is an important diagnostic tool for veterinarians
When an animal is ill, veterinarians use physical exam results, blood tests, X-rays, and sometimes an ultrasound, writes veterinarian Lawrence Gerson. Ultrasounds are painless and noninvasive and only require the fur over the area of interest to be shaved. Dr. Gerson relates one case in which an ultrasound of a jaundiced cat revealed gallstones as the culprit, a condition that is uncommon in dogs and cats.
By Lawrence Gerson, V.M.D.
When presented with an ill animal, veterinarians will start with a history of the problem and will perform a comprehensive physical exam. If the diagnosis is not obvious, we usually rely on diagnostic testing that may include urinalysis, a fecal exam, or blood tests for a complete blood count and a blood chemistry and a thyroid test. X-rays may also be needed.
Occasionally, additional imaging such as an ultrasound is performed. An ultrasound exam is a noninvasive test that can show the details of body systems with great accuracy. Not only can we see the size and shape of the organs but also the inner structure of most of the abdominal and cardiac structures
Amarillo, a 9-year old gray tabby cat had been losing her appetite over several weeks. Her gastrointestinal tract was upset, and she had not eaten for two days before seeing the veterinarian.
By that time, she had lost a significant 10 percent of her body weight. The veterinarian noticed that her eyes were yellow-tinged, indicating jaundice.
“A yellow kitty is a very sick kitty,” the veterinarian said.
Getting an accurate diagnosis of liver malfunction can be a difficult and expensive process. A blood test confirmed that the liver was not working well as the bilirubin level was high. Because her thyroid level was normal, that eliminated thyroid disease as the cause of jaundice.
She was not anemic, which is another cause of jaundice because of the breakdown of red blood cells.
Palpation of the abdomen did not reveal any obvious tumors or other abnormalities, but she was a bit tender about having her abdomen examined.
The veterinarian recommended an abdominal ultrasound. Commonly, humans have diagnostic ultrasounds of their kidneys, liver, gallbladder or urinary bladder. Ultrasound uses high frequency sound waves (higher than can be heard by human or even dogs) to look at the organs and tissues of the abdomen and into the chest of animals.
Ultrasound is painless and only requires a shaved stomach and some gel to get a good image. Some veterinarians will ultrasound pets in their offices, while others use the services of a specialist with many years of additional training and experience to view the internal organs.
Amarillo had gallstones. Although not unusual in humans, gallstones are very uncommon in cats and dogs. Additionally, she had stones in her bile duct, causing a blockage of bile flow.
She eventually had surgery to flush out and re-route her gallbladder, and she was back to her adventurous self in two weeks.
Pittsburgh is fortunate to have numerous specialists who can consult with local veterinarians on difficult cases. Some of these specialists will visit area veterinary hospitals to provide additional expertise.
Additional care is also provided at specialty hospitals, giving veterinarians and pets many options and hope for those complicated cases.
Lawrence Gerson is a veterinarian and founder of the Point Breeze Veterinary Clinic. This column was co-written by Nathaniel Myers of Pittsburgh Veterinary Internal Medicine. The biweekly column is intended to educate pet owners. Consultation with a veterinarian is necessary to diagnose and treat individual pets. If you have a question you’d like addressed in Pet Points, email petpoints@post-gazette.com. Please include your name and municipality or neighborhood. First Published September 15, 2012 12:00 am
Pet strollers keep older animals on the go
U.S. pets are living longer than ever before, and with age often comes back, hip or knee problems. Owners are increasingly purchasing pet strollers to improve their pets’ mobility. AVMA statistics indicate that between 1987 and 2011, the percentage of dogs in the U.S. over 6 years old increased from 42% to 48% while the share of older cats increased from 29% to 50%. The Boston Globe
Strollers for dogs: The latest in pet pampering
Strollers offer one way for people to get around with pets that are inform, elderly — or just a little lazy
Really, it should be no big deal. After all, we already live in such a pet-centric world that the sight of a dog wearing Ralph Lauren, or checking into a five-star hotel, or dining on organic, locally sourced food, barely causes a stir. And yet, even in 2012, a dog riding in a stroller seems one pamper too far.
“Sometimes people make snide remarks,” said Soderstrom, 28, an executive assistant who also designs and markets her own line of jewely. Or they point and laugh, and hint that 5-year-old Louis is a “diva.”
Let the public mock. The white dog with the big pink ears has long struggled with a bad back and hips, but he got around OK until a few months ago when he injured a knee, making the two-block walk to the park impossible. “But I wanted to keep him happy,” Soderstrom said.
She carried him back and forth for a while, but that was exhausting. Enter a $130 dog stroller from eBay. “Louis loves it,” she said. “He stands right next to it waiting to be picked up and put in.”
It’s probably too early to declare pets-in-strollers a full-blown trend, at least in Boston. (In certain neighborhoods in Manhattan, Los Angeles, and southern Florida, the unusual dogs are reportedly the ones who are walking.) But the warning signs are building:
Two Pekingese pups were spotted recently in a stroller in the Prudential Center. A Yorkie was seen riding in the South End, where a cat was also observed taking a drive. In Cambridge, a long-haired dachshund was parked in a stroller in front of a Star Market. Reports of stroller dogs enjoying Castle Island and the Gloucester waterfront have also come in.
At the pet-friendly Boston Harbor Hotel, canine guests have begun arriving in strollers, particularly in the winter, the better to protect their paws from ice-melting salt. “It’s a nice easy way for them to get around,” said concierge Rob Fournier. (A stroller even helped one guest sneak a pooch into the hotel’s Rowes Wharf Sea Grille, a jaunt that lasted until a staffer noticed that the body in the stroller was a tad furry.)
And a dog stroller made the iconic September issue of Vogue magazine. “Two days before my dog Rose died, I put her in the stroller and pushed her down the sidewalk,” the best-selling author Ann Patchett wrote. “When my friend Norma bought Rose a dog stroller the summer before, I hadn’t wanted it, but feelings of idiocy were quick to give way to Rose’s obvious pleasure.”
The stroller movement is the natural outgrowth of several other pet-related story lines, including an increase in spending on pet health care, a growing population of elderly pets, and an increasing belief that our pets are not our animals, but rather our children.
In 2001, US pet owners spent $7.1 billion on pet health care, a number that jumped to $13.41 billion in 2011, according to the American Pet Products Association. Along with that spending has come an increase in the percentage of senior pets who, having benefited from life-prolonging therapies, need help getting around.
In 1987, forty-two percent of dogs were 6 years old or older, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association. In 2011, that number had risen to 48 percent. The percentage of senior cats is growing at an even faster rate. In 1987, 29 percent of cats were 6 years old or older. By 2011, 50 percent of cats were “of a certain age.”
But strollers aren’t just for infirm or elderly pets. Some are for perfectly mobile pets who are more child than pooch. Because dogs can be zipped securely into their strollers, the carriages allow pets to accompany owners on an entire day’s worth of activities.
“We like to include our dogs in what we do,” said stroller-user Debby Vogel, the owner of three Chihuahuas, a 14-year-old with mobility issues, and two 9-year-olds who know a good thing when they see it. “The girl is lazy,” Vogel, the Animal Rescue League of Boston’s volunteer services manager, said of one of her younger dogs, “and the boy is nervous when people loom over him. In crowds he gets freaked out.”
Time was when dogs like that would have stayed at home, but that time is not 2012. In fact, Vogel and her husband, a muscular mixed martial arts fighter confident enough to push a dog stroller, are so eager to bring their dogs along that they have assembled a stroller wardrobe, one for off-road, one for in-town. “Our son is in college and [the dogs] are the second kids,” Vogel said, laughing.
The stroller trend started to build about five or six years ago, said Tierra Bonaldi, a “pet lifestylist” with the American Pet Products Association, and it’s moved from strictly small-dog doll-style strollers to joggers strong enough to hold a 150-pound dog, and manly enough for even macho men to be seen with.
On the Uncommondog.com website, The DoggyRide Lightweight Jogger-Stroller will run an owner $359.10, and is built on a light aluminum-alloy frame. On Amazon, the PetZip Happy Trailer jogger goes for $265, and comes in a jaunty red or a nice blue, and a Pet Gear Expedition stroller goes for $197. Pricey? Perhaps, but as one reviewer noted, the gear is not solely for the benefit of the pets. “The stroller was the perfect answer to the problem of our dogs tiring out before we did,” N. Brabec wrote, “and it has allowed us to take even longer walks.”
In South Boston, a pink stroller emblazoned with paw prints allows Maureen Berry, an assistant manager at the Fenway Bark dog hotel, to commute from Roslindale with one or two of her three dogs. The trip involves the Silver Line, the Red Line, and the Orange line, and wouldn’t be doable without wheels.
“What do you think, bud?” Berry asked on a recent afternoon as she and Nicholas, her 13-year-old Yorkie, left work. The 18-pound pooch, youthful but with mobility problems, sat upright in his carriage, the wind of Boston Harbor ruffling his tan and black fur, his adorable black nose sniffing like mad. Berry scratched his head and smiled as the pair made their way home, together.
Beth Teitell can be reached at bteitell@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @bethteitell.
Pets experience pain like we do — they just don’t show it
Veterinarian Lee Pickett writes that dogs and cats have the same kind of central nervous system that humans have and feel pain in the same way we do but are programmed to hide it. Any condition that would cause pain in a human should be evaluated by a veterinarian when it occurs in a pet, even if the animal is not showing obvious signs of pain, she adds. Dr. Pickett also addresses colitis symptoms, causes and treatment in this article. Reading Eagle Press (Pa.) (8/31)
Dear Christopher Cat: During Misty’s recent exam, her veterinarian showed me that her teeth are covered with tartar and her gums are swollen and red. They look painful, but she doesn’t rub her mouth, drop food or cry while she’s chewing. Do cats not feel pain the way we humans do?
Christopher responds: Research has shown that cats and dogs have the same type of nervous system humans have and feel pain the same way.
The difference is that we pets don’t show pain the way you humans do.
Humans learn early that if they cry, a loving parent will sooth the hurt.
In contrast, our feline brains are programmed to hide distress, lest a predator see us as weak and therefore easy to kill.
Not only do we hide our pain, but we continue eating, because if we don’t, we know we’ll die of starvation.
So if Misty develops a condition that would cause you pain, assume it’s hurting her. If it would prompt you to see your doctor, take her to her veterinarian.
In this case, a professional dental cleaning and treatment will not only help Misty feel better but also improve her health.
Vets and physicians find research parallels
Dr. Jonathan M. Levine at Texas A&M studies spinal cord injuries in pets like Dexter, a dachschund.
By WILLIAM GRIMES
Published: September 10, 2012
Three times in the last two months, researchers from St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center in Manhattan headed across town to the Animal Medical Center to look at dogs.
Doctors at the hospital’s Vascular Birthmark Institute were enticed by the chance to study anomalies of the arteries and veins that are rare in humans but common in dogs. And the traffic between human and animal hospitals flows in the other direction, too: Late last month, veterinarians from the Animal Medical Center began meeting with their counterparts at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center to set up trials of a noninvasive device for removing tumors of the urinary tract with electrical impulses.
Exchanges of this sort are becoming increasingly common. Once a narrow trail traveled by a few hardy pioneers, the road connecting veterinary colleges and human medical institutions has become a busy thoroughfare over the last five years or so, with a steady flow of researchers representing a wide variety of medical disciplines on both sides.
One reason is a growing frustration with the inefficiency of using the rodent model in lab research, which often fails to translate to human subjects. So researchers are turning their attention to the naturally occurring diseases in dogs, horses, sheep and pigs, whose physiology and anatomy more closely resemble those of humans.
“The drugs cure the mice and keep failing when we try them on humans,” said Dr. John Ohlfest, an immunotherapist at the University of Minnesota Masonic Cancer Center, who began working with the university’s veterinary school in 2005 to study canine brain cancers. “The whole system is broken.”
Dr. Laurence J. N. Cooper, who develops immune-based therapies at the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and recently started making canine T cells for lymphoma research at Texas A&M’s veterinary school, said: “There’s got to be a better way. Canine biologies look like ours, and the treatments look like ours.”
The growing realization that vets and medical doctors may have very good reasons to talk to one another has led to a host of collaborative research projects aimed at speeding the journey from lab to human clinical trials and, in the end, producing a result that can be applied to human and animal patients alike.
These projects often emanate from partnerships like the National Cancer Center’s comparative oncology program, created in 2006 to coordinate canine cancer trials among 20 oncology centers across the United States, or the Center for Comparative Medicine and Translational Research at North Carolina State University’s veterinary college, which recently signed a partnership agreement with the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center to do research on regenerating organs in humans and pets.
“In the past I might have gone over to the medical school with a specific problem and ask advice,” said Dr. Larry D. Galuppo, an equine surgeon at the University of California, Davis, who has been experimenting with the latest stem-cell therapies to repair tendon injuries in horses. “But it wasn’t programmatic the way it is now.”
It is not unusual, these days, for veterinary surgeons to call in their human-medicine counterparts for consultations or even to take part in tricky operations. Vets go on rounds at hospitals for people, and vice versa. Both sides attend each other’s conferences. “It’s still grass roots, it’s still early days, but it’s very exciting,” Dr. Ohlfest said.
In part, the proliferation of partnerships reflects a philosophical movement known as “one health,” or “one medicine,” the recognition that about 60 percent of all diseases move across species and that environmental pollution, animal diseases and human diseases constitute a single interlocking problem.
This was the subject of a joint declaration by the American Medical Association and the American Veterinary Medical Association in 2006 aimed at encouraging information sharing and joint projects among the far-flung branches of veterinary and human medicine.
More concretely, the completion of the canine genome map, in 2005, set off an explosion in basic research. Although less celebrated than the Human Genome Project, the canine map gave researchers a blueprint with clear potential for human use, since the gene codes for canines could be matched, one for one, with their human counterparts.
Cooperation can take the form of advanced research into new forms of diagnostic imaging, or gene manipulation. Or it can be as humble as fitting a dog with a shoe.
Dr. Robert Hardie, a surgeon at the University of Wisconsin’s school of veterinary medicine, turned to the orthotics lab at the university’s medical school in 2005 when he could not heal a post-surgery foot wound in Sam, a 200-pound Irish wolfhound.
As many other large dogs with footpad injuries do, Sam kept putting weight on the wound, caused when a toe had to be amputated. The orthotics team took a cast of Sam’s foot and made a foam-lined plastic boot with Velcro straps. Dr. Hardie later worked with the team to develop specialized braces for tendon injuries.
Often, partnerships embrace multiple institutions and, within institutions, fields as diverse as biomechanics and textiles.
Dr. Jonathan M. Levine, a veterinary neurologist at the Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, joined forces with the medical school at the University of California, San Francisco, to test a promising new drug that blocks a particular enzyme that inflicts secondary damage, like the aftershock to an earthquake, on injured spinal nerves.
Working with dachshunds and other dwarf canine breeds, which often suffer from spinal cord injuries because of their propensity to develop herniated discs, he recently won a grant from the Department of Defense, which is interested in the application of his research to battlefield injuries.
At the same time, one of Dr. Levine’s colleagues, Dr. Jay Griffin, has collaborated with specialists at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston to develop a new technique, called diffusion tensor imaging, whose sensitivity allows them to see precisely how spinal cord cells die.
The big bet is that veterinary science and human medical science can combine to achieve efficiencies that translate across species. In some instances, this has already happened.
Dr. Hollis G. Potter, head of magnetic resonance imaging at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan, has been working with Dr. Lisa A. Fortier of Cornell University’s college of veterinary medicine to analyze meniscus injuries using sheep.
Quantitative M.R.I. techniques like ultrashort echo-time imaging makes it possible to see how knee tissue heals, and how much stress it can stand after surgical repair, information that has immediate application for the human knee. “In just a couple of years, we’ve taken this process from sheep to humans,” Dr. Potter said.
The reverse route is even quicker. “Traditionally there has been a 10-to-20-year lag between animal and human medicine,” said Dr. Chick Weisse of the Animal Medical Center in Manhattan, who for the last two years has been treating hard-to-reach canine tumors with a frozen-nitrogen technique he learned at Sloan-Kettering.
“That gap has narrowed,” he said. “Now you see renal transplants, hip replacements — things they said would never be done on animals. Things are happening so fast right now that it’s almost simultaneous.”
Helping dogs with storm anxiety
Better behavior with Steve Dale
Thunder booms, and some dogs panic. Here’s how to help your pets cope.
Some dogs are better at forecasting the weather than the National Weather Service. They know a storm is approaching before we do. These dogs pace, salivate, tremble, whine, and become Velcro dogs (stick to you like glue) even when the storm is an hour away or more. And it might get worse when the storm actually arrives. Some dogs may forget their house training and even self-mutilate. Other dogs don’t do any of these things. They just want to hide, perhaps under a bed, in a corner, in a closet, or in the bathtub.
Some clients feel that a storm-frightened dog will learn over time that the storm really won’t hurt her and she’ll get better on her own. That’s not usually how it works, unfortunately. When low-level anxiety is left alone, dogs actually seem to worsen—and that reasonably low level of anxiety is exactly when intervention is most likely to help before the anxiety becomes more severe. Early treatment is better. Of course, what can be done to help these suffering pets depends on the severity of the behaviors.
For milder anxiety Dogs’ behavior may take a turn for the worse even as a storm approaches. They can learn to associate the oncoming storm with changes in barometric pressure, maybe sensing an approaching storm front in other ways we don’t understand. You know sometimes how you can “smell” an oncoming storm? Of course, anything we can smell—a dog can. When the storms are near, dogs are not only affected by the sound of thunder, but also the sight of lightning, perhaps even the electricity in the air, and of course the sound of the rain itself.
For dogs with mild anxiety—who respond by hiding and don’t seem panicked, just anxious—veterinary team members may suggest proactively helping the dog to get over its fear. Sometimes the simplest solution can help, which is positive reinforcement during the thunderstorm. Here’s how it works: Take the dog into a basement, close the window shades (so hopefully the dog can’t see the lightning), pump up the music (to drown out storm sounds) and distract the pup with a jolly game. Kids are great at this, and moms and dads may appreciate the kids being entertained too. The dog can play whatever (safe) games the dog and children enjoy. This method also serves as desensitization and counter-conditioning for dogs who play along. When the next few storms come along, the dog starts to associate fearful weather with fun.
One problem with this approach is that many dogs are too fearful to even think about play. And what if the client isn’t always home as storms approach? Say, the jollying approach worked and after two more storms the dog is more easily distracted each time and seems a tad less anxious. But if no one’s home during the next thunderstorm, the client and the pet may be back to square one.
Your thunderstorm anxiety toolbox For many dogs, a combination of the following storm anxiety tools may be useful. These are not miracle cures, but they lessen the level of anxiety in dogs whose level of anxiety is so high that any one won’t work. Note that what works for one dog may or may not help another.
- Adaptil.This is an analog of a calming pheromone found in lactating dogs and the intent is to calm anxious dogs. It’s available in diffuser or collar.
- Anxiety Wrap.A vest-like “suit” that fits around the dog and uses acupressure to calm. The Anxiety Wrap can also be used for separation anxiety, anxiety in the car, and other anxiety-related issues.
- Anxitane.L-Theanine in a chewable tab can help counter anxiety in dogs and cats. The idea is to offer the chewable before the dog becomes anxious.
- Storm Defender.A red cape for dogs to wear to reduce anxiety. The cape has a special metallic lining that discharges a dog’s fur and protects from the static charge buildup that can bother dogs.
- Thundershirt. Uses gentle, constant pressure to calm a dog. Could be used for anxiety, general fearfulness, barking, and more.
For dogs with more intense anxiety, veterinarians can consider anti-anxiety medication. Sleepiness can be a side effect, but what’s better—being a little drowsy or absolutely terrified? And with the right dose, a dog should not appear doped up. For more on appropriate anxiety pharmacological choices, resources include:
- Clinical Behavioral Medicine for Small Animals by Dr. Karen Overall
- Handbook of Behavior Problems of the Dog and Catby Dr. Gary Landsberg, Dr. Wayne Hunthausen, Dr. Lowell Ackerman
- Another idea is to offer a referral to a veterinary behaviorist.
In this exclusive monthly column, Steve Dale, CABC, radio host, syndicated newspaper columnist, and contributing editor at USA Weekend, will give veterinary team members tips on helping patients with behavior issues and talking to clients about these sometimes tough topics. Steve Dale, CABC, writes a twice-weekly syndicated newspaper column for Tribune Media services and is a contributing editor at USA Weekend. He is also host of two nationally syndicated radio shows, “Steve Dale’s Pet World” and “The Pet Minute,” and is heard on WGN Radio. Catch him live at CVC San Diego Dec. 5-9.
Penn opens facility to train, study detection dogs
The University of Pennsylvania has opened the Penn Vet Working Dog Center, a facility where dogs will be trained to find humans in disaster situations, allowing researchers to help determine how the dogs are successful. “The detection area is so important because these dogs are better than any machine that we have — and they can save lives,” said veterinarian Cynthia Otto, an emergency, critical care and disaster medicine expert who founded the center. Dr. Otto worked with detection dogs at ground zero after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and has consulted with the military on search-and-rescue dogs. National Public Radio (text and audio) (9/11)
A detection dog-training center opens Tuesday, on the anniversary of Sept. 11, at the University of Pennsylvania so scientists can train dogs for search-and-rescue missions — and study what helps them succeed.
Cynthia Otto, who served on a team that used working dogs to search for survivors in the rubble at ground zero, created the Penn Vet Working Dog Center. She’s a veterinarian who specializes in emergency, critical care and disaster medicine, and she has consulted with the military about the health of search-and-rescue dogs, including Cairo, the dog who worked on the Osama bin Laden mission. She tells Fresh Air’s Terry Gross that detection dogs are invaluable.
“There are so many jobs now that dogs are being used for,” Otto says. “Originally it was kind of looked at as that patrol dog or the bomb-detection dog, but now they’re being used to find the IEDs [improved explosive devices]. Some of them are actually being used for therapy in the field, which is really incredible. But they’re starting to look at all of the different potential components that these dogs can contribute to…and the detection area is so important because these dogs are better than any machine that we have — and they can save lives.”
Annemarie DeAngelo, the center’s training director, founded the New Jersey State Police Canine Unit and has worked with canines for more than 13 years. With her dog partners, she has searched for missing children, criminals and drugs — one drug seizure involved 1,200 kilos of cocaine.
With her canine companions, DeAngelo says she feels “very confident that I know my partner is doing his job, and that no harm is going to come to me, and we’re going to find what we’re looking for.”
Interview Highlights
Penn CurrentCynthia Otto, a veterinarian who tended to the health needs of working dogs at ground zero, created the Penn Vet Working Dog Center.
A scientific approach to maintaining hydration for working dogs
Cynthia Otto: “One of the big concerns that we have not only with the military dogs but also the search-and-rescue dogs from Sept. 11 and Katrina is maintaining their hydration, and so that’s a project we’re very actively working on at this time because these dogs are so focused on what they’re doing. They’re really intent, and so they’re just gonna keep on doing it and they forget that they need to have a drink. And what happens is then they’re more likely to get overheated, they’re more likely to really get exhausted if they don’t take a break. …
“And so we’re looking at different approaches to keeping them hydrated so that they can stay safe, they can work well, and that’s a question that people have lots of ideas about, and no one’s taken that scientific approach. And that’s what we’re doing.”
On how dogs are trained to find the living
Otto: “With finding live people, it’s very important that they’re trained to very quickly identify a concealed person, and that allows them to work in an area where there are a lot of other people that are visible but aren’t concealed. And those dogs typically have what we call a very active alert — they bark. It may be used in the human remains also to have an active alert, but most of them are a more passive alert, which means that they would either sit or paw to alert that there is something there. The urgency with the live find is really what’s so important, because we have such limited time to be successful.”
Sarah GriffithAnnemarie DeAngelo, the center’s training director, founded the New Jersey State Police Canine Unit and has worked with canines for more than 13 years.
On how training dogs to apprehend criminals is different from search and rescue
Annemarie DeAngelo: “When you’re sniffing, the dogs are using their olfactories to locate a substance, whether it’s explosives or narcotics. When you’re making a criminal apprehension, that is when the dog is assisting the officer and he bites and holds the person until the officer gets there, or if someone is assaulting the officer, dogs are automatically trained to protect that officer. …
“[The training] starts out as game of tug of war and it evolves. It’s a long process, but it evolves to a sleeve, and you just keep training every day until the dog will go out and make a clean apprehension.”
On whether dogs have a sense of service
Otto: “I would love to think that, but I think they think it’s a game. …
“They don’t care who they find. If they find somebody, they get their Frisbee; it’s a game and that’s what life is all about. I believe dogs have such an amazing connection with us, and I think that sometimes what it’s all about for them is what they’re feeling from their handler — that pride that we can give them — that feeling, just that connection, because that is important to them. But it’s about the game. I don’t think that they really do know that they’re being so amazing and so patriotic and so helpful. They’re doing what they do naturally.”
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