Colorado Springs veterinary clinic deals with Waldo Canyon Fire
| Jul 3, 2012 By: Julie ScheideggerDVM NEWSMAGAZINE |
He had little time to be on the phone. At 2 a.m. the morning of Wednesday, June 27, Jamie Gaynor, DVM, MS, EMT, was activated by the Colorado Veterinary Medical Reserve Corps. Animals evacuated by the Waldo Canyon Fire in Colorado Springs, Colo., were showing up at shelters and needed attention. Members of his staff had been evacuated from their homes. Gaynor’s practice, Peak Performance Veterinary Group at 5520 N. Nevada Ave. in Colorado Springs, is located west of the wildfire that at the time covered 18,500 acres and was only 5 percent contained. An evacuation plan was necessary.
“This is crazy what’s going on here,” Gaynor told DVM Newsmagazine that day. At the time visibility was less than a quarter-mile, and the fire was moving in three directions. “They’re constantly updating evacuation notices,” Gaynor said.
On that Wednesday Gaynor was caring for evacuated animals and creating the clinic’s evacuation plan. He was cautiously confident the fire wouldn’t reach the clinic, but it was in the danger zone–embers blown by the wind could have ignited new fires at any time. The practice had been inundated with smoke for the past two days. Although most of his clients had canceled their appointments, the clinic was housing eight hospitalized patients and five dogs that had been evacuated in their care. Gaynor continued to update a practice evacuation plan he hoped he wouldn’t have to use.
In the meantime, animals were showing up at area shelters with smoke-related symptoms, which Gaynor was helping to treat. “At least 30,000 people have been evacuated, which means there are a lot of animals involved,” he said.
Gaynor said he saw a lot of coughing, sneezing and respiratory issues in the pets he was treating, including smoke-triggered asthma in cats. “I also looked at a dog with ocular issues,” he said. “(I can) clean him up, flush his eyes and make him more comfortable.”
In addition to physical effects, Gaynor says he saw an emotional impact on the animals as well. “What’s interesting between my own patients and the evacuees is a certain level of anxiety,” he said. “They can smell the smoke and their natural reaction is to exit that smoke.”
His team was experiencing a certain level of anxiety, too. Some had already been evacuated from their homes. And everyone was bracing for possible evacuation of the clinic–either voluntary if conditions worsened or mandatory if the fire continued to blaze east. “We can be out of this facility with patients in 30 minutes or less,” Gaynor said.
Although he felt the practice was not in imminent danger, Gaynor said the fire seemed to change moment to moment. But an evacuation plan gave everyone peace of mind. “We have a plan; we know what to do if something happens,” he said. “Even if we have to evacuate we know where we’ll set up our ICU. The south office is six miles from here–really in no danger zone.”
Gaynor wasn’t as confident about the risk to his family’s home, however. He suspected his neighborhood would be evacuated within the week. “My house is getting closer and closer to the evacuation area,” he said. “My dogs and family are out of town, so at least I don’t have to worry about them.”
Gaynor said he was carrying around five boxes of important papers and belongings from his house in his car. “I don’t have to go back to the house to evacuate it,” he said. “While I would hate to lose my house, bottom line is, it’s stuff. As long as family and pets are OK, that’s the bottom line.”
As of Friday, June 29, Gaynor, his staff and clinic were safe; firefighters were making progress on perimeter containment. However, staff members who had been evacuated from their homes had not been able to return. “We are feeling better about the possibility that our hospital will not have to evacuate,” Gaynor said in an e-mail on Monday, July 2, “but it is a wildfire and we learned (last Tuesday) that it can be very unpredictable.”
The Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region has set up sites for evacuated animals at 610 Abbott Lane and 3650 N. Nevada Ave. They are currently in need of dog and cat crates of all sizes, as well as blankets and towels.
Additional information For more information about the Waldo Canyon Fire, go to the Incident Information System website at www.inciweb.org. For more information about the Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region, go to www.hsppr.org/waldocanyon.
Olympic veterinarians have varied duties
Veterinarian Kent Allen, the foreign veterinary delegate for the 2012 Olympic Games, explains his role as well as the duties of the other veterinarians who work at the Olympics. Dr. Allen oversees all aspects of the equine athletes’ testing and pre-competition exams, while other veterinarians provide medical attention and perform diagnostic and drug-screening tests.
Kent Allen, DVM, was happy to hear from a reporter from TheHorse.com.
“I was going to call Stephanie [Church, editor-in-chief] and suggest that she do a story explaining what all the veterinarians at the Olympic Games do, but then you called,” he said.
Allen, who owns Virginia Equine Imaging in Middleburg, Va., is well known in the world of international equestrian competition. A preeminent sport-horse veterinarian and lameness diagnostician, he is a veteran of the International Equestrian Federation’s (FEI) Veterinary Committee who has served as a veterinary official at two Olympic Games (London 2012 will be his third) and at the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games. Allen has also served as a U.S. Equestrian Team veterinarian and as a member or chair of numerous additional veterinary committees in the United States.
A major international equestrian championships requires several layers of veterinary personnel–and they don’t all necessarily do what you might imagine. Allen helped us to sort it out.
Titles and Duties
At the 2012 London Olympic Games, Allen will be the foreign veterinary delegate.
“You know what a technical delegate is?” Allen asked. (A TD, sometimes known as a steward, is the official at a show who ensures that everybody plays by the rules.) “Well, I’m the veterinary technical delegate. [My job is] making sure everyone–veterinarians, ground juries, competitors, and so on–follows the rules as they pertain to the FEI veterinary rules.”
And as the job title suggests, the foreign veterinary delegate (FVD) must be of a nationality other than that of the host country.
The FVD has the important pre-Games role of working with the Olympic organizing committee (for London, LOCOG) to ensure that the “veterinary and medication control infrastructure,” to quote the FEI Olympic rules, is correct. Then in London, Allen will work closely with the five members of the Olympic equestrian Veterinary Commission, who together supervise the veterinary procedures of the entire competition.
An FEI-governed competition is conducted under FEI rules–and there are a lot of rules. The FEI Veterinary Regulations alone fill 90 pages, and as the Olympic FVD Allen has to know them all.
One rule that may surprise you: Veterinary officials, including the FVD, are “forbidden from hands-on veterinary care,” Allen said. Actual treatment of horses falls to the designated “treating veterinarian(s),” who may administer FEI-legal treatments with approval from the Veterinary Commission.
Also under the Veterinary Commission’s jurisdiction are the team veterinarians, who are appointed by the various national federations (in the U.S., the United States Equestrian Federation) to travel with the equestrian teams. The number of team veterinarians varies with the size of the team(s) being fielded. In the case of the U.S., which fields an Olympic team in every equestrian discipline, the dressage, eventing, and jumping horses each have their own team veterinarian. A nation that sends only, say, a jumping squad or a couple of individual competitors may opt to designate a sole team veterinarian.
Just Say No to Doping
Finally, there are designated testing veterinarians, whose job it is to take blood and urine samples from horses to screen for prohibited substances. This process, too, is supervised by the Veterinary Commission.
“Our job is to make sure the horse is appropriately tested,” Allen said. “Once the sample goes to the lab, it’s out of our hands.”
“At an Olympic Games, there’s a set number of samples you have to test,” Allen said. “Some of them have to be random.”
The LOCOG Veterinary and Farrier Services Guide warns that, at the 2012 Olympics, “The number of horses tested will be greater than at any previous Games.” If you followed the equestrian events of the 2008 Olympics, you may recall that four jumpers tested positive for capsaicin, the “hot-pepper heat” substance; and also that the American dressage horse Mythilus tested positive for a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID). As a result, the Norwegian jumping team was stripped of its bronze medal and the U.S. dressage team failed to medal.
“It’s not a slap on the hand and a fine any more,” said Allen of the strict “FEI Clean Sport” anti-doping policy. “It’s getting to be more like [the anti-doping policies for] the athletes in other sports.”
Horse Inspections
The FEI Veterinary Commission’s most visible role may be in the veterinary horse inspections, also referred to as “the jog” or “the trot-up.” For these formal presentations, athletes (usually the riders, but sometimes coaches) don their team garb and jog their horses in hand on a designated track so that the veterinary officials may assess what’s known as the horses’ fitness to compete.
All Olympic horses are inspected prior to the start of competition. Event horses are inspected again after cross-country, before show jumping. In London, jumpers will be reinspected before the start of competition and a third time prior to the individual final.
According to Allen, there is an important distinction between “fit to compete” and “sound.”
“What I do every day in my clinic in Middleburg is watch horses trot so that I can evaluate soundness,” he said. His goal in such exams is to arm prospective buyers with an expert opinion as to horses’ soundess, or to help owners figure out why their horses are lame and then to prescribe treatment.
But in an Olympic horse inspection, the Veterinary Commission has the tough job of deciding whether a horse is physically up to the demands of the competition.
Doing so can be easy: The horse trots sound and moves freely. He’s probably good to go. But what do you do when you watch a couple of event horses that completed cross-country yesterday and today look a bit off?
“They may be sore in the feet, and they may not look too sound,” Allen said. “I send them to the hold” for evaluation and possible re-presentation.
Here’s the part of the horse inspection that the public (and the media) aren’t privy to: the vets’ findings.
In our hypothetical case of the two unsound event horses, “One may be sore to hoof testers, but the second looks like a bowed tendon,” Allen said. “The first horse may be judged fit to compete” (he’s ouchy, but the problem is temporary and competition isn’t likely to worsen his condition), “while the second may not be permitted to compete” because of the tendon injury. “But the horse judged fit to compete may actually be lamer” than the one that’s “spun.”
“It’s a bit of a Catch-22,” Allen concedes of the process. “I’ve been the person standing on the line, wondering what’s going on. There’s no way to know unless you’re in that little knot of people,” he said, referring to the veterinary officials. He defends the process, however, saying that riders and horse owners have the right not to have horses’ every boo-boo made public.
(One thing that traditionally is public, however, is the inspection itself. LOCOG drew the ire of horse-sport enthusiasts when it announced that the final Olympic eventing horse inspection would not be open to spectators. After international outcry and the resignation of a high-ranking eventing and Olympic equestrian official, LOCOG reversed its decision.)
Ultimately, “the [equine] welfare standpoint is exhaustively done,” Allen said, referring to the painstaking research and planning that goes into the production of an Olympic Games, a World Equestrian Games, or similar competitions. “The organizers have knocked themselves out to make things safe for the horse, but no amount of planning can cover every eventuality. All the test events, the planning–the foremost issue is, is it safe for the horse?”
After all that, and fully aware of the effort and resources that have gone into getting a horse to that horse inspection, “If at all possible, you want to let that competitor compete,” Allen said.
Happily, when I watched the horse inspections at the 2008 Olympics and the 2010 WEG, most of the horses appeared fit to compete and passed easily. But a few were held for reinspection, and I remember one horse in Hong Kong that did not pass the first inspection, meaning that he never competed at all. The Veterinary Commission is well aware of the gravity of such a decision, but it has a duty to uphold the horse’s welfare above all.
Pedigree food recalled over choking concerns
Mars Petcare U.S. has voluntarily recalled three Pedigree weight management canned dog food products due to possible contamination with blue plastic fragments that inadvertently entered the food during production. This article lists the involved UPC numbers. Owners can return already purchased food for a full refund.
The recall, however is not related to the rash of pet food recalls issued since April 2012 because of Salmonella contamination.
Mars Petcare US, who oversees several popular brands including Royal Canin, Whiskas, Cesar, Nutro, Sheba and Greenies, issued the recall for a different reason: Three varieties of the Pedigree Weight Management canned dog food products may pose a potential choking risk.
The affected product may contain small pieces of blue plastic, which entered the food during the production process. The source of the plastic has been identified and the issue resolved.
The canned food was distributed to retail customers throughout the United States. Mars Petcare US is working with all of its distributors and retail customers to ensure that the recalled products are no longer sold, nor available for purchase.
- UPC# 2310034974 Pedigree + Healthy Weight Premium Ground Entree in Meaty Juices
- UPC# 2310001913 Pedigree Weight Management Meaty Ground Dinner Beef & Liver Dinner in Meaty Juices
- UPC# 2310023045 Pedigree Weight Management Meaty Ground Dinner Chicken & Rice Dinner in Meaty Juices
Only those cans of dog food varieties with the production codes shown above are included in this recall. Each product will have a lot code printed on the end of the can that begins with 209, 210, 211 or 212 and a Best Before date that falls between 2/24/2014 and 3/23/2014.
Pet owners who have purchased affected product are asked to discard the food or return it to the retailer for a full refund or exchange.
Consumers who have questions about the recall should call 1-877-720-3335 between 8 a.m.-7 p.m. (CST) or visit www.pedigree.com/update.
Click here for more information.
You can count on AnnArbor.com to offer up-to-date information on pet product related recalls. Search our archives of previous recalls here.
Lorrie Shaw leads the pets section for AnnArbor.com and is owner of Professional Pet Sitting. Shoot her an email, contact her at 734-904-7279 or follow her adventures on Twitter.
Consumers want pets in nursing homes
Nursing homes are increasingly adopting pets or allowing residents to have their own animals live with them, in part because it brings in business. “More and more, we have families indicating up front that [allowing pets] is a must-have criteria,” said Tami Cummings, senior vice president of A Place for Mom, the largest senior living placement company in the U.S., which reports that 40% of people ask about residences’ pet policies when calling for information. Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.)
It’s a real zoo these days inside assisted living centers and nursing homes. Cats napping on the beds, dogs padding through the hallways. And that’s just the way the residents want it.
An increasing number of senior care centers, places that once wouldn’t let anything with fur in the front door, now welcome companion animals. Many facilities have a house pet, and some allow seniors, like Georgia Pritchard, to room with their four-legged friends.
Because research has shown some seniors benefit from regular contact with animals, such privileges are expanding to assisted living and nursing units where elders have mild to serious medical conditions.
But there is another reason, too: It’s good for business. Allowing pets is an amenity consumers want, like transportation and flexible meal plans.
A Place for Mom, the nation’s largest senior housing placement company, says about 40 percent of their callers now ask about pet policies. “More and more, we have families indicating up front that [allowing pets] is a must-have criteria,” said senior vice president Tami Cummings.
In the past, facilities cited health regulations when barring animals. But the two Florida agencies that inspect or monitor nursing homes and assisted living said no rules prohibit companion animals. Infection control, environmental or resident rights issues due to pets are dealt with on an individual basis.
At the Clare Bridge Alzheimer’scare unit at the Homewood Residence in Delray Beach, residents adopted Scout, a large black stray cat missing a foot, from an animal rescue group.
Scout now has a box of toys, two beds and a regular spot on the Clare Bridge activities calendar. Residents gather to pet him, discuss his care or play with him things designed to stimulate their memories and get them out of their chairs.
The eight women at Scout’s session one recent morning smiled and nodded when asked if they once had a dog or cat. One called out the name of her pet, gone for many years, as Scout played with a feather on a string.
Ken Martin, of Aventura, saw his mother smile when he asked her if Scout made her think of Sam, their longtime family cat. “Every morning, Sam would jump on my mother’s stomach and she loved him to death,” said Martin. “I think Scout makes her more responsive, and brings her happiness and joy.”
Some elders adopt a pet after moving to an assisted living facility because they couldn’t have one in their retirement condo. Others bring their pets with them.
More hospitals letting patients’ pets pay visits
Hospitals across the country use pet therapy programs to enrich patients’ lives, but increasingly, they are allowing patients’ own pets to visit during prolonged hospital stays. “Often there are people who are not doing well, and don’t respond to staff and people, but for some reason make an effort to speak when animals come around,” said veterinarian Lisa Portnoy, animal program director for the NIH Clinical Center. ABC News (6/22)
By DR. SHEILA REDDY, ABC News Medical Unit
Madison Fleaks had been in Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston for over six months waiting for a heart transplant. She was born with a congenital heart condition.
Not yet two years old, she may have forgotten much of her life at home. But she still remembered her two dogs; their photograph sat framed next to her hospital bed.
“If you said anything about the dogs, she would point and want to kiss the picture,” said her mother, Tabitha Fleaks. Madison has been in and out of hospitals, she said, enduring multiple surgeries.
“She has been sick her whole life. All she knows is me, her dad, and the two dogs.”
So when her dog Kodiak showed up in her hospital room one day, Madison was thrilled.
“It was amazing,” Fleaks said. “She just lit up. She literally screamed when he walked into the door.”
Texas Children’s is not the only institution to allow some patients to have visitors of the canine variety. ABC News reached out to hospitals around the country and found that many have pet therapy programs, in which a trained owner-volunteer will bring a dog to the hospital for patients to enjoy. These programs have been said to help patients with their mood, pain, and comfort levels.
“When there is a patient in the hospital that will be here for a significant amount of time, we think it is important for them to have their entire family here,” said Jamie Snow, Assistant Director of Child Life and Social Work at Texas Children’s Hospital. “And some people consider their pets family members.”
The program started at Texas Children’s four years ago, when administrators were approached by an organization called PAWS (Pets Are Wonderful Support) Houston, a non-profit organization the helps to sustain the relationships between pet owners and their pets during a prolonged hospitalization.
Here’s how it works: a social worker or child life specialist, hearing that a patient has a pet at home, speaks to doctors who can approve a visit. Then PAWS is contacted. They ensure that the pet is vaccinated and has a bath before the visit. A PAWS volunteer will meet the pet and family members at the entrance of the hospital where they perform a “behavior check” to make sure the pet’s temperament is good for a hospital environment. They then take the pet to the patient’s room.
“We have never had any bad events from an animal visit,” said Tricia Lewis, a nursing director at the Methodist Hospital System in Houston, Texas, who worked with PAWS to pioneer the personal pet visitation policy at her hospital over a decade ago. “No bites, no infections.”
Officers learn first aid for K-9 partners
From the Oakland, CA Tribune
In an effort to help K-9 officers injured in the line of duty as quickly as possible, several police officers in California attended a one-day canine first-aid training session orchestrated by the Police & Working K-9 Foundation and Pet Food Express. Several veterinarians donated their time and expertise to help train the police officers.
Learning to find a pulse and perform chest compressions on their four-legged partners is not exactly standard police training, but it was important to the police officers and sheriff’s deputies who practiced those skills Tuesday.
The voluntary training gave K-9 handlers from the Oakland Police Department, the Redwood City Police Department, the Dos Palos Police Department and other Northern California public safety agencies the chance to learn emergency medical techniques that could save the lives of the dogs that serve with them.
“The (officers) are going to be first responders, really,” said Geri Schmutz, a volunteer with the Police & Working K-9 Foundation who volunteered her dogs to take part in the training. “Anything that happens to the officers can happen to (the dogs).”
Just like their law enforcement officer partners, K-9s have been shot at and exposed to narcotics on the job. It’s unlikely that paramedics or other first responders would be able to help with canine trauma since their training and priority is helping humans, Schmutz said.
The training, held in Oakland by the foundation and Pet Food Express, helped officers learn what to do in the few critical minutes after an animal is hurt, time that could decide whether they live or die.
The officers received hands-on training to learn how to apply splints and bandages to live dogs and practiced CPR on dummy dogs with the help of volunteer veterinarians.
“When I was a handler, there was nothing like this, and we wanted to change that,” said LeCouve, who is a Sacramento County Sheriff’s deputy. Without the emergency training, many critically injured dogs have to wait until they are able to see a vet.
As a deputy, LeCouve wants to be able to save the dogs’ lives, but he also wants to protect a valuable crime-fighting asset.
“They’re a community resource,” he said.
An untrained K-9 can cost as much as $10,000, and most police departments have at least three people to train it. After paying the initial cost and at least three salaries, little money is left over to pay for dog emergencies, LeCouve said.
“Why wouldn’t you want to protect that investment?” LeCouve asked.
The nonprofit foundation also donates bulletproof vests for the animals and heat alarms for police cars that transport K-9s so the dogs don’t get overheated.
The 50 officers receiving training Tuesday were given the animal equivalent of first aid kits so that they did not have to enter the field unprepared.
The enrollment for the one-day course was smaller than the normal 70 handlers, according to the foundation, but there was a waiting list for an upcoming session in Sacramento.
For many that signed up, the care for the dogs extend beyond protecting police property.
“These dogs are like family, and for some, it’s their children,” LeCouve said.
CPR for your Pet
Here’s the link to this article including visual aid videos:
https://www.dogheirs
Do you know what to do if your dog stops breathing? Knowing a few emergency procedures if your dog is choking, or having difficulty breathing, could save your dog’s life because you may not have time to get to a vet.
If your dog has a foreign object stuck in his throat, it is important to try and dislodge it before performing CPR. Read our article: Heimlich Maneuver for dogs.
Canine CPR
CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) preserves brain function until proper blood circulation and breathing can be restored.
The signs that indicate the need for CPR include unconsciousness, lack of arousal, lack of physical movement, or eye blinking. These symptoms can occur from drowning, choking, electrical shock, or a number of other situations.
The following information has been updated with latest recommended guidelines outlined by the first evidence-based research on how best to resuscitate dogs and cats in cardiac arrest published in June 2012 by the Reassessment Campaign on Veterinary Resuscitation (RECOVER). The study recommends a few updates to current manual CPR practices on dogs:
- Perform 100-120 chest compressions per minute
- Perform a compression to mouth-to-snout ventilation ratio of 30 compressions followed by 2 breaths
- Recommendations on how best to perform cardiac massage / chest compressions on different chest types and sizes of dogs (see diagrams below).
The key to canine CPR is remembering the ABCs:
Airway,
Breathing, and
Cardiac compression.
To perform the three techniques, follow these steps.
- Lay the dog on a flat surface and extend the head back to create an airway. (Current practices recommend laying the dog on his/her right side (heart facing up), however the latest recommended guidelines state that either the left or right lateral recumbency are acceptable.)
- Open the jaws to check for obstructions, and if any exist and are not easily removed, try to dislodge the object. See our article Heimlich Maneuever for dogs for details on how to dislodge a dog’s blocked airway safely.
- Cup your hands around the muzzle of the dog’s mouth so that only the nostrils are clear. Blow air into the nostrils with five or six quick breaths, again, depending on the size of the dog. Small dogs and puppies and require short and shallow breaths. Larger dogs need longer and deeper breaths. Continue the quick breaths at a rate of one breath every three seconds or 20 breaths per minute.
- Check for a heartbeat by using your finger on the inside of the thigh, just above the knee. If you don’t feel a pulse, put your hand over the dog’s chest cavity where the elbow touches the middle of the chest. If you still don’t find a pulse, have one person continue breathing into the nostrils (mouth to snout), while another gives chest compressions / cardiac massage. If you are alone, do the compression and mouth-to-snout ventilation yourself.
- Give the dog chest compressions (cardiac massage) by placing both hands palms down on the chest cavity of the dog. For most dogs, chest compressions can be performed on the widest part of the chest while the dog is lying on his side.
- For dogs with keel-shaped chests (i.e. deep, narrow chests) in breeds such as greyhounds push down closer to the dog’s armpit, directly over the heart.
- For dogs with barrel-chested dogs like English bulldogs lay the dog on its back and compress on the sternum (directly over the heart), like people.
- For smaller dogs (and cats) chest-compressions scan be done with one hand wrapped around the sternum, encircling the heart or two-handed on the ribs.
- For large dogs, place your hands on top of each other. For small dogs or puppies, place one hand or thumb on the chest.
- Use the heel of your hand(s) to push down for 30 quick compressions followed by 2 breaths of air (ventilation) and then check to see if consciousness has been restored. If consciousness has not been restored, continue the compressions in cycles of 100 to 120 chest compressions per minute (the same rhythm administered for people).
- Perform CPR in 2-minute cycles checking to see if breathing and consciousness has been restored.
Ideally, CPR is performed while on route to emergency veterinarian care. If this is not possible, contact a veterinarian once the dog has started breathing.
The following diagrams illustrates how to perform chest compressions on dogs with different chest types. Click on an image to see a larger version. Figure (A) illustrates the technique for most dogs. You can apply chest compressions to the widest part of the chest while the dog lies on its side. Figure (B) illustrates the technique for barrel-chested dogs. Figure (C) illustrates the technique for barrel-chested dogs.
For small dogs and cats chest compressions can be administered two ways. Click on the images to see a larger version. Figure (A) illustrates wrapping one hand around the sternum while supporting the back. Figure (B) illustrates two-handed compression.
Below are a couple of videos on administering CPR on dogs. The first is instructional, while the second is a recorded incident of CPR used for an emergency situation.
Note: The instructional video below recommends a compression to ventilation ratio of 15 compressions followed by 1 breath. The June 2012 study recommends a compression to ventilation ratio of 30 compressions followed by 2 breaths.
Here’s the link to this article including visual aid videos:
https://www.dogheirs
Older female dog may have urinary incontinence
When an older female dog uncharacteristically urinates in the house, veterinarian Linda Janowitz writes that several potential causes should be considered, including kidney disease, diabetes, a urinary tract infection and urinary incontinence — a weakening of the bladder sphincter caused by a lack of estrogen in older spayed dogs. A veterinarian can determine the cause and treatment after examining the dog, Dr. Janowitz notes.
Several possibilities could explain your dog’s behavior. She could have a urinary tract infection, which can make her urinate more often, and she may not be able to hold it until she gets outside. That would be the best-case scenario as it is usually easy to treat with antibiotics.
Other conditions can also be an issue with an elderly dog. I would want to rule out diabetes and kidney disease. With both of these conditions, you would probably see her drinking more water and urinating more in general.
Last, but perhaps most importantly, your dog may have hormonal incontinence. In spayed female dogs, especially as they age, the lack of estrogen can cause the urinary sphincter to become weak. Often these dogs will leak urine in their beds. A combination of factors may be contributing to your dog’s behavior.
You could also be right about the cold weather. It could be the only reason for her behavior or a contributing factor. I would recommend first scheduling a visit with your veterinarian for blood work and a urinalysis to rule out many conditions that cause increased urination.
If your dog’s problem doesn’t have a medical cause, try using puppy pads placed in convenient locations on colder days. It might help if you try to associate a word command with urinating, so she knows what you expect when you go outside. When she does urinate, use the word and praise her. You could also reward her with a treat when she urinates outside.
Linda Janowitz, DVM, is the director of veterinary medicine with the Peninsula Humane Society and SPCA.
Dog saves toddler from drowning in family pool
Bear, a family’s black Labrador retriever, saved an Indiana toddler from drowning. After noticing her 14-month-old wasn’t walking behind her, Patricia Drauch went to the family’s pool where she found Bear keeping the unconscious boy, Stanley, face-up in the pool.
Creative weight-loss programs for pets
Veterinarians and other animal-oriented businesses are providing creative solutions to curb the pet obesity epidemic in the U.S., offering extended, customized weight-loss programs complete with diet modification and exercise therapy on-site. The Association for Pet Obesity Prevention found that roughly half of U.S. pets are overweight, with one of every five tipping the scales at 30% over their ideal weight.
Telling yourself it’s finally time to sign up for the gym and shed some pounds is hard enough, but getting your dog to drop weight?
That can be even tougher.
Erin Kowalski, 30, of Humboldt Park learned that a few years ago when her chocolate lab, Zeus, ballooned to 110 pounds—about 36 pounds overweight.
While a healthier diet and extended walking regimen produced noticeable results for her dog, Kowalski turned to a relatively new option to get Zeus to a healthy weight. She signed him up with a Logan Square pet clinic that specializes in animal weight loss. The clinic has all the bells and whistles you’d expect at a neighborhood gym—from laser therapy to acupuncture to workouts with exercise balls. Turns out, an underwater treadmill and resistance pool was the secret to Zeus’ slimdown.
“He’s got a better coat, he’s got more energy—all around he’s a better dog because of his weight loss,” Kowalski said. “Everybody thinks he’s a 3-year-old dog, even though he’s 9.”
Pet owners in Chicago are taking new measures to help Fido burn the fat. Specialty care facilities, which can cost hundreds of dollars for multi-week regimens, offer human-like ways for dogs and cats to shed pounds. There are even bootcamps designed for pet and owner to work out together. Meanwhile, pet owners across the country are spending tens of millions of dollars every year to treat issues that are brought on by their pets’ weight.
While Americans themselves are facing a national obesity problem, their pets are tipping the scales as well. More than half of adult dogs and cats are overweight or obese, according to the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention, and about one in five of them weighs in at more than 30 percent over its ideal body weight. The surplus pounds can lead to a host of health issues including arthritis, diabetes and problems with the hips, kidneys and liver. And while fat cats like Meow, the 39-pound feline whose photo was passed around online before he passed away last month, have been talk-show punchlines of late, experts say the issue is something to be taken seriously.
“Every time we see these horribly obese and overweight cats, there’s always a little joke, a little asterisk attached to it,” said Ernie Ward, author of pet obesity book “Chow Hounds.” “As a vet, I see that that animal is suffering.”
Ward said the issue of animal obesity has gained traction in recent years, going from a subject that was brushed off when the association was founded in 2005 to a topic that is beginning to open the eyes of pet owners.
Megan Ridley, a veterinarian at Integrative Pet Care, the Logan Square clinic that helped Zeus, said she treats animals she believes are morbidly obese.
“We come up with protocols for these animals,” she said. “I usually put the No. 1 [goal] is weight loss.”
Ridley said it’s rare to see an animal come in for treatment solely for weight issues. Usually, she says, existing problems such as arthritis, hip dysplasia and other issues that cause pets to be less active have been made worse by being overweight or obese. But it does happen. One recent client brought in a dog who was fed a diet of table scraps for a year and a half. The dog that should have weighed 65 pounds soared to 90.
“You could see it was starting to have issues with its wrists,” she said.
Ed Heil, owner of Integrative Pet Care, said eight- to 12-week treatments range from $800 to $1,400, and can include boarding. Heil said the rehab and weight loss can prevent costlier procedures. Hip surgery for a dog or cat can cost at least $3,000 to $4,000.
Saq Nadeem, founder of the resort-style boarding service Paws for Pets, said he has seen a growing number of customers willing to pay for extra services that help their pets get in shape. The company didn’t always offer treadmill fitness or nature hikes for dogs, but demand for those services has grown as owners increasingly spoil their pets as they would their own children.
“In general, I think there is a big trend toward providing comprehensive services,” he said. “We’ve seen a trend of more and more places offering these add-on services.”
Diana Ozimek, a trainer who runs fitness boot camps for women in Chicago, has her own solution. After seeing many pet owners who abandoned the gym to care for their pet, she developed a workout routine for canines and their owners alike.
The challenge, she says, is that pet owners see jogging as one of the only ways to work out in tandem with a dog. But her four- and six-week boot camps, which she began teaching about a month ago, incorporate light training for the dogs along with cardio and weight training for their keepers.
“You should definitely see a increased level of fitness for you and your dog,” she said. “You should both be able to work better together.”
WIDER PETS, THINNER WALLETS
A fat cat or plump pooch doesn’t just cause problems for the animal; it also can wreak havoc on an owner’s finances. Pet insurance provider Petplan said it saw a 348 percent rise in arthritis claims in 2011, as well as a 253 percent increase in diabetes and 32 percent incline in cardiac arrest claims, all of which are associated with extra weight. The company says costs add up.
Diabetes: $900 per incident, with costs reaching as much as $5,700
Ligament tears: $2,000 on average, and up to $6,000 in claims
Arthritis: $2,000 per incident, costing owners as much as $9,600
These figures don’t include the basics of pet ownership. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals estimates the minimum cost of owning a small dog in its first year is $1,314. That number rises to $1,580 and $1,843 for medium and large dogs, respectively. For cats, owners can expect to pay $1,035.