Veterinary Nutrition And You: Redefining The Future Of Pet FoodDecember 3, 2013 I’ve been to AVMA, NAVC, CVC and ACVIM and, after attending at least five of each of the above conferences over the past 15 years, I can attest that they’ve all got loads to offer. But that’s not to say there aren’t other international-level conferences worth your while. Take WINSS, for example. The Waltham International Nutritional Sciences Symposium is arguably the world’s premier pet nutrition conference. Yet until Mars invited me to attend this year’s October meeting in Portland, Ore., I’d never thought to venture outside the confines of my own customary conference rotation. Which would’ve been a shame. Not only would I have lost out on some killer doughnuts (Portland’s VooDoo Doughnuts fries up the finest), this meeting established that attending smaller symposia treating niche-ier topics can prove even more rewarding than the usual suspects. After all, there’s nothing quite so stimulating as some crisp non-tropical air, a fistful of fried dough, a huge conference hall teeming with veterinary nutritionists and three days chock-a-block with talks, presentations, hot topic sessions and even a bit of entertaining dissent. Most exciting of all, however, was not the banter that arose after one speaker attempted to dispel …
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Dissecting The Cat-Dog Healthcare DisparityNovember 14, 2013 Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock lately, you’ve doubtless borne witness to the latest round of handwringing within our national community. This time it’s to do with our nation’s most populous but least served companion animal species: the cat. Though statistics tracking both canine and feline hospital visits reveal a significant downward direction, cats are far less likely to receive the routine treatment we’ve collectively determined they deserve. Yes, it seems that some cat lovers don’t care for their feline pets to the same tune they do their dogs. So say those of us who observe the differences between how people treat their own beloved cats and dogs on a daily basis. And so say our collegial powers that be. A Look at Numbers Because of this, Bayer Healthcare and the American Association of Feline Practitioners teamed up to confirm our suspicions with the Veterinary Care Usage Study III: Feline Fidings. Here’s a quick summary of the basic findings I received firsthand at a lunchtime panel discussion-style press event at the American Veterinary Medical Association conference in Chicago this past summer: * 52 percent of cats hadn’t seen a veterinarian within the past …
Wound Care 101 And BeyondSeptember 30, 2013 Dr. Schmiedt, assistant professor of soft tissue surgery at the University of Georgia Veterinary Teaching Hospital, advises a back-to- basics approach. "I am something of a Luddite here,” Schmiedt said. "When dealing with hard-to-handle wounds, I think veterinarians should revert to the basics of wound healing. There is always a biological basis for why a wound won’t heal.” A wound stuck in the inflammatory and debridement stage, for example, is possibly being prevented from moving to the repair phase by dead or necrotic tissue, or an infection, or "some magic treatment one keeps slathering on,” he said. "If a wound is stuck in the repair phase with a granulation bed that will not contract and epithelialize, this is usually because the tension is too great for the myofibroblasts, there is infection or inappropriate wound care,” Schmiedt said. "Identifying that biological problem and correcting it is critical. Reverting to the latest device, cream or treatment is not the answer to getting wounds to heal.” Varied Approaches Bryden J. Stanley, BVMS, MACVSc, MVetSc, Dipl. ACVS, an associate professor in the surgery department at the Small Animal Clinical …
Animals Have Emotions, But What About ‘Theory Of Mind’?September 30, 2013We have come a long way since the Descartian view that animals are mindless machines or the Pavlovian or Skinnerian assessments that animals simply react to their environment reflexively and/or behave only in response to positive or negative reinforcement. Scientific thinking about animals’ cognitive processes has been stifled since the turn of last century by the likes of C. Lloyd Morgan’s famous canon which states that, "In no case is an animal activity to be interpreted in terms of higher psychological processes if it can be fairly interpreted in terms of processes which stand lower in the scale of psychological evolution and development.” According to this canon, anyone who ascribed an underlying emotion to an animal’s behavior was simply being anthropomorphic, projecting human feelings onto what were merely "dumb animals.” The extreme behaviorist’s view that animals’ behavior is to be observed and measured but not interpreted prevailed through much of the last century. Even ethologists, who studied the behavior of animals in the wild, did so more by observation and note-taking than by trying to ascribe behaviors to internal motivation or thought processes. To do so at the time would have been heresy. A Different Approach The …
Integrating Treatments For Joint PainSeptember 30, 2013 Combining holistic and conventional veterinary therapies, Michael Dym, VMD, advocates a four-pronged approach in using nutraceuticals to treat joint pain and arthritis in dogs and cats. He reports success with a glucosamine/MSN supplement, anti-oxidants, omega-3s and a homeopathic pain-killer, Traumeel, which he said is produced from natural ingredients. Dr. Dym practices holistic and integrative conventional veterinary medicine at Palms West Veterinary Hospital in Loxahatchee, Fla., and operates his own practice, making house calls in the Wellington, Fla., area. "Traumeel has been involved in human clinical studies and is proving as or more effective at reducing discomfort than NSAIDs,” Dym says. He says he has excellent results when treating both dogs and cats with it. Bonnie Mitchell, DVM, owner of Coastal Animal Clinic in Jensen Beach, Fla., recommends joint supplements as both a preventive and for treatment of dogs and cats with lameness issues. She says dogs seem to like chewable joint supplements—they think they are getting a treat. "It’s hard to get a cat to chew a tablet, so powder in their food works best for cats.,” she says. For an 80- to 90-pound dog, a loading dose can be expensive, so if Mitchell …
Practical Tips To Improve Fluid Therapy ProtocolsSeptember 30, 2013 When you design a fluid therapy plan, three factors come into play: the patient history, the presenting complaint and the physical exam. What do you use as a maintenance fluid rate? How about your surgical rate? What if your patient is hypotensive? If you are unsure about what should be done, we have good news for you. A panel of experts from the American Animal Hospital Association and the American Association of Feline Practitioners recently published fluid therapy guidelines. Remember that these are suggestions, not a new definition of standard of care for fluid therapy. Yet these excellent guidelines are full of practical tips to improve fluid therapy protocols for sick, hypovolemic and anesthetized patients. They probably represent what most specialists would do and recommend in 2013. What follows is not an exhaustive summary of the article, but a review of some important points, especially as they relate to the surgery world. 1 Replacement vs. maintenance fluids When you design a fluid therapy plan, three factors come into play: the patient history, the presenting complaint and the physical exam. This information will help you determine whether there are changes in volume, content or distribution. …
Heaven And Hell In The Shelter WorldSeptember 23, 2013 Elliot’s owner thought she was wise by having her 1-year-old male pit bull neutered at a local low-cost spay and neuter clinic. A neuter for $25—what a bargain! Something went wrong with the surgery. Five days later, Elliot presented at the local emergency clinic for a grossly swollen prepuce and scrotum, along with ventral abdominal edema. Severe bruising covered most of the scrotum, and some of the skin was necrotic. He was lethargic, anorexic and extremely uncomfortable. The $25 castration included nothing more than the procedure itself. No medications, not even pain medications, were dispensed, and no written discharge instructions were provided. A scrotal ablation was discussed with the owner but she elected conservative treatment—hydrotherapy, cephalexin, tramadol and carprofen. Two days later, Elliot was back in the ER. This time, necrosis and infection were even more obvious. A scrotal ablation was the right thing to do. The perioperative protocol included antibiotics, pain medications and IV fluids, including a constant rate infusion. He was hospitalized overnight and recovered very well. The day after surgery, he was a different dog—immensely more comfortable. Big Money …
The 3 Surgical Options For C-SectionsSeptember 23, 2013 We continue describing our 10 steps for a happy C-section. [See Part 1, "The art and science of a safe C-section,” in the July issue.] This month, in the second of three parts, we focus on anesthesia and surgery. Our goals: safety and speed. 5. Anesthesia Melissa Goodman, DVM, board-qualified in the American College of Theriogenologists at Veterinary Reproductive Services in West Chester, Pa., skips premedication, and prefers masking patients down. She uses the smallest possible dose of propofol only if needed, e.g. in brachycephalic and fractious patients. When giving drugs to the dam, you are indirectly giving them to the babies. Many drugs are rapidly carried through the placental barrier and consequently affect the offspring. This may make resuscitation efforts more difficult. For example, acepromazine, ketamine and atropine can flow through the placenta, so they should be avoided. Glycopyrrolate, if needed, is a better choice than atropine. Choosing an anesthesia protocol that is safe for a caesarean patient is tricky at best. Because hypoxia is a concern for the patient and the neonates, pre-oxygenation for five to 10 minutes is an important precaution. Patients are then intubated and placed on isoflurane or …
Surgical Insights: Care Of Neonates After A C-sectionSeptember 23, 2013 While rubbing babies and clearing their airways, we also should strive to prevent the three "hypos" in neonates: hypothermia, hypotension and hypoxia. We conclude our three-part article on C-sections with resuscitation and care of the neonates. It is time to change a few old habits and to embrace more modern techniques. Part 1 is here; Part 2 is here. 7. Resuscitation While rubbing babies and clearing their airways, we also should strive to prevent the three "hypos” in neonates: hypothermia, hypotension and hypoxia. Hypoxia is a constant battle during a C-section. The amniotic sac should be removed as soon as possible, and the mouth and airway must be cleared with a bulb syringe. "Don’t use too much suction,” reminds Margret Casal, DrMedVet, PhD, Dipl. European College of Animal Reproduction, University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, "as it could damage the delicate tissue of the pharynx and larynx.” Alternatively, a mucus suction device for human babies can be used, e.g., the poetically called "snotsucker nasal aspirator.” Hypothermia can be prevented by using warm towels straight out of the dryer, or a …
The Joy Of Spaniel PuppiesSeptember 16, 2013 Hue and I have been doing rescue work with Cavalier King Charles spaniels for the past five years. We love being able to transport, foster and heal dogs in need. A few weeks ago we received a desperate phone call from one of the regional rescue coordinators, asking if we could head to north Jersey to pick up a pregnant dog that was just picked up from a backyard breeder. Of course, we dropped everything and headed north. We met another transport volunteer at a hotel near a turnpike exit. Shadow, the rescued mommy, was gingerly placed into my lap for the trip back to south Jersey. Normally we "rescue” older dogs with medical problems. It was very unusual to contemplate having puppies in the house. All our dogs are older. We had no area prepared for whelping and raising puppies. After a quick exam, it was apparent Shadow would be delivering within a week, but I figured we still had a few days to figure everything out. The first night we tried to make Shadow a bed on the floor in our bedroom. She took one …
