AAHA Updates Dental Guidelines For Dogs, CatsMay 21, 2013For The Education Center In 2004, an AAHA task force of boarded veterinary dentists, technicians and general practitioners authored the evidence-based AAHA Dental Care Guidelines for Dogs and Cats. Recently, AAHA assembled some of the original contributors and new, fresh eyes to create an updated report. The 2013 AAHA Dental Care Guidelines are available online at www.aahanet.org/Library/DentalCare.aspx. Figure 2. Stage 3 periodontal disease (5 mm pocket depth) diagnosed under general anesthesia Here are some of the important details in the guidelines that help veterinarians deliver consistent quality of dental care to their patients. The updated guidelines have been peer reviewed by the Journal of the American American Hospital Association and endorsed by the American Veterinary Dental College. Dental health care needs to be part of the preventive healthcare examination discussion. It should begin at the patient’s first appointment and continue throughout all subsequent exams. Semi-annual dental evaluation examinations are recommended. Figure 3. Surgical extraction of retained deciduous tooth Assessment by life stage introduced the concept of periodontal diseases—with its many appearances, compared to the catchall term "periodontal disease” (Figure 1). The professional
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Heartworm HorrorsMay 21, 2013 Monthly prevention is the easiest and least expensive approach to controlling heartworm disease in pets, yet lack of compliance to the recommended 12-month prevention regimen leads experts’ opinion as to why infections are on the rise. Mosquito-friendly environmental changes, movement of infected wild and domestic animals and persistence of vectors are other causes for a rise in diagnosed cases, according to the American Heartworm Society. “The revised AHS canine and feline heartworm guidelines reiterate the need for year-round prevention, even in northern states,” says Tom Nelson, DVM, the AHS heartworm guidelines symposium chair and a member of the Companion Animal Parasite Council (CAPC). He also owns the Animal Medical Center in Anniston, Ala. “The recommendations we make today for dogs and cats are the result of ongoing heartworm research discoveries. Heartworm damage is similar to damage caused by smoking, says Dr. Cristiano von Simson. “The amount of cigarettes a person smokes can affect the damage done to their body, just like the larger the infestation, the greater the damage.” “We once thought 12 months might not be necessary in cold winter months, and we also thought cats weren’t affected by the disease,” Nelson …
Senior Anesthesia: Age Doesn’t Stop The Need For CareMay 21, 2013 While customized monitoring and drugs should be provided for every patient, those falling into the geriatric category—in the last 25 percent of their life expectancy—require extra precaution as underlying health conditions may be more prevalent. Veterinary specialists say senior patients in need of a procedure that requires anesthesia should not be passed off as too old to handle sedation or anesthesia based on age alone. Yet the misconception accounts for one of the top three concerns with using anesthesia. "Owners are reluctant to care for the engine because they assume the body will go bad and they fail to care for the body because they think the engine will go,” Harvey continues. "If nothing is being cared for, it will surely fall apart.”"When veterinarians and pet owners think age is an obstacle to necessary maintenance, it reminds me of mistakes made with older cars,” says Ralph Harvey, DVM, M.S., Dipl. ACVA, associate professor of anesthesiology at the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine in Knoxville and an AAHA anesthesia task force member. According to the recently released American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) Anesthesia Guidelines for Dogs and Cats, pre-anesthetic patient assessment and preparation is key …
Allergies Often Behind Chronic Ear InfectionsMay 7, 2013 Many specialists and vendors advise general practitioner veterinarians how to go about treating chronic ear infections, and they say more attention needs to be paid to underlying causes—chiefly allergies. "Otitis externa is a real common problem with dogs, and it’s a common problem worldwide,” said Brad Phillips, dermatology marketing manager at Virbac Corp. U.S. in Fort Worth, Texas. Phillips and Heidi Lobrise, DVM, senior technical manager with Virbac, say the top underlying problem is allergic reactions. Top, an infection in Cushing’s patient. Above, bacteria and Malassezia dermatitis. If those allergies are not being treated adequately, pets will continue to have ear problems, Dr. Lobprise said. In the case of allergies, the typical range of therapy is generally recommended, such as altering diets, prescribing medications, skin testing and immune therapy, Lobrise said. Rusty Muse, DVM, Dipl. ACVD, with Animal Dermatology Clinic in Tustin, Calif., also said many of the ear infections he sees are allergy-driven. "The majority of animals we see with allergies will have chronic recurrent ear infections,” Dr. Muse said. One reason Animal Dermatology …
The Peculiar Politics Of Pet SterilizationMay 7, 2013 Along the way, however, I’ve become something of a magnet for people who espouse peculiar political viewpoints on the subject of pets. Though the bulk of my politically minded readers can most charitably be described as quirky, colorful, intelligent and pleasantly eccentric, the comment section on my posts has always been plagued by more than a few exasperating examples of the politically pet-obsessed. And nowhere has this become more evident recently than on the subject of the simple spay and castration. It doesn’t seem to matter whether we’re talking about when, whether, how or why; the subject still holds sway. Controversial Topics Of all the topics I tackle, only nutrition challenges the neuter theme for all the emotional investment it attracts. The only difference—and it’s a crucial one—is that sterilization seems increasingly likely to draw more debate-laced veterinary commentary than the fraught topic of nutrition, which appears to enjoy far greater veterinary consensus. Whether we’re talking about TNR in cats (which suffers from its own unique expanse of hazardous terrain), the no-kill controversy and the need for low-cost sterilization options (another minefield), or the wisdom, methodology and timing of canine sterilization, frothy commentary …
Dissing And Deconstructing The Terms 'Pet Parents' And 'Furkids'May 7, 2013 More than once a week I’ll find myself hurling the kind of motherly invectives I normally reserve for infants toward my 15-year-old son: "Use your words, Boy,” I’ll snarl as he skulks away in his ill-fitting Metallica T-shirt, launching a few questionably guttural inaudibles in my general direction. Teenagers are a breed unto their own, so he may perhaps be forgiven for the kind of vocalizations more commonly associated with ill-tempered felines and brachycephalic dogs. Unfortunately, no such excuses can be charitably applied to plenty of my otherwise normally even-tempered readers. I was recently treated with similar grumbling disdain when I happened to post a Facebook comment referencing a Vetstreet article (Jan. 23) on the pitfalls of "pet parenting.” Here’s a sample detailing the most eloquent of these tirades: "What stresses me out [about ‘pet parenting’]? Being called a ‘pet parent’; the idea of turning ownership into ‘guardianship’; the rising tide of the ‘furkid’ mentality; and the idea that I am judged by the oft-biased and sponsor-bought litmus tests of others as a pet owner by the way I handle, vet, feed and train my dog.” Ouch! And it’s not …
Not The Heartworms You Used To KnowMay 7, 2013 Heartworm is a very complex parasite, and so is the disease it causes, explained Wallace Graham, DVM, president of the American Heartworm Society. "Many practitioners think of heartworm in the same terms as they did 10 years ago, and there is so much more about the organism and the disease that we know now that we didn’t know then,” said Graham, who is also an associate veterinarian at VCA Oso Creek Animal Hospital in Corpus Christi, Texas. "This information has implications on the decisions we make concerning testing and treatment.” Living worms damage the pulmonary arterial walls, lungs and heart if left untreated, but so do dying and dead worms. Dying and dead worms lodge in the arteries, block blood flow, cause platelets to cluster, and elicit an inflammatory cascade that severely damages the cardiovascular and respiratory systems, leading to problems like thromboembolism, Graham said. And the chances of severe cardiovascular or respiratory response to treatment are directly related to the worm burden. Multimodal Attack To mitigate this damage, AHS recommends a multimodal approach to treating heartworms. The goal of treatment is to eliminate all stages of the …
New Scrutiny On Early Neutering After UC Davis Study On GoldensMay 7, 2013 For Veterinary Practice News With a raft of publicity, a recent and widely read retrospective study that identified increased risk of certain joint disorders and cancers in neutered golden retrievers has sparked discussion within the veterinary community. Reaction illustrates how entrenched neutering is within the U.S. veterinary profession. Many were quick to point out the study’s limitations, including that it was retrospective; that it was conducted at a tertiary site; that the authors did not include any veterinary oncologists; that the sample size was limited; and that the intact animals may have been intact because they were likely breeding stock and therefore screened for health. "Retrospective studies seldom look at line breeding and other statistically significant impacts of the ‘n’ being studied,” said Thomas Catanzaro, DVM, MHA, LFACHE, 2012 Bustad award winner and a practice management consultant in Australia. "This study does not qualify the breeding lines of the animals being reported, and therefore is not as significant as it is made to seem.” The paper’s lead author, Ben Hart, DVM, Ph.D., Dipl. ACVB, a distinguished professor emeritus at the University of California, Davis, said the study is significant and should prompt immediate changes in …
Sterilization Makes Difference In Life Span, Disease Risk Of DogsApril 18, 2013 Sterilized dogs live longer but are more likely to die from cancer, according to University of Georgia researchers. The study, published Wednesday in the online peer-reviewed journal PLOS ONE, found that intact dogs—those not neutered—lived an average of 7.9 years, compared to 9.4 years for sterilized dogs. The discovery was based on a sample of 40,139 death records contained in the Veterinary Medical Database, a collection generated by North American veterinary medical colleges. "There is a long tradition of research into the cost of reproduction, and what has been shown across species is if you reproduce, you don’t live as long,” said Kate Creevy, DVM, MS, Dipl. ACVIM, an assistant professor at Georgia’s College of Veterinary Medicine. "The question that raises is, why would you die younger if you have offspring?” The researchers learned that neutered dogs were more likely to die from cancer or autoimmune diseases. Intact dogs were more likely to die from infectious disease or trauma. "Intact dogs are still dying from cancer; it is just a more common cause of death for those that are sterilized,” said Jessica Hoffman, a Georgia doctoral candidate who co-authored …
The Future Is Now In Veterinary Dentistry, Oral SurgeryApril 4, 2013 Veterinary dentistry and oral surgery are relatively young specialties, and advances are made each year in how we diagnose and treat patients with oral and craniofacial diseases. This article highlights just a few of the upcoming, and recently unveiled, advances in veterinary dentistry and oral surgery. Point-of-Care Diagnostics Diagnostic tests that provide answers, sooner rather than later, are always appealing. One example of a recently released test is the OraStrip QuickCheck Canine, from PDx Bio Tech of Lexington, Ky. When run across the maxillary gingival margin, this strip measures the concentration of thiols in canine oral fluid of the gingival margin and provides a visual signal related to the thiol concentration. Thiols are produced by anaerobic bacteria and are responsible for halitosis of periodontal origin. These strips are perhaps most helpful in a general practice setting as an educational tool for pet owners, providing a scale of severity for owners to see. Since much of the disease associated with periodontitis is beneath the gingiva, the strips serve as a semi-quantitative visual gauge. Other possible point-of-care diagnostics may arise in the future from the field of salivary proteomics, as described in a recent proceedings …
