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 …
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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 …
How Fluoxetine Treats A Number Of Behavioral Issues In AnimalsApril 4, 2013Originally published in the April 2013 issue of Veterinary Practice News By now, almost everyone has heard about Prozac, though the veterinary brand name Reconcile is less well recognized. Personally, I prefer prescribing Reconcile to manage certain behavior problems because it is licensed for use in dogs, is especially designed for use in dogs in a palatable formulation, and lists the correct canine dosing and side effects on the enclosed data sheets. One problem is that Reconcile is somewhat expensive and finds itself in competition with off extra-label generic fluoxetine. For the purposes of this article, I will mostly refer to Prozac/Reconcile by the generic name fluoxetine. Fluoxetine is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI). That is to say, it delays re-absorption of serotonin into presynaptic nerve endings following its release by blocking the reuptake mechanism. This causes serotonin to persist for longer and thus enhances its effects. Fluoxetine Actions Two other actions of fluoxetine, as opposed to other SSRIs, are that it is a potent 5-HT2C antagonist and a sigma-1 receptor agonist. Overactivity of 5-HT2C contributes to anxiety and depression so antagonism of these receptors may be advantageous. The sigma receptor agonist action may also be beneficial in …
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 …
Treatments For Osteoarthritis In Pets Continue To EvolveApril 3, 2013 Twenty years ago, veterinarians' approaches to treating osteoarthritis pain in companion animals were, for lack of a better word, rudimentary. “We had so few tools and even less understanding of pain pathophysiology,” said Robin Downing, DVM, of The Downing Center for Animal Pain Management in Windsor, Colo. “We were still locked into thinking that dogs and cats experienced pain differently from humans.” Aspirin was the drug of choice back then, said Dr. Downing, as well as “‘bute' [phenylbutazone] with the occasional joint corticosteroid injection,” said Michael C. Petty, DVM, Dipl. American Academy of Pain Management, owner of the Animal Pain Center of Arbor Pointe Veterinary Hospital in Canton, Mich. Both practitioners pinpoint a significant breakthrough in veterinary medicine that began to shift veterinary practitioners' approaches to managing osteoarthritis pain. “When Pfizer Animal Health came out with Rimadyl, it changed the entire game,” said Dr. Petty, who is also the president of the International Veterinary Academy of Pain Management. “Not only did we have an amazing new product to treat OA, Pfizer did a great job in teaching veterinarians how to recognize the signs of OA in dogs.” The 1997 launch of the first …
Of 'Mutt Tests' And The Muddled Politics Of Dog Breed IDApril 1, 2013 It was 2007 when canine geneticists threw us an unexpected bone. After spending years mapping the entire canine genome, they had encountered an unanticipated application for their findings. They'd make use of their accumulated knowledge to help tease out the true purebred provenance of even the motliest mutt. These so-called “mutt tests,” officially termed “dog breed identification genetic tests,” were the very first of their breed. Which is probably why the results seemed a bit sketchy. And probably why so few of us bothered to try them. Testing, Testing As a blogger, however, I felt compelled to put these tests to the test. When I did, the results seemed head-slappingly silly. I mean, it was hard to look at a medium breed, short-nosed dog and consider the Chihuahua an acceptable answer to the question of black-box parentage. It was this kind of seemingly off-the-wall answer that left dog owners feeling fleeced and the vet profession bewildered. Which is why, despite its sound scientific roots, the less charitably inclined took to renaming the “Wisdom Panel” the “witless panel.” (Ouch!) But fast-forward five years and things are definitely looking up for these test makers. Over time, …
8 Pearls Of Wisdom Gleaned From My Referring VeterinariansMarch 6, 2013 By keeping an open mind, specialists can learn from veterinary practice generalists. Here are eight pearls gleaned from some of my referring veterinarians. Plumpness penalty Dr. Lynn recently explained that she charges more to perform abdominal surgery on an overweight or obese pet than she does for the same procedure on a lean patient. Her reasoning most commonly applies to ovariohysterectomies. “It makes sense because surgery will be tougher, it will take longer, and it is riskier,” she explains. In addition, it is quite possible that you will need more suture material. Subtle title As the saying goes, “It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it.” A colleague gave it a new twist when she wanted to organize a conference for her clients. In spite of a large sign under the clinic name that said “Free seminar on hip dysplasia,” few pet owners responded. Then she had a revelation. Few clients will happily admit that their dogs have hip dysplasia, even subconsciously. Once she realized that, she changed her title. The street sign soon said “Free seminar on hip health,” and reservations poured in! Infusion precision …
Dental Implants In Small AnimalsJanuary 31, 2013 Implant dentistry and bone grafting in small animals today is where it was in human dentistry 20 years ago. Dental implants have been well proven to maintain alveolar bone and avoid alveolar collapse, improve mastication and bone density, avoid orthodontic problems and prevent canine alveolar collapse, which may avoid lip catching. It has also been well documented that the majority of implant failures occur in humans during the first year after implant placement. The main reasons for implant failure during the first three to six months prior to prosthetic replacement generally is poor surgical technique, poor patient selection or inadvertent overloading of the implant during osseointegration. The main reasons for failure of an implant after implant restoration is generally poor treatment planning or overloading of the implant during remodeling of the bone. Figure 1A: Tooth sectioned Courtesy K9 Implant solutions Figure 1B: Osteotomy being performed Figure 1C: Implant being placed After the first year, it is well documented that success rates are close to 100 percent due to the body’s individual ability to adapt …
