"I Hate Cats," Veterinarian ConfessesJune 10, 2014 Follow Veterinary Practice News on Twitter at @vetpetnews. Years ago, a medium who went by the name of Madam Moutjoy entered the office of a young veterinarian called Malcolm Welshman. She advised him that her cat, Antac, who she had brought in for grooming, was angry with him and had revealed to her that he thought Welshman was "a very bad vet,” according to The Daily Mail. The spirits of Welshman’s other feline patients were sharing their dislike for him with Antac, according to Madam Moutjoy. Welshman became uncomfortable, but continued grooming Antac. He may have been new to the profession, but he had never harmed a cat. There was something to the medium's words, however, and Antac had seemingly picked up on it. The sour-faced cat was somehow aware of Welshman’s dark secret. Even though he was a veterinarian, Welshman did not love all animals, namely cats. In fact, as he revealed to The Daily Mail, he "absolutely detest[s] the creatures.” It is a fear and loathing that Welshman believes may have stemmed from a childhood incident with his own pet cat, Sooty. His mother, who was busy trying to prepare for …
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10 Ways To Improve Post-Op CareMay 30, 2014Just because a patient is out of the operating room doesn’t mean we’re out of the woods. In fact, most deaths occur after, not during surgery: 50 percent of canine and 60 percent of feline deaths occur in the postop period. It is important to avoid becoming complacent, despite the busyness of the day. Here are 10 steps to improve the care given to your postop patients. 1. Extubation The proper time to extubate is often based on a widespread misconception, sometimes called the “two swallow” rule. This is a very unfortunate urban legend that can lead patients to serious trouble. “Two swallows” may not mean that the patient is alert enough to continue swallowing and breathing efficiently on its own. The more appropriate time to extubate is when a patient is alert, preferably has lifted its head up at least once, and begins to chew. The next challenge it to pull the tube before the patient chews it in half. Ideally, each patient recovering from anesthesia and/or surgery should be under direct supervision of a technician until extubation. We still need to remain alert afterward: Being extubated doesn’t mean that recovery is over. It is just one step of …
Interpret The Signs Of FLUTD In Feline PatientsMay 6, 2014 Are your feline patients trying to tell you something? When they visit the clinic with their owners, who bring them in with complaints about their pets' irritable moods and poor litter box habits, the cats may be presenting with a one of several medical conditions associated with feline lower urinary tract disease, or FLUTD, says Jacqueline Neilson, DVM, Dipl. ACVB, of Animal Behavior Clinic LLC in Portland, Ore. "FLUTD is a catch-all term to describe any disorder affecting the urinary bladder or urethra," she explains. "It's quite common. In fact, for years some kind of lower urinary tract disease sign has been the most common medical reason policy holders of pet insurance take their cat to the vet." Dru Forrester, DVM, MS, Dipl. ACVIM, associate director, scientific affairs and technical information services for Hill?s Pet Nutrition in Topeka, Kan., adds that for veterinarians, the signs associated with FLUTD can be linked to a number of underlying issues—and that makes pinpointing the cause and treating it a challenge. "No matter the cause, they often have the same signs, and that's the frustrating part about [FLUTD]," Dr. Forrester says. "Any disease that affects the lower …
Additive Manufacturing—or 3D Printing—helps Create new Knee Joint for a CatMarch 13, 2014 For quite some time, Mr. Cyrano L. Catte II, an orange and white cat, had the perfect life. He had a nice home in Upperville, Va., more than adequate food and owners who loved him very much. Then, in 2012 at age of 9, he got bone cancer in his left hind leg. Cyrano’s owners spared no expense or effort. They took him to the University of Colorado, where he became the first cat to receive stereotactic radiation (focused beams aimed at the tumor) therapy. Two sets of radiation cured his cancer—full remission—but one of the side effects was bone deterioration of his distal femur and some on the upper end of the tibia, as well. The normal procedure for such a condition would be to amputate the leg. In Cyrano’s case, that was not recommended: He weighed 26 pounds and movement on three legs would be difficult. One potential alternative would be total knee arthroplasty (TKA), complete replacement of the cat’s knee (stifle) with an artificial one. To explore this option—a first in the U.S. for cats—Cyrano’s intrepid owners took him to the veterinary facility at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. Once …
Certain Cats, Dogs Deemed Best Pets for Allergy SufferersFebruary 13, 2014 Sneezing, runny noses and itchy eyes are the bane of people allergic to their pets. Now, an air purifier manufacturer and an environmental consulting firm have released their list of the top allergen-friendly pets. Making the cut this week for the Allergen All-Star Pet Awards was: • Bedlington terrier • Javanese cat • Schnauzer • Devon Rex cat • Labradoodle • Yorkshire terrier • Irish water spaniel • Labrador retriever • Maltese • Italian greyhound • Iguana The effort was sponsored by Kaz Inc. of Southborough, Mass., which makes the Doctor’s Choice True HEPA Air Purifier under the Honeywell trademark. The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America found that 15 to 30 percent of Americans are allergic to cats or dogs, said Ted Myatt, a senior scientist at Environmental Health …
Nine Steps For Pain-Free Nine LivesJanuary 30, 2014 Do you think cats feel pain? Does everyone on your team think that? What do your clients think about pain in cats, and what do you say to them to make them think that? Because owned cats outnumber dogs in the U.S. and Canada, that makes them the most popular pet in North America. Still, they receive far less veterinary care than their canine "cousins”–according to recent studies, about 50 percent less. In recent years, a lot of good things have happened to improve cat health–research, guidelines, continuing education, feline practice board certification, feline health initiatives, new medications and products, and even a collaborative feline health and welfare organization, CATalyst Council. So what advances have you made in your practice to identify and treat cats in pain? If you think you can do better, here are nine steps to take to show that you are committed to caring for cats. With compassion, collaboration and consideration of creature comfort, you’ll be seeing them throughout their nine lives. 1. Team agreement: Cats DO experience pain, just like dogs and people. This can start as a simple written, electronic …
Chronic Vomiting in Cats isn’t Normal After AllJanuary 22, 2014 A study of 100 cats with a history of chronic vomiting, weight loss, chronic diarrhea or a combination was recently accepted for publication by the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association.1 The authors, whom I led, concluded that chronic small bowel disease likely is the cause of these clinical signs in hundreds of thousands of cats. Chronic vomiting, present in 73 percent of the cases, is so common that many veterinarians and cat owners have made excuses for it. The top four reported to me over the years are: * He eats too fast; * She has a sensitive stomach; * It’s just hairballs; and * “He’s just a puker,” to quote one of my clients. Consequently, the typical approach has been the use of diets for “sensitive stomachs,” diets for hairballs, hypoallergenic diets, medications for hairballs and antiemetics (metoclopramide, ondansetron, maropitant, famotidine, etc.). Often there is improvement in clinical signs, but rarely are they completely relieved. In addition, the improvement often diminishes over time. My two clinical associates and two pathologists teamed with me to better understand the cause of chronic small bowel disease in cats. One …
Three Techniques to Treat Toe FracturesJanuary 22, 2014 Although metacarpal and metatarsal fractures are fairly common injuries in cats and dogs, the best way to treat is somewhat controversial. Incomplete or complete fractures of one or two metacarpal/metatarsal bones can be treated with external coaptation. The splint should immobilize the carpus/tarsus completely to be effective. Generally, external coaptation requires six to 12 weeks to achieve bony union. Splints should be changed at least weekly to decrease the risk of pressure sores in an at-risk area because of the lack of soft tissue coverage. If three or four metacarpal/tarsal bones are fractured and displacement is present, external coaptation may be a poor choice. When multiple bones are fractured, the splint cannot maintain reduction properly, and while union may occur, the recovery will be prolonged and deformity is likely. Surgery is considered a better choice in such cases. Indications for surgery Internal fixation is used for simple or comminuted metacarpal/metatarsal bone fractures or in patients with three or four fractured bones. In multiple bone fractures, the fixation can be used for all fractured bones or for metacarpal/metatarsal bones 3 and 4 only, i.e. weight-bearing toes. Options for fixation include plating or wiring (rarely performed), …
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 …
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 …
