How to Promote Good Canine BehaviorMarch 18, 2016Veterinarians agree that pet behavior problems are on the rise because animal owners tend to wait too long before seeking qualified professional help. What might begin as a simple training issue becomes more serious when owners inadvertently make the problem worse by trying to resolve it based on poor advice. “Understanding and working with behavior is no small task,” said Don Hanson, co-owner and director of behavior services and training at Green Acres Kennel Shop in Bangor, Maine. “It is a field that requires knowledge in a wide variety of areas including ethology, operant conditioning, classical conditioning and more. It is not something one can expect to learn in a one- or two-day seminar.” The No. 1 issue in any study that’s been done on the topic is aggression. Nicholas H. Dodman, BVMS, director of the animal behavior program at the Tufts University Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, noted that different types of aggression require different treatments. The most common are conflict aggression (in the home) and fear aggression (directed outwardly at strangers). “I think that’s 70 percent of all …
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Royal Veterinary College Performs Groundbreaking Open-Heart Surgery on DogMarch 18, 2016Mabel, a 3-year-old Labrador, had congenital tricuspid dysplasia, which resulted in her being increasingly fatigued after exercise. She also had trouble keeping up with the other dog in the household. Because Mabel’s tricuspid valve was completely fused in the middle and there were just two very small holes for her blood to flow through, her abdomen had fluid buildup and she developed heart failure, Royal Veterinary College (RVC) stated in a recent press release. Mabel was subsequently referred to cardiology specialists at the small animal referral hospital at RVC. Dan Brockman, BVSc, CertVR, CertSAO, DipACVS, DipECVS, performed surgery on Mabel at the Queen Mother Hospital for Animals. RVC specialists assisted the Professor of Small Animal Surgery and Head of Department of Clinical Science and Services with pre- and post-operative care. Students at RVC conducted Mabel’s initial examinations, which included a cardiac ultrasound. Annabelle Meek, Mabel’s owner, knew of the risks involved in the surgery, which, according to Dr. Brockman, were “much worse than most other operations. In our hands, for this type of disease, we have about an 80-percent chance of getting them through the procedure. The owner has to gamble what life the …
Dog Nearly Dies After Swallowing Stuffed Polar BearMarch 17, 2016Dogs will eat just about anything. They eat door hinges, fishing poles, socks and much, much more. Sometimes it even happens unbeknownst to the dog’s owner. Until that dog gets sick. That’s exactly what happened with Honey, a Dogue de Bordeaux. On March 14, 2016, she was brought in to the Santa Fe Animal Shelter in New Mexico after having been vomiting for a week, the Santa Fe Animal Shelter & Humane Society posted on Facebook. The owner told Rick Snook, DVM, that the dog’s condition had originally been diagnosed as a uterine infection, but when she was still ailing after seven days, they brought her in. Dr. Snook has been busy for the past few days with some unusual and challenging cases. Here's one that he just finished... Posted by Santa Fe Animal Shelter & Humane Society on Monday, March 14, 2016 It turned out Honey had swallowed a stuffed toy. Dr. Snook conducted surgery to remove what was originally thought to …
5 Pets Celebrating St. Patrick's Day in Veterinary ClinicsMarch 17, 2016St. Patrick's Day is day anyone can celebrate, even pets at the veterinary clinics. Here are 5 pets doing just that: First, there is this cat, nicknamed Mr. B, has the luck of the Irish, since he is 5-year survivor of meningioma. Kitty Barnabus Skipper sure has the luck of the Irish! Mr. B is a 5-year survivor of meningioma after receiving treatment at our hospital. #Repost @tpancotto A photo posted by Virginia-Maryland Vet Med (@vamdvetmed) on Mar 17, 2016 at 9:02am PDT Then there's Lucy, looking glorious in green at the Kimberly Crest Veterinary Hospital, P.C. in Davenport, Iowa. Lucy came in to see us today in her St. Patty's day attire! She's such a fashionista! Happy St. Patrick's Day!! #veterinary #vetmed #vettech #dogsofinstagram #stpatricksday #green
Veterinarian Treats Cat Thrown From Car on HighwayMarch 16, 2016We see all kinds of things when we’re driving. Much of it we may just shake our heads at. But there are some things we see that we just can’t shake off. For one Good Samaritan the sight that couldn’t be shaken off was that of another driver tossing a cat out of the car window while driving on the freeway in Mobile, Ala. The woman stopped, got out of her car and retrieved the cat. She subsequently took the injured feline to Rehm Animal Clinic where Chris Rehm, DVM, has since been treating her. “She’s lucky she wasn’t hit by another car,” Dr. Rehm told Local 15. “The car was traveling at a high-rate of speed. [They] threw her out and she landed on her jaw and her foot. Those areas got what we call ‘de-gloved’ where the skin gets pulled away from the bone and the underlying tissues.” Rehm and his team have treated the cat for shock and physical injuries. They are still monitoring her for any changes to her appetite or sense of smell, Fox 10 TV reports. The cat, however, appears to be …
How to Talk About Pet Obesity With Your Veterinary ClientsMarch 16, 2016Obesity can lead to a range of medical conditions for pets if not addressed properly, but even with the possibility of dire consequences, many vets still struggle to effectively address obesity with clients. Pet obesity is rapidly becoming an epidemic; an estimated 54 percent of pets in the United States are obese. The result is millions of pets with diabetes, joint pain and even organ failure. In fact, according to a 2014 study from Association for Pet Obesity Prevention found that: “Out of 1,421 animals put to a veterinary assessment last fall, 57.6 percent of cats and 52.6 percent of dogs were classified as overweight or obese. Owners of the obese pets overwhelmingly considered their cat or dog to be of normal weight.” Fortunately, more effective communication with your veterinary clients can make a big difference. Avoid Using the Word “Obese” According to Wendy Myers, owner of Communications Solutions for Veterinarians many of her clients worry about having the conversation because their clients are also obese, but they’re not helping their clients or the pets that way. Instead, she suggests making it about the medical …
Veterinarian Saves Puppy That Weighed Only Half a PoundMarch 16, 2016March 1, 2016 marked the day that a 0.5-pound female puppy was brought into the San Jose Animal Care Center in Calif. She was cold to the touch, had pale to gray gums and was barely responsive. She was hypothermic, hypoglycemic and dehydrated. Unfortunately, without the puppy’s mother to provide warmth and frequent feedings, the puppy’s likelihood of survival was slim. Sharon Ostermann, DVM and the rest of the veterinary team feared the puppy wouldn’t even live another half hour. In her Tails of a Shelter Vet blog, Dr. Ostermann wrote that she and the veterinary team gave the puppy heat support and prepared an intraosseous catheter. The team, however, had never done one before and didn’t have the specific medical supplies needed for one. Instead, they used a spinal needle as a catheter. “The area over the puppy’s left hip was shaved, a local anesthetic was injected into the area, and the skin was scrubbed as if prepping for surgery. The needle was placed into the femur, and it was determined to be in the correct position.” Tales of a shelter vet The veterinary team ensured the correct placement of the intraosseous catheter. …
How a Misplaced Sponge Can Return to Bite YouMarch 15, 2016Forgetting a surgical sponge inside a veterinary patient is a taboo yet all-too-common situation. Because of blatant underreporting, reliable statistics do not exist in veterinary surgery, and few are available in human surgery. Sponge retention is a risk any time sponges are used in surgery, regardless of the procedure. Since retained sponges were first described in human surgery in 1884, they remain the most common accidentally retained surgical foreign bodies. This can lead to many complications after surgery, not to mention the potential of resulting medicolegal implications. Understanding the reasons for sponge retention can help you devise strategies to avoid this embarrassing pitfall. Small sponges, especially when soaked in blood, can be difficult to see in the surgical field. Not discarding used sponges immediately increases this risk. In deeper surgical areas, such as thoracic or abdominal body cavities, the use of small sponges creates an unnecessary risk of retention because they easily may become lost in the process. Also, using free small sponges without first attaching them to a hemostat or sponge forceps increases this risk. Phil Zeltzman, DVM, DACVS, CVJ A retained lap sponge attached to …
Veterinarian Creates Way to Make Senior Dogs’ Lives a Little EasierMarch 7, 2016Clients with senior dogs may come in to your veterinary office with a host of complaints. Their senior dog has trouble eating or getting up and down stairs. Maybe their senior dog needs help standing up or isn’t as active as he once was. Perhaps their senior dog can’t grip the floor as easily as he could when he was younger and is now prone to slipping. That was the complaint Julie Buzby, DVM found in her practice. She has been a practicing veterinarian for 19 years, but earlier in her career, she became certified in veterinary acupuncture and chiropractic. Due to that, she started seeing more geriatric dogs than she normally might have. “Most of the senior dogs I treated were improving with medications, herbs, supplements, and alternative therapies,” Buzby said on Dogster.com, “but my clients worried about their dogs slipping on the floors at home. I understood their frustration.” After opening her own clinic and then selling it in 2008, she moved with her family to South Carolina where she works in a veterinary clinic part-time. It was there, at an annual open house in 2011, that the idea for a product that would …
NCSU Veterinarians, Duke Doctors Join Forces to Fight CancerMarch 4, 2016Cancer is a terrible disease. We’ve all been affected by it either personally or through someone we know (I just lost my aunt to cancer two weeks ago). It seems that it’s more and more prevalent nowadays, not only affecting our human loved ones, but our animals as well. Chances are you’ve treated some of those animals who were (or are) afflicted with cancer. Some have survived; some haven’t. When they do, it’s often deemed a miracle. One such miracle came in the form of a 13-year-old Labrador Retriever named Eliza almost one and a half years ago. She was placed in a clinical trial at North Carolina State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine after a diagnosis of nose and mouth cancer, The News & Observer reports. Her symptoms started with a swollen snout, before she began bleeding from her mouth. The veterinarian informed Eliza’s owner, Lynne Murchison, that the Lab had about five weeks to live. At most. Unwilling to give up, Murchison searched for — and found — a clinical trial at NCSU’s vet school. It was for oral tumors. According to The News …
