What Vet Nutritionists Have to Say About Pet Food Allergies, GrainsAugust 30, 2012Veterinary Practice News magazine interviewed four board-certified veterinary nutritionists on pet food allergies and the role grains play. They agreed on the following: Corn, wheat and soy are usually innocent when accused of causing food allergies. Clients, not veterinarians, often diagnose food allergies. There's a big difference between a true food allergy, which is rare, and a food intolerance. Moreover, vilification of food grains as pet food ingredients may be myths started by small pet food companies as a way to compete with larger, established companies, according to four diplomates of the American College of Veterinary Nutrition. “I honestly don’t know where that got started. It’s not based on any data, and there are excellent diets that contain one or more of those items,” said Cailin Heinze, MS, VMD, and a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Nutrition (ACVN). “It may have been started by companies that wanted to distinguish themselves, to sell diets in a crowded marketplace,” added Heinze, assistant professor at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University. “To say that these ingredients are ‘common causes of food allergies,’ as I’ve seen reported, is not very accurate.” “You just have to follow the money trail,” said …
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Nutritionists Offer Up Pet Food Talking Points For VetsAugust 30, 2012When it comes to pet food, sometimes the patient is the best evidence of nutritional quality, experts say. Beyond the animal’s response to the food, it’s also a smart bet to go beyond the advertising and find out something about the company that makes it. “The one thing pet owners need to recognize is that the pet food industry is a big business,” said Lisa Weeth, DVM, clinical nutritionist for Red Bank Veterinary Hospital in Tinton Falls, N.J. Dr. Weeth, a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Nutrition, said she looks at not only who makes the food, but how is the pet doing. “Is it vomiting once a week? Is it drinking a lot and urinating a lot? Having chronic diarrhea and excess gas? I try to bring people back to how an animal is doing, and what’s in the animal’s best interest,” Weeth said. “I want them to leave the jingle and glossy ads at the door and really look at the patient,” she added. Commercial pet food diets are all processed and cooked in a similar fashion, comparing dry formulas to dry and canned formulas to canned, and every over-the-counter pet food is very comparable in …
Progress In Treating FIP ReportedAugust 15, 2012 Feline infectious peritonitis, or FIP, has long been a diagnosis without hope. But a new medication shows promise, and a cutting-edge genetic breakthrough might be within reach. Niels Pedersen, DVM, PhD, and Al Legendre, DVM, PhD, spoke of hope to a crowd of nearly 200 veterinarians, cat breeders and cat lovers at the recent 33rd annual Winn Foundation Symposium in Reston, Va. Dr. Pedersen is director of the Center for Companion Animal Health and the Veterinary Genetics Laboratory at the University of California, Davis. Dr. Legendre, Dipl. ACVIM, is a professor of internal medicine and oncology at the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine, Knoxville. Once clinical signs occur, FIP has been considered fatal. Most instances of FIP occur in kittens, and it happens a lot, or at least more than previously suspected. According to Pedersen, one in 100 to one in 300 of all cats under ages 3-5 succumbs to FIP. The incidence can be five to 10 times greater among young cats coming from catteries and shelters. A Difficult Disease Since 1963 when FIP was discovered, there had been little real progress affecting the lifespan of those who are diagnosed. …
Taming Territorial Aggression In CatsAugust 10, 2012 While it is not strictly true that cats belong to places and not to people, they are, by nature, a highly territorial species. They also have personality traits that make them more or less accepting of other cats within the social space called home. But even if a cat is relatively mellow and socially accepting, peace is not guaranteed when a new cat is introduced to the home because there is the personality of the newcomer to consider as well. Friends and Enemies Cats that have lived in peace for some time usually have come to some arrangements about the allocation of space and privilege along the lines of timesharing. However, a newcomer can shake up a stable arrangement. On the one hand, the newcomer may begin to throw his weight around and incur the wrath of an incumbent. Alternatively, the incumbent may simply not like him and attempt to expel him from the group. Cats have preferred associates (friends) and others who they conscientiously avoid, so likes and dislikes come into the equation, too. In nature, in a communal setting, preferred associates hang out and outsiders may have to go their own way. However, …
Saying Goodbye To RosyAugust 10, 2012 FoxyKats Scarlet Rose was her full registered name, but around here for the last 14 ½ years she’s just been Rosy. A mere whisper of a cat at no more than 8 pounds, she was always a force to be reckoned with, whether it was at the vet (often my place of employment) where she turned into one of those “but she never acts like that at home!” cats, to here at home, where her constant need for affection wouldn’t let her even settle down on a lap…always flipping, flopping, wanting to be the center of attention. Sure, she had a few unlikeable qualities, such as drooling while she purred the minute you picked her up and put her in her favorite spot or on the shoulder of a friend. She would sneak up on the bathroom counter during my morning routine and steal my make-up brushes. She also had this obsession with chewing on paper…and the more important the paper, the more she wanted to chew it! I have no doubt that we will continue to find chewed on envelopes, corners of book covers, random paperwork lying around the office for years to come. She even chewed …
What’s The Best Use Of Ear Cleansers?July 31, 2012 Client care for infected cat and dog ears depends on using medications properly, and practitioners differ on best use of ear cleansers. “I recommend that pet owners clean the ears commensurate with the quantity of exudates that are produced during the course of treatment,” said Jon Plant, DVM, owner of SkinVet Clinic in Lake Oswego, Ore. “Some ear cleansers, like those containing tris-EDTA, are designed to use as a pre-treatment flush 15 minutes prior to applying the topical medication, regardless of the amount of exudate that is present,” he said. “Other cleansers are acidifying, and the application of some ear medications should be delayed so that the pH returns to normal.” Not only do acidic cleansers lessen the effectiveness of aminoglycoside (gentamicin, neomycin) and flouroquinolone (enrofloxacin, orbifloxacin) antibiotics, they sting the animal’s ears, noted Paul B. Bloom, DVM, Dipl. ACVD, Dipl. ABVP, owner of the Allergy, Skin and Ear Clinic for Pets in Livonia, Mich. “Exceptions include tris-EDTA-based products (by Dechra, Sogeval and others) and Epi-Otic Advanced (by Virbac),” Dr. Bloom said. Tris-EDTA is short for tromethamine and edetate disodium dihydrate. Dechra Veterinary Products …
Strategies For Battling Cat & Dog Ear InfectionsJuly 31, 2012 Ear infections in pets are painful, itchy, stinky, greasy, puffy, raw and seem to come in every color of the rainbow. Just about everyone agrees that ear infections are disgusting, but hardly any two veterinarians treat ears the same way. Some practitioners go for a definitive diagnosis. Others treat with a broad-spectrum medication and watch for the response. One veterinarian swears by Animax ointment. Another reaches for Otomax or Tresaderm. Some consider cleansers a key component in ear treatment and care, while others take a conservative approach. Job OneTalking to vendors of ear-care products can be as overwhelming as trying to get veterinarians to agree on the best ones and how they should be used. Veterinary Practice News talked with two nationally known veterinary dermatologists on the subject, along with representatives from veterinary otic manufacturing companies, for a current sampling of remedies. Job One is to diagnose the underlying cause, said Paul Bloom, DVM, owner of the Allergy, Skin and Ear Clinic for Pets in Livonia, Mich. “If you ignore this, you are doomed to recurrence,” warned Bloom, a diplomate of both the American College of Veterinary Dermatologists and the American …
There’s Never A Good Time For LymeJuly 27, 2012 With more than 20,000 human cases reported annually, Lyme disease is the most common vector-borne disease in the U.S., according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. On the canine end, however, the number of Lyme-infected dogs is unclear because of the lack of a central reporting agency. Experts have found that veterinarians practicing in areas thought to be relatively free of Borrelia burgdorferi aren’t looking for Lyme disease. And in Lyme-endemic areas, the experts say, the disease may be overdiagnosed and overtreated in dogs. Though 95 percent of Lyme cases are found in just 12 states, specialists say using a single test—the SNAP-4Dx by Idexx Laboratories of Westbrook, Maine—can detect multiple vector-borne diseases. That means the bacteria/parasite presence in a particular region can be easily determined. “Veterinarians can take pre-emptive measures to detect exposure in pets, help draw conclusions if illness is present, and as public health professionals, use canine patients as sentinels for disease in the region,” says Andrew Eschner, DVM, senior technical services veterinarian at Merial USA of Duluth, Ga. “This organism has evolved to live in specific hosts and it doesn’t want to kill the host animal. It …
Use Of CO2 Lasers In A Feline PracticeJuly 27, 2012 I have used a CO2 laser for about 10 years. My initial interest in this tool was for declawing cats. I was told that using it would result in less bleeding and less pain. The difference between declawing with it and with a scalpel is not great in kittens, because they heal so rapidly; but the difference is obvious in adult cats, especially overweight ones. Consequently, we abandoned other methods and made CO2 declawing our only option to clients. As we proceeded to use the CO2 laser for declawing, creativity set in. I found that it is a tool that either exclusively permits accomplishment of certain surgeries or is superior to the other options. The following are applications that make feline practice more successful. 1. Lesions in Difficult Places Oral tumors are frustrating because most affected cats are presented for drooling, poor appetite or fetid breath. Owners typically think there is a dental problem that can be solved with a good teeth cleaning or a few extractions. They are shocked to find that an aggressive, malignant tumor is present and that it is beyond surgical removal …
Declaw: Whom Are We Protecting?July 13, 2012 Declaw happens, at least in the United States. Deemed illegal or inhumane in countries across Europe, Scandinavia and around the globe,1 declaw is also opposed by many organizations in the United States. However, U.S. veterinarians still consider onychectomy “routine,” sometimes bundling spay/neuter with declaw as specially priced “packages.”2 In fact, an estimated 25 percent of owned cats in the U.S. are declawed.3 While West Hollywood has banned declawing, 86 percent of southern California hospitals declaw cats, 76 percent do so on kittens younger than 8 months old, 95 percent declaw to protect furniture, 33 percent perform the procedure for no specific reason, and 5 percent earn over $1,000 per hour for the operation.4 How does protecting furniture or one’s bottom line compare with the veterinarian’s oath to employ knowledge and skill “for the benefit of society through the protection of animal health and welfare, the prevention and relief of animal suffering”?5 So, why do declaws continue? “My veterinarian supports it.” Sociologic research on attitudes of veterinarians and staff concerning onychectomy indicated “a number of staff felt uncomfortable with their participation …
