Can Dogs Suffer From Post Traumatic Stress Disorder?September 24, 2012 Post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, is not a fully recognized veterinary behavioral phenomenon but some believe it exists and is probably more common than we think. I have taught veterinary students about PTSD for many years, my initiation into this ongoing phobia being a particular case I saw many years ago. The dog in question was shot by a Boston police officer who thought the dog was going to attack him while he was pursuing a suspect. In fact, the dog was only charging along behind him, energized by the excitement and commotion. The .38-caliber bullet entered through the dog’s head, just missing vital structures and traveled along the dog’s neck, finally coming to rest in the chest wall. The dog sank to the ground in a pool of blood and his distraught owner was quickly on the scene trying to revive him. As it turns out, the dog was not dead but close to it and heading down a path of no return, but his owner quickly scooped him up and brought him to nearby Angell Memorial Animal Hospital where the ICU staff worked wonders, plugged the leak (so to speak) and brought …
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Nerve Blocks Take The Bite Out Of Small Animal Oral SurgerySeptember 21, 2012 Aside from an uncomplicated professional cleaning, nearly every dental procedure may result in intraoperative or postoperative discomfort. The most effective approach to pain relief is pre-emptive analgesia. This prevents the windup phenomenon, a perceived increase in pain intensity due to repeated stimulus of nerve fibers. Local anesthetics work by blocking sodium channels in neuron cell membranes, preventing development of an action potential. In addition to the benefit of preventing windup pain, nerve blocks decrease the amount of inhalant anesthetic gas needed, potentially improving intraoperative blood pressures and allowing for easier maintenance of necessary anesthetic plane. Depending on the type of local anesthetic used, nerve blocks may provide up to 10 hours of postoperative analgesia. Although they are often called local anesthetics, we use them more commonly in oral surgery to provide regional anesthesia of specific nerves to block an entire region of the body (e.g. the right maxilla). Materials Needed Some veterinary dentists prefer to use a dental aspirating syringe—like what human dentists use—that allows for aspiration and injection with one hand, theoretically causing less movement of the needle tip when aspirating. At the University of Pennsylvania, our doctors use standard 3cc or …
Julia Avery, DVM: Overcoming Challenges AbroadSeptember 21, 2012 Various challenges can arise when working abroad, such as getting used to a new culture and/or adapting to a new schedule. For Julia Avery, DVM, her biggest challenge in Baghdad, Iraq, is making the most of the limited veterinary medical supplies. “The lack of supplies and equipment is the worst challenge,” says Dr. Avery, who has been working for the American K-9 Detection Services (AMK9) since September 2011. The Lake Mary, Fla.-based company offers contract working dog detection services to a variety of clients, including government agencies. Avery, who through the company is part of the U.S. Baghdad Embassy Security Force, works as a civilian veterinarian taking care of the roughly 200 contract working dogs. The dogs protect the U.S. Embassy and U.S. Consulates by detecting explosives at entry check points and other areas and sweeping venues or routes that may be utilized by the ambassador or other VIPs, among other duties. Overcoming Limits To help overcome some of the medical supply limitations, Avery has networked with many of the human providers to acquire most of the needed medications and dry goods. Still, there are other challenges to contend with, such as poor mail service—Avery …
Multimodal Approach To OsteoarthritisSeptember 4, 2012 Osteoarthritis (OA) has long been recognized as an important source of chronic pain in people, with over 70 percent age 65 or older showing radiographic evidence of it. OA has emerged as the leading cause of chronic pain in pets. About 20 percent of dogs, independent of age, suffer the effects of osteoarthritis. Recent data suggests that 100 percent of cats 10 or older exhibit radiographic signs consistent with osteoarthritis. The veterinary profession does not face any other cause of morbidity as widespread as this. Because the incidence is so high, veterinary health care teams are obligated to expand our understanding of how best to manage patients suffering from OA. One of the most important developments in chronic pain management has been the recognition of the complex nature of the nervous system’s processing of pain. Pain involves many receptors and neurotransmitters and many different mechanisms and actions. The malleability, or plasticity, of the nervous system in the face of pain provides the opportunity for both central and peripheral sensitization, the result of which is often debilitating and difficult-to-reat pain. In animal patients who suffer from chronic OA pain, traditional monotherapy—the use of a single agent …
What’s The Truth About Gluten?August 30, 2012 Before you remove the gluten from that pet's diet, you might be interested in hearing what a clinical veterinary nutritionist has to say. “To me, food is a way of delivering calories and nutrients into the animal,” said Lisa Weeth, DVM, Dipl. ACVN, with Red Bank Veterinary Hospital in Tinton Falls, N.J. “As long as the animal does not have a documented food allergy, owners shouldn’t worry about whether the food contains corn, wheat or rice—the ingredients themselves are not important—and more about the quality of food overall,” Dr. Weeth added. Weeth said “gluten” is a term for the protein portion of the carbohydrate. True gluten enteropathies, or sensitivities to gliadin and glutenin, are extremely rare in dogs. “Gluten-free or no-grain diets, which use primarily simple carbohydrates like tapioca or potato, may not have enough fiber compared to diets that include more complex carbohydrates like oats, barley and brown rice,” Weeth said. “What I see clinically in otherwise healthy dogs that are eating ‘gluten-free’ or ‘no-grain’ diets is poor stool quality and increased gassiness. This is often resolved with adding more complex carbohydrate to their diet.” …
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 …
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 …
