Holiday Nutrition A Challenge For Pets, TooOctober 20, 2010 Winter months in general and the holidays in particular mean colder weather, more time indoors and increased access to large portions of decadent foods—for both people and their pets. Just a single season of increased caloric intake combined with a sedentary lifestyle can have significant effects on the health of a pet. But a little client education can go a long way. Craig Prior, BVSc, medical director and partner at Nashville’s Murphy Road Animal Hospital and partner at the Nashville and Rivergate Pet Emergency Clinics in Tennessee, says veterinarians can serve as valuable partners in reducing the ill effects the holidays can have on pet health. “In the winter, there’s definitely a holiday splurge going on,” he says. “Clients have the attitude that it’s OK because the pet will lose the weight in the summer. That’s a bad mindset to get into, and it’s up to us to try to break it. After all, it will get harder to lose that weight over time.” S. Dru Forrester, DVM, MS, Dipl. ACVIM, a scientific affairs representative for Hill’s Pet Nutrition in Topeka, Kan., agrees. “Unless there is an increase in exercise and play activities indoors …
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Home Monitoring Key To Diabetic RegulationOctober 18, 2010Compliance also improves when client has stake in management Home blood glucose monitoring is the care standard for human diabetics. In humans, glucose is typically monitored four to six times per day. Exogenous insulin by injection is contraindicated without home monitoring. This is a safety issue, as glucose values in humans vary significantly day to day. This same daily variability has been documented in dogs and cats. Variables known to influence glucose in both species include stress, excitement, exercise, quality and quantity of diet, as well as amount of insulin absorbed from the subcutaneous tissue. Varying the injection site leads to different absorption. For this reason, the author does not advise rotation of the injection site. If local inflammation associated with repeat injections occurs, the injection site is changed to a new site rather than rotated between sites. Variability in glucose also occurs in the absence of an explainable cause. Inconsistent glucose values are a source of frustration for veterinarians and owners. Once daily glucose monitoring is instituted, the magnitude of the fluctuations becomes apparent. Simply stated, every day is not the same. In the absence of home monitoring, one is unlikely …
Help Provide Peace Of Mind For ClientsOctober 6, 2010 As practicing veterinarians, we are constantly faced with pet owners making that difficult decision between life and death, treatment or euthanasia. And, unfortunately, more often than not, the decision is financially based. In the process of discussing the nature of the needed care, we frequently offer the client “options” for treatment: radiographs vs. labwork; medication vs. surgery; IV fluids vs. SQ fluids. While discussing the cost of recommended care, we also need to offer the “options” for payment. Two of these options—pet insurance and third-party payment plans—were once thought to be competitive entities. Actually, they are quite synergistic. Here’s how: Synergy at Work In its business definition, synergy can be defined as a state in which two or more agents, entities, factors, processes, substances or systems work together in a particularly fruitful way that produces an effect greater than the sum of their individual effects. It’s also expressed as “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” The owner of an insured pet has the security and peace of mind of knowing that if her pet becomes ill she has the insurance to reimburse a portion of what she has paid out. The …
Aim High, Go Low On Weight-Loss PlanSeptember 23, 2010 Dr. Todd Towell has some simple advice for owners of fat cats and obese dogs: Don’t feed the oversized pet you see. Instead, portion out meals while visualizing the much-leaner animal deep inside. “Think of it like those Russian nesting dolls,” says Towell, DVM, MS, Dipl. ACVIM, the senior manager of scientific communications at Hill’s Pet Nutrition. “You want to feed that core pet in the center, not the one on the outside with the layers of fat.” When dealing with pet owners, T樂威壯 owell keeps her weight-loss message as basic and understandable as possible. But she acknowledges that for veterinarians seeking to craft a successful pound-dropping plan, things can get more complicated. Truth is, the first step—determining a pet’s optimal weight—can be a doozy. That’s because research is exposing the conventional scoring systems for assessing body condition as the bearers of unreliable results, Towell says. The commonly used five- and nine-point scales for assessing a dog or cat’s condition max out at 40 to 45 percent body fat. But these days it’s not uncommon for veterinarians to see patients with 60 to 70 percent body fat.Such animals quite …
A Case Study: Putting Shine On Titan’s Golden YearsSeptember 20, 2010Every day, the weight of Titan’s 12 years seemed to exact a new toll. And the German shepherd wasn’t the only one toting the burden of his decline. His owner, Rachael Carlson, felt for her beloved pet as he suffered through one infection after another and struggled with pain and inflammation in his aging joints. “His anal sacs were always infected and had bloody secretions,” Carlson says. “He was constantly on antibiotics, and we had to go see our veterinarian over and over. Plus, he was having a difficult time getting on the bed and couch, and he fell down a lot. “We were considering euthanasia.” That seems eons ago, Carlson says, though it’s been just 18 months since a reprieve first surfaced via a concerted and consistent approach to Titan’s treatment featuring Class IV laser therapy. Safe to say, his improvement has fed the quality-of-life meter for both dog and owner. “Our intent was simply to help Titan be more comfortable,” Carlson says. “We’ve gotten much more than that.” Here is a closer look at the role therapeutic laser played in improving the quality of an aging pet’s life. Patient Titan, an 81-pound, 12-year-old neutered male German …
Speedier Recovery After ACL SurgeryJuly 6, 2010 The wide-open fields of doggie day care were the perfect place for Diamond to run and play with pals—until the boxer started to need some special care of her own. Danielle Mayo, Diamond’s owner, noticed the pup favoring her right hind leg, then limping and struggling to climb the stairs. Over the next few months, Diamond also showed signs of injury to her left hind leg, and it turned out she had cruciate ligament injuries to both rear legs. Geoff Campbell, DVM, owner and operator of Edinburgh Animal Hospital in Chesapeake, Va., has performed dozens of cruciate surgeries using the extracapsular/Securos technique, but never on two legs at the same time. He made an exception for Diamond to save Mayo money, to shorten Diamond’s recovery time and because he had a new tool to mitigate post-operative pain. Following is a study of the case and how Class IV laser therapy played a role in treatment planning and in post-operative recovery. Patient Diamond, a 2-year-old, 49-pound female boxer who loves to romp at the day care center for dogs where his owner works. Problem Bilateral anterior cruciate injuries. Diamond also suffered a meniscal tear …
Healed Hot Spot Turns Skeptic AroundMarch 4, 2010 Brandy Ellis, DVM, had heard laser therapy touted as a cure-all, which only fueled her skepticism that the technological advance might be all hype and no help with her day-to-day delivery of veterinary care. Then the clinic at which she works in Olive Branch, Miss., added a Companion Therapy Class IV laser, and she got a chance to test it. At first she and her colleague, Ruth Wilburn, DVM, used the laser to speed healing of incisions and to relieve post-operative pain. Then they found it was effective in treating back and muscle injuries. “We got a huge response in cases that had not previously responded to conventional methods,” Dr. Ellis says. So when client Pete Caldwell brought in Buddy, his German shepherd mix, because of an acute case of lick granuloma, she had laser therapy in the back of her mind. When the hot spot didn’t respond to oral and topical treatments, the laser moved front and center. The success enjoyed in this case has helped convert Ellis and her client into laser therapy believers. “I couldn’t be happier with the way things turned out,” says Caldwell, a Memphis, Tenn., resident. “For a …
Third-Party Financing Aids ProfitabilityFebruary 7, 2010 For 21 years, Bruce Little, DVM, cared for the animals of Bloomington, Ill., and he still looks back on that time with great pride and affection. But there’s one aspect of his practice he would just as soon consign to the dark crevices of history. “I’m sorry to say that I practiced in a time when euthanasia was one of the clinical options,” says Dr. Little, who now does veterinary practice consulting as principal at Las Vegas-based Bruce Little Associates after 23 years as an executive of the American Veterinary Medical Association. “It was a common part of the conversation,” he says. “ ‘We can pin the fibula, cast it, or euthanize the pet and you can go get another one.’ ” So perhaps no one is more pleased that these days veterinarians have clinical and financial tools that take economic euthanasia off the table. One tool is third-party financing, the value of which Little is working to help doctors and practice managers better understand. What It Is Third-party financing allows qualified clients to pay expenses over time, making it easier for them to say “yes” to more costly treatments when they don’t have …
For Some, CR Is Perfect Imaging FitFebruary 7, 2010 When John Endres, DVM, prepared to launch his small-animal practice in central New York state 18 months ago, he was determined to do his homework before investing in digital radiography. Speed, reliability, flexibility and cost all were at the front of his mind. His decision to go with CR—a computed radiography system—says a lot about how a systematic exploration of options can lead to a good imaging fit. Dr. Endres, owner and operator of Compassionate Care Veterinary Hospital of Manlius, N.Y., chose Konica Minolta’s ImagePilot CR System. He decided on CR over DR after setting aside his wants and focusing on his practical needs. He knew he needed something other than a traditional film-and-wet-processing system because his hospital layout didn’t afford space for a darkroom. Plus he needed digital images so he could easily consult with and refer to specialists. He was impressed with the speed of the direct digital radiography systems he considered; some could deliver images in as little as six seconds, which would be a boon to large multidoctor hospitals, he noted. But Endres was opening a single-doctor practice, so he decided he didn’t need all that speed, considering that it …
Pharmacist Helps Fill Bovine Insulin VoidJanuary 4, 2010 Jennifer Gimon’s love of animals led her to adopt many felines through the years. Though the cats have escaped the diagnosis of diabetes, she has seen the effects of the disease and heard many stories of struggle. Thanks to her skills as a compounding pharmacist, she can offer more than just sympathy. “I’ve dedicated my life to (compounding) this insulin for cats,” said Gimon, a registered pharmacist who is founder and president of BCP Veterinary Pharmacy in Houston. The story of how Gimon came to re-create a formula that she and others say is the closest match to feline insulin available says a lot about the ways pharmaceutical industry dynamics can affect the delivery of veterinary care these days. It’s a story with a happy ending, her clients say, because BCP bovine-derived PZI (protamine zinc insulin) gives them an important option in the treatment of feline diabetes. The bovine insulin Gimon compounds is a replication of Eli Lilly’s Iletin pure-beef PZI product discontinued in the 1990s as the company transitioned to synthetic human insulin. Animal-source insulin has been deemed impractical to produce by pharmaceutical companies in part because of the difficulty in getting the pancreatic …
