Voice For Justice: Melinda Merck, DVMDecember 30, 2009 When authorities were trying to build the infamous dogfighting case against Michael Vick, they weren’t sure exactly what to look for or how to prove it. But forensic scientist Melinda Merck, DVM, did. After excavating the graves of some of the pit bulls and analyzing their remains, she pieced together the horrific details of their deaths. Some had been hanged; others had been shot. Her expertise helped put the National Football League quarterback in prison and brought more attention to what’s becoming an important new tool in law enforcement. Now senior director of veterinary forensics at the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in New York, Dr. Merck is on the front lines of this rapidly growing specialty, combining the techniques of human forensic science with the specialized knowledge of veterinary medicine. “It’s not about punishment or getting people put into jail; it’s about protecting the animals,” Merck says. “If we’re not the voice for that animal, who is?” On-the-Job Training In the emerging field of veterinary forensic science, Merck, 45, is a star—profiled by National Public Radio and People magazine, sought after as a speaker and consultant. …
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Interview With A Suture GuruDecember 30, 2009 Suture material is the most common foreign body intentionally left inside patients. It can delay wound healing, cause infection or create an ugly scar. Choosing which suture type to use should therefore be taken seriously. In a perfect world, suture material would be strong, easy to handle, non-reactive, non-toxic and affordable. It also would offer good knot security and be reabsorbed by the body at a predictable rate once the tissue has healed. Courtesy of Dr. Phil Zeltzman Appropriate suture choice and technique are just the beginning. It is important to use an E-collar to prevent self-trauma, as in this 10-year-old Labrador, who had a hemilaminectomy for a disc hernia. But the variety of suture materials and needles can be overwhelming. We asked Thomas McMahan, sort of a suture guru, to help us untangle the web of suture materials in an exclusive interview. Q. What is your background? A. I have been involved in the medical field for the past 40 years. I am a surgical devices consultant for Novartis Animal Health, where I help educate and train veterinarians, vet students, vet technicians and sales …
Natural Vs. Synthetic VitaminsDecember 30, 2009 From holistic websites to nutritional seminars, messages bombarding consumers and the profession argue that “natural” vitamins are better than “synthetics” and often espouse the “more is better” line for orthomolecular or megavitamin therapy. Skeptics counter this by insisting that “with minor exception, molecules made in the ‘factories’ of nature are identical to those made in the factories of chemical companies.”1 They maintain that a good diet should supply all necessary nutrients. The true story builds a much more complex picture. With respect to the argument in favor of food-based vitamins, even natural sources of vitamin A in unnatural quantities produce problems like metabolic osteopathy in cats, a species with particularly high susceptibility to vitamin A toxicity.2 For precursors to vitamin A, the carotenoids, as many as nine factors influence their bioavailability when ingested in food. These variables include: • Their type, diversity and quantity. • The host’s nutrient status, genetic makeup and digestive health. • The integrity of the plant substrate when carotenoids are ingested in food.3,4 The carotenoid lycopene, which lowers prostate cancer risk, illustrates this last point. Cooking improves lycopene bioavailability because heating and homogenizing lycopene-rich tomatoes into paste disrupts …
Factors To ExtinctionDecember 30, 2009 If seeing the great animals of Africa is on your wish list, go as soon as you can! I recently led a Seminars in the Sun group to South Africa with wildlife expert Dr. Peter Brothers. His guidance and lectures gave us insight into the complexity and multilevel challenges that Africa faces to preserve its amazing biodiversity and heritage as the birthplace of man. Malayan sun bears may become extinct sooner than expected, two ecologists say. The most disturbing concept for me to absorb is the heartless process of extinction. It happened to the dinosaurs after a huge meteor hit the planet. It happens as life proceeds. It is happening now despite desperate conservation measures. Many factors come into play, such as weather, habitat loss, environmental toxins, disease, shrinking population dynamics. These factors can be analyzed to predict extinction risks and rates for endangered species. But some species may become extinct much faster than predicted because scientists have not updated the standard extinction prediction model. Alan Hastings at the University of California, Davis, and Brett Melbourne at the University of Colorado in Boulder are ecologists who believe that conservation organizations are using …
Tui Na: Chinese Massage Or Something More?December 30, 2009 Veterinary Tui Na, or Chinese bodywork, has recently joined the Traditional Chinese Medical repertoire along with TCM-style acupuncture and food therapy. Proponents point to the antiquity of Tui Na, citing its origin as circa 1700 BCE.1 Why some practices survived so long, however, is that the closed society of China kept its medicine primitive and folkloric until the Communist Revolution. Today, TCM risks extinction in China because of decreasing enrollment and interest by medical students.2 Calls for the “abolition of traditional Chinese medicine” have erupted in scholarly circles due its lack of scientific basis and outdated precepts.3 Even TCM hospitals are adopting more Western medical style diagnostics and relying less on techniques such as tongue and pulse diagnosis.4 China is now banking on the West’s appetite for all things Asian to keep TCM alive as well.5 Indeed, Americans have transformed both TCM and its veterinary counterpart, TCVM, into big business. It is curious to note that as China works to upgrade its veterinary medical educational standards to meet those outside of China,6 some U.S. holistic groups point to TCVM as a gold standard.7,8 However, the wholesale importation …
Step-by-Step Surgery For Anal Sac CancerDecember 30, 2009 Anal sac cancer causes local problems, mainly because of pain and straining to defecate. Anal sac apocrine gland adenocarcinoma also leads to systemic issues, including hypercalcemia and metastasis. Affected patients are older female dogs in 90 percent of the cases. A few cases have been described in cats. It is important to keep an open mind. Differential diagnosis for perianal disease includes anal sac impaction, abscess (which may rupture), sacculitis, perianal adenomas, perineal hernias, perineal fistulas and other malignancies, such as perianal malignant melanoma. Any of these conditions affect the quality of life of the patient. Photo courtesy of Dr. Phil Zeltzman. A preoperative view of a left anal sac adenocarcinoma in a 9-year-old male Akita mix. An anal sac tumor is suspected on rectal exam. If it is large enough, subcutaneous swelling may be visible. Occasionally, the tumor is bilateral. A diagnosis can sometimes be reached with cytology if enough cells exfoliate. Histopathology gives a definitive diagnosis. Incisional biopsies are rarely used, whereas excisional biopsy is typically the preferred course of action. Standard preoperative workup includes a CBC and blood chemistry, including a calcium level. Approximately …
Balancing Motherhood And Veterinary PracticeDecember 30, 2009 When building Coast Pet Clinic/Animal Cancer Center (Coast) in 1977 I was only 29 years old. We designed the upstairs with a big conference room and a full kitchen and bathroom that opened to a spacious room that could serve as a day care facility for babies and small children. But the children did not come to our practice, not until this century. A Chance to Help African Orphans As I write this, I’m getting ready to lead a group to South Africa to see Dr. Peter Brothers, a wildlife veterinarian who leads Brothers Safari. So I am making a special plea to readers to help feed orphaned African children who have lost parents to the AIDS epidemic. These children have nothing. In Malawi alone, 2 million of its 12 million people are orphans. Please join me in sending donations to Nourish the Children at NourishTheChildren.com. Nourish the Children had nutritionists from my alma mater, the University of California, Davis, create a special fortified food called Vita Meal to nourish starving children. In addition, …
Know When To Leave It To The SpecialistDecember 30, 2009 I’ve got this acquaintance. She’s an educated professional and a commonsensical kind of person. Unfortunately, none of this kept her from suffering a failed root canal at the hands of a general practitioner dentist. She trusted him and he failed. Not only did he legitimately fail to provide a reasonable root canal, leading directly to an abscessed tooth that he never re-radiographed postprocedure. Where he most failed was in his duty to offer the services of an endodontist before performing the work. That got me to thinking about all the cases I see as a “second opinion” and all the disaster cases my significant other, a vet surgeon, treats on the back end of poor general practitioner judgment calls. Most of mine are cases that need not stop at another GP before heading directly to a specialist. That they land in my lap in the absence of a referring vet’s communication is testament that this “second opinion” was not recommended by their initial veterinarian. Rather, it’s an outright defection that represents a dereliction of trust in their regular vet—all of which might have been prevented given a simple referral to the appropriate source: a specialist. …
High Achiever: Lance S. Fox, DVMDecember 30, 2009 It’s a somewhat unlikely tale: Motivated by his father’s early death and his son’s premature birth, a 39-year-old veterinarian with limited climbing experience decides to take on the world’s highest mountain. Photo courtesy of Dr. Lance S. Fox. Dr. Lance S. Fox pauses on top of Mount Everest. But it’s all true, even the Hollywood-style happy ending. On the morning of May 21, after 10 final, exhausting hours of climbing—six of them by headlamp in the dark—Lance S. Fox, DVM, joined a very exclusive club. He reached the summit of Mount Everest, one of fewer than 3,000 people who have set foot on top of the world. And now the Wisconsin vet is telling his story to the world. Soon to be featured in the third season of the Discovery Channel series “Everest: Beyond the Limit,” Dr. Fox is drawing on his adventure during speeches to high school and college kids, hoping to persuade them to conquer their personal Everests. “My opening slide is ‘If You Believe, You Can Achieve,’ ” Fox says. “So often we hear people say the words, ‘I can’t.’ But I disagree …
Digital RadiographyDecember 30, 2009 Conventional X-ray technology has been used for decades, virtually unchallenged and unchanged. Now the rapid evolution of digital X-ray options makes veterinary consumers ask what’s the right system for me? How do I store my images? Who do I make them available to? About 25 percent of veterinarians use digital radiography equipment in their practice and 70 percent are expected to use the technology within the next five years, according to Idexx Laboratories of Westbrook, Maine. But the profession is divided when privacy enters the conversation, leaving some less eager to trust an outside company with the responsibility of storing images. Veterinarians agree that determining what to do with picture archiving and communication systems, or PACS, is a big decision. PACS are servers dedicated to the storage, retrieval, distribution and presentation of images. They can stay under the owners’ roof or be placed in the care of an outside company. While keeping images in-house solves privacy concerns, an off-site company takes responsibility for the images’ protection and can be a good way to protect records in the event of a fire or natural disaster. “There are a small percentage of clients who educate themselves to …
