Dr. Glynn's Vet Blog

Chinese chicken jerky treats cause kidney disease, death in dogs

Dr. Glynn — Thu, 24 May 2012 22:31:16 GMT

This link will take you to the ABC news story.

http://news.yahoo.com/chinese-pet-treats-linked-900-dog-deaths-illnesses-180336402--abc-news-topstories.html

I have not seen any cases so far.

Giardia in dogs and cats

Dr. Glynn — Wed, 16 May 2012 18:01:45 GMT

Testing for the intestinal protozoa parasite Giardia is routinely done at my office during the course of annual examinations. This once flawed test has improvedto the point that we are catching almost every case from just checking a poop sample. Here's the funny part - many of these patients don't need to be treated even though they test positive.

Dogs and cats that have diarrhea and are positive for Giardia should be treated. Nuff said.

Asymptomatic dogs and cats that test positive for Giardia might need to be treated, it depends on the circumstances.

Because Giardia is a known human pathogens many vets prefer to treat even the asymptomatic patients. 20% of Giardia belongs to the Assemblage A, the group of Giardia that can be passed to humans. That means 80% of Giardia is not a threat to humans.

My advice to pet owners is that asymptomatic animals should be treated in households where somebody might potentially catch Giardia from their pet. Households that are at risk for Giardia typically have immunosuppressed people, very young children or seniors.

Giardia is common in the environment in water sources that have not been chlorinated.Giardia is spread in the feces. Reasonable hygiene is adequate to keep food and water from becoming contaminated with giardia from pet feces.

Treatment for Giardia is imperfect and failures are common. As many as 40% of Giardia cases require repeated treatment(s) to clear the organism . A follow up poop sample is needed to confirm the infection has been cleared.

If your pet has diarrhea I will run a poop sample to the lab and see if Giardia is the source of your problem. While treatment can be frustrating it is worthwhile. Symptomatic animals typically respond quickly toa saqfe and inexpensive medication given at home.

The best ways to stop itching!

Dr. Glynn — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 23:52:10 GMT

Itchy pets are usually allergic to one of three things. The most common is fleas. Food allergies and pollen allergies are common as well. Let's look at these causes one at a time.

Fleas.

My advice is to prevent them rather than try to kill them later. The best products are available as topicals or oral preparations given monthly. I recommend you skip using pesticides in your house and yard and on your pets unless these products fail you. They won't.

For topicals I prefer Revolution. For oral products I prefer Trifexis. Both products kill fleas and prevent heartworm. Revolution also prevents ticks, mange and ear mites. Trifexis prevents intestinal parasites. Both of these top notch products are available to our clients here at the office on First Street. Please ask for them at our front desk and start using them now- before you have fleas. Use both year round.

Got fleas already? Come see us for some free personalized advice, every case is a little different..

Food Allergies.

Pets develop allergies only to foods that they have eaten in the past. They are only rarely allergic to food ingredients they have never had before.

We can use this! I recommend we go for six weeks feeding 100% new food, zero treats, and see if it helps. Better? Try the old food again. Worse with the old food? Your pet is now diagnosed with food allergy! Feed your pet special food for the rest of its life and everything should be fine, at least until he becomes allergic to the new food. It is an imperfect world.

My favorite choices for food trials are foods made by Natural Balance. They are available at For Other Living Things in Sunnyvale. I recommend the duck and potato food for dogs or the duck and green pea food for cats. They love them!

If this first food trial fails don't give up, try again. My second favorite food trial is done for six weeks feeding only Z/d Ultra by Hills, sold here at my office.

Here is an article to read before starting a food trial.

Seasonal Pollen Allergies

If I could cure pollen allergies I would start by treating my wife. Unfortunately for my wife and all allergy sufferers we really just manage their symptoms. We do not cure these patients, most allergies last a lifetime.

Drug choices

The perfect drug would be cheap safe and effective. Sorry Charlie, that drug has not been invented yet. So I use three kinds of drugs to stop itching, depending on the case and the client's wishes.

Antihistamines are cheap and safe but..... only work about 40% of the time.

Steroids like prednisone are cheap and effective but.....are not safe for long-term use.

Cyclosporine, the drug of choice for allergies in dogs, is safe and effective but..... costs money.

All drug choices and doses should be cleared with your veterinarian before starting.I recommend getting your pet examined ast is important to treat secondary yeast and bacterial infections with prescription antibiotics and anti yeast medications, usually pills given at home for one to two weeks, sometimes longer.

A word of caution- there is a lot of junk out there on the market. Pet ownerslove, love, love special soaps, shampoos, oils, lotions and potions of various sorts. Beware! "Natural" and attractively packaged products are almost always ineffective. They just don't work. Sorry.

The Trifecta

Ok, now we can talk about the worst case scenario. These three causes of itching are not mutually exclusive. Your poor pet can have all three of them at once! These pets are practically allergic to everything on the planet, reacting to fleas, food and pollen. You may need Super Vet to sort things out.

A veterinary dermatology specialist can evaluate and treat your pet by referral from your regular vet. If the referring vet does a good job this is usually not necessary to get a dignosis but can be helpful for formulating weekly allergy injections that can be given at home. These hyposensitization shots are safe, moderately effective, slow to work (four to sixteen months) and expensive. This lifetime treatment plan is appropriate for patients that do not respond to the above treatments. Try your regular vet first. If you don't get the result you want after a few visits using the treatments above then ask for a referral to a veterinary dermatologist for a second opinoin if you want to try hyposensitization.

Chocolate Toxicity Calculator

Dr. Glynn — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 18:28:47 GMT

It's that time of year again- Halloween. Many of us will be buying huge bags of candy, eating most of it and passing the rest out to kids. What if the dog gets into the stash and eats it all?

No problem if...

the dog is big enough

the chocolate is cheap enough

the dog only eats a measurable amount and that amount is small

So if you know your dog's weight in pounds, how much and what type of chocolate he ate you can plug these numbers into this nifty calculator and see if you have an emergency on your hands.

CLICK HERE to check it out

Three Great Tips To Brushing Your Pet's Teeth

Dr. Glynn — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 16:58:28 GMT

I like to think of what we do now in at home veterinary dentistal care as roughly equivalent to American Civil War dentistal care for people. The concept that if you brush your teeth you get to keep them is still alien to many pet owners.

Periodontal disease is the most common problem any veterinarian sees on a daily basis in the exam room. It is epidemic in house pets. Most often it has progressed to the point that a patient needs to go under general anesthesia to have calculus scaled off the teeth by a team of veterinary nurses and doctor. You can save a lot of money if you don't let it get to that point simply by brushing your pet's teeth. And they get to keep their teeth. Bonus!

If I make it very, very easy for you will you do it? I have one requirement for success- I want you to do this every day. Deal?

The perfect is the enemy of the good. I've sold many veterinary toothbrushes and tubes of nasty looking toothpaste to well intentioned pet owners over the years. I know the vast majority of clients take these wonderful tools home and put them in a drawer somewhere and break them out about once a month, maybe once a year. Very few owners will get off the sofa, go get the toothpaste and toothbrush, brush their pets teeth, go rinse off the disgusting toothpaste from the disgusting toothbrush and go back to their sofa- much less on a daily basis. So I'm going to make this so easy you don't have to get off that precious sofa. Tonight when I'm sitting at home watching Jeopardy on television and the Pepsodent commercial comes on the TV there is an excellent chance that even I may remember to do what I am telling you to do.

First we have to make the equipment minimal. I like 3". x 3" gauze pads, you can buy them at any drugstore. They will save you hundreds of dollars in veterinary bills so don't cheap out on me here, buy a bunch.

Second, put many of these gauze pads beneath the cushions of your sofa or very near wherever you sit with your pet every night.

Third step? Actual toothbrushing. Wrap one of the gauze pads around your index finger and reach into your pet's mouth. Try rubbing on some teeth. You may see that a vile yellow slime now covers the gauze pad. This is plaque and it used to be on your pet's teeth. I can usually do this to all the upper outside teeth in about 10 seconds.

The beautiful part about this is that I don't have to get off the sofa. If I were to get off the sofa my cat would not be there when I got back with the tube of toothpaste and toothbrush. And I might miss my beloved final Jeopardy question and my world would crumble.

If you would like to see a video of a cat getting its teeth brushed along with instructions from a much more sophisticated group than myself please check out this link from Cornell veterinary school. Perfect technique! It shows (in many tiny step) how to do what I think you can do pretty quickly on your own with a gauze pad instead of a toothbrush. The important thing is to get the upper outside molars- that is where I see the vast majority of problems. Conversely it doesn't seem nearly as important to get to the lower teeth or on the lingual surface of any teeth, upper or lower. It would be great if we could all do things the way Cornell does this wonderful video. Good luck with that. Knock yourself out. I know you guys, 99% of you won't do it daily. With my technique you get the majority of the benefit with a minimal investment of time and effort. But please, remeber to brush daily!

Cool treat tube for dogs (and maybe cats too)!

Dr. Glynn — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 19:24:24 GMT

A client came in last week and I examined her worried hyperactive dog. She told the dog to sit and then reached into her purse. She brought out a tube full of something brown, vile and disgusting. She rewarded the good dog with a squirt from the tube . Voila! Instant calm dog!

I asked her what was in the tube and she said "Tripe!". Ughhhh. But the dog really liked it. She got the tubes at REI in the backpackers kitchen section. Sunday I went to check it out. Two tubes for 5 bucks. Score!

http://www.rei.com/product/696007/coghlans-squeeze-tubes-package-of-2

I loaded my tubes up with some leftover chicken and sausage gumbo that I ran through a blender first. My 14-year-old Labrador Retriever, Coco, who is usually indifferent to my commands, went totally nuts for the stuff and she instantly became the world's most obedient dog. Pretty slick!

The best stuff for treating minor wounds

Dr. Glynn — Thu, 12 May 2011 16:50:00 GMT

A client recently asked me what kind of stuff they should use when his cat gets a minor scratch. I had to give him more than one answer of course, as is my style. Most people don't understand the difference between antibiotics and antiseptics and usually use the wrong one left of their own devices.

Fear not! I am here to help you!

Antiseptics are things like hydrogen peroxide, iodine, chlorhexidine, bleach, etc. . These things kill all kinds of organisms effectively and we really don't have to worry about drug resistance. They are my first choice when I see a fresh wound, especially one that is superficial.

Antibiotics are things like the Amoxicillinn, Neosporin and triple antibiotic creams. They come from the drugstore, usually in little tubes. In my opinion they do not work for nearly as well on wounds and have very little use in veterinary medicine, you're almost always better off using an antiseptic.

For deep penetrating wounds I love antibiotics. The classic example is a cat bite. It is hard to get an antiseptic deep into the tissues of some tiny little puncture wound. It's time to go see the vet when you get one of these bites and we usually use oral antibiotics. If we don't use such antibiotics on day one or date two after a bite wound it is very common to see an abscess form that may require surgical drainage on day three or day four after a bite wound.

Recently I was at a conference that mentioned how abscesses in cats especially are pretty much walled off from the immune system so that evenoral antibiotics cannot reach them. Maybe it's because I've been using them for so long but I find it very hard not to send patients with abscesses home without an oral antibiotic.

My rule of thumb for clients at home is to treat scratches that do not go full thickness through the skin with topical antiseptics. We sell chlorhexidine here over-the-counter and it is very very useful for that purpose.

If a bite wound does go full thickness througho the skin it is worthwhile to have it examined by a veterinarian. He will probably prescribe antibiotics on day one or day two and contemplate surgical drainage if an abscess forms, usually on day three or date for after a bite wound.

New insights in feline dentistry

Dr. Glynn — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 19:14:00 GMT

Last month I went to the Western Veterinary Conference at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Resort in Las Vegas. The municipality of Las Vegas and possibly the entire state of Nevada is deeply disappointed in me- I stayed at the Holiday Inn Express, attended thirty six lectures and did not gamble a dime. I did manage to sit in on some dental lectures given by our local veterinary dental specialist Dr. Steven Holmstrom. I learned a lot, as I always do from his excellent lectures and labs. Here is the best stuff I found out.

Dr. Holmstrom spoke at length about tooth resorption in cats, a common and painful malady that every vet sees almost daily in practice. Unfortunately these poor cat's affected teeth need to be extracted as they are painful and they never seem to get better. Worse yet we really don't know what causes these teeth to go bad, I've always chalked it up to just plain old bad luck. Two new theories were put forward and I think together they may go a long way towards explaining tooth resorption in cats.

Here's a link you can go to link you can go to that shows the problem.

You can also find this in an encyclopedia section of my website under links we love at LosAltosvet.com.

The name has changed over the years but the disease has remained the same. "Cavities" worked well I thought for most of the 1970's and everybody was happy with that name. Then in the 1980's, when veterinary dentistry really got going as a specialty, those wacky specialists named the same lesions "neck lesions" because they were found at the neck of the tooth more often than the crown or the root. Turns out we now know they can often be found on the root or crown so that old name is no more. In the 1990's the same problem was renamed and voila, "feline oral resorptive lesions" ( FORL's) were born. Still too easy to say and remember the next new name was "feline odontoclastic resorptive lesions". I was not much affected by the name change because I just kept on writing down FORL in my records. This year the fourth new name is just plain old "tooth resorption". Most cat owners, being reasonable people, still call them cavities. Why all the name changes, you ask? So vets can go to conferences at swanky joints in Las Vegas, hob nob with veterinary dental specialists and keep up with the changes in nomenclature, of course. But I digress.

Vitamin D plays many complex roles in the body but it is fundamentally involved with calcium and phosphorus metabolism. It is available in the diet and is activated by sunlight. The new theories link tooth resorption to vitamin D in two different ways, diet and sunlight.

We may be feeding our pet cats too much vitamin D. Dr. Holmstrom cited an article where commercial cat foods were measured and they found that 41% of them had 30 times the okay level of vitamin D. Pet food manufacturers are now taking steps to correct this and I hope it will result in feeding healthier cat foods and seeing fewer cats with tooth resorption in the near future. Good luck finding that info on pet food labels. Here is a link to a good pet store who can help you find the foods that have OK levels of vitamin D.

The other study Dr. Holmstrom mentioned found that tooth resorption is not seen as frequently in outdoor cats. We don't know why that is but since vitamin D is activated by sunlight it's entirely plausible that sunlight- or rather the lack of sunlight- predisposes cats to tooth resorption.

The rest of Dr. Holmstrom's lectures that day were devoted to extracting teeth and I won't bother you with the technical information that I find so helpful with my efforts to manage these distressing cases. For now my advice is to try and find cat foods that meet but don't exceed vitamin D levels recommended for cats. I am not sure if letting your cat outdoors is worth the risk, I have always been a huge proponent of keeping suburban cats 100% indoors as there are many things out there that are much worse than potential tooth resorption. Try to get your kitty cats some sunlight several times a week, especially if you have had previous tooth resorption problem (cavity).

Canadian Sled Dogs Killed

Dr. Glynn — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 22:59:00 GMT

Outdoors Adventures in Whistler, BC killed up to 100 dogs in two days last April when their sled dog business for tourists dried up after the winter Olympics left town. Unbelievable.

Watch news video here

Cat litter- you can't have too much

Dr. Glynn — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 19:28:00 GMT

How many cats do you have? How many litter boxes do you have? The cats should not outnumber the litter boxes.

My rule of thumb is one litter box per cat and at least one extra. In my house we have three cats and seven litter boxes. I know that's a little bit extreme but litter is cheap and carpet is expensive. Once a cat looses its natural inhibition against house soiling it is very difficult to retrain them to use the litter box. Buy a carpet cleaner- check out the Bissell Spot Bot on our "links we love" page if you need an excellent small carpet cleaner.

Irate cat owners may be surprised to learn that very few cats eliminate outside their litter box because they are mad or trying to express some other complex emotion to the owner. It usually just means the litter box is dirty. Eliminating outside of the box actually serves a function for cats, especially in a multiple household. It is a way of marking territory.

When we get a case here that a cat is eliminating outside the box we check a urine sample just to make sure the cat is urinating normal urine. Some conditions like urinary tract infections and bladder stones make the urinating uncomfortable for the cat. The cat then associates that pain with the litter box and starts looking for other places to urinate. We are happy to find these cats have something treatable as our success with medical problems is actually much higher than with pure behavior problems. House soiling can be a life-threatening problem in some households so we take these problems very seriously.

if the urine is normal then our job is to make the litter box as attractive as possible. Sometimes will do a litter box smorgasbord- a collection of litter boxes filled with different types of litter, covered and uncovered, scented and unscented. I will do up to 12 at once. Once the cat has voted we provide multiple litter boxes and throw the litter out daily. If that solves the problem we are lucky. Some cats require medications, pheromone sprays or even behavior modification therapy. It is far easier just to have a lot of litter boxes and always get the cat checked out anytime they eliminate outside the litter box!

Tumors and vaccinations in cats

Dr. Glynn — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 17:27:00 GMT

Some cats will develop tumors at the vaccination site when given routine vaccinations. These tumors, called soft tissue sarcomas, are notoriously difficult to manage and usually require the amputation of an affected leg to save the patient. Sometimes even amputation doesn't get rid of these troublesome tumors. It is important for veterinarians and clients to agree on an appropriate vaccination schedule where the risk and benefits of each vaccination is carefully considered.

After a long study a veterinary vaccine associated sarcoma task force was unable to identify a specific reason why cats get soft tissue sarcomas following vaccinations. Dogs do not get them. It is probably a genetic problem with an individual cat responding to a vaccination more than it is a problem with the vaccine itself. One in 10,000 vaccinated cats get such a reaction. Some vets, myself included, believe that anything injected under the skin could cause such a reaction. One in 10,000 cases is too many for me so we have tailored our vaccine recommendations to our patient's lifestyles.

At Los Altos Veterinary Clinic we altered our feline vaccine regimen to conform to the conclusions put forward by the vaccine associated sarcoma task force . They created a list of core vaccines as well as a list of non-core vaccines that are optional to keep your cat healthy.

My personal recommendations to cat owners on which vaccines to give their cat are based on a number of questions having to do with the cat's lifestyle-

Does the cat go outside?

Does the cat get in fights with other cats?

Does the cat board or go on airlines?

Is the cat likely to bite someone?

Are there young children in the family?

All of these are valid reasons to vaccinate indoor cats for rabies.

In general for indoor adult cats I recommend intranasal vaccination (nose drops, no injection- pretty cool, eh?) be given every third year to adult cats for FVRCP ( short for rhinotracheitis, calici and panleukopenia ). That's it.

Indoor cats cannot get rabies, it requires contact with the rabid animal. Here is the problem. Some indoor cats will need to be vaccinated for rabies. Most municipalities require vaccinations for rabies for all dogs and cats and they do not discriminate between indoor and outdoor cats. Cats that go to boarding kennels, groomers or travel on airlines should be vaccinated for rabies as most all kennels, groomers and airlines require these shots.

For outdoor cats the risk of coming in contact with viruses is higher so I recommend vaccinations be given for leukemia, rabies and the three-in-one FVRCP intranasal vaccine . I prefer all these vaccinations to be non-adjuvenated. An adjuvant is something added to the vaccine that makes a better immune response. It has not been proven that adjuvants increase the risk of sarcoma formation but I'm very suspicious that it contributes to the overall risk. I prefer the transdermal spray by Meriel for feline leukemia vaccination be given every three years an adult cats. I recommend the nonadjuvenated Merial rabies vaccinations for cats annually .For cats travelling overseas it is important to check with the country they are travelling to, many countries are not OK with nonadjuvenated rabies vaccines- don't ask me how I know this.

Confused? The simplest approach is just ask a vet what shot your cat needs. That should trigger a series of questions, not a series of shots. Be wary of veterinarians at vaccination clinics who vaccinate every cat every year for everything.

conclusions put forward by the vaccine associated sarcoma task force

Diabetes mellitus in cats

Dr. Glynn — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 17:48:00 GMT

We have an epidemic of diabetic overweight cats. Many of these cats come in my office because they are drinking a lot and urinating more than they used to do. A simple blood test or urine sample confirms the diagnosis of diabetes mellitus in less than a minute.

Pre-diabetic Cat

Diabetes mellitus or sugar diabetes is a disease where dogs and cats require insulin to control high blood sugar .For this article I'm only going to be speaking about cats as dogs have a slightly different response to diet and insulin regimes.

The good news for cat owners is that there are two tools in the toolbox that used together may actually cure about one third of the diabetics. those tools are diet and insulin.

Diet

Cats in nature do not eat carbohydrates, they birds, mice and fish. When I see a newly diagnosed diabetic cat the first thing I do is send the owner to the grocery store to pick up some low-carb cat foods. You can find a listing of these foods under Links we Love on this website, look under low-carb cat food diets and go to that link. The goal is to get 6% carbohydrates are less. This means no dry food, only canned foods soon to be able to get as low as 6% total calories from carbohydrates. The best dry food seems to be Evo at 7 %.

Most diabetic cats will have blood sugars higher than 300 and normal cats will have blood sugars below 200. Owners can easily measure blood glucose at home by pricking a little vein in the ear and using an inexpensive blood glucose meter that can be purchased at any local pharmacy. Home glucose readings are much more reliable than any vet clinic can measure because adrenaline surges make the sugar go up. Almost all cats get a rush of adrenaline when they come through our doors.

Insulin

If diet alone does not resolve the high blood sugar it may be necessary to use injectable insulin. Oral hypoglycemic agents don't seem to work well for cats and is much easier to give cats shots than pills. The endocrinologist at UC Davis, Dr. Edward Feldman, once told a large group of veterinarians that the real use of oral hypoglycemic pills is to convince owners it would be easier on them (and their kitties) to just give the cats insulin injections! It turns out all the type I diabetic cats become type II diabetic cats within the year anyway and all type II diabetic cats require insulin.

High blood sugar seems to poison the cat's ability to make insulin. If we catch cats in time before the pancreases totally lost its ability to produce insulin we may be able to "wake the pancreas up" and achieve a honeymoon, a highly desirable state where the cat no longer needs injectable insulin. That is my goal in every case. The longer the cat has been diabetic the less likely we are to go on a honeymoon.

The best insulin for cats is insulin glargine. We start at an initial dose of two units twice a day and recheck the cat two weeks later to see if it has come down to normal. A third of cases will no longer need insulin, two thirds of them unfortunately areus insulin-dependent for the rest of their lives.

Complications are common in long-term diabetics and frequent monitoring of urine for infections as well as blood for concomitant problems is a very good idea several times a year.

Most diabetic cats lead normal lives and diabetes is not as bad to treat as most owners think it's going to be.

If your cat is drinking a lot, eating a lot and urinating a lot it is time to check for diabetes.

If your cat is fat it is time to lose the weight, preferably on a low-carb diet.

Let's make it a resolution for our cats to lose the weight I won't be losing in 2011 and hopefully prevent diabetes mellitus in all my feline patients.

All they really want for Christmas. Holiday gifts for your pet

Dr. Glynn — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 00:30:00 GMT

We are all bombarded by advertisements for stuff we don't need this time of year. In the shopping frenzy that is the Christmas season I think our pets deserve something from us a whole lot more than most of the people on our shopping list. They give back so much- we should not ignore them.

There are good gifts and bad gifts for pets.

Bad Santa

First- what to avoid. The best stuff to avoid is anything that might result in a trip to the veterinarian's office during the holidays. Christmas trees are ground zero for bad stuff for pets. When people bring presents for you to put under your tree is probably a very good at idea to ask if there's anything that the dog might want to eat in that colorful wrapped box from Aunt Millie. If it turns out to be a Hickory Farms sausage loaf my Labrador Retriever dog Coco would be sure to find it. Coco does not share. I wouldn't mind if she ate the fruit cakes (Kidding Mom!).

Cats will ingest tinsel, people with cats should avoid tinsel. I remember once seeing a piece of tinsel stuck under a cat's tongue and the same piece of tinsel was protruding from its anus. The cat needed a surgery called an enterotomy where about half a dozen small incisions were made along the length of its intestines to remove small snippets of tensile. Ouch!

Pets themselves make notoriously bad gifts. I am all in favor of puppies and kittens but it needs to be a family decision based on a commitment to take good care of the puppy and kitten for the next 15 years. If you know somebody thinking about getting a puppy or kitten please have them give me a call and I will be happy to give them some pointers on how to find the dog or cat of their dreams.

Good Gifts

For dogs toys I like to buy solid rubber toys bigger than their head. I avoid giving dogs small squeaky toys as I've taken too many of them out of their stomach the day after Christmas. Suddenly that five dollar dog toy costs over a thousand dollars or more to remove from Rover's gut on Christmas Day so skip the Rubber Duckie type toys. Rawhide chew toys are okay but I avoid anything made out of rope. Avoid bones too, they crack teeth in two. Am I the Grinch or what? Fear not, good toys for good dogs are out there. Excellent toys are made by Kong, Gumma Bone and, my dog's personal favorite, the Orbee Ball. I found it at a pet shop in Sunnyvale, For Other Living Things (under Links we Love at losaltosvet.com).

For naughty pets and nice owners I suggest the Bissel Spot Bot carpet cleaner, available at a Target store near you( also featured on Links We Love). I got mine a few months ago and use it more often than I want to admit.

For cats I like catnip. OK, some cats don't love catnip but if yours does I suggest you buy high-quality Capt. Cosmic brand or some other potent variety. I spreadout newspapers on the floor and dish out about half a teaspoon of catnip, sit back with an eggnog and the party starts itself. I also love laser pointers for cats, especially cats who are under the influence of catnip. You want to go big? I like cat condos. Pick a spot so they can see out a window and get one about 3 1/2 to 4 feet tall- cats like to scratch and those wimpy little 1 foot tall scratching post don't cut it for most cats.

For dog owners I recommend the book on dog behavior by the Monks of New Skete called The Art of Raising a Puppy or another one they wrote on adult dog training called How To Be Your Dog's Best Friend.

If you just want to read about dogs I like Daniel McCaig's book Emminent Dogs and Dangerous Men about border collies in Scotland.

The best gift for any pet is face time with its owner. That's all they really want for Christmas. Skip the funny hats and sweaters and take some time to walk around downtown with the dog and see the lights. Bad weather? Find a nice long book or maybe get a Kindle for Christmas (Thanks Mom!!), a comfy chair and a wool blanket and chances are your cat and dog will come find you. I just might stay there with them till 2011.

Holiday travel with your pet

Dr. Glynn — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 19:08:00 GMT

Don't do it. Geez, this may be the shortest blog I've ever written!

During the holiday season many of us travel to visit family and friends and want to bring our pets with us. We love our pets. Many of our pets love us. It is only natural we would want to share the joy of the holiday season with our pets, our family and our friends simultaneously. The problem is most pets don't like change. They like the same thing the same time every day.

It takes cats about a week to adapt to a new scenario, dogs are generally faster but even they take a couple of days to get used to a new household. If your trip is less than a week it is probably not worth the trouble to bring your pet along no matter how much you love him. Leave the dog or cat at home with somebody who can live with them in your own house if possible. Boarding kennels are my next best choice. Plan ahead. Many/most boarding kennels are already booked up for the holiday season. Make sure your pet's vaccinations are up to date and check with the kennel to see what they require as these requirements vary from one place to another.

If you take your animal with you on a trip there are things you can do to make the trip easier. Airlines require animals to be kept in a crate the entire time they are on the flight. I see no advantage to having that crate with you in the passenger cabin as animals seem to do fine checked in the luggage compartment. The whole plane is pressurized, the whole plane has oxygen and I've never seen a problem with hypothermia or any other unpleasantness from checking a pet at the gate. Make sure your papers are in order, many airlines require a letter from the veterinarian saying that your pet can withstand very low temperatures for very long periods of time, a requirement that can border on the ridiculous- to the point this veterinarian may refuse to provide such a letter. Most airlines also require a USDA health certificate signed by a veterinarian- which requires an exam within 10 days of the flight, a healthy pet and a current rabies vaccination.

Some patients benefit from sedation when traveling in a plane or a car for an extended period of time. In general I prefer to avoid drugs for about 90% of my patients. Speak with us and we can tell you ways to avoid medicating pets unnecessarily. For sure some animals really need sedation but in general I think tranquilizers are overused and doses we used to give animals of drugs like Acepromazine are likely about 10 times higher than they need to be. I suggest getting the medication 2 to 3 weeks before the trip. Try different doses, working up to the lowest dose that does what you wanted to do.

Better than drugs is conditioning your pet to travel. The simplest way is to buy a crate and take your pet for short drives in the car every day for a week or so. Eventually they learned that nothing really bad is going to happen. I buy a few fleece blankets and put them in the crate - I saw them at Walmart the other day for a dollar each. I do not put food or water in the the crate. If it is a really long flight I will put some water in a dish and freeze it because I know the animal will either spill it or drink it all right away given half a chance.

If I have not successfully talked you out of traveling with your pet this holiday season I wish you well. Please call us if you need help preparing for your trip and have a safe and happy holiday season!

A Lumpy Little Mystery

Dr. Glynn — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 17:40:00 GMT

A few minutes ago I was in an exam room with a nice little dog who had a lump on his side about the size of a plum. He had been to another veterinarian who had told the owner that it was nothing to worry about, just a fatty deposit called a lipoma.

Lipomas are the most common lump we see on dogs and the other vet was probably right. My best guess is about 90% of the time you're right guessing lipoma when you feel a lump under the skin of a dog. The 10% of the time you're wrong is a really bad day day for the dog.

Cysts and tumors often look like lipomas and it's usually easy to tell the difference with cells under the microscope. That is what I did, I poked the lump with the needle and sucked some cells out to look at under the microscope. I'm glad I did.

Yes, there were some fat cells present but there's also a lot of cellular debris and inflammation that I did not expect to see with a lipoma. Unfortunately there were not a lot of other cells to look at so I am sending the slides I made here to a pathologist at my lab, Idexx, to see if the dog will really need surgery. We should know something tomorrow. Meanwhile my patient is on an antibiotic called baytril in case it turns out to be an infection of the fat called steatitis. I am also running some pre-op blood tests just in case we need to go to surgery later this week.

If even the pathologist cannot tell us what we are dealing with we may need to biopsy this mass by taking it off under general anesthesia.

Fine needle aspirates are great because they're a quick, easy and inexpensive way to diagnose many lumps. That said, if we don't see cancer cells go we can never say for sure it is not cancer because " the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence."

This one is a little unusual, one of the little mysteries that make up my typical day at the office. Stay tuned!

Doggie dementia and other aging problems

Dr. Glynn — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 21:04:00 GMT

Some dogs seem destined to live forever. Generally speaking the smaller a dog is the longer it is likely to live. We had a pet Jack Russell Terrier until about five years ago. Buddy lived to be 15 years old. He was blind and deaf and became very confused around the house, often barking at nothing. Buddy had always been an excellent watchdog but now, deprived of his senses, he was actually dangerous. His quality of life was no good. He could've lived another year, maybe even two or three but he would've been miserable. With tears in my eyes I decided to euthanize my little pal. It was tough.

Last week there was an excellent radio interview about aging changes in dogs on the NPR program Fresh Air. You can listen to the interview or download the transcript here . In the interview Dr. Dodman covers many areas of concern for older pets and their owners, mostly things like mobility and house soiling. Of particular interest to me was his comparison of the dementia many of our older pets acquire with humans with Alzheimer's disease. We have a name for this in veterinary medicine, Canine Cognitive Syndrome

Common symptoms of Canine Cognitive Syndrome are

Your dog does not recognize you

Your dog barks at night for no reason

Your dog no longer runs to greet you

Your dog wanders the house and get stuck in corners

Your dog doesn't wag his tail

Your dog turns away when you try to pet him

Your dog appears confused

If your dog seems to be showing the symptoms it is time to talk to your veterinarian. We certainly want to rule out other problems that might be causing behavior changes, things like arthritis or hormone problems that are common in older pets. If dementia is the diagnosis there's even a drug, anipryl, that can help many pets although I must admit I've been skeptical about its use.

Sometimes it's best not to treat these dogs if their quality of life is not what we want for them. It is a deeply personal decision to euthanize the dog and I believe many dogs are euthanized needlessly because an owner perceives them as "old".

Old age is not a disease but it is a time of life for many dogs and cats start acquiring diagnoses that may benefit from treatment.

It's like pulling teeth

Dr. Glynn — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 01:20:00 GMT

You know what's exactly like pulling teeth? Pulling teeth, also known as "toothanasia" around here.

While dental extraction sounds like a minor procedure extracting teeth can be a major undertaking in veterinary practice. Unfortunately it's almost a daily occurrence here my small practice.

The majority of cases have extractions because of periodontal disease but today I had a beautiful beagle in the office for routine teeth cleaning. Ten years old, she'd never really let me look in her mouth during exams and she even tried to bite me. We had to anesthetize her to get a better look. Once we got her asleep we scaled and polished her teeth and found under all that tartar that she had cracked the two biggest teeth in her mouth, the upper left and right fourth premolars. These injuries are common and are called slab fractures, usually acquired by chewing on rocks, bones or in this case olive pits that fell from a tree in the backyard- she loved them. Surprisingly she had no real symptoms.

Dental radiographs showed that in addition to cracks in the crowns of her teeth she had also exposed the pulp canal to oral bacteria and predictably a nasty infection ensued. She had evidence of bone loss and abscessation at the roots of her broken teeth.

Using local nerve blocks we were able to freeze the nerves thus minimizing the amount of gas anesthesia she required- that's safer. I made incisions around the gumline to elevate flaps away from the work area. I used to drill to cut the teeth into three parts, one for each root. Using an instrument called an elevator I was able to elevate each root until I could remove it with just my fingers. This took the better part of an hour. After removing the roots I took a follow-up x-ray, everything looked good and I closed the incisions with tiny sutures.

She went home on some antibiotics and a generous dose of pain medicine. I expect her to do fine.

Sparky's Lab Result

Dr. Glynn — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 01:08:00 GMT

SOURCE/HISTORY	This is a sample from 5 cm diameter subcutaneous mass that is inflamed and warm.
MICROSCOPIC DESCRIPTION	The sample is moderately cellular. It contains a moderate blood and adipose tissue. Inflammatory cells are found. They are primarily neutrophils and macrophages. Occasional small lymphocytes are found. Discrete infectious agents are not observed. Occasional plasma cells are found.
CYTOLOGICAL INTERPRETATION	Mixed cell inflammation, involving fat
COMMENTS	The sample is consistent with cellulitis. The exact underlying cause uncertain. Consider a puncture wound, foreign body reaction, or emerging infection.

A Lumpy Little Mystery Part 2

Dr. Glynn — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 01:07:00 GMT

Sparky!

This morning we got a little good news about Sparky, the dog who had the fine needle aspirate yesterday. I'll post his lab reslults , his owner kindly gave us permission to do so.

Fortunately for Sparky no cancerous cells were seen and his lump appears to be inflammatory.

Inflammation does not always mean infection and the lab did not see any bacteria.

I think the best course is to give the antibiotics I sent home with Sparky a chance to work in case there is a bacterial infection hiding in there somewhere. I will see them back next week.

The owner is going to put a T-shirt on Sparky so he can't reach his lump because licking it will perpetuate the inflammation.

Sparky feels good today and I'm happy he will be not be going to surgery to remove the lump..... unless it does not improve with conservative care.

Dog Food- quantity and quality

Dr. Glynn — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 01:05:00 GMT

The only nutritional problem I have ever encountered with anything above a 0.1 % frequency in practice here in Los Altos is obesity. Over 90 percent of my patients are on commercial dog food. The primary and I think only significant problem with commercial diets is labeling- they tell us to feed our dogs too much.

Occasionally for fun I will go into a pet store not tell them I am a veterinarian. I try to find the most intelligent staff person in the store and ask some vague question about what I should feed my dog. Invariably they go into a long talk about the digestibility, palatability, lack of byproducts and lack of filler in their fine foods. They often will find a way to say something bad about some other brand, a food so far beneath contempt they are shocked anyone would feed it. Not one of them has ever told me anything about how many calories are in a given portion. The pet food label is worthless- it does not say anything about calories. To make matters worse the amount of food the label suggests I feed my dog is usually double or even triple how many calories a normal pet dog is able to burn in a day.

Disclaimer here- I am not a nutritionist. Zealots will find what I say offensive and will cite the clear success they have had feeding their pets X, Y and Z diets, usually raw. All these well intentioned folks have strongly held opinions but very light reading lists and clinical caseloads. I have learned not to attack a bear in his cave so to them I simply say "Go for it Brothers and Sisters of the Faith! Knock yourselves out, don't bother flaming me, go get a few thousand cases together and publish something in a refereed vet journal". Until I read a publication I simply don't believe their claims.

More tomorrow on downright poisonous dog food and how to avoid it .