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Tip #3: Have a pet on a long-term medication that refuses to take a pill? Some of our medications can be compounded into a transdermal (applied to the skin) form, or a tasty liquid. A few examples of medications we can compound include: Enalapril, Methimazole, Atenolol and Metronidazole.
To see if your pet’s medication is available in another form or to order, call our Customer Care department at 1-800-738-6337.
Lymphoma is the most common cancer seen in small animal veterinary medicine, and can affect the lymphoid tissue of many possible organs. By far the most common area of involvement is the peripheral lymph nodes of the body, but lymphoma may also spread and involve internal areas, as well as even the skin. Causes of lymphoma are believed be genetic in origin; however, environmental factors, including overexposure and sensitivity to chemicals, pesticides, and even over-vaccination are all believed to play roles in increased development of lymphoma.
Clinical signs will vary depending upon the location of the cancer, but with peripheral lymphoma(the most common type), symptoms include firm swellings around the body, especially under the neck, as well as nonspecific symptoms of illness such as lethargy, loss of appetite, weight loss, vomiting/diarrhea and/or coughing or difficulty breathing. While tentative diagnosis of lymphoma is often made by needle aspiration of affected lymph nodes, definitive diagnosis usually requires an excisional tissue biopsy.
Treatment of lymphoma usually involves a sequential chemotherapy protocol, which will vary depending upon severity and location of the lymphoma. Prognosis for remission is usually very good, with some animals achieving cancer free periods for 1-2 years; however, the prognosis for cure is very guarded.
If you’re like many adults, you probably dread your yearly visit to the doctor. Wouldn’t you be surprised if this year your doctor asks, “Have you thought about getting a pet to help you get healthier?”
In a fascinating study lasting 10 months, Dr. Serpell at the Department of Clinical Veterinary Medicine in Cambridge looked at what happened to 71 adults without a pet during the previous year when they added a new pet dog or cat to their home. He compared new pet owners to a similar group of 26 people who stayed without pets. The people recorded information about a variety of health problems at the beginning of the study and after 6 months and 10 months. While there were no health changes during the study among those people who didn’t have a pet, getting a pet resulted in a significant improvement in health for both dog and cat owners. For example, the number of health problems (like headaches and other pain problems, poor sleep, digestive problems, colds, nervousness, dizziness, and fatigue) dropped by half after just one month of adding a pet cat or dog to the home. Significant health improvements were also seen after 6 months and at the end of the study. Dog owners also experienced an increase in physical activity. On average, both future dog owners and non-pet owners walked an average of twice per week at the start of the study. Walking decreased slightly over six months in the non-pet owners. Dog owners increased their exercise to nine walks per week after the first month and fourteen walks per week after six months.
Other medical research has confirmed that pets are good for our health. For example, living with a dog results in:
Pets are more than just wonderful companions. They have an added bonus of being good for our health. So the next time your doctor says you need to get healthier, perhaps you should consider sharing your home with health-promoting pet.
Paw pad injuries in pets are fairly common. Trauma is by far the biggest cause of paw pad injuries. Because paw pads are areas quite rich in blood flow, injuries to these areas can be quite painful and may bleed easily as well. Signs of paw pad injuries include lameness of one or more limbs, as well as bleeding around the paw pads. In addition, laceration of the paw pads often occurs.
Because of the nature and location of these injuries, many times suturing is not possible, and therefore protective dressing and bandaging is often required. Paw pad injuries are especially common in the wintertime when pets often are walking on icy or salt treated roads and side walks. Depending upon the severity of the paw pad injuries, oral antibiotics may be needed. With those superficial injuries of the paw pads, I will often instruct clients to apply topical vitamin E, aloe vera or calendula gel to the areas to promote and encourage healing.
Um, Harley? I am going to tell everyone about your teeth. I hope you do not mind! I don’t think teeth are very private, anyway.
Harley, I was shocked to find out that you have not been brushing your teeth every day! And look, we even have delicious poultry-flavored toothpaste. It is no wonder you got tartar on your teeth!
Harley had to get an anesthesia-free dentistry. Luckily he was a good boy and got a good report card. But it looks like he needs to start some homecare now!
Harley wants to show off his shiny clean white teeth!
Time to start your regular dental homecare, Harley! Harley would like to know if he can just eat a bunch of Greenies and skip the tooth brushing. Sorry, Harley, you need to brush, too!
Hey! What’s this? I have to brush, too? I thought this story was about Harley.
How often do you get your teeth brushed?
Strokes occur not only in people, but in pets as well. This will happen when there is interruption of blood flow to the brain, leading to cell damage and cell death. Symptoms often come on acutely, and may include sudden paralysis of the legs, as well as weakness of the cranial nerves resulting in facial drooping, and loss of other reflexes. Causes of a stroke include high blood pressure, toxin exposure, trauma, cancer, as well as on occasion viral and bacterial microbes. In the vast majority of cases a definitive cause is not found.
Presumptive diagnosis of a stroke is made by ruling out other causes of sudden neurologic symptoms. Definitive diagnosis of stroke, however, is only possible through neurologic testing such as an MRI test performed at a referral veterinary facility. Treatment of stroke is mostly supportive and includes IV fluids, as well as antibiotics to prevent secondary infections, as well as anti inflammatory agents. Prognosis for return to function is always guarded, and depends upon the severity of the symptoms.
Entropion is defined as an anatomic abnormality where there is inversion of either the upper or lower eyelid. In many cases the inverted eyelids will contact and rub on the underlying cornea. This genetic condition may be seen in any breed of dog, but is more common in certain breeds such as the Chinese Shar-Pei and the Akita. The severity of the entropion will determine what the presenting clinical signs are. The many clinical signs include spasm and closure of the eyelids, light sensitivity, varying amounts of eye discharge, as well as secondary scratching and irritation of the cornea. Treatment of entropion involves surgical correction of the anatomic abnormality, as well as treatment of the secondary eye inflammation with topical antibiotics and antispasmodics. The prognosis is excellent for a full recovery.
Tip #2: Regular exercise will keep your pet’s mind and body active, and help prevent boredom which can lead to destructive behavior.
Exercise is crucial to your pet’s physical health and mental well-being. Lack of exercise leads to obesity in pets, as well as boredom. A bored pet is more likely to engage in destructive behavior such as digging, chewing, scratching, barking and other unwanted behavior. Regular exercise is just as important for cats as it is for dogs.
One of the more common presentations in sick puppies is when they present knuckling over, either while standing or when trying to walk. There are many possible causes of why puppies would knuckle over. Knuckling over is usually a sign of weakness, which is often secondary to metabolic factors and/or neurological factors. For example, puppies with low blood sugar are often quite weak and may knuckle over when attempting to walk. These puppies also may have little appetite, be very weak and may even present with tremors or even seizures.
Treatment of these puppies will center on slowly raising blood sugar, as well as treating the many possible underlying causes of low blood sugar. Puppies with brain and/or spinal lesions also may present with knuckling over. Certainly trauma, toxins, and various viruses all may affect the nervous system resulting in knuckling over. Developmental abnormalities of the spinal vertebrae may lead to spinal compression and secondary knuckling over may be seen. Treatment will be determined by correcting these underlying causes, and prognosis will also vary, as long as these underlying causes are treatable.
The following is a guest post from Gayle Bentham from SureFlap Ltd:
1. Microchips can be more effective than collars
A collar and tag can be a great visual way to instantly identify your cat if he becomes lost. But what happens if your cat loses its collar? If your cat doesn’t have a microchip as a back-up, it is very unlikely that your beloved pet can be returned to you if it loses its collar. A cat’s microchip cannot get lost and will work as a permanent form of identification for your cat for its entire lifetime. If you prefer your cat to wear a collar, make sure he also has a microchip as a back-up.
2. Your cat won’t need to be sedated to be microchipped
A microchip is small, about the size of a grain of rice. Your cat can be microchipped at your local veterinary surgery in a quick and simple procedure that doesn’t require your cat to be sedated. The microchip is inserted by a veterinarian into the loose skin behind your cat’s neck using a syringe. The whole procedure is over quickly, and often painlessly. If your cat finds visits to the vets distressing, why not take him to be microchipped the next time he needs his booster jab?
3. Microchipping your cat could be the cheapest way to identify your pet
The cost to microchip your cat varies greatly, but in many countries it’s cheaper than you might think. A collar and tag might appear to be the cheaper form of pet identification, but it could be more expensive than microchipping if your cat loses its collar regularly. The cost of replacement collars soon adds up and you might end up spending more money on them than you would to microchip your cat. You will only need to pay to microchip your cat once.
4. If your cat is microchipped, it can use a SureFlap Microchip Cat Door
Many cat owners have experienced the problem of neighbourhood cats terrorising their pet by entering their home through an ordinary cat door. Such an intrusion can cause considerable stress to the resident cat. If your cat has a microchip, he can benefit from a SureFlap Microchip Cat Door, which reads your cat’s unique microchip number and only unlocks for your pet. Only your cat has access through the SureFlap, stopping other cats and wildlife at the door! The SureFlap can also be used internally in multi-cat households to create separate feeding areas for cats on different diets.
Gayle Bentham is the Marketing Assistant for SureFlap Ltd, who manufacture and sell the SureFlap Microchip Cat Flap. For more information about SureFlap, visit www.sureflap.com.
