PetMeds® Reducing Your Pet’s Excessive Gas

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Posted by Dr. Michael Dym, VMD veterinarian on January 15, 2010 – 9:10 am
Filed under Dr. Dym's Vet Blog
Addressing your pet's diet could be an easy step in managing your pet's excess gas

While it is normal for a dog or cat to become occasionally gassy or flatulent, when the problem is more chronic, this can indicate more than just an inconvenience to an animal guardian in the line of fire. Most pets with chronic gas or flatulence often have an underlying intestinal imbalance or improper bacterial overgrowth in their intestinal tract.   Since over 75% of our immune systems resides and starts in the digestive tract, imbalances at this level can eventually lead to many sorts of chronic systemic issues as well, including chronic skin/ear allergies, joint, airway and urinary tract issues, all because of a “leaky gut”.

That is why it is important not to ignore that chronically gassy pet. The most important initial action in solving this problem is in looking at that pet’s diet. Many gassy pets are on processed commercial dry pet foods, which often contain an excess amount of grain often used as a cheap and economical protein source. Dogs and cats did not evolve to digest large amounts of grain, so when eating such foods, incomplete digestion often leads to such gas.  Unless your pet has a kidney, liver, or special urinary tract problem, meat-based high protein, high fat, low carb foods are much closer to what dogs and cats evolved to eat.

Natural diets such as Eat Great Be Well, Pet Guard and Wysong are all excellent commercial diet choices. Properly made homemade diets as found in Donald Strombeck’s book or Richard Pitcairn’s book are even better. Adding digestive enzymes and probiotics such as NaturVet Enzymes & Probiotics can often help in digestion, as well as restoring and maintaining normal gut bacterial populations. This is even more important when a pet is under physical or emotional stress, or on any sort of chronic antibiotic therapy.

Other useful products include Prozyme to help in digesting nutrients as well.  With dietary and supplement therapy, not only can the inconvenience of gassy pets be often solved, but animal guardians are also promoting long term good health at the same time  as well.

PetMeds®: Holiday and Winter Precautions for Dogs and Cats

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Posted by Dr. Michael Dym, VMD veterinarian on December 7, 2009 – 1:36 pm
Filed under Dr. Dym's Vet Blog

Every year around the holiday season veterinary offices get busy with emergency phone calls from canine and feline guardians. By far the most common phone calls we receive are around their dog or cat eating too much holiday turkey or other holiday foods and desserts. It’s important that pet owners know that chocolate and other sweet ingredients can be very toxic to dogs and cats.

Help keep your pets safe and healthy this holiday season While I’ve always encouraged my clients to feed their pets a healthy, balanced home made diet using recipes from reliable sources, the feeding of fatty table scraps, especially in animals with sensitive digestive tracts, or pre-existing histories of digestive tract upset, can lead to disorders including acute gastroenteritis and even pancreatitis. This can show clinical signs of vomiting, diarrhea, dehydration or loss of appetite.

If an animal is already used to a fixed formula commercial pet food diet every day, and their diet suddenly changes during the holiday season without a gradual transition, this is the most common scenario that can lead to digestion problems in pets. If this should occur, fasting a pet for 24 to 48 hours offering only liquids and/or broth, as well as using natural at home remedies such as slippery elm can often help. Pepcid AC at dose of one half mg per pound, once to twice daily can also help with sour stomachs some vomiting.

After 24 to 48 hours, introducing bland hamburger and/or rice diets and continuing slippery elm or Pepcid AC is often enough to resolve simple upset digestive tracts. NaturVet Enzyme and Probiotics from 1800PetMeds is great to have around and to add to the bland diets during recovery and even long term to strengthen the gut immune system. However, if increased lethargy or loss of bodily fluids persists or worsens (through increased vomiting and diarrhea) an immediate veterinary assessment should be done to avoid dehydration, especially in the very young and senior pets.

Another common dietary situation seen this time of year is in pets that literally raid the trash containing left over holiday meals and deserts, as well as pets that go after the indigestible items including gift wrapping paper, ribbons, tinsel, Poinsettia plants, etc. Even some of the common gifts and items left under the holiday tree, such as holiday gifts for both people and pets, including the terrific squeaky Squiggler Santa, Loofa Santa, Bungee Loofa, and Cat Nip Hedgehogs available at PetMeds® need to be offered under human supervision.

We also must not forget to keep our pets warm this time of year, especially as winter bears down on us. Outside pets including cats should be allowed access to adequate warm shelter in case the winter weather turns brutally cold. One of the more common freak accidents this time of year involve cats seeking warmth under the hood of the car, which can lead to disastrous consequences if the cat falls asleep in this area. Especially smaller toy breed dogs should be adequately covered with small jackets to help keep them warm in the colder weather, as they tend to lose body heat rapidly.

Also, it is not uncommon to see an occasional case of frostbite in our pets. As people prepare their cars for the colder winter months, they must also be careful not to leave around open cans of antifreeze. Antifreeze is often very tasty to curious dogs and cats, and can lead to acute digestive upset and life threatening kidney failure. As the weather gets colder, outside small mammals such as mice and rats may take shelter in our homes, and while our cats and dogs can help keep these populations down, we must be extra careful not to leave out rodenticide traps that can not only can be toxic to dogs and cats, but in pets that happen to ingest a rodent that has consumed some of the bait from these poisons. Thus, while the holiday season is a very special time of year for the whole family, it is important to be vigilant in monitoring our animals for these potential risks during the holiday and winter seasons.

PetMeds®: Vomiting Dog or Cat: Acute or Chronic Condition?

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Posted by Dr. Michael Dym, VMD veterinarian on October 9, 2009 – 11:18 am
Filed under Dr. Dym's Vet Blog

One of the more common digestive complaints we are presented with in veterinary medicine is vomiting. When presented with this complaint in the medical history, we usually first classify the problem as either acute vomiting of short term duration, or chronic, longer term vomiting.

If your dog or cat is vomiting, a visit to the vet can help rule out any chronic conditions. There are many causes of acute vomiting ranging from simple viral or bacterial digestive upset, intestinal parasites, and even heartworms, dietary allergies and/or indiscretion or ingestion of foreign or toxic material, metabolic problems such as inflammation of the liver, kidneys or pancreas, an under active adrenal gland (known as Addison’s disease) and even cancer of the bowels. Although these latter categories we’re usually thinking more in terms of possible causes of chronic vomiting in dogs or cats.

With cats hairballs can contribute to vomiting, but many pet guardians and even veterinarians often over diagnose hairballs as causes of particularly chronic vomiting in cats.  Products such as Laxatone and Petromalt hairball remedy can often help with lessening hairball formation, however, I don’t like to overuse these products as they also have a lot of sugar and carbohydrates in them which stress a cat’s pancreas and liver.

Depending upon the severity of your pet’s acute vomiting problem would determine whether or not you would want to try and manage the issue at home, or consider a veterinary exam and diagnostics. If in doubt, it is always best to have a veterinary exam if needed.  In my opinion the most important part of treatment of chronic vomiting in dogs or cats is to withhold solid food for 24 to 36 hours (unless a pet is suffering from a hormonal disorder such as diabetes or a tumor known as an insulinoma of the pancreas, or it’s a toy breed puppy under the age of 6 months, as these puppies are prone to low blood sugars).

While many clients will start a bland diet right away in vomiting pets, it is best to rest the digestive tract for this brief period of time to allow acute inflammation to subside.  Small amounts of water/ice cubes and/or vegetable or chicken broth can be offered during the fast. A wonderful over the counter supplement that I have found helpful in digestive tract disorders of all kinds is using the herb slippery elm, which is available from most health food stores, and can be given during the brief fast, and is very soothing for an irritated digestive tract. Over the counter Pepcid AC at a dose of one half mg per pound once or twice daily is often safe to use in most situations and pets. Two excellent products to consider are Fast Balance, which restores digestive tract flora quite quickly in most pets, as well as NaturVet Enzymes and Probiotics from 1800PetMeds.  The Fast Balance, slippery elm, and Pepcid AC can be used during the acute fasting phase of vomiting.  If this settles the stomach down, a bland diet consisting of chicken or turkey and rice or even baby food in smaller pets (without onion powder in it) can then be introduced after the brief fast along with the NaturVet Enzymes and Probiotics, while the Fast Balance, slippery elm and Pepcid AC can be continued for the following few days.

Obviously if symptoms worsen and intensify and/or your pet appears to be getting weaker, then an immediate veterinary exam is needed, especially important in ruling out acute obstructions of the digestive tract as well as in dogs making sure acute organ failure or an acute presentation of Addison’s disease is not present.  Sometimes IV or subcutaneous fluids are needed to be administered by the veterinarian to prevent or treat dehydration, as well as even prescription medications like Metoclopramide or Cerenia are often needed to help stop the vomiting in severe acute cases. .

With chronic vomiting in our dogs or cats a full veterinary workup is certainly recommended including physical exam, blood work, urine analysis, fecal checks for parasites, as well as x-rays and possibly an ultrasound or scoping of the digestive tract to get to underlying causes and best treatment plans for such cases, depending upon the individual details and history. Low allergy novel protein diets can be tried for 4-8 weeks for pets with chronic vomiting that have been worked up to rule out dietary sensitivity or allergy as a cause of chronic vomiting.  However, it is important to have a full medical evaluation at the veterinarian first to rule out some of the chronic disorders mentioned above.

PetMeds®: Dog Bloat: Symptoms and Treatment

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Posted by Dr. Michael Dym, VMD veterinarian on September 23, 2009 – 10:48 am
Filed under Dr. Dym's Vet Blog

One of the more serious emergencies that can sometimes occur suddenly in our dogs and quickly become life threatening is the condition commonly known as dog bloat or medically known as Gastric Dilatation & Volvulus Syndrome (GDV). In this condition, a dog’s stomach can rapidly distend with gas and often acutely twist, cutting off blood supply to both the stomach and adjacent spleen. Circulatory and toxic shock can quickly develop leading to low blood pressure and bacterial sepsis or infection spreading into the blood stream which can potentially kill the dog.

Irish Setters are among several dog breeds prone to bloat Due to the effects on multiple organ systems, various life threatening heart arrhythmias can also develop, and by itself such arrhythmias add to the severity and potential life threatening nature of this condition. This condition is most commonly seen in barrel or deep-chested dogs such as Dobermans, Great Danes, Irish Setters, Irish Wolfhounds, German Shepherds, and Labrador Retrievers, but any large breed dog can potentially be affected.

Symptoms can manifest acutely and can range from abdominal distention and sudden collapse to prominent acute symptoms such as pacing and restlessness, panting, drooling, and nonproductive retching and/or vomiting. Occasionally the symptoms can occur at a lower chronic level and go on for hours or several days before progressing to the acute presentation. Some animals can die suddenly without any apparent warning. If you suspect your dog may have suddenly come down with this condition, treatment must include immediate transfer to a 24 hour critical care veterinary emergency center for X-rays to confirm the diagnosis, as well as blood work and the placement of two IV catheters with rapid IV fluid, and shock therapy with sometimes quick acting corticosteroids, IV antibiotics and if necessary anti arrhythmic drugs.

A stomach tube is quickly passed in an attempt to relieve the trapped gas in the stomach. If this is not possible, then many veterinarians will use a large gauge catheter passed right through the body wall into the stomach to relieve the pressure of the trapped gas until surgery can be performed to untwist the stomach, and tack it to the body wall, so that twisting will not recur. While quick recognition and immediate emergency care increase chance at survival, some dogs will die even during heroic treatment efforts, or in the post operative period especially the first few critical days. The condition is so severe that many veterinarians when performing routine spays on at risk young dogs will perform the stomach tacking procedure to hopefully prevent the likelihood of this condition occurring in the future.

While there are many potential and controversial risk factors involved with increasing the risks to developing this most likely genetic condition, there are some hopefully preventative measures that animal guardians can take to hopefully lessen the likelihood of bloat occurring. In my opinion, feeding dogs more evolutionarily species appropriate diets, especially low carb, higher protein and fat diets, preferably a proper balanced and home made diet can help. Some excellent natural diets such as Be Well, Azmira, or Wysong can be excellent alternatives. Preventing large breed dogs from eating or drinking too rapidly as well as the importance of not allowing exercise immediately after consuming meals also may help. I also find that excellent supplements that promote healthy digestion, such as NatureVet Probiotics and Enzymes or adding Prozyme or Missing Link for Dogs to meals offer animal guardians excellent choices to try and optimize stomach and intestinal function, and hopefully lessen the likelihood of this life threatening emergency from occurring.