12/06/2008 by Arielle.

I am seeing so many itchy pets coming into the surgery (not to mention itchy, sneezing staff with hayfever). It is that time of the year when clients are being so diligent about their flea control, but there is another cause of itching in pets.

I have written a whole article about atopy and its treatment as we see so much of it. http://www.kill-fleas.co.uk/atopic.htm

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01/05/2008 by Arielle.

An owner came in today having used Advocate flea drop treatment on her German Shepherd Harley. He was in for his vaccination but she casually mentioned that she would probably flea him again as she had applied the expensive flea drops; taken him for a walk off lead along the river and he had dived in for a swim.

She asked when she could reapply the next treatment. I then told her off about this as Advocate (like many of the topical flea treatments), contain a substance that is highly poisonous to aquatic animals. It will kill fish.

 She felt very guilty and would not allow her dog to swim again in the river until at least 4 days after applying the flea drops. We all love our environment, including our pets, so let us keep it healthy.

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17/04/2008 by Arielle.

I was so impressed with an owner’s ingenuity today. She has a 14 year old Dalmatian who is quite amazing for his age.

He has the strongest of hearts and all that is starting to go at his exceptionally old age for such a big dog; are his backlegs.

He takes PLT tablets that act as anti-inflammatories and help as he has a degenerative nerve condition as well as arthritis in his backlegs. He is also on a diet of joint supplements.

When he gets up, he really struggles as he is quite a big Dalmatian. Instead of slinging a towel under his belly to help hoist him up, his owner has stitched 2 ‘handles’ on the 2 ends of simple padded ovenglove as shown above. She then uses this to help him up. She even found some oven gloves with a black and white spotty pattern to match her dear old Dalmatian!

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16/04/2008 by Arielle.

I was so happy to send little old Poppy home today. She had Yorkshire Terrier written on her files but she looked like a little overweight, balding grey crossbreed.

She has been in the hospital for 4 days as we diagnosed pancreatitis. This condition is extremely painful.

The pancreas (as shown above) is an extremely important organ in the body. Not only does it secrete insulin to control the levels of glucose in the body; it also secretes enzymes into the intestines to help break down the food that passes this way.

Any condition ending in ‘itis’ means inflammation so a pancreatitis is an inflammation of the pancreas. This means that it secretes far more enzyme than it should as it is inflamed or swollen and these enzymes quite literally ‘digest’ the area around the gland. This leads to a severe inflammatory condition in your pet and when Poppy came in 4 days ago; she was in severe pain.

Affected dogs sometimes walk with a ‘prayer dog’ position as they are in so much pain in their abdomens. This is made even worse when we do our examinations on the table and squeeze their abdomens between our fingers.

Other signs occur such as vomiting and a yellow diarrhoea (all of which poor Poppy had).

We admitted her straight away, put her on a drip as it is so important that NO food goes through her intestines as this sets off more digestive enzymes being secreted. She had a nil per os sign hung on her cage which means nothing to eat.

We gave her strong painkillers by injection and antibiotics and sent off a blood sample to the laboratory to confirm pancreatitis as the levels of certain enzymes that we could see from our own blood test, pointed to this horrible disease.

Long term management of pancreatitis involves a change of diet to a purely low-fat diet. I remember a dog in the past with this condition. He had eaten a piece of Kit-kat no larger than a thumbnail and it set off his pancreatitis. He came in in severe pain again and the owners were very cautious of any fatty food after that.

Poppy was so happy to be off her drip, out of pain and see her beloved owners again. I sent her home with some tins of Hills chicken and rice and the owners were going to keep her on a long-term low fat diet. She did need to lose some weight, but it seemed a harsh way of going about it with her illness!

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02/04/2008 by Arielle.

I was made aware of Macadamia nuts being poisonous to dogs. Maddy was spayed a few days ago. Feeling sorry for her, her owners gave her some chocolate which had macadamia nuts in it (one of my favourites!).

They were very good to be so honest as we phoned the poison bureau and were told that Macadamia nuts are poisonous to dogs. She made a good recovery but she was unable to stand for a few days.

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28/03/2008 by Arielle.

I still fully support all male dogs being castrated. We have had 3 cases of prostatic cancer in the practice I work in in the last few weeks. These could have all been prevented with routine castration or removal of both testicles.Harry came in this morning. His responsible owner had booked him in for castration 3 days ago. He is a young Lhasa Apso who is carried everywhere at home and came in looking very sorry for himself.

His owner was obviously very concerned as he seemed unable to walk. He shuffled his bottom along and just sat down.

He had had a bout of diarrhoea after the operation. I checked his wound and it looked clean and healthy and he was on a good dose of Rimadyl painkillers.

The clue to his discomfort came when I lifted his tail to take his temperature. Poor Harry had a clump of faeces matting the long Lhasa fur around his bottom into a tight knot. Once this was cut away and I placed him on the floor, he had a little shake and his waterfall tail popped up over his back again. What relief for us all.

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22/03/2008 by Arielle.

One patient today stood out from all the rest. He was a beautiful 12 year old Rough Collie called Sable.His very distraught owners carried him in as he had collapsed at home. The only sign he had shown for the last few days was a straining to pass faeces. All he was managing to pass were hard ‘rabbit pellets’ as his owner described.I admitted him as he was very pale and I could feel a lump in his abdomen. X-rays revealed a growth of his prostate gland and the surrounding lymph nodes. The owners were devastated to hear that Sable had cancer and sadly it had progressed too far and he had to be put to sleep.

Had Sable been neutered when he was younger, he would not have developed a prostatic problem. We tend to advise neutering in bitches as routine as it removes all complications associated with womb and ovarian complications that can be lethal, but so too can leaving males unneutered be lethal as I witnessed today.

The only side effect from castrating is that your dog can put on weight (especially greedy breeds like Labradors), but their weight is entirely in your hands! If it means feeding more low fat foods or adding extra carrot peelings or vegetables to their food to bulk the food out and make them feel full, then rather that than losing your beloved male pet because he has developed a prostatic (or testicular) cancer.

Posted in Veterinary pet advice, A veterinary day | 1 Comment »

03/03/2008 by Arielle.

Sadie is an overweight 13 year old Collie cross Shepherd who has not been neutered and is suffering from a womb infection called a pyometra. The owners have opted not to have her spayed (the treatment for this horrible infection where we remove the whole infected womb and ovaries) as she is so old and the quote for the full operation and aftercare was almost £500.

I sympathised hugely with the client as Sadie is very old and so we have started her on a relatively new treatemnt procedure which involves an injection on day 1, 2 and 8.

The injection is called Alizin and it is a drug that contracts the muscle of the womb to clean out all the pus that is there. Sadie is obviously also having antibiotics.

So far it is successful and she is still bright although she is off her food and still drinking a lot of water. The drug company says that there is a 95% success rate with these injections.

The biggest side effect that I can see is the terrible mess for the owner. Sadie has long fur and she has a bottom covered in smelly pus and just leaves a trail of pus wherever she goes (including at the surgery). The owner is very patient and has put towels all over the house but it must be so unpleasant.

It is also quite a sore injection and not cheap on its own so has some drawbacks there too, but hopefully we will see a result with Sadie as she is a sweet old lady.

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25/02/2008 by Arielle.

I wrote an article a few weeks ago (although probably months ago, considering how fast the time is flying!), about frost and cold weather causing cystitis in cats due to the ground freezing which results in them being unable to scratch and use the ground.

Our little cat Shadow has just suffered with a bout of cystitis or bladder infection. She left some bloody urine in our bathroom and has been drinking more than normal. I immediately gave her some antibiotics and changed from her regular dry food to tinned food so that she gets enough moisture in her diet.

We have just had yet another very cold snap and I still feel that it is due this that she has her cystitis, but for another reason that I have only just thought about. I put both our cats out every night. They are used to this routine and as we do not have the luxury of a catflap, they stay out all night and come in ravenously hungry each morning. There are so many puddles around that they are able to at least get some water to drink but with the cold snap we are having, every drop of water must be frozen (even the water bowl I put out for them), that it means a good 11 hours with no water which I am sure has also caused the bladder infection in little Shadow!

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29/01/2008 by Arielle.

The start of the new year always brings with it a multitude of resolutions, but mine is always to lose weight. The weight always seems to pile on over Christmas and I struggle to find clothes to fit comfortably and resolve to not buy any new ones until I have shed at least a stone.

For this reason, I know how hard it is to lose weight and I do feel for all the overweight pets that come into the surgery. They just love all the titbits and excess food that their owners so lovingly feed them! There is a nationwide epidemic amongst the UK pets however. We see more overweight dogs than normal weight dogs and certainly most cats are overweight.

Their weight is entirely in your hands. It is easier to stick to a weight reduction regime with dogs as they can be walked and very simply increasing their energy levels daily will help burn the fat. With cats however (especially indoor cats), it is far more difficult. It is vital that the weight comes off slowly as too fast weight loss in a very obese cat can be dangerous.

There are numerous diet foods on the market at the moment and you do not have to buy them only from your vet. Remember that some of the ‘light’ varieties are for pets that have already lost weight and need to stay at that new lower weight.

Cutting out titbits is the main way to help your pet lose weight in the majority of cases. Even the most harmless looking dry chew has fat in it to bind it together and one of those a day can add to quite a few extra calories over the week. I advise rice cakes as treats if you must give them to dogs - just the ones we would eat are fine. They even make Marmite flavoured ones!

We all hate feeling deprived when on a diet so prevent this by bulking out the food bowl of your pet. Add some extra carrot peelings or brown rice to their food so that they feel full after a meal. Weigh out the exact amount of food they are allowed daily and just give this ration along with extra vegetable peelings.

There are a few very new drugs on the market to help shift the weight of dogs ie. Yarvitan and Slentrol. They are liquids that are added daily to your pet’s food and they work by binding the fat in the food so less is absorbed. They do work well but be warned - they are very expensive and insurance companies do NOT pay out for these weight loss drugs.

Good luck!

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