September 2009

Rattlesnake Vaccine Questions

I received a comment from a rancher in South Texas snake country that was cause for concern related to our recent posts on the rattlesnake vaccine issue. His Labrador Retriever was bitten last week and reacted badly and ended up in the vet clinic for some pretty extensive treatment.

The concern part was that this dog had been vaccinated. The real problem was that she had not received the recommended boosters for dogs living in year round snake country.

Apparently the staff at the local vet clinic was unaware of the need for additional boosters.

Frankly, this is a little disconcerting. You would think that they would have all the scoop on a product that they administer to their clientele. It got me thinking about how we learn about different products as veterinarians.

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Posted on September 30, 2009 in | Comments

Do Dogs Think?

So, what's your opinion - DO dogs think? I've always believed so, but there are naysayers. There are those who say most of what a dog does is instinct, or conditioning. Certainly we've all heard of Pavlov's dogs that were trained to salivate at the sound of a bell. So what? People are like that, too. Many of us are influenced by the power of suggestion alone, let alone the sound of a bell ringing.

One of the ways the folks who believe dogs don't think report their findings, is to show that a dog responds to an owner's tone of voice when it's bad, not necessarily to the action of being bad. For instance, when we're away from home and our dog chews our slippers. As soon as we see the torn, chewed up slippers, we lose it and begin chastizing the dog. It's THAT chastizing that the dog is reacting to, they say. It's not the chewing of the slippers.

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Posted on September 29, 2009 in Current Affairs, Dog Health, Our Pampered Pets, Pets are Family, Posts by Yvonne DiVita | Comments

A Tax Break for Pet Owners?

Yvonne sent me an interesting piece of information yesterday about pending health care legislation in Congress. The interesting part is that it involves pet health, not human health

A Michigan Congressman; Thaddeus McCotter has introduced H.R. 3501 to amend the 1986 IRS code to allow a tax deduction for pet care expenses. The act, called "The Humanity and Pets Partnered Through the Years," or HAPPY for short, would allow owners to deduct up to $3500 a year from their taxable income for qualified pet care expenses. That means that you would pay taxes on up to $3500 fewer dollars a year which could reduce your taxes by hundreds of dollars depending on your individual situation.

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Posted on September 28, 2009 in About Pet Health Insurance (in Plain English), Cat Health, Current Affairs, Dog Health, Dr. Larry McDaniel, Pets are Family | Comments

Cedar's Situation is Serious

Cedar was in Albuquerque yesterday to visit with a veterinary oncologist. The news is not good. I spoke to Ellie and Mike last night and here is what they found.

As we speculated in the last post earlier this week, the oncologist biopsied the regional lymph nodes and did a chest x-ray. Both were positive for tumor metastasis. The metastatic squamous cell carcinoma is too advanced for surgery to be a solution. In fact, it is so far along that there is no hope for a complete cure and the strategy will be to slow the growth of the tumors with chemotherapy and try to make Cedar as comfortable as possible during the process. According to Ellie we probably only have a few months left with Cedar. Not what we were hoping for.

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Posted on September 27, 2009 in Current Affairs, Dog Health, Dr. Larry McDaniel, Our Pampered Pets | Comments

Strutting their stuff in Suffolk

According to the Suffolk News-Herald, "More than 275 walkers and a few thousand onlookers took advantage of great weather Sunday on the last day of summer to join their friends for a day of fun at Sleepy Hole Park." It was called, "The Mutt Strutt."

This was an event sponsored by the Suffolk Humane Society to raise money for use in their mission, which is to assist animals in the city of Suffolk. It isn't about the money, per se - it's about what the money can do, as with all good charities. In this case, the Humane Society is acting on behalf of our pets. The article says "animal control ...brought 12 dogs for adoption and seven went home with new owners." Gosh, I wish all of them had found forever homes. Big sigh.

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Posted on September 25, 2009 in Current Affairs, Dog Health, Posts by Yvonne DiVita | Comments

Chemotherapy in Pets

Cedar's recent troubles got me thinking about the differences in cancer therapy for pets and people. I've mentioned before that cancer therapy is better tolerated by dogs and cats than people. They don't seem to have the debilitating side effects suffered by humans. Cedar's vet up in Wyoming told Mike and Ellie the same thing and I would imagine that the veterinary oncologist in Albuquerque will reiterate that point. So let's examine that a little more closely.

The reason this needs elaboration is that pet owners often make decisions on cancer therapy based on their experiences with human family members or friends that have undergone this ordeal. They know all too well the nausea, fatigue and hair loss that can be associated with cancer therapy in people.

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Posted on September 24, 2009 in Current Affairs, Dog Health, Dr. Larry McDaniel | Comments

Cedar Goes to the Oncologist

Our last update on Cedar the Mastiff was cautiously optimistic. We knew that his biopsy had come back positive for squamous cell carcinoma but that the surgeon had thought he had removed the tumor during surgery.

Unfortunately that does not seem to be the case.

As we mentioned previously, squamous cell carcinoma can metastasize to other parts of the body but that is not the most common behavior for this tumor type. More often it is locally invasive sending fingers or tendrils deep into surrounding tissue. While surgery is the first line of defense, it is not always possible to completely remove squamous cell. Dogs with the oral form of squamous cell often end up losing part of their jaw during surgery due to the invasive nature of this tumor.

Cedar has an appointment with a veterinary oncologist up in Albuquerque on Wednesday to determine the extent of the disease and the management plan for Cedar. I would imagine there will be more biopsy around the surgical site and a thorough exam for tumors in other parts of the body.

I mentioned that Ellie is suspicious that there may be some oral involvement with Cedar. The oncologist might also biopsy the regional lymph nodes and radiograph Cedar's lungs to determine if there has been any metastasis.

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Posted on September 23, 2009 in Current Affairs, Dog Health, Dr. Larry McDaniel, Our Pampered Pets, Pets are Family | Comments

Indoor Dog Park

I'm going to Dallas in a few weeks for some focus groups with dog and cat owners that are interested in pet health insurance. We're going to ask them to help us understand what is most important to them so we can offer the best product on the market. I'll be doing something else in Dallas, too. I'll be visiting what I think is the first of a kind indoor dog park.

A friend sent me a link to their site and I've been looking through it. I must admit at first I was a little skeptical. Do we really need an indoor dog park. Wouldn't if be better for people to get out in the fresh air?

And then I remembered; it's Dallas. If you go to Dallas in the summertime you probably don't want to be outside. In fact, you could say that for most of Texas. By the way I'm a native Texan, so I have carte blanche to criticize. If Texas is so great how come there are so many Texans driving around up here in the mountains of New Mexico?

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Posted on September 21, 2009 in About Pet Health Insurance (in Plain English), Current Affairs, Dog Health, Dr. Larry McDaniel | Comments

Dogspeak and Catspeak

I like to amuse myself by thinking I can speak "dog" or "cat". Really, all that means is that I try to pay attention to my pets and interpret their body language or actions for what they really are. I'm right about 50% of the time, I think. At least, I manage to get happy dances from them that much. The rest of the time I get sour looks, especially from the Wabby (our cat).

Carmie was easy to figure out. Dogs are like that. She just wanted to be with us, me and Tom. Go wherever we went. Be around us. When we finally (after 9 years, I'm ashamed to admit) got her a doggie bed, she showed her appreciation by immediately lying down in it and smiling up at us. Yes, she smiled. Admit it, you know dogs can smile.

Well, Carmie is no longer with us. But, Wabby is. So, we got Wabby a bed for her 17 year old bones...and she has pretty much ignored it. The only time she gets in it, is when we're not looking. IF we come into the room and she's in the bed, awake, she slowly gets up and moves to another part of the bed. <sigh>

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Posted on September 19, 2009 in Cat Health, Current Affairs, Dog Health, Our Pampered Pets, Pets are Family, Posts by Yvonne DiVita | Comments

Rattlesnake Redux

We received a comment from a reader on a post we did a while back on Rattlesnake Preparation for dogs. We discussed the merits of aversion training and brought up the availability of a vaccine that can provide protection against rattlesnake venom. Paula wrote to say that the vaccine is not a cure all, especially in certain circumstances. She lost a rat terrier to a big rattlesnake.

I went to the Red Rock Biologics web site and researched the vaccine a little more. It can be a valuable tool to protect your dog (and even your cat, if your vet approves), but there are a lot of caveats. I'd encourage anyone contemplating this vaccine to read the FAQ's on the company web site. Here are six of the high points.

1. A single dose of vaccine is not going to cut it. In fact, they recommend an initial vaccination followed a month later by a booster. After that it gets a little more complicated.

2. If you have a dog that lives in the northern half of the country one annual booster should be protective. The theory is that snakes up north are only out a max of six months a year.

3. If you live in the southern half and snakes are a year round problem, your dog should have two doses per year.

4. Small Dog Alert: Small dogs and dogs that are at high risk like search and rescue or hunting dogs, may need to be boostered every four months. And small dogs ( < 25 LBS) should have three doses in the initial series each about a month apart. Paula's situation was the worst of all; namely a small dog bitten by a big snake. Big snakes can deliver much more venom than smaller snakes.

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Posted on September 18, 2009 in Cat Health, Current Affairs, Dog Health, Dr. Larry McDaniel | Comments