Gorgeous dog available for adoption

Trooper, a healthy & handsome young neutered male is available for adoption.

Trooper walks well on a leash and loves romping off leash. WIthout the use of shock collars or coersive devices, he has been taught to return when called--a testimony to the quality of people who walk him.

According to Carol Fuegi, the coordinator of PAWS (Point Roberts Animal Wellbeing Society), a lot of thanks go to George & Julie Iddon, Heather Newton & Catherine Stewart, Elizabeth & Joel Lantz, Steve O’Neil & family, and Maureen Buckley. Everyone has spent considerable time and effort working with Trooper, proving to him that there are great people in the world who love him.

This 100-lb hunk of muscle and grace behaves well around humans, cats, and many dogs; he still needs help to prevent misbehavior around male dogs, especially unneutered male dogs.

Trooper would be an ideal pet for a family that enjoys outdoor sports or a family that runs at night and would benefit from a large, protective companion.

If you’re interested in providing a forever home for this healthy, handsome fella, please send me an e-mail (vetpollen@yahoo.com) and I'll pass your information along to Carol Fuegi and the PAWS crew.

Dog for Adoption and He’s Rock Hudson Handsome

A dog that’s Rock Hudson handsome is available for adoption. Trooper is a big, beautiful dog who needs a home. He lives in Point Roberts, WA but would be happy anywhere with a family that loves and exercises him.

Because Trooper’s original home didn’t include room to run and play, he hasn’t developed habit of returning if he is left off leash. Also, because Trooper was staked in the yard, he learned to be defensive and to react aggressively rather than to react calmly. Fortunately, our boy is smart, and he’s rapidly learning new, socially acceptable behaviors.

Everyone who deals with Trooper loves him, and several wonderful families have donated time and space to care for him, but what Trooper really wants is a forever home. If you would love a hundred-pound dog who is Rock Hudson handsome, send me an e-mail (vetpollen@yahoo.com) and we’ll set up an interview.

Signs of Pain in Dogs and Cats

Dogs and cats excel at hiding pain, and this makes them very unlike us humans who let everyone know when we’ve a hangnail. Heck, we even talk about pain and illness we haven’t had: “If I get the flu, I’ll get so sick….” As if describing our own real or anticipated pain weren’t enough, we describe our children’s pain, our grandparents’ pain and what soap opera characters are suffering.

Pets Hide Pain
Think how differently pets react to pain. They are positively silent on the topic. Is it because, unlike us, pets don’t have pain? No. In fact, laboratory dogs & cats are used in pain research. Pets disguise pain because only those dogs and cats before them who hid suffering survived. In the animal world, disclosing pain or suffering hung a cafeteria sign over your head offering warm lunch.

Signs of Pain
If pets have pain, and are predisposed to hide the fact, how can we tell if they are suffering? In the vet clinic, we can measure blood pressure, heart rate, and respiratory rate, which are generally higher than normal in painful pets.

Normal HR RR & BP
For example, a normal adult cat’s
blood pressure (mean BP) is 100-150,
heart rate (HR) is 140-220, and
respiratory rate (RR) is 24-42.

A normal adult dog’s
blood pressure (BP)is 90-120,
heart rate (HR) is 60-140, and
respiratory rate (RR) is 10-30.

When a cat or dog has pain, HR, BP and RR are generally higher than normal.

What can a family observe at home that might also indicate pain? The following list contains more than a dozen behaviors that we can observe at home in painful pets:
• Walking funny, such as taking shorter strides than normal
• Holding the head at a strange angle
• Keeping a paw off the ground
• Moving slowly
• Sleeping lots
• No interest in toys
• No interest in food
• No interest in the family
• Urinating or defecating where they shouldn’t
• Yowling, meowing or barking
• Aggression, for example, when we place a collar around the neck or when children accidentally bang against old bones
• Acting submissively
• Panting
• Repeated circling and inability to lay down and rest in one position

What to do if there's pain?If you see any of these signs, work with your veterinarian to identify the cause of the problem. There’s no reason for our pets to be in pain when we have so many excellent medications and herbal formulas available. Over the next few entries, we might discuss some of our newest pain relieving medications.

Is Garlic Safe for Cats and Dogs?

Garlic use in pets is misunderstood. Garlic can be beneficial and it can be harmful, even fatal. When garlic is harmful, it causes a severe anemia (Heinz body anemia).

Effects of garlic-induced anemia
Anemic cats and dogs develop rapid heartbeats because they don’t have the ability to carry the normal amount of oxygen in their blood. The anemic pet’s heart beats faster in order to circulate oxygen and keep the brain, kidneys, liver, and muscles functioning.

The anemic pet’s bone marrow then tries to produce new RBCs at a rapid rate, pulling nutrients, including iron and B vitamins from their food and tissues. The spleen enlarges as it works to identify and remove all the RBCs that have been damaged by garlic. If the body doesn’t respond and maintain normal hemoglobin levels, the pet will need a blood transfusion in order to stay alive.

Why are cats so susceptible to garlic?
Cats are more susceptible to garlic-induced anemia than are dogs because the cat's hemoglobin is different than the dogs. Hemoglobin is the portion of the RBC that carries oxygen. Molecules within the hemoglobin are oxidized by sulfoxides in the garlic, and this permanently damages the RBC. The spleen sorts the RBC and removes those with damage, so that the pet’s blood is “thinned.” Blood tests show us how “thin” the blood is (hematocrit or packed cell volume) and blood slides show us the Heinz bodies sitting in the red blood cells.

What's the toxic dose of garlic?
The toxic dose for pets is 1-2 cloves/kg, so a 4-kg pet receiving 4 or more cloves a day may die. One teaspoon of garlic powder is equal to a clove. (A garlic clove and a teaspoon of garlic powder weigh about 9 g.) So, 4 teaspoons of garlic powder (36 g) would be toxic to a 4-kg pet, such as your average cat.

What's the safe dose of garlic?
The safe dose of garlic for healthy cats is a slice of garlic clove 2-3 times a week. Although this safe garlic dose is not enough to deworm a pet or cure a viral disease, it probably stimulates the immune system just enough to be a blessing. In addition, garlic provides “heat” from a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) perspective, and “heat” is beneficial for weak, chilly, or older pets.

My recommendations for garlic
Do I recommend garlic for cats and dogs? Yes. But, the family and I are aware that regular blood tests will help us ensure we’re doing good and not harm. We watch for symptoms of anemia; pale gums, rapid heartbeat, edema, weakness, jaundice. If any of these occur, we look at the pet’s blood and make necessary changes.

Garlic is an example of so many things in life:
more is not necessarily a blessing.

Veterinarians have high rate of birth defects

One of the saddest events is having a baby with a birth defect. Unfortunately, veterinarians are more likely to have these babies than are other women. An Australian study looked at birth defects in veterinarians over a 40 year period (190—2000) and found those taking more than 10 X-rays a week and those with occupational exposure to pesticides at least once a week were more likely to have babies with birth defects than were the general population. The study, by Adeleh Shirangi et al, was published in the Journal of Occupational & Environmental Medicine in May 2009.

Incontinence In Female Dogs

When dogs are spayed before they are fully grown, the hormonal source of estrogen that stimulates growth of cells in the urinary tract is removed. About 20% of our large female dogs later become incontinent as the urinary tract "withers" without estrogen. For many dogs, estrogen supplements can help. Before using pharmaceutical estrogens, such as DES, which has the potential to cause bone marrow depression and anemia, try supplementing with foods naturally high in estrogen.

The following are foods with phyto or plant estrogens:

• alfalfa
• Astragalus
• black beans
• black cohosh (cimicifuga)

• buckwheat
• burdock root
• cabbage
• cow peas
• flax
• garlic
• green beans
• licorice root
• millet
• mung beans
• olives
• parsley
• plums
• pomegranate
• pumpkin
• red beans
• red clover sprouts and most vegetable sprouts
• saw palmetto
• sesame seeds
• soybeans & tofu
• split peas
• sprouts, especially the seed
• squash
• sunflower seeds
• turkey rhubarb root

Ear Infections in Pets

Ear infections are common
Did you ever have an ear ache? For pets, ear aches and ear infections are common. In fact, ear infections are among the top 5 reasons pets need veterinary care. How do you know if your pet has an ear infection? Look for an odor, gooey or greasy discharge, redness, heat, and sensitivity to touch. If the discharge is black and crumbly, the problem is probably ear mites—but mites are actually rare, accounting for less than 10% of ear problems. About 90% of the time, if there is ear discharge, there is a problem caused by something other than mites.

Allergies cause heat, heat increases yeast, yeast causes itchy discharge
What causes most of the ear infections I see?—allergies, especially allergies to food. Allergies cause the pet’s immune system to over-react. This reaction releases heat, and the heat turns the ear canal into a hot house. Yeast is normally present in ears, but when the ear heats up, the yeast multiplies out of control and instead of having a thin coating of ear wax (cerumen) the ear canal fills with a smelly, greasy brown debris. Dogs with ear flaps or hair that hold in heat in the ear are especially prone to developing chronic yeasty ear infections.

Most yeasty ear infections are superficial and easy to clear but if infections aren’t treated, they move deeper into the ear where they can cause a pet to be dizzy, walk in circles, or tilt its head at a strange angle. Often these deep infections are painful, and pets don’t feel like eating. It can take weeks of medication to clear infections that have penetrated from the outer ear into the air-filled middle ear (otitis media) or deeper into the fluid-filled inner ear (otitis interna).

Infection moves from the outer canal to deep into the ear
What causes ear infections to penetrate deeper into the ear? Often, it’s the scratching. Untreated ear infections cause itching, itching causes scratching, and the pet’s nails tear the skin. Bacteria and yeast that are normally resident on the skin surface are able to move deep into the dermis where ear flushes and topical medications cannot reach them. The pet’s immune system reacts to the infection by sending more white blood cells to the ear. The white blood cells release enzymes and the mixture of white blood cells, enzymes, and dead bacteria create a pus-filled, sticky, stinky discharge in the outer ear canal.

Bacteria and ear infections
If the pet doesn’t receive treatment, bacteria can move from the ear canal through the ear drum into the middle ear. The middle ear is air-filled and has three tiny bones that vibrate to pass sound along to the inner ear. The pet’s immune system reacts to middle ear infection by sending more white blood cells and plasma from the blood. When we look deep into the pet’s ear canal, we see fluid behind the bulging ear drum (tympanic membrane). From the middle ear, infection can spread into the internal ear where it damages sensitive nerves so that pets develop a head tilt, loss of balance, and deafness.

We treat ear infections according to where they’re located and whether they are caused by yeast, or bacteria, or both. Some families may have medication at home that was prescribed for an earlier infection and want to use it again if the ear looks infected. Please don’t do this. If you cannot see the ear drum, and cannot tell if it is intact, have the vet examine the ear before you medicate it.

What’s safe to put into ears with a ruptured ear drum?
When a pet has a serious ear infection that causes an ear drum to burst, or when we cannot see the ear drum because of thick discharge or because a pet won’t let us near its ear, we can safely put these materials in the ear: saline, malacetic, Triz EDTA, fluconazole, colloidal silver, dilute povidone iodine. We should not use the following: Synotic, polymixin, cerumene, amingoglycoside antibiotics.

Three methods to stop reoccurring ear infections
Stop chronic ear infections by using diet, herbs, and acupuncture. Begin an exclusion diet that excludes foods causing your pet’s allergies. For some pets this will mean they can’t eat beef, and even beef-flavored heartworm medication. For others, it will mean avoiding lamb, or rice, or eggs, or corn, or wheat. Your vet will help you learn what your pet is allergic to by creating an exclusion diet. You’ll want vet advice on how to be successful, and you’ll want everyone in the family to be on board for the diet. Then, start herbs that modify the body’s reaction to food and the tendency for the immune system to create heat and discharge. Si Miao San is one of the herbal remedies that clears heat and there are half a dozen others. Your vet will help you choose the best one for your particular pet’s problems. Acupuncture also helps prevent reoccurring ear infections because it change energy flowing through ears, the tendency to itch, and improves the digestive system’s ability to handle food without developing allergies.

Make your pet happy
Your pet hates reoccurring ear infections and does not want to be one of the millions that returns to the vet’s office so often that ear infections are one of the top 5 pet problems. You have the ability to help your pet heal. Go for it. Make hot, painful, stinky ears a thing of the past.