Health and Medicine | Pawcurious Vet Blog: Pet help, stories, and information with Dr. V

My name is Dr. V. Actually, it’s Jessica, followed by a long last name that no one can ever pronounce correctly, so I think it’s best that we just do what everyone at my work does and call me Dr. V. You can call me Jessica if you insist, but don’t expect me to answer any questions about your dog if you do. READ MORE >>

Today I am delighted to have a guest post from Dr. Nancy Kay, a veterinary internist and author of the must-have guide for being a good health advocate for your pet, Speaking for Spot. In today’s post, Dr. Kay gives some tips for how to wade through the complex issue of pet vaccination and what you can do to make the decisions that are right for you and your pet. Thank you so much Dr. Kay!

During my last year of veterinary school, I recall how scary it was when a new canine virus—parvovirus—seemed to appear out of nowhere. Highly contagious, it spread like wildfire throughout the United States, causing severe illness and often death. It was a downright frightening time for veterinarians and the clients they served. Fortunately, an effective vaccine was rapidly developed, and this horrible new virus was downgraded from a rampant deadly infection to a preventable disease. Thank goodness for vaccines! They provide a remarkable means of preventive health care for dogs.

As invaluable as vaccinations are for protecting canine health, determining which vaccines are appropriate and how frequently they should be administered are no longer simple decisions. In my book, vaccinations are no different than any other medical procedure. They should not be administered without individualized discussion and consideration of the potential risks and benefits.

Gone are the days of behaving like a “Stepford wife” when it comes to your dog’s vaccinations — it’s no longer necessarily in his best interest to vaccinate simply because a reminder postcard has arrived in the mailbox.

Consider the following:

• There are currently 14 canine vaccinations to choose from! Back in the days when I was just a pup there were only five, and decision-making regarding vaccine selection for an individual dog was far less complicated.

• Over the past decade we’ve learned that, for some vaccines, the duration of protection is far longer than previously recognized. In the past we vaccinated for the core diseases (distemper, parvovirus, and rabies) annually. We now know that these vaccinations, when given to adult dogs, provide protection for a minimum of three years and, in some cases protection is life-long.

• The duration and degree of immune protection triggered by a vaccine is variable, not only based on manufacturer, but from dog to dog as well.

• Other than for rabies (state mandated), vaccination protocols are anything but standardized. There are no set rules veterinarians must follow when determining which vaccines to give and how often they are administered. Unfortunately, some vets continue to vaccinate for distemper and parvovirus annually even though we know that these adult vaccines provide protection for a minimum of three years. Some vets give multiple inoculations at once, others administer just one at a time.

• Increasingly clear-cut documentation shows that vaccines have the potential to cause many side effects. While vaccine reactions/complications are still considered to be infrequent, they can be life threatening.

We now interrupt my special vacation guest postings for a regularly scheduled posting- but it’s for a good reason.

August 16th-22nd marks National Take your Cat to the Vet Week, a reminder to all us cat owners that despite what your cat may tell you, they really should get a vet checkup at least once a year.

Cats are masters of disguise, which is something I repeat regularly to owners who just can’t figure out how the cat who was acting normal last month now has raging diabetes or a thyroid level off the charts. They mask their signs of disease until it’s just impossible to ignore, oftentimes to their detriment. Regular checkups maximize your chances of catching manageable disease processes early.

Cats don’t like the vet. Trust me, I know this. Owners don’t like taking them, either, especially when it involves chasing the cat madly around the house for 20 minutes, stuffing them into the carrier, listening to the yowling for 20 minutes in the car, wrestling them out of the carrier at the vet, then dealing with the affronted feline back at home. It is very easy to just say, ‘forget it.’

It is even easier to just say forget it if you have one of those cats we delicately refer to as “fractious felines.” These are the cats that even the most seasoned staff hesitates to handle, the ones who growl when the slightest shadow crosses the front of the carrier, the ones you can’t even touch to remove from the carrier without risking life and limb. Some cats are so grumpy, or more likely just so terrified that getting a valid picture of their health is a challenge to do with the limited exam we can complete.

It is for these owners that I’d like to make a couple of suggestions:

1. When you schedule your appointment, ask the vet what their least busy time is, and go then. The less time you have to wait in the lobby, the less stressed you both will be.

2. Let your vet know your cat is grumpy. The staff appreciates the warning to use extra caution, and oftentimes if we know we have a limited opportunity to get things done we may plan our exam and diagnostics accordingly. For example, if an otherwise healthy pet presents for a vaccine, it may not be worth checking her ears if that is what sends her through the roof.

3. Don’t be afraid of sedatives. If your vet recommends it for your cat, there is probably a good reason. Sometimes it is the only way to obtain something we really need- like bloodwork for an ill pet. It’s not optimal, but it’s better than having a pet so stressed even the owner can’t handle the pet to get them in the carrier to go back home.

4. Look into cat-friendly vet options. Feline-only practices are popping up all over the place, with the advantage of no dogs in the lobby, a staff specifically trained to the idiosyncrasies of cats, and a vet who deals with all cats, all the time. Another option is a home visit veterinarian. For many owners, housecall practices are a lifesaver, giving the cat the care he or she needs without the drama of having to get in the car and go somewhere.

Feline Pine is having a “Tell Us Your Funniest Vet Stories” contest with a daily prize of a 6 month supply of Feline Pine and a $75 gift card to use at the vet, which you will have to keep your cat from hiding should you win. I actually have a doozy of a story from vet school but it involves someone else’s cat, and for reasons which would be clear if you heard it I’m actually too nervous to share it on the blog. But if you find me at BlogPaws I’ll be happy to tell it to you.

If you enter the contest, let me know your story here too so we can all share in the entertainment. And if you have any additional tips for minimizing the Horrors of the Vet Visits, please post them- I always love new ideas to make the visits better!

This one’s for my fellow toilers in this profession.

One of the great things about not owning a practice is that I don’t have to worry about a lot of the things an owner would. Payroll, for example. Sick technicians. FMLA. Leases. That sort of thing.

One of the bummers about not owning a practice makes itself apparent whenever I find myself at a continuing education conference, walking through booths of shiny bright tools and pieces of equipment I can’t buy. The sales rep turns to me with shiny teeth, grinning “HELLOOOO!” before placing some amazing doohickey or another into my hand, only to snatch it away just as quickly when they realize I have no buying power.

I am in love with video otoscopes. It’s like the ipad of the veterinary world. Do you NEED one? No. Do you want one? Desperately.

Ear infections are the yeasty bread and butter of many practices. Dogs and cats, unlike people, have a nice 90 degree angle in their ear canals, and in some cases a nice floppy flap of pinna sitting on top of the opening, making them veritable wonderlands for yeast and bacteria.

I know what a normal ear canal looks like: pink and happy and clean.

I also know what a diseased ear canal looks like: kind of like one of those caves spelunkers flit about, dark and dank and mottled.

I can tell you this, that your dog’s ear looks like a bowl of baked beans, and maybe you will let me do an ear cleaning. Or perhaps you will say, “But I clean them myself,” and decline my offer to do a better job.

All I have is my otoscope and my word. But with video otoscopes- a little device you stick into the ear with a camera at the end- you would find yourself confronted with the incontrovertible evidence of your pet’s state.

IN YOUR FACE! (don’t click if icky ears freak you out.) Yes, that is what we are staring at when we tell you, we really need to get in there and fix those ears up.

Veterinarians in practices with a video otoscope report that client compliance increases by a large margin when they are able to show owners exactly what they are seeing when they look in those ears. I imagine, of you clicked on the link, you can understand why.

Come to mama. That thing of beauty brings a tear to my eye. Do you have ANY IDEA how much easier that would make it to grab foxtails?

Someday, if I work really hard, maybe I too can have one of those so I can show people up close and personal the face of Pseudomonas ulcer ears. A girl can dream. But in the meantime, when I zoom by the websites of those practices offering video otoscopy, a small part of me wants to ask if I can come by, just for an afternoon, and play with their otoscope.

I like this game. It’s harder than it looks.

You’ll get a series of hints. Slam the buzzer when you know the answer.

An owner calls and says his dog is itchy.

BUZZ! FLEA ALLERGIES!

Ah yes, very good guess, but you haven’t even seen the dog yet.

The dog is not on flea control.

BUZZ! IT’S TOTALLY FLEA ALLERGIES!

Look, I get that is a reasonable assumption, but we need a little more information to make an accurate diagnosis.

What made you make the leap from kibble to home-prepared foods? Did you have a pet with a specific condition or was it just a change in the way you thought about food?

I had been working for another pet food manufacturer (who makes kibble and canned foods) for about 5 years and just became interested in the raw diet when I got my first puppy. I started off making his meals from scratch but found it to be very messy and time consuming. So I started thinking about how to create an alternative that would provide many of the same benefits as fresh food but without the mess, storage issues and inconvenience of having to defrost raw ingredients.