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

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!

One of the duties I most dreaded at a previous job of mine was evaluating the dogs for a local pet store. The pet store owner would go pick up new shipments of puppies at the airport, drop all 14, 16, 25 crates off at the clinic, and one of the vets would have to ’sign off’ on the puppies before they headed to the store.

The puppies all came with paperwork from the, ahem, “breeder” (aka puppy mill.) We would look at them to check for heart murmurs, cleft palates, that sort of thing. The dog store owner would angrily respond if we noted the pets were overly lethargic, “Well, they just off a long flight and they are dehydrated, that’s all!” as if that was OK.

If one of the staff vets noted too many problems, he would request that vet not participate in the health evaluations. Needless to say, I was banned pretty early on in my time at that clinic.

That memory was the first thing that came to mind when I heard the horrible story of the 7 puppies who died on a recent American Airlines flight. When the story first broke, it was not clear if the dogs were adults or puppies; it is still not clear if the puppies all belonged to one shipper or not- but that is certainly looking like a strong possibility.

When I sign off on a health certificate for a pet, I’m ensuring the pet appears healthy and safe for travel. That being said, there are obvious risk factors that put otherwise healthy pets at increased risk for problems during air travel:

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One of the greatest gifts of being involved in a pet blog is finding a greater sense of cause and community with like-minded people. Whether you are a cat person, dog person, bird person, ferret person- each with their own distinct personalities and interests- everyone is equally interested in improving the lives of animals across the world, and that is something I love.

Driven by the desire to bring community-minded bloggers together to make a difference, Kim Clune at This One Wild Life and Amy and Rod Burkert of Go Pet Friendly initiated the Blog the Change event, which starts today.

The link above will tell you all you need to know if you’d like to participate. The premise is simple: pick something you are passionate about and blog about it.

Ta daa!

Here is my contribution:

As an animal health care advocate and someone easily overwhelmed by life’s demands, I am all for safety tips that are easily implemented, convenient, and effective. I have seen the devastating effects of house fires, and I know how difficult it is in those emergency situations to get everyone out safely and quickly, particularly when you are trying to find a frightened pet.

The American Kennel Club, ADT, and the National Volunteer Fire Council have teamed up to declare July 15th Pet Fire Safety Day. With an estimated 500,000 pets affected by house fires each year, it’s an important issue to prepare for.

The above link has some tips for home preparedness, but even with the best pet-proofing accidents can happen. In those situations, something as simple as a window cling with your pets’ information can make the difference for those awesome, fantastic firefighter heroes who can and do regularly risk life and limb to help us, and our pets.

Participating fire stations across the US are offering these clings today for free; for those who are not close to a station where they are available, ADT also has these clings available online, free of charge.

It’s easy. It doesn’t cost you anything. And it just might save your pet’s life.

It’s Brody’s First Birthday Week! I have some really cool stuff in store for you guys. Stay tuned! And to kick it off, I’m sharing the awesomeness that was the Loews Surf Dog Competition this weekend here in San Diego.

There are few things in this universe more delightful to watch than a happy dog on a surfboard. It’s cute, they are clearly having fun- I mean, who could possibly NOT like that? (Don’t answer that.)

I remember seeing the promotions for the 2009 competition last May, thinking “We should totally go see that,” then being sad because I had another commitment. This was also around the time Emmett was diagnosed with lymphoma. It wasn’t the best timing.

But this year- this year!- I knew we just had to go. We loaded into the car like the Griswolds heading to Wally World- two adults, two kids, two dogs, all the resulting beach gear, one grandma for kid-wrangling, and we were off. I was a little nervous seeing the drizzle hit the windshield on the freeway, but the weather held clear at the beach.

Given the fact that the “Surf Level Red- This Means No Screwing Around, Kids” flag was waving at the beach and the water temperature was similar to that experienced by those on the Titanic, I didn’t sign Brody up for this contest. We were there solely as spectators. I hadn’t gotten a chance to get back to the beach since Brody’s Introductory Surfing Adventure and I wasn’t sure if he would remember the waves, see the boards, and go into traumatic fits or not.

What actually happened was, he saw the waves, got his toe into the water and went into a frenzy of “OMG BEACH WAVES YESYESYESYESYESYES” and nearly dislocated my shoulder trying to run in. So, he likes it. He was probably a little peeved that we had to sit on the beach and watch. If I can get my act together, we will compete next year. He would rock it.

The beach was packed with wall to wall people and dogs angling for a view of the waves, people happy to endure Brody’s sandy nudges and occasional jumps (still working on it, faithfully.) It was a festival of Fidos, a carnivale of canines, a rave of Rovers.

We had a blast. There are a whole lot of pics after the jump.

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I think I have mentioned here that I lived in Los Angeles for 5 years. 5 nutty, weird years in La-la land- 4 of them getting a bachelor’s degree, and one more trying to figure out what to do with it. That was the year, if you might recall, that I worked for the Beverly Hills erectile dysfunction specialist on the Viagra clinical trials, fielding phone calls from beleaguered geriatric Golden Age actors who simply HAD to be on the little blue pill trial.

I learned many things in LA.

1. Yes, that many people really do get plastic surgery.

2. Looks are everything.

3. Substance is nothing.

Needless to say, I didn’t live there any longer than I needed to. Sure, there were some normal, real people somewhere in the town, I just didn’t meet very many of them. I left very jaded about the Hollywood scene and the quiet desperation and over inflated egos of the lost souls who populate it. read more >>

As we all know, Brody has many talents. Eating, for one. Getting into trouble, absolutely. Jumping up on unsuspecting strangers? Check. Earthquake prediction? Yeah. Not so much.

Scientists have long grappled with the question of whether or not animals can predict earthquakes. Dogs have reliably been trained as seizure prediction dogs and diabetic sugar level assistance dogs, but canine seismologists are a bit more of a stretch.

Maybe there are animals out there with finely tuned vibration antennae. I have yet to meet one. My childhood dog Taffy notoriously slept through a 6.0 rumbler that sent my entire family screaming through the upstairs hallways to jump into the nearest doorway, while she snoozed beneath a precariously swinging chandelier. She also slept through a home robbery. She was a terrible guard dog.

This is Sophie. She may be one of the rare ones.

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