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Over half of U.S. dogs and cats are now overweight or obese, reports a recent study conducted by the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention. One-fifth of dogs and cats are obese — weighing 30% over a healthy weight. America’s obesity epidemic is apparently not just affecting humans.

Overweight pets suffer from a multitude of health issues including diabetes, kidney failure, and cancer. Last year, pets owners with one insurance company paid vets $25 million to treat obesity-related conditions such as asthma.

So who’s to blame? According to The Wall Street Journal, pet owners and food manufacturers may be partially responsible. Although pet owners might have good intentions (or perhaps think their pet looks a little cuter when he waddles), overweight animals come most often from owners who overfeed their pets or don’t exercise them frequently.

A number of pet owners have been accused of animal cruelty for starving a pet, such as the recent arrest of a woman from Queens whose pit bull weighed just 18 pounds. But it’s only recently that overfeeding a pet has been considered perhaps animal cruelty as well. In what was deemed one of the first cases of it’s kind, David and Derek Benton were convicted in 2007 for animal cruelty after they allowed their dog Rusty to become grossly overweight. The Labrador was twice the normal weight for a dog of his breed, suffered from painful joints and breathing problems, and struggled to stand up.

As for pet food manufacturers, they aren’t required to list calories on their food labels unless the product advertises a low calorie content — there is now a proposal to change this. Also, feeding directions are listed for the pet’s “most demanding” life stage, meaning the directions may lead to overfeeding by 25%.

The good news is that many vets consider animal obesity to be the most preventable pet health crisis facing the U.S. The Association for Pet Obesity Prevention recommends calculating calories for your pet. The website petobesityprevention.com lists the calories for many food brands. Aim for small high-protein, low carbohydrate meals. Also, make sure that your pet gets enough exercise every day. For dogs, this means 20 to 30 minutes of brisk walking, and for cats, 5 to 15 minutes of short periods of an activity like chasing a toy.

What do you think? Should a pet owner be held responsible for his pet’s weight?

WATCH the pet obesity epidemic:
Pet Obesity Video

Personally, I don’t care much for thinking about disasters. I put together an emergency kit for my family, promptly stuffed it it the closet and worked on forgetting about it. Somehow it just makes the threat feel all too real. But we should all have emergency supply kits, especially homes in the southern states during [...]

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Although a dog’s ears need to be regularly monitored for his entire life, a little basic maintenance is generally all that’s required to keep them clean and healthy.

Canine Anatomy

Because of the twisty, curvy design of a dog’s inner ears, it’s easy for parasites, bacteria and yeast to hide and thrive in them. This also means that any debris in the canal must work its way up to escape. Infections can result from trapped debris. Dogs with allergies are particularly vulnerable, as are those with floppy ears, like Cocker spaniels, basset hounds and poodles.

Routine Care

Your dog’s regular grooming/maintenance routine should include regular ear checks. This is especially important for dogs who produce excessive earwax or have a lot of inner-ear hair:

• If your dog’s inner ears appear dirty, clean them with a cotton ball dampened with mineral oil, hydrogen peroxide or a solution formulated specifically for this purpose. Inner-ear skin is delicate, so allow your vet to demonstrate the proper method for cleaning your dog’s ears.
• Do not clean your dog’s ears so frequently or deeply as to cause irritation, and take care to NEVER insert anything into your dog’s ear canal.
• If your dog sprouts hair from his ear canal, you or your groomer may have to tweeze it out every few weeks to prevent problematic mats and tangles from forming. Please discuss with your vet whether this is necessary for your dog.

Wet Behind the Ears?

If you’re not careful, frequent bathing and swimming can lead to irritation and infection. To prevent this from happening, place cotton in your dog’s ears before baths, and be sure to dry her ears as thoroughly as you safely can after all water sports and activities.

If your dog is prone to ear infections, you might want to pour a tiny amount of an ear drying solution made for dogs into her ear canals to help evaporate any water trapped inside. These ear washes, usually witch hazel-based, are available at better pet supply stores.

Danger Signs

Contact your veterinarian if you notice any of the following symptoms affecting your dog’s ears:

• Ear discharge
• Bad smells
• Redness
• Swelling
• Crusty skin
• Hair loss

Please also be aware that brown or black ear wax-and dry, dark wax resembling coffee grounds-are classic indicators of microscopic ear mites. Only your vet can tell for sure, so please don’t delay bringing a gooey-eared pooch in for a checkup.

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Over half of U.S. dogs and cats are now overweight or obese, reports a recent study conducted by the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention. One-fifth of dogs and cats are obese — weighing 30% over a healthy weight. America’s obesity epidemic is apparently not just affecting humans.

Overweight pets suffer from a multitude of health issues including diabetes, kidney failure, and cancer. Last year, pets owners with one insurance company paid vets $25 million to treat obesity-related conditions such as asthma.

So who’s to blame? According to The Wall Street Journal, pet owners and food manufacturers may be partially responsible. Although pet owners might have good intentions (or perhaps think their pet looks a little cuter when he waddles), overweight animals come most often from owners who overfeed their pets or don’t exercise them frequently.

A number of pet owners have been accused of animal cruelty for starving a pet, such as the recent arrest of a woman from Queens whose pit bull weighed just 18 pounds. But it’s only recently that overfeeding a pet has been considered perhaps animal cruelty as well. In what was deemed one of the first cases of it’s kind, David and Derek Benton were convicted in 2007 for animal cruelty after they allowed their dog Rusty to become grossly overweight. The Labrador was twice the normal weight for a dog of his breed, suffered from painful joints and breathing problems, and struggled to stand up.

As for pet food manufacturers, they aren’t required to list calories on their food labels unless the product advertises a low calorie content — there is now a proposal to change this. Also, feeding directions are listed for the pet’s “most demanding” life stage, meaning the directions may lead to overfeeding by 25%.

The good news is that many vets consider animal obesity to be the most preventable pet health crisis facing the U.S. The Association for Pet Obesity Prevention recommends calculating calories for your pet. The website petobesityprevention.com lists the calories for many food brands. Aim for small high-protein, low carbohydrate meals. Also, make sure that your pet gets enough exercise every day. For dogs, this means 20 to 30 minutes of brisk walking, and for cats, 5 to 15 minutes of short periods of an activity like chasing a toy.

What do you think? Should a pet owner be held responsible for his pet’s weight?

WATCH the pet obesity epidemic:
Pet Obesity Video

Cortisone drugs have a bad rap.

Pharmaceuticals like prednisone, prednisolone, dexamethazone, budesonide, and triamcinolone are drugs in the cortisone family. And over the years these medications have achieved much attention as bad chemicals.

This is very likely due to what could be described as overuse.  These drugs of have historically been prescribed for a wide variety of medical conditions in medicine.  Since these meds provide symptomatic relief for many problems, a large number of people–as well as pets–have received them.  And the truth is that we have likely used them excessively in our patients in the past.

As time went on, the medical community began to realize that cortisone drugs have side effects that warrant other meds being tried first.  In other words, using higher doses of cortisone drugs when milder treatments could have been effective has been shown to be the wrong strategy.  We have witnessed this phenomenon in allergies and arthritis in particular.

However, when one is coping with a cancer diagnosis, the realization must be made that cancer is extremely aggressive.  In spite of all of our medical advances, it still resists treatment.  Thus, in order to get an edge on cancer to promote longevity and life quality, we need to use a broad range of tools to attack this disease.

Cortisone drugs have their place in cancer medicine.  The side effects that are seen with cortisone use are rarely life threatening, while systemic cancer is always life threatening.  Therefore if the drug can increase a patient’s lifespan and the disease will proceed relentlessly without it, it is sensible wisdom to at least consider its use.

Here are guidelines for the use of the most common drug in this class, prednisone, taken from Plumb’s Veterinary Handbook, the gold standard of veterinary drug texts:

1.  Glucocorticoids can mask disease! Try not to use them until you have a diagnosis.

2.  Make a specific diagnosis!

3.  Determine course from outset

4.  Determine endpoint before you starting treating

5.  Use the least potent form for the minimal time

6.  Know where glucocorticoids inappropriate. (Behrend 2007)

Prednisone and prednisolone are central players in cancer chemotherapy protocols, most commonly for lymphosarcoma.  And the good news is that they really make a difference in both life quality and life span.  Oncologists are achieving median survival times of 10-14 months using these chemo protocols.  This is most definitely worth considering.

The bottom line is that in some cases we have swung too far in being anti-drug.  We need a balanced approach to cancer treatment.

We should always consider diet, apoptogens, anti-metastatics, pain control as needed, and efforts to convert our patients to a cancer-fighting brain state.  We must consider surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy (all of these are discussed in the Guide.

Don’t forget, when using cortisone drugs, decrease the dose of Apocaps to ¼-1/2 the labeled dose if your dog is receiving cortisone drugs, give with a full meal, and use this combination under veterinary supervision only.

Best,

Dr. D

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Reducing Your Dog’s Fat Intake

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You may think your dog’s pudgy rolls are adorable, but a veterinarian will assert that an overweight dog is at greater risk for health problems relating to joint strain, heart disease, high blood pressure, arthritis, cancer and canine diabetes. Controlling your dog’s weight is one of the most important things you can do as a pet owner to keep your pet happy and healthy.

Most often, a dog’s weight problems are due to poor diet and lack of exercise. Weight gain may also occur as a result of hormone issues like Cushing’s syndrome or hypothyroidism. Certain breeds like beagles, pugs, cocker spaniels and bulldogs are more genetically prone to being overweight. For most dogs though, obesity is a result of improper care.

Veterinarians generally classify dogs that weigh more than 20% above the normal weight as obese. At the ideal weight, you should be able to feel your dog’s ribs and he or she should have a clear waistline. Overweight dogs will have a belly that hangs and no visible waist. If your dog falls in the latter category it is time to make changes in his diet and routine.

A healthy diet is essential to changing and maintaining your dog’s weight. Consult with your veterinarian to determine a healthy weight and diet plan for your dog. A low-calorie regimin may be recommended that will satisfy your pup’s hunger while providing essential nutrients and vitamins.

To avoid causing an upset stomach, gradually ease your dog into his new diet. Start by including just a small amount of diet food mixed with his regular food. Add a little more diet chow each day while decreasing the amount of regular food so he has time to adjust to the changes.

Family meal time should be for the human family only. Many dogs gain weight because their table-side begging tactics work, gaining them a morsel of steak or leftover dinner scraps. If begging is a problem, keep the dog in another room while you are eating and resist the temptation to feed him from your plate.

Cut back on treats and use verbal cues or toys as an alternative reward. If you can’t resist giving treats, make them healthier by offering apple slices with a touch of peanut butter or homemade oatmeal balls.

Exercise is also important to maintaining a healthy weight. If your dog is overweight, chances are that you need more exercise too. Make exercising together part of your daily habit. Obese dogs may need to start off slowly but will eventually work up to taking long walks. A rousing game of fetch can also burn calories, build endurance and improve muscle functioning. A trip to the dog park will provide both exercise and socialization
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Literally millions of dogs are in shelters waiting for someone to rescue them. One is bound to be the perfect

Adopting a Shelter Puppy Smiling Dog Bakery

companion for you. But, as you head to a shelter to pick your new puppy you feel some anxiety. You don’t know what you might find when you visit a shelter. Is it the old, scary dog pound that you see in movies?

The Facility
Many shelters have come a long way since the days of the dog pound. There are still a few dreary shelters, but many are warm and inviting. Two such shelters are the Dumb Friends League (DFL) in Denver, Colorado, and Operation Kindness in Carrollton, Texas.

“We strive to make this a positive and uplifting experience,” says Kim Bunker, adoptions manager of the DFL. “We want to encourage adoptions. We place comforting items, such as blankets and toys, with the dogs and puppies.” DFL has a lobby where people can meet with adoption counselors, rooms to meet with their prospective pets and even an outside courtyard so meeting with a pet can be less stressful.

Operation Kindness also has a state-of-the-art facility. “We’re lucky that we have a lovely shelter on four acres of wooded land that has a residential look, “says Jonnie England, executive director of Operation Kindness. “We have skylights, open windows, cathedral ceilings and lots of glass. We also have a screened-in cat porch. When people come to our shelter they can watch the cats play or nap.”

The Process
Adopting a new puppy is more than just walking into the shelter and walking out with a new dog. From the moment you enter the shelter to the time you walk out with a new pup, expect to spend two to four hours to complete the entire adoption process. This isn’t intended to make adoption a grueling experience, but rather to make sure that the dog you adopt is the right one for you.

Some shelters have adoption counselors available to help guide your decision-making process-even before you look at the dogs. Counselors will ask questions about your lifestyle, such as whether you work or have kids, to determine what dog or puppy is a great match for your family.

Some of the questions you might expect a counselor to ask are: Who will be the primary caretaker of the puppy? How many hours per day will the puppy be left home alone? What do you expect monthly expenses for your new puppy to be? What is the activity level of your household?

At DFL, they also ask you about your previous pets, your current pets and whether you have a fenced-in backyard. Operation Kindness asks lifestyle questions, and uses the answers to determine which puppy would best suit you and your family.

“All our questions are aimed at making a match with the right person,” England says. If its a Great Dane puppy and you’re in an apartment, its not a good match. If you like to sit and watch television all the time, an active Jack Russell Terrier isn’t right for you. You may feel like the counselors are grilling you, but it’s an attempt to learn about you so they can help you pick the right puppy.

The Puppies
When you walk into the area of the shelter where the dogs are held, you may be surprised to hear so much barking. “Barking is completely normal,” Bunker says. Dogs bark when they see new people, they bark at other dogs, it may be close to feeding time, or there may have been a dog walked through the kennel.

However, the barking can be frightening, especially for kids. “We love for kids to be here,” England says. “But barking dogs can be intimidating. If you bring your kids and they’re intimidated by all that barking, maybe one adult can wait in the lobby with the kids while the other adult checks out the dogs in the kennel.”

Likewise, if you have a particularly sensitive nose, some shelters may have a pungent odor that comes from housing many dogs in a relatively small area. This isn’t necessarily a reflection of the care taken at the shelter-some facilities may be older, and despite vigorous cleaning, its sometimes difficult to completely mask the odors. However, the animals shouldn’t look sickly or dirty, or have diarrhea, vomiting or weepy eyes.

But how do you decide what puppy is best for you? As well as assessing the puppy’s personality (is it active and outgoing, or shy and calm?), also look for one that’s healthy. The puppy should be happy and alert with clear eyes and a clean, shiny coat. It should have good muscle mass (you shouldn’t be able to see its ribs) and act like a puppy-playful and eager.

If kennel cough is going around, a puppy may have goopy eyes and runny nose, but the shelter should be treating the puppy, so be sure to ask. Kennel cough is a highly contagious upper-respiratory infection that is spread through the air, and is common wherever dogs are housed closely together.

The Paperwork
Many shelters require potential adopters to show identification and proof of residence. If you rent, the shelter wants to be sure that your landlord will allow a dog of the breed or size you plan to adopt. You’ll need to show a copy of your lease agreement or have written permission and contact information from your landlord.

When filling out the adoption paperwork, the counselors will go over the shelter’s adoption contract. At DFL, all pets are spayed or neutered before they’re adopted, regardless of age. At Operation Kindness, the age for spaying or neutering is 16 weeks and older. Younger puppies are required to be spayed or neutered by a veterinarian once they reach 16 weeks of age. Some cities have arrangements with local veterinarians who offer a discount on spaying or neutering pets adopted from the shelter.

Adopting a puppy from a shelter takes time and a little work, but the rewards of rescuing a dog in need of a loving home will provide you both with years of unconditional happiness and companionship.
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I was found on a cold, wet day in March in an alley of Richmond, Virginia.  I was huddled in a corner, drenched and shaking.  The people who found me could tell I was a puppy, “four months old maybe” they said, and they tried to tempt me with treats but I didn’t move at all.  The lady noticed I had a leaf in my mouth and brushed it away. I was too tired to do it myself. She put a spoon full of peanut butterunder my nose.  I tried to look at the food, but all I could do was blow a bubble from my mouth. The man with her wrapped me in a towel and picked me up and carried me into their home.  They put me in a dry, warm kennel, covered me with blankets and put a heater nearby.  The daughter came over and talked very gently to me while the man examined me and said I had no visible injuries.  He warmed my paws and body by massaging me.

It Felt So Good, I Was So Thirsty

I started to feel better and when the man’s big dog came into the room and drank from her water bowl. I went over and took a drink too.  It felt so good, I was so thirsty.  That’s when the people noticed how thin I was.  When I couldn’t keep down the water I drank, the lady said I was probably severely dehydrated and she fed me droplets of Pedialyte.  She gave me 4 ccs every 20 minutes and she was very happy when I kept that down for an hour.  Then everything came up again and the people looked concerned.  They wrapped me in a blanket and drove me to a doggie hospital.

The people at the hospital were very nice to us, but the lady started crying really hard.    The vet told the lady I have a disease called parvo that is a highly contagious virus mainly affecting dogs. The disease  is spread from dog to dog by direct or indirect contact with their feces. It can be especially severe in puppies like me that are not protected by a simple, inexpensive vaccination.  Without treatment, 91% of unvaccinated puppies that contract parvo die.  The staff explained that animal control will not accept animals with parvo and that they would put me to sleep.

Would the humane thing be to put me to sleep?

The vet said parvo has two distinct presentations, either a cardiac or intestinal form and that I had the intestinal form.  When she tried to take my temperature rectally, the thermometer came out bloody.  She said survival in puppies usually depends on how quickly parvo is diagnosed, the age of the animal and how aggressive the treatment is. Treatments for severe cases that are not caught early involve extensive hospitalization, due to the severe dehydration and damage to the intestines and bone marrow. The common signs of the intestinal form are severe vomiting and severe hemorrhagic (bloody) diarrhea. The cardiac form causes respiratory or cardiovascular failure in young puppies.

They told the lady she had done the humane thing and they would put me to sleep so I wouldn’t suffer anymore.  But as the doctor was leaving the room, the lady cried out, “I want to give him a chance to live!”  Then lots of people rushed in, wrapped me in more blankets and I was admitted to the hospital.

Round-the-Clock Battle Begins The vet said for me to live, I would need to stay in the hospital and receive treatments of crystalloid IV fluids and/or colliods, antinausea injections (antiemetics) such as metoclopramide, dolasetron, ondansetron and prochlorperazine, and antibiotic injections such as cefoxitin, metronidazole, timentin, or enrofloxacin.  She told the lady that because I needed IV fluids and antibiotic injections, the lady could not do this herself at home.  They said I would have to be monitored because each time I vomited or had diarrhea, they would need to give me an equal amount of fluid intravenously to keep me from dying of dehydration.  Then the vet said that my chance of survival with treatment was about 60 percent.

A Turn for the Better My second day in the hospital my temperature had gone down to 101 instead of yesterday’s reading of 104 and the people are smiling at me.  The man and lady and the daughter came to see me this morning and they kissed me and told me I am a wonderful little boy.  They touched my face and rubbed my neck and it made me so happy.

The lady was crying again, she said that the doctor told her that there are so many cases of parvo in Richmond that the shelters cannot afford to treat abandoned animals.  Animals left unaided die an excruciatingly painful, slow death vomiting with severe hemorrhagic (bloody) diarrhea until they are too weak to eat or drink. The lady said someone abandoned me while I was sick and hurting and so weak I couldn’t run or feed myself.  She said that parvo is easily preventable and that every puppy should be given a parvo shot when they are a few weeks old.  She said none of this had to happen to me.

It’s been three years since the day my family found me.  Once I got better, they brought me home to live with them and my best canine friend, Meghan the labrador retriever.   I am now a healthy, happy boy living life to the fullest with my family.

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