E-Vet Clinic - Dog Health Care

I am sorry there is not a cure for dog osteoarthritis and I apologize if the heading of this post has misled you but let me explain…

This is a post about how the media filters your news and although in this case I believe it to be unintentional ignorance it still proves my point.  I was sent this story - Identification of biomarkers for osteoarthritis may lead to cure and it is a well written story. I chuckled over this statement

Detecting osteoarthritis before painful symptoms are present could help owners alter the dog’s health and lifestyle before joint damage occurs.  Changing the diet, reducing weight and starting exercises to strengthen joints could delay the onset of the painful symptoms.

You should have a dog with the correct diet and low weight that is exercised daily anyway…LOL

But still the whole point of the story was that researchers are studying for precursors to osteoarthritis in dogs to help with catching the disease early or possibly even find a cure for the devastating joint disease. It caught my interest so I followed the link posted in the story that was based on the original story from Science Daily which is here, Early Detection Of Osteoarthritis In Dogs Could Open Doors For A Cure 

Now what caught my attention in this story (besides the diet and exercise quote) was this paragraph -

In the study, researchers examined potential biomarkers in synovial fluid. Synovial fluid, which is fluid that lubricates the joints, is known to have sensitive and rapid responses to joint injury. Taking samples from dogs, researchers found that synovial fluid quantity and quality were altered in injured stifle joints (the joint in the hind limbs of dogs that is the equivalent joint to the human knee).

To which my mind responded…Yeah so! Any horse vet knows that synovial fluid becomes thinner and losses its lubricity in the face of inflammation. It has been known for years!

I am sure that Dr. James Cook who was quoted in this story - “Our team, led by Drs. Kuroki, Stoker and Garner, is making tremendous progress in developing simple tests on blood, urine and synovial fluid that show great promise for helping us diagnose impending osteoarthritis before it is too late to help the patient in the most effective manner.”  is correct in that they are looking for markers and I applaud them for doing so, it would make my job easier to have a blood test or urine test to determine if a dog actually has arthritis. It would be cool, really. I feel a joint and it has “stiffness”, so I can take some blood and say yep it has the precursors for arthritis lets really treat this now so we can slow the process down. Or even better an annual exam dog is doing well, take a blood test and find the precursors I can suggest supplementation, really stress weight control and have a reason for the owners to listen, because of the precursors. OK, so I took it one step further and clicked on the link for the quoted Research - Examination of synovial fluid hyaluronan quantity and quality in stifle joints of dogs with osteoarthritis.

What!?! I’m sorry but this research abstract tells me nothing that I didn’t already know. It tells me that if I destroy the cartilage in a dogs knee that it changes the quality and quantity of joint fluid…no kidding! Then there is a brief mention at the end of the abstract “A specific hyaluronan protein fragment may be associated with early pathologic changes in affected joints.” You don’t say and how does this have anything to do with the majority of pets out there that have osteoarthritis from genetic or old age onset osteoarthritis? It doesn’t, because they did not study that type of dog (which I understand because it is much more difficult to control and study that type of dog) but rather they purposely caused traumatic damage to a joint which has completely different course and progression of osteoarthritis and studied that. From my experience, traumatic osteoarthritis is much more aggressive and has a faster progression.

So from two news pieces exclaiming that research is on the verge of discovering a test for early diagnosis and that it can lead to a cure to the entire let down of a study published in December of last year that really says nothing of the sort. There you have it dog lovers, although I do believe that researchers are trying to find early precursors we are still a long way from discovery if we are still proving what we already know.

Just the other day I saw the coolest thing, one of my clients is using a wall tent for dog trials. I went to her house to look at one of her horses and in her yard was this large canvas tent. I had seen tents like this before when I was at a camp ground but she had been using it this summer for going to trials. It is perfect for that. It is very portable, sets up easy, and has plenty of room for her, her husband and their three dogs.

She had it set up because it had rained at the last trial and she needed to dry it out so it would not get moldy. I went inside and it is more like a small cabin than a tent and surprisingly cool! She said wall tents work great in hot weather; they tend to stay pretty cool inside even during the heat of the day. In the fall she has a portable wood stove with a chimney that shoots out a hole in the roof of the tent to stay warm. When it rains they stay dry. It is perfect for all types of weather.

I have been to many agility and other dog shows and have seen many tents and awnings put up but this thing was like the Taj Majal in comparison. She said it takes her and her husband 20 minutes to put up using a simple metal frame that goes inside the wall tent. And the only down side is that when it is packed away it weighs just over 100lbs, but if you are staying at a trial or show for 3 days it is well worth it. She only paid $600 for it and has been using it for a couple years.

You can find wall tents several places, doing a google search I found pretty good prices at Outfitter Warehouse - www.outfitterwarehouse.com Yes I am actually thinking about getting one myself. I used to love camping when I was a kid but my wife’s idea of roughing it is staying at the Holiday Inn, but maybe with a wall tent she might just reconsider.

If you haven’t seen this video on YouTube you need to…

uk.youtube.com/watch?v=jCnAjel02lM

A serenade for pups… Is this the true dog whisperer?

Did you know that dog vaccination guarantees protection against disease? Well that is at least what the pharmaceutical companies’ marketing departments would like you to believe and it certainly is working on some people. Faith left a comment on my blog about this very topic and then I went to her blog and discovered some misinformation that needs to be corrected.

Here is an excerpt from her blog Dog Health Information about dog vaccination -

Dog vaccination guarantee protection from diseases and your pet can develop strong immunity thus making vaccination a vital factor of your dog health care. Nevertheless, engaging your pets to ‘annual vaccinations’ needs to be consulted from veterinarians. It is important that you know what and how often to give your dog a vaccination, for his total safety.

I totally agree with her about consulting with your veterinarian about what to give and how often as long as they are giving you the most current recommendations and information on the subject -
Is your vet STILL overvaccinating your dog? : The 2006 canine vaccination guidelines

But do vaccines actually guarantee protection? The simple answer is ‘no’. Vaccines do not guarantee protection against disease. A quick look at the research shows that vaccines protect anywhere from 85% to 95% of the time, which of course is good but it is definitely not a guarantee. Even being properly vaccinated your dog may still become infected by the diseases they are vaccinated for, it is not complete protection. It is the best protection available especially against diseases such as Distemper, Hepatitis and Parvo, but it is not a guarantee.

I am not suggesting that you forgo vaccinating your puppy because it does not guarantee protection but just be aware of the actual facts that vaccines are very powerful immune system stimulants but they do not offer 100% protection of the diseases. Because of this it is important to protect your dog in other ways, such as proper nutrition, exercise, and annual exams and blood tests from your veterinarian to supplement a proper vaccination protocol for your dog.  Basically focus on all the other aspects of dog health to help protect your dog the best way possible.

I am here and I apologize for the lack of posting on this blog. I have been busy on an unrelated project. The project is completed and I will be back posting dog health articles on a regular basis. Also be prepared for a complete overhaul of this site as well as a book coming soon. I am writing a book for dog health and one for horse health and they will be available on my sites.

If you want to check out something totally unrelated to dog health check out what I have been doing at http://www.conservative-options.com Not the typical expertise found in a veterinarian but it is something I am passionate about.

OK here is an interesting take by some “experts” on the topic of pet health insurance and their claims that it is rarely needed and could be a waste of your money.

Heres the link - Pet insurance rarely needed, experts say a reprint of an article from the Washington Post by Amy Orndorff. A couple of points in the article that are of importance -

• The average dog owner spends $261.30 per year in vet bills
• Less than 4 percent of American pets are insured, though that number is growing.
• There’s a greater variety of life-extending procedures and higher demand for them.

So the question that was asked at the beginning of the article -

“…should you shell out hundreds of dollars a year for puppy insurance just in case he needs an expensive life-extending operation?”

I guess as is the case with most questions like this, the answer is personal preference. Financially is it responsible? Probably not when you consider you could take the premiums you would have paid out and placed it in a savings account for use in case of a life threatening emergency or operation that will cost you several hundred to thousands of dollars. However my answer to that is “WHO does that?” For the majority of dog owners that have a dog that is a family member that they would do anything for, pet insurance gives them the peace of mind that they can pay a little now and over a long period of time just in case something happens to their family member. Isn’t all insurance like that? It is a gamble. It is you betting against the insurance company. The insurance company bets that out of all their policies only a few are going to collect more than what they put in, and you are betting that it just might be you that will need the insurance.

When you look at it that way and then think about life insurance for yourself…you are betting you are going to die…LOL!

I am still looking into pet insurance companies - Embrace is still the leader in my eyes, but another company has asked me to give them a chance to talk with them and see what they offer. The problem they have is that they are so new of a company here in the states that they are not even offered in the state I live in, which is also the state I practice small animal medicine, and the state in which I would have my clients purchase pet insurance.

One of the biggest contributors to poor dog health is obesity. About 35 to 40% of dogs are overweight and almost 25% are obese and just as in people this really increase health problems such as joint issues, diabetes, liver disease, and other health issues.

Well one creative veterinary clinic, New River Animal Hospital in West Virginia, is starting a Biggest Loser Pet Contest, similar to that of the TV Show the Biggest Loser. The contest will last three months and first prize is a basket full of items worth $200. Here is the new article on the contest - Biggest Loser Pet Contest to begin Monday

This might be a good idea for our own clinic and it certainly is a good idea if your own dog has a weight problem. Set up your own Biggest Loser Contest with your own dog. It will help immensely (pun intended). Lets give you a few tips to help you get started -

Simple - less food more exercise. Basically eat less calories and burn more…sound familar. Now how to do this -

• Stop with the treats. Your dog does not need treats, especially if it is overweight. I repeat your dog will love you even if you do not give it a snack every time it goes potty outside.
• Take your dog for a walk. It is best to take multiple short walks a day vs one long walk.
• Play with your dog - chasing a ball or a toy is good exercise for your dog.
• Do not feed crappy diet dog food - unless you want your dog to be bloated and have a large amount of gas do not feed the “fit and trim” dry dog foods. It is important to maintain high quality dog food and just feed less of it. The rest of your dogs health depends on it.
• Weigh your dog twice a week to determine your progress.

It is no secret that your vet bills are increasing. Dog health care costs are on the rise. Some of the reason is a shift in focus of veterinary medicine.

It used to be, go into your vet once a year for “shots” and heartworm prevention and one time in your pets life a spay or neuter. Now there has been a shift. We have discovered that annual vaccinations are no longer necessary and in fact may be harmful to your dogs health - Is your vet still overvaccinating your dog? Vaccinations were very profitable as they could be purchased for a small amount and sold for a great profit. The profit helped pay for all the other treatments and management of an animal hospital. In fact many times a veterinary clinics gross income consisted of 33% vaccination income. Veterinarians were more on a product based business by selling products and medications vs a service based business like they should have been. Now the shift is going to a service based business which means more services are going to be offered and the prices for those services are no longer going to be given away. The days of the $40 spay are almost over. A veterinarian actually loses money by giving away a $40 spay because it costs more than $40 to actual perform the procedure. Some vets are still providing a cheap cost spay for a couple of reasons one to help control the pet population and two in hopes that that client will return for other business.

So what does going to a service based business mean for your pet? Well actually it is a win-win situation, it means better health care for your dog by providing the most current diagnostic and treatment protocols. As vets are trying to make up for lost income from vaccinations they are actually offering services that can really improve the health of your dog. The objective of better diagnostics is to find disease early on when it actually is not causing symptoms. This makes it easier to treat, prolongs the life of your dog, and avoids really expensive treatments by avoiding having to bring in a really sick dog.

So there are a couple of the reasons why your dog’s health care costs are rising. Another perspective on the rising costs of vet care can be found in this article - Vet care becoming doggone expensive  which discusses what can be done about dog health care costs rising by incorporating a pet insurance plan to help defray the higher costs of veterinary care. One thing that I would recommend is checking out pet insurance companies as they are not all the same. At this point in time I am actually leaning away from VPI the largest pet insurance company and looking to promote Embrace Pet Insurance

I’ll give my final decision and reasons in a future post. I will be meeting with a rep from VPI very soon and I will also do some more conversing with Laura Bennett or Alex Krooglik from Embrace so I will have a good handle on pet insurance before I write that post.

It appears that ticks are going to be a serious problem this year. They are already present in this area of the country (Midwest- Chicagoland) I was actually shocked to see a dog come into my clinic with three ticks on it already. I also went to a clients house to work on her horses and her dog had a tick on it.

Frontline seems to be the best “medicine” for the prevention of a tick infestation and more importantly to prevent the spread of Lyme disease as a tick will need to feed on a dog for a minimum of 24 hours before passing on Lyme disease. However for those of you more open to alternatives and do not want to be “poisoning” your dog with chemicals that last in the lipid layer of its skin for 40 days. I have two blog posts that you NEED to read…

Dogs and ticks! - You’ll find pictures of ticks, information on how to protect your dog from ticks and how to recognize symptoms of tick disease in dogs. With tick education and awareness, you can help keep your best friend happy and healthy. …

Keep Fleas and Ticks Away Naturally with Homemade Dog Biscuits - Lyme disease is possible, though uncommon, out here, and with four pets I simply cannot risk a flea outbreak. I’ve been doing some research and come up with what will hopefully be a natural remedy! It turns out that nutritional yeast …

Osteosarcoma is a very common cancer in large breed dogs. It is a bone cancer in which the tumor produces a hard solid mass on the bone usually in a leg. The most common symptom is limping or sometimes a fracture occurs. Once the tumor is seen and diagnosed with no treatment a dog will usually only live 1 to 2 months as the majority of the time the cancer is malignant and rapidly spreads to the lymph tissue and to the lungs.

Treatment would consist of radiographs of the chest to determine if the cancer has spread and if not then amputation of the affected leg and then chemotherapy. This will usually gain several more months for the dog and in a few cases a couple of years.

However there are some cases in which no treatment can be done. Take Hanna here…

Hanna is a Newfoundland with mild hip dysplasia. She had a bone tumor growing on her right shoulder.  Amputation was out of the question due to her hip dysplasia. She is a very large dog with a lot of weight taking the front leg off would cause her to put more weight on her hind legs which were also damaged. She would not have been able to walk after only a couple of weeks. So the owner decide to just provide Hanna pain relief and treat her holistically using the raw food diet. Hannas heart was very big and her will to live was remarkable because she beat all odds and lived with her cancer for over 10 months. In fact this picture was taken in February, and she was living with her cancer at that time and obviously living quite well notice her weight was good, her hair coat was decent, and her attitude was excellent.

Although she is gone now, Hanna will still be one of the most memorable stories I have had in veterinary medicine. Each month I went to do chiropractic treatments I was expecting not to see her and every time there she was waiting for me.  I will miss her!