Creating A Pet Friendly Yard

Yards can be a shopping center or candy store for pets.  Pets often find materials that will harm them.  Sometimes objects are forgotten by good intentioned owners.  Other times, pets make their own mischief.  It is important to ensure that your yard is secure, well maintained, and free of debris, trash and toxic substances.
Creating a pet friendly yard is necessary for your pet's safety and well being.  Your budget will thank you for taking the extra effort to patrol your yard from your pet's perspective looking for enticing tidbits that could unknowingly play havoc with their delicate bodies.
Plants "More than 700 plants have been identified as producing physiologically active or toxic substances in sufficient amounts to cause harmful effects in animals," advises the Humane Society of the United States.  "Poisonous plants produce a variety of toxic substances and cause reactions ranging from mild nausea to death.  Certain animal species may have a peculiar vulnerability to a potentially poisonous plant."
Plants, trees, and shrubs of all shapes and sizes have the potential to be toxic to pets.  Animal bodies can be sensitive and each pet will react differently to ingested materials.  When planning your backyard planting projects consider safe alternatives to favorites that could harm Fido or Fluffy.
How to Grow a Beautiful, Yet Dog-Safe Garden by geriatric veterinarian Ellen Friedman suggests eliminating foxglove, monkshood or aconitum, lily of the valley, snowball bush (hydrangea buds), and tobacco plant.  Pet reactions to ingesting these substances can include irregular heartbeats, nausea, convulsions and seizures.
Bees and Wasps Eliminate or screen around low ground covers, shrubs or plants that attract bees and wasps.  Pets interested in the pollen gathering activities can get stung.
Compost Bin "Fence off your compost bin," advises Friedman.  "Decaying vegetable matter can send poochy to the vet with a raging upset stomach."
Gates and Fences Make certain all boundary materials are in good repair:  eliminate protruding nails, chipped or peeling paint, and gaps that allow or encourage escape.
Grass Cut your grass often.  Keep it watered to reduce dust and pests.  Remember to rake or use the yard vacuum to pick up cuttings.  If you must apply fertilizers and weed killers do so while pets are confined or visiting elsewhere.  Always follow the instructions to ensure that treated grass is safe for your pet.  Store fertilizers, weed killers, yard and gardening equipment out of reach and away from accessible play areas.  Maintain a strict weed removal program since weeds can cause a variety of nasty fanny problems for pets that must potty in them.
Pools, Tubs and Spas Immediately fence or screen these areas.  Not all pets are able to swim and those that are may still become trapped under the covers intended as energy savers.
Yard Care Items Tools, equipment, pesticides, fertilizers, weed treatments, repair and building supplies must be securely stored.  Remember that anything sharp - no matter its size -- needs to be secured.  Glass, plastic, wood, or metal can have edges that could easily slice tender pet skin and paws.  Always keep them out of reach of your pets.  Curious or bored animals can create their own entertainment.  Proper storage gives them less opportunity to get hurt.
Your family veterinarian can provide you with additional suggestions when you share photos of your yard during visits.  Walk out your door or through your gate and make your yard pet friendly.  Your pet will love you for it!

Feeling Apprehensive About Pet Treatment Involving Anesthesia?

Emergencies happen when we least expect it, and anesthesia could be a necessary component required to treat your pet.  Treatment recommendations your veterinarian makes could also include dental care involving anesthesia.  You may elect to neuter or spay your pet.  Anesthesia will be required.  Repair of broken bones and retrieval of foreign material from your pet's stomach will require anesthesia.  There are benefits and, of course, there are risks.  How can you make an informed decision without information?  You can't.  So, let's change that now.
If there is a time your pet requires anesthesia during a surgical procedure, your veterinarian will fully examine your pet.  During the examination, your doctor will check your pet's organs and vital functions to ensure overall health and wellness to accept the anesthesia and the planned surgery itself.  Your doctor will report to you the outcome of the exam and help you complete all treatment recommended.
Anxious About Anesthesia by Sheilah Robertson helps educate pet owners about the facts and risks of anesthesia in the veterinary operating room.  Robertson advises that blood tests before a procedure help your veterinarian "choose the right anesthetic drugs" for your pet.  Dr. Robertson also explains that if your veterinarian is concerned about your pet's heart or lungs, more tests may be needed."  Your doctor will "talk with you about whether it's safe for your pet to undergo anesthesia."
Delaying care or failing to treat your pet because anesthesia is involved may cause your pet some health complications or a decline in current health.  Your veterinarian is concerned for your pet, too.  The doctor you work with will take many steps before, during and after your pet's surgery to ensure a positive outcome.  Keeping up with your pet's health, activity levels, knowing current lab results and accurately predicting how your pet will react to the anesthesia are all part of your veterinarian's job.
Recovery time after your pet receives anesthesia will be important.  Your veterinarian and surgical staff will monitor your pet closely.  They will also require that your pet remain with them until your pet is awake and fairly alert.  You will want to support your doctor's requirement that your pet be watched vigilantly after a surgical procedure involving the use of anesthesia.
If your pet is obese, a senior or a smaller animal your veterinarian will have additional considerations.  These pets are carefully evaluated before a surgery and well guarded after it.  Keeping your pet healthy and well includes maintaining an appropriate weight.  Pet obesity and surgery can require your pet's vital organs to work even harder than normal.  Senior pets may have an unknown health condition that becomes known during the surgery.  That condition may interrupt speedy healing that would otherwise occur.  Smaller animals are just that - smaller.  A small pet can become colder during a procedure involving anesthesia so will need extra attention.
Drugs used during the giving of anesthesia to pets are monitored and recorded for accuracy and proper dosage.  Your veterinarian will take careful note of your pet's weight and health status before using anesthesia.  Your doctor will be careful to give your pet only the amount needed and nothing more.
When your pet needs anesthesia ask your veterinarian to answer your questions before the procedure.  Let your doctor know you're concerned about your pet and want its health restored.  Apprehensive pet-parents help veterinarians stay alert and tuned in during surgical procedures.  Your vet will always work with you for your pet's best health.  You're a team and you both want your pet to "win."

Creepy, Crawly Critters

 There are many parasites we need be concerned about that can affect our pets. Ticks are one of the most common and frightful. Most people shudder just at the thought of a tick, let alone finding one on their pet or in their house.  Unfortunately, the people who study these things tell us we should expect a large increase in the numbers of ticks.  Global warming and milder winters may be contributing to the surge of ticks, even to areas they may not have populated before.
Ticks are found worldwide, but tend to be found more in areas with warm, humid climates.  They are parasites that attach to mammals, birds, and occasionally reptiles and amphibians, and suck blood from their host.
There are four stages in the tick life cycle; each tick requires three hosts and takes at least one year to complete the cycle.  Each female tick can lay up to 3,000 eggs in the environment. Egg hatches and forms a larva which is very small, the size of a head of a pin, and it attaches usually to a small mammal or bird.  Once it is done feeding, it detaches, and molts in the environment to the next stage, the nymph.  The nymph then finds another, usually larger host to attach to and suck blood.  Once it is done, it detaches, and matures into the adult tick.  Adult ticks then need to find a suitable host.  They climb to the top of long grass, bushes, or other plants, and wait for a dog, cat, deer, cow, or any other animal to brush up against it.   Once on its host, it again bites the skin and feeds by drinking blood. 
There are many different species of ticks, but most, if not all, can carry diseases they can give to their host.  Common tick borne diseases are Lyme disease, Babesia, Ehrlichia, Anaplasmosis, tularemia, and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.  All of these diseases can affect dogs, and many can occur in cats, people, and other species.  The eggs can be infected inside the female tick, so even the tiny larval tick can be infectious.
There are some things you can do to try to prevent ticks in your house and yard.  If you live in a more rural area, guinea fowl are great tick exterminators.  Just two birds can clear two acres in one year.  You can reduce the tick habitat by removing the leaf litter and clearing tall grass and brush.  Discourage any wildlife from entering your yard with fences.  If you live near woods, create a three foot wide barrier at the edge of your lawn with wood chips or gravel; ticks can't crawl across this.  You should check your pets daily and remove any ticks you find.
We have three chemicals that we use on pets that will kill ticks, but only one can be used on cats.  Fipronil, found in Frontline, can be used on dogs and cats.  Permethrin  has been used on dogs, but is very toxic to cats, you need to read labels and if it says "for dogs only", do not apply it to a cat as it will likely be lethal.  Amitraz will also kill ticks.  It is available for dogs only, in the form of a collar called Preventic.  This is very effective but you must make sure the dog can't eat the collar.  A new product by Merial called Certifect is a combination of fipronil and a low dose of amitraz.  This is for dogs only, is applied topically once monthly, and is very effective.
You should talk to your veterinarian about the tick diseases in your area.  There is a test kit your veterinarian can use in the clinic that will test for Lyme disease, Anaplasmosis, and Ehrlichia at the same time your dog gets its annual heartworm test.  Your veterinarian can also discuss any treatments or preventatives from which your pet may benefit.

Heart Disease in Cats

Cats are wonderful pets.  In fact, they outnumber dogs as pets in the United States.  It is estimated that 85 to 95 million cats are kept as pets; one-third of all households have at least one feline friend. It is important for cat owners to be aware of a stealthy disease that may affect as much as 15 to 20% of all cats. 
Heart disease is one of the more common problems in the cat, and can affect cats of all ages.  Some causes of heart disease may never cause the cat any symptoms; some can cause severe signs, even sudden death.
By far the most common heart disease in the cat is hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) accounting for at least 60% of all heart disease in the cat.  This is an excess thickening of the heart muscle walls, so much that it interferes with the pumping action of the heart.  The walls can even get so thick that the ventricle chamber is greatly reduced in size, and therefore only a small amount of blood can be pumped with each contraction.
Cats with mild HCM may never show any symptoms, but more commonly cats with HCM develop one of three scenarios: congestive heart failure, clot formation, or sudden death.  Cats do not cough with congestive heart failure as dogs do; cats in heart failure have a fast respiratory rate and labored breathing. If you study their sides, you can see they are using their abdominal muscles to help them breathe. You may notice they do not want to lie down in a normal manner, they sit sphinx-like and are reluctant to move.
HCM cats are prone to clots.  These form within the heart, and can break off and are swept by the blood stream to other areas of the body. The clots can go anywhere, but most commonly they go down the aorta and lodge where the arteries divide to go into the rear legs.  You will find these cats unable to use their rear legs and crying in pain.  Your veterinarian will be suspicious of such a clot if the rear paws are cold, the femoral pulses are absent, and the pads of the rear feet are pale while the front pads are pink.
Cats with HCM may also die suddenly.  They may act fine one minute, and die within seconds to a couple minutes.  Death can be due to a severe arrhythmia or a clot that affects the brain.
HCM can develop sporadically in any breed or type of cat, but as it does have a genetic basis, certain breeds are prone to this potentially devastating disease.  Maine Coons, American Shorthairs, Ragdolls, and Persians have a much higher incidence than most other breeds, but each of these four breeds has its own genetic variation of HCM.  The Maine Coon and Ragdoll breeders have funded a veterinarian who does genetic research to develop genetic screens for their breeds.  But, unfortunately each test works only for that breed for which it was developed.
Regular examinations are important as your veterinarian will auscultate your cat’s heart (listen with a stethoscope) each time it is seen.  A murmur means more investigation is needed.  A murmur is just a symptom, it is caused by turbulence of blood not flowing in the normal manner.  There are innocent murmurs, which means, there is a murmur but it is not clinically important, and will never cause the cat a problem.  To make HCM even more difficult, one- third of HCM cats do not have any murmur at all.
Other tests that may be done are blood tests, especially a thyroid test, and proBNP, which is a newer test to check for cardiomyopathy.  Blood pressures and chest x-rays may also be done, especially if fluid in the lungs is suspected.  Radiographs (x-rays) of the heart are not useful, as severe heart disease can be present while the heart looks normal, but x-rays are needed to check the lungs.
The most important test to diagnose heart disease is an echocardiogram, which is an ultrasound of the heart, and needs to be performed by a veterinary cardiologist.  With an echo, the internal structure of the heart can be seen, and measurements taken of chamber size, valves of the heart observed for leaks with Doppler, and a diagnosis made. 
There is no cure for HCM, but there are various drugs used to try to manage the disease.  Diuretics are used if they have started into failure; also atenolol, diltiazem, and enalapril have been used, although no studies have shown great efficacy.  Plavix, an anti-coagulant, is used if the heart is in the stage where clots are a concern.
There are other heart diseases that occur in cats: heartworm parasites, congenital malformations, restrictive cardiomyopathy, and dilated cardiomyopathy.  The latter problem is much less common in the last decade since cat foods have been supplemented with higher levels of taurine. 
In summary, regular examinations are important to keep your feline friend healthy.  Your cat’s doctor will always be mindful of the potential for heart disease, listen for any abnormal sounds, and question you on any symptoms you may be seeing.  Your veterinarian can help your cat stay happy, playful, and as awesome as ever!