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Tag: Cats

  • A Merry Christmas for all the family

    A Merry Christmas for all the family

    Little things you don’t consider until you spend every waking moment looking at, thinking about, or learning about animals, is how one of our favourite times of year might impact the smaller members of our families.

    Awareness is rising on just how traumatic Guy Fawkes night can be for our furry friends, but there is a tendency to bring even more chaos inside the house during the Christmas period.

    Anxious pets, or those used to a small household, can find themselves overwhelmed when the whole extended family comes stampeding through the front door – it’s often exhausting for us, so just think how they must feel!

    The little things

    Take little measures like employing a commercial pheromone infuser in the house a few days before the festivities start to kick in, or give your pet a safe and quiet room in the house away from the main action where they can take refuge. Make sure, of course, that they have plenty of food and water and, perhaps, some comforting items like their favourite bedding and toys.

    Now don’t get me wrong, in my eyes Christmas is just as much about stuffing our faces as anything else, but making sure our pets don’t eat anything they shouldn’t is just as, if not more important, at this time of year.

    A few things to watch out for include mistletoe, holly and ivy, which are often in plentiful supply at Christmas. Take extra care with house rabbits or any other pets that would normally enjoy tucking into leafy greens. Small pieces of tinsel, plastic bristles from artificial Christmas trees, or wrapping paper can also cause stomach problems if ingested – and nobody wants a festive trip to the vets or dog sick in their stocking come Christmas morning.

    If you like to leave mince pies out for Father Christmas, make sure they are out of pets' reach. Image © Chris Leachman / Adobe Stock
    If you like to leave mince pies out for Father Christmas, make sure they are out of pets’ reach. Image © Chris Leachman / Adobe Stock

    Festive food

    Our favourite Christmas foods aren’t a good idea for our pets either, no matter how hard they beg. I know a lot of people are aware just how toxic chocolate can be to dogs and cats, but ingredients such as garlic, onions and alcohol are all equally dangerous. Mince pies also contain a lot of dried fruits, so if you like to leave some out for Father Christmas, take care to put them somewhere they can’t be snaffled before he arrives.

    It can feel nice to include our pets in the festivities by giving them an extra helping at dinner as well, but a lot of animals have very sensitive stomachs when it comes to diet changes, and a lot of dogs and many cats don’t have the ability to “self-regulate”, which means they will keep eating after they’re full – a bit like us. This can make them really unwell and have the opposite effect the owner desired.

    So, instead, the occasional biscuit treat or a new toy will probably go down just as well.

    Teachable moments

    Finally, teaching your family and friends all these little things can go a long way to protecting our pets over the holidays.

    Little things we take for granted like cracker bangs, festive fireworks, a busy house and lots of food are all parts of Christmas that we’ll never lose – and quite right! But that doesn’t mean our furry friends have to suffer during what’s meant to be one of the most joyful times of the year.

  • Keeping pets happy in the heat

    Keeping pets happy in the heat

    The English summer, though tardy as usual, has finally arrived – and while this is cause for celebration among humans, I thought it best to share a few words of caution about keeping our furry friends equally happy as the temperatures rise.

    Around this time of year, vets get a surge of patients coming in with signs of heat stroke, sunburn and dehydration – conditions that can often be prevented with just a few changes to routine and a little extra care.

    Unfortunately, dogs can’t sweat through their skin as we can, and rely predominantly on panting, drinking and radiating heat via their noses and paw pads to keep them cool. For this reason, a number of factors should be considered when it comes to making sure your pet is comfortable and healthy in the hotter months.

    Heat hints

    Looking for signs of panting and lethargy are good ways to tell if your pet is getting uncomfortable, but a good rule of thumb is: if it’s too hot for you in shorts and a T-shirt, it’s probably too hot for your dog in his permanent fluffy jumper.

    If your dog requires a muzzle, try to find one that allows it to drink and pant, to help it regulate its own temperature.

    On days at the hotter end of the spectrum, it’s also a good idea to walk your dog during the cooler hours – such as in the morning or evening/late afternoon – rather than at midday when the pavements are hottest, as cement and gravel that is too hot can burn its foot pads.

    Five second rule

    Blue Cross recently posted about a “Hot Day 5 Second Rule” for judging whether it’s too hot to walk your dog. It advises to stand on the pavement barefoot and if it’s too hot for you to bear after five seconds then it’s also too hot for your dog’s feet.

    It’s not just dogs, though – cats only sweat through their paws, so they, like dogs, will often choose shadier spots and/or sprawl themselves out over the coolest place in the house or garden they can find.

    However, unlike dogs, cats only use panting as a last resort, so if you see your cat panting, it’s a definite indicator you need to help it cool down. If your cat prefers the indoors then by making sure your house is ventilated and cool, with lots of water in supply, it should be pretty self-sufficient, as cats often are.

    If you have an outdoor cat, restricting its access to the garden on the hotter days of the year may seem cruel, but it is probably the best thing for it – especially if you’re intending on leaving the house, and won’t be around to let it in to drink and take shelter if it needs to.

    Hot exotics

    I haven’t seen a lot mentioned online about caring for your exotic pets in a heatwave, so I thought I’d briefly touch on it here. Of course, I’m not an expert, and if you wanted professional advice on how to properly care for your snake, lizard, bird and so on then asking your local vet is definitely the best course of action.

    However, small factors exist that people tend not to think about, such as turning off the heat mats and/or lamps in your reptile cages, as they’re not always needed when the external temperature is suitably high. Making sure cages aren’t in direct sunlight, but also aren’t in a draught, can be a fine line, but is also imperative.

    This goes for bird cages as well, and it can also help keep the cage cool to keep it lower to the ground (since heat rises) and, of course, provide plenty of water – both for drinking and bathing in certain bird species.

    Subtle signs

    We all want the best for our pets, and it can be easy to forget their needs are often different to ours in subtle, but important, ways. Knowing the signs of when your pet is happy and when it is not is the best way to help prevent issues such as heat stroke and lower the number of cases seen in practice.

    And, as always, if you’re unsure what signs to look for, or what precautions to take at any time of year, don’t hesitate to make an appointment with your vet to get some helpful advice.

  • Always on: a new perspective

    Always on: a new perspective

    It was a couple of weeks before I set off for Bristol and an uncertain, but exciting life on the vet course that my mother – who’s been a member of the medical field for many years – began pointing out various dogs and cats to me as we passed them, stating that, once I began studying medicine, I would never look at these animals in quite the same way.

    They would be patients, not just pets, she reminded me. In the same way she herself subconsciously clocked subtle signs and symptoms in the people she interacted with day to day, not even meaning to look for things a person without the same training or knowledge would ever think to look for.

    At the time, I was dubious. To my mind, a cavalier King Charles spaniel would always be, to me, an adorable cavalier King Charles spaniel. Two years on, I can, perhaps begrudgingly, admit to her she was right.

    A blessing and a curse

    I think one of the greatest strengths of any medical profession – their extensive and almost unfathomable reserve of knowledge – is also their greatest curse.

    There’s a reason they say doctors and nurses make the worst patients – it’s most likely because when you‘re drilled over your 5-year to 6-year course – whatever your poison – to consume gargantuan amounts of knowledge about anatomy, physiology, microbiology and how it all goes wrong, when it comes to your down time, you can’t just switch that off.

    There’s no way to know all you need to know between 9am and 5pm, and then just un-know it until you need it again the following morning. Knowing everything that can and could go wrong is perhaps one of the plethora of reasons why medical staff – human and veterinary – suffer from stress the way they do.

    Can’t help but think about…

    To put this into context for you, I am a lover of fluffy breeds and, aside from empathising with them a little over the hotter months, I didn’t ever think too much about them in the way of anything remotely pathological.

    Now, though, I can’t help but catch a glimpse of what is undoubtedly a very well-cared for animal without thinking about the dermatitis, the ear mites, the conjunctivitis…

    I don’t want to be thinking about that, I can assure you. I’d much rather be thinking about the adorable dog I’ve just witnessed – but take it from me, it’s a really hard thing not to do; much like being told not to think about elephants and then finding yourself only thinking about elephants.

    Wealth of knowledge

    Don’t get me wrong; I love having this ever-growing pool of information at my fingertips. But is the knowledge of every disease or parasite I could ever contract slightly stressful? Yes. Is the act of learning all of these also somewhat stressful? Also yes.

    But learning all this is half the reason any of us decided to become vets, doctors, nurses and so on in the first place. There’s a lot of good that can be done with it. For starters, I was completely unaware of the medical issues surrounding brachycephalic breeds until my first year on the vet course. If vets don’t know the worst that could happen, how can they advise owners on how to prevent or manage it?

    One of the greatest responsibilities of medical practitioners is to educate; to pass the knowledge on. It will be a part of your life in a much wider capacity than just your career, so it’s not something to be scared of, but taken advantage of.

  • Create rules when you can’t remember everything

    Create rules when you can’t remember everything

    We all know it is impossible to know everything. Even when you are studying for an exam it is still hard to remember the specifics of whatever you are learning.

    What I found helps me is to create rules around things that can have serious implications if I don’t remember them. The rules are there to trigger me to stop, think twice, or look up something as I know I am missing something.

    DSC04162_non-feat
    Gerardo Poli with colleague Alex Hynes.

    I find rules simpler and easier to remember, especially if I link them with imagery or a case.

    For example…

    An example of a rule is: “Don’t give cats dog doses of furosemide.” I used this rule for years while in general practice, as I rarely treated a cat in congestive heart failure. This prompted me to go to look up the dose, rather than give a dog dose of furosemide.

    Another rule I had was “sodium abnormalities are best corrected slowly”. This was because it is safer to treat it that way rather than to determine the time frame over which the abnormality occurred, which is often hard to determine.

    About rules

    What is the difference between a “rule” and remembering the specifics…

    • Rules are simple: “Don’t give cats dog doses of furosemide“ is easier to remember than the actual doses themselves.
    • Rules are easier to remember: the rule does not contain specific or detailed information, therefore it takes the pressure off you trying to remember everything.
    • Rules improve safety – especially if the rule is there to prevent a detrimental outcome from occurring.
    • Rules are good for teams: your entire team can remember them and it does not rely on a detailed understanding of why (although it does help if everyone understands why, they will over time as it is triggered). The rule is applicable to all team members – from inexperienced vets to nurses or technicians, and even experienced vets. They can all look at a patient with a hyponatraemia and remember that slow correction is safer than rapid correction. That will prompt them to stop, think, and ask if the sodium is being corrected slowly.
    • Rules trigger learning through repetition: the more often you are triggered to look something up or explain the rule, the faster you start to remember the specifics.

    So, go create some rules around something that is important for everyone to know, but they all struggle to remember.

  • Brachycephalic syndrome

    Brachycephalic syndrome

    The pug, shih-tzu and chihuahua are all breeds vets would describe as brachycephalic. This means their noses are proportionally shorter than the rest of their head – a far cry from their ancestors that would have these in about a 1:1 ratio.

    A lot of people find the large, puppy-dog eyes and wrinkly face charming and adorable. But, in truth, the aspects we love the most about these breeds might not be so desirable from the dogs’ own perspectives. The pug might be one of the nation’s favourite breeds – popularity for them has been on the rise in recent years – but, for vets, this is mirrored with a growing concern.

    Unintended consequences

    After cats, canines were the second animal to be domesticated by humans – and we have been selectively breeding them for thousands of years. Sometimes this is advantageous and the animal benefits from improved speed or stamina, but other breeds are less lucky – Labrador retrievers are prone to hip dysplasia, boxers to heart disease and pugs to a condition known as brachycephalic obstructive airway syndrome.

    The characteristic grunting and wheezing associated with pugs is not an endearing quirk, it indicates a far more sinister underlying issue.

    Pugs have changed dramatically just the past century, being purposefully bred for big eyes and a progressively flatter nose. Although, from the outside, this may not appear too big of an issue, it can lead to a severe impediment of the dogs’ ability to breathe, and the bulging eyes can also cause issues such as cherry eye, dryness and irritation.

    The big picture

    In June of 2018, Disney released Patrick, a film starring a pug as the main character, prompting the BVA to request its brachycephalic working group assist the studio in reducing any negative impacts the film might produce – particularly the anticipated interest in pugs after the movie’s release.

    Vets want to raise awareness of side effects of pedigree breeding, but it’s a fine line between showing concern for animal welfare and challenging a person’s livelihood, particularly as a lot of breeders idolise their favourite breeds and see no problem with the way they are made.

    Subsequently, a lot of the public are unaware of the link between some breeds and certain congenital diseases, and the increase in demand for pugs and similar dogs means the issues are only going to get worse over the next generations of breeding if nothing is done to raise awareness.

     

  • Pedigree prejudice?

    Pedigree prejudice?

    The decision of whether or not to get a new pet is an important one, but the decision of where to get it from might be more important.

    Volunteering for two weeks this Christmas at a cattery has really made me believe we, as a society, need to undergo a significant evolution in terms of how we approach buying our furry friends.

    Every year, thousands of dogs and cats kept in rescue shelters are euthanised because they never manage to find a new home. At the same time, according to Government estimates, 560,000 puppies are born in the UK each year, at a minimum.

    Changing attitudes

    As a second year vet student with little experience as either a breeder or a dog owner, I recognise I have little position in which to tell people where to purchase their pets. But if our attitude to pet buying remains unchanged, this self-perpetuating issue will only continue – in fact, with dog and cat ownership on the rise, it might get worse.

    We appear to prefer the new to the old when it comes to pets, in the same way that, given the choice, most people would opt for a brand new car over a second-hand model.

    We also seem to be very blinded by the ideology of our favourite breeds. Pure-bred animals make up a very tiny percentage of shelter occupants and are also often the first to be adopted.

    Domino effect

    Most sheltered animals are there because their owners couldn’t cope, changed jobs, moved abroad or even passed away. The animals that never make it out of shelters aren’t necessarily aggressive, undisciplined or even unfriendly, it’s simply because they don’t match up to our idea of the perfect dog – which, to me, is truly heart breaking.

    So many advantages exist to adopting from a rescue shelter, for starters you kick off a really positive domino effect by not only creating room in a shelter for another animal to be taken in, but by educating your family and friends to an option they may never have fully considered, potentially leading to more adoptions.

    The process will also be less expensive than buying a pedigree puppy or kitten and you have the added bonus of knowing you are both changing and saving an animal’s life.

    Happy and healthy

    Even if you do decide to go with a breeder, you can still look out for animal welfare by buying from one you trust and is properly licensed.

    You can help to validate the health of the puppy/kitten by asking to see the mother – if she seems happy and healthy this is a good indication of the same for her offspring – and ensuring the animal you are taking home is fully vaccinated and treated for worms.

    By buying from recognised and responsible breeders, rather than puppy/kitten farms, you are still helping reduce the number of animals that needlessly end up in welfare and to move towards a future where shelters never have to put a healthy animal down.

  • Public health: the less recognised role of vets

    Public health: the less recognised role of vets

    Bovine spongiform encephalopathy, commonly known as “mad cow disease”, hit the news again after an isolated incident was reported in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.

    In the 1990s, this disease resulted in the mass culling of hundreds of thousands of livestock, devastating the farming community and causing ripples throughout the British economy.

    Soaring meat prices, a ban on UK beef exports and sizeable public concern arising from the last outbreak led to extensive media coverage on a topic many people not involved in the medical field rarely entertain.

    Not all puppies and kittens

    Although you might not think it, food safety and public health are two of the most vital roles vets perform for society.

    I feel there’s a common misconception all vets are bound to the same path; when speaking to my uni friends about future careers, they never seem to assume I’ll end up anywhere other than small animal practice – and this may be true for the majority or veterinary graduates, at least those from the UK. Mixed practices are dwindling and veterinary food safety workers are predominantly sourced from overseas.

    That aside, veterinary involvement in the food industry is vital in keeping the public safe. Meat having the stamp of approval by professionals trained in parasites and pathology gives the British public – as well as importing countries – confidence in our farmers and serves to strengthen our economy, and build up domestic farmers and their businesses.

    Only the beginning

    Within the meat industry, the job of a vet is not over once the animal is slaughtered – they are just as involved in death as in life. Zoonotic diseases and parasites can be spread between people and animals, and vets ensure these never reach your supermarket shelves.

    At food crisis moments – such as the events that occurred over two decades ago – vets have two main responsibilities:

    • A duty of care to those animals who must be put down with a delicate combination of haste and humanity.
    • To work with farmers during the financial struggle they will most likely suffer following the loss of a large proportion of their livelihood.

    For the many, not the few

    Medical bills make up a substantial amount of costs when running a farm, and any vet going into the industry will quickly realise treating a herd animal is a far cry from treating a pet. They need to master the art of putting the needs of the herd over any individual.

    Of course, what might be the greatest responsibility of any farm vet is to aid farmers in preventing further outbreaks. To pool the resources of all field areas – researchers, clinicians, food technicians and farm workers – to improve productivity and ensure the continued safety of the public.

  • Win £100 Amazon vouchers with Moxiclear

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    How to enter

    Simply play the Moxiclear bubble popping game below. Pop all nine parasites for your chance to win £100 in Amazon vouchers.

    Hint: on your phone? Tilt the screen landscape for a better view.

    • Submission of an entry is taken as acceptance of our Terms and Conditions.
    • For another chance to win, find the Moxiclear flyer attached to the cover of your October 15 issue (Vol 48, No 41) of Veterinary Times.
    • To find out how to get in touch with your nearest territory manager, just click here.
    • To view the data sheet for Moxiclear and how it compares to other products, click here.
    • Find out more at Norbrook’s official website 

     

     

    * indicated for dogs, cats and ferrets.

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  • Reflecting on the good moments

    Reflecting on the good moments

    As me and my (non-vet) partner sat down for a rare mid-week breakfast together, I made an offhand comment about “having” to vaccinate 15 puppies that day.

    “What do you mean ‘have to’?” was his response. “Most people would love that, and you get paid for it.”

    I considered this – and, while I’m more of a kitten person than a puppy person, who doesn’t love puppies? It‘s the little things like this we, perhaps, take for granted.

    Sharing the joy

    All too often, as vets, we focus on the negatives: the long hours, on call, the stress of trying to keep to time when everything goes belly up, the emotional strain, the difficult clients, surgical complications, mystery cases with unanswered questions… the list goes on.

    In the midst of it all, while we‘re able to show enthusiasm during the puppy or kitten vaccine consult, sharing the owners’ joy is soon forgotten when it is swiftly followed by a few challenging consults or clients.

    At the end of a couple of stressful working weeks (for a number of reasons), I found some peace having formulated a plan for a couple of complicated medical cases and finally convincing a difficult client to get on board with a particular treatment.

    Living the life

    It‘s the little things such as vaccinating puppies that vets, perhaps, take for granted. Image © Gorilla / Adobe Stock
    It‘s the little things, such as vaccinating puppies, vets, perhaps, take for granted. Image © Gorilla / Adobe Stock

    It’s easy to get wrapped up in the vet lifestyle – researching cases when you get home at night (and even when you don’t), not being able to sleep because, subconsciously, you’re trying to work out the best course of action for one of your patients.

    Rattling off the list of procedures or appointments for the day will just seem the norm to other vets, but take a step back and remove the “vet blinkers” and actually think for moment about what we do.

    If you talk to any non-vet friend or family member about your working day, they often show seemingly exaggerated enthusiasm or squeamishness. It’s tempting to brush this off, but it’s usually genuine. From their perspective, our “normal” work can be fascinating.

    Everyday heroes

    We may not be saving lives in a dramatic fashion every day (or maybe you do), but, as vets, we get to help a number of animals on a daily basis and, as a result, their owners.

    This can be done in what feels like the smallest of gestures sometimes; as much as we may resent the notorious anal gland appointment, what that actually involves is giving a poor dog (or cat) almost instantaneous pain relief.

    While I don’t think any vet will particularly enjoy an anal gland appointment, my point is to look at the bigger picture: what may be mundane to us does actually make a difference to the individual – our day-to-day routine work is far more interesting than a lot of other jobs.

    Let it go

    Being a vet is mentally and physically draining at times, but no day is the same and we will always have stories to tell.

    So, if you’ve had a bit of a crap week (or haven’t), take a moment to think about what you’ve actually done in the past few days and enjoy the good moments – whether that’s the puppy vaccination or draining the really satisfying cat (or, in my case, cow) abscess. Then think of the clients who have been thankful for your help (even those who don’t show it) and let go of the bad moments in between.

  • Oh, what a month

    Oh, what a month

    What a month is has been. Surely, August 2018 will go down in the annals of history as one the most prolific in the fight for animal welfare in England.

    From the banning of puppy and kitten sales in pet shops to outlawing electric shock collars, campaigners have had a spate of notable victories to celebrate in a matter of weeks which, it is hoped, will enhance animal welfare and shape a better future for pets and owners alike.

    Indeed, such has been the influx of news, we were still filing articles on the day of going to print, to ensure the latest news – the electric collar ban – reached you hot of the press.

    But new causes and campaigns are never far away, as evidenced by the fact that, according to some organisations, cats are the latest victims of the public’s “thirst for endless novelty” with RVNs again “ideally placed” to help tackle the issue.

    Every little helps

    Yet it doesn’t matter if you are fighting on the front line of a campaign trail or caring for a forlorn feline in a small animal practice; every act, every consult and every action is an amazing feat and should be applauded.

    You transform the lives of animals and their owners daily, and make their futures a little brighter in the process.

    With so much demanded of RVNs, I imagine it could be easy to get a little overwhelmed. In the face of conflict, Second World War politicians sought to raise the British public’s morale with the ”Keep Calm and Carry On” posters. They seemed to work. Sound, and still relevant, advice methinks.

    If animals could speak – from kittens in clinic to rescued horses – I am think they would say “thank you” for all your hard work. Which is what I want to say too, as it happens.

    Whoever you are and whatever you do, keep up the amazing work and (to coin the phrase) keep calm and carry on. When future generations are reflecting on this pivotal time in animal care, you can say with pride “I was there”.