What's the Point of a Microchip...

...if you never register it???

This happens from time to time. We get an animal in that someone found or is a stray. So we scan them, find a chip, and can't find an owner.

The other day, a lady brought a dog in that she found at the Lehigh Valley Mall. A neutered, approximately 4-6 yr old Bichon Frise.  Her friend actually found the dog, who supposedly was in some cage/crate (in the mall walkway? I don't know..she had no idea). Then her friend told her the security guard actually owned the dog but didn't want it anymore. I know, sounds hinky to me too. 

So we scanned the dog and he had a microchip. We contacted the company, who sent us to the breeder from whence he came. He was chipped in 2006 (so my age estimate was right.) Some breeders will chip the dogs before they get shipped to a store, etc. The breeder sent us to a store in Florida (mind you, we are in PA here). We attempted to reach that number and it was out of service.  Therefore, this young lady can keep the dog.

However, I will never know if maybe someone really lost their dog or had it stolen at some point in time and would want him back. 

There is no point in getting the dog chipped if you don't register the chip. No matter what chip your vet or breeder uses, it is easy and inexpensive to do! You can even do it on-line. AND many sites will allow you to upload a photo, which can be very helpful if your pet gets lost.  If you move, you can easily update them through the website also. 

And one more thing: These microchips are NOT a tracking device. Your pet cannot be located on GPS with them. If a vet or shelter doesn't scan for them, no one would even know if your pet has one! 

Commonly Asked Questions: #1

It's the middle of a long busy week (veterinary and non-veterinary commitments), so I thought I touch on something that I didn't need to delve too deeply into today.


There are things I take for granted "knowing" as a veterinarian. And there are some common things that I get asked frequently.


Today was one example: a young cat came in appearing something like this:

This cat has conjuctivitis. There are several causes of this in cats - some viral and some bacterial. They are generally easy to treat with topical medications.


The question is: Can you get this from your cat? (ie, many people see this and think "pink eye").


Answer: No

Detecting Colon Cancer without Colonoscopy

Ahh..I bet when you read THAT title you were wondering what this has to do with veterinary medicine. This is just one example of how veterinary research benefits us humans. It goes both ways of course, which is why it's vital for us to share information. There are many teams of researchers out there that include veterinarians, physicians and PhD's.   And for those interested in pursuing a non-practice veterinary career, this is definitely a good route to choose. As the article says, they need more vets in this area!




BY CYNTHIA BILLHARTZ GREGORIAN • cbillhartz@post-dispatch.com > 314-340-8114
 | Posted: Wednesday, March 9, 2011 2:00 pm 

Several years from now, researchers at the University of Missouri say, fewer people may have to endure the discomfort and indignity of a colonoscopy.

Instead, doctors and laboratory technicians will study feces.

And we'll have a couple of veterinarians to thank for it.

Craig L. Franklin, associate professor of veterinary pathobiology in the MU College of Veterinary Medicine in Columbia, and a team of colon cancer researchers, have found biomarkers in mouse feces that predict the same types of colon cancer associated with some inflammatory bowel diseases such as Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis.

The team's original mission in 2008 was to test cancer treatments on mice. Franklin's job was to give a bacterium to the rodents that would induce colon cancer in them.

At the same time, he was participating in a parallel project with Dr. Matt Myles, assistant professor of veterinary pathobiology, and Linsey Krafve, an undergraduate student, that was looking for biomarkers for their inflammatory-bowel-disease mouse model.

"But then we got this idea that maybe we could back up and find markers in their feces which would tell us which ones would ultimately get colon cancer," Franklin said.

Three weeks after giving bacteria to the mice, the team was able to identify several markers that predicted which ones would get colon cancer and which wouldn't.

"The novel thing was most people don't think of looking at feces because bacteria and other things can rapidly degrade RNA," Franklin said. "But we said we'll try anyway. And it worked fabulously."

Technology has improved immensely in recent years, allowing them to better preserve the RNA, which encodes genetic information. Some viruses use RNA instead of DNA as their genetic material.

Go here for the remainder of the article

Live Eagle Cam

A friend sent me a link to a very cool site of a webcam looking into a bald eagle's nest.


There are three eaglets with these parents. 


Enjoy at: http://www.wvec.com/marketplace/microsite-content/eagle-cam.html

Post Op Report on Operation CatSnip

When I arrived at Dr. Karen's Critter Care at 9am this morning, I was amazed at the number of cat carriers all over the lobby and hallways! It was a Kittypalooza!!!


 Dr. Karen Hess hosted this at her practice in downtown Allentown, which has two surgery suites so we both could do procedures at the same time and get more cats done!

Everyone was trying to get things organized. The goals were to get the males and females separated and also figure out what vaccines the cats needed. 


 We wanted to do the castrations first as they are a bit quicker than a cat spay (ovariohysterectomy). 


Here I am with a male about
to be prepped for surgery.

Sometime during the first hour or so, WFMZ showed up and interviewed someone from No-Kill Lehigh Valley and also filmed us with a cat or two. I was told this would be on 6pm THIS evening but at last look, it hadn't aired.  The guy in the black shirt is from WFMZ.

After we did all the boys, it was on to the females.  This one below is being prepped for surgery. We also like to make sure they have empty bladders (makes surgery a bit easier!).

There were so many great people helping out today! All volunteers. Gloria is one of the best! She can do pretty much anything that needs to be done pre-op and post-op! 

Here is one of the cats being spayed:

Some kitties have already bred (remember that pyramid that shows how many kittens 2 cats can produce in a short number of years?). This is a kitty in the early stages of pregnancy. She also has a pretty big cyst on one of her ovaries.  

Close up of the cyst

This is one of the little cuties we spayed today. She was a little sleepy during this picture as she was still waking up from surgery.

After it was all said and done, the owners of each pet or group of pets (we had a group of 19 and a group of 12!!!) were called and they came to pick them up.

I was told we did approximately 60 cats with a fairly even amount of males and females. This was just for THIS location. There were surgeries at two other hospitals.  

Please visit  No Kill Lehigh Valley's Blog which is already up!  They took some pictures with a "real" camera. I just had my camera phone which I popped out between procedures or had Mike (an awesome tech!) use for me.  

It was a fun way to spend a Sunday!  

Breed of the Week: Dachsund

I'd been considering doing a feature on different dog and cat  breeds. A friend suggested it as well, so I am going forward with this. My goal is not simply to regurgitate all the breed info/stats/data. You can find that anywhere on the internet or in a pet magazine. I will touch on some of those things that make each breed unique but I would like to utilize my experience as a veterinarian to expound on the medical and behavioral issues I see with each breed.

In honor of my very supportive friend, I am going to start with a breed close to her heart - the Dachshund. Their name means "badger hound." They were bred and used to hunt badgers and other animals found in burrows. They can be very fierce when it comes to getting these critters.  


Doxies (as they are affectionately called) come in several sizes: toy, miniature and standard. They also come in three coat varieties: 

Wire, Short and Long Haired

They come in a variety of colors and coat patterns. 

In any case, they are freaking adorable :)  One of my first "loves" was a long haired doxie named "Fritz." When I was in HS, I used to work summers and holidays at a boarding kennel. This little long haired dachshund was a frequent guest of ours. I recall my mom picking me up from work one day. I told her I was in love. She was thinking it was some guy. Nope. It was "Fritz." He was a charmer. 

Doxie owners tell me one thing time and again about them: they just want to be with you. Literally. They will follow you to EVERY room...yes, even the bathroom. 

As a veterinarian, what I see most with them are several things:

1. Obesity (sadly you will hear me say this with A LOT of breeds)

2. Back problems - most people know they have this propensity

3. Dental disease

4. Behaviorally - resenting nail trims, difficulty house-breaking

The back problems I refer to are more properly called IVDD - Intervertebral Disk Disease. This can be anywhere along the spine but most frequently is mid-way down the back in the thoraco-lumbar region (where these spinal bones meet up). It can be further down as well.  There are two main ways this happens in dogs:

1. Trauma - by this I don't mean "hit by car" trauma. Just a young healthy dog running around, twisting, jumping, etc and BOOM, the disk material "explodes" into the spinal cord.

2. Older dogs - typically this is due to the disk getting "brittle" with age so that NOT much is required for this material to sort of "pop" into the spinal cord. 

What owners usually see are dogs that are painful or won't move or in bad cases, are paralyzed in the hind end. 

We can usually diagnose these guys based on an exam and a bit of history BUT to truly KNOW it, one needs either a myelogram (where a dye is injected into the spinal column) or  more commonly these days, an MRI.  An xray MAY show a collapsed disk space or calcified material between the disks but not always. 


As long as they have deep pain they (generally) can respond to cage rest and medications. However, some cases require surgery to remove that disk material that is compressing the spinal cord. These dogs WILL absolutely require an MRI before the surgeon sees them. How else can they know where the offending lesion is? AND it can be in more than one place.

Obesity definitely increases the risk for this happening to a dachshund. I can recall several morbidly obese doxies that, then, also had skin issues. Too many folds and moisture. Not a good combo.  

I know a lot of doxies that resent a nail trim. It's always helpful to play with a puppie's feet - not just touch them but squeeze them, etc to get them used to things being done to them. This applies to all breeds.


They will often require professional dental cleanings during their lifetime as well. If they like to chew - a good knuckle bone or something similar will help.

One last thing about this breed: Nearly every Doxie owner I know says this  ---> They are like potato chips, you can't have just one!

A Feel Good Friday

Here are a few stories I found that are uplifting! We all need that at the end of a long, hectic week.

Microchipped dog returned to family

11:17 PM, Mar. 19, 2011 

Wayland, Ia. - An Iowa family has been reunited with their dog stolen four years ago in Washington state.

Margaret Hodson of Wayland said the Labrador mix puppy, Gretchen, was found wandering near a lake in Fort Lewis, Wash.

An implanted microchip aided in returning the dog to her owners in Iowa, where the family moved after Travis Hodson's deployment to Afghanistan.

Story Source

This is an excellent example of why I encourage EVERY pet owner to get EVERY pet microchipped. It's an inexpensive and simple way to protect your pets. Yes, even indoor cats. I have ALL of mine chipped. This can be done in a office visit or at the time of a procedure (spay, neuter, lump removal). It does NOT require anesthesia. It's just an injection (like a vaccine) - only the needle has a larger opening.  Let me add this: if you get them chipped, REGISTER them (on-line, via phone or mail). I HAVE seen animals found WITH chips and no way to connect that number to the owner, simply because they failed to register the animal!!

******************************************

Miniature horse fitted with prosthetic leg

23 March 2011

A miniature horse born without most of his right rear leg has been given a new lease of life, thanks to some ingenious engineering.

Four-year-old Midnite was born without most of his right rear leg.

His carers approached a firm which makes prosthetic limbs for humans and asked if they could help.

Staff at the North Texas horse rescue group, Ranch Hand Rescue, feared Midnite would have to be euthanised after they received the horse from police who had seized him from a neglectful owner.

But Bob Williams, from the rescue centre, said he was thrilled when Midnite broke into a gallop for the first time.

An Awesome Video !

Caipurrinha

Caipirinha (def) from Wikipedia:  "Brazil's national cocktail, made with cachaça ,sugar and lime."

Caipurrinha:

Cute polydactyl kitty!

For those of you who don't know what polydactyl means: extra toes!! These are cats that have what looks like mittens for paws. It can be front only or all four paws that have these. 

I've always found them adorable!! But, as with all my pets, I've never gone out and bought an animal. I let them come to me...via my constant contact with cats in need. 

Let me back up and say that the drink, Caipirinha, is fantastic. If you like mojitos, and don't have an issue with tequila (because my best friend tells me the Brazilian Rum this drink is made with reminds her of tequila in taste and I CAN see why), you will love this drink. I discovered this drink (thanks to my former boss's wife) in Key West, Florida. AND also notable in Key West is Ernest Hemingway's estate filled with polydactyl kitties - generations down the line from a special cat given to him by a ship's captain. I went to this estate, not because I like Hemingway as an author, but because I simply wanted to see these cute little kitties and take lots of photos!  

Anyhow, back to my cat's story.  The ladies I worked with (notably a cat lover like myself) knew that I always wanted a polydactyl kitty. And we, as a clinic, took in strays from local townships (in NJ). So, one day, a little itty bitty kitty with extra toes came in and within 5 mins, I was told about it. True, I wasn't looking for another cat (at that time, I had 4) but I couldn't resist. Oh and she was full of piss and vinegar too. She was found, all alone, next to a dumpster at a Charlie Brown's restaurant in Alpha, NJ. Imagine this hissing and spitting at you and tell me you wouldn't laugh:

So why I named her Caipurrinha? Well, I was originally thinking Mojito but my husband vetoed it saying THAT was a male name. I came up with this because she reminded me of Key West AND we had gotten the most comfortable flip-flops there called Kai-Kai's. So it was doubly appropriate.


Anyhow, she's calmed down quite a bit and is now much more of a mush.  She hated our most recent addition, Sahara, for one week. Now they are best friends and play each day.  


Here are a few other picture of her (listen, I don't have human children ok???) :)

Her more recent nickname is "double stuff" (as in Oreo)  because this black and white kitty, while remaining small, is getting "wider."  

Update on Pepsi Grant for Lehigh Valley No-Kill

An update on the Pepsi Grant awarded to No-Kill Lehigh Valley:

"The check for the first half of our grant arrived on March 11th (a week later than we had been told initially) and checks were written and sent out. 

Veterinary care took the majority of the grant.  There were so many critical cases.  Maybe it was due to the ice, but we immediately had a number dogs with broken appendages.  We also authorized surgery to repair injuries that dogs had had for many months - a cruciate repair on a shepherd mix who had been in great pain for some time and repair of a fractured pelvis on a poodle who had been suffering for 4 months.  We paid to fix the broken leg of a puppy and paid for most of the cost of the surgery to fix a Lab's broken leg. We paid to repair the broken femur of a German Shepherd.  We paid for treatment for dogs with skin conditions and fecal impactions.  We definitely saved the life of a Pit Bull puppy with Parvo who had to spend a weekend at Valley Central - and is now fine! 

We paid for the surgery on a Cockatoo's prolapsed cloaca.

We paid for numerous sick cats to be seen for eyes and ears and lumps and urinary problems.  We were forced to bite the bullet and send a blocked cat to Valley Central Emergency on the weekend - he would surely have died otherwise.  He is now fine and has been adopted by the woman who found him.  We paid for the surgery on a cat's ruptured bowel.  

All in all we have paid for $18,440.07 in veterinary care.  In addition,we have paid in whole or in part for the spaying and neutering of 166 cats and 4 dogs for a total of $6318.00 in spay/neuter cost.  If you do the math, you will see that the first installment of our grant is gone.  And the calls keep coming in.  Just today I had to turn away 2 cats and 1 dog who needed care.  That's the really horrible part of this work. 

Nevrtheless, we have done a tremendous amount of good work that would not have been done without the Pepsi grant which we could not have won without your help.  So thank you!"

Please visit:  nokilllehighvalley.blogspot.com  to see some of the animals helped!  And of course, you can continue to support them through donations.

Feline Heartworm Disease

If you know me, you know I wouldn't leave out cats. Well, only if it was something that truly didn't affect them.  Heartworms do, in fact, infect and AFFECT our kitties.


Here's a reminder of what happens in cats:

Cats are very different than dogs (you hear me say that a lot because cats are NOT small dogs!).  Here are some reasons:

1. The heartworm cannot complete it's life-cycle in the cat. Truly a heartworm doesn't want to be IN the cat - they'd much prefer a dog as a host.  

2. Many cats have a single to a few worms period. Dogs have MANY more (think of the heart photo from yesterday).

3. This means that our most common test - an antigen test (the in house Snap tests) - won't work reliably for our cats. Why? This test is based on an antigen produced by the uterus (yes you read that correctly) of the female heartworm. Guess what? Many cats have been found to have a single male worm or so few females that there's not enough there to get a positive.  There are tests we can send OUT to the lab that MAY help  - those detect antibodies from the cat's immune system in response to the worms.

4. Indoor cats are at risk as much as the outdoor cat. Mosquitoes do enter our homes and cats are often a nice warm relaxed blood meal for the mosquito.

5. Cats rarely have the microfilariae (baby, immature heartworms) circulating. Even if they do they seem to last a brief time. This means we can't expect to see them on a blood smear (like we often can in a dog!).

6. There is no current treatment for this in cats. 

7. In dogs the worms can live 5-7 years. In cats, on average, it's about 2 yrs.

8.  The small number of worms may seem insignificant but in the relatively small heart and vasculature of a cat, they can cause significant inflammation and tissue damage.

9. The only sign can be death. Yep. If you want to call that a sign. Often in a classic case of dog heartworm, they will cough. In cats, however, it can be  more subtle. In some cases the only sign is vomiting (which would lead us on a very large path and probably to things OTHER than HW first!)

10. Many cases of feline asthma we now think are H.A.R.D. = heartworm associated respiratory disease. It can be HARD to tell the difference between true asthma and this.

11. Guess what? Either way the goal is to reduce inflammation and in the case of HW, prevent re-infection while those worms die. So that means we put them on a steroid and a heartworm preventative. There are several approved products for cats.