Health and Wellness, Veterinary

Does Your Senior Dog or Cat Need Help?

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An old, senior dog with grey hair around eyes and muzzle

Aging is a fact of life, even for our pets. And the vast amount of products and services available for a senior dog or cat is incredible. With everything from stairs, ramps, slings and carts, to medicines and supplements, it can feel like companies are taking advantage of our love for our pets. But how many of these products are really necessary, and how many of them are just a money grab? It is very hard to tell if your pet really does need some help or if you are just overreacting.

They Start To Slow Down…

I can’t count how many times I’ve seen someone oblivious that their leash is fully extended and their senior dog is 30 feet behind them. Or a previously agile cat that missed a jump up to a favourite windowsill or scratching post. Many pet parents dismiss these things and believe their pet is just getting older. Isn’t it a normal part of aging that they can’t do all the things they used to? Slowing down does happen naturally as they age, but it doesn’t mean we have to accept it and let it limit what our pets can do.

If you put yourself in their paws, would you so quickly accept defeat and give up the simple things that you used to easily do?  Is getting older automatically a death sentence for the simple joys of life? We wouldn’t accept a disruption in our regular lifestyle so why should our pets? Yes, it is natural to reduce the intensity or frequency of leisure activities and exercise as we and our pets age. But the small things that make up the majority of our lives shouldn’t be compromised just because of the number of years on our calendars. ‘Quality of life’ is a phrase tossed around a lot in regards to our aging pets. But it is an easy and powerful tool to use when deciding whether some help is necessary.

When Should You Help?

Sit and carefully consider the activity and what is involved in making it happen. Is it a part of your pet’s life that brings them joy or peace? Or is it something they do because YOU enjoy it? Should it continue or is it time to say the risks outweigh the benefits? One way to help find the answer is to consider this question – is this something that ANY other young dog or cat would normally do in a routine day? Is it an activity that is a natural and instinctual part of life for that species?

When the answer to that question is ‘no’ then it is probably time to stop. An example of this is your dog running along while you go mountain biking. You might think, “But he loves that just as much as I do!” Yes, he might have when he was younger and stronger, but now he may be over-exerting himself to keep up with you. Bringing him along now as a senior dog probably causes more problems than enjoyment for him.

If the activity is a normal part of a happy life, then you should do what is reasonable to help them continue to enjoy that activity. The senior dog 30 feet behind his owner does not want to be back there on his own. He is struggling with joint issues or pain and can’t explore interesting things or smells on his walks. He can’t enjoy a major part of being a dog! And what about the cat that can’t get up to her favourite spot to lie in the sun? Sure, she will find a new place to sleep but why should she have to?

How To Help Your Senior Dog or Cat

Once you decide an activity is important now you need to figure out how to prevent any unnecessary stress or pain. Most of the time a simple adjustment or two in the early stages of a problem can fix it for quite a while. You can add a shelf or step up to the windowsill for your cat or a small ramp up to the car for your dog. This really doesn’t take much effort for you but it can make all the difference for them. Make walks with your senior dog a more casual and slower-paced activity. After all, going for a walk is for HER benefit. On a slower walk she can once again sniff out that interesting smell, or explore and go where she wants to go.

However, sometimes more needs to be done. Once the small things are no longer enough it might be time to consider some medication. It will start to get difficult to just stand up from a lying down position. Or they will have a hard time going up and down even just a few stairs. At that point there isn’t a simple product or solution anymore. They need to perform these actions on their own like they used to. These are the times where medications are likely necessary to allow them to continue with a normal life for as long as possible.

In the beginning, a supplement or additive to their food might be all that is necessary. Arthritis is just as common in pets as it is in humans, and giving some glucosamine or switching to a joint support diet might be enough if they are just entering their senior years. These are great ways to provide your pet with gentle support and can extend the time before you need some heavier products.

Properly Using Medications

A drug or medication might be added once your pet becomes geriatric or their condition gets more serious. A visit to your veterinarian is vitally important and the best place to start. They will do blood work and urine testing to check the status of your pet’s major organs and see how well their body can handle medication. Sometimes these tests will determine that one kind of medicine isn’t appropriate but a different type of drug will be perfectly safe. Major damage can happen from giving your pet a drug or medicine without checking with your veterinarian or performing these tests first. Even off the shelf human medicines can be fatal so be sure to talk to your vet before taking any serious steps on your own.

There are lots of options available and most are really easy to administer to your pet. Some are given on a daily basis, and some are given as needed when you expect your pet will experience some pain. Using medication when indicated can majorly help to your senior dog or cat and add years to their life expectancy. They do require periodic monitoring of organ function and occasional dosage adjustments though, so working with your veterinarian is vital to make sure they continue to be comfortable as they age.

Aging Is a Part of the Journey

It is never easy to accept that your pet is not the youthful and energetic dog or cat they used to be. Their life spans are much shorter than ours and they always seem to get older before we are ready. However, there is no shame in giving them some help to continue enjoying the activities they have always loved. Sometimes they really are just slowing down and taking things easier as they age, and sometimes they do need help to deal with an ache or pain.

Ultimately a much harder decision may have to be made when it comes to determining what is best for your pet, but that is a topic for another day. But when it comes to the beginning of our pets’ senior years, careful observation and some simple changes make a huge difference help support them for many happy years to come.

Behaviour

Dog Training and Pet Behaviour TV Shows

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A man, Cesar Millan, stands with a group of dogs in an advertisement for a dog training television show
There are so many TV shows these days that feature animal trainers and focus on changing undesirable pet behaviours. It makes sense – pet owners usually have an issue or two that we would love to resolve so that we can enjoy our pets even more. But do the techniques from these shows actually work to change your own animals’ actions or behaviour for the better? Can you learn good cat and dog training tips from a TV show?

The answer depends on the show you are watching. Just like with my recent post about Veterinarian TV shows, there is a broad range in the quality of the professionals on these shows. As much as you may love a certain show or the TV personality, it may not be really doing much to improve the lives of those animals that appear on it. In behaviour and training there are a number of different ways to change the behaviour of an animal, but not all of them will work and improve the quality of life for that pet.

Types of Behaviour Training

Let me explain in more detail. Without getting too complicated, there are two techniques used to motivate an animal to perform the desired behaviour. Reinforcement (to increase the behaviour) and punishment (to decrease the behaviour). The main thing pet owners need to understand is the difference between the two and which is most effective. After all, what good is a training method if it doesn’t work well?

When done properly both punishment and reinforcement can be effective, but reinforcement is by far the technique of choice for educated professionals. The reason for that is because of some key words – when it is DONE PROPERLY. Punishment can be extremely hard to get right since it requires very precise timing and skill to avoid confusing the animal. Early or late punishment, even by a fraction of a second, can cause the wrong behaviour to be affected and may even  make the outcome worse rather than better. It is for this reason that punishment is not a recommended behaviour modification technique. For the very rare instances where it may be needed it should be left to a true professional to ensure it is done properly without causing any harm.

Reinforcement is a much better way to shape an animal’s behaviour. Reinforcement involves rewarding the animal when they do something right, rather than punishment when they do something wrong. Think about it – isn’t it more enjoyable to get a reward than a punishment? Of course! It creates a stronger motivation to perform the correct behaviour, and as a result, reduces the occurrences of the undesired behaviour. It is also much easier and more forgiving when it comes to the timing and delivery of the reward. Punishment can also cause fear or aggression towards owners, resulting in bites or injuries, where reinforcement usually strengthens the pet-owner bond and makes training sessions enjoyable.

Choosing a TV Show

When pet owners watch trainers on television, it is very common for them to try out some of the things they see on their own pet. However, the training methods are very rarely fully explained or displayed on these shows due to time constraints, so I strongly recommended that owners only try reinforcement techniques when attempting to train their own pets. For that reason, it is much better to spend your time watching shows with reinforcement training techniques than ones that use punishment. Not to mention, the shows you watch create support and funding for more shows like it, so watching a show with punishment only encourages more punishment centered programming.

What I say next may make me unpopular with a lot of people, but I am not the only person with this opinion. Caesar Millan and all of his shows about dog training are great examples of what not to do. Many of his techniques are not recognized or recommended by professionals, and they are prime examples of punishment based training. He has absolutely no formal training or experience and has even been investigated on charges of animal cruelty. I am not saying that being a confident and authoritative dog owner is a bad thing, but intimidation or dominance dog training does not create a lasting and loving bond. Aggression creates aggression, and we do not get to see how all the dogs he “cures” are doing with their owners a month or year down the road when problems will not doubt show up.

If you would like to learn more about proper dog training techniques, check out Dr. Ian Dunbar and his fabulous website www.dogstardaily.com

Considering all of the above, I absolutely love the shows ‘Psycho Kitty,’ and ‘My Cat from Hell.’ Both of these shows use only reinforcement techniques to gently alter the cats’ behaviours and solve the owner’s issues. If there are any other shows like these that you think should be included, please let me know so I can check them out!

Humour

Oh, the Joy of House Training Puppies…

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dog-1543301_1920
Anyone who has ever owned a puppy knows the wonderful experience of house training them. Or rather, the NOT so wonderful experience… Today I have a story for you that was originally shared by Jesse Newton from Little Rock, AR, on August 9th. Jesse and his family are currently going through the house training process with their puppy Evie, and Jesse documented the very, VERY unique situation that Evie provided for them. I laughed so hard from his story I had to ask if I could share it. Here it is – enjoy!

So, last week, something pretty tragic happened in our household. It’s taken me until now to wrap my head around it and find the words to describe the horror. It started off simple enough – something that’s probably happened to most of you.

Sometime between midnight and 1:30am, our puppy Evie pooped on our rug in the living room. This is the only time she’s done this, so it’s probably just because we forgot to let her out before we went to bed that night. Now, if you have a detective’s mind, you may be wondering how we know the poop occurred between midnight and 1:30am. We were asleep, so how do I know that time frame?

The pooper responsible - puppy Evie
The pooper responsible – puppy Evie

Why, friends, that’s because our Roomba runs at 1:30am every night, while we sleep. And it found the poop. And so begins the Pooptastrophe. The poohpocalypse. The pooppening.

If you have a Roomba, please rid yourself of all distractions and absorb everything I’m about to tell you.

Do not, under any circumstances, let your Roomba run over dog poop. If the unthinkable does happen, and your Roomba runs over dog poop, stop it immediately and do not let it continue the cleaning cycle. Because if that happens, it will spread the dog poop over every conceivable surface within its reach, resulting in a home that closely resembles a Jackson Pollock poop painting.

It will be on your floorboards. It will be on your furniture legs. It will be on your carpets. It will be on your rugs. It will be on your kids’ toy boxes. If it’s near the floor, it will have poop on it. Those awesome wheels, which have a checkered surface for better traction, left 25-foot poop trails all over the house. Our lovable Roomba, who gets a careful cleaning every night, looked like it had been mudding. Yes, mudding – like what you do with a Jeep on a pipeline road. But in poop.

Then, when your four-year-old gets up at 3am to crawl into your bed, you’ll wonder why he smells like dog poop. And you’ll walk into the living room. And you’ll wonder why the floor feels slightly gritty. And you’ll see a brown-encrusted, vaguely Roomba-shaped thing sitting in the middle of the floor with a glowing green light, like everything’s okay. Like it’s proud of itself. You were still half-asleep until this point, but now you wake up pretty damn quickly.

And then the horror. Oh the horror.

So, first you clean the child. You scrub the poop off his feet and put him back in bed. But you don’t bother cleaning your own feet, because you know what’s coming. It’s inevitable, and it’s coming at you like a freight train. Some folks would shrug their shoulders and get back in bed to deal with it in the morning. But you’re not one of those people – you can’t go to sleep with that war zone of poop in the living room.

So you clean the Roomba. You toss it in the bathtub to let it soak. You pull it apart, piece-by-piece, wondering at what point you became an adult and assumed responsibility for 3:30am-Roomba-disassembly-poop-cleanups. By this point, the poop isn’t just on your hands – it’s smeared up to your elbows. You already heard the Roomba make that “whirlllllllllllllllll-boop-hisssssssss” noise that sounds like electronics dying, and you realize you forgot to pull the battery before getting it wet. More on that later.

Oh, and you’re not just using profanity – you’re inventing new types of profanity. You’re saying things that would make Satan shudder in revulsion. You hope your kid stayed in bed, because if he hears you talking like this, there’s no way he’s not ending up in prison.

Then you get out the carpet shampooer. When you push it up to the rug – the rug that started it all – the shampooer just laughs at you. Because that rug is going in the trash, folks. But you shampoo it anyway, because your wife loved that damn rug, and you know she’ll ask if you tried to clean it first.

Then you get out the paper towel rolls, idly wondering if you should invest in paper towel stock, and you blow through three or four rolls wiping up poop. Then you get the spray bottle with bleach water and hose down the floor boards to let them  soak, because the poop has already dried. Then out comes the steam mop, and you take care of those 25-ft poop trails.

Jesse's diagram of the Roomba's poop path around the living room
Jesse’s diagram of the Roomba’s poop path through the living room

And then, because it’s 6am, you go to bed. Let’s finish this tomorrow, right?

The next day, you finish taking the Roomba apart, scraping out all the tiny flecks of poop, and after watching a few Youtube instructional videos, you remove the motherboard to wash it with a toothbrush. Then you bake it in the oven to dry. You put it all back together, and of course it doesn’t work. Because you heard the “whirlllllllllllllll-boop-hissssssss” noise when it died its poopy death in the bathtub. But you hoped that maybe the Roomba gods would have mercy on you.

But there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. After spending a week researching how to fix this damn $400 Roomba without spending $400 again – including refurb units, new motherboards, and new batteries – you finally decide to call the place where you bought it. That place called Hammacher Schlemmer. They have a funny name, but they have an awesome warranty. They claim it’s for life, and it’s for any reason.

So I called them and told the truth. My Roomba found dog poop and almost precipitated World War III.

And you know what they did? They offered to replace it. Yes, folks. They are replacing the Roomba that ran over dog poop and then died a poopy, watery death in the bathtub – by no fault of their own, of course.

So, mad props to Hammacher Schlemmer. If you’re buying anything expensive, and they sell it, I recommend buying it from them. And remember – don’t let your Roomba run over dog poop.

If you enjoyed his story as much as I did or would like to contact him, head on by Jesse’s website at www.boutiqueguitarshop.com 

Veterinary

Veterinary TV Shows – The Good, Bad, and Ugly

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Vet TV Shows
With pet care becoming one of the fastest growing industries around, it makes sense that television networks are catching on and offering many new television shows about pets and veterinary care. After the huge success of the “Dog Whisperer,” Caesar Milan, there are many others hoping to capitalize on the love we all have for our pets. However, most professionals in the veterinary industry are outraged about the quality of some of the shows popping up.

Being a huge animal lover myself, of course I love to watch these types of shows. But I also have a professional interest and so really enjoy seeing the different types of cases that occur and following the treatment plans the doctors put in place. It feels really cool to be able to tell my husband that I’ve helped with a surgery like that one, or to be able to predict what is wrong with the animal because of my own experience.

But because of this experience and knowledge, sometimes I end up really disliking some of the things I see on these shows. And I’m not the only one. Let’s take for example one of the most popular shows about a veterinarian there is; ‘The Incredible Dr. Pol.’ This show airs on Animal Planet and follows a Michigan vet in his 70’s as he treats both farm and small animals. I have been horrified on numerous occasions by some of the practices I have seen on this show, such as; almost no sterile technique for surgery, no separate operating room, no visible pain control on major surgeries, no inhaled gas anesthetic or even a breathing tube, no apparent vital sign monitoring, no apparent surgical aftercare or monitoring… and the list goes on. In fact, some of the things I have listed are not up to the standards required by the Michigan Veterinary Medical Association. I haven’t seen one single surgery on his show yet be provided with basic surgical necessities that would meet those standards.

Dr. Pol has had 2 official complaints resulting in investigations of his practices. The first one resulted in a charge of negligence (failing to provide the minimum standard of care) and he was fined, placed on probation, and required to take further education courses. The second, charges of both negligence and incompetence, ended in the same result but were later overturned in a court of appeal because the animal survived and the owners were happy with his services. Dr. Pol argues that he will “provide all the necessary treatments required by state law while respecting the financial situations in his rural community.” While I understand financial restrictions of owners means that care provided must sometimes be kept to the minimum necessary, but a dog recovering from surgery should at least get some warm blankets. That doesn’t cost Dr. Pol a cent to provide.

There are so many fantastic shows about veterinarians that we don’t need a show like that. The ones that I have seen and are great actually do provide proper standards of care to their patients. Some of them are; Dr K’s Exotic Animal ER, Dr. Oakley, Yukon Vet, and Vet School (all on Nat Geo Wild), as well as ER Vets on CMT. If you want to see the difference in the care provided, watch a surgery performed on a dog on both The Incredible Dr. Pol and Dr. K’s Exotic Animal ER. I think it will be immediately apparent that you would prefer any dog to be in Dr. K’s hands and veterinary hospital!

There may be more shows that I haven’t seen that also provide excellent patient care so please leave a comment if there is one you think I should check out. I hope I have made you think a bit about the shows that are out there and the type of care you should be looking for when your own pet needs to see a veterinarian. Good medicine and care can still be provided at lower costs without having to put the animal’s safety at risk.

There are a lot of shows about training and animal behaviour as well, but I will tackle those shows in my next post. What do you think about this article? Have you seen any of these shows and what did you think of them?

Veterinary

What to consider when choosing a veterinarian

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puppy and vet

So, you’ve got a new pet and you’re very excited! The first step for most pet owners is to get a health check for your new addition to make sure that they are disease-free and in top shape. But how do you know where to take them?  These days, most people turn to the internet to find a veterinarian in their area. They read reviews posted by others, check out some websites and addresses, and maybe phone around to a few offices to compare prices. A place is chosen and an appointment is made likely before even setting foot in the hospital! While location, reviews, and costs are definitely factors to consider when choosing a vet clinic, I encourage you to not stop there in your search. There are so many more aspects to consider when it comes to finding the right veterinarian for your pet and your family!

My number one consideration that I recommend is to look for clinics in the area that are AAHA accredited. AAHA stands for the American Animal Hospital Association and it is a voluntary, PAID membership that veterinary clinics apply for. In order to be approved the clinics have to pass a comprehensive inspection and meet a minimum standard. Basically, a clinic that takes the effort and money to become AAHA accredited is a clinic that provides an excellent standard of care for the patients they see, and is one that I would immediately trust with my pet. However, that doesn’t mean a clinic that is not certified is a bad one. It is just a way to immediately know about the care they provide.

Next, I would look into the different services that are offered at the clinics you are considering. A hospital that has the latest technologies or is offering progressive surgeries or procedures is one that invests in education and takes an interest in new medicine. Improved technology means better results and more information for veterinarians to use in treating animals. Also, ask the clinics you are considering for a tour. See what their treatment area, surgical suite and kennels look like. There should be a separate operating room for surgery where a sterile environment can be maintained. The treatment area should be clean and tidy, and you should feel good about the state of the clinic. I would be at least wary if a clinic did not agree to a tour! Unless it is an emergency clinic or large specialty hospital, most clinics wouldn’t have a problem giving a tour.

Finally, cost. I realize that cost is an important factor for most people. Yet, I really caution that it be the main factor in this decision. It may be appealing to go the cheapest place, but there is usually a reason it is the cheapest. Exams and vaccines are often discounted to bring in new business, and that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking the real important things, like spays and neuters, dentistry, etc. These things are very important and should not have corners cut to save money. I’m not saying that you should go with the most expensive place either. But most likely a clinic that can charge low prices on everything they provide is one that does not provide the best care they possibly could.

So, my advice is to just really have a look and carefully consider a few clinics before choosing one. Take all these factors into consideration, and any others that may be important to you. And nothing says you have to stay with the first clinic you go to. If you are unsatisfied with your experience you can always go to another. But you want the best for your pet and they deserve a little consideration when you make this decision for them.

For a list of AAHA hospitals near you, use the search tool at their website.

General

Welcome!

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Expert Pet Parents is Live!

I’m really excited to finally get this site off and running. It has been bouncing around in my head for years now, so to see it in front of me is very exciting!

My name is Julie Arnold, and I am a Registered Veterinary Technologist in the Greater Vancouver area of British Columbia. During my time as a tech working in veterinary clinics, I have spent a lot of time chatting with hundreds of different pet owners about the care of their pets. In doing so, I realized that so many owners were misinformed about important areas of pet care, or there were big areas that they didn’t really know were important. And I began to see some common themes and areas where most owners had gaps in their information. I realized that I could be so much more effective talking to many pet owners at once instead of just one at a time during their brief time at the vet office. So the idea for this site was born!

My goal for this site is to help pet owners become the best they can be, and to be informed and knowledgeable in all areas of responsible pet care. I am not currently working for any veterinarians, or any other pet or animal related company. That means I’m not telling you to buy a certain product or go to a certain vet because I will get something out of it – I won’t. It is purely knowledge and experience that I have gained that I know needs to be shared.  The information I provide here is meant to educate and be an unbiased source that pet owners can trust is not being fed to them with any ulterior motive. I know that there is a lot of information out there and it can be hard to know what is reliable and accurate. I am to bring it all together into one place, add my own knowledge to it, and create a gathering spot for responsible and caring pet owners to learn together.

Right now the page is just bare bones with basically just the blog. As time goes on I plan to add many resources for all kinds of pet owners. Things like training tips and videos, puppy and kitten care, bird, reptile, and rodent information, health care articles, and even a members only area. I would LOVE your advice on what topics, issues, or aspects of pet care that you would like to see available! I’m also looking to work and collaborate with anyone who works in the industry, so please do contact me if you have any ideas or know someone I should get in touch with.

Please be patient with me as I move forward with the site and work out all the bugs. I’m just happy to be online!

Connect with me on Facebook and Twitter too, and please tell your friends!

Julie