Pet Foods

            It seems to me the pet industry has problems. It concerns pet foods. There are a lot of them, they are high profit items, and each product has a very active sales program. Talking with pet owners they often reiterate sales pitches I’ve seen or heard on television or the print media, extoling often unsubstantiated nutritional advantages, of some diet. Or that imply diets that contain certain proven nutrients are less wholesome than their product. Without education in biochemistry and nutrition one is at the mercy of the huskers. There are some companies i.e. Purina, Hills, Pedigree, and Royal Canin that have been in business for more than 50 years they make products, available in grocery stores that pet owners can rely upon.

            Some pets have unique nutritional requirements that need a special diet available only from veterinarians. In these cases, the veterinarian will be responsible for assuring that the diet he/she prescribes will meet the nutritional requirements of your pet. 

Treating Rear leg Paralysis of Dogs

A dog that suddenly becomes paralyzed in the rear legs most often has had its spinal cord injured by a ruptured intervertebral disc. These are spongy tissues located between vertebrae of the back. It is crucial that such dogs are seen by a veterinarian within minutes or hours of paralysis onset. To delay examination and treatment for days results in paralysis becoming permanent condemning the dog to a lifetime requiring a two-wheeled cart for locomotion and months of rehabilitation. The veterinary profession recommends that early cases be subjected to surgical relief of the spinal cord compression. Some pet owners abide by this option but paralysis is a much too prevalent consequence.  It is most disconcerting to see such compromised pets struggling to get around. We have found that treating them medically, if started early, is the better choice that can return the dog to normal function.

For the affected dog, spinal cord inflammation is treated for one or two days with corticosteroids. Concurrently and thereafter the patient is given a synthetic antibiotic to counter cytokine formation in the injured spinal cord tissue while receiving vitamin support for metabolism in the damaged cells to keep them alive. Most affected dogs, when manually supported can stand by day five and if given careful, gentile assistance they learn to walk and by day ten are well on their way to normal locomotion running around our clinic and requiring no further rehabilitation. 

Bloody Urine

For two days she had seen Boots pass bloody urine in his litter box. That convinced her that the cat was suffering from bladder infection. On the third day she hustled him off to her veterinarian only to learn the cats’ malady was not infection but an inflamed bladder. Actually, when the veterinarian examined Boots’ urine with a microscope she could see no bacteria that could cause the bleeding. Urine sterility was confirmed by lack of bacterial growth on culture plates. There was no evidence of cancer or bladder stones, things that also cause blood in urine.

          It is not uncommon to examine both cats and dogs with an inflamed bladder but without infection. Cause of the inflammation in these cases has not been determined although many studies have been done. Treatment of these animals with antibiotics has been frustrating for although antibiotics may be helpful initially when they are stopped the bleeding tends to recur. Many years ago I was told that physicians sometimes treat patients with bladder cancer using a specific non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug. I tried it on dogs and found it to be helpful. So then, I tried it on animals with inflamed bladders that had not been cured with antibiotic treatment.  Their bleeding stopped and never returned. I’ve been using the drug ever since. Be advised, not all non-steroidal drugs are helpful. We have found only one specific drug that works. To learn more please come into our hospital and we’ll talk about the problem.

Bring your dog in for a FREE Nexgard, a once a month flea and tick treatment. Please tell the receptionist where you learned about this valuable offer. Good for November and December!

Inflammasome Syndrome, A New Look at Illness

Many cats and dogs are brought to the hospital by owners with a history of not feeling well, their activity level is decreased as is their appetite. On examination, there may be apparent cause for their illness which is not unusual. We recognize these cases as inflammasome syndromes, and have been studying them for several years.

            Inflammasomes have been a part of illness for as long as man and animals have been getting sick. But the syndrome is only now being recognized, studied, treated, and reported in scientific journals. It involves the immune system. Infection, injury and systemic degeneration can all cause a collection of proteins called inflammasomes, to form in lymphocytes, a class of white blood cells. The inflammasomes release cytokines, of which there are about 100 types each with a specific contribution to inflammation and illness, such as fever, loss of appetite and malaise. We cannot quantitate cytokines as means of diagnosing the syndrome. Instead we rely upon the ratio of immature to mature neutrophils, another type of blood cell, and/or by understanding the pathology of an underlying inflammatory disease i.e. pancreatitis and infection.

            We have found that certain specific synthetic antibiotics counter cytokine effects and we use these drugs to treat animals with inflammasomes. Several days of treatment may be required to show effect, but usually recovers is complete with no adverse sequelae. Also, animals that have had no trauma to nervous tissue may produce cytokines in injured nerve tissues which further damages nerve cells. Treating these trauma cases with the synthetic antibiotics has been reported to limit cytokine activity and development of further pathology. We have confirmed this in our treatment of dogs with intervertebral disc herniation.