Are you preventing Heartworm Disease?

With spring and warmer weather upon us, mosquitoes will be making their appearance anytime. Heartworms are transmitted by the bite of an infected mosquito. This is a major health concern for your pet!

Signs of heartworm disease include: coughing, difficulty breathing, panting, decreased exercise tolerance or even sudden death. Pets may not show signs until very late in the course of the disease and that is why annual blood testing is recommended.

However, heartworm disease is easily prevented with either a chewable tablet or a topical medication placed on the skin between the shoulder blades. Both types of preventative are used monthly. If you have a difficult time remembering to treat your dog monthly, we now have an injection that will last six months.

Let’s not forget our feline friends. Although cats are not the proper host for heartworms, some cats can contract the disease. Identifying cats with heartworm disease is very difficult, but the infection can be easily prevented with use of monthly and/or topical medication.

Easter Toxins

Easter is a happy of time of year to celebrate with family and friends and welcome spring. But it is also a busy time of year for pet toxin ingestion making March Poison Prevention Month. The most common calls this time of year involve Easter lilies, chocolate, and Easter grass.

True lilies such as Tiger, Day, Asiatic, Easter, and Japanese Show lilies are highly toxic to cats. All parts of the Easter lily plant are poisonous – the petals, the leaves, the stem and even the pollen. Cats that ingest as few as one or two leaves, or even a small amount of pollen while grooming their fur, can suffer severe kidney failure. In most situations, symptoms of poisoning will develop within six to 12 hours of exposure. Early signs include vomiting, loss of appetite, lethargy and dehydration. Symptoms worsen as kidney failure develops. Some cats will experience disorientation, staggering and seizures.

There is no effective antidote to counteract lily poisoning, the sooner you can get your cat to the veterinarian, the better his chances of survival will be. If you see your cat licking or eating any part of an Easter lily, call our office or Pet Poison Helpline (855-764-7661-fee applies) immediately. If left untreated, his chances of survival are low.

Treatment includes inducing vomiting to get any remaining plant material out of the stomach, administering drugs like activated charcoal (to bind the poison in the stomach and intestines), fluid therapy to flush out the kidneys, and monitoring of kidney function through blood testing.

Tiger, Day, Asiatic, Japanese Show, and my personal favorite Stargazer lilies are popular in many gardens and yards. These lilies are also commonly found in florist bouquets, so it is imperative to check for poisonous flowers before bringing bouquets into the household.
Non-toxic types of lilies – such as the Peace, Peruvian and Calla lilies typically only cause minor drooling.

Thankfully, lily poisoning does not occur in dogs or people. However, if a large amount is ingested, it can result in mild gastrointestinal issues such as vomiting and diarrhea.

With Easter comes Easter baskets and decorations and Easter grass… the fake grass that often fills those decorative Easter baskets. When your cat or dog ingests something “stringy” like Easter grass, it can become anchored around the base of the tongue or stomach, rendering it unable to pass through the intestines. It can result in a linear foreign body and cause severe damage to the intestinal tract, often requiring abdominal surgery.

And what’s the other favorite thing in those Easter baskets? Chocolate of course! Chocolate rabbits and hundreds of kinds of chocolate eggs! While the occasional chocolate chip in one cookie is not typically an issue, certain types of chocolate are very toxic to dogs. In general, the darker and more bitter the chocolate, the greater the danger. Baker’s chocolate and dark chocolate pose the biggest problem. The chemical toxicity is due to methylxanthines (a relative of caffeine) and results in vomiting, diarrhea, hyperactivity, an abnormal heart rhythm, seizures, and possibly death. Treatment here too requires inducing vomiting to get as much of the chocolate out as possible. The colored foil wrappers on some of those chocolate eggs do make vomiting a colorful process in a lot of cases! The treatment is much the same as lily ingestion where we give activated charcoal (not at all the same as grill charcoal, so please don’t try that) to absorb the toxins. We control the seizures and abnormal heart rhythm with supportive medications as warranted. And give fluids to help flush the toxins out of the blood stream.

Just a reminder, our family of clinics always has a doctor on call 24/7, 365 days a year. Call one of our regular clinic phone numbers and follow the prompts to reach our emergency doctor.

Muzzle Is Not a Dirty Word

Sometimes when asked how work is going, I answer, “Not too bad. I still have all ten fingers.” It’s my poor attempt at a joke, but I’ve realized that a lot of people unfamiliar with veterinary medicine ask if that’s really a risk of the job. Although we have countless wonderful pets that walk through our doors, the reality is that some patients are more difficult – and more dangerous – to handle than others. So yes, there really is some inherent risk in working with animals.

The reason I wanted to discuss this is that some people think when we muzzle a dog, it’s cruel. It’s not. It’s a matter of safety. We all love animals and love the patients we work with, but that doesn’t mean we’re willing to take a trip to the emergency room instead of muzzling your pet. There are many reasons we use muzzles when dealing with patients beyond the obvious case of an aggressive dog. Even the sweetest dog has the potential to bite if they are in severe pain, so most painful patients are given a muzzle as a precaution. Some dogs that pose no threat to bite are simply calmer when they are wearing a muzzle. It’s difficult to draw blood from a wiggly dog, but many become more stationary with a muzzle. Many exams and treatments become a lot quicker when a nervous dog is muzzled, so we can get that dog back to the comfort of home much sooner.

I can personally relate to owners whose dog requires a muzzle because I am one of those owners! My dog cannot stand his nails being trimmed. He can be a real pain – and quite honestly, a danger – to anyone trying to trim his nails. But, when he is wearing a muzzle, he’s a completely different dog. He is more relaxed and less active making the procedure less stressful for him and easier for us. The muzzle allows us to give him a much quicker, better, and safer nail trim – a win for everyone!

So, if your dog requires a muzzle, it’s not something to be embarrassed by. If the appointment is easier, quicker, and less stressful for your dog (and you), then the muzzle is definitely a good thing!