Incestuous Relations

"They wouldn't do that! They're brother and sister!"

No, it's not some twisted new reality show. Or Flowers in the Attic. It's the littermates in the kitchen.

News flash- seeing incest as wrong is a human issue. Your pets don't care. Sure, given the oppurtunity, a group of animals may instinctively seek out a non-relative with whom to procreate- that way they get the genetic diversity that can help increase the groups ability to survive. But the cats in the neighborhood or the dogs in your yard just don't care.

All they know is that there is a female in heat, rarin' to go. And that testosterone is saying- let's do it!  There is no yuck factor for your pets. There is only urge. They don't think it through. They just act.

Hormones are strong, as we can all attest, right?  And without the social mores, without the ability to think a situation through, there is no reason not to act on those hormones.  This is how we get inbreeding.

In all honesty, inbreeding is how we have gotten many of today's recognizablw breeds of dogs and cats. People deliberately bred siblings, or mothers and sons, or fathers and daughters. They did this to try to preserve desirable traits in the dogs or cats. They did it often enough that they got consistent results- and viola- Labradors. Or Siamese. Or whatever.

One can argue that this inbreeding- be it many generations ago- is why purebreeds are more prone to certain diseases. They have less genetic diversity.

The point is this- if you have not spayed or neutered in the mistaken belief that "they won't do that," you are in for a surprise. Spay. Neuter. Save yourself a shock to your system. Save your vet a rant.


Enjoy your pets!

Orchiectomy

"His are mine."

OK, boys. Please don't tell me that you really take this seriously. I had a client once tell me that he did not want to neuter his dog because "his are mine." I really wanted to show him that that was not true- that each of them did, in fact, have their own separate set of testicles. I held my tongue.

There is an overpopulation of pets. This is generally accepted. Male cats and dogs play a pivotal role in continuing population growth. True. A male can inseminate many females, where a female is limited by heat cycles an pregancy to a finite number of offspring a year. Cannot be debated. But as I have said before, there is more to the story.

Orchiectomy- to remove the testicles. Neuter. Alter. Fix. Unman.

Poor things. They will miss all that testosterone, the need to fornicate with any willing female.

HUH?

Imagine you are a housedog, male, over 6 months of age. Now imagine that while you have your testicles intact, your people have no intention of letting you breed. They know all about pet overpopulation problems, do not want puppies themselves, but don't want to deprive you of your manlihood.  How frustrsted are you? No sex? A pillow? No wonder you attack everyone and everything in sight. And now it's spring (or fall) and the pheromones (scent hormones) flying through the air from that female in heat 3 streets over, and those up to a mile away, are in the air. They are driving you nuts!

So you pace the fence. You bolt out the front door. You actually make it out of the yard and into the street and.....BAM!

Never saw the car coming, did you?  You were so crazy with the genetically programmed, hormone driven need to procreate you just got maimed. Or killed.

I'm not kidding. The drive is strong. To be neutered is safer. And seriously, the dogs and cats don't mind.

Here's a story...when I met my husband, he had an adult male Americal Bulldog named Sabo (named for the depleted uranium tank missiles, not the baseball player). Sabo was a great dog, one of the best personalities you'd ever hope top meet. Finally, after a couple years of asking, my husband let me neuter Sabo. Jeff was concerned. He didn't want to lose his macho protection-trained dog and gain a couch potato. But he wanted the best for Sabo's health. So he was neutered. About six months later I asked Jeff- "So, what do you think? Do you regret letting me do that?"

Jeff's reply, "He's the same dog he ever was." And after that, Jeff became the champion of the neighborhood recommending sapy and neuter to anyone who would listen.

What happens if you don't neuter? Besides frustration, the increased likelihood of injury? Well, the boys can get cancer, too. In the testicles. Or around the anus. Nasty, life-threatening, painful, testosterone driven cancer.

Please. For their health. So you can enjoy him longer. Neuter.

Enjoy your pets!

Ovariohysterectomy

Whew! That's a big word for a post title! You can say spay if you'd rather- I use spay more than ovariohysterectomy myself. But I think it's a good idea to remember just what we are talking about. So let's break it down:

ovario- having to do with the ovaries (the organ that makes eggs and produces some hormones)
hyster- Greek for uterus (also the basis for words like hysteria and hysterical- think about that)
ectomy- to cut out

Therefore- an ovariohysterectomy is to cut out the ovaries and uterus. Spay. Sterilize. Alter. Fix.

Look, folks, this is major surgery. We veterinarians do it every day, in some cases dozens of times in a day. So we look at it as "routine" surgery. But it is in fact significant surgery. We open up the abdomen (belly) and take out organs. Organs that have a tendency to bleed. This takes education and skill.

I'm not here to whine, so I apologize for sounding whiny. Vets hear complaints about pricing so often that we develop some sensitivities about it. Add that to many people thinking that we are not "real" doctors and we can get a serious complex.

Here are the facts. We have a pet population problem in much of the country. One way to reduce pet population is to consistently spay and neuter our pets that are not going to be used for purposeful, conscientious breeding.

But as I have written before (and said many, many times) population control is not the only- or maybe even the best- reason to spay your pet. Health is.

Ovariohysterectomy. Removing the ovaries and uterus means we will never have ovarian cancer or uterine cancer in that dog or cat. If you spay young, preferably before the first heat, we almost eliminate the chances of mammary cancer. Yes, dogs and cats get breast cancer. It is hormone driven, and the risks increase with the first few heat cycles. If you wait to spay until they have had three or more heats, you increase the chances that they will develop breast (mammary) cancer later in life. And yes, breast cancer can kill dogs and cats.

If those reasons aren't enough, let me give you one more. Pyometra. Shall we break it down again?

pyo- pus, infected
metra- uterus

A pyometra is an infected uterus. Imagine a tube that is normally the size of a pencil swollen to the size of a summer sausage. Now imagine that sausage in your belly. Ouch and yuck, right?

Now imagine that there are two summer sausages side by side, connected at the bottom. The sausages are filled with pus, not meat. That's an infected uterus for a dog or cat. Some are closed pyometras, which means the pus stays inside the uterus until it bursts. That's awful, painful, and life-threatening. Deadly.

Or the pus can drain out. This might be a little less deadly in the short term, but imagine a constant stream of thick, smelly pus draining from your nether regions. Imagine feeling nauseous, urinating all the time, feverish, crampy, bloated....

Then imagine your doctor scheduling emergency surgery to remove this nasty, pus-filled, distended, tends-to-tear-and-leak-all-over organ. After normal hours. Or over lunch. The MDs bill would probably run in the tens of thousands range (my C-sections were each over $10,000). Your vet likely charges 1/10 of that for the emergency surgery. A "routine" spay at 4-6 months of age will cost significantly less than an emergency spay.

See why we push for ovariohysterectomies when pets are young? We want them to be well. We want to impact your budget less. Really.

Enjoy your pets!

Let the soap boxing begin!

I wrote the next few posts already, but realized I was soap boxing about the importance of spay/neuter without really linking them to the last post- the birds and the bees.

So I thought I might elaborate a little on the pet peeve issue.

5.  If you want your kids to see the "miracle of life" (and let's be honest, it's pretty gross!), there are videos, TV shows, books- heck, you can probably find all sorts of birthing videos on you-tube. Adding to the pet population and putting your pets at risk is NOT needed. Also, not a good way to teach kids responsibility- who do you think will really be the person cleaning up after a dozen 12 pound puppies?Or even a few kittens? Your 6 and 8 year olds? Good luck with that.





4.  "I want to get my money out of her." You never will. I know the ads in the paper for puppies for $500 and up look appealing, and the pet stores sell for hundreds or thousands. I know. But you are the person with the bitch, say. You are responsible for her vet care until she is old enough to breed. Then you might have a stud fee. If you do it right, you will have at least one pre-natal exam at the vet for an ultrasound or radiographs to count puppies (not always accurate, but can be very helpful, nonetheless).

   If she has a normal delivery, awesome. But if she doesn't you may have a trip to the emergency vet, possibly emergency surgery. I tell my clients they need a couple thousand dollars put aside in case of this type of emergency. Then you have puppies, yay!

  Mom generally takes care of the feeding and cleaning for the first couple of weeks. But after that, you will have more mouths to feed and more poop and pee to wipe up. Again, if you do it right you will be house training and socializing these pups. You will have company over. You will vacuum around them.

  Then they need deworming. And vaccines. Vet behaviorists tell us that pups should stay in the litter and with mom for at least 6-8 weeks, and likely would benefit from staying until 10-12 weeks old. See where this is going?

  And finally, you have to find them homes. You can hope that people will pay what you think your investment of time and money is worth. And then hope their new people are happy and don't want to return one for a refund.

  Not all roses, is it?                                         

3. Money. Yes, excellent veterinary care is expensive. But spay or neutering now will likely save significantly on expenses down the road.






2. Let me tell you a story....When I met my husband, his American Bulldog named Sabo was intact. He was concerned about neutering causing a behavior change in Sabo. Plus, I think it was a guy thing- they just like those testicles being there. Then we got a female black Labrador named Bella. Bella was spayed right away.

   When I discussed neutering Sabo, Jeff said to me, "You don't understand how I feel about it. You don't have testicles." Actually, I think he put it a bit more crudely, but oh, well.

   My reply: "True, but I do have ovaries and a uterus, and I had no problem spaying Bella!"

  Silence.  I still don't understand the connection between a man's reproductive organs and his dog's. Jeff did let me neuter Sabo. The rest of the story is included in a post yet to come.

1. Anesthesia. There is always a risk of complications, including death, with any anesthetic procedure. But here's the thing- that risk is much higher if we are forced to perform the surgery when your pet is ill. So have the procedure done while it is still "elective" rather than "emergency."

Enjoy your pets!

The birds and the bees

The top 5 things I dislike hearing from pet owners when we discuss spaying or neutering:

5. I want my kids to experience the miracle of life
4. I want to get my money out of him/her
3. I can't afford the surgery
2. It will change his/her personality; I can't take away his manhood
1. Anesthesia scares me, or, I lost a pet during surgery before and I won't go through that again

So, the topic for the month is going to be reproduction and why we should limit it. Here's a tease: it's not all about pet overpopulation!

Fair warning- this is a hot-button topic for me. These posts may have some frank discussion about reproduction, and a tendency to be a little off-color. No offence is intended, just odd humor. I appreciate your understanding.


Enjoy your pets!

No shots for you!

So, let's say you are totally, completely against vaccines. Or you are the proud pet parent of a dog who has allergic reactions to vaccines. Now what?

This is where the art of medicine starts to play more of a role. Each pet is an individual. And we, as veterinarians, need to keep this in mind and be ready to tailor protocols to meet the individual's needs, keeping health and safety in mind at all times. This, folks, is the basis of the concept of holistic medicine- treating the whole patient. We vets do it almost without thinking every day. There is very little that is set in stone for us.

Vaccines are very important. They keep our pets protected from life-threatening diseases, and some diseases that may not be life-threatening, but can be debilitating. These same vaccines also help protect the people in our pets' lives, as well. There are several diseases that we can catch from the animals in our lives. Rabies is one obvious one. Leptospirosis, a bacteria that affects the liver and kidneys, is another. If a pet is able to get a recommended vaccine, I strongly urge owners to comply.



But some won't, and some can't. So now what?

There are a few options for vaccines. If you have a dog or cat that gets a mild reaction to the vaccine (like hives or mild vomiting) we can pre-medicate with a steroid and Benadryl, or a steroid or Benadryl. This helps to decrease the immune system's response to the perceived immune trigger. Most of the time this seems to help.

If, however, your pet has had a more severe reaction, or has had a reaction despite pre-medication, we may consider other options. One option is to choose to stop giving vaccines. I cringe a little as I type this, because discontinuing the vaccines carries inherent risks. Therefore, anytime I have this discussion with a pet's people, I try to make it very clear that we are balancing risks and benefits, and in choosing to not vaccinate we are incurring some risks that need to be known. We are knowingly leaving a gap in out pet's immunity. The risk of life-threatening parvo or distemper in an adult, otherwise healthy dog that has at least had the puppy series of vaccines is probably fairly low. But it does exist. There is always a risk of being exposed to, and contracting, kennel cough. Or lepto.

Choosing to stop vaccines means most kennels and pet resorts will not board your pet. You may need to make other arrangements when you go out of town. Some groomers require up to date vaccines for grooming appointments. Don't be mad at them- they have responsibility to keep all of the pets in their care safe.

There are tests for the level of immunity in a pet's system. You may have heard of titer tests. If you are against vaccines on principle, you may have discussed them with your vet. Titer tests can be helpful, but they are not perfect.

A titer is the concentration of something. A titer test is a test to determine the concentration of that thing. The way this works with immunity, a blood sample is drawn at the vet's and sent to a laboratory. The lab technicians (or a machine) place drops of the blood sample into small vials. They serially dilute each sample. In other words, the vials will have all blood, 1/2 blood. 1/4 blood, 1/16 blood, 1/32 blood, etc. They then check to see at what dilution the blood sample stops reacting to an analog for the disease. The last one to react is reported back to us. I get a report that says something like- titer IgG parvo 1:400 (making up the details here). Then I compare that ratio number to what is generally considered to be protective immunity. This gives us a yes or know answer to the question: is my pet protected from this disease?
Sounds cool, right? Blood test says yes, there is protection, then there is no need to vaccinate this year. Blood test says no, then we need the shot. Great. Next patient, please....

Problem is this- titer immunity does not necessarily correlate to true protection. UGH

We use the test anyway. I get titer tested periodically to see if my rabies vaccines I got a decade ago are still effective. We send blood to Kansas to be tested for pets going to Hawaii or Europe- they must be rabies titered. But I don't titer my own pets in place of vaccines. I give the shots.

fotosearch.com

Why? I believe that the immunity given by the shots is important. I believe that the titers are useful, but not absolute. I believe that the risk associated with vaccines is much smaller than the risk of disease. I want to take advantage of the amazing, incredible protection modern medicine is able to provide. But that's my decision, for my pets. If you want to discuss the ins and outs of vaccines for your pets, I will. I have many pets that have altered vaccine schedules, a few that I do not vaccinate at all. Holistic. Individual. Tailored.

Enjoy your pets!

Shooting the grown-ups

I hope those of you who are checking this out now feel you have a better understanding of the importance of the series of puppy vaccines vets recommend. It's a fairly straight forward recommendation, and as for as I know pretty much every veterinarian makes the same recommendations.

Things get a little bit murkier once the pets are grown up- say, over a year old. This is where having one group making protocols that we all follow might help, but the independant nature of vets doesn't really allow that. For now.

Last time we talked about immunity, and the fact that when we give the last set of puppy shots, we expect the body to make and store a blueprint of the fighting factors it can use against specific diseases. These blueprints are stored for a time, but not forever. So we generally recommend vaccinating again about a year after the dog or cat had the last in the series of vaccines. This puts them in the office at about 1 1/2 years of age. They get their good, complete exam (which, frankly,  is the most improtant part of the whole visit), and a repeat of the shots they had as a youngster.

Which vaccines, you ask? OK, this is part of the variation.

Which vaccines are used can depend on several factors. Let's talk dogs first. There are three vaccines that are considered "core." These are the shots that are recommended for all dogs, regardless of lifestyle or where in the states they live. Those are rabies, parvovirus and distemper virus.

Then there are non-core vaccines. These can be given based mainly on lifestyle or location. Lyme disease, leptospirosis, bordetella, canine flu are included in this catagory.

vetmed.auburn.edu

Most vets will give core vaccines to every patient, then add non-core based on that individual patients needs. Lyme for those in lyme endemic areas or hikers, leptospirosis for those expected to be exposed to wildlife or standing water sources, bordetella for those who will be staying at a kennel or  going to the groomer. Canine flu is usually resaerved for dogs kenneled or shown. So this is why your veterinarian or vet tech/nurse will ask about lifestyle. We need the information to develop a plan to keep your dog safe.

Cats have two core vaccines- rabies and feline distemper, also called FVRCP, CVR, and a few other things. Plus non-core vaccines like feline leukemia, FIV, and FIP. The decision to add the non-core generally is based on whether your cat is indoor or indoor/outdoor. Be honest with your vet. We just want what is best for your cat. And yes, even cats that are indoors all the time need that exam and the core vaccines. Rabies is required in much of the country for all cats and dogs.

Sounds simple, right?

After that 1 1/2 year old appointment, things get tricky. The core vaccines have been reliably shown to provide immunity that lasts at least 3 years. But not all vets give the shots every 3 years. Some still give them yearly. Some give all three core shots once every 3 years. Some divide them up, so your dog gets one shot each year, on a rotation. Confused yet? I don't blame you.

Let's throw more into the mix. The non-core vaccines tend to have immunity that does not last 3 years. In fact, there's evidence that the bordetella vaccine may only last 6-8 months. So what to do? It depends. No, really. Some places require bordetella every 6 months, some yearly. The other non-core shots are generally boostered every 12 months.

So, the bottom line here is each veterinarian develops a protocol based on current information that he or she is comfortable recommending. Talk to your vet. Ask about the protocol they employ.

Here's my opinion at this time. The exam is the most important part of the whole vet visit. Yes, I can do a complete exam in just a few minutes. Usually while I'm taking to you, asking quiestions. That few minutes of exam is a distillation of 8 years of college and 12 years experience. I could make it take longer, but it wouldn't be any more complete. Just sayin'.

I come from a practice that has been using a 3 year rotating protocol for dogs. We do all core vaccines as puppies, and at the 1 1/2 year appointment. Then we divide them out- distemper, parvo, rabies- one each year on a rotating basis. This means fewer shots at each of those yearly visits. Non-core are all yearly, as needed based on lifestyle.

Cats get baby series, then both core vaccines at 1 1/2. Then FVRCP every 3 years, but rabies yearly. This has to do with the type of rabies vaccine we use for the cats. Ask us. Ask any of us vets at anytime. We are happy to discuss our vaccine protocols and the reasons behind them.

Enjoy your pets!