Halloween Pet Tips

Meisje and Maya as doctor and nurse for Halloween

Written by Nicole Gunkel, RVT

Halloween is a fun and spooky holiday!  With pumpkins, candles, decorations and costumes there is so much going on, and much to go wrong for your furry friends.  Here are a few tips to keep in mind this weekend.  Please be safe and have fun!

• Keep candy and sugary sweets away from dog’s and cat’s curious appetites. Halloween candies are not meant to be digested by our pets and can cause gastro-intestinal problems.  Chocolate, and sugar-free candy containing xylitol, can be especially toxic!

• Be careful when dressing up your pets, so that they don’t chew on costumes.  Ingestion of small parts of a costume could require surgical removal of the object!  Make sure that pet costumes allow your pet to move around and see clearly.

• Decorations around your home are fun, but may represent one more thing for your pet to chew on or consume.  Keep decorations in places where they can’t be reached or knocked over. 

cat jack-o-lantern with LED light

• Candles are a must for Halloween and popular for fall and winter holidays.  Keep them in places where they can’t be knocked over by wagging tails or slinking kitties. Consider using fireless (LED) candles.

• Pumpkin is a seasonal favorite that is a great treat for pets!  Use either canned or cooked pumpkin, staying away from sugary pumpkin pie filling.  Pumpkin is a high fiber dietary filler that can be used year-round as a snack or as an addition to meals to help pets feel full.  It’s great for our chubby friends needing to slim down.

• If you live in an area frequented by trick-or-treaters on Halloween night, you may want to keep pets safe in a back room.  A knock on the door or the ring of a doorbell can get dogs excited and feeling the need to protect their owners.  Also, be careful that your dog or cat doesn’t sneak out through the front door as it frequently opens and closes.

We wish you all a safe and fun Halloween and hope it is an excellent beginning to the holiday season!

Itchiness and Hair Loss Commercial

Itchiness and hair loss in your dog or cat can be the result of fleas, inhaled allergies, hormonal disease, seborrhea, food allergy, infection, and many other things. The key to controlling skin disease is to find the primary problem. Neither you nor your pets should have to endure hours of scratching and licking.

My Zambian Experience 2010

By Bonnie Markoff, DVM, ABVP

My travels to Zambia this year involved renewing friendships, helping with teaching elementary students, assisting in a small animal practice, and enjoying a wonderful safari in the South Luangwa Valley.

My friend Barbara had been asked to return to Lusaka to continue training the teachers at the American International School.  It was fun to spend time with the teachers we had met last year.  One of them even let me drive her car to church one Sunday (opposite side if the road and just a little different “rules of the road” than here at home!)  One day I was called to a classroom for a veterinary concern.  Some young African boys who traditionally believed that owls were bad luck, had shot a baby owl with a slingshot.  One of our students had brought him to school.  After I anesthetized the owl, I determined his injuries were too severe for him to survive and thus euthanized him.  This gave me the opportunity to talk to the entire 3^rd grade class about animals, superstitions and euthanasia.  I was also privileged to get to visit a school on the outskirts of town.  The Makwashi school is more typical of the schools that native black children attend.  These children stayed after school just for the opportunity to have Barbara teach them math!

Kids at Makwashi School

Most of my time was spent with Alison, a native Zambian veterinarian who I met last year.  It is such a joy to ride in her truck as she drives around Lusaka to various ranches to treat horse and other livestock.  I can’t think of a better way to met the people of a country and see the countryside.  I had the opportunity to mentor some younger veterinarians at her practice, to teach ultrasound and to work with Alison on some practice management techniques.  She and I will be communicating by e-mail to help her to set up a smoother running, more efficient practice that can better serve her patients, clients, employees and herself.

The last 3 days of our trip were spent on safari.  We stayed at a lovely lodge alongside a watering hole where puku, baboons, warthogs, impala, hippos, elephants and giraffe could be seen as we ate our meals.  Each morning at 5 am we were awakened by African drums, ate a light meal and then headed out in the Land Rovers to see the animals at sunrise.  We would return to the lodge for lunch and a siesta (which was tough when it was so hot!) and then we were back out in “Landies” at about 4:00.  We would stay out to 8pm so we could do night safaris and see the nocturnal species.  We have wonderful photos of lions, leopards, many types of antelope, porcupines, mongoose, hyena, water buffaloes and more.

 I am so grateful to get to go on these wonderful trips.  Thank you so much to my staff for being so competent that I can leave the practice without a worry.  And thank you to my clients who recognize that every doctor at ACC is equally qualified.  And of course, thank you to God for blessing me so richly and allowing me to share what he has taught me all over the world.

Breast Cancer in Pets

Ventana goes pink for Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Written by Jennifer Evans, DVM

There has been a lot of pink around town lately, promoting breast cancer awareness month, but did you know pets can get mammary cancer too?  It is one of the most common types of cancer in female dogs, and female cats can also be affected.  Mammary tumors can be benign or they can be malignant and spread, most commonly to lymph nodes and the lungs.  Surgery to remove either a single mammary gland or the entire chain is the treatment of choice and sometimes chemotherapy can help. 

The really awesome news is that this type of cancer is totally preventable!!  Dogs that are spayed before they ever come into heat will never get mammary cancer.  If they are spayed after their first heat cycle but before their second, the chance of them getting it decreases by 50%.  After their second heat cycle, spaying them doesn’t help prevent mammary cancer but it does prevent other life-threatening diseases including uterine infections.  This is one of the reasons we strongly recommend spaying pups around 4 months of age, before they can come into heat.  If you think you may want to breed your dog, have a discussion with your vet about the pros and cons.  Whenever you decide you aren’t going to breed her or you are done breeding her, please keep in mind it is in her best interests to be spayed. 

We would love to talk to you about the benefits of spaying your dog!  

Meet Gustavo Rayas! Our Featured Employee of the Week!!

Gustavo currently works as a Registered Veterinary Technician at Animal Care Clinic, and has been here since May 2002. Gustavo grew up in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico. He graduated with his Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine in Mexico from the Autonomous University of Baja California. Gustavo is studying now, so that he may eventually be boarded as a DVM in California. He loves living in San Luis Obispo County and is glad that his children have had the opportunity to grow up here. Gustavo has 3 teenagers, whom he is always involved with in their activities and schools. Aside from being a busy, working family man, Gustavo is developing a website, petsatinternet.com.

Pets and Your Health Commercial

Did you know that interacting with a well-behaved pet changes your chemical physiology and lowers your blood pressure, decreases stress, and leads to an increased sense of energy and elation. It's true! People who own pets makes fewer visits to the doctor. Dogs and cats are good for us and we are good for them.

Breed Rescues

Written by Marissa Greenberg, DVM

Marissa and Cramer

Many of you read Dr. Evans’ article about fostering pets until they find their “forever home.”  Dr. Evans’ foster kittens came from one of the local shelters, but there is also something called breed rescues and they are often in need of foster homes.  Let’s face it, though many of us like mixed breeds, there are those of us out there who have a particular breed they are fond of or prefer.   Or we may like a certain breed but don’t want to purchase one from a breeder.  Breed rescues focus on rescuing a certain breed of dog or cat out of shelters.  They then place these animals in foster homes until they find permanent homes.  Breed rescues also receive pets from homes where that particular breed may not have worked out very well for the owners.  They often advertise the pets they have up for adoption on petfinder.com, where you can search for a particular breed, or through their own websites.  This allows people who are searching for a particular breed of dog, but aren’t interested in going out and purchasing a puppy, to find dogs in need of forever homes. 

As many of you know, I have an Australian Cattle Dog (ACD) named Mico.  But what you might not know is that he is my third cattle dog!  My first was named Tallou, and my family adopted him when I was in high school from a friend who couldn’t keep him anymore.  I fell in love with the breed!  I then adopted Slink from our local animal shelter while I attended Cal Poly.  When I went to vet school at Washington State, I met a fellow vet student who was also an ACD fan.  In fact, he and his wife had started their own ACD Breed Rescue organization called Heeling Hearts.  They worked very hard to find ACDs that had ended up in shelters and got them out and into foster care.  These dogs came from all over WA and adjoining states, as well as from across the country.  I was fortunate to provide foster care for several wonderful ACD’s, and was even more fortunate to be able to watch them go to their new owners. By getting these dogs out of the shelters and into foster homes, we were able to learn more about each dog’s personality in a home environment, which helped to place them in the right permanent home.  I thought it would be difficult to say goodbye to these dogs after opening my heart and my home to them.  But, I was always so excited to meet their new owners, and knew that they would bring someone else as much joy as they had brought me in the short time they lived with me.  And whenever one went to a permanent home, it meant that I had the opportunity to foster another. 

Tango at home

Like most breed rescues, Heeling Hearts has a selective process to be sure that these dogs are placed in homes appropriate for the breed.  If you are interested in a particular breed, contacting a breed rescue would be a good way to gain more information about it and see if it might be the right one for you.  Or if you already share your home with a pet, but think that you might provide a good foster home, consider looking into breed rescues.

              

Meet Amanda Berry! Our Featured Employee of the Week!!

Amanda came to San Luis Obispo from Angels Camp, California to attend Cal Poly as an Animal Science major. She works in the ACC veterinary nursing team beginning in July 2008. Amanda hopes to attend vet school and someday practice large and small animal medicine. Some favorite hobbies/activities of Amanda’s are camping, hiking, scrap booking with her mom and fishing. Amanda also loves off-roading and dirt biking.  She is also enjoying training and playing with her dog, Gracie.

It Feels Like Fall!

Written by Marissa Greenberg

What a change in our weather over the last few days! It feels like fall is here, especially after our record-breaking temperatures.  Here are a few things to think about for your pets with the change of season.

1)   The days are getting shorter and many of us find ourselves having to take our dogs for walks in the dark now.  For safety, make sure you are wearing reflective clothing or a headlamp, and put a reflective collar and/or a blinking safety light on your dog.
2)   With the shorter days, you may not be able to spend as much time outside getting exercise with your dog.  If this is the case, keep in mind that you might need to cut back on the amount of food that your dog eats in order to maintain an ideal Body Condition Score (BCS).   Please call for an appointment with one of our veterinary nurses to help you evaluate your pets’ BCS.
3)   It is starting to get a little colder and even a little wet! Make sure that your pet has a place to get away from the elements.  We’ve already had some fall thunderstorms, and there will likely be more to come.  If you have a dog or cat that is scared of storms, we can help you.  Please contact us for information about desensitizing your pet to loud noises.  In some cases, we may need to consider drug therapies to help your pet work through their fears.

4)   With the holidays just around the corner, there are hazards galore for dogs and cats alike!  The first one is the Halloween candy and decorations.  Be sure to keep all candy locked securely away somewhere that your pet can’t get to them.  Keep all holiday decorations out of reach to prevent the need for an emergency surgery to remove one from the gastrointestinal tract!  With family gatherings and yummy meals for the holidays, remind family members that what tastes good to us, isn’t always healthy for our pets.  It’s best to avoid any handouts from the table for your four-legged friends, especially bones that can cause blockage of the intestinal tract or a choking hazard.

Pet Wellness Month

Written by Marissa Greenberg, DVM

Most of us visit the doctor or the dentist at least once a year. Many of us may not know that this is equally as important for our pets!  Dogs and cats should have a wellness exam at least once a year.  As pets age or develop conditions, it may be recommended that they be seen more often. 

During a wellness exam at Animal Care Clinic, your pet will have a complete physical exam.  This includes checking their eyes, ears, nose, teeth, mouth, lymph nodes, skin, and external reproductive system, palpating their abdomen, and listening to their heart and lungs with a stethoscope.  Recommendations will be made based on each individual patient and client needs for things such as vaccines, blood tests, and parasite prevention, as well as dental cleaning.  Many pets may need yearly dental cleaning to maintain healthy teeth and gums.  Most patients do not need yearly vaccines, but we may recommend yearly blood tests to check for things such as feline viruses, heartworms, or diseases transmitted by ticks. 

As pets age, we may recommend blood tests such as white and red blood cell counts, general health profile chemistry tests, thyroid levels, and urinalysis.  These are similar to the tests many of us have ordered by our own doctors.  These tests can help us catch some diseases early and intervene quickly.  They can also serve as a baseline to have something to compare to if a pet gets sick later down the road. 

Please contact us to schedule your pet’s yearly wellness exam or to find out more about our recommendations!

The Joy of Fostering Pets

Tryg - foster cat turned adopted pet by Dr. Evans

Written by Jennifer Evans, DVM

I recently fostered a litter of orphan kittens from the county shelter and I loved it!!  I got them at about 3 weeks of age and raised them until they were old enough to be adopted out.  I actually ended up keeping two of them because I had an “opening” in my household!  Fostering pets that need homes can be a very rewarding experience.  It provides “special needs” animals a place to thrive until they find their permanent homes.  It also gives the foster family the joy of having a new friend along with the satisfaction of placing that friend in a wonderful permanent home.

Fostering is a serious decision to make.  Potential foster families need to make sure they have adequate time and training to take on the pet and equally important is the need for adequate facilities.  If there are other pets in the household, there needs to be a place to quarantine the newcomers for a sufficient time to make sure they don’t bring home an infectious disease.  Relationships between current pets and incoming fosters also needs to be considered and closely monitored initially.

My foster kittens were a lot of work but it was wonderful to know that I helped raise well-adjusted, friendly kittens for some lucky families!

Meet our featured employee of the week, Lindsay Gange!

Lyndsey joined the veterinary nursing team in June 2010. She originally grew up in Seattle Washington, obtained her bachelor’s in Archeology at Western Washington University. Lyndsey is now working toward her goal of earning her Registered Veterinary Technician (RVT) license. She has several cats (Oscar, Shanti, and Squeek) and a dog named Ziggy. On her own time, Lyndsey enjoys skiing, hiking, going to the beach, yoga, and volunteering with Heaven Can Wait Equine Sanctuary.

 Lyndsey is also a recent newlywed so CONGRATS TO YOU, LYNDSEY! 

Guide Dogs of America: Recco's Second Evaluation

Stephanie and Recco

Written by Stephanie Ruggerone, Practice Administrator

Many of you are already aware of Animal Care Clinic’s association with Guide Dogs of America, as a portion of the donations received at our annual Wine Gala Open House benefited this wonderful organization.  What you may not know, is just as it “takes a community to raise a child” so it also takes the help of many people to properly socialize and raise a puppy to be the eyes for a blind individual.  While I may be the official “puppy raiser” for “Recco”, my sixteenth guide dog puppy, the entire clinic as well as our clients are instrumental in his education.  Successfully learning to remain calm and quiet, following commands given by a variety of people and exposure to life’s sights and sounds would never be accomplished without all of you!

Stephanie and Recco at work

Recco recently returned from a week of evaluations at Guide Dogs of America in Sylmar, California; and I am happy to report he passed with flying colors.  All puppies must be returned to the school several times during the “raising” period to insure they are developing into the type of dog that can handle the stressors of guide work.  At 6-months of age he was evaluated to determine if he should be considered for the school’s breeding program.  This recent evaluation was performed at 9-months of age and he was observed for his reactions at a busy indoor mall as well as for his response to obedience commands.  His hips and elbows were x-rayed to rule out dysplasia and he had exposure to unfamiliar dogs in the community runs and kennel.  His next evaluation is scheduled for his 1-year birthday in late December.  We are also honored that Recco has been chosen as one of several “puppies in training” to attend the Guide Dogs of America annual gold tournament and awards banquet being held in Las Vegas next month!

Our Dr. Evans is scheduled to raise a female yellow lab for GDA.  Her puppy was born recently and can be seen on the “puppy cam” at the Guide Dogs Of America website.  I will let you know how Recco does in Las Vegas; perhaps he will bring home a jackpot!

Adopting Pets - What to Know Before You Bring Fluffy a New Friend

Written by Jennifer Evans, DVM

Kitten with Upper Respiratory Infection (URI)

Getting a new dog or cat is always exciting, and getting one from a shelter is a wonderful way to help an animal in need.  Getting a new pet when you already have a dog or cat has its own set of complications.  Many dogs and cats appreciate a new friend but it is our responsibility to make sure our new friend doesn’t make our old friend sick.  Any animal from any shelter or pet store has the potential to have some sort of infectious disease they could pass on to your current pets.  Whenever many animals are housed together, or even just have contact with each other like at a dog park, there is a chance they could catch an upper respiratory infection or possibly something more serious.  Just like kids get colds at pre-school, dogs and cats get upper respiratory infections anywhere they have contact with multiple others.  The environments of shelters are just such a place.  Many dogs and cats that have been adopted from a shelter either come home with an infection, or develop one within the first two weeks of being home.  Cats typically have upper respiratory viral infections with sneezing, runny eyes and runny noses.  Sometimes they are very sick and other times they seem to feel fine.

Dog with Kennel Cough

Dogs most typically have some form of ‘kennel cough’- a broad term for many different infectious causes of coughing or upper respiratory infections.  There is also the possibility that your new friend could have something even more dangerous such as parvo, feline leukemia (FeLV) or feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV).  Because of this possibility, a veterinarian should see all newly adopted pets as soon as possible.  New cats should be screened for FeLV and FIV, all pets should be checked for giardia and any new pet should be kept separate from other pets in the household, ideally for 2 weeks.  I realize this is difficult to do and may seem unnecessary, but it really is in the best interest of your whole four-legged family.  Elderly pets are especially susceptible to infectious diseases and if they catch something it can become much more serious.  Just like a cold in a 10-year-old kid is much less dangerous than one in a 90-year-old person, a case of kennel cough is just an annoyance for a 3-year-old dog but can become life-threatening pneumonia in a 13-year-old.  Shelters are excellent places to find a new companion, but just be aware that they shouldn’t instantly be integrated into the family.  If you have any questions about bringing a new pet into the family or you have a new family addition that needs a check-over, we would be happy to help!!

Check out Wood’s Humane Society or San Luis Obispo County Department of Animal Services to find a new furry friend.  There are also several other local humane groups who can help you find a good match!

Meet Jeff Larsen!!! Our featured Employee of the week!

Jeff is another local to the SLO county area. He grew up in the Five Cities and joined our Customer Service Team in August 2010. Jeff has his two little dogs P-nut and Buddy (which including himself makes PB&J!) Becoming a Registered Veterinary Technician is one of Jeff’s goals along with earning degrees in accounting and dance. Jeff enjoys all performing arts, but is especially passionate about dance and choreography. He’s been dancing and putting together shows, dance concerts, and various other performances since the age of 15. Equally, he has developed the same love for marching band and colorguard. Jeff has performed with and taught several scholastic and independent marching units, including Arroyo Grande High School Marching Band and Colorguard, The Northern Lights Winterguard from Portland, Oregon and The Blue Devils Drum and Bugle Corps from Concord, California.