What is T-N-R?

Trap-Neuter-Release

Do you know that a pair of breeding cats can have two or more litter per year which can exponentially produce 420,00 offspring over a seven year period? Yes, you read that correctly.  

2 breeding cats=420,000 cats in 7 years!

What does that mean for these cats?

These feral cats live short harsh lives.  There is a constant struggle to find food and water under constant threat of starvation, disease, hypothermia (summer in Phoenix), hypothermia (think winter in Flagstaff), cruelty, and predation.Millions of cats are euthanized at animal shelters because homes cannot be found for all of these human companions.  Free-roaming stray and feral cats are the predominant source of these unwanted cats.  These "community cats" are are believed to be the greatest source of cat overpopulation.

What can be done to make these animal's lives more comfortable while decreasing overpopulation? 

ADOPTION of all cats into indoor homes but this is not feasible since 75% of all cats in shelters are euthanized due to lack of homes.  Feral cats are not suitable pets.  While some tolerate a small amount of human contact they are too fearful and wild to be handled.

SANCTUARIES have limited capacity and they are expensive.

ERADICATION deliberate and systematic destruction of feral cat colonies.  This leads to the vacuum effect meaning new animals flock to now available habitat and resources or the survivors breed (remember 2=420,000) and more cautious and elusive cats are selected for. Eradication provides a temporary fix, sacrifices lives needlessly, and provides no long term benefit.

TNR programs aim to sterilize large numbers of community cats and return them to colonies to live out their lives. TNR is the most humane, the least costly, and the most efficient way of stabilizing feral cat populations.

What can you do to help with this animal welfare issue?  

Main Street Strays and Kaibab Veterinary Clinic are collaborating to help feral cats colonies in northern Arizona.  Please contact Main Street Strays if you would like to volunteer, donate, or foster.

To learn more about this very important topic, you can visit Alley Cat Allies

Big Dogs and Bloat

Salivation, retching, big drum like belly: OH MY!

I'm a big dog lover and it seems that this condition is something that all of big dog owners live in fear of. I just attended a conference and participated in a lab practicing the preventative surgical technique known as gastropexy. I am on call this week and have seen one case in which the dog was very close to being a surgical GDV patient. Luckily we were able to decompress the stomach without surgical intervention. The owners of this beautiful German Shepherd were very happy to hear some advise on how to prevent bloat and what symptoms of bloat to be aware of. I had another client come in on emergency because she and her husband had lost a dog to bloat because they weren't aware of the condition and delayed taking their dog in because they thought it was just a fleeting "stomach bug". I thought it would be nice to share these tips with our Facebook fans before it becomes an emergency in their beloved dogs.

So first off, what exactly IS bloat?

The stomach becomes filled with gas and fluid and can, as a complication, twist around. This is called Gastric Dilatation Volvulus (GDV).

It is only affecting canines and breeds at high risk are the deep chested, large - giant dogs. Mortality rate is high and in the range from 10 to 60 % despite of treatment. With surgery, the mortality rate is still reaching 15 to 33 %.

After a meal, the dog’s stomach can reach a volume of 3-4 l in a medium 15 kg dog, and can dilate up to 7 l in a large-breed dog. This aptitude for dilatation, associated with the fact that the stomach is relatively loose in the abdomen, is a predisposing factor for the the syndrome of gastric dilatation and torsion.

The causes of this pathological gastric dilatation are poorly known, but it could be related to an accumulation of:

gas: the eructation mechanism does not work properly and gas are not evacuated from the stomach. By the way it seems that it is mainly air which is breathed in when the dog eats too quickly…

fluids: secreted by the stomach;

food: the emptying of the stomach does not occur normally.

The often fatal issue of this syndrome is due to serious circulation disturbance: the venous circulation is disrupted, the blood pressure drops, and a shock state takes place, aggravated by the release of toxins produced in the necrotic areas of some abdominal viscera.

The large breed dogs are the most threatened: Great Dane, St Bernard, New Foundland, Weimeraner dog, German shepherd, Doberman, Old English sheep dog, Pointer… The most nervous dogs (often underweight) would be the most at risk, probably because they are the first to react to any change in their environment: new places, new people, new feeding rhythm, physical activity, etc… Any kind of stress can be effectively considered as a trigger for the dilatation/torsion syndrome.


What Are Signs of Dog Bloat?

Signs and symptoms of gastric bloat can become quite dramatic, but not always clearly recognizable. If you observe any combination of the below mentioned signs (two or more) you need to seek urgent veterinary help.

Restlessness, panting, whining.
Excessive salivation/ drooling
Enlarged and tense abdomen
Discomfort and distress
Dog is trying to throw up, but is only retching and can not vomit
The condition gets worse in a very short time
Signs of shock

WHAT CAN BE DONE FOR CANINE BLOAT PREVENTION ?

There is a surgery that anchors the stomach to the ribs in order to prevent it from being so mobile and able to twist. The surgery is most effective and safe if done PRIOR to a bloat emergency. Even dogs that have had the surgery can bloat and twist their stomachs, they just have to work A LOT harder to do so. I have one client with Mastiffs that never leaves the house with her gentle giants without arming herself with a large bottle of GAS-X. She lost a mastiff to bloat years ago even though the dog's stomach had been tacked as preventative.

She still has all of her Mastiff's stomachs tacked but she sticks to a strict feeding regimen to further decrease chances of a replay of the events that ended in the loss of one of her giant companions.

No study allows to associate a special diet with the development of a bloat syndrome. This accident occurs in dogs fed vary different types of diets: home-made food or industrial products, dry food or canned food. The statistical studies that point out a relationship between dry food and bloat are distorted by the fact that a majority of large breed dogs are actually fed dry food.

On the contrary, the WAY of feeding may have an influence:

Hydration of the food is in favor of a nearlier emptying of the stomach. Besides, 80% of dogs prefer consume dry food when it is slightly rehydrated.

Large breed dogs often have high energetic requirements, especially if they live outside. These requirements have to be satisfied by large volumes of food, but the ingestion of a single big meal in the day can be in favor of the dilatation. It would be better advised to split the daily diet in two or three meals a day.

In conclusion, the preventive measures aim at avoiding that the dog eats too hastily, and to make easier the stomach emptying.

Practical measures in favor of the prevention of the canine bloat syndrome

Feed the dog alone, in a quiet area.

Split the daily diet in two meals a day, in order to avoid the stomach to be too much dilated.

Choose a high digestible diet that will be distributed in smaller quantities compared to an ordinary food.

Choose a food presented in large croquettes, in order to slow down the ingestion. An object put in the middle of the plate can act the same way, because, it obliges the dog to turn around to be able to eat.

Slightly rehydrate the food before feeding.

Respect a 2 hour resting period after each meal. Physical activity when the stomach is full can make it move. Moreover, stress inhibits the emptying of the stomach.

I have to go now and feed my big dogs a their first of two rehydrated meals of the day.

Spring has sprung: beware of the sneaky foxtail

Spring has sprung and so have the FOXTAILS (aka grass awns, spear grass): Flowers are blooming and birds are chirping. It is a wonderful time of year but beware if the sneaky and tenacious foxtail. These little botanical seeds look very innocent but they can cause serious illness in your pets. Nature has designed these seedlings to excel at burrowing. Most commonly they set up shop in dog's ears leading to ear infections. They are not species specific. I once pulled 10 of then out of a 3 pound kitten's eye! While less common but magnitudes more dangerous, these little grass awns can migrate into the spinal cord resulting in seizures, the lungs resulting in pneumonia or lung puncture, or stomach wall and intestines skewering their delicate walls. The consequences can the life threatening.

How to prevent FOXTAIL INJURY

• If possible, avoid foxtail infested areas – especially during the dry season.
• Thoroughly brush and inspect your dog's coat if it has been romping through tall, mature grass.
Run your hands over their coat and look for foxtails. Dogs with long hair are particularly
susceptible to foxtail seeds.
• Look into your dog's ears. If your dog has floppy ears, lift each ear and inspect.
• Immediately examine your dogs paws (in-between toes and paw pads), neck (under the collar), tail/anus, and underarm areas after walks in areas with foxtails. Remove any foxtails that are sitting on the fur.

"Bring out your Dead" Plague in Flagstaff, Arizona

The phones at Kaibab Veterinary Clinic have been ringing off the hook due to increased concern about plague.

If you've ever watched "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," chances are you have a clear mental image of what a plague-stricken village looks like. It's dirty and its inhabitants are similarly filthy. There's also one resident with a very particular occupation. He wheels a cart through town, calling, "Bring out your dead!" The other villagers are all too willing to comply, and some even want to add their still-living relatives to the cart.

While this scene is quite funny, plague is serious business.

Plague is an infectious disease caused by a bacterium called Yersinia pestis. It spreads throughout animal populations, including humans, through the bites of infected FLEAS. These fleas generally feed on rats, which is why large numbers of dead rats are a sign of an impending epidemic. The most well known form of plague, bubonic plague, is named for the painfully swollen lymph nodes, or buboes, that the disease causes.

The main hosts for Yersinia pestis are rodents and the disease is primarily transmitted through the bite of infected fleas. Y. pestis multiplies in the stomach of the flea, and the flea may remain infected for up to one year.¹ In the United States, prairie dogs, ground squirrels, chipmunks, mice, wood rats, and rock squirrels are often infected and readily facilitate flea contact between animals.^1,4 Rabbits may become infected during enzootic outbreaks. In the United States the prairie dog flea and the ground squirrel flea are the primary vectors.⁴ Although these fleas are not easy to distinguish from other fleas, dog and cat fleas are rare in plague-endemic areas. Therefore, finding any flea on a domestic animal in these areas is suspicious.

Most dogs are resistant to infection, but both domestic and wild cats are susceptible. Cats can also be a source of infection for people.

The disease is transmitted to domestic animals by ingestion of infected rodents or rabbits, or from the bite of infected fleas.

Symptoms of plague in cats are faver, swollen lymph nodes, abscesses, and severe respiratory disease.

MORAL OF THE STORY:

Keep cats indoors and to prevent all hunting and exposure to rabbit and rodent carcasses.

Strict flea control in both cats and dogs is very important.

Plague can be successfully treated given prompt diagnosis and appropriate medication (generally certain antibiotics). A physician’s immediate attention is essential if plague is suspected!

Don't let curiosity kill your cat!

Cats are simply unable to resist string. They love to taste, chase, chew, and SWALLOW string. Once they swallow the string the backward facing barbs on their tongues make it impossible to spit out. They just keep going and going and going until they have what we call a "linear foreign body". That's vet speak for string stuck in gut. What seems like a harmless piece of sewing material can be fatal when it bunches up your kitties intestines like an elastic hair scrunchy.

Why the string fetish? Is there a medical explanation for string ingestion? Perhaps. Some behaviorists believe that cats chew on string and broom bristles because they’re craving fiber. If you feed your cat only canned food, consider adding dry food to the mix so he or she can have something crunchy to chew on.

Make sure to pick up anything that looks the slightest bit enticing to a cat....dental floss, thread on a spool, unraveled sundries, tinsel, wrapping materials, rubber bands, turkey twine, hair, window-blind pulls, fishing line, EASTER BASKET GRASS...the list goes on and on.

In the event that your cat swallows something that could turn into a LFB (linear foreign body), get them to the vet right away.

Plants that brighten up your house may not be so good for your pets

Lilies Members of the Lilium spp. are considered to be highly toxic to cats. While the poisonous component has not yet been identified, it is clear that with even ingestions of very small amounts of the plant, severe kidney damage could result.

Marijuana (I guess the ASPCA considers this a house plant)
Ingestion of Cannabis sativa by companion animals can result in depression of the central nervous system and incoordination, as well as vomiting, diarrhea, drooling, increased heart rate, and even seizures and coma.

Sago Palm
All parts of Cycas Revoluta are poisonous, but the seeds or “nuts” contain the largest amount of toxin. The ingestion of just one or two seeds can result in very serious effects, which include vomiting, diarrhea, depression, seizures and liver failure.

Tulip/Narcissus bulbs
The bulb portions of Tulipa/Narcissus spp. contain toxins that can cause intense gastrointestinal irritation, drooling, loss of appetite, depression of the central nervous system, convulsions and cardiac abnormalities.

Azalea/Rhododendron
Members of the Rhododenron spp. contain substances known as grayantoxins, which can produce vomiting, drooling, diarrhea, weakness and depression of the central nervous system in animals. Severe azalea poisoning could ultimately lead to coma and death from cardiovascular collapse.

Oleander
All parts of Nerium oleander are considered to be toxic, as they contain cardiac glycosides that have the potential to cause serious effects—including gastrointestinal tract irritation, abnormal heart function, hypothermia and even death.

Castor Bean
The poisonous principle in Ricinus communis is ricin, a highly toxic protein that can produce severe abdominal pain, drooling, vomiting, diarrhea, excessive thirst, weakness and loss of appetite. Severe cases of poisoning can result in dehydration, muscle twitching, tremors, seizures, coma and death.

Cyclamen
Cylamen species contain cyclamine, but the highest concentration of this toxic component is typically located in the root portion of the plant. If consumed, Cylamen can produce significant gastrointestinal irritation, including intense vomiting. Fatalities have also been reported in some cases.

Kalanchoe
This plant contains components that can produce gastrointestinal irritation, as well as those that are toxic to the heart, and can seriously affect cardiac rhythm and rate.

Yew
Taxus spp. contains a toxic component known as taxine, which causes central nervous system effects such as trembling, incoordination, and difficulty breathing. It can also cause significant gastrointestinal irritation and cardiac failure, which can result in death.

Amaryllis
Common garden plants popular around Easter, Amaryllis species contain toxins that can cause vomiting, depression, diarrhea, abdominal pain, hypersalivation, anorexia and tremors.

Autumn Crocus
Ingestion of Colchicum autumnale by pets can result in oral irritation, bloody vomiting, diarrhea, shock, multi-organ damage and bone marrow suppression.

Chrysanthemum
These popular blooms are part of the Compositae family, which contain pyrethrins that may produce gastrointestinal upset, including drooling, vomiting and diarrhea, if eaten. In certain cases depression and loss of coordination may also develop if enough of any part of the plant is consumed.

English Ivy
Also called branching ivy, glacier ivy, needlepoint ivy, sweetheart ivy and California ivy, Hedera helix contains triterpenoid saponins that, should pets ingest, can result in vomiting, abdominal pain, hypersalivation and diarrhea.

Peace Lily (AKA Mauna Loa Peace Lily)
Spathiphyllum contains calcium oxalate crystals that can cause oral irritation, excessive drooling, vomiting, difficulty in swallowing and intense burning and irritation of the mouth, lips and tongue in pets who ingest.

Pothos
Pothos (both Scindapsus and Epipremnum) belongs to the Araceae family. If chewed or ingested, this popular household plant can cause significant mechanical irritation and swelling of the oral tissues and other parts of the gastrointestinal tract.

Schefflera
Schefflera and Brassaia actinophylla contain calcium oxalate crystals that can cause oral irritation, excessive drooling, vomiting, difficulty in swallowing and intense burning and irritation of the mouth, lips and tongue in pets who ingest.

Fearing overseas radiation, Americans seek potassium iodide for pets

Potassium iodide is a medication that may protect the thyroid gland from cancer caused by exposure to some types of radiation.

There is widespread fear, kindled by radiation leaks from nuclear reactors in Japan damaged by a massive earthquake and tsunami last Friday. People are worried not only for themselves but for their four legged companions.

Here is some information that my indispensable Veterinary Information Network provided to me:

In Hawaii, some 1,500 miles closer to Japan than the mainland West, which is about 5,000 miles distant, the frenzy for potassium iodide is even greater.

“Because of our geographic location, we’re sold out. There is none. Anywhere. So that’s causing more panic,” said Dr. Eric Ako, executive vice president of the Hawaii Veterinary Medical Association.

Based on news reports he’s heard that suggest the medication may offer some safeguard against radiation exposure, Ako said he would be willing to dispense it to clients’ pets if it were available. “If I could find documented appropriate dose ranges ... yeah, I’d do it,” Ako said.

Other veterinarians have expressed a similar willingness to accommodate pet owners’ requests. But in the view of veterinary experts in pharmacology, toxicology and oncology interviewed by the VIN News Service, it’s unwarranted.

Besides the fact that significant radioactive fallout is unlikely to occur here from nuclear-reactor leaks in a faraway country, they say, the use of potassium iodide to protect against radiation exposure in dogs and cats is unproven and poses an ethical issue as well.

“People are certainly overreacting,” said Donald Plumb, Pharm.D, author of Plumb’s Veterinary Drug Handbook, the reference book everyone is reaching for to determine what levels of the drug, if any, are appropriate for pets.

“If potassium iodide is needed, it’s needed first for people and not animals, and there’s limited quantities of it,” Plumb said. “At this time, there doesn’t seem to be any reasonable way that pets should be getting this in the United States.”

Nor people, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. “There is no public health event requiring anyone in the U.S. to take KI because of the ongoing situation in Japan,” the agency states on its website, referring to potassium iodide by its chemical abbreviation KI.

The body needs iodine to produce thyroid hormone, which regulates metabolism. The idea behind taking potassium iodide in a nuclear emergency is to prevent the body from taking up radioactive iodine in the environment.

In veterinary medicine, potassium iodide is used to treat actinobacillosis (woody tongue) and actinomycosis (lumpy jaw) in ruminants; and the chronic skin infection sporotrichosis in horses, dogs and cats, according to Plumb's Handbook.

The reference book provides no information about dosage levels to counter radiation exposure.

“I don’t know that anybody knows what is a reasonable dose of iodine for dogs and cats to prevent damage from ionizing radiation,” said Dr. Sharon Gwaltney-Brant, a toxicology consultant at VIN formerly with the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) Animal Poison Control Center. “The only studies ... have been done in humans.”

In the case of a true nuclear emergency and assuming supplies of potassium iodide were adequate to justify distribution to animals as well as people, Plumb said, veterinarians would be left to extrapolate from dosages for children the levels for veterinary patients.

(Dosages for children range from 16.25 mg every 24 hours for newborns; to 65 mg every 24 hours for youngsters ages 3 to 12.)

However, determining medication levels for pets based on human dosages can be tricky business, Gwaltney-Brant cautioned.

“We know that many times, the doses that work in humans aren’t the same as doses in dogs and cats,” she said. “There may be a difference in how they absorb it (and) how they eliminate it.”

Although potassium iodide is a form of the naturally occurring element iodine, the substance is not benign. In animals, Plumb’s Handbook lists the following adverse effects: excessive tearing, vomiting, anorexia, nasal discharge, muscle twitching, cardiomyopathy, scaly haircoats and dandruff, hyperthermia, decreased milk production and weight gain, coughing, inappetence and diarrhea. It notes that cats are more prone to developing toxicity.

Citing the potential side effects of taking potassium iodide, the University of California, Davis, which has a School of Veterinary Medicine, posted an advisory Thursday discouraging pet owners from giving their animals the tablets.

Other points to keep in mind:

• Potassium iodide does not protect against other types of cancers and health problems caused by radiation exposure, such as bone cancer, leukemia and cataracts.

• It is infants, children and immature animals who appear most vulnerable to thyroid cancer from radiation exposure because the cells in their bodies are dividing rapidly. Therefore, potassium iodide is most useful in protecting the thyroids of juveniles. “If you’re giving it to adults, you’re giving it as a placebo effect to calm them down,” Gwaltney-Brant said.

At Veterinary Specialty Center of Indiana, veterinary oncologist Dr. Michael Lucroy was prompted by news of the radiation scare to review what happened at Chernobyl, a nuclear power plant in Ukraine that partially melted down in 1986, spewing radiation through the countryside. The accident Chernobyl is, to date, still considered the worst commercial nuclear disaster in the world.

From reading a summary by the World Health Organization of Chernobyl's health effects, Lucroy determined that the only increase in cancers in the region clearly attributable to the power-plant contamination was thyroid cancer in people who were adolescents at the time of exposure.

“There wasn’t anything really I could find out about animal cancers in the area of Chernobyl,” Lucroy said.

He noted that giving pets iodine supplements in the absence of a clear need would put them at risk of overdose. “If you’re giving commercial pet food, plenty of iodine is in those diets, anyway,” Lucroy said.

The Associated Press reported Friday that radioactive fallout from Japan has been detected in California but so far, the levels are far below what is considered hazardous to human health.

My husband falls into the mildly paranoid department and googled his brains out last week only to find that one of the largest nuclear energy facilities in the US is located in the not so distant Phoenix area.

I am staying blissfully positive "knowing" that my two legged as well as my four legged companions are safe in our utopic Flagstaff.