Puppy (and Dog) Pill Problems?

Picture credit DogChannel.com

Our friends at WebMD's Healthy Pets page have a newish article that every dog owner should read, "How to Give Medications to Dogs."  Believe it or not, many people give up on their dogs because of this very issue (or so I have been told by several vets and vet assistants).  In my case, I had a lot of problems in this area when it came to pills but, surprisingly, none at all when it came to injections.  Tony hated pills of any kind, and I was hard pressed to find new ways to get them into him.  His nose always told him when a pill was hiding in a bit of food, and the only solution was to put them in more and more exciting (i.e., normally forbidden) kinds of food.  This went on for a while until I discussed it with his vet, who told me that he was not getting any time-delayed pills and so I could crush them and add them to his nightly tablespoon of nonfat plain yogurt.  This worked great!

My brother Eric, who gave Tony to me, told me that I should have been sticking my fingers in Tony's mouth on a daily basis from the day he came to live with me in order to get him used to me doing that.  Unfortunately, he told me this three years too late.  By that time Tony had gotten pretty protective of his mouth, and even though his teeth were small, I was not eager enough to start putting my fingers in there.  Eric's a behavioral psychologist, and he has been known to get animals to do some pretty weird stuff on command, so I'm sure he's right about the mouth thing, and I KNOW that putting the pills in the mouth is the very best way to do it, but I started too late and was too chicken for that method.  My advice:  it's the same as Eric's.  When you get a new puppy, check its mouth out as often as possible.  It will probably pay off down the line.

The one quibble I have with WebMD's advice on injections is that two different vets told me NOT to use alcohol on Tony's skin before giving him his twice-daily insulin shots.  I really don't remember the reason they gave for this, but I do know that there was never a problem with his injection sites, no infections or even irritations.  So, as always, go by what your vet says (and if you don't like what the vet says, get a second opinion-- you'd do that for your own health, wouldn't you?).

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The Dangers of Ask-a-Vet Websites

Veterinarian (Photo credit: Army Medicine)

As always, I am on the alert for issues concerning pet health, and I've come across one that I haven't seen before.  DogChannel.com has an interesting and thorough article about the pitfalls of ask-a-vet websites (which are becoming numerous, with many charging for their services).  Nikki Moustaki, a well-known writer on dogs, examined a bunch of these sites, interviewed a few REAL veterinarians (some of the sites in question don't actually have vets on hand, just "experts") about them, and found some fairly troubling issues.  The one that I think is a dead giveaway is that some of them carry the disclaimer that the website and its advice are "for entertainment purposes only."  Yeah, I'm sure sick dogs are entertaining . . . to some sick people.

The bottom line is that if you are worried enough to be willing to pay for veterinary advice over the web, you are certainly worried enough that you should take the dog to his or her regular vet, the one who has seen the dog year after year and has records of previous exams.  Don't take chances.

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Want to know more about dogs?

As time goes on, more and more websites devoted to dogs and other pets are popping up, some with more valuable content than others.  I have hopes for Dog Channel.com's "Dog College," which appears to be both an informational service and a contest.  You have to join Club Dog in order to participate, but it's open to everyone 13 and over, and free.  The prizes are provided by Petco.  It runs three months, and you get a diploma for finishing, plus reward points.  There is also a special prize for the "valedictorian," which consists of a year's worth of Iams food and 5000 Club Dog points.

I'll take a look at their offerings in my next post.  I expect this to be good, since Dog Channel.com is owned by Bow-Tie, Inc., the company that publishes Dog Fancy magazine (fyi, the website has a lot of the things I enjoy in the magazine, like local directories, for just one example, so it's worth visiting).  I've always loved the retriever (I think) puppy in the Dog Channel logo:  he has a wonderful expression on his face that makes me feel that I can trust these folks, however irrational that effect might be.  We'll see how it goes.

In the meantime, there are three interesting items about Petco in the news.  They have a new initiative that is perfect for an Earth Day (today) post, and they are also assisting food banks, according to the New York Times.  However, they are also under fire for selling female guinea pigs (helping to cause an overpopulation problem).  Well, you can't please everyone.

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Dogs with Flu, Cats and Ferrets, too!

Image via Wikipedia

Yes, dogs get the flu!  By now you've probably heard or read the reports of pets getting H1N1 (the first one I saw was around Christmas).  It seems that they are catching it from their owners.  And, it's not just dogs.  Cats and ferrets have gotten H1N1, as well.
From what I've seen, there needs to be some educational efforts made about this danger.  We're being inundated with instructions on how to wash our hands and other common sense disease-prevention practices, but the information we really need is not being spread around.  When you wake up feeling crummy, how do you tell whether it's even serious enough to see a physician in the first place?  If you find out you actually have the flu, do you know how to protect your dog from it?  What symptoms should you watch for?

And that's not all.  I think most pet owners are familiar with the idea of zoonotic diseases-- that is, diseases humans can get from their pets.  Vets certainly have enough pamphlets on this in their offices.  But we don't think about the possibilities of infecting our pets, who just love to lick our hands whenever possible.  We also don't stay current with animal versions of everyday human illnesses, such as influenza that they can get that is not the same as any flu that hits humans.  To make a good start, I think that every pet owner should visit the Center for Disease Control's website on canine influenza, especially people whose pets are often in contact with other animals (my brother-in-law belongs to a group that meets regularly at our local dog park, for example, and it's a busy place).  There is a vaccine for canine influenza (this is the H3N8 strain).

When you have a pet with a chronic illness (a dog with diabetes, perhaps?), even mild infections can become serious in a hurry.  The best advice I was ever given came very soon after Tony was diagnosed with diabetes.  Oddly enough, it came from one of my students, who had a part-time job at an animal clinic.  She told me that after she had gotten a puppy, she picked the brains of everyone at the clinic on every topic that occurred to her.  One of the senior vet techs told her that she should set aside a little time each week to give the dog a little massage and "examination" to have a way to tell if something had changed.  From that point on, I did that, and caught several problems early on.  Of course I totally missed a few serious problems that either came on suddenly or were not really visible.

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