What’s The Truth About Gluten?August 30, 2012 Before you remove the gluten from that pet's diet, you might be interested in hearing what a clinical veterinary nutritionist has to say. “To me, food is a way of delivering calories and nutrients into the animal,” said Lisa Weeth, DVM, Dipl. ACVN, with Red Bank Veterinary Hospital in Tinton Falls, N.J. “As long as the animal does not have a documented food allergy, owners shouldn’t worry about whether the food contains corn, wheat or rice—the ingredients themselves are not important—and more about the quality of food overall,” Dr. Weeth added. Weeth said “gluten” is a term for the protein portion of the carbohydrate. True gluten enteropathies, or sensitivities to gliadin and glutenin, are extremely rare in dogs. “Gluten-free or no-grain diets, which use primarily simple carbohydrates like tapioca or potato, may not have enough fiber compared to diets that include more complex carbohydrates like oats, barley and brown rice,” Weeth said. “What I see clinically in otherwise healthy dogs that are eating ‘gluten-free’ or ‘no-grain’ diets is poor stool quality and increased gassiness. This is often resolved with adding more complex carbohydrate to their diet.” …
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What Vet Nutritionists Have to Say About Pet Food Allergies, GrainsAugust 30, 2012Veterinary Practice News magazine interviewed four board-certified veterinary nutritionists on pet food allergies and the role grains play. They agreed on the following: Corn, wheat and soy are usually innocent when accused of causing food allergies. Clients, not veterinarians, often diagnose food allergies. There's a big difference between a true food allergy, which is rare, and a food intolerance. Moreover, vilification of food grains as pet food ingredients may be myths started by small pet food companies as a way to compete with larger, established companies, according to four diplomates of the American College of Veterinary Nutrition. “I honestly don’t know where that got started. It’s not based on any data, and there are excellent diets that contain one or more of those items,” said Cailin Heinze, MS, VMD, and a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Nutrition (ACVN). “It may have been started by companies that wanted to distinguish themselves, to sell diets in a crowded marketplace,” added Heinze, assistant professor at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University. “To say that these ingredients are ‘common causes of food allergies,’ as I’ve seen reported, is not very accurate.” “You just have to follow the money trail,” said …
Nutritionists Offer Up Pet Food Talking Points For VetsAugust 30, 2012When it comes to pet food, sometimes the patient is the best evidence of nutritional quality, experts say. Beyond the animal’s response to the food, it’s also a smart bet to go beyond the advertising and find out something about the company that makes it. “The one thing pet owners need to recognize is that the pet food industry is a big business,” said Lisa Weeth, DVM, clinical nutritionist for Red Bank Veterinary Hospital in Tinton Falls, N.J. Dr. Weeth, a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Nutrition, said she looks at not only who makes the food, but how is the pet doing. “Is it vomiting once a week? Is it drinking a lot and urinating a lot? Having chronic diarrhea and excess gas? I try to bring people back to how an animal is doing, and what’s in the animal’s best interest,” Weeth said. “I want them to leave the jingle and glossy ads at the door and really look at the patient,” she added. Commercial pet food diets are all processed and cooked in a similar fashion, comparing dry formulas to dry and canned formulas to canned, and every over-the-counter pet food is very comparable in …
What’s The Best Use Of Ear Cleansers?July 31, 2012 Client care for infected cat and dog ears depends on using medications properly, and practitioners differ on best use of ear cleansers. “I recommend that pet owners clean the ears commensurate with the quantity of exudates that are produced during the course of treatment,” said Jon Plant, DVM, owner of SkinVet Clinic in Lake Oswego, Ore. “Some ear cleansers, like those containing tris-EDTA, are designed to use as a pre-treatment flush 15 minutes prior to applying the topical medication, regardless of the amount of exudate that is present,” he said. “Other cleansers are acidifying, and the application of some ear medications should be delayed so that the pH returns to normal.” Not only do acidic cleansers lessen the effectiveness of aminoglycoside (gentamicin, neomycin) and flouroquinolone (enrofloxacin, orbifloxacin) antibiotics, they sting the animal’s ears, noted Paul B. Bloom, DVM, Dipl. ACVD, Dipl. ABVP, owner of the Allergy, Skin and Ear Clinic for Pets in Livonia, Mich. “Exceptions include tris-EDTA-based products (by Dechra, Sogeval and others) and Epi-Otic Advanced (by Virbac),” Dr. Bloom said. Tris-EDTA is short for tromethamine and edetate disodium dihydrate. Dechra Veterinary Products …
Strategies For Battling Cat & Dog Ear InfectionsJuly 31, 2012 Ear infections in pets are painful, itchy, stinky, greasy, puffy, raw and seem to come in every color of the rainbow. Just about everyone agrees that ear infections are disgusting, but hardly any two veterinarians treat ears the same way. Some practitioners go for a definitive diagnosis. Others treat with a broad-spectrum medication and watch for the response. One veterinarian swears by Animax ointment. Another reaches for Otomax or Tresaderm. Some consider cleansers a key component in ear treatment and care, while others take a conservative approach. Job OneTalking to vendors of ear-care products can be as overwhelming as trying to get veterinarians to agree on the best ones and how they should be used. Veterinary Practice News talked with two nationally known veterinary dermatologists on the subject, along with representatives from veterinary otic manufacturing companies, for a current sampling of remedies. Job One is to diagnose the underlying cause, said Paul Bloom, DVM, owner of the Allergy, Skin and Ear Clinic for Pets in Livonia, Mich. “If you ignore this, you are doomed to recurrence,” warned Bloom, a diplomate of both the American College of Veterinary Dermatologists and the American …
There’s Never A Good Time For LymeJuly 27, 2012 With more than 20,000 human cases reported annually, Lyme disease is the most common vector-borne disease in the U.S., according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. On the canine end, however, the number of Lyme-infected dogs is unclear because of the lack of a central reporting agency. Experts have found that veterinarians practicing in areas thought to be relatively free of Borrelia burgdorferi aren’t looking for Lyme disease. And in Lyme-endemic areas, the experts say, the disease may be overdiagnosed and overtreated in dogs. Though 95 percent of Lyme cases are found in just 12 states, specialists say using a single test—the SNAP-4Dx by Idexx Laboratories of Westbrook, Maine—can detect multiple vector-borne diseases. That means the bacteria/parasite presence in a particular region can be easily determined. “Veterinarians can take pre-emptive measures to detect exposure in pets, help draw conclusions if illness is present, and as public health professionals, use canine patients as sentinels for disease in the region,” says Andrew Eschner, DVM, senior technical services veterinarian at Merial USA of Duluth, Ga. “This organism has evolved to live in specific hosts and it doesn’t want to kill the host animal. It …
How To Adjust Abnormally Positioned Canine TeethJune 29, 2012 In my May 2012 article, “The Problematic Deciduous Canine Tooth,” I described how persistent deciduous teeth could contribute to chronic linguoversion (medial displacement) of permanent mandibular canine teeth due to attempts of the permanent and deciduous teeth to occupy the same area. When this happens, the permanent teeth may cause trauma to the palatal mucosa or to the maxillary teeth. Chronic trauma to the palate may result in development of an oronasal fistula and possible traumatic endodontic or periodontal disease of teeth meeting in abnormal occlusion (Figure 1). This month’s article describes treatment options for relieving palatal trauma in these cases. Abnormal Relationships Malocclusions can be of skeletal origin (for example, a jaw being shorter than normal) or of dental origin (for example, a tooth erupting in an abnormal position in a jaw of normal length and width). Normally, when the mouth is closed, the mandibular canine tooth sits in a space called the diastema between the maxillary third incisor tooth and the maxillary canine tooth. The three most common reasons for development of an abnormal relationship between these teeth are: …
A Natural Pet Food Choice In Proper BalanceJune 28, 2012It was not unusual that the client who recently inherited her son’s bulldog was proudly pointing out to me that all she fed him was a whole-ingredient dog food whose television commercials appeared every 30 minutes. But, poor guy, every day when she got home from work he had defecated in his crate again! Parasites and the usual culprits had already been ruled out by a veterinarian. Now she was standing in my exam room with her newly acquired love-bundle, desperate for a solution. Like it or not, advertising agencies daily become shrewder and more accurate at targeting consumers. And we all fall for it. As veterinarians, though, we find that watching actors pose as dog experts discussing scientific nutrition principles is like fingernails on a chalkboard. Hill's Pet Nutrition's online pet food comparison tool. The “whole foods” trend has captured the attention of the pet-owning public, who like the feeling they get by doing what those television actors would approve. But those television actors aren’t cleaning up the messes caused by so-called “balanced” pet foods that frankly aren’t. I tactfully suggested to my client a trail …
Picking Right Therapeutic Diet Is Hard With So Many ChoicesJune 28, 2012 The growing understanding of the link between animal nutrition and health isn’t fueling improvement in only therapeutic diets, but in commercially available diets, too. In fact, commercial foods are giving therapeutic brands a run for their money. “Manufacturers are always looking for ways to make their current products better and meet new needs,” says Grace Long, DVM, director of veterinary technical marketing for Nestlé Purina PetCare Co. of St. Louis. “Therapeutic diets can meet the specific needs of pets with diseases or uncommon nutritional needs that can’t be found in stores. But commercial brands are also offering foods that contain ingredients that will specifically help different life stages, breed needs and joint care.” Matching the proper nutrition to the individual animal can speed recovery from sickness, help an animal stay healthy longer and respond efficiently to disease challenges. This is something manufacturers want to make more readily available to consumers. “We have added colostrum to stabilize intestinal microflora in EN GastroENteric brand canine dry,” Dr. Long says by way of example. “Probiotics are the new big thing to help intestinal flora, but vets should be cautious of manufacturers who make claims that viable probiotic …
Dental X-Ray Unit Is Must-Have For Best Oral CareJune 27, 2012 Oral disease is the most frequently diagnosed health problem in pets, yet it isn’t receiving the necessary attention from owners. Veterinarians must put the information in front of clients again and again. But many owners treat the obvious ailments and leave those disguised in the mouth to fester–literally. February celebrates those daily efforts made by veterinary teams that make dental care a core part of their protocol. Sponsors are uniting again this month to boost veterinary dental health care by promoting National Pet Dental Health Month, in hope of enhancing the 2 percent rate of client compliance for daily home dental care and professional exams. While more than 1,400 veterinary professionals are members of the American Veterinary Dental Society, only about 100 veterinarians are board certified in dental care. This isn’t to say more general practitioners and technicians aren’t interested in dentistry. But in large part vets aren’t utilizing the tools necessary to entice clients into complying with dental care recommendations. “More emphasis needs to be placed on the importance of year-round dental care,” says John Lewis, DVM, Dipl. AVDC, president-elect of the AVDS and assistant professor of veterinary dentistry and oral surgery at …
