What You Need to Know About Sexual Aggression In Neutered CatsJanuary 28, 2013Sexual behavior by cats is a pretty gnarly business. A male waits for his moment and then darts after the female, pouncing on her from behind, biting her in the neck and pinning her to the ground, while he intromits his barbed penis. As he withdraws, the backward-pointing spines on his penis lacerate the female's vagina, causing her to scream and roll away, and she may smack him if he doesn't get out of range quickly enough. All in all, a pretty unpleasant sounding experience though, surprisingly, the female will tolerate such ravishes multiple times from multiple suitors when she is at the peak of estrus. Most of us don't want this type of behavior going on in our homes, and neither do most pet owners want an intact male cat around for other reasons; notably, intact males are generally more aggressive, frequently engage in objectionable marking and mounting behavior, and have a constant eye for the door, particularly when a neighboring queen is in heat. That's why most cat owners who are not specialist cat breeders gladly accept neutering, in addition to birth control reasons. Mega Masculine Kitty As we all know, neutering is very successful in cats …
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On Dishing Out The F-word And Dropping The O-bombDecember 20, 2012 Scanning my journals and trade magazines in search of news and notable literature, I came across a veterinarian-authored how-to piece explaining how we should approach the fraught topic of weight loss in pets. Go easy, the author urged, as pet owners are easily put off by language they may perceive as accusatory or judgmental. A veterinarian who charges into this subject without gentle preamble risks not only his client’s badly needed buy-in, he risks losing his client altogether. I might have read past this well-stated bit of advice except that it coincided with an email delivered by an indignant Miami Herald reader (I write a weekly pet advice column) who seemed to echo her sentiments: My veterinarian and I are on the outs. She’s been insisting for years that my cat is overweight and has now started using words like ‘fat’ and ‘obese’ to describe him. I’ve never denied that [my cat] can stand to lose a few pounds, but I think using that kind of language is just plain rude. Is this the kind of bedside manner being taught in vet school these days? Ouch, that stings! Yet we …
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder In AnimalsNovember 21, 2012 Since a publication by child psychiatrist Dr. Judith Rapoport, et al, in the Archives of General Psychiatry (1992), the term “compulsive disorder” has entered the veterinary lexicon. Before that, repetitive disorders of species were referred to as “stereotypies.” I’ve studied such behavior for nearly 30 years, the first 10 of which I believed I was studying stereotypies. My first observations were in horses engaging in “stall vices” like cribbing and weaving and stall walking. Later, I broadened my interest to include acral lick dermatitis and tail chasing in dogs and wool-sucking/pica and psychogenic alopecia in cats. I also had some interest in feather-picking in birds, chain chewing and bar biting in pigs and the plethora of repetitive disorders shown by zoo animals. I always believed the mechanism underlying these behaviors was essentially the same with, perhaps, certain species variations imposed on a common underlying theme. Early on, I was convinced that stereotypies were mediated by nature’s own morphine-like substances, the endorphins, as morphine antagonists blocked the behaviors I studied in horses and dogs. Dr. Rapoport’s 1992 article, however, changed the way we think about repetitive disorders and altered our approach to treatment. Rapoport showed …
Complex Partial Seizures Or Compulsive Behavior?November 21, 2012 Complex partial seizures are well recognized in human medicine and, according to some authorities, are more prevalent than tonic-clonic seizures. However, these focal electrical events are not widely acknowledged in veterinary medicine. It was a different story in the 1960s, when numerous automatonish behaviors were classified as partial seizures. A trip down memory lane to the Kirk’s Current Veterinary Therapy of 1960 or so is all it takes to be reminded of this fact. One of the reasons for the abandonment of the partial seizure diagnosis was the realization that many repetitive behaviors were not so much of seizure origin but actually were (obsessive) compulsive disorders—a completely different barrel of fish. But the realization that some behaviors could be compulsive doesn’t necessarily mean that partial seizures never occur. Odds are they should. Another reason for the unpopularity of diagnosing these conditions is that they often produce subtle—though frequently highly unusual—clinical signs. Simple partial seizures in people, which often precede complex partial seizures, may involve only altered perception, such as déjà vu or jamais vu. Both are tough to detect in a dog! But complex partial seizures, once developed, produce obvious clinical signs. The locus …
Questioning Canine Cruciate Ligament SurgeryNovember 16, 2012 Imagine you twisted your knee and your doctor diagnosed an injured anterior cruciate ligament. What if she offered you only surgery or euthanasia (hypothetically legalized for humans)? Would you explore alternatives or accept this false dilemma? Would it change your mind if you discovered that more enlightened surgeons are exhorting their colleagues to stop cutting cruciates at least until patients have undergone a month or more of conservative care? In the same vein, why do some veterinary surgeons limit options for dogs, forcing clients to choose between breaking their hearts and breaking their banks? Yes, canine and human stifles differ, but the chronicity and persistence of canine cruciate disease argues in favor of a long-term, rehabilitative and integrative approach, not for bone saws. Moreover, far from being a slam-dunk diagnosis and treatment, confusion lingers. Unknowns persist about whether a lameness is indeed due to cruciate injury and if so, what caused it. Furthermore, “The ideal treatment modality for cranial cruciate ligament (CrCL) injury has yet to be determined...”1 Consumers want options.2-6 Many in our profession insist that only surgery or euthanasia allows dogs to avoid a life …
Neuromodulation For ConstipationOctober 31, 2012 Cats and humans share a common problem: constipation. Sedentary lifestyles, suboptimal fluid and fiber intake, and uncontrollable stress all contribute to digestive difficulties. Neither drugs nor surgery alleviate the ailment entirely. Each poses risks of future morbidity and continued distress of one sort or another.1,2 Even something as seemingly harmless as an herbal enema can deliver damaging consequences. A recently published case report recounts how a “natural” enema nearly killed a patient by causing massive rectal hemorrhage.3 At least humans can usually control the cleanliness and quality of the bathrooms they seek, the food they eat and the water they drink. Cats cannot. No one enjoys a dirty, smelly latrine; similarly, cats dial down their interest in eliminating when faced with a putrid litter box already overflowing with feces. Cats have specific preferences for low, sometimes clear glass bowls without the odor or taste of other cats’ mouths in the water or on the sides of the container. Add in the worry of being watched or ambushed while defecating, pain in the pelvis or spine,4 and the cacophony of household noise and agitation,5 …
6 Tips For Keeping Patients Safe Under AnesthesiaOctober 22, 2012Refining anesthesia protocols has been at the top of practitioners’ to-do lists since the American Animal Hospital Association released its anesthesia guidelines for dogs and cats. Patient safety is a primary goal in all anesthetic procedures, so to minimize risks, consider these tips for creating a successful outcome for patients undergoing anesthesia. 1. Pay particular attention to the induction and recovery phases, as these are the most critical, says the University of Georgia’s Jane Quandt, DVM, Dipl. ACVA, Dipl. ACVECC, of Athens, Ga. “Induction [is critical because] we are taking animals to the point of unconsciousness,” said Dr. Quandt. “And in recovery they regain consciousness and must cope with the demands of tissue trauma and going back to room air if they were on inhalant anesthesia.” She also notes that the recovery phase may be the most overlooked by general practitioners. “Recovery may be overlooked a bit because once [patients] are conscious we tend to move on to the next patient.” Daniel K. Edge, DVM, MBA, veterinary liaison manager for Abbott Animal Health in Abbott Park, Ill., agrees, and notes the findings of a 2006 study. “According to the Confidential Enquiry into Perioperative Small Animal Fatalities, 64 percent of …
A Call For Calorie Counts On Pet Food LabelsOctober 15, 2012If your exam room observations are anything like mine you’ll have noticed the girth of your patients gradually expand over the past couple of decades. It didn’t happen overnight, and yet it sometimes seems there must be something new in the water for our pets to have plumped up so impressively. So what have we done to address it? Fight fires, mostly. Though we may put our scales, tape measures and body conditioning score know-how to work, getting pet owners to smell the coffee is a losing proposition more often than not. Our overstuffed culture has a way of besting us at every turn. In fact, if we’re honest with ourselves, we’ll cop to the notion that NSAIDs and insulin are our tools of choice for combating the problem of excess poundage in our patient populations. So even when we do manage to eke out some wins, it’s painfully evident we’re still the big losers in this war. Hence, why so many of us have stopped trying to run in place on the back end of this issue. Prevention, we now claim, holds the key to weight management. Because once they’ve gone glutton, tanked up and porked out, the odds …
Jennifer Olson, DVM: Following Family TraditionOctober 15, 2012 When Jennifer Olson graduated from Cornell University in 2009, she did more than just earn her DVM degree. She picked up the family’s long-standing torch in veterinary medicine. Dr. Olson is carrying on the tradition of her great grandfather, who earned his veterinary degree in 1909, her grandmother and grandfather who earned their degrees in 1937 and 1957, respectively, and her father, who earned his degree in 1973. All four generations graduated from Cornell University. Olson, who currently works at Alamo Feline Health Center in San Antonio, was fairly certain she wanted to pursue veterinary medicine in elementary school. She explored other options along the way but going into veterinary medicine just seemed natural. She recalls going to her father’s cat hospital after school, helping with appointments, and cleaning cages and baseboards, among other tasks. “The funny thing is, a lot of people said, ‘Oh, my gosh, you work around your parents,’ but I had so much fun with my dad growing up,” she says. When asked if she—an only child—felt it was expected of her to carry the family tradition, she said no. “My parents were really supportive in whatever I wanted …
Probiotics For Pets Support Total WellnessOctober 9, 2012 It was a sunny Tuesday afternoon, and Sean Cater had a feeling something was wrong. A 48-ounce package of chicken lay on his kitchen floor, empty. Bits of wrapping trapped in the yellow Styrofoam fray littered the tile, then the carpet, leading Cater to the inevitable culprit: his 4-year-old greyhound, Shark Face. Shark’s belly was slightly larger than usual, the pinkish gray skin pulled just slightly tighter to her body. Cater’s gut had told him something was amiss, and now he had proof. Gut feelings do matter. Shark-Face’s tummy rumbled as the day continued. Even more than that, Cater was thinking about things many pet owners do not: Shark’s brain, joints, heart and general attitude. Cater is a graphic designer for Vetri-Science Laboratories of Vermont. He takes it upon himself to regularly ask questions about pet health, and knows something many pet owners do not: Digestion is a connective activity. We habitually associate intuition with our guts, so much so that bad news becomes hard to swallow, we get lumps in our throats, and we come to know emotions through our stomachs, from the deepest pits to the flightiest butterflies. Finding a Connection The …
