Natural Vs. Synthetic VitaminsDecember 30, 2009 From holistic websites to nutritional seminars, messages bombarding consumers and the profession argue that “natural” vitamins are better than “synthetics” and often espouse the “more is better” line for orthomolecular or megavitamin therapy. Skeptics counter this by insisting that “with minor exception, molecules made in the ‘factories’ of nature are identical to those made in the factories of chemical companies.”1 They maintain that a good diet should supply all necessary nutrients. The true story builds a much more complex picture. With respect to the argument in favor of food-based vitamins, even natural sources of vitamin A in unnatural quantities produce problems like metabolic osteopathy in cats, a species with particularly high susceptibility to vitamin A toxicity.2 For precursors to vitamin A, the carotenoids, as many as nine factors influence their bioavailability when ingested in food. These variables include: • Their type, diversity and quantity. • The host’s nutrient status, genetic makeup and digestive health. • The integrity of the plant substrate when carotenoids are ingested in food.3,4 The carotenoid lycopene, which lowers prostate cancer risk, illustrates this last point. Cooking improves lycopene bioavailability because heating and homogenizing lycopene-rich tomatoes into paste disrupts …
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Factors To ExtinctionDecember 30, 2009 If seeing the great animals of Africa is on your wish list, go as soon as you can! I recently led a Seminars in the Sun group to South Africa with wildlife expert Dr. Peter Brothers. His guidance and lectures gave us insight into the complexity and multilevel challenges that Africa faces to preserve its amazing biodiversity and heritage as the birthplace of man. Malayan sun bears may become extinct sooner than expected, two ecologists say. The most disturbing concept for me to absorb is the heartless process of extinction. It happened to the dinosaurs after a huge meteor hit the planet. It happens as life proceeds. It is happening now despite desperate conservation measures. Many factors come into play, such as weather, habitat loss, environmental toxins, disease, shrinking population dynamics. These factors can be analyzed to predict extinction risks and rates for endangered species. But some species may become extinct much faster than predicted because scientists have not updated the standard extinction prediction model. Alan Hastings at the University of California, Davis, and Brett Melbourne at the University of Colorado in Boulder are ecologists who believe that conservation organizations are using …
Tui Na: Chinese Massage Or Something More?December 30, 2009 Veterinary Tui Na, or Chinese bodywork, has recently joined the Traditional Chinese Medical repertoire along with TCM-style acupuncture and food therapy. Proponents point to the antiquity of Tui Na, citing its origin as circa 1700 BCE.1 Why some practices survived so long, however, is that the closed society of China kept its medicine primitive and folkloric until the Communist Revolution. Today, TCM risks extinction in China because of decreasing enrollment and interest by medical students.2 Calls for the “abolition of traditional Chinese medicine” have erupted in scholarly circles due its lack of scientific basis and outdated precepts.3 Even TCM hospitals are adopting more Western medical style diagnostics and relying less on techniques such as tongue and pulse diagnosis.4 China is now banking on the West’s appetite for all things Asian to keep TCM alive as well.5 Indeed, Americans have transformed both TCM and its veterinary counterpart, TCVM, into big business. It is curious to note that as China works to upgrade its veterinary medical educational standards to meet those outside of China,6 some U.S. holistic groups point to TCVM as a gold standard.7,8 However, the wholesale importation …
Step-by-Step Surgery For Anal Sac CancerDecember 30, 2009 Anal sac cancer causes local problems, mainly because of pain and straining to defecate. Anal sac apocrine gland adenocarcinoma also leads to systemic issues, including hypercalcemia and metastasis. Affected patients are older female dogs in 90 percent of the cases. A few cases have been described in cats. It is important to keep an open mind. Differential diagnosis for perianal disease includes anal sac impaction, abscess (which may rupture), sacculitis, perianal adenomas, perineal hernias, perineal fistulas and other malignancies, such as perianal malignant melanoma. Any of these conditions affect the quality of life of the patient. Photo courtesy of Dr. Phil Zeltzman. A preoperative view of a left anal sac adenocarcinoma in a 9-year-old male Akita mix. An anal sac tumor is suspected on rectal exam. If it is large enough, subcutaneous swelling may be visible. Occasionally, the tumor is bilateral. A diagnosis can sometimes be reached with cytology if enough cells exfoliate. Histopathology gives a definitive diagnosis. Incisional biopsies are rarely used, whereas excisional biopsy is typically the preferred course of action. Standard preoperative workup includes a CBC and blood chemistry, including a calcium level. Approximately …
Balancing Motherhood And Veterinary PracticeDecember 30, 2009 When building Coast Pet Clinic/Animal Cancer Center (Coast) in 1977 I was only 29 years old. We designed the upstairs with a big conference room and a full kitchen and bathroom that opened to a spacious room that could serve as a day care facility for babies and small children. But the children did not come to our practice, not until this century. A Chance to Help African Orphans As I write this, I’m getting ready to lead a group to South Africa to see Dr. Peter Brothers, a wildlife veterinarian who leads Brothers Safari. So I am making a special plea to readers to help feed orphaned African children who have lost parents to the AIDS epidemic. These children have nothing. In Malawi alone, 2 million of its 12 million people are orphans. Please join me in sending donations to Nourish the Children at NourishTheChildren.com. Nourish the Children had nutritionists from my alma mater, the University of California, Davis, create a special fortified food called Vita Meal to nourish starving children. In addition, …
Know When To Leave It To The SpecialistDecember 30, 2009 I’ve got this acquaintance. She’s an educated professional and a commonsensical kind of person. Unfortunately, none of this kept her from suffering a failed root canal at the hands of a general practitioner dentist. She trusted him and he failed. Not only did he legitimately fail to provide a reasonable root canal, leading directly to an abscessed tooth that he never re-radiographed postprocedure. Where he most failed was in his duty to offer the services of an endodontist before performing the work. That got me to thinking about all the cases I see as a “second opinion” and all the disaster cases my significant other, a vet surgeon, treats on the back end of poor general practitioner judgment calls. Most of mine are cases that need not stop at another GP before heading directly to a specialist. That they land in my lap in the absence of a referring vet’s communication is testament that this “second opinion” was not recommended by their initial veterinarian. Rather, it’s an outright defection that represents a dereliction of trust in their regular vet—all of which might have been prevented given a simple referral to the appropriate source: a specialist. …
High Achiever: Lance S. Fox, DVMDecember 30, 2009 It’s a somewhat unlikely tale: Motivated by his father’s early death and his son’s premature birth, a 39-year-old veterinarian with limited climbing experience decides to take on the world’s highest mountain. Photo courtesy of Dr. Lance S. Fox. Dr. Lance S. Fox pauses on top of Mount Everest. But it’s all true, even the Hollywood-style happy ending. On the morning of May 21, after 10 final, exhausting hours of climbing—six of them by headlamp in the dark—Lance S. Fox, DVM, joined a very exclusive club. He reached the summit of Mount Everest, one of fewer than 3,000 people who have set foot on top of the world. And now the Wisconsin vet is telling his story to the world. Soon to be featured in the third season of the Discovery Channel series “Everest: Beyond the Limit,” Dr. Fox is drawing on his adventure during speeches to high school and college kids, hoping to persuade them to conquer their personal Everests. “My opening slide is ‘If You Believe, You Can Achieve,’ ” Fox says. “So often we hear people say the words, ‘I can’t.’ But I disagree …
Digital RadiographyDecember 30, 2009 Conventional X-ray technology has been used for decades, virtually unchallenged and unchanged. Now the rapid evolution of digital X-ray options makes veterinary consumers ask what’s the right system for me? How do I store my images? Who do I make them available to? About 25 percent of veterinarians use digital radiography equipment in their practice and 70 percent are expected to use the technology within the next five years, according to Idexx Laboratories of Westbrook, Maine. But the profession is divided when privacy enters the conversation, leaving some less eager to trust an outside company with the responsibility of storing images. Veterinarians agree that determining what to do with picture archiving and communication systems, or PACS, is a big decision. PACS are servers dedicated to the storage, retrieval, distribution and presentation of images. They can stay under the owners’ roof or be placed in the care of an outside company. While keeping images in-house solves privacy concerns, an off-site company takes responsibility for the images’ protection and can be a good way to protect records in the event of a fire or natural disaster. “There are a small percentage of clients who educate themselves to …
Dogged Determination: Dr. Gail C. GolabDecember 30, 2009 When Gail C. Golab was studying biomedical research in graduate school at Texas A&M University, well before she planned to become a veterinarian, she happened to live in a neighborhood popular with vet students. Other students knew that future vets lived there. So when they no longer could care for their pets, the students often dumped them at the housing complex. Golab and the veterinary students tried to take care of the strays. They bought food, tried to find new homes for the animals and held meetings to talk about the problem. But Golab quickly realized their efforts were likely to fail. “No one was trying to figure out why students were getting rid of the animals,” Golab, Ph.D., DVM, MACVSc (Animal Welfare), recalls now, more than 20 years later. “And it seemed to me that if we didn’t figure out the source of the problem, we wouldn’t ever be able to solve it.” First, she helped found a student chapter of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, figuring that educating students on the costs and challenges of pets might keep them from adopting an animal they couldn’t keep. Then she …
AAHA Names Cavanaugh New Executive DirectorDecember 29, 2009Mike Cavanaugh, DVM, Dipl. ABVP, has been named the new executive director for the American Animal Hospital Association, effective Jan. 21. Dr. Cavanaugh is replacing John Albers, DVM, after 23 years with the association. “I am very pleased with the choice of Dr. Cavanaugh as AAHA’s new executive director,” said John Tait, DVM, president of AAHA. “He has an extensive history of accomplishments in veterinary medicine and is well suited to lead AAHA and maintain the high standards the association has set. “Mike possesses the leadership, innovative qualities, ethics, communication skills and analytic abilities to implement the direction of the [AAHA Board of Directors] and make decisions in the members’ best interests. I look forward to working with Mike in his new capacity as executive director.” Cavanaugh has practiced small animal medicine at various AAHA accredited practices, including West Ridge Animal Hospital in Topeka, Kan., a hospital he founded and owned from 1988-1996. Before joining AAHA, Cavanaugh served as director of Veterinary Hospital Services at Pfizer Animal Health of New York. He has also worked for Heska Corp. of Loveland, Colo., and Hill’s Pet Nutrition of Topeka, Kan. “Ever since I first discovered AAHA in veterinary school, I have always …
