Halloween

If you are a subscriber to our newsletter, you will soon learn the details of what to watch for when thinking about giving dogs a snack from your trick or treat bag.

I think may folks are aware of the chocolate problems - interestingly, a 10 lb dog can get into toxicity problems with only 2 ounces of the dark sweet chocolate! That is not much!

The other danger we want to make dog owners aware of is the Xylitol containing candies and gums.

Xylitol is a sugar free sweetener. In the dog's body, the body things it has enough sugar, so the body sends out signals not to allow more glucose in the blood. The problem is the blood does not have enough glucose when this happens. These dogs can go into a coma and die if not immediately taken to a hospital, receive IV fluids with glucose supplement. This may last 2 - 4 days.

The most popular gum that contains Xylitol is Orbit gum.

So don't do so much with Orbit that your dog will get into trouble (unlike the commercials). :-)

technology and pets - what is common?

Technology - it's great when it works.

This week has been an interesting one at the clinic. Our color printer which prints the color pictures of your wonderful pets when you are here, was having 'issues'.

It thought it needed to move itself sidways - but only the color - and the yellow moved more than the red and blue.

Hmm...
So we check the support manual, and we have to recalibrate, so we do that 5 times - no luck.
Then download the new firmware version.
Do that.... recalibrate 3 times, still no change.

Then they suggest we do a 'hard reset' where you turn it off, and reset the factory settings,
then we had to set them back up to the way the network recognized the printer.

And voila (for those not speaking french that is: Woo hoo!! it works) The colors all reregistered and are now all aligned properly!

But it is amazing how much we get to rely on these wonderful gadgets.

It is sort of like our dogs and cats, isn't it?

If they are not feeling well, we try to do some things at home - like we would for ourselves - maybe no food if their tummy is upset. We allow them to have the remote, and have some chicken soup.

If that does not help things, we bring them in to the Doctor and he does an exam and diagnosis the problem and situation and see if that helps.

But it is always a reevaluation and reassessing of the situation. We are all constantly learning. 100 years ago, blood letting was a common treatment for a number of diseases. We now think that is unreasonable - and really counter indicated.
50 years ago, if a dog or cat was sick, we would 'wait a few days and see of he/ she got better' and if not, then if not we brought them in to the Doctor.

And 20 years ago, we knew a lot more about preventative vaccines, and when Parvovirus came on the dog scene in 1979, I remember it well. As a 'kennel boy' at Chatham Veterinary Clinic in Chatham IL (sough of Springfield), I remember coming in the morning to clean kennels and we had anywhere from 3-8 dogs - usually puppies - who were vomiting and had diarrhea, and IV fluids in their legs. We used special isolation techniques to make sure we did not infect other patients.

And the great medical marvel is that within 4-6 months, there was a vaccine produced by a company named Fort Dodge where we could vaccinate the dogs and protect them from this deadly disease. It was a truly remarkable and shining moment for Veterinary Medicine. We had a virus that was very contagious, and had a high death rate, and in very short order, we had a preventative vaccine.

Now, practically the only patients that we diagnose with Parvovirus, are dogs that are not vaccinated.

What a triumph.

And I also want to credit you, the pet owners, who are so responsible and keep your dog and cats preventative care up to date to keep them the healthiest they can be!

What is your favorite thing you do at home that helps you keep your pet's healthy? Share that on our Facebook page!