Every season can have potential dangers and toxicity for our pets. According to the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center, the top 4 dangers are chocolate, plastic Easter grass, plants, and pesticides/herbicides.
Here are my top dangers for Easter
1) Chocolate. This is easily MY favorite treat, but there is an ingredient, theobromine, that can be toxic to dogs, depending on their size. Theobromine is a relative of caffeine, and can cause vomiting, diarrhea, up to seizures. Dark chocolate is many time more toxic than milk chocolate, and white chocolate has no theobromine. If your pet eats chocolate, call your vet or the ASPCA Poison Control Center (888) 426-4435) to determine if the quantity is in the dangerous range. One Hershey kiss isn’t going to kill any dog or cat, but a whole Hershey bar can. Be prepared tell the vet amount in ounces of chocolate, the type of chocolate ( dark, baking, or milk), and the weight of your pet. I had a patient many years ago that got into the Easter Candy stash not once, but twice, and had to hospitalized both times. Some dogs just really want chocolate.
https://www.petmd.com/dog/conditions/digestive/c_multi_chocolate_toxicity
2) Plastic Easter Grass. It looks edible, but it isn’t, and can cause GI obstruction
3) Easter Lilies. They are beautiful, but deadly for cats, causing kidney failure. Keep them away from cats, but they don’t seem to be toxic for dogs. https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/animal-poison-control/toxic-and-non-toxic-plants/lily
4) Xylitol. This is a common artificial sweetener, found often in sugarless gum, but there is a granulated version that some cooks use a sugar substitute. Symptoms are vomiting, seizures, low blood sugar, and liver failure.
https://www.petmd.com/dog/conditions/endocrine/c_dg_xylitol_toxicity
5) Candy wrappers, esp foil. Like the Easter Grass, they can really mess up a gut.
6) High Fat People Food like Ham, or Brisket. High fat can cause inflammation of the pancreas, with intense vomiting and diarrhea. I would not feed a cooked pork bone to dogs.
https://www.aspca.org/news/top-four-easter-hazards-pets
Month: March 2021
165 Puppy Bingo
March 23 is National Puppy Day https://nationalday365.com/national-puppy-day/. We have been seeing a lot of puppies lately, for a variety of reasons. A new tool that I have been using is a “game” called “Puppy Bingo”. It is a free handout, also available online, that is a grid of 25 squares with things to do with puppies to help socialize them to 25 different things. I was amazed when I saw it. I could probably think of 10-15 of them, but 25 if great! Our goal is to help expose puppies, especially before the age of 16 weeks, to novel experiences that might generate fear if exposed later in life. Some example are hearing construction sounds, seeing a train or bus, or walking on 3 different surfaces like wood, gravel, sand, rubber, and metal.
The same concept of new experiences works for kittens too. It has squares for meeting new people, being touched by towels, and walking on different textures.
If these experiences trigger fear, then we stop, and “circle back” when the youngsters are in a calm, happy place, maybe distracted with food or toys, and try again.
Imagine a world where adult dogs and cats aren’t afraid of vet visits, thunderstorms, or other animals.
Check out this link.
https://fearfreepets.com/puppy-kitten-socialization-bingo/
164 Free Free Cat Appointments
This cute picture of a cat with a grumpy looking face reminds me to talk about how to make cat appointments Fear Free.
Step #1– Make the appointment. If you know your cat is nervous/anxious, or just downright difficult to get into a carrier or cat, talk to our staff about some tips.
Step #2– Get the carrier out several days to weeks before the appointment. Clean it up so it is not scary. Put Fluffy’s favorite toys in it, snacks, anything that will create happy memories and experience associated with the carrier. In some cases, you may even have to take it apart into two halves to make it not scary.
Step #3– Get your cat used to being the carrier with the door closed for short periods of time. Make it a game. Wait until Fluffy is calm, then give treats through the door. Build special memories, then open the door. Pretty soon “carrier= treats/positive experience”.
Step #4 – Practice getting cat the carrier, putting carrier in car, wait until calm, give treats.
Step #5– Put cat in carrier, carrier in car, go for short trip, come home, give treats.
Step #6– Now we are ready to go the vet.
This is all classic conditioning to a new experience. We break it into lots of baby steps, with positive experiences at each step.
If you cannot get a calm cat in a carrier & into your car, we can also suggest adding calming pheromones (like Feliway spray by Ceva) sprayed onto a nice fluffy towel or fleece that is placed in the carrier. This is best done at least 5-10 minutes before attempting to put Fluffy in the carrier. We cannot smell these pheromones, but cats can get to their “happy place” easier. I compare it to humans and lavender.
If the pheromones are not calming enough, it is time to premeditated with gabapentin. This old human medicine for pain works on the nervous system of cats to blunt a panic attack. Better yet, it is a tasteless powder that comes in a capsule that you can open, sprinkle on some yummy, canned food, and most cats eat it without having to be “pilled”.
Our long-term goal is calm cats, not stressed out by carriers or car trips, so we can begin our vet experienced without fear.
https://fearfreehappyhomes.com/your-cats-vet-visit-begins-at-home/
163 Still Doing Curbside
Curbside appointments are still in place to curb the Coronavirus at Garden Ridge Animal Hospital. Currently, only euthanasia appointments are allowed inside.
Governor Abbott’s repeal of the statewide mask mandate will not change our curbside appointment systems. As an essential business, we have ALWAYS BEEN OPEN through Covid (except for the snowstorm week), just not allowing clients in the building. Businesses in Texas are free to choose what works best for their staff safety. I know many clients have either recovered from Covid and/or had the vaccines, but my staff and I have not. Veterinary employees as a class have not been eligible for vaccines like human doctors and nurses. The curbside system is in place to protect our staff.
At some point in the future, veterinary hospitals including Garden Ridge will begin offering face to face appointments, and then later inside pickup of medicines and foods. I am not sure when that will be. We are weekly reassessing the situation. Stay tuned to the website and my blog for updates.
162 National Peanut Butter Day (March 1) is for Dogs Too
Why am I talking about peanut butter in a veterinary blog? As a Fear Free Certified Vet Professional, I use a lot of peanut butter during exams. Happy dogs, nervous dogs, new puppies. (We use other foods for cats).
Dogs love peanut butter. Just like with people, food can elicit an automatic positive response. What we are going for is an association that a vet visit= yummy snack. We want our patients to WANT to come in the building, hop on the scale, go into an exam room, be lifted onto a table, and a strange person (with a mask on these days) give them YUMMY treat like lick-able peanut butter.
When do we use peanut butter? We use it for almost everything, from weight checks, exams, vaccinations, blood draws, nail trims to grooming. We even have sticky mats with little nubs that we can stick to the wall of the bathtub, coat with peanut butter, and it takes a while to lick it clean. I do avoid it if they get car sick, if they are already nauseated, in for anesthesia, or if the owners have a family member with peanut allergy.
Sometimes we go with freeze dried meats, pill pockets, or other small dog treats. But the advantage of peanut butter on a tongue depressor is that is takes a while to lick and swallow it, so they are pleasurably distracted. And we hope they shift from being a little nervous or anxious about all those needles to a memory of “that wasn’t so bad, and I got peanut butter!”
It is not just a reward for good behavior like giving a child a sucker after a pediatrician visit. We use peanut butter before touching them, while touching them, and after. It is part of our whole Fear Free Approach to provide low stress experience for our pets, which also benefits owners and staff.
If your dog is anxious or timid about even getting in the car or approaching the building, we might suggest adding some oral mild anti-anxiety medications. We even schedule “Happy Visits” to some in when we do absolutely nothing except invite them in, offer treats.
Expect more to come about using Fear Free techniques for nail trims, cats exam, and puppy visits.
For more information and videos, Fear Free has a companion website for pet owners that is free and loaded with articles and videos. Check it out! https://fearfreehappyhomes.com/