Call the Vet - an insider's guide to dog and cat health

Being able to go toilet is fundamental to life. There are a number of reasons why an older cat might not be able to pee or poop. All need treatment but some are more serious than others.

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The reasons why a cat is unable to empty their bladder:

• an obstruction within the bladder which can be the result of inflammation, infection, stones or a tumor
• nerve damage that can result from trauma, injury (such as a "tail pull" event), or cancer
• bladder muscle weakness which can happen if the bladder becomes very full and then is unable to contract even when the original problem is corrected.
• pain (due to arthritis for example) can result in a cat being unable or unwilling to go to the toilet and hold on for extended periods of time. While a cat will eventually urinate, this can result in severe constipation

If your cat is having problems pooping as well then I'd be especially worried about the second group of issues. Either way, I'd recommend that your cat is assessed straight away by your vet as a bladder obstruction is fatal if not cleared, and the other causes will result in pain which needs to be addressed.

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Grapes can be incredibly poisonous but they can also be completely harmless…so when should you worry?

• A single grape will be absolutely fine for a dog of this size
• I have a raisin and grape toxicity calculator to help you know when there could be a problem in the future
• There is a lot of uncertainty about grape poisoning because the actual toxin is unknown and there is a lot of variation in individual dog sensitivity
• If you have a question where emergency treatment might be needed, it is always best to contact your veterinarian or emergency service straight away so that, if treatment is needed, it won't be too late.

Head over to the full show notes, and download your free guide to keeping your pet as happy and healthy as possible

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Phantom pregnancy is a common problem in entire female dogs where the body is essentially tricked into thinking it is pregnant. Spaying is the best way to get rid of the problem for good. But if you have an older female dog, is the surgery too risky?

• A dog who has had a phantom pregnancy after a previous heat, typically experiences one every subsequent season. They also often become more pronounced each time.

Treating Phantom Pregnancy

• Usually, there is no need to give any pharmaceutical treatment. The phantom pregnancy will sort itself out without any intervention in a couple of weeks or less.
• If you want to help this resolution take place faster, you can:
  • Increase their exercise levels
  • Reduce their food intake
  • Medication can be given, especially if there is a lot of milk and a risk of mastitis

Spaying an Older Dog

• 3 big benefits of spaying a dog: prevent pregnancy, prevent pyometra, reduce breast cancer risk.
• Risks of spaying an older dog:
  • GA + surgery risk are very low, but do depend on the overall health of the individual dog
  • There are some potential some side effects to being spayed before twelve months of age, especially in larger breed dogs. These risks don’t appear to be present in female dogs that are spayed in older age.

All the details and links can be found in the full show notes

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I bet you haven’t thought about the environmental impact of your dog’s poop (and if you have you’re amazing!).

The fact is that leaving their waste where they toilet in a health hazard, and the plastic waste and methane production from simply throwing it in the trash is huge.

Here are some solutions…

• over 96 million dogs in US, UK + Australia alone, producing about 12 million tonnes of dog poop every year!
• If we assume that every dog goes once a day and 1 plastic bag is used to dispose of each motion, then 2900,000,000 plastic bags are used every month just to dispose of dog waste.

1. Regular trash + landfill
2. Flush down toilet
3. Doggy septic tank
4. Bury
5. Compost
6. Wormery
7. Biogas system

Full details, along with the pros and cons of each option can be found in the blog

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The COVID-19 coronavirus is rapidly spreading across the globe, and there are reports of pets being abandoned en-mass with people fearing their dog or cat could spread the infection to their family.

In this special episode, I discuss the risk that your pet poses to your health, as well as how you can better prepare your pet for the events that are to come.

Be aware too that this is a rapidly changing situation. Head over to this post that I will keep updated with the latest COVID-19 information as it relates to your pet and their care.

• 1 dog in Hong Kong is felt to have developed a very low level of infection having caught the disease from their coronavirus-infected owner
• Swabs have only ever come back with a weak positive result, and antibody testing has so far come back as negative. This suggests that the risk of a person becoming infected from their pet is very, very low.
• Pet owners should not be overly concerned (wash hands, don’t let your pet lick your face, practice good hygiene) and under no circumstances should they abandon their pets.

• Make sure you have an appropriate level of supplies including food, litter and any medication your pet might need. Don’t hoard, just ensure that you are not waiting until you have run out before buying more
• Ensure you have a backup carer in place. Do you have a plan if you are taken to the hospital at short notice? Do they have a key, and are they aware of your pet’s medical requirements? Have you confirmed they will be happy to do this given the current situation?

• Call ahead on the day to check your appointment is running as planned and to check for any new instructions
• Consider delaying any non-essential visits, and if you do need to visit the vet clinic then only have 1 family member take your pet.
• If you are unwell with and symptoms of coronavirus than ask someone else to take your pet in.

For more details head over to the full show notes

Stay safe everyone

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A cat who urinates outside the litter box, literally spraying their urine on everything, is one of the most stressful conditions around - both for your cat and you as their owner. Even more so if you’ve tried absolutely everything to help them stop. Here are the next steps to take…

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• One thing I always find helpful with cases that are not going as I would hope or expect is to go back to basics and check that nothing has been skipped over or overlooked because it was originally felt to be unlikely or insignificant.
• The first thing is to determine: is it peeing while assuming a normal position but outside the litterbox, or is it spraying on vertical surfaces?
• Next would come working through common medical problems. If these checks show nothing of concern then you can truly focus on the problem as a behavioral one.
• There are several different anti-anxiety medications out there, it can take a bit of trial and error to find the best single drug or combination.
• Given everything you have already tried, my final suggestion would be to see if there is a behavioral specialist that you could contact, be referred to, or the best would be visiting you at home

Head over to the show notes for more information and further resources

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Choosing the best diet to feed your dog can be a minefield, especially if they are fussy. In this episode I discuss the main risks and benefits of feeding raw and cooked diets, along with some strategies for getting your fussy dog to eat!

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"I believe there are both benefits in raw diets and processed diets. However, my dog has a hard time being interested in his food enough to eat it and he struggles with keeping weight. I have tried all different mixes of foods so I was wondering if I could mix both cooked chicken and other cooked items of a raw diet into his daily ration of processed food?” - Justyce

• As far as raw vs cooked diets go, there is a lot to consider and certain risks and potential benefits everyone needs to be aware of:
  • Raw diet risks include - Parasites, Infection (a risk to pet AND owner!), a lack of balance
  • Raw benefits - nothing proven
  • Cooked commercial diet risks - Contamination, Formulation errors, Faddy/boutique diets are unproven
  • Benefits - Specific diets proven to be valuable treatment option in certain conditions
• Mixing cooked chicken and other cooked ingredients into a raw diet or cooked commercial diet is absolutely fine in my mind, and in fact, cooked chicken (or other meat) has fewer risks than raw meat.
  • One thing to consider is that adding a significant amount of "extras" to a commercial diet may have the effect of making it unbalanced. If fed as a topper though, to improve the palatability of a diet, this is really unlikely to be a problem.

Head of to the full show notes for more information and further resources

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If your dog is due to be spayed, which option is best for their long-term health? Removing just the ovaries is becoming more common, but how does this compare against a traditional ovariohysterectomy?

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• I don't believe there is any significant difference in risks or benefits of removing just the ovaries compared to a traditional ovariohysterectomy.
• In theory there will be a chance of uterine tumors but these are incredible uncommon (uterine cancer in dogs makes up only 0.4% of all cancers in dogs) so this is a theoretical rather than "real-life" risk.
• If I was spaying an older dog and there was some form of uterine problem present then I would always take the whole uterus along with the ovaries. For young dogs, this will not be an issue.
• Removing just the ovaries can make the surgery faster and the incision smaller - although this will depend on the surgeon performing the procedure. Also laparoscopic spays only ever remove the ovaries.
• Removing just the ovaries likely comes with a slight reduction in surgery risk (although this is already small) as exposure may be better and so the risk of bleeding is reduced.

Head over to the full show notes for more details

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Your dog has had a routine senior blood test or pre-anesthetic screen and the liver enzymes are high. Your dog has no symptoms of liver disease though. They appear completely healthy.

This is a very common situation to find yourself in. But what should your next step be?

What are liver enzymes?

• Changes in different liver enzymes mean different things
  • ALT and AST are used as a marker of liver damage, although AST is also found in muscle and so can also increase if the muscles are damaged.
  • ALKP/ALP and GGT are markers of o problem with the normal flow of bile, a liver waste product. These are also sensitive to diseases outside the liver + non-harmful causes of elevation, as well as also being released from other tissues or in the presence of steroids.

What Causes raised liver enzymes in Dogs

• There are lots of potential causes of raised liver enzymes and screening blood tests are seldom definitive for the exact cause.
• Sometimes increased serum liver enzyme activities occur because the patient does have primary liver disease, but very often they are secondary to disease outside of the liver. And to confound results even more, tissues other than the liver also produce these enzymes.
• The liver plays a major role in the metabolism and excretion of drugs, toxins, and waste products. As a result it is susceptible to injury as a direct result of these or due to diseases in other parts of the body. Common examples include dental disease, hormone abnormalities (such as Cushings disease), intestinal disease, and pancreatic disease.
• Increased liver enzyme activities can occur from benign processes (e.g. hepatic nodular hyperplasia) which is not uncommon in older dogs.
• Diseases of the liver itself are also numerous and can include infections, cancers, immune problems, and inflammatory conditions.

What to do if your dog’s liver tests are high?

• The answer really depends on your dog!
• A mild elevation in liver enzymes can be a sign of many things like dental disease, intestinal disease, general inflammation, as well as liver disease of course. Mild elevation can also be completely normal in an older dog, and this is pretty common. The other blood results may prove a clue, as will your dog's history and physical exam.
• Options include:
  • Rechecking the blood levels a few weeks later to see if there is any change.
  • Treating any other diseases that are known to be present (such as dental disease)
  • More testing, such as a blood test called a bile acid stimulation, or imaging with ultrasound (or xrays).
  • The liver is a very hard organ to know exactly what is going on and in some cases, when everything points to a problem within the liver itself, a biopsy is needed.

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Cat vaccination frequency varies depending on the lifestyle of a cat, and the vaccinations that they need:

• No need to vaccinate cats every year with the core vaccine (flu and panleukopenia), although the WSAVA recommendations are that high-risk cats benefit from an annual flu booster. Rabies may also be required depending on where you live.
• All cats should have a full booster vaccination every 3 years.
• For indoor cats, the non-core vaccines (like leukemia) won't be needed unless the diseases are present in the household already. For those cats that will benefit from these non-core vaccines, an annual booster is needed.
• The same vaccine is used for the initial vaccine course and the booster vaccines, the only difference is that the initial course requires 2 or 3 vaccines (depending on the age of the kitten/cat) to ensure initial immunity is achieved.

Full show notes and free guide to keeping your cat healthy

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