Marty and Laura are giving thanks and a shout out to the heroes of the week, responsible pet owners. These are folks who make sure their pets are fed and trained and vetted even when times are tough.

This week’s giving thanks charity is No Pet Hungry America.

“Millions of families across the country face impossible choices every day between paying rent, buying groceries or feeding their pets. No Pet Hungry America is here to change that.

“We provide pet food, supplies, and resources to keep beloved pets with the people who love them, no matter the circumstances. Together, we can ensure that financial hardship never means losing a furry family member.”

“Responsible pet owners means feeding our pets, taking our pets and doing preventative (veterinary) work, training even if you're doing trick. Our responsible pet owners are working with their pets every day some little bit, right? Maybe you've taught your pet to retrieve the slipper. Maybe you've taught your cat to retrieve a ball. Who knows?

“Our responsible pet owners are doing great work socializing their pets so that if they come visit you at the clinic, they're not terrified because they've been other places and seen things and done stuff. You can teach them some basic skills. You can teach them to have their mouth looked at, you can teach them to have their ears touched and their toenails touched.”

The Marty & Laura Show is produced by Pure Dog Talk Inc., with sound design and editing by Premium Audio Services.

Marty and Laura give thanks for recent science breakthroughs that help our pets live longer, healthier lives. From decoding the canine genome to Artificial Intelligence, our pets are benefitting from scientific research.

Organizations such as the AKC Canine Health Foundation support this research which benefits all dogs, purebred and mixed breed, as well as frequently providing information that expands knowledge for treating human diseases. During the month of giving, we’re suggesting groups to support our pets with your donations.

“The artificial intelligence that's barreling at us is going to be fascinating to see where this takes us,” Marty said. “There's so much that has the potential to happen here, and it may not all be good, but a lot of it really is.”

Canine genome sequencing gave us genetic testing which has helped dog breeders select for healthier animals in hundreds of diseases. The BOAS testing recently developed in the UK is enabling veterinarians to test brachycephalic dogs’ ability to breath, which again allows dog breeders to select for healthy dogs in their matings.

Tap in to catch up on more sciency conversation from Marty and Laura.

The Marty & Laura Show is produced by Pure Dog Talk Inc., with sound design and editing by Premium Audio Services.

Marty and Laura share their thanks for veterinarians and staff who sacrifice to care for our pets.

“We know you're stressed,” Marty said of veterinarians and staff. “Your pet is sick. You were up all night cleaning up whatever it is that you had to clean up. And it's really hard to be gracious and to be lovely on the phone or in person when you're in that stressful situation. But I can't even begin to emphasize how important that is.

“The hardest job that we have at the veterinary clinic is the CSR, the customer service representative, the person that answers the phone, because they're in the squeeze. They're in the squeeze between you as the client calling with a crisis and needing help and the veterinary staff that's already booked full.

“It’s 10 pounds of you know what in a 5 pound bag. And it becomes really a challenge for that receptionist to try and balance the needs of the client versus what the rest of the staff needs are so that we can still provide the quality of care that you want. Because getting you through the door isn't going to help you if the quality of care isn't there.”

This week’s giving opportunity is Not One More Vet which supports veterinarians and staff struggling with mental health crises.

The Marty & Laura Show is produced by Pure Dog Talk Inc., with sound design and editing by Premium Audio Services.

Marty and Laura kick off a month of giving thanks for the pets in our lives. Our animals brighten our days, bring us together with friends, provide companionship and comfort year round. So we decided to celebrate that special connection throughout November.

Since November is the month of giving, we’re also highlighting a different organization dedicated to animals and the people who love them each week. This week Marty shares information about her own non-profit, Pink Paw, which seeks to raise awareness of breast cancer in our pets and funds for desperately needed new research.

And we’re starting this conversation about our special relationships with our pets with a really fascinating deep dive into the ethical, moral and legal ramifications of language around our pets. Terms like “fur baby” and “pet parent” can have serious long-term unintended consequences.

“There has to be somewhere in the middle that we have a being that's alive that's different than your toaster, but is technically not a human, so it's not part of your family,” Marty noted, putting on her lawyer hat. “There's been all kinds of cases that people have tried to bring creatures into the category of humans, and we have to be really careful as a society. Because if we cross that line, we're going to end up with some very serious issues.

“If the dog equals a human and you need to put your dog down for behavioral euthanasia, for example, now are we committing murder?”

Tap in to join Marty and Laura as they tackle these and other huge questions around our unique and important relationships with our pets. Like and share with friends and family!

The Marty & Laura Show is produced by Pure Dog Talk Inc., with sound design and editing by Premium Audio Services.

Marty and Laura are joined by Glinda the Good Witch to talk about Halloween and the fun, as well as potential pitfalls, for our pets.

“Everybody wants to address their pet up in a cute little costume,” Marty noted. “And you know, some of them are fine and the pets are comfortable in them and they're not scary and they're really cute. And sometimes we're expecting just a little too much of our pets, depending on the pet and what they like.

“We have to respect there are some pets that are happy to wear clothing. And they're cute and they are comfortable in it and it's adorable. And then there are pets who are not, especially if it covers their head or it makes weird noises or it's crinkly or it's weird or anything.

“And so you have to really be thinking about whether this makes your pet comfortable or uncomfortable. And if they're not comfortable in it, don't scare them. Put it on like for two seconds. Get a quick picture, put it on Facebook and then put the costume away. Your pet will tell you.

“If you're expecting your pet to be part of the group that goes trick or treating, then get them used to the costumes in advance so that they know what you're going to look like. Usually if you're wearing something over your face or on your head, it changes your profile and your pet really identifies a lot, not by looking just at your face, but how you look in profile.

“You have to acclimate them so that they're comfortable with that kind of situation if you're expecting them to go skipping down the street with them on a leash while you're taking the kids trick or treating. They're gonna see other strange creatures and zombies and you know, I think it's really important to have realistic expectations of our pets.”

The Marty & Laura Show is produced by Pure Dog Talk Inc., with sound design and editing by Premium Audio Services.

Marty and Laura talk about the concept of fear free handling of pets by veterinarians and groomers. A concept popularized by veterinarian Dr. Sophia Yin, the reality of working with pets to lower their stress in new situations isn’t all that new, Marty noted.

“I think fear free and low stress handling are important techniques. But this isn't new. And that's part of the frustration that I have with this, is we've always done things this way. It didn't have a name back then, but we've always put peanut butter on cookies and we've always put cheese out and we've always gotten out the chicken baby food for the cats and the puppies. So to me, a lot of this isn't as new or revolutionary as it would lead you to believe.

“(Yin) started teaching techniques for veterinary staff and veterinarians to handle pets that came to the office so that they would have an easier time accepting the care. The people that owned them would have an easier time seeing what was happening and the veterinarians and veterinary staff were safer. So I think those are all really important things to consider. Those are all real things. Cats like to bite and scratch veterinarians. Dogs get a little panicked sometimes.

“It's important to veterinarians that we have our staff safe, that we're safe, that the clients are safe. I think it's really important that we look at the psychological effects of our staff because they don't want to force pets to do anything. And we look at the psychology of the pet. And that's where it really becomes important is that every time that the pet has a bad experience at a veterinary clinic, it can remind them the next time that they come in, then it's unfavorable.

“What I don't like about ‘fear free, low stress’ is that those sentences lead off with a negative term. And personally, that sort of rubs me the wrong way. And it's not that I think the philosophy behind it is bad. I think the terminology is problematic for me because I don't want anybody to say, well, what do you mean it's fear free? Was there something they were supposed to be afraid of? It sets up the expectation that the veterinarian is a scary place and that shouldn't be the expectation, right? And that's my concern is that it leads with a negative.”

The Marty & Laura Show is produced by Pure Dog Talk Inc., with sound design and editing by Premium Audio Services.

Marty and Laura discuss the challenges of diabetes in pets, how to prevent, diagnose and manage the disease.

"Dogs that develop multiple episodes of pancreatitis, which is inflammation of the pancreas, they will oftentimes then become diabetic because there's so much scarring of the pancreas from the pancreatitis," Marty said.

"If you have a dog that's diabetic, they're going on insulin or you're not going to be able to keep them going," Marty added. "So you have to make a hard decision in a day or two. You can't wait a couple of weeks to make this decision. If your dog has high glucose and they're diabetic, you need to decide sooner rather than later, yes, I'm willing to give insulin injections. Yes, it only comes as an injectable form. Yes, you will have to give two injections a day. And yes, there will be ongoing expenses for monitoring the dog and keeping them on insulin. You have to buy the syringes, you have to buy the insulin, and that's just life.

"Now, I can teach almost anybody to give an injection. Even if they think they can't. Most of the time, we want to do it when the cat or the dog is eating for two reasons. One is we want to make sure that they're eating before you give the insulin. Because if they're not eating and you give insulin, their glucose drops too low. That's bad. And secondly, you can give them something to do to distract them while you're giving the injection. And the needle is itty bitty, teeny weenie. It's not hard to use. It's easy to administer.

"Whatever you do with a diabetic patient, exercise and food wise, has to happen every single day. And if they are typically on the twice a day insulin, which most dogs need to get good control, they need to have insulin at 12 hour intervals.

"I don't care if it's six in the morning and 6:00 at night. Or noon and midnight, but it can't go one day 6:00 at night and the next day midnight. So whatever you do for your schedule has to be the same. And that's the hard part about managing a diabetic patient is some of us have schedules that we can really control.

"We have two oral medications that have come to market in the last couple of years for cats with diabetes. And this is like a huge breakthrough because it only has to be given once a day.

The Marty & Laura Show is produced by Pure Dog Talk Inc., with sound design and editing by Premium Audio Services.

Marty and Laura share heart healthy ideas for our pets from weight management to fitness to genetics.

“We can't really talk about prevention without talking about genetics,” Marty said, “because from the very inception of a puppy, we can control their genetics to a certain extent. There are DNA tests. And there are phenotype tests that we can do for cardiac disease.

“I think it's really important if you're buying a dog from a breed that tends to have cardiac disease, that we start off with the foundation of do the very best you can to select a dog that is less likely to develop cardiac disease than others in its breed category.

“There's a really fabulous website called the Cardiac Education Group. It is absolutely spectacular. It's written for veterinarians, by veterinarians, but there's a whole section in there for pet owners. So if you have a dog that's been diagnosed or a cat that's been diagnosed with cardiac disease, you want to go to the cardiac education group and then find the little menu and Scroll down and click on the For Pet Owners.

“Many puppies under 12 weeks of age will have what's called a functional murmur. We can hear it. It doesn't sound very loud. It sounds like it's probably innocent. And many of them will go away as the dogs get older.

“Most veterinary cardiologists won't echo a dog or cat until they're at least 12 to 16 weeks old for two reasons. One is it's hard to see anything on the echo when they're that little. And two is because so many of them go away on their own that we don't worry about it.

“Now, the one thing I tell a lot of people is that puppies have a physiological murmur because all puppies are anemic. All kittens are anemic. You are born with a certain number of red blood cells and when your body grows faster than your bone marrow can keep up with, you are anemic.”

The Marty & Laura Show is produced by Pure Dog Talk Inc., with sound design and editing by Premium Audio Services.

Marty and Laura tackle the big itch of ear mites, how to prevent, diagnose and treat them in your cats (and even dogs.)

“There are hundreds of mites in these cats ears, so it's no question that they are intensely itchy,” Marty said, while Laura opined the image was the stuff of nightmares.

“When we see an ear infection in a cat,” Marty said, “it's ear mites or somehow related to ear mites. And in a dog it may start as ear mites, especially if it's a young dog. But almost always the ear mites on a dog go yuck. I'm not living here, it’s not where I want to be.

“You're going to know they have mites because they're scratching all the time and they get discharge that looks like coffee grounds in there. It's not blood, but it can look like blood. But the cats can be so intensely itchy, pyritic, that they will literally scratch the back of their ear raw.

"I don't understand why, but it leaves a residual problem. I can look at a cat's ear and look at the owner and say, did she have ear mites when she was a kitten? And they go, ohh, yeah...

“As soon as you bring a new kitten into the house, you want to keep them isolated. So put them in a separate room, a few garages warm enough. You can do that, or you can put them in a bathroom or laundry room or somewhere. Even a dog crate is at least some kind of seclusion until you get your first appointment with your veterinary clinic to test the kitten for leukemia and FIV to make sure that they're not exposing your cat.

“We want to check for mites. So very quickly we're going to want to get those kittens in and get them treated, dewormed, put on Revolution, or other flea and tick products.”

The Marty & Laura Show is produced by Pure Dog Talk Inc., with sound design and editing by Premium Audio Services.

Marty and Laura tackle the painful topic of cruciate ligament ruptures in dogs. They talk causes, prevention, treatment and new research that’s giving hope to eradicating the painful condition specifically in Labrador Retrievers.

“Statistically, five to 10% of Labradors will end up with a cruciate tear,” Marty said, “although there's a lot of variables in that. Certain breeds like greyhounds and corgis, they don't tear cruciates. Sometimes it's the age of spaying or neutering, sometimes there's definitely differences within the line of dogs. So there's a lot of variables.

“If your dog is 3-legged lame (in the rear) and it's persistent, you should seek veterinary care. But you don't have to go in on emergency over a weekend or at night. Now, if it's a dangling fracture, you need to go in,” Marty noted, but a cruciate tear is not an emergency.

“You can have a flat out tear, you can have a fray, you can have a partial tear. Eventually a fray or a partial tear is going to turn into a full tear. And so you can see these degradations, these changes inside the cruciate ligament that we don't still fully understand or need to understand better, and we will, but at this point we don't really have a great understanding of some of these dynamics because there are so many differences.

“Spaying and neutering definitely has a relationship in a lot of large breed dogs with the severity and the likelihood of which they're going to develop cruciate disease. So we know if we spay or neuter dogs before skeletal maturity, which is somewhere between 15 and 18 months depending on the breed, we're going to increase their risk of torn cruciate. In Labradors that increases by 20%.”

https://puredogtalk.com/captivate-tag/cruciate-ligaments/

The Marty & Laura Show is produced by Pure Dog Talk Inc., with sound design and editing by Premium Audio Services.