The Veterinary Oral Health Council (VOHC) is an organization designed to “recognize products that meet pre-set standards of plaque and calculus (tartar) retardation in dogs and cats.”  The VOHC recognizes these products by giving them their “seal of acceptance.”  In order to achieve the seal, products must have gone through at least two separate clinical trials that demonstrate their ability to control plaque or tartar (some products help with both).

Periodontal disease (plaque, tartar, gingivitis, bone loss, infected teeth, etc.) is a progressive problem, and not one product will completely prevent it from progressing.  The most effective way of preventing periodontal disease is brushing your pet’s teeth.  Daily brushing is best as plaque can start to harden on the teeth in 24 to 48 hours.  VOHC approved products help as well.  If a dental product bears the seal of acceptance, then you can be sure that the product does what it claims to do, i.e. it works.

More information about the VOHC along with a list of approved products can be found at www.VOHC.org.  At Olathe Animal Hospital, we are happy to offer the following VOHC approved products:

Hill’s Prescription Diet t/d

Greenies

Healthy Mouth Anti-Plaque Water Additive

Stop by the office or give us a call for more information regarding these products for your pet!

Many types of sugar free products contain a product called xylitol.  These products may be chewing gums, candies, or even some medications.  Although xylitol is safe for people, it is toxic to dogs.

How does xylitol cause toxicity?

Xylitol causes the pancreas to release large amounts of insulin, which then cause blood sugar to drop to unsafe levels.  This can lead to weakness, tremors, collapse, and even seizures.  If that’s not enough, in some cases xylitol can cause liver failure.

Can my pet be treated?

Although there is no specific antidote for xylitol toxicity, treatment is aimed at supportive care.  If your pet just ate the xylitol containing product, vomiting may be induced as with many other toxins.  However, if the xylitol was eaten much earlier, then supportive care is initiated.  One toxic dose of xylitol can last for several days, so supportive care may be needed for several days.  This consists of IV fluids with dextrose in them to keep the blood glucose at normal levels, medications to help protect the liver, medications to prevent vomiting, antibiotics in some cases, and antacids in some cases.  Monitoring of blood values is important to track progress and make sure no further damage is occurring to the liver.

What can I do to prevent toxicity?

The main thing to keep in mind is not all products safe for humans are safe for our pets.  Avoid feeding your pet anything that contains xylitol.  If your pet does eat a product that has this listed as an ingredient, then call your veterinarian right away.  Hopefully with rapid treatment, toxicity may be prevented.

Does your dog suffer from motion sickness? We now have an option ideal for treatment of motion sickness in dogs. It’s called Cerenia (maropitant), and just one tablet can alleviate the nausea associated with motion sickness for 24 hours.

If you’re planning to do some traveling, but are reluctant to take your dog because he has a tendency to get sick in the car, this medication can help you both.

Unlike other medications, Cerenia is non-sedating.

Ask us if Cerenia is a good choice for your dog!

Leptospirosis (aka lepto) is a bacterial disease that is often life threatening.  The bacteria are shed in the urine of infected animals, including wildlife, and so most commonly affect animals that spend a lot of time outdoors.  It is of most concern to dogs, but rarely affects cats as well.  Leptospirosis is zoonotic, meaning that it can infect people as well.

Once it has been shed in the urine, the bacteria then live in small bodies of water, puddles, and even in the soil.  Pets and people are infected by coming in contact with the bacteria, which enter the body through cuts or abrasions in skin or through mucous membranes (eyes, nose, mouth).  This also includes drinking the water.  Signs of illness usually occur within a few days, and can include fever, sore muscles, stiffness, weakness, anorexia, lethargy, vomiting, diarrhea, difficult breathing, coughing, and dehydration.  If left untreated, leptospirosis can cause kidney and liver failure.

Diagnosis involves specific blood tests.  Basic bloodwork is usually performed as is the case for any sick pet.  If leptospirosis is suspected, then specific antibody tests for leptospirosis can be done.  These tests have to be repeated 3 weeks later.  If we do suspect leptospirosis, we immediately start treatment.  Treatment involves intensive supportive care and antibiotics.

The good news is that a vaccine is available.  The vaccination protects against the most common types of leptospirosis, but does not cover others, so is not 100%.  After the initial vaccination, a booster is required in 3 weeks, and then yearly.  We recommend vaccinating animals that are at high risk for this type of exposure, including any dogs that go camping, go to the lake, spend a lot of time in the country, and hunting dogs.  If you live in an area that has a lot of wildlife, and your dog goes outdoors at all, then there is even a risk of infection for him as well.  Ask us about leptospirosis at your next visit.

For more information, the CDC has an information sheet that can be found here.  To schedule your dog for a vaccination, please call us at (913) 764-1415.  Together, we will work towards keeping your pet as healthy as possible for as long as possible.

Pugs will eat anything–especially Hagrid! His mom is aware of his vacuum-like ability to slurp up anything on the floor that’s even remotely interesting (especially if it’s ”off-limits”). So when she accidentally dropped an Aleve (naproxen) tablet on the floor, and Hagrid snatched it up, she wisely knew she had a problem.

Naproxen tablets are a commonly used non-steroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAID) used for pain relief in humans, but dogs do not tolerate it very well, and it will cause stomach ulcers and GI bleeding in most dogs. How much ulceration and bleeding occurs depends on the dose. For a dog Hagrid’s size, ingestion of one 220-mg tablet can cause serious problems.

Luckily, Hagrid’s mom called as soon as this happened, so we instructed her to induce vomiting with hydrogen peroxide first. He did vomit some of the blue tablet, but it’s hard to know if it was all of it. So she brought him to Olathe Animal Hospital, we administered activated charcoal–or should we say, he gobbled it up! Silly pug! (One has to believe that stuff tastes awful!) Activated charcoal coats his GI tract and helps prevent absorption of the naproxen.

A few days after this incident, blood work was performed to check Hagrid’s liver and kidney values, and it all checked out fine. Hagrid has made a full recovery and is doing great. Unfortunately, he hasn’t learned his lesson, so his mom has to continue to be very careful about not leaving anything on the floor.

If you have an equally naughty dog who will eat anything and everything, we understand that this can be very frustrating. Even the most vigilant owners can’t prevent their dogs from eating potentially dangerous items. The best approach is to prevent access to ingestible items (i.e. keep everything clean and picked up, keep doors to bedrooms closed, keep trash in a cabinet or other inaccessible area). Make sure everyone in the family understands this and helps out. In extreme cases of pica (eating anything and everything non-food related), use of a basket muzzle can help prevent ingestion of potentially dangerous items.

If you think your dog has ingested naproxen, please contact your veterinarian to discuss treatment. The information contained in this article is not a substitution for direct veterinary care.

Would you be interested in protecting your dog from a devastating disease caused by worms blocking blood flow in the heart by our giving an injection once every six months as opposed to trying to remember to give a pill once a month and then having to remember to pick up refills?  What if it cost the same and we reminded you with a postcard or email when it was due?  You would?  Good, we can help.

Heartworm disease is a prevalent disease in the Kansas City area and exists anywhere that mosquitoes breed.  The mosquito carries the baby heartworm to the next dog.  A dog must be bitten by a mosquito to get heartworms.  For many years veterinarians have been preventing and treating heartworms.  In the early years medications had to be given daily.  Later new drugs were developed that could be given once a month.  In recent years a new product, ProHeart 6, became available as injection that works every day for six months.  A once a year product is now being developed.  Studies have shown that less than 50% of those dogs receiving monthly preventives receive their medication on time.

When ProHeart 6 first came on the market, many of our clients chose this product as an improved method of preventing heartworms.  Our hospital found the product as safe as or safer than most medications or vaccines.  Less than a handful of our patients had some soreness at the injection site.  Unfortunately, a few well-intended pet owners around the country blamed ProHeart 6 for many sad situations that were caused by other disease processes.  The product was voluntarily taken from the market by the manufacturer in 2004.  Additional studies over the next few years found the product to be as safe as it had been originally reported and it was brought back on the market.  You may view a PDF file on ProHeart6 at  http://www.proheart6.com/docs/client_info_03_09.pdf.

Due to the fact that the dog owner compliance in giving monthly heartworm preventives is poor, veterinarians recommend that dogs be tested once a year.  When ProHeart 6 is given every six months, the possibility of a heartworm infection drops to essentially zero.  Therefore, after any dog has been on ProHeart 6 for twelve months and then tests negative for heartworms, future annual testing is not required, as long as the injections are given on time.  This makes ProHeart 6 a less expensive alternative in the long run to oral preventives and provides more effective and continuous protection.

Below is a video of heartworm microfilaria visible on a blood smear:

Thankfully, we don’t see rat poisoning too often here at Olathe Animal Hospital. But the patient we saw recently was a good reminder of the importance of keeping dogs away from rat poison.

Penny is a healthy, 3-year old Maltese who came to see us after possible ingestion of a small amount of Ramik, an anti-coagulant type of rodenticide. The active ingredient is diphacinone. It had been about a day since she may have gotten into it, so we couldn’t induce vomiting (wouldn’t have helped this late in the game). Instead, we started her on Vitamin K. She will take one 25 mg capsule for 25 days. After that course of treatment, we plan to check some of her clotting times.

By starting her on treatment BEFORE she shows signs of bleeding (such as bruising, bloody diarrhea, or lethargy), we have the best chance of preventing problems.

If you’re interested in understanding why vitamin K is helpful treatment with rodenticide poisoning, read on.

Here’s what normally happens when a blood vessel breaks and there’s bleeding:

1. The blood vessel automatically constricts and spasms. This restricts the blood flowing to the damaged area and helps minimize blood loss.
2. The exposed pipe attracts circulating platelets, cloud-like cells that circulate ready to assist in clotting should the need arise. Platelets clump together over the tear in the blood vessel forming a plug within the first 5 minutes of the injury. This is all a good thing, but the platelets will stay in place unless a substance called fibrin can be made to bind them.
3. Platelets have on their surface binding sites for coagulation proteins, which also circulate normally in inactive forms. These coagulation proteins must be activated in order to produce fibrin. There are two ways to do this: a so-called intrinsic pathway and a so-called extrinsic pathway. There are twelve clotting factors involved between these two pathways and we will not confuse you by reviewing these steps, but suffice it to say that calcium is one of the factors as are four enzymes called serine proteases. It is the serine proteases that are relevant to rat poisoning. The end product of these pathways is protein fiber called fibrin, which binds the platelets and serves as a scaffolding for the permanent healing of the vessel tear.

Clotting factors are identified by number and the serine proteases (also called “K-dependent factors for reasons that are about to become clear) are factors II, VII, IX, and X. These factors are produced in an inactive state by the liver and go happily circulating through the bloodstream awaiting activation.

When a vessel tears and it becomes necessary to form a clot, these factors are activated in a process that requires Vitamin K (a fat soluble vitamin not as famous as its fat-soluble cousins Vitamins A and E). As the clotting factors are activated, Vitamin K is inactivated but later recycled by another set of enzymes to be ready to participate in clotting factor activation again later.

As long as there is plenty of Vitamin K, the serine proteases can be activated and clotting can proceed normally.

The anticoagulant rodenticides abolish Vitamin K recycling. This means that as soon as one’s active Vitamin K reserves are depleted, there can be no meaningful blood clotting.

In cases of poisoning one would expect symptoms to be nearly immediate, but in the case of anticoagulant rodenticide poisoning it takes several days to deplete Vitamin K. After that, even the smallest of jostles and traumas can lead to life-threatening bleeds.

This dog was diagnosed with allergies

Allergies are one of the most common and frustrating dermatologic ailments we struggle with in veterinary medicine. It’s absolutely amazing how expensive allergies are to treat, especially given that it’s not a life-threatening illness. However, they’re not curable and they DO affect quality of life.

When we discuss allergies with a pet owner for the first time at Olathe Animal Hospital, there are some important points to make regarding overall treatment and taking the next step in diagnosing the problem.

1. Antihistamines–Benadryl given every 8-12 hours (ask us for dose) can be helpful for the relief of itchy skin. If this isn’t helping, please let us know and we will provide a prescription antihistamine. Sometimes it’s necessary to try two or three different antihistamines in order to find one that helps.
2. Fatty acid supplements–every dog or cat with skin issues should be getting extra amounts of omega-3 fatty acids.
3. Shampoos–bathing mechanically removes pollen from the coat and skin, which is especially important for hairless parts of the body (footpads, groin, ears). Allermyl shampoo is a good choice for relief of itchy skin because of its micro-emulsion formula. Antibacterial shampoos (e.g. Hexidene) can be especially helpful for secondary bacterial dermatitis. Most therapeutic shampoos need to stay in contact with the skin for 5-10 minutes before rinsing.
4. Corticosteroids (Prednisone)–when a dog or cat is really miserable due to allergies, we often prescribe a corticosteroid such as prednisone to help provide more immediate relief of itching. Think of it as a “fire extinguisher” and not usually a long-term solution. Prednisone WILL increase thirst and urination!  Long term administration of prednisone can have severe consequences.
5. Dermatology diet–Hill’s makes a prescription diet called d/d (dermatology diet) which uses novel protein sources that help minimize skin and GI sensitivity. It also has a beneficial amount of omega-3 fatty acids. Some dogs or cats with food allergies will receive the most benefit by receiving a hypoallergenic diet called z/d. We will discuss with you which we recommend.
6. Alternative therapies: We may recommend trying an immune-modulating medication called Atopica (generic = cyclosporine). Because allergies are due to hypersensitivity of the immune system to something in the environment or diet, this medication helps to SAFELY reduce the intensity of allergic reactions. This medication needs to be given daily at first, often in conjunction with prednisone, but the goal is to reduce its frequency to 2-3 times per week (or less).
7. Allergy testing should be considered if the above treatments do not achieve adequate success. We perform a blood test (serum) and can check for either food allergens, environmental allergens, or both. Results are usually received within about 30 days. This can help guide our decision to consider hyposensitization therapy.

The patient pictured above and to the right was diagnosed with food and environmental allergies. Her allergy test showed sensitivity to trees such as maple and elm, and weeds like short ragweed. We started her on a 2-month trial of Hill’s z/d to help with food allergies. As you can see from the redness around her eyes (which is fairly common with allergies, especially in white dogs), she has been pretty miserable!

From big to small, all dogs are in need of proper socialization, and this begins when they’re puppies! In fact, the critical “window” of opportunity for social development in dogs closes by 12 weeks of age!  The experiences puppy has during this time influence the type of dog he will become.

• Introduce your puppy to 100 different people by 3 months of age.
• Set up puppy play dates with a variety of other dogs, so he can learn correct doggy etiquette.
• Teach puppy that things like umbrellas, hats, wheelchairs, canes, walkers and loud noises are associated with happy voices, treats, and play time!
• Avoid rewarding fearful behavior with coddling—instead, work on gradually increasing his exposure to whatever it is that scares him, and make the experience fun!

• Peanut butter and bananas
• Rice cooked in chicken broth with garlic
• Apple chunks with peanut butter
• Cream cheese with apple chunks
• Meat flavored baby food (no onion!) and cooked rice
• Canned dog food
• Dry cereal with peanut butter
• Dry dog food with vita-gravy or broth
• Canned pumpkin