This Is What Real Animal Rescue Looks Like

Many of us have seen the Human Society of the United States (HSUS) heart-wrenching commercial showing homeless and caged shelter animals, with the sad Sarah McGlachlan song playing in the background. Anyone who cares about the welfare of animals cannot helped but be moved by that commercial, to the extent that I have to quickly change the channel when it comes on, as it makes me that sad.

Of course, showing the plight of the animals and pulling our heart strings is the purpose of the commercial, because it drives us to donate. The sad part about HSUS and other organizations like it, however, is that the donated money by in large does not make it to those poor creatures they show on TV. Instead, most of that money goes to pay lobbyists and attorneys to push for legislation that you may or may not agree with; yet the actual HSUS shelters have canine and feline euthanasia rates that range from 50%-80%. Those are very sad statistics for an organization that raises so much money.

In contrast, many smaller, local rescue groups engage in much more transparent and judicious use of donation dollars, that actually effectively lowers euthanasia rates and save animal lives.  A recent, wonderful example of this that I had the pleasure to encounter is Friends for Animal Sanctuary, located right here in the Florida Space Coast where I live and practice veterinary medicine.

Run by their selfless, passionate leader, Katherine Johnson, Friends for Animals Sanctuary raises money through a thrift shop staffed with local volunteers, as well as direct donations and a gala they throw once per year. Every dollar raised is accounted for on a white board in the thrift shop for all to see, as the transparent use of money raised is a high priority in the organization and mandated by their director. Through the help of volunteer foster families throughout Brevard County and veterinarians that offer discounted services, Friends for Animals Sanctuary rehabilitates sick, injured, abandoned animals and finds them homes.

I had the privilege of attending this year’s gala, as well as speaking with Katherine Johnson one-on-one, and learned of her organization’s ultimate goal of constructing a No Kill animal sanctuary for all manner of animals, from dogs and cats, to horses and livestock. They have gotten over a big hurdle by attaining land, 80% of its value, donated by a generous, animal-loving landowner who was moved by this organization.

Katherine shared with me, that she plans to let this shelter be the model for others to go up in other areas of the country, creating a national movement of compassion, places for abandoned innocents to go without the threat of euthanasia should they not get adopted in a certain period of time. She envisions school trips to these sanctuaries to educate children on proper care of their new ”best friends,” and the responsibility they have when they choose to adopt a pet.

Even if you do not call the Florida home, such movements must be successful locally before they can spread nationally. Saving innocents in one part of the country is no more valuable than saving them elsewhere. I implore you to visit the FFAS website to learn how you can help:

http://friends4animalssanctuary.org/

“The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” – Mahatma Gandhi

Dr. Roger Welton is the President of Maybeck Animal Hospital in West Melbourne, FL, Chief Editor of the Veterinary Advice and Information Website, Web-DVM, and founder/CEO of Dr. Roger’s Holistic Veterinary Care

Is “Dangerous Dog Breed” Banning Fair?

I have blogged about dangerous dog breed banning before, having made the case that it is unfair and misguided.  I have not really changed my mind on that point, but a very recent experience has led to me being more sympathetic to those that beat the dangerous dog breed ban drum.  While I am more sympathetic, it does not mean that I agree with them, but due to my personal experience, I find it important to we all be sympathetic to their stance, so that we can all work toward realistic solutions to mitigate the real problem of dogs that pose danger communities.

I live in a lovely community on the Florida Space Coast that is superbly maintained, with manicured lawns, white vinyl fences, friendly people, and children playing everywhere.  My wife and I chose to buy a home in this community as a young married couple, knowing that we would eventually want start a family, and this seemed the perfect place to raise children.

Our first and then second child were born, and all was well.  Pushing them around the neighborhood in strollers, progressed to biking around the neighborhood as they have grown, to now playing basketball in the driveway with my son who is the older of the, about to turn 6 next month.  All was well, until the lady next door moved south, and rather than sell her home, decided to keep it as a rental property.

Renters come and go and can be hit or miss.  About 6 weeks ago, new renters moved in, and something seemed amiss from the outset.  There always seemed to be steady traffic of shady looking men in expensive cars, reclusive and unengaging with the neighbors.  We never seemed to see the same man twice, and to add to our discomfort, the neighbors and I learned from the rental agency that the house was actually rented by a woman.

To make matters worse, about 2 weeks ago, two pit bulls moved in, who immediately began to aggressively snarl and bark, while repeatedly throwing themselves against the 6 foot vinyl privacy fence that separates our yards every time we were back there.  This alone was both a nuisance and frightening especially to my children, but the situation became really dangerous this past weekend, when my wife and kids decided to spend the weekend on the beach, and my 67 year mother pet sat our docile family yellow Labrador Retriever, Bernie.

She came over to let him out, and true to form the pit bulls were out, and this time, within 10 seconds, managed to rip through the thick PVC material of the fence, and charge into my yard.  One dog had jumped on the back of the other, creating a brief jam up in the hole, which bought my mother just enough time to get her and Bernie back in the house and just barely avoid getting mauled by these aggressive dogs.  She decided to leave and walk Bernie to her house to spend the night.

After she contact us, my wife and I called the local police, who informed us that this was an Animal Enforcement matter and out of their jurisdiction.  When we called Animal Enforcement, it was Saturday night and past their regular business hours, with the voice mail prompting us to call us during regular business hours.  Thus, we spent the night away from home, knowing that 2 aggressive pit bulls were loose in our yard.  When we arrived Sunday, the neighbor had put the fence slat back in place and had made a half-baked (almost laughable) attempt at fixing it.  Never once did the neighbor come over to talk to us, apologize, or even acknowledge what had happened.

With the police not willing or unable to do anything, we spent Sunday on egg shells.  While we were home, we did not let the children outside in the front or back yards, knowing how easily these dogs could tear through the fence and potentially inflict serious harm to them.  Bernie remained at my mother’s house.  Monday came, and it took until 5 PM for Animal Enforcement to come out, although I had called them the moment they opened at 8:30 AM; even though they knew that my family was not safe to walk on our own property.

But the officer arriving did not alleviate our worries one but, but in fact compounded them.  He stated that he was powerless to have the dogs removed from the property, because no one was actually hurt.  The only weapon in his arsenal was to issue a $100 citation for each dog for property damage, which we would then have to take to civil court to sue for a proper repair of our fence.  The way the Florida statutes work, unless a dog actually hurts another person or pet, it cannot be labelled a dangerous dog and forcibly removed.  In other words, a potential tragedy must occur for the law to have any ability help us.  To make matters even worse, no one as home to even receive the summons, and as renters, the officer did not have an actual person to give the summons to.

The officer told us that he finds the best pressure we may be able to apply, would be to take the matter up with our homeowner’s association, as many HOAs have dangerous dog breed restrictions in their bylaws.  Feeling increasingly angry, frustrated, and powerless, I could not believe that I found myself actually wishing that our HOA had such bylaws.  It was then that I began to realize that there-in lies the problem.

Long story short, I have begun to seemingly begin the process of my neighbor problem.  Knowing a lot of other families in my community personally, I mobilized the community to begin a mass e-mail campaign demanding that the property management company in charge of renting and maintaining this property take action or face a class action suit from the entire community.  The president of the company intervened shortly thereafter, and assured me that the renters were in violation of the lease, as it is a no pet lease, so they would be forced to remove the dogs immediately or face eviction.  Within one day, not only were the dogs gone, but a U-Haul truck and convoy of SUVS emptied the house and it has not been inhabited by anyone for 48 hours…very weird.

Aside from the other shady circumstances surrounding this home, regarding the dogs, I do not blame the dogs for what occurred.  As frustrated and angry as I was and continue to be dismayed by what occurred, I still do not believe that breed banning is the answer to this problem.  However, I now understand we people end up feeling that breed banning measures need to be taken.

The way the law is set up in the state of Florida – and I am sure that it is not very different in other areas of the country – dogs can harass, threaten, wreak havoc, invoke fear, and destroy with impunity.  Until a beloved pet or person get injured, the law leaves us all powerless to force the despicable individuals that train the dogs to act in this manner and/or fail or refuse to contain them or keep them from being a public nuisance.

Case in point, to this day, since the actual owner of the house did not own these pit bulls, and the renter is not currently local and claiming that the pits were hers, no one has to this day been served with the aforementioned citations.  What’s more, even if the citations were successfully served, unlike parking tickets, DMV violations, and other types of citations, the law cannot suspend drivers licenses, assess more fines, or threaten jail time, in the case of Animal Enforcement.  All Animal Enforcement has the power to do is send the pet owners to collection and adversely affect their credit.  Now call not prejudgemental, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the owners of these pit bulls do not have major concerns about their credit.

Having felt myself wishing our HOA had its own breed ban in its bylaws in the midst of this mess, I began to understand why concerned citizens would resort to pushing for bans.  When people feel powerless and are force to live in fear, live in danger, and be continually harassed, they seek solutions, even if misguided or unfair to those who responsibly own pit bulls and other dog breeds deemed dangerous.

Thus, the solution to make communities safer from irresponsible owners of dogs that have been made dangerous, citizens need to be able to take legal action against these individuals once the troubling circumstances begin.  Fines for loose dogs that have repeatedly created fear and danger need to be stiffer.  Property damage created by unrestrained dogs must be a criminal matter, not a civil one.  The bottom line is that law enforcement must be empowered to take action on our behalf before a human or furry family member gets seriously injured.

Dr. Roger Welton is the President of Maybeck Animal Hospital in West Melbourne, FL, Chief Editor of the Veterinary Advice and Information Website, Web-DVM, and founder/CEO of Dr. Roger’s Holistic Veterinary Care

Has The Cost Of Veterinary Care Skyrocketed?

I hear from many pet owners that the costs of veterinary care for their pets seem to have disproportionately and dramatically risen in recent years, in comparison to other costs of living. The question is, are they correct?

Like most things I choose to blog, podcast, or videocast about, the answer is not that simple. There are examples where costs of veterinary care have indeed skyrocketed, other examples where it has not gone up any faster than other costs of living that are subject to inflation, and yet others where costs have actually remained the virtually the same.

Referral veterinary medicine is really the area where costs have dramatically risen, having gone up in some cases, by over 100% over the past decade. Referral medicine is a branch of veterinary medicine where patients are referred by the general practitioner in cases that have progressed beyond the scope of general practice, and require the expertise of spets and the specialized diagnostic equipment and treatments they have access to.

Part of this dramatic rise is the result of new technology and medical techniques being offered in referral medicine, such as hyperbaric chamber and stem cell therapy. However, by in large, it seems that the referral veterinary medical industry attempted to make up for less referrals in the wake of the Great Recession by jacking up the prices of their services.

For example, referring a case for decompression spinal disk surgery in 2008 may have cost the pet owner around $4000. Fast forward 5 years later, and that same case now costs $7000-$8000, a rate of price increase that markedly outpaced the rate of inflation during that period. As a result, even though many pet owners are in a better position than they were in the height of the recession, they are still often just as reluctant now as they were in 2008 to take their pet to a spet, and I can hardly blame them.

In general veterinary clinics, the situation is quite different. Most operate on fee increases that simply keep pace with inflation. With inflation having fluctuated between 3%-4% per year over the last 10 years that is about the rate of general fee increase general practice has seen. However, since the earning power of many pet owners has either reduced or stayed virtually the same over that same period, the perception is that veterinary costs have simply soared.

In other specific cases, veterinary medicine has not kept pace with inflation or even raised fees at all…to the financial detriment of the practice, since not keeping fees at pace with inflation causes a net loss in net revenue.

Take dentistry for example. The cost of a dental cleaning in my clinic costs about the same now as it did in 2008 and that is the same for many other general practices. It has always been a challenge to begin with to make pet owners understand the importance of pet dental health and the health consequences of not keeping of with it. Rising costs would make that task even harder, to the point that many would simply not opt to have the dentistry done, or have a groomer with no medical training (thereby offering dental cleaning services illegally – a discussion for another day) scrape the visible teeth that the owner can see (meanwhile the insides of the teeth and in the teeth back of the mouth continue to rot unabated). As a result, we have held the price down, absorbed the costs of inflation, and found ways to mitigate that cost through efficiency and carefully planned protocols.

I believe that eventually, the situation will level out again, as people tend to simply find a way in the face of adversity.  Pet owners are now beginning to see the value of pet insurance and/or seriously prepare for the cost of veterinary care as part of the household budget. Veterinary clinics are forming co-ops that use their collective buying power to leverage vendors to reduce the costs of supplies, equipment, and medicine.  At some point, the if the referral branch of veterinary medicine continues to outpace inflation, it will become too cost prohibitive that they will be either forced to find the same efficiencies we are resorting to in general medicine to reduce and control price; or they will simply cease to exist outside of veterinary colleges and/or in hyper-affluent areas.

The free market usually solves disparities and veterinary medicine in the end is not exempt from free market trends. I am confident that pet owners and veterinary medicine will by necessity find the middle ground necessary to continue to provide pets affordable, quality veterinary care.

Dr. Roger Welton is the President of Maybeck Animal Hospital in West Melbourne, FL, Chief Editor of the Veterinary Advice and Information Website, Web-DVM, and founder/CEO of Dr. Roger’s Holistic Veterinary Care

Let’s Talk About Raw Feeding Again – Part 3: Raw Feeding Contraindications, Conclusions

Thus far in this series of posts on raw feeding, I have established that while raw feeding does carry some level of risk to pets, it is not as dangerous a risk that some veterinarians would have you believe.  Also, when done safely and with the correct nutrient balance being applied, some pets can not only thrive being fed raw diet, but some exhibit better overall health.

However, I have also been clear that there are some cases where there is no appreciable difference in the health of some pets when fed raw versus a good quality kibble or canned diet, and in some cases, I have seen pets not enjoy optimal health when fed raw.  Thus, there really is not one diet that is appropriate for every pet.  What works best for any one particular dog or cat often is a matter of trial and error.  My purpose in this final post is to educate pet owners about health conditions where raw diet is not appropriate or even dangerous, as well as review the important talking points I would like pet owners to take from this series.

I discussed in my first post that my experience with the number of confirmed raw food poisoning cases has been overall quite low, and among that low number, there were two patients that got very ill from raw feeding most likely due to underlying health circumstances.

The first one was a 7 year old Italian Greyhound that was under treatment with chemotherapy for hemangiosarcoma, a cancer that arises out of the blood vessels on the surface of the skin in this breed.  We checked blood count levels before every monthly treatment, since chemotherapy can lead to immune compromise from suppressing the production of white blood cells, and can lead to anemia.  This dog kept borderline numbers on the low normal side, and as a precaution, I advised the owner to minimize her contact with other dogs.

Without consulting with me, she became convinced by a groomer friend of hers that the reason the dog had cancer in the first place was because of the dog food she was fed, and that the best way for the dog to fight cancer was to feed raw.  Within one week of the raw feeding, the dog was brought in violently ill, vomiting blood and listless.  Stool cultures confirmed the dog tested positive for salmonella.  Salmonella does not typically have the same consequences as it does in people, with signs that more commonly range from undetectable signs, to mild to moderate cases of GI disturbance.  However, given this dog’s immune compromised state the bacteria opportunistically went wild.  She survived the ordeal, but only after 5 days of intensive care hospitalization and a blood transfusion.

Lesson: Dot not feed immune compromised pets raw diet.  Immune compromised pets include cancer patients, patients undergoing potentially immune compromising therapy, including chemotherapy or steroids. 

The other troubling example I saw where a patient had mitigating health concerns where raw diet led to very troubling circumstances was an 8 year old border collie whose spleen I had surgically removed the previous year due a life threatening vascular incident that occurs in canine spleens called splenic hematoma.  The dog had done splendidly post-operatively and recovered without incident.

This dog was a retired agility dog, and in her conversations with other agility trainers, she had gotten turned on to raw diet feeding.  She had chosen not to consult with me about raw feeding, as she was warned by her agility peers that I would be unreasonably dead set against it.  Now had she called me, I would have been dead set against it, as the spleen serves as an important blood storage organ, as well as immune system organ that helps rid the blood of potentially harmful pathogens.  While a dog can live a normal life without a spleen, they live without a key immune system organ and thus are not good candidates for raw meat feeding.

The Border Collie presented to my clinic jaundiced (a yellow appearance to the whites of her eyes, skin and gums), listless and with bloody diarrhea.  After a battery of diagnostics, we determined that she was in liver failure brought on by an e. coli bacterial infection in her gut that had ascended into her gall bladder and spread to her liver.  The dog also developed pancreatitis, a severe disease in its own right, but especially troubling with everything else that was going on.

It was an invasive ordeal for the dog, but she ultimately survived.  It was an expensive and emotional lesson for the owner.  Although she survived, the dog’s liver, gall bladder, and pancreas were never the same again.  She had to be maintained on a low residue prescription diet, because if she ate anything outside of it, it would set off pancreatitis.  Protein, phosphorous, sodium restricted and highly absorbable, the diet minimally taxed her compromised gall bladder and liver.

Lesson: Do not feed raw diet to pets that have had their spleens removed.  

Below are other chronic health conditions where feeding raw diet is contraindicated.

Pancreatic disease

Kidney failure

Degenerative or congenital liver disease

Inflammatory bowel disease

Urinary bladder stones or crystals

Cancer

In conclusion of my raw feeding series, I would like you to take away these most important points:

1.)  There is no one diet that is appropriate for every pet.

2.)  Some pets so thrive better when fed raw diet, while for others there is no appreciable difference or have adverse issues from it.

3.)  Raw diet carries some risk of raw meat pathogen food poisoning, but in my experience the risk is overall low and overblown by many veterinarians.

4.)  The source of the raw meat plays a big role in the safety of raw feeding.  Avoid grocery store bought meat in favor of meat frozen on site and shipped frozen, or dehydrated raw meat that water is added to prior to serving.

5.)  The success of raw feeding depends on feeding species appropriate nutrition.  While cats can be fed an all meat diet, omnivorous dogs benefit from complex carbohydrates, insoluble fiber, and antioxidants found in fruits and vegetables that are appropriate to feed dogs (see my previous post for specifics).

6.)  If you are committed to raw feeding, find a veterinarian that is open to it and will help you accomplish your nutritional goals.

7.)  Do not under any circumstances feed bone.  The obstruction and perforation hazard to the gut is far too high.  If you have any doubts, read about the raw chicken wing case in the first post of this series.

8.)  Don’t live in denial.  If raw feeding does not jive well with your pet, be open to quality kibble or canned diets.  If your pet has a chronic disease, check with [your open minded] vet before feeding raw diet.  Consider disease specific, prescription nutrition for conditions that are effectively managed nutritionally.

Dr. Roger Welton is the President of Maybeck Animal Hospital in West Melbourne, FL, Chief Editor of the Veterinary Advice and Information Website, Web-DVM, and founder/CEO of Dr. Roger’s Holistic Veterinary Care

 

Let’s Talk About Raw Feeding Again – Part 2: The Right Way To Feed

The biggest obstacle to overcome in the raw feeding of dogs and cats comes from both sides of the debate.  On one hand there are many veterinarians that are so dead set against it, that they draw a line in the sand and strongly speak out against it, rather than lend their unique knowledge of canine and feline physiology to help pet owners committed to raw feeding.  This leads pet owners to seek their methods from people who offer opinions based less in real science and more on assumptions…assumptions that are all too often incorrect.  While many of these well intentioned people would gladly listen to a veterinarian’s suggestions to raw feed with minimal risk and optimal nutrition, they are pushed toward misinformation, turned off by veterinarians unbending in their convictions.

On the other hand, we have people that have inherent disdain for veterinarians, quickly dismissing the unique understanding of canine and feline physiology that comes from years of intense study and research.  They insist on notions like domestic canines are really the same as wolves and should be fed as such.  They state falsehoods like the hyper-acidic gastric pH of the wolf (about 1) that enables effective digestion of bone, parasites, and raw meat pathogens is the same in dogs – so we thus need not worry about feeding uncooked chicken wings fed to dogs, nor should we have any concern about raw meat pathogens.  I have also heard from people of this same ilk that the digestive flora (complex of living microbes in the gut that are essential in the digestive process) of the dog differs greatly from that people, and that takes all risk out of raw feeding.

I can speak to these type of pet owners until I and blue in the face that the real scientific truth is that the pH of dogs is not acidic as the wolf, but falls somewhere between that of dogs and people, generally 2-2.5 and watch as they roll their eyes.  I can also tell them that the bacterial digestive flora actually is quite similar to that of people, with Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, Proteobacteria, Fusobacteria, and Actinobacteria constituting more than 99% of all gut microbiota.  Of course the rebuttal I receive to this is that I am simply regurgitating pseudo-facts that were spoon fed to me by a pet food company funded veterinary curriculum.  Even when I tell them that as a clinical student at the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine, I actually did in vivo measurement of a canine’s gastric pH, as well a culture of small intestinal gut flora that substantiates all of this; it falls on deaf ears.

Thus, my message to veterinarians dug in the sand against raw feeding, would be to un-dig yourself, agree to disagree about the justification of the risk, and help those committed to feeding their pets in this manner to do it as safely and nutritiously as possible.  To those committed to raw feeding, I advise that you be wary of the convictions of those without medical or physiological training specific to dogs and cats, and seek the advice of a growing number of veterinarians that are willing to help you in your endeavor to feed raw.

The Right Way to Feed Raw         

Dogs

To begin with, lose the notion that dogs are merely domesticated wolves and should be fed that same.  While dogs retain a lot of the character of their ancient wolf ancestor, they are a very different species.  In the process of cohabitation with people that began 100,000 years ago (based on wolf bones found along with human remains from about that long ago) that continues to this day, the species vastly changed.  This article describes a recent study that strongly suggests that the domestication of dogs was as much dietary as it was the ability to get along with people:

http://news.sciencemag.org/plants-animals/2013/01/diet-shaped-dog-domestication

This process led to the dependence on a more varied omnivorous diet similar to that of people, than the more predominantly carnivorous diet of the wolf.  Whether fed a cooked meat diet, raw diet, or kibble, I see the health effects of loading dogs with pure protein, while sacrificing other key nutrients, such as anti-oxidants, insoluble fiber, and complex carbohydrates.  These health effects include gall bladder disease, pancreatic disease, and digestive distress.

Thus, dismiss the notion that your dog is a carnivore and must be fed 100% meat.  Protein should not comprise more than 50%-60% of your dog’s daily nutrient intake.  The other 40%-50% should be a combination of fats, insoluble fiber, and complex carbohydrates.  Most meats will satisfy the fat requirement, with vegetables providing insoluble fiber and complex carbohydrates, while also providing beneficial anti-oxidants that slow the aging process and protect cells and tissues from damaging oxidation.  While most dogs will not eat green, leafy spring mix salads, many dogs enjoy carrots, squash, green beans, sweet potato, and apples.   Regarding vegetables, steaming them or juicing them to a pulpy consistency often makes them more appealing to dogs of they will not eat them in the raw form.

Cats

Unlike our canine friends who are more omnivorous, cats are in every sense, pure carnivores.  Physiologically, felines can synthesize any nutrient they require from protein, including fats and glucose.  As such, a pure meat diet is not only appropriate for cats, it is preferable.  One of the biggest mistakes of the pet food industry has been to feed cats similarly to how we feed dogs, a miscalculation that has led to obesity, diabetes, pancreatic and gall bladder disease, and urinary tract disease in cats.  Thus, if you are reading this and not a proponent of raw feeding, then seek kibble or canned diets that are high protein, ultra-low carbohydrate for your cats.

Some cats crave and thrive better with some insoluble fiber in their diet.  Thus, if your cat likes fiber or has digestive issues where fiber may be beneficial (e.g., constipation, loose stools, or hairballs), you can buy “cat grass” at pet stores for your kitty to graze on.  There are also seed kits you can buy to grow your own organic kitty grass garden.

Safest Raw Meat Sources       

Always remember that dogs and to a lesser extent, cats, are susceptible to raw meat pathogen food poisoning.  As such, just like when I make the conscious decision to engage in my twice week sushi habit I understand I carry a higher risk food poisoning, know that raw feeding carries an increased risk as well.  Likewise, just as I endeavor to minimize my risk by choosing clean, reputable sushi restaurants, you too should choose the best raw meat sources to minimize your pet’s risk for raw meat food poisoning.

Considering that raw meat pathogens do not come from the meat itself, but from the handling of the meat, do not feed grocery store bought raw meat to your pets.  Grocery stores have meat that has been handled by far too many entities, from the slaughterhouse, to the meat packing plant, to the butcher, to the worker putting out the food.  Purchasing directly from a butcher takes some of the handling out of the process, but still carries more risk.

A good source of raw meat is meat that is frozen and shipped frozen.  The freezing process has a bacteriostatic (bacterial growth inhibiting) effect, while the nutrients in the meat remain largely unaffected by the freezing process.  Delivered frozen, the meat can conveniently be stored in your own freezer and thawed out as needed.  There are several companies on the web that offer this kind of service, but be sure to read reviews online before committing to any particular company.

Another safe source of raw meat is dehydrated raw meat.  Dehydration also offers a bacteriostatic effect without significantly impacting the integrity of the nutrients.  All that one needs to do to feed in this manner is add water to the packaged dehydrated raw meat and it is quickly ready to serve.  Another benefit to this type of feeding is that many companies will also include dehydrated vegetables mixed in with the meat, which resolves the need for preparing a separate vegetable component to your dog’s needs.

Don’t Live In Denial

As I stated in my previous raw food post, there is not one diet that works for every pet.  While I will not hesitate to tell you that I have observed many pets thrive better on raw fed diets than on kibble or canned diets, I have also seen the opposite.  Thus, if your pet has poor hair coat and/or skin quality, digestive issues, or chronic recurring disease while being fed a raw diet, then be open to trying other options.

Most importantly, there are health circumstances, acute and chronic disease, where raw feeding is contraindicated, and would be poised to cause harm to your pet.  In my next and final post in this raw feeding series, I will discuss these conditions and explain why raw feeding is not advised, as well as summarize conclusions and talking points I would like pet owners to take away from my series.

Click Here For Part 3 Of This Series

Dr. Roger Welton is the President of Maybeck Animal Hospital in West Melbourne, FL, Chief Editor of the Veterinary Advice and Information Website, Web-DVM, and founder/CEO of Dr. Roger’s Holistic Veterinary Care

Let’s Talk About Raw Feeding Again – Part 1: Common Sense

This is such a polarizing topic and it really not need be.  Like in most other areas in life where there is a lot of ongoing debate – like politics, for example – it is extreme positions on either side that are driven more by their own passionate stances on the subject, than by really examining the facts that cause all the trouble.

On one side, you have the raw feeding advocates that opine that feeding a kibble, canned or any other version of processed diet is the root of all disease in dogs and cats, and that for whatever ails your dog, feeding raw will cure it.

The truth from a dietary perspective is that most disease in canines and felines are genetic, infectious, or traumatic in nature, with the exception of a handful of conditions.  The other truth from a dietary perspective is that there is not a one diet fits all reality in nutrition or medicine.  I have seen some pets do very well on raw fed diet, and seen several instances where I have seen a reduction in skin allergies and obesity in raw fed pets.  On the other hand, I have seen some pets that have showed no appreciable increase in their overall health when fed raw, or do not thrive as well fed raw.

On the flip side of extreme, you have a lot of my own brethren, fellow veterinarians, that are convinced that if you feed your pet raw, it is not a matter of if the pet will become infected with raw food pathogens, but when.  The flaw here is that these veterinarians are paying more attention to industry journal articles highlighting occasional cases of raw food toxicity than they are to their own clinical experience.

Realistically, in 12 years of practice, I have known around 100 plus pet owners that feed raw, yet have only come across a small handful of confirmed cases of raw diet toxicity.  Two of those were special cases that were immune compromised animals – 1 dog who had had her spleen previously removed 1 and dog that was under treatment with chemotherapy.

In addition to this, I am willing to bet that a good number of these veterinarians that are dead set against feeding of raw meat to dogs and cats, enjoy a good sushi meal every now and again.  Veterinarians maintaining that raw meat feeding equates to death in waiting for pets, while themselves consuming raw fish, is being a bit dismissive of reality.

Nutrition for each individual pet really is often a matter of trial and error in finding which diet the pet best thrives on.  There is no one diet fits all for every pet in the world, and anyone who insists otherwise is either delusional or trying to sell you something.

If you have followed my media work for some time, you will note an evolution of my stance on raw feeding.  As a younger veterinarian, I was dead set against raw feeding because of a clinical experience I had early in my career.

A lady had brought in her very sick 3 year old Cairn Terrier who she had been feeding raw chicken wings to.  The dog had a very high fever, was severely depressed, and had severe abdominal pain.  I briefly discussed with the owner the danger of feeding bone to dogs, to which she answered – rather smugly I must add – that I really needed to read outside of the pet food company funded veterinary curriculum (my favorite veterinary conspiracy theory) and I would learn that only cooked bone is an obstruction and perforation hazard, that raw bone is fine, and the way she feeds is absolutely not what is wrong with her dog.

An x-ray of the abdomen quickly proved this owner – and whatever it was she read – was wrong.  The dog’s small intestine was jammed up with chicken bones.  Even clearly seeing this on the x-ray, the dog’s owner was still not completely convinced, feeling that there was something else that was making her dog sick, that bones were simply seen because they were undergoing the normal digestion process.

I pointed out that the breaking down of food by in large occurs in the stomach, whereas the small intestine is responsible for absorption of nutrients.  The bones were stuck, and they were not going to be broken down any further in the small intestinal location they were seen.  The other compelling evidence that the bones were obstructed, was that all of the gut behind the bones was dilated with air, an observation we term a dilatatory pattern; which is a hallmark finding in case of gut obstructions.

When I explored the abdomen surgically, I found that not only was the gut obstructed, it was also perforated and leaking intestinal contents into the abdomen, which led to a life threatening complication called peritonitis.  The gut was so badly damaged, that I had to remove 9 inches of bowel and re-attach it (called an intestinal resection and anastomosis).  Luckily, the dog ultimately survived, but the owner having walked away having learned a very expensive lesson.

I have since softened my stance on raw meat feeding, but I will never soften on the completely untrue notion that dogs can digest whole bone, whether fed raw or cooked.  Experience has clearly taught me otherwise, to the detriment of an innocent little dog.

However, done correctly, I have seen many dogs and cats not only do fine on raw feeding, but I have also seen some pets live healthier lives when fed this way.  Like when I eat sushi I know that I run a higher risk of raw meat food poisoning, I want every pet owner thinking about raw meat feeding to understand that dogs likewise carry an increased risk of raw food poisoning when fed raw meat.  This risk is overblown by many veterinarians, but conversely, it is underplayed as a non-existent risk by many raw feeding proponents.  Make no mistake, there is an increased risk meat feeding comes with, but that risk seems overall low in the big picture.  Depending on the source and handling of the meat, the risk is also variable, something I will be addressing in my next post.

Thus begins my 3 part series on raw feeding of dogs and cats.  My next installment will deal with the proper way to raw feed both dogs and cats based on their unique physiological needs, and in terms of safety.  I will conclude with health conditions where raw feeding should be avoided.

Click Here For Part 2 Of This Series

Dr. Roger Welton is the President of Maybeck Animal Hospital in West Melbourne, FL, Chief Editor of the Veterinary Advice and Information Website, Web-DVM, and founder/CEO of Dr. Roger’s Holistic Veterinary Care

Exercise Is Good, But Not Key In Canine Obesity Management

I had a patient come in 2 weeks ago, an 11-year-old female Labrador Retriever, having great difficulty ambulating into the exam room.  She had generally very taut, choppy, small steps as she walked; what we term a hypermetric gait.  One examination and several x-rays later, I determined that she has advanced spinal arthritis and degenerative joint disease of the shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees.  I also determined that the dog was about 15 pounds overweight.

In fact, the obesity was nothing new.  She had been overweight for nearly the previous nine years the dog had been coming in to see me.  In those years when she did not have all of these orthopedic problems, the dog was able to get plenty of exercise, and she did.  The problem is that obesity is far less a lack of exercise problem than it is an over eating problem.

At the North American Veterinary Conference I attended this year, I sat in on a lecture given by a board certified veterinary nutritionist called: “New Insights on the Management of Canine Obesity.”  In the talk, he cited a 1000 dog study, where the metabolic effects and calorie consumption effects on the dogs where carefully tracked and quantified.  Conclusions where based on careful recording of daily caloric consumption, regular weight measurements, and exercise time.

The results were nothing short of eye opening.  The average dog when walked 3 miles a day only burns an additional 67 calories per day!  While this may seem like absurd on its surface, this finding was repeatable time and again.  From an evolutionary and physiological perspective, however, this actually makes sense.

Dogs were descended from wolves who are pack hunters.  Placed in a wild setting, as I noted when I observed wild born dogs when living on the Caribbean Island of St. Kitts, dogs revert to pack hunting in a fashion quite similarly to their ancient wolf ancestor.  As pack hunters, they are physiologically designed for calorie sparing, that is, they burn calories very stingily.

What this insight tells us is that obesity in dogs is far less an exercise problem, than it is a dietary one.  In essence, if your dog is overweight or morbidly obese – with a few exceptions for dogs that have endocrine disease that may predispose to obesity – you are feeding your dog too many calories per day. End of story.

Dr. Roger Welton is the President of Maybeck Animal Hospital in West Melbourne, FL, Chief Editor of the Veterinary Advice and Information Website, Web-DVM, and founder/CEO of Dr. Roger’s Holistic Veterinary Care

Goodbye to a Beautiful Soul

While most of my posts are about knowledge and experiences I intend my readers to learn from, this one is for me. On December 29, 2013, I had to say goodbye to a dear friend, one of the gentlest souls I have ever known. I write about her today, because it was too difficult to write about her until now.

Lulu first came into my life (at the time her name was not Lulu; she had no name), when I was a fourth year veterinary student on soft tissue surgery service at the University of Illinois, College of Veterinary Medicine Teaching Hospital. Along with four other students, I was paged to the junior surgery suit, as a truckload of county shelter dogs had been brought in to be spayed and neutered.

The University had an agreement with the shelter, where the fourth year surgical students would spay and neuter all of their shelter animals at no charge. It was a good symbiotic relationship, as it made the animals more adoptable and saved the shelter the cost of surgical sterilization, while giving the fourth year veterinary student hands on surgical experience.

My first spay was a shaggy white dog, with black and brown spots, one large brown one covering her right eye. I estimated that she was about 9 months old and my guess was that she was a border collie/setter mix, as gentle and sweet as she was hyper and awkward. Although she was rather quirky (she would do odd things like drop and splay out all four limbs whenever she was pet), there was a naïve innocence to her that endeared me to her.

I got through her spay routinely and without complication. Junior surgery was rather informal, and we often recovered our surgery dogs right on our laps. With my spay dog was still asleep on my lap, she suddenly awoke, picked her head up, and craned her head backward to hold eye contact with me.

There was something pleading her eyes that moved me, like she was asking me to give her a chance.  I pet her head, got her to relax again on my lap, as I raised my hand and asked my supervising surgeon if we were allowed to adopt these dogs. Already the owner of a yellow Labrador Retriever, being a fourth year veterinary student, and living in a studio apartment, the last thing I needed was another dog to take care of…and an unsocialized, un-potty-trained one at that. Nonetheless, there was no way I was letting this dog go back to the shelter. As it turned out, student adoptions were encouraged, so it was no problem signing the paperwork to bring her home was she was fully recovered.

My girlfriend at the time was a radiology technician that worked in the teaching hospital. Once the dog’s incision was healed, she helped me out by bathing her in horse shampoo to get the urine stains off of her and ready to go home. The day she was to come home, I called to her to follow me and uttered the name Lulu for no apparent reason…the name just came to me in a flash, and she was Lulu from then on.

That radiology technician is now my wife of 11 years, and mother of my two children. The first of our two children did not come along until 2008, so we always thought of Lulu as our first-born. Lulu’s odd little quirks and downright weirdness never really went away, but it was part of her unique charm, what we called Lulu-isms.  \She would run around the back yard for hours on end trying to herd squirrels, and when there were no squirrels to herd, she would simply run endless laps around the perimeter of the backyard.

When she was inside, she would stare at shadows on the wall cast by trees outside, not taking her eyes off them for a second as the shadows moved as the tree branches that cast them blew in the wind. When the sun went down, she would shift her acute attention to the flickering lights the television would splay on the walls. When we fed her, she inhaled her dinner so fast, barely chewing as if it were her first ever or last meal, she would burp loudly after eating, as her rapid intake of food caused her to swallow a lot of air.

But in the midst of all of Lulu’s quirks was a very affectionate dog, constantly resting her head on laps to be pet. Lulu adored my Mom, who adored Lulu right back, but she always joked that Lulu was like that obnoxious boyfriend who would not stop snogging on you.

Most endearingly, Lulu was gentle to her core, would not harm a single living creature. She especially loved children, and would roll onto her back whenever approached by one, always tolerant when a child may have accidentally been rough with her. When our children came along, she took that same Lulu posture with each one, and both of my children loved her back.

Last year, Lulu began to deteriorate, as she developed degenerative spinal disk disease in her thoracic spine. At 12 years of age, I could not justify putting her though spinal surgery, so I managed her disease with a combination of therapy laser, acupuncture, and nutritional support, which maintained her quality and slowed her decline.  However, this past holiday season, when alternative medicine and pain medications no longer kept her suffering at bay, we had to make the humane decision to peacefully say goodbye to our beloved Lulu.

No matter how humane the euthanasia process is, one never ceases to second-guess oneself when the time actually comes. This is true for all pet owners, veterinarians included. One cannot help but feel that perhaps tomorrow may be a better day. It makes it all the more difficult.

I held Lulu tight and told her I loved her as her sedative was administered, followed by the euthanasia solution. She was on my lap just as she had been when she awoke from her spay and we both decided to walk life’s journey together. May you rest in peace, my sweet girl. Thank you for your love, your loyalty, and your friendship.

Dr. Roger Welton is the President of Maybeck Animal Hospital in West Melbourne, FL, Chief Editor of the Veterinary Advice and Information Website, Web-DVM, and founder/CEO of Dr. Roger’s Holistic Veterinary Care

Dr. Roger’s Holistic Veterinary Care

 

As many of my readers, listeners, and viewers are aware, I practice a brand of veterinary medicine called integrative medicine. Integrative medicine refers to direct treatment of disease in traditional western fashion, but with a strong emphasis on nutritional and holistic support of the body to reduce dependence on medications that often come with unwanted side effects. In short, I utilize traditional western medicine to control pain and stabilize the patient – stop the madness so to speak – but encourage my clients to engage in holistic management to wean the patient off of medication.  I also encourage a strong emphasis on nutritional preventive care in combination with nutritional healing (called nutraceutical healing).

As an integrative practitioner for the past several years, I became acutely aware of the biggest problem with the field of holistic medicine and nutraceutical approach to treatment of disease and disease prevention: complete lack of regulation and oversight.  Since holistic and nutraceutical products do not fall within the jurisdiction of the USDA or FDA, there is no governing body that ensures the quality, integrity, safety, or efficacy of these products. As a result, a product label of a natural or holistic product can make all kinds of claims without anyone to prove that the claims are substantiated or that the product even has the ingredients it claims. 

A perfect example of this was a recent study of joint health products sold in pet stores, which determined that 3 out of 4 products did not have the ingredients as per their label claims. A number of these products did not have any joint health constituents at all!  This was as eye astonishing as it was appalling.

The other troubling side of the holistic/natural pet care industry is the countless products that make all kinds of claims, but will not disclose any clinical data or even ingredients under the guise of protecting trade secrets. They use statements like “our unique proprietary blend,” or “our patented formula,” etc. Refer to my recent expose of a product called Nuvet for more on this.

In response to this, I decided to launch my own holistic/natural veterinary care website, complete with a product line called Dr. Roger’s Holistic Veterinary Care. In creating my line of products, my primary goals were:

1. All of the products are pharmaceutical grade, manufactured by a prominent veterinary pharmaceutical with a long-established reputation for quality control.
2. 100% transparency – All product ingredients are listed both at the website (see below) and on each product label.
3. All product claims are substantiated through clinical trials which are public information. 

I invite all pet owners to visit my site by clicking on the image at the top of this page and begin you pet’s path to natural healing and health.

 

New Dangers from External Parasites on Pets

External parasites refers to parasites that colonize and invade the skin and hair coat – including fleas, ticks, mites and lice. While these types of parasites are known to cause direct disease to the skin and hair coat that must not be minimized (itchiness and infections of the skin can be both tormenting for the pet and dangerous), an even greater danger lies in these parasites acting as vectors for the spread of disease. Mosquitos, fleas, and ticks are the biggest menace in the spread of serious diseases.

Mosquitos are best known for their role in infecting canines and felines with heartworm disease.  However, for fleas and ticks, the danger is becoming ever greater, with emerging variants of insect vector-borne disease becoming able to be spread by either insect species, with other new variants that we still have not yet developed reliable testing to diagnose.

For example, it used to be that insect vector-borne diseases were typically associated with one particular insect species, even one particular variant within an insect species. The deer tick was associated with Lyme disease, the brown dog tick with Ehrilichia, and the Dermacentor tick species (American dog tick, Rocky Mountain wood tick) with Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. The most dangerous disease that fleas carry is called Bartonella, which can cause a number of different syndromes in cats, and Cat Scratch Fever in people. 

I just returned from the North American Veterinary Conference, where I picked up some very alarming information regarding insect-borne diseases in the U.S. The first concerning fact is that emerging tick-borne infection variants are crossing tick host species. For example, there is now a variant of the organism responsible for Lyme disease that is showing up in the American dog tick, and there is a variant of the organism responsible for causing Rocky Mountain Spotted fever in one (and possibly two) additional tick species. There is evidence that Bartonella is not just spread by fleas, but also by ticks and mosquitos. 

We have known for quite some time that Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain Spotted fever can infect people. However, we are seeing variants of Ehrlichia, previously not commonly associated with humans, now infecting people. 

So what does all this mean? For starters, that previously regional diseases are now becoming more geographically widespread. More concerning, these diseases seem to be increasing in their ability to infect people, increasing the danger our human population, especially the very young, very old, and those who are immune compromised. It is crucial that you protect your family by treating your pets with veterinary grade external parasites protection. We are fortunate to have access to an unprecedented number of safe and effective product options.

Please do not make the mistake of feeling complacent because you currently do not see pests on your pets. I cannot tell you how often I comb fleas out of a pet or pick out ticks less than one minute after the owner assured me that the reason he or she does not administer flea and tick prevention is because the pet NEVER gets fleas or ticks. 

Why wait until there is an infestation and possible serious disease to treat your pet?  Waiting until there is a major problem makes as much sense as waiting until your dog gets bitten by a rabid raccoon to get him a rabies vaccine. Ask your veterinarian the most effective products and protocols to protect your pets before you have a major infestation or insect-borne disease in your home.      

Dr. Roger Welton is the President of Maybeck Animal Hospital , Chief Editor of the veterinary information and blog online community, Web-DVM, and CEO of Dr Roger’s Holistic Veterinary Care.