Bruno's Blog – a complete animal at work

A recent survey  has shown that as many as 14% of owners of older pets whose dog’s or cat’s urine has turned pink or red will not take them to the vet. When aging Fido goes off his food, 24% don’t go. Drinking more water than usual, it’s 28% that don’t, and when cranky old Pooch refuses to go for a walk  or starts to have dreadful bad breath, a more alarming 48% of owners would not trundle off to the vet for a checkup.

These symptoms would all generally be reckoned by vets to be potential indicators of serious, and more to the point, treatable diseases.

Not very good news for the pet population, so why are people so reluctant to go to the vet?

The editorial accompanying the survey suggests that there are 4 main reasons

- cost: real lack of funds or fear of what the financial implications of the visit might be

- distrust of conventional medicine: a belief that the medicines offered might actually do more harm than good

- willful neglect: knowing that veterinary help is required but choosing not to seek it, or where the harm has been deliberate

- lack of knowledge: not recognising that the symptoms might be important and that treatment might be both appropriate and available

Just this morning as I wandered through the local market I couldn’t help overhearing a conversation between two stallholders where one was dreading having to take their dog to the vet the next day as she wasn’t sure she could trust him.

The other side of the coin is a veterinary profession in the grip of a longstanding problem of depression and suicide, often as a result of massive over-stress from trying desperately to do the right thing for their patients and finding it difficult or impossible to satisfy the various needs of the patient, their owners, their staff, their spouses, families and bank managers.

I didn’t mean to get the violins out and start slicing onions, but it does make slightly depressing reading: I hope you have a good, skillful and warm hearted vet who genuinely seems to enjoy seeing your pet. If any of the 4 issues above apply to you at any stage, maybe you should have a chat with them about it…

For domestic cats in the UK, their three-score-years-and-ten is about 14 years, but many of them now live for a great deal longer. We certainly have many patients at the clinic who are in their late teens and still going strong, and just a few who make it into their early to mid twenties.

So what are the particular health problems these senior citizens might face?

The commonest problems we see are:

- dental problems

- kidney disease

- over-active thyroid glands

- heart disease

- reduced mobility and joint pain

- cancer

Dental disease
Most cats don’t brush their teeth regularly and in combination with a soft diet, they often develop a buildup of thick yellow calculus on their teeth. This calculus contains a lot of bacteria which (quite apart from the smell) can cause painful inflammation of the gums and can spread around the body causing infection elsewhere. Keeping the teeth clean is very important: food supplements such as Plaque Off can help soften and loosen the plaque and calculus, and daily applications of oral hygiene products like Logic Oral Hygiene gel can help control bacteria in the mouth. Where the calculus is very thick, tooth cleaning can only be carried out under an anaesthetic.

Kidney disease
The kidneys are vitally important organs that help control the water balance of the body, excrete waste products from the blood, balance the levels of body salts and regulate blood pressure. The kidneys often start to fail in old age, resulting in increased urine output and thirst, reduced appetite, weight loss, nausea and anaemia. Early detection of kidney problems with regular blood and urine tests helps us guide you on the best diet and choose appropriate supplements and medication to keep your cats healthy and comfortable for as long as possible.

Thyroid problems
The thyroid hormones help to regulate the metabolic rate of the body. Many older cats develop over active thyroid glands, resulting in them always feeling hungry whilst losing weight, becoming restless and agitated and developing secondary heart disease. Treatment is available, either as daily medication, surgery to remove
the affected glands or a form of radiation treatment. Successful treatment can massively improve an older cat’s quality of life.

Heart disease
The commonest heart problem in older cats is a thickening of the heart wall. This reduces the size of the heart chambers and the heart has to compensate by beating faster all the time to avoid fluid buildup in the lungs. Early detection and management to control the heart rate, blood pressure and to support the damaged heart muscle is vital to slow the progression of this disease.

Mobility issues
We all know that older cats often do less and sleep more, but for many cats that inactivity is simply because their bones and joints ache. If your older cat is less active than before, if he or she is grooming less with obvious matted fur or more dandruff than before, is more grumpy or irritable or hesitate before jumping up onto furniture, it might be due to aches and pains. If you ask your vet to carry out a full mobility assessment, you may find that a great deal can be done to increase their comfort.

Cancer
No one really wants to mention the word, but it’s a common problem in older cats. Get used to running your hands over your elderly companion looking for any unusual bumps or swellings, and make sure that your vet carries out a full examination at least twice a year. Many types of cancer can now be treated effectively with minimal distress, so early detection is vital.

We are often asked whether annual booster vaccines are really necessary as cats get older. The issue is not about vaccination: it is about protection from potentially fatal diseases at a time when their natural immunity may be fading a little. We
strongly recommend that older cats have a simple blood test to see how well they are already protected. If they have high antibody levels, no vaccine is needed, if not then we can give a booster in the knowledge that it is really needed.

Are there any particular feeding requirements for older cats?
Cats with these kind of old age problems will often have quite specific dietary needs, so you really should discuss this with your vet, but just remember that older cats, like older people often are not so interested in food and will only take smaller amounts at a time. Make sure that there is always plenty of fresh water easily available for them to drink.

Remember – old age itself is not a disease: there is a great deal that we can do to improve the quality of life of our older companions

It’s official – the rarest dog breed in the UK is now the Otterhound, with just 21 puppies being registered so far this year, and a total of 390  dogs on the Kennel Club register.

Dandie Dimont terriers are not far behind with a mere 60 pups this year (down 48% this year) and 1048 dogs in total.

The Welsh corgi is doing better, rising 207% to 89 puppies this year, whereas Pugs have shot up an astonishing 557% to 5726 registrations so far.

The lesser known Coton de Tulear has also increased by 1170%, from 10 registrations last year to 140 so far in 2011, and the smooth coat Chihuahua has grown from 871 tp 2796 this year.

Meantime the old stalwart, the Labrador Retriever, remain the UK’s most popular dog, with 31,791 registrations in the first 9 months of 2011, but even this is a full 10% down on last year.

OK, I know I am prone to moments of nerdy obsession, but just check this out.

5 cuckoos from Norfolk being satellite tagged so that their daily movements can be followed as they migrate south.

Started in June this year, the British Trust for Ornithology is running a regular blog from each of the birds, who are now several thousand miles apart in sub-Saharan Africa.

I’ve just realised there might a particular sense of resonance for me as I too was born in Norfolk and then spent 4 years living and working in Africa. Maybe I am reliving my previous life vicariously through the journeyings of Clement, Martin, Lyster, Kasper and Chris.

You too can go cuckoo! Check the site at http://www.bto.org/science/migration/tracking-studies/cuckoo-tracking

Now get back to work

There’s a particularly nasty little virus out there, a parvovirus in fact, that can cause a spectacularly unpleasant and frequently fatal bout of vomiting and blood-soaked diarrhoea in dogs.

Without wanting to go into too much detail, quite apart from the pain, distress and dehydration, the parvovirus attacks the rapidly dividing cells of the intestines, breaking the barrier which normally exists between the gut contents and the bloodstream. Bacteria from the gut are then free to enter the blood, causing septicaemia.

As I said, it’s nasty and if untreated, parvovirus infection kills 9 out of every 10 dogs infected.

The virus is also very resistant and can stay alive in the environment for a year or more, so it can be very difficult to eliminate once it arrives in a local area.

Treatment requires hospitalisation for intravenous fluids, antibiotics, pain relief and anti-vomiting medicines. I’m old enough to remember when parvovirus first appeared in the late 1970′s, and the sight of veterinary clinics across the country overrun with these desperately sick dogs. It came as if from nowhere and within 2 years had spread across the world.

‘Parvo’ as it is commonly known, is now very unevenly distributed. In some areas of the UK it is endemic, in others it’s virtually unknown.

What should you do?

I strongly reccommend that you vaccinate your dogs against parvovirus. Because some puppies don’t respond very well to their first vaccines,  a simple blood test a few weeks later will tell you whether they have responded to the vaccine or not.

In our experience, there is a great deal of variation in the duration of the protection given by each dose of vaccine. It can be anything from less than a year to up to 5 years or more, so you should take your vet’s advice on how often to give a booster vaccine.

Better safe than very, very sorry.

Kennel cough is a highly infectious disease of dogs, spread by infected dogs coughing or sneezing.

It is only very rarely fatal but commonly causes a harsh and distressing hacking cough that frequently ends in a rather undignified retch. Many dog owners become convinced that their dog has ‘something stuck in their throat’. If untreated, Kennel cough  typically lasts for 2-3 weeks, but apart from their cough, most dogs do not appear otherwise ill.

Kennel cough can be more serious in dogs that already have respiratory difficulties, such as the very short nosed dogs (Pugs, Bulldogs etc) or older dogs with heart disease or poor immune systems.

It is called kennel cough because it is very easily spread between dogs that are housed together, as they are in kennels. Symptoms start 3-5 days after exposure and dogs can remain infectious for weeks, so affected dogs should be kept away from others until completely clear.

The disease can be caused by a number of different micro-organisms, but the most important of these is a bacteria called Bordatella bronchiseptica. Where this infection occurs alongside a viral infection such as canine parainfluenza, the symptoms tend to be more severe. Canine distemper virus, adenovirus and coronavirus have also been implicated.

Treatment commonly involves antibiotics for the bacterial infection, sometimes with cough suppressants if there is no increased volume of mucus produced. If a virus is also involved, more non-specific treatments to support the immune system and help your dogs general comfort can help.

Where dogs have a lot of contact with large numbers of other dogs (for example visits to a kennels, day care, communal dog walking, training classes or shows) vaccination in the form of drops up the nose reduces the likelihood of infection and may reduce the severity of symptoms where infection does occur.

There are many other reasons for a dog to cough, including advanced heart disease, growths, allergies and parasites, so it is important to take your dog to your vet for a thorough examination if any coughing starts.

Oh, and don’t forget, if your dogs needs any treatment for a cough, Vetscriptions is the place to go for lower cost animal medicines

The Pet Travel Scheme is changing from 1st January 2012, so that dogs and cats originating in the UK will no longer need to have a blood test after their rabies vaccine to show that they have responded to the vaccine.

All in the name of EU harmonisation, and it certainly will make the process of getting a passport for your pet much easier and quicker.

HOWEVER, the official UK government laboratory that runs these blood tests confirms that 4-5% of pets FAIL their first blood tests, meaning that IF the blood tests are no longer to be required, there are potentially going to be thousands of dogs, with passports and therefore able to travel internationally, who might not be protected against the devastating and fatal disease of rabies.

Not good.

So for the moment, you might want to still go ahead with a rabies blood test after the first rabies vaccination, as there is no other way of knowing if your pets have responded to the vaccine or not.

It’s extra expense, but it might be a small price to pay for the certainty that your pet is fully protected before travelling.

Kidney failure is a common cause of illness and death in older cats, and many cats seem to begin to show symptoms as the weather starts to turn colder.

The word ‘failure’ implies that the kidneys either work fine or they fail and stop working altogether, but the reality is that kidney failure in cats tends to be a long drawn out process, and how quickly they progress to serious illness depends largely on what you decide to do about it.
1. How do you know if your cat is affected by kidney disease? The classic signs of kidney disease are:

- Increased thirst – draining water bowls or drinking from taps.

- Loss of appetite or increasing fussiness with feeding.

- Weight loss
If your cat is affected, your vet may suggest checking your cat’s blood looking for rising levels of waste products (urea), a protein called creatinine, phosphorus and calcium. And a urine test may show excessively dilute urine with higher levels of certain proteins.

2. If your cat has been diagnosed with kidney failure, what should you do about it?

- maximise your cats water intake.

- feed wet foods only,
- add more water or broth to the food
- buy a water fountain to provide running water
- in severe cases, your vet may recommend giving extra fluids by injection under the skin: you will need help and instruction with this.

- Diet is the single most important factor: the right diet can double your cat’s survival time.

- feed alow protein diet such as Hills k/d, Royal Canin Renal or Eukanuba Renal to reduce the amount of waste products produced.

- feed a diet low in phosphorus, or add a phosphorus binder to the food

- supplement potassium in the diet if levels are low

- make sure your vet monitors your cat’s blood pressure and treat it if it rises. Untreated high blood pressure can cause sudden blindness.

- give a prescription medicine called an ACE inhibitor every day if your vet prescribes it. It helps maintain the blood supply to the kidneys.

- there is evidence that nutritional supplements such as Rubenal and Essential Fatty  Acids can help maintain kidney function

- use a high energy feed supplement such as Nutrigel or Nutri Cal if your cat is not eating enough calories to maintain bodyweight.

If you think that your cat might be suffering from kidney disease, take action: go to your vet and find out what you can do now to make a difference!

Why do all these cats & dogs have such rubbish teeth?

As yet another grumpy & halitotic old cat is dragged unwillingly into the clinic, I find myself wondering if human dentists are actually a bit mad in the head.

At what point in their tender youth did they decide to devote their lives exclusively to the loving care of row after row of horribly neglected, rotten and stinking old teeth belonging to people who either can’t taste, smell, feel or be bothered to do anything about what surely is an obvious problem?

Or maybe I’ve got it wrong, and their human patients are different, and do love and care for their teeth with the utmost dedication, keeping them as clean and fresh as the proverbial summer daisy and merely dropping by every now and then for a light polish and to receive a few words of praise for their efforts.

Isn’t that after all the basis of complementary medicine?

My colleagues roll their eyes heavenwards, in fear of another imminent dad-joke. I try not to let them down.

“Morning Mrs Smith! I say you are looking especially wonderful today! And your TEETH! Goodness me, they ARE something to be proud of!”

Don’t get me wrong, I actually get huge satisfaction from seeing a patient at the end of a dental procedure with a mouth full of gleaming white gnashers – ‘a hollywood smile’ is my over-used expression that stilll manages to get a reaction from grateful pet owners who are far more relieved that they won’t have to cope with the staggeringly awful stench of old sewer mouth for a few months or at least until they get their act together and either change their pet’s diet or start brushing their teeth, or both.

Just don’t forget, rotten teeth don’t just smell bad, they often hurt bad, too.

Dental work is great. It makes a huge difference to the lives of my patients, and it wouldn’t be the first time that I’ve seen a changed character come back in a few weeks later after having a painful decayed tooth removed.