Bruno's Blog – a complete animal at work

The World Health Organisation last night upgraded to Phase 5 the state of pandemic alert. This means:

Phase 5 is characterized by human-to-human spread of the virus into at least two countries in one WHO region. While most countries will not be affected at this stage, the declaration of Phase 5 is a strong signal that a pandemic is imminent and that the time to finalize the organization, communication, and implementation of the planned mitigation measures is short.

The WHO bulletin last night stated: The situation continues to evolve rapidly. As of 18:00 GMT, 29 April 2009, nine countries have officially reported 148 cases of swine influenza A/H1N1 infection. The United States Government has reported 91 laboratory confirmed human cases, with one death. Mexico has reported 26 confirmed human cases of infection including seven deaths.

The following countries have reported laboratory confirmed cases with no deaths – Austria (1), Canada (13), Germany (3), Israel (2), New Zealand (3), Spain (4) and the United Kingdom (5).

WHO advises no restriction of regular travel or closure of borders. It is considered prudent for people who are ill to delay international travel and for people developing symptoms following international travel to seek medical attention, in line with guidance from national authorities.

The UK Chief medical Officer has been quoted as saying that most people will recover….

Keep washing your hands

For those of you who, like my teenage daughter, are in a state of advanced panic about the possibility of a swine influenza epidemic, here are a few key points:

It is true that the World Health Organisation (WHO) has just raised its current state of Pandemic Alert to Phase 4 of 6, where Phase 4 is characterized by verified human-to-human transmission of an animal or human-animal influenza reassortant virus able to cause “community-level outbreaks.” Phase 4 indicates a significant increase in risk of a pandemic but does not necessarily mean that a pandemic is a forgone conclusion.

However:

1) the world’s population is somewhere around 6,000,000,000 

2)  a WHO report today stated that: ‘The current situation regarding the outbreak of swine influenza A(H1N1) is evolving rapidly. As of 27 April 2009, the United States Government has reported 40 laboratory confirmed human cases of swine influenza A(H1N1), with no deaths. Mexico has reported 26 confirmed human cases of infection with the same virus, including seven deaths. Canada has reported six cases, with no deaths, while Spain has reported one case, with no deaths.”

3) Each year 3-4,000 deaths are attributed to influenza in the UK alone. During epidemics, this number can be much higher, e.g. 30,000 excess deaths in 1989-90 with 89% of these being in people aged over 65 years

As to the virus concerned in this latest outbreak, the UK DEFRA website says:

‘The emerging news about a new variant human flu virus in USA and Mexico suggests that the virus is most similar to swine influenza viruses.

Influenza viruses undergo regular genetic changes and different influenza viruses can gain genetic material from other influenza viruses, even viruses more commonly found in other species. This is known as ‘reassortment’. The new variant of human influenza that has been identified in the USA and Mexico appears to have genetic material from pig viruses as well as human influenza viruses. 

We’ll keep you posted 

 

 

(Or more tales of tails on the other side of the pond to amaze and enthral the Brits)Firstly news that the President of the World has finally fulfilled his promise to his daughters to get a dog. Call me old fashioned, but I seem to remember him saying something to the effect that he hadn’t decided what breed it would be yet, but that it was definitely going to be a rehomer from a dog pound.Rock On, Obama, I know you were thinking. Yet more evidence that the Messiah has finally returned to Earth.

But then what did I hear the other day? Did I hear that actually he ended up getting a Portuguese Water Dog (nothing wrong with that), as a gift from Senator Kennedy? Nothing wrong with that either, you might be thinking, but something inside of me is worrying about the slippery slope phenomenon.

He promised me that his hound dog was going to be a pound dog, and now it turns out to be a blue blood through and through. Born to privilege beyond my wildest dreams, and destined for life in the social fast lane.

You do have to watch these guys – if he can go back on as critical an election night promise as that, what hope is there for more trivial decisions on Iraq and Afghanistan?

 

 

That’s probably because he’s got CCD (that’s Canine Cognitive Dysfunction to you)

Yes, it’s another one of those glorious acronyms hiding a euphemism that shields our delicate sensibilities from the grim reality that, err, you’ve got an old dog.

Now according to a recent paper in that august publication, the Journal of Small Animal Practice, signs of CCD (come on, wake up, that’s Canine Cognitive Dysfunction, otherwise known as AMRFYDTLTYA, or A Marked Reluctance For Your Dog To Listen To You Anymore) can be found in 22.5% of geriatric dogs.

By my admittedly simplistic calculations, that means that somewhere around 77.5% of geriatric dogs may be physically aged but mentally sharp as a pin.

Do you ever get the sensation that you’re being led a bit of a dance here?

Interestingly, signs of CCD were almost TWICE as common in neutered dogs in comparison with entire dogs.

Luckily, there is a nutraceutical supplement that contains essential fatty acids, antioxidants and free-radical scavengers, that has shown that ‘significant positive changes occurred in both the objective behaviour of dogs suffering from CCD as well as in the perception of the dog’s condition by people in regular contact with them’.

Just one other point. The criteria they looked at were 1. Sleep/wake cycles, 2. Social interaction, 3. Learning and house training and 4. Signs of disorientation.

With the possible exception of house training (still OK on that one), I think I can admit to a noticeable weakening on all 4 counts.

Does that mean I have VCD (Vet’s Cognitive Disorder)?

I celebrate the fact that I am now officially on the slippery downward slope to becoming a UOF (Useless Old Fart).

Ok, so 1 in 3 pets in the UK is overweight.

Not yours, huh?

8 out of 10 of you reckons that their pet is ‘about right’ on the flabbometer. That’s 80% of you.

And yet when shown pictures of pets carrying different amounts of fat, and asked to say which best resembled their pet, only somewhere between 25% and 30% of you picked the ‘normal weight’ picture as looking like your pet.

Let’s face it, you have no idea.

Of those of you who recognised that your pet was overweight, three-quarters of you felt powerless to do anything about it. And a third of you admitted that lack of exercise was a major issue in the weight problem…

The Pet Food Manufacturers’ Association (PFMA), the body respresenting those primarily responsible – in my humble opinion – for  huges swathes of the pet health problems in the UK (I cannot speak for other countries) has produced the Pet Size-O-Meter. Dear God.

Check it out at http://www.pfma.org.uk/overall/body-condition-.htm

 

Fudge the Jack Russell came in the other day for a booster vaccine. I hadn’t seen her for well over a year and it turns out she’d had a booster elsewhere in the meantime and wasn’t due for another 6 months or so.

As we struggled to trim her nails, I casually asked where she’d been all this time. It turned out that her owner, a soldier, had been ‘on tour’. Far from the mad images of debauchery in films like Spinal Tap, ‘on tour’ if you’re a soldier is likely these days to mean something like Afghanistan.

Which is where he’d been.

Historically, outsiders trying to take charge in Afghanistan have had a pretty tough time of it. You see the images on television and the glib comments from the pundits about the rights and wrongs of our presence there and everyone has their point of view, but I found a few brief words with that young man a chastening experience.

Somehow even thinking about charging him for a nail clip and worm pill seemed cheap and ungrateful for what he’d had to do, if not at my request, at least in my name…

More exciting stuff from the annual veterinary bash in Birmingham this weekend, if you can imagine such a thing as being exciting (several thousand vets, nurses, academics, researchers, pharmaceutical companies and other suppliers all together in one place for 5 days to study and indulge in a little light social networking/hard partying).

These occasions have always been heavily funded by the pharmaceutical and pet food industries. But these last few years there seems to have been a noticeable increase in the questioning and challenging of some of these allegiances.

The fact that commercial diets are beginning to be scientifically recognised as being more likely to be allergenic (ie allergy provoking) than raw foods. That puppies born to mothers raised on fresh food diets have less allergies than those fed commercial diets, and now there is some interesting speculation on the possible origins of hyperthyroidism in cats.

Hyperthyroidism is a disease that was considered rare before the late 1970’s. It now affects some 2% of adult cats, wreaking havoc with their metabolism and being a significant factor in the development of irreversible heart disease.

Where did hyperthyroidism come from?

There are no firm answers yet, but some of the studies have thrown up some interesting figures…

- a pilot study, admittedly of small numbers of cats, suggested that the disease was 4 times more common in indoor cats, 3.5 times more common in cats exposed to lawn herbicides and pesticides, 3.4 times more common in cats fed tinned cat food

WHAT WAS THAT???

A larger study of 169,576 cats over a 20 year period showed an association between hyperthyroidism and cats fed from ‘pop-top’ tins, and suggested that the plasticiser bisphenol A might be involved.

Certain soy products – present in some 60% of cat foods – do appear to interfere with thyroid function.

And finally, the fire retardant polybrominated diphenyl ethers (found in plastics, computers and upholstery) are known thyroid disrupters and have been found in higher concentrations in indoor and hyperthyroid cats. These PBDEs started to be used, err, in the late 1970’s, right around the time hyperthyroid disease started to become more common…

 

Now I am no Independant Financial Advisor – so theoretically am really in no position to comment – but if you are in that subset of people who are both thinking about taking out pet health insurance (something which unless you happen to be a billionnaire is generally reckonned to be pretty good idea) AND you have a vet who is open to the idea of using Complementary Medicine as part of the health management of your pets (also in my personal opinion a pretty good idea) you might want to take another look at the small print on the insurance documents before you sign up.

Because if you are looking at a policy with Petplan (yes, I said it, and this is negative product endorsement), you will find that you are now going to be charged TWO seperate excesses on each claim. One for the regular veterinary fees and a a second one for the so-called complementary medicine, ie hydrotherapy or any other physiotherapy, acupuncture, homeopathy etc etc.

More anon