Scratchings-and-Sniffings

Healthy Aging in Our Pets: A Webinar Worth Your Time

[UPDATE - the webinar is focused on those of us who are pet bloggers - if you don't have a pet blog, get someone who does to get you an invite!]

One of the nice things about being a sponsored blog is the great information we get from our sponsors, Purina. Often I receive notification of projects, product launches, and events that Purina or one of our other partners is sponsoring or contributing to, and I'm almost always both impressed and surprised.

I'm sometimes surprised because before writing this blog, my perception of our sponsors, especially of Purina, was as companies that make dog food and cat food, and my understanding of them as a company ended there. Today, I know these pet companies do so much more! Yes, many are dog and cat food companies, or they make toys or leashes, etc. But, more importantly, I know often a lot of research and careful thought goes into each product.

Probiotic Success Story

You've probably heard a lot about probiotics over the last couple of years. Some major food producers have introduced probiotic supplements into the grocery store and advertised these products heavily. You can find probiotics in some yogurt brands and there are probiotic drinks and pills in health food stores.

At Purina, we studied the health benefits of probiotics for several years. In fact, yours truly was intimately involved as part of the product development work I did late in my tenure at Purina. I was part of the team that introduced Forti Flora to market in 2006. Forti Flora was the first probiotic supplement introduced for veterinary use with a guaranteed level of microorganisms.

 

The last statement is really important.

Why Does My Dog Roll in that Smelly, Stinky Whatever?

Miles and Riley were up on Boston Hill yesterday with their respective human companions; Cheryl and Chris. Riley got in a little trouble.

Seems he found a ripe skunk carcass to roll in. Nice. Not only did he get the tantalizing odor of rotting flesh on his coat, he got the bonus eau de skunk as a complement. Really nice.

Miles refrained from the rolling action but, according to Chris, he was quite envious of Riley's find and new scent.

What's up with that? Seems like dog's are always finding and frolicking in some of the most objectionable stuff imaginable. At least to us. To them it's an entirely different experience.

Cat Owners are Zookeepers

That's right. You may have been unaware that you were running a zoo, but if you have a cat you are part cat lover and part zoo keeper.

This bit of information came to me in a talk at last week's North American Veterinary Conference and I must say it was quite a revelation. According to Dr. Tony Buffington of The Ohio State University and the mover and shaker behind the Indoor Cat Initiative, our house cats are basically solitary hunters of small prey. They tolerate us and in fact they are very dependent on us because we control their environment, or hunting grounds, as they would perceive it.

 

As you know, I'm and advocate of keeping cats indoors and I've written about that several times on the blog. I think indoor cats are less likely to get into trouble, are healthier in the long run and much less of a burden on wild bird and rodent populations. I still think that, but Dr. Buffington gave me a new perspective on this issue and it's something we should spend a good deal of time with on the blog.

On to the NAVC in Sunny Orlando

We're off! Tom and I will be climbing in the car momentarily to start our trip to the North American Veterinary Conference in Sunny Orlando. We'll get to meet Dr. Larry for the first time, face-to-face! OMG! What fun we'll have. And, what wonderful things we expect to learn. What great people we'll meet.

Watch for short bursts of news, and pics. We have technology ready to support us but, technology being the twit it is sometimes, if we can't get the video and audio, we WILL get pictures and post text.

We'll be posting some content on the PurinaCare blog and the BlogPaws blog, too. Don't forget to check those.

(the Wabby is unphased...she's lying on the bed taking a proper kitty bath; she yowled forever in order to get us up and out of the bed!)

WATCH THIS SPACE!!!

A Flurry of Feline Fun From Florida

Next week is cat week here on the blog. Yvonne and I will be at the annual North American Veterinary Conference in sunny Orlando and we are planning to spend three whole days immersed in cat health. Of course we'll be sharing that information with you almost as it happens. I'll let Yvonne tell you what she plans to do but for me I'm focused on posting about some of the most common health issues affecting our feline companions.

On Monday morning, Purina is hosting a series of talks and I plan to report on Feline Inflammatory Bowel Disease and some new thinking on Feline Weight Loss. On Tuesday, Idexx, a company involved in diagnostic tests and laboratory analysis is hosting another all morning session on cat health. They have a particularly interesting line up of talks starting with Feline Hyperthyroidism and moving on to Renal Failure and Diabetes. We've talked about all those issues on the blog before and it will be interesting to hear the latest on these common health threats.

The Dreaded Hot Spot

One of the more frustrating skin problems in long haired dogs is know as acute moist dermatitis or more commonly; the ol Hot Spot. As the name implies this skin lesion is red, inflamed, denuded of hair and drives most dogs kind of crazy. My old German Shepherd Fritz, used to get one or two hot spots a year.

Hot spots are also frustrating because they can have a variety of causes and once you've determined the cause of one and treated that, you can get another from a different inciting factor.

 

Fleas, and flea allergy, are a common culprit. Atopy from inhaled allergens like pollen and food allergy can also set up the conditions for a hot spot. Ear infections and even impacted anal sacs can get the itch, lick cycle going too. I've even seen dogs with arthritis get hot spots because the start to lick and bite the skin over their painful hip joints.

Dominance Theory VS Leadership in Dog Training

There is an increasingly noisy debate going on between two schools on the subject of learning and training in dogs. In one corner we have veterinary behavior specialists and humane organizations and in the other we have a very popular TV personality and his devotees. Sounds kind of like a classic David and Goliath story to me.

The TV personality advocates the notion of Dominance and establishing yourself as the alpha dog in your household. The veterinary behaviorists advocate reinforcement of desirable behavior coupled with avoiding inadvertently reinforcing undesirable behavior. If you've read my stuff on behavior you know I'm in the vet's camp on this one.

 

Here's why.

Pet Food Innovations: Hypoallergenic Diets

When I took early retirement from Purina® we had a party to celebrate my seventeen year career. At one point that evening, my boss asked me what I thought was my best accomplishment. Without hesitation I brought up my role in the development of a hypoallergenic diet for the management of food allergy. He seemed surprised. After all, I had worked on two of the most important brands at Purina and this diet was small potatoes compared to Purina ONE® and Pro Plan®.

It's about the innovation I told him. It proves that pet food can play a big role in the management of disease and it demonstrates that Purina, a company better known for its size, can be on the cutting edge of nutrition science.

 

Upon reflection, he seemed pleased with the answer. Or maybe he was thinking something along the lines of, "Typical response for a vet."

Good News for Mexican Gray Wolves

We've had a tough time down here in Southwest New Mexico and Eastern Arizona reintroducing the Mexican Gray Wolf. I've written several posts on the topic of El Lobo's return from the brink of extinction. We should have over 100 wolves in the wild at this point in the recovery process but at last count we had only 52. We do another count in January and hopefully we'll have more.

Earlier this month we got a big boost in the recovery effort. The US Fish and Wildlife Service rescinded a controversial rule that had resulted in removal of wolves from the wild after three confirmed livestock kills. The so called SOP 13 had resulted in the removal of wolves without any consideration about their genetic importance or whether they were raising pups. 

 

The other important aspect of this decision is that the USFWS will assume control over that assortment of state and tribal agencies involved with the recovery effort. Too often in the past ...