May is Pet Cancer Awareness Month

Cancer Awareness

By David Gagnon, DVM   

David Gagnon, DVM

We all know people get cancer, but did you know our pets do too?  Cancer, or neoplasia (from the greek neo = new, and plasma = formation/growth) is uncontrolled cell growth and can show up in a variety of ways, including in the skin, fat, bone, blood, and many other places.  Some cancers in animals can be malignant, while others may be benign.

Since cancer can show up in different fashions, and a “mass” can be seemingly anything, we have several ways to determine whether your animal has cancer, and whether it is malignant or benign.  We always prefer to look at its cells, and the simplest way is as easy as doing a fine needle aspirate (collecting cells with a needle).  Biopsy with evaluation by a pathologist is the best way to give us a true diagnosis.

  

Microscopic evaluation of fine needle aspirate

Not all masses are apparent on your pet’s skin.  Sometimes we can try to visualize them on x-rays, ultrasound, CT or MRI.  Occasionally advanced blood tests are the preferred method of diagnosing cancer, as not all cancers are in the form of tumors.

Abdominal mass

In addition to the many techniques we use to diagnose cancer, there are multiple ways to treat it.  Surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy are available, depending on the cancer.  Most of the tumors we see in general practice are cured by surgery alone, whether it’s removing a lump from the skin, amputating a limb, or removing the spleen. When most people think of “chemo,” they think of nausea, hair loss, and poor quality of life.  While this may be the case in people, this is not typical of our animal patients.  In humans, our goal is usually to cure the disease.  In pets, our goal is a good quality of life, so we can try to put the disease into remission while keeping our pets in otherwise good health.  Radiation is another way to treat cancer.  The University of Wisconsin – Madison Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital recently became the first veterinary school to become equipped with Tomotherapy.  This uses CT scans to target the radiation, so that only the cancer is treated, instead of surrounding tissues.

There are many unknowns when it comes to cancer, and there is constant research to learn more.  Morris Animal Foundation is conducting a large study of Golden Retrievers over the course of their lifetime to learn about risk factors, prevention, and cures for cancer.  This involves dedication from the dogs’ owners and veterinarians to collect various samples every year so researchers can identify genetic, environmental, and nutritional risk factors for cancer and other major health problems in dogs.  Check out the Morris Animal Foundation’s Golden Golden Retriever Lifetime Study.  If you’re interested in participating in this study, please let us know.  The more animals that participate, the more information will be available to help future cancer patients.  Click the link below to learn more.

 

 Golden Retriever Lifetime Study

Selecting Pet Foods

Shedding Some Light on Pet Foods

By Ronald G. Biese, DVM

Ronald G. Biese, DVM

One only has to walk down the aisles and aisles of pet foods available and your head will spin.  Then there’s the daunting task of reading the label on the back of the bag. Is the content good enough for your precious dog or cat?  It would appear one needs a degree in nutrition to help you decide the right food for “Fluffy”.    I keep it simple.  

First of all, a dog or cat food does not exist that is classified as perfect or “the best” food for all pets.  If it did, the others simply wouldn’t exist.  Often, the salesperson working at your local pet store is 17, maybe 18 years old at best, and they are giving advice that they have limited knowledge in.  Or, a breeder or trainer will claim that this particular brand is “the best” and no other foods shall be fed besides this one.  So, how do we make a good and informed decision?  

More info on selecting pet food 

 I put the excellent quality brands on the top shelf that choosing any one of them will give great nutritional value to your pet including a quality coat, less shedding and lead to over-all better health.  These companies hire veterinarians as nutritionists to over-see what’s being put into their foods.  These companies perform many tests, called quality assurance, on a regular basis to ensure the foods they produce are of the highest quality.  They often choose human grade ingredients from reliable sources, and they run trials on animals (in a very humane way) to ensure the foods are providing the utmost nutritional support to the animals health. 

 

 

The middle shelf pet foods are produced by reputable companies that do a decent job at producing quality products.  They often do not do testing on animals themselves, but will extrapolate the data the others have obtained and put together a food with mid-grade ingredients.  They often will put more money into marketing instead of research so they can sell more of their food.

The bottom shelf foods are much easier to recognize, because they are rarely advertised and they sell the foods at a fraction of the cost of the other companies.  They will have no quality assurance testing in place.  They certainly will not have a veterinary nutritionist on staff and research is out of the question for them.  The ingredient quality will be low no matter how the labels compare to other companies foods. Keep in mind the list of ingredients does not equate to quality.

So, if you are looking for a great food to feed “Fluffy”, here’s what you do.  You can take the easy route and ask your veterinarian.  Or, you can do a little homework on your own.  You should be able to call or email any company making pet foods and ask these questions:

     1.    Do you hire veterinarians as nutritionists?

     2.    How often do you run quality assurance testing on the foods you produce?  If they can’t answer that question, it is a clear sign they are not a good company.

     3.    Are any tests done on animals to ensure you are putting in the nutrients in that my pet needs, and are the tests done humanely?

I will share few other pieces of advice.  The rule of thumb that states, “You get what you pay for”, does apply to pet foods.  The cheaper the food is, the more shedding your pet will do, the duller the coat, the more stool you will have to pick up and the more health problems your pet will have over time.  This will lead to more costly veterinary care!  Also, please don’t get caught up in the marketing schemes of “grain free” and “all natural”.  Proven research indicates that our fury friends digest and use grains perfectly.  Period!  The term all natural means nothing more than companies selling more food with that claim on the label.  Remember, rat stool and saw dust is all natural, but it doesn’t mean they have any nutritional value.  That term “all natural” is not defined by the government, so it can mean anything.  By no means does it equate to nutritional value.  It simply sounds good and sells more food. 

Examples of foods by using the shelving system discussed above include, but are not all inclusive:

   1.    Top shelf foods-  Eukanuba, Science Diet, Royal Canin, Fromm and Purina ProPlan

  

   2.    Middle shelf foods-  Iams,  Blue Buffalo, Nature’s Recipe, Natural Balance, and Purina ONE

   3.  Bottom shelf foods- Ol’Roy, Sprout, Gravy Train, Gaines Burgers, and Prince

   For all sorts of great websites on pet nutrition, please click the link below!

   Nutrition information on the Internet 

April is Lyme Disease Prevention in Dogs Month

Lyme Disease is on the Rise

By Ronald G. Biese, DVM

Ronald G. Biese, DVM

 

Ticks have long been a pesky bug, but over the past two to three decades they have become more than an annoyance.   The dreaded deer ticks can carry several organisms that can create significant illness in humans, as well as our furry little friends.  Most people have heard of Lyme disease.  This is a life threatening disease transmitted by deer ticks.  An infective tick will inject Borrelia burgdorferi (the technical name of the organism that causes Lyme disease) organisms into its unsuspecting victim when it takes a blood meal.  This process can take 24-50 hours.  Once the animal has the infection in its body, a few things can happen.  In dogs, 90% of the time the dog will fight the bacteria off and have no issues at all.  The other 10% of the time the dog will develop clinical signs including lameness/stiffness while walking, lethargy, loss of appetite, joint swelling, vomiting, fever, rarely it does cause neurologic sings, and even death.  The organism can affect the joints (most commonly), kidneys or the nervous system.  The clinical signs that are manifested depend on which tissues are affected.  If a dog dies of Lyme disease it most likely destroyed the kidney tissues to the point of kidney failure.  

 Parasite Prevalence Maps

Treatment for Lyme disease in dogs is an antibiotic for 28 days.  The best antibiotic is Doxycycline which has become difficult to get because the human market discontinued making this drug.  Therefore, veterinarians have to have it compounded at a veterinary pharmacy at a higher cost than it used to be.   Treatment is often very effective in curing the dog of the disease.  However, some of these victims will die of kidney failure before treatment can be instituted. 

There is a mysterious fact about this organism.  Through research we know that after treating an animal (even humans), the B. burgdorferi organism can be found in tissues of the animal, especially in the joints.  Scientists do not know why it is still present and what problems may arise from their presence.

Ticks transmit several other organisms like Lyme, but are completely separate organisms.  Many of these can also cause serious illness in our fury friends.  All of the tick-borne diseases are significantly increasing in numbers in our area, and likely throughout the country. 

Prevention is extremely important to help our fury companions stay healthy.  There is a vaccine available to help prevent Lyme disease that is over 90% effective.  This will help prevent the disease if an animal were to get bit by a deer tick.  The other way to prevent illness from tick bites is using a product to keep the ticks off of them.  If the ticks die when they first bite the dog or if they never want to crawl on the dog in the first place, they can’t get any diseases from them.  There are many products on the market that prevent tick attachment or even kill ticks quickly if attached to help prevent Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases.  Ask your veterinarian more about which products work best.