Coronavirus and your pet — what you need to know

/ Dr. Christine McFadden / Leave a comment

For many of us, our everyday lives have changed dramatically, suddenly, as the coronavirus pandemic has swept the world, crossing continents, invading communities large and small.

Although there are hundreds of existing coronaviruses in humans and animals, this brand-new “novel” coronavirus has never been seen before and has proven to be highly contagious among humans.

It is only natural that people question if their dogs and cats are also at risk. Diseases spread from animals to people are called “zoonotic.”

At this time there are no confirmed reports of pets becoming sick with COVID-19 in the United States. There is no information that suggests dogs or cats might be a source of infection to people.

What can you, as a pet owner, do in the face of a potential crisis in your own home? What if you, the owner, tests positive? Worse, what if you become severely ill?

SUGGESTIONS TO PREPARE YOUR HOUSE AND PETS

In case you might need to be home-quarantined, please keep at least two weeks of pet food and your pets’ medication(s) on hand at home.

Veterinarians are essential workers and most clinics are open to help you. Call your veterinarian if you need advance medication.

Should you test positive, have arrangements in place to limit your contact with your pet(s) just as you would limit contact with other family members. It is recommended that you not pet, kiss, hug, or share food with your pet during your quarantine period.

If you have a service animal (please refer to CDC guidelines for definition of service animals) or you, yourself, must care for your pets, please wear a cloth face covering and try to minimize contact, washing your hands well before and after pet contact.

You should not share any dishes, drinking glasses, towels, clothing or bedding with your pets during this time.

The coronavirus is primarily spread from an infected person’s bodily fluids, like saliva or mucous when they cough or sneeze.

Secondary transmission is possible if you touch a countertop or surface that is moist with infected sneeze or cough droplets. A smooth, nonporous surface like a countertop transmits better than a porous and fibrous surface like pet fur.

Again, at this time, per the CDC, there is no evidence that companion animal pets can spread the coronavirus to people. Pets are an important part of our lives and give joy and comfort, especially during a time of home isolation.

There is no reason, at the moment, to remove pets from a coronavirus positive house unless the owner becomes too sick to care for the pet and no other family member is available.

Should the owner be unable to care for a pet, and has no family to take it in, then the community will need to step in to help. Contact your veterinarian, a local Humane Animal group or your local Animal Shelter for service under these extreme circumstances.

CAN PETS TEST POSITIVE FOR CORONAVIRUS?

Despite the global cases of 2.1 million people being infected with the coronavirus as of April 17, at this time the AVMA is only aware of four animals worldwide testing positive : two dogs and one cat in Hong Kong, and a tiger in New York.

We do know in the case of the two dogs and housecat in Hong Kong, the pets lived in very close contact with a positive ill owner.

New York City’s Bronx Zoo had a Malayan tiger present with a cough and tested positive for the virus. A total of seven big cats in the collection had mild coughs. All recovered. They were not each tested because that required anesthetizing each animal, wherein the risks outweighed the benefits.

In this case the tigers’ caretaker was discovered to be asymptomatically positive and was shedding the virus. No other big cat in the collection was affected.

This has been an isolated incident, and it’s still under investigation.

Keep in mind, the domestic house cat is not a mini-tiger.

All of the house pets were asymptomatic. At this time, there is no evidence that house pets can spread the coronavirus to people and no pets or livestock have become ill with COVID-19 in the U.S. .

Please take appropriate steps to ensure your pets are safe and cared for during this time.

In the meantime, you can stay up to date on the coronavirus by following the American Veterinary Medical Association news online or reviewing the information on-site from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

with a long distance, virtual hug,
Dr. Mc

Christine McFadden holds a license to practice veterinary medicine and surgery. She has cared for the family pets of Merced at Valley Animal Hospital for more than 30 years.

Rabies didn’t die with Old Yeller — and the disease is endemic to Merced

/ Dr. Christine McFadden / Leave a comment

I’m going to talk about something scary today.

Not an alien life form but a very real live virus called rabies. Rabies didn’t die out with Old Yeller — it is still very much with us, and definitely present in the wildlife of Merced County.

They map where the rabid animals were discovered, watching for “hot spots” of possible contagion in the wildlife. Positive rabid bats and skunks have been identified, often after a dog or cat has carried it into the house or killed it.

In fact, Merced is considered an endemic area for the disease. We have positive cases every year. In the 30 plus years I have lived and worked here, I have watched both the Public Health Department and Animal Control cooperate to monitor rabies-positive cases turned in to the county.

But what about the animals that just quietly die in the wild, that may be carriers of the disease? This, of course, is how it is spread.

Rabies virus enters the body through a direct bite or contact with the mucous membranes like the eyes, mouth and nose. Once there, it slowly spreads into the nervous system, eventually reaching the brain.

There is no cure for the disease at this point. In fact, only because the virus multiplies and spreads so slowly is it possible for post-exposure immunization to work and save human lives.

Rabies is diagnosed after the brain of the suspect animal has been inspected. There is no way to diagnose the disease in a living patient.

HIGH NUMBER OF CASES

California is considered to have a high incidence of cases — over 400 cases in wildlife reported annually. Skunks and bats are the most frequent wildlife involved, but other carnivores like raccoons, foxes, coyotes and bobcats are often positive.

Each year one or two cases of human rabies is reported in the United States. Since 2002, 21 of 24 reported human rabies cases in the US were linked to bats, per the Center for Disease Control (CDC).

On July 24, 2013 a young girl was bitten by a rabid bat at the Oakland Zoo — it was not an exhibit animal, just local wildlife. She received post-exposure immunization and is fine.

Easter in Bakersfield, California of 2012 was grim for the family whose pet cat bit their child, after it contracted rabies from area bats.

In June 2011, an 8 year old girl from Willow Creek, California actually survived the disease after intensive treatment at UC Davis’s Childrens Hospital. She is only the third person in the U.S. to survive rabies without receiving the post-bite immunizations.

Most people die or become seriously disabled. In countries where vaccination vigilance is not as high as the United States, rabies is a serious threat : 60,000 people die from this entirely preventable disease every year.

Three “islands” are isolated enough to have no rabies : Hawaii, England and Australia. Traveling with pets to these places is a complicated process as they strive to remain rabies free, protecting people and their indigenous or native wildlife from sure death.

VACCINATION IS KEY TO PREVENTION

Because wildlife cannot be vaccinated against Rabies, your first line of defense is to vaccinate your pets — the carnivores at highest risk of coming in contact with wildlife.

All dogs and cats should be vaccinated against rabies. And you should never approach wildlife, especially when they seem sick.

If your dog or cat is bitten by a bat or suspect carnivore that isn’t available for brain examination it is presumed exposed to a rabid animal. If the bat or skunk is confirmed positive and rabid and the dog or cat is not current with rabies vaccination protection it may be recommended that it be immediately destroyed.

If the pet is current on vaccination, by law it will still be isolated for anywhere from 10 days to 6 months, depending on the individual circumstances of the case.

If a human is bitten, whether it be a pet or a stray dog or cat, or any wildlife, it should immediately be reported to a physician.

If the animal is available, it will be quarantined or its’ brain will be examined to check for rabies. The type of bite, animal involved, vaccination history and other factors will determine the recommendations made by your physician and public health authorities.

This is where your money for those darned rabies licenses go. This is what it’s all about.

The message : Vaccinate your pets against rabies. It’s the law — and it’s a good one!

Christine McFadden holds a license to practice veterinary medicine and surgery. She has cared for the family pets of Merced at Valley Animal Hospital for more than 30 years. Send questions or comments to drmc@mcmenagerie.com

Doggie Dental hygiene

/ Dr. Christine McFadden / Leave a comment

February is National Dental Month in the veterinary world.

Are we pushing for whiteners and brighteners, hoping to put a Hollywood-worthy smile on every doggie face? Nope, the hype is really about health.

It’s pretty amazing we don’t see more problems within our pets’ mouths. People brush two minutes at least twice a day, then there’s flossing and mouth wash.

Yet, people still get cavities that lead to fillings and abscesses that lead to root canals, crowns and crooked teeth that require braces.

Dogs can’t do any of that on their own. Still, for some reason we’re surprised when their teeth rot and their mouth is full of mossy brown teeth. “Doggie breath” is not a cute, endearing term. The funk of some dog’s breath will make you want to vomit.

Now, imagine your pet having live with that.

Not surprisingly, brushing your pets’ teeth daily is the gold standard of dental care for veterinary patients. What does come as a surprise is that even the most devoted client is frustrated and gives up after one or two attempts.

It takes years to get small children to brush their teeth — why are your expectations so high when it comes to your pet?

This is what I recommend to owners pursuing happiness in the pet dental field (directed to dog owners. Cats are, indeed, a different animal).

STEPS FOR TOOTH BRUSHING

Begin by choosing a toothpaste meant for dogs. Meat flavored, not mint. Something the dog likes. Do not expect the toothpaste to have suds and foam like yours. That is a product of detergents, which if swallowed by the dog could upset a sensitive stomach. Some may contain fluoride, a natural bacteriostatic ingredient.

Step One : Place a smidgeon of toothpaste on your finger and call your dog to you, with a happy phrase like “Tooth time!” Gently hold the dog’s head, rub the toothpaste quickly on the dogs front teeth, praise your dog and let it go.

The next day, preferably about the same time, repeat.

After a few days, your dog will probably be telling you that it’s “tooth time.”

Step Two : Once your dog is bouncing up for that daily tooth treat, extend the time by rubbing the toothpaste over the teeth and gums. Go as long as your pet stands still. Once your dog squirms, praise and release. Work your way up gradually until you are finger brushing the entire mouth. Small additional amounts of toothpaste may be used. This is not a meal!

Step Three: It may have taken weeks or even months to get to this point, but once your dog has accepted finger brushing, you return to square one. Get an infant toothbrush, one that is soft and small or large enough to fit your dog’s mouth comfortably. Place a small amount of toothpaste on the toothbrush and gently wipe it on the front teeth. Praise and release your pet. Gradually extend the brushing time until you are able to fully brush all the teeth in your pet’s mouth.

The end goal is not how fast you can teach your dog, but how thoroughly you accomplish the task.

It really doesn’t matter if it takes a couple of months to enjoy a successful Tooth Time together. It is a job well done and can make all the difference in the world to your dog’s oral health. Rotten teeth are painful.

Throughout the years I have had clients tell me their pet act years younger once they’ve undergone dental work, with healthy teeth cleaned and infected teeth removed.

And if you still aren’t feeling motivated, I hear there is a song about brushing your teeth set to the tune of “Jingle Bells”.

I’ll bet watching you sing that to your dog would put a smile on their doggie face.

(You can post those sing a long videos of you and your pet on my Facebook page!)

Christine McFadden holds a license to practice veterinary medicine and surgery. She has cared for the family pets of Merced at Valley Animal Hospital for more than 30 years. Send questions or comments to drmc@mcmenagerie.com

Cheese Whiz

/ Dr. Christine McFadden / Leave a comment

So I was visiting with a friend when she decided it was time to pill her dog.  This was something new for her and she had questions. “What should I put the pill in?” She’d used peanut butter once before when she gave her dog some medicine. I shrugged. That’s ok. Told her I use bread with my dogs. Bread is something I usually have on hand, it’s cheap, and makes disgusting balls to mold around things like pills. My dogs would crawl through fire for a crust of bread. She opened her fridge (maybe she was out of peanut butter?) and called back from within its depths : “what about cheese?” “Sure”, I said.  She extracted herself from the refrigerator, bringing two slices of cheese with her. Pre-sliced orange cheese. Gotcha. Least it wasn’t in a can (and yes, I ate cheese whiz from a can growing up. Still here). Then she selected one slice and began to wrap up the pill. Sure seemed to be taking a while. The dog was starting to drool and I was my usual impatient self so I reached across to just mush it up, for heaven’s sake, no need to be dainty. In my expert hands the cheese completely crumbled and fell away from the pill. I stared. “What kind of cheese IS this?” I asked suspiciously. She glanced over at me. “Tillamook.” Tillamook? I reeled. Tillamook is some serious cheese. What happened to American Kraft? Where was the CAN, man? This was uncharted territory. Done trying to make silly putty out of real cheese, I simply reached down, opened her dogs’ mouth and pushed the pill and cheese crumbles in, letting the dog lick the last crumbs off my palm.
Real cheese, what a crazy idea. Invalidated my entire childhood’s culinary experiences! 

I Am The Cheese Dog

‘This is brand name organic right Karen?’

Sigh. Isn’t that the darndest thing? But I actually do find myself giving all sorts of recommendations on how to deliver medication to a pet. For many of my clients it’s fairly simple : they have a time tested treat that they can hide medication within and especially with the larger breeds of dogs and any garbage hound, down the hatch it goes. Medicine is a treat. For little dogs and those with pushed in faces and cats and birds and turtles and coyotes it can be surprisingly difficult to actually deliver the medication to its intended patient. Think about it. The brachycephalic breeds of dogs (Pugs, Bostons, Bulldogs) have all the body parts of a regular dog, just compressed into about 20% of the space. There’s no extra room in their mouth and they choke and turn blue if you try to get anything past them. Little dogs suffer from Napoleon Complex – they bite you if you try to force something on them. They know the Alligator Roll, too.

 

Cats? Hoo-boy, cats. We carry one medication for cats stocked in four forms: a tiny tablet, a chewable “gourmed” form, as a liquid and finally as a topical “transdermal” preparation. Yikes. Cat owners in particular are warned not to “dry pill” their cat, meaning do NOT shove a pill down your cat’s throat and forget about it. The pill or capsule may stick partway down, lodging in the folds of the esophagus. Without food or liquid to carry it down to the stomach, the medication may adhere and cause serious inflammation.  Most people have experienced the feeling at least once and don’t wish to repeat it. That’s why we swallow our meds with a glass of water. Esophagitis can affect a cats ability to swallow and in extreme cases lead to strictures or scar tissue in the esophagus. I often recommend that people be prepared to follow a pill with a syringe of warm water. This also helps cleanse the mouth of any aftertaste, making the experience more palatable (very helpful if you must repeat the medication in a few hours!). Feeding canned food afterwards is also effective. Many owners purchase special treats, some with a pocket to house the medication, to pill their pets.  Since medication in some form is almost inevitable for most dogs and cats, keep that in mind during training. Stay ahead of the game. And just to keep the record straight, the only cheese I eat out of a can these days has the word “Nacho” emblazoned across it. 

 

Christine B. McFadden, DVM

drmc@mcmenagerie.com 

Little Old Ladies

/ Dr. Christine McFadden / Leave a comment

She was a little old lady, short and round as a dumpling. She energetically grabbed her dog from the exam table and tipped him onto his paws. You’d never have guessed her age except for the grey hair. Her dog found his footing and waited expectantly by her feet. “I’ve got to go”, she declared, “I have to decorate the Hall for my sister’s 50th wedding anniversary.” Wow, I marveled, that’s something! A blaze of blue eyes flashed at me. “It’s a pain in the-you-know-what” she said. “My 50th was 2 years ago and every day I wake up and wonder if we’re going to make it.”  She gave me a saucy grin and danced out the door, her dog following her in adoration. I stared after them open-mouthed. Awesome woman.

People and pets share their lives with me. It’s a jumble and a jungle out there, and hanging on to these moments builds a life. On a long work day, I spend more awake time with fellow staff than I do with my family. 

When I’d first started out in town I struggled to put my textbook medical knowledge together with my patient’s needs. My focus was on the animals and I learned their names first. This fact appalled me the day I rounded a clothing carousel at a local store and came face to face with a client. The woman looked up, a smile starting and then fading as I blurted out “Beau!” – not her name at all, but her dogs. Good grief! I worked harder to learn BOTH their names in future but don’t test me on that one. Over the years my brain often refuses to let go of the first impression, the pet we bonded over who is now deceased, so that I continue to call the next dog, or worse, the third or fourth pet that follows, by the original dog’s name. My staff cringes at these mistakes, occasionally alarmed as they search for other signs of dementia. There’s Zoie’s Mom. Oh, she has another dog now. Mrs. R is 87 years old. Last year she took a trip to China with her daughter. Next year they’re thinking of Australia. Zoie was a 10 pound black miniature poodle who had epilepsy and the sweetest disposition you could ask for. Her new dog is 3 years old, but she will always be the “new” dog. When we get together we talk more about Zoie. The new dog is very healthy and we don’t have twelve years of medical battles fought and won to look back upon with her. 

And I have fond memories of the family matriarch, in her 90’s, who put out condensed milk for her cats every day. They were all terribly obese. She confided to me once that if they turned up their nose at a can of food she’d just open another flavor. Sometimes, she said, there would be as many as 7 cans lined up along her porch. I marveled at the ability of our pets to train us. She took in many neighborhood strays and it pleased her to spoil them. She laughed at my dietary advice. Condensed milk had seen her into her 90’s and I wasn’t going to convince her otherwise.  She gave me a chocolate colored blanket she’d hand crocheted. I have it yet.

old ladydog-walking-4426782.jpg

It was a little old lady who taught me about the bluing older woman used to take the grey out of their hair and make it lustrous white. True, sometimes it turned their hair a delicate blue. This invaluable knowledge helped me make white poodles whiter. 

I’ll be a little old lady someday. I’ll hoard cats and keep too large of a dog and goodness knows what other kinds of critters. I plan to wear purple with a red hat and act up just like those women in the Red Hat Society, because I love the poem by Jenny Joseph. And to all the older women who have shared their pets and their lives with me, thank you for enriching my days and just for being you.

 

Christine B. McFadden, DVM

drmc@mcmenagerie.com

Molly and the Spider Plant

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It was Molly who reminded me. Molly is an English Springer Spaniel. Her soft, silky black ears make it irresistible to gently pull them. Her owner was bewailing the fate of her garden, as young Molly had developed a fascination for a particular potted spider plant. She sought my advice.

MollyandtheSpiderPlant

My mind went drifting back to my third Irish Wolfhound, named Shredder. ( You can see photos of Shredder and I on my Facebook Page) If there can be karma in the name you give your dog then he was blessed with boatloads of karma. He lived up to his name. The glue on envelopes fascinated him, and given his size, no kitchen counter was safe for the deposition of mail. He took what he pleased and to this day I blame him for receiving a 5 day cut-off notice from the electricity people. He’s the only dog I’ve ever had who actually did eat the children’s homework. No one laughed. But the real pain in the neck was his attitude towards a tiny potted lemon tree I had started on the back patio. One morning, as I made my garden rounds, I noticed that the tree was a little crooked. Doubtless the dirt was settling, so I carefully righted it, tamping the soil down gently at the base. A few days later I noted it was tilted again. Puzzled, I again returned it to its proper position. As the days passed, I began to realize a pattern here, namely that the tree was being knocked sideways again and again. I was righting it on a daily basis! And then I caught him, Shredder, with a lemon leaf in his mouth, grinning happily, tail wagging. Such fun! Sigh.

So I moved the plant. Nope. Now, as a veterinarian, I had lots of training for behavioral problems. This was drummed into us students as very important, because poor animal behavior can lead straight to the Pound. I became annoyed. I staked the tree with a bamboo stake. Apparently this was not deemed fair play by the dog and next morning I found the tree completely sideways, a branch broken. I righted it. He knocked it sideways. Finally I took metal rebar, settled the tree more deeply in the pot, and firmly staked the trunk every few inches. Satisfied that I had prevailed, I went to bed.

The following morning the lemon tree was nowhere to be seen. When it was no longer fun, Shredder had simply removed the entire plant and shredded it. Who says dogs don’t have a sense of humor?

I did not share this story with Molly and her owner. I wanted them to have confidence in my advice. But when next I saw her, Molly had become truly devious. She not only enjoyed her spider plant but had branched out to include ALL the potted plants. I understood her owner’s angst. I wished I had a fabulous know-it-all answer. There are special Behaviorists in the field of veterinary medicine. They listen for hours to your problems and have reams of questionnaires to fill out. They have many inventive cures to modify and “cure” your dog of his or her behavioral problems. Most of them involve owner intensive time: “Take your dog for a 5 mile walk twice a day, he’ll be tired out and have less energy”(me, too); “Tell him no! sharply every time he goes near your plant, then distract him with a fun activity” (but I needed to run to the grocery store, I won’t be home to distract him); “Use the dimes or rocks-in-the–tin-can method” (but first, how do you really securely seal the thing and second, my aim REALLY is that poor – ouch!). Somehow, behaviorists always have the answers and most of it involves time that most of us don’t have – or the dog wouldn’t be doing it to begin with, right? Fence either your dog or your plants in (expensive! Not attractive!).

In the end, I wanted to tell her to dump the spider plants and try roses. It’s karma. You see, one of the meanings associated with the name “Molly” is “rebellion”. They should have looked it up first.

Christine B. McFadden, DVM

drmc@mcmenagerie.com

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Ronda and the Very Bad Paw

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It was late in the day when the Animal Control Officer from the City of Merced Police Department brought us a stray cat that was in trouble. This service is provided to injured stray animals in the City, and it is up to us to determine if they can be helped or, sometimes, to help end their suffering. This little grey cat weighed in at 7 pounds and had a left front paw mildly swollen from what appeared to be a bite wound. She was running a fever, almost 104 degrees F, but was purring and in general seemed very happy to have been found. We shaved her wound; the paw didn’t look too bad. We could help her.

Under anesthesia I opened the abscess so that the pus could drain out, using a sterilized rubber band to act as a seton or drain to keep the tiny wound open for healing; otherwise it might close up too quickly, sealing bacteria inside and the abscess would not resolve. The cat was temporarily named “Ronda” by the staff, given an antibiotic injection and some subcutaneous fluids for her fever and placed in a cage with her own comfy blanket.

End of story, yes? I moved on to other patients, leaving the daily nursing to our extremely capable nursing staff. When no one claimed Ronda after several days, we approached the local Rescue Group, New Beginnings For Merced County Animals, to ask if they might be able to find a home for her. They agreed to take her in. New Beginnings was founded over 11 years ago by a remarkable local woman, Sharon Lohman. The non-profit organization works with over 70 volunteers and pet Foster parents to find homes and care for well over 5,000 dogs and cats each year. It is estimated that they have saved the lives of up to 75% of the dogs who enter our local shelters.

Well, Ronda’s story didn’t end with that first minor surgery. Her swollen paw didn’t respond to treatment. Irritating. Abscesses like this just aren’t that medically challenging. I threw a second, high powered antibiotic at her, and added twice daily foot soaks in antibacterial wash. Kindergarten medicine! Open an abscess up, drain it, and voila, they practically heal themselves! Ronda, however, hadn’t read that medical bulletin. Pus was leaking around the drain, but her paw wasn’t healing. We tested her for the feline leukemia/FELV and feline aids/ FIV viruses, in case Ronda was immunosuppressed. She tested negative for both (and people CANNOT get HIV or AIDs from cats).

Eight days after she had been admitted, Ronda was still there, her paw enormous! We took x-rays, looking for signs of abnormal bone tissue, maybe a sliver of metal acting as a foreign object. Zilch. Normal. I was worried that Rescue wouldn’t take her. (They do a lot of fundraisers, but sometimes it comes down to “do you want THIS animal, or will helping 5 others be better?”). Now we were discussing amputating her front leg to save her life. I was furious with that paw. Because of the progression, I was certain that I was dealing with an anaerobic bacteria, one that didn’t require oxygen to grow. These bacteria can be difficult to kill. I asked for the weekend, and told Ronda she had one last chance.

I took her to surgery again. Knowing that I had to expose all possible tissue to oxygen, leaving no place for bacteria to hide, I literally dug through each toe, around each pad. I placed two ¼ inch penrose drains (don’t ask me how) in that tiny paw. I added on an antibiotic better known for fighting anaerobic infections and we all sat back and held our breath. In 48 hours her paw was fine. Ronda kept her leg, healed quickly from that point on and went to her new home. Lesson re-learned: Never assume.

Christine B. McFadden, DVM

drmc@mcmenagerie.com

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Missy and Hypoglycemia

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She was so small that her big sister was a Beanie Baby. She’d been sold straight from a cardboard box in the parking lot of a Big Box store. Her owners were entranced from the moment her fluffy 1 ½ pound body hit their hands. The sellers were short on details like birthdates. We guessed her to be 2 months old? She was christened Missy, her basic exam checked out, and she had her first vaccination before they took her home.

The roller coaster ride had begun. Sadly, Missy had already been exposed to Parvo virus. Parvo is dreaded throughout our Valley, as we seem to see a lot of this viral disease in young, usually unvaccinated dogs. With no immunity, they fall ill, exhibiting extreme vomiting and a watery bloody diarrhea. The virus further attacks their body by dropping their white cell count, so they can’t fight off the infection. Many puppies die from the disease. Supportive therapy in-hospital with intravenous fluids and medication provide life support while their body recovers. It’s a puppy’s best chance to survive. Missy was sick so quickly we knew that she had been incubating the disease when she was brought in and the vaccine wouldn’t have had time to provide protection. (The vaccine itself does not cause the disease) Further complicating matters was her very small size. She had no body fat to speak of. Placing an intravenous catheter in her threadlike leg vein was a miracle. And like many tiny, tiny puppies she couldn’t keep her blood sugar up without constant eating – and Missy couldn’t keep anything down. If her blood glucose levels plummeted she might faint, seizure or even die. To counteract this, we added dextrose to her IV fluid drip. And then we worried about overloading her tiny body with fluids or we might flood her heart! We have an IV syringe pump that carefully meters each drop to these most extremely small of all patients.

Missy was a fighter. She gamely held on and after four days Missy turned around and successfully fought off parvo. Hurrah! But within days it became obvious that Missy’s body couldn’t regulate her blood sugar levels on it’s own. She would appear dazed and weak at home for no obvious reason. I had to explain that Missy couldn’t waste a mouthful on treats – many treats are high in sugar (check the labels for corn syrup, dextrose, sugar beets, etc) and just as with diabetics, it gives a quick sugar high and then just as quickly dips back down. The dangerous Sugar Rollercoaster. Don’t take that ride! Missy needed to eat dog food, with protein, fat, slow-release complex carbohydrates (carbs are the sugars in food) and the calcium, vitamins and minerals a growing puppy needs. For several days she had to be fed every two hours, including at least once during the night. We expected her to outgrow this…. but when?

Missy’s body did learn to self-regulate. She grew to over 4 pounds. She finished her series of puppy shots and had no further health set-backs. We set the date for her ovariohysterectomy /spay for 8 months of age, when I could reevaluate her teeth – tiny dogs often have delayed dental eruption (they are slow to lose their baby teeth) and if retained, the baby teeth will crowd the adult teeth, trapping food particles and eventually rot out both teeth! It is so much easier on the puppy to remove these excess baby teeth under the same anesthesia they undergo for their spay / neuter surgery. We schedule the surgery when the adult teeth have come in. The big day came. We checked Missy’s blood sugar before surgery. Normal. We checked her teeth – she had retained three deciduous canine (fang) teeth. We extracted them. Hurrah!

Monitors beeping calmly, we proceeded to spay Missy. She acted like a completely normal patient, recovering beautifully. Hurrah! Postoperative blood glucose tests were all normal. Another hurrah! I don’t know if her little feet ever touch the ground (spoiled by love), but in addition to all the other miracles, Missy is a superb outgoing doggie friend to everyone she meets. Hurrah!


Christine B. McFadden, DVM
drmc@mcmenagerie.com

Hysterical Clients

/ Dr. Christine McFadden / 1 Comment

Who said veterinary medicine wasn’t fun?

There’s the man who got out of jail (he didn’t say why- either for going in or getting out) and came home to find his dog sick. This enraged him. We know this because he brought the dog to us (he was passing by, thought he’d drop in) and he was very thorough in his explanations to us of society’s injustices, particularly that he might have to take financial responsibility for his pet. We couldn’t diagnose the illness without a blood test – and magic wands are out of date, though I kept one on my desk for years. We’ve kept statues of the Virgin Mary, Buddha, dice, and a crystal ball. We do not turn our nose up at anything that might intervene on behalf of our patients. In the science-based world of medicine we have seen miracles – but we have also seen cases where the pet should have lived, by all rights, but died. In the end, we fall back upon diagnostic tests because they do just that: they help us to diagnose your pet’s illness, to unlock the pieces of the medical mystery so that we may help the patient.


This man was very angry. The time spent in jail seemed not to have been used for self-reflection or internal contemplation. It seemed unlikely that he read poetry. We thought we should focus on the dog. We weren’t entirely sure he could focus well enough to drive. He had no interest in paying to care for his dog nor did he wish to surrender it to a Rescue group. So he left. Only to return a half hour later, which we noticed immediately because his car was sideswiped as he drove in to the parking lot. While he was waiting for the police to show up (to investigate the accident) he surrendered the dog to Rescue. Post-script : dog did great.

And I fondly recall Crack-A-Nose. Her name alone kinda gives you a heads-up, yes? A pitbull, she had a huge pink mass of doughnut-shaped tissue protruding from her vulva. Bigger than your fist. It was very dramatic. This dog had a condition called vaginal hyperplasia, or swollen vaginal tissue. It is not a true prolapse of the vagina nor a cancerous tumor. It occurs when a female dog has been in heat, producing high amounts of estrogen. The swollen tissue will shrink back to normal size when the estrogen hormone has declined – and the fastest, most effective and permanent cure for that is to recommend an ovariohysterectomy or spay. I explained all of this to her owner, a young woman who was rail thin with blond hair, beautiful, a little twitchy. The young woman pulled a fistful of hundred dollar bills out of her bag. She requested that I perform whatever services were required and informed me that she would pay in full right then. I agreed to her terms and performed surgery successfully that night. I figure the dog must’ve been a great guard dog for some very important stash, oops, stuff.

Now stop me if I’ve told you this one before. This was when I worked in a small office off Highway 59, still called “J” street back then. I remember the skirt I was wearing because it was the last time I’d ever wear it. It was quiet, around lunchtime. A man in his twenties came in. He announced that his dog had been run over by a mower. I was nearby and nodded, told him to bring the dog in. Occasionally you see an overactive puppy bouncing around a lawn mower and accidentally getting a toe clipped. Not very serious. He stared at me. But he’s bleeding, he said. I nodded again. This was to be expected. Please bring him in.

And he did. Only he hadn’t been talking about some little push mower, he meant a tractor hay/disc mower (the tractor weighs over a half ton) and it had practically amputated the dogs’ leg, so the “bleeding” he’d mentioned was an enormous spraying jet of blood from the severed femoral artery. The dog was going to bleed out – I was surprised it hadn’t died already. I stepped in with a pair of hemostats to stop the gushing fountain and got lucky. I completed the amputation in a sterile surgery and the dog lived. But my clothes were history.

Christine B. McFadden, DVM

drmc@mcmenagerie.com

The Raw Movement

/ Dr. Christine McFadden / Leave a comment

There has been a call for us to return to the simpler life, back towards the days when all things were more “natural”. Sounds healthier, yes? “Natural equals healthy” they shout. Raw milk for the family and raw meat for the dog. Ummmmmm. Not always. I myself am happy to be the beneficiary of many scientific discoveries. Let’s take a look.

In 1928, Penicillin, the first true antibiotic, was discovered. An antibiotic is a medicine that destroys bacteria and other microorganisms (germs). Prior to that, the average life expectancy for a person was around 48 years of age. Before antibiotics people and animals often died from infection. Childbirth, surgery, and many diseases were often a death sentence because of the attendant infection. In the year 2019, the average person may expect to live until they are 80 years of age. Why the change? In large part, because of the decrease in deaths from infectious diseases. Antibiotics, Vaccinations, Disinfectants and Sterilization, improved hygiene. Thank you, research scientists!

In 1950 over half the American population lived on farms. Over the next 20 years farms and the multi-party line telephone would disappear as young people moved to the cities and family farms consolidated into mega-businesses. Suburbia was born. Also in flux was how we viewed and cared for our pets. There are fewer working dogs today, and their work has evolved from livestock assistance on the farm into service roles, stepping in to assist people with physical or emotional disabilities. Dogs and cats are recognized for the vital role they play in our everyday lives. We want to care for them the very best that we can, and how we feed them has come under scrutiny as we question our own diet.

It’s true that wolves, foxes and other wild canidae eat raw meat. The average life expectancy of a wolf in the wild is 6-8 years. In captivity, a wolf may live 16-18 years. A wild fox may live 2-5 years; captive, 14 years. Wildlife face a host of “natural” hardships: starvation, infection from contagious diseases (no vaccinations!), infection from wounds and parasites. This is life at its most natural. Most pet dog breeds have been domesticated for centuries. Most can expect to live 10-15 years.

It’s interesting to me that the raw food which people purchase to feed their dog is still a processed food (unless you’ve farmed and slaughtered the meat yourself), susceptible to all the bacterial infections they’re supposed to be trying to avoid.  Raw meat can be contaminated by listeria, salmonella, E Coli, campylobacter and more. What is interesting is that the proponents of RAW claim healthier coats or more energy – not a longer life or true overall health. One on-line site stated that a benefit to feeding a raw diet was that you had total control of what was included in your dog’s food – laughable! We are all aware of the food recalls for both human and animal products : listeria in cheese, E coli in spinach, campylobacter in chicken, salmonella and listeria in commercial raw dog foods.

The truth is : Bacteria aren’t going away. Like us, they fight for survival. They mutate and re-form and will turn up again and again. The Center for Disease Control (CDC), our national public health institute in Atlanta, Georgia, has a battalion of researchers and scientists that follow disease trends throughout the United States and around the world. They’re work is to safeguard us – sometimes from ourselves.

When a client requests advice on what to feed their pets I have a stock answer : Go with the tried and true. Go with a company that has been making pet food for decades, with decades of investment into research of breed needs, life stage requirements, and years of following pets to monitor their health, making any necessary adjustments to their foods along the way. They have invested their livelihood in formulating foods to help your pet to thrive. Often there are a variety of choices within each brand, with ingredient modification to meet the financial abilities of the buyer while still providing decent nutrition for the pet. Bon appetit!

Christine B. McFadden, DVM

drmc@mcmenagerie.com