pet connection

So I’m reading this little PR missive that appeared in my SFGate.com email box disguised as a “story idea.” It’s about a brand new “complete and balanced” natural pet food, and it comes fully equipped with science and everything.

First they — and no, I won’t use the brand name; isn’t that just what they want? — tell me that more than half of all San Franciscans feed their dogs and cats “natural pet foods,” a term they don’t define but I presume means “foods marketed with misleading advertising and packaging suggesting that a completely processed diet is somehow, you know, natural.”

Then they post a whole diatribe about how natural foods aren’t necessarily “complete and balanced” and may contain excess nutrients that can cause all kinds of health problems. Scary, yo.

And that’s not all. We pet owners, apparently, are stoopid, because 74 percent of us read labels, and over 66 percent of us believe we understand the labels, and yet, they say:

(O)nly eight percent (8%) of cat owners and five percent (5%) of dog owners knew the proper calcium levels their pets should consume on a daily basis.

In addition, fifty-eight percent (58%) of dog owners and sixty-six percent (66%) of cat owners who read the nutritional label did not know the proper level of sodium their pets should consume on a daily basis.

This is the reason why we need to buy their new product, because they took care of all that hard stuff for us, presumably somehow unlike all the other “natural” foods on the market.

So while I’m looking at this press thingie, the exact same email pops into my inbox again, forwarded this time by my editor.

“What do you think?” she asks me.

“Well,” I said, “this is what I think. Tell me, without looking it up or Googling it or checking anything, do you know how much calcium or sodium you are supposed to consume on a daily basis? Or how much calcium or sodium you do consume? Do you even know, without looking at the bottle, how much calcium is in your supplement? I’m going to guess you don’t. And has your skeleton dissolved recently? Or have you somehow managed to feed yourself for lo, these many decades without knowing those specific numbers right off the top of your head?”

“Okay,” she said agreeably, as most people find to be the most prudent response when they realize my head is about to explode and spew stuff all over them. “We’ll just skip it.”

In other news, as I told you, Gina’s out of town this weekend and she left me in charge, so I’ll be changing the Pet Connection to the Scottish Deerhound Connection. Here’s our new logo… what do you think?

Just don’t tell Gina!

It’s ironic in this day of a pet pill for every ill that so many pet owners — particularly cat owners — have such a hard time actually getting pills into their pets.

Whether it’s for a fractious, finicky cat or a dog who cleverly hides pills under the sofa cushion after appearing to have swallowed them, my column on SFGate.com this week has some helpful tips for getting needed medications into your pets. And the biggest one doesn’t involve any special pill-chucking tools or techniques, either, but something I learned when coping with a sick dog years ago:

When I realized getting those pills into her would be my personal Waterloo, I asked my vet for help. She was able to pop a pill down Scarlett’s throat without the slightest difficulty, but for me, it wasn’t so easy. For one thing, my vet had either her tech or me to hold Scarlett, but my home did not come equipped with a trained veterinary professional, nor indeed anyone except my other pets.

For another, Scarlett started running away from me every time she saw me coming or heard me opening the cupboard where I kept her medication. The thought of spending whatever time she had left in a power struggle didn’t appeal to me at all. So it was back to the vet, where I heard two words that should be music to the ears of every pet owner in America who has ever faced this problem: compounding pharmacy.

Other tips, and more info on compounding pharmacies, here.

Also, Shari Brodsky over on DogHobbyist.com continues, to quote Gina, to “watch The Greatest American Dog so we don’t have to.” You go, Shari! You’re taking the bullet for us all!

How many years of work in canine health research does someone have to have under her belt before she gets a pass from the dog world on belonging to an organization some of us may not like?

Apparently more years than there are stars in the sky, if the recent reaction to a letter to PETA written by Dr. Jean Dodds is any indication.

Dr. Dodds is a regular speaker at dog clubs, including purebred dog clubs. She has assembled three decades of data on canine diseases both genetic and infectious. She operates a canine blood bank, Hemopet, and has published research on vaccination, thyroid disease, and other topics related to hematology. She is famous in the dog world for doing vaccine titer testing at a very reasonable price, as well as thyroid testing, and then getting on the phone with the dog owner to discuss the test results. Believe me, that kind of access is not typical.

Dr. Dodds is certainly no stranger to controversy. Some of her research leads to nothing much more than raised eyebrows among the veterinary community, while in other areas she’s regularly published and quoted even by skeptics. Some vets find her “too alternative” while most alternative vets find her not “holistic” enough. (more…)

Labrador Retrievers have ranked first in American Kennel Club registrations for 17 years straight, so I think it’s probably safe to say that most of us probably know a Lab (hi Kobe and Phoebe!), grew up with a Lab or have a Lab. Breeds with that level of popularity often fall victim to health problems related to poor breeding practices. The Labrador Retriever Club is conducting its first health survey–open to all Lab owners–in more than 10 years, and I recently interviewed veterinarian and LRC health chair Fran Smith about the club’s goals for the survey and Lab health in general.

A health survey is a snapshot of a breed’s physical condition and provides information about the direction the club might want to take in funding health research and improving the breed as a whole. In addition to age at death and cause of death, the LRC is asking owners whether their Labradors have experienced skin or ear problems, seizures, bloat, lameness, ruptured cruciate ligaments, collapse or staggering during exercise, or vision problems. Smith hopes to hear from Jane Q. Labowner as well as John L. Breeder, so she made the survey simple and straightforward.

“It’s been proven with health and behavioral surveys that if they take more than five minutes to complete, people just don’t do them,” Smith says. “It was designed for simplicity and to get very basic information about how long Labradors live and what the people who own them think their problems are.”

So far she’s received just over 1,500 responses–a tiny percentage of the tens of thousands of Labs in the country, but better than the 200 responses to the last health survey a decade ago. The two main problems in the breed, based on survey results, appear to be lameness–from ruptured anterior or cranial cruciate ligaments–and behavior. (more…)

In the last few days, the FDA has banned the use of a human drug in veterinary medicine (at least for food animals), and issued a black box warning — its highest level of alert — about a class of drugs that includes a human drug frequently prescribed in veterinary medicine, one of the most widely used and useful of all veterinary drugs, and a new, widely promoted, veterinary drug, as well.

FDA has ruled that a black box warning must be placed on human drugs in the fluoroquinolone family, which includes the human drug Cipro and the veterinary drugs Baytril (enrofloxacin) and Zeniquin (marbofloxacin), although it does not appear that this warning will be placed on either of those, which are exclusively veterinary drugs:

Fluoroquinolones are associated with an increased risk of tendinitis and tendon rupture. This risk is further increased in those over age 60, in kidney, heart, and lung transplant recipients, and with use of concomitant steroid therapy. Physicians should advise patients, at the first sign of tendon pain, swelling, or inflammation, to stop taking the fluoroquinolone, to avoid exercise and use of the affected area, and to promptly contact their doctor about changing to a non-fluoroquinolone antimicrobial drug.

I’m seeing what I can find out about this risk in animals taking Zeniquin and Baytril, which is sometimes given longterm to dogs and cats who have chronic urinary tract or skin infections. (Marbofloxacin is also given in a cream, combined with prednisone and clotrimazole for topical use; brand name is Aurizon.)

For the time being, I would definitely be very alert to lameness or limb pain in any animal taking Baytril, and contact your veterinarian with any concerns. Be aware that this warning is only one day old, and your pet’s veterinarian may not be aware of it, nor realize that it might apply to Baytril and/or Zeniquin.

FDA also issued a ruling that the cephalosporin class of drugs — which includes Keflex — can no longer be given to animals intended to be used as food (they can still be used on companion animals):

By law, FDA may issue a prohibition order if evidence shows that extralabel use of a drug in food-producing animals has caused, or is likely to cause, a public health risk. In this case, FDA has gathered evidence showing that the extralabel use of cephalosporins in food-producing animals is likely to contribute to the emergence of resistance and compromise human therapies. Given the importance of the cephalosporin class of drugs for treating disease in humans, FDA believes that preserving the effectiveness of such drugs is critical. Therefore, FDA believes it is necessary to take action to limit the extent to which extralabel use of cephalosporins in food-producing animals may be contributing to the emergence of resistant variants.

This ruling goes into effect on October 8, 2008.

UPDATE: I’m thinking that we should assume Baytril at least does have this effect on dogs:

The effects of enrofloxacin on canine tendon cells and chondrocytes proliferation in vitro.
Lim S, Hossain MA, Park J, Choi SH, Kim G.
Laboratory of Veterinary Surgery, College of Veterinary Medicine, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju 361-763, South Korea.

Enrofloxacin, a fluoroquinolone antibiotic has been used widely in humans and domestic animals, including dogs, because of its broad-spectrum activity and relative safety. The side effects of fluoroquinolone, induced tendinopathy, tendonitis, spontaneous tendon rupture and cartilage damage, remain incompletely understood. In the present study, we investigated the in vitro effects of enrofloxacin on cell proliferation and induction of apoptosis in canine Achilles tendon cells and chondrocytes. Cell growth and proliferation after treating with enrofloxacin for 2-6 days was quantified by a colorimetric 2,3-bis(2-methoxy-4-nitro-5-sulfophenyl)-2H-tetrazolium-5-carboxyanilide inner salt (XTT) assay. The results showed that enrofloxacin could inhibit the proliferation of canine tendon cells and chondrocytes at increasing concentrations (10-200 microg/ml). The inhibition of proliferation of canine tendon cells and chondrocytes after exposure to enrofloxacin were associated with induction of apoptosis, as evidenced by the typical nuclear apoptotic condensed nuclei found using Hoechst 33258 staining. It was demonstrated that canine tendon cells and chondrocytes treated with 200 microg/ml enrofloxacin for 4 days exhibited apoptotic features and fragmentation of DNA. Enrofloxacin also increased the apoptosis of canine tendon cells and chondrocytes in a dose and time-dependent manner. The results indicate that enrofloxacin inhibits cell proliferation, induces apoptosis and DNA fragmentation, which might explain enrofloxacin-induced tendinopathy and cartilage damage.

Abstract here.