pet connection

We promised you details about Thursday’s edition of “The Dr. Oz Show,” and here they are. Check your local listings for channel and time.

Our Dr. Marty Becker is a member of Core Team Oz, and on Thursday America’s Veterinarian  and Dr. Oz are sharing information about the diseases your pet has that you can get. They’ll let you know who is most at risk  — the very young or very old, along with the immunosuppressed.

Rather than just talk about the scary stuff that could happen, they’ll offer  preventive solutions that go beyond washing your hands and using a pooper scooper. Did you know that MRSA (methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus) is eight times more likely to occur in homes with cats, and that it can ping-pong back and forth between pets and people? They’ll talk about why that happens. They’ll also provide information about why you shouldn’t let your pet lick you in the mouth (no matter how much fun it is for both of you), why parasite control for the four-footers benefits our health, and skin infections (ringworm anyone?).

And for those of us who forget to do poop patrol at least every other day (we know who we are) Dr. Becker will remind us why that’s important.

Both doctors have a simple solution: Get rid of the risk and keep the pet! We know that the health benefits of having a pet far outweigh the risks.

On Dec. 3, Dr. Becker will be back for another visit to Oz, taping a segment on what to do in a pet health emergency. Pet Connection blogger and Purdue U  vet school emergency and critical care expert Dr. Tony Johnson provided the background to make sure only the latest and greatest information is offered.

We’ll let you know when the next can’t-miss segment will air!

I’ve been asked to discuss my SFGate.com column about Michael Vick and what he did to his dogs on the radio show Live from the Left Coast with Angie Coiro — I guested, along with Marion Nestle, on her show about the most recent Nutro pet food recalls earlier this year — this evening at around 6:40 PM Pacific Time.

You can listen to the show in the San Francisco Bay Area at 960 AM, or on the Internet at www.green960.com.

They also run an open discussion during the show as well, at www.lftlc.com/live.

Hope you can tune in!

Been a bit gloomy around here lately, and truth be told I was thinking of just wallowing in the grief and maybe finishing a book when Jennifer Fearing e-mailed on Saturday with a better idea for Sunday: Attend the Canine Carnival of the Butte Humane Society.

I said no.

But she persevered. She’s an advocate by profession, of course, the top dog and chief lobbyist of the HSUS here in Sacramento.

“Look,” she argued. “It’ll be fun. We can take Faith and Yoda. And get this: The kennel club up there is also involved. We want to get people working together, right? So let’s support this.”

I said no.

Chico is more than an hour away, and it has been very, very hot. And I didn’t much want to be cheered up.

But then she argued that it would be great socialization for puppy Faith. Smart girl, is Jennifer: She know there’s nothing I won’t do for the pets. So we had a plan.

Yes, it was hot. But it was also great fun. Kudos to this great little shelter for trying to unite the dog-lovers of its county for a better life for all animals.

The turn-out was great, both the volunteers and the public. Dogs of all sizes shapes, breeds and mixes mingled happily, and the owners were all smiles. The contest, games and demonstrations were wonderful, and the snow cones were sublime.

Faith, a/k/a FayBee, went as a bee, but it was Yoda who took a prize (second) in the costume contest, dressed as … Yoda! (”If I’d dressed as Princess Leia we would have won,” said the ever-competitive Jennifer, only half in jest.)

In truth it WAS wonderful to see reputable breeders and their breed rescues welcomed as part of the community and the solution at a shelter event — there has been too much venom-spitting from extremists on both sides lately. Instead, the Canine Carnival was welcoming to all, and everyone was feeling great, just enjoying the day, the dogs and the fun.

For me, it was a day well-spent. And nearly 6-month-old HellPuppy Faith– who was a bit of an angel, considering all new things she was dealing with — slept clear though until morning, she was so exhausted. (Maybe those antennae are heavier than they look.)

Here’s the story from the Chico Enterprise-Record.

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Update on the home hospice front: Heather is doing really well right now. We seem to have the pain meds just about perfect. She’s happy to be here, so much so that she even hopped in the kiddie pool on Saturday. And she’s eating! Lucy Postins of Honest Kitchen overnighted me a box of Nuzzles treats and Ice Pups, which Heather loves as a warm broth. Heather will also happily eat: Rotisserie chicken, Merrick’s canned dinners, raw chicken necks, ice cream, melon slices, dandelion greens and Annie’s Bunny Grahams. Yes, the dying dog eats anything she wants, and only what she wants.

Her kiddie-pool dip was a concern because she’s wearing a Fentanyl patch for pain. I didn’t know if the water killed it. But it just so happened I had an interview skedded with Dr. Marc Wosar, a boarded veterinary surgeon with Miami Veterinary Specialists. The interview was for an upcoming article for Parade magazine, but since I had him on the phone, I asked about the patch.

He said to take off the Vetwrap and let the area dry, and then check to see if the patch was well-sealed to the skin. If so, it was still good.

It was, and we left it. It gets changed on schedule tomorrow.

Thanks Dr. Marc!

One of my favorite radio programs, NPR’s “Fresh Air,” is running Animal Week this week. While not quite as gripping as Shark Week on the Discovery Channel, this comes in a close second by a whisker.

They are spotlighting animal related articles and stories, and it’s well worth tuning in.You can find showtimes on www.NPR.org.

I have already heard Temple Grandin (autistic animal advocate and consultant on the construction of animal-oriented slaughterhouses) and journalist Michael Shaffer (author of “One Nation under Dog”). I was late taking my son, Connor, to pre-school because I was having one of those “driveway moments” where I just couldn’t turn off the radio. I have my priorities, and the provision of excellent education to my son is high on the list, but some things just top it all at times. I mean, if the car was on fire, I probably would have just listened to the segment and not the whole show, but hearing how you would actually design a humane slaughterhouse had me riveted.

Michael Shaffer discussed a lot of the pros and cons of dog parks, a subject I am still grappling with. He mentioned that the social interactions between people are an important and beneficial by-product of the dog park phenom.

But, I have a hard time aligning this with the terrible carnage I see come into the ER as a result of dog on dog aggression from dog parks. I know that my perspective is skewed by what I do, and I acknowledge that there are many, many good things that can come of a well-run and cooperative dog park, but I still see so much tragedy come from these places that it is hard for me see the positive side sometimes.

I would encourage anyone with an interest in pets and animal-related issues to give it a listen.

“So,” Gina said yesterday, “You should do a post about Twitter, and all the Pet Connection people who are on it, and suggest some great pet feeds. And ask our readers if they’re on it, and to recommend feeds we should be following.”

And because I am if nothing Gina’s loyal servant (oh fine, laugh at me; I can take it), here is my Twitter post.

Yes, it’s true, I’m on Twitter. I’m on Twitter a scary lot, actually, and you can find me here.

Gina’s there, too, tweeting as “PetConnection.” Pet Connection bloggers Kim Campbell Thornton and Dr. Tony Johnson are there as well, as is Susan Tripp, although she hasn’t updated lately. We’d all love to see our readers following us, and while I can’t speak for the rest, I’ll definitely follow you back!

If you aren’t into Twitter yet, you might not really understand what it’s good for, or why you might like it. I see it as a big bulletin board where people throw out little notes about news stories that interest them — from the latest FDA recalls to breaking news from the Veterinary Information Network News Service to developments in the animal sheltering world from Maddie’s Fund, Petfinder, Nathan Winograd, and hundreds of shelters and rescue groups — from the Pennsylvania SPCA, which recently brought the Twitterlicious Sue Cosby on board as director, to Oregon’s Cat Adoption Team and Austin’s Heart of Texas Lab Rescue.

The big animal welfare organizations are there — Best Friends, HSUS and ASPCA among them — and so are innovative new social media-savvy folks like Start Seeing Black Dogs and AnimalWise Radio. I, along with a few other people, tweet for PetHobbyist.com. Pet Connection BFFs Therese Kopiwoda of PetSitUSA and Dr. Patty Khuly are there, too.

Some organizations tweet only rarely, and always impersonally; certainly these updates can be interesting and useful, but two institutional feeds manage to be interesting and personal at the same time. The American Animal Hospital Association’s Helping Pets group, which gives grants to people to help pay for veterinary care for their animals, and AboutVetMed, both of whom have fantastic social media “voices” and share a lot of information that’s both useful and heartwarming.

If you’re on Twitter, post a link or your username in the comments, and please recommend your favorite feeds, too!