pet connection

As everyone here knows, I hit the road last month with my dogs Kyrie and Rawley, to spend the summer in Michigan. Our 2,400 mile trip wasn’t without its challenges, many of them due to the fact that Kyrie, at 12 years old, is not handling stress the way she used to.

In my column today for SFGate.com, I talk about the lessons I learned from our trip, and what dog-owners can do to make travel easier on senior pets:

1. Listen to your dog

The biggest mistake I made was thinking I could set a schedule to exercise, feed, walk and give water to my dogs during our five-day journey across the country.

For example, I had planned to walk Kyrie every two hours, to help keep her from getting stiff in the car. This turned out to be a terrible idea, as she would no sooner get comfy in the back of the car than I was waking her up and dragging her out to stand in a grassy rest area while big rigs whizzed by on the Interstate.

She’d look at me as if to say, “Are you out of your mind? Can I go back to sleep now?”

By the end of the second day, I was keeping a close eye on her restlessness level. If she seemed uncomfortable, we stopped. If she was sleeping happily, we drove.

2. Keep things as familiar as possible

Old dogs do not get over stress as easily as young ones do, and things that Kyrie got over in an hour in her puppyhood can set her back for days now.

That’s why it’s important to bring your dog’s familiar bedding, blankets, food, bowls, treats and toys on your trip, as they help him feel safe, and reduce stress.

Every night when we got to the hotel, I left Kyrie and Rawley in the car with my friend Dawn, who’d come along for the ride and to give me a hand with the dogs. I would make the trek back and forth to the car, lugging dog beds, bowls, food and blankets. It was all worth it, though, to see Kyrie trot into the strange room, take a nice, long drink from her water bowl, then settle down on her orthopedic dog bed with a little sigh.

3. Protect their joints

Eight or 10 hours in a car isn’t good for anyone’s joints, as I learned every time I got out of the car at a gas station. So it’s a good idea to provide memory or orthopedic foam bedding for your senior dog while traveling, instead of a simple dog travel mat.

Like me, Kyrie was extremely stiff when she got out of the car at night, and I’d walk her slowly around the hotel grounds until she’d loosened up a little. This let her settle down more comfortably once we got into our room.

Kyrie spent most of the night on the same memory foam bed that was in the car, but she also got on the bed with me for an hour or two every night. This was a problem because jumping up and down was hard on her — especially down, when she’d usually give a little cry on impact.

I realized that being on the bed was important to her; it kept her close to the most familiar thing of all in her life, me, which she seemed to find comforting. So if I had it to do over again, I’d bring some kind of portable ramp or stairs to help her get up and down safely.

Read more, including the other five tips, here!

Photo: Kyrie on my hotel room bed. I have no idea which state we were in, LOL!

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In 2006, the Sanofi unit of Merial LLC hired Dr. Kari Blaho-Owens to be its global head of pharmacovigilance. She was charged with making sure that Sanofi followed standard practices for procedures and compliance.

There was a good reason she was hired. The FDA had started hearing complaints that HeartGard Plus was not proving as effective as advertised in preventing heartworm. Once she got to work, Dr. Blaho-Owens learned that not only were the allegations true, but that the company had known it since at least 2002 and hadn’t done anything to change the problem. They also hadn’t updated any of their public marketing materials or documentation to alert veterinarians (or end users, for that matter) that the medication wasn’t doing its job, as stipulated by FDA. From Consumer Affairs,

In 2005, the FDA instructed Merial to change its labeling and to stop claiming 100 percent effectiveness and, the suit says, the company agreed to do so but didn’t. In August 2006, the FDA warned Merial that it was in non-compliance.

The FDA repeatedly demanded changes in product labeling. When a class-action lawsuit was initiated in 2009, the company’s U.S. director of regulatory affairs allegedly directed Dr. Blaho-Owens to destroy key documentation. She refused. From Courthouse News:

She says she did not destroy the document, but reported the exchange to Merial’s legal counsel. She says that led Merial to retaliate by putting her on a “performance improvement plan, which cited a ‘lack of understanding of differences in levels of priorities’ between Dr. Blaho-Owens and management.”
She says she was fired after she filed a claim of retaliation with the Labor Department’s OSHA division.

Dr. Blaho-Owens is suing in federal court, asserting Merial “extortionately fired” her, and in so doing violated the whistleblower protection sections of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and is seeking damages. Thanks to Cathy B for the links.

Good dog! Bear is a huge (180 pounds) German Shepherd. He’s a service dog in Parker, County, Texas. His owner suffered a seizure and hit her head, which prompted Bear to go door to door (literally) to get help. From the Star-Telegram,

After being unable to awaken his owner, Bear went to a neighbor’s house and scratched on the door to try to get help, but no one was there, said Karen Kessler, Parker County animal control supervisor, who saw Bear going door-to-door.

Bear went to another neighbor’s house, but that home owner had replaced their fence and the new fence was too high for the dog to jump over, Zeisler said.

Kessler found the dog wandering around in the 100 block of East Cattail Lane in Millsap on Saturday while answering an unrelated call with a co-worker, Kessler said. Or perhaps Bear actually found Kessler.

“Bear just crawled up in my lap while I was sitting in the truck,” Kessler said. “One of his tags said ‘I am a service dog’ and another said ‘I am a seizure dog.’ When we found him we knew there was a problem because service dogs normally don’t leave their people.”

Bear had been adopted from a local shelter a year ago.

The rescue in Bastrop: Dr. Becker, Gina and McKenzie are in Austin, Tex. today on the next-to-last stop of the Big Bus Tour. That makes it a good time to give you the story about a huge rescue from nearby Bastrop County, courtesy of the Austin Humane Society. It’s a cautionary tale about hoarding. I’d caution you that the attached video is tissue-worthy. Thanks to Rori.

Bedbugs are no match for The Nose: There is such a thing as a “bedbug location canine,” and Susan Fox sent me the link to an SFGate article about thirty of them competing for certification in Philadelphia.

How do you lose that many? Los Angeles shelters are having a problem that I would think would be a matter of simple inventory tracking: they keep losing animals. In the course of one year, one shelter (in Lincoln Heights) has allegedly misplaced forty dogs, cats and other animals. Across the system, 64 animals went missing during the year. Brenda Barnette is the general manager of the Los Angeles animal services department, and she was willing to go on the record with the Los Angeles Times.

Although some animals could have been incorrectly listed as missing because of clerical errors, at least some have “wrongly disappeared,” Barnette said. Many of the missing animals were considered “highly adoptable” and officials are trying to determine if any were stolen and sold for a profit.

“They were the young ones, the cute ones,” Barnette said. “They were ones that would have been likely to have been sold or be a nice gift for someone.”

Except in this case, if they were, the authorities couldn’t tell you one way or another. Shelter fail. Thanks again to Susan for the tip.

RIP Edward Gardner: A very sad story from examiner.com:

Edward Gardner loved animals, said his best friend Jim Gollwitzer. He loved them so much that on Memorial Day he pulled his car over on an Illinois interstate and got out to protect a family of ducklings trying to cross. For that act of compassion, after a limousine ran into him, Gardner paid the ultimate price—his life.

Our condolences to Mr. Gardner’s family and loved ones.

Plump kittehs on sale. If you’re near Columbus, Ohio and you want to adopt  a cat, heavier ones are on sale. No really, I read it in boston.com.

And finally,

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

I always like to hear from readers, especially if you have tips, and links for interesting stories. Give me a shout in the comments, or better yet, send me an e-mail.

Photo credit: Heartgard image from ConsumerAffairs.com.

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The Texas Companion Animal Protection Act (CAPA) came to be known as “Hope’s Law” after the tragic saga of a Basset Hound who went through hell in Houston. The last, best chance for Hope’s Law rested on it being granted a hearing by TX Rep. Lois Kolkhorst. She represents the state’s 13th district. In spite of broad and loud calls for support from constituents in her district, across the state and the nation, Rep Kolkhorst didn’t bring the bill up for a hearing. As a result, CAPA is dead. The Houston Animal Shelters Examiner Bett Sundermeyer explains what that will mean.

[K]ill “shelters” in Texas will continue to inhumanely gas animals to death; they will continue killing animals even when rescuers offer to save them; they will continue killing dogs that someone claims looks like a Pit Bull; and the “non-profit” kill shelters will continue to hide their body counts from you and I.

The bill could be revived as soon as the next legislative session. In the future, the Texas State House will need much more vocal support from a broader cross-section of citizens. More importantly, groups such as the Houston SCPCA, the Texas Humane Legislative Network, HSUS and other organizations whose lobbying succeeded in killing the bill will have to either get on board, or at the very least, be convinced to stay on the sidelines. I’d love to say I’m optimistic that’ll happen.

National Dog Bite Prevention Week: Each spring, the U.S. Postal Service is a lead partner in support of National Dog Bite Prevention Week. This year, USPS tells us that sixty-two letter carriers in Houston, Tex. were attacked by dogs in 2010. The rest of the top ten is here. They supply these stats to bring attention to tips on responsible pet ownership. In recent years, the numbers have improved. We’re in the midst of Dog Bite Prevention Week now, and so let’s talk about some wisdom for pet care in families, courtesy of AVMA.

• Be cautious around strange dogs, and treat your own pet with respect. Because children are the most common victims of dog bites, parents and caregivers should:
• NEVER leave a baby or small child alone with a dog.
• Be alert for potentially dangerous situations.
• Teach their children – including toddlers – to be careful around pets. Children must learn not to approach strange dogs or try to pet dogs through fences. Teach children to ask permission from the dog’s owner before petting the dog.

And one more bonus link for you.

One dog policy in Shanghai: Two of China’s largest cities, Beijing and Guangzhou, have set limits of one dog per family. Now Shanghai has joined suit, as Global Post reports. The reason given is a rising problem with rabies, and families often releasing dogs to run wild, creating roving packs of dangerous dogs. That’s creating an urban problem for Chinese officials. Perhaps doing a more thorough job of educating citizens and promoting responsible pet ownership would be more effective than creating arbitrary limits on numbers of pets per family. Sadly, I don’t know how to say that in Chinese.

Service dogs in schools: The widespread acceptance of service animals is becoming well understood throughout society, but this NPR story points out that some school systems are taking a little longer to get the hint.

Homeless pet care: Taking good care of pets can be challenging enough for families who are well off. The challenge becomes much more difficult if you’re homeless. Still, it’s not unusual to hear stories such as the one in this sobering CNN coverage. People who have very little still want to do right by their beloved pets. James, a Portland, Ore. resident, loves his black Lab puppy Bigera.

“Sometimes there’s not enough for the both of us that day,” he said. “But I make sure she always eats. She has to. She’s what keeps me sane out here.”
“Out here” are the streets where James — who asked that his last name not be used — lives with Bigera.
They have been together for a little more than four months. At night they sleep on a doorstep.
As each day ends, James said Bigera runs back to the stoop and lies down as if she knows she’s returning home.
“I wish we didn’t have a doorway,” he said. “I wish we had a house to go into, but it’s what we call home for now.”

Portland’s Pixie Project does its best to support communities, and all those in them, both pets and people. In the Rose City, pets owned by homeless are eligible for free care. Thanks to Mary Cvetan for the tip.

L.A. miracle: A woman in the Compton neighborhood of Los Angeles could have been severely injured or even killed when an SUV driven by an impaired motorist slammed into her kitchen, where she had just been standing moments before. Why she left the room is the surprising part. Read this from our pal Maria Goodavage at Dogster.

Operation Donkey: We’ve chronicled therapy dogs, cats, kangaroos. Today, I bring you Smoke the therapy donkey. Smoke is an Iraqi donkey who was adopted by Marines serving in Anbar Province. From SFGate:

The chest-high donkey’s story begins in the summer of 2008, when he wandered in to Camp Taqaddum west of Fallujah, a former Iraqi air base being used by Marines.

The smoke-colored donkey, which once snatched and ate a cigarette from a careless Marine, soon became such a part of the unit that he received his own care packages and cards. Marines took care of him until 2009 when they left the area, but they turned Smoke over to a sheik who promised to care for him.

But one of the Marines, retired Col. John Folsom, couldn’t forget Smoke.

Folsom used to walk Smoke daily and had formed a bond with the animal. It didn’t seem right that Smoke was left behind, he said in a telephone interview Saturday.

Folsom, the founder of a support group for military families, Wounded Warriors Family Support, decided to see if Smoke could be brought to the United States to serve as a therapy animal.

Thanks to Marge Wright for the Smoke tip.

Whole new definition of geek: Sometimes I find stories and I can’t adequately describe what I’ve found, yet I still want to tell you about them. This is a product that I know you’ll want to rush out and get for yourself or those special loved ones. It’s from geek.com, the product is called Necomimi, and it’s made by a Japanese company called Neurowear. It allegedly works via brain waves.  Please feel free to volunteer for a product review if you’re as fascinated by it as I am.

I always like to hear from readers, especially if you have tips, and links for interesting stories.  Give me a shout in the comments, or better yet, send me an e-mail.

Photo credits: CAPA gravestone, Houston Examiner. Portland screen capture, CNN. Smoke, AP.

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How does one really prepare their home and backyard for a visit by a
215-pound celebrity dog? Fortunately, when the 36-foot tour bus pulled in front of my house recently and out its door lumbered a mellow Great Dane named Brewster, I decided to exhale and simply enjoy this magnificent (and still growing) dog who is on a mission to raise money and awareness to combat cancer in dogs and cats.

Brewster belongs to Sandy Hall, a determined pet cancer awareness advocate from northern California. He is also the nephew of Hall’s previous famous Great Dane named Gibson, deemed the World’s Tallest Dog by the officials from “Guinness Book of World Records.” Gibson stood 42.2 inches high at the shoulders and soared more than 7 feet high when standing on his hind legs. Sadly, Gibson died from osteosarcoma two years ago.

In his memory, Hall is touring the United States with Brewster throughout the entire month of May in hopes of raising $1 million in donations to be made to the Morris Animal Foundation to fund research to find a cure for cancer. The tour is funded by Petco and Blue Buffalo pet food. Back to the backyard, though. The combined weight of my four pets (two cats named Murphy and Zeki and two dogs named Cleo and Chipper) barely tips the scales at 90 pounds. So all of them put together are less than half of Brewster’s weight. Despite being a mere 60 pounds, Chipper, my golden retriever-Husky, needed to do a parallel walk with Brewster and Hall down my street to silence what I refer to “doggy air guitar” and calmly transform into a polite canine host. The mutual side-by-side walk worked.

The biggest surprise meet-and-greet, however, occurred between Brewster and Zeki, my 9-pound Turkish Van mix. I adopted Zeki about a year ago after she survived a brutal knifing as a stray and then endured eye-related health issues in a foster home. She has every right to be a nasty, anti-social feline, but she has yet to meet a stranger, and that includes the many dog visitors who come into my home. Brewster’s only cat experience sparked a swat and hiss from a less-than-welcoming cat, according to Hall.

Zeki, relaxed and cradled in my arms, leaned over to a weary Brewster and delicately touched noses. Size wasn’t an issue for this confident cat. She was more focused on getting turkey treats than fussy about this giant canine in her backyard. Zeki has proven to be an excellent feline ambassador who is always up to meeting people and traveling to new places.

Brewster and Hall will be covering thousands of miles throughout the month of May inside a bus that gets a whopping eight miles to the gallon. I don’t even want to calculate that hefty bill at the pump, but you can’t put a price on the damage cancer causes. Cancer claims about as many dogs and cats at the same rate as people, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association. The Morris Animal Foundation officials drive it home with the sobering statistic that one in every four dogs die of cancer.

May is Pet Cancer Awareness Month. You can help by rounding up your receipts at Petco or making donations online at Pet Cancer Awareness. If you want to learn more about Brewster, billed as the World’s Tallest Puppy (yet to be officially sanctioned by the Guinness guys), just dash over to his site.
Brewster’s arrival drew curious interest from my neighbors, many of
whom were wowed by his towering stature. The most heartfelt response came from my neighbor, Flo Frum. Nearly 87 and possessing the same energy and wit as another senior (Betty White), Flo lost her husband Frank to lung cancer just six months shy of their 60th wedding anniversary six years ago. Her home is now shared by a spirited miniature Schnauzer named Buddy. She eyed Brewster, gave him a big hug, dismissed the drool he deposited on her pant leg and then hugged Hall.

“I hate cancer,” she quietly told Hall. “I love dogs. Thank you for making this trip. I just wish Frank was alive to see it.”

Photo credits: Arden Moore

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Veterinary Practice News reported tonight that Pfizer is pulling its flea and tick preventive, ProMeris for Dogs, from production after it was linked to cases of a serious canine skin infection known as Pemphigus foliaceus (PF).

The findings arose out of a study published in the March issue of Veterinary Dermatology. The study’s lead author, Thierry Olivry, DrVet, PhD, Dipl. ACVD, along with resident Ursula Oberkirchner and pathologist Keith Linder, DVM, PhD, all of North Carolina State University, reported on a Labrador retriever diagnosed with ProMeris-caused PF. From the article in Veterinary Practice News:

“Dogs (in the study) developed lesions in a draping pattern or along the dorsal side after having ProMeris Duo applied,” Olivry says. “Some dogs showed systemic signs that included lethargy, generalized pain and anorexia. In the case of a 7-year-old (spayed) female Labrador, a two-week history of skin lesions and lameness was presented.

“Ten months prior to referral, the dog’s monthly flea and tick prevention was changed from Frontline to PD. The patient received a total of three PD applications, three and five months separating them. One month after the third application of PD, the owner noticed extensive crusting on the application site between the shoulder blades as well as lameness in the left front leg. The dog was examined by the primary care veterinarian, who suspected a tick-borne disease as the cause of this dog’s lameness. Doxycycline was then prescribed.”

Olivry expressed concern that many general practice veterinarians might similarly misdiagnose the patient.

“The patient’s health worsened dramatically over the following days. The dog appeared in pain, she showed lameness of the left front paw and skin lesions had progressed. The veterinarian prescribed prednisone (1 mg/kg twice daily) and tramadol, while a fentanyl patch was applied and doxycycline was continued.

“Only minimal improvement of the lameness and skin lesions was seen with this regimen, and the patient was referred to North Carolina State University.

[....]

Olivry and his team concluded this case with a diagnosis of PTPF.

“The dog returned for a re-evaluation visit the following week,” Olivry says.  “At that time, skin lesions had improved, as there was only minor crusting left in the interscapular region and pinnae. The dog no longer exhibited signs of lameness, and tramadol was discontinued. The dose of prednisolone was tapered progressively over the following 11 days. The disease has remained in remission without any relapse for more than two years.”

For more information, including signs of PF and what to do if you used ProMeris on your dog and she is showing any of them, read the complete story here.

Note: Pfizer is a Pet Connection sponsor.

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