pet connection

In her new “Your Whole Pet” column for the San Francisco Chronicle’s SFGate.com Web site, our Christie Keith reports on veterinary prescriptions, how the marketplace is changing for pet-owners and veterinarians and what it means for all:

Some pet owners believe the reason vets are resistant to the changes is that they don’t want to lose the revenue from drug sales, but that’s an over-simplification of a complex issue. Caught like everyone else in rising costs, a weakening economy and staggering amounts of student and start-up debt, veterinarians are also struggling with the loss of some bedrock revenue streams, including sales of prescription drugs and “vet-only” products.

And just like in human medicine, there are plenty of unscrupulous businesses using the Internet to sell mislabeled, expired and outright fraudulent medications to consumers . Veterinarians worry that their patients won’t get the right drugs or dosages if the pet owner isn’t savvy enough to avoid those sources — something pet owners should be equally worried about.

What’s making this even harder is that today’s veterinarians didn’t create the old system of vet-as-pharmacist; they inherited it. Plenty of them would love to be out from under the burden of maintaining an expensive inventory of drugs. And like the corner drugstore, they frequently have to pay more wholesale for drugs than chain pharmacies charge for them retail, leaving the veterinarians at a sharp disadvantage on pricing.

But pet owners are caught in a squeeze, too. They are affected by the same weakening economy and rising costs, and to add to the problem, increasingly sophisticated — and expensive — veterinary diagnostics and therapies are pushing the ceiling of what can be done for their pets ever-higher.

Because changes are happening so fast, there’s no one-size-fits-all answer to where to get your pet’s medications today. The best source for drugs is going to vary from pet to pet, from veterinarian to veterinarian, and even from day to day. Here’s a guide to help you make your decision.

Here’s the rest.

And by the way, I am safely home from my trip, just a lot tired from all the driving and trying to catch up on everything I left behind — including looming book deadlines.

I live in California, the sunny part. I have never been on a snowmobile. You gotta understand that going in. But what is up with snowmobilers running into sled dog teams? One of the dogs killed in the Iditarod was hit by a snowmobile, and now Iditarod champ Lance Mackey’s Zorro was airlifted in serious condition during a race after Mackey’s sled was slammed into by snowmobilers. From the AP:

A man on a snowmobile ran into Mackey’s team, seriously injuring a key animal in his kennel. Mackey broke down in tears Saturday telling how a veteran race dog, Zorro, was injured as the animal rode in the sled’s basket.

The snowmobile driver has not been identified.

Mackey was in third place in the Sweepstakes around midnight Friday just 20 miles from the finish line when two snowmobiles came up fast from behind.

“I was flashing them like mad with my headlamp,” he said. “I was shining my headlamp right in his face, but they kept on coming at me. I jumped aside, and by 30 feet further up the trail, there was a snow machine sitting on the middle of my sled.”

The machine impaled the sled bag with its runners.

“Three or four dogs were sucked underneath and Zorro was trapped in the sled bag,” Mackey said.

The driver who hit Mackey and his partner on the other machine helped Mackey right the mess, then left as Mackey continued on.

“I would give my life for my dogs,” Mackey said. “I can’t make anyone know how important animals are to me.”

By midday Saturday, Zorro was on a commercial flight to Pet Emergency, a veterinarian facility in Anchorage, for medical treatment. Zorro had broken ribs and perhaps internal injuries.

“If he lives, I don’t think he is going to want to race to Nome again,” Mackey said.

Several other dogs had injuries, but they were not life threatening, Mackey said.

The 9-year-old injured dog has been a star in the teams that won Alaska’s two major long-distance races the last two years.

Here’s the rest. Would it be out of bounds to imagine that — as recreational boaters and jet-skiiers do down here in the warmer climes — snowmobiling is a recreation that often goes with an overindulgence in adult beverages?

C’mon, Zorro. We’re praying for ya!

[Updates are being posted on Lance Mackey’s Web site.)

***

Ben and Emily Huh of Itchmo are one of the handful of people behind the Web sites and Web blogs everyone turned to for information during the pet-food recall last year. Itchmo started out as a blog meant for Seattle-area dog-lovers, and then … things went crazy.

The Huhs have real jobs — Ben is one of the geniuses behind the great ICanHasCheezburger site — and it has been really difficult to keep up Itchmo with all their other responsibilities. Itchmo the Web log is now easing up. From the Huhs, as posted on their forums:

When we first started Itchmo in February 2007, it was just a hobby to share what we were doing with our dog around Seattle. Due to the needs of the Pet Food recalls, it quickly grew into a destination for all of us who needed information, support and each other.

Unfortunately, the time has come for us to put Itchmo on hold as we focus on the parts of our lives that we put on the back burner for the last year.

As a family, we decided that the ItchmoForums are self-sustaining and will continue, however Itchmo will no longer be updated on a regular basis. We were heartbroken over our decision, but it was inevitable as there just isn’t sufficient income to maintain the level of posts that we’d like.

On the other hand, these forums have become a wonderful place for pet-lovers to hang out. We’ll continue to support the forums. We thank all of you for visiting Itchmo, and hope that you will stick around and continue to make the ItchmoForums a wonderful place.

We will not be accepting any donations, if you do wish to make any donations to us, please consider making it to your local shelter.

Sincerely,

The Itchmos: Ben, Emily, Fil and Nemo

Enjoy the break guys, and hope to see you back soon.

***

The “F Word”: That would be “Foxtail.” There are few things in life I can say that I hate with all my heart, and the foxtail would be in the top five. Not that long ago, my retriever McKenzie picked up one in her hip. It took seven months, three surgeries, thousands of dollars and multiple courses of antibiotics to get rid of the thing.

Hate. Hate. Hate. Burn in hell, foxtails.

Over on Lassie Get Help, Luisa shares my feelings, my pain, and much much more.

Dr. Marty Becker — a/k/a my Dad — went to the Big Apple last week to do television and radio. If you missed his appearances on “Good Morning America” and GMA on XM radio (Channel 155) ,you can go to ABCNews.com and take a look or listen. “On Good Morning America” he profiled some of the top new pet products from the Global Pet Expo and was his usual corny self; for example, when profiling a bird stroller (which contained a crow by the way … where was the live bird?) he pretended to be a New York City pigeon elbowing another bird in the wing to draw his attention to a feathered friend traveling not via wing or foot, but in a pimped out bird mobile! I hear you groaning, can you imagine having lived under his wing for 22 years hearing crap like that (no pun intended)!

After GMA, Dr. Daddy — a/k/a “America’s Veterinarian”– taped two segments for ABCNews.com — one on pet obesity, the other on new equipment to make walking dogs safe and easy — and these will show up on ABCNews.com this week. Then it was time for a quick car ride about 10 blocks south to tape two segments for “The Martha Stewart Show.” These two segments, one on tips to give pets meds, the other on household products your veterinarian may ask you to use in an emergency, will air on the Monday, March 24. (Check your local listings for air times.)

If you’ve ever given your own cat a pill in the privacy and sanctity of your own kitchen, imagine Dad’s task for the “tips on giving pets meds” segment, of taking a strange cat, adding in new smells, a dog, dozens of staffers, cameras, microphones, rehearsals, a live studio audience, then meeting up with Martha to do the segment live. If this sounds like a recipe for disaster, it almost was. (more…)

Like many pet journalists, I’ve been working on a piece about the anniversary of the pet food recall. A year ago March 16, Menu Foods began a nationwide recall of “cuts and gravy” style food in cans and pouches. Soon more recalls were issued by other companies and the scope extended to dry foods. By the time it was all over, it had become the largest pet food recall in U. S. history.

One of the people I talked to was nutritionist Marion Nestle, Ph.D. Nestle, best known for her 2006 book What To Eat. She is the Paulette Goddard professor of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University. After writing What To Eat, a guide to shopping the grocery aisles, she decided to turn her attention to pet food, which had received short shrift in the earlier book. To her surprise, she ended up writing two books: Pet Food Politics: The Chihuahua in the Coal Mine (September 2008) and What Pets Eat (2009). Here’s a transcript of our conversation:

KT: Did your interest in the food supply chain as a whole lead you to write about the pet food recall, or do you have pets whose welfare sparked an interest?

Marion Nestle: I did a book a couple of years ago called What To Eat that uses supermarkets as an organizing device for talking about food issues. Supermarkets have this great big aisle devoted to pet foods, and I didn’t say a word about them. I felt very guilty about that. My partner in life is a former animal nutritionist and I thought, ‘You know, this would be a great project for us to do together.’

KT: And then the recall happened… (more…)

When I’m on book deadline, I tend to obsesss about things that are unrelated to the book I am writing. Things like, oh, cleaning out the hall closet, or planting flowers in the hanging baskets on the patio. Things, in other words, that can perfectly well wait for another week or two, but when I’m on book deadline become really, really important to me.

This book deadline, I seem to be obsessed with catching up on all my DogCars.com vehicle reviews. I’m only a dozen or so behind, after all, and it’s not as if I have Something More Pressing To Do. Like finish the book that’s due Monday.

Anyway, in wastingspending time thinking about DogCars.com, which I have been, lots, I realized that we have been horribly, horribly dissed. It’s true: The L.A. Times’ great Pulitzer Prize-winning auto-writer Dan Neil got to drive the new Mini Cooper Clubman before I did. As I write over on the DogCars.com blog:

I may have mentioned a couple thousand times before that I (heart) the L.A. Times autowriter, Dan Neil. I (heart)  him because he writes about cars in a way that has never before been done, a way a non-gearhead can get into, funny, witty and relevant to the lives of people who don’t go to car shows, as in, um, women. I (heart) Dan Neil because he got a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism, previously given only to guys who write about Serious Stuff like Architecture, Ballet and Art, not whether there’s a difference between a “guy car” and a “chick car.”  (Yes, and duh, of course there is. Guy car: Mustang. Chick car: VW Beetle.)

Honestly, having Dan Neil win a Pulitzer gives me hope — dim, dim hope — that someday a syndicated pet-care columnist will win one, too. And that that syndicated pet-care columnist will be me.

That’s why I (heart) Dan Neil.

But right now, I hate Dan Neil, because as the God of All That Is Good About Auto Writing, he got to drive the Mini Cooper Clubman before I have even cast eyes on one in person.

I ask you: Is that right? Is that fair?

Of course not. Because the Mini Cooper Clubman has the look of a serious city DogCar, and I can barely live with my desire to drive one very, very soon. Because a lot of really practical DogCars are — how shall I say this nicely? — dull, and I know that is not the case with the Clubman. I know this, because driving the regular Mini Cooper (along with the Mazda Speed3) last year was just about the most fun I’ve had in a car since I was 17, and Michael Vianni and and I took his Dodge Charger to Folsom Lake and … uh … well now, you just never mind.

Read the rest.