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Fall 2015 SPIRITS KINDRED WASHTENAW VETERINARY HOSPITAL 2729 Packard Rd. Ann Arbor, MI 48108 C E L E B R AT I N G O N E A N OT H E R W V H Fa ce b o o k U p d ate K I N D R E D S P I R I T S C E L E B R AT I N G O N E A N OT H E R Dr. Danskin will be on maternity leave for approximately three months this winter and while she is away, Dr. Eberly will be taking care of all of your pets with the help of Dr. Black on Mondays. appointment well in advance if there is a specific day or time you would like to be seen. However, this means we will only have one veterinarian available each day rather than having two doctors seeing appointments most days of the week. So if your pet is due for an annual exam or regular check up during the winter months we recommend scheduling this In the upcoming months, WVH will be closed for the following holidays: Thanksgiving on November 26th and 27th, Christmas on December 24th and 25th, and New Year’s Day January 1st. We will only be open for half of the day on December 31st for New Year’s Eve. Washtenaw Veterinary Hospital has a new Facebook page! Please “like” our page to see educational information, veterinary related news, and behind-the-scenes photos from around the clinic. We also love to show case our patients so let the WVH team know if you would like your pet’s picture taken for the WVH Facebook page. And make sure you “check in” on Facebook during your pet’s next visit to receive a complimentary toenail trim! loving spaces and provides a floor that is easily sanitized following each patient visit. This keeps the floor looking beautiful as well as decreasing the potential for disease transmission between pets. The new coating has zero VOCs, is slip-resistant, and will last for several years so it is environmentally friendly and safe for you and your pets. Stay tuned for more social media updates coming soon, including Washtenaw Veterinary Hospital Twitter and Instagram pages! Schedule Changes for the Winter Months This is also important if you would like to schedule a routine surgery or dental cleaning as we will only have surgery appointments available one day per week instead of two. WVH Building Updates WVH has made an exciting building maintenance improvement recently! Many of you have already noticed that the floors in the exam rooms are looking a little cleaner and very shiny. This is due to the deep cleaning and new application of a high performance coating material by Shorewood, a local facilities company (www.goshorewood. com). As a veterinary hospital, our floors hold a lot of germs from animal urine, feces, blood, vomit, hair, and all of the dirt and grime that our shoes and our pets’ little paws bring through the doors. Regular cleaning methods aren’t very effective at removing those microscopic contaminants that have made their way into the cracks and crevices of the floor. The high-performance coating serves to seal all of these germ www.wvhcares.com phone: 734.971.5800 Caring Hands for C o m m u n i t y P aw s Washtenaw Veterinary Hospital fax: 734.971.8299 From the Desk of the Doctors: As we say goodbye to the long days of summer and prepare for the colder months ahead, this edition of Kindred Spirits contains some helpful tips to keep your pets happy and healthy through the upcoming winter and holiday season. We also have various updates in our clinic that we are excited to share with you. We are all still enjoying our Halloween candy and before you know it we will also be dining on delicious holiday food but this doesn’t mean that your pets should be sharing in the festivities! Many of our favorite treats this time of year are toxic to our pets so be sure to keep your Halloween candy safely stored away and your holiday food out of reach to prying noses! For more information about common food toxicities, check out the Nutrition Update in this edition of Kindred Spirits. The temperature has already started to drop and stray cats will be seeking warm places to take naps in the coming months. A favorite place for them to hide is under car hoods and in wheel wells. So if you are parked outside, be sure to give your hood a few taps to scare any cats that may be napping under there before turning your car on! And though it seems a lot colder outside the fleas and ticks aren’t gone yet! This time of year external Dr. Danskin and Dr. Eberly parasites are even more likely to jump on board your warm furry pet because they are trying to get out of the chilly environment for the winter. Be sure to continue using your topical flea and tick prevention until we have snow sticking to the ground! If you’ve been into the clinic in the last few weeks you may have heard about (or seen!) some of our updates, including new laboratory machines and recently coated floors. Read more details about these important and exciting changes in this edition of Kindred Spirits. We hope you will all help us welcome Dr. Archie Black to our schedule! Dr. Black will be working on Mondays over the next three months while Dr. Danskin is on maternity leave. He has been practicing veterinary medicine for over 30 years and is a graduate of Michigan State University. Welcome Dr. Black! K I N D R E D S P I R I T S C E L E B R AT I N G O N E A N OT H E R K I N D R E D S P I R I T S C E L E B R AT I N G O N E A N OT H E R The Kitty Corner: Vomiting Cats, what’s normal? For a long time, it was widely accepted that normal cats vomit on a regular basis. Some excuses we’ve used for these cats include eating too fast, having a nervous stomach, or having a lot of hairballs. We’ve accepted that This kitty is feeling really some cats are just “pukey” because sick! chronic vomiting is so common that we called it normal. Consequently, the usual treatment involved changing the diet to something meant for “sensitive stomachs”, hairball control, or a hypoallergenic diet. Often times, these diets will improve the clinical symptoms but we may not get complete resolution of the problem. The truth is that chronic vomiting is never normal and is often an early sign of small intestinal disease in cats. Many people do not realize that the average short haired cat should only have 2-3 hairballs per year and a long haired cat will only have a few more. Recent studies have shown that if any cat is vomiting more than twice per month, it is likely that they have small intestinal disease and should be seen by a veterinarian. Also, normal cats will only chew 20-30% of their dry food and they will swallow the rest of it whole. So if your cat is vomiting after eating, seeing whole kibble in the vomit does not mean they are eating too fast. These cats often have some type of small intestinal disease, which is why simply changing their diet doesn’t completely fix the problem. The Importance of Blood Work So what types of small intestinal diseases are we talking about? The most common causes of chronic vomiting are chronic enteritis, often caused by inflammatory bowel disease, and intestinal lymphoma, which is a type of cancer. Both of these problems cause thickening of the small intestine, which in turn slows motility and decreased absorption of nutrients. When food doesn’t move through the gastrointestinal tract as it should, things get backed up into the stomach and the cat vomits. We also often see these cats losing weight because of the decreased nutrient absorption. The doctors and staff are happy to announce the arrival of brand new in house lab machines at WVH! While we have been able to offer in house blood work in the past, these new machines provide more diagnostic information and are much faster, which means shorter waiting times for you and your pet. We often recommend blood work for our sick patients and the ability to receive fast and reliable results is invaluable. We recommend blood work for various reasons but we use our in house machines most often for pre-surgical patients and sick kids. Pre-surgical testing is recommended prior to any procedure in which your pet will be under general anesthesia. The information we get from these blood tests is helpful even in apparently healthy patients for many reasons including the following: 1. To determine which of our anesthetic medications are safe for your pet. We have many options for anesthetic medication and our doctors will choose which medications are safest for your pet based on their age, physical exam, and pre-surgical blood work results. 2. To identify unseen disease. Even though each surgical patient receives a complete physical exam prior to their procedure, there is the potential for a subclinical disease to be missed without the information from a blood panel. 3. To evaluate your pet’s ability to metabolize the anesthetic medications. Many of the medications we use prior to and during anesthesia are metabolized through the liver or kidneys so knowing how these organs are functioning prior to administering these drugs is very helpful. 4. To provide surgical peace of mind. The majority of patients will have normal test results, which is great because they indicate reduced risk associated with anesthetic procedures. The first step in diagnosing small intestinal disease is a thorough physical exam performed by your veterinarian. At that point they will probably recommend an extensive blood and urine panel to rule out other causes of vomiting, diarrhea, and weight loss. If your kitty has small intestinal disease, the blood work is often normal and the veterinarian may recommend further diagnostics including an ultrasound or intestinal biopsy. Treatment for these diseases is based on how severe the symptoms are in your pet and may include a diet change, vitamin supplementation, antibiotics, or steroid therapy. As with most diseases in animals, the sooner we catch small intestinal disease, the better the outcome for your feline family member. These problems can eventually be fatal so early diagnosis and treatment can significantly improve your kitty’s quality of life and extend their life expectancy. NUTRITION UPDATE: The new blood machines are centrally located in the treatment area of Washtenaw Veterinary Hosptial. 5. To establish healthy baseline values. Many patients will show subtle changes in blood values over time, which would not be caught without the normal values for this individual patient. The blood work that we run on our sick patients are more extensive, providing even more information about the animal’s organ function and often helping us determine the cause of the illness. With our new blood machines we can obtain a lot of information about your pet’s organ function in a timely manner and begin their treatment before they even leave the clinic. With the ability for immediate intervention, we are able to provide faster recoveries for these animals. We recommend that all pets have annual blood work done to monitor trends and check baseline values. Please ask about additional benefits of blood tests at your pet’s next visit! Xylitol is a natural sugar sweetener that is This product is popular because of its sweet Common Toxic Foods and their Effects on our Pets: often found in chewing gum and can cause flavor, low glycemic index, and ability to make a TOXIN: profound hypoglycemia and liver damage product soft and spreadable. While it is a natural in dogs. . In people, xylitol is absorbed sugar, it can be found in many products labeled RESULT: Both of these can cause kidney failure in dogs and cats. Often times animals who eat these foods need to be hospitalized for several days so that they can receive IV fluids and have their kidney function monitored. slowly and has little effect on their glucose “sugar free”. Unfortunately, it is now being used or insulin levels. However, dogs absorb this in several specialty peanut and nut butter brands, TOXIN: substance rapidly, causing a strong insulin including Go Nuts, Hank’s Protein Plus Peanut release and subsequent drop in blood Butter, Krush Nutrition, Nuts n’More, and P28. glucose. If the blood sugar gets too low, This is a potentially dangerous problem for our the dog will die and even a small amount of canine companions since we often use peanut xylitol can be lethal. The first symptom of xylitol toxicity is Wesley is so good about taking his medication in a spoonful of peanut butter. butter as treats or to hide medications. So far, mainstream peanut butter brands haven’t started usually vomiting, which is followed by lethargy and weakness. Some dogs using xylitol but we recommend checking the ingredient list on your favorite may have diarrhea, collapse, or have seizures. Because xylitol is absorbed so type of peanut butter before feeding it to your furry family members. Xylitol is quickly, all exposures should be seen by a veterinarian immediately and early sometimes listed on product lables as Eutrit, Kannit, Newtrol, Xylite, Torch, or intervention will result in the best prognosis. Xyliton and most manufacturers do not place warning labels on their products. Grapes and Raisins Onions and Garlic RESULT:These commonly used human ingredients can cause break down of red blood cells, which leads to anemia. TOXIN: Chocolate and other caffinated foods RESULT: Caffeine can cause vomiting and diarrhea but also acts as a stimulant, causing hyperactivity, seizures, and sometimes death. TOXIN: Fatty foods RESULT: Ingestion of fatty foods, which includes many things humans eat on a daily basis, can cause inflammation of the pancreas (pancreatitis) in dogs and cats. Pancreatitis can be a life threatening problem that often requires hospitalization for supportive care and symptoms include vomiting, diarrhea, and a painful abdomen. TOXIN: Human medications like Tylenol, IB Profen, and Advil RESULT:Even small amounts of these medications can cause gastrointestinal ulceration, liver failure, and kidney failure. Never give your pet a human medication unless specifically instructed by a veterinarian.