Speaker 1: You were listening to Petlifradio dot com.
Speaker 2: Well, good afternoon.
Speaker 3: Everyone, and welcome to our show. You are on live
with doctor Jeff Werber. That's me here ask the vets
with doctor Jeff here on pet Life Radio and we
are live.
Speaker 2: So we can answer your questions. You can give us
a call. It's so easy to get a hold of us.
Speaker 3: Eight seven seven three eight five eight eight eight two
once again eight seven seven three eight five eight eight
eight two. You can also send us send me a
quick note to Dr Jeff. That's doctor Jeff at petlifradio
dot com.
Speaker 2: Or you can just click on.
Speaker 3: If you're following us online, is a little box right
there at the bottom. Just start typing in join us.
It says click here to join the conversation. So why
don't you click there and join our conversation. So we
are here for you. We're trying to make life with
your pets even better, and I know it's hard to
believe it can't even be better than it is, and
hopefully it's fantastic already. But the goal here is to
answer your questions, help you out with your problems. Anything
you really wanted to know but maybe you were afraid
to ask your veterinarian, or maybe it was just too
expensive to go to your veterinarian just to ask a
few simple things. So that's what you got me for
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Speaker 2: So you know, it's great stuff.
Speaker 3: You know, something happened to me yesterday and I got
to thinking, and I would love to hear from you.
I'd like to, you know, hear what your even your
veterinarian would do. And that issue was this that I
get later in the day. I'm just about to leave
the office. I'm trying to take it easy because I,
like an idiot, was out snowboarding last weekend and I
ended up kind of hitting a patch of ice on
the wrong spot and went down, and the way I
tried to break my fall, which probably wasn't the brightest
thing in the world, I ended up cracking a rib.
Speaker 2: So I'm trying to take it easy.
Speaker 3: It hurts when I laugh, and I'm trying not to laugh,
and for me, that's a challenge. So I've been trying
to get out of here like on time so I
can kind of rest. And one of my clients comes
in and here's the scenario, and it happens way too often.
Speaker 2: What would you do?
Speaker 3: She sees this dog walking the streets in not such
a great area but not bad, but there was a
lot of traffic, two major thoroughfares coming together. The dog
looked like it was wandering, so she gets out of
her car and it was a big chocolate labrador and
she realizes as she's watching it, the dog doesn't appear
to be able to see, and sure enough she catches
his dog. It is sweet as can be, finds her
face cards, giving her kisses on the face, and in
fact is blind, a blind lab So she brings it
to the office. We're officially closed already, but we were
all there and we checked for a microchip. Of course,
no microchip.
Speaker 2: The dog is probably six to seven, maybe even eight
years of age.
Speaker 3: Was an actually pretty darn good shape. I mean it
was the coat was a little dirty, found some foxtails
on the coat, a little cyst on the foot. But
I mean this dog, as you're examining and checking out,
he is just giving licks. So a really sweet dog
and as one would expect, sadly no ID, no microchip,
no collar, no nothing.
Speaker 2: So now what I.
Speaker 3: Mean you can't You can't let the dog back on
the street, are you kidding? Certainly be hit by car.
Dog can't see, sweet as can be. And the situation is,
it is very challenging because most of the I mean,
if you take this dog tor shelter, six seven year
old blind labrador, unless you have a no kill shelter,
I mean, let's face it, it's probably gonna get put down.
I have to assume that the dog was in good
enough condition that it was not wandering the streets because
for a long time, because if it were, it wouldn't
be alive, because there's no way with this dog can't see.
So I'm assuming it belonged to somebody, that somebody didn't
care to put an ID tag on it or microchip,
their dog, which is a problem. And if you call
one of the rescue groups, and we have a lot
of great rescues, and I'm sure most cities have wonderful
rescue groups, what's going to happen. Well, they're going to say, oh,
we'd love to help you. We can maybe do our
adoption fares on the weekend, but we have no place
for the dog.
Speaker 2: So now what so, I mean, where do you think
the dog is? Now?
Speaker 3: Right now, the dog is in my hospital and the
woman who found the dog is trying to to put
some posters up and talk to some people in the neighborhood.
Speaker 2: I mean, this is a it's a.
Speaker 3: Pretty good sized chocolate labrador, so I mean, it's not
like it fell through the cracks, And I just curious
to know what would you do? Would you pick it up?
Would you take it in? Would you take it to
a shelter? Would you try to raise money to at
least cover some costs of housing the dog? I mean,
what I told her is that I'll certainly work with her,
and we give great rescue rates to cover the cost
of housing the dog. And I would I have some
empty KDE space, so I would be the quote unquote
foster family until they can find somebody. But what's the
fate of this dog really going to be? And what's
the best way to approach it, what's the best way
to handle it? And how many of you have your
friends or veterinarians that they know that will be willing
or able, just space wise to provide an electra cade
space while they try to put all this together. So
it is, you know, it's a very challenging scenario because
you feel badly. I can't you know, I can't not
do anything. I would hope that most veterinarians are not
going to sit back and say, oh, sorry, it's not
not my problem. So once you drop me a note,
give me a call at eight seven seven three eight
five eight eight A two. I want to hear what
you have to say. Eight seven seven three eight five
eight eight A two live with doctor Jeff and tell
me what would you do? What would you think your
veterinarian would do? And by the way, anyone who might
know anybody who might provide a temporary home for this
fantastic sweet labrador who just unfortunately can't see it would
be terrific.
Speaker 2: Another thing that.
Speaker 3: I uh, while I'm waiting for your questions and your
phone calls.
Speaker 2: I want to hear from you.
Speaker 3: I also I got a call from a person, a
random person, and they actually listened to the show and
they heard me on the show, and that a dog
who it's sort of like an age old question.
Speaker 2: Their dog has been doing a lot of.
Speaker 3: Licking, licking on everything, including licking him, and the dog is.
Speaker 2: Not typically a liquor, he says.
Speaker 3: And he noticed that every time we would let the
dog outside, the dog would try to vomit. It would
go and eat, and then he would often vomit. And
his question to me was, do dogs eat grass so
it will make them vomit? Do they actually know that
if I eat this grass now, fifteen twenty minutes, half
hour later, whatever it's going to be, I'm gonna throw up.
In other words, it is my vehicle through which to
induce vomiting, so I can hopefully vomit up that which
is causing my irritation, nausea, etc. And I have my
take on it. I'm just curious to know what people think.
Do dogs eat grass to make them vomit?
Speaker 2: To make themselves vomit? Do they truly know that? It?
Speaker 3: Very often will make them vomit, and if so, how
they learn who taught them.
Speaker 2: I'm just curious to know what you think. I have
my theory and.
Speaker 3: We're gonna check that theory out in a little bit.
But let me first give you some time to get
back to me here on pet Life Radio.
Speaker 2: And it's easy. You can just send me a.
Speaker 3: Little note, doctor Chef at Petlife radio dot com or
call me live. I'm right here at one o'clock Pacific time,
four o'clock Eastern time at eight seven seven three eight
five eight eight eight two. I am here today, here
next Thursday, but off tomorrow morning four Orlando to the
North American Veterinnight Conference.
Speaker 2: This sort of starts the year. It's our first conference of.
Speaker 3: The year and we go literally practically back to back
to back. We have a big one coming up next
month in Las Vegas, the Western Veterinaright Conference.
Speaker 2: Then we have March we have.
Speaker 3: The American Animal Hospital Association meeting, and I have the
pet Expo, the Global pet Expo because of pet products,
and that's a huge one back in Orlando, and then
in May I'll be in.
Speaker 2: DC for the Central Veteright Conference called.
Speaker 3: The CVC East, where I'll be speaking there, and so
a lot going on. And anyway, North American in Orlando
a great, great show, arguably you know, the largest day.
There's alway that battle between the North American Veteran Conference
every January in Orlando and the Western Veterinary Conference every
February in Vegas, which is bigger. I guess we're bosed
down to is where would people rather go in January
and February? And do they want to go to Orlando?
So a lot of times with Orlando will get a
lot of the families, you know, younger events coming with
the kids.
Speaker 2: And then in Vegas in February, it's.
Speaker 3: People trying to get away from their families and they
want to go to Vegas and maybe do a do
a little gambling, maybe make some money out of the thing.
You know, talk about a great way to write off
you not only get to write off the trip, but
hopefully you come back with you more than you left with.
But they're both fantastic conferences, world class speakers, and there's
really really you know, a lot, a lot to learn,
a lot to go through. And the venues are fantastic.
We're going to be at the Gaylord and at the
Marriotte World Center. What's so amazing about this show used
to always beat the Marriotte, and as it grew, it got,
you know, and bigger, And the Gaylord is a you know,
was a relatively newer hotel and they had a huge, huge,
beautiful exhibit hall. It was better suited for the enormity
of this conference. And then they started but it got
so big that they actually needed the lecture halls in
both locations. And now it's gotten so big that they
are using the original exhibit hall as a second exhibit hall.
So this show is in two hotels, each with their
own exhibit hall.
Speaker 2: The exhibit halls are huge.
Speaker 3: The Gaylord is the main and then there's sort of
the annex. But interestingly, talking to a lot of the vendors,
they prefer the smaller exhibit hall at the original hotel,
the Marriott, because it's less overwhelming, so people that go
through are actually willing to spend a little more time.
And then there are a lot of large companies that
have booze it both halls. Now that's how crazy and
how large this show is. I don't know, it's something
like when you think of everybody combined, it's something like
fifteen thousand people converging in our It's just amazing. So anyway,
now that's a great show. So once again, I want
to hear from you. I want to hear what you
think about animals, dogs, especially eating grass in order to vomit.
Speaker 2: Eight seven seven three eight five eight eight eighty two.
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Speaker 2: Well, welcome back. You're here with doctor Jeff live at
pet Life Radio.
Speaker 3: Astebets with Dotor Jeff and before the break, talking about
first while I'm off to a Lando Too Big conference,
but I got a phone call, you know, earlier, and
we were the guy. We were talking about a dog
who was going outside to eat grass, kept licking his
lips and the question was, and the question still is,
when dogs eat grass, do they know it's going to
make them vomit? Are they eating grass because it's going
to make them vomit and they want to vomit?
Speaker 2: What is the deal?
Speaker 3: How much credit do we give the dogs? Here's my theory,
mind you, this is my theory only, and I would
love to hear from you or others who want to
give us their theories or discuss this, so please feel
free got me at eight seven seven three eight five
eight eight A two or while I'm sitting here online, I.
Speaker 2: Have my computer open.
Speaker 3: You can click at the bottom of that big box
here on our page ask the bets with doctor Jeff,
and it says right here click here to join the
conversation and just type in what you think, and that
is here at petlife radio dot com. Now here is
my theory. Let's talk about, first of all, the issue
of the licking. Licking frequently sometimes swallowing with a little
more difficulty. We call it hard swallowing. Those are signs
of nausea, no doubt. Those are signs. The dogs that
seem to be nauseous, that seem to want to vomit
will often do so. Clearly, this dog's probably nauseous, possibly
wanting to vomit. So the owner lets the dog outside.
The dog goes outside and starts chowing down on grass.
So now the big question was he chowing down in
the grass because he wanted to vomit. We know something
from behavior and it's called avoidance therapy, and it works
like this. If a dog eats something that is going
to cause them to vomit, typically within ten minutes, when
given the option to eat that again, they will avoid it.
They don't like the idea of vomiting. So therefore, when
they eat something that they make the direct association that
it's going to make them vomit, they often will avoid
it next time. So understanding avoidant's therapy right there tells
me that very likely when dogs run out and eat grass,
they are not doing it to make them vomiting, because
if they knew it was going to make them vomit,
they probably wouldn't eat the grass because they don't like
the vomiting. Now, what about grass, though, here's my theory.
Speaker 2: I think that.
Speaker 3: Well, first of all, if you have ever munched on grass,
grass especially, you know a lot of grasses are actually sweet.
The taste of chlorophyll can be a little soothing. And
when dogs eat grass, they usually don't vomit for at
least fifteen to twenty minutes later. I mean, rarely do
they eat it and vomit right away. So because it's
had to sit there. It's like any kind of leafy
vegetable things that might make them vomit. It's not a toxin,
it doesn't's not something that's a gastric irritant. The problem
is it sits there and they can't digest it. It
doesn't it often doesn't pass through, and then all of
a sudden it'll make them vomit. Well, if it's over
the ten minutes or whatever. Now the dog no longer
makes the association that the reason he's vomiting is from
that which he something eight. Because it's been too long now,
he doesn't remember or link the two together, the eating
the grass and the vomiting. So the voidant therapy concept
is forget about out the window. So I personally believe
that dogs eat grass because they like it. It does
soothe them if they have a little upset stomach and
if they're a little nauseous, and they will continue to
do it. And when it does or if it does
make them vomit, they don't put the two and two together,
and they don't realize that it was because of the
grass that they vomited. They got the quick fix from
the grass, they got the sweet taste, they got the moisture.
It sues them a little bit, and that's why they
eat the grass. So that's my take on it. I
am so curious to hear what you think and any
of you behavior people out there, if you want to
come and throw your two cents in, I would love
to hear it. And that is at eight seven seven
three eight five eight eight A two and you can,
as they said, you can throw me your two cents in.
So also last week we talked about the insane cold
weather throughout our country, of course, except La where it
was eighty four yesterday and I knew people going to
the beach or I understand in South Florida it's in
the seventies and nice and mild, so a few places
in this country that are rather fortunate. But how has
it been. I would like to know how the rest
of the country has been faring.
Speaker 2: I would hope.
Speaker 3: That come that it's not still fifty degrees below zero
in Minneapolis or twenty degrees below zero with wind chilled
down in Chicago. So I would like, you know, it's
another good reason to give us a call or send
me a note and let me know. Are you guys
faring any better?
Speaker 2: How your pets did? Do they do? Okay? A are
they you know? Have you changed your lifestyle?
Speaker 3: That's really really what's important to know and to share
with some of our other listeners. Does it change their lifestyle?
Did you change their lifestyle? Have they adapted for the
hopefully less time they're spending outside alone given the fact
that it is, it's still pretty cold.
Speaker 2: Out there, So you know, what do you do? What
would you do?
Speaker 3: And I think that would be a nice thing to know.
And I still haven't heard from anybody, what is going
on with what you or your vets? What would you
do you find a stray dog running on the street,
and you know now what, You're gonna bring it into
your vet, You're gonna take it in, You're gonna pay
for it. You have friends that would help you raise
some money. Do you know some rescue groups that have room?
What would you do for any dog lover out there?
That's something that you will be faced with at some point.
We have a dog in today. One of our rescue
groups literally found this guy beating literally terribly. She said
she was ready to run the guy over with her car.
She said, I'd probably have to bail her out of jail,
but she literally scared this guy away. And the guy
was kicking this down dog as shepherd.
Speaker 2: And the dog is here now with us. He is
so sweet.
Speaker 3: He was in so much pain from being kicked in
the rump and his hips and his tail that when
you touched it back there he would start to cry.
That is just unbelieve to me this day and age,
that there are people out there that would even consider
abusing a dog like that, and that is just terrible.
But anyway, this dog is we're calling him for a
lack of a better name, right now Jack And uh
so we're gonna clean him up a little bit. He's
got a bad leg and this dog is going to
the rescue group has been They took some video.
Speaker 2: They posted a video on this dog.
Speaker 3: And when this video is available, this dog will get
adopted in like two seconds because a sweetest can be
and be when you see what this poor dog had
been through, you would love to provide a home for
a dog like this. I mean it's badly as this
dog was treated and is untrusting as this dog should be.
Speaker 2: He still wants to cuddle up.
Speaker 3: And when you stick your nose in your face in
his face, he just wants to just rubing into you
and cuddle.
Speaker 2: It is unbelievable. And this is this is really sweet. Oh.
Speaker 3: Another thing, this is very rare, but you know, we've
learned so much about another a condition that's an old condition.
Are used to be called FUS feline eurologic syndrome. We've
re've named it FLUTD. A little bit more specific to
the problem called feline lower urinary tract disease.
Speaker 2: And this was a much more of a problem.
Speaker 3: Oh twenty years ago when we knew less about felines,
their diets, what makes them create or developed crystals and stones,
and how much less we knew then than we do
now about the prevention through diet, through fresh water, through
eliminating stress, etc. So therefore the problem of the severely
blocked cat, and by that I mean they get like
a urethral plug or crystal or stone that, especially in
the males, that creates the situation where they cannot urinate.
And we often had to do a surgery of old
that was a called a PU, a peroneal yourthrostomy to
open up the males lumbing like to be that of
a female. Opening up make the urethra a bit wider, larger,
so the crystals and the sludge can flow through more easily.
And we don't have to do that very often anymore,
I have. How weird is it? Two cats, both very
good size, large orange males, sitting in cages side by side,
Both came in within two days of each other blocked. Fortunately,
both doing well.
Speaker 2: We're going to.
Speaker 3: Probably avoid the PU surgery we've already avoided on one.
We did have to go in and take a stone
out of the bladder. The other one is doing great
pull the catheter. So far urinating freely, but there are
a lot of new factors that we have to talk
to owners about and you should know that that stress, anxiety,
water intake, exercise, diet all play major roles. And the
fact that the male plumbing at the narrow tip of
the penis is much narrower than the female the vaginal
opening up the urethra. Male and female cats seem to
suffer from flutd equally. It's the male that typically has
the problem simply because of the narrower urethra at the end,
causing a lot more difficulty trying to pass this sludge.
But we used to think that the issue is minerals
or ash content. That is a way over simplification. It's
not necessarily the ash, it's the pH that the urine
is left with the breakdown of these minerals, and certain
mineral salts that leave the urine basic are more dangerous
than the salts that leave the urine more acidic because
in an acid urine environment, stones and crystals seem not
to form. So check with your veterinarian, check about diet,
and it's maybe stay away from some of a lot
of dry foods. I mean, some dry food is fine,
but always check with your vata, especially if your cat,
especially if your male cat has been having problems, what
you can do at home to help minimize the problems
of feline lower urinary tract disease. So, anyway, once again,
in our half hour is running away from us. I
I'd love to see you call this this week. Send
me an email to doctor Jeff at doctor Jeff dot com.
That's Drjeff at Drjeff dot com or Drjeff at petlife
radio dot com and kind of let me know what
you think about this whole vomiting thing and eating grass
and if all is well, and we will hopefully see
you back here next week at the cards to give
us a call eight seven seven three eight five eight
eight eight two and I will report back to you
when I return from the North American Venterne conference next Thursday.
Speaker 1: See you then, Let's talk pets every week on demand
only on Petlife Radio dot com