Speaker 1: You were listening to Petlifradio dot com.
Speaker 2: Well, well, well, welcome to another edition of as the
Best with Doctor Jeff and I am your host, doctor
Jeff Weerber, here with you for the next thirty minutes
here on pet Life Radio. And just wanted to of
course thank our sponsors. You know, last week we were
not live because actually I was in Orlando at the
Global Pet Expo. I was actually there with our producer
and the boss man at pet Life Radio, Mark Winter,
along with Megan Blake.
Speaker 3: We had a great.
Speaker 2: Time and a lot of fun stuff, a lot of
things going on at the big trade show.
Speaker 3: This is the biggest trade show.
Speaker 2: And it's so weird from a veterinarian perspective, being at
the two big veterinary shows January and February, the North
American Vet Conference in Orlando, and then February the Western
Veterinary Conference in Vegas, and now back to Orlando for
the big Global Pet Expo. But it was a really
good show, a lot of energy. The good news is
the pet industry is alive and well. The place was packed,
a lot of big vendors, everybody there showing off their wares,
their new products.
Speaker 3: It was really a great show.
Speaker 2: I was there with our sponsor show sponsor, Prosens pro
Sense Pet Products. Also, I want to thank Pet Health
Network and we have a new kind of sponsor helping
us out and seeing the value of what we do
here on Pet Life Radio, and that is Kong Kong.
So when we get callers who get the guts to
call in a question about their pet or email me
a question that I read live on air, the Kong
is going to send out a free Kong toy and
those aren't cheap, so that's a really great thing. So
you get free device, lots of information and a pro
Sense and or a Kung toy just for calling in
here to ask the vets with doctor Jeff on Pet
Life Radio. That is a great deal. And to find
pro Sense products just you can go to our local
Walmart retailer target. A lot of the big retailers are
carrying pro Sense and those are phenomenal products for you.
You know, you'll learn a lot when you go to
these shows. And one of the things that we learn
a lot are the inconsistencies inaccuracies as far as Internet
and these stories on the Internet. I had a client
come in to get some medication, a fleet preventive, a
parasite preventative, and a heartwarm preventative.
Speaker 3: And there's a.
Speaker 2: Couple of products out there that are will do all
of them. And I recommended one of them, and it
happened to be a product by Elenko Lily culture.
Speaker 3: I affects this I just you know, I did.
Speaker 2: I don't like the mess of the spot on, so
I've been using that on my dogs, and so she
buys it on my recommendation, and then she comes in
next day, which was this morning, to tell me that
this product, Doctor Werber, did you know that this product
has killed over seven hundred dogs?
Speaker 3: I'm going, oh, really, you know, it's amazing.
Speaker 2: You realize let's for a second, just for one split second,
if in fact a product was responsible for seven hundred
dog deaths, don't you think you would have heard about
it without searching it down. Don't you think Elanko Lily,
which is a huge product. I mean, Alanko Lily is
the veterinary division of Lily Eli Lilly in company. We're
talking one of the most major pharmacyal companies in the country.
It is, It's up there with the big players, don't
you think with seven hundred animals being killed by a product,
that this product would already be off the shelves and
they'd be researching and finding out what happened.
Speaker 3: I said, it is nonsense.
Speaker 2: There was a story, oh, a couple of months ago,
maybe even longer, maybe six months ago, and a woman
calls her local news station, I believe Atlanta, to complain
that this medication that she put her dogs on killed
her dogs, and the story was going to go live
on the news. And so what happened was the company
decided to pay for two independent veterinary schools to do
a complete autopsy what we call a neee cropsy on
these dogs. And they didn't give them much history at all.
All they said is here these two dogs. They're deceased
fairly sudden death. Could you do your magic and see
what you got. Two independent veterinary pathology departments at two
major US veterinary schools came up with the exact same diagnosis.
Pretty interesting, huh and not surprising. I'm kind of being facetious.
And what was the exact same diagnosis? These dogs had
any disease called and they were siblings, they were related
cardio myopathy. So this is not caused by a medication.
This is a heart condition that these dogs are usually
born with, especially in this breed, and it had nothing
to do with the medication that what's interesting is the
newscaster or the reporter who was taking on this story,
who was doing his quote unquote investigative reporting, he knew
he got the results from these two independent, very very
impressive major veterinary school departments of pathology indicating that these
deaths were not related to anything but an underlying cardiac defect.
And guess what, wouldn't you know it? News is news.
They love these sensational life stories. They ran the story anyway.
So I told this client, there is no way my
dogs personally have been on this product for several years
without incidents. I've scripted it out to hundreds and one
hundreds of dogs, and other than maybe a little vomiting
with the first dose, I had zero, zero problems. So
I always caution you that the internet is a great
source of information, as they often say, it's even a
greater source of misinformation, and therefore just proceed with caution.
When you think something you know, look into it and
you know it's like there's a website. I think it's
called Snopes that when you hear these crazy facts and
you say to yourself, that sounds too weird, there's a
website you can go on to and a lot of
these things are fiction.
Speaker 3: It's not fact. They become viral on the internet. Before
you know it, you're hearing all.
Speaker 2: This stuff about a product or about a service, something
that is totally out of whack, and when you go
on to verify the facts, you find out fogus, nonsense,
not true. So just kind of be careful and talk
to your veterinarians. I mean, we are not Let's put
it this way. Veterinarians are not going to prescribe a
medication for your pet that they know is dangerous because
who do you think it's going to look bad for
at the end of the day. Of course, it's gonna
look bad for your veterinarian. So clearly, when you hear
these stories, it's not because they're true, but typically they
are overblown for the media. They are nonsense. Somebody had
a bug up there behind and wanted to create problems.
And the truth is there is no governing body when
it comes to what you could say online. You could
say anything you want. It doesn't have to be remotely true.
It could have been one incident somewhere, who knows where,
and all of a sudden, these numbers are coming up,
seven hundred dog debts. So anyway, my take home message
is you want to be careful. Anyway, I'm here for you.
I'd like to love to hear from you any questions
you might have. I mean, I know there's got to
be some burning, burning questions about your pets, health, about
your pets, diet, about your pets, exercise.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: Again, one of the hotter topics out there, of course,
as always, is the fact that obesity is such a
huge problem. I know, we've talked recently about pet insurance.
We've got to do something about that as well, because
you know, again, thinking about how many dogs and cats
are in this country, we're looking at something like one
hundred and seventeen million just dogs and cats. That doesn't
include the pocket pets, that doesn't include the horses. I mean,
we're talking a lot of animals out there, and yet
less than one percent of you pet owners, pet parents,
call yourselves whatever you'd like, are ensuring your pets. But
trust me, it is the pet owner who is the
first to complain about the cost of care.
Speaker 3: And I know it's expensive. Everything's expensive. It's expensive to
have a hospital.
Speaker 2: It's expensive to to have twenty some OD employees and
keep them here, you know, keep somebody here all night
and run in fusion pumps all night. I mean, certainly
to get quality care. You know, it's often I say,
when you go to a hospital that is a AHA certified,
that's the American Animal Hospital Association certified. There are many,
many guidelines that we need to follow as far as
equipment protocols, facility, et cetera. So when someone says, well, god, doc,
that's so expensive, I said, yeah, I know it is,
but this is for you. I say, let me ask
you a question. I said, if you got sick, would
you want to go down to the free clinic downtown
right with all the indigens and the homeless, or would
you want to go to a full hospital like here
in town, a UCLA hospital, a major university hospital, a
Cedar Sinai Children's Hospital Los Angeles, which is world famous. Right,
where would you go? Where would you want to take
your kid? And I think the answer is pretty obvious.
And then the client will come back and say, yeah,
but we have insurance, and I said, well, for your pets,
you can have insurance. In fact, I don't even like
calling it pet insurance. I like calling it medical insurance
for your pets, because in actuality, that's what it is.
It is just like the insurance that you have, but
it's for your pets. So I think that you know,
if you want the best of both worlds, meaning you
of course want the as I call it, the Rolls
Royce of care, you want the quality facility, you want
the attention, you want all the good bells and whistles
and the most advanced diagnostic equipment. So in order to
have it and to be able to afford it, look
in to help insurance for your pets. I think it's
very very important. So anyway, when we come back, I'm looking.
I'm waiting for my first call. Everyone here very easy,
you know, you can just get us a number simple
simple at 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 a
quick email to doctor Jeff. That's Dr Jeff at petlife
radio dot com, or just you know, go into pet
Life Radio and you can join in a conversation or
catch us on the web on Petlifradio dot com. And
also we're waiting for the first call because I want
to give away that first cong I want to know
who is going to be the one to get the
first cong toy that we are giving away here for
free on Ask the Bats with Doctor Jeff here on
pet Life Radio. And we'll find out when we come back.
Speaker 1: We'll be right back right after these messages. Stay tuned.
Speaker 4: I'm not much of a reader, but I do wish
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Speaker 2: Hi.
Speaker 7: I'm doctor Robin Ganser At, President and CEO of American
Humane Association, the country's first national humane organization. Here to
tell you about our new show, be Humane on pet
Live Radio. Each week, we'll be bringing you the latest
news and issues effecting our animal friends, and will also
be bringing you interviews with Hollywood's biggest animal advocates here
to share tales about their pets and what they're doing
to promote a more humane world. Our own highly experienced
staff and friends of the organization will also join us
each week to share what they're up to in the
animal world. I hope you'll stop by until then, Let's
always remember to be.
Speaker 1: Humane every week on demand only on Petlifradio dot com.
Speaker 3: Let's talk past you, Let's come pet Talk about.
Speaker 8: Life Radio, Hetline Radio, pet Life Radio dot com.
Speaker 2: Well, welcome back to ask if edwakkgain here on pet
Like Radio and if I heard miss Mark, Mark went
to our producer correctly.
Speaker 3: We have a caller who's on the line.
Speaker 4: Hi, Hi, missus Michelle calling from Canada.
Speaker 3: Hello Michelle, how are you?
Speaker 4: I'm well? Thank you?
Speaker 3: What Province in Canada. Are you from Alberta?
Speaker 4: I'm calling from Edmond Hill.
Speaker 3: Very nice for you. Is it really cold out there?
Speaker 4: It's not so cold. We've had a really mild winter,
but it did snow today. But yeah, it's still nice
out there for March.
Speaker 2: We can hear that Canadian out so uh yeah, I
would pick you out in the crowd anyway.
Speaker 3: So what's doing? What's going up? And you have dog cat?
What do you got?
Speaker 4: I have a miniature Jackson that I rescued approximately two
years ago.
Speaker 3: Good for you?
Speaker 4: And she is a miniature Jackson, Dolly.
Speaker 3: Okay, And I'm sure she's adorable. What color?
Speaker 4: She's brown with little black pops.
Speaker 3: Ah, very cute. So how is Dolly do for you?
Speaker 4: She is fine, but she had when I rescued her.
Whoever had her before me never cared for her teeth
and they're very like she is extremely bad brass.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 4: Did have a consultation with our veterinarian who gave me
an estimate of twenty three to twenty four hundred dollars
Canadian And then when I had a consult with a
veterinarian that was I was told to go visit that
was more out in the country, he like an estimate
of four hundred dollars, right, and so I really don't
understand why there's such a huge discrepancy, all right.
Speaker 2: So let me just go through a few things, Tom
explain a little bit, and just so we can at
least compare apples to apples. First of all, let's eliminate
the medical stuff for one second and just talk about
the business side. I would imagine that the country doc
does not have as an elaborative facility and may not
have recommended or required certain things that that the city
doc did.
Speaker 3: All right. For example, when I have a dog like this,
how old is she? By the way, Dolly, she's eleven.
Speaker 4: She'll be twelve in July.
Speaker 2: All right, So you have an eleven year old dog
with horrendous teeth. That tells me that there's a very
strong possibility that this dog is going to need extractions. Okay, yes,
And so now we have to back up. An eleven
year old dog that needs extractions means the dog needs
to be fully anesthetized, all right, because you do not
want to remove teeth without anesthesia. So then in order
to do anesesia on eleven or twelve year old dog.
Unless you've had blood work done in the last day,
six or eight months. Your veterinarian in the city probably
wants to do a full blood panel, and I again,
that would be the safest thing you. No anithesiologist would
knock out a ninety year old person all right, or
even a seventy year old person, or even a sixty
year old person without having lab work. So more likely
than not, this doctor wants to do some blood work
prior to the procedure, and that would be highly advised, unless,
of course, you've been going in for your annual physicals
and you had one recently. Then I would say, oh good,
I can just take a look at that blood work,
just to make sure we are safe for anthesia. So
that might be one discrepancy where one required it or
recommended it and the other one didn't. I would imagine
for twenty three hundred bucks a full blood panel is
in that quote.
Speaker 3: I'd be surprised if it isn't. Next case.
Speaker 2: So, now we have our quote for anesesia, and we're
going to anesthetize, we know we're going to clean the teeth,
and we know we're going to extract. Do we want
to extract teeth without knowing what the bone looks like
or not. Would your dentist do that, or would your
dentist to some dental X rays? And my hunch is
again that the Alberta City veterinarian in Edmonton definitely has
in that twenty three hundred dollars quote X rays dental films,
and maybe the country doc far away probably doesn't have
dental X ray capabilities, So they might be doing what
we used to do, and honestly many of us still do,
and that is you still have to go with your
gut feel, how lucid tooth is, how much gum rey
session there is, what is the tooth itself look like
to make our determination whether or not we want to
pull this tooth. But the point is, when you're in
there pulling bad teeth and a dog who has bad teeth,
you can't always tell what the bone situation is like
by looking at the portion of the tooth that is
outside of the gum called the crown. So therefore you
may need and I'm not saying we do, but the
idea of taking an X ray on an older dog's
mouth that you know already is going to need some
extractions based on how bad the teeth are and how
loose they are in the mouth. Might you want to
just make sure that there are a are none others
that need to come out, or b you might have
a tooth that looks kind of bad on the outside,
maybe you should have pulled, maybe you shouldn't. And you
take the dental X ray and you find, oh my god,
these roots are gorgeous and everything's in the bone and
everything is in complete.
Speaker 3: Then all you need is a thorough cleaning.
Speaker 2: So again, that might make the difference there between dental
films or not doing dental films. As far as the
cleaning and polished procedure, I would imagine they're kind of
the same roughly. I would imagine the general anesthesia probably
would be less exp from the veterinarian out in the country.
And I think you know that part of that is,
you know, is a procedure any different from the vet
out there. Probably not, it's the same. I think the
difference might be just the cost of the equipment of
and the equipment used, and the er the operating room
that's going to be used, et cetera. In the city
veterinarian is probably going to be a little bit more sophisticated,
and therefore that is reflected in the higher price. So
I think if you separate everything out, if you actually
compare the estimates of both and see do they both
include blood work? Do they both include dental films? Right,
general anesthesia and then the cleaning and polish and whatever extractions,
And then you can, now that you kind of know
what you're looking at, you can make a better decision,
more informed decision as to well, got you know the
guy out there, Yes he does want to do blood work,
Yes he does have a nice hospital. Yes he does
plan on taking dental films, and he's just much less
expensive because he's out in the country. Then man take
that extra hour drive or whatever it is, and go
out to the country.
Speaker 3: But if his quote.
Speaker 2: Did not include blood work plus full general anesthesia, plus
dental films, plus the cleaning and polish, plus the extractions,
plus medication both pain and antibotics, because you know it's
painful when you don't get on them, mouse, you want
to make sure that the quotes included post operative pain
meds and post operat of antibotics. So hopefully now you
can look at that, revisit both invoices both estimates and say, hmm,
no wonder why this guy was only four hundred because
he's not including all that stuff. No wonder why this
guy is twenty two hundred because he's including all plus some.
Speaker 3: So have you been?
Speaker 2: I don't know if you've been if you had the
estimates in front of you while I was talking to
see if I'm in the.
Speaker 4: Ballpark with all know they were just received in person,
but I think I am. My gut says to go
with our city veterinarian. And he also specializes in dentistry,
and that's another animise.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's probably another reason why he's much more expensive,
because I mean, I'll tell you you're more than welcome
to come out to Los Angeles. I'd be happy to
take care of her. But you know, we do the
more sophisticated because we know we do take danial films.
We want to make sure the bloods are ok because
we certainly don't want to onessitize eleven, a twelve year
old dog without making sure that everything is fine. But
it will be even more expensive by a vet dentist
than it would be just by your general practice veterinarian
who also is sort of up to date and has
a lot of this equipment in their hospital. That also
explains why that very large amount, because he's a ver
idental specialist.
Speaker 4: Okay. He also said that because she was originally a
breeder dog and then was given away when she is
deemed to be of no value, that she has never
been fixed. And that's absolutely she's at an east risk
for like brass cancer and uterine and so your thoughts
so much.
Speaker 2: If that's including the price, he's one hundred percent right. However,
I will just warn you that the uterine cancer, the
ovarian cancer one hundred percent, yes, for vental okay, but
mamary cancer at this age. The current trend, the belief
is that in order to gain the benefit of memory
cancer risk reduct these female dogs need to be spayed
before their second heat, and that's assuming they don't have
a litter on their first. So your risk reduction, your
risk reduction for mamory cancer. Now, trust me, still do
it because there are many other advantages. But as far
as I don't want you thinking that Heaven forbid to
end up with memory cans for years down the road,
you're gonna say so because we spade her that she's
not gonna get memory cancer. No that unfortunately, we can't
do anything about that risk by spaying her so late.
But I mean, you know, it's so funny because here
and I don't know whether it's well it's in the
big city, LA or the States or obviously veteran Aaron's
that believe in it like I do. But I don't
think I even have an eleven year old patient in
my entire database, and I'm talking substantial database that is
not fixed. So I would have been on you to
get her fixed years ago as soon as you first
adopted her. In fact, you know, it's interesting, did you
adopt her literally from the street or from a rescue agency?
Speaker 4: Pretty much from the street. She happened to be in
the care of a neighbor. Oh, just given randomly away
to this individual, and then I, yeah, so I and
then I just immediately took her.
Speaker 2: Well, you're a princess. But I will tell you that
in LA, any rescue group, any shelter, or anyone, they
can't even rescue them out and you know, adopt them
out to new homes if they're not fixed. So that's
why it's so bizarre for me to even hear of
a dog this age that is not fixed yet. I mean,
it is like an essential And even if she were
breeding dog at some point, which he may have been
by the time they hit seven or eight, they're not
going to breed him anymore.
Speaker 3: You get them fixed at that point.
Speaker 2: So yeah, So if she's not been fixed and she
hasn't had lab work, I hate to spend your money,
but I would think that you might be better off
at the at the City Vent.
Speaker 4: Okay, this has been so helpful. Thank you so much.
I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2: You're very well and I don't hang up without talking
to Mark and studio because we're going to send Dolly
out a gift.
Speaker 4: Oh lovely, thank you.
Speaker 2: All right, all right, very good and best of luck
with Dolly. And I'm sure be fineing. Why don't you
after it's all done, would you give us a call
back here and revisit with us and let us know
how it all went.
Speaker 4: I will thank you.
Speaker 3: Thanks a lot, by Michelle, good bye. Now that was painless.
Speaker 2: You see everybody all this great information and it's free
and hopefully we got Michelle on the right track. So anyway,
it is that time. It is that time to sign off,
and that was.
Speaker 3: A great call.
Speaker 2: I hope all of you out there listening heard this information,
because this is very very important when you go someplace,
if you're going to get a second opinion, if you
are going to talk to a friend, it is so
important to compare apples to apples.
Speaker 3: Here were two quotes.
Speaker 2: One was four times or so or maybe six times
the other, and yet they were not even in the
same ballpark as far as what was going to be done.
So you really wanted to compare apples to apples and
get information. Don't just say, oh god, he's so cheaper
there from going that way. Find out where your money
is going, what it's going to be spent on. Get
a little education. Ask yourself, would you want to go
into a procedure like that and to take actieth or
not without knowing if they need to come out? Would
you want a full out of seizu or general incitation
without knowing that your pet is healthy enough to a
stand full an of sezure? So these are the very
critical issues. Note that the one doctor picked up that
she has not been spayed and recommended one hundred percent.
Speaker 3: That is so necessary.
Speaker 2: So we will be here next week. I want you
to tune in, I want you to be a caller
so you too can get a free pro Sense product
and or a free cong product. And once again, thanks
for joining me here on pet Life Radio. Want to
thank pro Sense, Pet Health Network and Walmart and Kong
for helping me be here and of course pet Life Radio.
And we will see you next week. Have a great
weekend and a great week
Speaker 1: Let's talk pets every week on demand only on pet
life radio dot com.