Speaker 1: You were listening to Petlifradio dot com.
Speaker 2: Well, good afternoon, everybody. You're here on pet Life Radio
listening to ask the Beets with Doctor Jeff. I'm your
host's doctor Jeff. Where we're sitting here in unbelievably sunny
southern California in the high eighties today. It's insane. It's
almost Thanksgiving and we're basking in the sunshine. Not that
I'm complaining, I kind of like it. So you're catching
us here live one o'clock Western Pacific time, four o'clock
Eastern time, and we're here for you. We're here to
answer your questions about your pets. We answer along with
the answer we send you depending on what might be appropriate.
Free pro sends pet product and hopefully it's free. The
advice is free. Just give us a call eight seven
seven three eight five eight eight eight two. Go ahead
and send me a text or a quick email to
doctor Jeff. That's Dr Jeff at petlifradio dot com. We'd
love to hear from you. And I realized it was
crazy as I was signing off the show last week
and we're talking about whether or not we're going to
be here Thanksgiving. I'm pushing Thanksgiving because I was two
weeks early. We have it yet, not only today. We
have another week and then it looks like on Thursday,
Thanksgiving Day we will be on air. We're hoping to
at least, So if you get a chance, no excuse
because you won't be working, you'll be watching some football maybe,
but take a quick break for a half hour. And
I listened to us live here on pet Life Radio.
So anyway, we actually have a caller. Keith was calling in.
This is the true sign of somebody loves to listen
to our show. They're calling in before we even start
the show, which I love. And anyway, so Keith is
called in with the question and we asked him to
hold and Keith, are you there?
Speaker 3: Sure? I am, Doctor Jeff, thank you for taking my question.
Speaker 2: Sure, go ahead. What's up? What can we help you
with today?
Speaker 3: Okay, I have a problem. And you know, finally I said,
maybe doctor Jeff knows it. My dog, Max, a pooch,
is a wonderful dog. He performs in front of people.
I can take him any place I want to. He's
been at schools, he's been wherever, inside public buildings, whatever.
I take him to the vet and he takes a
vat hands off. He's traumatized. His background as he's a
rescue dog. We rescued him at about six months of
age and he went from we believe he was isolated
in a basement and then he went from that environment
to an animal shelter where he was vetted. He had
to have an operation hernie operation and of course his shots.
He probably had never been to a vet before, and
we've tried different vets, different genders, male, female. He gets
in the parking lot of a vetinarian and he gets
one whift fifty feet away and he just starts to tremble.
Speaker 2: Well for the ideas, absolutely have a lot of ideas.
And you said the magic word right there at the
very last line. You said it gets a with and
that is so important because here's what's going on. This
poor dog obviously was in a bad situation somewhere at
the beginning. And so can you imagine imagine a little kid.
That's why you know it's interesting you say that I
can walk into an exam room wearing my white coat,
sometimes my stethoscope draped around my neck, and fortunately my
patients are not like Max. They actually will run over
to me and give me major tongue. However, if mom
is there with her small child as well, and I
walk in that room and the kid starts to cry,
So it's all about experience. And poor Max obviously had
a horrendous experience between the surgery, having his neuter, the
hernia fixed, the injections. Maybe the way he was handled
from that very first veterinarian, especially if it was a
shelter kind of veterinarian, maybe you know that for them,
they don't have that relationship they have. There's such good
stuff they're doing, and it's thankless for the shelter vets
that work on these animals because they don't get to
maintain that long term relationship. So next thing, you know,
that puppy who probably didn't like them very much, they
don't ever have a chance to make nice and make
it better. So now that poor dog, poor Max, is petrified,
and unlike the wonderful experience he's having at the schools
and with the kids and positive reinforcement, and I'm sure
you at home and your friends, you take them to
that miserable smelling place where all I remember is all
the pain and the the oh God. After I left
that place, my belly or my you know what hurt
for weeks and do you want to go back? I mean,
come on, can you imagine way right? Can you imagine
if little kids, remember you know, little boys, I should say,
be specific, remember what sometimes happens to them at the
hospital before they leave, right, and they're not going to
want to go back to a doctor. So these are
some of the concerns that we have. This is what
we have, what we associate. So having said that is
max fixable, absolutely, But what we need to do is
we need to do two things and this is the
basically the keys to well, you know, behavior modification, and
that is we're gonna need to a desensitize him to
that experience, to that that hospital. And while we're doing that,
we're going to try to counter condition so not only
does he not just not like it, but he actually
looks forward to it. And when you're doing behavior mod
in any kind of animal, everything is very small, calculated
baby steps. So first of all, obviously you've taken places.
He's okay in the car, So what you're gonna need
to do, right is you're gonna take him in the
car and you're talking to him and he's you know, safely,
he's trapped in and in his harness whatever, or in
his carrier, and you're going to pull into that parking
lot and you're gonna go, oh, Max, we're here. Oh
I got you. It's a good boy, and give him
his favorite and I mean favorite treat. You do not
take him out of the carrier or out of his harness.
You do not even stop the car, and you move
on to your next location, maybe back home, wherever it
is going to be. And you need to do this
every day for a few day. Now, what you're gonna
do is you're gonna stop the car, sit in the car.
He's still not taking them out, and every time it's
hugs and kisses and treats. So now he's starting to
make an association so different than that that he was
used to. He's saying to himself, Oh my god, this
place isn't that bad. I'm coming up here, I'm getting treats.
Dad's giving me hugs and kisses. What could be bad
about this? Then, when he seems to be somewhat tolerant,
and this could take weeks, by the way, Keith, it's
a slow process, then you're gonna take him out of
the car if he's in the carrier, keeping in the carrier.
Otherwise put his lee Shawn, walk him into the bad hospital.
Sit there for about you know, ask him to sit
as soon as you walk in the door, give him
his hugs, kisses, treats, the whole bit, and then leave.
So you can see what we're doing. Now, we're trying
to create an environment in a situation that he actually
is going to look forward to. He is got actually
going to associate first the parking lot, which you said,
and it's true. He already knows the smells as soon
as he gets to the parking lot. Then the lobby,
the waiting area, and it's gonna be fun. Now, what
you want to do next is not have Max go
into one of the exam rooms. You're gonna have the
exam room i e. The technician and or will perferably
the doctor come out to Max. And guess what the
doctor's gonna have with him. Treat those favorite treats, and
he's gonna come into the waiting room and say, hey, Max,
you such a good boy, Give him a treat, and
then walk away and you leave. And each visit, each
training session is going to be a little bit closer
with that exam room, and there is gonna be for
the first several times that Max is in that exam room,
there is nothing bad gonna happen. No poking, no prodding.
It's gonna be pets. It's gonna be maybe a little
good tasting toothpaste to rub into the gums. It's maybe
just lifting the ear to take a look and then
giving him a treat. We are, in essence, going to
retrain Max slowly to actually like going to the vet.
And you know, I wish you were here in California.
I would have him done in the day. But I'm
just telling you that it is totally possible, but it's
gonna take a little work and of course cooperation from
the staff and the vet.
Speaker 3: That may mean I may have to look for a
different vet.
Speaker 2: I was just going to say that. I'm just going
to say that if you don't think that this veterinarian hospital,
the veterinarian or the staff would be willing to work
with you on this one, then one hundred percent you
need to find another one, because this is really what
it's all about.
Speaker 3: Let me ask you a question along those lines. There's
a that that a friend of mine told me of
a doctor who has a mobile clinic to make house calls.
Great with that, just having that person if they were
willing to come to the house and give them a
treat and leave and then eventually absolutely us.
Speaker 2: Absolutely. In other words, the first visit, first two visits
have nothing to do with Max's medical health. It's like
another friend coming over the house. In fact, I would
not even have a white coat. I wouldn't even have
a stethoscope. I would just have him walk in, knock
the door. So you're a Max, Oh my god, you
said to good boy, and give him his treat and
a couple of pats on the head, a little hug,
and then that's it. Yeah, well, it definitely can be done.
I have taken the dogs that are literally I got
a call from a client ones and a similar situation.
They were fired by a number of veterini hospitals. They
told me that this dog has bitten many that he
heard that I was I had to get a kick
out of I was laughing when he told me that
we heard you're an expert with aggressive dogs, which there's
no such thing as an I mean, you have to
be patient and you have to understand them and know
what has created this fear. It's usually fear biting when
they do it. So I told them very similar I said,
I said, look, I want you to come here. I
do not want you to come in the building. I
want you to call me on the cell when you're there,
and I'm going to come outside. And I had to
equip with treats, and I said, I'm going to say
what you want to do. I didn't want you in
the parking lot. I want you to walk halfway down
the street, down the block, I said. So I'm going
to do is I'm going to walk by you. I'm
just a passer by now my regular street clothes. And
as I walk by you, I want you to hand
me the leash, so the dog's not going to know.
So now it's almost like a passing of the baton.
I walk by, they hand me the leash, and all
of a sudden, this dog is I'm on a heel.
This dog is healing with me, total stranger. And as
I'm walking I'm talking to with a nice voice and
I'm giving him some treats. Along the way, I stopped
to sit ask him to sit. He sits. I give
him little patter on the head. He has more treats.
I walked past the owners and I now take him
into my parking lot. By the time this maybe half
hour session was done, I had examined him, listened to
him with the stethoscope, checked his mouth, and given him
his vaccines.
Speaker 3: Wow, that'd be great, because right now they put him asleep.
I mean they said ate him, and that's when they
give him his shots.
Speaker 2: And of course because he's already you know, we look,
we have some cats at all like that, you know
cats some hell. We try to do what we call
fear free or anxiety free practice, where we really want
to make the experience good. You know, you should also
try some pheromones there, you know, you can. You might
find a veterinarian that promotes this. There's some actually, believe
or not, there were some scientists that actually worked with
musicians and they did some brain testing on cats and dogs,
and they came up with certain music that seems to
appeal to dogs and another set that appeals to cats.
And there's some veterinarians that I ended up playing this
music in one of the waiting rooms. They're exam rooms,
so they come in there and the naturally calms the
cat and the dog. You can have the pheromone sprays
which help a lot. There's these clips that some cats
respond to we call klipnosis. So there are certainly ways
to calm these dogs, calms these cats, to actually make
the experience positive. Because when you think of stress and
what it does to the body, what it does to you,
just alln do is measure heart rate, let alone levels
of cortisol. It actually is so detrimental to the smooth
functioning of the body. So you have these veteran aarians
that these betternent hospitals that in essence force themselves on
the pet. They're doing this poor pat a very huge disservice,
not I mean healthwise.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, and it precludes me from you know, I
always debate, like he got it. He finally took them in,
but he was lumping. And you know, the question in
my mind is do I want to put them under
the stress exactly?
Speaker 2: What it's worth a list exactly? You know, maybe you
better off limpic for an extra day or two and
not have to put them through all that. I know
it to me, so I would try that, But I
think the house call Vett is a good idea to
try it. If the person is nice and is willing
to work with you a little bit, then you're scoring
a home run.
Speaker 3: Okay, well, thank you so much. We'll give that a try.
Speaker 2: And also, Keith wanting you send me information to Dr
Jeff at pet Life Radio and we'll go ahead and
send you out. And how old is Max?
Speaker 3: Max? Just turn seven?
Speaker 2: Okay, we'll send you out something probably a good senior
vitamin or something from pro Sense Pet products or sponsors
to keep you and Max happy.
Speaker 3: All right, okay, well, thank you again doctor Jeff.
Speaker 2: All Right, Keith, thank you thanks for listening and tuning
in follow up with us. Okay, let us know how.
Speaker 3: Okay we'll do bye bye bye bye bye.
Speaker 2: How easy was that? Everybody listening that just give us
a call here on pet Life Radio. We'll get to
talk about your pet, your pets problems. Hopefully I'll solve
your problems. I'll certainly help. So anyway, it's time for
that mid show a little over Mitchell break, so stay tuned.
We'll be back in just a minute here in pet
Life Radio. Ask the Vets with Doctor Jeff and sponsored
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Speaker 5: Radio, pet Life Radio dot Com.
Speaker 2: And we're welcome everyone back to ask the bets for
dog you have here on pet Life Radio on this
magnificent Thursday, here at least magnificent here in southern California.
It's been in the eighties. It's been crazy. We get
these winds called san Anaz and they just blow in
all the hot air. And I mean November fourteenth, two
weeks or four Thanksgiving and it literally it's gonna be
eighty eight or eighty nine degrees here, eighty degrees at
the beach. I know I can hear many of you
in different parts of the cart saying, what the heck
is he complaining about?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 2: Trust me, I'm not complaining. That's why I love living
here in California. But speaking of the East Coast, where
I know you're not doing as well. I hear that
Minnesota has already got snow and it's been twenty four
degrees or something in Chicago. But in two weeks I'm
going to be in New York. I'm actually going to
be doing with Tucker Carlson on Fox and Friends Sunday morning.
We're gonna do a piece on the holidays and maybe
even a little something on plastic surgery for pets, and
then Monday, I'll be doing The Better Show, which is
they're both filmed in New York City, and I may
even do some local stuff in New York since I'll
be there already. So tune in this Sunday Monday, but
next Sunday, Monday, Fox and Friends in the Morning on Sunday,
and then The Better Show on Monday. Anyway, we just
finished up helping Keith out with some problems with Max,
his seven year old little dog who just seems to
be a land shark, only with the vet. Everyone else
he's fantastic. So we talked about that, and sure enough,
is often the case with shows like this, many of
the questions that come in our behavior related and we've
asked you to not be shy and to go ahead
and send us your questions and if you don't want
to call them in, then I can deal with that
and go ahead and send us an email. So we
did get one such email I'm going to share with you.
It's from Alex and Jess listening in from Wisconsin, and
it goes like this, it's your reading's true. We have
an eight year old house tabby brute who has grown
up with my girlfriend since near birth. He is considered
her room as a safe haven and sleeping area for
his whole life, sleeping by her, head on me sometimes, etc. Abruptly,
he has stopped coming into a room, waiting and deeply
meowing at the entrance to a room. He'll go on
the bed if we lightly chase him in, but he'll
only stay on for five ten minutes before jumping off,
as if something scared him. He will no longer go
onto the bed as well. It has been his hiding
spot for his entire life. Who is another brother from
the same litter who only comes into the room now
and then, which might be a factor. However, they get
along quite well both their house cuts. He's not just
playing any abnormal behavior other than that, so we're clueless
as to what to do, and nothing in his life
or in the environment has changed, any thoughts, etc. So
Alex and Jess a couple of things. Well, one thing
has changed, and I don't know how long I would
imagine with names like Alex and Jess. It can go
either way. But let me guess for a second that
maybe Alex is Alexandra and Jess says the guy. But
it certainly I know girls named Jesse too, So I'm
a little at a loss. But the introduction of a
new body, a new person taking over the girlfriend, taking
over Brute's mom, if you will, can present with some problems.
And I don't know how much that relationship has changed,
where you might be there more often than before, and
Brute is feeling a little bit neglected and maybe resentful
of the fact that now there is this new person
who is sharing the bed that was Brute's bed, and
now he's saying, basically to heck with you. That's one possibility.
Another possibility which you have to rule out, certainly in
an eight year old cat, and that is something medical.
So I don't know when the last full physical Brute had,
but at eight years of age for a cat, that's
about a time by seven or eight, you really want
to get some urine done, get some blood work done,
do an X ray, listen to the chest, just to
make sure that everything is in order, because those are
sometimes though, I mean, it could be a serious problem
or something more serious. It's something you want to rule
out before you start dealing with something that you think
is behavioral, and it may not be behavioral and may
be actually something physiologic, something medical, something skeletal, etc. So
I think that that needs to be explored before you
start some of the behavior things. Now let's assume now
that it is more behavior, which, by the way I
think it is. I would try some very simple anxiety
relaxing mechanisms. One of course, and I do refer to
these a lot, and those are the pheromones. One such
pheromone readily available is the Feloa Pet stores have it.
You're a veterinarian, I'm sure has it. And try spraying
some feel away or you can use a diffuser plug
in delivery in the room where you want him to
feel that particular calm. If you keep a litter box
in there or the adjacent bathroom, that's fine, continue to
do so. And also if he is the type of
cat if broots, the type of cat that likes catnip,
then try that as well. Put some catnip around the areas.
You can get a catnip spray where you want him
to be. And of course if he is treating motivated,
get those whatever little treaty likes, little fish, little chicken treats.
Then make sure to every time he walks in the room,
every time he goes under the bed, every time he
jumps on the bed, he gets a treat. And probably
the boyfriend Alex or Jess, I don't know which is which,
as I said, should be the one delivering the treats.
And let's make the experience. Again, this is assuming there's
nothing medical or physiologic going on. Let's make the experience
just more attractive for proud. Let's make the experience one
that he actually looks forward to instead of one that
he's going to start to resent. And see if those
things work. Now, if those things have been tried and
still not working, there are some more potent forms of
anxiety medication that you have to be prescribed by your
veterinarian medications like amatryptolene, buse perone hyloxetine. These are the
anti anxiety medications that we often will prescribe to assist
with some behavior modification, anti anxiety, antiaggression issues that seem
to affect our cats. And one thing I would give you,
and I'm not going to use it necessarily as a
cop but I have to let you know that we
would often say in veterinary school, give us the toughest
medical or surgical problem for a cat over a cat
behavior problem any day the week. I mean, give me
that broken leg, give me that cancer. But you know,
sometimes they might be easier to deal with than a
cat behavior problem because they are typically very, very challenging. So, guys,
I hope you're listening, Alex and Jess from Wisconsin, try
these things with brute. If you have tried them, please
feel free to contact me directly at doctor Jefdrjeff at
petlife radio dot com and we can talk some more.
If you'd like. You can leave me your phone number
as well, and we can go ahead and I will
give you a call and see if we can't get
to the bottom of this. Also, I'm you know, I
would imagine I'm not the first person that has tried
to solve this problem. So let me know what has
been tried already. And if these things, some of these
ideas are new, then by all means, go for it
and then get back to me and give me an update.
So anything else, let's see we're I gotta go so
fast here, so we're nearing the end of our wonderful
fast thirty minutes. I do want you to know that
I will be here next Thursday, same time, same channel
here on pet Life Radio, so please go ahead and
give me a call. And also that if you want
to send me questions via mail, that might be a
good idea as well. I can read them on air.
You still get the benefit of getting our little gift
from pro Sense pet Products butt. If I have to
do any kind of homework or any kind of research,
I can do so as well. Most of these things,
trust me, it's not the first time I've heard them,
so we're usually pretty prepared. So once again, thanks for
joining us. We will see you next week here on
Asbets with doctor Jeff Petlfe Radio dot com. Once again
to reach me eight seven seven three eight five eight
eight eight two or doctor Jeff Beet Petlife Radio dot com,
and we will see you here next week. Thanks a lot.
Speaker 1: Let's talk bets every week on demand only on Headlight
Radio dot com.