Speaker 1: You were listening to Petlifradio dot com.
Speaker 2: Well, well, well good at afternoon to everybody, thanks for
joining me.
Speaker 1: Here.
Speaker 2: I'm doctor Jeff Webber, your host of Asked Pats with
Doctor Jeff. Here on pet Life Radio and here on
this lovely at least here in Los Angeles, lovely Thursday afternoon,
nice and sunny. It's getting cold here. You know. We
talked about the cold weather, and I get a lot
of questions now about as I call it, winter rising
your pets. We'll get to that in a few minutes.
And so I'm talking. I just did an interview for
a blog yesterday and we're talking about how it's getting
cold here in southern California. I mean for here, cold
and southern California means when you go out at night
you need to have a sweater. It it's like, oh
my god, it hits fifty and we're starting to complain.
So I guess we're pretty spoiled here. But I know
in many of the parts of the country it's a
lot colder, and I'm actually waiting for skiing snowboard weather.
We have Mammoth California in the Sierras, and I see
it's getting down to thirteen and nine, and I think
during the weekend it's going to hit three below. That
makes me very happy because that means we're going to
get some good snow and good skiing and snowboard weather. Anyway,
we had a great Thanksgiving. I hope you all had
a great Thanksgiving. I hope it was all safe for everybody.
I know that we were hoping to be able to
air live you want Thanksgiving, but again with the festivities
and everybody doing their thing, wasn't so easy. But as
I said, I hope that everybody had a nice, safe
things Giving. We avoided all the things that we need
to avoid, and we'll talk more about some of those things, because,
let's face it, the holiday meal Christmas coming up is
very similar. We're going to eat a lot of foods
that are fantastic, fantastic tasting for us. I don't know
how good they are for us, but you know how
we are. We're willing to sacrifice a little bit for
the good taste. But our pets aren't always so lucky
because they get a lot more than just feeling full
after a big meal when that big meal includes eating
some of the wrong things, which again we will discuss morble.
I want to hear from you. I want to hear
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Once again eight seven seven three eight five eight eight
eight two give me a call. We get to talk pets.
That's why I'm here, and we just want to talk
at anything that you want to talk about. And as
an extra added bonus, besides the free advice, the free help,
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of pro Sense Pet Products and our show sponsor, available
at some major mass retailers, including our friends at Walmart
and Target. So I wanted to start well, first of all,
we'll just breaking any time free phone call eight seven
seven three eight five eight eight a two. Meanwhile, let's
talk a little bit about winter rising your pet. What
does that mean? You know so often when we sawk
spring in summer, and we've talked about it here on
Pet Life Radio on our show. What some precautions we
need to make once the weather starts getting hot? But
what about when the weather is getting cold? We still
have the same precautions. Are their concerns? The truth matter
is absolutely there are some concerns and they deal with
the opposite. Instead of overheating, we call hyperthermia when it
comes to the cold weather in many parts of the country.
I spoke to somebody the other day whose family lives
in Minnesota and they are already freezing. I was in
New York two weeks ago, two weekends ago, I did
a segment on Fox and Friends Sunday morning with my
good friend Tucker Carlson, and then I shot a segment
on The Better Show. And I'm we're gonna post the
link to the Better Show segment up on the pet
Life Radio website. You can click on and see the segment,
A great segment about the holidays, so you'll get some
extra added information and I'll share that with you as well.
And there it actually Saturday night it was started to snow.
It didn't stick very long because it wasn't that cold.
But the weather is starting to change in many parts
of the country, and those of us here in the
West and some parts of the South are a little
spoiled as we're not going to see snow, at least
not in the cities. But I think the key is
keys to know is that yes, dogs get cold, and
we need to take some precautions. And it's not just
the cold weather the temperature, it's also the wind chill.
And just like we need to provide a certain amount
of shade for a dog's outdoors, we need to provide
shade from the wind, some protection from the wind as well,
and just little things to think about. You know, first
of all, water when it's below freezing, and our dogs
have a tendency to freeze or get very cold. The
water that you left out for them in the water bowl, well,
that can freeze too. And so again that's a concern
because if a dog who needs water, if it's really
cold and they're out there for hours and hours, the
the water that was left for them outside may now
be just a big block of ice, and that's not
very effective in rehydrating them when they have to lick
on ice, let alone the fact that their tongue might
stick to the ice. So oh, another thing, remember we
talked about when dogs overheat. The problem is that dogs
don't sweat. Where do they exchange heat. They exchange heat
from the pads of their feet and the tip of
their nose. Well, when you have freezing temperatures and dogs
are walking on snow and ice or extremely cold ground.
Those same pads which they will use to exchange heat
are now an amazing entry point for the cold. So
we need to protect those feet because that's where we
can see the onset of hyperthermia. That's one of the
ways that this cold enters the body, and certainly a coat.
Dog's coats we talk about this when we talk about
spring and summer is like a thermos so it regulates
their core body temperature. It protects them both ways. It
protects them from the extreme heat raising the body temperature,
but also protects them from the cold, lowering the body temperature.
So it's very important to make sure your dog's coats
are in good shape, good condition, not matted. The skin
is in good shape, well brushed, well groomed, and then
the coat acts and works the way it is supposed
to work, and that is as an insulator. So don't
shave those coats down. But don't be fooled either when
you say to yourself, well, we don't dog doesn't need
that fur coat because he's got his own fur. We
have to know a couple of basic facts about the
body and how the body regulates. Those of you who
have had dogs that have sadly been treated for cancer.
And when we figure out doses of cancer drugs, they're
not necessarily done by body weight. They're done by what
we call a meter squared basis, which is a body
surface area as compared to their body weight. And small dogs,
dogs say under twenty five pounds twenty pounds, have a
much larger surface area in relation to their actual bodyweight
in pounds or kilograms. Therefore, they have a much greater
ability to lose body temperature, their core temperature to the
outside environment when that outside environment is extremely cold. So
when you see these little dogs, these little palms in
Chihuahuas and Maltese and you name it, wearing little sweaters,
those sweaters are actually beneficial. When you see a Great
Dane or a German shepherd, or a Rottweiler or a
labrador wearing sweaters, that might be a fashion statement, they
don't need it as much, but absolutely small breeds in very,
very cold weather should have some protection because their body
surface area as compared to their body weight is much greater.
So for those of you who laugh at those dogs,
stop laughing. They need those little sweaters. And another good
idea for a number of reasons are booties because booties
will a protect the actual heat exchange or the heat
loss onto that cold surface snow or ice. But also
a lot of municipalities, as we know, to control the ice,
will actually lay down salt onto the ground. Well, that
salt or any chemical they put on the ground as
a de icer could be very irritative to our dogs
and cat's feet. So I think it's not a bad
idea in the very cold weather as well to put
on something as a pad or a paw protector. In fact,
one of the brands out there as protectors, but there
are many out there. You can go to any pet
store and get some booties for your pets. Not a
bad idea, But I really think that if it gets
really cold, and I'm talking temperatures well below freezing, I
am a fan of allowing these dogs to spend much
of their time of the extreme cold temperatures indoors, either
in a mudroom either you know, having a doggy door
that can give them access. I mean that could be outside.
Remember if a dog is outside and a dog is playing,
you're playing ball, they're going for a brisk walk, they're
taking a jog with you. That's fine even we do
regardless of temperature. Once you get the circulation going and
you work up that sweat, then you can do just fine.
When do we have a problem. We have a problem
when you're sitting around so dogs, and it's a vicious cycle.
When they start getting really cold, I mean really cold,
they just can't do as much. They get that almost
like a lethargy. Now they're sitting around and the effects
of the cold temperature are even greater. I had a
dog in recently, and I'm talking southern California, and this
dog was low. Dog was a Chihuahua, and we think
it got into something. We're not sure exactly what happened initially,
but this dog came in in what we call lateral recumbency.
It could barely sit up, let alone stand, and it's
core body temperature ninety two degrees. Now, mind you, normal
normal low normal for a dog is one hundred point
five degrees. This dog, which is even higher than ours
at ninety eight point six, and this dog was ninety
two degrees. That is really called. Many thermometers, especially the
digital thermometers, stop registering under ninety two degrees. It'll just
say low l for low So that's a problem. And
as they said, that's a dog here in southern California.
Can you imagine what this poor dog's body temperature would
have been if we're in Minnesota stuck outside for whatever reason.
So it's very, very important to take those precautions. Make
sure there's some way to keep the water heated, give
them access to wind, I mean protection from the wind,
protection from the cold. Get that dog you do or
have an outdoor heater if possible, where they can hide
behind something on an ice warm comfy bed. You can
also get heated beds. There are so many things that
you can do at home to protect your pets. For
the smaller dogs, go ahead and get the sweaters, get
the booties, and make sure you get them out there
and exercise quite a bit. And that's one way we
keep our pets nice and protect it during this crazy
cold weather that's happening many parts of the country. So
I still want to hear from you any questions you
have or any stories you have to share, either stories
about how your pets fared through Thanksgiving, stories about how
they fare and what you do during the winter to
protect your pets from the cold. You can reach me
here at eight seven seven three eight five eight eight
eight two. Just send me a quick note to Dr
Jeff at petlifradio dot com. And remember if we talk
on the phone on the radio, if we talk via email,
we will send you out a pro Sense pet product.
Thank you, courtesy of pro Sense Pet Products. We are
at that time for a quick break at the midway
point here at ask the mets to the doctor Jeff
and we'll be back in just a minute.
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Speaker 8: At live radio dot com.
Speaker 2: Well, welcome back to Ask the Ads with doctor Jeff.
You're on pet Life Radio and I'm your host, doctor
Jeff Werber. I'm still waiting to hear from you guys
at eight seven seven three eighty five eight eighty too.
We didn't get an email last week, and we'll talk
about this for a second while you are getting to
courage the nerves to give us a call and ask
your own questions. But hopefully it's always good to learn
from other people's questions as well. John from Phoenix set
us an email and wanted to know how long does
it normally take for a bone to heal in a dog?
And it's a great question because it really varies on
so many different factors. First of all, young bones in
dogs cats, just like young people, heal much more quickly,
and typically I would say you can get some start
getting really good healing in three weeks and by four
to five weeks, certainly the healing should be complete in
growing bones. The problem is, however, and you know a
joke we talk about cats. Cats heal pretty quickly. They're
actually pretty amazing that the joke is that as long
as you have both ends of the bone in the
same room, a cat will heal. Obviously it's not true,
but the point is cats really do a good job healing,
and I think there's a reason for it, and we're
going to talk about that in that one of the
biggest factors differentiating the way animals heal versus the way
we heal. The process is the same, but the difference
is that if you have a bone, and let's assume
for a second we're talking about a bone where the
alignment is good, and it's a bone that can be
splinted or put set in a case, let's talk about
it for a second. Bones that don't need surgical repair
via a what we call pin or surgical plates, bone plates,
or something called a k e or which is called
the kershon or emer apparatus. Those are much more complicated. Fractures.
Those are fractures in bones, for example, in a femur
or a humorous where which is the upper parts where
just casting may not be effective, and I'll explain why
in just a few minutes. But let's talk about a
bone that should respond by just being splinted or casted. Well,
the problem is, even though we're in a splint or
we're in a cast, we still know that we need
to rest this bone, and that's going to be we're
going to be in a sling around. Let's say we
break our radius or an alma, which is the bones
of our arm. Oftentimes you get the cast on and
then doctor's going to put you in in a little sling.
Or if it's going to be a tibial fracture the
lower part of your leg below a bone, or a
bone in your foot, you'll get a cast and you'll
get crutches, or you'll get a cane. You don't get
the walking little rubber thing on the bottom of your
cast right away. So we know that even though we're
in that supported type of state, with that external type
of fix it of the apparatus, the splint, the cast, whatever,
we are still taking it easy. Dogs. You can't put
dogs on crutches. You don't have dogs in a walking cast.
You don't have dogs with a cane. So what happens
is despite our best efforts to keep the dog quiet,
and sometimes we tell an owner, get an airline carrier,
put this dog in a crate, get up a doggy playpen.
You can't have the dog running around thinking, oh, no problem,
he's in his cast, he's in a splint. We're good
and let's just see what happens. Because what's gonna happen
is it's not gonna heal nearly as quickly as it
probably could. So case in point John from Phoenix, is
that we add a dog come in a very active well.
I said, that's an oxy word. I've never seen an
unactive and non active Australian Shepherd. Now this AUSSI is
all over the place, running, jumping. Do you think this
dog cares that he's got a broken toe? He can
care less. He's already broken two splints. I mean he
is literally motion unmanageable. He's running around all over the place.
It doesn't hurt him, and if it doesn't hurt me,
certainly not letting us know. So we had him come
back in today after the second splint being broken. Took
an X ray and the alignment is beautiful. I mean,
if you look at the X ray, you could see
the bones are in the perfect position to heal, but
still not healing. And this dog, we are trying everything,
and I said to him, I said, we have to
lock this dog up, because impractical to try to fix
us with any kind of implants anyway, And the dog
is happy as can be, and he's running around walking.
He could care less. Yet he is too active, and
therefore the healing phase, it's already been six weeks and
he's going to need at least another two. And yet
if he were in a cast and on crutches, if
he were in a splint and on crutches, or a
cane or confined, which is very tough to do with
these dogs as they are the energy plus, he would
have healed already. And so what happened? Why if people
ask how come? You know, they come in and they
don't have a lot of money and they have a
fractured femur that's the long bone, the upper bone of
the leg that goes from the hip down to the knee,
and people say, well, how come we can't cast a
doc There's a certain rule of thumb that when it
comes to fracture mechanics and dynamics, how fractures need to
be immobilized. And in order for a broken bone to
heal properly through a cast or a splint, the joint
above the fracture and the joint below the fracture need
to be immobilized. Well, good luck trying to use some
sort of device, casting device, or other and immobilizing the hip.
And since that can't be done when you have aphemeral fracture,
fracture of the femur, ninety nine percent of the time,
the only successful treatment's going to come from some sort
of surgical intervention. That could be via some pins we
call i am or intra dullary pins that can come
from a plate, a bone plate, or plates that can
come from some sort of wiring that can come from
the external apparatus I mentioned earlier, called a k e apparatus.
But since the hip joint really can't be immobili the
knee can, but not the hip, it's gonna require some
sort of external or internal fixation. Now, tibias can fibulus,
but fibularly often if you don't have that's a little
skinny bone in the bottom lower part of the leg
between the kne and the ankle. And if you have
an intact tibia that enough will give enough support that
you probably don't have to do a lot to repair
a fibil It's gonna it's gonna heal. Same thing with
the radius and alna. All our fractures do okay. If
the radius is intact, they do better. Need obviously some
sort of of support, but you may not have to
actually use any type of fixative or surgical intervention. Just
you know, really good immobilization could do the trick. And
same with humorous. Humorous, because you can't really immobilize a
shit older in a dog or a cat, it's going
to need some surgical intervention. So John, the answer is,
it's not an easy answer. Young dogs and cats, I'd
say three to four weeks, assuming the ability to restrain
confine the animal is effective. For adult dogs and cats,
I would say give you a minimum of six weeks,
but depending on the activity level of that pet, you
might need to do more than six weeks. So keep
that in mind, and many other good cases that I've had.
I well that you know, sadly that this must be
a virus going around. We don't know what it is,
but we've had a couple of animals coming in in
just a very what we call edr state out of
the blue. The owners of this poor little chiuahua went
to work in the morning the dog was one hundred
percent perfect. It was outside, They don't have malicious neighbors,
There was nothing around the backyard the dog would have
gotten a hold of. I mean really, there was no way.
We actually sent this dog to an emergency specialty clinic.
They two from monitoring could not figure out what could
have possibly happened to this dog. We're thinking maybe a
severe anaphylaxis, meaning an allergic reaction to something. Whether there
could have been a be it could have been a spider,
it could have been bitten by something else. It could
have ingested some sort of weird chemicals, some sort of plant,
but nothing they know of. And as I said, the
dog's not a yapper, doesn't have mean neighbors that could
have thrown something over the yard. And there are some
weird things going on. So you got to keep a
really close watch over your pets, and you know, always
talk to gardeners. I'm always nervous seeing cases of snail poison,
which is metaldehyde, rat poison, which is usually die fastenone
or some sort of bro Fasten one, and the anti
coagulant that literally causes these animals to bleed out, and
a lot of times gardeners are not as aware of
what they can or can't put down on the ground,
or sometimes they don't even know how many pets do
you have outdoor pets, because typically what happens is when
they come around, you have the animals inside the house,
or they've asked you to put the animals inside the house,
and they don't sometimes realize that these animals can run free.
So it's very important to talk to your gardeners making
sure they understand that before they put anything down outside
in your yard, on your grass, in your bushes, in
your shrubs. Be it fertilizer, be it a weed killer,
be it siale bait, be it rat poison, be it
anything to let you know either it's going down or
better yet, that they should use something else, something other.
I don't know if any you've seen, but if you
open up a bag of metaldehyde, which is snail bait,
it actually looks they're little pellets, and they look like
pelleted dog food, and they actually have a decent taste
to them, and yet it's highly highly toxic. I've seen
small dogs come in with major, major neurologic problems, vomiting, diarrhea, shivering, shaking, seizuring,
all because of metalde high toxicity, which is the active
ingredient of snail bait. And this is a time of year,
by the way, that a lot of gardeners like to
put things down. So it's something to keep in mind.
And another thing that I saw and I think something
you should be aware of that I had two cases
this week dogs coming in with ticks. And we don't
have a huge tip population here in southern California, so
I'm seeing them. I know that in the Northeast, especially
where ticks are much more prevalent, and the southeast. Ticks
are very prevalent in the Southwest as well, so you
have to be aware that ticks are out there. Make sure.
Just because it's not quote unquote flea season anymore, it
doesn't mean it's not ticks season. I recommend you keep
your dogs on some sort of flee and tich prevention
parasite protection all year round as well. So anyway, no
courageous callers, So shame on you. You're getting not only
missing out on free advice, you're missing out on free
product from Prosens Pet Products. But next week is another opportunity.
Send me yourn email to doctor Jeff at petlife radio
dot com or write this number down eight seven seven
three eight five eight eight eight two and give me
call next week. Join me here, ask the bets. We're
a doctor chef here on pet Life Radio and check
on the website. I'm gonna I'm gonna go ahead and
post that link to the better show segment. It's a
great segment and hopefully you'll learn a lot to protect
your pets during the upcoming holiday season. See you next week.
Speaker 1: Let's Talk Pets every week on demand only on petlife
radio dot com.