Speaker 1: You were listening to Petlifradio dot com.
Speaker 2: And a good morning or a good afternoon to all
of you out there listening to us here live on
pet Life Radios as the Pets with Doctor Jeff. I'm
your host for the next thirty minutes here on pet
Life Radio. Your name is doctor Jeff Werber, and we're
here obviously to talk pets. We're here for you. We
want you to call in and we want your emails,
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you can send me an email and they'll be forwarded
to me live on air. And that's two Dr Jeff,
Doctor Jeff at Petlife Radio dot com. Very easy. Why
call in because we want to hear from me. We
want to hear about your pets. We talk about things.
If there's anything that you want to ask talk, even
if it's not on the subject of the day, go
ahead and send us in a question. We'll be happy
to talk about it. And of course we're here with
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If you send me an email and we read your
email live on air, which we will probably do, then
of course again we will send you out a pro
Sense product and a cong toy. So you really can't
lose free advice. And just as I'm sure you know,
because I know because I am one vetterny medicine is
not cheap anymore. Prices are going up crazy. Employee costs
you're going up like crazy. And unfortunately so few of
you have pet insurance. I don't know why you don't.
I mean, in the United Kingdom, thirty five to forty
percent of pet owners pet parents carry pet insurance for
their pets. In Sweden it's sixty percent, and here in
the US it's less than two percent, maybe even less
than one percent, depending on who you ask. That's terrible.
So here everybody's complaining about the higher costs of really
quality veterinary care, and you can sort of cut those
costs at least and a half by just getting pet insurance,
and you're not doing it. So you got to stop complaining,
go out and get yourself some pet insurance. That would
be the smartest thing to do to help allay some
of the high costs of really quality care. But what
I'm here to do is maybe help you avoid some
expensive care by sort of helping guide you through an
approach to treating a problem, to diagnosing and treating a problem.
And I find that. I mean, I've been on my
soapbox before, and since this is my show, I'm a
loud but I think that a lot of younger veterinarians
are so well. First of all, their concept of a
problem is skewed. Why, understandably, is because they've been at
these big teaching hospitals at the veterinary schools across the country,
and the types of cases that usually end up out
of veterinary school are pretty bizarre cases. So when these
students are seeing these pretty bizarre cases in their mind
when they get out of school, that's the reason for
these the symptom when in fact, no, that's really bizarre,
as we like to call them. Those are the zebras,
the horses, the normal common stuff you're going to see
just in your routine practice. You don't have to approach
that way. You can discover a little bit more thought now,
a little more evaluation, a little bit more analyzing, and
coming up with a better game plan that's not going
to break the bank on the first visit. So what
we've been doing here on Ascinevats with doctor Jeff is
until we get your calls, until we get your emails
or your texts or whatever, I kind of like prepare
organ system discussions. And we've been through a lot already.
We finished eyes, we finished the skin limping joints, we
finished the guest to intestinal track vomiting tyrea, and now
we are going to talk about respiratory we started before.
And we just got a call coming in, so let's connect.
Hi can hear me? This is doctor Jeff.
Speaker 3: Hiks, doctor Jeff, This is John jab I called you.
Oh yes, yes, yeah.
Speaker 2: Bringing the production to the new puppy, how's it going?
Speaker 3: Well? As soon as you told me to title the
resident dog, she took to it like an hour and
she was few with great. She didn't fire shoot in
grawl at the new puppy. But then, you know, the
time went on, we couldn't watch the dog all the time,
so hight be in the kitchen or something, and the
two dogs would be kind of looking at each other,
and a puppy wants to play, right, you know, she's
just she's going over there, she's raising her paw, and
the old dog is still, you know, kind of looking
at her, a growling. So how do we get them
to the kind of bond?
Speaker 2: All right? So first of all, that's a great question.
Let me let me fill everybody in JB also, just
so we can get ry up to speed. So we
had a situation. We got a call actually from JB
that he was going to get a new puppy. Was planned,
so he knew it was coming. I gave him some
advice and we talked about this on air as well.
How to gradually introduce the new puppy into the adult dog,
and also to start with holding some attention to the
resident dog and withholding the favorite treats to the resident
dog and giving them again and giving more information at
the introduction when that new puppy was around. The thing
that most of us make the mistakes about when we
are introducing new babies, new puppies, new people, new boyfriends, girlfriends, whatever,
to a resident dog is that we wait until that
person has gone, the puppies asleep, the babies asleep, and
then we feel so guilty for having done this right,
this intrusion to our resident dog, that that's when we
coddle them with affection and attention and treats, which is
exactly the wrong thing to do, because then you are
teaching the resident dog that life is better. So we
followed some advice and now we have a new hurdle, which,
by the way, as JB will tell you, it works
pretty well when you do it right. Now. The new
hurdle are things like, you have an older dog that
likes its time alone and puppies like to play. So really,
now it's a function of teaching the puppy that there
are times when you're not going to go near the
big guy, and one of them is when big guy
is just kind of sleeping and once his or her
time alone. And the second, and this is probably the
two most critical areas when the big guy, the resident dog,
is eating or playing with their boner toy. Those are
two times the puppy has to know, uh, I'm not
going there because I'm gonna get growled at, I'm gonna
get snapped at. And that's a much tougher problem to
deal with because it's innate in many animals, even well trained.
I mean I used to visit my aunt over the holidays.
They lived in Florida, and she had magnificent yellow lab
This was back in the day. She got it in
nineteen seventy six, that was the you know, two hundred
year anniversary of the US and she called him Barney,
but his real given name was by Centennial Barnabas. By
Centennial Barnabas because he was nineteen seventy six model. And
Barney was the most amazing labrador, I mean, did all
the things that a labrador loved to do. But there
was one toy that nobody and I'm talking nobody, not
even the family, could go near Barney while he was
chewing on that toy. And it was hysterical because this guy,
you can go up you can stick your face into
his food while he's eating, and that was okay. You
can grab any other toy from his mouth, that was okay.
But there was this one bone that he says, uh,
you're not getting this one, and so you know, there's
sometimes hard to figure out. So what I would do
this is I would start now working with the puppy
and either get a whistle or a foghorn or a
henny can or clap your hands, and you gotta just
keep an eye on things for now. It'll get better.
It'll get better with time. But right now, when you
think that you have to leave the puppy alone, call
one of them into you so you can keep an
eye on him. And when you see or if you
see the puppy approaching the adult resident dog for playtime,
or especially when that resident dog is eating or playing
with its toys, you have to get that whistle, get
that clapped, get that foghorn, and basically divert the attention
of the puppy. Call the puppy over and do something
with a puppy, or call the resident dog over and
do selling a resident dog. But that's still a little dangerous.
It's still doing the game you've only been doing this
for about a month or not even so it's still
a time where you have to be very cautious. Try
not to leave him alone, try not to leave him unattended.
But it sounds like it's going great. Just you know,
a little more patience. And another thing you can do
is when you see the puppy approaching the resident dog,
run up to a resident dog and say good boy,
good boy, or good girl and give a treat. So
again you are reinforcing. You are praising the resonant dog
for allowing the new pup to be in its space,
and hopefully with that continued, then they'll start bonding and
getting along. Interestingly, I have five dogs. They are amazing together.
They are together all the time. They play, but when
it comes to meal time, my two labradors will eat.
This is even using a no gulf type of bowl
and they can still finish their food in about ten
seconds flat. My labradoodle is that, you know, this is
the doodle part. He is such a gentle eater. He
is slow, he is methodical, he enjoys every single bite.
And when the labs are finished, they're obviously on the hunt.
So they go up to him, and this is where
even he under that circumstance, he will not let them
get near his food. So it's very funny to watch,
but you know, usually they'll work it out. My only
concern obviously, is that the puppy is a small puppy
and the resid the dog's not and I don't want
the puppy getting hurt. But puppy's gonna have to learn.
And these are the lessons that puppy had to learn
from mom as well. So the little growl, a little
snap can go a long way. Just kind of be around.
Let them work it out to a degree. They are dogs,
they are pack animals. They are going to work it out.
I just don't want anyone to get hurt in the process.
Always keep an eye on them for now, and just
be ready with that distraction the pennycan, the foghorn, the whistle,
the hand clap, whatever it may be. But thanks much
for following up. I'm so glad that it's starting to work. Well.
Be patient, hanging there and I would love to hear
from you in a couple of weeks and just kind
of let us know how things are going.
Speaker 3: Sure, Yeah, I couldn't believe like after you know, two
hours of doing that, she took gray too, and give
her a little treats, you know, give her her all
the attention. When the puppy comes around and she stops growling,
that's great. And just a we have to get used
to is when she does we keep saying stop or
no or ban when you said just to make a
noise to distractor and change her right for like brain
of fot there right.
Speaker 2: When you say no or bad, the association to her
is that new puppy is getting me yelled at. So
I don't like that new puppy. So what we need
to do is just get the attention. But you want
to actually when the puppy starts approaching, give your resident dog,
give her praise and attention and treats instead of no
or bad. So remember this is very natural. It's very
natural for dogs to behave this way. And the hardest
thing for us when we're working with behavior modification is
to stop using the word no or bad for a
behavior that is actually natural. What we have to do
is try to modify the reaction, modify the behavior to
something more positive. But when we say no to something
that's natural, it kind of messes them up a little bit,
and they draw that association to the closest thing, and
in this case, it's that puppy. And then we're going
to start building resentment again, which of course we don't
want to do.
Speaker 3: But it's natural for us to say no.
Speaker 2: Of course. Oh it's the first instinct we have. As
I said, the most overased word and puppy dumb is no.
And it's our fault. I mean, they're chewing. They're chewing
your good shoes. What do you go?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 2: Meanwhile, chewing is natural, it's essential. They have to chew.
So who's the idiot that left those shoes around? You
want to get mad at somebody, kick yourself in the behind.
So that's where we have to be. We have to
kind of be a little smarter. And by the way,
now that i'm I just said that with a shoe example.
You know, you go to a pet store and you
see that long aisle of all these different chew toys
and I just get a kick. I just laugh out
loud when I see these raw hide shoes. Their shaped
like moccasins or whatever they are, and they're raw hide.
But what better way to teach your dog to eat
your shoes than to give them a chew toy. That's
a shoe. So guy, get a little smart out there. Really,
come on, I'm sure you have more brains than that.
And I think the things that look like that squeaky toy,
it looks like a hamburger double cheeseburger. You know, you
want to teach your dog that's up on the counter
and grab things right, then give them a chew toy,
give a toy that looks just like a hot dog
or hamburger. So anyway, that's our stupidity, not theirs. So anyway,
jab thanks for following up. Love to hear back to
me in a couple of weeks and kind of let
us now it's.
Speaker 3: Going okay, all right for your advice, Thanks you, thank you.
Speaker 2: All right, take it easy. So anyway, it's time for
a break. We're gonna take that quick break here at
pet Life Radio and we'll be back in a few minutes.
Don't go away, We're gonna hopefully if you want to
give us a call. Eight seven seven three eight five
eight eight eight two. Once again, eight seven seven three
eight five eight eight eight two. That's coming from somebody
who talks so fast, So I don't hear from you.
We're going to talk a little bit about respiratory problems.
Don't go away, but right back.
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Speaker 2: Com and welcome back and you're joining me here Doctor
Jeff Warbury on pet Life Radios Asta Bets with Doctor
Jeff uh just had a nice conversation with jb about
a pet problem. You say, how easy that was, free
advice and it works. So give us a call please
eight seven seven three eight five eight eight eight two,
or just kind of send a little note, join in
the conversation. I'm looking at the box right now. It's
empty and I want it full. I want to see
some people type and away. Anyway, we started talking about
some respiratory diseases, you know, some of the more common things.
Of course, we're going to see in puppies and kittens.
Respiratory infections very common in cats. The chlamydia is a
more of a bacterial infection, then of course we have
the viruses. We have rhino tracheitis, which is very very
serious in cats, Kalesi virus. So one of the more
common things we see and cats are going to be
the respiratory infections, some treatable, most preventable because we have
vaccines for these diseases. I think one of the best
preventions for me is depending where you live, living here
in the city or in a city where there are
cars and there are dogs and there's feline leukemia virus
and there's feline as virus and coyotes. I prefer cats indoor.
I think it's safer for them either. It was statistic
coming from one of the rescue groups and the Cat
Fanciers Association that in large cities the average indoor cat
lives something like thirteen fourteen years and the average outdoor
cat lives three. So something's going to get him now.
Of course people are saying, wait a second, but I
live in the city. My cat goes out and he's
now thirteen, fourteen, seventeen. Yeah, of course it's gonna happen.
And a lot of us that have indoor cats. I
just had to put one of my cats down who
was eleven because he had some weird kidney disease kidney problem.
But that's not the norm. The norm is one of
my other cats I just put down just shy of nineteen.
He was eighteen and a half. That's the norm and
the sometimes the best protection for these animals to not
get some of these diseases, especially the communicable diseases, is
to keep them well vaccinated. Then try to minimize or
avoid contact with the potential carriers, just a little common sense.
So for dogs we were talking about, you know, one
of the more common conditions I see respiratory wise in
dogs and puppies, especially since I do so much rescue work.
That means these animals are being pulled from shelters. Is
you guessed it cannel cough. Now, the one issue I
have with kennic coff. First of all, we do see
some pretty refractory cases and some medications that typically would
work for your routine, common standard kennel cough may not
work alone with some of these tougher diseases. Suffer these
tougher organisms like michael plasma. We're seeing. It's not just
a border telebronchosceptica. It's not just the parent fluenza virus.
But there's some more things involved. And the issue that
concerns me is that so many people would come to
me and they say, well, gee, Doc, you know, my
dog doesn't board, so I don't need the kennel cough vaccine.
Oh contraire. As a matter of fact, people that frequent
dog parks, frequent grooming facilities, doggy daycare facilities. It's not
just the boarding. I don't like the term kennel cough
because it gives people that false concept that the dogs
have to be kenneled in order to get kennel cough.
Here in Los Angeles, I call it live in La cough.
Go to the dog park cough, Go to the beach cough.
You know, go to the vet cough, go to the
groomer cough. It's everywhere. It's endemic to Los Angeles, it's
endemic to any big city, especially that there is an
outdoor lifestyle, even in the Northeast, even in the Midwest
during the spring and summer, where it's gorgeous out and
it's warm, people start taking their dogs out. This is
how it is transmitted. And as a matter of fact,
many of these facilities actually require the vaccine. Be current
every six months, not once a year. And the truth is,
I don't disagree. I think whereas I am not I'm
not anti vaccine at all, but I am anti unnecessary vaccine.
But when it comes to this border telebronchosceptica par and
fluenza vaccine, it should be given if dogs frequent these
areas every six months. Otherwise once a year is just fine.
But don't think for a second that dogs have to
be kenneled. And also another problem with this is why
we want to be very careful, is that early distemper virus,
especially if it's starting at the respiratory phase, can mimic
a kennel cough. The early signs are just a dry
hackey cough, sometimes a soft moist cough. So again, if
we kind of let our guard down and we say
not just look kenntle cough, no big deal, and it isn't.
It isn't. Many dogs are get well from kennel cough
on their own. They don't even need our help. But
it's like us with the cold. If we need to treat,
it's worth treating if you have a good immune system,
if everything else is perfect, they're doing fine and you
just want to treat symptomatically with it just a cough syrup,
then that's fine too. However, you want to be careful
with over the counter cough syrups. There is the syrups
out there that have the expectrant guy Finessen. If you
have a moist cough, are great. If you have a
dry cough and you want to suppress the cough, there
is a synthetic narcotic cough suppressort. It's non narcotic called
dextromethor fan. That's great too, But be very very careful
with the products that are also treating colds and have
the decongestin pseudofhedrin phenylephyrine in them as well, because those
can be toxic to pets. So pure guy Finessen, guy
Finessen with dexterromethor yes, okay usable, check with your veterinarian.
Things with phenol ephrine, pseudophedrin, these things are potentially toxic.
You don't want to take any chances. They're very dose dependent.
Also depends on the dog, so I would try to
avoid these at all costs. So again, before using anything
over the counter, you want to check with your veterinarian.
As far as antibotics, portotele broncho septica is a bacterium
does respond to antibiotics. We like to use doxycycline. We
like to use clavimox, which is a maxas still in
the clabulatinic acid compound. But there are many good antibiotics
out there, some that are very good. You have to
use caution with young, very young, growing puppies, so again,
check with your veterinarian. The good news is you're not
gonna be able to get antibotics without seeing your vet. However,
I know many of you have antibotics sitting around, antibotics
that you didn't finish the course on another pet. So
don't just reach for the medicine cabinet and grab something.
At least call your veterinarian and check and say, hey,
I have so and so sitting around here. It's this
many milligrams. I got it. It's less than a year old,
is it okay? So you know, again you want to
exercise some common sense, some smarts, some caution when pulling
anything off of a shelf to work with your pets.
If it turns out to be distemper obviously, that is
a really difficult condition disease to deal with. We can
be successful in pulling dogs through distemper virus infection. It's
a multi faceted disease. One of the earliest signs we're
gonna see are related to respiratory problems, crusty nose, runny eyes, coughing,
even distempered ammonia, which is much worse than just coughing.
But it's a disease that also can affect the gastrointestinal tract.
It can also affect the skin. Remember we talked about
the hard pad disease. It can also affect the neurologic system.
And we could see these dogs that are starting to
disease and go through these chomping fits. So when we
have distemper, that's certainly nothing you're gonna be able to
treat at home. Must must, must see your veterinarian. And
even even in a regular respiratory case, especially respiratory, if
you try to wait it out because the dog is
still happy and dog is still playing, install is still eating,
and it's you know, it was a dry cough and
you gave a little cough medicine. You know that's fine.
If you have a condition where it's a moist cough.
And you've learned about coupage, where you take your dog
into a bathroom, turn on the shower or the tub
hot hot water, close the windows, let the mirrors steam up.
The whole bathroom is steamy. You take your dog in there,
you let them breathe that wet moist air for oh,
I don't know, ten minutes, and then you kind of
do what's called coupase where you cut your hand and
you tap on the side, right side, left side, right side,
left side for you know, maybe twenty times on each
side to induce coffee, to get rid of out of
that phlegm, to get rid of that mucus so they
can breath a little more easier. Coupled with the expectorate
the guy fanessen, that's okay too. But if you are
doing these things and three four days going out and
nothing's changing or it's getting worse, don't play doctor at home.
Get this pet to your veterinarian asap to make sure
that the mirror kennel cough didn't turn into a pneumonia,
which is going to need a lot more aggressive therapy
to make sure it's not early distemper. So there are
things that you know, I'm all for a little smart,
common sense home care. That's great, but you got to
be very very careful if you are dealing with something
that's not getting better or getting worse. So that's all
we have time for. Today. We talked about distemper versus
kennel cough live in La Cough as I like to
call it. Next we're going to talk about some more
severe conditions, some some congenital conditions that we have to
deal with, and some things that sound way worse than
they are, and we'll talk about that next time as well.
So thanks for joining me here at Pet Life Radio.
I want to thank you once again JB for calling
in any of you. That's how easy it is. Have
a great week next. Our sponsors again pro Tens, Pet
Products and Calm, and we'll see you here next week.
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