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Speaker 2: Well, I'm good afternoon and welcome, Welcome to another exciting
episode of Askabats with Doctor Jeff. I am your host's doctor,
Jeff Werber here on pet Life Radio with the I
think the only show that's live, and it's live because
we want to hear from you. We want your call ins,
we want to answer your questions, we want to have
some fun and you know, sometimes we talked some serious
stuff like we did a few weeks ago. Last week
we had a great guest. We had doctor Justine Lee,
who is a veteran toxicologist as well as emergency medic
critic Care, and we talked about all of the hazards
around Easter time. And before that we had another veterinarian,
doctor Heather Lenzer with us. So we've had some pretty
good guests. And today you got me, just me and
here to talk of course, talk pets. Anything you want
to talk about, anything you want to learn about, go
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more reasonable price. And nothing wrong with that. So anyway,
you know, one of the things that I wanted to
talk about and things that many of us take for granted,
and we talked a lot during the year about the
extreme cold weathers we were having across the country and freezing,
freezing conditions and lifestyle changes that we needed to take
care of in order to make our pets more comfortable. Well,
now it's getting warm. I was just down in the
San Diego area for about a week, and I mean
even there. San Diego is known for beautiful weather, but
it's always you know, typically in the in the mid seventies,
low seventies, you're right by the water. Though it's way
south of Los Angeles, you're being literally right on the water.
It's sometimes a little cooler. And I got to tell you,
we were inland a bit and it was warm. Palm
springs desert areas are getting up into the nineties, low
one hundreds, And I've been hearing from friends and colleagues
across the country that springtime is here. And I think
that with that a couple of things lifestyle changes that
we need to consider taking into consideration, such as most
of us are not exercising as diligently during the winter
as we do during the spring and summer. With us
getting outside less, with us not wanting to brave the
cold afternoons and evenings, our pets typically are getting less exercise.
So it often happens, I see, because let's face it,
most dog and cat owners are not really reducing their
pets caloric needs as much during the winter. So what
happens is, like many of us, we pack on the winter. Wait,
I said, now it's time to get back into shape.
But it's not so easy to say, well, you know,
I remember when the end of summer, or you know,
back in September. You know, Bowser and I were running
about a mile and a half or two miles a day.
Bowser's been sitting on his behind all winter and he's
not ready to get up and start running the same
amount of time. Just like with an athlete, when you
have like for example, baseball, you go into spring training,
and you go into pre season, and you go to
summer leagues in different sports, and that is you want
to somewhat stay in shape because it's really hard when
you have attained a certain level of activity to stop
that level of activity and go straight into where you
left off. And ask anyone who is an athlete and
take some time off or is recuperating from an injury.
It takes some time and things that you wouldn't even
think of. It's not just the effect on the muscles,
but I mean, here's one the pads. You know, when
you have a dog who's been not running around a
lot during the winter, their pads become sort of smooth,
like a like a baby's behind. You know what I mean.
You can't start going out on warm pavement and running
now today the way you did at the end of
last summer, because those pads are going to get blistered,
they're going to be painful, and I already just and
here in La people think, oh, yeah, well you never
really have to take a break. No, we do too.
People get lazy. The days are shorter, so yeah, it
might be warmer, but nobody wants to go out at
five six o'clock when it's already dark. So now that
it's getting dark at eight o'clock, people are taking advantage.
And I've already had probably three cases in the last
couple of weeks of the dog's coming in the lane.
I cannot feel anything, nothing that is obvious. And you
look at the pads and they are literally blistered and peeling,
just from a dog running on a hard surface. So
it's real. It's something that we have to deal with.
So I'm going to make some recommendations and it's important,
and you know, I love to hear from any of
you really. First of all, want to think I wanted
to hear about after having Doctor Leon last week, has
anyone had a problem with this past easter Because I've
gotten a number of calls. In fact, this is very funny.
Just to get off track for a second, one of
my associates gets a call yesterday from her boyfriend and
their own dog got into an Easter basket full of
chocolate eggs that were sitting high on a counter. Now
what was so amazing is she was saying that this
dog never ever jumps on the counters. It's like the
best dog in the world. You can leave food right
on the table, leave the table and the dog will
leave the food alone. And here it is, this dog
got into, like I don't know, thirty forty ounces of
pure chocolate rapper and all. And so obviously she had
to have the dog come in and we do some vomiting.
But how funny is that. So it even could happen
to a veterinarian, it could happen to anybody. So I
want to know if any of you had any problems
with easter plants that we talked about, like the lilies
and cats of course, or chocolate. Please give us a
call here and let us know once again easy number
at eight seven seven three eight five eight A two
and let us know how you fared. Anyway, let's go back.
You are starting with nice weather, you want to get
out there and start the spring activity. Firstly, now's a
good time if you haven't recently take your pet to
your veterinarian for a thorough checkup, because before you start
any exercise program, we want to make sure everything's okay,
and hopefully it will be and if they're young and healthy,
they probably won't need much other than a you know,
a good physical exam. I don't think you need any
kind of blood work or anything like that, just to
make sure that all is well once you get the
green light from your veterinarian. Next is to start slow.
Don't start where you're left off at the end of
last summer or early fall, which means, if you normally
got to the point where you're running around the block
you know, six times, go once or twice and start
a little slower and make sure that that everything's Read
your dog's behavior, read the panting, read the sluggishness, read
the salivation. If these things happen, then you know you
might be pushing it a little too much. Early on,
Always when you're giving a choice exercise, either in the
early morning or later in the evening, closer to seven
or eight. Wait till the sun goes down. You don't
want to, you know, if you're home during the day
in two o'clock heads and you say, oh my god,
I'm kind of bored. What a great time to go
out for a little run. What a great time to
go to the park and throw that frizee or chase
the tennis ball. No, not such a great time. I rarely,
rarely see cases of heat exhaustion, which by the way,
can be deadly. I've seen temperatures sky as high as
one hundred and seven degrees in a dog. That is
really dangerous. I don't see that when they go out
earlier in the morning or late in the evening. I
do see it when these dogs are doing their hikes,
doing their runs, going to the park to play ball
in the middle of the day. So you want to,
you know, kind of keep that in mind. And you know,
though you may not reach the major heat temperatures, the
dry heat that we get here, like for example, in Arizona,
or in the desert, or in Vegas, or and even
sometimes the desert of California, palm springs or the high deserts.
But I know that starting now back east in the
southeast northeast, is where we start seeing high humidity, and
that is really tough. Sometimes it's like stifling Humidly recently,
when I was, you know, away last week, I met
up with some people that were from New York and
they would much rather not have to deal. They hate
being in certain parts of the country during the summer
because of the humidity eighty percent humidity go down to
the southeast, whether it's Georgia, Louisiana, Florida, I mean, it
gets really hot and humid and not a good time
for dogs as well. You're going from air condition to
air condition. So these are things that I want you
to keep in mind as you're going to be, you know,
starting on that fun summer of exercise and then it's
a matter of having a good time now. Also make
sure that you're not gonna and this is the same
lesson that I'm sure your mom taught you when you
were small, and that is you're not gonna eat a
big meal and then go out and play. I remember
as kids we had to wait an hour after we
ate before we could swim, and it's the same thing.
Besides the fact, who wants to start running around, but
you got to give an opportunity for that food to digest.
And in the larger breeds, and we did touch upon
this last week, was something called bloat or gastric torsion.
That's where the stomach sort of twists on its own axis.
And this happens again if a dog eats a meal
and then typically especially if it's dry food, they go
drink a bunch of water. The food inside the stomach
expands to three times its normal size. The stomach is
hugely bloated, and then they start going around and running.
That stomach, especially in the deep chested, large free dog
is rocking back and forth, and that's where we can
end up with severe, severe problems and which end up
could be deadly. Of course, if it's not recognized, you
do your run and then you leave, you go back
to work in the afternoon, or you work a night shift,
and you can come back to a dog who unfortunately
has passed because of a ruptured stomach from gastric bloat,
gastric torsion or GDV which is gastric dilatation and fobulous,
which is the term that we use to describe this condition.
So anyway, we're going to be back our phone number
once again is eight seven seven three eight five eight
eight eight two. Give us a call, send me a note,
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Radio dot com. Ask the vets with doctor Jeff, or
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Speaker 2: And welcome back to semt for Doctor Jeff here on
pet Life Radio. And I'm doctor Jeff Werber, your host
for the rest of this show and every week here
the Pacific time at one pm and back East at
four pm. And hope you can join us and save
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show itself, go ahead and send me an email at
doctor jeffrepetlifaio dot com. They will be forwarded to me.
In fact, on the break, I was just checking some emails,
taking advantage of the a few minutes, and I do
have an email from John in Atlanta who was buying
some products for his dog and one of the employees
at the pet store started talking about diets, of course,
and wanted to know if he's ever tried one of
these raw diets, these naturally raw diets. And John from Atlanta, who,
by the way, by setting in a question, John is
going to get a free CONG product and a free
pro Sense product for his dog and just think so
we're going to give Hopefully John, you're going to get
an answer and you're going to get a free Kong toy,
which are great, by the way, congs are amazing, and
a pro Sense product as well to keep your dog
as happy that's the CONG and as healthy the pro
Sense product as can be. Anyway, you know we've talked
about this before. John. I don't know if you if
you had a chance to listen in. But first of all,
a question I always ask anyone when they are thinking
about changing the diet their pet's diet. Why what is
your dog having a problem? Are you anthropomorphizing thinking that? Well,
you know, God, you know, as in nature, when these
dogs are ancestors, they didn't have cooked meat. They ate
raw meat, So of course we should be feeding our
dogs raw meat. I'm not so sure. I don't know
the domestication process of our canine companions has taken thousands
of years. Do we really think that the gut flora
of today's domesticated pet is the same as their ancestors
from thousands of years ago. I think not. Now would
it be harmful? Well, I'm not sure. There are obviously
certain bacteria in raw meats. I know that many of
us don't like to eat raw meat. If there was
some step in the production process, maybe a flash freeze
for example, that could kill off, say the salmonella or
the E. Coli, then it may be totally safe. But
then the question is are you really giving your dog
something better? So the criteria that I often after I
ask my questions would be does your dog like the
food defeeding? And let's assume the answer is yes. Does
he have good normal stools again, let's assume yes, lots
of energy, he wants to play run around the answer yes?
And how about his coat nice and shinies? Is you
have a nice luster to the coat? And let's assume yes. Well,
if I get a yes to all of those, my
recommendation would be, don't change a thing, because why rock
the boat. It's one of those things where there's no
guarantee that a dog is going to do any better
on a organic food, on a natural food on a
raw food than they are right now. And the question
I also so often ask the client when we have
this discussion, and John, this would be perfect for you
being the fact that this happened out of pet store
to the seventeen year old at the pet store, the
guy who's working an after high school job. Does he
also have a veterny degree? Does he have a degree nutrition?
Have about a degree in biochemistry, anything that might lend
him that let us know that, oh my god, this
kid's a genius, he's an expert. We should really listen
to him. And the answer, clearly, I can't be any
more facetious than I am, is no. What makes him
tick probably the specials they got that week going on
at the store, where the store is making even more
a profit on you than on some of the regular foods.
And you know, I always have to laugh and I
have you know, I have no claim to any involvement,
but it's a very very funny, funny situation. But one
of the prime foods, what we call a premium food
that was very very popular at the pet store level
years ago were the Iames products. I'ms in Ukanuba and
I mean I remember I remember back in the day,
my sister got a dog from a breeder and it
was a Doberman pincher and on the contract it said
that this contract will be null and void if you
stop feeding this puppy i'ms food products, which I thought
was a rather bold step, but that is the high
regard that i'ms product were kept. Products were kept in
back in the day when they were again only available
at what we call pet specialty or veterinary level, so
years ago at the time, honestly, I never heard of IMES.
That's how long ago. It was. So fast forward to
the prominence that i'ms had attained in the marketplace, and
so much so that it's amazing sales and amazing story
caught the eye of one of the larger, one of
the country's largest companies. We call it P and G
Procter and Gamble, So Procter and Gamble buys IMES. Of course,
the found of arms is retired, probably forever, and the
first thing they do is is a company that just
purchased the new foods what I mean, Yeah, pet specialty
is nice, but let's face it, we're a mass company.
We have products all over the mass market, which includes
supermarkets and the big box retailers. We're not going to
be exclusively just to the pet store level. And they
started distributing IMS products through supermarkets, through the big stores,
the big box stores, the mass chain stores, et cetera.
So now of course pet stores, the pet specially couldn't compete.
So what do they do. They start pulling MS off
the shelf. So now you are that satisfied customer and
been going to this pet store for the longest time.
They know you. My name, it's Cheers, you know, They Hey, Jeff,
how you doing. Oh I'd like to buy my arms.
Oh that food is terrible. Oh no, you don't want
to feed that. It's full of chemicals and it's full
of fillers. Well wait second, but didn't you tell me
last week and the week before and then it was
a second, it's a fantastic food. Oh no, you know
they changed their their formula. No they didn't. The problem
is it's now no longer exclusive to the pet specialty market.
So they went ahead and now they malign this food
that's still a pretty darn good food. And the Yukuannabu
products we even sell here at the hospital. So you
really got to look at your target. You got to
look at who's selling you the food, who's telling you
how great this food is, and sort of take it
with a grain of salt. You know, It's so funny
because I have clients that are so so concerned about
what they put in their pets mouths, and on the
way home they make sure to stop it, you know,
McDonald's or Taco Bell, some fast food place. So I mean, really, again,
if your pet is on a food that they like,
they have energy, they have a shiny coat, they have
normal stools, don't let anybody talk you out of feeding
that same food. Now. Of course, if your pet is
having a problem in any one of these areas, of course,
if there's signs of a food allergy. Of course, if
you work with your veterinarian and you do a food
elimination diet and find out that your pet is allergic
to chicken, for example, then yes, you need to find
a food that doesn't have chicken. And don't kid yourself
in thinking, well, no, you know, I'm gonna feed this
chicken because the chicken in this food, it's organic, it's
free range chicken. Certainly that's not gonna be a problem. Oh, contraire.
Of course it is because when a dog, a pet,
or a person is allergic to a particular ingredient in
a protein in a food, it doesn't make a difference
whether that protein is from the worst fast food place
in town or from a high end, organic, free range
whatever restaurant. Chicken is, chicken is chicken. They're gonna be allergic. So,
as you said, what you really need to do is
don't let a pet store tell you what you should
be feeding your pet. That's what we're here for. Ask
your veterinarian, Let your veterinarian know how your pet is doing.
And if you're veterinarian wants you to try something different,
then he or she will discuss it with you. They
will go over the salient finer points on how to
gradually switch from food A to food B. Let you
know that if you do a rapid switch you may
see some intestinal upset. It's not because of the new food,
it's because of the fast switch. So again, these are
little little things that you have to take in consideration
when deciding whether or not you should be switching foods.
My dogs have been on the same and I have
five have been on the same food for longest the
longest time my cats as well. One of the foods
I feed my cats I feed a specialty diet only
because I get it here from the office, but I
also feed them a commercial, over the counter, supermarket brand
of canned foods, and they are doing just great on it.
They love it. It's fine. And you know, one of
the things that we have to we've talked about with
the prevalence of feline type two diabetes, and especially in
older cats and overweight cats, we have to be really
careful how many carbs, how much carbs we're feeding our cats.
And obviously dry foods are higher in carb content than
most canned cat foods, and cats need to eat meat.
Cats are obligate carnivores, and therefore sometimes getting that mushy,
yucky but rich canned food diet of pure meat is
going to be the way to go with your cat.
So you again something you want to discuss with your veterinarian.
There are some dry foods that have a high high
protein content mostly meat. That's great, but again, work with
your veterinarian on what the best stives to feed your
cats will be. And of course, as cats get older
and we suffer from kidney problems. And that's the point
I want to make. There are some lifestyle issues. For example,
there was a company out there that started putting out
a young adult formula. I think that makes a lot
of sense because as we get to young adults, we
have growing puppies. We don't want them to get heavy
as they reach a certain point in their growth cycle.
They don't need the calories because they're going to gain weight,
they're not burning up enough. But they still need a
higher protein because they still growing, So we have to
be really careful. I thought young adult formula is a
good idea. There's life stage diets out there. Some food
say good for all stages. I don't know about that.
I mean it might be you know, young and young
dogs healthy dogs is great, but when they get older
there are some modifications one may need to take depending
on your pet's health. So again my message point here
is when if you are considering a diet change, ask
yourselves the questions why, and then speak to your veterinarian.
Go over the pros and cons of the diet switch
with the veterinarian. If you truly are going to solve
the whatever problem you think, you may be solving, and
don't listen to the advice of a kid working at
a pet store and go with their recommendations. Take it in,
listen if they have something good to say. They have
some good points. But before you make a switch, speak
to your veterinarian anyway. It is that time to say goodbye.
Thank you all for joining in. I'm bumm that none
of us, none of you had the except for John,
are going to be getting a free product from cong
and pro Sense. Those of you that were afraid to
call and comment eight seven seven three eight five eight
eight eight two go ahead and send me an email
just to let me know Drjeff at petlifradio dot com
that you were tuning in. And even if you do that,
there's one for you. Just send me email and let
me know that you were listening and talk anything we
talked about today, and I will send you out a
pro Sense product for your pet. See you next week
here on pet Life Radio. Ask the bets with Doctor Jeff.
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