Speaker 1: You were listening to Patlifradio dot com.
Speaker 2: Well, welcome, Welcome to another episode of Askterbats with Doctor Jeff.
I am your host, Doctor Jeff Warber. We'll be here
for the next thirty minutes hoping to hear from you,
and we want you to give us a call. And
it's good we have a caller in. And boy, it's
been a heck of a week and it's for me.
It's just kind of starting. But give us a call
when you can. Eight seven seven three eight five eight
eight eight two. And I'd love to answer your questions
about your dog's cats, you name it. If I don't
have the answer at my fingertips, which is unusual for
dog and cat, it's very possible with some of the
other little creatures out there. I will get it for you,
like asap. I'm literally sitting here talking to you, just
about to head to the airport in about an hour
and a half. I'm going to the American Veterinary Medical
Association conference to be held in Chicago, Illinois, and it's
one of two summer conferences. About a month from now,
I'm off to Kansas City for the Central Veterinari Conference.
And boy, it's been a heck of a work week
so far. Had two really really tough cases yesterday, and
it was interesting in the contrast of the you know,
the cases you can have of the same disease, the
same condition, and yet the ramifications the results could be
so totally different. There is a common condition we see
in dogs and it is a splenic tumor. And you know,
we see these animals they come in and they are
often with a bloated belly, so you can kind of
see something going on a lot of times. If they're
already bleeding, you might look at the gums and they're
awfully pale. So, oh, is that call of there? Why
don't we all will take the call? Here?
Speaker 3: Hi?
Speaker 4: Hi?
Speaker 5: Can you hear meara?
Speaker 2: Hi? Sarah?
Speaker 6: Oh good? I had a question. My dog has crystals
in his urine, and so now you have to be
on the special diet.
Speaker 2: Is he on SD or CD or urinary XO? You
know what twenty's on?
Speaker 6: Well, he was on FD and then he was getting
so fat commits that I switched him to the dry food,
which is the low it's royal canine.
Speaker 2: Royal canaan. Is it urinary s O? Or which one?
Speaker 6: Yeah, you're an airs o the low okay, sure, uh huh.
And I in a little bit of the SD with
he has a little wet and a little dry perfect
and then he drinks to stilled water and everything. But
there's I just wanted to know if there were I mean,
he used to eat so many vegetables and he loves
and I know I'm not allowed to give back to him.
Is there any other treats or anything that I could
give him that won't, you know, hurt his diet or
this is it forever?
Speaker 2: But here's here's the thing. When it comes to urinary
cristal and dogs, the most common crystal we see is
called a triple phosphate crystal, which is ammonium magnesium phosphate.
And the key to the formation of these crystals is
the urinary pH and most of the phosphate. The triple
phosphate crystals seem to thrive in a basic urine, which
is a urine above the pH of say seven point five.
So when these dogs come in with the urinary pH
of eight and a half and crystals, you can assume
that's what the problem is, that the urin needs to
be acidified. There are some other crystals. Interestingly, the oxalates
that seem to do better in a basic pH, so
you run the risks sometimes if you bring that urine
pH down too low, meaning too acidic, you might take
care of the phosphate crystals, but then you're gonna have
trouble with the some of the oxalates of the urates.
So it's pretty confusing. So if you want to feed
vegetables that, I would say that there are some urinary
acidifiers that you can try, for example, ammonium chloride and
even good old fashioned vitamin C, a scorbic acid. Vitamin
C don't get the fancy rose hips. You get the
cheap stuff, a scorbic acid. And you could feed some
ascorbic acid add to the diet and that might keep
the urine acid enough that you can still feed in
mix in some you know, broccoli qualify whatever you were adding,
and what kind of vestables were you feeding?
Speaker 6: It was really broccoli, green bean.
Speaker 2: Okay, right, and you know those should be okay. So
what I would recommend is if there's any concern about
having that urine pH sort of past that seven point
five mark or even seven, then try adding some ammonium
chloride it's called or one of the vitamin c's, the
inexpensive ascorbic acid vitamin C and have the urine just
checked to make sure that the urine is staying on
the acidic side. One note, however, it's important to know
that it is recommended to look at the urine soon
after it's collected. If urine sits even in the fridge
for a long period of time, all right, it can
develop crystals. So we often get a false positive crystal.
Read if the urine is brought in or drawn by
the veterinarian in the morning and the lab pickup isn'
until the afternoon. It's sitting out or sitting in the fridge.
Then the lab drives it to the laboratory. You know,
the driver takes to the lab and by the time
the pathologist gets it, it's form crystals, which is normal.
You get this residue. So just you have to sort
of take it part in the pun with a grain
of salt. I mean, you have to know that that
the best way to evaluate crystals is on a very
very recent catch or a recent collection. Then you can
have the veterinari and can have one of his technicians
put a drop with a couple of drops on the
slide and look right away and truly see are there
crystals already formed? And if the urine is fairly fresh
and the no crystals, that's the important read, not the
one that the clinical pathologist at the lab is going
to take, you know, five six hours later, all right,
So you can ask the vet, ask the vats taking
me favor, have one of your your lab techs take
a quick look at the urine right away as soon
as we catch it, all right, And they can also
do a quick little urine dipstick and just see make
sure the pH is a good pH as well, all right,
So try those things and that way you can cheat
a little bit and not feel guilty and be those vegetables.
Speaker 6: And vegetables are good for them, right, and have maybe
a little less food so he can lose some weight.
Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely, absolutely, all right, all right, Sarah, thanks for
the call. You're welcome. See everybody. How painless? Was that
very easy? Seven three eight five eight eight eight two.
You can also kind of send us a little note
here right online when we're alive at doctor Jeff at
petlife radio dot com. I would say, well, here in
the chat room, we have looks like something maybe coming in.
So we were talking about how things like spleens can
make a big difference. And we had a dog in yesterday,
an older dog. It was actually a pharaoh hound. Love
to know if anybody knows what a pharaohound is. And
so we had this dog coming in and it had
the classic huge belly. It just looked like the typical
splinic tumor, maybe a liver problem. The belly was full,
it was tight to the touch. It seemed like there
was some fluid in there. And we talked to the
owner about all the good the bad. The dog was
a little on the older side, but I said to him, look,
if we do nothing, we're gonna end up with a
dead dog. The dog is gonna bleed out. At the
very least, we got to go in. And of the
tumor possibilities, there's actually one that's a benign tumor. We
call that a splinic homangioma. There's one that's a malignant
tumor called hamangio sarcoma. Then we also often will see
a hematoma, which is just like a blood blister within
the spleen. The hematoma and the manjoma are totally benign.
If you get that spleen out in time, it's one
hundred percent curative. So we talked about the pros and
cons what we need to do. So we went into
this dog's belly and this spleen, the tumor was huge.
It had attached itself to the stomach, to the kidney
and to the body wall, meaning there was no way
that this tumor could be resected, and it was bleeding
all over. It was just such a shame, and you know,
it's one of those things where you know, it's the
toughest phone call to make when you're calling an owner
to let them know that there's no way to help
you this pet, and they really should come in and
say goodbye, and they did, and you know, it's always
a sad scene whenever that happens, and everyone around, all
my employees, my technicians, everyone is so sad because it
was such a great dog. In contrast to that, we
had a little dog coming today, about a seven year
old little sheetsu that again presented. The owner noticed a
kind of a firm swelling when she would pet the dog,
and me for this neutered male dog looked like actually
he was pregnant. I mean, that's how big his belly was.
So going through the same thing, talk about all the possibilities.
And interestingly, when in this morning, in fact, that's where
I was just before coming up here to join all
of my listeners. And this was the classic splenic tumor.
It was confined to the spleen. It was pretty ugly.
It wouldn't surprise you I be come back as am
angio sarcoma, but it could come back on angioma. And
the liver was perfect, and the stomach was perfect, and
the kidneys were perfect, the intestines, everything else looked great.
We removed it. This dog was already up from anesthesia,
and we're just hoping that this will come back maybe
hemangiomo or hamangio excuse me, a hematoma and not the
ugly hamangio sarcoma, so that'd be great. So it just
goes to it shows you that you never know. And
that's why every case is an individual case. And one
thing I learned, and I've learned it from cases like
yesterday's the Pharaoh Hound and one that happened to me
years ago. I remember the dog was named Leo, and
I thought for sure, for sure, this was going to
be one of these respectable tumors. Told the owner, you know,
the chest is clear, everything looks good. It's on the
ultra sound. It look pretty confined. Not to worry. Not
to worry. Opened that dog up and there were mets
metastases all over the liver that were bleeding. So I
had to call the owner, and he and I both
had no idea at the time that this would be
the outcome. So what I do now is, uh, we'll
always go ahead and let the owner know and try
to have the owner spend a little time with the
pet before the surgery, because you never know what's going
to happen. So anyway, we're going to come right back.
It's time for a little break. I want to thank
our sponsors, pro Sends, Pet Products and anyone in the
Chicago area. Tomorrow morning, Friday morning, you can catch me
live at Good Day Chicago. That's the Fox affiliate in Chicago,
and we're going to be of course talking pets. We'll
be back in just a minute.
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Speaker 2: Hey there, welcome back to ask the Bet with doctor
jeffre on pet life Radio dot com. And hope you're
not shry give us a call at eight seven seven
three eight five eight eight A two. Join us on
pet Life Radio. You can ask me live where you
can also send me an email to doctor Jeff at
petlifradio dot com. As a matter of fact, we have
Mick who is listening, and Mick is having a problem
with his fleeing tich medication. And the problem is this
is I noticed that when I put the flee in
tich medication, my dog seems to not feel good for
the next twelve to twenty four hours. Is that normal?
Or should I try using a different brand? And it's
a great question, and the answer is, we don't know
necessarily how much of that sensitivity is going to be
general across the board, or is it something that is
that particular product. So if this is a new product,
the product you've never used before, and you've never had
this particular problem before on using something else, then I
would say it's got to be this particular brand, and
I would switch if it only lasts for twelve twenty
What I would also recommend doing is a lot of time.
Tis the instructions say put it on one spot along
the back of the neck, the shoulder blades, whatever I
find that, especially with certain dogs, it's okay to sort
of spread it down the back. Don't let too much
of it sit in any one spot. And another suggestion,
a lot of pet parents make the mistake of putting
on the fleeentiic medications, and of course we're talking about
the spot on types. They put it on a perfectly
clean dog right after a bath, and I don't recommend
doing that. I recommend waiting about two days, at least
a day and a half. And here's why these medications,
these products are all what we call lipophilic. They like fat,
and they need fat in order to sort of spread
themselves with the body. If you have a dog who
has such clean skin that there's no place for there's
no way that this stuff can spread out fast because
the that's not there. It takes about a day to
a day and a half for the oil cells in
the body to replenish the dry dog to replenish the
oil that was washed away from the bath. And therefore
that spot on just sits in that one spot or
wherever it is you put it. But if you wait
about a day or two day and a half two days,
then as soon as you put it on the body
is going to start doing what it does best and
it's going to spread that medication over the body as
it should. So I would tie have a number of suggestions.
Number One, make sure the dog isn't squeaky clean when
you put it on. Wait about a day or day
and a half day and a half to two days
after the bath.
Speaker 7: Two.
Speaker 2: If this is the first time you've ever had this
product and you've never used you've never had this problem
with other products before, then I would say change products,
go back to what you are using. If you have
this problem regardless of the product you use, then it's
just your dog and put up for it for twelve
to twenty four hours. But a suggestion would be spread
it out over the body. Put it in a bunch
of different spots instead of just two or three. Put
it in like six or seven different spots along the back,
and that might mitigate some of the signs that you
are noticing. So anyway, I hope that helps you need
anything answered. If you have more questions or ABMs, go
ahead and text me back, write me back here at
petlife radio dot com. I can see the questions coming
in online as you type them, so it makes it
really really easy. So let's see what else. Oh, these
conferences said, I'm off to Chicago. Here it's hot and muggy.
I'm hoping to maybe I can even catch a cuppies
or a White Sox game. In fact, interesting, I was
in Chicago a couple of summers ago. And by the way,
Chicago in the summer is a really a great town.
I like it anyway, you know, great food, a lot
of places to go. But the weather is it doesn't
bother me, the muggy weather, and it's just you know,
it's it's still eighty degrees at night, which is great.
But I went to it just happened to be the
weekend of the game between the White Sox and the Cups.
It was the interdivisional games that they often have, and
uh it was at Wrigley Field, and you know, a
very historical place to go to Wrigley Field. And anyway,
it was just a lot of fun. So I'm looking forward.
And then I get to head off to Kansas City
for the Central Veteranight Conference and I sit there. It's
a great conference, growing conference, and really does it gives
us such a great opportunity to find out what's new
There's so many great products out there. There's so many
great devices out there. When I think back, and I
remember that we were warned back in veterinary school that
every five years, half of what was known as gospel
is now obsolete. And that's huge. So all of a sudden,
I'm practicing now for a long time. I'm in my
thirtieth year, and when I look back, I'm going to
pack back. So I still have a lot of my
old notes from that school and my old textbooks. I
figured maybe someday it might be worth a penny. And
I look at what we used to teach. And you know,
a great question that was brought on by micking the
fleet products is let's talk fleas for a second, and
how things have changed dramatically over the years. Back in
the day. And I hate to sound like an old guy,
but back in the day, we used to say for
every one flea you found on your dog, there were
twenty five to thirty in the environment, all right, which
means if you had three or four fleas, all right,
you had close to one hundred fleas environment. And spend
so much time on treating the environment. We had foggers,
we had the bombs. We had the premise prays right.
And now as we've learned more about flea behavior thanks
to some of the experts out there, like my friend
Mike Dryden at the Kansas State University, we learn that
fleas are actually obligate parasites. Flease need that blood meal
and if they don't have it, they're going to die
within hours, sometimes as long as ten maybe as short
as five hours. When we have fleas in the environment,
these are fleas that are either recently hatched, they're recently
developed fleas, and we all go from the flea egg
to the larvae to the young adult to the adults,
all right, or they're adult fleas that have not yet
had that blood meal, or they're adult fleas that have
had their first blood meal. But it's even that within
that five to ten hour period they're still around. They're
not interested in you. They want that dog. They can't
find the dog, they may go after you. So now
understanding the mechanics the life cycle, is that adult fleas
that have been primed, meaning they had their first blood meal,
are now obligate parasites. They need to live on that host,
which is the dog or the cat. Now we don't
spend as much time in the environment because we know
that anytime that larvae becomes an adult, and that adult
flea jumps on that dog for the first time, it
takes that first blood meal, it's gonna now need that
blood and if it doesn't get it's dead anyway, So
let's not worry about it. Any of the fleas in
the environment are going to be young, you know, young
adult or still you know, recently hatched baby fleas, which
is why typically when you do see fleas in the environment,
you're going to see them and if they're jumping on you,
they're really little teeny in their heart to find they're
hopping like crazy, I know, they're amazing. I mean some
other facts about fleas. A flea can hop something like
over one hundred times its size. A female flea in
peak season under the right conditions, which is the humidity
of at least seventy five percent and temperature whatever, they
can lay up to forty to fifty eggs a day.
So and you have that one flat, plump, fat, plump
female on a dog, she is potentially dropping into your
environment twenty five to forty to even up to fifty
eggs a day, which explains why they can be such
a nuisance if you don't take care of the problem.
So what I recommend is taking care of the fleas
on your pet, on the dog or the cat, because
they're obligate parasites. And I recommend speaking to your veterinarian.
There are too many things out there that are unsafe,
especially when it comes to cats, ineffective because of some
political issues out there with some of the flea products.
Check with your veterinarian to get the real skinny on
what you should be using as far as flee control
in the environment. If you really have a major environmental problem,
you want to do something as well. You want to
find and make sure that what you use because as
we just learned that most of that which is in
the environment flea wise, are going to be eggs, larvae,
and babies. You want to look for a product that
has an IGR. IGR stands for insect growth regulator. So
it's more important actually for environmental control to use that
which is going to inhibit the development of the larval
stage into the young adult stage. Eggs to larvae to
the young adult so those are called IGRs, and I
think it's best to get them in a form that
is easily applicable. It's not really that smart to get
foggers anymore, because why, we've also learned that larvae are
photo sensitive. They're photophobic. They don't light light, and they're
very sensitive to light. So what do they do. They
will crawl and they make their way to an area
that doesn't have direct sunlight. That might be under a
coffee table, that might be under a couch or lounge chair,
that might be under your bed. When you set a foger, however,
and you lay them down, you set them down on
the floor on the coffee table, on top of the
piece of newspaper, and you set them and you be
lying out of your house. That myst is shooting up
in the air, but it's settling on top of all
those pieces of furniture where the larva are hiding below.
So the very same furniture that you set the machine
on is protecting that larvae and it's just not getting it.
So you want to use a premise spray where you
can direct the spray. You don't have to spray very
heavily where there's in the middle of the living room floor.
If there's a big bay window, and you're getting sunlight
all day. You do want to spray, however, under the
furniture and only about four to six inches underneath. You
don't have to go like an under the middle of
a king sized bed, just sort of around the perimeter
and that would help. So anyway, that hopefully will clear
up some of the issues that we have for fleas.
And also know that this time of year most parts
of the country is mosquito season and along with mosquito
season comes heartworm, So make sure you protect your dogs
and even or especially I should say, you're outdoor cats,
because cats are also susceptible to heartroom disease, and sadly,
we don't have a treatment for cats. We can treat dogs,
but we can't treat the cats. So the best way
to treat and I use that term loosely a cat
for heartworm disease is to prevent it. So if you
have a cat that is an outdoor cat and you
live in a mosquito endemic area, please please please see
your veterinarian and make sure your cat is on heartworm
prevention as well as your dogs. Here in California, southern California,
we're not hit that hard but I interestingly, I do
see some mosquitoes around my home, and therefore I do
use heartworm invention on my dogs as well. But something
you speak to your veterinarian. You know, much like vaccines,
it's all about what we call the core, the inherent
disease is in your area that you need to protect
your pets against, and so when it comes to certain vaccines,
it could be you know, many many different vaccines that
we use. Likewise, when we are protecting our pets against
fleas or heartworm disease, I think of those weird diseases
that we don't see everywhere, some of the tickborn problems.
If your dog is not ever going to get ticks,
you don't have to worry about it. You don't need
the lime disease vaccine if you're living in an area that
diseases and endemic and your dog really doesn't get any ticks,
so check with your veterinarian. I don't like you when
you go to the store and you start buying things
because most of the things that you buy may not
be necessary for your pet. And let's face it, in
my opinion, sometimes less is more, and we don't want
to overload your pet with a bunch of chemicals, a
bunch of vaccines, things like that. So I want to
thank our callers and I want to thank but well
Mick for typing in a question. I want to thank
Sarah for calling in. I want to thank our sponsors,
po Sense Pet Products. You can go online to prosensepet
dot com to see what the line has to offer.
The full line is available at Walmart, at your local Walgreens.
You can find things at Target, etc. And we will
see you back next week here at Ask the Bets
with Doctor Jeff on Petlife Radio dot com. Thanks for
joining me.
Speaker 3: Let's talk pets every week on demand only on pet
Life Radio dot com.
Speaker 2: Sp