Speaker 1: You were listening to Petlifradio dot Com.
Speaker 2: Well, good afternoon to everybody out there. Here on pet
Life Radio, you are listening to doctor Jeff Werber here
on Ask the Bets with Doctor Jeff.
Speaker 3: And I am thrilled to be here on this lovely well.
Speaker 2: You know, I guess I deserve it because I'm always
boasting about how great it is to be here in
southern California.
Speaker 3: Is sitting here in Los Angeles. Last week was eighty six.
Speaker 2: Degrees and we had a lot of rain in the
last day or so more on the way.
Speaker 3: The only good thing is for any.
Speaker 2: Of you that ski or snowboard like myself, they got
a lot of snow, so I'm happy. I'll be headed
to Mammoth sooner than later with the new to snow
they have. But I had a little traveling this last week,
so it's been crazy, and my off people always say, well, God,
you must love when you go at traveling. I mean,
I like it, but when I have to come back
and work three times as hard because I have all
these clients that were waiting for me to come back.
You know, I have wonderful associates, just fantastic associates, and
them call and them want to make an appointment, and
my receptions would say, well, you know, doctor Werber's not
in today or n tomorrow. Would you like to see
doctor you know so and so Wednesday back? Oh he's
back on Thursday. Well, no, will waits. But ma'am, you
just say your dog is dying. No they could see me.
Speaker 3: They wait.
Speaker 2: So anyway, it's been one of those days yesterday and today,
and then I leave tonight off again to do some
In fact, I'll tell you now, I want everybody to
watch Fox and Friends Sunday Beyond Sunday Morning with Tucker Carlson,
who's fantastic, who is amazing, amazing dog lover, and we're
gonna be talking about a number of things about the
holidays and some holiday toxicities, things to watch for.
Speaker 3: And I think the subject matter is so important we're.
Speaker 2: Going to talk about it today as well. And I
just did an interview with one of the magazines's pet
Age magazine. In fact, I literally minutes before I started
my show here and one of the questions I was asking,
I really want your input, So I'm going to beg you,
insist that you call me or send me a note.
But you can you know, easily catch me here on
my show, just you know, give us a holler and
at eight seven seven three eight five eight eight eight
two once again area code eight seven seven three eight
five eight eight eight two, because I want to know
if you've heard of anything like this or a story
of something negative.
Speaker 3: And here it is.
Speaker 2: Apparently people are building very tall cat trees. And you
know all what the cat tree is, and it's it's
like a you know, picture it as like a jungle
gym for cats. So one of the stacy and she
was actually asking me that she knew of a cat tree.
I don't know whether it was the tallest one, but
certainly a tall one of.
Speaker 3: Twenty six feet.
Speaker 2: So, first of all, I'm curious to know do any
of you have cat trees that are twenty six feet?
Speaker 3: That's tall? But what he was asking was are they dangerous?
Speaker 2: In other words, has anyone ever had a cat that
fell off their own cat tree to the point of
hurting himself or herself? And my answer, well, first of all,
you know, I have six cats, and I've had some
pretty good sized cat trees, certainly you know, ten footers,
and none of my cats have ever fallen off of
a cat tree, let.
Speaker 3: Alone hurt themselves.
Speaker 2: So I'm just curious and I want to hear from you.
You can also get me at doctor Jeff atpetlifradio dot com.
Has any listener out there, anyone who's joined as our show,
would you get a hold of us? Could just call
in eight seven seven three eight five eight eight eight
two A have you ever seen or heard of a
cat tree that tall? And number two if you have
or even if you have one, even I'll take one
fifteen feet or twenty feet. Have you ever had a
cat fall off of it to the point of hurting
him or herself? I think that'd be a cool thing
to know. So anyway, I'm here every Thursday. I'm here
every Thursday one o'clock Pacific time, four o'clock out in
the east, and whatever time in the middle that might be,
because I know some people take the change of clocks
and others don't.
Speaker 3: And we're here for you. We are here to answer
your questions. It's free.
Speaker 2: It's free to log on to petlife radio dot com.
It's free to call an eight seven seven number and
one of any questions you may have about your pet.
If it's something that I cannot give you an answer
right away. I will get you an answer, but it's
free information. And not only that, as a pro sense
pet products, one of our sponsors will actually send you
out a free product for your dog or your cat
if you call in. So now you have major extra incentive,
not just to get an answer to that question that's
been just bugging you for weeks and weeks, from months
and months. Free answers and free product, you cannot go wrong.
So I want to hear back from you, and just
also what's happening with your pets. You know, the more
we hear about your pets, the more we have to
talk about. And what's amazing to me is the people
are sitting out there and the same to themselves.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 2: God, I want to ask this question, but I am
so embarrassed. I'm probably the only one in the world
that's got this question. Let me tell you something, been
doing radio for a long time, and these talk shows
and answering the calling, answer question, answer shows, and there
is nothing new under the sun.
Speaker 3: Trust me.
Speaker 2: Whatever you think, whatever problem you think you have condition
with your pet, you've been dealing with for the longest time,
the shortest time, and you think, oh my god, I'm
the only one. I don't want to embarrass myself. I
don't want to call in. You will find out, trust me,
and other listeners that are hearing will say, oh my god,
my pet is the same problem. So it only helps
the shy of you out there. Those are you lit
are too shy to call. If those that aren't call
in and start asking some questions about your pets. Now
I've been I I'm doing Fox and Friends on Sunday morning.
That's live, so you can tune in Sunday morning. And
then I'm doing The Better Show. I'm filming that on Monday,
and I do not know at hand when that is
going to air. However, I will let you know here
in Pet Life Radio, and either I or Mark Winter,
our producer, will put something out there to let you
know when that is going to air.
Speaker 3: That's called The Better Show.
Speaker 2: But one of the things we're talking about, and this
was actually rather surprising, but not only holiday hazards. I mean,
I love to talk about holiday hazards this time of year.
Of course, they are all preventable, but what makes them
preventable is knowledge.
Speaker 3: Knowledge is king.
Speaker 2: If I can tell you in advance what to be
aware of, what to watch out for, what is truly
a potential danger and what isn't. Then you'll be on
your toes and you'll keep your pets away from this,
this persistent or this potential danger. So one of the
things we talked about, I thought it was actually interesting
to learn. So, first of all, eggnog, and a lot
of people like eggnog. Personally, I'm not a big fan,
but there are some problems with the alcohol. If there
is alcohol in the eggnog, that dogs and cats can
truly get alcohol poisoning in more.
Speaker 3: Than one way.
Speaker 2: And I don't mean just letting them drink yourcotonic I'm
talking about by eating foods that contain alcohol or foods
that are doustra diyped in alcohol, dogs and cats have
gotten alcohol poisoning. Another problem with the eggnog is the
raw egg can cause some gas to intestinal distress to
many dogs and cats, So you want to be careful. Now,
as far as the holiday plants, usually overrated people think mistletoe,
it turns out that American missiletoe is really not.
Speaker 3: Toxic at all.
Speaker 2: Now, it could be just an irritant to the esophagus
or to the intestinal attract but there's no toxicity. However,
English mistletoe, which is really isn't even available or here
in this country, can and does have some toxic properties.
The only plant that we really you know, really need, well,
holly can cause some vomiting diarrhea. So but it's more
that there are thick waxy leaves, and those waxy leaves
are what can cause the vomiting and diarrhea because they
become sort of a gastric irritant. But there's no like
true chemical toxic effect to holly. Christmas cactus gets some
bad press, not really a problem. Point Setia gets some
bad press, not a problem. In fact, it's been determined
that point Setia isn't toxic at all. Now again because dogs,
for example, I'll give you a perfect example. How many
of you have dogs out there or cats that like
to eat grass? Okay, so what happens typically when they
eat grass, there's no toxic effective grass, unless of course
the grass was freshly fertilized, and there could be some
issues with the nitrogen and the fertilizer. But grass itself
is not toxic. However, many dogs we eat grass vomit.
In fact, that brought up the famous discussion do dogs
eat grass because they want to vomit? Or do they
eat grass because it feels good to them, not realizing
that a certain amount of time later they're going to vomit.
I'm not gonna give you my answer to that one. Actually,
there's another reason to call in here to pet Life Radio.
Ask the bests with doctor Jeff. I want to hear
your answers to what you think is the reality dogs
eat grass because they know it's going to make them vomit,
or to eat grass because they like it, they find
it soothing, not aware that twenty minutes later, half hour later, whatever,
it's going to make them vomit.
Speaker 3: I want to hear what you think.
Speaker 2: But anyway, what turns out with the point setia is
that it is a plant. Dogs don't digest plants well,
and yes, it might make them vomit, might give them diarrhea,
but it is not a poison.
Speaker 3: Now, it leads us to a plant that is a poison.
Speaker 2: Fortunately, it's not a plant that's usually made into these
wreaths that go on a door or things that you
hang from a tree, but lilies. Lilies are potentially deadly
to cats, not only not only the lily plant itself,
but actually if you have lilies in a ose and
you have them in water, if a cat drinks the
water from those lilies, they too can become toxic. It
causes severe, severe kidney disease, and that is a problem
them as well. So just know that lilies are to
be avoided at all costs in your home. If you
have cats, and if you do have lilies, keep them
very high up that not that usually that stops a cat,
because it's not going to stop a cat, but make
it very very difficult for them to get to. Or
better yet, keep your cats in a different room. Don't
expect the height to keep a cat away, in fact,
to them to a cat. This is more of a challenge. Now,
how about cake fruitcakes? So in the surface say, well,
come off, it's a fruitcake. Ah, but what a couple
of things that are in fruitcakes that could be a problem.
So we are going to keep you hanging and we
are going to be back in a second.
Speaker 3: We're going to take our break.
Speaker 2: I want to once again thank our sponsors, which are
Pro Sense Pet Products and Walmart for carrying our full
line of Pro Sense Pet products. Then we will be
back after these quick messages.
Speaker 3: Stay tuned.
Speaker 1: We'll be right back right after these messages, stay tuned.
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Speaker 3: Hi.
Speaker 6: This is Michelle Ferns. Join me every week for Best
Bets for Pets, where we'll talk about the latest pet
products and talk to the companies that make them. Best
Bets for Pets every week only on petlifradio dot com.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about Let's go pet about radio headline.
Speaker 7: Radio atlive radio dot com.
Speaker 2: Welcome back, and thanks for joining me here live on
at Live Radio. You're here with Live with Doctor Jef
Werber at Ask the Bats with Doctor Jeff. And before
the break, you know, we talked about something as relatively
benign one would think about fruitcake. What do you think
might be a problem? What do you think could be
in fruitcake? If we cause an issue? All right, and
let's see if one is fairly astute. But to the
ingredients that are actually very very common in fruitcake, Number
one is going to be raisins and number two currents
c U R R A N.
Speaker 3: And the reason is that currants believe it or not.
Speaker 2: Well, obviously, anyone who knows currants are in the raisin family,
so the toxic portion that nobody really knows exactly what
is of raisins and grapes are also in many of
the currents, so that's something that we have to avoid.
Another thing about fruitcake, And had I known this, I
probably would have eaten more of it or would eat
more of it. But a lot of fruitcake is lace
with alcohol, and boy I missed it because I'm not
a big fan of fruitcake, but I don't mind the alcohol.
So I'm thinking, oh my god, I know that maybe
it would have made it taste better.
Speaker 3: I don't know. I just think it tastes that good.
Speaker 2: But anyway, and alcohol onknown, I understand this not cooked alcohol.
If you are adding like rum cake, and you're adding
rum to the mix and you're baking it, then you
are baking away the alcohol, keeping the rum taste, which
is why people like rum cake. But a lot of
these rum cakes, a lot of these fruitcakes that have
alkaline them are also either dipped or laced in the
hopping with alcohol, which is probably why they're so popular
because it's not necessarily because the taste, but anyway my opinion,
of course, but alcohol can cause toxicity in dogs and cats.
It could cause well, first of all, hypoglycemia, low blood sugar.
It can also cause a taxi. A taxia is sort
of like like a weakness, a wobbly. When dogs are
a taxic, one of the ways to characterize them is
they look like they're drunk, and sure enough, when they
drink alcohol, they are respiratory distress, hypo or it's just
say bradycardia, which is a slow heart rate. So really,
as you're listening to these symptoms respiratory distress, slow heart rate,
low blood sugar, a taxia, which is weakness, wobbliness, and
you're talking about a drunk, you're talking about just like
a person who is drunk. This you know, when I
was reading and researching all these the symptoms and the
problems and the fact that it's real, I have to
laugh because obviously I those of you listening know that
I want to be a vet ever since I was
probably five.
Speaker 3: So for me, all of all the high.
Speaker 2: School graduation presents that might get someone excited, the one
that got me excited the most was my very own labrador,
and I had a labrador tree for His name was Thor,
and Tho his big black lab He was actually a
magnificent lab and he was my high school graduation president,
so of course he came to college with me.
Speaker 3: Now I went to Berkeley.
Speaker 2: This is going back to the early seventies, and you
can kind of imagine the tone of Berkeley in the
early seventies. I don't think the professors were much better
off in many ways than the kids, the students. And
by better off, I mean, you know, maybe.
Speaker 3: Sober, if you will.
Speaker 2: So, I don't think they even knew or maybe even
cared that Grover would come to class with me.
Speaker 3: Almost every day.
Speaker 2: He would sit in these big lecture halls and he
would come in with me, sit up my feet, didn't
bother anybody, and he sort of became, I don't know,
like my little mascot. Well, one day we were having
a there was a fraternity party going around near where
I was, and I had an apartment nearby, and I
was friends with some of these guys. And you know,
Thor being a big Labrador and was obviously very social
and very friendly, and everybody knew him and loved him.
So all of a sudden I'm hearing a bunch of commotion,
you know, about maybe fifteen feet away from me.
Speaker 3: So I go over to here see what the heck
is going on.
Speaker 2: And one of the guys was holding his beer down
sort of little low. He was talking to somebody, and
his beer was in his hand and his hand was
sort of extended, and all of a sudden he felt
a lot of like slobbering and dripping.
Speaker 3: On his hand.
Speaker 2: So he looks down and there was Thor helping himself
to this guy's beer. Well, instead of just lifting his
beer away and saying, hey, Thor, cut it out, he said,
oh my god, this is hysterical. This dog loves beer.
So before you know it, all these guys were offering
Thor their beers. And if I tell you, Thor got drunk.
He could not walk a straight line. So now, firsthand
I can tell you what the a taxia, the weakness
and wobbliness of alcohol can do to a dog. Fortunately,
at one hundred and twenty pounds one hundred and ten
pounds he was huge. It wasn't enough to cause any
major problems. Of course, I wouldn't let him do it again,
but interestingly, he want now I don't know. You know,
he's a labrador. Labrador says, you know, will eat anything
that's not bolted down or doesn't eat them first.
Speaker 3: But he loved beer.
Speaker 2: Whatever I would have a beer, he always wanted beer.
And I don't know, not sure whether it was the taste,
which I can't imagine because I didn't even acquire a
taste for beer until I was in college, or maybe
he just liked that feeling of being totally out of control,
but he was, and it was very cute at the time,
of course, so that is a problem. So alcohol beware, raisins,
currants and fruitcake beware. For cats, lilies beware, oh.
Speaker 3: And a lot of the other plants.
Speaker 2: As I said, it's not that they're toxic, but they
can cause some gastric irritation.
Speaker 3: But I want to talk about a few other things. Thanksgiving.
Speaker 2: There are a lot of desserts out there, and there's
a lot of fatty food. And the stuffing could be fatty.
If there's ham could be fatty, dark meat, turkey could
be fatty, turkey skin could be fatty, and of course
the fixings.
Speaker 3: The desserts.
Speaker 2: We'd already talked about fruitcake, but even chocolate can be
a problem. Again, they'd have to eat a whole lot,
but it still can be a problem. And then another
complicated we have this year is that as of the
twenty eighth, which is Thursday starting Wednesday night is also
the holiday of Hanukkah, and two favorite foods for that
holiday are potato pancakes fried and doughnuts fried. Do not
let your dogs eat this fried food, eating this fatty
fried foods, eating nuts, eating the skin the dark meat,
anything that's too much fat can cause some pancreatitis.
Speaker 3: Now, what do we do?
Speaker 2: What can we give our dogs to keep them away
from our table and happy? Well, for one thing, anything
that they like that occupies their time. I mean, if
they love eating like those rawhide shoes that take a
while to get through, as long as they're not made
in China. If they like bully sticks, again, as long
as they they're made here in the US and they're
used to them, then maybe let them for as everyone's
sitting down, give them their old, big fat, nice bully
stick or raw high chew and let them just enjoy
marrow bones. Marrow bones, to me, I'm not a big
fan because marrow also like the other fatty foods we
talked about do have a pretty high fat content, and
when it comes to things like that, I worry about
them eating it. And it's good, so they're going to
try to eat it, but I worry about pancreatitis as well.
And the last thing you want to ruin your wonderful
family holiday time together is to have to rush your puking,
painful dog or cat to an emergency facility because they
ended up giving themselves pancreatitis by getting into the garbage,
getting into the remains of all that food, getting into
the turkey bones, turkey skin, dark meat, turkey ham, potato pancakes,
you name it. We gotta be careful. So just I
hope that gives you plenty of information to know what
to beware of, what to watch for, and what to allow.
Speaker 3: So here we are.
Speaker 2: It's been We have three or four minutes left. No
one has called in, and I want an answer from
you as to whether why do dogs eat grass? And
no one's called in, and you're gonna force me. The
truth is, nobody knows for sure, but I have my
theory and I'm gonna have to give it to you
unless somebody calls it really fast.
Speaker 3: But here's my theory that.
Speaker 2: Dogs aren't smart enough to avoid something if it causes
the undue reaction, in this case, vomiting after about fifteen
to twenty minutes. If they eat something that causes immediate
vomiting within five to ten minutes, then that can suffice.
Speaker 3: That's what we call avoidance therapy.
Speaker 2: So they get something that makes them vomit fairly quickly,
fairly soon after ingestion. Most likely, most often they will
not go back to it. But for any of you
that have had dogs that have eaten grass and vomit
from it, guess what they go back. So it's unlikely
that they sense that they're doing it for the purpose
of making them vomit. So why do they eat it? Well,
I think they eat it for a number of reasons.
First of all, an interview you shoot on blaze of grass.
It's kind of sweet. Chlorophyll has a naturally sweet taste,
and I do believe that it does create a soothing
effect to them if they have in fact some sort
of gastro and to write as a gastric irritation.
Speaker 3: So I think they like the moisture.
Speaker 2: I think they like the sweetness, they like the taste
and they don't realize that a half hour later, or
sometimes more, maybe sometimes a little less, that same thing
they just ingested.
Speaker 3: For the good reasons is going to make them vomit.
So that's my take. I'd love to hear yours.
Speaker 2: If any behaviors are out there, or if anyone has
actually studied this and can show me proof, I'd like
to see it. But until then, I'm going with my theory,
which is they do it because they like it, it's sweet,
and it's going to make them melton. In many cases
WI make a vomit, It's not gonna make a vomit
for quite a while anyway. This at Oh My God
one twenty nine for twenty nine feedback Keech brings us
to the end of another show. Once again, it was
great being here. We will be here next week.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 2: Next week is Thanksgiving, and unless something else like some
family function, gets Mark out of a studio, we will
be here to join you next week, and I'd love
to hear some good Thanksgiving stories, anything that you want
to share with us, anything for your pets. Let's just
go ahead and give us answers, so we will see
you next week, same time, one o'clock Pacific time, four
o'clock back in the East, have a I don't see
you or talk to you, and if you don't join
us next week, have a wonderful Thanksgiving, a wonderful conica
if it applies, and we'll see an ANSW Thursday.
Speaker 3: Bye bye.
Speaker 1: Let's Talk Pets every week on demand only on pet
life radio dot com.