Speaker 1: This is Pet Life Radio. Let's talk pets.
Speaker 2: Good morning, Good morning. You are here live with doctor
Jeff and my favorite guest host, Michaelhern. Mike, how are
you doing?
Speaker 1: You're doing good, captain.
Speaker 3: So first of all, happy Father's Day and happy Father's
Day and Grandpa's Day and everything.
Speaker 2: And her pet Dad's too. So I'm waving hello to everybody.
The first to join is my sister, Hello there and JB.
How you doing so? H here for you, here for
your pets. You know the drill. Notice a different studio here,
because I'm here live with Mike at Mike's studio, which
is way more sophisticated than mine, and with all the
stuff that he does online and anyway, you know, I
have to tell you if you don't know Michael Hearn,
he is former you name it, mister universe, mister I'll
follow everything right. And when I first met him, he's scary.
I walked in and he is doing sets with three
in a quarter. Now, mind you, when I was lifting,
and that was a long time ago, my max one
was three and a quarter. He's doing it like it's nothing.
So anyway, I often said, and this is what impressed
me so much on Mike is that as big as
his muscles are, his heart is even bigger. And when
I see how he is so crazy about dogs, and
that's what bonded us, and we've been friends ever since.
I try to do as much stuff as I can
with him. He tries to help me with my social
media because I suck at social media. So we figured
it'd be really fun. This, by the way, is the
anniversary of my five hundredth show on pet Life Radio,
and so we want to do something special. And Mark Winter,
amazing producer, said, He said, Jeff, well, you know, let's
get something special, something going on, And I said, okay,
I got it. Mike or hearn because he is not
only has he got three point six million followers, but
he is such a all lover. So it's a big
heart and who better to share this momentous occasion with Mike.
So anyway, my other sister's there, Hey, b So I'm
just trying to wave to everybody. Steve my brother in
law who happened to be my high school classmate also
so anyway, so tell me what's going on.
Speaker 3: Everything good, Everything's good. We just got back and I'm
glad I got to be here. For this event, and
again thank you for the kind words. But you truly
I think everybody that's here today can understand. And you know,
I am a dog person, but I think society in general,
one of the biggest things that they have to find
is a good vet. And one thing I got lucky
with was meeting you early, early on. And you are
truly amazing, not just as a vet but as a human.
And I truly see why you fell in love with
your craft. I would say, you've got a gift for this.
Speaker 2: Well, I love it and it does. Another quick story
about my some mic is and and his wife were
filming something. They were in Detroit and I called him
last week to uh to tell him that it was
in my five hundred show. I'd love to have him
come on as my guest host. And I said when
he coming back, he said, we're do back on Sunday night.
I said, oh, what a bummer. You know, I was
hoping to have you coming in. And I hear his
wife and back on going, We'll be there, We'll be there.
This is the kind of guy is He changed his
plans just to come and help me with this, you know,
great show. And I am thrilled. So let me get
your questions. I want some things we can talk about.
First of all, you know some quickies may as well
talk about Father's Day. You know, everyone's getting together. Hopefully
you'll spend time with the family. Probably hopefully have a barbecue.
There's gonna be guests coming over, family coming over. Be
careful with your dogs because we know how dangerous some
of the things that we eat easily, and it's not
good for our pets. Okay, for example, if you're gonna
chop up some onions to put on those hamburgers, raw
onions not good for dogs. It could be could be toxic.
Speaker 1: But one of the.
Speaker 2: Biggies is, and this is something that I hear all
the time, and I see it. I've seen it with
my own dogs, and that is corn on the cob.
Harmless corn is great for dogs, but not the cop
because it happens is they don't know, they don't really
separate the corn kernels from the cob. They get that
thing and have an opportunity to get that thing out
of the garbage, and they will literally not only try,
they will swallow. If it was even cut it into
like thirds or halves, they'll follow that cob hold gets
into the stomach, no problem. But after that disaster, it
might make it through the stomach into the intestine, which
you think is good. No, that's bad because once it
gets to certain parts of the intestine, that cob is
so big, it literally comes to a dead stop and
it causes many problems. Of course vomiting, course, of course blockage.
But the only way to get it out is surgery.
But a bummer. You're gonna start the day with family
and friends and have a good time Father's Day and
then guess what, you got an emergency with your pet
to be really really careful. And also if any crust's
coming up on pet life, now's the time. So all right,
so since no question talk about that. First of all,
something happened to be funny this week. Yeah, I always say,
if you have a veterinarian, i've never been bid? Okay,
what do I sicken thoughts about that veterinarian, because you know,
maybe I'm in the face, I'm getting kisses, I'm getting
the hugs. I mean, of course you got you can't help.
But if you're not ever been bitten by a dog
and you're a veterinarian, you've been like practicing like five
feet away from the pet. That's not good. That's not
what we want. We want to see a veterinarian who's
engaging with the pets. Anyway, I've been bitten several I
can't count anybody, but always minor stuff. I fortunately have
pretty good reflexes, so a major bite turned out to
a minor But last week, this is crazy.
Speaker 3: Is that because the dog and I know we say
this a lot. No, no, my dog doesn't bite. And
then there's the one time it bites. And so they're
already stressed out going into the course clinic. Uh huh,
there's something wrong with them, or they wouldn't be there
most likely unless you're a parent like me and I
get stressed out about anything. But so you got all
this aspect and then you have the veterinarian almost down
into the face, and so what can they do besides
just having a great vet to try to destress If
that's an okay question to ask here, well.
Speaker 2: Yea actually great question. So first, as we know many
of our dogs that seem to be great and happy
and social when it comes to a veterini setting, first
of all, there's a lot of other dogs and oh,
that's a great question, Beth, my sister bethany dogs on trampoline.
We'll get to that in a minute. So with stress, yes,
even the sweetest dog can become not just a sweet dog.
So it's very important to able, of course to read
the dogs, but that parents also know their dogs. In fact,
they know their dogs better than we do. So if
they know from prior experience that the dog is tough,
either give the veterinarian a warning. I have dogs that
I would be going the warning. They weren't bad enough
to eat a muzzle, but you know, you just hand
them a little bit differently. So that's okay. First, my
both of my thumb. How terrible is that I'm a
lefty and my left thumb. But anyway, that's just Murphy's law.
But so I knew he was tough, a French bulldog,
all right, and Potato and my friend Brooke owns him,
and I know for history the start that this dog
is tough. So a basic exam, no problem. Start poking
and prodding bag problem. So anyway, I am sitting there
with him, and I know we're trying to take an
X ray and there's no way we're no way. We
can't turn this kind of side possible. All right, let's
get a buzzle. Putting the buzzle on, my text couldn't
put the musseline, I said, okay, he knows me better,
I'll put the mussele. Wow, he doesn't like he knows me.
He just doesn't like me that much. So sure enough,
putting mussel on. He turned around his fast lightning and
got my thumb right there. You can see it right
to know. That's all certain different colors, blue, purple, green, whatever.
I think I'll save the nail. But I thought maybe
I'd lose the nail. But I'm gonna be okay. So
then later on the afternoon, I went to my son's
house to say hi and to see my grandkids. And
as him walking to his house, I see this couple
walking a really cute of course, Frenchie and I, you know,
on the French knock, I see somebody frenchist. I said, okay,
I'm gonna go say hello. The guy right away warns
me because no, no, no, he is not friendly. Okay, so
I don't go to him. I figured, well, you know,
usually you call the dog to you if they come
to you and they don't then they're you know, they're
on and off. So anyway, I just kneel down, put
my hand out to go like this and he comes
right over to me. Just me a little nudget babe,
right on my same thumb. It was totally worn. It
was a strange dog. Didn't know it was. I thought
I could win him over. No, not this one anyway.
So anyway, very very funny. So, uh, hello Terry. Oh yea,
let's get some questions here. There was a great about grampoline.
So dog definitely is the new rage? Is it dangerous?
My thoughts? So, you know, as with anything that is.
You know, if you look at some of the dogs,
for example bells and ballin wise that will be put
through obstacle courses. Okay, it's amazing what they can do.
So so you know, I think that really the important
thing is know your dog. You gotta be careful starts.
Oh can't they hurt themselves? Of course they can. You
see so many videos of dogs on trampoline on Instagram
at TikTok they're having a blast, So I think it's
very individualized. Don't think, however, because you saw that dog
on TikTok, do it that your dog can do it.
It's something that you got to test him. Start slow
and then I mean, think about it. Titan, is how
old my pipe's out as Titan?
Speaker 1: Okay, six years old?
Speaker 2: Now physically he's twelve.
Speaker 1: Yes, that is true. That is true.
Speaker 2: So you know, to look at a kid like this, Oh,
he can do anything, but even something new for the
first time.
Speaker 3: So that leads me to the question, because I think
it's a great question, but it can be used as
a metaphor for all aspects of how much can you
let your young dog play, knowing it's young, but there
may be some later consequences to the fact of playing
so hard. It seems to me dog's over forty or
fifty pounds. It's the shoulders and the hips that go
lalater on And I go, well, what could we have
done to minimize that damage later earlier when they are
so active?
Speaker 2: Exactly? And this is why. And it's a great point.
So I see a dog, a Golden Retriever puppy, running
alongside a guy with a mic right, and I'm thinking
to myself, don't do that, because it's been shown that
over exercising. You want to get this Rottweiler for example,
to be the biggest, baddest roddy on the block, so
you're gonna muscle them up, you're gonna feed them as
a young puffs. These can all lead to problems down
the road, so you got to be really careful. You
want to start slow, and for example, puppy dogs that
are Lord's breed to have a tendency to develop elbow
dysplasia and hip dysplasia. Those are the ones you need
to be even more careful with and start them slow
and don't don't let them run down, and wait till
they're fully grown. Now you know the growth plates have closed,
the joints are developed, and then you can start getting
on an exercise program. So, like anything else, trampoline is something. Look,
I don't have a trampoline.
Speaker 3: I think might help both people and dogs, is the fact,
And I agree, And you and I have talked about
this tremendously because I tend to go with the huskies
and the Akidas, so they're a little bit of a
larger breed. But again it comes back that I find
that it's the hip problems the joints as life goes on,
and I think I made some mistakes doing the bike
early on, and you go, Mike, it's just like people.
It's just like lifting. You can't have your son lift
like you lift. That's going to cause damage, maybe not now,
but later on. And so I think it's great for
people to understand that. And I think, like the you know,
Instagram is so easy to go. I want my dog
doing this. I want my dog jumping up off the
side of the roof. Those dogs are so amazing. But again,
just like anything, be smart about it, right, You've lectured me.
So I'm guilty, guys, so to understand this. I'm guilty
of being the I always say, I'm a great I
love dogs. I need to learn to be a better
dogg owner. And that's one of my mistakes.
Speaker 2: And is a good point, and that is that I
made mistakes too. Because remember one thing about in general medicine,
every five years half of what was gospel is obsolete.
So there are things that we didn't know back then,
so we were doing it and then all of a sudden,
some new study comes out and finds out that, oh
my god, that's not good for your bet. So all
of us are probably guilty of doing things that probably
we shouldn't have but that's what learning is all about.
You make mistakes, you learn from your mistakes.
Speaker 3: I have one more question from my fans over here,
so thanks for gumping in. They go, well, huskies do
the races and everything, isn't that it's the husky that
is setting the pace, not you riding the bike setting
the pace, and that would be the difference between the
two eat. So to answer your question, yes, huskies are
really strong dogs, but they're setting the pace where the
person riding the bike is going too fast and tugging
them along.
Speaker 2: And a point that I really want to jump on
now because that's a great point is here. It is
some we're exciting with our dogs, momor we have dogs
at overheat. And the thing is, if you're hiking your dog,
they are so loyal to us they will do anything
to keep up with us. And so if you don't
read your dogs, if you read their body language, if
you read their panting, touch their guns and feel if
they're getting dehydrated, and don't stop frequently in the shade
at water with you, then they will overheat. Let them
determine how fast and how far they should go. And
when you see them stop, read them and stop along
with them, even though you're not ready. And anyway, with
that thought, or you take a quick break here on
pet Life Radio, and we're going to continue here on
Instagram and right back after these short messages. And once again,
thank you for everybody at pet Life Radio five hundred shows. Mark,
that's fantastic, Thank you so much.
Speaker 4: Oh sure, it's all fun and games until someone ends
up in a cone.
Speaker 2: That's right, we are animals, deal with it.
Speaker 1: Heat Life Radio. Let's talk pets, let's talk about radio
headline radio.
Speaker 4: At light radio dot com.
Speaker 2: And we're alive, So back to life. So we got
a really good question real quick on a break, and
that is the dogs that have a limb amputated do
they get phantom pain? And they answer is I have
no idea because we can't ask our dogs can't we
can't tell always so but it's a good question for neurologists.
Is it possible? And I will come back with that
second next true, I have a kitten had nucleation ten
days ago.
Speaker 3: Can I come off of that question for you? And
this is something again I learned from you and and
we learned this in a heartbreaking way, My boy, Elvis,
is that pain animals treat pain differently than humans. Right,
humans complain I got this bad hip or knee and stuff.
Where animals it is bred into them, and you taught
me that, and I didn't think of this is that
they can't show weakness because if an animal shows weakness,
they are now pray correct. And so I feel that
I kept my one pop elvis around too long because
I thought he was still moving and wanting to move.
But I didn't realize he was moving because of me,
not because he wasn't. I mean, I think this is
a great one for you guys at home, just to
understand that you have to you answer this. I'm not
the expert here. You're much better now way, how would
you you have to other?
Speaker 2: Look at their appetite, look at it when you're not around,
whether they're not trying to be with you, Are they moving,
are they getting up? Are they sitting in one position?
When they do get up, how slowly do they get up?
Is it like an old man gets with the creaky
bones and creaky joints. You have to read them. But
you know, one of the things that we're going to
talk about this, In fact, we're going to talk about
it pretty soon. We may go over today. I hope
you can stay with me because there are a couple
of things I want to talk to Mike with Mike
about because we're going through it anyway. Kids, when there's
a drainage, it depends for the drainages if it's clear.
When you do it in a nucleation, it's very important
to take the lachrymal glands with you, the tier glands.
If you don't get all of the tier gland, especially
one in the lower medial canthus the inside lower part
of the eye, which is the main one, then it's
very possible that they might continue to tear. So if
this persists and sometimes the eye socket fills up and
the doctor puts a little needle into it and just
tears come out, then unfortunately, it means that you got
to go in and get the tear ducts too, the
tear glands. It was a teaching hospital. Ah. Interesting, Well,
I hope whoever did it was learning or it learned already.
But that's something to just be aware. Okay Clean hubberd
my Kayline Hubbard, my female Yorkie had surgery Thursday, memory
gland tumors removed. My very removed two nipples believes is
cancer just waiting for the results. Looks like it hasn't spread,
so see it amazing. Yes, when you have mammary glands,
if you don't clearly have a separation between a mass
it may not be a tumor or maybe something other
in that area and the nipple, then you might be
able to just go after the mass. However, most of
the time it's clearly adhere to part and parcel with
the nipple, and therefore you want to get both. And
again they don't need them anymore. So yeah, just you're
better off taking more off and not having had to
then taking less and found out you needed to. What
does that mean another surgery? So since that neither one
is going to be used anymore, if there's any doubt,
take wider margins whatever it is, and just to be safe.
Speaker 3: I have another question for you real quick. If your
dogs go hiking, is there something that you can do
to make sure that because if they're going into the
mountains all day long, like one day a week ours
goes for an eight hour hike, Wow, how can we
prevent or should we check for ticks and fleas when
they get back on those days?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 2: Absolutely well, absolutely. First of all, it would be the
protocol for the first protocol is get your dogs on
a free in tick medicine, okay, sooner than later like out.
And when people ask me said when should we start
our fleet tic medication, I said two months ago? Sure,
So you know, very important, Uh, be careful. There are
I'm not going to mention brand names, but I'm gonna
mention drugs. Okay, fiprinil and imita cloprid that used to
be the cats mew. They were the best and very
effective and very safe, are still very safe, but they
are no longer that effective. In fact, I have dogs
coming in that have been on. These are the over
the counter medications that you can now get at at
Costco or any drug store. Look for the active ingredient
fipronil and imit a cloprid I am I d A
clo p R I d imita cloprid. They are still
out there, but they're twenty years old, and insect doesn't
need twenty years to develop resistence. An insect and develop
persistence in five years, so you just have to know
that you want to look for the newer medications they
called isoxazolenes now there are some others that are out
there that are still pretty good. And so if you
don't want to get the ioxazolenes or you have to
get it through your doctor. I think the other ones
also come through the doctor. But you have four isoxazelines,
you have Brevecto, you have next Card, you have Credilio
and Simperica. They are all effective and safe. However, just
through in some dogs that have a tendency towards seizures,
it has been shown that these drugs, or one not
all of them, one of them may initiate a seizure.
So you've got to be careful. Speak with your veteran.
Speaker 3: So you're saying, this isn't something we get to choose
or not choose, this is something they should do.
Speaker 2: Yes, if we are this time of the year, and
whether you hike or just going outside, fleas are everywhere,
So for that, yes, flee and tick medication now many
of them. Actually we don't have a big problem here
and loss, but your followers are everywhere. What I would
recommend also in many parts of the country, and certainly
a spring and summer in the Northeast, a big problem
are mosquitos and mosquitos carry heartwroom disease. Now three of
those that sax Agelians have a version that has three
things fleas, tick and mosquito. It's a heartwun prevention. So
what I would do is talk to your veterinarian. But
I would get one with all three I had.
Speaker 3: That was a choice kind of thing. No, my dog's fine,
I don't need that. You'res like, it's better to be safe.
Speaker 2: And takes for example, ipsily in your breeds. They are
such thick coats they have a tick eating away and
you don't even know it. So it's better to be
in case like that, better to be safe.
Speaker 1: There's questions for you. This is an important one. I think.
Speaker 3: Sure a woman has to check herself to make sure
there's no lumps. And you just said, my dogs have
a lot of hair. Should people that have dogs with
a lot of hair periodically check for tumors and stuff?
Speaker 2: Of course tumors. And also when I discuss, I thought
you were going to go there shaving them down, all right?
You think, oh, well, they have so much hair, you said, no,
The truth is the hair it's kind of like a
furnace with a dog's body. If you put something cold
in a thermis, it keeps it cold. If it something
hot in a thermist, it keeps it hot. The hair
does the same thing. It regulates the dog's body temperature,
so it will actually keep them if their body is cool,
it's one hundred point five. One hundred and two point
five is normal temperature. Maybe the other excited hot one
hundred and three. That's the job of a good coat.
So even though it's hot out there, it's that coat
is going to keep them. And if it's cold a winter,
of course it's going to protect them. So and not
only that, because of a dog's coat, that coat is
always protecting the actual skin. You shave a dog down
and now that skin is exploded to the sun. There
are cases there are face of scin induced irritation, sun
induced cancers. Believe it or not. So don't think that. Ah.
You know now, if you want to trim, we call
it a summer trim. Just keep a healthy coat and
you'll be way ahead of the game.
Speaker 1: I'm learning a lot today. Thanks for doing this here.
Speaker 2: This is great. If we have no questions, I want
to talk to you about panda. And something comes up
to me all the time and I've been through with
you a number of times already. At what point, when
it dog is getting old, or a dog has a tumor,
or a dog has some disease, even not in an
associated with age, just a disease. At what point what
do you look for as a pet parent to be
able to make a very tough choice, because when you
are emotionally attached to your pet, it's very hard to
make an unemotional logical decisions. Logic is thrown out the
window when there's emotion involved. So people ask me all
the time, how do I know? So my simple answer
is you'll know. And when you know, it's probably not
for a reason. I'll give you some criteria that I like.
And you and I've spoken about this, and sadly, I
think we're going to have to speak about it again
sooner than later. And that is first of all, people
I say this, look, you don't have to answer these
yes or no to me. Just things to think about,
all right. First of all, is your dog happy? Okay? Eating?
Still eating? That's a very important one. When someone tells
me the dog seems to be animated, but it hasn't
eaten in four days, and I'm giving them everything. The
dog is losing weight. To me, that's a big concern.
How about when you look at your dog, do you
feel sorry for them when the disease, whatever it is,
prevents some natural bodily function? Okay, that is necessary for survival.
Is a dog living or just existing? If this word, grandma,
would you be considering full time nursing care or a
nursing home or a nurse coming in. If the answer
to a lot of those it is yes, then maybe
it's something to think about. Well, obviously, does dog appear
to be in pain? If there's a pain that is
not cannot be remedied through medication, that's a big issue
when it comes to our dogs, and it's so hard.
I tell you one thing that my very early in practice,
a woman came in and she wanted to put her
dog to sleep. I listened to the dog. The dog fine,
I know this story, And I said, why, Well, I'm
moving and the place I'm moved to doesn't allow pets.
I said, well, we can help you. I work with
rescue groups. No, no, no, no, this dog won't be
happy with anybody else. Really, you know, the two of
my five dogs are rehomes and they're thrill to be
with us. I've never heard this thing, so anyway, I
say this.
Speaker 1: Lady was the cat's Yeah, she thought a lot of herself.
Speaker 2: So anyway, I then said, well, look, you don't want
to be there when I do it. My plan was this,
genius Jeffrey, I'm going to take the dog to the back.
I better think that we're put the dog to sleep
and have her to sign out, and then I'm going
to of course find a home for this dog. No, no, no, no,
I want to have her in my arms when we
say goodbye. And at this point I was young, very stupid,
and I was working for somebody else. But I didn't
know that I can actually have a say and say no,
I will not do this, and with you know, sort
of hesitatingly, with you know, a lot of guilt. I
brought the dog in when we put the cathlin and
we said goodbye, and afterwards, I don't think I slept
for a week after that. I said, I am never again.
I don't give a damn what the client wants. If
I don't think is pet to be put to sleep,
and you do go someplace to tell this lady, I'm
not doing it. And that has been my philosophy ever since.
Since it's been thirty five, I've been practicing for forty
I want to stop you for a second, just so
everybody understands this. I've known you for well over a
decade or so even longer, but this story was one
of the earliest stories I learned from you, and I
know that it sits on you because you've had to
do this. And that's why I never want to be
a vet is. I don't want to have to put
a dog to sleep, and you've done that so many times,
but this one resonates with you because of the fact
that you did it at such a young age that
it stayed with you, right, and that I didn't feel
I didn't know that I could say no.
Speaker 3: Right, And I know we're talking about this and this
is the hardest thing for any pet owner, is that
making that decision? Is there anything else? Because you were
saying earlier, is the dog happy or is it your
interpretation of the dogs being happy?
Speaker 1: Could be right?
Speaker 3: Do you feel sorry for your dog? Well, that's a
tough one because of the fact that if I know
she's sick, I'm already going to feel sorry for it, right,
so you're a great judge, and the vet should be
a great judge. And this is just for anybody out
there that has a vet. They should be at that
point somewhat of a counselor not just a doctor. Talk
you through this process. Is there anything else that you
think you could tell them, because, like you said, we
may have to talk about this again soon. Panda has
a growth withinside that we can't stop.
Speaker 2: It's a very large recto mass.
Speaker 3: And at some point that mass is going to block everything. Right,
and as of right now, we think she's very happy. Right,
she's eating more than I do, and I eat a lot.
But it's interesting. So for you fans at home and
people at home, you dog owners, make sure that you
really listen to this part of it because this is
It's not black and white. It's that simple, right, There's
so many factors in it. And just recap you said,
is the dog eating? Remove yourself from the situation. Is
the dog eating? Is the dog happy? What are some
of the tops?
Speaker 4: So?
Speaker 2: Is it happy? Is it literally in pain?
Speaker 1: Is it moving somewhat? Well? Obviously it's older.
Speaker 2: Of course and in her case, which is why I
mentioned it. If the problem even though she might be
eating and she could get up, but in her case,
she cannot poop anymore because the mass is literally right
in that regular area and it's getting big. Or is
there such discomfort when she tries to defecate, Is she,
you know, screaming in pain? Does she think it's really
really tough? Because to look at her as I walked
in today, she ran right over to me. She's jumping up.
You know, she's like the happiest thing in the world.
So when I saw her, you guys were away. I said, no,
right now, she's not ready. I did a recular exam.
It's plenty open.
Speaker 3: I didn't hear this until now. So it's just so
you know, I got tingles. Yeah, and I'm happy that
my girls all right.
Speaker 2: So around now, you know, she's got that little smaller
that was bleeding. I said that I can remove that.
Is it's part of it, but it's removable if it
can is to bleed. Has it been bleeding or no? Okay,
so this is something that we can we can remove.
There's no way you can remove the mass. And I
know that a specialists who I sent you to fail
the same way. No way. It's pretty bad. But these
are the kinds of cass that we have to deal with,
and it is so difficult, and an answer to your
question about people ask me all the time, how do
you do it? How do you put pets to sleep?
When I do it because of these criteria and I
know it's the right thing to do, and I'm not
emotionally attached to this pet, and I have many men
over the years that I've been emotionally attached to my
own pets. You have to use logic over motion. But
as I say, euth in Asia is a gift. It's
a gift that we can give back to our best friends,
our pets, to help them not suffer, to let them
go peacefully without pain. Into that as they put at
the Rainbow Bridge, and when you approach it that way,
where you know it's something that I'm giving back to
them to ease their discomfort, to ease their pain, to
help them to not starve because they've stopped eating. And
as a payback for the many, hopefully many years they've
given us and put smiles on our face and been
our companions and have been loyal, they deserve to be
able to go out peacefully. And that's kind of how
I look at it isn't a rationalization. I mean, of
course it is, but it works. And now, having told
you that story, I will only do it if I
truly think it is the right thing to do. And
there are cases that coming in there's something there's black
and white, but there's a lot of gray, whereas I
think it will be where I share to the client,
if you're ready to do it, I'm okay with it.
I see enough of my symptoms that would throw me
to say I agree. But if you're not ready, I
don't think the dog is suffering. In which case you
want to get more time, go give it more time.
You want to wait for your kid to come back,
you know, college and say goodbye, then it's okay to wait,
you know, a few days, a week, a month, whatever
is So, my bottom line is it's never an easy
Oh I wouldn't say that. It occasionally it's an easy decision,
but that's rare. Usually it's there's a lot of grain.
Speaker 1: It's an easy decision.
Speaker 3: It's a heartbreaking move right, and that we're not going
to erase it goes along with it.
Speaker 2: But right now, from what I see today, and as
long as she's doing her thing. She's not ready yet.
But you know another thing about having a disease like this,
and this is a very large mass and it's growing.
And as I was explaining to Mike and Mona, that
tumors stroll by doubling. And that's the thing. Tumors don't
have a shut off system. So if you put tumor
regular cells in a Petrie dish, as soon as they
fill the edge of the Petrie dish, there's something mechanically
withinside of these cells that stop them from growing.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 2: Tumor cells don't have that. They ignore it. So what
happens is one cell becomes two, becomes four, becomes eight, sixteen,
thirty two, sixty four, fifty six, et cetera, et cetera. Okay,
but there's microscopic cells. You don't even see them. But
once they hit critical mass, which is a they say
about five hundred thousand and a half a million cells
in that same doubling phase might be two days, five
days or whatever. To Beny on the tumor, all of
a sudden, that half a million is a million. If
the million become two million, four million, and all of
a sudden, people say all the time God, but I
mean two weeks ago, I did you feel it? And
now look at it. So when we get to that point,
we know that yes, it's gonna grow, it's going to
grow fast, and these are things that we have to
just deal with. But knowing that at least knowing the criteria,
knowing what to think about, you'll have time to deal.
And sometimes there is no time someone comes in with
a problem with their dog. Stop dating for two days
and I could see a huge spleen in the eruptor.
Speaker 1: Don't go there yet.
Speaker 3: Yeah, right, because I want to I want to ask
you this question, and this is going to be the
tough one. You had a talk with me and you
said in Layman's terms, before and not late, and it
was the point of before it got so bad, instead
of waiting until the dog was in so much pain.
Speaker 1: Can you kind of talk about that?
Speaker 3: Do you remember that we had that kind of talk
with about Elvis, Because you go, there's going to be
a moment where it's still before that this is the
time to do it, not late, right where the dog
has been suffering for weeks, it's in pain for weeks.
And I think again, like you have something that sticks
with you for life. And I think being so young
with Elvis, I didn't make the decision until it was late, right,
And I live with that today going I see videos
and I'm like, gosh, did you not see this?
Speaker 1: Did you not? You dumb kid?
Speaker 3: I kind of look at it and go, man, he
didn't deserve to go through that extra pain, So how
do you?
Speaker 2: It's very tough one, and I learned this again, you know,
we never stopped learning. One of my colleagues friends is
one of the co founders of Lap of Love and
they do house call youth in Asia and I've miss
her speak always. In one of her talks at one
of the conferences, and she says, you can never make
a mistake by saying goodbye a little bit too early,
but you can make a terrible mistake by waiting too long.
That's has stuck with me. Also because I see animals
coming in that are I mean literally skin and bone,
and the owners want to still do more fluid. Is
this that I'm trying to say, No, this dog, it
says sufferings.
Speaker 1: It is just the owners.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because right, and I'm there, I'm guilty of it,
I know that, but.
Speaker 2: Because again it's for you, there's an emotional attachment, and
I look at it. I can separate myself because I
didn't grow up with this pet. I didn't see this
pet every day. So this is why I am very cognizant.
And I listened to Danny speak that day. I left
with that, and you know I made that mistake. So
now I tell clients when we're getting close to the
end and they're starting to show some of these symptoms
that we talked about, don't wait till she's lying in
her side. She can't get up to go to the bathrobe.
That's not fair. Especially I remember when we had to
put down one of my dogs, my labrador. He was
having total getting up and it slowly went up a
spine to the point where he couldn't use his back legs,
front legs. I brought him in and I was working
on the board sort if i'd surgeon at the time,
and we did a miolin army. All right, so you
put some fluid and die fluid into the spinal canal
and you take X rays. Now this is before MRIs
a cts. This is going back many years. And sure enough,
right in his neck was a big tumor and as
soon as I saw that, there's no way I can
get in.
Speaker 1: I'm not.
Speaker 2: No one's going to do And he was also thirteen
and twelve years old. No one's going to do surgery
to take out a huge mass, probably part of the
spinal cord itself. And that night I took a moment.
I put it to sleep. I just knew it.
Speaker 3: So again, there's that moment before and they're still happy,
They're still good.
Speaker 2: He was happy. He was still eat but he couldn't move.
So he would eat, and then when he would poop, right,
he was army, crawling to drag himself away because he
was sit to clean dog. And you could see he
was miserable. He didn't want to be that dog. And
he you know a labrador, they live, they thrive on
their arms, on their arms, their their legs and their
front legs, back legs, and they love to run and
they love to chase, and I love to do athletic things.
And he was like in a straight jacket. He couldn't
do anything except look and breathe and still leave. I said, no,
that's not my dog. I wouldn't do that to him.
So it's tough, just very much at home right now.
I know it sounds like, okay, these are pretty yes,
I will make that decision. I will be the good
dog owner and I will do this. It's not as
easy as that. It's still hard. It's still tough to
do that decision.
Speaker 3: But if you can, and you taught me this and
it was so great, is I have to remove myself
and my emotion. I'm still going to get crushed in her,
it always will, but what's best for the pet, right
And that's I think the whole point of this discussion
right now is you've got to be able to make
the best choice for your pet and don't be selfish exactly.
Speaker 2: Don't be selfish. And it's hard. You know. Again, it's
easier for me, it's said as an outsider, but I
know it's hard. I don't think there's a dog lover
anyone listening to, anyone watching that hasn't had have been
faced with this issue. It's tough. So you know in
that note, all right, so we've overstayed our welcome here.
Let me just see, yeah, pretty much, my sister and
attach that's how she got her dog. Let me see,
there was another question, there was it? I want to
wave hold on, oh more waving hello, Hello, Hello, there's
a question about it. Ferrel all right, feeding a feral cat.
This is from Hardwick Game or fleam Edge once a month.
Speaker 1: Good.
Speaker 2: What is something from your line? Oh, I could put
in the food to enhance his quality of life? Well,
I do have a body boost, but it's really meant
for dogs. I don't have a cat product, but look
for there's something called pittinic. There are different products out there.
There are multivitamins, either in a liquid form or chewable
that you can crush up in the food and at
least do something for the cat. I mean it's a
feral cat. I see. You can't trap him. You got
close enough to him and he runs away. I know it.
I have my cousin who does this. She's in Florida
and she when she lived in Hawaii, she had a
big colony. I would get calls from her all the time.
How do I do this? These cats are afraid of humans.
I get the barrel. So that was the only thing
to look for. Any kind of online, any kind of
cat oral vitamin supplement, and that would be a good
thing to do. And if it looks like an older cat,
maybe switch him to a food that's a senior food
or a kidney food, because we know that the number
one killer of older cat is renal disease kidney disease.
Speaker 3: You got a question I do If we have time,
I'll drunk you to talk about separation anxiety that dogs
have with owners and if we create train them how
that may help because I know that we ran into
that again. I've run through all this guys, so on
a helpful hint, we couldn't leave Elvis and so that
it became a stress case within days. And create training
you told me would teach him to be able to
go by himself alone when he's younger, and that will
go through his whole life where he can be calm
and cool at home because I have people calling me
all the time and asking me my dog's freaking out
every time I leave. He's tearing up the house.
Speaker 2: Basically, separate anxiety is almost like a dependency where they
become so dependent on you, on us, the owners, and
at the beginning of a puppy, we love that, right,
We love the fact that dog gets excited to see us,
John sum So what do we do? We pet them
and we go for it. So what are we doing.
We're reinforcing this behavior. So then all of a sudden,
when you don't do it, now they're looking at oh
my god, and they start stressing out. So one of
the things with create training, one of the things I
tell people that it's a mistake that we've made when
they were younger. So we need to teach our dogs
to be comfortable when they're on their own, when they're
by themselves, when they have time alone, that can be
satisfying to them without you being part of the equation.
So it's really just when you come up. For example,
I say, when you leave the house, what do we
normally do? Now you're missing your pet too, So if
you call them over, you get with some hugsy and
kiss it's good good and you can all got me
back soon, no good bye bye, and then you walk
out the door.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, this is actually my voice when I
do that. So what do you expect?
Speaker 2: Of course, of course they're sitting at that door waiting
for you to come back in and not now, and
they're the anxiety is building up, and now they're going
to go on their rampage, and you know they're not
going to go after just there too, toy, those very
expensive shoes you left under the couch, they're going after them,
and it's almost Murphy's law. They will look for the
most expensive thing and make sure that's where they get.
And then what happens when you come home. The first
thing we do, they're running up to us and we baha,
give them job, let them jump up on us. Then
we give a treat and they give pats and.
Speaker 1: Good boy, good girl.
Speaker 2: I'm like, god, I missed you someoneton. Okay, So we
are creating this monster, this beast that can't be without us.
So the goal is that when you come home, when
you leave, all right, first of all, if it's really bad,
talk to you veterinarian. There's some medications, even something as
simple as CBD or my chill, which is a natural
you know, valarium, passionate flower, cavmeal, melatonin, elf, tip to fan,
all know, to kind of calm them down. But when
you're home and they're with you, you have to purposely
have them stack. When you get up to grow to
the bathroom, you run to the kitchen to get something
to drink, whatever whatever it is. They can't run and
follow you all the time. Give them a bone, give
him something your chew on. Do not pet them, Do
not let them jump onto the couch with you, all right,
teach them that they also have to be happy in
their own shoes, in their own paws. Now, when you leave,
don't make a big deal of leaving. If anything, give
him his toy, give his bone, gon't dip part of
the house and then quietly, quietly sneak out, or if
they're creating, you put them in the crate. They have
to learn that being in the crate is not punishment.
Being the crate is something. It's their own den, it's
their own security. You can't always be their security and
then kind of slip out. Then when you come home,
what I tell people to do is don't make eye contact.
Walk right by the dog as if he's not or
she's not even there, and they're gonna look like, what
the heck with him? Right, and that's what you want.
Then it could be twenty minutes later, then maybe they'll
fight you in the kitchen. Don't even look at him.
Just give them a pack, good boy, and then walk away.
Don't be so important in their lives. Let them be,
let them find something to soothe them. Because you're not
always going to be there and then go once once
you're they've settled their calm and you can, you know,
give attention again.
Speaker 3: I know you see that, but I know the fans
at home are going, wait a minute, I'm not gonna
if they're I'm found my mom, I'm jumping. And I
fully understand because I said that to him when he
taught me this. But my pups right now are two
of the best, and they're huskies, so they're not mentally
you know, they're crazy, But because I listened to what
you were saying and taught me, they are so much
better than the others previous on how they act, how
they are, how they are emotionally, and how they are
as pets. And so there's wisdom and experience that you
have done through the years that really help people, and
it's up to us, the dog owners, to implement those
in and really stay on points.
Speaker 2: And it's not it's not easy. So anyway, I swear
any more questions which we have, as I said, Mark
has been you're giving me dirty looks. Mark. You got
this as Farber five oh one and five h two.
So I just want to make sure that I have
everybody waved hello, thank you so much for joining us.
And it's great working with Mike because he is just
again if we have and you guys appreciate it because
you're all pet parents like Mike is. You love your pets.
That's why you're here. I can see you when you
come into my office. If you don't live near me,
you don't come to my office. I hope you're veterinarian
is the same way. And if your veterinarian has never
been asked your vet, have you ever been bitten? If
he or she says no, I hate to say, look
for another vet, but it just needs it. Okay, you
know there was one thing I went to a talk
one because dog's bite, cat's bite. Cat bites are worse,
by the way than dog bites. Anyway, so there's one
veterinarian or practice manager got up there and says, they
say a lot of things I don't like, but anyway,
one was you should imagine a plastic bubble around your
head and you should never get close enough than that
plastic bubble, thinking what go let a dog look me
in the face. That ain't happenings, so speak of that.
It's so funny also practice. Managers say that a veterinarian
should never walk out into a busy waiting or any
waiting moom. Why because everybody wants to get a piece
of you, and then it's going to slow your day
down and it's gonna put you behind it does, I admit.
But I'll tell you this that I find when I
walk out to waiting room and if there are people
there that don't know who I am never seeing me,
maybe a new client, and they see how the dog's
waiting to see me, how they are reacting with me,
jumping on me, wagging their tails, so happy to see me.
I could not pay for better pr So I say,
wait a second, I want new people to see this
is me. I happy to love pets. I love your dog,
and your dog loves me, And that's what they want.
They want a veterinarian who their dog is not afraid
to come and see. And so the best way to
show it is let them look you and love them back.
And I have a slide that I show when I speak,
and it's a gorgeous yellow labrador. I'm in the example
with him. He's literally on my shoulders, big lab and
my tech who took the picture caught him like the
tongue up on my cheek. And my caption is very simple.
It says, we as veterinarians are very lucky because we
could and should be doing without patience what our MD
counterparts would be arrested for doing a theirs. So anyway,
have a happy Father's there, everybody, Mike, I want to
thank you once again. It's great. I mean, anytime we
want to do this, you're more than welcome. And we'll
see up. And Titan is here. Titan who's who's six
years old going on twelve, and he is swimming right, yeah,
give a guy a kiss? Hand me father, you set
to good kids, So anyway, that's a swimming I saw
you at the pool.
Speaker 1: Good.
Speaker 2: We're trying to get my Greg well, my five year
old grandkiss. My six year old is now learning, but
my five year old learned at three. His little brother
is now free and now they're both sing without floaties.
It is fantastic. So anyway, have a wonderful week, wonderful day.
Stay safe, keep your pets away from the foods that
are bad for them. We'll see you next week, same
dat time, same dat channel here on Instagram Live Pet
life Radio and thanks much for joinings.
Speaker 4: Great Let's talk pets every week on demand only on
petlife radio dot com