Speaker 1: You're listening to Petlifradio dot com and.
Speaker 2: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome. You are here on this lovely Sunday morning.
We're possibly approaching afternoon depending on where you are on
the East Coast, but here in California, it's a whopping
nine am and you are here live with doctor Jeff Werber,
your host for the next half hour. Here on Ascavettes
with Doctor Jeff on pet Life Radio. We are I think,
the only live call in radio show on pet Life Radio,
and we are here for you, and it's so easy.
Speaker 3: To get the hold of us.
Speaker 2: Just give us a call at eight seven seven three
eight five eight eight A two, or just come online
petlifradio dot com click on Ask the Vets with Doctor
Jeff and you can come and join in on our conversation.
You can ask questions anything you want about your pets,
and if I can't answer it, I will get an answer,
and at least I will lead you in the right direction.
There's an email we're going to get to in just
a minute. We're here to have fun. It's free info
and just to even make it more appealing, give you
more of an opportunity to pick up that phone or
log on send me an email to Dr Jef. That's
doctor Jeff at pet Life Radio. We're going to send
you from our sponsors free products. That's from Pro Sense
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Speaker 3: So they are helping us be.
Speaker 2: Here every week every Sunday Morning with you. And I
had mentioned well, first of all, if you were tuning
in last week, I was live on the beaches from
canekuon Mexico. So those of you that might be able
to see me because where we record these you might
notice the tan. That's because of being in canekuon Mexico,
where it was fantastic, it was great, had a great time.
And so during the week mark Winter, our producer here
at pet Life Radio sent me an email. Photoed me
an email. And this is kind of interesting because this
happens a little more often than we would like. It's
sort of like like when the doctors or the person
who has epilepsy, all of a sudden years later they're
pets diagnosed with epilepsy. It's so bizarre. So anyway, this
is from doctor Bob. He's a dentist in San Pedro
and he has an eleven and a half year old
malamute husky mix diagnosed with an intra oral melanoma and
they took out this two centimeter mass and he's very
active in eating. Well, can you help me? He gave
me a number. I'm going to give him a call
as well, but just for some information. First of all,
how bizarre is it it is a dentist's dog who
ends up with an oral problem. I think that's kismet,
that's fate, whatever. But unfortunately, oral melanomas are very aggressive,
and I'm sure he was told that. However, if it
has not yet invaded the bone, they are fairly decently
responsive to radiation therapy, and I would definitely recommend a
consultation with a radiation oncologist, that is a board certified
oncologist who is specialized in radiation oncology. Interestingly, oncology as
a specialty goes through internal medicine and radiation oncology goes
through radiation. So when you have an oncologist that is
double boarded, meaning in oncology and radiation oncology, that's two
separate residencies, it's I mean, that's pretty high power. And
I know a couple that have done it and are
double boarded. I also know a number of really really
good radiation oncologists that can deal with this. Now, if
in fact this tumor had invaded the bone, certainly radiation
is still a way to go, but depending on the
location of the mass, what portion of the bone is affected. Interestingly,
some amazingly radical procedures can be done to remove the
affected bone and actually rebuild de mandible the jaw. It's
fascinating what these guys can do. You know, Veterinary dentistry
is now a of course, also a board certified specialty.
I know a guy, doctor Mark Smith, who is not
only a board shortified veterinary surgeon, he was actually doing
his surgical residency at UC Davis when I was there
in VET school, but he then went on to get
his certification in dentistry. So here's a guy who is
a board sertified surgeon. He's like a MAXI low facial
oral surgeon. I mean, that's that's pretty pretty high qualification,
very intense straining, and this is the guy that loves
these kinds of cases.
Speaker 3: So for doctor Bob, I will give you a call.
Speaker 2: You can also send me an email to Dr Jeff
at Petlife Radio dot com or Drjeff at Drgef dot
com at Doctorgeff dot com, and I will put you
in touch with these radiation on colleges. You know, one
of the things that I'm getting a lot of I
always get questions, obviously every day, and what I like
to do is share with you some of the topics
that seem to come up more often, more frequent, because
my feeling is if I'm seeing them on a somewhat
regular basis in my practice, then I'm sure many of
our listeners are seeing or asking these same questions and having.
Speaker 3: These issues with their pets.
Speaker 2: So if you don't have the nerve of the curves
to pick up the phone and call it to eight
seven seven three eight five eight eight A two, at
the very least you can listen in and learn from
the experiences that I have acquired through my practice, and
one of them, and again this seems to cycle on
a regular basis.
Speaker 3: It's diet.
Speaker 2: And I don't mean diet because seventy five percent of
castle dogs in this country robs. Now, maybe not seventy five,
maybe fifty five. That in of itself is a huge problem.
But I'm talking about where do I feed my pet.
There are so many choices. You go to a pet
store and now what's the buzz. The buzz is raw diets.
I mean, after all, in the wild, our dogs and
cat's ancestors eat raw meat, So why shouldn't we feed
them raw meat? And I can give you a number
of answers, not that if it's the right raw diet,
a diet that has gone through some process to destroy
the pathologic bacteria like salmonella and certain E. Coli, which
could be deadly by the way, but is in a
sense pasteurized purified raw meat.
Speaker 3: I have no problem with that, assuming the following, Assuming.
Speaker 2: Number one, that your pet likes it. I don't care
how great of food it is on paper. If your
pet doesn't eat it, it's not so great. Talk to
any mom who knows that there is benefit to Brussels sprouts.
But talk to the kids who refuse to eat Brussels sprouts,
and you wonder how good to Brussels spouts if the
kid's not going to eat them. Well, it's no different
with our pets. We have to make sure that whatever
it is, whatever the best is And I always use
that term loosely because what is the best really is
there only if you ask me, for example, what's the
best ice cream? Has ten people? What's the best ice cream?
I mean, is there a best? I mean, I like
some pretty good ice creams. I'm an ice cream aholic. However, However,
some of the flavors of one of the brands are
better than another brand. I mean, I might have an
overall favorite as far as a brand, but trust me,
there are some individual flavors that some of the other
companies have that I really like. So the bottom line
is with pets and pet food, it's really the same.
You're not gonna don't expect to find one food that
just because your neighbor or your best friend's pet loves it,
that your pet's gonna love it. So even if it's
on paper phenomenal food and the healthiest, it's got everything
your pet's gonna need for its life and the next
one after that.
Speaker 3: If they're not.
Speaker 2: Eating it, it's worthless. So number one, they gotta like it.
Number two, what kind of stool do they have?
Speaker 3: Now?
Speaker 2: Of course, if you switch food too rapidly, then there
will be some bowel issues. Fortunately they are transient, but
you're going to probably notice.
Speaker 3: Some soft stool for a while.
Speaker 2: Therefore, we always recommend a very very gradual switch from
one food to the next. So they got to have
good bms.
Speaker 3: They have to like it.
Speaker 2: Thirdly, a nice shiny coat. I have had story after
story of a client switching from a food that the
pet was doing just fine on to something else because
the seventeen year old high school senior at the local
pet shop told him that this is the best food
and therefore you need to switch. Certainly, it's amazing how
many experts are out there. I don't even consider myself
an expert, and I have the DVM degree, and yet
these high schoolers that work at these big pet stores,
they are all of a sudden telling you what the
best is. I kind of chuckle when I hear those stories.
And next would be energy. Do they have a lot
of energy, are they roaring to go? So the major
for criteria now, assuming of course, that your pet doesn't
have an underlying pre existing medical condition where your veterinarian
has advised or recommended specific diets for that problem, be
it liver, be it heart disease, be it kidney failure.
In other words, there are many conditions, be it food allergies.
So they are going to be instances where your veterinarian
is going to clearly recommend or advise a certain diet.
So we're eliminating those scenarios from this discussion. For the
purposes of this discussion, we are talking about your basic, healthy,
young to middle aged pet doesn't have a problem, and
you just want to feed him.
Speaker 3: A good food. So do they like it?
Speaker 2: Do they have nice, normal bm, a nice shine, plenty
of energy. If the food meets those criteria, which, by
the way, you're going to find a zillion ones that do,
then there's no need to go out and convince yourself
of the best, whether it's preservatives, whether it's raw, whether
it's the byproducts that you read about. So I'll give
you some hints, and look, let's face it, many of
us are on budgets. And don't feel guilty if you
think you want to feed or switch diets to one
of these fancy in vogue foods right now with the
fancy names, but they're very expensive, and if you can't
afford that, then don't pressure yourself because there are many
foods out there that don't have that price tag that
could be equally as beneficial for your pet. So what
are some guidelines. Number One, you want to, of course
check with the veterinarian. You want to look for what's
called the a FC certification. That is the aaf CEO,
the Association of American Feed Control Officials. There are two
types of certifications that given by AFCO. One is via
ingredient and the other one is food trials. Typically, we
used to feel that food trials would be a better
way to go only because not only are the additive
is the ingredients that vitamins and minerals, the nutrients in
the food. Not only are they in the food, but
actually absorbable and usable, and the only way to determine
that is to actually feed it to animals and test.
Now that brings up a big point nowadays with the
Animal Welfare Acts, how appropriate is it to have these animals.
If you're going to use a standard set of animals,
typically it's the beagle and a laboratory to keep these
animals for the sole purpose of testing them and diets
and keeping them in these cages or these runs, or
whatever the situation might be. So there are a number
of companies that refuse to do the feeding trials for
that purpose, or will modify a feeding trial and use
dogs that are in a shelter, which they're in there anyway, and.
Speaker 3: Test that way. I have less problem with that.
Speaker 2: But if you have aft GO through feeding trials, depending
on how you feel politically, that's telling us that not
only did the ingredients and the nutrients meet or exceed
those standards as established by.
Speaker 3: The aft GO, but actually they work.
Speaker 2: They were put to the test through feeding trials. And
there are many main In fact, interestingly, because of budgetary
constraints as well as possibly political views, a lot of
these new found fancy foods that the pet stores are
trying to entice you to buy don't have the feeding
trial certifications. Why because haven't done it, they can't afford it.
They want to get rich off of you first before
they really really really test the food on animals, So
that's an issue. So anyway, we are halfway through our
half hour, and that's time to break for commercial and
I want to hear back when we come back. I
want to know how you feel about these diets, what
you're feeding your pa. Let's talk about it. Eight seven
seven three eight five eight eight A two and we'll
be back in just a few minutes.
Speaker 3: We'll be right back right after these messages. Stay tuned.
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Speaker 2: And welcome back to here with doctor Jeff on at
Life Radio. And how funny is it that coming out
of break first commercial, a pet Smarts commercial about foods,
talking about the hundreds of different varieties they have, So
that kind of tells you right there, try to pick
the best out of hundreds?
Speaker 3: Not so easy.
Speaker 2: If you got three choices, you can pick the best,
that's pretty easy. But out of hundreds and mentioning names
that I hate to say it here today.
Speaker 3: Gone tomorrow.
Speaker 2: Some of these food companies come and go, and therefore
I still recommend extreme caution, as they say, proceed with caution.
Speaker 3: When it comes to making these buying decisions.
Speaker 2: Which brings me to the point I wanted to make
is that because there are some standards from the industry,
the af go because for a number of reasons, be
it budgetary or philosophical, some companies don't want to do
feeding trials. There are still equivalent options, equal options at
the supermarket levels as well. And I don't want you
to think that you are doing a disservice to your
pet if you can't afford forty dollars or fifty dollars
per bag of food, because many can't. But there are
some name brands that have jumped ship according to the industry,
according to the pet specialty, those are the big fancy
pet stores and have decided to go what we call
OTC over the counter, meaning at the grocery level or
mass it's called. There are a lot of good foods
at the mass level, and don't be embarrassed, don't feel
doing your pets of disservice if you read the label.
They have AFCO certification, they have had feeding trials, and
they are really good foods. So the bottom line is
the criteria you want to use is not based on
advice from a salesperson at a pet store advice, by
the way, which is going to change week two week,
depending on the specials.
Speaker 3: And the deals that they are getting.
Speaker 2: From the manufacturer. So you want to talk to your veterinarian,
if you wanted to talk to a nutritionist. You want
to make sure that there are no underlying conditions problems
that might affect the choices that you might make, such
as as I mentioned, allergy, heart disease, liver disease, kidney disease,
things like that. And if your pet's doing fine on
what they're eating, don't change. If at eight pro, don't
fix it. But if you're having issues, if the food
is unavailable, if they're kind of leaving in their dish,
you want to try some new stuff, no problem. Talk
to your vet, look at AFCO certification labels, look at
your budget, and come up with some choices.
Speaker 3: And if you're going to feed, you.
Speaker 2: Can start gradually, do gradual introductions, gradual switches, and that
hopefully can help you and solve your problem. As I said,
let me know what you're feeding your pets, give us
a call, let's talk about it. At eight seven seven
three eight five eight eight A two Come online to
pet radio dot Com. Join in the conversation. There's a
box right below and clearly it says join the conversation,
join in, and we can go from there and you
can just kind of let us know what you're feeding
and does your pet like it.
Speaker 3: Cats.
Speaker 2: Let's talk about cats for a second. We can't forget
about our cats. I know, listening to Arden and Arden's
guests just before this show, you know cats are big.
More cats in the US than dogs, more cats in
the warberhousehold than dogs.
Speaker 3: I have eight of those. I only have five dogs,
and they are a bit more finicky.
Speaker 2: Interestingly, but therefore, people tend to offer cats variety more
than dogs. As we know, we talked about it just
a few minutes ago that when you give too much
variety to a dog, they may end up getting some
soft stool. Their gastrointestinal tracks do not appreciate the variety
as much as the dog's taste buds might appreciate the variety,
so one must be careful. Likewise, Likewise, cats tend to
thrive on variety. They get bored much more quickly, fortunately,
especially if you try to stick within the same brand
of diet. They can handle from a stool perspective, they
can handle the variety fairly well. Now, what's also interesting
about cats the gamut. The recommendations have come and gone.
They seem to cycle, and we are now, or at
least I am, based on the advice of some of
my colleagues specialists in the field in nutrition and one
particularly in diabetes feline diabetes. Feline diabetes typically is a
type two equivalent. That means it is not something like
juvenile diabetes, like the diabetes at dogs. Yet that just
happen to the pancreas, to the islet cells. Those are
the islet of langerhand cells. But actually it's a type
two diabetes. It's the diabetes that is affected by diet,
by obesity, by carb load.
Speaker 3: And one thing we know.
Speaker 2: About cats as opposed to dogs is cats are obligate.
Cats need protein. They need good solid meat sources of
protein and that includes fish. They don't do well on
vegetable sources of protein. They need carnivorous food. A dog, however,
is an omnivore. Cats are carnivores. So therefore one of
the problems one of the reasons why we see obesity
in cats, which we do and way more type two
diabetes than we would like is because of the carbs
that we're feeding our cats. We are feeding them a lot,
possibly too much dry food. How many of us make
I do the same thing. I have the dry food
out all day, let them munch when they get hungry.
Speaker 3: They can walk by the bowl. It's not going to spoil.
It's dry.
Speaker 2: So however, what I do is I feed meal time
for my cats, and I don't feed meal time is
a meaty canned food, and they love it. They go
to their bowls, they wolfit down. Clearly, with eight cats,
it's very strategic. How I have to sit there and
make sure that you know Cats six is not stealing
Cat three's food kind of thing. They do have names,
but for each of the show, I'm going to number them.
So these are the things that we have to watch for.
And then what I do is I will once they're
all done, they've had a really good breakfast and a
really good dinner, I will put some dry food in
their bowl. So those that are still hungry, but it's
not their primary source of nutrition. Their primary source of
nutrition are.
Speaker 3: The good meat diets. So again, cats like variety.
Speaker 2: You can get away with a little bit more, but
try to stick with the same brand if possible. So
if you're looking for branded cat food and they have,
you know, half a dozen different flavors, get all half
a dozen and test them, see what they like, see
how they do, and that's the that's going to be
an answer. And I would, you know, definitely recommend that
if you are still having issues and your veterinarian may not.
And just I'll be really honest. They are a lot
of veterinarians out there. Myself included that nutrition was not
one of the major sections that we took in ved school.
Of course it was discussed. Of course we're primed. Of
course most of the veterinary food companies, in fact most
of the companies in general have a staff of veterinarians.
Speaker 3: But for the.
Speaker 2: Average GP, we probably aren't as well versed in that
as we are how to treat that diabetic cat or
how to do that surgery, or how to clean those
ears or treat the skin. So you can look for
on the advice of your veterinarian a what we call
a board certified veterinary nutritionists. These are veterinarians that have
gone to veterinary school for their DVMS and then did
a residency in nutrition and become boarded board certified by
the ACVN, the American College of Veterinary Nutrition. And they're
the ones that can help you. They're the ones that
can give you suggestions. They based on many factors such
as the condition of your pet. There likes their needs
and at least point to you in the right direction.
And that includes a life stage issues as well. As
we know little growing puppies need more than the older puppy,
which need more than the adult dog, which needs less.
Speaker 3: Once they're spade and utered.
Speaker 2: In fact, a statistic that I just you know, mind
blow initially, but if you figure out formulas of caloric need,
a say two or three year old labrador might need
forty percent less food if they're spade or neutered versus
the same labrador that is not spader neutered.
Speaker 3: That's amazing.
Speaker 2: So these are the reasons why obesee the e centa
problem in this country because nutritionally we do not make
the necessary ajustments that we should to keep our pets
healthy and lean.
Speaker 3: So there you have it.
Speaker 2: I want to thank you for joining me here on
this lovely Sunday morning slash afternoon, depending on where you are.
Give me a call anytime well during the week. You
can send me an email to Dr Jeff at Petlifradio
dot com or to Dr Jeff at dr Jeff dot com.
You can also follow me on Facebook, Twitter, and again.
Want to thank our sponsors, pro Sends, pet products and
calm Toys and we will be here next Sunday.
Speaker 8: Let's talk pets every week on demand only on Petlifradio
dot com.