Speaker 1: You're listening to Petlifradio dot com.
Speaker 2: Well, good afternoon to everybody, and you are here with
doctor Jeff Werber and I you know, the beautiful thing
about doing a webcast is that here I am sitting
in my new virtual office. And this is a virtual
office at the Sacramento Airport in Sacramento, California, waiting for
a flight of mind to take off in a little
over an hour. And what better place to talk to
everybody ask the vets of doctor Jeff Here on pet
Life Radio. My show coming to you live, coming live
every Thursday, one o'clock Pacific time, four o'clock Eastern time,
and brought to you by pro Sends pet products. And
you know, I don't talk a whole lot about prosen
so I'm gonna throw my little feel in. You know. Basically,
I teamed up with pro Sense to develop you know,
sort of very high quality pet wellness, preventive medicine and
nutrition care for dogs and cats that you the kind
of a regular person can afford. I mean, you go
to the veterinarian and let's face it, I am one.
I know it gets a little costly. We have a
lot of costs involved with setting up our practices, and
yet I want to bring to everybody the best out there.
So I teamed up with Prosents and we have really
great products and they are available to you for you know,
much less expensive and a lot of the products I
would sell at my clinic. And you know, major mass
retailers like Walmart, like Target, like Walgreens, atb stores, you
name it, We're in there and I really want to
have you go in and get these products to help
your pets stay healthy. So you might ask, maybe not asking,
but I'm gonna ask for you. What am I doing
up in Sacramento, California. Well, first of all, I went
to school up in there here, you know, at NARSI
of California, at Davis. But more importantly, I just came
from what they called Humane Lobby Day. And this is
really a kind of a fascinating day. And this is
where all the human groups in the state of California
get to stand in front of legislatures and lobbyists and
really throw their two cents in. And there were a
number of bills and for any of you that are
in California and can vote on these things, I definitely
would highly encourage you to call your state center's office
and help these things past. They've already gone through Assembly,
they're now in front of the Senate, and it's really
important to get these bills passed to A particular that
just really struck on nerve with me. One is called
AB seven to eleven, and this is where it is
going to ban the use of lead ammunition for hunters.
And what's interesting is is that when these hunters, which
believe me, I am not a fan, but when they
hunt and they kill these animals with lead, the lead
gets into the meat. So either people that eat that
meat or other animals that eat that meat, especially especially
some of our state protected birds like the California condor
and the golden eagle, when they eat on this carry on,
they can actually get and die from lead poisoning. So
and even hunters agree that there are much better alternatives
out there, So you want to let your state centers
know to support AB seven eleven. Another one that again
sends me a lot is called AB twelve thirteen. That's
one two, one three, and this is going to ban
the trapping and killing of bobcats near state sanctuaries. I mean,
what's the point of giving a place for these cats
to roam and live and then killing them setting up traps,
and that's exactly what's happening. In fact, the number of
bobcats that were trapped and killed at Joshua Tree National
Forest last year rose by eight hundred percent.
Speaker 3: That is frightening.
Speaker 2: So this is going to ban the setting and the
use of traps in any conservation areas for these wild animals.
So I really encourage you to go out and vote
against these bills. Another one which I kind of liked
is it's AB three thirty nine, and when that one does,
it prohibits the sale of live animals that California Swap meets.
So again, for those of you who do in California,
do us a favor, yourselves a favor, do your pets
and favorite, do our wildlife a favor, and call your
local center's office and let them you like them to
support those bills at three thirty nine, seven eleven, and
twelve thirteen.
Speaker 3: So what else.
Speaker 2: So then I had a chance to be on a
local radio station this morning here in Sacramento. It's Star
one of six point five, had a great interview with
Greg Tanner. And Greg Tanner is new to Sacramento, and
he is a major animal nut. So you know, anytime
I have an opportunity to talk to somebody who's crazy
about pets as I am, I am thrilled. So again,
you might want to listen online and you can go
onto the website and listen to me and Greg have
a great chat.
Speaker 3: So I want to hear from you. Hello, Hi, can
you hear me? Go ahead? Yeah I can, Oh, okay great.
Speaker 4: My sister has a dog and she lives next door
to mill next door next to my house. She has
as like an adjoining two houses. And every time I
go into her house, because you know, she walks into mind.
Let's say I go in to say hello, bring her
the mail or something, her dog start barking and attacks me,
and just like I walk in and then you know,
and I tell him, Charlie, stop it.
Speaker 1: You know it's me.
Speaker 4: It's me, And I don't know it's because I walk
in and maybe I'm excitable or something, but he should
recognize me, might find out. But he's always like attacks
me and I have to tell him no, Charlie, no.
Speaker 3: How old is Charlie.
Speaker 2: I don't know about only because sometimes you wonder, I mean,
dogs have an amazing sense of smell. But you know,
sometimes in the house they are so protective of their
environment it does take them a second to realize. And
for example, if I walk into my own house late
at night and it's dark, even my own dogs will
bark way more and say, hey, guys, shut up, it's me.
So that's a possibility. And maybe what you should have
your is it your sister in law's house. You said, no,
your sister. Okay, What I would have you do is
you should let your sister give you some of Charlie's
favorite treats. And every time you should come over, like
five or six times in one day, and every time
you walk in the door, give him one of his
favorite treats, and have your sister no longer give these treats.
So what's going to happen is that hopefully he is
going to look forward to you coming in. He's gonna
say the heck with you, mom. He wants I want
your sister because you're you're the one that's going to
be given all the treats.
Speaker 3: So that's another way to sort of get him to
really say, where's where's my ant? I want her now?
Speaker 2: Because I get these treats. So when he finally does
recognize you, does he warm up pretty quickly?
Speaker 4: Yeah? Yeah, Once he knows I tell him, Charlie, it's me,
stop it, you know. But it's like and he usually
attacks me. Right when I'm going into the kitchen, I
kill bark and then I walk into the living room.
He's sitting on the couch and he sees me walking
and he barks, and then I continue walking into the
Usually I go in there. Of course, I got to
rate her refrigerator. And as I'm walking into the kitchen,
that's when he attacks me. He'll just jump off the
couch and attack me, and I say, hey, stop it,
it's me, Charlie, stop it.
Speaker 3: Uh huh. Yeah. So that's all we have to.
Speaker 2: Of course, of course, I'm telling you he is very territorial,
so I want him to believe that he's going to
get a better deal from you. So that's what I
want you to do, all right, So try that and
for sure let us know it works. And I want
to thank you for calling and tell your friends to
call everyone listening. You can give us a call at
eight seven seven three eight five eight eight eight to
two here on pet Life Radio and we're here live
with doctor Jeff here to answer your questions about anything
about your pets, about your dogs, about your cats.
Speaker 3: You can also chat with us online.
Speaker 2: Just go to Petlife Radio dot com and you can
talk to us live as we're sitting here. So anyway,
I also wanted to you know, as you know, we
get some mail, and I want to thank our caller
again and good luck with Charlie, and please give us
a call back and let us know how this is
working out. So I have a question. This question is
about a fourteen year old female indoor cat that's been
only eating dry food and she wants to know what
kind of concerns that she should have with eating dry
food only. And there were a couple. One of them
is that we worry that cats that aren't getting enough
meat eat and I mean real meat, are basically subject
to what we call type two diabetes, that's the diabetes
that people get. And the reason for that is a
lot of the dry foods are overloaded with carbohydrates. They
have too many carbs. So with too many carbs, that
basically stresses the pancreas and ultimately the pancreas stops secreting
so much of its own insulin. The insulin is what
helps get the sugar the energy basically from the food
that we eat and send it into the cells. So
dogs and cats and people with diabetes actually often have
the sugar there, but there's no insulin to drive that
sugar into the cells. So one of the concerns is
we're finding that often what we feed our cats might
play an issue. Another problem that we see with cats
certainly kidney problems, and it gets worse as they get older.
And another thing is what we used to formally call
FUS feline eurologic syndrome, now we refer to as FLUTD,
and that's lower urinary tact disease and that has a
lot to do with Oh. I've learned many factors, but
diet being one of them, and it's important to make
sure that the food that you're feeding your cats is
leaving the cat's urine. On the acid side, acid means
anything less than seven point zero, preferably six point five
to six. Sometimes six five point five that might be
a little too acidic can cause some other problems, but
you want to make sure at least six and a
half to six urine pH and that will help prevent
some of the symptoms of crystal formation. As crystals stopped
forming or don't form, then we don't worry about stone formation.
And ultimately major problems with FLUTD and that is a
urinary bladder problem, lower urinary tract disease. Also, I got
a call from or actually an email from Barbara and Malibu,
and she writes that she has a thirteen year old
palm who drinks a lot of water and then he
coughs a lot, but it's not a gagging cough.
Speaker 3: It's like a honking cough.
Speaker 2: And you know, that's something we see frequently in these
small breeds. And if nothing is wrong, and I of
course encourage you to see veterinarian and make sure that
the basics are checked lungs of and either we could
see something that type of cough we call it tracha
itis with a trachial infection. For example, simple kennel cough
can do that. Or also we see that with collapsing
trachea and collapsing trachia we see is something very common
in some of these small and tina breeds and where
the cardilage rings that actually hold the trachea open aren't
formed well and the trachea collapse with breathing, and when
it does, we get this problem with the coughing. So
that's another issue. So again something you need to check out.
If it is collapsing trachia, there are or even a
trachea itis. There are some medications that may respond to. Occasionally,
and I mean rarely do we see a case of
collapsing trachea is so severe that we need to consider
even some kind of surgical intervention. The problem is it's
a very very challenging surgery oftentimes not as successful as
we would like it to be. So I always advise
caution and make sure you do your homework when it
comes to even thinking about it. Most of the times
I recommend trying to encourage owners to keep the pets
little calmer, using some cough suppressants, not letting them drink
water like voraciously, or this cough is exacerbated the trach
you'll collapse with excitement. So if you can figure out
how to keep them calmer, we see that seems to
help a lot. So I'm sitting here once again live
coming to you live at the Sacramento Airport in Sacramento, California,
waiting to catch my flight back to Los Angeles. So
I want to hear from you. I want to take
your calls here at Petlife Radio dot com. Ask the
vets with doctor Jeff. That number is eight seven seven
three eight five eight eight eight two. It can either
call me, we can talk on the phone. You can
type in your questions here at Petlife Radio dot com,
or you can go on on the internet pet Life Radio,
or if you're just tuned in, if you're on the
website petlife radio dot com, it says click here to
join the conversation. You can go ahead and click to
join the conversation and we'll be happy to answer your questions.
So I want to take a quick commercial break once again,
thanking our sponsor pro Sense Pet Products and United Pet
Group all along with Walmart. Give me a call eight
seven seven three eight five eight eight eighty two. Will
be right back.
Speaker 1: We'll be right back right after these messages. Stay tuned.
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Speaker 3: You'll be glad you did.
Speaker 8: Hi.
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Speaker 3: Let's talk past it.
Speaker 8: Let's pet Radio, Headline Radio, Petlight Radio dot Com.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to pet Live Radio, Ask the Pets foot
Doctor Jeff.
Speaker 3: You're here live with.
Speaker 2: Doctor Jeff and I'm here at the Sacramento Airport right
here in California, Sacramento, California, and I'm bringing our show
live to you. You can always call in at eight
seven seven three eight five eight eight eight two and
just want to hear from you. I want to answer
your questions. I want to thank our sponsors, pro Sens
Pet Products and I we're just going through some email
and I have an email. This is coming from Sammy
in West Hollywood, California, right in my backyard. Actually, he says,
I've never heard you talk about a rather cold, wet
nose and a dog means they are healthy. And I've
heard some people say that the wet nose doesn't mean
anything in particular, which is true? And is it the
same for cats? Well, you know this is something that
we've all heard before. If you want to tell you
whether or not your pattern is healthier, dog or cat,
feel their nose. If their nose is wet, that means
they're fine. If the nose is not wet. That means
it doesn't find That is a little bit of an oversimplification.
The reality is is that it is true that if
a dog is doing great, he will have a nice, cold,
wet nose. But it doesn't mean that if they don't
have that cold nose, they're not doing great. Likewise, dogs
that are really sick, they're often dehydrated, and with dehydration
comes a dry a warm, dry nose. They are temperatures elevated.
So you know that it is true that dogs that
are sick may not have that cold wet nose, will
more frequently have a dry nose. But you can't go backwards,
so don't use that as your only criteria. If you
have a dog with a warm, dry nose but is
otherwise eating well, is happy, is playful, all the other
parameters are just fine. Chances are he's fine. You know
what you ice can do. Also, anybody out there is
you can go get yourself one of those thermometers rectal
thermometers you know at the drug store, and just learn
to take.
Speaker 3: A pet's temperature. It's really not that hard.
Speaker 2: Temperatures for normal for a dog is about one hundred
point five to one hundred and two point five and
a warm, hot day if they're outside, even one hundred
and three is okay. Again, always look at these symptoms
and signs along with the rest of the body. You know,
a dog with one hundred and three temp but is
doing great, it's bobby fine. A dog with one hundred
and three temp. Who's MOPI who has stopped eating, he
doesn't have no energy. That could be a problem. So
you definitely want to take your dog or cat in
showing those signs and have them checked out by your veterinarian.
So so anyway, Sammy, thanks for the question coming from
West Hollywood, and now you know a little bit more information,
a little bit more specific about the whole cold nose
wet nose issue. Here's another coming in from April. This
is a good one because this is sort of one
of these opinion questions and likewise answers, and that is
Hey guys, hi doctor Jeff. Some people really push raw
food diets for their pets. This includes raw meat, which
I consider dangerous and not necessary to the health of
my dog. I was wondering how you feel about raw
food diets. Well, April, I have to kind of agree.
I'm not a really big fan. I think that as
we've gone through many generations in years of domesticating our dogs,
that we are not having the same issues when it
comes to raw food diets. So, you know, I don't
know if the intestinal tract is what it used to be.
So my concern is that I've seen a lot of
dogs get sick. I think the food goes bad. I
know that some of these raw food companies are erasing
their food. First, they're killing off all the bacteria. Some
of them are subjecting them to what they call it's
like rapid freezing. It's instant freezing, and that will kill
off the bacteria. So as long as some technique is
being used to kill the bacteria, I think it's okay. Again,
let your animals.
Speaker 3: Be the judge. Let your dogs be the judge.
Speaker 2: If they're eating it, if they like it, if they're
doing well, if they have a shiny coat, if they
have lots of energy, the normal stools, and they're eating
the raw food, then let them go for it. But
I would not switch away from what you're feeding just
because you think that the raw food diets are superior.
As a matter of fact, I'm a proponent of not
switching at all. If your dog is doing great on
what he's eating, you know, you can go to a
pet store and see dozens and dozens of food they
come and go. I would look for foods that have
an aft GO certification on the label. That's the Association
of American Food Control Officials. I would look for foods
that have been tested through feeding trials and if all
of those, if they're aft GOES certified, they've done feeding trials.
Your pets seems to like it. Your dog has a
great coat, lots of energy. Don't switch. There are a
lot of great commercial foods. Don't think that more expensive
is better. It's like that and a lot of things,
but not necessarily in dog foods. There are a lot
of really good ones out there. In fact, you know
one of the companies out there that has a mass
market food. Two of them used to be in the
pet specialty market, only available only in pet stores. Now
they're available at the over the counter, at the mass
market supermarket level.
Speaker 3: They're just fine.
Speaker 2: So don't be fooled by the pizazz of the hype,
and certainly don't let a and I said this before.
I made this point many times on the show. Don't
let a seventeen year old eighteen year old employee at
the pet store become your pet expert if you if
you want your questions answered, check with your veterinarian. Okay,
this one came in from Arlene, and Arlene says, my
other cat keeps moving her baby from one location to
the next. I have them in a safe box away
from the other adult cats. But twice now mother has
moved her kittens inside a tall, thin box.
Speaker 3: Each time. It scares me. She's worried that she won't
be able to find them. Well, this is mom being mom.
Speaker 2: Moms like to protect their kittens, and if they sense
any danger, that's just what they're gonna do. They are
going to pick up their kittens. They're gonna hide them,
They're gonna move them to what they call a safer place.
The more traveled an area, the more likely mamma cat
is gonna pick up and move the kittens. So this
is normal and natural. But you might want to do
if there are any places around the house that are
like really really difficult to get into, like you may
not be able to go find them, then I would
sort of partition those off. But likewise, if there's a closet,
you can just leave the door open. Craft the door
open a little bit. That would be great. That way
that mamma cat can go into someplace that is nice
and secluded, it's quiet, she'll feel safe. But if need be,
you can get in there as well and check on
the kittens. So for those of you that are just
joining us, I'm doctor Jeff. I'm broad casting live from
the Sacramento Airport. In fact, now you can hear a
gate announcement about our gate and we are. I was
here for Humane Lobby Day here in Sacramento. This is
where the lobbying groups, the humane groups of California, had
a chance to talk to state legislators, meet them one
on one and really show our support for a number
of very important measures that are sitting in front of
California legislature. Now, two that I've talked about earlier, I'm
going to mention again real quickly because I encourage you,
if you're listening and you are from California, to call
your state senator and leave message with your state senator's
office that you want him or her to support these bills.
One is the eight B seven eleven, and this requires
the banning of lead ammunition. We do not like lead ammunition.
It is dangerous. It causes toxicity to people or other
animals that eat the animals that were killed with lead ammunition.
It is becoming a major thread to two of our
very important speed that are on the protected species list,
that's the California condor and the golden eagle, both of
whom will feed off of meat that's been killed with
lead ammunition and then they get potentially deadly lead poisoning.
And interestingly, though of course I am not a hunter
and I do not encourage it, there are many hunters
out there that actually feel that lead is not even
the best ammunition out there. So I encourage you, and
they're even a lot of the hunters are supporting this
sentate build because they know that lead ammunition can even
be dangerous to people that might eat the meat of
these animals. Another one is AB twelve thirteen. That's AB
one two one three, and this is really to support
and protect some of California's natural heritage, and that is
the kilt wrapping of bobcats. They are actually taking these
magnificent animals, these gorgeous cats, and they are hunting them
for their pelts used in luxury clothing.
Speaker 3: To me, that is sickening.
Speaker 2: But anyway, trapping is more than doubled in twenty eleven
and two. And where they're setting traps is around the
borders of lands that we have set aside for these animals.
So that's like cheating, that's luring the animals into these
places and then going ahead and trapping them. So this
bill is going to prevent the trapping of animals that
are near our near our parks and conservation areas, and
it's going to outlaw the setting of traps.
Speaker 3: Just here's an example.
Speaker 2: In Joshua National Park Region, trapping has increased over eight
hundred percent over the last two years. So that's built
ABE twelve thirteen.
Speaker 3: Get out there.
Speaker 2: If you're from California, If anyone listening has friends or
relatives living in California, please, for the sake of these animals,
encourage your friends, your cousins in California to call and
have their state senators support these bills. That is seven
eleven and twelve thirteen. So while those of you are
still nervous and shy about giving us a call, live
here to ask me questions. At eight seven, seven, three,
eight five, eight, eight eighty two. I'm going to uh oh.
By the way, I don't know if I also be
listened to. A couple of weeks ago I talked to
about our little dog, that patient of mine whose owner
ran over the dog. Well, I have to tell you
the dog came in for a retech. It is doing
amazingly well. This is a dog that easily could have
been left for dead, and it was actually had a
torn body wall, had torn trachy Yet we talked about
trachy idis earlier, talked about a tracheaiitis where there's a
tear in the trach Yet this poor dog was literally
looked like a balloon because it was filling up with
so much air because the air was leaking out of
the trachia and going into the sub q space and
this dog the trachea. With time, we put a body
wrap prevented that air leakage. And this little guy is
doing amazingly well. So I have to tell you it's important.
Another we got a fairly sick pett in the other day,
and these all bring to mind some warnings that I've
often made to you. The dog got in to the
owner's trail mix and they were interestingly concerned about the
chocolate because you know a lot of Lyo Trump mixses
have little chocolate tips. But when I asked, I said,
were there lot of raisins in the trumpkes? They go,
oh my god, yes, it was full of raisins. Well,
I have to tell you, the raisins are way more, potentially,
way more dangerous than the chocolate. Most of the chocolate
that's in these is a semi sweet chocolate, or it's
a milk chocolate small amount. It would take a lot
of chocolate and theobromine to cause this problem. But this
was the raisins and grapes are potentially extremely toxic to
dogs and cats. So this dog was pretty sick. But
again got to us early. We got this dog on fluid,
flush everything out. Dog is fine. And this brings to
mind another potential toxin. And you know, I was I
was in my house and saw my cats playing with something.
It was it a bowl and one of them was
trying to get it out of the bowl. So I
looked at it, what are you playing with, you crazy cat?
And it was sugarless gum. Guys, I gotta let everybody know,
be very very careful sugarless gum. Xylotol is extremely toxic
to pets. So if you have any gum left around
the house, anything sugarless, anything with xyl all x y
L I T O L, please remove it from their reach.
It is potentially very dangerous and it can be deadly.
So it looks like we are running out of time here.
Speaker 3: It is. It was a great this half hour goes.
Speaker 2: So you know, mind you as fast as this half
hour goes, it will go even faster if you guys
call in so that if you want to let's get
the show to an hour. Maybe I need you to
call in eight seven seven three eight five eight at
A two. Email me at doctor Jeff at Petlife Radio
dot com.
Speaker 3: If you have a question you'd like me to.
Speaker 2: Read on air, you can go ahead and email me
at Drjeff at Drjeff dot com. It's my own personal
email address and I will get your questions and read
them on air. And once again I want to thank
our sponsors, Process Pet Products, and you know, we have
a lot of things for pro sens, whether it's joint care.
We have mild, intermediate advanced joint care. We have dental
care products, we have skin and code care. Summertime, this
is the time your pets are getting sorees. We have
an antihistamine that they can take. We have we have
an It's spray, we have a hydrocortisome spray, we have
dedicated shampoo. All of these things to help your pets
stay clean and healthy during the summer and because they're
getting out there and doing more activity, which I hope
they are, and you're getting I think activity as well,
which I hope you are as well, because considering the
fact that it's good health for everybody. But vitamins and minerals.
We have senior formula, we have a puppy and small
dog formula, and an adult formula. So we're trying to
think up everything that you can do. Grooming products, earcleaner,
dental care products.
Speaker 3: So I want we're here for you.
Speaker 2: We're here to help your pets stay healthy, help to
prevent disease. And I'm here every Thursday here on petlife
Radio dot com to answer your questions and to help
strengthen that pond between you and your four legged friends.
Thanks for joining me here on Askdebets with doctor Jeff
here at petlferadio dot com.
Speaker 3: We'll see you next Thursday.
Speaker 1: Let's talk pets every week on demand only on petlife
radio dot com in