Speaker 1: Wait, you're listening to Petlifradio dot com.
Speaker 2: And welcome to everybody on this wonderful, wonderful Sunday, well
Sunday morning here Sunday afternoon. If you were back east
there are anywhere in between. You are joining me, Doctor
Jeff War where your host for the next thirty minutes
here on pet Life Radio's Past the Best with Doctor Jeff,
the only live call in show here on pet Life
Radio and once again a live call in show that
means we need you to be alive. Hope you are,
and you're gonna call us at eight seven seven three
eight five eight eight eight two once again jotted down
eight seven seven three eight five eight eight A two.
Or you can just go ahead and log on to
pet Life Radio go on to ask the Vets with
Doctor Jeff tab and you can follow us and join
in on the conversation. That's very easy to do. And lastly,
you can send me live an email as we speak
as I'm on the air here to doctor Jeff. That's
Dr Jeff at petlife Radio dot com, and our phenomenal
producer Mark Winter will send it on to me live
real time and we can answer your questions. You can
ask anything you want. If I don't have an answer,
I will get it for you and we'll share it
with you next week. By the way, I want to
thank our sponsors, pro Sense Pet Products, cong Cong Veterinary Products.
So anyone who does call in, anyone who writes sends
me an email, we will send you out a free
pro Sense product and or Kong toy. So make sure
you let us know about your pet. Is it a dog,
or it's or a cat, how big, et cetera, et cetera.
So typically we have been going through a lot of
different organ systems that we've been working on. Eyes. We've
talked about some of the issues that we get. Then
we went onto the nose and the respiratory diseases. We
talked about most recently foreign objects like foxtails and how
important it is to search for those they go up
the nose. As a matter of fact, I know one
of my cases tomorrow is a large breed dog, a
German Sheppert, that has been doing some snorting and starts
these sneezing attacks and starts bleeding on one side. And
typically when there's one side of bleeding, we're looking for
either a nasal polyp or maybe a potentially a mask.
This dog is a little too young for a mass
or a migrating foreign body, and this time of the year,
that migrating foreign body is probably going to be a Foxdale.
So anyway, before going on, and unless somebody wants to
call and ask a question about anything, I'm sure you've
heard the expression how important it is to learn from
our own mistakes. Well here on pet Life Radio, and
as a practitioner been doing this for over thirty years,
I want to help you learn from other people's mistakes
because when you hear these stories, hopefully you will not
make the same mistakes. A while ago, we've talked about
one of my clients who had a non neutered male
and it was a wheat and terrier. And as this
dog was getting older, probably about eight or nine, started
having prostate issues and we would cure the prostate problem.
We would treat it, it would do well, and I would
often talk to the owner about the importance of neutering.
Certainly this dog was too old to breed. He wasn't
no longer going to breed it. I don't even think
he bred it ever in the first place. But he
had this hang up as sadly, many guys out there do.
If you're a guy out there that has to hang
up about your own dog's package, would you please call
us eight seven seven three eight five eighty two. I
want to talk to y'all. I want to get to
the root of this issue. But anyway, so he refused.
Sure enough, a little while later, months later, a year later,
the dog would present again with another one. Well, it
got so bad to the point this dog was so
sick because of these prostate. This is called benign prostatic hyperplasia.
And he was uncomfortable, he didn't want to eat, he
was losing weight, and I kept trying to tell the
owner we got to fix this dog for once and
for all. Anyway, psman was about ten and a half.
He had it. He finally had it. Dog presented really
really sick, high white cell count, very tender, very painful.
I wanted to urinate all the symptoms of a big prostate.
And we treat it first because you know, ideally you
try not to neuter a dog in the face of
a prostatic hyperplasia incident. Why because when we do that,
we leave the possibility of what we call prostatic cysts,
and those are difficult to deal with. Ideally we don't
want to deal with them. So to help prevent the
formation of these cysts, it's always better to neuter a
dog whose prostate is normal. So first we need to
treat the prostate problem if we can, of course, and
then once we're back to kind of normal, then we
go ahead and do the neuter. Well, ps, we finally
did it. We got the prostate back to normal, he
got permission, and we neutered the dog at ten and
a half years of age. I mean, come on, well,
this dog lived to about thirteen and a half and
it's last two years were basically heaven. So learn from this.
And I use this story all the time when I'm
up against someone who's got an older dog it has
a prostatic issue and just won't let me neuter. And
we share it, and I said, you know, I will
even give you his name. He will talk to you.
Don't make the same mistake he did and have a
miserable dog, a dog with problems, etc. So we had recently,
just the other day, a dog presented and this dog
was a six year old female now golden retriever on
the smaller side, and the presenting complaint was she could
not get up. It was almost as if she were paralyzed.
So when my technician went into the room first to
do what we call our tech exam, he also told me.
He wrote down the dog can't walk, the dog knuckles
over on its front legs. I mean, it sounded very
neurologic to me. So I went into look at the dog,
and first thing, I'm thinking, it is highly unusual. And
I use those terms highly unusual instead of impossible, because
we've learned oftentimes nothing is impossible. But it's highly unusual
for a large redog, a Golden retriever to have a
disc up high enough in the shoulders or neck to
cause four limb problems period. It could happened, of course,
it could happen, but it's not usual. If the Golden
retriever is gonna have a limb problem, it's gonna be
because of lumbo sacrele instability way in the back. It's
gonna because of a bad knee. It's gonna you know,
her knees from a cruciate ligament. It's gonna be bad
hip from hip dysplasia. Maybe maybe a lumbar disc, but
or something called spondylosis as they get really old, but
not six years old. So for me, you know, being
the detective that one has to be when you're become
a diagnostician, you put all that stuff on the lower
part of your list. It's not removed from your list,
but it's not very it's not the top. So I
start feeling the legs and I get resistance, I get pulses.
I mean, it wasn't that she was paralyzed, it was
that she was in extreme pain. When I tried to
palpay her abdomen, her belly, it was so tense, so hard,
like a drum. There's no way she would let me palpaid.
So of course with a tender abdomen like that, one
of the present problems would be pancreatitis. Ah, now that's
something I could see in a six year old golden retriever.
So any vomiting, no vomiting. Does this dog get a
hold of anything unusual? But I've got a hold of
anything fatty, No, no, no, So that's off my list.
So as I'm examining her, I see a very swollen volva.
Now we don't see swollen volves routinely unless the dog
is in heat. Six year old. Would I expect a
six year old to be in heat in my practice
where ninety nine percent of my patients are spaded are neutered.
The answer is no. So I go through the record briefly,
just before I say anything to the owner. I was
actually the owner was the owner's assistant. And I do
not see that we have spaded this dog at any time. Wow.
So I call the owner and I say, you know,
we don't see it here, but I know that you
sometimes may go something else. You do a lot of traveling.
They have a house in the mountains. Maybe they took
care of this up there shivering spade. And the answer
was no. I said, ah, now it's all. Now it's
making sense. A dog who's swollen involve that means she
was probably recently and heat, maybe within six eight weeks.
Just did not want to move, and I'm thinking, oh
my god, this is screaming piometra. So to put her
on the X ray table, take an X ray. I
could see a little bit of a swoller uterus. But
on X ray, when it comes to fluid, fluid is
your enemy. Right when it comes to ultrasound, fluid is
your friend. So I really couldn't see exactly the detail
I wanted to see, so I put her on the
ultrasound machine table. We did an ultrasound and we saw
pockets I mean pockets of fluid in both horns of
a uterus, and would seem to be some leakage fluid
in the abumen as well, which would explain why she
was so tense. So call the owner, tell him what
my thoughts were. We do it interestingly, this is very interesting.
We did a blood test. Typically, dogs who present with
piometra have a white blood cell count off the charts.
I mean literally off the charts. High white cell count
for dog is probably eighteen nineteen thousand, depending on the labus.
And it wouldn't surprise me in a dog with pyometric
to be seventy thousand I mean literally five four times
high normal. I mean it's insane. Anyway, Her values were perfect,
her values her chemistry was perfect also. That ruled out
potential pankretitis anyway, So I said, you know what, this
is what I think it is. I'm seeing something, pockets
of something in the abdomen of fluid, and I'm also
seeing some free floating fluid that in of itself is
an indication to explore. I think it's going to be pyometra.
That's my biggest concern. I think that would explain all
the symptoms. When you're a diagnostician, when you're doing diagnostics
in medicine, always look for the one disease or the
one condition that can cause all of the signs instead
of looking at say three or four different diseases going
on at the same time. Is if you recall back
when we talked about hyperthyroidism and cats, before we learn
really more about hyperthyroid cats, these cats would present ain't
doing right, weight loss, very very fast heart rates, and
if you took bloods they'd have liver enzyme elevations. So
for years, years doctors were diagnosing these cats as having
a heart problem and a liver problem and maybe even
the weight loss either because of the heart problem, which
is very possible, or another problem going on. Time out.
If you ever watch House MD, they put the board
and you're saying, what what are the feasibilities? What are
the possibilities that all the symptoms were seeing could fit
into one of the various diseases on our list. And
if the answer is no, again, you don't cross it off.
The list, but you move it, you mow it down
a little bit. You're looking for that one disease that
can explain everything. And when I saw the abdomen, the fluid,
the thickened uterus, et cetera, I said, this is it,
This is it. It's got to be piled. So we
go in and sure enough she has puss free floating
in her belly. She has a very thickened uterus both sides,
with a lot of bubbles of puss. Now, there are
two types of pyometra that we'll see in a dog.
Of Pyometra is a severe uterine infection that often follows
an estrus by about eight weeks, and the vulva has
still swollen because the recent estrus. And there are two
presentations of pyometra, one we call open and what we
call closed. Now, in an open pio, it's a lot
easier to diagnose. Why because the purulent discharge that is
coming from the uterus, which is a highly infected uterus,
which is why the white blood cell count goes off
the charts high. Is that they are draining the puss.
So you can make your diagnosis by symptoms by high
white cell count. The fact that she was recently in heat,
and you see actually see the puss coming out of
the back end. So therefore we know that that is
our problem. Well, the other one that is a bit
more difficult to diagnose, and that is a closed pio.
Closed is where the musculature at the body of the
uterus and the vaginal canal is still so tight that
the purulent discharge, the exitate coming from the infected uterus
is not leaking, it's staying there within and here because
the uterine tissue became so friable because of this infection
that the puss started leaking out into the belly, which
explained a the very very sad, poor condition that she
was in b the fact that she was so tender,
her belly was so tense, and of course when I
opened her up and on the ultrasound, I can actually
see free floating pockets of fluid. So this was a
very very sad, severe case. And it's time for our
quick little break halfway through the show. Boy to time
go fast, so don't go away. In fact, I'd love
to hear from you anyone who has any questions about
Spain Nooter as soon as we're back in the second
fifteen minutes of the show, which you please give us
a call at eight seven seven three eight five eight
eight eight to two. And let's discuss this with everybody,
so hopefully everybody can learn from our mistakes. Don't go away.
I'm your host, Doctor Jeff were We're here on cut
Life Radios. Askife's with doctor Jeff. We'll be right back.
Speaker 1: We'll be right back right after these messages. Stay tuned.
Speaker 2: This is my tired of itching face. Does your dog
suffer from persistent itching and scratching? Allergies and skin irritations
caused by environment including pollens, insects, especially fleas, food and
common household allergens are common problems and dogs. It's easy
to alleviate your dog's is comfort at home with pro Sense.
Pro Sense itch analogy products provide fast relief from symptoms
like itchy irritated skin, skin infections like hotspots and watery eyes.
Pro Sense products are veteranly formulated and recommended to ensure
the very best for your pet. Try pro Sense today.
Your dog will thank you for best love life, love
them back with pro Sense.
Speaker 3: It's designerpet sweaters dot Com hand in it as sweaters
for your precious pup or cool Cat, Beautiful coach tour
patterns for your pets, including customated formal wear, casualware, yachting,
and even sports themed. Many designer pet sweaters include feathered
tammy hats, topets, and a lot of sparkle. Each sweater
includes leg loops, front post, leaves, and leash opening. Visit
designerpetsweaters dot com to order your four legged fashions today,
large or small, We fit them all Designerpetsweaters dot com.
Speaker 4: Active four pads is a new wellness platform and app
that helps pet parents save time and money on their
vet bills. Stop paying for unnecessary VET treatments, consult with
the vet online, get unlimited access to your pet's entire
health history from any computer or smartphone with the Active
four pats app, vaccinations, medications, test results, and more. Active
four pats gives you access to a team of expert
vets for non emergency care. Make an appointment before, during,
or after office hours, skip the waiting room and get
a secure online bed console on your schedule. Taking care
of your pets is as easy as it gets with
Active four pads. Ready to try Active four pets listeners
get forty percent off a one year membership. To get
this great offer, use promo code pet life on the
sign up page of activefour pets dot com. That's a
C T I V the number four p E T
s dot com or call eight eight eight five one
two two eight four eight.
Speaker 1: Let's talk Pat, Let's done Pets talk about Life radio
Headline radio atlin Radio dot.
Speaker 2: Com and welcome back. You're here with doctor Jeff here
on ped Life Radios. Ask the beats of doctor Jeff
and before our quick break, and we were talking about Coco.
Coco was my six year old patient, Golden Retriever, presenting
very very sick, and how we sort of had to
put all the pieces together and we came up with
a diagnosis a pyometra, which is a severe, severe uterine
infection that could be deadly. And it could be deadly
because the white cell count goes so high, these poor
dogs get very, very sick. And in this case, as
a perfect example, is that, as I mentioned before the break,
that her uterus finally started to rupture and leak, and
what it was leaking was this purulent discharge is pus
these white cells, these bacteria into the abdominal cavity, and
that's why this dog was so sore and so tense.
And what's so interesting is that I typically am on
the more conservative side. I am a more of a
wait and see. Let's do some supportive care for a
day or two, Let's see what happens. Let's see how
we do. I think, you know, have I been burned
over the years, Absolutely, But ninety five ninety eight percent
of the time by sitting back and just letting see
what nature takes its course, that I'm way ahead of
the game. And in this case, there was just something
that was bothering me to say, you know what, I
had already started on IVS. I already started the iv antibotics.
I had my hunch, but I said, you know what,
I don't think we should wait. She feels so terribly
right now. I don't think there's a downside. My fear
was that if she were to get worse all right
over the next you know, twenty to twenty four hours,
then she'd become a much greater surgical risk. And I
didn't want that to happen. As I said, I advise
the owners. Look, I could be wrong, but we definitely
have to I may not be PIO. But there's something
going on in here that we have to see what
it is, and I think exploring is the way to go.
So PS, we anesthetize, we open up, we explore. Sure enough,
it is PIO. She's got this purlent discharge all over
the place. Her tissue was friable, tearing apart. It was
us a mess in there. And you know whoever's you
know when I hear these people coming out or saying,
oh my god, spe it's a routine procedure. There is
nothing routine about a spae, especially you know, if you
have a young, healthy dog, never been in season, right, Yeah,
admittedly it is pretty easy. But you give me a
middle aged to older dog that's had several heats or
a litter we are talking a different animal here. Part
in the punt. This is not a routine surgery. There's
a tissue can literally break apart in your hands, and
then you got to deal with all this bleeding. It's
really often a challenge and this dog or any dog
when you're doing a PIO is going to be a challenge.
So sure enough we removed her uterus and she actually
woke up from surgery pretty well. We did a lot
of what we call levage cavity levage the Abomina cavity
where we take steril saline, we warm it up. Of course,
you want to keep it around body temperature, and you
pour it into the belly. You kind of mush things
around a little bit like a little milkshake. You're shaking it,
and then you take your suction tube suction device and
you drain it out, and then you do it again,
and then you drain it out, and you do it
again and your drains until the liquid coming out from
your suction device is about the same color as the
stero saline going in, then you know you've cleaned up
pretty well. So anyway, she woke up very very well,
very quickly, and she was eating that evening and by
the next morning the owners came to visit the evening.
First of all, they couldn't believe it because they saw
she was like in the morning when their assistant brought
her in, she was terrible. She was in horrendous shape.
She looked like she could have been near death. It
was just awful. And then they come to pick her
up and she is walking all over the place and
she is wagging her tail. It was so cute. This
dog knows me really well. And as a matter of fact,
on the second day when we finally let her home,
we actually sent her home on Friday. You know, she
was well enough to walk around, so we closed all
the doors of our large treatment room and I just
let her walk around, and she literally saw me. I
was sitting at one of the computer workstations. She comes
right at my feet. She sits down. When I would
get up, she would get up. She would follow me
wherever I went. It was hysterical and my crew couldn't
believe it. She go, what do you did? She think
you're she's your dog, and I said, no, but taking
care of her for a long time, and I was
the only recognizable face there. And of course she's in
a strange environment, and they're a little bit fearful, so
they will latch on to that one person that they
know that they recognized. And it was very, very cute.
But the night I left, is the night of surgery,
she was still, you know, out of it a little bit.
She was sitting up, she was We did very well,
and I was started to talk to her through the
cage and I would go coca and I went over
and I took a walk over and I threw my
arms down and said Coco, and I got two wags
of her tail, and I knew right then. I knew
then that she was going to be on the mend.
And as I said, next morning, she was already up,
she was eating. So we kept her. We did the
surgery for Wednesday afternoon, we kept her all day Thursday,
and she went home Friday. So anyway, it was really
an amazing experience. This is these are the times, and
it doesn't happen often. I often say, regardless of how
good your veterinarian is or is it, or thinks he
or she is, the truth of the matter is that
most of our patients are going to get well in
spite of us, not because of us. In other words,
we go in, we do the basics, we get an answer,
but most of the diseases we're treating, we can't actually
treat the disease. We are supporting the body to let
the body treat the disease. So it's the ivy fluids,
it's the ivy and the bodys, it's the vitamin whatever
it is that we're doing, depending on the disease, it's
the supplements, it's the special food, but we're just providing
the body the tools. Ultimately, it's the body that's going
to have to do it. But this is one of
those where you have these very very serious, deadly conditions
where it is your hand that actually makes the difference
that saves the pet. You feel so great afterwards, And
these are one of those cases. Ryan knew that had
it not been for us making the bold move instead
of the conservative move of going in that same day Wednesday,
as soon as our surgery hour started, there would have
been a good chance that she may not have made
it overnight, or it would have been so sick the
next day that she would would have not have made
it through the surgery. So you just feel so good
when these things happen. It was just a great experience.
So anyone out there eight seven seven three eight five
eight to a two. Dr Jeff at petlife Radio dot
com join in on a tab and join the conversation.
I would really love to know how many of you
and why still have adult females that are not Spade.
What are the reasonings who told you to the contrary
that it's good for them? Now, certainly we have changed
are have we talked about it here extensively here on
Assevets with doctor Jeff that with the large breed dogs,
those dogs that are prone to developing bone cancer, I
too have become an advocate of waiting and let them
have their first heat, not their second heat. Their first
heat comes to seven months, second heat around fourteen months.
Spaye them eleven twelve to thirteen months. You want to
get them still before their second heat, but it might
be a good idea to let them have one heat.
Very small breeds, the dogs that we don't usually see
bone cancer. If you want to spay them early before
their first heat, that's okay. Remember that the prevention or
what the best we can do to contribute to the
prevention of memory cancer is by spaying them early, preferably
before again before their second heat. So if you want
to let them have one heat, okay, I'm not going
to argue with you, but ideally you want to stay
them before their second heat. Now, if you have a
breeding dog, now we're talking a dog that you've put
through the motions. They are AKC whatever, CKC certified hips, everything, certified,
surf exam, the Canine Eye Registry Foundation, You've been an
amazing pet owner with your breedable dog. You are in
the business, you are legitimate, you are responsible, etc. If
all of that is the case and you choose to breed,
that's okay. There are a lot of people out there
that might disagree with you because the overpopulation problem. But
as long as you're doing it well and right, and
these dogs are healthy and breed a bull, then I
can live with it. But when they finish their breeding age,
whether it's six or seven or eight depending on the breed,
how successful or not, are the litters getting smaller, whatever
the case may be, it's time to get them fixed,
especially especially these dogs, especially dogs that have had one
or more letters. These are the ones that might be
very prone to problem down the road, and the best
way to prevent them is through SPAE and newter so well.
Obviously in a case of female, it's the SPAE, So
I highly recommend. If you have any questions, I would
love to hear from you. We can read your questions
here live on air next week at pet Life Radios
ascivests Doctor Jeff. Just send me an email to Drjeff
at petliferadio dot com. I will get it I will
answer read it online live next week and we can
discuss I would love to hear from you about this anyway.
It's that time. The time goes very quickly. Thanks for joining.
I'm your host here for every Sunday morning hopefully, and
next week we're going to talk about my trips to
Lima and especially Bangkok the World Smaller on Veterinary Association.
It was an amazing experience and we'll talk a little
bit about it. Thanks for joining me here, Thanks again
to pro sense and Calm, and we'll be here next week,
same time here on Peldlife Radio. Have a good view.
Speaker 1: Let's talk pets every week on demand only on petlife
radio dot com.