Speaker 1: You were listening to Petlifradio dot com.
Speaker 2: Well, Hello, hello, good afternoons, everybody. You are live with me.
I'm doctor Jeff Werber here on pet Life Radio on
Ask the Beats with Doctor Jeff and I I'm back.
I don't know if you may have noticed that last
week's show, if you are avid listeners to our programming,
you may have noticed that we had to repeat. And
the reason is I was out of the country. I
had a phenomenal time. I was actually asked to lecture
in two conferences on the other side of the world.
One was in London at the London Vet Forum, and
then just kind of randomly, I was asked to speak
at the Southern European Veteran Conference in Barcelona, Spain the
following week. I mean, it was just too amazing how
it happened and how everything fell into place. So took
off for London, spent a few fun days in London,
then on to Italy, and then from Italy it was
Barcelona where I spoke with the Southern European Veterinary Conference
and it was just amazing. And then the weather was terrific.
We I had a little rain. As everyone anyone who's
been to London. Knows, it's kind of gloomy, but it
was great. We had one day of kind of a
light rain and that was about it. So anyway, it
was so interesting being in Europe, and obviously whenever I
travel anywhere, I'd love to visit and I kind of
like enjoy seeing how people are with them, and I
noticed some very interesting things that when you know, like
if you're walking on the street here in the States
and you see somebody walking a dog and you want
to stop because you're a dog lover and you want
to kind of, you know, talk to the owner or
just say hi to the dog, people will stop and
they love when someone comes over and pays attention to
their pa. And it was so amazing that there. It's
almost like when first time it happened, I thought, Oh,
that guy's in a rush, or he's not the kind
of guy, or he doesn't like people touching his dog.
I couldn't figure it out, but I thought it was him.
Then as I'm walking along and seeing more dogs and
stopping to say hello and talk to them, even dogs
that I have, like a Labrador or a Frenchy people
and it wasn't a language bearer. They just didn't seem
to have that same excitement, that same enjoyment to have
somebody appreciate their pet. And I just thought that was
so bizarre. And I have to say it was that
way at least more through Italy and Barcelona. And I
also noticed something very interesting, and it's just weird. Typically,
if you see people walking in their pets here in town,
I'm not talking about a dog park, I'm just talking
to walk on the street, I typically would probably see
more women than men there. It was the other way around.
There were many more men walking their pets. And I'm talking,
you know, some of these macho guys with these little
docsin or little poodles or a little Yorkies or sheetsus.
It was very funny, but only a few people actually
seemed to appreciate someone stopping and talking about their pets.
They just didn't have that same warmth. I'm curious to
know anyone who's traveled to this part of the world.
I want to hear from you. I just like to
know if you had the same experiences, or if you
know anybody who lives there and is just the way
the culture is. But it was pretty fascinating. It was
my first time over there, so I really have nothing
to compare it to other than maybe some of you
calling in speaking of which I'm easy to get a
hold of. And I'm here every Thursday one o'clock in
the west, four o'clock in the east, and anything in between.
I want you to call us. We're here live, and
I'm here to help you with your pets, answer questions,
give you advice, and it's free and you can't beat free.
And the number here to get me is eight seven
seven three eight five eight eight eight to two here
at pet Life Radio. And also an extra added bonus,
since we are one of our key sponsors, is pro
Sense Pet Products. This is a line that I helped
develop and it basically is to give to the consumer
the benefits of really good quality pet product, but available
to you at the mass market level, which makes it
much less expensive. And I know it's very expensive to
keep your pets very healthy, and you know Verini medicine
is expensive. This is obviously not at all to replace
the relationship you have with your veterinarian. But if there's
some things that you can buy that might be a
little expensive, and maybe you'll be more apt to use
them because you don't have to spend so much money.
Then that's a great way to go. Then I feel
like I've accomplished something. So pro Sense pet products. So
as a caller, when you send us an email, which
I got a couple I'm gonna read, we will send
you out a gift of a pro Sense pet product.
Speaking of emails we had too recently, I'm going to
pick them up from my trusted iPhone. This coming in
from Haley. Now, Haley, I'm going to have to get
back to her next week because it is about not
only is it about a snake. And I though I
love snakes and I adore them and I'm totally not
afraid of them, I know very little about as far
as their medical care. And this is a weird one
and it goes Hi needs help. I rescued him and
took him to the only reptile vet in my area.
And that's pretty normal that not a whole lot of
veterinarians do reptiles. He has a metabolic bone disease and
because of this, his spine basically looks like an accordion
and is how my spines are prolapsed. He's too skinny
to do surgery. And for some reason he's not gaining weight.
He cannot deficate on his own. He needs daily warm soaks.
This can't be comfortable. My veterinarian recommended euth in Asia,
but I really want a second opinion. Thank you well, Haley,
I am not your second opinion. However, I am very
friendly with doctor Chris Wang up in Sacramento. I'm going
to give him a holler and let's see if we
can't get an answer for you, and if not, he
will know somebody who can. So stay tuned. We're going
to read this again next week and by then we
will have an answer for you. Then. From Facebook, the
Facebook page for pet Life Radio, John Blega, I hope
that I'm pronouncing it. John. I'm not butchering your name right,
Doctor Jeff Love the program. I'm in Holland, New York.
Have an eight year old sheet soup and have been
feeding her eyms one to six years dry dog food.
What would you suggest for her at this age? She's
now eight. She is still very active, but looks like
she's losing weight. Thank you, John. Now, what's interesting that
many dogs as they get older, a number of things
are happening. First of all, they're seem to have suffer
some whatt of a muscle atrophy, which could be why
they occasionally lose weight. However, typically, as with people, what
happens as we get older, our metabolism slows down. We
start getting those aches and pain, so we're not out
there running like we used to. We end up gaining
weight in our older age. We end up putting on
the pounds, getting that midsection and guys, I know you
out there, you know, complaining about the same thing. So
if you ate at say fifty, the same way you
ate at twenty five, trust me, you're going to gain weight.
So we tend to have to slow down on the
eating and force ourselves to exercise more and keep our
muscles toned and adjust our caloric intake to meet the
changes in our metabolism. So by the fact that there's
some weight loss may not be an issue at all.
But I often worry when we're having weight loss that
maybe something else may be going on. Certainly, if this
were a cat, i'd be concerned about kidney dysfunction hyper thyroidism.
Dogs typically don't get hyperthyroidism, they actually get hypo thyroidism,
and in that case they would be gaining weight. So, John,
the first thing I want you to do at eight
years of age, if you haven't done it already, you
need to take your sheets in for a senior physical,
get some blood tests done, get your analysis, and let's
find out really make sure everything else is okay, because
though I think it's a good idea to switch to
a senior diet, I also want to make sure that
there's nothing that we're missing because of an eight year
old dog losing weight, unless suddenly she's become more active,
or you have been cutting back on her food having
been told that you should, which is it's not the
wrong advice, it's actually the right advice. However, maybe in
her case, if she's still very active she's losing weight,
you need to increase again her chloric intake or go
back to where you were before you changed. But if
there has been no change at all and she is
just losing weight, I want to checked out. There are
some organs that, as a malfunction, we tend to lose weight.
Number one is heart disease, kidney disease, and of course
the dreaded it cancer. When it seems like much of
the nutrition that we are taking in is in a
sense being robbed and by the growth of the mass,
and it's taken away from our own metabolism, so there
is weight loss. So that again I worry about that
anytime with an old dog. But I just think it's
good medicine. You have an old dog, you have a senior.
Now's the time from the once here exams. You start
going twice a year and make sure you have blood
test in your analysis, maybe some X rays done somewhat
regular basis not necessarily have to be every year if
things are looking great and your pet is doing well.
But I always tell people that don't wait until there's
a problem. Most of the things we can deal with
if we get a head start because of good preventive
care and some proactive work on your parts, then it
serves us and your dogs and cat much better down
the road. So anyway, but I want to thank both
of you for writing in. John, I have your email.
I'm going to email you to give me your address.
We're going to send you out, probably a senior vitamin
for your dog. I think for a sheet too, that
would be extremely appropriate. And Hayley boy, I don't know
what I'm going to send you out. For a snake.
I hope you have a dog or a cat as
well in that humble household of yours, and we'll take
care of that. So anyway I want to hear from you,
I'm sitting here, we're just about to go to break.
You can reach us at eight seven seven three eight
five eight eight eight two. You can also go online
to pet Life Radio and just kind of key in
a response. There's a little join the conversation. You can
log in live, ask me a question. I'll read it
and answer it. You can also send me an email
personally to doctor Jeff at Petlifradio dot com and our
good producer Mark Winter will go ahead and send that
to me and I will read it live on air.
We'll answer your question. We're going to help you out
with your pet, and you're gonna get a free pro
sense pet product to boot, so I can't go wrong.
So anyway, we're at that time, we're time to take
our mid show quick break, so don't go away. We'll
be back in just a few minutes. Here ask the
vets with doctor Jeff here on petlife Radio dot com.
We'll be right back.
Speaker 1: We'll be right back right after these messages. Stay tuned.
Speaker 3: Every pet is unique. Maybe they're gray in the muzzle
yet young at heart. Maybe they're growing out of the
puppy stage and into their paws and ears, or maybe
they're just trying to maintain a more girlish figure. Have
pet Smart, We have the right food for your pet,
had a great value for you.
Speaker 2: That's smart.
Speaker 1: Be better together.
Speaker 4: Go to petsmartdeal dot com and save up to thirty
percent on paws some gifts for the pets and pet
people in your life. Toys, collars, leashes, pet smart, gift cards, treats,
and more. Go to petsmartdeal dot com today e E
T S M A R T D e A L
dot com.
Speaker 5: I'm not much of a reader, but I do wish
I were more well read.
Speaker 3: There are so many great books coming out.
Speaker 5: I wish I could find a way to keep up.
Speaker 6: Audible dot com makes it easy to stay well informed
and catch up on your reading. Simply by listening audiobooks
from Audible, turn downtime into uptime. You'll be more productive
and become well read. Now I'm able to catch up
on all the great books I've been wanting to read.
Speaker 3: With Audible, I feel smarter.
Speaker 4: Pet life radio listeners. Try audible dot com now and
get your first thirty days of Audible Listener Gold membership
plan free and get a free audiobook. Choose from over
one hundred thousand titles. To get this great deal, go
to audibledeals dot com. That's audibledeals dot com.
Speaker 7: Hi everybody, I'm Megan Blake here at my Sidekicks Super Smiley,
the Giant Mutt and spokesdog for throwaways. You're listening to
pet Life Radio and I would like to tell you
about our brand new show, A Super Smiley Adventure.
Speaker 4: Our show explores.
Speaker 7: Adventures with animals. They can be traveling out in the world,
trips or inner journeys where our animals lead us to
inspiration and self discovery, or just play fun adventures. Join
us here on pet Life Radio on a Super Smiley Adventure.
Speaker 1: Good boy, let's talk.
Speaker 8: Let's go pet Talk Radio, Hetline Radio.
Speaker 9: Petlife Radio dot Com.
Speaker 2: Well, welcome back to ask the Baths of the Doctor. Jeff.
I have been gone for a week. I missed last
week's show. It was a repeat. I'd love anybody who
knew what was a repeat? You know what that tells me?
That tells me that you are here with us every
week listening and you're sending us up. Wait a second,
I remember that question or I remember him talking about this.
So if you were thinking that you were right, because
it was a repeat, it wasn't easy. We try to
work it out. Actually, at the time difference nine hours,
it wouldn't have put me in a very good movie.
You have to be up at that hour to meet
this one o'clock deadline for me at four o'clock for
those of you back east. So but it had a
great trip, and I want to welcome you all back
here to our show here on pet Life Radio, the
Live Show, where you can call me right now at
eight seven seven three eight five eight eight eight two
and ask a question about your pet. Can also go
online at pet Life Radio and Live. You can type
in a question and I will read it and answer
you live as well. So that's a good deal. You know,
there's been a lot going on. I'm sure you've heard
about this chicken jerky and the problem with these treats.
It's been, you know, all over the news of late
nearly six hundred pets deaths associated with the Chinese chicken treats.
These are chicken treats coming out of China, and you know,
really if the FDA doesn't know exactly what the problem is,
but they feel approximately three thousand reports of pet illness
related to the consumption of these jerky treats, and as
I said, almost six hundred deaths. They all are treats
reported that are imported from China. And I mean this
started back in two thousand and seven, but we're seeing
more and more and nobody really knows exactly what's going on.
It's about probably most of the problems associated with gastrointestinal illness,
many with elevated liver enzymes, about thirty percent are kidney
and urinary signs as well. So about the remaining ten percent, oh,
it could be tremor's convulsion, hive, skin irritation, I mean
almost anything.
Speaker 9: Is that.
Speaker 2: There's a particular kidney condition that we see called fancone syndrome,
and that too is a kidney failure, so we see
that as well. And a lot of the nutrients that
are usually lost in the urine are instead being reasorbed,
causing the problem. So I want to continue to talk
about this more, but we have a caller coming in.
So a caller go ahead. You're alive here with doctor Jeff.
You're on pet Life Radio.
Speaker 5: Hi. My name is Tracy and I'm calling from California.
Speaker 2: Hi, Tracy, and Hi.
Speaker 5: I have four dogs, but one of them is an
elderly twelve year old Beagle Rottweiler mix. And I know
everyone always asked me who was who.
Speaker 2: Somebody was very acrobatic, I'll tell you that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, But what I was wondering, he's starting to lose
his hearing, and it seems like in the morning I
keep on steaking up on him and it scares him.
And I was wondering if you have any tips on
how to how to work with a dog that's going
deaf to keep him from getting scared and freaking out. Well,
right kind of happened upon him.
Speaker 2: You know, first of all, it's not uncommon. We see
this a lot as dogs get older, especially you know,
twelve for bigle is not super old, but twelve for
a Rottweiler is very old, So so you know, it
could be the definises it's a neurologic deficit. Of course,
you want to check the ears out to make sure
there's nothing simple that's being missed like some you know,
waxy plugs or things like that. But typically older dogs
that come in we have of course check that out
and it turns out to be simply nothing more than
old age deafness. And now's the time to start using
a lot of hand signals as you're talking, as you're relating,
you know, to the dogs. In a male or a female,
it's a male a male, so you know, as you're
relating to him, as you're talking to him, start giving
him a lot of hand signals. That helps along. And
then when as far as not freaking up on him
is start every time you approach and you season that deep,
deep sleep, you want to just come and start gently
at first, you don't want to come up onto them
and just you know, kind of grab them, but gently
just start caressing the top of his head or the
side of his faces are under the ears, just so
he knows you're coming. And it also helps sort of
make that eye contact with you looking for what the
next command is, whether it's you know, you know. It's
interesting when we teach dogs in general, we always recommend
the six day heel. You know, you sit, you hold
your hand up and face it to you your stage.
You put your palm at you know, sort of directly
at him. And so now even more so, you don't
even need the voice command because they're so used to
the hand commands that we've tried. Even when they were hearing,
was fine to teach them. So I think, you know,
that's always it's a good idea to get even those
of you listening. When you have young, healthy dogs, it
would really be a good idea to do a lot
of your basic commands, to associate them with some sort
of hand command as well, and then you know, but
it is amazing is that they will. First of all,
dogs are amazing at feeling vibration. So typically if you
wanted to walk as you're approaching a bit more loudly,
not so much for the sound that you make, but
for the vibration that they will pick up from the floor. Again,
so he kind of knows you're coming, it's not coming
at him and trying to freak him out. Another thing
you might want to try is maybe a dog whistle.
There are frequencies that we can't hear, but dogs can,
and even at the higher frequens. I have a lot
of people that will come to me with a dog
that likewise dog doesn't hear me, doesn't hear me coming,
doesn't you know, hear the garage door or the key
in the door. Things that they would oh my god,
meet greet them at the front door aren't working anymore.
They can either could be noise in the house and
the dog is you know, dead asleep right, doesn't respond,
And they'll come into my room and I'll purposely have
the pet owner have the dog looking at them and
distract the dog so it's not paying attention to me.
And I'm a really good whistler, and I will give
this loud shriek whistle that I mean they hear down
the block and the dog totally hirks up and turns around.
So I noticed that a lot of times it's either
just there are certain frequencies that are not picking up anymore.
Older dogs are sometimes like teenage kids, and we call
that selective hearing. So when you're yelling at your kid
to do their homework, they're tuning you out because you're
not important. But you know, say you want to go
get have dessert, or you want to go go see
the movie or go to the ball game. All they
hear that all of a sudden. So sometimes you know
when try preparing the food and seeing if that does it.
It may or may not, but anyway, it is most
likely a normal age change. Nothing to panic about. They
do adapt and just as you approach knowing that he's
having this problem, just do so a bit more gently.
But that's great, and I want to thank you. Wanted
to send me an email to doctor Jeff Dr Jeff
at Drjeff dot com at doctor Jeff dot com with
your info will send you out since you have an
old Beagle mix either our Senior Vitamin or our Senior
Glucosamine as a gift from pro Sens Pet Products.
Speaker 5: All right, thank you so much.
Speaker 2: All right, Tracy, thank you for calling. Thanks a lot.
Good luck by bite. So anyway, for those of you
say how easy that was, it's very easy to pick
up the phone. I don't bite. Some of my patients do,
but not me. Anyway, Let's go back to these, you know,
very serious problems with these jerky treats that we are
hearing a lot about causing liverpool problems, causing kidney problems,
potentially causing convulsions and tremors. And the problem is we
don't know exactly what the active ingredient causing this problem
is so a lot of the big brands. We had
a decrease in January two thirteen where a lot of
these brands were removed off the shelves, but again there
seems to be a rise again. So until we know
more about it, there are I know there was a
study being done at the University of Queensland and it
was sort of examining the renal tubules of a number
of these dogs, over one hundred dogs that were diagnosed
with a problem that may be related to these chicken
breast strips and the chicken jerky, and they were all
made in China, and they were taken off the market,
of course, But until we know more, my recommendation would
be that if you're going to buy any of these,
I would say, in general, whether they're the raw hide strips,
whether they're the jerky strips, anything that's coming out of China.
Until we know more, I think the smart thing to
do would be not to buy it. If you want
to buy something, look for things that were made right
here in the good old USA. The controls are much stricter,
and until we know more about it, we have to
be really, really careful if you suspect that your pet
has been having a problem with these treats, please you
can get a hold of us here at the show.
You can just write to doctor Jeff at Petlife Radio
dot com and let us know what's going on, and
I can sort of direct you into the right place
or at least talk to your veterinarian. But we have
to be really really careful. You can go on. FDA
has a link about the pet chicken jerky treat You
can go on do a Google search FDA and chicken
jerky treats from China and you can get a lot
of information from that as well. So I certainly hope
that none of you listening have had pets with this problem.
I hope that you don't even know anybody who has.
But with a number of cases that have been recorded
over three thousand and a large number of deaths, that
is really really a big concern to all of us
who take care of pets. We're getting late in the show.
Another caller on, So caller, go ahead, You're on live
with doctor Jeff. What's up?
Speaker 8: Hey, This is Megan Blake from Pet Life Radio. Is
a Super Smiley adventure. How are you doing today.
Speaker 2: I'm doing fine. How are you?
Speaker 8: I'm great and we love your show. Smiley and Angel
over here giving you eight pauds up today.
Speaker 2: Well good, I'm glad to hear it. I'm glad to
hear it. So have you heard or known anybody you're
having these problems with the chicken treats? Absolutely?
Speaker 8: This has been all over the national news and it
is a great concern and every pet owner needs to
know this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would say anything is. I just made the
comment that I think anything that is not made here
until we know a lot more just should be avoided. Yes,
these things are much less expensive, and you can buy
those huge bags for probably half the price. It's just
not worth the risk. It's not worth the risk. And
the fda is even haven't been able to identify exactly
the problem, which makes it even more frightening.
Speaker 8: I know that's what's so scary about it. You're right.
I guess all we can do is look for maid
in the USA because sometimes things that are made here, though,
can still be deceiving that the products are imported from China.
Is that correct?
Speaker 2: Absolutely? Yeah? So I And again, these are most of
all the problems that they've had are products from China,
and they don't know exactly what it is, but there's
liver problems, kidney problems, potential tremors, convulsions. It's as I said,
it's frightening, and it's not worth it, just not worth it.
Speaker 8: Right, And actually I have a question for you. It's
not about saying goodness, it's not about these trees. But
I have a German shepherd whose angel's Smiley's friend Angel,
and she actually the last two days has been throwing
up after breakfast. And she's on a maid in USA
dog food that's one of the more expensive, you know,
high level brands.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 8: He doesn't seem at all. She plays, she gets her toy,
she runs all around, but she's totally herself. So I've
kind of ruled out blows just from that because that's
extremely Absolutely she has the idea why all of a sudden,
for the last two days she could be throwing up
after her food?
Speaker 2: How old is she? She's five, okay? And is she
the type of dog that might eat something that she's
not supposed to like? No, actually, allow the toy, nothing
like that.
Speaker 8: And she's actually not treat driven at all. We can't
even use treats to train her. She's basically just very
attached to her people. So she's not food driven or
treat driven. As a matter of fact, a normal procedure
for her, as we feed our dogs twice a day.
It's sometimes she'll just get breakfast and she's done that
for years. She's just not food driven at all. So okay,
this time she's fascinating. But then she throws up.
Speaker 2: What do you think she is still eating? If you
offered her the food, she'll still want to eat, Yes.
Speaker 8: And she did eat. Get her into it up. It's
just been yesterday morning and this morning.
Speaker 2: I'll tell you what we do. First of all, it
doesn't sound like this is panic situation at all. A
lot of times dogs will have some gastrocreflux in the morning,
and it could be the fact that she held her
dinner down, but she doesn't hold her morning her breakfast down.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 8: Maybe, yes, that's right.
Speaker 2: So what I would do is I would give her.
She's a shepherd, she's what about sixty seventy pounds, eighty.
Speaker 8: Pounds, she's more like she's a big girl.
Speaker 2: She's like ninety Oh wow, Okay, I would give her
and a half a big per kig. So she's she's
say forty, you can give twenty milligrams of pepsid ac oh, okay,
give it to her about a half hour before breakfast,
and then to start I would only give her like
a half of her normal sized meal.
Speaker 8: That makes perfect sense.
Speaker 2: Yes, she does, let her eat and let her rest afterwards.
If she keeps it down, she seems fine, she's acting fine.
Maybe about an hour and a half two hours later,
give her the other half and see how she does.
Speaker 1: Sounds good.
Speaker 8: That sounds like a great idea, just like you said.
It absolutely does not sound like a panic situation. If
it did, she would have been in the bed right.
Speaker 2: Yeah. If she's acting now, if she continues to do
this despite the pepsid, the smaller meals, or if her
behavior her attitude changes and she starts seeming more depressed,
then I would definitely take her in.
Speaker 8: To have her checked out, absolutely, because then they're telling
you I don't feel well.
Speaker 2: Somebody healthy right exactly, and she could have something going
on in her stomach. You know, we need to check that out.
How long after she east does she actually vomit? Is
it minutes or it would like a half hour how long.
Speaker 8: After It was pretty soon, let me thank yes, it's
hard to remember. No, half an hour was not immediate.
Speaker 2: It was like half hour, all right, and she went
through heaving and it wasn't like open her mouth and
it came outsaving. Okay, yeah, that's vomiting. Okay, it's a
post regurgitation. All right, that's the plan then little pepsid.
Thanks good, Have it go easy, eat half a meal first,
make sure she said it, keeps it down, and then
we'll go from there.
Speaker 8: Okay, cool, dontor Jeff, listen, you have a wonderful show,
and thank you for all your great advice for me
and angelas for everybody.
Speaker 5: Thank you so much.
Speaker 2: And if you want to listen in next week and
let us know how she's doing. And of course you
can always get a hold of me directly at doctor Jeff,
Dr Jeff at Drjef dot com if you have any
more questions.
Speaker 8: Hey you, Jeff, Thank you. I just smiley. Everybody listen
to Super Smiley Adventure too. We appreciate that.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Thank you, all right, thanks lo Meghan. Okay,
and with that, I want to thank Megan for the call.
And we're going to follow up on angel, make sure
she's okay, and it is time for us to go. Boy,
it goes fast. So I want to thank you for
joining me here on Ask the Bets with Doctor Jeff
here on pet Life Radio, and we will see you
here next week and again. If you have any questions
during the week you want to send me an email,
go ahead and send it to Drjeff at petlfradio dot
com and we'll answer you next week live. Have a
great week, see you next week. Thanks.
Speaker 1: Let's talk pets every week on demand only on petlfradio
dot com.