Speaker 1: You were listening to Petlifradio dot com.
Speaker 2: Well, hello to everybody, and good morning or good afternoon,
as the case maybe morning here in southern California.
Speaker 3: It's just about a minute or.
Speaker 2: Two after nine o'clock and we are here. You're here
with doctor Jeff Werber on Ask the Vets with doctor
Jeff here on pet Life Radio, the only live call
in radio.
Speaker 3: Show here in pet Life Radio.
Speaker 2: And that means we're live, and that means you need
to call in eight seven seven three eight five eight
eight A two with any questions you may have about
your pets. We have been doing a host series of
illnesses that have ranged anywhere from leave it alone and
watch it to oh my god, this is really important,
get to see a veterinarian.
Speaker 3: Right away.
Speaker 2: We were doing a lot of the gastrointestinal problems. We
went on to the joints, and we're in the middle
of knees, stifle joints, and we're going to continue that. However,
today we are very fortunate to have a special guest
and I've been teasing about her coming up over the
last couple of weeks, and that's doctor Heather Lendser. She
is out there in the east with many of you
in the East at afternoon coming out of New Jersey,
and she is live with us, and we're gonna probably
change our course a little bit, but we still want
to hear from you. And that's again eight seven seven
three eight five eight eight A two, And we're gonna
have some extra giveaways as a matter of fact, for
our callers or anyone who joins in on the conversation
here on pet Life Radios.
Speaker 3: Ask the Vats with doctor Jeff very.
Speaker 2: Easy to do. Just click on the icon Ask the Vats.
There's a big, huge box that says join the conversation,
join in the conversation, and you can join the three
of us here at pet Life Radio. We have some
technical difficulties as it is the fact that we are
I'm here in Los Angeles, the Heather's back east in
New Jersey, so we are trying to connect her to
join us here and the phone just caught off. She's
gonna call back in to join us here in the conversation.
And in the meantime, speaking of sponsors, I want to
thank our sponsors, which are pro Sens pet products. These
are products that you can get at the mass market.
And also Kang the kan veterinary products, which are fantastic.
Speaker 3: So all you have to do is give us a
call here.
Speaker 2: At eight seven seven three eight five eight eight A
two and we'll get these products out to you.
Speaker 3: But we want to hear from you.
Speaker 2: You know, doing the series that we have been, we've
gotten some pretty good emails and you know, one of
the things we were talking about was some of the
options for surgery when it comes to the patella. Now,
just as a reminder, we spoke to Petella. We talked
about the patell aluxation. Then we went to the cruciate ligament. Now,
the cruciate is an essential ligament when it comes to
our pets, and the reason for that is is that
when you look at a dog who is in at
rest just standing, every single joint from the hip to
the knee to the hawk or heel are all bent.
Now in a person, the only bend when we're standing
straight is the heel. It's a ninety degree goes from
the tibio chargeal joint and that's called the hawk the heel,
and that goes straight.
Speaker 3: So the important there.
Speaker 2: Is that because of every single bend in all the joints,
that need for the ligament is essential now in people.
What a lot of people are opting to do is
not fix their cruised ligaments unless they're an athlete, unless
they're doing something like every day. In fact, I play
in a basketball league and one of the guys I
play with has a torn cruciate, and he only to
play ball, he puts on that brace. It's like an
external cruciat, so it provides the same support, the same stability,
and he only needs it when he plays, so he
only puts it on when he plays ball. Otherwise he
gets around fine, he can walk without it. It's only
with the running and the pivoting and the stop and
go and playing basketball where he needs that ligament intact.
So therefore he uses an external brace. You can't do
that for dogs. It's very challenging to fit them, to
get them to get it to stay on, to get
the dog to leave it alone. You might find some
out there, but they're rather tough. So when it comes
to repair, there are two techniques that we often use
to repair these joints, the one and one of the
old standbys.
Speaker 3: Let's take a back step for a second.
Speaker 2: There are types of surgeries that use a lateral fixation,
if you will. And this is where we just try
to approximate the joint itself in such a way that
it provides the care.
Speaker 3: And the support. But it's done artificially.
Speaker 2: Typically, there have been techniques over the years using some
part of the patella ligament, using called a fascial strip,
using a part of the muscle fascia and the upper
thigh and using it going through the joint and sewing
it up, and that's provide stability of late there's some
fantastic artificial type of materials that are non reactive and
extremely extremely strong that can provide that support. So now
what's happening is where the surgeries are being done is
called a lateral stabilization, where a little hole is drilled
in the tibul crest and we wrap around, we go
through the joint, wrap around for support on the back
what's called the fabella, which is a little teeny bone
at the back of the femur, and that provides a
great natural spot to hold the suture in place.
Speaker 3: And we then will go ahead.
Speaker 2: And tie this suture extremely tight, sense it down, and
that acts in essence as a cruciate ligament. The only
difference is it's on the outside of the joint instead
of inside the joint, and it works very very well.
There are two other techniques, and by the way, that
works great for small dogs for sure. As a matter
of fact, to this day though, it's you know, it's
a fairly simple procedure for anyone who's done enough of them,
and that is our technique of choice for a medium
to small dogs and dogs that aren't that active. Even
a big dog was not that active. The lateral imprecation suits,
the lateral stabilization, suture, whatever you want to call it,
acts just great.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 2: The other technique that we have is one of two
newer surgeries. They are a bit different, so we are
going to hear. In essence, what we do is we
reshape the entire architecture of the joint and this is
done via some bone cutting, so it's rather an extensive surgery.
And what it does it changes the angulation. It changes
the support surfaces within the joint to where the actual
ligament itself is not even needed. And so instead of
trying to approximate the original strength and the location of
that ligament, which is almost impossible, what these ingenious surgeons
have done is coming up with a technique to where
the ligament, which is almost impossible to repair anyway, is obsolete.
One is called a TPLO, a tibial plateau leveling osteotomy,
and the other one is called the TTA, which is
a tibial tubrosity advancement procedure. Both have their pros and cons.
They both take a lot of surgical skill, usually done
by board certified surgeons or general veterinarians, but have an
inclination towards surgery and have learned how to do the surgery,
have taken the necessary courses, have purchased the equipment necessary
to make the proper cuts in the bone, And depending
on who you talk to, some like the TTA better,
some like the TPLO better. The surgeon that we work
with still likes the TPLO better. Regardless, they are both amazing,
amazing procedures. So this is something you need to discuss
with your veterinarian. I would say that as a general
rule of thumb, and of course, there are going to
be surgeons out there that are going to disagree. In fact,
I know one who is licensed to do the TPLOs
and after ten years of doing TPLOs and twenty some
odd years of doing one of the lateral implications, she
found no difference in the result. So she's gone back
to the lateral stabilization only because it's so much easier
and there's much less bone cutting, it's easier on the pet,
and she is thrilled with it and does fantastic. We
do have a caller on the line, so hello, caller, Hi, Jess.
Speaker 4: Yes it's Heather.
Speaker 3: Hello Heather, so are you.
Speaker 2: I'm doing great, So I'm glad you're here because I
was just finishing up my conversation on knees. We were
going through a series of the last several weeks of
conditions that our dogs get that are Some of them
are like minor, you know, for example, a vomiting dog.
Now that can range from oh my god, I ate
something bad last night too, I have major pancreat titus.
And I'm trying to do some guidelines as to when
we need to rush to see her doctor, when we
can get a little history and say, you know something,
why don't you try this for a day or two
as long as everything else is fine, and go from there.
So we then went through the joints, the limping dogs,
and we talked about all the limping problems from puppyhood
to adulthood, how hip dysplasia on X ray and an
acute onset of limping, probably not the hypdysplasia, teaching our
listeners to talk to the varanaras about looking for something else.
As my point always is, if you took those same
X rays three weeks earlier when the dog wasn't limping,
the X rays would have looked exactly the same or
as the hips were concern so, and then we went
just moved down to the knees and just finishing up
on the different surgical procedures for cruciate ligament repair. And
I'm so glad you're on the phone because I was
promoting you over the last couple of weeks. And as
soon as we take our break, because it's time for
that halfway break, we're going to come back and we're
going to talk about some fall allergies and you're going
to give us some insight and some good products I
understand to help us deal with our pet allergies in
the fall. So hang tight on the phone and we'll
be right back, and don't go away. You'll join us
in just a few minutes back here with doctor Jeff.
Here on ask the vats with doctor Jeff. You're on
pet Life Radio.
Speaker 1: We'll be right back right after these messages.
Speaker 5: Stay tuned my eggs kid in that way.
Speaker 6: Bring home a puppy or new dog is exciting and
he's depending on you to keep him in good health.
Dogs need special care to keep them healthy as they
grow throughout their entire life. Caring for their health is
critical in all stages. With pro Sense, it's simple and
convenient to give your dog the care it needs with effective,
end quality products that treat, prevent, and provide essential daily
vitamins and minerals. Pro Sense products are very formulated and
recommended to ensure the very best for your pet. Try
Process today. Your dog will thank you for best. Love life,
love them that will process.
Speaker 7: Dogs leave fur wherever they go. It collects all over
the home. There are many tools designed to stop dog
hair spreading, but their effectiveness varies, and afterwards you have
to clean the tool, then the floor. With the dice
and groom tool, you simply deploy the bristles, then gently
brush the coat. Loose fur is removed while dead skin
and allergens are captured by the vacuum and to clean up,
you simply release the trigger.
Speaker 3: To get this awesome dice and groom tool, go to
diceondeals dot com. That's disondeals dot com.
Speaker 8: Pet Life Radio, the number one pet radio network on
the planet, joins forces with iHeartRadio to put the power
of your pets in your pocket. Download the iHeartRadio app
and rockpet Life Radio on your phone, on your Jablin,
on your Xbox, in your car, pt talk pet Tunes
and fun pet Times. Pet Life Radio and iHeartRadio positively possum.
Speaker 5: Hi, this is Jody Miller Young from Bark and Swagger.
Tune in for everything pet fashion and more. From fashion
tips and runway trends, products and designs I love to
fabulous home decor for your furry friends. You'll find it
all here. Be the first to discover the new. So
what are you waiting for? Fign me on pet Life
Radio and remember with fierce fashion calls Bark and Swagger.
Speaker 1: Every week on demand only on pet Life Radio dot Com.
Speaker 3: Let's talk past, Let's come past radio headline radio pet
live radio dot.
Speaker 2: Com and welcome back here to cast Investment Doctor Jeff
Here on pet Life Radio, I'm your host doctor Jef Weber,
and I think we finally connected with our special guest,
doctor Heather Lenzra.
Speaker 3: Heather you there, I am, I am fantastic.
Speaker 2: So Heather has joined us before, and we're thrilled to
have her back on TV. I know Fox and Friends
and a million other things that you've done. In fact,
I just had the opportunity to go back and do
a Fox and Friends a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 4: They just love dogs there, don't to promote our healthy pets.
Speaker 2: Absolutely tuckercrls since Grady's a big, big pet lover pet enthusiast.
Speaker 3: So no, it's great. It's fun doing that show.
Speaker 2: So anyway, we wanted to talk, I was pitching well,
first of all, there was another segment, so we're gonna have.
Speaker 3: To come back on I think anytime.
Speaker 2: Was it your five pet peeves or something you wanted
to talk about before this, But we're gonna talk about you,
I know, I know, So that's good. And by then
we're gonna have all this audio video thing worked out
so where we get to.
Speaker 3: All see each other. But anyway, fall allergies. We know
we're here now.
Speaker 2: You wouldn't know here literally yesterday here in la it
was ninety eight degrees and today it's going to be already.
Here at nine twenty something in the morning, it's already ninety.
So I don't know anything about fall. I don't know
if I'm ever going to see fall. All I'm doing
is I have a snowboard trip plan for Utah in
the middle of December, so I sure hope we get
snow at least in Utah coming up, but nothing close
here in La.
Speaker 4: Well, it is fall and lots of other parts of
the country. And I'm looking out my window in New
Jersey and I have orange leaves and brown leaves, and
I have an itchy dog right in my midst right now.
So this is getting home for me for sure. So
a lot of people think that summer is the time
for peak allergies because we have a lot of moisture
in the air, Our dogs are getting wet, they're rolling around,
they're getting dirty. But finding falls a really busy time too.
And there's a couple of important I guess characteristics to
think of when it comes to allergies in the summertime.
Pets are allergic to what's blooming outside and floating in
the breeze, like dust and pallen and trees, and you
need to think of something like hay fever in the fall. Though,
our dogs who don't live in the beautiful weather that
you live, they're starting to get cooped up inside and
so now they have household allergens like house dust, dander
and mold that are really they're breathing in more often
because now the windows are closed, the doors are closed,
and they're hanging out inside.
Speaker 2: You know, well people don't realize also, Heather, is that
you know talk about indoor allergens when you look at
the list like from the companies that do the testing
for us, they're for wool and feathers and k pok
and you're ready for this cat dander. So yes, folks,
you can actually have a dog that's allergic to your cats.
Speaker 3: So to keep in.
Speaker 4: Mind exactly so, a good thing to think about as
you start to close up your home fall is to
decrease the amount of allergens in your home by using
a HEPA filter in your either in your furnace filter
or be sure that your vacuum has a HEPA filter
as well, because HEPA filters do a great job of
decreasing the amount of particles that are floating around in
the breeze in your own home. But although a lot
of people think that because they're inhaling these allergies, that
the allergens are going to show up in their respiratory tract.
And although we share a lot of the same allergens
as our pets, our allergies manifest themselves very differently. We're
sneezing and coughing, we have watery eyes, and it doesn't
happen as often in pets that that's what it looks like. Instead,
it shows up in their skin. And so now instead
of sneezing and runny eyes, pets will get itchy and
enflame skin. And as they start itching and itching, now
their skin can start getting infected, especially in the areas
where they're the most itchy, so the top of their paws,
the base of their tail, and their belly. And it
drives the pets crazy, and it drives the owner's crazy.
They're woken up in the middle of the night by
licking and scratching, and even there's a smell that can
be associated with these dogs. There's a couple of things
you can help do to try to decrease this incredible,
itchy and smelly mess of a dog that you have
in your house.
Speaker 2: When you see skin infection, everybody, you have to really
you have to find okay, most likely remember doctor Jeff
and doctor Heather said, it's not primary, it's secondary to something,
and that's something very often.
Speaker 4: Is allergy exactly. And so these red, raw, itchy dogs
really do need to have their skin soothed by using
a medicated shampoo. And you want to pick one that
moisturizes the skin and that treats skin infections and also
takes the smell away. And there's a ton of them
on the market. I've just found one that I've been
using I love, and it's called Splash Plus shampoo, and
it's formulated by veterinary dermatologists. There's such thing as I'm
sure you've told your listeners that there are vedinarians that
are specialized in dermatology and a group of them came
together to create this Splash Plus shampoo and it does
all of those things it treats. But the one that
doctor Jeff and I would be most excited about is
it treats bacterial and yeast skin infections topically. So by
putting the shampoo on the dog. So now you don't
have to use pills and oral antibiotics or anti fungal
pills to treat a lot of these skin infections. And
that's incredibly helpful, Heather.
Speaker 2: This is something because most of the shampoos that Heather
we're just talking about, and she is right, there are
a number out there that we as veterinarians would recommend
for our patients, but there typically are only found at
the veterinani hospital. There are very few over the counterproducts
out there that satisfy all of those needs. So is
the splash Plus. That's something that is available elsewhere only
at the VET.
Speaker 4: It is available to vet, but you can and also,
like so many other things, you can get on Amazon,
believe it or not, just stick splash plus and the
little search thing and you can find it on Amazon.
They also have a website called vetsplash dot com and
you can pick it up there vetsplash dot com. And
I'm sure you've talked about this, doctor Jeff, but when
you're using any kind of medicated shampoo, you want to
make sure that that pet stays lathered up for about
five to ten minutes so that the shampoo doesn't just
clean the fur, but it cleans the skin as well.
You also then want to rinse it off using cooler water,
not ice cold, but not hot either, because you don't
want to inflame and reden the skin. I'd be happy
to give some Splash plus away to any of the
callers that we get today, and it would be a
great thing to use in the fall as we start
to have these itchy, smelly dogs with their skin issues
flaring up.
Speaker 2: You know, it's interesting, there's a statistic that probably the
number one reason certainly in the summer that a dog
is going to be brought into a veterinarian's office are
going to be skin related allories, you know. And it's
also anything you said, how and it's true how our
pets manifest allergies so much differently than we do ours.
A respiratory and I went through when I was a kid,
I had hay fever, and believe it or not, I
tested positive to dogs, cats, horses, sheeps, goats, and cows.
So you can imagine, you can imagine how much fun
I was having in veterinary school.
Speaker 3: But I seem to outgrown all of them.
Speaker 2: The best thing I did, I don't know whether it
was just you know, because a lot of the human
analogists will say that a lot of adolescents will outgrow
their allergies and kids when they reach that, you know,
at some point.
Speaker 3: But the thing that I did, and.
Speaker 2: I swear by it, it probably has no scientific basis.
But I got a cat, and I was a wreck
for probably six months. Now I have eight cats and
they don't bother me one bit.
Speaker 4: Well, I think there's been some neat studies with kids
that grow up with pets or less allergies or yeah,
less for less.
Speaker 2: Less asthma, less allergies, and less egsm. I think it's
it's it's amazing, And that's a whole lot of topic
we're going to talk about at some point everybody. Is
the benefit Are the benefit to us of sharing your
homes with pets? It's unbelievable in moms out there, you
used to listen because there's a lot of studies out
there that kids do better in school, they score higher
on their IQ tests. I said, instead of getting that tutor,
get a dog. But anyway, but I will say that
another we talked about this recently, is that food You
think when we eat something that we're sensitive to. Our
symptoms are typically intestinal, gastrointestinal well dogs, and around fifteen
to twenty percent of allergies and dogs are food related.
That's a big number, guys, and again manifest through the skin,
so the dogs, the poor skin is getting the brunt
of all of these different allergens. So having a product
that can just soothe the skin, it doesn't make a
difference what the source of that allergy was, whether it
was inhaled allergy called atopy, whether it was a flea allergy,
whether it is a food allergy. Having something like this
splash plus sounds like it's a great idea.
Speaker 4: And you brought up and it is, and again it's
working incredible. Well, but you've brought up you just touched
on something about flea allergies. And although food allergies, so
food allergies are common, flea allergies are the number one
allergen out there. So one of the reasons that fall
allergies start to we start to get more itchy dogs
in the fall is people stop using flea preventative in
the fall because they just think fleas are a summer
problem and they're not. So if your dog is itching
scratching or licking. Be sure that you're using veterinary recommended
flea preventative at the recommended interval, and there's different products
recommend you using it at different you know, three weeks,
four weeks, six weeks, whatever it is. Just be sure
to read the label on that. And the last thing
to do to help your dog's itchy skin or your
cats is to consider adding some omega three fatty acids
to supplements to their diet. These omega three essential fatty
acids can help decrease inflammation in the skin and joints,
which I'm sure you've talked about, can even help with
some cancers. And some great sources of that can be
flaxseed oil, krill oil, and fish oil, with the fish
and krill being more highly thought of as being more
effective than the flax seed oil. But that's a great
way to just add that to your pet's diet to
help decrease the inflammation in the skin.
Speaker 3: And also just talk to.
Speaker 2: Your veterinarian because there are a lot of great commercial
products out there in combination and some that actually are
geared for helping the not only the skin, but also
the joints. As doctor Heather just mentioned, so you know,
when it comes to the skin problems, make sure don't
tie to do this all by yourself. At least have
a conversation with your veterinarian and as I said, get
your pet on the right things. And there's some also
new medications out there to help with canine allergy. Unfortunately,
I don't want to tease you too much, as the
veterinary profession has been teased, and that is because it
was very underestimated what the need for this particular medication
is going to be. So many of us, I would
say most of us are still waiting for our every
three month ration of this drug. And I'm so hesitant
to start using it on some of my patients because
I know that when they finish their dose and they
come back or more and they will, I'm not going
to have it.
Speaker 3: So unfortunately we have to wait.
Speaker 4: And as you said, though it's a great Even though
that is a wonderful medication and we're looking forward to
having it, we're readily available. Making sure that our clients
are at least covering the basis of flea preventative and
having a moisturizing stampoo like Slash plus around will may
be able to hold their pet at bay while we're
waiting for some great pills and other medications to become
more available.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, and one of the point I want to make
also is that you know, when we have these highly
allergic dogs and there's so many possibilities. One of the
things that we've talked about that often we have a clue. Obviously,
the dogs didn't read the book, so they don't know,
but there is often a clue as to what the
offending allergen might be based on the parts of the
body that seem to be the most affected. And so
when we have this dog, and also we know is
we've just talked about the food allergies, that it's unlikely
obviously not impossible when you have an allergic person. And
I just rattled off is zillion analogies that I used
to have that it's unlikely dog is just allergic to
one thing. In fact, when we do these allergy testing,
we find out they're allergic to a lot of things.
So therefore, when you suspect food allergy. But there's so
much overlap with atopy, which is the inhaled allergies and
food allergies that to spend the money on the testing
or doing the what we call elimination diets, which are
so challenging most people fail. It's not the pet that fails,
it's the people that fail that I say, you know what,
why don't we Look, we're already here approaching fall. We're
going to get rid of our fleas, We're going to
get rid of a lot of the pollens, as doctor
Heather just mentioned. So therefore, let's see what happens to
the allergy during the fall and winter. If it seems
to get dramatically improved just by the change of season,
then most likely it's not food because if it were
the food or or something in the house, it's going
to keep going. Then you know, ah, we need to
do some more research and homework. So I say, don't
start that elimination diet so close to fall, because let's
wait it out.
Speaker 3: Let's wait a us you put up with it.
Speaker 2: This long, Let's wait another month, see what happens, and
if it starts getting better, you could probably eliminate a
food allergy or household allergen off your list if they
get so much better during the fall and winter. If
they don't, then you want to not only keep it
on this. Now you have to start searching, and that's
going to either be a food elimination trial if you
think food, or if you think some sort of household allergen,
and there are many, then we have to think of
allergy testing as well. So, Heather, because of our technical
difficulties and the fact that our time is up, I'm
hoping that very soon, next couple of weeks, we can
have you back on and get those callers give out
some samples of SPLASH plus, which I know you would
like to do as I would too. I would like
to get one such sample well, and I have five
dogs to go with my eight cat, so certainly it will.
Speaker 3: Be used.
Speaker 2: And then also one of the subjects that I want
to touch based on I'm going to first of all,
entertain any questions you may have on any of the
joints we talked about and the conditions the diseases that
we talked about. And then I want to get into
something that we see frequently, and again I'm not going
to say it's relatively new anymore, but it was relatively
new when I started practicing thirty years ago, and that
is hyperthyroidism in cats and how difficult it sometimes could
be to diagnose, but the treatment options are fantastic. And
one of the biggest problems I see with clients and
their old cats, and this is typically an old cat disease,
is that they fear treatment based on the cat's age.
And I just run to remind everybody that age is
not a disease, so if we have an otherwise healthy animal.
And the reason that this is so near and dear
is today I get to pick up my sixteen year
old cat from treatment, just having had the radioactive iodine treatment. Yeah,
and he is just doing amazingly well. And I just
got a call from the doctor who does the radioactive
iodine and so I get to pick him up today.
He's been there for four days, so I'm ready to
see him. But we're going to talk about hyperthyroidism, the condition,
the symptoms, and how it can unfortunately mask some other diseases.
And of course we're going to have doctor Heather back
very soon. Heather, you and I off air will coordinate
schedules and have you come back really soon.
Speaker 3: All right, excellent, all.
Speaker 2: Right, everybody, So thanks for joining us here and ask
the best with doctor Jeff. You're on pet Life Radio
and iHeartRadio partner and want to thank again our sponsors
and that are comm Toys and pro Sen pet Products
and when Heather's here also Splash Plus and.
Speaker 3: We will be here next week. Have a great week here.
Speaker 1: Let's talk bets every week on demand only on petlifradio
dot com