Speaker 1: You were listening to petlifradio dot Com.
Speaker 2: Well, good morning, good morning.
Speaker 3: I almost off I used to say good at morning
and good afternoon, depending on what part of the country
you're in. If you're here in the West as I am,
it's a good morning, and as you are in the East,
it is just hitting that afternoon on this great Father's Day.
Hopefully it's as a glorious weather where you are as
it is.
Speaker 2: Here where I am.
Speaker 3: I think the only thing that I always thought, when
your kids are younger and it's Father's Day, they kind
of give you a break, you know, especially it's on
a Sunday. You get to well, I didn't get a
chance to sleep in because my dogs and cats, and
I have thirteen in all, I don't think they care
about Father's Day. And so all of a sudden, my
dogs they were stern at five thirty seven am, and
I tried to, you know, shut them up and get
them on the bed and kind of relax, and it
didn't work. So my day started quite a while ago. Anyway,
I'm glad you're with us. I hope you have a
great relaxing day here on pet life Radio and listen
in a lot of great shows. I am your host
for the next half hour. My name is doctor Jeff Werber.
For those of you who have not heard me yet,
this is our I believe, my third Sunday, our new date,
our new day, I should say, and time. For about
almost two years, we've been on Thursdays, and we just
moved to a Sunday morning time slot. We are at
nine am Pacific time at noon Eastern time. We are
possibly the only live call in show here on pet
Life Radio, which means that take advantage of my being here.
I have been around the block a few times. I've
been practicing. This is my thirty actually now and during
my thirty first year of practice. I am a dog
and cat fanatic. As I said, I have five dogs
and eight cats. You know, just by practicing for a
long time, you get a really good feel for what
you're doing. I will hopefully be able to answer your questions.
If not, I will get answers. I have a fairly
large slew of veterinary specialists in almost every field you
can imagine. If I can't give you the answer right away,
we will get you the answer. And as a matter
of fact, just for calling in easy number eight seven
seven three eight five eight eight eight two, or sending
us a quick email while we're here online live at
DRGEF at petlife Radio dot com, or join us right
now on the website at petlife Radio dot com. You
click on Ask the Vets with Doctor Jeff and you
can join in on our conversation. Any of those ways
you can get to us, and when you do, we
will send you out a free pro Sense product thanks
to one of our sponsors, pro Sens Pet Products, and
also a Kong toy. And again we thank the good
folks at Kong for helping us make it easier for you.
Speaker 2: To want to give us a call in.
Speaker 3: And of course our retailers, my Mass retailers and Walmart
and Target who carry our full line of Prosens. So anyway,
I got a couple of emails this week what I
wanted to talk to you real fast. It comes from
Richard in San Diego. And Richard, you know, has heard
the termine. His dog had a little interdigital irritation that
is an area in between the toes that was kind
of oozing, and the doctor wanted to check for a foxtail.
And I want to just make sure everybody knows that
a foxtail a is not alive, though the way they
behave it kind of sometimes acts like they're alive. And
it has nothing to do with a fox. Basically, a
foxtail is a plant on it's awn. And well, the
reason why I say it seems like it's alive. It's
shaped almost like an arrowhead, so it's got a point
at one end, and then the actual on the fibers
of this plant on seemed to fan out like it
looks like a fox's tail. That's the name a foxtail.
And the concern that was so amazing about these little
things is is that there are little microbers on each
one of the leaves of this tail of this foxtail
that are in the opposite direction. So basically these prevent
the foxtail from not only does it, I should say
it this way, not only does it not prevent them
from going backwards, it actually propels them forward. And I
do this little trick, or I'll take a foxtail and
I'll put it under the sleeve of my shirt on
my arm where you can see the tip, and I'll
wipe it away like I'm trying to brush it away,
like brush it out.
Speaker 2: Of my sleeve back into my arm.
Speaker 3: And not only is it not coming out, every time
I wipe downward, it goes upward, which is the source
of the problem with foxtails. The more a dog, once
it penetrates and the dog is trying to lick it out,
all it does is go farther in. And they are
just a nuisance, a disaster. And if I can tell
you where foxtails have ended up, they.
Speaker 2: Can end up.
Speaker 3: I mean, first of all, if they go up into
a nose, they can actually make it through what's called
the cribiform plate, which is the part of the bony
structure that actually separates the calvary the skull from the
nasal cavity, and it can end up inside skull. They
can if they're swallowed, they can migrate anywhere in the
intestine or even out of the intestine. If they are
going to an ear, they can lodge into through the tympanum,
which is through the ear drum, and get into the
middle ear canal. I mean, they are unbelievable. They have
been found in spinal canals on post mortem exams, so.
Speaker 2: They are really really difficult to deal with. So where
do they like to go? You should know it.
Speaker 3: You should first of all look it up online to
see what a foxtail looks like. I'm sure once you
see it you'll know exactly what it is.
Speaker 2: But they're prevalent spring and summer.
Speaker 3: So when you are, for example, walking your dog, especially
if you're walking in a wooded or a brushy area,
when you get home, you want to check the following
places on your pet's body. Number one, between the toes
and the bottom of the feet, very important. Number two,
lift the ear. The ear is one place where you
will often see them, and they are if you see
your dogs shaking his head like crazy, and yet the
ear doesn't look that dirty at first. Take them into
your veterinarian. Make sure to check for a foxtail inside
the mouth. I have a little vial I keep in
my office with about forty foxtails in it.
Speaker 2: And where did they come from? Where did I find them?
Speaker 3: This poor dog had eaten a plant, the whole foxtail plant,
the weed, and I pulled out forty from embedded inside
the gums between the teeth, causing a major oral infection.
I found them in the tonsils and the tonsillar crypts
and again causing major to this poor dog came in
besides one of the most I mean horrendous, horrendous smelling
breath and the mouth, but this dog was salivating, This
dog was in pain, This dog was so uncomfortable. So really,
really just a tremendous, tremendous problem that we have to
deal with and of course requiring full anesthesia. Getting a
fox out of an ear is it going to require
full anesthesia. So it is very very important to know
where to look. Another place to look is lift the tail.
For some reason, they like to get under the tail
in the area of the anal glands, so that's another
place of migration. And then another area just anywhere around
the body, especially under the armpits, the front legs in
what we call the axcellary area, and again that's what
they like to migrate.
Speaker 2: So Richard, thanks for the email.
Speaker 3: Just for sending us the email, We're going to send
you out a pro sense pet product. We're going to
send you out a kongtoy. Just for sending us an
email here to doctor Jeff at petlife radio dot com.
That's how easy it is. You want to get in
a really really good pro sense product, whether it's a
shampoo or a vitamin or a glucosamine something depending on
your pet, a dental kit or a contoy. Just go
ahead and send me any kind of email to Drgeff,
Doctor Jeff at petlifradio dot com. Now one thing. The
other email we got comes from Molly who's listening joined
us here in Boston, so loves the show, and she
wants to know why do dogs scoot? And yeah, I'm
sure you've all seen it, because it's so charming to
look out, especially when it's on carpeting and they lift
up there kind of back legs and they rub their
behinds against it on the floor, you know, one of
those embarrassing things that they like to do when you
have company over or when you just freshly clean your
couch and now you're wondering, oh, what kind of a
trail here has been left by good old bruiser. Anyway,
a dog scowed for a number of reasons. Probably the
most common is going to be anal glands. Now it's
a charming subject. Someone's got to talk about it, so
we should talk about it here on pet Life Radio
because we're talking pets. The anal gland there are two
glands or sacks that if you lift up a tail
and look straight away at the anal area, the behind
the butt. They sit at a round oh four and
seven okay, if you're looking at a clock face, maybe
four thirty and seven thirty. So basically they are a sack.
It's a vestige of a scent gland. They actually serve
z zero purpose in today's domesticated pet. When you have
smelled this very metallic, very disgusting odor, dogs will emit
the contents of this gland or these sacks when they're
extremely fearful, when they're very aggressive, when they're extremely excited, usually.
Speaker 2: Not excitement, it's more of a fear.
Speaker 3: And the way they're supposed to empty these lands out
is every time a dog defecates at the very end
of the bowel movement. You know, people don't usually look
at their dog while they're pooping. I don't blame you,
but those of us that have or do will notice
that at the very end of the bowl movement, the
BM their anal sphincter gives a really tight squeeze Okay,
I mean really tight at that moment. If you were
brave enough to be close enough to look closely, you
will see the little squirts of this secretion, and the
normal dog, normal healthy dog, will empty these lands him
or herself with every bowel movement and they never cause
a problem. There are certain times, however, where they do
pose a problem. Number One, if they gland or the
material within the gland starts to get a little thickened,
they will not be able to be released with that
tight anal sphincter motion, and therefore the contents within this
gland starts to build up, and it builds up even
more and more.
Speaker 2: And this is.
Speaker 3: Where you'll see these dogs scooting in an attempt to
try to empty out the contents of these glands, because
they start putting pressure around the anal area and are
very uncomfortable. Now, if they are unsuccessful, the next problem
that happens is what we call an anal sack or
anal gland rupture or abscess, where the gland itself absesses,
it gets infected because the material, the contents within has
not been successfully released, and that's a problem. That's where
you might see a very large training tract and some
bleeding and some oozing and smell and a very uncomfortable dog.
So these require obviously require medical attention, but many people
do that have dogs, and you should just get in
the habit. You can do one of a few things.
Number one, go to a groomer, and the groomer your
groomer can empty out this contents of the gland, go
to your veterinarian, or if you are really brave and bold.
I have yet to meet someone who has done this
more than once and is willing to do it a second, third,
fourth time, and that has learned to do it yourself.
Speaker 2: Some people do.
Speaker 3: It's one of those things that even after thirty years,
this smell gets to me. I can remember one story,
and anyone who's ever done this themselves or you know
exactly what I'm talking about, I'm sure you could relate.
So a client came in and I could feel you
could feel the bulging. You could feel these glands are
full of the material within and I'm trying to express them.
So I put my glove on and I cannot, for
the life of me, express these lands. So they were
plugged and plugged bad. I lift the tail and I
got my left hand on these two glands, and I'm
squeezing as hard as I can. What the heck is
going on? Why can't I never had this problem.
Speaker 2: So I lift the tail to take a look.
Speaker 3: And at that very moment that I turned to look,
oh my god, did I get this in the face
in the hair? I mean, it was the most disgusting thing,
and there's there's no way to really get the smell out.
I literally had to beside washing my face everything, I
had to go home at my lunch time and I
had to shower. It is really, really gross. So anyway,
just so you know, even those things can happen to
someone with thirty years of experience, and oh my god,
to this date, I will.
Speaker 2: Never ever look to see why I can't do it.
I'm just gonna I'm gonna do it by brailer. I'm
gonna use a mirror.
Speaker 3: Anyway, It's a time for a quick break, so we'll
be back in just a few minutes, So don't go away.
Speaker 2: You're here tuned into.
Speaker 3: Doctor Jeff Werber asked the bets with doctor Jeff here
on pet Life Radio.
Speaker 2: We'll be back.
Speaker 1: We'll be right back right after these messages. Stay tuned.
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Speaker 1: Hi.
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the country's first national humane organization, Here to tell you
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Each week will be bringing you the latest news and
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Speaker 1: Radio, petlight Radio dot.
Speaker 3: Com and welcome back to Ask the Vets with doctor
Jeff here on pet Life Radio. I am doctor Jeff Werber,
and Happy Father's Day once again to all you dads
out there.
Speaker 2: Hope you got a little bit more of a break
than I did this morning.
Speaker 3: I hope your pets were honoring you on this great
relaxing Sunday. There was a topic that we discussed on
show back we were doing on Thursdays about seven months ago.
And I don't like to reheat myself, but I really
do when it comes to things that are important, and
I'm hoping that we have an audience. My Sunday audience
is a little different, So I'm going to take a
stab here and We're going to discuss a very very
important topic that still to this day, it amazes me
how few pet parents pet owners are really aware of
some of the changes that we made in this particular arena.
And the arena I'm talking about is the vaccine arena.
We as a profession have been over vaccinating period. We
are making changes. I would say most veterinarians out there
have joined on and are making different recommendations. Certainly, certainly
the key animal groups and organizations have and are making
changes in the recommendations include the Cat Fanciers and TIKA
and the Feline Practitioners Association dog World, as well as
the American Animal Hospital Association, the American Veterinan Medical Association.
Speaker 2: I would say most.
Speaker 3: Entities out there are now jumping on this bandwagon, on
board that we do not need in many cases, I
would say most cases to vaccinate every year. Nor should
we be giving every vaccine known to man. So there
are some entities out there. I don't want to get
into the politics. I don't think it's the here is
the right point, but I will say to you if
you are going to a hospital, especially a hospital it's
a group of hospitals that and are still recommending that
you're going in every six months to a year for
any vaccine, there's only one that we're going to get
to in a minute that would be justifiable. I will
tell you that you are probably going to the wrong
veteran of hospital. That's how bold I can be and
will be because this is my show and these are
my views, not Pet Life Radios. This is good old
doctor Jeff So and I think actually it's the only
entity out there still that is recommending vaccines every year.
Speaker 2: So how did this all come about?
Speaker 3: Well, when we think of us, and it's Father's Day,
so let's think about kids. When do our kids get vaccines?
They go through a series as babies. Many people are
actually not liking to give vaccines at all anymore and
just counting on mother's immunity. But once that series is
completed and they've gotten their visas and their momps and
their German visas and all these good stuff, and the
diphtheria and all the vaccines they're getting, unless they're going
to a third world country, and this is key, where
there are other diseases that we don't have here in
the US or in Canada, then we don't need vaccines ever. Again, Now,
when I took a trip to work in the jungles
on the Amazon in Peru, yes I needed to go
get more vaccinations, but had I not gone, I would
not have needed. I would not have needed. And here's
a perfect one. How many of you are taking medication
against malaria. We have mosquitos, but we don't have malaria,
so therefore it would be crazy, crazy to take medication
to fight off malaria or the hepatitis is if we're
not going to an area that these diseases are endemic.
So I ask you, then, why would you give a
dog who lives in the city a lime disease vaccine
in the West where we don't have endemic lime disease,
or say a rattlesnake vaccine, And you say to yourself,
that's insane. Of course you're not going to do it,
because there's no way. Why give an indoor cat, an
indoor only cat, a leukemia virus vaccine. Leukemia virus comes
from prolonged direct contact with the leukemia positive carrier. How
many indoor cats are going to have prolonged direct contact
with positive carrier. So what we have done, what the
industry has done, is actually looked at what we call
vaccines are the core vaccines. Core vaccines are vaccines against
diseases that are common slash endemic in the area in
which you live, meaning if you move, that core might change.
So I'm going to use just as an example, Southern California.
Obviously I know it best, and what we deal with
on a regular basis, well, we fail vaccinate dogs us
in combinations parvo, and we vaccinate with bordetella.
Speaker 2: Now that was the number.
Speaker 3: I mentioned about one example an exception to the once
a year, and that is the bordetella. Bordetella is a
lifestyle vaccine. Bordertella should be given once a year unless
you have a dog that frequents doggy daycare, that frequens
boarding facilities, or goes to the groomer once a week.
These dogs, in fact, most of those establishments require every
six months, and rightly so it's not a great vaccine.
It doesn't give us that long, long term.
Speaker 2: Protection that we really do need.
Speaker 3: So if you're going to do the border tell vaccine,
then which is the I hate to use the word
kennel cough because when it's endemic, and like it here
in La, it's you know, take your dog for a
walk in Hollywood cough. It's go to the vet cough,
go to the gloomer cough, go to the park cough.
It's everywhere. So the dog should be treated at least
once a year. But if you frequent the potential for exposure,
then you want to do it twice a year, every
six months. But things like rabies, after the first year,
it's usually it's given first time as a four to
six month old pup, you booster it a year later.
After that it's good for three cats here. Now this
is different because some states have different regulations for rabies.
You have to follow your state laws. Some still require
it once a year, though I think that is changing.
Some require it for cats.
Speaker 2: We don't for a cat.
Speaker 3: Now, since I have eight cats, I have eight indoor
only cats because I don't want to take the risk
of cars, dogs, coyotes, and leukemia virus or feline aids
killing my eight cats. So therefore I like them indoors
and fortuning. We have the room and they love being indoors.
But what is the potential for indoor cats to get rabies? Now,
unless I'm inviting raccoons or bats into my home on
a regular basis, the possibilities, the chances are zero. Therefore,
I do not vaccinate my cats against leukemia or rabies
because here in California it's not required by law the rabies.
If you're coming from a state where it is, then
obviously you got to go with it. So how about lepto.
Oftentimes it used to be that the typical distemper vaccine
was d A two p L for lepto and again
Lepto is one of those diseases. It's bacterium. It's serious.
It's usually coming from the feces or the urine of
animals that are shedding the lepto bacterium. And you see
it in the mountains, you see it on trails, you
see it in wooded areas. You could see it in
streams where these animals, these wild animals are harboring and
shedding the bacterium. And these are animals our dogs are
stay drinking that stream water or eating the feces or
doing something. You know it's usually going to come from urine.
So therefore it is something that if you have a
lifestyle with your pet that takes advantage, that goes into
these hikes and you do things like that, you're outdoors
e then absolutely get the vaccine. But if you have
a city dog who goes for walks locally and never
really encounters those environments, then you don't necessarily need to
give it on a routine basis for really a lime
disease likewise in certain areas where in many areas where
it's not endemic, you don't need to give that vaccine.
Same thing with rattlesteak vaccines. The FIP vaccine for a
cat is really not a great vaccine, and you wonder
if it's worth it at all, And maybe unless you
are in a cattery situation, I wouldn't waste my time
with that one either. Same goes for coronavirus vaccine. Corona
is a disease that's kind of like a twenty four
hour stomach flu. Do you really want to waste another
taxation on the immune system to give another vaccine to
protect against something you know? Sometimes you gotta wonder is
the risk of just a vaccine reaction greater than the
risk of actually getting the bug? In if you get
the bug, how bad is it? So these are things
you need to start to evaluate and understand. Another thing
I have been doing what's called a tighter test. A
tighter is a blood test, a measure existing antibody, and
I do this for distemper and parvon and I have
done for years. If I tell you that, I have
had many, many, many dogs that are now eight to
nine years out without even needing a vaccine. So that's
another option you have is talk to veteran at about
tighter testing.
Speaker 2: That might be a way to go.
Speaker 3: But if you're going to give the vaccines, start a
three year vaccine schedule. No need to over vaccinate. I
don't think it's worth whatever risk there may be to
a vaccine reaction, especially in cats that can get very
serious vaccine reactions. So sometimes, and with vaccines a great example,
less is more. Anyway, thanks for joining me here and
ask the best with doctor Jeff here in pet Life Radio.
For your dad's out there, have a great Father's Day.
I'm going to enjoy mine, and this is my first time.
I'm actually Father's Day and Grandfather's Day as my daughter
had a baby a few months ago. So anyway, have
a great week, have a great day, and we'll see
you here next time. Day.
Speaker 1: Let's Talk pets every week on demand only on petlight
Radio dot com.