Speaker 1: You were listening to petlifradio dot com and.
Speaker 2: Good morning or good afternoon, whoever the case may be,
to all of you.
Speaker 3: You are here for the next thirty minutes.
Speaker 2: But doctor Jeff Werber, here on pet Life Radio's only
live call it radio show, asked the vats with doctor Jeff,
and I want to wish all you mothers out there
are very happy Mother's Day, and I hope you're enjoying
some nice weather. I know that Mark, our wonderful producer
out in Florida, is having a great day. We're having
a great day here in southern California, and hopefully that
if you are anywhere in between, in the Midwest or
the Northeast, you are also having a great day. So
we talked last week, you know, we kind of took
a little departure from our normal you know, kind of
medical less and information and talked about my amazing trip
to Peru and kind of the work I did over there,
which was great. It was just an amazing I'm leaving
actually on Wednesday for Bangkok. I'm speaking at the World
Small Animal Veterinary Association. Have never been there, so hopefully
we'll have something to report to you there as well.
When I get back, and of course we're here pet
Life Radios show Astavets with help of our sponsors pro Sens,
Pet Products and cong Toys, and we want.
Speaker 3: To hear from you.
Speaker 2: We want to hear you from you live because we're
live and I'm here live for you. So a couple
of ways to get a hold of me. Number one,
pick up the phone eight seven seven three eight five
eight eight eight two. It's free. It doesn't cost you
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Radio dot com, click on the astabats tab, it'll bring
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there's a spot right there and all you have to
do is click here to join the conversation and start
typing away. Lastly, you can I mean email to Drgeff
that's doctor Jeff at Petlife Radio dot com and I
will see a box live with your question and we
can talk about doesn't have to be a question, it
could be a comment. Beco be anything, you know, it's
just whatever we can do.
Speaker 3: To talk about would be great.
Speaker 2: As a matter of fact, I still have not finished
my series on respiratory conditions.
Speaker 3: I still really want to get to it.
Speaker 2: I think we'll try the second part of the show,
but I do want to talk about it. A case
that I had this week, that is, it just reminds
me that even though to me it's so much common
sense to anybody in the business, anybody who's had pets before,
anyone who's had this happen to their dog, it becomes
now common sense. But apparently by the fact that I'm
still seeing it, we're still seeing in practice. You know,
as I often joke, common sense isn't really common cause
if it were, more people would have it. So this
is something where we have to reiterate again and again
and again the importance of the following. This magnificent, oh
maybe ten month old wine ron or puppy was in
adr ADR.
Speaker 3: I've used the term before.
Speaker 2: It's just kind of an acronym for ain't doing right,
you know, kind of going back to the old days
of the country doc, and so how's he doing it?
Speaker 3: Ain't doing right?
Speaker 2: So we call it adr pretty universal in the veterinary world.
So he vomited once and not since, but just was
very sluggish, very depressed, and did not want to eat,
refuse to eat. So we took some X rays, took
some blood. The let's came back okay. The X rays
did not show. This is what's so unusual and interesting,
which is why it's so important when there's an obstruction.
When there is something blocking the gastric outflow or sets
up shops somewhere within the intestine itself and blocks, we
get a pattern, a gas pattern called an obstructive pattern.
So even though if the object or that which is
causing the instruction does not show up on X ray,
meaning it is radio loosened clear on an X ray,
we can use the pattern to determine whether or not
there's a high suggestibility that we have a block, we
have an obstruction. This dog did not, so we give
it some fluids. Way to day and next morning we
take our X rays and the pattern nothing really has changed.
But what struck us most importantly was the contents and
the stomach was still in the stomach, but we couldn't
feel anything, feeling really weak, depressed, So we do what's
called a barium study. Our ultrasound did not show anything,
and there's a good reason for it, and we do
a barium study and we're questioning the owner. Is she
the kind of dog that would eat like something? And
he says, no, no, she's fantastic. Did you ever see
her chewing on anything? Is anybody missing anything? Because now
we're suspicious that maybe there's something going on here. And
I'm thinking along the lines of like underwear or a
sock or something, And he says, well, you know, the
only thing she does is she likes to chew on
some carpeting.
Speaker 3: Really, what do you mean chew on carpeting?
Speaker 2: Apparently we're a little more questioning, and it struck us
that we think that this dog had gotten into something
way more than the owner expected and is causing the problem.
So we resort to the barium study. Varium studies where
we give a die and we put the dye down
in the mouth and the stomach. Sometimes we have to
feed it through the stomach to taste good, so you
usually they'll drink it, and then we follow along the
die through the intestinal track to find out is it
going to a point and stopping? Is it going at all?
Is it going very quickly? What's going on with is die?
So we take our series and interestingly, stuff is getting through,
but slowly, and it's still staying in the stomach way
longer than it should. And we are convinced at this
point that this dog is obstructed. It's obstructed with something
that is radio loosened. It is obstructed. That is causing
a partial obstructure. Because some of the dye did go through,
but the fact that most of it was still in
the stomach and stayed in the stomach for way longer
than it was supposed to it required what we call
it an explore where we go in surgically and we
go ahead and look and remove what we can. So,
going in surgically, as suspected, much of that which was
in the stomach was this fabric, this stuff. And interestingly,
because of how it was congealing and how what it
formed like in the stomach, it looked like ingesta, It
looked like food stuff, which is why that was the puzzle.
And when we first and that's why nothing really showed
up unusual because you really couldn't tell an ultrasound or
X ray was it food?
Speaker 3: Was it not?
Speaker 2: Food.
Speaker 4: Was it?
Speaker 3: What was it?
Speaker 2: But unfortunately, and this is the part that is so serious.
This is why, for example, we are so careful when
we know our cats or we have cats that like
to chew on string. That's why you need to be
so careful with the classic yarn, or when you throw
away a fairly substantial piece of dental floss in the garbage,
because these things can cause what we call a string
foreign body. And that's where part of the beginning of
the string stays in the stomach. The rest is getting
through into the do dNaM, into the small intestine and
being felt by the musculature of the small intestine, it
stimulates the peristaltic waves.
Speaker 3: Those are the normal muscular.
Speaker 2: Contraction waves that propel anything from inside the gastro intestinal
tract to the back part, in other words, to get
it out from stomach to small intestine to the iliosco
cola junction, to the large intestine to colon and ultimately out.
And that still works. So here it is when you
can't propel that long, thickened string like substance forward because
it's locked and part of it is stuck in the stomach.
What happens if you can imagine picture a curtain on
a curtain rod where it starts to plycate. It starts
because the object can't move through the GI tract.
Speaker 3: The GI track.
Speaker 2: Starts to accordion onto the substance that's inside that's causing
the obstruction in the process. It's almost like piano wire
they call it jiggly wire that is sawing back and
forth as the intestine is doing its thing and trying
to push and push and push and pull this thing through. Instead,
it is tearing the GI tract. And that is a
very very serious complication of a foreign body. It's almost
as if when you have something that is much larger
blocking the GI tract, it is trying to contract around it.
And so it happens it gets so tight. Picture a
snake that is going to like a constrictor that is
going to wrap itself around its prey. And what happens
They pray, can't breathe the snake is so tight around
the chest. So what happens here is the muscular contractions
become so tight they cut off their own blood supply.
So now what happens is the tissue starts to die,
starts to break open, and now we have what we
call a peritonitis. So anytime there is leakage from the
gastrointestinal tract into the abdominal cavity, obviously there is there
are thousands of bacteria within the intestinal track.
Speaker 3: The inside of the abdominal cavity should.
Speaker 2: Be sterile, and we end up with a major, major infection.
And that's one of the reasons why this dog was
so so depressed and lethargic, even though it was no
longer vomiting, even though it didn't really have a fever,
which was kind of puzzling, and it was because the
intestine had started to leak. So after removing this clump
of fabric, whatever the heck it was, we then had
to do what's called an intestinal anastomosis. That's where we
have to cut away the damaged torn portion that is
doesn't have a good blood supply, is no longer functioning well.
We have to remove it and then sow the two free, clean,
clean edges together. What was a complicating factor in this
case is there is a very very important structure, important
in many ways because it has the multi functions. It
functions as an endocrine gland, it functions as an excrine,
gland as an endocrine gland, it regulates our insulin. As
a excerra land, it helps the digestion. It's called the pancreas,
and the part of the intestine that was destroyed trying
to propel this foreign body through involved some of the pancreas,
so it made it very challenging to try to preserve
as much of the pancreas or all the pancreas, but
most importantly the blood supply to the pancreas and the
pancreatic ducts without compromising that blood supply, while we had
to tie off blood supply to and remove that damaged
portion of the intestine. So the take home lesson here
as we're about to break is don't assume.
Speaker 3: That anything is sacred in your home.
Speaker 2: If you have a puppy or they will look for
and chew on anything. They will chew on Murphy's law.
They will choose often the most expensive item that they
can find. They will chew the most damaging item that
they can find. And it's so critical when those of
us that have had babies, or those of you that
have babies, what do you do to your house?
Speaker 3: You babyproof your house, You.
Speaker 2: Put the plug sockets in, You put the little latches
on the drawers and the cabinets. You anticipate that my
kid is gonna get where it's not supposed to. You're
gonna block the stairs, You're gonna put the alarm on
the door, the outside door. If you have a swimming pool,
you're gonna put a fence around the pool. All these
things you do because you anticipate that problem and you
want to protect your child. No different for your dogs
and your cats. You need to anticipate. You need to
look around. You need to say to yourself, what is
it even possible for him or her to get a
hold of, And if it is, just remove it, cover it,
set up a barricade something, because this was the most
expensive piece of carpeting. And I don't mean just what
it cost the owner to buy. I mean what it
cost him to save the dog's life. So and sometimes
it look at a hold of something very inexpensive. I
don't know if it's to say, for example, a tennis ball,
and I'll say, oh my god, that was the most
expensive tennis ball you're ever gonna buy. Anyway, stay tuned
way back for a second. If you have any comments
or if you've been through this, I would love to
hear about what crazy, crazy things your dog or cat
have gotten into. Eight seven seven three eight five eight
eight A two. You're live here with doctor Jeff Way
back in a minute.
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eight eight eight five one two two eight four eight.
Speaker 3: Let's talk past.
Speaker 7: Let's pet headline.
Speaker 1: Radio, pet live radio dot com.
Speaker 3: So we're back live.
Speaker 2: During the break, I noticed that AJ joined the conversation. AJ,
if you're out there, rejoin us on the conversation.
Speaker 3: I'm here.
Speaker 2: I'm looking at the screen. So if you have a question,
you have a comment, go for it. So uh, anyway,
we were talking about our wine, were on our patient,
great thrilled that she's doing well.
Speaker 3: You gotta watch out.
Speaker 2: For everything anything possible that your pet can eat because
they will know.
Speaker 3: As I said, it is Murphy's law.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: I go through the years of all my dogs and
think of the craziest things they've eaten and the things that.
Speaker 3: You you wouldn't even think what would be so appetizing
about that. I mean, we're talking.
Speaker 2: There was a series that one of the veterinary publications
put out about a year ago, and it was an
X ray competition of the craziest things that veterinarians have
pulled out of stomachs. And we're talking crazy. I once
pulled a straight needle, you know, like so we need
but a long one out of a stomach. I have
a picture of a dog eight and I'm telling you
it's so funny. You can see them clear as day.
Two Double A batteries. Now, why would a dog be
eating double A battery? Well, any battery, for we got the
double A, but any battery. I mean, you know, I
can understand dogs wanted to eat things that taste good,
you know, jumping on the table getting people food. One
of my labrador bless him, he's fourteen, and I literally
need now that.
Speaker 3: This guy can no longer jump on the bed.
Speaker 2: He can get his front feet up and then we
have to have to get out and pick him up.
He still can getting up and downstairs. I mean, I
shouldn't complain for fourteen. He's doing amazingly well. But man,
if he has access to the kitchen, he's learned how
to open drawers and we have to have baby those
stoppers not because of Baby, it's because of the dog.
Speaker 3: And he is impossible.
Speaker 2: And if we forget to you know, put the change
the position, or if I don't barricade the door, he
gets in and he knows where everything is and.
Speaker 3: He is crazy.
Speaker 2: So but I get it because the stuff he goes after,
it's good stuff.
Speaker 3: It's food.
Speaker 2: It's the cookies, it's a you know, the stuff that
I want to eat him. Sometimes I'm happy he's eating
instead of me. But that I can get.
Speaker 3: But things like.
Speaker 2: Metallic springs and a blade from a knife, and batteries
and the craziest things they put into the mouse. And
why this wine runner was just going after carpet carpet fiber,
I have no idea. One of my employees has a
friend who's Doberman. Three times, not once, not twice. Three
times we've had to go in after into this dog's
in Testine to pull out a sock, a large athletic sock.
Now there are two wackos here. Number one is the dog.
But how many times does an owner, having spent a
few thousand dollars on surgery hospitalization, to get a sock
out of a dog's intestine and do it not only
again once to let them happen the opportunity to do
at the end, but actually twice.
Speaker 3: So I don't know who's nuttier.
Speaker 2: Is it the owner who clearly has not learned his
lesson or the dog who the attraction of going after sock?
I don't know, But they do it it's crazy anyway,
speaking of things getting where they don't belong, let's get
quickly back to our series. We were talking about sneezing,
what causes some of the respiratory things that we've been through,
a lot of the defects, the ciliary defects.
Speaker 3: We had talked about, the elongated soft.
Speaker 2: Palette, this sonaticnaries, and one of the things I wanted
to mention there are a few things that we see
more frequently this time of year, interestingly, and that is
the dreaded foxtail. Now, I don't know if you know
what foxtails are. They are plant ons. They kind of
look like a fox's tail the way they're shaped. But
what's so unique about the foxtail is it.
Speaker 3: Really can only migrate one way.
Speaker 2: In fact, I do this little trick in my office
where I'll take a foxtail and put it under my
sleeve with the foxtail pointing upward, and yet only half
under my sleeve, and I brush down. I don't if
you can see that, And as I'm brushing down, instead
of brushing the thing away, with every brush downward, it's
traveling upward. Why because there are these little microbarbs face
the opposite way, so they spring So when you push
down and then let go, they spring up. And I
mean I've literally done this demo with a client and
have the foxtail just partly under my sleeve. Brush it away,
and I'll find the foxtail up here somewhere. So they go,
oh my god, Well, that's what's happening in a dog.
Oftentimes they'll penetrate. One of the areas they like to
penetrate are between the digits between the toes, and the
dog obviously wants to get out.
Speaker 3: So what does it do. It licks to try to lick.
Speaker 2: It out, but with every lick downward, the foxtail is
moving upward. We found foxtails in the strangest places. They
can travel several inches away from the point of entry,
and one of those places is the nose. So we
see them up the behind, We see them inter digitally
between the digits. We see them in the ears, very commonly.
Speaker 3: In the ears.
Speaker 2: We've seen them actually penetrate the ear drum and go
into the middle ear. They are such a nuisance and
you got to be very careful. You should if you
have lived in an area you have a dog that's
got that kind of hair that attracts them. You should
check your dog every single day, after every single walk.
But when they go up the nose, you have a
dog that is violently sneezing, not just little sneeze. We're
talking violent sneezing, a dog that oftentimes will get a
bloody nose. They will sometimes paw at their side of
the nose, the side of the face that has the foxtail,
or literally rub their nose against the wall or against
the carpet, and they're just sneezing, and it's usually looks
more one sided. Often you see a discharge. Sometimes you'll
see blood that is a strong indication of a foxtail
or some type of foreign body up the nose. So
they're sneezing and they're sneezing, and when they're sneezing is
usually lateral, one sided, and violent and sometimes with blood
and comes on suddenly. We're not talking a dog to
ass start a little bit of sneezing and the next
days lot more. Then maybe that's a respiratory infection. We're
talking on a sudden acute onset of violent sneezing, pawning
at the nose, sometimes bleeding.
Speaker 3: You gotta think fox ta.
Speaker 2: And also there are some nasal polyps. There are other
things that will grow in the nose, can be unilateral
that will cause sneezing. And oftentimes these things are you know,
when we are going into scope to look for a
foreign body up the nose, that's when we might find
fox tell or a polyp. Also, other forms of respiratory diseases,
believe it or not, will come from heart. So you
can have a dog that does not have any problem
with the nose or even the lungs as a primary problem.
But if they develop something called congestive heart failure, that's
where the left side of the heart starts to fail.
And where does the blood come from that is being
pumped through the left side of the heart. It just
came from the lungs, It just got arated, it just
picked up its oxygen. So now it comes from the
right side of the body, right pumped, goes into the lungs,
and then from the lungs, the left heart actually starts
pumping that blood to the rest of the body. Ah,
So what happens think about it. What happens when the
left side of the pump, if you will, stopped working
well so the blood is coming from the right side,
goes through the lungs, and now it's being pumped to
the left side out into the body through the aora.
And so what happens is that there's a backup because
not all the blood that just came from the heart
the left from the lung field from the right side.
Since the pump on the left isn't working well, there's
a backup. So where is that backup felt. Well, if
it's a left side heart failure, it's being felt in
the lungs in the sense that there is now back
pressure and fluid blood that was just in the lungs
and supposed to be pumped out, it's going to stay
in those microvasculature of the lung field and it's going to.
Speaker 3: Start a backup.
Speaker 2: It's going to start becoming congested, it's going to start
becoming wet, and that's why we call it congestive heart failure.
And these animals are gonna have a tough time breathing
because the lungs are getting moist, there's too much fluid
going through. There's a backup. It's not being circulated properly
because the left side of the heart is no longer
working well. So when we have the more common mitral
valve disease causing a murmur and left heart failure, where
we're going to see it over time, the big problem,
the fluid build up is going to be in the
lungs and that's causing a big respiratory problem where in
fact had nothing to do with the actual lung field stuff.
The lungs are working fine, but they're being destroyed and
compromised because of the bad heart. So that will take
us through a lot of the common respiratory infections that
we see. And oh one other there is something that
we see a lot, and you know, it's interesting because
it is something that freaks our pet owners out, but
it's not dangerous at all. It's called reverse sneezing. I'm
a very very good reverse sneezer. So the way it
works is this. You'll see like a and the dog
will extend its neck out and it's like it's sucking
in this air. And it freaks people out because they
think the dog can't breathe. They think the dog is
starting to suffocate, and it's not that at all.
Speaker 3: It is just a reverse.
Speaker 2: Knees instead of going and then the snort out. It's
the snort in and the easy breathe out.
Speaker 3: So it's.
Speaker 2: And they as you said, they extend their necks. They
look like they're in major distress, but they're not. And
one of the things I've tried, you can try to
calm them down. Pat them on the back.
Speaker 3: Tom.
Speaker 2: It's okay what I've tried to do. I know it's
kind of weird, but so am is you give them
a really firm blow right up the nose and that
could reverse the reverse knees and get it back to normal. Anyway,
Thanks for running here in pet Life Radio. That time
has come to say goodbye. I am leaving Wednesday for
Bangkok for the World Small and Veternini Association. Once again,
we want to thank our sponsors pro Sens pet Products,
cong veter Night Products, and if you have any questions comments,
please send them to me a DRJF Doctor Jeff at
Petlife Radio dot com. Great to have you join me
and we will see you in two weeks.
Speaker 3: Bye bye.
Speaker 1: Let's talk pets every week on demand only on Petlife
Radio dot com.