Boarding your pet this summer

The weather is warming up which means it is time to start planning your family trips - even if just for a weekend away, taking some time away from Fluffy or Fido is inevitable this summer. We have a few tips to make your time away from your fur baby less stressful for everyone:

1. Keep their diet the same - most boarding facilities will encourage you to bring your pet's diet with you to help decrease the chance of gastrointestinal upset (ie vomiting or diarrhea). To make it even easier on the facility, we advocate that you portion out your pet's meals into individualized Ziploc baggies so that the employees can just dump a baggie into a bowl for your pet. This also reduces any chances that your pet may get under or overfed while you are out of town. 
2. Bring any medical records - Most boarding facilities will want copies of your pet's medical records or vaccine history - often your vet can send these to them via fax or email however I recommend bringing a copy with you as well. Sometimes fax/email doesn't go through and you don't want to be turned away for lack of records
3. Check on vaccinations early! - Each boarding facility requires different vaccinations for boarding - some even require negative fecal checks or heartworm testing. It is also advisable that your pet receive any required vaccinations 10 days prior to their boarding appointment - this is because vaccinations work by creating an immune response to the vaccine, AND this does NOT happen as soon as the vaccine is given. So if you are planning to swing by your vet on the way to the boarding facility, be aware - your pet will NOT be protected by those vaccines it just received. 
4. Visit the facility first - just like a daycare or school situation, you want a chance to see the facility before your baby is staying there. Most boarding places will invite you to come tour the facility and meet staff prior to your pet's boarding reservation. Some may even offer a free trial visit in which your pet will get to stay for a few hours and interact with staff and other boarders. This is particularly important if you plan to do any doggie playtime while your pet is there - you don't want to find out that your pet doesn't socialize well with other dogs when you are far away!
5. Ask about optional services - this can include extra playtime, doggie baths, spa time, one-on-one playtime or even swimming/agility time. Each facility is different but you want to make sure your pet is staying as engaged as possible while you are out of town.
6. Bring some comforts from home - Again, check with the particular facility to see what they allow you to bring but we know that bringing things from home can reduce stress for your pets while you are away. Even their own bed, toys or a shirt that you have recently worn can help reduce the anxiety of being away from home. 
7. Book early - Boarding books up fast - especially around major holidays such as 4th of July, Labor Day etc - make sure you get your reservation in early!
8. Ask about emergency/veterinary care - Often boarding facilities will work alongside a veterinary hospital near by to provide any needed medical care while your pet is in their care. It is best to discuss with them any financial constraints or limits you have in terms of medical care for your pet before you are faced with an emergency decision.

Just a few drops

As we have mentioned previously, heartworm disease is a progressive and serious disease which can become fatal if undetected and/or left untreated. Yearly heartworm testing is recommended, even for those pets receiving heartworm prevention, to help detect disease early on. Most patients do not show symptoms of disease early on.

Heartworm disease is detected via a blood test - often a test can be performed in the veterinary office however sometimes a sample has to be sent to an outside lab for confirmation ( often the case in cats because, of course, they cannot be simple!).  The test works by detecting the presence of heartworm proteins  within the blood stream. For dogs, a positive on the in house test is usually confirmatory however in cats, a secondary test must be sent out to the lab to determine if they are actively infected or just retaining antibodies from previous exposure. 

Annual testing is recommended, even if your pet is on yearly heartworm prevention. This test helps to ensure that the prevention is working and there have been no lapses in protection - let's face it, we all know at least 1 dog who spits the pill out when mom or dad aren't looking.  Heartworm prevention is highly effective however nothing is 100%  and we want to ensure your pets are not at risk. Beyond that, most heartworm prevention manufacturers will stand behind their products IF purchased through a licensed veterinarian and a yearly heartworm test is performed - this means that if Fido is taking his heartworm prevention each and every month but he tests positive, the manufacturer will often pay for a large portion (if not all) of his heartworm treatment. It's just a nice, peace-of-mind measure that by following your veterinarian's recommendation your pet is covered - both medically and financially.

We hope that you learned a little something through our heartworm disease poll - stay tuned for more questions and check out www.chestnutarborvet.com for more information regarding our hospital and the difference in veterinary care.

If It's OTC....it ain't the real deal

There is a reason why heartworm prevention must be bought from a licensed veterinarian - that reason....it's a medication (ie a drug). The Food and Drug Administration oversees prescription medications dispensed by veterinarians and therefore the label for heartworm prevention states that it must be prescribed by a licensed veterinarian. What does that mean.....if you are buying something OTC (over-the-counter), ie. Frontline or Hartz or Advantage, then it is NOT a heartworm preventative. Yes they may state on the label that they prevent mosquitoes but they are not preventing heartworm disease.

Whether you choose to purchase a topical product (ie. Advantage Multi) or a chewable tablet/pill (ie Interceptor Plus or Heartgard Plus) or an injectable heartworm preventative (ie Proheart 6) -  all heartworm prevention works in the same way. They are designed to eliminate the immature (larval) stage of the heartworms. This includes the infective stage that the mosquito deposits when it bites but also the larval stage that develops over the next 30 days.  That being said, it only takes 51 days for a heartworm to mature to the adult stage and our monthly heartworm prevention is no longer able to eliminate this form. This is why keeping your pet on a monthly heartworm prevention (or every 6 month in the case Proheart6) is so important!

The nice thing about most heartworm prevention these days is it is multi-purpose - being it does more than just eliminate heartworms. Most products are also labeled to eliminate intestinal parasites such as roundworms, hookworms, whipworms, and even tapeworms for some products. Some all in one products may also prevent fleas however it is important to discuss this with your veterinarian as some products may not kill fleas but rather prevent them from breeding.

Just remember - if you can buy it without a prescription or without seeing your veterinarian, then it isn't heartworm prevention!

It's EVERYWHERE

Every 3 years the American Heartworm Society gathers data to show the impact of heartworm disease on the United States. Even if heartworms do not appear to be a significant risk in your local area, traveling with your pet to an area where heartworm disease is more prevalent can put your fur baby at risk. Taking into account the spread of wildlife that are hosts for heartworm disease, such as foxes, coyotes and wolves, you can see that heartworm disease can be spread easier than you realize. 

Mosquitoes can also travel long distances thereby spreading disease, in addition, pets that are translocated from one area to another can bring heartworm disease into areas where it had previously not been a problem - an example of this is following Hurricane Katrina, when 250,000 pets were relocated.

The fact is heartworm disease HAS been diagnosed in all 50 states and unfortunately, risk factors are impossible to predict. Remember, it takes only 1 mosquito bite to infect your pet. The American Heartworm Society advocates for the "Think 12" campaign - test your pet every 12 months and use heartworm prevention for all 12 months of the year.

Cats are NOT small dogs

Like dogs, cats can become infected with heartworm disease. However, unlike dogs, cats are not the ideal host for heartworms, therefore some infections can clear on their own, although leaving behind permanent lung damage. Heartworms can also lead to significant lifelong problems in cats such as wheezing, coughing and difficulty breathing -  some even speculate that cats affected with asthma were originally infected with heartworms thereby leading to the chronic airway inflammation characteristic of feline asthma.

While dogs become infected with >30-50 heartworms, most cats have 6 or fewer adult heartworms causing disease. Sometimes, even 1 single heartworm can infect a cat and cause disease. Unfortunately, unlike their canine counterparts, there is NO effect heartworm treatment for cats.  Most times, cats will clear the infection on their own however our job as veterinarians is to help treat them for the secondary respiratory damage created by the parasites. Often this means low doses of anti-inflammatories such as prednisolone and frequent monitoring via chest x-rays and lab-work.

Since there is no effective treatment for heartworm disease in cats, it is of utmost important that cat owners consider starting their feline friends on heartworm prevention - even if they are indoor only kitties. As mentioned in yesterday's post - even 1 single mosquito entering your home can be enough to expose and infect your kitty.

Shooo.....mosquito?

And the answer is....Mosquito! Heartworm disease is a potentially fatal disease of companion animals in North America. Spread by the mosquito, heartworms are parasitic worms that live in the heart, lungs and pulmonary vessels of dogs and cats. If left untreated, heartworm infection can lead to heart and liver failure as well as damage to other organ. Heartworm disease can affect dogs, cats, ferrets as well as foxes, coyotes, wolves, sea lions and even....HUMANS.

Mosquitoes play an integral part in the life-cycle of the heartworm - adult female heartworms living in a fox or dog produce microscopic babies (microfilaria) that circulate in the bloodstream. When a mosquito bites an infected host and takes a blood meal, the microfilaria are picked up as well. These baby worms then mature into larvae over the next 10-14 days. Then when that same mosquito bites its next victim (dog, cat or human) the infected larvae are deposited into the skin and enter the new host via the mosquito's bite wound. Once inside the host, it takes 6 months for the larvae to mature into adult heartworms. Once mature, adult heartworms can live up to 7 years in a dog or 3 years in a cat.

Each mosquito season means a risk to our companion animals due to the chance of becoming infected with heartworms. Even if a pet spends the majority of its lifetime inside, it is possible for an infected mosquito to gain access to the home and infect the animal. For this reason, we always recommend that our pets stay on heartworm prevention year-round

The Age-Old Adage

Everyone has heard the age-old adage, 'a dog ages 7 years for every 1 human year' and we all make assumptions based on that adage as to how old our pets are in 'human years'.  It is true that our pets age faster than we do and thus have a shorter life expectancy. It also means that we need to consider certain things as they age which means qualifying them as senior and geriatric earlier than we would their human counterparts.

Now, I'm not out here trying to put labels on your pets but I am advocating for them - why, you ask? As pets age, and since we have established that they age quicker than we do, certain organs start to change and certain diseases can become more apparent. While we might like to think that 5 year old Fido is still a spring chicken, the odds are that depending on his breed and body size, he may already be creeping into senior citizen status.

Since pets age faster than us and their life expectancy is shorter, a pet that is age 5-8 (or approximately 40-50 in human years) is already halfway through their lifespan . And in some cases, with large breed dogs for example, they are well beyond the halfway mark.

In veterinary medicine, it used to be that any pet over the age of  7 was considered a senior pet - that's just not the case anymore. Our smaller breed dogs and cats are not considered to be senior citizens until after the age of 9 however giant breed dogs reach senior status at age 6. While this may seem trivial, the age and rate at which our pets become adults, seniors and geriatrics affects the type of diagnostics we as doctors recommend as well as our expectations for their lifespan.

Just like in human medicine, as we age our doctors may recommend more advanced testing due to aging of our organs and body systems. The same holds true for our pets - a 1 year old Bichon may only require an annual exam, vaccinations and heartworm/fecal parasite checks; however a 10 year old cat will likely require bi-annual wellness visits,  vaccinations, annual labwork, thyroid monitoring, urinalysis, blood pressure checks and ideally some form of imaging (ultrasound preferably) to monitor her kidneys and intestines. It's the difference between taking my 4 year old to the doctor and my 40 year old self to the doctor - different expectations, different tests, different recommendations.

As our pets age it is often easy to overlook some of the subtle symptoms of disease - we often think that these things happen due to 'old age'. But is it old age? What if we were screening for these things earlier and could catch diseases sooner? Could Fluffy have more years with our family? When you are bringing your pet into the vet its important to start thinking about their behavior at home - some examples include, are they sleeping all night long or are they waking up to go outside? Have you noticed any bathroom accidents in the home? Do they seem to be experiencing some vision issues? Is your cat not grooming herself like she used to? Does Fido take longer to greet you at the door or perhaps he doesn't even realize you have come home? Maybe Scout is having trouble going up and down steps or Callie is drinking more water? If you think it's important, tell us! Even if you don't think it's important! Because old age is not a disease, but there are diseases linked to aging - so let's get on top of them sooner and maybe Fido will live to be 110!