The Pet Doctor - Keeping your pets healthy & pet wellness - Pets & Animals on Pet Life Radio (PetLifeRadio.com)

Bastet (bau stet)-half woman, half feline….the ancient Egyptian cat god. These animals have held a special place in our hearts and home ever since. Though there are more cats in the United States than dog, sadly, because they are expert at hiding their signs of illness, wellness exams for felines are much less common. By the time a pet parent realizes that there is a medical concern, the disease process is often extremely advanced, often with fatal consequences. Dr. Joseph Bartges, Professor of Medicine and Nutrition at The University of Georgia College Of Veterinary Medicine will breakdown the health issues that beset cats during their life stages and what can be done to insure that they live long and thrive.

In 2015, Americans spent over $60 billion on pet food with veterinary care coming in somewhere around $15 billion. But is all of that money on pet food being well spent? Are we over feeding and giving less than optimal nutrition to our furry family members? Can some of the most serious medical conditions such as kidney disease and cancer be positively affected by modifying what we feed? My guest is Dr. Cailin Heinze. She is a board-certified veterinary nutritionist at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University where she teaches biochemistry and clinical nutrition. She is an expert in home-cooked diet formulation and general pet nutrition and has a special interest in feeding pets with kidney disease and cancer. Dr Heinze has been featured in Eating Well, WebMD, Prevention magazine, and Dog Fancy and she regularly speaks at national and international veterinary conferences. So grab your pen and paper. I know you are going to want to take some notes to help you digest this very important subject.

Breakthroughs in veterinary medicine has saved lives and improved countless others. We almost take it for granted that when you or your pet becomes ill, that there will be a safe and effective medication or treatment. But how did these breakthroughs come to be? Were the studies conducted on lab mice or dogs kept in research kennels? Why can’t researchers do all the studies with computers and not use living animals? How were safety and effectiveness measured and what about bias in the response to a treatment? Is it fair to an ailing animal to give them a placebo rather than potentially lifesaving medicine? My guest is Dr. Eric Wisner, DVM, director for the UC Davis Veterinary Center for Clinical Trials. We will discuss ways your pet can help advance the health of pets afflicted with various conditions as well as assist people with similar maladies.

In the past few decades, dog and cats have moved from the backyard to the bedroom. We celebrate their birthdays, have nanny cams so we can check on them when we are away, include them on our holiday cards and spend more time trying to figuring out what to feed them than we spend on our own dining choices. If you are like most pet parents, a trip to the pet store can be overwhelming when you gape at the rows upon rows of pet food choices….premium, organic, grain free, free range, holistic, raw, natural…what does it really mean? Should cook your own food? Who do you turn to for credible information…the kid at the pet store, Dr. Google? So step away from that bag of food, put down that can of pet food and relax for the next ½ hour with your favorite dog or cat by your side for a pet food primer by Dr. Oscar Chavez, Chief Medical Officer at Just Food For Dogs.

If you have listened to this show for any length of time, you know that I am a dyed in the fur ailurophile- cat lover. And I am not alone in my affinity for cats. It is estimated that over 93 million cats reside in the United States as compared to 78 million dogs. Enter Big Cat Rescue Sanctuary in Tampa, Florida, one of the very few facilities that emancipate these felines in a humane and loving manner. Get ready for 30 minutes of tales of salvation for some of the most gorgeous animals in the world. My guest is Susan Bass, Public Relations Director at Big Cat Rescue. And for a special treat, you can get some behind the scenes glimpses at this amazing sanctuary by clicking on the YouTube link at the Pet Doctor homepage at PetLifeRadio.com

Every year more than 25,000 deaths worldwide are attributed to this virus. Tragically, a very effective vaccine is available to prevent these fatalities but are not being disseminated to those in need. You may think this international scourge is ebola. Ebola was estimated to cause a demise of about 11,000 persons in 2015. The disease I'm referring to is rabies, a preventable disease. One that affects people and animals. With your assistance this disease can be eradicated. My guest is Dr. Richard Ford, an emeritus professor of medicine at North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine, an expert on rabies and its worldwide impact.

Cats are living longer than ever. Why? More of them living indoors, their owners are teaming with veterinarians to address health needs in a more proactive manner along with advances in medical research. With their increased life span comes aging. Getting old isn’t a disease it is a process and it happens right in front of your eyes, day by day. It seems like yesterday that your cat was a kitten. Now your veterinarian is talking about senior issues. Pet parents try to slow the process by myriad techniques. It is not uncommon for an owner to rave about a new supplement or food that has turned their geriatric feline into a kitten during their cat’s wellness visit. Rather than being ecstatic about their discovery, I am often wary that their cats may be afflicted with a common hormonal condition, hyperthyroidism. Dr. Hazel Carney, describes herself as “one of the oldest living cat-only doctors left in captivity”. She is also the Chair of the American Association of Feline Practitioners Guidelines Committee.

We have all heard of the yearly hurricane forecasts made by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, now the Companion Animal Parasite Council is predicting that in 2016 the spread of vector-borne disease agents transmitted by ticks and mosquitoes will continue to promulgate and create a year-round menace to both pets and pet owners. Veterinarian, Dr. Karen Fling, owner of East Lake Veterinary Hospital in Dallas, Texas and member of the Companion Animal Parasite Council is my guest today. We are going to discuss diseases that can affect cats, dogs and sometimes their owners and what you can do to protect the entire family.

Ever wonder why the giant panda is black and white? As legend goes, long ago when pandas lived n the mountains of Tibet, they were snow white. The bears befriended a group of female shepherdesses who often played with their cubs while they tended their flocks. When a leopard attempted to attack one of the cubs, the women sacrificed themselves, sparing the young bear. The pandas mourned the shepherdesses by following the local custom of wearing black ashes on their arms. In their grief, they cried and rubbed their eyes with ash coated paws, covered their ears to block the sound of their sorrow and hugged each other leaving them with the black and white pattern we see to this day. Giant pandas are native to China and are considered a national symbol of peace and harmony. Sadly, it is estimated that there may be only 1000 of these bears in the world. When I recently toured China, I was fortunate to visit the Chendu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. My guest today is Dr. Sarah Bexell, the chief director of the Department of Conservation at the Chengdu Research Base. Her focus is keeping mankind from having to wear black ashes on their arms for these marvelous creatures.

Pets explore their worlds by licking, sniffing, touching and swallowing items they encounter. It may have seemed like a good idea at the time to investigate the puddle on the garage floor, down that round roly poly thing on the bathroom counter or munch on the wobbly mouse in the yard. But the consequences could be deadly. And then there are the well meaning pet owner who tries to save money by consulting Dr. Google and treating their pets with toxic outcomes. Dr. Charlotte Flint, as a senior consulting veterinarian at Pet Poison Helpline has heard stories that would turn your fur green and toss your kibble. We are going to break down room by room some of the most common pet toxins in your home.

Crash, boom, bang... all noises that may send your dog running for cover under your bed. A dog’s hearing is quite different from ours. They can hear sounds 4 times farther away than we can, hear higher pitches sounds that are undetectable to the human ear and their extremely moveable ears can help them hone in on the origin of the auditory reverberations. We need to move our entire head to better echo locate. Loud noises such as thunder and fireworks can be very scary for your canine companion. A frightened dog can cause itself great bodily harm trying to escape the sonic terrors and great angst for their owners. Trying to make your dog less noise phobic has typically involved sound desensitization or heavily sedating your dog. Now… there is a breakthrough medication that won’t make the sound any less obnoxious but can allow your dog to better deal with the auditory insult. Dr. Sharon Campbell is a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine and one of the technical veterinarians for Zoetis Animal Health. We will be discussing noise aversion and a new medication available to treat it.

Profiling is the act of predicting behaviors based on a person’s ethnicity, gender or color. The cognizant you would never consider jumping to such irrational conclusions. But it sneaks into our lives on an unconscious level. We do this with not only with people but also with animals. All snakes are scary and dangerous. Pit bulls and Rottweilers are aggressive and shouldn’t be allowed around children. Golden retrievers are hands down the best breed for a family and all calico cats, though they may look cuddly, are actually untrustworthy and one whisker away from coming unglued. Sounds pretty ridiculous when said out loud doesn’t it? Breaking stereotypes of animal behavior and understanding their actions has been a passion for my guest, veterinarian, Dr. Gary Weitzman, President and CEO of the San Diego Humane Society. His voice may sound familiar; he co-hosted The Animal House, a nationally distributed weekly program on public radio that explored the latest in animal science, pet health and behavior, and wildlife conservation. He is fluent in cat and dog speak having written three books published by National Geographic, the first called “Everything Dogs,” and two books on animal behavior called “How to Speak Dog” and “How to Speak Cat” with a fourth due out in November 2017 on animal medicine, care and behavior.

Hello!. This is Dr. Bernadine Cruz. I have a confession; I love to travel but tend to misplace my belongings along the way. In October of 2015, I had the opportunity to tour China. I saw marvelous sites of antiquity and treasure. What I enjoyed the most was meeting the people and being a veterinarian, seeing how they interacted with their animals. During my visit, I was fortunate to gain insights into the Chinese human-animal bond by interviewing Ms. Lily Li, the director of Companion Animal Business, Zoetis China. I also had the frustration of misplacing the device I use when I conducted our conversation and had no backup of our meeting. Grrrh. Well happy dance time, I found the device and the lost interview of Shanghai. Ms Li and audience, please accept my apologies for the tardiness of getting this interview on the net. I think you will agree however it was worth the wait. Xièxiè (thank you!)

Falconry... what does this word bring to mind? You may envision the European nobility riding through the countryside with a majestic hawk on their outstretched leather enveloped hand. Using hawks and falcons for hunting dates back to ancient times. Few people still hunt with birds but falconry enables these spectacular creatures to enjoy a symbiotic relationship with man. They also serve an important role as sentinels to the health of our planet. I had the pleasure of visiting with two licensed falconers in San Diego California, at Sky Falconry, where I was privileged to fly a trained bird and for a little while touch the sky through the wings of a Harris hawk.

The devotion that pets show their human guardians is often called unconditional love. As pet guardians, we share our lives with creatures that sadly have shorter life spans than ours and at times we must demonstrate the ultimate gift of love-allowing our pets to pass. This decision is fraught with angst. How do you know it’s time? Do you permit your pet to transition naturally or do you enable the process? Is it best done at home or at your veterinarian’s office? How do you tell your children? Are you overreacting by feeling so devastated by their loss and are your friends correct when they say "get over it, just go out and get another pet... it was only an animal.' Dr. Liz Fernandez addresses these questions and more in her book, Sacred Gifts of a Short Life. Each pet is different; each decision regarding their transition is unique. There is no right or wrong answer, only the one that is meaningful for you. Dr. Liz and her remarkable book will help you no matter if you are facing the passage of a pet, a human loved one or your own mortality.