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

It sometimes seems as though that old dog of yours is just being cantankerous. It starts to have accidents in the house, must be because it is too lazy to go outside. And then there is that thing it is doing at night. For years it has slept at the foot of your bed and now it is roaming around the house at all hours and you’re not getting any sleep. And last week, it got stuck in a corner, started barking and wouldn’t backup. He reminds you of your old Aunt Millie who has Alzheimer’s. Do dogs get dementia?

I’m not much for scary movies so when I went to see the 2011 film Contagion starring Gwyneth Paltrow, I didn’t expect to be as terrified as I was. A simple dinner in a far away land lead to a worldwide disease outbreak that makes the 2014 Ebola outbreak look like a mild flu season. It would be comforting to think that it was just a movie, it could never happen in the real life. Sadly, viral diseases that affect our pets, canine influenza, our dinner, Avian Influenza, and our lives, SARS and MERS are too commonly featured on the nightly news. How can you stop something that is smaller than a bacteria and antibiotics are helpless against? My guest, Dr. Jonna Mazet, Director of the One Health Institute at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine will tell us how veterinarians have partnered with doctors, health workers and hunters to protect the health of all of us.

The current buzz word in human and veterinary medicine is ‘wellness’. But for my guest, Dr. Jean Dodds, it has been her passion since she graduated from the Ontario Veterinary College in Toronto, Canada. For Dr. Dodds, it has been a matter of blood-human and animal, a lot of sweat in the hours spent in research and ground breaking work in a common canine condition, under active thyroid disease.

They may not be the most popular pet in the United States, numbering 4,856,000 in 2014. They may not fit in our lap but they have a special place in the American heart. Horses have a mystique not matched by any other animal. Man started harnessing the power and grace of horses around 4000 B.C. They have been used for their speed, strength, have been beasts of burden and are hands down fabulous athletes. Caring for them requires a knowledgeable owner teaming with a dedicated veterinarian like my guest Dr. Claudia Sonder, Director of the Center for Equine Health at UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine.

We treat them like our kids... day care, psychics, designer clothing, all sorts of gizmos, gadgets and toys to keep them happy but are keeping them safe? What are they doing when we aren’t with them? Are they getting into trouble in the house or just miss us? And can we keep them safe from predators even when we are by their sides? My two guests have developed two amazing products that will help us communicate with our pets and keep them out of the jaws of danger.

You recently went to your neighborhood big box store and they were touting the fact that you could purchase your pet’s medications at drastically discounted prices. So why is your veterinarian charging so much for the same item? Are they really concerned about keeping your pet healthy or are they just in it for the money? And why are they always recommending that once or twice a year you bring your pet in for a wellness examination? It looks just fine. And teeth cleaning... give me a break! You have owned pets for years and never had a prophy- animals in the wild... they never get their teeth cleaned! My guest is Dr. Ted Cohn. He is the current president of the American Veterinary Medical Association. In the next 30 minutes we are going to discuss the cost of caring. We will also investigate how veterinarians attend to the health of animals, people and the environment along with the specialization that has occurred in veterinary medicine over the past several decades.

There is a new model of pet hospital with an aim of treating the whole pet- mind and body. It strives to have the pet parent feel as relaxed and pampered as their furry charges. Southern California recently had the opportunity to enjoy the opening of a second unique breed of pet care center. My guest is Dr. John Boyd, the CEO/Founder of Dr. Boyd’s Pet Resort and Veterinary Centers.

You may need a dog that can fetch a set of dropped keys, turn on a light switch, help you as you struggle with PTSD or nightmares and bring you back to here and now, one that serves as a non-judgmental tutor to a child tackling scholastic challenges or just a fabulous member of your family. Under the tutelage of my guest, dog trainer and behaviorist, Tom Tackett, dogs can do all this and so much more.

How can helping a stray dog or cat in a third world country improve the health of the local community, the nation, and volunteer animal caregivers thousands of miles away? It's amazing what a little compassion, a lot of hard work and some dedicated volunteers can accomplish. My guests are Erin Skillen and Michael Wavrecan of of May Street Productions Ltd. They're Canadian award-winning producers of entertaining television with substance. Tune in to hear about a fascinating project they're involved with.

I may be showing my age-I remember Lloyd Bridges (yes, that is Beau and Jeff Bridges’ dad) and his American television undersea adventure series of the 1960s- Sea Hunt (OK- it was the reruns). It seemed like he was forever saving scuba divers who were suffering with the bends with the use of a decompression chamber. And who hasn’t seen the movie "Mary Poppins" and didn’t sing along with the song ‘a Spoon Full of Sugar’? Well veterinary medicine is using hyperbaric oxygen, sugar and leeches... yes, those blood sucking creatures from medieval times to treat and cure myriad animal maladies (and this isn’t by a bunch of fringe, quake doctors). My guest is Dr. Nicole Buote. She a board certified veterinary surgeon who practices in Los Angeles and has special interests in advanced wound repair, cancer reconstructive surgery, minimally invasive procedures including laparoscopy, thoracoscopy, arthroscopy and interventional radiology techniques.

People and pets physical as well as mental. Current research is investigatingare living longer than ever. With aging come many challenges- the adage that ‘you can’t teach an old dog, or for that matter, an old person new tricks’. Is it that they can’t learn or is it that they can’t remember? Geriatric dogs with their naturally occurring behavioral and physical changes offer behaviorists and research scientists a marvelous model for studying and treating devastating diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Today’s guest, Dr. Gary Landsberg, is a board certified veterinary behaviorist and Director of Veterinary Affairs and Product Development for CanCog Technologies.

Sometimes it happens accidentally, or someone thinks it would be fun to see the effects of a particular substance on a pet. At times pet owners with the best of intentions may give medications that have been effective for themselves or another pet often with disastrous consequences. Then there's the inquisitive pet that tastes, touches something that could be poisonous. How do you know when to call your veterinarian or pet poison control number? Did you even know there was a pet poison control organization? Today's guest, Dr. Justine Lee knows the answers to these questions and more. She's a board certified emergency critical care veterinarian and a diplomate of the American Board of Toxicology.

Just the word - radiation, conjures images of danger and potential death from its effects. Einstein was one of the first to envision the use of laser radiation but it wasn’t until the 1960 that its healing powers were harnessed. My guest is Dr. David Bradley, a veterinarian and Fellow of the American Society of Laser Medicine and Surgery. He will inform us of how lasers are being used to treat our pets with skin issues to arthritis.

It has happened to you and probably your pet. You go to the doctor because you are not feeling well. They look, they ask, they listen- then inevitably it is time to go to the lab for poking, sampling and that all so much fun- peeing in a cup. Why do they need all of those samples? Aren’t they just trying to run up the bill? My guest is Dr. Leslie Willis Woods. She is a board certified veterinary pathologist, a Ph.D., works for the California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory System and lectures on avian toxicology in the avian pathology and avian medicine courses at our alma mater, UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. Today we are going to chat about keeping our pet birds safe in our homes and the role of the California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory System in keeping pets, people and the environment healthy.

Zoonotic diseases- those that can affect animals and people have been on the minds of the world watching the outbreak of Ebola in Africa. There are other shared diseases that may be in our own back yard. Thankfully, much less deadly, treatable with medical care and preventable with readily available vaccines. My guest, Dr. Richard Edling, Senior Associate Director, Pet Professional Services for Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica will lay bare the facts and fallacies surrounding the disease Leptospirosis.