Credit: The Seattle Times
Dr. Joe Musielak, an emergency-care veterinarian at Pilchuck Veterinary Hospital in Snohomish, says there is an emerging class of toxins: consumption of human medications by pets, especially pain meds. (Dr. Joe, as he prefers to be called, is pictured right with Basil, owned by Pilchuck vet tech Risa Hill.) He answers this week’s questions.
Question: Why can’t dogs and cats be given over-the-counter human pain medications?
Answer: The problem with giving dogs and cats human pain meds, such as aspirin, Tylenol, and ibuprofen, is two fold.
First, most human medications are dosed for an adult human. Very few dogs and even fewer house cats weigh as much as an adult human. From the start, there is an overdose problem.
Second, cats and dogs are not humans. Their metabolism differs from ours in significant ways.
Cats, for example, cannot metabolize acetaminophen (the active ingredient in Tylenol) as we do. Tylenol exposure can be fatal to cats because acetaminophen eliminates the ability of red blood cells to carry oxygen to the rest of the body. This causes a death similar to suffocation.
A dog that chews up a bottle of ibuprofen, for example, may seem fine for a day or two. But then severe stomach ulceration and kidney failure may start. A pet’s prognosis is much worse and a hospital stay and subsequent cost are greater if we wait until they show clinical symptoms with medications like ibuprofen.
Question: What about aspirin?
Answer: Dogs can take aspirin in low doses; however, there are much more effective pain relievers for dogs that are also safer.
Question: What kind of organ damage can these human medications cause when ingested by pets?
Answer: Pets can have significant — even life-threatening — kidney damage from ingesting human medications without showing any outward signs of trouble.
Pets with kidney failure can have a decreased amount of urine, an increased amount of urine or it can appear to be normal. Sometimes the kidneys are just getting rid of excess water in kidney failure and not removing waste products, which can build up to toxic levels.
For example, when a pet’s blood values are elevated, at least 50 percent of the kidneys are likely damaged, something an owner wouldn’t know without blood tests. When pets start to show symptoms of kidney failure (vomiting, loss of appetite, abnormal urination), at least 75 percent of the kidneys are likely damaged.
In some cases, with supportive care, the remaining healthy kidney tissue can improve in function and return to a level capable of sustaining life. Obviously, the greater the damage, the less chance the healthy tissue has of “regenerating.”
Pets can also experience liver failure, intestinal ulcers or bleeding disorders from some of these medications.
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Human Medications Can Be Dangerous For Your Pet
Pusuke, listed by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s oldest-living dog, died in Japan on Monday. He was 26 years old – the equivalent of more than 117 human years.
The dog’s owner, Yumiko Shinohara, said the male cross-breed died at Sakura in the Tochigi prefecture, north of Tokyo, according to the Kyodo news agency.
Pusuke was reportedly eating well and staying active until Monday, when he lost his appetite and had difficulty breathing. Pusuke died peacefully, minutes after his owner returned home from a walk.
“I think (Pusuke) waited for me to come home,” she said, according to Kyodo.
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World’s Oldest Dog Dies at Age 26
By JAMES DAO
The call came into the behavior specialists here from a doctor in Afghanistan. His patient had just been through a firefight and now was cowering under a cot, refusing to come out.
Dereck Stevens bonds with his military working dog before a practice drill at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio
Apparently even the chew toys hadn’t worked.
Post-traumatic stress disorder, thought Dr. Walter F. Burghardt Jr., chief of behavioral medicine at the Daniel E. Holland Military Working Dog Hospital at Lackland Air Force Base. Specifically, canine PTSD.
If anyone needed evidence of the frontline role played by dogs in war these days, here is the latest: the four-legged, wet-nosed troops used to sniff out mines, track down enemy fighters and clear buildings are struggling with the mental strains of combat nearly as much as their human counterparts.
By some estimates, more than 5 percent of the approximately 650 military dogs deployed by American combat forces are developing canine PTSD. Of those, about half are likely to be retired from service, Dr. Burghardt said.
Though veterinarians have long diagnosed behavioral problems in animals, the concept of canine PTSD is only about 18 months old, and still being debated. But it has gained vogue among military veterinarians, who have been seeing patterns of troubling behavior among dogs exposed to explosions, gunfire and other combat-related violence in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Like humans with the analogous disorder, different dogs show different symptoms. Some become hyper-vigilant. Others avoid buildings or work areas that they had previously been comfortable in. Some undergo sharp changes in temperament, becoming unusually aggressive with their handlers, or clingy and timid. Most crucially, many stop doing the tasks they were trained to perform.
“If the dog is trained to find improvised explosives and it looks like it’s working, but isn’t, it’s not just the dog that’s at risk,” Dr. Burghardt said. “This is a human health issue as well.”
That the military is taking a serious interest in canine PTSD underscores the importance of working dogs in the current wars. Once used primarily as furry sentries, military dogs — most are German shepherds, followed by Belgian Malinois and Labrador retrievers — have branched out into an array of specialized tasks.
They are widely considered the most effective tools for detecting the improvised explosive devices, or I.E.D.’s, frequently used in Afghanistan. Typically made from fertilizer and chemicals, and containing little or no metal, those buried bombs can be nearly impossible to find with standard mine-sweeping instruments. In the past three years, I.E.D.’s have become the major cause of casualties in Afghanistan.
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Dogs and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
We all want our pets to live long, healthy lives – and we’d all do just about anything to ensure that our cats and dogs can stay with us as long as possible. What five things can you do to keep your pet safe, happy, and by your side longer? We’ve listed them below, and chances are, you’re probably on top of them already.
But one hint may surprise you…
Keep your furry friend indoors
Staying inside, or at least on a leash, protects your pet from all kinds of dangers. Indoor living shields cats from infectious diseases; digestive upset caused by snacking on poisonous plants or other foreign objects; fights with other cats, dogs, wild animals, or mean humans; and speeding cars.
And as pets age, they can’t regulate their body temperatures as effectively, making them more prone to serious weather-related ailments like heat stroke if they’re outdoors too long.
Of course it’s fine to walk your dog, and the occasional (closely supervised) feline foray into the yard isn’t the end of the world. But it’s particularly important for cats to do their toileting inside; that way, the humans can monitor them for signs of tummy upset, urinary-tract issues, and so on.
Putting a “catio” in your window for bird-watching purposes, and planting cat grass in pots, can bring the outside in — without compromising Fluffy’s health.
Watch his weight
Obesity in dogs and cats causes the same serious health problems that it does in humans – high blood pressure, breathing problems, diabetes, and joint pain. It’s not easy to put a portly pet on a diet, but NOT doing so could shorten his lifespan (and from a practical – and more selfish – standpoint, you really don’t want to have to give a cat daily insulin injections).
If your dog or cat is on the spherical side, enlist your vet’s help to change his diet. Invest in new toys for your cat that will get him more active, and try switching from “free feeding” to controlled portions at specific meal times. Take dogs for longer or more frequent walks, and get strict about table scraps and extra biscuits.
Aging pets who have maintained normal weights for years may start to plump up as their metabolisms slow down. Changing your senior dog or cat’s regular food to a formula that’s higher in protein and lower in fat may help, and dogs may benefit from “nutriceutical” supplements. Again, consult with your vet.
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5 ways to help your pet live longer
My senior dog has trouble getting up from our tile floor. We have tried various approaches to helping her with this problem including keeping her in a portion of our home where there is more carpet or putting heavy boots on her that she never liked. So when the folks at Woodrow Wear offered for us to sample their Power Paws, which are non-slip socks for dogs that provide traction, I jumped at the opportunity to try them on my dog. They arrived and immediately I noticed a few things. They were colorful and had some real traction (tacky and sticky) on the bottom of the sock. The only thing that concerned me is they looked so small even though the one’s supplied were for a large dog which my dog was. In speaking with the owner and inventor of the company, Lorraine Walston, she advised me the Power Paws stretch and thus are able to slip on and stay on in a secure manner. Sure enough
they went on without a hitch (just be careful of the dew claws) and stayed on without slipping off. My dog immediately tried to get up, albeit a bit awkwardly at first, and you could see she realized she had some extra support now helping her. I watched her as a well content smile come over her as I sensed she felt she had gained some control over her life again. Instead of the slippery floors dictating her she could now get up with relative ease. I saw this within the first few minutes of putting the socks on. These Power Paws come in many different colors and sizes and are only $19.99 per set of 4 socks.
Here is a video showing a dog getting up from a tile floor.
I can honestly say the Power Paws product deserves a 4 paw rating 
(Reuters) – Best-selling author and animal advocate Jon Katz has been writing about dogs for over a decade. Many of his own, past a present, have taken center stage fiction and nonfiction books such as “The Dogs of Bedlam Farms,” “A Dog Year,” “Izzy and Lenore” and “Rose in a Storm.”
Photo Credit: REUTERS – Maria Will/Handout
Katz wrote his latest, “Going Home: Finding Peace When Pets Die,” which comes out on Tuesday, to provide guidance, support and advice for people on how to handle the loss of a pet.
Reuters spoke with Katz to discuss his new book and how people can cope with life when the family pet passes away.
Q: What was the biggest surprise for you in researching books about pets and grieving?
A: “I found that almost every book had to do with the afterlife. Not a single book said, ‘This is what is known about things that will help you grieve.’ So I started talking to vets and psychologists and gathering information and interviewing maybe 200 different people about what was helpful to them.”
Q: And what did you find?
A: “People need to bring rituals into grieving. Memorial services, remembrances, pictures — those are concrete things that make grieving tangible. The Internet offers all kinds of opportunities for this like making digital albums and Facebook pages. People used to have to hide grief. You couldn’t go to your boss and say, ‘I need a week off, my cat died.’ You probably still can’t, but you do need to say, ‘I’m having a tough time.’”
Q: No doubt your own personal experience went in to this.
A: “I’m one of those people who has always struggled with emotions and revealing them. When my dog Orson died, I did this very male thing of ‘It’s just a dog and I’ll just move on.’ I was very slow to grasp the emotion. But Orson is the reason I started writing about dogs. He’s the first (dog) book I wrote and HBO did a movie about him (“A Dog Year”). Writing this book inspired me to go back and look at the impact of his loss and on my life, as well as other dogs that I’ve lost.”
Q: You ended up putting Orson down. How does one deal with the guilt of making such a decision?
A: “It’s important to remember that the animals are not grieving with us. They’re very accepting. They’re not lying there thinking ‘How could you do this to me? Why aren’t you keeping me going?’ Pets don’t do the human things of guilt and anger and recrimination that we do. They come and go with great acceptance.
“One idea that I advocate is the dealing with guilt directly. Acknowledge the good life, remember the good things you did with your pet — the places you took them, the affection you showed them. Remind those who have lost a pet that they generally gave their pets a good life and that’s a good thing, so don’t forget that.”
Q: Is there any way to prepare for a pet’s death?
A: “If you’re going to love animals and have a life with them, the odds are you’re going to lose them. It’s helpful when you get a dog to accept the fact that this dog is not going to be with you your whole life.”
Q: Is getting another dog acceptable in getting over the previous one? It’s not a betrayal to the one you lost?
A: “I’m always happy when people choose to get another dog because it’s a healthy and healing thing to do, and there are millions of them needing homes. But there is no single time frame to do it in because grieving is an intensely personal experience. In my case, I get another dog as soon as I feel ready. As a dog lover, it is right for me to have them.
“With children, I don’t think it’s good if you go out and immediately get another dog or cat. Animals are not disposable any more than people. Children need to see that the loss is important, and the family should take time to honor that.”
Check out the full story:
Jon Katz – life after pets die
Credit: KABC-TV/DT
NEW IBERIA, La. (KABC) — A pooch in Louisiana could be the oldest dog in the world. Max lives in New Iberia, which is near Lafayette.
The cute Terrier mix recently celebrated his 28th birthday – that’s 196 in dog years.
Max’s owner thinks he’s the oldest dog in the world.
She sent the Guinness World Records his birth certificate and vet records, but so far, she hasn’t received a response.
“He loves to just lounge around the house. He’s like an elderly person. He’s set in his ways. Everything has been documented and notarized, so I am just waiting to hear something, because I don’t want him to pass and not be recognized,” said owner Janelle DeRouen.
The title of “World’s Oldest Dog” used to belong to a 21-year-old dachshund from New York, but she has since died.
South Korean scientists said on Wednesday they have created a glowing dog using a cloning technique that could help find cures for human diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, Yonhap news agency reported.
A research team from Seoul National University (SNU) said the genetically modified female beagle, named Tegon and born in 2009, has been found to glow fluorescent green under ultraviolet light if given a doxycycline antibiotic, the report said.
The researchers, who completed a two-year test, said the ability to glow can be turned on or off by adding a drug to the dog’s food.
A combination photo shows a cloned fluorescent puppy, a three-month-old beagle, glowing in the dark under ultra-violet light (L) and under daylight (R). Photo Credit: REUTERS/Jo Yong-Hak
“The creation of Tegon opens new horizons since the gene injected to make the dog glow can be substituted with genes that trigger fatal human diseases,” the news agency quoted lead researcher Byeong-Chun Lee as saying.
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Glow in the dark dog
The doorbell barks, excited canines scurry through the hall and a flurry of wagging tails greets visitors at Petplan’s corporate headquarters. The unbridled zeal shared by pets and pet parents spills over into corporate culture at the company’s office, just steps away from Philadelphia International Airport. That’s because many employees at Petplan, America’s top rated pet insurance company, work alongside their four-legged companions. It’s a unique policy that’s helps attract the best talent, boosts morale and reinforces the company’s core value of pet health.
“As a company that strives to attract a cohesive team with a lifelong passion for pets and their wellbeing, it is only fitting that our office embodies this commitment to pet health,” says Natasha Ashton, co-founder of Petplan. “However, creating the kind of environment where employees thrive takes more than a dog-friendly office. We strive to show our appreciation of the exceptional work of our employees through personalized treat jars, cupcake celebrations for professional accomplishments and by allowing our employees to work from home when they need to. We can’t expect our employees to care about our policyholders, and their pet’s health, if we don’t extend that same care to them and their pets. This philosophy transcends throughout our entire company and is one of the major factors why we are the top rated pet insurance company each year.”
In the past three years, despite a sluggish economy, Petplan has tripled its Philadelphia-based workforce and its gross written premiums have risen by more than 2,200 percent. “Petplan is proof that passion, strong leadership and a dedicated workforce can help businesses grow and become market leaders,” comments Natasha. “We are constantly working to improve upon the products and services we offer our policyholders, and are committed to investing in technology to facilitate customer service. We are looking to bring two new IT Managers on board to raise the bar yet again.”
Look around at the fast-growing pet insurance provider’s bustling facility and there are reminders everywhere that this is not a typical corporate office, with water bowls beside desks, pet silhouettes and pet-themed clocks on the walls and coat hooks shaped like pet tails in the lobby. Petplan’s pet-friendly work policy is a unique perk that helps the company stay creative, decreases absenteeism and improves relationships between employees and managers.
“At Petplan, we’re encouraged to bring our pets to the office every day,” says Amy Bellingrath, Happiness Manager. “Having all these happy pets here not only adds fun to the work day, but gives us a greater sense of empathy when speaking with policyholders about their pets.”
For more information about Petplan and pet insurance, please visit http://www.GoPetplan.com.
About Petplan
As America’s top-rated pet insurance provider, Petplan, through one or more licensed insurers, offers customizable policies to meet any coverage requirements and budget for pets of all/any age. The policies offered by Petplan cover all hereditary and congenital conditions for the life of the pet – without dollar limits per condition. For information, visit http://www.GoPetplan.com or call 1-866-467-3875.
Credit: Katie Johnston, Boston Globe
The Liberty Hotel is a pet-friendly place. Staff members bring in their dogs; guests check in with birds, ferrets, even a monkey that stayed for six months during a movie shoot. So when the Boston hotel started offering pet insurance as part of its employee benefits package two years ago, workers saw it as a natural extension of the health care plan.
“People who are dog people or cat people, they love their pets as much as they love their own children,’’ said general manager Rachel Moniz.
Pet insurance offered by companies such as Liberty Hotel is becoming increasingly popular as owners grapple with the rising cost of caring for their animals and employers look for additional, low-cost ways to keep their workforce happy.
For companies, pet insurance is a voluntary benefit, similar to life insurance or financial planning services, that they can offer at a group discount. The cost, however, is paid entirely by employees. Voluntary benefits are becoming more prevalent as consumers seek more options to manage costs and other risks during a down economy, according to the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans, and companies look for perks they don’t have to pay for.
Meanwhile, the increasingly sophisticated treatments available to animals, from ACL surgery to pacemakers to chemotherapy, have sent pet bills soaring, making insurance a more palatable investment.
“We’re bonding with our pets the wealthier we get, and once we become more bonded, we see the value more of taking care of their health,’’ said Dennis Drent, chief executive of Veterinary Pet Insurance Co., known as VPI, who once asked his wife how much she would be willing to spend on their longhaired miniature dachshund. “I got to $10,000 and my wife didn’t even flinch.’’
Like health insurance for humans, pet coverage can vary widely, though it typically runs a few hundred dollars a year, depending on plan details and type of animal. It is now a $300 million business in the United States and expanding rapidly, with sales more than doubling from 2005 to 2009, according to the market research firm Packaged Facts.
Still, only 9 percent of companies in the United States and Canada offer pet insurance, according to the employee benefit foundation.
VPI has contracts with nearly 2,000 employers, 172 of them in Massachusetts, including Staples Inc., Comcast, and Massachusetts General Hospital – a 40 percent jump in the past year and a half.
Sean Reardon racked up $1,500 in vet bills caring for a bullmastiff puppy that ended up dying of unknown causes, so when his family got another puppy about a year ago, he signed up for VPI’s pet insurance through the Liberty Hotel.
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Pet health care a perk
