Dr. Primm's Warm and Fuzzies

Independence Day for Dogs with Noise Phobias

by Kathryn Primm DVM on 06/12/14

Give the dog a safe place where she can go in times of firework noise.

Give your dog a safe house where he cannot see out and cannot hear what is going on outside as loudly. You might choose a crate or an interior room with soothing music playing. Let your dog decide: Notice where he goes during a storm or fireworks, and if possible, allow access to it. Be sure your dog can come and go freely, since some animals become more anxious if confined.

Reward calm behavior all the time.

Many owners make the mistake of trying to console and pet a fearful dog that's whimpering or climbing on them, inadvertently rewarding the scared behavior. Practice SIT, STAY training. Teach your dog at times when there is no storm to sit and stay on command. Practice so much that your dog knows that you will be pleased if she is sitting and staying. If she feels anxious, she can depend on that training to be sure to get the correct response from you, so always reward calm behavior. Ignore anxious behavior as much as you can. During a storm, try distraction with a favorite toy or game. BUT only give the toy if she is calm.

Consider a snug garment and calming pheromone producing items.

Snug-fitting shirts and wraps especially designed to calm anxious dogs are worth a try. Thundershirts work well for some dogs. At Applebrook, we see about 50% of dogs do calm in the Thundershirt and sometimes using in conjunction with medications and Adaptil collar produces the most reliable improvement. There are anxiety medications, but these are most effective when combined with behavior modification training.

In the winter or times of fewer storms, desensitize your dog to the sounds of a storm.

Play a CD of thunder recordings or fireworks at low enough levels that don't frighten your dog, while giving him treats or playing a game. Gradually increase the volume over the course of several months, stopping if your dog shows any signs of anxiety. The goal is to get your dog used to the sounds, and associate it with good things. Experts caution that desensitization may have limited success because you can only recreate the noise, and not the other factors that may be bothering the dog, such as the static electricity or changes in barometric pressure.

Be Patient.

This type of anxiety is very difficult and frustrating. We will have to work together on this journey as we try different things. Hopefully we can discontinue the medication eventually or at least only give it during the summer.

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New way to learn about animals

by Kathryn Primm DVM on 06/06/14

I am thinking of a new way for everyone to learn about animals and be amazed at their complex and fun lives and bodies. I would love to have input!
Is there anything about animals that you have always wondered? Any little oddity that you noted and meant to ask? Please add your comments below and I will try add them to my list. Meanwhile, keep following us on Facebook, Google+, YouTube and Twitter!

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All is not what it seems.

by Kathryn Primm DVM on 05/12/14

Last week I was shopping for the ingredients of a new recipe, Tomato Succotash. (really awesome by the way, I can get you the recipe). It called for Edamame, which is a fancy name for soybeans. The recipe required that the beans be shelled, but when I was looking I noticed that the unshelled Edamame was $0.20 cheaper for a bigger bag, so I opted to shell them myself. I thought to myself that I could shell them myself and save $0.20. Waste not, want not, right?

The next day, I went home during my lunch hour to start the prep for the recipe to be served for dinner. I work late so planning ahead is very helpful. I started by shelling the beans. It took me about 20 minutes to shell those beans. So if one assumes that my time was worth at least a minimum wage of $7.75/hour, then I just wasted about $2.55 of my time shelling beans to save $0.20. Does not seem like the smartest use of my time, does it? Plus when I compared price per ounce of product, I realized that I really had not made a good choice. That whole bag barely had enough useable beans to complete the recipe! I had paid for the weight of hulls AND I had to waste my lunch hour shelling them.

It made me think. Veterinary medicine is like that. Both beans seemed to be the same product. The hulled ones seemed to be a luxury that I could manage myself. But when I go to the bottom of it I realized, you do get what you pay for and usually there is a sacrifice for a lower cost.

Veterinary products are not all the same. Veterinarians are not all the same. The real catch is that I can learn from my mistakes and I can tell you that one product was not what I wanted and your pet cannot. I could test my theory that the unshelled beans would be more cost effective than the shelled ones and I can learn from my mistake. But if you choose an off brand medication, for example, how can your pet tell you that it isn't the same? He can't say that one hurts his stomach. She cannot tell you that she doesn't fell as good with this one as another.

Our veterinary products are labeled for animal patients and tested for safety and efficacy. When you purchase a product from your veterinary office, you get more than just the product. You get product support and a staff who knows what other medications and supplements your pet takes and can offer guidance about mixing and interactions.

I am human too and I know the allure of working the system to get a good deal. I am not saying that there are not good deals to be had. I am saying that when it comes to your pet, let medical professionals that you trust guide you. If you think that your vet is cheating you, find a new vet, but don't look for ways to cheat the system.

It is better to spend more money and actually get what you paid for, than to spend a little and find it wasted.

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Grain-ger Danger!

by Kathryn Primm DVM on 04/28/14

You can find sensational and frightening headlines everywhere. Self proclaimed consumer advocates dedicate lots of time on a myriad of causes ranging from how you should not live near power lines to what chemicals are creeping into your food when you microwave it. The scariest stories catch the most attention and they are the ones that go 'viral'. If you watch social media, you can kill fleas with baking soda mixtures and cure cancers with a colon cleanse. We all know that if it were that easy, our world would be a very different place. These people prey on our hopes and desires to find a '"quick fix".
How do you know which ones have merit? I cannot tell you whether or not you should be afraid of many things, but I can tell you if I think your pet needs to be on a grain free diet. Your veterinarian can help you with this issue. I will not use my psychic powers or my crystal ball to tell you though, because there is no shortcut. I will employ my other "magic powers" in the form of diagnostic equipment and medical training. If a breeder or a self proclaimed nutrition expert tells you that your pet requires a grain free diet, you need to ask to see the results of the food trial and diagnostic testing. You also need to know the name of the veterinary professional that made the diagnosis for future reference because if your pet is truly allergic to grains, it will be a lifelong challenge. I am not sure why it is such a hot topic and I know how convincing these headlines are, but I am telling you that you can spend A LOT of money and time searching for special diets that your pet will eat and you may be burning your money and your time. Spend your money on premium pet food. I am certainly a believer in 'you are what you eat' so high quality diets are vital to good health, but it is much harder to have a nutritionally complete diet when certain ingredients have to be avoided. Spend your time reading labels and talking with your veterinarian. Being grain free is difficult and expensive. Just make sure that this is the place that you really need to pour your time and money. I searched the web and my medical charts to find out how many pets are truly grain allergic and I found several internet sites (not posted by veterinarians) that all say "many". I do not know exactly the number they mean, but "many" is not accurate. They cite no medical sources. In my experience during 16 years of clinical small animal practice and 2 month medical externship specifically with a veterinary allergist, it is a rare diagnosis and a very common misconception based on anecdotal evidence.
The greatest "consumer advocate" is your vet. He or she KNOWS your pet and knows you. With a few publicized exceptions, veterinarians are like other animal lovers...good people with big hearts. We will always try to help you wade through all the free advice out there and choose what is right for you and your pet.

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But it doesn't seem to hurt her...

by Kathryn Primm DVM on 04/24/14

Obviously as a practicing veterinarian, I see patients every day for a variety of complaints. Many of the issues that I notice are not the actual presenting complaint. For example, I do a very through exam, even on a routine visit because I take my role as the voice of the pet very seriously. I do not want to overlook any abnormality. I try to check everything, while asking the owner questions as I go. Many times I will note something like a mass and ask how long it has been there. Sometimes the answer boggles my mind. The owner might reply, "Oh that, yes that has been there for a month or two. It used to be a lot smaller than that but seems to be growing. I didn't think it was a big deal because it doesn't seem to hurt her." Statistically speaking, many malignancies are not thought to be painful in dogs. (Something we have to extrapolate from humans with comparable cancers) The lack of pain does not indicate less danger. Human women, for example, should do a monthly breast self-exam because most mammary tumors are non-painful and unless you feel them, you will not know they are there. Pets are like us in this way. They need to be examined daily by their owners and at least yearly by their veterinarian. Certainly the lack of pain does not decrease the importance of medical care.

And consider this, animals in the wild try to hide weaknesses and pain because they know that only the strong survive. It is instinct to avoid standing out in the group as the sick or the weak. So even if the issue is a painful one, you may not know.

A good example is an excruciating disease process in cats called Tooth Root Resorption. We, as veterinary professionals, know it is painful because even under anesthesia, when you touch the lesion with a probe, the cat will reflexively pop its jaw. This is an incidental diagnosis that I usually make on my exam because owners say that the cats are acting fine and eating normally. But after I address the disease, owners report that their cats act like kittens and they thank me and wish they had addressed it sooner. You just can't always tell the severity of disease by the overt pain level.

The list of examples of problems that are not painful or apparent is a long one. I have only touched on two, the bottom line that I want all pet owners (and all of those that own a body too), just because it doesn't hurt or seem to cause problems, does NOT mean it doesn't. Please be alert to changes, masses, bumps, bad breath....anything that is different. And tell your care providers.

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