It's Cold Out There!

Take a look at this article for great tips on protecting your pets from the winter cold!

Dr Grafinger gets his picture in the paper!

Take a look at our article in the Durham Herald!

From our friends at Pet Poison Helpline

Holiday Toxins: Tips from Pet Poison Helpline to Help Keep Your Pet Safe!

Tips on holiday foods, plants and decorations that can put your pet at risk.

By Justine Lee, DVM, DACVECC

The holidays are stressful enough without having to worry about a potentially poisoned pet. Below is a list of holiday-related decorations, plants and food items that the veterinarians at Pet Poison Helpline recommend keeping away from pets.

Holiday Ornaments: When decorating for the season, consider your pets. Holiday decorations such as old-fashioned bubble lights may contain poisonous chemicals. If your pet chews on them, the liquid inside could be dangerous to their health. Methylene chloride, the chemical in bubble lights, can result in depression, aspiration pneumonia and irritation to the eyes, skin and gastrointestinal tract.

Tinsel: Another holiday ornament to avoid is tinsel. If you own a cat, toss the tinsel! What looks like a shiny toy to your cat can prove deadly if ingested. While tinsel itself is not “poisonous,” it can result in a severe linear foreign body if ingested. A linear foreign body occurs when your pet swallows something “stringy” (like ribbon, yarn, tinsel, cassette tape, etc.), which wraps around the base of the tongue or anchors itself in the stomach, rendering it unable to pass through the intestines. As the intestines contract and move, this string or linear foreign body can slowly saw through the tissue, resulting in severe damage to your pet’s intestinal tract. Ultimately, pets run the risk of severe injury to, or rupture of their intestines and treatment involves expensive abdominal surgery. Save your holiday bonus for yourself instead of your pet’s surgery, and keep tinsel, ribbon, yarn, thread, fabric, etc. out of reach!

Antifreeze: During this time of the year, it’s important to make sure your pet isn’t ingesting any radiator coolant! Antifreeze can be found in numerous sources. Here in Minnesota, a lot of people put antifreeze into their cabin’s toilet to prevent it from freezing during the winter, and we see a lot of toxicities here at Pet Poison Helpline from dogs running into cabins and drinking out of the toilet. Finally, there are rumors of small amounts of antifreeze in holiday ornaments such as imported snow globes. Recently, some were found to contain antifreeze (ethylene glycol) in the liquid. If a snow globe falls off the table and cracks open, and your pet licks up the contents of the snow globe, there is the risk of antifreeze poisoning. As little as one teaspoon of antifreeze when ingested by a cat or a tablespoon or two for a dog (depending on their size), can be fatal. Signs of early poisoning include acting drunk or uncoordinated, excessive thirst, and lethargy. While signs may seem to improve after eight to twelve hours, internal damage is actually worsening, and crystals develop in the kidneys resulting in acute kidney failure. Immediate treatment with an antidote (fomepizole or ethanol) is vital. As the antidote only works if given within the first 3 hours for cats and 8-12 hours for dogs, it’s imperative that you seek veterinary care immediately for blood testing for antifreeze poisoning (including an ethylene glycol test and venous blood gas test).

Plants: Though they have a bad rap, poinsettia plants are only mildly toxic. Far more worrisome are holiday bouquets containing lilies, holly or mistletoe. Even bouquets brought into the house by holiday guests should be thoroughly inspected, as lilies are the #1 flower often used by florists. Just one or two bites from a lily can result in severe acute kidney failure in cats – even the pollen is thought to be poisonous! When in doubt, don’t let these bouquets in a cat-loving household!

Other yuletide plants such as holly berries, mistletoe, and rosemary can also be toxic to pets. When Christmas or English holly is ingested, it can result in severe gastrointestinal upset thanks to the spiny leaves and the potentially toxic substances (including saponins, methylxanthines, and cyanogens). If ingested, most pets lip smack, drool, and head shake excessively due to the mechanical injury from the spiny leaves. As for mistletoe, most of us hang it high enough so it’s out of reach of our pets – nevertheless, it can also be toxic if ingested. Thankfully, American mistletoe is less toxic than the European varieties of it. Mild signs of gastrointestinal irritation are seen, although if ingested in large amounts, collapse, hypotension, ataxia (walking drunk), seizures and death have also been reported.

Recently, florists have started to use Japanese Yew to make wreaths – all parts of this evergreen (including the succulent, red berries) are very poisonous, as they contain taxines, biofavonoids and cyanogenic glycosides. If ingested, this Taxus species can result in dizziness, abnormal heart rate (initially elevated, then slowed), hypotension, dilated pupils, coma, and death! As horses are very susceptible to Yew poisoning, make sure not to have this around the barn or pasture!

Alcohol: Most people know not to give alcoholic drinks to their pets; however alcohol poisoning in pets is more common than you think! This is because alcohol can be found in surprising places! Rum-soaked fruitcake or unbaked dough that contains yeast result in alcohol poisoning and other problems. Dough will expand in the warm, moist environment of the stomach and can result in a bloat, which can then progress to a GDV or gastric-dilitation volvulus (twisted stomach). Signs of this include vomiting, non-productive retching, a distended stomach, an elevated heart rate, and weakness or collapse. Secondly, alcohol from the fermenting yeast is rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream and affects pets quickly. Ingestion of alcohol can cause dangerous drops in blood sugar, blood pressure and body temperature. Intoxicated animals can experience seizures and respiratory failure.

Holiday Foods: With the holiday season comes a delightful variety of baked goods, chocolate confections and other rich, fattening foods. However, it is not wise (and in some cases is quite dangerous) to share these treats with your pets. Keep your pet on his or her regular diet over the holidays and do not let family and friends sneak in treats. Foods that can present problems:

• Foods containing grapes, raisins and currents (such as fruit cakes) can result in kidney failure in dogs.
• Chocolate and cocoa contain theobromine, a chemical highly toxic to dogs and cats. Ingestion in small amounts can cause vomiting and diarrhea but large amounts can cause seizures and heart arrhythmias.
• Many sugarless gums and candies contain xylitol, a sweetener which is toxic to dogs. It causes a life-threatening drop in blood sugar and liver failure.
• Leftover, fatty meat scraps can produce severe inflammation of the pancreas (pancreatitis) leading to abdominal pain, vomiting and bloody diarrhea.

Liquid Potpourri: Filling your house with the smell of nutmeg or pine for the holidays may seem inviting—but if you’re partial to heating your scented oils in a simmer pot, know that they can cause serious harm to your cat; even a few licks can result in severe chemical burns in the mouth, fever, difficulty breathing, and tremors. Dogs aren’t as sensitive, but it’s still better to be safe than sorry—so scent your home with a non-toxic candle kept safely out of kitty’s reach.

When it comes to the holidays, the best thing a pet owner can do is get educated on common household toxins and pet-proof your home accordingly. If you think your pet has been poisoned, contact your veterinarian or Pet Poison Helpline at 800-213-6680 with any questions or concerns.

Resources: Pet Poison Helpline (PPH) is an Animal Poison Control that provides treatment advice and recommendations relating to exposures to potential dangerous plants, products, medications, and substances, to veterinarians, veterinary staff and pet owners 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Please be aware there is a $35.00/per case consultation fee. Pet Poison Helpline is located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Helpline number is 1-800-213-6680.

For further information regarding services, visit the PPH website at www.petpoisonhelpline.com.

What do they do home alone all day?

Do you think you know what your cat does all day while you're at work? Nestle Purina PetCare's Friskies researchers arranged for 50 pet cats to wear cameras on their collars and take a photo every 15 minutes.

Surprisingly, only 6 percent of their time was spent sleeping. The cats spent 22 percent of their time looking out of windows, 12 percent interacting with other pets, 8 percent climbing on furniture. Cats spent about 6 percent of their day looking at TV or computers, and 6 percent hanging out under tables. They spent about 5 percent for playing with toys and 4 percent eating.

Surprised?

Source

Cat food recalled over thiamine deficiency Select bags of Premium Edge could lead to gastrointestinal problems

WASHINGTON - Diamond Pet Foods recalled select bags of dry cat food Tuesday after 21 reports of health problems in cats.

Select bags of Premium Edge Finicky Adult Cat and Premium Edge Hairball could lead to gastrointestinal or neurological problems for cats, because they do not contain enough thiamine, an essential nutrient for cats.

If cats fed these foods have no other source of nutrition, they could develop thiamine deficiency. If untreated, this disorder could result in death.

Initial symptoms of thiamine deficiency include decreased appetite, salivation, vomiting and weight loss. Later, neurological problems could develop including, bending the neck toward the floor, wobbly walking, circling, falling and seizures.

The company has confirmed 21 cases of thiamine deficiency in New York and Pennsylvania.

The recalled bags of food were distributed in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Alabama, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.

For a full refund, consumers can return the recalled cat food to the place it was purchased. For more information call 800-977-8797

Source

It's happening all over the country....

ELKHART, Ind.—

Each day at five, staff members of the Humane Society of Elkhart County close the animal shelter and hold a meeting. And each day, like clockwork, they begin hearing a “thump, thump, thump” from outside.

That is the sound of pets being abandoned by owners who either do not want them or cannot care for them anymore.

Among the recent arrivals left in “drop boxes” — kennels that are accessible through doors on the outside of the facility — are Sweet Pea, a Chihuahua being nursed back to health from near starvation, a cocker spaniel named Cookie and a “family” of three pets left together — a dog, a cat and rat.

These animals add to the usual traffic of strays, rabid raccoons and animals rescued from abuse. When the drop boxes are full, the Humane Society finds pets tied up at the door, or — as was the case with a domesticated ferret — running around in the parking lot. Recently a whole litter of kittens was left in the Humane Society dumpster.

With as many as 600 or 700 animals arriving each month — sometimes 30 animals in a single day — the facility, which has space for only 266, is in crisis mode.

'Unsavory position'
The numbers are “staggering” and resources are stretched, said Anne Reel, the Humane Society of Elkhart County’s executive director.

“Since the economy has been like this, even rescuers have been down,” she said, referring to nonprofits that provide temporary homes until animals can be adopted. “(Now) we’re in the unsavory position of having to euthanize because we just can’t turn animals around fast enough.”

In one month alone, the shelter had to euthanize 600 animals, she said.

Carissa Ray/msnbc.com

Jack O'Lantern, an orange tabby cat, was thrown from a car in front of the Humane Society of Elkhart County's shelter over Halloween weekend.

The Humane Society staff believes the poor economy is behind the high rate of abandonment — forcing people to give up pets when they run out of money to feed them or lose their homes and move into apartments or in with relatives. It’s impossible to know for sure because many people drop off their pets anonymously in the drop boxes and don’t fill out the forms that would help the Humane Society staff understand the animal’s health background and breeding. Since October 2008, the shelter has handled 5,783 animals, 42 percent of which were abandoned anonymously.

“For the most part, people just cram the animal in the door, get in their car and speed away as fast as possible,” said Reel. “Occasionally we have someone walk through the front door and say ‘I’ve been laid off my job, we’re moving into an apartment, we can’t find anyone to take them,’ and do it responsibly.”

Looming cuts?
The number of cats dropped off is especially high, perhaps because people have been reluctant to spend money to spay or neuter their cats under current economic conditions.

The Humane Society is struggling to meet the increased demand. Its budget for free spaying and neutering of cats was shot by April. The pet assistance program, which provides free pet food to help owners who are struggling financially, had 444 requests this year, about two-thirds of them first-time requests. This program is important because it keeps pets with their owners, avoiding unnecessary abandonment.

About half of the Humane Society’s $700,000 annual budget is provided by the county and cities, under a contract for animal control. But the organization is anticipating cuts in the next round of government budgets and, like many nonprofits, is casting about for new fundraising ideas, and trying to expand its donor base.

Carissa Ray/msnbc.com

A dog sits quietly at the Humane Society of Elkhart County while awaiting adoption.

Meanwhile, Reel brought in a fatigue specialist to work with the staff of 16.

“We are overwhelmed in trying to decide who stays and who will have to be eliminated,” she said, referring to animals that have to be euthanized. “It takes a toll on our staff. It is not a pleasant job. “

The staff also grapple with a year caring for and cleaning up after all these creatures — many which are in terrible condition by the time they are dropped off, with severe such maladies as ringworm, fleas and mange. That requires careful handling, and a lot of bleach to prevent the spread of disease.

When people ask Reel, “How can I help?” she tells them to “adopt, donate or send bleach.”

Source

H1N1 virus in reported in cats

From the AVMA:

"2009 H1N1 influenza virus confirmed in Iowa cat

November 4, 2009 – A 13-year old cat in Iowa developed signs of a respiratory infection after several people in the household were ill. Preliminary testing was positive for 2009 H1N1 on October 29, and the results were confirmed on November 2. This is the first report of a cat infected with H1N1. The cat has recovered from its illness.

To date, this is the first cat confirmed infected with the 2009 H1N1 virus. Two ferrets, one in Oregon and one in Nebraska, have also recently been confirmed infected with the 2009 H1N1 virus. The Nebraska ferret died, but the Oregon ferret has recovered. To date, there is no evidence that the ferrets or the cat passed the virus to people." (Emphasis added)

"The American Veterinary Medical Association and American Association of Feline Practitioners are reminding pet owners that many viruses can pass between people and animals, so this was not an altogether unexpected event. We are advising pet owners to monitor their pets’ health very closely, no matter what type of animal, and visit a veterinarian if there are any signs of illness.
For more information, view the AVMA’s press release on the Iowa case or visit the AVMA’s H1N1 resources Web page."

Like the press release says, this isn't really all that unexpected, but it is interesting and important for cats, their owners and veterinarians. For now at least, all of the animals seem to have contracted the disease from people, rather than the other way around.

Alert for owners of diabetic pets

FDA-CVM Issues Alert About Problems with Vetsulin® Porcine Insulin Zinc Suspension

November 3, 2009 – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Veterinary Medicine, in cooperation with Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health, has announced that Vetsulin® may have varying amounts of crystalline zinc insulin, the active ingredient, in the formula. As a result, use of the product could result in a delay in action of the drug as well as prolonged action, which could cause difficulty in managing diabetic pets. Get more information on the AVMA web site, AVMA.org: http://www.avma.org/aa/vetsulin_091102.asp

Happy News!

82 healthy sea turtles hatch at San Diego SeaWorld!

Source

Chocolate toxicity

A few notes from Dr Grafinger:

Chocolate toxicity usually occurs during the holidays (Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter) when pets are exposed or fed a variety of chocolate containing products. It is among the 20 most common toxicities which occur in veterinary medicine. The toxicity occurs more commonly in dogs and almost never in our feline companions. Cats are more particular about what they eat. Dogs tend to consume large quantities of unusual foods quickly.

Common products containing cocoa include: candy, cakes, cookies, brownies, baking supplies, and cocoa bean mulches.

In general the lighter colored chocolate products (e.g. White chocolate) are less toxic, and darker products are more toxic (e.g. Hershey’s Special Dark Chocolate). The toxic compounds in chocolate are methylxanthine alkaloids which include caffeine and theobromine. White chocolate contains 0.05 g/kg of theobromine, and baking chocolate contains 16 g/kg theobromine. Many chocolate products have a high fat content which can precipitate pancreatitis as well.

Toxic doses according to ASPCA Animal Control Center are as follows:
Mild signs occur in dogs ingesting 20 mg/kg.
Severe signs are seen with ingestion of 40-50 mg/kg
Seizures can occur with a dose of 60mg/kg
Death can occur with 100-200 mg/kg

Big news for cat rescue groups

Raleigh man leaves nearly $1.7 million estate to cat charities
Emil Campbell

Posted: Oct. 28 11:02 p.m.
Updated: Today at 5:20 a.m.

Raleigh, N.C. — A Raleigh cat-lover has left his nearly $1.7 million estate to area feline charities.

“He was very fond of cats and animals,” attorney Bobby Khot, with Wills Trusts and Estates, said of client Emil Campbell.

Khot said Campbell, who died suddenly last month, designated four cat charities to share his estate.

“It was like a gift from heaven,” said Lynn Jernigan, with Snowflake Animal Rescue. “I couldn't believe it. I opened the letter and I had to read it twice.”

Jernigan said her rescue group gets less than $6,000 a year in donations. The volunteer organization doesn’t even have a building of its own. However, the generous gift from Campbell could change that.

“We could certainly become a much larger rescue group if we had the facility,” Jernigan said.

“It's going to make a pretty big difference across the board, hopefully in the community here, especially,” said Carol De Olloqui, with Marley's Cat Tales.

Marley's Cat Tales, another group that provides health care and homes for cats, was also named a benefactor of Campbell's estate.

“A donation like this will allow us to spay or neuter as many animals as possible and make a difference in alleviating the problem of overpopulation,” Olloqui said.

SAFE Haven for Cats will also get a share of the money from Campbell.

In addition to the three main beneficiaries, Campbell also left money to Second Chance Pet Adoptions. The rescue group wasn’t aware yet of how much money it would receive, but said any amount was greatly appreciated.

“(He was) very frugal. He didn't work a job that paid him a lot of money, but he pinched his pennies and he saved his money,” Khot said of Campbell.

Campbell had one surviving daughter. Khot said she was not thrilled with the will, but a family friend said Campbell took care of his daughter outside of his estate.

Source

People aren't the only ones facing the flu

First identified in 2003 in Florida, a canine influenza identified as H3N8 is now widespread, with documented occurrences in 30 states and the District of Columbia. Because this is a newly emerging pathogen, all dogs, regardless of breed or age, are susceptible to infection and have no naturally acquired or vaccine-induced immunity when first exposed to the virus. The good news is that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has approved a new vaccine. Be sure to ask your regular veterinarian for more information.

More information