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Flea Med Reaction, Dog Won’t Pee in Rain

Posted on: November 8th, 2011 by


Hi, I’m Dr. Fiona Caldwell and I’m a veterinarian at Idaho Veterinary Hospital. Today I’m answering questions from Pets Best Facebook page.

The first one comes from Patricia, who asks, “Can applying flea and tick medicine like Advantage make my Labrador ill?”

Absolutely. Sometimes these flea and tick medications, which are oftentimes insecticides, can make animals ill, especially if it’s not used correctly. Always make sure that you’re getting the right dosage strength for the right animal. For example, cats can’t tolerate a lot of those topical flea and tick medications.

If you’re seeing a reaction to one, it really could be a problem. Use something like Dawn dish soap to wash the area where you applied it really well, and then rinse really well. If it continues to be a problem, you probably need to see your veterinarian.

In the meantime, if you want to use some type of a flea and tick medication, contact your veterinarian. There are a ton of products out there, ones that are taken orally so you don’t have to necessarily be doing anything on the skin, or prescription ones that aren’t insecticides that are actually absorbed through the skin and work a little bit differently, so you can figure out a product that works well for you.

The next one is from Tara. She writes, “My dog will not pee in the rain. She’ll hold it until it stops raining. Is this bad for her?”

Sometimes dogs won’t like to urinate when it’s inclement weather. This actually happens with some frequency. In snow, rain, cold or wind, typically little dogs especially can sometimes really not like this. It’s not great for her to hold it for a really long time so if you could find a covered area or somewhere that’s a little bit drier, that’s going to be better. She won’t hold it to a point that’s going to damage her, but obviously it can be uncomfortable.

One alternative that you might consider, and this works okay especially for small dogs, is using a litter pan or piddle pads. You can just train them to use that and then quickly clean up so they don’t have to go outside, especially if you live in an area that has snow or rain for a lot of the year. That might be something to try.
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Helping a Cat Lose Weight and Calming a Storm-Scared Dog

Posted on: October 31st, 2011 by

Hi, I’m Dr. Fiona Caldwell and I’m a veterinarian at Idaho Veterinary Hospital. Today I’m answering questions from Pets Best Facebook page.

The first question comes from Kate. She writes, “Any suggestions on helping our kitty lose weight? She’s about 13 pounds.” She goes on to talk about some things that she’s done already to try to get her to lose some weight, such as interactive toys and encouraging her to exercise. She’s on a weight loss prescription diet. Kate has worked with her veterinarian and ruled out underlying diseases and that type of thing. The kitty has stopped gaining weight but isn’t really budging down

I definitely want to applaud you for your weight loss efforts for your cat. Cats can be really tricky to get to lose weight and recognizing that they’ll be healthier at a lower weight is fantastic.

Feeding the prescription reduced-calorie diet is a great place to start. What you’re probably going to need to do is use a simple formula of ‘calories in, calories out’. She’s just going to need less calories.

One thing you might do is actually measure how much she’s eating in 24 hours. Take more than you’ll think she’ll eat, measure it out and put it in the bowl. At the end of 24 hours, put what’s left in there and you can see how much she eats in 24 hours. Then reduce that by 20%. Sometimes that will help kind of jump start that weight loss and get her to lose some weight.

The next one comes from Joanna, who says, “My female Shepherd mix is terrified of storms and reverts back to pottying in the house for a week after the storm has passed. Anything I can do to change this behavior?”

This sounds like pretty classic storm phobia, which unfortunately can be common in dogs. It is not only debilitating for them, but also sort of annoying for you, having to clean up that mess and also deal with her fear at that time.

What I would recommend you do is try working with a behaviorist or consult a veterinarian. There are great anti-anxiety medications that can be used during the time of the storm and in the days that follow to try and keep her from having the anxiety that’s causing the accidents in the house.

An alternative to medication that you might try is called the Thunder Shirt. This is a product that just kind of applies pressure to their body and makes them feel a little bit more secure. Some dogs do really well with it and it helps to lessen their anxiety. What you would do is put the shirt on before the storm, leave it on for as long as you think her anxiety will last, and then take it off.

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Chunky Pets! How to Help Them Lose

Posted on: September 12th, 2011 by

Hi. I’m Dr. Fiona Caldwell and I’m a practicing veterinarian at Idaho Veterinary Hospital. I’m at home today answering questions from Pets Best Facebook page.

The first question comes from Brenda, who says, “My three-year-old feline is a chunky monkey. She has her dry food monitored but she’s only lost three pounds and needs to lose three more. She’s on Royal Canin Weight Management. It’s the lowest-fat dry food I’ve found. She gets less than a cup a day. What else can I do?”

Cats and dogs are the same as people in that weight loss has to be by burning more calories than they’re taking in. If she has additional weight to lose, she really needs less calories still. Something that you can do would be to cut back that food even just a little bit more. Try to be patient. When you’re a cat and you only weigh 10 or 13 pounds, or whatever your cat weighs right now, that weight loss is going to be really slow. You should aim for probably no more than a pound a month or so. There’s a possibility that if she’s already lost the three, you just need to be a little bit more patient.

You could try switching to a weight management canned food. Canned food tends to have more water content in it, and it’s kind of a bigger amount of food but it’s less dense in terms of its calories. That would be another way you could make her feel like she’s eating more food but actually is taking in less calories. Keep up the good work. A healthy pet is usually a thin pet, so I applaud your efforts there.

The next question also has to do with weight and it comes from Sue. She has a Bichon mix who is very overweight. He’s on weight manage food but it doesn’t seem to be helping. He’s a rescue and has doubled in weight.

We see this sometimes in pets that have been rescued that had poor nutrition before. They never knew when their next meal was going to come so they tried to really eat all the time. What he needs to learn is that his next meal is coming. Great job on getting him on a weight management food, but what you probably need to do now is portion control.

Rather than letting him graze all day with a bowl of weight management food, you’re going to need to actually measure his food. Get an actual measuring cup from the grocery store and follow the back of the bag. Aim for the weight he should be, and aim for the low end of the range that’s on the back of the bag. It’s usually a good place to start.

I recommend feeding dogs twice a day. If he’s the kind of dog that likes to graze all the time and you put the food down and he doesn’t particularly eat it all in one sitting, put his measured amount in. If he doesn’t eat it in 10 minutes or so, then the food goes away and he gets it for dinner. Then the same thing; set it down for dinner, and if he doesn’t eat it that time, take it away and he gets it for breakfast. He’ll figure out eventually that you’re going to take his food away so he’ll learn to eat a whole meal at one time and you’ll have a much easier time with portion control.
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