We want to remind our listeners that this program is for informational and educational purposes only, and not intended to substitute for professional veterinarian medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. The Animal Medical Center does not recommend or endorse any products or services advertised by Sirius XM. Welcome to Ask the Vet with Dr. Ann Hohenhaus. From everyday concerns to the latest advances in veterinary medicine, Dr. Ann Hohenhaus’ guests help you make informed decisions for the pets you love. Every episode features a leading expert in animal health, sharing trusted advice on the issues that matter most to pet owners in the world renowned Animal Medical Center in New York City. Here is Dr. Ann Hohenhaus. Hello everyone, and welcome to. It's the podcast for people who love their pets and want the latest in pet health and animal news. I'm your host, I'm Dr. Ann Hohenhaus, and I'm a senior veterinarian and director of pet health information here at the Schwarzman Animal Medical Center in New York City. And we're on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Today, we're focusing on one of the hardest parts of loving a pet, caring for them at the end of their life. I'm going to be joined by Doctor Wendy McCulloch, veterinarian and founder of Pet Requiem, to talk about quality of life, difficult decisions and how pet families can find compassionate support when they need us most. I'm so grateful to have her join us for this important conversation today. The Schwarzman Animal Medical Center is the only level one veterinary trauma center in New York City, and we have 115 years of being the very best place for your pet. Now, don't forget, if you're seeking advice on maintaining your pet's health, I'm here to help. Just send me your questions to ask the vet at amcny, and I'll answer your questions on next month. Show and don't tune out too early, because we'll have answers to really important questions on today's program. It's time for the internet's most talked about animal. This story takes us to Izmir, Turkey, where a stray orange tabby cat made an unexpected appearance during an outdoor performance of Romeo and Juliet by the Imperial Russian Ballet Company. The cat calmly walked on stage during the play's final act, just after Romeo's death, as Juliet was mourning over his body. The little orange feline settled himself in beside the actor, playing Romeo pod as it hair looked on curiously as the scene continued, drawing laughter from the audience. After a video of the impromptu performance was shared on social media online, viewers quickly gave the cat a stage name, Ro Meow. The actors were praised for staying in character, but Romeo somehow stole the show, turning one of Shakespeare's most famous tragedies into an unexpected comedy. And now it's my pleasure to welcome my friend, colleague and sometimes customer doctor Wendy McCulloch. Doctor McCulloch graduated from the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine and completed a rotating internship in medicine and surgery right here at AMC. She then went on to practice at Red Bank Veterinary Hospital, where she established and ran a successful house call practice for that hospital. In 2009, she followed home, vet's NYC and Pet Requiem, and today, through those practices, doctor McCulloch provides both routine in-home veterinary care and compassionate in-home end of life care for cats and dogs in New York City. So I'm thrilled to have her on the show. Doctor Wendy McCulloch, welcome to and thank you so much for joining me. Thank you. Thank you so much. And for inviting me. Yes, I, I know I'm, I feel like I'm part of the AMC family, so it's very nice to be invited to speak today so our listeners don't get to see what we see, because this is recorded on zoom and we just don't show the video. But on the video I got to see Wendy's very cute little tuxedo cat with awesome white whiskers. Can you tell us about her? Yes. I might have to actually stop for a little bit to stop her from. She has a thing for paper and she's ripping up paper right now and do it when I get on the phone. Stop it and tell me if the she's background noise is really annoying you because she's doing it again. So I adopted I adopted Frannie about a year ago when her her owner died. So she was 15 when I got her and her 92 year old owner had passed away. And she'd been put into foster care, and they weren't. She wasn't doing very well. So that's how I ended up with her. She was delivered to my door in a carrier, sight unseen. And she's just the dearest little thing. So it took me about a year to get over my last cat. So this was I felt it was about time, and I had no excuse for not having a cat when one came along and need. So the cat distribution center system worked at magic. I think that the cats, a lot of cats find you. You know, you don't have to work too hard to find a cat. I think they find you at the right time. Now, you said she was 15. Yes. She doesn't look 15 at all. No. And she does know her way around a can of Purina Pro plan a couple a day. Actually, she's. She's a good eater and she's a good player. She likes to run and play and she's. You wouldn't. I was like, I was very surprised when I saw her doing that at the age of 15. So she's very she's now 16. So wow. You know, cats that live in New York City can live a really long time just because they don't go outside and they don't get bitten and injured and hit by cars and, you know, in scraps with other cats and stuff. So I'm thinking that our listeners have noticed that you have a very distinct accent because you're originally from New Zealand, and then you had this path to entering medicine that was certainly not traditional. Like, I have the incredible boring pathway. I went to college, I went to vet school, and then I did an internship. Not not much else in between there. So can you tell us about your pathway and how you ultimately became a veterinarian in New York City? Yeah. Well, first of all, I'll just say I was the member of the family. There were five kids in our family, and I was the one that was obsessed with the family cat. So we had a cat called tippy black and white. And that was, you know, he was the love of my life. So it's amazing how you end up finding going back to what was your passion as a child. So I went to through college in New Zealand, and I was going to be a, a food scientist or a dietitian. And then I decided when I finished all that, I was working for a wine company. They were I was working in the in the lab. And then I decided I needed to do an overseas experience, which every Kiwi does. And that was it. The rest was history. I went off and traveled and worked abroad. And one of my jobs that I ended up with was working as a caterer for rock and roll tours in the late 80s, early 90s, when that sort of started to be a huge touring industry. So we the very first tour, I the first gig I ever did was O'Connor at the Hammersmith Odeon, and I was I was like just overwhelmed because she was the biggest thing out at that time. And then the first tour I did was Tina Turner, so I was sent out to Europe to meet up with the crew. So that was my that was my introduction to being on the road as a crew member, production crew member. And in those days, they wanted to make sure that the crew could load in and work all day and have rolling meals and good quality meals throughout the day. So everything was bought fresh and cooked. We had teams of chefs. We rolled in our we created kitchens in these spaces and, you know, they got it was a really well organized, well-oiled machine. So by the time I started working, the very last big tour I did was the Rolling Stones tour, and that was just before I went back to to before I went to vet school, and that was a year long tour. So, okay, I can see where you can travel with your traveling kitchen and you put everything in big containers and it gets wheeled on a truck and goes to the next place. But how do you source the food? Yeah, well, that's when it's a huge production like the Rolling Stones. At that time we had 55 trucks with the main unit, so that had you sound a new lighting. And so it's a huge logistical puzzle. And so and, and ahead of that was a stage being built. So there were steel trucks, there were 15 at each team and then there was one being dismantled. So they were they were flip flopping. And I would go ahead and for the Rolling Stones for certain legs, I would go ahead and I would have a runner, somebody driving me around, and I would source the food, the raw materials and have it ready for when the main catering crew came through. Everything was there in a refrigerated container, so I had to think about things like, oh, there's a public holiday, we're in Germany, all the shops are going to be closed or we're in Mexico, you know? So there were logistical nightmares and we didn't have the internet and we we just had cell phones in those days. And we had we didn't have the euro. So I was trying to reconcile the currency between so, you know, and all that a million receipts per show. And in those days they used to reconcile the show with the promoter on the night of the show. So you had to have all your receipts and everything all ready to hand over, because that's the the promoter would pay a certain amount of that. So it was a, it was, it was a like an army. So how many people were you would you feed a day on a Rolling Stones tour? Three meals a day for how many people? Well, we had about 350 core crew members, but then there would be certain legs where they would say, well, we have to have double drivers because we have certain long transfers between cities and we've got to drive the trucks and, you know, the drivers have to have a rest. So we have to have double drivers, double bus drivers. So I mean there were the numbers would go up and it'd be like all of a sudden, oh we've got seven, we've got a video crew. Oh we have more people. So things would get changed on our salute. And being the lowest man on the totem pole, you weren't often given a great amount of heads up. So it was a matter of that. Nobody wanted to know, and nobody wanted to know what you had gone through to get what had been asked of you. You know, it had last minute requests and you'd be like, if only they know what I had gone through to get this delivered. But all they wanted was results. So you kind of delivered and on to the next show. So how does what did you learn out of that experience that made you the veterinarian you are today? Think on your feet. Definitely think on your feet. Anything? I mean, I think it makes you a good production person. Good production people always think of the worst case scenario. And as veterinarians, we always are apprized of we always know the risks and what what we don't want to happen. And I think it's very much the same somebody who's very good at organizing a complicated production or a logistical chain of events has to know what could go wrong. So usually it doesn't. So I think and we're very good at that. And veterinary medicine, we're very, very good at that. And sometimes people like, well why are you telling me all these things? Because, you know, it's the one person you that you leave that out that will happen. So, you know, I think, so it prepared me very well and especially the internship at the AMC because. So I agree with you on the the thinking ahead. And I work really hard to get the residents not to just say, okay, we're going to do this, but what's what's the consequence tomorrow, what might happen tomorrow? So we're prepared for it. And we had a cat who was struggling with heart failure. And we we gave it a medicine that sometimes makes heart failure worse. But it needed the medicine for its cancer. And sure enough, this morning it's kind of in heart failure again. And I had said yesterday that we're going to give one dose of this medicine. We're not going to sign it up for multiple administrations, and we're just going to see what happens, because I'm really worried we could be in a bad situation tomorrow. And sure enough, it was good that we didn't give any more than one dose of that medicine. So it's it's it's so important in medicine to be able to think ahead and, and what might happen. And what are you going to do if what might if the pet gets better? Great. You don't have to think ahead. And if if the pets not doing better, what are you going to do to make it better? So I can see absolutely where catering rock and roll tours on the road would would be exactly like that. So you started to talk about your internship. So our new intern started last week, and we also had intern and resident graduation to celebrate those who finished their internships and residencies this year. So what do you remember most from being an intern? Yeah, well, I was thinking about that the other day, actually, and I got I remember seeing the picture of everybody graduating. So it took me back to that time of year. And I remember arriving in New York City and there's a little backstory there. I basically had a with my cat and my belongings in the car and a tiny car and starting my life again, divorced and penniless, and it was as hot as can be. It was like this. And I remember thinking, oh my God, what have I done? And and we did. But we did have a lot of fun. We worked really hard. But what I remember to is we would go out and we would go out in this heat and stand in the subway, and I don't know how I can't do that now. But what I most remember, I think, is the teamwork and the, the way our, our class got very, very close. And I think we were closer because we'd all gone through a unique experience that not many, you know, people go through. Really. It was it's kind of a cross between shock, excitement. Because you're trying to put all that didactic learning that you went through at university into you're getting the files out and you're putting them into practice. So it's a very stress. It's very stressful. It was very the hours were long. A parallel with being on the road, actually, we had very long hours and there was no weekend in your mind. And, you know, so the AMC was very much like that. It was it was a really fantastic way to train your critical thinking. Yeah. I too, from my internship, remember the people and how wonderful they were. And the first week of my internship, Leonard Bernstein was conducting the Philharmonic in Central Park. And we formed this team really early because those people who weren't working, you know, because people at AMC have random days off. And I was off that day. So we collected up everybody's picnic blanket, me and one of the other interns, and staked out our territory in Central Park early in the baking sun, in the middle of the Great Lawn where there's not a tree to be had. And we baked out there all day. And then when people got off work, we had a pink flamingo taped to a broom so people could find us, and we saw Leonard Bernstein conduct. It was one of the most wonderful evenings ever, and an example of how AMC really breeds teamwork, because the people who are off went and staked out the territory, and then the rest of the people came and brought the food and drinks. Later, after we baked under the sun for all day. And so I think the teamwork and the opportunity to socialize with like minded people and people with the same salary as you have was really good, because you never felt poor, because you all were poor. So yeah. And you did, you know when somebody was having a rough day, there was always someone in your team, you always, you know, supporting the other person. You know, there was that you it really was a wonderful I much was much closer with my AMC internship class than my vet school class, because you'd gone through something just so unique together, and you really had to support each other to get through it. And, you know, which is actually very similar to when I was on the road to that's a very unique thing. It's it's really you have to support each other. People have bad days and good days. You're living together pretty much. And AMC, the hours we were often living in the same building at the intern house as well. So there was there's something to be said for that. You know, so interesting, though, that you went from an internship, which is this group practice. So for listeners who don't understand how AMC works, AMC has multiple small groups of doctors. And some of us like me, I stay on oncology all the time, and people who are interns rotate around the hospital. And so they, they learn different things and they work with different groups. So the teams change about every month. So you work it's really a team practice and you discuss patients and you say, well, what does everyone think? Because I'm not really sure what I should do. And then the group comes up with a plan which is completely different than how Wendy McCulloch practices today, which is you're a solo practitioner in a house called practice. You don't have a facility. So how did the AMC experience get you to being a solo on the road? I get where the on the road comes from now, but where does the solo come from? Yeah, I guess, I mean, I did go and I did work at Red Bank for a while, I guess I felt like I needed, I couldn't be. It was that restless New Zealand thing. I have to be on the move and I never know. Well, even in clinic, you never know what your day is going to be like. But I kind of like to be my own boss, really, and have the freedom of my schedule and and not have to go to one place all the time. I'm in my car, you know, and it is pretty solitary, I must say. But, you know, I get to meet people at a different level because I'm entering their homes. So I see them as my friends, you know, it's like, oh, no more friends today, you know? So I don't feel lonely. And there's some great I can pick up the phone. And if I have questions about a case and speak to somebody like you or, you know, and say, what do you think about this? So yeah, I it suits me. It's not for everybody. Definitely. But I think it suits me. And I'm just going to add so my mother was a public health nurse in New Zealand. So she did the same thing, visiting families at home to make sure their babies were putting on weight and things after they'd come home from. And sometimes we would go with her if it were school holidays and we didn't have a babysitter. So it's weird. I kind of feel like I hear my mother sometimes when I walk into somebody's house and I'm meeting their pet, you know? That's what she did. So, you know, pets behave differently at the veterinary office than they do at home. And so people will say, can you show me how to give a pill? And I popped the pill down the couch throat and then they're like, she doesn't behave like that for me at home. And, you know, part of it, I think, is an intimidation factor. The cat at AMC is I'm in charge. It's my space. Whereas the cat at home, the cats, like, this is my space and I get to do what I want. So when it comes to practicing medicine with a pet at home. What? What do you see that I miss in the clinic? Because I don't see the pet in their home environment? Yeah, it's it's a good question because it can go either way if you're broaching or breaching that pets, you know, safe space. So you've got so a lot of it. I do prepare owners, you know, and I wanted to have a little chat before I come. So I know how to maybe negotiate entry into the party and handling their pet. First off, I do find there haven't been. Had to go in the carrier, go on the drive. So there's all that adrenaline buildup that hasn't happened when I get there. So you have a short window of opportunity. You kind of. I always prime the owners that, you know, if we're going to try to get blood, we want to try to do this pretty early on in the piece before the animal gets wise to everything. And there's towels and a little bit of calisthenics and twister. And sometimes, you know, we need to put them in a small room where they can't run and hide under the bed. So there's it's one of those problems solving things. But I feel like most of the time you have short windows where you can handle the pet. Let it go, walks off, comes back, treats go a long way to is quite, you know, quite a good one. And nine times out of ten after they've been I you know, I don't like this or giving you a little bit of a hard time if they're going to then they, they walk off, their tail goes up and they come back and it's, it wasn't that bad. And, and pet parents are usually really happy to see that, you know. So I get to see that I get to see how the pet negotiates. The other thing that I think is an advantage in a house call, you can see how the pet negotiates their environment when they're not stressed out, so you see them more naturally moving around. You can see them the gate and their neurologic, you know, abilities a lot easier than in the environment of a vet clinic because they're obviously really scared and they're often crouched. You can also see what they're eating, how their food is being presented, what their litter pan set up is, all those things and environmental enrichment. So there's a lot of stuff there that I can, you know, I can speak to the owners about. And, and it's a it's really helpful. There's a lot more. And it's not as there's no waiting room and there's you know, obviously not every situation is ideal for a house call. And I'm very quick to tell people that if I think there needs to be seen in a clinic, you know. Right. So I think it's really interesting. People will bring me their pet for limping and the thing won't limp once because all it wants to do is scramble as fast as it can to the door. It knows where the elevator is, and no way is that pet going to limp when it comes to see me. But at home, where it's not trying to escape, you can actually see that, you know, it's it's not walking so good on its back leg. So that's a that that would probably be a great advantage especially for pets limping. So in addition to your house core practice you also have Pet Requiem which is dedicated to helping families navigate end of life care. So how did you realize that there was a need for a service like Pet Requiem? Yeah, so when I was at Red Bank, I saw that a lot of the visits were people requesting home euthanasia or, and, and I also worked at in the emergency department. I would do emergency shifts. I was a general practitioner there too. So I saw patients as well. And I would often have clients who had to have we had to have the talk to them about that. Euthanasia was an option here, and people would sometimes feel panicked and feel like they needed to make that decision then and there. And I sort of felt like there was this was a nice opportunity to be able to say, well, you know, we know this. You can go home and think about it and we'll give you the name of somebody who could come to the home and do this, which any house call that it's nothing new. Any house Corvette would do that. But I did find that with the internet coming about and search engine optimization and Google ads, people wanted to, it was a quicker way of people finding that service. So they might not necessarily ask for a house, want a house Corvette for their pet, or need one, but for that they would prefer one. But they didn't. And sometimes they didn't know they wanted it until it was present. The option was presented. So I started Pet Requiem in 2009. Was it 2009 or 2006? It was I did I started thinking about it before Leopard Love because they were from University of Florida two. They were year behind me, I think, and I had thought about that. I'd gone to a conference in California and I thought, yeah, this is the thing, this is definitely needed in this city. And I was in new Jersey at the time, but I would come into the city and work as well and do house calls. So I was the first person to really have a dedicated end of life service in the Manhattan, New York area. It's a lot more providers now, but, yeah. So it was it was definitely, you know, a needed thing. And it's now everybody's like, oh yeah, this is an option. People didn't know it was an option before. They just didn't know how to ask for it. Yeah, I think, you know, it's right for some people, not right for some people. And I always say to people when they say, well, well how does it work? And then I have to say, well, you could do it this way, you could do it this way. There's a lot of options. And I think one of my advice to people is often, let's talk about it now before you really have to make this decision, because then you will have had a chance to think about it and think what it is that you really want. So how do you discuss the topic of euthanasia with clients? Well, well, first I actually I just want to mention because I'm not doing a hard sell for home euthanasia because you actually, I did bring my cat to you to be euthanized because, that was the right thing at the time, I didn't I couldn't put him to sleep, but he was clearly ready, and I, you know, needed to make do, do something. And I wasn't going to be able to have somebody come to the home. So there are incidents like that where I will say to people, listen, you know, your pet suffering at this point or are you don't usually use the word suffering. But, you know, I think the kindest thing to do right now is to take them into the emergency hospital right now or to your local vet, then wait and try to coordinate this. And and so I'm very upfront about that. But going back to your other question, how do we broach it? I have a lot of people calling me for they've just got the bad news, and they want to just find out how it works. And that is fantastic because they I get all their information upfront so that when and if the time comes, all the ducks are in a row and I know where they live and I can give them time, you know, and oftentimes we have a dialog before that time. And I just developed an app that I send to people now and I get them to just to it really just helps gather their thoughts into the right real estate, really about what's important about to their pet, to judging their pets quality of life. So it's based on the hem scale, the Alice Villa-Lobos scale. I definitely credit to her, but it's interactive, interactive, so clients can go in. Each member of the family can do their own ranking, go through all the questions. It also incorporates senior pets who have like cognitive disorder. So there's also a part to that because a lot of those pets, you know, might be medically healthy, but mentally really not great. So I've kind of incorporated both of them in there for senior pets so people can go through and then they can discuss it. It's just really a tool for discussion for a family to discuss. And then they can go back and do another reassessment and it'll track it. Graphs, you know, where they are. And it's obviously everything's kind of there's a series of questions, necessaries of scales. And so then they come out with an overall feeling by the time they've finished it. So if somebody wants me to come and assess their pet and kind of talk about quality of life, I always get them to do that first. Now, because it's a little bit like a sheepdog getting all the sheep in one paddock before you have that discussion, so they know kind of where they're okay, their prime to go through the right set of questions, you know. So yeah, I think that's a critical thing, is to start talking early and get people to think about what they want and what they want for their pet. So I think these things are really, really important to to go through. So we're getting a message that says we just have another minute or so to talk about. What is it that you think pets owners should most know about end of life care? I think what's really helpful is for people to recognize the signs of discomfort and their pet when they're trying to make the assessment. And so to understand that being uncomfortable is the same as being in pain. They're not in pain, but they're uncomfortable. It's the same thing, really. So I try to I try to kind of I took that to people. And I describe in the process is, you know, designed to be a very peaceful transition. So many people who are often sort of scared of that and may not want to be present for the final thing, they'll often stay and they'll go at the end. Oh, that wasn't as bad. And they feel a sense of relief. So I think a lot of the stress that leads up to the event that a lot of the emotion that people commonly feel is relief. And that's a really healthy thing. And it's I think I feel I feel good that they feel that, you know. Yeah, that it's so important to be able to say a good goodbye. So our time is up for today. But I want to thank doctor McCulloch for joining me here today and for also helping pet owners honor that special bond they share with their pets. And if you want to learn more or reach out to doctor McCulloch, you can visit her two websites, one of which is Home Vet's NYC or Pet Requiem. Thank you. I know that keeping your pet healthy is a very important thing to you and your family, so I hope you'll reach out to me. If you have a question about your pet's health, and I'll respond to your question on next month's asset podcast, it's an easy to remember email. Ask the Vet at amcny.org We have a short break coming up. But please stay tuned because there are lots of interesting animal news stories. When we return, we're back with an in-house on Ask the Vet. Welcome back everyone! It's Ask the vet. And guess what? It's time for the animal news. It's time for animal headlines, the biggest animal news from across the world. Our first stories about fish. I don't think we talk about fish very much here on asset, but this is a great story. It's about fish sleep. Now I have to say I wasn't I would have said fish don't sleep because they're always swimming. And so that's what caught my eye about this story. So this is from research on zebrafish, which are a very common research animal for studying neurologic conditions. So the zebrafish is a small freshwater fish that is good for studying the brain. And scientists used advanced imaging to observe the fish while they slept and discovered that their sleep just isn't a simple on or off state. Instead, zebrafish cycle through multiple sleep stages that closely resemble the stages of human sleep. Now, if you don't think you cycle through stages of sleep, just take a little look at that sleep app part of your smartwatch, and you will see the peaks and valleys of sleep that you have every day. And my phone tells me every morning that I had a good or a bad night's sleep, which I got to figure out how to turn that thing off, because I know if I've had a bad night of sleep, so I don't really care that the phone tells me, but my phone and my watch love to remind me that I had a bad night's sleep. So back to the zebrafish. Researchers identified four distinct sleep substrates during the night, fish moved through a progression from deeper sleep to let her sleep, showing changes in eye position and brain activity as they moved between these sleep stages. But the most unexpected discovery came during the day. Fish occasionally entered short periods of sleep, lasting just a few minutes. Essentially, they were taking naps, so during these episodes their eyes appeared alert and active, yet brain activity dropped sharply and the fish were very difficult to wake up. Sleep is one of Biology's greatest mysteries, and scientists have long wondered whether the complex sleep patterns seen in humans are a recent evolution, or have much deeper roots in the animal kingdom. So this finding of human like sleep in zebrafish suggests that the fundamental mechanisms of sleep may have arisen hundreds of millions of years ago, long before mammals appeared on Earth. Our second story, of course, is about my favorite species, the cat. And this story is about cats causing asthma and allergies in children. And this new study suggests that there may not be a clear cause and effect. Researchers analyzed data from more than 30,000 children between the ages of four and 17, all with a confirmed diagnosis of asthma and allergies, and they compared those children living in houses with cats to those without cats, and looked at several other important health measures, including asthma attacks, asthma severity, lung function and day to day asthma control. And what the data revealed was it about 9% of children were exposed to cats at home. So that's really interesting because about half of American households have cats. So it seems like households with children have fewer cats than average in the United States. So after the researchers adjusted their data for factors like age, sex, allergy severity and family history and socioeconomic background. The researchers found no meaningful differences between children who lived with cats and those who didn't. Asthma flare ups occurred at nearly identical rates in the children with and without cats in the home, and asthma severity was also very similar. Even among households with cats, the factors such as the number of cats, the cats ages, or whether the cat was a girl cat or a boy cat, didn't seem to make a difference in asthma flares for children. So although the study found no evidence that living with the cat worsened, children's asthma, researchers cautioned that the findings should not be taken to mean cat exposure is harmless for every child. Individual responses may vary, particularly among children who are highly sensitive to cat allergens. Still, the findings challenge the common assumption that cat ownership automatically worsens asthma in children with allergies. And our last story is kind of a recurring theme here on A7. And that is honeybees. So for generations, scientists believe they understood how a honeybee colony raises a new queen. When a hive needs a queen, the worker bees feed a young baby b large amounts of what's called royal jelly, a nutrient dense, milky, gelatinous secretion they produce. And from there the larva develops into the colony's queen. But a new study published in the journal nature suggests the process is much more sophisticated. Unlike hereditary royalty, who are born not made, the queen bee is determined by the work of the entire hive. And it's not royal jelly alone that determines whether a lava becomes queen. Researchers found that the entire colony appears to work together to shape the lavas environment, essentially engineering royalty through a highly coordinated effort. The researchers found that the wax chambers were future queens developed, known as queen cells are not just passive containers. These royal cribs are specially constructed environments with unique physical and chemical properties that help guide a lavas development. When scientists raised future queens in ordinary worker bee wax instead of queen cell wax, the larva were more likely to die or develop into smaller queens, even if they received the same royal jelly. The study also identified a special group of young worker bees known as queen cell builders, and these workers maintain a higher body temperature and undergo physiological changes while caring for future queens. That added warmth from the worker bees appears to speed development, allowing queens to mature about five days faster than compared for the time to maturity for worker bees, which is 21 days. As it turns out, the queen is not determined by diet alone. She is the result of nutrition, architecture, temperature control, specialized caregiving, and coordinated colony behavior. In a sense, the queen bee is not simply fed into existence. She's carefully built by an entire society. I like that story a lot. And now it's time for questions from our listeners. Our first question comes from Lizette, our. And she asks, my dog recently had what looked like a seizure while she was sleeping, and it woke both of us up. This is the second time it has happened in the past three months, and both episodes occurred while she was asleep. What does it mean if these episodes only happen during her deep sleep? And should I be concerned? Interesting. Another question about sleep today. So I'm not sure that dogs when they're sleeping have seizures. And so I would wonder if this dog is dreaming rather than having a seizure, because some dogs will have what looks like seizure activity during sleep. They'll paddle with their feet. They'll vocalize. And those are hallmarks of seizure behavior. Other things that typically happen during seizures is the animal might urinate or defecate, or have what we call a post or post-season period of kind of weird behavior because their brain is all jumbled from the seizure. So if your dog's not urinating and defecating during these episodes and they only occur during sleep, I would question whether they really or seizures. And I think what needs to happen is, if you can remember, because I'm sure you're startled when you wake up in one of these episodes, grab your phone and take a video of the episode so you can share it with your veterinarian and get their opinion as to whether or not this is a seizure. So, Lizette, I hope that your dog is okay and then this isn't a seizure. But if it is, we have great drugs to help control them. Our next question is from Susan A, who's an asks. My three year old cat needs blankets so intensely that she sometimes drools while doing it. Is that just comfort behavior, or can it ever signal stress or a medical issue? So I think this is just comfort behavior. And the cat is so happy to have that blanket to need that it just drools like crazy. Just be really grateful, Susan, because my sister's cat used to need her hair at night in bed, drool on her hair and scratch her scalp as it was like, you know, mushing with her hair which was splayed all over the pillow. So a blanket is far better than having your scalp needed by your cat in the middle of the night. So I think this is just a very happy cat who likes the blanket that you've provided with. And our last question today is from Abebe. It is every summer when we leave the city, our dog somehow manages to find a skunk in our yard and get sprayed. What is the safest way to get rid of the smell? And when does getting sprayed by a skunk require a trip to the veterinarian? So getting skunked can be really bad if the skunk sprays your dog directly in the face and they get skunk spray in their eyes or in their mouth. So if your pet is really squinting badly pong at their eyes, vomiting, or anything like that, that would be a reason to go to the vet. Hopefully when your dog finds the skunk, they've turned on their heel and only their back half gets skunked. So when I was a kid, everyone said to use tomato juice, but what I can find about tomato juice is it really just masks the skunk smell? And who has that much tomato juice that you can give your dog a bath? Intimated juice anyway? And can you imagine what your bathroom looks like after that? So I say no to tomato juice. So there's a recipe that you mix peroxide, dish soap and baking soda in a big container because it bubbles up when you do that. And then you bathe your pet in that particular home recipe, which is mostly things that if your dog gets skunked, you could just keep at home. And that recipe is in a blog that I wrote. So if you go to amcny.org and put How to Get the Skunk Smell off your dog into the search bar, this blog with the recipe will come up a couple of other things to think about. There are commercial products to get rid of skunk smell. They seem to work quite well. They also seem to work really well. If your cat cat that peed in the basement and it was really good for getting the cat pees smell out of the basement. Also, it's good to put eye protection in your pet's eyes when they get a bath, and so you need to on hand in your pet's medical kit, have what's called sterile up thalamic petrolatum. It's basically Vaseline for the eyes, but it's sterile because you don't want to put your regular Vaseline in your pet's eyes, and that puts a thick coating over your pet's I. So if any soap or peroxide gets splashed in their eye while you're trying to get the smell off, that eyeball is protected from the the nastiness of the peroxide. And so the commercial products are good use I protection and the recipe is on AMC's website. Just put get the skunk smell off your dog in the search bar. We're going to take a short break. And when we come back, we're going to have important news from AMC's Usdan Institute for Animal Health Education. We're back with Dr. Ann Hohenhaus on Ask the Vet. Welcome back to everyone for our third segment of the Ask the Vet podcast. With summer festivities and outings well underway. Many dogs are more spending time near pools, lakes and other bodies of water. But it's important to remember that not all dogs can swim. Even dogs who swim more compact tire quickly or struggle to find their way out of the pool. If your dog will be around a pool this summer, a few simple precautions can help prevent a serious emergency. First, never leave your dog unattended near the water and never throw or force your dog into a pool. Because not all dogs want to swim and a frightening experience can lead to panic or injury for inexperienced dog swimmers. Senior dogs, flat faced breeds, or dogs with medical or mobility issues. A properly fitted life jacket is key, and it's also really important if you take your dog on a boat to have them wearing a life jacket, because if they fall overboard, you need them to float so that you can get them back into the boat. Don't forget to show your dog where the steps, ramp, or other exit points are, and to practice helping them get out of the pool safely. And then after they swim, rinse off the chlorine water and offer plenty of fresh drinking water. There are all kinds of things to help alert you and keep your pet out of the pool, such as fences, alarms, ramps, and canine friendly docks that can also add an extra layer of protection for your dog. For more health tips and information about upcoming events and webinars, visit AMC and and put used an institute in the search bar. I want to give my sincerest thanks to my good friend and colleague, Wendy McCulloch for joining me today to talk about end of life care for our beloved animal companions. To learn more about her work or to contact her, you can visit Home Vets NYC for her home, veterinary practice or Pet Requiem for her end of life care practice. Don't forget, if you want to know more about your pets well-being or looking for pet health advice, just email me at Ask the Vet at amcny.org and I will answer your questions on next month's program. This podcast is available on the serious XM app across all major cloud cast platforms and of course, on AMC's website. And this is settings to AMC's longstanding partnership with serious XM. Don't forget to follow us on social media. It's facebook.com, the Animal Medical Center, and on X and Instagram at amcny. And what would be great? If you could take a moment to give Ask the Vet podcast a review and be sure to like and subscribe so you'll never miss an episode. And I hope you'll join me next month when I'm going to be joined by my new AMC colleague, Doctor John Sykes, who's a specialist in zoological medicine and has joined AMC as head of the Zoological and Companion Exotic Pet Medicine service. Thanks so much for listening, everyone, and stay cool.