Paws, Reflect & Heal with Dr. Randy
This channel appeals to conscientious pet owners who prioritize their pets' health and well-being beyond conventional treatments. They are curious about holistic and integrative veterinary approaches and seek to understand their pets' behavior, nutrition, and health issues deeply. They value expert advice that combines traditional medicine with alternative therapies and want to be proactive in preventing and managing their pets' health problems. The channel resonates with those who view their pets as family members and are motivated to provide the best care possible through education and open-mindedness.
Paws, Reflect & Heal with Dr. Randy
Q&A: Incessant Paw Licking, Treatment of Hotspots, Chronic Renal Failure, and More.
Summary
In this episode, Mark Drucker and I address common questions from pet owners regarding dog and cat health. We explore issues such as incessant paw licking in dogs, the treatment of hotspots, chronic renal failure in cats, and the serious concern of weight loss in senior cats. Other topics we discuss are critical health issues affecting cats and dogs, focusing on weight loss in cats, the importance of vaccinations, and heartworm prevention. We also touch on the rising concern of heartworm disease in pets, regardless of their living environment, and the necessity of preventive measures.
Takeaways
Incessant paw licking may indicate pain or irritation.
Hotspots in dogs can be caused by allergies or infections.
Weight loss in senior cats can indicate serious health issues.
Behavioral problems can lead to excessive licking in dogs.
Dietary management is important for cats with renal failure.
Hotspots require cleaning and may need veterinary intervention.
Hyperthyroidism can lead to increased metabolism and weight loss.
Many senior cats suffer from osteoarthritis without owner awareness.
Small bowel lymphoma is increasingly diagnosed in cats.
Titer testing can help avoid unnecessary vaccinations.
Heartworm disease is prevalent in many areas, not just the South.
----------
Send your questions to randy@drrandypetvet.com so Dr. Randy can answer them in future episodes!
If you'd like to schedule a telemedicine appointment with me, please send an email to info@pawstucson.com. Make sure to note your telephone number and a brief description of the issue you're having. Someone from my office will respond to your email to schedule an appointment.
Connect with me on my website, social media pages, and all podcast platforms!
- Dr. Randy's Website
- Instagram: @drrandypetvet
- Facebook: @drrandypetvet
- TikTok: @dr.randypetvet
- YouTube: @drrandypetvet
- Sign up for Dr. Randy's newsletter
Products and Resources I Recommend
Microbiome Testing
Animal Biome - Gut Microbiome Health Test
Nutrition
K9 Natural
Other...
You know, this wasn't on the list for today, but I know it's hugely important, so I hope you don't mind my asking. Uh what should people do about heartworm prevention?
Speaker 00:It's it's crazy important. Um we just had, just to give you an idea, um we've just had two indoor cats that are heartworm positive. Never been out of the house, never been anywhere else but the house, and they're heartworm positive. Now, how does that happen? Welcome to PAWS Reflect & Heal. I'm Dr. Randy. I'm here with my good friend Mr. Mark Drucker, and we are going to do something uh a little different today. We've had a lot of questions that come across our website, our newsletter, and we're going to take this episode to answer those questions. Uh, we hope that we'll cover something that interests you. Uh, if you hear something that you like or you have want a more of a follow-up, get a hold of us through our website, drrandypetvet.com. Mark, how are you doing today?
Speaker 01:I'm good, Randy. How are you doing today?
Speaker 00:Good, good. It's a beautiful day in Tucson.
Speaker 01:It's a beautiful day in Portland, Maine. Okay. Yeah, and gorgeous. So I'm really I'm really glad we're doing this. I think it was a great idea, and kudos to you for suggesting it because as you see a lot of the questions that come into the website and in through the newsletter, uh, I also see them. And what I've noticed, which is not a surprise, is that there are some common themes. Right. So um we've made we've taken note of those themes, and those are the themes that we're gonna go with uh today. And I hope, and as I'm sure you hope, I know that you hope, this will be a really helpful forum to answer some questions that are just common among uh among pet parents, and we're gonna cover some for dogs, and we're also gonna cover some for cats as well, so not to worry uh on either front.
Speaker 00:No, I'd like to add one to what you're saying, Mark. A lot of people email me questions, and I do the best I can to follow up on as many of them as possible, but bringing them to a forum like this with you uh actually is gonna be much more revealing and I believe uh a much better way to get a lot of the numbers of questions answered. So I apologize if you've you know sent a Q ⁇ A and I haven't gotten right back to you. Uh I do have a very busy day uh here at work most of the time here in Tucson, but uh I do the best I can. So I'm glad we're doing this also, Mark.
Speaker 01:Yeah, so uh let's go and just get right into it. And I'm I'm kind of loving I'm kind of loving our first question because it's actually it's it's I've seen it come up several times and it's a problem that I had with my first golden retriever, and that is someone wrote in, My dog is incessantly licking his front right paw, but the furs actually come off, and the skin underneath is showing. Can you tell me why he might be doing this? And uh do you have any suggestions of what I might do to correct the situation?
Speaker 00:That's that that's a great question. Um, I want to say that none of these have been rehearsed for me, so I'm doing a lot of off-the-cuff things, and this is what I enjoy doing. So uh let's talk about that. So when a dog licks one paw, let's say, uh, in this situation, uh, we worry about something specific that's causing uh irritation, pain, nerve stimulation in that paw. Often we want to look at all through the webbing and the pads. Here in Arizona, we have a problem with cactus spines, goat's beards, which are a little foreign body that you can get. It's the bane of us bicyclists because it flats our tires very easily. Uh but they can get stuck and sometimes even break off, and you can't really notice uh what's going on. So the first thing I would tell somebody to do is check that paw thoroughly, including pressing on all the pads, uh, putting some pressure because your dog or cat, if it's a cat, will indicate if there's a specific spot that's really causing them some issues. Now, I will tell you that there are multiple things that cause pain in a dog and cat that can cause them to lick their foot. So it's it's very strange. So a lot of times we'll go to that foot here on physical examination at PAS Veterinary Center and not find anything. But we'll get to the elbow or the shoulder, and there is intense pain in one of those joints. These pains radiate. And so often the dog won't specifically be lame, let's say, or show specific pain in that joint, but it will radiate down to the foot and cause problems. But obviously, this is something your veterinarian could pick up very easily on physical examination. So, uh, you know, a really good examination of the foot, maybe even um, you know, putting your dog, you know, moving your dog's joints a little bit to see if you can pick something up. But from there, I would say veterinary visit is probably well indicated.
Speaker 01:Before we move on, I just I'm remembering back to when my dog had it. Yeah. And one one of the things that they were considering doing, I never did it, was putting the dog on Prozac. Because they thought that it might be Yeah, they thought that it might be some kind of OCD, maybe because I was at work during the day, even though I was taken out at lunchtime. But you know, I guess OCD anxiety might be a possibility. Yeah. Or anything else. Food sensitivity, allergies, or as you say, you know, pain elsewhere.
Speaker 00:Well, you know, you mentioned a number of things.
Speaker 01:You sound like you haven't heard that before, right? What's that? You sound like you act you sounded a bit surprised when I said that.
Speaker 00:Well, not because the dog was living with you, so I know that's part of the problem anyway, but no, I'm just teasing. Um, I mean, it's a very good suggestion, but let let's let's identify some things that go with what you've said. Okay? Is that Hank? That's Hank. Okay. So let's identify some of the things you've said. I mean, typically foot licking could be like nail biting in people, it can be a behavioral problem, and it can be uh part of an anxiety issue or whatever. It's not usually limited to one foot. Normally it's multiple feet, uh, you know, like they'll lick both their front feet, let's say, or both of their back feet. It doesn't have to be that way, but it could be. Um, so yeah, if you've identified, uh, you've gone through this and you've done there's been a really good physical examination. There's obviously no signs for referred pain, nothing local. Yeah, I mean, then behavioral stuff could be an issue. You would also mention there there are a lot of things systemically that I always address too. Allergy is a huge one. Uh, but generally, foot licking with allergy is multiple feet. It's not usually one foot. Um, you that would be weird to see that happen, quite honestly. Now, allergies could have started the foot licking, and then the dog irritated that foot to the point where that's the one that they're focusing on. Um, and then, you know, obviously addressing the allergy. We've talked about this with in multiple podcasts and and Q ⁇ A's, and we can address it some more down the road. Uh, but yeah, I mean, doing anti-anxiety type stuff would be a possibility. I wouldn't go right to fluoxetine or Prozac, I would go more to something like GABAPentin, which is an anti-anxiety medicine that's very, very safe uh on their liver and kidney. Uh, but there are definitely ways to address that uh if we're thinking that's the area we're we're worried about.
Speaker 01:Okay. You know what's interesting is we could spend a half hour on each question because there's much to cover. Yeah. All right, so let's let's uh move on. Okay. Um maybe I'll do another question about dogs, and then to be fair, we'll move over to the cat world. Okay? Perfect. So another question that comes up quite a bit, which I've also experienced, is what's the best way to treat hot spots?
Speaker 00:Okay, well that I mean, and that that's a really good question, and uh again, can be, you know, really have multiple factors to talk about what could be causing it. So let's first describe what a hot spot is. So a hotspot is what we call a pyogranulomatous lesion, very fancy medical term. It just means that it's red, irritated. Often they're infected and they're thickened because the animal's been, you know, the dog has been looking, you know, licking at that area, scratching at that area incessantly. Um, so you know, we want to make sure that we identify what this looks like and what it is. Now, I had a dog just last week that came in for a severe hot spot over its right shoulder. And when I examined the dog and we cleaned up the area, now the people had left this to scab over, which is a bad thing to do because there's no air getting to that skin. And when we got it cleaned up and clipped the hair around it, it was actually a tumor. Uh actually a skin cancer. Um, and it would, you know, the people wouldn't have known this. Uh, and this is again where sometimes a veterin exam is really important for these things. But there are multiple things that can get them started on these things. One of the things uh in your area that we'd worry about is flea allergy. You know, dog gets bit by fleas, starts to itch and scratches, get starts to itch and scratch, gets one area started, and we're often running on this hot spot uh that could easily be uh a cause. Another thing could be um allergies, and we just talked about this. You know, food allergies, environmental allergies, all of these things can cause our dogs to start to itch, and then again, create one specific area where they've irritated or excoriated the skin that now gets infected sometimes. And you know, again, we're often running on this chronic problem. Um, we see, you know, poor grooming. Like a lot of times, animals aren't grooming themselves well or they're not getting groomed, and the hair gets matted, just like I described with this animal with the scab, and there's no air getting to that skin. And that really can set them off because it's a perfect environment. It's dark, it's moist, perfect environment for them to develop a lesion at that uh that area. And then, you know, underlying skin infections. We do see uh staph infections, we see malesthesia yeast infections. These are the typical what we call doggy odor infections. You know, often I get people coming in, my dog smells so bad. I said, What's it smell like? Well, it smells like a dog. Actually, it really smells worse than that. It's it's a moist, damp, you know, bad smell. And these are often underlying staph or malesthesia infections, which again has a lot to do with a lot of other things that we address in all of our podcasts, things about biome and food allergy and environmental allergy. And uh, but specifically as far as the hot spot goes, it needs to be you know clipped and cleaned, it needs to be addressed with something local that's gonna. I try not to use oral antibiotics because you know I'm a real stickler about not messing up the dog's biome or GI tract by excessive use of antibiotics. So we'll use something locally where we'll clean it. Uh, often I recommend uh 50-50 like apple cider brags, apple cider vinegar, and water. Uh there are commercial cleaners that, you know, and wipes that work really well. I really like PUP Labs, it makes something called a soothing spray where you can spray on that area and it decreases the sensitivity. There's also a calming, another a couple different calming gels and sprays that are made by a company called Duoxo. Uh so these are the things we typically do. And the other thing is that a lot of times we have to keep the dog away from that area. Uh, you know, I hate cones of shame. If we're going to use a cone for any reason, if the dog's really licking a hot spot, uh we'll use what's called a soft collar or a soft cone. Uh but also what works really well is a t-shirt. So if it's a little chihuahua, you go and get a preemie baby t-shirt at Walmart or Target and you tie it midriff, and you got a great way to cover it because you're still getting air to that area. You don't want to try to bandage these things a lot of times because bandaging doesn't allow any air to get to it and it won't heal. Uh, but t-shirts work great. It's a big dog, you know, you use uh a regular, you know, uh, you know, boys' t-shirt or men's t-shirt, and it worked, those work really well.
Speaker 01:I've noticed I just I want to move on, but I noticed when my dog used to get them grow, like they can spread so fast. Yeah. Like you can almost see it spreading it so fast. Yeah, it looks so ugly and horrible.
Speaker 00:Yeah, yeah, and sometimes you know, if we're not looking. Right, oh exactly. It's very moist, and that's why you want to clean it and dry it. And you don't want to use peroxide, and you don't want to use um um things like witch hazel, and because they are very drying, like peroxide's great for the first time you clean it, but not again. And the reason why is peroxide kills new cells, it actually lyses the new cells that are forming to try to heal this, and so that will prevent it from healing. Uh but like you know, we talked about like these duoxo sprays or uh Pup Lab soothing spray and and keeping it clean on a twice a day basis uh with uh Bragg's apple cider vinegar, or um even sometimes we'll use uh dilute Epsom salts and and and kind of soak that area. These are really, really helpful for the animal and can stop the spread and also uh um stop the the discomfort the animal's having. If it's an allergy, there there are things like uh there's a monoclonal antibody called cytopoint, which is given by injection, which is for allergy, that will stop the histamine production. We often can put them on minor antihistamines like benadryl or diphenhydramine or something like Xyrtech if we really need to, but we you know it has each case has to be uh assessed, and that's really a veterin call at that point.
Speaker 01:Okay. Let's move over to cats. Okay. Um we get we get comments quite if quite often about chronic renal failure. Yes. Um and you know, what are your the the the questions are are less specific and more about do you have ideas about it and how you might manage it or treat it?
Speaker 00:Now you know that I have ideas about everything.
Speaker 01:Right. You do.
Speaker 00:So you're setting me up for this one, buddy.
Speaker 01:So I want I want I want the big idea. Okay, the big idea. Well, what's what's the big what's the big idea?
Speaker 00:Yeah, well let's first talk about what renal failure is. You know, we're talking about kidney disease in an older cat typically. It doesn't have to be, but often it's in an older cat. And uh these are uh situations where the owner sees them um maybe being listless, um being um not eating really well, uh starting to maybe have vomiting or diarrhea. Sometimes they will notice that they're actually seeing them show weight loss. Uh and there are other things that can cause weight loss, but this is one of those things that definitely can cause it in that cat. Um, they'll go to the litter box and they'll see blood in the urine, uh, or they're straining, or they're even drinking more water and then urinating even more often. Um, these are the kinds of signs that can really be a situation where that cat really needs to be seen by a veterinarian as soon as possible. Because there are ways to treat this, and then there are ways to treat this. And so I'm gonna tell you the Dr. Randy Petvet way, and then you know I'll leave the other ways available out there because there's lots of other medicines and prescription diets, and so this so this is gonna be the big idea. This is the big idea.
unknown:Yeah.
Speaker 00:So years ago, I got frustrated in the fact that um what I was seeing was the direction of all of these big diet companies that made prescription diets was to formulate a low phosphorus, which is necessary in this situation, uh, very low protein diet. Now, the thought was that in kidney failure or chronic renal disease or chronic kidney disease in cats, their um the protein in their food uh is being excreted in their urine, and you know, you it affects uh things called blood urea nitrogen. That's a protein byproduct that we measure chemistry-wise. Creatinine, which is the really big one, that's the main kidney enzyme. It's also a nitrogen breakdown product, again, protein. SDMA, which is now something that we can identify early in cats and dogs, that will show us that they're heading into a situation with potential kidney disease. Um, but here's what happened. And this is what I saw. Um, my cats would be on these prescription diets, and their numbers would get better, but they would start to waste away, they'd start to lose weight. And the question is, well, why does that happen? And you don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand this. What's happening in kidney disease is the kidney's not holding the protein that they're eating, and it's excreting a lot more protein in the urine. So, what happens? If you feed a food that's low in protein, what ends up happening is they start stealing it from their muscle because they have to have the protein to support their body functions. So they look better for three, six months, maybe sometimes longer, but not usually. And then all of a sudden they're losing more and more weight, they're getting more and more lethargic, and the numbers start to skyrocket again. Um, so the prescription diets in my world was not the answer. Okay? So the answer to me was how can we get away with feeding these cats a high-quality, low-carb protein diet and still not affect their kidneys adversely? And the way I do that is actually using three supplements. So I go and I have my owners not use um kibble type diets, preferably lightly cooked or fresh whole food or uh freeze-dried raw diets for our cats, where they're getting plenty of protein, all of the carbs from the veggies that they need, but not getting excessive carbs, which are inflammatory and just going to create more inflammation in the body and in the kidney. And I add a product called azodil, A-Z-O-D-Y-L. It's a refrigerated probiotic that actually binds nitrogen from their diet so that the kidney can see, get we can, the dog, the cat can utilize the protein, but we're not getting excessive nitrogen loss. So the numbers, the B U N and the creatinine, don't get affected. I also use a product called Naraquin, which is an uh a phosphorus binder. It's a natural, it's really almost a natural product. Usually it's made from soft shell crabs and stuff like that. And it actually binds phosphorus so that again, when phosphorus starts to rise in these cats, it causes irritation to the stomach, it causes ulceration, it causes hyperacidity, and these guys won't eat because they feel terrible. And then the last product I use is called amino vast, A-M-I-N-A-V-A-S T. And I use that because that increases blood flow to the kidney naturally. It's called GFR, glomeral filtration rate, and by increasing the blood flow naturally, the kidney can work a little bit more efficiently and handle what's going on. And I, in early kidney disease, okay, I can really get these cats to thrive, not to lose weight, to feel much, much better, um, stop excreting all of the protein in their urine, you know, not all of it, but but as but a lot of it, and not having them affect the numbers that we look at, the B UN, the creatinine, and and the and the uh phosphorus numbers that we that we really monitor. Um I just did this exact seminar for uh a thousand Japanese veterinarians uh a year ago to talk about this because there there really isn't anybody talking about this. They're they're talking about how they can get around some of the ideas on the diet, but no one's really um got this. And I'll tell you honestly, I for years these cats have been benefiting. You know, where I would see them waste away at three, six months. I got a cat that's a year down the road, two years down the road, and still benefiting from what we're doing. Now, sometimes the and many times the kidney's gonna get worse, and and it will happen, okay? Whether it happens at a year or it happens at three years, I don't know. Uh I don't have any way of predicting. And then sometimes we will have to add some actual medication in there that can really help uh for that situation. But I try not to start it at that rate.
Speaker 01:Hmm. And what is there an age where this typically occurs or it's all over the place?
Speaker 00:It's you know, it's really more of a senior disease. I would say it is cats over eight years old that start showing the signs that I mentioned earlier. Uh that's when we really start to see it. But we do see um, you know, I've had a couple animals recently that have had uh problems with their kidney. We've actually done uh ultrasounds on their kidney to look at their kidneys, and we've seen renal cysts, or we've actually seen what's called renocortical hyperplasia, which we're basically getting uh abnormalities to the kidney. These are probably genetic in some nature, they could be caused by some toxin or some insult that they had that we don't know. Um, but those animals are a little bit harder to deal with because they actually have structural disease that we've got to get on top of also.
Speaker 01:Well, there's one more question that we have uh on today's list about cats, and you mentioned it uh earlier, just a few minutes ago, but it's it's about weight loss in general in senior cats. We see we see a lot of questions coming in about that. So I guess renal failure could be one of the reasons, but there could be many other I imagine.
Speaker 00:Yeah, no, and I I'm glad you bring this up because um this is you know, this is something that a lot of my pet owners, you know, cat owners are the most incredible pet owners. I mean, you know, we know why cat owners have cats. We've had we just did that wonderful seminar about cats not too long ago, that podcast that we just did. Uh-huh. Um, and I'll refer our listeners to that because it's full of information. But um cat owners many times, one, kind of look past some of the things they're seeing and they just kind of, you know, I want to say blow it off. They just kind of say, oh, you know, it's really not a big deal. You know, um, Jinx is really doing okay. I don't I don't really need to go to the veterinarian, I don't really need to follow up on this problem. But weight loss is really a serious problem. So, and many times people don't pick it up until there's significant weight loss because, you know, and they're not weighing their cat on a regular basis, you know. Some of my cat owners, I mean, you you know, I know you probably understand this about my pet owners down here. Some of them will get on the scale on a weekly basis with their cat and weigh themselves with the cat and then weigh themselves, you know, and they'll know what the cat's weight is, they'll extract. Or they even go to the extent of getting a baby scale and weighing them. But, you know, every time a cat comes into feline focus here at Paw's Veterinary Center, we weigh them. And there's a really good reason because I've had cats come in for a general physical examination at, let's say, nine years old, and you know, they've been consistently 10, 10.1, 9.8 pounds, and here they are at 8.1 pounds, and that's a significant amount of weight loss. And the owner didn't even know. And so, so that that I just want to basically mention that because it's something you really, as a cat owner, want to be aware of. So, kind of let's talk about the things that can cause that. Well, we just talked about chronic kidney disease or chronic renal failure. That's certainly one of them. Another thing that can happen is something called hyperthyroidism, which is caused by a nodule in their thyroid gland. And what it does is it causes their thyroid hormone to go very high, and it will cause their metabolism to go in overdrive, and they're burning up most of the normal calories and protein and all that that they would get, so they don't incorporate that, so they lose weight. It also can cause sometimes hyperactivity, where they're they're really kind of active, much more active, even though they start to fail after a while. It can also cause them to eat more because they're trying to, you know, gain those calories that they're losing, but they can't, and they can't tell you know, our pet owners, our pet parents, I mean, to like, you know, increase my food because my thyroid is burning this all up. So that's where the biannual physical examination and lab work on senior cats is so important because we look for trends. You know, again, thyroid could be, you know, 2.1, 2.2, 1.9, and then all of a sudden it's, you know, let's say not abnormal, but it's at 2.9 or 3. Well, that jump could indicate that it's starting to be a problem, and we need to address that. So hyperthyroidism is definitely another one. Another one that can cause weight loss in cats is diabetes. Diabetes mellitus is a really you know dangerous disease. It's it can be acquired, acquired disease, um, and their uh, you know, their blood sugars start to rise terribly, and they're not incorporating their normal amount of of um uh nutrition into their into their body. You know, often they'll be um they'll be more lethargic. Again, they'll be drinking a lot more water, and that's those are some hallmarks. So there's some other things that we need to worry about, like um dental disease. You know, the cat's mouth could be killing them. You know, we see cats with grade four out of four dental disease, and the owners don't even know it. You know, but you open the mouth and it smells like trench mouth is what I describe it. It smells like a sewer, it's terrible. And they've got all of these uh hard calculus and plaque on their teeth, which is pushing up on their gums and retaining bacteria. Also, the number one reason why they get urinary tract infections, because that bacteria just gets sucked up into their blood system, goes right to their kidney and bladder, and we'll see the same bacteria in the mouth as we do in the bladder. So um, so um uh dental disease is another one. Another one could be heart or liver disease, and we see that causing an issue uh with our cats. Again, a diagnosis that's made by the routine lab work that we do. Um, but the the last one, which is interesting, is arthritis or pain. You know, we know that 60% of our cats over the age of eight have osteoarthritis, yet many of our owners have no idea. You know, sometimes they catch the fact that the cat hasn't gone up on the bed recently or doesn't get into its cat tree normally. Um, but on physical examination, we could pick this up and sometimes well confirm it with x-rays or radiographs. Um, so all of those things, you know, hyperthyroidism, chronic kidney disease. But then the last one that I'll mention, which is a new one on the horizon, is called small bowel lymphoma. So we are seeing this incredible rise of cancer in cats' small intestine. Um lymphoma is um a proliferation of white cells called lymphocytes that line the lining of the bowel, and it causes the bowel to swell and them not to absorb normally, so they're not getting their food. Uh, and it can often be indicated by uh vomiting or diarrhea, sometimes weight loss, uh, but sometimes it's silent for a while, uh, and all we see is that subtle weight loss that I talked about on that cat that we picked up on you know on a physical examination. And there is a wonder I used to have to do endoscopy. On these cats, where I'd go in with an endoscope and biopsy their bowel and get the biopsy back and then have the diagnosis. Now, a company called VDI makes a laboratory test, a blood test, that we can actually test for lymphoma in our cats. It actually looks at uh lymphoma, pancreatitis, uh inflammatory bowel disease. So it really is very, very helpful on helping that diagnosis if the signs are there.
Speaker 01:Okay, so let's talk, and maybe we can do a discussion here for a few minutes about dogs and cats. But let's talk, let's talk about vaccines. Because my understanding about vaccines, and this this is a question that does come in a lot, uh, and depending on the region they come in in from, the region of the country, you get different kinds of questions. But I I guess what I take from that is there are vaccines that are universal that your pet has to have, rabies, for example. Uh but there are other vaccines that are lifestyle-oriented. So if you're living out in the desert, you know, you might get one set of vaccines. If you're living in a woodland setting in the in New England, it might be something different. Um I'm just thinking, for example, leptospirosis on the West Coast or in the western states, in the mountains in the desert, and I'm thinking Lyme disease, for example, in the Northeast. So let's talk about that. And a question that I hear oftentimes is titer. So let's let's talk about vaccines, let's talk about titer and how to address this in your okay.
Speaker 00:Good question. It's it's pretty encompassing, uh, so I'll try to keep it concise. There are what we call the core vaccines for dogs and cats. Okay? So the core vaccine for dogs is distemper, parvovirus, and adenovirus. It's often called DAP, DAPL. I mean, there's a bunch of combinations, lepto is added to that, but there's definitely some core vaccines. But distemper, adenovirus, and parvo are the core vaccines that we typically look at here in Tucson, Arizona, and many places in the United States. The other core vaccine is rabies. You know, rabies is a deadly disease in humans. Uh, it can be you know deadly for our animals. It's out there, and we know it's out there, so it's an issue. Um, so you know, uh, you know, that that those are typically the the big core vaccines. Here we we do do a lot of something called upper upper respiratory or borditella vaccination. The reason that we do that is Kennelkoff is very, very big. Um, you know, we do have a lot of um uh we do have a lot of places where people bored or do daycare, and we don't really want that, or grooming, and we don't want that to spread. Um so that's often a vaccine that a lot of people ask about. Um, and then you mentioned some of the subsidiary vaccines are things like leptospirosis, let's say, or Lyme's disease, uh, or or even some of the flu vaccines. And these are pretty specific for areas that you are in the country, and I would leave that up to your veterinarian to tell you what's most important. Um, we do have leptosporosis in Tucson. Um, we don't see it as often, but like in your situation, you're going to hike in the mountains with Hank. Um, leptosporosis is probably a really good idea because it's spread by you know cattle basically being near water, the water gets infected. We also have it spread by a lot of avian species where there's bird droppings or rabbit pellets, and the animal gets exposed to that or water that has it, and it can be very, very damaging for the kidney. Um, so those are the those are the vaccines that most people talk about in dogs. Now, um we are huge titer advocates here at Paws Veterinary Center, here at you know, canine uh co lab, here at Feline Focus, where we have titers for cats too, we'll talk about. But a titer is basically a um a look at how protected your animal is to those vaccines. So years ago, um we found Kansas State University, they had a wonderful laboratory that looks at titers, which is the measure of protection for distemper, adenovirus, para influenza, so DAP, or I mean parvavirus, and then also for rabies. So we started advocating in the dogs that have gone through their normal puppy series that after the first year or so, let's not vaccinate them right off the bat. Let's look at their titer and make sure they're or they're not already protected. Because, like anything else, if the dog is protected for distemper adertivirus or parvo, why would you want to put a vaccine on top of that that they don't really need? They're already showing protection in their body. The same thing goes for rabies. Uh, we we often will advocate rabies titers. Now, this is controversial, controversial, and I will tell you that a lot of, like here in Pima County and Tucson, they won't license a dog with a titer. They will only license a dog if you've given him a vaccine, which is really strange, Mark, because here's the deal. If you go to Hawaii or England, which are rabies-free zones, they will not let your dog in without a titer. So they don't care how many vaccines Hank's gotten. They want to know that Hank is protected. And if Hank has a protective titer, he gets in. So why wouldn't we be in the situation where if we're licensing our animals, we utilize a titer and we can license them from that titer? Um, you know, the question lies, is it a money thing? Is it I don't know. I I'm not even going to get into that whole world.
Speaker 01:But we do titers here. But if the dog has tight if the dog, so if they show up and they have titer, then there's no need to vaccinate. Correct. At that at that moment. But yeah. So is it like, okay, come back in a month, come back in six months, let's do this again, or they're good for another year? Yeah. We do it a year. That's that's it. Now. Okay. And I I guess I have a Go ahead, sorry. No, I I have a question as a pet parent. Um I'm particularly concerned with Lyme disease. And uh so I had my dog vaccinated for Lyme, and it was a two ser two shots, uh a shot and then a booster three weeks apart. And I guess the question I have is if the if the dog then gets bitten by a deer tick that's infected, is the dog protected now that he's had that vaccine, or is he still vulnerable, you know, to being exposed and getting sick from it? I mean, how well I guess the c how well right, how well.
Speaker 00:It's not 100%. I mean, it definitely confers protection to them. I mean, there's no doubt about it. And in the Limes area, I would advocate looking at getting that done. Uh because you know, it's a bad disease and it's silent for a long time. Um, but you know, I also advocate them being on tick preventative at that point, too, because we want to try to keep them off. So even if a dog gets bit by a tick, the question is is there still a percentage of dogs that might get Lymes from that bite? And the answer is yes, it's possible. Uh now, much less if they've been vaccinated, but also much less if they're on a preventative, because what happens is as soon as the dick the the tick tries to attach to the dog, um, it will get some of the preventative and it will kill it or drop, it'll drop off. Because the longer that the tick sucks on the blood, the more chance that it can inject the organism into their blood system.
Speaker 01:Right. Right. You know what? There are so many great questions, and I think what I'm sensing is we should do another one of these in a in a in a couple of months, and in a couple of months.
Speaker 00:Let me mention, let me mention the cat vaccines real quick. Just because um I think that's really important. So the core cat vaccines are definitely rabies, again. Now, not always required in in a lot of states. Um, and then what we call feline herpes virus, feline chaleesi virus, and feline panleukopenia. And these are often upper respiratory type viruses. Again, the same thing goes for titers for those. We do titers on our cats. We often find for most of the cats' life and sometimes forever, that they're protected and they don't need the follow-up vaccines after they've gone through the kitten series and maybe past the first year. So just to mention that because we do that in cats all the time. And again, my goal is um I just don't want to give vaccines to an animal that doesn't need it. And I don't want to have that immunological load on top of them if it's not necessary.
Speaker 01:You know, this wasn't on the list for today, but I know it's hugely important, so I hope you don't mind my asking. Uh what should people do about heartworm prevention?
Speaker 00:It's it's crazy important. Um, we just had, just to give you an idea, um, we've just had two indoor cats that are heartworm positive. Never been out of the house, never been anywhere else but the house, and they're heartworm positive. Now, how does that happen? So, what people don't understand is heartworm is a disease that's spread by mosquitoes. A mosquito picks up an organism from an infected animal, whether it's a dog, whether it's a cat, whether it's a coyote, uh, and they will have that organism in their system, and when they bite your animal, then they can inject that heartworm organism into the blood system, which then goes through a six-month period of development and becomes these adult worms in the heart, hence heartworm. And so it's it's it's you know, we used to think this was an East Coast disease, a uh, you know, a Gulf of Mexico to or our Gulf of America, I should say now, uh disease. You know, water.
Speaker 01:No comment.
Speaker 00:But it's a no comment. Right, but heartworm is everywhere. And and it's very, you know, we just had a dog that came in last this week that we did routine blood work on. The people have not given heartworm preventative for two years because they didn't think it was necessary. Um, they had really bad information from whoever they talked to before, and the dog came back positive for heartworm. And now is gonna have to go through a very uh a very rigorous treatment to kill those adult worms. And if the adult worms are bad enough, they can cause clots, and the dog can die even from the treatment because we're killing those worms with medicine that we have to give the animal.
Speaker 01:So I there's no there's been a lot of talk as well about all the rescues that are going on right now all over the country, and you know, heartworm is at least prevalent in the southern states, and a lot of these dogs come up from the south, and then they're taken up into the north, and so suddenly it's everywhere. That's one of the other things that are aiding this. And so I guess is the recommendation that if you have a dog Is it a cat thing too, heartworm disease? So if you have a pet, a dog or a cat, is it just regardless of where you live, you should treat the dog twelve months a year or something?
Speaker 00:No, that's a good question. No, what what what is the recommendation? So the recommendation is they should be tested every year, no matter what. Because even on preventative, it's only 90 to 92 percent effective. Okay? So you still have the animals that have received heartworm preventative, let's say every month, and they're still going to come back positive. Now, it's obviously a very small percentage, but we make it part of our yearly examination. We make it part of the lab work, the blood work that we do to make sure that they're tested for heartworm. That's how this dog we were talking about just got picked up because the dog hadn't had yearly lab work in two years, and boom, the dog's heartworm positive. Uh, the cats had never had yearly lab work, and that's how that was picked up. So the recommendation to start with is you test them every year. Now, when you receive a negative test, then the recommendation is preventative. Now, sometimes it's a little hard to advocate preventative for our cats because they're really not a lot of exposure, but as I indicated, you know, we just saw these two indoor cats. So, I mean, it's ideally the thing to do, but definitely for our dogs, um, preventative is really important. Now, you had mentioned yearly um treatment versus intermittent. There are a lot of places where you get um freezing where the heart where the mosquitoes are gonna die. So those areas you could get away with not doing it yearly, but I just tell people just give it every month and then you got it down.
Speaker 01:Right.
Speaker 00:What is this? Is it a an herbicide, a pesticide? What is heart I'm sorry?
Speaker 01:Prevention.
Speaker 00:What is the prevention? So prevention is is basically uh it's kind of like a very minor insecticide that doesn't cause a lot of issues in the body, but is there to to to specifically kill the worm when it when it when it encounters it.
Speaker 01:Okay. All right. Okay? Okay, so we should yes, that's great. I'm glad you know we could do a whole show on heartworm prevention for sure, and we may. Um anything else that you want to talk about? Anything that comes to mind for you that you hear a lot about?
Speaker 00:No, I think I think this is good. I think we should stop here um and you know, and we can do this again. Uh I again I want to I want to ask our listeners to make sure you subscribe to our newsletter, um, get onto our podcasts on our website, subscribe to those because it really helps us. But send me your questions. Uh, like I mentioned earlier, I can't always answer them individually every day, but I try to batch them and do things like this so we can get the answers out.
Speaker 01:And if you go to drandypetvet.com, there's both a form just to sign up very quickly for the newsletter, and there'll there's another form there to ask a question. So you make it really easy. Absolutely. Right? Okay.