What the heck is "Werewolf Syndrome?" but first, some cool cases and interesting stories.

This is no exaggeration—dogs can indeed suffer from a condition known as "Werewolf Syndrome." Also, stay tuned for some fascinating cases from this week's appointments that you won't want to miss!

Be sure to follow me on Instagram @drcliffworldwidevet.com
Listener questions, episode suggestions, or if you have a good idea for a guest, email me at dr.redford@vet905.com
Additional information can be found at drcliff.ca

Transcript

Dr. Cliff Redford (00:08)

Hey everyone. Welcome back to another episode of that life with Dr. Cliff. I'm going to start this one off with an apology. Apologies to all my listeners. I probably lost half of you at the last episode. Man, did that audio suck? Um, I was, uh, I hadn't tried out the, road microphone, the wireless microphones in a long time. Um, for those of you who did listen to it, it was a, uh, another recap.

on sort of the adventures I had that day at Shades of Hope. And I record that in my vehicle and yeah, the audio was awful. And it's because I didn't turn on the main receiver. Dope, as Homer would say. So I've done some testing and the next one, the next handful are going to be done actually with those microphones. Cause we're going to be up in a Caliwet, a Caliwet, Caliwet, Nunavut, Olivet, Nunavut.

Way up in the Arctic North. We're actually going to be leaving on Tuesday, which is the day this episode comes out. So when you guys are listening to this, we might be driving to Ottawa and then we fly the next morning, early Wednesday morning up to a Caliwet. None of it, all of it. I won't do that anymore. Maybe. yeah, we fly up there for 10 days to volunteer. no, not with sled dogs. There'll be a little bit of sled dog work, but it's, you know, it's regular pets.

Uh, it's a, uh, city of 20,000 people. Um, it's called a city because it's the capital community of none of it. All of it, uh, of none of it. And, uh, they have no veterinarian. So imagine you're living in a community and there's absolutely no veterinarian. And the only way to get out and go see a veterinarian is to fly three hours for probably $3,000 down to the city of Ottawa.

that's, that's their only opportunity. This is the only plane. have little tiny planes that head north up to the small communities infrequently. but the only other way out is by plane. There are no roads that lead that exit this community. there are roads in the community, of course, but the community is only probably about six or seven kilometers long. I'm going to guess three kilometers wide. So that is not.

Quite 18 square kilometers because it's not a perfect square. it is an oval and you guys can do the math. What is the surface area of a circle? It is. Pi R squared, believe. yeah, it's pi R squared. so figure that out, but there's actually a road that leads north and it is called the road to nowhere. And guess what? Guess where it goes.

Nowhere. Anyway, so there's no veterinarian. So we're going to be doing spays and neuters and lump removals. And I've got a couple of mini, let's call them emergency or urgent surgeries to do, where a veterinarian was there three months ago and detected that, you know, as they were leaving, hey, these dogs need, you know, sort of this critical surgery or critical is not the right, they need this surgery. It's non-elective.

and I'll fill you guys in more on it later because what the plan is, is using those road wireless microphones and I will set it up properly. I'm to be doing little like single day. I'm going to try and do every single day do a update. Episodes. So these little 10 minute episodes, little signets.

a little update episodes about what's going on. And at times I'll be chit chatting with Arthur, the technician, he's coming with us or my daughter, Emily, or my son, Brandon, or maybe a few of the volunteers up there. We'll see. It's going to be great. It's going to be a good time. But so I was testing that out and I'm going to be using it and it's going to work out better, but my apologies. The audio was awful.

So today I was supposed to interview my good friend Vicki. We are going to be talking about her graphic novel, beautifully illustrated book about the adventures that two children have when they go to the veterinarian clinic. And it involves magic and dragons and magic dragons. But timing was tight.

So Vicky, my apologies to you as well. You've been very gracious. We're gonna have you on when I get back. I want everyone to learn about this book. It's fantastic. And yeah, it'll be a good time. And speaking about my book, look at that segue. I am done. pause. I think my dog is taking a crap in my basement. We're doing this, I'm steal a line from my good friend, Kyle.

feel good or you go check out his podcast. he always does it. He talks about how it's being recorded in front of a studio dog. well, Poppy has been kind of bad this morning. She chewed my wife's shoes. And this is like the third set in about six months and, not even six months, probably two months, maybe three months, but she's chewed up a pair of shoes and she got to hear some pretty.

pretty awesome Greek words, swear words. And then now Poppy's staying with our friend Sarah while we're up in a Calwit, because we just don't have the time to deal with her. It's a two-person job. And she had to chew up my wife's shoes. And then my wife had to say goodbye to her. I'm not going to see her for 10 days. So maybe it's good they're taking a break. Anyways.

So you're gonna hear her barking because I've decided to bring her down to the basement to my little air quotes studio slash boxing gym slash man cave, et cetera, et cetera. Cause I don't wanna worry about her being upstairs, but on top of barking, we're gonna have to do pauses for me to go clean up her poop because she just pooped even though we just took her for a walk. And you know what? She didn't poop on the walk. I should have thought about that. So like most things, it is the humans fault when stuff like this happens.

but I will be back in one minute.

Okay, and I'm back. See that in only a full 60 seconds in my world only takes three seconds because of the power of editing. Anyways, I'm not just gonna ramble on about silly stuff like that. Let's actually talk about some cases. I wanted to talk to you about sort of an interesting week we had at work, just some, actually most of it was all just on Saturday, just yesterday. But it starts with a case like a good month ago, a couple of months ago.

Daisy is this beautiful medium to large breed dog that had come in months ago with this unusual jaw pain and she was kind of holding her mouth open and she was almost having trouble swallowing. You know, we checked the teeth and there were no obvious signs there. And what we started to discover was she was losing the temporal, temporal, temporal?

It's like the masseter muscles, the chewing muscles that go way up into the temporal crest, which is like the ridge crested piece of bone on the top of the skull that the chew muscles attach to. We all have it, but we don't really have strong chew muscles. So it's not really prominent. It's not prominent at all in people. But if you look at some of the like the mastiff type breeds with the short hair and the thick skulls, you can actually see

how thick their chew muscles are as it goes all the way up to the top of the head. Well, this dog was, those muscles were atrophying. And so we kind of realized, okay, there's something neurological going on here. And we actually first started thinking about this condition called masseter muscle myositis or M3, the masseter muscle, which is the chewing muscle, mastication is chewing. And then myositis, itis is inflammation, myo is muscle, so inflammation of the muscle.

So masseter muscle myositis or M3. M3 is an autoimmune condition. And we did blood to see there's a specific blood test that rules it in or out. It takes a good four or five days to come back. So in the meantime, we stuck this dog on prednisone and some antibiotics, I think some doxycycline just to be safe. I can't remember exactly the sort of the way the case moved forward.

But the test came back negative and even Dr. Ron and I were kind of saying, we're actually not sure now that it's M3 because she's not painful. And normally it's like you touch that muscle and they scream in pain. I've only seen this condition like twice prior to Daisy and Daisy ended up not having it. So I've only seen it twice in my 27 not so illustrious career. And we ended up, so you look back and we're trying to figure stuff out. And then we had remembered

that Daisy was diagnosed with Lyme disease, maybe six months prior and Lyme disease that had caused some, kidney abnormalities, some protein in her urine. and so again, we did some research and Lyme disease can attack the nerves. it can cause a neuritis, it can cause muscle damage and pain. and so we had kind of ruled out all the

The reasonable stuff. and so we decided to focus on, treating it for Lyme disease, treating her for Lyme disease. so we extended the, the docs of cyclin, and she slowly improved and it got to the point where she did. You know, she regained her function completely. but her muscle never sort of re-grew or her muscle never. De-atrophied is that, is that.

is that the correct term? basically it remained atrophied. It remained thin and, and, and it didn't have any strength to it. But the cool part was the owner came in maybe four or five days ago to basically just, were picking up some food and they wanted to give me an update. And it was, it was a great update. He basically said the muscle is regrowing. it's almost, it appears to be almost sort of back to the normal, shape, the normal amount of.

hypertrophy that's the word hypertrophy trophy i guess is like function i'm trying to think because it is a greek it is sort of a greek word i won't bore you guys with me talking about how i'm learning greek but atrophy at is like lack of and then dis dystrophy dysfunction and then hypertrophy hyper so growth or or increase maybe trophy is growth

But anyways, and he basically said we got her on a workout plan and they had gotten her a ball that she could kind of chew on and one that she liked to hold onto and they would play kind of a tug of war with her and they would get her chewing on this ball and then rewarding her to do so. And so she basically did, you know, three sets of 10, three times a day and you know, that's a good three sets of eight, three sets of 10, my buddy Igor.

who's going to be on the show again soon talking about his new book regarding cholesterol, controlling, reducing cholesterol through dietary means, I believe. And I've been following some of his things and we're going to see, I haven't gotten my blood test results back yet, see if my cholesterol has dropped. But anyways, three sets of eight, three sets of 10, that's a good hypertrophy workout plan. And so she's, her muscles regrowing, which also sort of,

leans towards something temporary like Lyme disease versus something more permanent like actual nerve damage or permanent nerve dysfunction. So anyways, that was really, really cool. And it really made my day to be honest with you. I was super happy that Daisy was doing well. And then this Saturday, let's talk about this Saturday. So I've got a handful of things to talk about. The first was...

And this is going to sound like I'm patting myself on the back and I promise you I'm not. I am at many things quite humble and other things I'm not. know, I know the things I'm good at and I know about things that I'm not good at. But here's a, here's something that just, I just got a vent. It frustrates me. And I've talked about this. We talked about a dog, a Zoe bear that had come as a second opinion. It was a friend of my sisters or a friend of my daughters, pardon me.

and this was a case where the dog was referred when they diagnosed, cancer and the family couldn't proceed with referral. so the doctor just put their hands up in the air and said, well, there's nothing we can do. including palliative care. So this dog came to us, a senior dog and was coming to us from a local clinic just for a second opinion and was told that.

The dog had liver failure and had three days to live. Now they were told this three or four days prior to coming to our clinic. And this isn't what the owner just says. This is actually literally in the medical notes. Told owner that let's say Fluffy. We'll say that's what the dog's name is. It isn't, but Fluffy has three days to live due to liver failure and

You need to go to the emergency hospital. You need overnight stay, et cetera, et cetera. And the family couldn't afford it. I believe that was the issue, but either way, they didn't proceed and they told the vet they weren't going to be able to proceed. And the vet basically just said, well, there's nothing we can do. And the problem is they didn't prescribe any pain medication. didn't, they had originally given a anti-nausea drug that also deals with somatic pain or what's called abdominal or organ pain, I should say. So.

including liver, and the dog did improve. The dog started eating and seemed more, more alert and that was given as an injectable and there are oral dosages. So I was kind of surprised that the dog didn't just, they didn't just say, well, at least come and pick up this medication and give it to them once a day. And, you know, at least it'll make them more comfortable. And, you know, maybe you'll change your mind or maybe we're wrong, or maybe we're just going to give you some extra time with fluffy and he's going to do well.

but they didn't do that. They, so the dog came to us in apparent liver failure. apparently it should have been dead by now. And I recognize that was an estimate and that's fine. but they were on nothing and that's what, that's what ticks me off now. So far the dog's doing well. The actual workup, the initial treatment from the other clinic was very good. And I told that to the owners and I said, you know, it's, it's going to be probably easier for me now to diagnose the problem.

or to sort of cherry pick certain tests because other tests have already been done and the main stuff's been ruled out and we can now focus on the liver. And so we ended up diagnosing a little bit more specifically than liver failure. It does not look like the dog's in liver failure, just the liver is very, very inflamed and needs some detoxing going on. And I prescribed some of that drug, the Meropitent, it's called, I prescribed some Meropitent.

to be given orally and the dog started eating and the dog started playing. And, you know, we're going to recheck the values and probably see improvement in the values. So what frustrated me is the, the lack of options. there are times where I have to have a hard conversation with an owner and say, I cannot do any more with your patient. I don't have the skills. I don't have the tools. We don't have overnight stay.

and your patient, your pet needs, you know, 24-7 care. And maybe the prognosis is poor regardless, so I get it if you're not going to proceed. But maybe the prognosis is good, or at least let's say 50-50, guarded if you go this route. But the realities are people can't always afford, you know, most time people can't afford eight to 10 grand, let's say, for three days at the referral hospital.

And I get that and that's totally reasonable. You're not a bad owner if that's the case, like these things happen. everyone has priorities. It's totally reasonable, but then it's my job as a veterinarian to give an option. Okay. Mrs. Smith, understand. you know, I just need you to realize that it's, we have limited abilities, but let's see what else we can do. We can at least keep fluffy comfortable.

And even if it doesn't work, even if fluffy is no, doesn't start eating, if I can prescribe a decent amount of, narcotic pain medication, a decent amount of other pain medication, I can at least say fluffy is going to be comfortable. It's going to give you a couple of days, give you a week. Like who knows depends on the situation, but you know, we promise we have that Hippocratic oath, you know, above all, above all else do no harm.

What also it should say above all else, don't do nothing, know, do something. at least, at least try give options. And if the family still declines the simple, you know, treatment plan, that's only going to cost a couple hundred dollars, then you need to start pushing for euthanasia. You need to start pushing for, ending a horrible quality of life, you know? but that, that is so rare the situation, right?

so that was a, that was a frustrating situation, but it ended up working out well. and up to that point, I think their, their vet clinic did an amazing job. it is a corporate run vet clinic. I think that makes a difference. I'm starting to see more and more people, come to me. sort of pleased that we're not corporate owned. and again, maybe there's going to come a time in my life where I sell, it was something I had considered years ago. They were thrown around.

ridiculous sums of money and it would allow me to take care of my family. in a way I would never think possible. But it didn't work out and I'm glad it didn't work out. And I'm not interested, even though they're still paying pretty high levels right now for vet hospitals, I'm not interested at that level. You know, you basically have to throw like sell your soul kind of money at me. So I'm loving it. And I do think it makes a difference.

Um, the clinic they're going to, is the issue with most corporate owned clinics. Now there's this constant rotation of veterinarians in and out the door. And so you're often not seeing the same veterinarian and, and it's nice to have somebody that, that you've built up a trust with. So that's a talk about corporate clinics. That's a segue into my next story. So my next story, and I know she's going to be listening cause she talks about being a, uh, she's a fan of the podcast and I know it, I believe it. Um, and.

This is regarding a dog named Mookie. Mookie is, and I apologize if I'm getting the age incorrect. I believe Mookie is 13 or 14 years old. I saw quite a few kind of like second opinion and new clients on Saturdays. so Mookie may only be 11, but Mookie is named after Mookie Wilson. And I wanted to surprise them when I said, Hey, is Mookie named after Mookie Wilson, is a, Toronto Blue Jays, a baseball player back in.

I don't know, late eighties, maybe. I think he used to play, I don't know if he used to play at the CNE at the exhibition or if it was after we moved into the Sky Dome. But, you know, I think it was, I think it was like George Bell days and Tom the Terminator, Hanky, who was like a closeup pitcher who would go out throw seven or eight pitches and then, and then be done.

And do that a couple times a week and be paid millions of dollars. So he had a good, he had a good gig. He was specialist. But anyway, so they were, I think they were impressed that I knew who Mookie Wilson was. Thanks dad for taking us to the Blue Jays games. I loved it. It was a lot of fun. Anyways, Mookie came to me, was brought to me for a second opinion as well, regarding some skin issues.

and the case is interesting and, I feel comfortable with, with how we're proceeding. And I did some, you know, sort of only the tests that were needed, of course. but the cool thing is maybe cool, maybe also a little, crazy is not the right word. but, talk about being committed to your pet, and putting some pressure on me. but to Mookie's mom, I don't want to say her name. Mookie's mom, I appreciate the, the trust.

so bring the pressure on, I love it, but they drove two and a half hours to see me. They drove from Kingston, Ontario. and she originally found out about me almost two years ago when I was on the social, a TV show here in Canada, much like the view, in the U S though less politically charged and a lot more entertaining. and I was on that show two years ago when we were talking about the beginning.

that my documentary had just been finished. And Melissa Grelo, one of the hosts of the social was also the MC for my screening, my premier screening sort of get together. We did it at the Fox theater down in the beaches, not the beach, the beaches. And so she saw me on that. She started following me on Instagram, found out about my podcast, started listening on the podcast, has listened to every single episode. I apologize to her.

personally for the audio for the last episode. She said, no, it's fine. I got 10 more minutes to go. It's fine. She's being very sweet. But she had heard on my podcast, we were talking with Mayha the technician who recently got her R, she got, you know, became registered and how she's sort of our derm diva, our dermatology, not an expert. She has a special interest in dermatology. And I talked about several times how I get a lot of

second opinions regarding dermatology. And it's something I'm pretty good at. So she drove all this way or more more accurately, she had her sister driver all this way. And her sister kind of she's she's she's she was hilarious. She's she even said to me at one point. Yeah, I said to my sister, we're going where? Who are we going to go? So we're going to drive two and a half hours. I'm embellishing a little bit. But I'm sure there was a bit of a conversation of like, what?

we're going that far. so I'm not going to be seeing Mookie very often, obviously. I love you guys, Mookie. love meeting you. I'm happy to help you, but, I'm going to find you a veterinarian, in, in your area. I think I have a classmate or two that's there. and so the, the, reality was Mookie had been seeing, you know, doctor so-and-so, I can't remember the gentleman's name at this clinic in the Kingston area.

And he was older than I am, but like me, he was an older, older veterinarian experience. say experienced and wise-ish veterinarian. he was wise. I'm wise-ish. but he retired recently and he sold corporate. and now, you know, Mookie's mom basically said, I like the vets. They're nice, but they're young and they don't really know Mookie and they seem to be having trouble figuring out what's going on.

so, you know, there, there goes possibly another, another scenario, that I've talked about, but it was just really, really cool to, meet somebody who, was. say committed to their animals, healthcare and, and I guess charmed by my podcast and my TV, appearances. I am going to be on the social again, actually, Friday, the.

30th or 31st of January, whatever the last Friday is of that of this month, because it is going to be, we're gonna be talking about my Icahlawit trip, and hopefully I'll have some puppies that we're gonna be looking homes for. So they really just want the puppies to come on because that gets some ratings and everyone goes, aw, puppies. Anyways, was very appreciated that they would drive all that way.

And, and I'm happy to help them. And, we kind of, the sister and I kind of pushed, Mookie's mom into getting a photo with me, cause we did feel that, you know, we're gonna, we're gonna wish that we did if she leaves and I, you know, I may not see Mookie again, or if I do, it's going to be for a long, long time. This is the first time I've really had anyone come just for the podcast or just being, you know, I heard you on the podcast. I needed a second opinion.

and for them to drive that, that far, deserved a photo. so that was, that was very heartwarming. And, and, and again, it also made my day a different day than Daisy. I get my day made every day. I'm a pretty lucky guy. now the last, the last two cases very quickly on Saturday, literally the last two appointments of the day, and we stayed a little bit late. unfortunately, both were euthanasias. both were euthanasias, both were non-clients.

they were coming to me, they knew, they knew their animal was very sick or their animals were very sick. the first one was a senior dog and, it was coming for euthanasia. Like it was on, it was receiving palliative care. and, they were hoping to be able to get, you know, X number of days, but unfortunately it wasn't going to look that way. and he had had a, he had, I had seen him, I guess he wasn't a new client. I had seen the owner.

years ago with another pet. But we were able to help him help him say goodbye. And of course, it was sad. Everyone. We all cried. It's this big guy, this big guy with tattoos and crying over his dog and talking about how much it means to him. That just that just makes me melt even more. Just to see that level of love and level of

What's the word? not a soft side, but vulnerability level of vulnerability. and for someone to be able to express their emotions. So honestly, especially this, you know, sort of, stereotypical macho guy, being able to, to cry in front of us and we were crying and it was beautiful. unfortunately we had to say goodbye to his dog and he had to say goodbye to his best friend, but, it was done smoothly and peacefully and, and, you know, he was very appreciative.

And the other one was unfortunately a young cat only not even two years old. but also had a critical condition, that had no, no chance of survival past, you know, maybe two months, but the odds are, the cat wasn't going to live more than two or three weeks with aggressive treatment. so what a shocker, like they knew the cat was sick, but what a shocker that, that we had to say goodbye to them. but it was also.

you know, for a different reason, it was incredibly rewarding, I guess, or impactful. And I'm proud of my team and frankly, I'm proud of me. I'm proud that I'm able to help them out and help people say goodbye the way we did and say goodbye to their pets with dignity. So, you know, it's a roller coaster ride of different levels of pride, different causes of pride, let's say, or different types of

of joy or taking pride in one's work or different types of, I don't know what the word is again, sort of positive impact. Some were able to cure animals, sometimes we're not, but instead we can help them go off onto the rainbow bridge with peace and in a humane way where they've got their families surrounding them.

Gosh darn man, what an amazing career I have. Like I'm blessed to be able to do this. And I'm watching the show, The Bear. This is gonna sound like a weird sort of term, but you'll get it. I'm watching the show, The Bear on Disney+. And for anyone who hasn't seen it, I highly recommend it. It is about a young man who after the death of his brother, he inherits his brother's kitchen.

in Chicago is his brother's restaurant. And this, this young man, I mean, he's in his twenties. He is a, like a Michelin star rated chef. And it's not only about him building and changing this restaurant and chasing his dream, but it's also him working with the rest of his family and, and them dealing with the death of his brother and just normal.

dysfunctional family stuff and the writing is so good. The main actor who plays Carmy, he just won a Golden Globe for his acting. It is so, so good. I can't always watch an entire episode because there's so much drama and so much like just pain inside these characters at times for different reasons and it's so real.

And so intense that I sometimes, okay, I can't watch any more of this. I'm to watch the rest tomorrow. kind of thing. But there was a, a, a flashback where the, the deceased brother is, talking about car. He's talking about his kid brother, in the third person, cause he's not there. He's talking to him about something with someone else. And he basically says, you know, this kid has.

found his dream, found what he wants to do, you something that encompasses so much of his life and so much of his heart. And he's lucky enough that he's really good at it. And it hit me really, really hard because I realized this is this is me and hopefully this is true for a lot of you guys. And I recognize it's not for everybody. So again, I am very, very blessed. I get that. But

I love being a veterinarian. I've wanted to be a veterinarian for most of my life, you know, at least some sort of interest in animals and taking care of animals and helping people. And this is something I'm good at. Obviously I make mistakes. Obviously I'm not the best. I'm not perfect, but I am really good at it. And, and I'm very blessed and I'm, you know, I think over the last five or six years, especially with traveling,

I've been able to do a lot of self-reflection and pick up on that fact that I am very, blessed to be able to do what I have that I'm able to do. So with that being said, boy, I talk a whole lot, eh? I had a whole bunch of things I wanted to talk about regarding some cool articles that my friend sent me, like news articles.

And it was gonna be like today in the news and the veterinarian world. I'm only gonna do one of them because we're already at 34 minutes ish approximately. And that's long enough. And I've got a busy day ahead of me and you guys are probably sick of my voice. I get it. So I'm just gonna, I have not really, I've just really been sent to this to me and I've pretty much only read the title. So you and I are gonna go down this rabbit hole together. And I should shout out to Danny.

Um, who sent me this Danny is the producer of a couple of radio, uh, shows. And I was recently on one of the radio shows she produces. Uh, we were talking about dogs and cold weather. Um, but she's also the producer of my friend, David Cooper's podcast, the last show with David Cooper. I recommend you check it out. I've been spending a little bit more time on his show. Uh, we do a segment called vet talk, or is it animal talk? It might be animal talk.

Animal talk with Dr. Cliff. It's animal talk. It's like car talk, but not as helpful as David always says. He's very, very funny. Usually at my expense. but, we're just talking, Danny and I were talking and she sent me these articles and I got to figure out how she gets these things. Cause these are hilarious. Okay. We're going to do one of one. Cause that's all we got time for. dangerous treats linked to werewolf syndrome in dogs werewolf syndrome. All right.

The Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority has warned that the Costange and Kochnochen, I apologize to my Scandinavian listeners, Costange and Kochnochen chew treats of the Barku brand can cause a, quote, werewolf syndrome, as well as lead to the death of dogs. This so-called werewolf syndrome is also, sorry.

is often illustrated by panic attacks and the dog howling like a wolf. It's a neurological disorder and has been seen in countries across Europe like Germany, Finland, Belgium, Switzerland and the Netherlands. Two dogs were affected by the syndrome in Groningen, G-R-O-N-I-N-G-E-N. One had to be put down while the other recovered with the help of medication that was applied at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of Utrecht University. Researchers believe that the chew bones

chew snacks and chew sticks may have been contaminated with mycotoxins, which is a mold toxin, during the production process. Although the exact cause has not yet been determined, experts rule out infections, vaccines, tick repellents as a cause in affected dogs. So, it also says the chew bones are sold in the web stores, Zooplus, MBT, da, da, da, da, da, the web store. So, Costange and Kachnuchen.

two treats, but the interesting thing about this is not all this mycotoxin and these two treats because 99.9 % of you listeners are not gonna be buying this stuff because you're not Scandinavian or from a Scandinavian country right now, but it's this werewolf syndrome. I didn't know anything about this. I don't remember ever hearing about werewolf syndrome except for when I used to play Dungeons and Dragons with my big bother, Tim. Yes, I said that right, big bother.

and I am a Dungeons and Dragons kid. I was usually dungeon master. usually, but so let's go on to Vin, the veterinary information network and see what it has to say about this. Vin is a, subscription service that veterinarians pay for. I think I pay 200 bucks a year. and it basically, it allows me to speak to specialists. This allows me to do research. They've got.

Publications, they've got courses that you can take some of them for free, some of them for extra, but it's just a good, a good way of keeping up to date. So, and when you need to find out about werewolf syndrome, here you go. All right. Um, original title werewolf syndrome, panic, aggression, seizures. All right. Let's click on that. This is a message board. So it's just going to be a communication between veterinarians. Let's see what it says. Uh,

contaminated chewing bones again. I wonder if this is the same. No, this is from, quite a while ago. This is from. Yeah. No, this is from quite a while ago. So apparently can contaminated chewing bones can be an issue. Dogs that suddenly panic, become aggressive, no longer recognize their owners in Germany and other European countries. I do think it's kind of funny that it's, you know, like, you don't, you don't hear about werewolves in Mexico. You know, they're, they're,

mid European Eastern European creation, legends, legend, let's say legend. So it's pretty funny that it's coming from there, I guess. Such cases are becoming more common. Veterinarians refer to this as the werewolf syndrome. Can you imagine you go to your veterinarian and your dog's acting crazy and your dog's howling and your dog might be seizureing and becoming aggressive and the veterinarian says.

Yes, Mrs. Smith, we've done some tests and we've determined that your dog has werewolf syndrome. Here's a couple of silver bullets, a little bit of holy water. Oh, you're not religious? Okay, you're screwed. Here is a calendar that tells you when the full moon is coming out. No, just kidding. But anyways, can you imagine like actually, so I guess we discussed this amongst ourselves. We don't actually call it werewolf syndrome. In several European countries, dogs are currently suffering from mysterious symptoms of illness.

which we refer to as werewolf syndrome, et cetera, et cetera. Sudden changes in behavior and at times uncoordinated movements, sudden and extreme excitement, as well as panic attacks with howling, restlessness and screaming. Attempts to escape through windows or doors. They can show aggressive behavior and there are indications of hallucinations in some patients. And then some of them will suffer epileptic seizures.

The cause has not yet been determined with certainty, but there is a clue. At first, as in quotations, at first we thought that the dogs might have ingested something outside, says the vet. Then we noticed that some of the animals after an initial improvement began to experience severe symptoms again when they were back home. Meyerhoff and other experts therefore suspect that contaminated chewing sticks and chewing bones are the cause and that the dogs are probably suffering from poisoning. Products from various manufacturers are suspected.

doesn't want to name any names, et cetera, et cetera. So while we've already named some names, but, let's see what else there's some comments here. this is, this is from Dr. WT. I really wish they would use a different name for this. Werewolf syndrome is over sensational, overly sensational. and there's already a werewolf syndrome in human patients. Yeah. It's called being a werewolf. hypertrichosis.

What is hypertrichosis? Well, hyper is an increase of trichosis. think that's hair. Uh, if you got a hairy back, do you have, do you have a, what werewolf syndrome? Hyper try.

Hypertrichosis is defined as excessive hair growth anywhere in the body in either males or females. is important to distinguish hypertrichosis from hirsutism, which is a term reserved for females who grow an excessive amount of terminal hairs in androgen-dependent sites. So they got this picture, hypertrichosis, da da da da. There's two types of hypertrichosis, generalized, which occurs over the entire body.

and localized, which is restricted to certain areas, can be congenital or acquired later in life. And this picture is basically someone with generalized hypertrichosis because their entire face looks like it has a carpeting of hair. Much like if you had stubble, you know, if you were growing a beard and then, you know, shaved it down, it was a really good beard with no patchy. Then they got a picture, which looks like it's from the 1930s because it's all faded and yellow.

And it's a woman I'm going to assume because she's wearing a dress and by the shape of her body. But like her entire face is she looks like a cousin it from, from Adam's family. So, we are going down a massive, anyways, check that out. Hypertrichosis T R I C H O S I S, werewolf syndrome. Let's go back to the Vin here and see if there's any comments on treatments.

check for contaminants, ergot, poisoning, illicit drugs, heavy metals, and then exclude other intracranial lesions like brain tumors, that sort of thing. There's a recent report of babies developing excessive hair growth, werewolf syndrome related to accidental exposure to parents' minoxidil. Okay, that's interesting. Wow, disease, toxin, rule out this, rule out that.

I wonder what this guy's quote says. I think it's like the ending to any of his messages. There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance. That principle is contempt prior to investigation. Wow. This guy, Herbert Spencer said that. Wow. Contempt prior to investigation is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments, which cannot.

fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance. Definitely men more than women. Contempt prior to investigation. I'm guilty of that enough times where I just kind of brush something off without actually doing research. And then, so yep, they're talking about Netherlands. So maybe this is the same condition. This one vet, I'm assuming they tested these dogs for rabies. Wow.

Yeah. Wow. Is right. so I don't know what the situation is here. did it, did it, again, everyone's just talking about toxin, toxin, toxin, my co my CoSYS fungo IDs. that's a, you know, that's a, a fungal infection. and then neurotoxin can cause this.

not that this is latherism, not all toxins are rapid. Also, how long before some bad actor tries to weaponize or get high on this? That's kind of weird. So some of our message boards are pretty bizarre, just like any social media and whatnot. Like people start going off on tangents, talking about zombie raccoons and zombie dogs. I look, I talked about zombie raccoons, because these raccoons were, they had distemper.

but I don't actually call them zombie raccoons. That was just so people would click on the link. So yes, I am guilty of some of this stuff too. Let me just quickly see if we can find out about a treatment.

Now it already goes on to other conditions. So, I mean, I think a treatment, this is a toxin, treatment's gonna be supportive. So first of all, solution to all pollution is dilution. So get them on fluids if you can, and just pump fluids into their body to help them dilute and expel any of the toxins. Most of these things are expelled through the kidneys eventually. Maybe you need the liver to detox it a little bit, but you can support the liver with IV fluids and other additional.

medication and then you keep them sedated. Maybe there's pain associated. You deal with that. You can give them anti-seizure medication and hopefully, hopefully the damage is not permanent. But that was a fantastic article. I learned something new or maybe I relearned something cause I'd forgotten about it, but either way where will syndrome I knew nothing about it. And I didn't know about hypertrichosis in people too, although I could kind of figure out because I understand Greek, what the, what the word

What the word meant so that is it for today? Thank you very very much guys Please stay tuned because we're gonna have those fun a Calwit episodes everyone if you guys are well not everyone if you guys are interested We are donating our time or donating our services and the shelter while they do charge people for the use of their of their clinic like normal veterinarian fees we are putting on a free rabies clinic and vaccine clinic for the

for those that are unable to afford regular veterinarian care. And rabies is a problem up in the Arctic. And we are in the Arctic. We are more North than the Northern Lights. The Northern Lights are South of the community that we're staying in and that we're working in. So we're doing a lot of work. It's all volunteer on our end. But much more importantly, the shelter is footing the bill for a lot of this stuff. And they need things. They need medicine. They need supplies.

They need these vaccines, which the vaccines are being donated by Zoetis. Thank you very much. Gavin and Stefan. Gavin is my Zoetis rep. they're gonna, they're dropping off today some, or maybe, yeah. Anyways, before we leave, they're gonna be dropping off a hundred vaccines, rabies, and then distemper parvo. But my long winded request, if you guys would like to support this trip, please check out the GoFundMe page, GoFundMe.com slash Arctic.

pets, gofundme.com slash Arctic pets, is the money is going to be going straight to the costs of these rabies clinics and medication and the travel expenses. Basically, whatever that can't be covered or the shelter is going to sort of put them in a negative, we're going to help them out. And this GoFundMe page will be up for several weeks after we return as well. So please stay tuned.

Be kind to animals and yourself and each other and be kind to werewolves because they may just be infected with a fungus. isn't that what caused the walking dead? we're not really sure are we? there we go. I'm sensationalizing things again. Anyways, I appreciate it guys. I'm glad the audio is a little bit better. things are going to be going better in the future. And thank you for Mookie for coming all this way for dragging your, your mom and your aunt.

all this way from Kingston to see me. I love you buddy and peace. Thanks guys.