Happy Halloween!

Here in the US Halloween is a major holiday.  People decorate their houses with carved pumpkins, scary decorations, and prepare for kids to go door-to-door begging for candy.  Haunted houses are popular and people pay money to have volunteers and professionals scare the bejesus out of them.  While not the biggest money-making holiday of the year, it's certainly one of the most popular ones.

Halloween has always been one of my favorite times of the year.  While I'm not into horror movies, I do like a good scare and spookiness.  I've always loved the classic Universal Studios monster movies.  I've been fascinated by werewolves and vampires, and at one point had a collection of over 200 vampire books.  I also like the idea of dressing in costumes, and continued to do so long after I stopped trick-or-treating.  In fact, my current enjoyment of cosplay at sci-fi/comic/fantasy conventions probably stems from my enjoyment of Halloween as a kid and a desire to do it more than one day per year.

I have some incredible memories from childhood Halloweens.  My mom would make many of my costumes and there were some creative ones.  I have pictures of me when I was about four or five years old dressed as a ghost, with a noose around my neck and the trailing end stiffened with wire to look like I was still actually hanging.  She made a great Dracula cape for me one year that I absolutely loved.  My parents always encouraged the fun part of Halloween, mixed with some of the spookiness.

One year my father hurt his ankle and couldn't go around the neighborhood with me and my mother.  He stayed at home but didn't want to miss out on the fun.  So he dressed himself in long pants and a long-sleeved shirt, put on gloves, and a full head mask.  He sat in a chair near the door and would be perfectly still as kids approached, making them think he was a stuffed decoration.  As they got close or rang the doorbell he would jump up and scare them.  That was so much fun that both he and I did similar things over the years.

Another year, back in the early '80s, my father got together with some of our next-door neighbors and concocted a plan to make a "haunted woods".  We had a large are of woods between the three houses, and the men decided to make a truly memorable Halloween experience.  They made life-size mannequins of Dracula and Frankenstein's monster out of chicken wire and paper mache.  The build a life-size coffin for Dracula with a bat dangling from a motor, causing it to flap over it.  There was a grave dug into the ground with a rope controlled from my tree house, so that someone would pull the rope to open the grave when people walked by.  We had our family and neighbors as actors in some skits and scenes.  At the end there was a life-size witch on a broom that was hung from a pulley and rope.  She would be released to fly down over the people as they walked by, and my dad had a walkie-talkie in her so that he could stand behind a fence and talk to people as if he was the witch.  When people left our yard we had a full-size cast iron cauldron (something we had from my grandparents' home in the country) with water and dry ice.  The tray of candy floated in the bubbling, smoking cauldron, and most people were too freaked out by then to  bother taking their treat.  We had a blast, and repeated it another time.  All of it was free and just done out of our love of the holiday and a desire to have fun.

As a Christian I don't see anything wrong with enjoying a little scary fun at Halloween.  I used to write a more Christian-based blog and addressed this issue on a couple of posts there (here and here).  I won't go into the details again in this post, but if you're interested you can follow those links.  The point is that there is nothing inherently demonic or satanic about Halloween.  Sure, it can be that, but it can also be fun, simple, and child-like.  For most people it's just about having fun, dressing in costume, going to parties, and getting free candy.  

So I wish everyone a Happy Halloween!  Go out there, be safe, have fun, and eat more candy than you should!

Learning to DIY, or How I Became A Mechanical Engineer In Veterinary Medicine

Most people don't realize just how slim the budget and narrow the profit margin is in almost every veterinary practice.  When something breaks down we can't always afford to call in a professional to fix it.  Often we have to muddle through and try to figure out how to do it ourselves.  It may take longer than would someone who actually knew what they were doing, but it is a lot less expensive.

When I was growing up working for a local vet, this happened commonly.  I remember our clothes dryer breaking down many times.  It was a standard household one because the vet couldn't afford an industrial model, and it wasn't designed for the daily grind we put it through.  The drive belt would break, the heater would die, and other things would go wrong.  I was 16 years old and my boss asked me to try and fix it.  I had never done anything like that before, but I've always been bold and confident, and decided to see what I could do.  I discovered that dryers really aren't that complicated and only have a few major parts.  Sure, it took a while to figure out how to put on a new belt, or how the get the heating element out.  But by simply jumping in and doing it, going slowly as I took it apart and paying attention to where parts connected, I was able to do it myself.

As I got into vet school I realized that there were actually many similarities between living bodies and machines.  One time during my veterinary training the brake light on my car went out.  My dad used to be a mechanic and was a regional sales manager for a major car company, so I knew he could help me figure it out.  He got out his voltage testers and started going down the wires trying to find the short or break.  As we did that it suddenly dawned on me.  "Hey, this isn't any different than isolating neurological damage in a dog!"  In my mind the wires were nerves, and we had to figure out where the nerve signal failed.  I remembered my lessons in testing reflexes in different parts of the body, and based on the responses determining where the damage was.  Once that clicked in my brain it was easy to get into finding the right wires as I equated the electrical tests to neuro exams.

Just recently our dental machine suddenly stopped working.  Our first dental of the day went fine, but during the second one we lost any power to our scaler and polisher.  It was a Saturday, so the technical support line for the machine was closed.  We had four other dentals scheduled and I didn't want to cancel those as well as the ones for the next several days until we could get in touch with someone to trouble-shoot the problem.  So I took my medical training and started looking at the machine.  

There was a compressor, which was like the heart, and there were electronics, like the nervous system.  I checked the circuit breaker, which worked fine.  All of the electronic parts seemed to work, and it looked like we just weren't getting any air pressure into the system.  I checked the tank pressure, released some, and waited for the air pump to build it back up again.  Okay, that worked, so the "heart" was in good condition.  The problem must be in the line somewhere.  And that's like anatomy!  It then became a matter of following the "vessels" (air lines) from the compressor to the rest of the equipment.  As I did so I noticed that one connection seemed loose.  A little fiddling with it and I realized that a clamp had been bumped loose, disconnecting one of the tubes.  As soon as I connected it properly everything worked fine again.  The "blood" (air) was now able to go from the "heart" through the "vessels" and into the "limbs" (hand pieces).  I fixed it!

Despite the title, I'm really not great with mechanical things and am nowhere near the skills of a true engineer.  But I've picked up a lot of skills over the years out of sheer necessity and by relating it to my medical training.  I've been pleasantly surprised at how my knowledge as a doctor can give me analogies to help me understand non-medical concepts.  I've used the same principle to try and explain diseases and injuries to clients in non-medical ways.

Steampunk Pirate Hook

In my last post I showed off an ice hook I made for a costume my daughter will be wearing.  To continue the theme let's look at something I made for my own costume.  We're doing steampunk versions of characters from Peter Pan.  My wife is Tinker Bell, I'm Captain Hook, our daughter is Wendy, and our son is Peter.  I'll post pictures of the finished costumes at a later time, but for now I wanted to show off the hook I made for my costume.

I started with two inexpensive plastic costume pirate hooks.  One simply for the base that goes around the hand.  The other we found at a seasonal Halloween store and bought it because it had a more elegant design than typical hooks.  Definitely had a Victorian/steampunk look to it.

So then the question becomes, how to make it "steampunk"?  One of my favorite places to shop for cosplay is our local Habitat For Humanity store.  This is a thrift store, but they also have leftover hardware from when they make homes for low income people.  For making steampunk costumes you'd be hard-pressed to find a better store.  In this case I found a door handle mechanism that had just the right mechanical look and was a little worn, creating a great aged effect.  

Then it was just a matter of spray painting the base, gluing the pieces together, adding a gear in an appropriate location, and some copper coils to enhance the look.

Making things like this is a great creative outlet for me and is actually pretty relaxing.  One of the best parts is trying to figure out how to modify existing parts and pieces, re-purposing things in ways that were never intended in their original design.  When I go to thrift stores and flea markets, I've gotten in the habit of looking at objects and how they might be altered or added to in order to create something new and steampunk.

Frozen + Pirates = Ice Hook

Like most pre-teen girls, my daughter is completely obsessed with the Disney movie Frozen.  This movie is responsible for her favorite color going from pink to blue.  She has seen the movie over 20 times and could probably quote the entire thing from beginning to end without making any mistakes.  I don't have a real problem with this as I think it's a good, enjoyable movie with good messages about love, family, and being true to who you are.  Since my daughter is rather quirky and unique, I think it's important that she embrace her individuality and not feel like she has to follow the crowd or any particular trend.

We're getting ready to go on a Halloween cruise on a Disney ship.  Anyone who has read my blog for a while know how much my family likes costumes and dress-up ("cosplay") and that my wife is a skilled seamstress who has a small custom costume business.  On Disney cruises one night is always "Pirate Night", where guests are encouraged to wear their best pirate gear to dinner and around the ship.  She needed to make new outfits for our kids, but my daughter wanted to dress like Elsa from Frozen.  My wife compromised and was able to take a basic pirate costume pattern but use material similar to that worn by the main character in the movie. 

While this was great, and made for a unique outfit, I started thinking of other ideas.  Elsa creates an outfit and entire castle out of ice.  If she was a pirate, what else might she create?  What is something we typically see on a pirate? 

A hook!   But even better.....an ICE hook!

But how to make one?  Would there be something online?  Of course there would be!  The Internet has everything!!!

Honestly, it didn't take long to find what I wanted.  Apparently professional photographers buy or make fake acrylic ice cubes, because real ice cubes melt quickly under the heat of the lighting and it's hard to get good, consistent shots.  After looking at a couple of websites I thought it would be pretty easy to do.  And it was.

I started with a plastic pirate hook from the dollar section at Target.  I cut off the hook and wrapped aluminum foil around it to form a mold.  I wanted to use aluminum foil so that the resulting hook would have a texture like ice.  Once I had the foil shaped, I removed the hook and had a nice mold of it.

The next step was using clear acrylic craft beads.  I preheated my oven to 375 F, as some of the websites described.  Next, I placed the mold on a baking sheet and filled it with the beads then left them in the oven to melt.  It happened more slowly than I wanted, so I increased the temperature to 400, and then eventually to 425.  As the beads melted they filled less of the space, so I kept adding more beads until they filled to the top of the mold.  Once it was done, I took everything out to cool.

While it was cooling I took the base and spray painted it turquoise to match with the color of the rest of her outfit.  Once the paint dried I put everything back together.

My daughter was absolutely ecstatic!  She didn't know I was making it and then I called her in to show it off.

This was surprisingly easy to make, and cost a grand total of less than $5.

Yes, this is what I do when I'm not being a veterinarian.

A Tale Of Three Uteruses....Why You Should Spay

**CAUTION--Graphic images from surgery.  Proceed at your own risk.**

Recently I had a rather interesting day.  I had three dogs in to be spayed, but each one was a completely different situation.  And I realized that the comparison between these dogs was a good discussion on why you should have your own pets spayed.

Let's start with the first one who was a six month old healthy German Shepherd mix.  She weighed around 58 pounds (26 kg) and had not gone through her first heat cycle.  The surgery went smoothly and there were no problems.  Here is what her uterus looked like once it was removed.

For those who aren't used to seeing these things, the tubular structures in the center of the "V" are the horns of the uterus, with the ovaries at the top of the photo.  The fatty material extending past the tubes and towards the sides is the connective tissue surrounding the uterus.  Pay attention to the scalpel, which is provided for scale.  That becomes very important in a minute.

The next patient was a pure-bred German Shepherd, also at six months old.  This patient was in the middle of her first heat cycle, but the owner didn't want to reschedule so we went ahead and did the surgery.  This dog was 46 pounds (around 21 kg) and her uterus was about three times the size of the first one.  Here's what it looked like post-operatively.

It may not be obvious when you first look at the photo, but look at the scalpel handle for scale.  This uterus is several times thicker than the other one and though you can't see them there are much larger surrounding blood vessels.  Doing a spay on a dog in heat takes longer, uses more suture material, and carries a slightly higher risk of bleeding.  Even so, it can be done safely and this dog also recovered without problems, though the surgery took me over 30 minutes rather than my typical 20 minutes.

The last dog was an 11 year old shih tzu who weighed just under 14 pounds (about 6 kg).  She had developed a life-threatening uterine infection that required immediate surgery.  This is called pyometra, and involves an infection of the uterus so severe that the organ fills with pus and can kill the dog if it ruptures.  The only treatment is usually to do rapid surgery and remove the offending organ, though this is a high risk procedure since even handling it can result in a rupture, spilling pus into the abdomen.  Thankfully this surgery went smoothly, but the uterus was obviously abnormal.  Compare this one to the other two.

Again, go back and look at the other photos using the scalpel for scale.  This uterus is very obviously swollen and discolored.  And if that's not gross enough, here is what it looked like when I opened one section.

All of that nasty fluid was inside the uterus!  And it could have been prevented by spaying her at a young age.

So let's recap the situation.  The largest dog had the smallest uterus and the smallest dog had the largest uterus.  All three came through their surgeries with flying colors and all three were doing great on their post-op recheck 10 days later.  But the dog who had not gone into heat yet had the lowest risk of all of them, so the other situations, especially the last one, could have turned out much worse.

Let's also look at the cost differences.  The first surgery was routine and ran around $350.  Since the second one was in heat and that takes longer, it ended up being around $430.  The pyometra case was over $800.

Do you see the lesson here?  It's better for your dog and for your wallet to have the spay done before their first heat cycle.  Do yourself and your pets a favor and have them spayed by six months old.

Removing A Hamster's Ear Tumor

I like to see "exotic" pets and therefore I do things that most other vets won't.  I'm certainly not the only one, but I know that not many of my colleagues would do surgery to remove a hamster's ear.

This little guy came in with a growth on its ear that looked pretty nasty.  It was growing quickly over a week or so of rechecks and the decision was made to try and surgically remove it.  By the time we got to this day it was beyond just a tumor and had encompassed most of the ear, including the canal.  I quickly realized that I wouldn't just be removing the mass from the skin, but removing the entire ear.

Here's what things looked like before the surgery.  He was heavily sedated and this was just before the surgery.

Here he is while under anesthesia.  When dealing with pets this small we sometimes have to get creative.  There aren't tracheal tubes small enough, and the face masks for anesthetic gas are too large to fit.  I've learned to place a latex exam glove over the end of the mask and then make a small hole to place the patient's face so they can breathe in the oxygen and anesthesia.  That's a pulse oximeter on his leg, which measures the heart rate and blood oxygen.  It actually worked really well through his leg.

And here he is after the surgery with the mass removed.

I know it's a little hard to see here, but the surgery site closed really well and other than the missing ear there was no deformation of the face or head.

This is what the mass, ear, and ear canal looked like postoperatively.

He recovered well that day, then came back 10 days later for a recheck and to remove the sutures.  Unfortunately I didn't take a picture then, and now I wish that I had done so.  He looked great and was showing no bad effects of missing an ear.  It was a completely successful surgery.

These kinds of cases make the job really interesting!

In Your Pet Food But NOT On The Label

There was an interesting recent article that looked at ingredients in pet foods and whether or not there were things found in the food that wasn't on the label.

"In order to see whether mislabeling occurred, the researchers tested 52 products by extracting DNA and testing it for the present of eight meat species: beef, goat, lamb, chicken, goose, turkey, pork and horse. In the end, the researchers found that chicken was the most common meat species found in the pet food products. Pork was the second most common, followed by beef, turkey and lamb. The least common was goose, and none of the products tested positive for horsemeat.

Of the mislabeled products, 13 were dog food and seven were cat food. Of these 20, 16 contained meat species that weren't included on the product label, with pork being the most common undeclared meat species."

This may seem a little shocking to some, but honestly it doesn't really concern me for most pets.  Most of these ingredients are probably trace amounts, meaning that rather than a big chunk of chicken being thrown in there would be some residual bits on the equipment.  So I wouldn't be concerned about this for my own dogs.

The concern is for pets that might have food allergies or other sensitivities to ingredients.  This study is exactly why dermatologists don't consider any over-the-counter foods to be sufficient for a diet trial to rule out allergies.   Let's say that a dog has a beef allergy.  In order to prevent a reaction you pick a food that doesn't have beef on the ingredient list.  So your dog shouldn't react, right?  Well, maybe, except for the fact that there is a good chance that there are trace amounts of beef in the food anyway and even a small amount could trigger a reaction.

If your pet isn't allergic to food ingredients, this is a non-issue and really isn't news.  But if your pet is known or suspected to have food allergies, please listen closely to your vet when they recommend a very specific diet.  There is real science behind the recommendation.

Hit By Car: Broken Leg And More

One of my long-term clients brought their dog to me for a broken leg after being hit by a car.  She had let the dog, an older poodle, outside when the dog wandered too far and got into the road.  A car hit her but didn't stop.  The dog was limping and the leg had an obvious break, so she brought her in.

On the initial exam the dog was breathing heavy but was alert and stable.  There was a bad fracture in the middle of the left tibia, something that I could tell just on palpation.  Surprisingly there didn't seem to be any worse injuries and I was hoping that it was just a broken leg.  In order to assess the damage and see what would be needed for treatment we took some x-rays.

Here's the leg.  This is a bad fracture, but not irreparable.  A splint/cast alone probably wouldn't stabilize the bone well enough, but a pin or plate would result in a very good chance of healing and normal use for the rest of her life.

This is the point where instinct and training take over.  With just the exam I could tell that the leg was broken and there weren't obvious injuries otherwise.  So it would make sense to take radiographs of the legs.  However, a thorough doctor will be aware of other possibilities.  And just to be on the safe side I took some views of the chest.

Notice the haziness in the area of the lungs between the heart and the spine.  This should be much more black, representing the air in the lungs.  Also look below the stomach in the abdomen.  You'll see some hazy, mottled objects running along the direction of the body.  These are feces in the colon and they should not be in that location.  At this point I knew what had happened, but I took the last view.

Even if you know nothing about reading x-rays, I'm sure you can tell that the right side of the chest is just "off".  What's going on?  Those are abdominal contents in the right half of the chest.  Feces within the colon show how that part of the intestines is now within the space normally occupied by the right lung lobes.  Notice the air-filled (blacker) object on the right-hand side of the image at the last ribs?  That's the stomach.  Follow it to the right side of the body and you'll see a finger-like projection pointing "up" into the chest.  This is not normal, and represents the pyloric region of the stomach, which should empty into the upper small intestine. That part of the stomach is now going into the chest.  And lastly, look at that oval whiteish object in the center-left of the chest.  That's the heart, and it's being pushed from the center until it is touching the left wall of the thorax.

This is a diaphragmatic hernia, and was the reason I decided to view the chest.  When there is a hard, sudden impact against the body, the force can push the air and organs against the diaphragm, causing it to "pop" like a balloon. The diaphragm is a muscle, so this results in a tear and hole in the structure.  The inside of the chest has negative pressure in order for the lungs to be able to inflate without pressure around them.  That small vacuum helps to suck abdominal contents into the chest.  Once the diaphragm ruptures it's pretty simple for liver, stomach, and intestines to move through that hole. 

A diaphgramatic hernia is much more serious than a broken leg.  This dog had difficulty breathing because at least half of its normal air space was taken up by abdominal organs.  It should be obvious that she couldn't live well this way.  That being said, I've known cases where a hernia of the diaphragm goes unnoticed for a long time because the dog compensates for its breathing.  This is not an ideal situation, so surgery is always strongly recommended.

I've done this surgery, but it's a very risky one.  It involves opening the abdomen pulling everything back into the proper place.  This allows the thorax to have exposure to outside air, collapsing the lungs.  You have to forcably breathe for the patient and remove excess air from the chest afterwards.  Depending on the size of the herniation it can be difficult to pull the liver back into the abdomen.  There is also a very important nerve along the diaphragm that can be damaged, resulting in paralysis of the breathing muscles.  The surgery carries a lot of significant risks, but not doing it is even riskier.

In this case the owner didn't have good options.  She simply didn't have the money or credit to do any kind of surgery, let alone the thousands of dollars it would have cost to repair the diaphragm and leg.  This little girl ended up being euthanized so that she wouldn't suffer.

Not all traumatic injuries are obvious on first glance.  A broken leg is bad enough but it's not a life-threatening injury.  Please be careful with your pets.

A Dog With A Shell

Recently I saw something new, which after over 17 years in practice becomes more difficult.  This is something that I've only ever heard about in text books and never seen in person so this excited me.

This dog came to us from a nearby pet store for a routine outpatient nail trim, something we'll occasionally do.  When it walked in we were shocked at the visible condition of the skin.  This looked like one of the worst skin infection possible and I was worried that the dog was being neglected.  Even though he wasn't being seen by a doctor, I went over to take a brief look.

When I touched the skin my eyes became wide with surprise.  The skin was hard!  And we're not talking about "I have inflammation and my skin is thickened and tough to bend".  We're talking "I'm part turtle" hard!  The affected areas of the skin were literally as hard as rock and formed a shell over those parts of the dog's body.  Take a look for yourself!

Right away I knew what I was seeing even though I had never been faced with a case of it.  This is a condition called calcinosis cutis and results when calcium deposits form in the deep layers of the skin.  Most commonly this happens as a consequence of Cushing's disease, a disorder where the body over-produces glucocorticoids (steroids), but it can also occasionally result from diabetes, chronic kidney disease, and some forms of cancer.  Blood calcium levels can become persistently high, leading to deposits under the skin. 

Most of the time this results in small, localized plaques of little consequence by themselves.  Sometimes the problem becomes generalized, with calcified skin over a more generalized area of the body.  This particular dog beat even that!  I could get my fingers under large sections of calcified skin, tap hard on it, and even try to move it.  This was thick, hardened skin unlike anything I've ever seen.

We talked to the owner and she was well aware of the problem.  Her dog did have Cushing's disease and was being treated.  She had been to several vets and each one was astonished (as was I) at the extent of the problem, never having see it that bad.  Unfortunately once the skin calcifies it's irreversible and you have to make the pet as comfortable as possible while treating the underlying condition.  This dog had permanent, severe skin damage in addition to the other symptoms of Cushing's disease.  And surprisingly he seemed like he was in good spirits.

I feel really bad for the dog and for the owner, but at the same time this was one of the most interesting things I've seen in a long time.

The Dangers Of Rubber Band Bracelets

A recent fad among kids is rubber band bracelets, sometimes called loom bands.  I know that you've seen these, made of colorful small rubber bands that can be either bought or made.  My daughter has a loom and a kit and has made several of them.  Personally I think they are actually pretty neat (she made me one with black and yellow, Batman's colors!). But there is a hidden danger to them.

A client brought a shih-tzu to us for pain and limping.  The fur was really long and matted around the leg, but it was pretty obvious where the problem was.  We tried to get a better look, but the pain was so severe that she wouldn't let us touch it or even take x-rays.  It really looked like there might be broken bones due to the degree of pain and the fact that there was some swelling.  After sedating her, though, the true cause came to light.

Once she was sufficiently sedated I started looking at the paw and noticed that there seemed to be some scabbing.  Expecting a wound and worrying that bone might be protruding I started shaving the matted fur away.  That's when I noticed the linear wound.  And then I saw something green buried deep inside the wound and I realized what had happened.  It didn't take more than a few seconds to confirm my suspicion.  A small rubber band had tightened around the dog's wrist, cutting through the skin and digging down into the underlying tissues.

After clipping and cleaning, here is what the leg looked like.

Yes, this goes completely around the leg and was deep enough that I could see the muscles.  I was able to cut the band and remove it.  Here is the clear culprit.

If this had gone on much longer it would have started digging through the muscles and tendons, potentially causing permanent damage or requiring that the foot be amputated.  There was already infection and the skin was severely damaged, but there was still a chance of saving the foot.

I talked to the owner and informed her of what we found. She literally almost passed out.  Her youngest daughter had loom bands, and they had caught her trying to put the bands on the dog.  They had told her to stop, but it was obvious that she didn't.  One of those bands had been placed around the dog's wrist and caused severe damage and pain.

The story has a good ending, though.  I was worried that there was enough damage to the blood supply of the skin that the lower part of the paw might die and need amputation.  With bandage changes, antibiotics, and time, the leg fully healed and the dog did fine. But that woman's daughter got the scolding of her life!

When you have children, be sure to supervise them around your pets.  Something small and innocent can lead to severe, expensive problems.

Let Sleeping Dogs Lie....With You?

Recently I was asked whether or not it was okay to allow your dog to sleep in the same bed with you.  To give you some indication of my stance on the issue, both of our dogs spend a lot of time on our bed.  Sometimes we'll have both 65 pound dogs and 2-3 cats lying around our bodies on a queen-sized bed.  The dogs don't stay there all night because I tend to kick with my feet if they lay on top of them, something they quickly learned.

 

So why would you not want to share your bed with the dogs?  There actually are a couple of good reasons.

 

Some parasites can be transmissible to humans, particularly roundworms and hookworms. The eggs from these parasites have been found on the fur around the rectum, tail, and hind legs, not just in the feces.  If a person comes into contact with these areas on an infected dog and then touch their faces or food before washing hands there would be a risk of swallowing the eggs and becoming infected.  Somtimes the worm eggs can actually be regurgitated into the mouth and mix with saliva, leading to infection risk when being licked around the face.  If a dog sleeps with you these parasite eggs can become attached to the bedding and become a source of transmission.

 

Now that I've grossed you out and made you push Fido off the bed, let me try and set your mind at ease.  A dog properly cared for should have minimal or no risk of having these parasites.  All heartworm preventatives on the market also prevent hookworms, and most of them will cover roundworms as well.  So if your dog is on consistent heartworm prevention your risk is minimal.  It is also recommend to have a fecal sample checked 1-2 times annually to screen for these parasites.  Obviously I don't worry about it in my family.

 

The other reason has to do with behavior.  In a dog's mind the human furniture is a place of authority and power.  Those who sit on it are "higher" in the social hierarchy.  This really isn't a problem for your average dog as they are comfortable with their position in the "pack".  But sometimes dogs will become aggressive towards the humans or their canine housemates.  In these situations one of the first things that should be done is to keep the dog off of all furniture.  This includes the bed!  By restricting them to the floor and off any human objects we are working on their psychology and forcing them to a lower rank within the family.  If a dog is used to sleeping on the bed this can be a difficult transition for them and the people.

 

With precautions and care, I don't think there are problems with sharing your bed with your four-legged family members.

Two Spays, Two Costs....What's The Difference?

Here's a recent email from Morgan....

 

I was wondering if you'd be willing to give your readers some advice on how to choose a good vet. I recently adopted a dog and need to find a vet to get her spayed, vaccinated, etc. I've done some calling around and found that prices for veterinary services vary wildly in my area; one local vet will do a spay for $80 and another wants nearly $300. On the one hand, I don't want to be the sucker who pays $300 when I could get the same thing for $80. On the other hand, I don't want to endanger my dog by taking her to a vet who cuts corners where he really shouldn't. How do I tell the difference? What are some questions I should be asking? Is there, like, a "better" way to do a spay that would explain the price difference?

Any advice you'd be willing to share is much appreciated.

 

I can 100% promise you that the $300 spay and the $80 spay are NOT the same.  Not even close!  While the end result is the same, I can promise that there are more risks involved in the cheaper spay.  How each vet gets to that end result (no more reproductive organs) is the difference.  So why such a huge variation in price?

 

Here's the way such cases typically break down:

 

"Expensive" spay--Pre-anesthetic blood tests, safer anesthetic drugs, more monitoring, pain medications, fluid therapy.

 

Cheap spay--no blood tests, older anesthetic drugs, minimal or no anesthesia monitoring, no pain medications, no fluids

 

At my practice the spays fall into the "expensive" category.  I use the quotations because when you look at the breakdown of the costs you actually get a lot.  We do a full blood chemistry profile and blood cell count, use propofol and sevoflurane (human quality drugs, and the same ones I had when I had my appendectomy a few months ago), place an IV catheter and maintain the patient with fluids, have three kinds of monitoring (ECG, pulse oximeter, blood pressure), an assistant standing by the pet at all times, and post-operative pain medications.  All of those things are included in our spay costs, which are in the $300 range.  The only way that someone can do a spay for $80 is to cut a LOT of corners, eliminating most of the things that we do.

 

The question then becomes "Well, why do you need to do the extra stuff?  Why doesn't the other vet do that?  Is it really that necessary?"

 

Every week I have a patient come in for a routine spay, neuter, or dental cleaning that has some abnormalities in the pre-anesthetic blood tests.  Most of the time these are of minimal concern.  But we have picked up some hidden health problems in an outwardly normal pet with these tests.  You're not going to know until you check.  Would you want your pet to die or have complications from liver disease because your vet didn't check the tests first?  The more kinds of monitors you use the safer the anesthesia, as you can pick up problems before they lead to serious issues.  I've found arrhythmias on the ECG during spays and neuters and been able to intervene to keep them from getting worse.  Wouldn't you want your vet monintoring the heart pattern and blood pressure to prevent problems or at least catch them early?  My wife had a histerectomy earlier this year and I had an appendectomy.  I can tell you from personal experience with abdominal surgery that pain medication is very important.  Any of us would want it after surgery.  Why shouldn't your pet get it?

 

If a vet is only doing a spay for $80 I would have to wonder about their overall quality of medicine and their devotion to modern care.  Now, I can't second guess them and would need to evaluate their procedure before I could say for certain.  But there is no way at all that a vet could do a spay for that price and still make it a safe, high-quality procedure.  Truthfully most of their patients will do fine, but the complication rate is certainly higher without proper precautions.  Even if it's a 1 in 1,000 chance of problems, do you want YOUR pet to at that risk when taking full anesthetic measures could reduce it to 1 in 10,000?

 

So here's what to ask in these cases:  What does the procedure cover?  What kind of anesthesia do you use?  Do you give any injections for pain?  How do you monitor the patients?  Do you do blood tests?  Do you use IV fluids?  Can I get a specific list of everything that is done during the procedure?  You need to compare apples to apples, and price alone won't do it.

 

I also want to briefly address the other issue of simply chosing a vet.  Make an appointment to meet the vet and staff.  Spend the money to have your pet examined and even let the vet know that you are kind of interviewing them.  Ask for a tour of the facility (though if there are gross procedures being done the vet may not want you to be in the back...this is legitimate and you can come back another time).  Ask what kind of procedures they typically do, whether lab tests are done at the facility or sent out, and how after-hour emergencies are handled.  And just use your instincts on the friendliness of the vet, their willingness to openly answer questions, and the quality of their facilities.