The dangers and consequences of pet obesity

In this episode:

Pet Joke of the Week: The Dog Dictionary.
Headline pet news: West Hollywood petstore dog & cat sale ban/Natural Variety Raw Diet Recall
Personal comment: The dangers and consequences of pet obesity.

Transcript of personal comment from this episode of The Web-DVM:


For my personal comment tonight, I will be addressing an unnecessarily common health issue in dogs and cats, and that is the epidemic of obesity. So if your cat looks like this (see video for image), or your dog looks like this (see video for image), you especially need to pay close attention to what I have to say.

Obesity and the lifestyle that supports it, overeating, the consumption of excess carbohydrates and fats, and being sedentary, causes pets a world of secondary health problems. From a metabolic standpoint, the obese patient is predisposed to life threatening bouts of disease of the pancreas, as well as insulin dependent diabetes. Fat cats especially love to get diabetes, comprising the biggest percentage of diabetic patients in small animal medicine.

From a musculoskeletal standpoint, obesity leads to spinal disc injuries, ligament tears, and early age arthritis due to excessive stress obesity causes to these structures. I have one particular West Highland White Terrier patient that resembles a foot stool she is so fat, that for the past 3 years, literally wobbles her way into my clinic because her obesity decreases her ability to ambulate normally. This Westie now has to come in for regular rehab laser treatments for her knees because her obesity is wearing them out at only 5 years of age.

The owner of this Westie, as is the case of many owners with obese pets, has maintained that he does not over feed her, offering her only the diet food that I prescribed, in the amounts I recommended. I even ran bloodwork on her and checked her thyroid levels to make certain there was not underlying medical disease contributing to the dog’s obesity, which all returned normal; confirming that this owner is lying to me, that this dog is getting overfed despite his protests that this is not the case.

You see folks, animals like people, when overfed gain weight, and when fed less, lose weight. One does not need a veterinary degree to figure that out. So when I have ruled out all known medical causes for obesity, prescribed a weightloss diet that your pet responds to by getting even fatter, you are lying to me and not following my instructions.

With the owner of the fat Westie, it was his wife that ultimately ratted him out, explaining to me that her husband indeed feeds the recommended amounts of the weightloss diet I prescribed, but also continues to offer the dog a portion of whatever he is eating, whether it be bacon, steak, potato chips, or even iced cream!

So because this owner cannot resist his dog’s begging, to date it has cost him $140 in bloodwork, $360 in laser rehabilitation treatments and $150 in anti-inflammatory drugs for the bum knees. The dog’s quality of life is compromised because she is so bloated that she cannot move, and at this rate, her life will surely be shortened.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is just one example of a virtually endless number of patients that have a similar story. Why owners at a huge cost to their pet’s health, as well as their bank accounts, just cannot say no to their pets and ration their eating, is beyond me. I even had one owner tell me that he will never get weight off his dog because, like his own personal approach to life, he would rather let him eat what he wants, live a shorter life and die happy, rather than go through life unsatisfied and live longer.

To that, my reply is this:

Your dog’s life will indeed be shorter, but he will not die happy. On his way to the end of his life that you have decided to hasten, he stands a far greater likelihood than other non-obese pets, of needing surgery to repair ligament tears or spinal disc herniations. Along his shortened journey of life, he may have to be hospitalized for pancreatitis or need to receive insulin injections to manage his diabetes. He may have his vision compromised from diabetic complication of cataracts or because his obesity is causing his body to deposit cholesterol on the corneas of his eyes. And if he survives all of that, at some point, the decision to put him to sleep will ultimately be made because his obesity has stressed his joints to severe level of degenerative disease, the pain of which, all the medications in the world can no longer manage.

Sounds to you like a crappy way to live? Of course it does! So if your pet is fat, take it seriously and start getting some weight off. To help you in your task, I will be posting some general feeding guidelines, as well as some good choices for weightloss diets on the blog, at webdvm.blogspot.com.

That is our show for this Thursday, February 18, 2010. Please help us continue our discussion at our blog at webdvm.blogspot.com. As always, comments posted there will be addressed by me live on my supplemental show Sunday evening at 7:30 PM EST at BlogTV.com. Please join me next week, as I will be discussing heartworm disease in dogs and cats. Is it really that bad of a problem? Can cats get it too? Find out next week.

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Supplemental Information:

How do I know if my pet is overweight?

Begin assessing your pet’s body condition by simply looking at him. Viewed from above, you should see a noticeable “waist,” which in dogs and cats is a modest tapering just past the rib cage. No visible waist (or the opposite – a pouching out or pear shape) is an indication that the pet is overweight.

Viewed from the side, as your eyes from the chest toward the back end of the dog just past the rib cage, the abdomen should be tucked in. Lack of this (or the opposite – a pot belly) is an indication that the pet is overweight.

(Ideal appeareance)





Run your fingers across the rib cage. You should be able to feel individual ribs. While you should never see rib protrusions, you should always be able to feel them beneath the skin. If you cannot feel ribs, that is an indication that your pet is overweight.

So how do I get weight off my overweight pet?

If your pet is just mildly to moderately overweight, I would begin by simply calculating the daily food intake to make certain that you are not overfeeding. The general guideline that I offer for dogs and cats is one 8 oz cup of food per 20 pounds of body weight per day. Since different foods have different caloric content, this guideline is general, but usually fits fairly well with most normal pets and with most diets. If you are already feeding this much or less and your pet is overweight, try cutting back what you are currently feeding by about 25%, as well as try to increase exercise. In doing these calculations, be sure not to use the pet’s current weight, but the target weight which you or your veterinarian feel would be ideal.

If your pet is substantially overweight and/or the above measures have not helped, then you should select a weightloss diet. Commercially, Science Diet, Eukanuba, Iams, and Royal Canin all make excellent weightloss diets for both dogs and cats. If I had to pick out one of these diets as my favorite as far as most effective, the Science Diet light formulas have historically seemed to be the best in my experience. You would feed these diets under the same 1 cup per 20 pounds per day guideline.

If your pet is morbidly obese and/or even these good commercial weightloss diets have not helped get weight off your pet, then it is time to consider a prescription weightloss diet from your veterinarian. Each vet has his/her own favorite lines of prescription diets, so ask your vet which one he/she recommends. I am a big fan of Hills R/D for this purpose. With these stubborn weightloss patients, it is also a good idea to have the thyroid checked to make certain that hypothyroidism, a.k.a., underactive thyroid, is not getting in the way of proper weightloss.

Dr. Roger Welton is the President and chief veterinarian at Maybeck Animal Hospital in West Melbourne Florida, as well as CEO of the veterinary advice and health management website Web-DVM.net.

Emerging field of veterinary rehabilitation is here to stay

In this episode:

Pet Joke of the Week: Adopted Turtle.
Personal comment: Emerging field of veterinary rehabilitation is here to stay.

Transcript of personal comment from this episode of The Web-DVM:

In my personal comment tonight, I am excited to present to you the emerging field of veterinary rehabilitation, an approach to treating degenerative disease of the joints and spine in a non-surgical, non-intrusive way. It is such innovations as these that make the practice of medicine always novel, enjoyable, and rewarding.

So let us dive right in and talk about some of the conditions where rehabilitation is practically applicable for dogs and cats as, I think you will be surprised at how these common every day conditions may apply to your own dogs and cats. The most common disease that affects aging pets, of course, is arthritis of the joints and spine. Arthritis stems from wear and tear of the cartilaginous surfaces of the bones that comprise a given joint, that leads to inflammation, pain, and eventually degenerative changes that can be rather debilitating to affected pets. While arthritis is associated with age, it can present as an early onset in some patients due to obesity, injury, and inherited deformities like hip dysplasia. Those of us that are life long pet owners certainly have observed first hand how arthritis can cause our pets stiffness and affect mobility.

Spinal disc herniation and subsequent spinal cord and nerve root signature compression is a both a common and serous occurrence in dogs and cats, especially so in small dogs. These injuries cause pain that is often severe, can lead to neuromuscular weakness and dysfunction and even complete paralysis.

While surgery and anti-inflammatory drugs remain invaluable options for the treatment of these and other musculoskeletal diseases, there are now less invasive and far less costly approaches that may help many of these patients, the most innovative of which is the therapy laser. Pictured here (see video for image) is the Cutting Edge therapy laser I have recently added to my own animal hospital. It works by emitting low level photons to an area that has many beneficial effects. From a pain management standpoint, the therapy laser stimulates the synthesis of the body's own natural pain reducing biochemicals, specifically endorphins and encephalin. The therapy laser stimulates muscle and trigger point providing musculoskeletal pain relief.

Accelerated healing is another benefit of the therapy laser, as photons of emitted light penetrate deeply into tissues to stimulate rapid cellular reproduction and growth. These photons also increase the amount of energy available to cells so that they can absorb nutrients while eliminating waste products faster. As a result of all of this, tissues such as tendons, ligaments, and muscle are repaired more quickly.

Another phenomenon of the therapy laser that stimulates faster healing is the opening or dilation of small blood vessels in an area. More blood supply brings in healing cells faster, accelerating the healing process while reducing the formation of scar tissue. Most importantly, the laser accomplishes all this at no risk to the patient, with little to no potential for harmful complications, not even a warming of the skin.

While the therapy laser puts damaged tissues into a cycle of healing, nutritional management provides the raw materials necessary for the restoration of cartilage, ligaments, tendons, and other connective tissues, while also providing additional natural anti-inflammatory relief. Nutriceuticals, as these nutritional supplements are termed, contain varying combinations of glycosaminoglycans, glucosamine, chondroitin, and MSM. But let me warn you, not all nutriceuticals are created equal! These products at this time are not FDA regulated, and thus are not bound by law to have what the label claims. As such, blind studies have found many joint health supplements lacking in ingredients their labels claim they have. For this reason, it is important to select veterinary grade nutriceuticals on the recommendation of you veterinarian.

So let me showcase a typical rehabilitation course. Pictured here is my dog Lulu (see video for image) who, due to her obssession with a certain armadillo in our yard, threw out her back rather badly in hot pursuit of the elusive creature, specifically in the L3-L4 region of her spine. The result of this injury was chronic recurring pain, which necessitated periodic courses of anti-inflammatory medications.

I began Lulu's treatment regimen by starting her on the daily oral nutriceutical, Dasuquin. Each rehab treatment she receives in the clinic consists of a laser infusion in her affected area, an injection of the powerful injectable nutriceutical, Adequan, and therapeutic massage. The protocol calls for a 3 week induction phase, from which she receives 3 treatments week one, 2 treatments week 2, and 1 treatment week 3. Thereafter, Lulu moves to her maintenance phase, where she will remain on daily oral Dasuquin, and get a laser fusion/Adequan injection/therpeutic massage treatment once every 4-8 weeks as her needs dictate. Now just entering week 2, Lulu is acting as if the injury never occurred, the most mobile and pain free I have seen her in months, all without the need for anti-inflammatory drugs. Most importantly, she has once again regained her passion in life, which is to one day, catch her arch nemesis, the armadillo.

That is our show for this Thursday, February 11, 2010. Please help us continue our discussion at our blog at webdvm.blogspot.com. Comments posted there will be addressed by me live on my supplemental show Sunday evening at 4:30 PM EST at BlogTV.com. Please join us next week when I will be discussing the dangers and consequences of pet obesity.

Dr. Roger Welton is the President and chief veterinarian at Maybeck Animal Hospital in West Melbourne Florida, as well as CEO of the veterinary advice and health management website Web-DVM.net.

Thoughts on canine & feline nutrition

In this episode:

Pet Joke of the Week: Clever dog quote from a famous historical figure.
Personal comment: Thoughts on canine & feline nutrition

Transcript of personal comment from this episode of The Web-DVM:

I am once again foregoing the news this week in favor of another rather substantial personal comment. As promised last week following my personal comment about dogs and wolves being very different species that should not be considered the same, and certainly should not be fed the same, this week I turn my attention to canine and feline nutrition. Let me begin by quickly addressing the feeding of a raw meat diet.

In dogs, I already explained last week that having a less acidic gastric pH than their wolf ancestor, dogs do not have a good natural defense against raw meat bacteria and parasites. As such, feeding raw meat carries a high risk of food poisoning in dogs as it does people, some cases of which can be life threatening. Like people, we regularly see cases of raw meat induced food poisoning including salmonella, e. coli, klebsiella, and campylobacter, to name some of the more common ones. And for you raw feeding proponents that think this does not occur because it has not yet happened to your dog? Think again, I have seen it time and again in practice. If your dogs have not gotten sick you have been lucky, and I hope that you do not ever have to face both the expense and emotional toll of your pet getting violently ill, while living with the guilt that your insistence on feeding in a manner that the vast majority of veterinarians recommend against for good reason, was the cause. And if you feed raw because wolves do and you think that dogs should eat the same as a wolf, then I urge you to please watch last week's episode focused on the many ways the two species are different.

Also, feeding a canine an exclusively protein diet is a poor approach to promoting good health. In order to break down protein into smaller chains that can be properly absorbed by the gut, metabolic reactions must occur that generate ammonia as a primary waste product. Thankfully the liver processes this ammonia and converts it into a less harmful analog called urea, which then gets transported to the kidneys for elimination in the urine. However, feeding an exclusive or disproportionately high level of protein, subsqently puts metabolic stress on the liver and kidneys because of this, while starving the body of other important nutrients that the canine needs, such as carbohydrates, fiber, and fat. You see, dogs are not carnivores that require a diet exclusively of meat, nor even mostly of meat. They are, like people, omnivores, requiring a diet properly balanced in nutrients.

Regarding cats well, like in many other ways, they are different from dogs. For one thing, they ARE carnivores, that is, they can thrive on a diet of pure meat protein, having the physiological adaptations to more efficiently create non-protein nutrients from protein. That said, raw meat is still not good idea for them either. While cats seems to be able to withstand raw meat food poisoning a bit better than dogs, I have still treated a number of confirmed food poisoning cases, the most common of which has seemed to be salmonella.

Now, even though cats can thrive on a pure protein, meat diet, they still seem to do better with some degree of vegetable matter in their food, with some fiber, complex carbohydrates, and antioxidants making invaluable contributions to overall health. So while we still like to feed cats diets that are proportionally heavy in protein, it is advisable to offer some vegetable and fibrous carbohydrate sources as well.

Now the breakdown. Starting with dogs, they do best with the following breakdown of nutrients: 25%-35% protein, 35%-45% carbohydrate, 5%-15% fat, and 5-10% fiber. Cats do best with 35%-45% protein, 25%-35% carbohydrate, 15%-25% fat, and 1%-5% fiber. Cats also cannot manufacture the amino acid taurine, making it an essential additive to all feline foods. Deficiency of taurine can lead to severe cardiac disease in cats.

So what kinds of pet food should you select? I am not here to promote any one brand of food nor am I going to blast any particular brands as tempting as it may be to do so. I will offer this, however: avoid grocery store and superstore brands, as these foods are consistently very bad diets, heavy in fillers and poor quality nutrient sources. And, the companies that make them are sneaky.

They make the food so that the nutrient label matches well with better quality diets, but what they do not tell you is that, while a reputable pet food company may use good quality protein sources such as muscle and organs, a grocery store brand will use hoof, hair, and skin. Both technically protein, but the absorption and utilization will not be the same. While a reputable diet may use quality carbohydrate and fiber sources such as rice and vegetables, a grocery store brand may use fillers like corn and wheat. If you want to feed your pets well, resist the temptation to go down that pet food isle while at the grocery store.

Instead, look for diets that are comprised of whole foods and vegetables, with meat and veggies listed first in the ingredients, with byproducts listed further down the list. Many of these better diets are sold at veterinary clinics and large retail pet stores.

If you can fit it into your budget, consider feeding a diet free of preservatives and fillers. These so called holistic diets are made of whole foods, primarily meats and green veggies, omitting the use of chemical preservatives and highly allergenic grain fillers, such as wheat and corn. Confused about which diet to pick in a sea of options? Ask your vet, as he/she is the best source for pet food recommendations.

Regarding texture, I almost always favor a dry diet versus a canned one primarily for the dental health benefits of dry, crunchy food. Chewing a crunchy diet cleans the teeth and massages the gums, promoting good overall oral health.

For more indepth information about canine and feline nutrition broken down even further into specific life stage, please refer to the nutrition page on our parent site, Web-DVM.net.

Are dogs and wolves really that similar??

In this episode:

Pet Joke of the Week: The Faithful Cat
Personal comment: Are dogs and wolves really that similar??

Transcript of personal comment from this episode of The Web-DVM:

In my personal comment tonight, I want to compare and contrast domestic dogs with their ancient ancestor, the wolf. I feel compelled to do this in light of a movement that is gaining some momentum that is directed toward treating dogs like wolves because they are essentially the same. This is most profound with regard to feeding, with some people not only themselves convinced, but vehemently trying to convince other dog owners that dogs should be fed raw meat diets. Many of people of this ilk even believe that all or most health problems of dogs arise simply because most are not fed a raw meat diet like their wolf ancestors. Others take this even further and refuse vaccines, deworming, heartworm and flea preventive...because this is how wolves live and dogs are basically wolves.

I am here to tell you today that this premise that dogs are nothing more than well trained wolves could not be further from the truth. There are physical and some behavioral similarities to be sure, but please allow me to explain that the comparison of the two species pretty much stops there - dogs and wolves are clearly separate and distinct species.

Let us begin with the wolf. The wolf is an ancient wild canid, the product of hundreds of thousands of years of natural selection, which is essentially the fact that, in the wild, only the healthiest and most physiologically well adapted to the environment survive to breed, thereby passing along to offspring only the best genes that reflect the best physical characteristics to survive. After countless generations of such natural selection, the wolf we see today is very hardy creature, physiologically capable of digesting raw meat and dealing with raw meat bacteria and parasites. They have physiological adaptations that enable them to process a diet composed largely of protein, withstand temperature extremes, are more resilient to disease, and have thick skin to better handle insect bites, mites, fleas, and ticks.

The domestic dog, on the other hand, is descended originally from the wolf indeed, from a time in our own ancient past when our ancestors found the most docile examples of wolves convenient to keep around as an easy food source in time of need, as an aid in hunting, and who knows, maybe even for companionship. This occurred presumably about 100,000 years ago, when the fossil record shows the first domestic dog bones found among those of early humans, as a representation of a novel divergent species separate from wolves and clearly living among people. This is proof that selective breeding of dogs began to occur around this time and has influenced the dog's evolution to this day, and it is this selective breeding that has made dogs so very different from the wolf.

First, since of course only the most docile and people friendly examples were logically kept by people, the wild nature of wolves was very much bred out over successive generations of dogs. Next, keeping shelter with humans and sharing their food, ancient dogs did not have an adapt or die reality imposed on them as was the case with their wild cousins. Being cared for by humans, fed cooked meat and the more diverse diet of humans in general, dogs were able to survive and breed with less physiological stress placed on them, which eventually created a species that is far less hardy and resilient than their wolf cousins, essentially a species in many ways, more like us.

Add in the highly selective breeding for the creation and maintenance of separate dog breeds that became popular in relatively recent canine history, and what have today, is an example of the opposite of the hardy wolf born of natural selection. We have instead the domestic dog born of very UNnatural selection. Selective breeding indeed gave us the physical and temperament characteristics people seeked for dogs, but with that came unwanted genetic baggage, known as recessive genetic disease that served to further weaken the species. Case in point, perhaps more than half of the canine disease I see in practice has a genetic origin.

So what does this mean when comparing the two species? Well first, the ability to deal with raw meat bacteria and parasites is far greater in the wolf than the dog. This is because the wolf is physiologically adapted to deal with raw meat pathogens with an extremely acidic stomach pH of 1 or less, poised to effectively kill raw meat bacteria and parasites. The dog, on the other hand, has a stomach pH considerably less acidic and more along the lines of people at a pH of 2.5-3. Just this week, I have treated at least 5 cases of dogs with GI disease secondary to intestinal parasites. In my career as a whole, I have treated many cases of bacterial food poisoning from the ingestion of raw meat, usually by accident, but in some cases fed purposely by owners caring for their dogs under the false notion that dogs should eat raw because they are just like wolves.

Regarding breakdown of nutrients, although wolves are omnivores, meaning that they need a mix of meat and at least some fiber and other nutrients in their diet, with the bulk of their diet coming from meat and a minority coming from the plant material present in the guts of their mostly herbivorous prey, they are physiologically adapted to thrive on a much higher percentage of dietary protein than dogs. In short, biochemically they have a greater ability than dogs to convert protein into non-protein nutrients such as fats and carbohydrates.

Dogs, on the other hand, are, like the humans they have cohabitated with for 100,000 years, are far more omniverous, needing a balance of dietary nutrients of 20%-30% protein, 10%-20% fat, 35%-45% carbohydrate, and 5%-10% crude fiber. Feeding a dog the same percentage of dietary protein that the average wolf would consume relative to other nutrients, would lead to excessive metabolic stress on the liver, kidneys, and pancreas among other problems.

If I have not yet convinced you that wolves and dogs are very different, let us compare their DNA. The dog's DNA sequence differs from that of the wolf by an average of 1%. On paper this does not seem like much of a difference, but if you consider that the DNA of humans and our closest living evolutionary cousin, the chimpanzee, is only 1.8%, one can understand that a difference of 1% is rather significant. If even this fact is not enough to convince you, consider that the percentage difference between the DNA of a 175 pound Mastiff compared to that of a 6 pound Yorkshire Terrier, both variants of the domestic dog, is virtually mathematically undetectable. If there is virtually no difference between the DNA of a 175 pound domestic dog versus a 6 pound domestic dog, how can we be made to believe that the dog is basically the same as a wolf from whom its DNA differs by an average of 1%?

Finally, the notion that dogs do not need vaccines, flea, tick, and heartworm preventive because wolves don't, is just absurd. In truth, while wolves seem to be more resilient to withstand the bites of fleas, ticks, and to combat infectious disease due to their hardiness born of natural selection, they would still benefit from these measures as well. For example, wolves are susceptible to infectious diseases that we regularly vaccinate dogs against, such as rabies, distemper, parvo, as they are also prone to heartworm disease. We do not hear about it or know about it, since they are certainly not routinely checked out by a vet. However the effects of not being protected from these diseases as dogs are is clearly evidenced by their relatively poor neonatal survival rates and much shorter average life spans. Respectively, only 40% or less of wolf cubs survive to adulthood, and the average lifespan of a wolf in the wild is only 3-5 years.

In summary, I urge you to not be misled into believing that your dog is merely a wolf and needs to be fed and treated as such. Wolves are a product of hundreds of thousands of years of natural selection, survival of the fittest in the simplest terms. Dogs, while originally descended from the wolf more than 100,000 years ago, have evolved into a less wildly adaptive, separate and distinct species from breeding under the care, shelter, and diet of humans, then later very selectively bred into distinctive and unique breeds. All of this resulted in domestic dogs being generally a less hardy species than wolves, requiring a more diverse and cooked diet, having a greater susceptibility to the elements and infectious disease, and being prone to genetically inherited disease. They are little more like wolves than humans are like chimpanzees.

That is our show for tonight. Please help us continue our discussion by visiting our blog at webdvm.blogspot.com, where comments posted there will be read and addressed in my live broadcast at BlogTV.com this Sunday evening at 7:30 pm. Please tune in next week when I will be discussing canine and feline nutrition more indepthly, including a bit more on the feeding of raw meat and the evidence we have for why it is a bad idea.

Dr. Roger Welton is the President and chief veterinarian at Maybeck Animal Hospital in West Melbourne Florida, as well as CEO of the veterinary advice and health management website Web-DVM.net.

Dental disease in pets: more than just bad breath!

In this episode:

Pet Joke of the Week: The prophetic parrot
Personal comment: Dental disease: more than just bad breath!

Transcript of personal comment from this episode of The Web-DVM:

With national animal dental health month approaching in just over a week, I wanted to address a topic about which there is too little awareness about, and a topic that too many pet owners are dismissive of. All too often people simply think that their cat's or dog's bad breath is just a consequence of nature, that they are animals, and they are supposed to have stinky breath, end of story. What I want to tell you today is that dental disease in animals is very real, is capable of causing severe pain, suppressing the immune system and leading to overall poor health, can rot and dissolve jaw bone, and can lead to infections being seeded elsewhere in the body. I want to tell you that dental disease is far more than just bad breath!

Let us begin with the pain aspect. Anyone who has had a bad tooth ache knows the excruciating pain one bad tooth can cause. Now, imagine that instead of having just one bad tooth, your mouth looks like this (see image on video).

Most of us cannot fathom the kind of pain that teeth like this cause. But then, when I examine a mouth like this and tell the owner about the level of pain this is causing, they almost always tell me, "But he doesn't act like he is in pain." Folks, just as I do my clients, allow me to educate you on pain in animals. In the wild, they are programmed to not show signs of pain since, if they show any weakness, other wild animals will opportunistically bully them away from food, hunt their young, chase them out of their shelter, and generally take advantage of them. Even though our animals are domesticated, they still carry this tendency to hide their pain to the best of their ability, which can make them very cryptic about showing owners signs of pain, which is especially true in cats. And since they cannot speak to us and articulate the fact that something hurts, it often goes under our radar. But believe me when I tell you, this mouth HURTS!

Next, let us talk about suppressing the immune system. Pain leads to stress, which we know leads to immune system suppression in people, and that is no different in dogs and cats. The oral bacterial load associated with this level of tartar is severe, with virulent bacteria being swallowed constantly by patients that suffer with dental disease, keeping the immune system very busy, and subsequently weaker. As a result, patient's with dental disease also commonly suffer from opportunistic infections of the skin, urinary tract, and ears.

While on the subject of bacteria, these pathogens that live in the mouth can also directly seed elsewhere in the body to end up infecting the heart and/or kidneys, leading to life threatening complications that are very difficult to treat.

Locally, I cannot tell you how many times I have seen pathological fractures of the jaw because tooth root infection has eroded bone, or this phenomena (see image on video) called an oronasal fistula, a tooth infection of the upper arcade of teeth that is so severe that it has eroded up into the nasal sinuses.

What is so upsetting about all this is that it is so preventable. All you have to do is take your pet to the vet regularly for its yearly visits, which include getting vaccines current, heartworm screening, stool analysis to check for parasites, all a good idea, but also a thorough examination which includes an inspection of the teeth. If your vet notices early stage dental disease and recommends a dental scale and polish based on that examination, don't blow it off and make the appointment to get it done. Afterwards, if the vet recommends dental chews, feeding dry pet food, or other measures to keep your pets' the teeth and gums healthy, take heed and do it. Maybe next year, your pet may not need dental work because of his recommendations.

So let's go over some common reasons why owners decline dental cleanings, as I refute why most of these reasons are not justifiable. I already discussed that people simply dismiss dental health as unimportant, and am pretty confident we explained how wrong that is. So that brings me to the next most common reason: cost.

Not having the financial resources to have the work done is unfortunate, and I sympathize with anyone in this position. I would not recommend anyone put themselves or their family in financial jeopardy to having the pet's teeth cleaned. But there are others that actually can afford the dental procedure, but money is still generally tight and they cannot justify the expense. I think some of these folks also tend to fall in the same category as the previous group we just discussed, that generally dismiss the importance of dental health. For these people, I will say this: an investment in a dental could potentially save you a great deal of money in the future. For treatment of secondary heart infection, kidney infection, pathological fracture of the jaw, oronasal fistula, and other health consequences of dental disease, cost a heck of a lot more to treat then that dental that would have prevented them. I cannot tell you how many clients have lived to regret declining my recommendations to have the teeth addressed, because of the financial ramifications that resulted in their non-action.

The final most common reason that pet owners decline dentistry is fear of the anesthesia required to perform the procedure. Sorry folks, our patients do not simply open up and say ah. Anesthesia is necessary to have the work done. And besides, if we have to extract teeth or perform deep root cleaning as we often do, they have to be under general anesthesia for that anyway.

My answer to this fear is that it is unwarranted for two important reasons. First, is that complications that arise from dental disease are statistically far more dangerous for the pet than anesthesia. With advances in anesthesia protocols and monitoring equipment that rival that of human medicine, the reality is that death from anesthesia is exceedingly rare, especially with all the precautions we take, starting with a pre-anesthetic exam and bloodwork.

So let us celebrate National Animal Dental Health month with some good common sense dental prevention, beginning with dry pet food, regular dental chews, and weekly tooth brushing (but I would reserve the tooth brushing only for pets that do not resent it too much - most cats will not be too amenable to it). Most importantly, if your vet recommends some cleaning and dental work, if it will not break you financially, by all means do it.

Thank you for watching, I will once again not be available for my live broadcast this Sunday evening, as my beloved NY Jets will be playing a monumentally important playoff game, but I plan to be back on BlogTV.com with my live show next Sunday. As for this show, please join me next week, when I will be discussing domestic dogs vs. wolves, are they really as similar as many think, or are they very different separate and distinct species'.

Who is smarter, dogs or cats??

In this episode:

Pet Joke of the Week: The cat and the husband
Heroic 9/11 rescue dog cloned
Personal comment: Who is smarter, dogs or cats?

Transcript of personal comment from this episode of The Web-DVM: Who is smarter, dogs or cats??

In my personal comment tonight, I will answer the age old question of which species is smarter, dogs or cats, as well as tell you exactly how it is that we know the answer. But first, seeking to get an idea of which species people generally think are smarter, I went to PetCo in Viera, Florida to ask patrons of the store what they thought. Here is what I found out.

(See video for PetCo footage)

Interesting view points and I thank all that participated in our survey, but it does seem that people opine in favor of dogs being smarter - and they are right.
Sorry cat people, but it is true, and here is how we know that dogs are the more intelligent species. Cats operate more through instinct and fight or flight response when it comes to hunting and survival, whereas dogs and their ancient ancestors. wolves, rely more on social interaction and coordination. For example, wild dogs and wolves will make distress calls to other pack members when injured or in danger, alert the pack of approaching danger, and formulate complex hunting strategies with pack members when taking down prey that is larger than themselves. They form a cohesive, productive, and functional group by establishing a social hierarchy among one another, with the alpha as leader, all the way down to the lowest ranking member, the omega. This level of social interaction and pack coordination requires a significantly higher degree of intelligence than simply hunting and surviving solitarily and through instinct and stress hormones.
Some erroneously mistake instinct for higher intelligence which would make cats perhaps seem more intelligent in comparison to other species, given their cautious nature, adept innate hunting and self grooming ability. But if one considers that waterfowl, known to be very low on the intelligence scale, still instinctively know to fly south for the winter among many other instinctual skill sets, one can clearly see that instinct and intelligence are not the same.

Being primarily stress driven in animals is actually a prevalent sign of a lower level of intelligence. Stress driven, means that the general survival of the animal depends primarily on its tendency to react in a fight or flight mode in response to even minimal stimulus. In other words, they spook very easily. Cats are so stress driven that moderate elevations in their white blood cell count and of their blood sugar on routine blood work is considered normal, as these are physical consequences of stress generated merely from the trip to the clinic and the office visit. I have actually had to hospitalize cats and place feeding tubes on many occasions because of illness brought on by a sudden stoppage of eating, attributable only to changes in the home, such as new furniture, new pets, construction, and even one time, a big painting hung in the living room. It is hard for most of us to imagine any level of stress that would lead us to literally begin starving ourselves to death, yet it is not surprising when this happens to a feline. These are phenomena we do not really see in dogs, because they are not nearly as driven by stress, their higher intelligence enabling them to rely more on pack interaction and coordinated strategy for survival and contentment.

That said, this does not necessarily make dogs better pets than cats, depending on what you seek in a pet. Being innately solitary by nature, cats are not as needy as dogs, can be left at home alone for longer periods of time, and are generally lower maintenance. I will always have cats because being driven by instinct and stress, having a cat in the home to me is akin to having a tame wild animal in the house that you can pet and snuggle with - yet that wild nature is never too far off to see, as they slink around the house, stalk and pounce on the dog's tail, and meticulously groom after a meal. There is no doubt, they are cool in their own way. They may not catch a Frisbee, fetch a ball, swim in the pool, retrieve a duck, or go jogging with you, but they are quirky, entertaining, and affectionate creatures that make a fulfilling pet, just in a different manner than dogs do. I choose to not choose between having dogs versus cats, and elect to have both, giving me the best of both worlds.

So back to the cat people, while you may be dismayed by this information, please do not mistake this post for being some kind of critique against cats, when in fact this is quite the opposite. This is actually a defense of cats for those who dislike them because of all the reasons they are not like dogs, not as trainable, don't come when they're called, are a bit more aloof, etc. They are not that way because they are dismissive or by nature disrespectful; they are that way because their intelligence and stress driven survival nature imposes these limits on them. If anything, given their innate wild and solitary nature, we should applaud this species that can adapt themselves to readily cohabitate with people and thrive in our homes. If you do not find that remarkable, try keeping a raccoon as a pet and you may begin to understand - that is, of course, if you live through it.

Next week's personal comment - Dental disease: far more than just bad breath!

Don't forget to catch my live broadcast this Sunday 7:30 PM EST at blogtv.com, where I will address comments posted on this blog installment!

Dr. Roger Welton is the President and chief veterinarian at Maybeck Animal Hospital in West Melbourne Florida, as well as CEO of the veterinary advice and health management website Web-DVM.net.

The myth of the rich veterinarian.

In this episode:

Show announcements
Pet joke of the week
The decade's biggest animal news stories
Personal Comment: The myth of the rich veterinarian

Transcript of personal comment from this episode of The Web-DVM:

In my personal comment tonight, I just want to briefly address a misconceived notion that I saw gradually materializing in this past decade, and that is the notion that veterinarians generally are very wealthy people. I do not fully know the origins of this idea, but the truth is actually quite the opposite. While most veterinarians earn enough to live a comfortable middle class existence, only a very select few ever enjoy the kind of wealth that many people erroneously believe is the status quo. Where this can shed a poor light on us in the minds of pet owners is when, frustrated with having their own earning power ever decreasing in this currently challenging economic climate and faced with veterinary bills for their pets’ health care, some cynically characterize vets as fat cats, living in the lap of luxury as we gouge the pet owning public for every last cent they have. So let me set the record straight tonight and tell you how it really is.

According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, our governing body, the average veterinarian makes $79,000 per year. When taken in the context of the average veterinary graduate starting their careers $120,000 in student loan debt, most of us have an insta-mortgage with payments ranging from $700 - $1200 per month right out of the gates, only with no home to show for it. Factor in rent or an actual home loan, car payment, and other expenses, and one can see how that average salary does not go as far as one would think, or as one would like it to.

Others think, well the average veterinarian does may not make all that much, but the owners of practices are cleaning up. This sentiment is also quite wrong, with practice owners being included in that average salary statistic. The truth is that in order to buy a practice, yet more money has to be borrowed, with significant portions of gross revenue allocated to practice, real estate, and working capital mortgages. Add payroll and tax liabilities, property and business insurance, employee health benefits, utilities, equipment maintenance, building maintenance, inventory costs, continuing education, corporate taxes, and a huge gamut of permit, business, and professional licensing fees, and one gets a clear picture of the staggering overhead of a veterinary hospital.

Now, am I complaining about this? Am I unhappy about this? Absolutely not! I love my job and can envision doing nothing else, and that, is priceless. I thank the good Lord every day that I get to be a veterinarian, not because it stands to make me rich, but because it is my passion. Understand that if money was our primary motivation, any one of us could have attained the big bucks having gone the route of human medicine. It sure would have been a heck of a lot easier, with 131 medical schools in the United States as opposed to only 28 veterinary schools, making acceptance to veterinary school 5 times more difficult. And medically mastering only one species instead of 7? It may seem more attractive to some, but not to those of us that chose to take the harder road that ultimately pays considerably less.

Again, most veterinarians are not hurting for money and most make a good old fashion American middle class living with a decent degree of financial security. And one day when I have my student and practice loans paid off and I sell my practice, I stand to have what will likely be a comfortable retirement. Life certainly could be a heck of a lot worse. But make no mistake, the vast majority of veterinarians, especially young veterinarians are not wealthy, and certainly do not act the part of fat cats with money as our primary motivation. We did all the school and do what we do first and foremost because we love it.

Next week's personal comment: Who is smarter, dogs or cats?

Don't forget to catch my live broadcast this Sunday 8 PM EST at blogtv.com, where I will address comments posted on this blog installment!