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.
BP Oil Spill Update: Is there finally light at the end of the tunnel?
Inactive Gulf Oil Wells Leaking? Long abandoned Gulf oil wells pose ongoing leak threats unrelated to current BP oil spill.
China Oil Spill: In the midst of the BP oil spill, the media has overlooked yet another severe spill!
Bush/Cheney Nurtured Culture of Oil Company Abuse: Congressional hearings expose Bush administration's cultivation of MMS as partner and enabler of oil companies in the interests of increased domestic oil production, in lieu of being the safety/environmental regulator the agency was created to be.
Petland Exposed by Animal Planet: An eye opening investigation of the worlds biggest puppy retailer.
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.
BP Oil Spill Update: Same as last week, oil still gushing, more wildlife dying, more beaches being destroyed; no end in sight.
Feline raw Food recall!: Brand Feline's Pride Raw Diet - product sold between June 10, 2010 through June 17, 2010, contaminated with salmonella and have made cats sick.
Multiple deadly parvo virus outbreaks nationwide in dogs: find out why so many outbreaks and how to protect your dog.
Taking next week off, but I return on Wednesday, July 21, 2010, 9 PM EST. Tune in, give me a call toll free!
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.
Hello ladies and gentlemen, and welcome back to The WebDVM. I am your host, veterinarian, Dr. Roger Welton. As you well know, I have geared a great deal of attention toward the tragedy, incompetency, wildlife, and political fallout of the BP oil spill that still has yet to be stopped, let alone cleaned. Based on e-mails and web chatter, I have been both exalted and criticized for having reported so exclusively on the BP oil spill in recent episodes, especially for dealing with the politics of this serious problem.
I will defend against my detractors by reminding everyone that the scope of this show is animals, and this event is very much about animals, and the very embodiment of how we continue to sacrifice our precious wildlife and natural treasures in the name of a dirty and corrupt energy source that stands poised to destroy nations and eventually the earth as we know it. However, since this will be my final You Tube broadcast before a much needed summer recess, I will get back to the topic of companion pets before closing with some final thoughts on the BP spill.
One day last week, I came home after a long day of work. I had performed 8 surgeries, then proceeded to work through an afternoon and evening of a full book of office visits. The day had started at 8AM and ended at 8:30PM. I made it home just in the nick of time to read my 2 year old son a bedtime story, give him a kiss, and put him to bed. After putting my boy to bed, it had just occurred to me that my yellow lab Bernie, pictured here, had been following me relentlessly in hindsight from the moment I got home. Yet, this was the first I noticed him. In all my business and preoccupations, it took me 30 minutes to even notice my dog, even when he had wanted nothing more than my acknowledgement from the moment I got home. And of course, I felt very badly.
For it occurred to me that, while I have my wife, child, my clinic, my blog, You Tube and radio shows, occasional golf on the weekend, and coaching youth league lacrosse, for my eternally devoted yellow lab, I am it. Of course, he enjoys my son, messing around with the other animals, and certainly enjoys his meals, but what he lives for, what makes him happiest in life, is me.
At that moment, I got down and rolled on the floor with Bernie, took him out back to let him run around, and gave him a treat. I told him that I was sorry for not noticing him, for letting my busy life cause me to overlook his presence, and that I will endeavour to do better.
That was actually not the first time that had happened and it probably won’t be the last, but this time was a wake up call that we as pet owners, owe it to our pets that give us so much unconditional and focused love, to make the effort to not leave them unnoticed, as they struggle to get our attention. We need to always remember that while we have family, career, and everything else that fills our lives, all our pets have, is us.
For my final thoughts about the BP oil spill, this past week was the biggest eye-opener I have gotten about the oil industry, the calls for more drilling rather than investment in alternative energy despite all we have lost and will continue to lose, and who chooses to protect BP and the oil industry to the detriment of the average citizen.
In congressional hearings designed to call out BP’s negligence and get to the bottom of whether their actions go deeper than apathy and incompetence and crossed the line into criminal behavior, republican congressman Joe Barton of Texas started his questioning by apologizing to BP CEO Tony Hayward for being pressured by the Obama administration to pledge $20 billion to an escrow fund to pay out claims and damages incurred by the millions of Gulf residents that are economically destroyed by this crisis and will be for years to come. He actually expressed shame and genuine sadness for BP being pressured by the administration to pay up damages in a timely fashion to avoid needless suffering in the wake of their deeds.
Other republicans quickly distanced themselves from Barton's comments, however, the damage was done, and truth brought out with full disclosure for all to see - the republican party exists to protect BP and other giant corporate entities like them, even when they have done the citizens of our country great harm through their own negligence, even when that big corporation is a foreign one!
Republicans are trying to play this off as some sort of gaffe made by a sole member who does not reflect their views, but that is far from the truth. Before Barton made his comments, radio host Rush Limbaugh, the defacto spokesperson for the republican party, called this escrow fund a shakedown enacted by the President upon BP, and denounced it fully. Republican representative and full fledged right wing loon, Michelle Bachman, warned BP not to be played like "chumps" by this administration and not get "fleeced" into an escrow fund that will just perpetuate unemployment. Are you kidding me?? This crackpot actually thinks that those who have lost their businesses and livelihoods that were tied directly to the Gulf, do not have legitimate claims against the company that perpetrated their misery, that getting legitimate claim payouts for their losses will perpetuate their laziness and unemployment, you know, because that is just the kind of people they are.
And of course, there is bimbo made Tea Party pin-up girl, Sarah Palin, who recently Tweeted to her followers not to buy the criticism that republicans side with BP, that their denouncement of the President pressuring BP to provide this escrow account goes against our constitution. Well I would bet that this bird brain has never actually read the constitution that she cites in defense of anything she disagrees with, as it says nothing, anywhere, that a corporation must not be held accountable when by its negligence it destroys the environment, wildlife, and ruins careers and livelihoods. And even if hypothetically the Constitution did state this, which it does not, I do not think such protection would extend to a foreign corporation!
I would rather take the President's word on the constitutionality of his monumental achievement of this escrow fund to help the people of the Gulf, since he is a Harvard Law graduate and former professor of constitutional law; whereas Palin took 6 years to get her undergraduate degree, failed as a journalist, and has as her only real accomplishment being governor of a state with a population smaller than the county I live in which, as it turns out, she quit on half way through her first term.
Folks, with all of the horrible destruction that this oil spill has wreaked, it is hard to find any solace, but I have. I am so grateful that this event, which was a ticking time bomb waiting to happen with the oil industry free to act with impunity and failed to police themselves, happened under the current President. For let me tell you what happens under republican leadership. During the Exxon Valdez oil spill the entire region in that area of Alaska was crippled economically. 37,000 residents in the area filed legitimate claims from loss of fishing and tourism dollars. Under George HW Bush, the ultimate payout was only a fraction of the claims, adding up to $3.5 billion. Worse yet, the administration enabled Exxon to exploit the court system by tying up the claim payouts in litigation for 10-20 years, while victims lost their businesses, homes, and drove many even to suicide because they lost everything. 8000 of 37,000 claimants, died before receiving their lost revenue claim money. The clean-up was never really fully finished, with oil still pooled at the bottom of Prince William Sound, no life having returned even 22 years later, and salmon and herring industry still non-existent. And this was under an intelligent and by most accounts, moderate republican President.
In contrast, President Obama pressured this corrupt and negligent oil giant to pay the people it has directly harmed, to make amends for what they did to them, not 10 or 20 years from now when businesses will have already been lost and homes foreclosed on, but now. Knowing full well with no real assurance of when BP will stop this gusher if even ever, and that the cost to Gulf citizens will likely be more, the President even pressured BP to announce that $20 billion is not a cap, and they will be on the hook for more if more damage than this is done.
Joe Barton, Rush Limbaugh, and Sarah Palin are hardly alone in their party for siding with BP over the citizens of our country. Congressman Tom Price called it a Chicago style shakedown well before Barton did. Other republican politicians that have voice their opposition to BP being pressured to set aside this escrow fund include: House minority whip Eric Cantor, Congressman Mike Pence, and Congressman Paul Ryan.
Barton, Limbaugh, Palin, and the rest of the republican party's defense of BP is the ultimate proof that republican politicians of today are little more than corporate lapdogs. They are not here for you and me. If they had their way, they would drill every last inch of our shores and lands, drown us all in oil, rather than press for new and clean energy sources, because that is what the reason for their existence, big, gluttonous, abusive corporations, want them to do, even if said corporations are foreign ones. This incident proved without question that big business rules the day for republicans, and that they care nothing for the well being of the individual citizens of the USA. I caution you not to forget this at the polls in this Novembers mid-term elections.
That concludes my first season of The Web-DVM. Thank you for watching, commenting, and making my first season a resounding success. After a 2 month summer recess, I will be returning with new episodes the first week of September, 2010. In the mean time, you can still catch my live call-in show Wednesday nights at 9PM EST. For more on the call-in show and how you can listen or watch live, as well as call in with a question or comment, visit my blog at webdvm.blogspot.com.
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.
Transcript from personal comment from this episode of The Web-DVM:
Hello everyone, welcome back to The WebDVM, and thank you for joining me. The BP Oil Spill tragedy continues with no real end in sight. The title of today's program is Oil Spill, the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Since I like to end my show on a positive note, and since unfortunately there is so much more bad and ugly than good in this debacle, I will start with ugly, move on to bad, and end with good.
The UGLY begins with ugly politics. The newly anointed far right faction of the Republican Party, known as the Tea Party, or my favorite term for them, Tea Baggers, is reacting to disaster by proclaiming the need for, ready for this? Less corporate regulation. Let's start with the pin up girl for the Tea Party movement, Sarah Palin.
On her Facebook page, Palin blamed the BP Oil disaster on environmentalists. Sarah said that the poor oil companies are forced to unsafely drill so deep, because the "greenies" got their way in banning drilling in shallower waters. If this so called energy authority were any more ignorant or stupid, she would be dead. Known in Alaska for her abysmal environmental policy as Governor, a policy dubbed by environmental groups as slash, burn, kill, and drill and earning her the name, the "Killa from Wasilla," Sarah is, as always, dead wrong. Believe me, folks, if the oil companies really wanted to drill in shallower waters, they would be. They have enough politicians in their pocket, and a nation full of oil addicted gluttons to drill wherever they wanted. The reason they are not drilling shallower, Sarah, you moron, is because shallower reserves in the Gulf are tapped out. Both the oil companies and the government have mutually agreed that shallower water drilling would yield such small quantities of oil at this point, that it does not justify the expense nor the risk. The bottom line is that oil companies do not drill in shallower waters, because they know full well that ship has sailed long ago.
Senator McCain, given your record of service to your country both as military hero and for many years a legislator bound by principle, not strict party ideology or blind loyalty, I can forgive you for your recent shift to the far right to pander to the far right Tea Bagger loons. I can forgive you for the negative tone of your Presidential campaign. I can even forgive you for claiming recently that you never really considered yourself a "maverick." However, I can never, ever, ever, ever, ever forgive you for making this bimbo relevant.
Tea Party favorite, Kentucky GOP senatorial candidate, Rand Paul, was quoted on Fox News calling the President "un-American" for criticizing BP and putting his boot-heel on BP's neck in the midst of this crisis. If that was not enough, he was back on Fox Noise this week, once again defending BP, stating that Americans need to accept the fact that sometimes bad things just happen, and that it is absurd to need a "villain" in this mess.
Well, Mr. Paul, I will venture to say that you defending BP is what is un-America, because they are CLEARLY villian in this incident. They were glaringly unprepared for such an event, quoting CEO Tony Hayward, they clearly did not have the right "tools in the tool box" to deal with this crisis. Their 2009 Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill preparedness plan had listed as their wildlife preservation expert, Peter Lutz, Professor at Texas A&M University, a man truly qualified for this post, but with the small problem that he has been dead since 2005! Listed as sensitive biological resources, the plan lists walruses, sea otters, sea lions, and seals, none of which actually live in the Gulf. The names and phone numbers of several Texas A&M marine life specialists are wrong, as are numbers for marine mammal stranding network offices in Louisiana and Florida. BP's safety regulation record in the past decade is known to be among the worst in the industry. And all this negligence and lack of preparedness has now led to this mass defecation of oil on our precious shores, with no success in stopping it to date, nor worthy effort to clean it. Lastly, BP continues to drag their feet and bury people in paperwork for claims submitted for massive amounts of lost fishing and tourism revenue to people who rely on the Gulf for their livelihoods. While they nickel and dime those who have lost their livelihoods as the result of their actions, BP just paid out $10 billion in share holder dividends, while spending $50 million in ads to try to salvage their image. So much are they dragging their feet in paying out claims, that Admiral Thad Allen of the Coastguard, the President's point man in this crisis, has submitted a strong letter to BP demanding more transparency in their claims process. BP is not villain, Rand Paul, they are evil incarnate, and you sir, are an idiot!
For those of you that still feel you wish to take this guy seriously, he also opposes the section of the civil rights act that prohibits discrimination in private establishments. That's right folks, Senate candidate Rand Paul not only wants us to forgive BP while deregulating their industry even more, he wants to bring back our right to discriminate based on race, color, or creed!
Lastly, Sharron Angle, the Tea Party GOP senatorial nominee for Nevada's Senate seat, reacts to this crisis by calling for, you guessed it, less corporate regulation. From her view, government needs to get out of the way to pave the way for corporate progress, even if that progress also creates a culture of greed and self interest that trumps the public good and environmental protection. Apparently, Ms. Angle is not satisfied with just one BP, she would like to have a whole bunch more that operate with impunity and no regard for anyone or anything but their profits. Incidentally, Sharron Angle is so against government intervention in our lives, that she is in favor of re-illegalizing alcohol. I just don't get these Tea Baggers who are all for small government when it favors big business, but all for government being all up in our business socially, even intruding on our right to have a beer!
On to the BAD. BP is collecting 15,000 barrels of oil per day with their latest attempt to stop the leak. Unfortunately, it is now estimated that 40,000 barrels or more have been spewing from the well, making the current efforts still not collecting more than 60% of the gushing oil. But BP seemed to make a nice gesture to donate the proceeds of the sale of all collected oil to the restoration of ruined wildlife sanctuaries, marshlands, and rehabilitation of injured wildlife. Sound nice, right? Well, its BP we're talking about, so not quite. You see, BP's current collection systems are overwhelmed with the amount of oil being collected. Once again, BP is unprepared. Their solution to the problem? Burning off the excess oil that they cannot handle. Burning the oil and polluting the air, but also burning away a large portion of that oil they slated to fund wildlife restoration. And their answer as to why BP has not brought in larger tankers to collect the oil? The Gulf is already too crowded with boats and ships. Really, that was their answer.
Okay, finally the GOOD. Kevin Costner testified before congress about the ability of a machine that his company developed to clean oil polluted water to 99% purity. He brought in experts to design such a machine in the wake of the Exxon Valdez spill, having been appalled at the lack of technological progress that has been made on oil spill clean up, technological progress that has not significantly improved even since the Valdez. In response, BP bought 25 machines, a number that is capable to cleaning 6 million gallons of water per day. Up to this point, Costner maintains that the oil industry had met his company's invention with dismissal and no interest. Hopefully the attention this congressional hearing has brought to these machines will make their use more commonplace for this and future spills.
That is our show for this Sunday, June 13, 2010. Please join us again next week.
Don't forget to join my live call-in radio Wednesdays 9PM show at:
Transcript of personal comment from this episode of The WebDVM:
Hello again pet lovers, and welcome to The Web-DVM. Ladies and gentlemen, please forgive me for this episode not being upbeat, and me not being in any sort of mood for a Pet Joke of the Week. In the events and circumstances surrounding the current oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that increasingly threatens the serene natural beauty of my home state of Florida, it is difficult to feel little else but sadness, frustration, and increasingly, barely contained rage!
For those of you not informed or ill-informed of the current ecological disaster in our country, large and powerful oil company British Petroleum, otherwise known as BP, had oil rig Deep Water Horizon explode in the Gulf of Mexico, 40 miles southeast of the Louisiana coast more than 5 weeks ago, which led to the oil well one mile beneath the surface to spew crude oil into the Gulf without any real ability to stop it after all this time. BP conveniently miscalculated the amount of crude spilling into the Gulf at 5000 barrels per day, known now to be likely more than 100,000 barrels per day, with their latest effort to stop the leak recovering only 2% of the spewing oil.
Naturally, I am angry at BP and other slime ball oil companies like them that put profits above safety, regulation, and environment, grease equally slimy politicians to look the other way as they proceed with impunity and little to no oversight. I am appalled as they fumble through their attempts at solving this crisis, with obviously no plan in place if such an event occurs, throwing out one useless and futile solution after another, as our Gulf continues to blacken with the filth that they unleashed. They seem as if they are novices attempting deep water drilling for the first time, clueless truly about how they may actually stop this leak. Their excuse for their failure is that they have never attempted such crisis management work at such depths, and my answer to that is if they do not know how they may fix a blown well at such depth, they do not belong drilling there in the first place!
While BP and oil companies in general bear a large part of outrage I feel, I think that my fellow Americans perhaps may bear more. For as outraged as I am right now, I am both surprised and disturbed at how little my fellow citizens ARE outraged, even here in Florida where we stand to lose the most! Whether this is the result of ignorance, denial, selfishness, or plain stupidity, I just want to shake them and say, "Wake up people, our nation's greatest natural treasure, precious wildlife, and decades and trillions of dollars of tourism and fishing revenue are drowning in oil!" One poll I saw indicated that 60% of Americans still favor off shore drilling!
Well people, allow me to inform you what we are losing. The marsh lands of Louisiana, the nation's largest wildlife refuge, are already getting inundated with oil and intoxicated with chemical disbursements that BP in their great wisdom decided to clean the spill with. Already threatened species of sea turtles and manatees, majestic coral reefs, are likely to suffer huge losses. Perhaps the most beautiful natural environment in the United States and even the world, the Florida Keys, one of my favorite places to vacation, will be overrun with oil, its delicate coral reefs and wildlife species decimated if the oil reaches the loop current, a forgone conclusion according to every expert I have heard from that does not work for BP. In the loop current, the oil will then travel up the east coast to the aquamarine ocean beaches of South Florida and may even reach as far north as my home beach, Cocoa Beach. Tar balls may even wash up on the beaches of barrier islands off the coasts of Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina's famous Outer Banks.
Let us put this event in this perspective: the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound in Alaska, occurred 22 years ago, a horrible disaster to be sure, but with only a mere fraction of the amount of oil that has already been spilt into the Gulf with no end in sight. All this time later, and Prince William Sound has STILL not recovered from that oil spill. The region is pointed out now by tour guides on cruise ships, not as a natural treasure, but as a region completely devoid of life. Its city, Cordova Alaska, has never recovered from the spill because of decimated populations of herring and salmon, and loss of tourism and recreational sports.
I am further incensed by my fellow citizens, because of their obstinate and selfish addiction to oil. Despite grave warnings of global warming, ecological disasters, pollution, and even grave risk to our national security, I still see gluttonous SUV after SUV on the road, and my favorites of all, big stupid, jacked up giant pick up trucks and Hummers. Living only one hour south of the Daytona International Speedway, I also get to see hoards of people, hundreds of thousands of them, addicted to a sport that wantonly squanders 200,000 gallons of gasoline per year. To top it all off, in this last Presidential 2008 election, I got to see the mantra and motto of the Republican National Convention, "drill baby drill!" who despite that STILL managed 48% of the popular vote!!!
What has happened to my country?? How can a country that was first to harness electricity, mass produce steel, invent life saving vaccines and antibiotics, and even have the tenacity to put men on the moon with computer technology no better than an average calculator, now more than 40 years later, not have the ability to get off oil?? It is not because we do not have the ability, the know how, nor the resources. It is because somewhere along the line, we let the oil corporations take over. We sat idly and continue to vote in corrupt politicians that pander to them. We do not get outraged when Chevron/Texaco spends $60 million to purchase the rights to a cutting edge long mileage rechargeable car battery, simply so they can squash it and suppress its dissemination (yes, that really happened!). Most appallingly, we are too selfish to consume less oil and therefore drive down the demand because it is too inconvenient, because we do not want to give up our SUVs for smaller, more fuel efficient cars. Somewhere along the line, my great country with its a long, proud history of innovation and never settling for less than the best, has become lazy, apathetic and selfish, even in the face of a disaster like this.
A lot of people have poked fun at me because both my wife and I drive hybrids, she a Ford Escape that averages 30 miles per gallon, me a Ford Fusion that averages 36. On the weekends, I burn no gas, opting to take my electric golf cart most places, or otherwise walk or ride my bike. Want to still poke fun, people? Want to jest about the fact that I hold those evil oil companies accountable by consuming considerably less of their product than the rest of you have the wherewithal to do? And when the scumbags use this tragedy as an excuse to jack up gas prices as is already beginning to happen, it will be me laughing at you!
Well wake up America, and realize what is being done to your environment! Do not go gentle into that goodnight. Be outraged! Support politicians who advocate less drilling and more investment in green energy. Sell your SUV and get a fuel efficient car. Use more mass transit. Here's a thought, get off your lazy ass and walk or ride a bike somewhere!
Here is a photo my wife took as she and I dove a breathtaking coral reef in the Keys only 6 months ago. I cannot tell you how saddened I am that that may be the last time I see that reef as oil and toxic chemical disbursements stand to destroy it. I think of the sea turtles I have the pleasure to see even at my local beach, who have made it to adulthood against the 1 in 700 survival odds they have as hatchlings, whose lives of perseverance in the face of incredible odds may be wasted by an act human greed and laziness, and it makes me sick.
If we do not take the initiative as citizens and continue to turn a blind eye to the loss of such pristine natural treasures, then we will get what we deserve. Why stop at the Gulf, when we can also drill in Yellow Stone, Yosemite, the Channel Islands, ANWAR, Point Reyes and Acadia. Let's turn our entire nation into one giant, polluted oil slick, because that SUV is worth it! Drill, baby, drill!
Don't forget to join me Wednesdays 9pm EST for my live toll free call-in by audio podcast:
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.
Note: Since many of my viewers/listeners cross over between my three different shows, I make a big effort to not cover the same material on more than one show in any given week. However, since a good many of my viewers do not cross over between shows, remaining attached to one or another particular one for whatever reason, I found the Walmart topic too important to be left out of any of my shows this week. Each show still has its own fresh supporting material or flavor this week nonetheless, I do apologize to my cross over audience that had to her about "Shame on Walmart" covered on more than one show.
In this episode:
Pet joke of the week: Mommy's Night Out Personal comment: Shame on you Walmart!
Transcript of personal comment from this episode of The WebDVM:
My personal comment tonight stems from a work related experience I had last week, when a canine patient came in with sore hips. Her owner informed me that she had been giving the dog "doggy" aspirin that she got from Walmart for the past week, but that it did not seem to help. In response to that, I asked, "are you sure it was aspirin and not a joint nutritional supplement?"
"No," she said, "it is aspirin, here is the bottle." Then she proceeded to pull out a bottle of Pro-Pet aspirin, labeled for use in dogs for joint and arthritis pain. The best part?? the label read, "Veterinarian Approved."
Folks, I cannot tell you how infuriated this makes me, not at the owner - she was only trying to help her dog - but at Walmart for selling this stuff over the counter to pet owners that have no idea how harmful this can be to their dogs. Most of us are quite aware that regular taking of even enteric coated aspirin has the potential to irritate our stomachs, often leading to ulcers of the gastrointestinal system. In dogs, this potential for GI ulceration is far greater than it is in humans, owing to the exceptionally high incidence of vomiting and stomach ulcers developing, often after only a few days of aspirin administration.
I have seen it all too often. Dog comes in vomiting blood. I ask the owner if he has been on any medications and they inform me that the dog has been on nothing but the daily dose of aspirin they decided to give him for his arthritis. Some of these dogs I can treat as outpatients with antibiotics and GI protecting medications, while others are not so lucky. Some end up with ulcers so bad that they have to be hospitalized, some need surgery to repair a perforating ulcer, and others die despite our best efforts to save them.
You see, aspirin is in a class of drugs called non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, called NSAIDs for short. Other examples of human drugs in this class, no less toxic for dogs and perhaps even more harmful, are ibuprofen, acetaminophen, and naproxen, commonly known under the labels Advil, Tylenol, and Aleve, respectively. They work by inhibiting an inflammatory enzyme in the body known as a COX enzyme, responsible for reactions that lead to pain and inflammation. This helps to reduce pain, swelling and fever, making these medications very helpful. But unfortunately, not all COX enzymes are bad. In fact some are important in helping to protect the stomach, liver and kidneys. This is where these drugs are potentially harmful, because while inhibiting the bad COX enzymes helping the patient on one hand, they also inhibit the good ones, leaving the body at risk for GI, liver and kidney disease. Therefore, the best NSAIDS available, are ones that selectively in inhibit only the bad COX enzymes, while preserving the good ones. For people, Advil, and Naproxen are more selective COX inhibitors than aspirin, owing to the movement generally away from aspirin use in favor of these other drugs in people, with aspirin now being used only under very specific circumstances.
In dogs, as I have already explained, aspirin is terribly toxic to the canine GI, but other human NSAIDs, even the more selective COX inhibitors, are liver and kidney toxic. For this reason, there are veterinary labeled NSAID medications that we can prescribe, such as Previcox, Deramax, an Rimadyl. Even with these canine labeled NSAIDs, there is potential for adverse effects, which is why we have to be very careful with their use and these medications can only be purchased by pet owners by prescription only while a patient is under the care of a veterinarian.
So you can see that Walmart's decision to sell a dangerous NSAID like aspirin over the counter, labeled for use in dogs and touted to be "Veterinarian Recommended," is not only appalling, but also unethical and most likely illegal. I do not know one vet that would recommend that aspirin be sold and labeled this way, when there are much more effective and safer prescription options for dogs in pain. I will go so far as to say that any veterinarian that does recommend this, should have his or her license to practice taken away. There are only a few circumstances in veterinary medicine where treatment with aspirin is indicated, and only under the close supervision of an attending veterinarian, certainly not as an over the counter product for the general pet owning population to decide how and when to treat.
Back to the dog I saw that alerted me of this situation, luckily, she had not yet had her stomach cooked by the aspirin she was receiving. But as it turned out, she did not have any hip problems as the owner thought, she had a slipped disc in her back, which was not only causing pain, but also some neuromuscular dysfunction in her rear limbs. What she needed what not an NSAID at all, but a steroid. Unfortunately, I could not give her a steroid right away like she needed, because of the aspirin that was in her system. The combination of the two would have virtually assured her a gastric ulcer that to date she had luckily escaped. Instead, I had to put her on a narcotic pain reliever to control her pain and have her strictly confined, while we waited 3 days to begin the steroid she so desperately needed to alleviate the root of her problems - the pressure of a disc compressing her spinal cord. So this patient may have escaped injury from the aspirin she was being given, but because of that aspirin I was forced to delay necessary treatment, prolonging her recovery. Nice job, Walmart, hope the 5 bucks you made off the bottle of pills was worth it!
On my end, I have begun to draft a letter to the Florida State Veterinary Board, on which I am compiling signatures of as many veterinarians in my area that I can get to sign it. You too can help to force Walmart's hand to stop their practice by writing the veterinary board of your state, as well as alerting your veterinarians of what they are doing so that they may act as well.
That is our show for this May 8, 2010. Happy Mothers day to all mommies out there.
Don't forget to join me Mondays 9pm EST for my live toll free call-in radio show at:
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.
Dr. Roger Welton is an experienced ER and general practice veterinarian, and reporter for the Veterinary News Network (VNN). He is a published author and expert in his field, offering advice, pertinent veterinary information and news to the general pet owning public through his YouTube and BlogTalkRadio shows, which are embedded weekly here for your viewing and listening convenience. Dr. Welton is a reporter for the Veterinary News Network (VNN), enabling him to offer the most up to date, interesting, and cutting edge pet related information. Dr. Welton is happily married with 2 small children, and in his spare time competes in triathlons and coaches youth league lacrosse.
