Well it is Christmas time and I wish I had a good Christmas story to share with you but I don't.  However, over the years there have been a number of things that have happened that I can't explain - some of them bad and some of them good.  I do have what you can call a miracle story that occured when I first started out. 

A long time ago when I was a new vet just staring to practice in Louisiana I had three roommates come in with their very old, arthritic German Shepherd type dog.  In fact she had to be carried in and placed on the exam table because she couldn’t walk well anymore at all.

It was a hard decision for them and we took some time talking about the options (at that time, there were none except euthanasia or pain).  They decided to euthanize her and stayed in the room while I gave the injection.  I listened to make sure the medicine had taken effect and told them that she had passed.  I told them to stay as long as they needed and left the room.  A few minutes later, one of the roommates came out of the room saying that she really wasn’t dead and to come back in.  I felt for a pulse, listened for a heartbeat…the pupils were fixed and dilated.  I asked them what had happened that they thought she was still alive.  They all looked at each other and finally one of them spoke.

“We really weren’t sure that we had made the right decision.” He said.  “We asked her, did we really do the right thing for her, and well, she wagged her tail.”  What they described was not a muscle twitch.  It was a full wagging of the tail for three or four wags then she was still again.

I could not explain it then and after twenty years, I still cannot explain it. 

There are some bad diseases out there.  Some of them are treatable (like diabetes) while some are curable (like a bacterial infection).  In both cases, chemicals are given to the patient to provide a good outcome and enhance the quality of life.  Some of these chemicals come from plants, others from bacteria or fungi.  Rarely are they man-made and have no parallel in the natural world.

People worry about giving chemicals to treat diseases and prefer natural substitutes.  Like I said, most drugs do originally come from nature.  But just because something is natural, does not make it healthy or good for you.  LSD comes from a fungus; cocaine and opium come from plants.  Tobacco is a plant and alcohol is fermented plant material.  I doubt any of us think that these things are good for us.

"Chemotherapy"

The word itself causes anxiety, let alone the disease that it’s supposed to treat.

Looking at it from a medical perspective, the word just means that chemicals (chemo) are given for therapy (treatment).  It does not mean cancer.  There are so many drugs dispensed that have far more side effects than some common anti-cancer drugs and yet people take them willingly and give them to their pets.  Prednisone is one of the first ones I think of when I think of bad side effects in a common drug.  Aspirin is another.

When a person has a disease that is bad, we often think about the future for that person.  We have long term goals and fear of a shortened future, of dying.  Animals have no such fears, no long term goals.  Animals live for the moment, they live for today because tomorrow does not exist for them.  They have a past and a present but no future in their minds.  So when we think of treating a bad disease in an animal we need to think more about what the day to day issues are, not the future.  We fear the future and miss enjoying today while animals see no future and make the most of the day they have.

Bad diseases do not have to be cancer.  Ask any human that has ulcerative colitis or congestive heart failure.  They would die without the drugs given to them.  Why do we deny our pets the same drugs and the same chance at a good quality life?  I often hear that people “love their pets too much to put them through that”.  For a terminal cancer with no positive outcome, I totally agree.  But diabetes, a torn ligament, treatable cancer…what kind of love it is that thinks more about our own feelings than that of the loved one?  So you have to give your dog or cat pills or have surgery done.  So you have to feed your dog or cat a special diet.  Is it truly out of love that treatment is withheld?

Remember that for the pet, today matters.  The past is quickly forgotten and tomorrow does not exist.  Giving your pet medicine is annoying or uncomfortable but it is quickly forgotten and the day goes on.  And more days are strung together and each day builds on the other one and soon the treatment is over and the disease, hopefully, has been conquered.  If it is a surgery that is necessary, the pain is paramount for the first day or two then as healing begins, the pain is forgotten.  And two months from now, life is as it always will be as far as our pet is concerned and the surgery is forgotten.  The outcome is the here and now.

I would encourage people to always give their pet a chance at a successful outcome if it is at all financially possible. 

Today we are going to talk about a wonderful subject – parasites and in particular Ticks.  Ticks are an arachnid not an insect (they are relatives of spiders).  Now that may not seem like something that would be an important distinction (so what if they have 8 legs instead of 6?) but it is when you are trying to kill them!  Ticks are much more resistant to the common pesticides that we use to kill fleas and other insects.  They are also more resistant to environmental fluctuations. 

A tick will hang onto brush, branches, long grass and wait for an animal to come by and bump against it.  When it feels that warm touch, it grabs hold and begins the long climb to find a place to attach and begin feeding.  Anybody that has had a Tick infestation will notice that they climb up the wall and this comes from them wanting to climb up grasses or bushes. 

Once on their victim, Ticks will try to attach in hidden, protected areas like between the toes, in the armpit and groin or in skin folds.  Once there they pop through the skin with their mouth piece and inject a little anesthetic so that the animal doesn’t feel them there.  Then they commence with the meal.  Females become hugely bloated with blood.  Males find these females and while the female eats, they mate.  The female will then detach from the animal, drop to the ground and find a place to lay her egg bundle, which can contain up to 200 baby ticks.

It is while the female is eating that diseases such as rocky mountain spotted fever can be transmitted so removal of the tick as soon as possible, after attachment, is necessary.  Or better yet, prevent the attachment altogether.  Most tick control products for our pets do not repel the tick but do prevent the attachment and thereby prevent disease.

A common misconception is that ticks burrow under the skin.  Ticks never burrow under the skin only their mouthpiece penetrates the skin.  In removing a tick with your fingers, remember to remove the tick from as close to the body of your pet as possible so as not to break off that mouthpiece under your pets’ skin.  Also, do not crush the tick with your fingers.  The blood that you release contains the disease causing organisms and you can infect yourself

If you are concerned about ticks, please ask us before you purchase a product and we can help you pick out the one that is going to be most effective for your situation.