Myths

• If my pet is painful will he stop eating? Some pets will eat even while experiencing extreme pain. Anorexia cannot be relied on as the sole determination of pain. Every pet responds differently to pain.
• If my pet is not crying can he still be in pain? Just because your pet is not crying, does not mean he may not still be in pain. There are many other signs your pet may display, such as limping and excessive panting while at rest.
• If my dog is running around, can he still be in pain? Yes, but even though he is running on three legs, the fourth one may still be painful.
• If my cat is purring, can there still be something wrong? Purring usually means that a cat is content, but cats can also purr when afraid, distressed, or in pain.
  

• Changes in Personality or Attitude When in pain, a normally quiet and docile pet can become suddenly aggressive and an active pet can become quiet, withdrawn, or unresponsive. Abnormal Vocalization For example, dogs usually whine or whimper and cats will hiss or growl. Especially when a painful area is palpated, this could cause your pet to vocalize. Licking, Biting Scratching or Shaking of a Painful Area If excessive, these behaviors can lead to self-mutilation and can also cause an abscess. Changes in Body Posture If in pain, your pet can sit or rest in a different or defensive way. Changes in Ambulation For example, limping or carrying a leg that is painful, tensing of back and abdominal muscles, or showing an obvious and uncomfortable stance are all signs of pain. Changes in Activity Level Your pet may become restless and pace, or repetitively lie down. In contrast, your pet may become recumbent and lethargic or even reluctant to move the painful area. Cats may tend to hide or isolate themselves from the other cats and people. Changes in Appetite A decrease in food and water consumption may be an indicator that your pet is experiencing pain. Changes in Facial Expression When in pain, your cat may show a fixed stare or a glazed appearance and the pupils may be dilated. Pinning of the ears, creases or furrowing of the forehead, grimacing, and a sleepy or photophobic appearance may be evident. Panting and Shivering These are all signs your pet may be in pain, they can also cause excessive sweating and salivation. The heart rate, respiration rate, and body temperature may also become increased. Teeth Grinding Rabbits and sometimes cats will grind teeth as a sign of pain. Changes in Bowel Movements or Urination Examples would be diarrhea, and sometimes even soiling of the rectal area. Straining to urinate or defecate can also be a sign of pain. Unusual Body or Head Posture Head tilt, reluctance to put head down to eat, or extend neck may be signs of pain.
• Changes in Training Your pet may no longer want to walk upstairs, refuse his daily walks, won't jump on the furniture, or refuse to use the litter box. They may also be having unusual urinary accidents.

• Ribbons & Tinsel ~ These are of special interest to playful cats and kittens that see these materials as toys (or prey) to be chased, pounced upon, chewed or swallowed. While chasing and pouncing pose no health threats, chewing and swallowing do. Strings or “linear foreign bodies” can catch in the GI tract, leading to bunching of intestine as the body tries in vain to move the string or ribbon through. This is a life-threatening condition requiring surgery for correction. Supervise animals that play with string closely. Electric Light Cords ~ These are also tempting to cats who like to play with string as well as to puppies who are teething and interested in chewing. If a pet bites through an electrical cord, it could result in a severe burn to the tongue which causes the pet’s lungs to fill with fluid, causing respiratory distress. This is also an emergency requiring immediate veterinary attention. Pointsettia ~ Consuming this festive looking plant can be irritating to the mouth and stomach of the dog or cat that chews on or eats it. Contrary to popular belief, poinsettia is not specifically toxic. Mistletoe ~ The fact that there are several types of mistletoe makes it difficult to predict that clinical signs of poisoning. Some mistletoes produce only stomach upset while others may lead to liver failure or seizures. Consider mistletoe to be hazardous substance and keep it inaccessible to pets and children. Cooking ~ Keep pets out of the kitchen during the hustle and bustle of the season. The last thing you want is for someone you love to get underfoot and get burned from spillage.
• Dietary Indescretion ~ We all like to include our pets in holiday meals along with the rest of the family, but try to keep in mind that sudden rich diet changes are likely to upset a pet’s stomach. Vomiting and diarrhea are not uncommon. If leftovers are of an especially fatty nature, the pancreas may become inflamed and overloaded. This condition is serious and may require hospitalization.
  
  

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• Check your driveway and under your car regularly for leaks. Always clean up spills immediately. Store containers securely away from children and pets. Never allow your pets near your vehicle when you are changing antifreeze.
• Some antifreeze/coolants, such as Prestone® Low Tox, are made with propylene glycol, which is less toxic to pets and safer to use around them.

• Heartworm disease is spread from dog to dog by mosquitoes. Over 70 species of mosquito can transmit this life-threatening disease, so virtually all dogs are at risk. Hookworm eggs pass through the feces of an infected dog into the soil, where they can be swallowed or can penetrate through your dog’s skin. Almost all puppies are born with roundworms, or get them through their mother’s milk. A dog can also get roundworm from rodents, or pick them up from the soil.
• A female whipworm can produce up to 2,000 eggs per day. These eggs are passed in the dog’s feces, and can survive in the soil for years, making them easy for dogs to pick up, and very difficult to eradicate.

What Worms Can Do To Your Dog

• Heartworms are the most life threatening of all canine parasites. They live in a dog’s heart where they restrict blood flow and cause organ failure, which can lead to death. Hookworms attach to the intestinal lining and leave bleeding internal wounds. Diarrhea can often occur. As few as 100 hookworms can cause a puppy to die of blood loss. Roundworms can cause diarrhea, vomiting, stunted growth, rough coat and bloated belly.
• Whipworm causes bloody or mucus-laden diarrhea, anemia and dehydration.

Danger Signals

Vomiting, diarrhea, bloated belly, bloody or mucus-laden stool and loss of appetite can all be signs of worm disease.

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• Since most female dogs come into heat the first time before age one and breeding an immature female dog is not recommended, this means one must generally choose between a litter of puppies or mammary cancer prevention.
  
• Because mammary tumors are promoted by female hormones, spaying at any age is helpful in tumor prevention. Just because a female dog is in the high-risk group doesn't mean it is too late to reap benefit from spaying.
  

Early Detection
If your dog is unspayed, was known to have had puppies, or was spayed in adulthood, she fits into the high-risk group for mammary cancer development. It is important to be somewhat familiar with the normal mammary anatomy of the female dog. There are ten sets of mammary glands as shown though the average female dog has only nine. (It is not unusual for asymmetry of mammary glands to be found.) The normal glands should be soft and pliant, especially towards the rear legs. There should be no firm lumps. If a lump is detected, see your veterinarian at once regarding possible removal. Most tumors occur in the glands nearest the rear legs.

Benign vs. Malignant
The good news, if there is some, is that approximately 50% of the tumors formed by female dogs are benign. Since one cannot tell which it is by looking at a tumor, the tumor or part of it must be removed and sampled for biopsy. The laboratory can determine whether the tumor is benign or malignant based on the cells and their architecture within the tissue. Alternatively, a needle aspirate can be performed, in which a syringe is used to withdraw some cells from the growth and the laboratory can determine whether the tumor is benign or malignant with enough accuracy to determine how aggressive the surgical approach should be. Needle aspirate may be a helpful pre-operative procedure in many cases, but it should be understood that biopsy is ultimately what is necessary to determine the extent of disease.

Hormone Receptors
Approximately 50% of malignant mammary tumors in the dog have receptors for either estrogen or progesterone. This means that the presence of these female hormones promotes the growth of these tumors. Benign tumors also have female hormone receptors and can also be stimulated by hormonal cycling of the female dog. This means that spaying is important even if a tumor has already developed; in one study, female dogs spayed at the time of mammary tumor removal or two years prior lived 45% longer than those who remained unspayed.

Types Of Tumors

The following are common classes of mammary tumors that might be found on a biopsy.

Fibroadenoma:
A benign glandular tumor for which no treatment is necessary.

Mixed Mammary Tumor:
What is mixed is the type of cell that makes up the tumor: the epithelial cells that line the glandular tissue and the mesenchymal cells that make up the non-glandular portion. (Mixed does not refer to a mix of benign and malignant cells.) The mixed tumor can be either benign or malignant and the biopsy will indicate this.

Adenocarcinoma:
Adenocarcinomas can be tubular or papillary, depending on the gland cells the tumor arises from. Adenocarcinomas behave malignantly but how aggressively malignant they are depends not on whether they are tubular or papillary, but on other cellular characteristics described by the pathologist (such as how quickly the cells appear to be dividing and how closely they resemble normal gland cells). When the oncologist reads the description he or she will be able to determine how aggressively to combat the tumor.

Inflammatory Carcinoma:
A highly malignant tumor that generates tremendous inflammation locally with ulceration, pus, and discomfort. This type of tumor tends to spread early in its course and is difficult to treat. Fortunately, this especially tragic tumor type accounts for less than 5% of mammary tumors.

In general: approximately 50% of malignant mammary tumors will have already spread by the time of surgery.

This, of course, means that the other 50% are locally confined and surgery is curative.

What Else Determines Prognosis?
The type of tumor is obviously important in determining the prognosis; further, spaying at the time of tumor removal or prior is also an important factor in determining prognosis. Other factors include:

• The size of the tumor. Tumors with diameters larger than 1.5 inches have a worse prognosis than smaller tumors. Evidence of spread to the lymphatic system (such as the presence of tumor cells in a local lymph node or visible tumor cells with in lymphatic vessels on the biopsy) carries a worse prognosis. Deeper tumors or tumor adherence to deeper tissue structures carries a worse prognosis. An ulcerated tumor surface carries a worse prognosis.
• A history of especially rapid growth carries a worse prognosis.

The biopsy sample will not only identify the tumor type, it will also indicated whether or not the tumor was completely removed (so called "clean" or "dirty" margins).

If the tumor was not completely removed, one may wish to consider a second surgery to remove more tissue.

Further Therapy?
Radiation therapy, chemotherapy, and anti-estrogen therapy have been used for incompletely removed tumors. Sometimes it is most appropriate to monitor for recurrence with periodic chest radiographs.

Specialized care is often required for cancer patients. We are here to discuss this matter or any other concern you might have regarding your pets.

By Wendy C. Brooks, DVM, DipABVP

Copyright 2002 - 2006 by the Veterinary Information Network, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Chocolate Toxicity in Dogs

Chocolate may be America’s favorite flavor. We like chocolate candy, ice cream, chocolate drinks, chocolate cakes, just about anything with that flavor. We may want to share our favorite treat with an eager pet but it is best to think twice and reach for the dog biscuits instead.

Different Types of Chocolate
Everyone who has ever eaten candy knows there are many types of chocolate. Let’s go back to how chocolate is made. Cacao trees are farmed as any other crop, though they grow in tropical regions. The fruit of the cacao tree (called a “cacao pod”) is sweet and attracts monkeys or other wildlife who eat the fruit but do not eat the bitter seeds.

The seeds are discarded in the natural setting thus allowing new trees to grow.

The seeds cannot be released from the fruit unless some type of animal breaks the fruit open. Ironically, it is the bitter seeds, packed with theobromine and caffeine, that are used to make chocolate. The pods grow directly off the trunk of the cacao tree and must be harvested by hand so as not to damage the tree. The pods are split and the seeds scooped out and left to ferment under banana leaves for about a week. This turns the cacao seeds a rich brown and creates the chocolate flavor we crave. The seeds are then dried out for another week, packed in sacks, and shipped to chocolate manufacturers.

The seeds must be roasted, ground, pressed (which removes the oil of the seed, the “cocoa butter” which is used in sunscreens, white chocolate, and cosmetics among other things), and tempered to create the exact consistency.

Chocolate liquor is the liquid that results from grinding the hulled cacao beans.
Cocoa butter is the fat that is extracted from the chocolate liquor.
Cocoa powder is the solid that remains after the cocoa butter is removed from the chocolate liquor. The powder can be treated with alkali in a process called “Dutching” or it can be left alone. Note the low-fat nature of cocoa powder, hence its use in low-fat baking.
Unsweetened chocolate is chocolate liquor that is 50% to 60% cocoa butter
Semisweet chocolate is chocolate liquor that is 35% chocolate liquor (the rest being sugar, vanilla, or lecithin).
Milk chocolate is chocolate that is at least 10% chocolate liquor, the rest being milk solids, vanilla or lecithin.
Why Is Chocolate Bad?
Sometimes we eat chocolate plain. Sometimes we eat it baked into cakes, mixed into ice cream etc. The first problem with these sweets is the fat. A sudden high fat meal (such as demolishing a bag of chocolate bars left accessible at Halloween time) can create a lethal metabolic disease called pancreatitis. Vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain are just the beginning of this disaster. Remember, in the case of pancreatitis, it is the fat that causes the problem more than the chocolate itself.
The fat and sugar in the chocolate can create an unpleasant but temporary upset stomach. This is what happens in most chocolate ingestion cases.

Chocolate is, however, directly toxic because of the theobromine. The more chocolate liquor, the more theobromine is present. This makes baking chocolate the worst, followed by semisweet and dark chocolate, followed by milk chocolate, followed by chocolate flavored cakes or cookies.

Theobromine Causes:

• Vomiting Diarrhea Hyperactivity Tremors Seizures Racing heart rhythm progressing to abnormal rhythms
• Death in severe cases

Toxic doses of theobromine are 9 mg per pound of dog for mild signs up top 18 mg per pound of dog for severe signs. Milk chocolate contains 44mg/ounce of theobromine while semisweet chocolate contains 150mg/ounce, and baking chocolate contains 390 mg/ounce.

It takes nearly 4 days for the effects of chocolate to work its way out of a dog’s system. If the chocolate was only just eaten it may be possible to induce vomiting; otherwise, hospitalization and support are needed until the chocolate has worked its way out of the system.

By Wendy C. Brooks, DVM, DipABVP
Educational Director, VeterinaryPartner.com

Copyright 2004 - 2006 by the Veterinary Information Network, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Predictability
Unlike thunderstorms, fireworks are set off intentionally. You may choose not to go so far as to buy fireworks and have an assistant detonate them in a legal location while you train your dog—but you could, if you wanted. You can train your dog when you know other people will be shooting fireworks, and you can set up your training location at a distance from the location of the fireworks. This predictability is a powerful advantage in training.

Training
As in dealing with other things that frighten some dogs, your best approach is to work with your dog before you see any signs of fear. Ideally, set up with your dog at a distance from the fireworks so the noise will not be loud, but the dog can see that a person is causing the noise. This connection helps many dogs by taking the mystery out of it.
Food treats work with greedy dogs, and games that your dog loves may be even more powerful in helping the dog mentally tune out the noise. When a dog acts out an instinctive behavior that has been built through training and experience, the mind and body are strongly immunized against fear and pain.
The more you and your dog train together to make your interactions satisfying and strongly focused, the more powerful these interactions will be in conditioning your dog not to worry about the distant noises. Retrieving, tossing a toy for the dog to catch, or (with the right dog and handler) tug-of-war are the kinds of person-and-dog interactions that work as powerful antidotes to fear.
Move the interaction between you and your dog a little closer to the fireworks action a bit at a time. Be careful not to progress quickly enough that the dog will be fearful. Judging the dog's state of mind is a delicate process. If you misjudge and advance too rapidly, go back to a distance where the dog shows no fear. Work at that distance a long time before advancing again. Slower is faster in this type of training. Triggering fear is a major setback, so try very hard not to do so.
Unless you plan to set off fireworks where your dog will have to be at your side, it's best to avoid working a dog next to detonation. The noise can damage the dog's ears, and there are other dangers from fireworks, too.

Prevention
Don't leave a dog outdoors alone when someone is going to use fireworks. Besides the risk of a fear being created in the dog, many dogs will flee a fenced yard in panic and be lost.
If you aren't able to have a full-focus training session, keep your interactions with your dog upbeat, happy and hearty. Don't use a pitying voice or touch that gives a dog reason to be afraid. Act happy and confident, and reward your dog for confident behavior.
Ear infections can make noises more painful. Take good care of your dog's ears. Pay special attention if the ears are not erect, or if the dog has ever had an ear infection. Dogs tend to conceal their pain as a survival instinct, so it's important to make a real effort to know your dog's physical condition.
Fears are often contagious from one dog to another as well as from people to dogs. If you have a dog who fears fireworks and you get another dog, working with the fearful one can help prevent the new dog from developing the same fear.

Extreme Cases
The same measures used for extreme thunderstorm phobia can help dogs who panic during fireworks. A veterinarian or veterinary behavior specialist can help with your behavior modification program and can decide whether or not medication is appropriate. A dog-appeasing pheromone diffuser may be beneficial.
The right confinement area is important during fireworks, especially when the family cannot supervise the dog. This is even more critical for the phobic dog. Dogs tend to like dark, quiet and enclosed areas to rest in.

Best Case
With a little forethought, you have a good chance of preventing severe fireworks phobia in your dog. The dog can learn to look forward to more dog-friendly aspects of the Fourth of July, such as cookouts and family games.

by Kathy Diamond Davis

Kathy Diamond Davis is the author of the book Therapy Dogs: Training Your Dog to Reach Others. Should the training articles available here or elsewhere not be effective, contact your veterinarian. Veterinarians not specializing in behavior can eliminate medical causes of behavior problems. If no medical cause is found, your veterinarian can refer you to a colleague who specializes in behavior or a local behaviorist.

Copyright 2004 - 2007 by Kathy Diamond Davis. Used with permission. All rights reserved.

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