Don't Kiss Your Dog On the Lips

It happens over and over again in spite of constant correction and intervention. EdGrrr, our yellow lab, walks by the toddler and casually swipes his tongue over the kid's lips and face. He just can't help himself. I myself cannot resist nibbling my baby's sweet cheeks, but the dog?! Ew, Gross!

Dogs will be dogs. Currently, my dogs have scoured the nearby farm fields and carried home approximately one quarter of a dead deer. On sunny afternoons, they laze in the yard with a gangly deer leg stretched between their paws chewing contentedly. On rainy days they raid the cats' litter box for a quick snack. Every time EdGrrr's tongue caresses my toddler's face I can't help but think of the other places it has recently been.

As much as we love dogs, kissing them on the lips just ain't cool. It's gross enough to inspire decades of jokes. Think of the scene in the 1998 film There's Something About Mary where leathery Floridian Magda enjoys flamboyent pooch smooches from border terrier Puffy. Today hundreds of stomach-turning dog kissing vlogs and spoofs abound on YouTube.

You might read this and think, "Dr. Everson, your dogs are wild and crazy farm dogs. City dogs like mine have much more refined tastes." Well, that may be true, but I wish I had a nickel for every time one of my clients lamented their city dog won't stop eating rabbit pellets or even its own poop! As I said before, dogs will be dogs. We must take the good with the bad, the unwavering dedication with occasional dietary indiscretion. After all, it's really not their fault that we fail to share an appreciation of canine delicacies.

Obnoxious EdGrrr kisses are a phase that will pass as soon as my baby grows a bit taller than the dog's line of sight. Until then we will keep washing the boy's face multiple times a day and hope our kid will have a heck of a sturdy immune system.

Hey, cat! Get out of the poison ivy!

Picture this...a warm May night in Wisconsin...spring peeper frogs serenading the setting sun...antique lilac bushes filling a quaint old cemetary with lush fragrance...a toddler sniffing the purple blossoms for the first time...the family pets -- breaking all the rules by crossing the road -- milling around the worn gravestones just to be near their people...

Then, suddenly, the idyllic scene is shattered as I notice a sleek orange shape slinking through the overgrowth at the edge of the tidy lawn. "Oh, cat! Get out of the poison ivy!"

No, I'm not worried about what the irritating oils of the poison ivy plant will do to Karate Kitten. Cats and dogs are rather impervious to uroshiol, the substance responsible for the itchy rash that afflicts many people. No, what I'm imagining with horror is Karate Kitten rolling luxuriously across my daughter's bed or rubbing his sweet little cat face against my cheek later. Because the problem with cats and poison ivy is that they carry the noxious oil on their fur and transmit it secretly to us!

So your dog or cat inadvertantly just slathered the essence of poison ivy all over its fur. Now what? Bathing your pet with the liquid dish detergent Dawn--that world famous animal degreaser--should do the trick. Make sure you wear gloves, avoid contact with your pet's eyes and ears, and rinse thoroughly.

And I, at least, will lock up all the dogs and cats before I wander near known poison ivy patches in the future!

Daisy Scouts and Wood Ticks

Tonight, at my daughter's Daisy Scout awards ceremony, the troope leader (my sister-in-law) hurried over to me as I sat in the audience and dropped a wriggling wood tick in my hand.

"Ugh?" I grunted in confusion.
"I just pulled a tick off Tina's hair!" she announced loudly. Then, "She's a vet! She can handle it."

Well, I didn't fling away the disgusting little arachnid as my instincts screamed at me to do. Emboldened by her proud declaration of my abilities, I calmly clenched the tick between my fingertips, casually walked to a sink and flushed it down the drain.

Ticks give me--and pretty much everyone I know--the eebie jeebies. Who doesn't have a creepy story about a personal tick invasion to tell? Even though I know it is tick season, it still surprised me that a little girl in a public library was carrying an eight-legged stow away.

Tick season in Wisconsin is a lot longer than most people think. As a veterinarian, I have pulled ticks off dogs as early as March and as late as December. My rule of thumb is "If there's no snow, there's a chance of ticks." And if you travel with your dog, the season may be even longer. I treated a lovely red tick hound suffering from Lyme disease in January of this year! It was a surpise the see a clinical case of tick-borne disease in the dead of winter until the owner reported hunting in Iowa (a different climate zone from most of Wisconsin) a few weeks earlier. After an extended course of antibiotics, the hound is doing fine!

The take-home message is if you haven't started using flea and tick preventative on your indoor/outdoor pets (cats included) you should. There are many types of preventatives available; some are safer than others. Ask your veterinarian for advice on choosing a safe and effective medication for your pet.

*Names have been changed to protect privacy.

Mother's Day: Feeling Warm All Over And What it Means to Dogs

Finally! A warm, sunny spring day. I turned the heat off today -- for the second time this spring! My old rule of thumb "on in October, off in April" just didn't cut it this year.

My kids and I spent the day outside basking in the sun. The baby learned how to swing -- or rather soar -- on his belly today. My oldest boy wandered around "blind-folded" with a box covering his head and torso while his sister acted as his eyes (she only ran him into a few trees). Dad worked on safeguarding this spring's compost "crop" from flying weed seed. I examined our surly 8-year-old white Saanen billy goat's hooves -- time for a trimming. And in and out and around all the commotion trotted our faithful Labrador Retriever, EdGrrr.

On May 1, John commented in response to "Climate Change and Heartworm":

What about heat exhaustion. Are larger dogs like labs more likely to suffer heat stroke than smaller dogs like spaniels or beagles?

Even at five years of age and with some arthritis from an old "hit by car" injury, EdGrrr bounded to and fro under the hot sun as we rode bikes, took walks and generally meandered around the farm all weekend. Although it is merely May and the humidity and temperature are mild, is heat exhaustion a possibility for EdGrrr and other active dogs? Sure.

Heat exhaustion can be a tricky and unpredictable thing in dogs. Yes, a Yorkie left in a car for even short periods on warm, sunny days is a good candidate for heat exhaustion, as is a short-nosed "brachycephalic" breed (think Pugs and Bulldogs) with even mild exertion. Yes, the Pointer who chases the kids on the four-wheeler for 40 minutes on an 80 degree August day is certainly at risk. But is the large Labrador bird dog more at risk than his hunting companions, a mid-sized Spaniel or small Beagle? Not necessarily. As long as each dog is equally well conditioned, has adequate shade and water during rests, and his owner limits his exercise based on the heat and humidity, I would not expect the Labrador to fall prey to heat faster than the other two breeds.

However, sometimes dogs -- even the best of athletes -- succumb to heat exhaustion, and sometimes on mild September days. When this happens, it's an emergency. Most dogs suffering from heat exhaustion pant heavily, collapse, may vomit or even seizure. Wetting the dog down with cool NOT ICY water is best with immediate transfer to a veterinarian for follow-up care. After the initial hyperthermic event, heat exhaustion can lead to life threatening bleeding disorders, neurologic problems, gastrointestinal events and kidney failure so close monitoring and treatment by your veterinarian are in order.

Hot, humid days loom on the horizon. I say, hip-hip-hurray! While this is a lovely time of year in Wisconsin for people and pets, simple precautions and common sense help make sure play time stays safe!

Climate Change and Heartworm?

In response to Jeanne's April 30 comment:
The incidence of heartworm and other diseases transmitted by insects such as mosquitoes and ticks is increasing the northern U.S. for a variety of reasons. Climate change producing longer, warmer seasons has been proposed to explain this trend. A contributing factor is the relocation of dogs from the southern U.S. following disasters such as Hurricane Katrina. These homeless dogs have brought a variety of infections into areas where such diseases are less common due to increased veterinary care and successful prevention programs.

Heartworm is an easily preventable disease in dogs and cats (yes, cats! more on this later). There are many safe and affordable prevenatives available: many are monthly chewable treats, some also prevent fleas and ticks, another is a long-lasting injection under the skin. In Wisconsin, pets should be given a heartworm preventative every month of the year. Given every month, most heartworm preventatives also help control intestinal parasites like roundworms and hookworms. Plus, when owners give the preventative the entire year there are fewer missed or delayed doses, periods where the pet is at risk of being bitten by a heartworm-positive mosquito. At a minimum, heartworm prevention should be started in March and continued until November in Wisconsin (although there are definitely years where the season is longer or shorter).

Please contact your veterinarian to discuss which heartworm preventative is right for your pet. For more information about heartworm disease and prevention in dogs and cats please visit the American Heartworm Society.