Pets experience pain like we do — they just don’t show it

September 12, 2012 by The Animal Health Foundation

Veterinarian Lee Pickett writes that dogs and cats have the same kind of central nervous system that humans have and feel pain in the same way we do but are programmed to hide it. Any condition that would cause pain in a human should be evaluated by a veterinarian when it occurs in a pet, even if the animal is not showing obvious signs of pain, she adds. Dr. Pickett also addresses colitis symptoms, causes and treatment in this article. Reading Eagle Press (Pa.) (8/31)

Dear Christopher Cat: During Misty’s recent exam, her veterinarian showed me that her teeth are covered with tartar and her gums are swollen and red. They look painful, but she doesn’t rub her mouth, drop food or cry while she’s chewing. Do cats not feel pain the way we humans do?
Christopher responds: Research has shown that cats and dogs have the same type of nervous system humans have and feel pain the same way.
The difference is that we pets don’t show pain the way you humans do.
Humans learn early that if they cry, a loving parent will sooth the hurt.
In contrast, our feline brains are programmed to hide distress, lest a predator see us as weak and therefore easy to kill.
Not only do we hide our pain, but we continue eating, because if we don’t, we know we’ll die of starvation.
So if Misty develops a condition that would cause you pain, assume it’s hurting her. If it would prompt you to see your doctor, take her to her veterinarian.
In this case, a professional dental cleaning and treatment will not only help Misty feel better but also improve her health.

 

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Posted in: Cats | Dogs | Medical Issues

Vets and physicians find research parallels

September 12, 2012 by The Animal Health Foundation

Dr. Jonathan M. Levine at Texas A&M studies spinal cord injuries in pets like Dexter, a dachschund.

By
Published: September 10, 2012

Three times in the last two months, researchers from St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center in Manhattan headed across town to the Animal Medical Center to look at dogs.

Doctors at the hospital’s Vascular Birthmark Institute were enticed by the chance to study anomalies of the arteries and veins that are rare in humans but common in dogs. And the traffic between human and animal hospitals flows in the other direction, too: Late last month, veterinarians from the Animal Medical Center began meeting with their counterparts at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center to set up trials of a noninvasive device for removing tumors of the urinary tract with electrical impulses.

Exchanges of this sort are becoming increasingly common. Once a narrow trail traveled by a few hardy pioneers, the road connecting veterinary colleges and human medical institutions has become a busy thoroughfare over the last five years or so, with a steady flow of researchers representing a wide variety of medical disciplines on both sides.

One reason is a growing frustration with the inefficiency of using the rodent model in lab research, which often fails to translate to human subjects. So researchers are turning their attention to the naturally occurring diseases in dogs, horses, sheep and pigs, whose physiology and anatomy more closely resemble those of humans.

“The drugs cure the mice and keep failing when we try them on humans,” said Dr. John Ohlfest, an immunotherapist at the University of Minnesota Masonic Cancer Center, who began working with the university’s veterinary school in 2005 to study canine brain cancers. “The whole system is broken.”

Dr. Laurence J. N. Cooper, who develops immune-based therapies at the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and recently started making canine T cells for lymphoma research at Texas A&M’s veterinary school, said: “There’s got to be a better way. Canine biologies look like ours, and the treatments look like ours.”

The growing realization that vets and medical doctors may have very good reasons to talk to one another has led to a host of collaborative research projects aimed at speeding the journey from lab to human clinical trials and, in the end, producing a result that can be applied to human and animal patients alike.

These projects often emanate from partnerships like the National Cancer Center’s comparative oncology program, created in 2006 to coordinate canine cancer trials among 20 oncology centers across the United States, or the Center for Comparative Medicine and Translational Research at North Carolina State University’s veterinary college, which recently signed a partnership agreement with the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center to do research on regenerating organs in humans and pets.

“In the past I might have gone over to the medical school with a specific problem and ask advice,” said Dr. Larry D. Galuppo, an equine surgeon at the University of California, Davis, who has been experimenting with the latest stem-cell therapies to repair tendon injuries in horses. “But it wasn’t programmatic the way it is now.”

It is not unusual, these days, for veterinary surgeons to call in their human-medicine counterparts for consultations or even to take part in tricky operations. Vets go on rounds at hospitals for people, and vice versa. Both sides attend each other’s conferences. “It’s still grass roots, it’s still early days, but it’s very exciting,” Dr. Ohlfest said.

In part, the proliferation of partnerships reflects a philosophical movement known as “one health,” or “one medicine,” the recognition that about 60 percent of all diseases move across species and that environmental pollution, animal diseases and human diseases constitute a single interlocking problem.

This was the subject of a joint declaration by the American Medical Association and the American Veterinary Medical Association in 2006 aimed at encouraging information sharing and joint projects among the far-flung branches of veterinary and human medicine.

More concretely, the completion of the canine genome map, in 2005, set off an explosion in basic research. Although less celebrated than the Human Genome Project, the canine map gave researchers a blueprint with clear potential for human use, since the gene codes for canines could be matched, one for one, with their human counterparts.

Cooperation can take the form of advanced research into new forms of diagnostic imaging, or gene manipulation. Or it can be as humble as fitting a dog with a shoe.

Dr. Robert Hardie, a surgeon at the University of Wisconsin’s school of veterinary medicine, turned to the orthotics lab at the university’s medical school in 2005 when he could not heal a post-surgery foot wound in Sam, a 200-pound Irish wolfhound.

As many other large dogs with footpad injuries do, Sam kept putting weight on the wound, caused when a toe had to be amputated. The orthotics team took a cast of Sam’s foot and made a foam-lined plastic boot with Velcro straps. Dr. Hardie later worked with the team to develop specialized braces for tendon injuries.

Often, partnerships embrace multiple institutions and, within institutions, fields as diverse as biomechanics and textiles.

Dr. Jonathan M. Levine, a veterinary neurologist at the Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, joined forces with the medical school at the University of California, San Francisco, to test a promising new drug that blocks a particular enzyme that inflicts secondary damage, like the aftershock to an earthquake, on injured spinal nerves.

Working with dachshunds and other dwarf canine breeds, which often suffer from spinal cord injuries because of their propensity to develop herniated discs, he recently won a grant from the Department of Defense, which is interested in the application of his research to battlefield injuries.

At the same time, one of Dr. Levine’s colleagues, Dr. Jay Griffin, has collaborated with specialists at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston to develop a new technique, called diffusion tensor imaging, whose sensitivity allows them to see precisely how spinal cord cells die.

The big bet is that veterinary science and human medical science can combine to achieve efficiencies that translate across species. In some instances, this has already happened.

Dr. Hollis G. Potter, head of magnetic resonance imaging at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan, has been working with Dr. Lisa A. Fortier of Cornell University’s college of veterinary medicine to analyze meniscus injuries using sheep.

Quantitative M.R.I. techniques like ultrashort echo-time imaging makes it possible to see how knee tissue heals, and how much stress it can stand after surgical repair, information that has immediate application for the human knee. “In just a couple of years, we’ve taken this process from sheep to humans,” Dr. Potter said.

The reverse route is even quicker. “Traditionally there has been a 10-to-20-year lag between animal and human medicine,” said Dr. Chick Weisse of the Animal Medical Center in Manhattan, who for the last two years has been treating hard-to-reach canine tumors with a frozen-nitrogen technique he learned at Sloan-Kettering.

“That gap has narrowed,” he said. “Now you see renal transplants, hip replacements — things they said would never be done on animals. Things are happening so fast right now that it’s almost simultaneous.”

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Posted in: Cats | Dogs | Medical Issues | The Animal Health Foundation News and Events

Helping dogs with storm anxiety

September 12, 2012 by The Animal Health Foundation
Better behavior with Steve Dale
Thunder booms, and some dogs panic. Here’s how to help your pets cope.

Some dogs are better at forecasting the weather than the National Weather Service. They know a storm is approaching before we do. These dogs pace, salivate, tremble, whine, and become Velcro dogs (stick to you like glue) even when the storm is an hour away or more. And it might get worse when the storm actually arrives. Some dogs may forget their house training and even self-mutilate. Other dogs don’t do any of these things. They just want to hide, perhaps under a bed, in a corner, in a closet, or in the bathtub.

Some clients feel that a storm-frightened dog will learn over time that the storm really won’t hurt her and she’ll get better on her own. That’s not usually how it works, unfortunately. When low-level anxiety is left alone, dogs actually seem to worsen—and that reasonably low level of anxiety is exactly when intervention is most likely to help before the anxiety becomes more severe. Early treatment is better. Of course, what can be done to help these suffering pets depends on the severity of the behaviors.

For milder anxiety Dogs’ behavior may take a turn for the worse even as a storm approaches. They can learn to associate the oncoming storm with changes in barometric pressure, maybe sensing an approaching storm front in other ways we don’t understand. You know sometimes how you can “smell” an oncoming storm? Of course, anything we can smell—a dog can. When the storms are near, dogs are not only affected by the sound of thunder, but also the sight of lightning, perhaps even the electricity in the air, and of course the sound of the rain itself.

For dogs with mild anxiety—who respond by hiding and don’t seem panicked, just anxious—veterinary team members may suggest proactively helping the dog to get over its fear. Sometimes the simplest solution can help, which is positive reinforcement during the thunderstorm. Here’s how it works: Take the dog into a basement, close the window shades (so hopefully the dog can’t see the lightning), pump up the music (to drown out storm sounds) and distract the pup with a jolly game. Kids are great at this, and moms and dads may appreciate the kids being entertained too. The dog can play whatever (safe) games the dog and children enjoy. This method also serves as desensitization and counter-conditioning for dogs who play along. When the next few storms come along, the dog starts to associate fearful weather with fun.

One problem with this approach is that many dogs are too fearful to even think about play. And what if the client isn’t always home as storms approach? Say, the jollying approach worked and after two more storms the dog is more easily distracted each time and seems a tad less anxious. But if no one’s home during the next thunderstorm, the client and the pet may be back to square one.

Your thunderstorm anxiety toolbox For many dogs, a combination of the following storm anxiety tools may be useful. These are not miracle cures, but they lessen the level of anxiety in dogs whose level of anxiety is so high that any one won’t work. Note that what works for one dog may or may not help another.

  • Adaptil.This is an analog of a calming pheromone found in lactating dogs and the intent is to calm anxious dogs. It’s available in diffuser or collar.
  • Anxiety Wrap.A vest-like “suit” that fits around the dog and uses acupressure to calm. The Anxiety Wrap can also be used for separation anxiety, anxiety in the car, and other anxiety-related issues.
  • Anxitane.L-Theanine in a chewable tab can help counter anxiety in dogs and cats. The idea is to offer the chewable before the dog becomes anxious.
  • Storm Defender.A red cape for dogs to wear to reduce anxiety. The cape has a special metallic lining that discharges a dog’s fur and protects from the static charge buildup that can bother dogs.
  • Thundershirt. Uses gentle, constant pressure to calm a dog. Could be used for anxiety, general fearfulness, barking, and more.

For dogs with more intense anxiety, veterinarians can consider anti-anxiety medication. Sleepiness can be a side effect, but what’s better—being a little drowsy or absolutely terrified? And with the right dose, a dog should not appear doped up. For more on appropriate anxiety pharmacological choices, resources include:

In this exclusive monthly column, Steve Dale, CABC, radio host, syndicated newspaper columnist, and contributing editor at USA Weekend, will give veterinary team members tips on helping patients with behavior issues and talking to clients about these sometimes tough topics. Steve Dale, CABC, writes a twice-weekly syndicated newspaper column for Tribune Media services and is a contributing editor at USA Weekend. He is also host of two nationally syndicated radio shows, “Steve Dale’s Pet World” and “The Pet Minute,” and is heard on WGN Radio. Catch him live at CVC San Diego Dec. 5-9.

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Posted in: Behavior and Training | Dogs

Penn opens facility to train, study detection dogs

September 12, 2012 by The Animal Health Foundation
The University of Pennsylvania has opened the Penn Vet Working Dog Center, a facility where dogs will be trained to find humans in disaster situations, allowing researchers to help determine how the dogs are successful. “The detection area is so important because these dogs are better than any machine that we have — and they can save lives,” said veterinarian Cynthia Otto, an emergency, critical care and disaster medicine expert who founded the center. Dr. Otto worked with detection dogs at ground zero after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and has consulted with the military on search-and-rescue dogs. National Public Radio (text and audio) (9/11)

 

A detection dog-training center opens Tuesday, on the anniversary of Sept. 11, at the University of Pennsylvania so scientists can train dogs for search-and-rescue missions — and study what helps them succeed.

Cynthia Otto, who served on a team that used working dogs to search for survivors in the rubble at ground zero, created the Penn Vet Working Dog Center. She’s a veterinarian who specializes in emergency, critical care and disaster medicine, and she has consulted with the military about the health of search-and-rescue dogs, including Cairo, the dog who worked on the Osama bin Laden mission. She tells Fresh Air’s Terry Gross that detection dogs are invaluable.

“There are so many jobs now that dogs are being used for,” Otto says. “Originally it was kind of looked at as that patrol dog or the bomb-detection dog, but now they’re being used to find the IEDs [improved explosive devices]. Some of them are actually being used for therapy in the field, which is really incredible. But they’re starting to look at all of the different potential components that these dogs can contribute to…and the detection area is so important because these dogs are better than any machine that we have — and they can save lives.”

Annemarie DeAngelo, the center’s training director, founded the New Jersey State Police Canine Unit and has worked with canines for more than 13 years. With her dog partners, she has searched for missing children, criminals and drugs — one drug seizure involved 1,200 kilos of cocaine.

With her canine companions, DeAngelo says she feels “very confident that I know my partner is doing his job, and that no harm is going to come to me, and we’re going to find what we’re looking for.”

Interview Highlights

Cynthia Otto, a veterinarian who tended to the health needs of working dogs at ground zero, created the Penn Vet Working Dog Center.
Penn CurrentCynthia Otto, a veterinarian who tended to the health needs of working dogs at ground zero, created the Penn Vet Working Dog Center.

A scientific approach to maintaining hydration for working dogs

Cynthia Otto: “One of the big concerns that we have not only with the military dogs but also the search-and-rescue dogs from Sept. 11 and Katrina is maintaining their hydration, and so that’s a project we’re very actively working on at this time because these dogs are so focused on what they’re doing. They’re really intent, and so they’re just gonna keep on doing it and they forget that they need to have a drink. And what happens is then they’re more likely to get overheated, they’re more likely to really get exhausted if they don’t take a break. …

“And so we’re looking at different approaches to keeping them hydrated so that they can stay safe, they can work well, and that’s a question that people have lots of ideas about, and no one’s taken that scientific approach. And that’s what we’re doing.”

On how dogs are trained to find the living

Otto: “With finding live people, it’s very important that they’re trained to very quickly identify a concealed person, and that allows them to work in an area where there are a lot of other people that are visible but aren’t concealed. And those dogs typically have what we call a very active alert — they bark. It may be used in the human remains also to have an active alert, but most of them are a more passive alert, which means that they would either sit or paw to alert that there is something there. The urgency with the live find is really what’s so important, because we have such limited time to be successful.”

Annemarie DeAngelo, the center's training director, founded the New Jersey State Police Canine Unit and has worked with canines for more than 13 years.
Sarah GriffithAnnemarie DeAngelo, the center’s training director, founded the New Jersey State Police Canine Unit and has worked with canines for more than 13 years.

On how training dogs to apprehend criminals is different from search and rescue

Annemarie DeAngelo: “When you’re sniffing, the dogs are using their olfactories to locate a substance, whether it’s explosives or narcotics. When you’re making a criminal apprehension, that is when the dog is assisting the officer and he bites and holds the person until the officer gets there, or if someone is assaulting the officer, dogs are automatically trained to protect that officer. …

“[The training] starts out as game of tug of war and it evolves. It’s a long process, but it evolves to a sleeve, and you just keep training every day until the dog will go out and make a clean apprehension.”

On whether dogs have a sense of service

Otto: “I would love to think that, but I think they think it’s a game. …

“They don’t care who they find. If they find somebody, they get their Frisbee; it’s a game and that’s what life is all about. I believe dogs have such an amazing connection with us, and I think that sometimes what it’s all about for them is what they’re feeling from their handler — that pride that we can give them — that feeling, just that connection, because that is important to them. But it’s about the game. I don’t think that they really do know that they’re being so amazing and so patriotic and so helpful. They’re doing what they do naturally.”

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Posted in: Behavior and Training | Disaster Preparedness | Dogs | Human-Animal Bond

Police dog finds missing 76-year-old man alive

September 7, 2012 by The Animal Health Foundation

On Thursday, Chase, a Suffolk County, N.Y., police dog, tracked 76-year-old Jerome Nadler, who had gone missing three days earlier while fly-fishing in the Caleb Smith State Park Preserve. Chase stayed next to Nadler, who was covered in insect bites and barely conscious, until his handlers reached the scene. “The dog made all the difference,” said Nadler’s son Matthew Nadler, who had nearly given up hope of finding his father alive. WNBC-TV (New York) (9/6)

 

During the four days Jerome Nadler remained missing, after disappearing while fishing in a wooded Smithtown park, his family started to lose hope he’d be found alive.

“It seemed like a dim possibility then,” said his son, Matthew Nadler. “I’m very surprised and pleased and I feel very blessed right now.”

The elder Nadler, 76, was found lying down and semi-conscious around noon on Thursday by a Suffolk County police dog named Chase, who lay down beside him in the brush and refused to get up until his handlers got there, authorities said.

“We just could not believe that this man was still alive,”  said canine officer William Krolikiewicz. “For an older gentleman that was in the woods for  four days, in my opinion he was in excellent condition.”

Nadler, who was dehydrated and covered with bug bites, was airlifted to Stony Brook University Hospital, where he was being treated Thursday afternoon.

“He’s a tough individual,” his son said.

Nadler, an avid fisherman and Vietnam veteran, headed out on Labor Day to the Caleb Smith State Park Preserve to go fly fishing. The multi-agency search effort began when he never returned to retrieve his parked car.

He was found around a mile from where he’d been fishing, his son said.

Matthew Nadler said he has not spoken with his father in detail about his ordeal, but said he is “awake, alert and oriented.”

The younger Nadler had particular praise for New York State Park Police Chief Richard O’Donnell, who he said assured him Wednesday that canines “can do things that feet sometimes can’t.”

“The dog made all the difference,” Nadler said.

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Posted in: Dogs

A single heartworm can be fatal in cats

August 30, 2012 by The Animal Health Foundation

Veterinarian John Kaya reminds owners that cats are susceptible to heartworm disease and should be on a monthly prevention medication because even a single adult worm can lead to the untimely death of a cat. Dr. Kaya relates the story of 4-year-old Chisai, a cat who died of heart failure caused by one heartworm that had become wrapped around a heart valve. MidWeek (Kaneohe, Hawaii)/MidWeek Kauai (8/29)

 

Feline Heartworm Can Be Fatal

By on Aug 29, 2012 in Lifestyle, The Wild Side

This story is about Fumiko and her beloved cat Chisai, and their story must be told.

It was a brisk morning in December, and I arrived at the office early to check on a hospital patient. Walking through our parking lot, I noticed a car parked with someone sitting inside.

As I peered in I noticed Fumiko clutching a towel in her lap. I could tell she was distraught, and asked if she would like to come in to the office.

Once inside, I noticed a limp tail peeking through the towel folds and ushered Fumiko into an exam room.

Fumiko complied and gently laid the towel with its contents onto the exam table. With tears in her eyes, she tried to tell me what happened.

“Dr. Kaya, I woke up this morning and found Chisai lying under the dining room table.”

Her voice cracked as tears came rolling down her face.

“I called out to my little girl but she did not move. She just laid there.”

At this point Fumiko began sobbing.

“It’s OK,” I told her, “let me take a look.”

As I opened the towel, I saw Fumiko’s cat lying peacefully, as if asleep. Reaching down, I held Chisai’s cold body and found no pulse.

Fumiko looked at me as I slowly shook my head.

“Look at my baby … Chisai…” cried Fumiko. She then leaned over and cradled Chisai in her arms.

After a few minutes we talked about the events prior to this morning. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Chisai was a happy, healthy 4-year-old indoor cat. I asked Fumiko if I could perform a necropsy to determine the reason for Chisai’s mysterious death.

Culturally, Fumiko had a difficult time making a decision, but in the end consented to the postmortem exam.

Carefully looking through Chisai’s organs, I eventually found the reason for her death. A single heartworm was wrapped around one of her heart valves, which led to heart failure. Although sudden and unexpected, Chisai died quickly and with very little suffering.

Heartworm disease is more commonly thought of as a disease afflicting dogs.

The worms are transmitted by mosquitos and can live up to eight years. These worms take up residence in the heart and can grow up to 12 inches in length.

Single worm infections are tolerated by the dog, but can be deadly in cats.

In a cat, their presence can lead to lung and kidney damage as well as sudden death, as in Chisai’s case.

Like dogs, cats should be given a monthly heart-worm preventive.

I called Fumiko and shared my findings with her. Although saddened by her loss, she appreciated knowing why Chisai died.

“Maybe Chisai’s story can save the lives of other cats,” whispered Fumiko.

“I’m sure it will.”

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Posted in: Cats | Medical Issues