Each year the Veterinary Practice News holds a contest called They Ate What? They invite veterinarians to send in xrays showing the most unusual objects their client pets have swallowed (technically called pica). If you’ve ever had a dog or cat with an appetite for non-edible goodies, you’ll appreciate these stories. Photos compliments of VPN website and contestants.

9 handballs

Vanessa Hawksin, DVM, of Warrenton, OR. Her patient was brought in for examination of lameness in a back leg. X-rays coincidentally revealed 9 handballs in his stomach.

Here are some of the runners up.

mulch, shoe laces and other delicacies

Lisa Anne Attanasi, DVM, of Eaglewood Cliffs, N.J. saw a 12 year old Beagle for an overdose of shoe laces, mulch, a knee high stocking, a plastic plant, plastic ties, and bristles from a car snow cleaning brush.

Tinkerbell really wanted to go for a walk

Jenny Yanson, practice manager at Suburbia North Animal Hospital, treated 6-month old bulldog Tinkerbell who had eaten a training collar off another dog in the home. To the doctor’s and owners’ surprise, this was not Tinkerbell’s first training collar appetizer. They found not 1, but two collars in her stomach.

This duck got nailed

Michael Herko, DVM, in Baltimore, MD found a nail and stones in a duck’s gizzard when she arrived with a lame leg and abdominal discomfort. Silly goose — I mean duck — was back a month later with another nail in her tummy.

This little guy had a sore throat

Lisa Anne Attanasi, DVM, of Eaglewood Cliffs, N.J. seems to have more than her share of mischievous clients. Little Sally, a 1-year old dachshund, swallowed a 2 inch needle.

This baby dog must have really wanted some milk.

Melissa Seavey of Westborough, MA, removed 10 baby bottle nipples from  a 4-month-old  Golden Retriever puppy.

Oh, I feel like I ate a Gorilla

Beth Shannon, DVM, North Liberty, Iowa, treated a 1½  year old Chi-Weenie for a tummyache after he chewed on a bottle of Gorilla Glue.  The glue expanded and molded perfectly to his stomach, but was removed successfully.

Bridget Landon, DVM, Reno, NV, got a surprise when a 9-month-old Golden Retriever came in for vaccines and left minus a gutful of rocks. No wonder the dog had lost her appetite and been vomiting for two days.

If you have a story about some crazy item your pet swallowed, please share it below in comments.

Technorati Tags: pica, dogs and cats swallowing strange items, rocks handballs needles and glue in pet stomachs

Ever wondered whether pet first aid and CPR is something you should learn more about? Your trusty blogger and pet first aid instructor recently did a brief TV demonstration that gives a couple of important techniques for saving your pet’s life. The demo animals are dogs, but the same techniques apply to cats. Take a look:    King 5 TV: saving your furry family members with pet first aid.

If you have one of those problem kitties, you might want to check out Animal Planet’s new show, My Cat From Hell, featuring cat behaviorist Jackson Galaxy. Thanks to one of my favorite blogs, Little Big Cat, we have a sneak preview: Cat From Hell Highlights

I hope by now you’ve heard about another Pig Ear recall for possible salmnella contamination. Just in case you haven’t, here is a link to the Key’s Manufacturing Company’s press release:   http://www.keysmanufacturing.com/recall.htm

Veterinary insurance is an idea that has been around for a long time. The last time I had a pet young enough to use it, there was only one (expensive) option in my state. Now many companies offer this important service to animal owners. The challenge now is to figure out which is the best policy for each owner’s pets. Pet MD has added a great new blog to help figure that out called  Healthy Assurance.

Be Kind to Animals Week  is May 1-7 — oops, we almost missed it. To make amends, I want to leave you with a thought-provoking quote from Little Big Cats recent Cat’s Walk Newsletter:

…this is also a good time to think about the many ways that we impact animals’ lives. There is so much thoughtless and even institutionalized animal cruelty in this world, from calf-roping at rodeos and wild animals in circuses, to the millions of mice (who are legally not considered “animals”) sacrificed in the name of science, and the billions of chickens that will be slaughtered  for human consumption this year alone. Let’s all try to be mindful of their suffering, and do our best not to add to it. Consider a donation to your local shelter, or to one of the national organizations that work so hard for animal welfare and animal rights.

Give your pets a hug for all the joy and well-being they bring to your life.

Technorati Tags: pet first aid and CPR, pigs ear recall, cat behaviorist on Animal Planet, Be Kind to Animals Week

Who will take me in?

There’s a new kid in town and she has filled a very important gap in the world of animal rescue. Her name is Céline Higgins. She is in vet school at the University of Georgia, and she noticed, like many of us in rescue, that there were no easy resources for helping disabled pets get adopted. Unlike the rest of us, she decided to do something about it. Voilá, a new website, http://www.DisabledAnimal.com.  I love people who see a need and act on it!

So we now have a place to list blind, deaf, three-legged, medically or behaviorally challenged, and senior pets. You can quibble with the word disabled if you want to be PC about it (e.g., my deaf Poodle doesn’t know he is less able than his hearing kitty pal, Rico), but the word gets the point across succinctly for a URL.  Importantly, it’s a URL that is easy to remember. 

If your parent has died or gone into a nursing home, you now have a place to list his or her elderly pet. If you are being deployed, you have a place to list your beloved FIV cat. If you’ve lost your job and home, you now have a place to list your feather-plucking bird. You get the drift.  Dogs, cats, birds, small furry animals, horses, reptiles all have their own sections, with sub-categories for deaf, blind, 3-legged, etc. 

Not only that, but the website has other categories of assistance: transportation, wheel chairs/aids available or needed, supplies needed, monetary assistance, and foster care.  And the site has an international section for people from other countries to post. 

This project is relatively new, but has already caught the attention of Dog World Magazine, with an article coming in early 2011, and Fetch Magazine in Wisconsin. Dogster.com has written an article due out soon and LA Times animal blog has picked up on it.  Please help spread the word to others by sending a link from this blog to your friends, neighbors and rescue organizations, or sharing it on Facebook or Twitter. 

Technorati Tags: adopting disabled pets, finding homes for deaf, blind, 3-legged, diabetic pets, dogs in wheelchairs

I have long been convinced that animals grieve when a loved one disappears from their life. Think of how deeply we mourn the loss of our pets. It only stands to reason that other sentient beings would experience a similar emotion when they lose a loved one. Some people chide me for anthropomorphizing — attributing human qualities to animals, but I’ve seen this emotion many times in animals.

ShaktiPaw grieving the death of his human.

My “evidence” began with the first dog I had as an adult. My husband and I had adopted Buffy as a puppy, and she was our “child” for the next ten years, until we divorced. This hardy German Shepherd went into a nose dive when she and I moved out. She developed severe health problems and depression that she never really recovered from.

The next incident showed up when one of my two dogs died. Copper, a Chesapeake Bay Retriever, died of a blood immune disorder after living for about 6 years with Kutya, our alpha Kuvasz. In life they squabbled, ignored each other and competed for my attention. So when Copper died, I was surprised to see Kutya lay down in front of the fireplace with her chin on her paws and barely move from that position for the next three months. Her depression became so deep I feared she was going to die of heartache. Whether grief had run its course or the homeopathic remedy I began giving her for grief worked, she pulled out of it.  Just 18 months later, 7 year old Kutya succumbed to bone cancer. I’ve always wondered if her immune system was compromised by an ongoing undercurrent of loss.

Most recently, my Beagle mix Ernie has developed a panoply of health problems since his mentor Scooty died last December. He has lost his appetite, and along with it a significant amount of weight. Ernie has always appeared to be a stoic, but time and again I’ve seen how deeply sensitive he is beneath the surface (a Scorpio dog maybe?).

I’ve seen other examples of grief among my pet sitting clients’ animals. I’ve been thought of as a kook sometimes for my beliefs about animals’ emotions, but a growing body of research supports the notion of animals’ having a rich emotional life. Dogsters “For the Love of Dog Blog” carried an interview on August 23, 2010 with Dr. Michael W. Fox, renouned Brittish veterinarian, author of more than 40 books, and advocate for the humane treatment of animals. Dr. Fox validates my pet grieving theory much more eloquently than I can. The article is very interesting, and I hope you’ll take a look.

What do you think — do animals grieve the loss of a loved one? If you’ve seen it first hand, please share your stories.

Technorati Tags: emotional life of animals, pet grief, dogs and cats grieving the death of their companions

This week I’m going to take on introducing a cat into a dog household, or vice versa. How you handle the first days and weeks can set a lifelong friendship or rivalry. It takes knowledge and patience to do it right. If you don’t take the time to do it right, you could end up with serious risk to the cat, or pets marking the house inappropriately to express their distress over the alien in their midst.

Safety First

First and foremost, you must keep cats and dogs separate in the beginning to keep them safe, and take the introductions slow. Here are a few pointers:

• Put the dogs outside or send them for a walk with your pet sitter while you bring the cat in so that they don’t have to confront each other immediately.
• Give the cat a secure space of her own right away, a spare room with all the things she needs for comfort — her water and food bowls, toys, bed, and litter box. Close the door, but be sure to give her regular attention. The cat may need to be sequestered for for several days or even weeks. Be patient and don’t rush it.
• When you bring the dogs in, let them smell the cat’s scent on your clothes and hands.  Keep them leashed and calm while they sniff at the door of the cat’s room. Reward good behavior.
• Rub towels on the animals and then exchange them and rub them on the other so they can get used to each other’s scent. Leave the dogs’ towels in the cat’s bed and the cat’s towel in the dog’s bed.
• The next step is to start carefully exposing the dogs and cat to each other. The dogs should be leashed or crated or behind a gate. Continue to reward calm behavior.
• Gradually, as the animals remain calm, allow them to approach each other, with the dogs on leash.  Keep rewarding them for behaving well.
• Always be sure the cat has an escape route or an easy way to jump out of reach once you start removing the leash.
• If the dogs continue to get overly excited or act predatory toward the cat, you might need to muzzle them until you’re sure they won’t hurt the cat.
• Even after they seem to be getting along, eating or sleeping in each other’s presence, wandering casually past each other, be cautious about leaving them alone. Build up the time they spend alone gradually.
• Never let the dogs chase the cat, even in play.  It is ok for the cat to take a swat at the dogs to show them she can hold her own, as long as the dogs don’t react aggressively.
• This introduction process will take as long as the animals need. Rarely, they will never accept each other and they will have to remain separated, but most animals will get along over time.

Technorati Tags: merging pet families, introducing dogs and cats