This is a copy of my article I wrote for the June 2008 edition of the SE Examiner. Please post comments with questions, comments on how you keep your pets cool, and suggestions for upcoming articles! I look forward to hearing from you.

With that glimpse of summer we had I started to realize that once again we need to prepare our pets for the hot weather ahead and there are some very unique ways to help keep your pet cool this summer. 

Seso cooling off at Lake Takhlakh summer 2006

The obvious ways, of course, are to keep your house cool while your pet stays at home. Closing blinds and running fans, or, if you have it, keeping your air conditioning set to 74 degrees F are some good ways to keep your home cooled for your pets. Leave plenty of cool open floor space for your dog to lay on, or if your basement is safe, you could put your pets down there for the day as it’s often times much cooler down there. Or consider these great Canine Cooler beds that you can be special ordered from your local pet store or purchased on line. The unique water cooled system keeps your pet cool while giving a nice cushion to lay on rather than the hard floor. Be sure to fill the bed in the place you want to leave it – they get heavy when filled. I bet cats would even enjoy them (don’t tell them what they’re called). 

Kitty drinking from a Drinkwell fountain

Cats and dogs cool themselves by panting and less productively through their footpads. Leaving cold water to drink, with ice cubes in it can give pets the opportunity to drink cold water to help keep cool. Cats are more tricky than dogs and have very individual preferences on how they like their water. Some cats love water out of the tap if your cat fits this category, let the water get cold and offer your cat a drink. If your cat only likes her water in a full cup at the bathroom sink then be sure to fill it often with cold water (use the excess to water indoor plants) and you can even try adding an ice cube or two.

Yummy Peanut Butter Frosty Paws

Keeping pets hydrated and cool at the same time is important in hot weather. If your pet is doesn’t like to drink a lot of water, try flavoring it. Use low sodium chicken broth, clam juice, tuna water or your pet’s favorite flavor. You can even freeze the flavored water into ice cubes for a crunchy popsicle treat to help them cool down. If your pet doesn’t like the popsicles, there are other ways to add moisture to diets to keep them hydrated – you can water down the dry kibble food and this works well for dogs that meal feed or you can offer canned food which always has a higher moisture content. You could even add a little water to the canned food but be careful with cats, they are highly particular on the mouth feel of their food and may not eat a watered down version. If you want to get really gourmet, why not add the flavored water to the dry or canned food? One last idea about canned food is to fill a Kong toy with canned food and put it in the freezer to make a tasty cool treat that can also occupy your dog for awhile to take his mind off of the heat. For cats you can freeze canned food into small ice cube trays and try those as a treat. There are other commercially available “ice cream” treats available for dogs (but I bet cats would enjoy them too) called Frosty Paws. They come in small containers like the sundaes that we used to get as kids. You pull off of the top and give it to your dog, maybe take a small scoop out for the cat first, and let them lick it out of the container. If your dog is the type that would EAT the container, you may want to scoop it into a bowl first. My dog loves these and they are available right in our neighborhood at Zupans and New Seasons.  

Easter is a time of year when I get to eat one of my favorite seasonal foods - Peeps. I always stick with the original yellow Peeps - they taste best. I always buy them in the single packs because I prefer them soft and fresh. I know that I have fellow Peep lovers out that prefer them dried out with a little give but for me there's nothing like a fresh yellow Peep right out of the package on a spring day.

Yummy peeps picture from www.citykelly.com

And although Peeps may not have much to do with veterinary medicine - Easter time certainly does and when I was at the grocery store purchasing some "on sale" end of season Peeps I once again witnessed the horror of the wall of Easter lilies. My heart sinks whenever I see those lovely fragrant flowers and every year I break my vow to commit Guerilla warfare in the supermarkets and clandestinely place signs on the festive plants that say CAT POISON! These flowers are so dangerous to cats. They can cause irreversible kidney failure and death in cats. The sad thing is many people aren't aware of this and many buy these as gifts for friends or to liven up their house for the holiday and what do cats love to do but chew on new plants and flowers brought into the house. Within an hour after ingesting the plant the cat will begin to vomit. Within 12 hours they will become depressed and within 48-96 hours they show signs of kidney failure such as urinating more, depression, gastrointestinal upset and dehydration. If untreated within 18 hours most cats do not survive! So please help me spread the word - if you have a cat, know someone who has a cat, or know someone who knows someone who has a cat - please let them know the dangers of this beautiful and festive plant.

And don't forget that plastic grass or anything stringy can be a danger to cats too - for some reason there are cats out there that love to eat stringy objects! I knew one cat that loved to eat stringy objects and had 4 surgeries for obstruction. For his last one he was turned over to the hospital I was working at and we took care of him. One of the doctors adopted him and one day they saw him running down the hall with a balloon chasing him! He had swallowed 1/2 of the balloon string! Luckily they were able to gently remove about 2 foot of ribbon and free the cat from the balloon monster! Plastic grass can cause obstruction in the intestines if ingested which could mean surgery to remove the offending object and hospitalization for the recovery. 

Easter lillies - help spread the word! photo by Andrew Dunn from the Wikipedia entry

Not to leave dogs out of this informative but depressing holiday talk, they have some dangers too. The most serious are holiday chocolates, candy and tablefood sharing. Dogs have a much better ability to find hidden treats than children do so please keep your dog away from the Easter egg hunt area. You should take an inventory at the end of the hunt to make sure everything was collected and maybe even make a map ahead of time so you can find all of the goodies in the end. I did have a case of chocolate toxicity in a small dog 3 days after Easter. The family came home and found pieces of plastic Easter eggs and vomited up chocolate. The dog did fine but he was hospitalized for 2 days. Chocolate really is toxic to dogs but there are many types of chocolate and many sizes of dogs so not every chocolate ingestion is treated equally. A 90 pound Lab that eats one M&M is going to be fine - probably won't even show any vomiting or diarrhea side effects. A 7 pound Chihuahua that eats 1/2 a pound of baker's chocolate is in a whole lot of trouble. For detailed information on how chocolate toxicity works in dogs take a look at the Purdue Veterinary School Wellness Center Website. 

Chocolate Easter eggs - remember where you hide them! photo from www.bbc.co.uk

Other dangers for dogs at Easter time include ingestion of candy and tablefood that they are not used to eating - in some dogs this can lead to a painful and potentially fatal condition called Pancreatitis. Pancreatitis symptoms include severe vomiting and diarrhea (often bloody) and severe abdominal pain, depression and dehydration. Dogs with pancreatitis must be hospitalized for days with intensive care and pain medication. The last danger is foreign body ingestion - those darn plastic eggs with the goodies inside can lead to obstruction in the intestines if they are eaten. If obstructions occurs the symptoms are vomiting and usually with a good appetite in the beginning which progresses to loss of appetite, dehydration and depression with continued vomiting. With all of these similar symptoms it can be tough to figure out what exactly we're dealing with but diagnostics and your careful history can be very helpful in ruling out obstruction from pancreatitis and other conditions that cause similar symptoms.

I hope this information has been helpful. It is not meant to scare you and ruin your holiday. It is meant to give you information to help keep your pets (and other pets) safe. Does anyone have any stories to share? Any questions? Please post comments!

Happy Easter everyone! Construction updates are coming soon!

Yesterday I stopped by the space to pick up a key to the front door! We have the key but the space has not been delivered yet. Still waiting for the pipe to be placed and concrete to be poured, and the HVAC and electrical panel to be put in. Oh yeah, and the back door to the space to be installed. So really, no progress since the last update except the key. The good news is that with the key in our hands we have access to the space and since the space isn't officially delivered yet...the rent countdown has not begun! It's a pretty good deal but we are running into some snags.

Hole for the scale and the bathroom pipe

This morning Michael and I went to the space and opened up the front door...ahhh what a sweet sound to hear that key turn and watch the door open! Michael was meeting the floor crew there to start work on the floors.  They were grinding the concrete that they could - had to work around the dirt pile where the pipe isn't in yet and they started cleaning the back space to prepare to epoxy the floor back there. Ok so here is one of those unexpected hang ups - they need to warm up the space in order for the sealant on the concrete and the epoxy to work! Who would have thought? And we can't heat the space without the HVAC and electricity - darn! We were starting to make progress! So we got one small work around and put a space heater in the back space so they can do the epoxy tomorrow but the rest of the grinding and sealing is on hold until the space delivery. Such is the story of the buildout. An April Fool's opening date is more and more appropriate. The good news is that the back area floors will be done by next week which is when we get our cabinetry delivered! So at least we'll have somewhere to store the stuff while the rest of the work gets done. 

My parents' dog Topper enjoying his Planet Dog "tennis" ball

My last post on tennis balls seemed helpful to people but a little dogcentric. What about kitties and dental health? Believe it or not there is a "chew toy" out there for cats - it's a small toy with cat nip stalks on the inside and it's called the Petstages Catnip Chew Ring. I've seen them online but never in action. If you have a cat that loves catnip it could be an option. There are also the famous Feline Greenies - a dental treat that most cats are crazy for. They come in a variety of flavors and reduce tartar and plaque buildup. The only trick is your cat must CHEW them - many cats get so excited they just swallow them which kind of defeats their purpose. The last great dental chew treat I've been suggesting is actually a dog chew but you can cut it down to cat size. The chicken jerky (made out of just chicken) and salmon skin rolls can be cut into cat size strips for your cat to chew on like a raw hide. The chewing action helps to "brush" the teeth. We have to get pretty innovative to find things to help cats - they are each individuals with their own tastes and preferences!

FORLs - notice the left most tooth - the left root and part of the right root is destroyed! The right most tooth only has part of the crown remaining.

The other thing that you should know about cats and their teeth is that they are prone to these awful cavities called Feline Odontoclastic Resorptive Lesions or FORLs. They are incredibly painful and ultimately destroy the teeth. They are aggressive lesions that can't be filled like human, or even dog, cavities. We don't know why they happen but if your cat has one, they are painful. The crazy thing about cats though, is that they won't tell you that they're hurting. They will continue to eat and act normal even with the pain. Since cats are prey as well as predators they have developed a very good masking ability and act as though everything is ok. Or sometimes I think cats are just so dignified and so much braver than dogs and humans that they figure that's just life and they live with it. Either way, it's important to have your cat's teeth examined yearly and evaluated to see if they need a comprehensive exam and treatment under anesthesia. 

Please post if you guys have any other great ideas on how to keep your cat's teeth clean and healthy. I'll continue to post about pet's teeth for Dental Health Month. Any questions, feel free to ask! And comments are always welcome!